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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord George Bentinck, by Benjamin Disraeli
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Lord George Bentinck
+       A Political Biography
+
+Author: Benjamin Disraeli
+
+Release Date: December 3, 2006 [EBook #20007]
+Last Updated: September 7, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD GEORGE BENTINCK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LORD GEORGE BENTINCK
+
+A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
+
+By Benjamin Disraeli
+
+
+
+‘He left us the legacy of heroes: the memory of his great name and the
+inspiration of his great example.’
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+LORD HENRY BENTINCK,
+
+IS INSCRIBED
+
+This Political Biography
+
+ONE FOR WHOM HE ENTERTAINED A DEEP AFFECTION,
+
+AND WHOSE TALENTS AND VIRTUES
+
+HE SHARES.
+
+
+
+LORD GEORGE BENTINCK
+
+A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
+
+[Illustration: bentink-page009]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     _The Man_
+
+THE political career of Lord George Bentinck was peculiar. He had, to
+use his own expression, ‘sate in eight Parliaments without having taken
+part in any great debate,’ when remarkable events suddenly impelled him
+to advance and occupy not only a considerable but a leading position
+in our public affairs. During three years, under circumstances of great
+difficulty, he displayed some of the highest qualities of political
+life: courage and a lofty spirit; a mastery of details which experience
+usually alone confers; a quick apprehension and a clear intelligence;
+indomitable firmness; promptness, punctuality, and perseverance which
+never failed; an energy seldom surpassed; and a capacity for labour
+which was perhaps never equalled. At the very moment when he had
+overcome many contrarieties and prejudices; when he had been most
+successful in the House of Commons, and, sustained only by his own
+resources, had considerably modified the legislation of the government
+which he opposed on a measure of paramount importance; when the nation,
+which had long watched him with interest, began to congratulate itself
+on the devotion of such a man to the business of the country, he was in
+an instant taken from us. Then it was that, the memory of the past and
+the hope of the future blending together, all men seemed to mourn over
+this untimely end, and there was that pang in the public heart which
+accompanies the unexpected disappearance of a strong character.
+
+What manner of man this was, who thus on a sudden in the middle term of
+life relinquished all the ease and pleasure of a patrician existence to
+work often eighteen hours daily, not for a vain and brilliant notoriety,
+which was foreign alike both to his tastes and his turn of mind, but for
+the advancement of principles, the advocacy of which in the chief scene
+of his efforts was sure to obtain for him only contention and unkindly
+feelings; what were his motives, purposes and opinions; how and why
+did he labour; what were the whole scope and tendency of this original,
+vigorous, and self-schooled intelligence; these would appear to be
+subjects not unworthy of contemplation, and especially not uninteresting
+to a free and political community.
+
+The difficulty of treating cotemporary characters and events has been
+ever acknowledged; but it may be doubted whether the difficulty is
+diminished when we would commemorate the men and things that have
+preceded us. The cloud of passion in the first instance, or in the
+other the mist of time, may render it equally hard and perplexing to
+discriminate.
+
+It should not be forgotten that the most authentic and interesting
+histories are those which have been composed by actors in the
+transactions which they record. The cotemporary writer who is personally
+familiar with his theme has unquestionably a great advantage; but it is
+assumed that his pen can scarcely escape the bias of private friendship
+or political connection. Yet truth, after all, is the sovereign passion
+of mankind; nor is the writer of these pages prepared to relinquish his
+conviction that it is possible to combine the accuracy of the present
+with the impartiality of the future.
+
+Lord George Bentinck had sat for eighteen years in Parliament, and,
+before he entered it, had been for three years private secretary to Mr.
+Canning, who had married the sister of the Duchess of Portland. Such a
+post would seem a happy commencement of a public career; but whether
+it were the untimely death of his distinguished relative, or a natural
+indisposition, Lord George--though he retained the seat for King’s
+Lynn, in which he had succeeded his uncle, the late governor-general of
+India--directed his energies to other than parliamentary pursuits. For
+some time he had followed his profession, which was that of arms, but
+of late years he had become absorbed in the pastime and fortunes of the
+turf, in which his whole being seemed engrossed, and which he pursued on
+a scale that perhaps has never been equalled.
+
+Lord George had withdrawn his support from the government of the Duke of
+Wellington, when the friends of Mr. Canning quitted that administration;
+and when in time they formed not the least considerable portion of the
+cabinet of Lord Grey, he resumed his seat on the ministerial benches. On
+that occasion an administrative post was offered him and declined; and
+on subsequent occasions similar requests to him to take office were
+equally in vain. Lord George, therefore, was an original and hearty
+supporter of the Reform Bill, and he continued to uphold the Whigs in
+all their policy until the secession of Lord Stanley, between whom and
+himself there subsisted warm personal as well as political sympathies.
+Although he was not only a friend to religious liberty, as we shall have
+occasion afterwards to remark, but always viewed with great sympathy
+the condition of the Roman Catholic portion of the Irish population, he
+shrank from the taint of the ultra-montane intrigue. Accompanying
+Lord Stanley, he became in due time a member of the great Conservative
+opposition, and, as he never did anything by halves, became one of
+the most earnest, as he certainly was one of the most enlightened,
+supporters of Sir Robert Peel. His trust in that minister was indeed
+absolute, and he has subsequently stated in conversation that when,
+towards the end of the session of ‘45, a member of the Tory party
+ventured to predict and denounce the impending defection of the
+minister, there was no member of the Conservative party who more
+violently condemned the unfounded attack, or more readily impugned the
+motives of the assailant.
+
+He was not a very frequent attendant in the House. He might be counted
+on for a party division, and when, towards the termination of the
+Melbourne ministry, the forces were very nearly balanced, and the
+struggle became very close, he might have been observed, on more
+than one occasion, entering the House at a late hour, clad in a
+white great-coat, which softened, but did not conceal, the scarlet
+hunting-coat.
+
+Although he took no part in debate, and attended the House rather as a
+club than as a senate, he possessed a great and peculiar influence in
+it. He was viewed with interest, and often with extraordinary regard,
+by every sporting man in the House. With almost all of these he was
+acquainted; some of them, on either side, were his intimate companions
+and confederates.
+
+His eager and energetic disposition; his quick perception, clear
+judgment, and prompt decision; the tenacity with which he clung to his
+opinions; his frankness and love of truth; his daring and speculative
+spirit; his lofty bearing, blended as it was with a simplicity of manner
+very remarkable; the ardour of his friendships, even the fierceness
+of his hates and prejudices--all combined to form one of those strong
+characters who, whatever may be their pursuit, must always direct and
+lead.
+
+Nature had clothed this vehement spirit with a material form which was
+in perfect harmony with its noble and commanding character. He was tall
+and remarkable for his presence; his countenance almost a model of manly
+beauty; the face oval, the complexion clear and mantling; the forehead
+lofty and white; the nose aquiline and delicately moulded; the upper
+lip short. But it was in the dark-brown eye, which flashed with piercing
+scrutiny, that all the character of the man came forth: a brilliant
+glance, not soft, but ardent, acute, imperious, incapable of deception
+or of being deceived.
+
+Although he had not much sustained his literary culture, and of late
+years, at any rate, had not given his mind to political study, he had
+in the course of his life seen and heard a great deal, and with profit.
+Nothing escaped his observation; he forgot nothing and always thought.
+So it was that on all the great political questions of the day he had
+arrived at conclusions which guided him. He always took large views
+and had no prejudices about things, whatever he might indulge in as
+to persons. He was always singularly anxious to acquire the truth, and
+would spare no pains for that purpose; but when once his mind was made
+up, it was impossible to influence him.
+
+In politics, he was a Whig of 1688, which became him, modified, however,
+by all the experience of the present age. He wished to see our society
+founded on a broad basis of civil and religious liberty. He retained
+much of the old jealousy of the court, but had none of popular
+franchises. He was for the Established Church, but for nothing more,
+and was very repugnant to priestly domination. As for the industrial
+question, he was sincerely opposed to the Manchester scheme, because
+he thought that its full development would impair and might subvert our
+territorial constitution, which he held to be the real security of our
+freedom, and because he believed that it would greatly injure Ireland,
+and certainly dissolve our colonial empire.
+
+He had a great respect for merchants, though he looked with some
+degree of jealousy on the development of our merely foreign trade. His
+knowledge of character qualified him in a great degree to govern men.
+and if some drawbacks from this influence might be experienced in his
+too rigid tenacity of opinion, and in some quickness of temper, which,
+however, always sprang from a too sensitive heart, great compensation
+might be found in the fact that there probably never was a human being
+so entirely devoid of conceit and so completely exempt from selfishness.
+Nothing delighted him more than to assist and advance others. All the
+fruits of his laborious investigations were always at the service of
+his friends without reserve or self-consideration. He encouraged them
+by making occasions for their exertions, and would relinquish his own
+opportunity without a moment’s hesitation, if he thought the abandonment
+might aid a better man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     _The Protection Problem_
+
+THERE was at this time a metropolitan society for the protection of
+agriculture, of which the Duke of Richmond was chairman, and which
+had been established to counteract the proceedings of the Manchester
+confederation. It was in communication with the local Protection
+societies throughout the country; and although the adhesion to its
+service by the parliamentary members of the old Conservative party had
+been more limited than might have been expected, nevertheless many
+county members were enrolled in its ranks, and a few of the most eminent
+were actively engaged in its management. In this they were assisted by
+an equal number of the most considerable tenant-farmers. In the present
+state of affairs, the council of the Protection Society afforded the
+earliest and readiest means to collect opinion and methodize action; and
+it was therefore resolved among its managers to invite all members of
+Parliament who sympathized with their purpose, though they might not be
+members of their society, to attend their meeting and aid them at the
+present crisis with their counsel.
+
+A compliance with this request occasioned the first public appearance
+of Lord George Bentinck, as one of the organizers of a political
+party,--for he aspired to no more. The question was, whether a third
+political party could be created and sustained,--a result at all times
+and under any circumstances difficult to achieve, and which had failed
+even under the auspices of accomplished and experienced statesmen. In
+the present emergency, was there that degree of outraged public feeling
+in the country, which would overcome all obstacles and submit to any
+inconveniences, in order to ensure its representation in the House of
+Commons? It was the opinion of Lord George Bentinck that such was the
+case; that if for the moment that feeling was inert and latent, it was
+an apathy which arose from the sudden shock of public confidence, and
+the despair which under such circumstances takes possession of men;
+that if it could be shown to the country, that the great bulk of the
+Conservative party were true to their faith, and were not afraid, even
+against the fearful odds which they would have to encounter, to proclaim
+it, the confidence and the courage of the country would rally, and the
+party in the House of Commons would find external sympathy and support.
+
+With these views it became of paramount importance that the discussion
+on the government measure should be sustained on the part of the
+Protectionists with their utmost powers. They must prove to the country,
+that they could represent their cause in debate, and to this end all
+their energies must be directed. It would be fatal to them if the
+discussion were confined to one or two nights, and they overborne by
+the leading and habitual speakers. They must bring forward new men; they
+must encourage the efforts of those now unrecognized and comparatively
+unknown; they must overcome all reserve and false shame, and act as
+became men called upon to a critical and leading part, not by their
+arrogance or ambition, but by the desertion and treachery of those to
+whose abilities they had bowed without impatience and reluctance. There
+was a probability of several vacancies immediately taking place in
+counties where the seats were filled by converts, but men of too
+scrupulous an honour to retain the charge which they had sought and
+accepted as the professors of opinions contrary to those which now
+received their mournful adhesion. The result of these elections would
+greatly depend upon the spirit and figure of the party in the House of
+Commons, in their first encounter with the enemy.
+
+These views, so just and so spirited, advanced with high-bred
+earnestness by one rarely met in political turmoils, and enforced with a
+freshness and an affable simplicity which were very winning, wonderfully
+encouraged those to whom they were addressed. All seemed touched by the
+flame which burned in the breast of that man, so lofty in his thoughts
+but so humble in his ambition, who counselled ever the highest deeds,
+and was himself ever prepared to undertake the humblest duties.
+
+The business of this day was notable. Calculations were made of those
+who might be fairly counted on to take a part in debate; some discussion
+even ensued as to who should venture to reply late at night to the
+minister; a committee was appointed to communicate with all members on
+either side supposed to be favourable to the principle of Protection to
+the labour of the country; a parliamentary staff was organized, not only
+to secure the attendance of members, but to guard over the elections;
+finally, the form of the amendment to the government measure was
+discussed and settled, and it was agreed that, if possible, it should be
+moved by Mr. Philip Miles, the member for the city of Bristol, and
+who had the ear of the House not merely from the importance of his
+constituency, and seconded by Sir William Heathcote, the member for the
+county of Hampshire, a country gentleman of great accomplishments, and
+so highly considered by both sides that he was very generally spoken of
+as a probable successor to the chair.
+
+All was furnished by this lately forlorn party except a leader, and even
+then many eyes were turned and some hopeful murmurs addressed towards
+Lord George Bentinck, who in the course of this morning had given such
+various proofs of his fitness and such evidence of his resource. But he
+shook his head with a sort of suppressed smile, a faint blush, and an
+air of proud humility that was natural to him: ‘I think,’ he said, ‘we
+have had enough of leaders; it is not in my way; I shall remain the last
+of the rank and file.’
+
+So little desirous, originally, was Lord George Bentinck to interfere
+actively in that great controversy in which ultimately he took so
+leading a part, that before the meeting of Parliament in 1846 he begged
+a gentleman whom he greatly esteemed, a member of the legal profession,
+and since raised to its highest honours, to call upon him at Harcourt
+House, when he said that he had taken great pains to master the case
+of the protective system; that he was convinced its abrogation would
+ultimately be very injurious to this country; but although, both
+in point of argument and materials, he feared no opponent, he felt
+constitutionally so incapable of ever making a speech, that he wished
+to induce some eminent lawyer to enter the House of Commons, and avail
+himself of his views and materials, which he had, with that object,
+reduced to writing. He begged, therefore, that his friend, although a
+free-trader, would assist him, by suggesting a fitting person for this
+office.
+
+Accordingly, the name of a distinguished member of the bar, who had
+already published a work of merit, impugning the principles of the new
+commercial system, was mentioned, and this learned gentleman was applied
+to, and was not indisposed to accept the task. A mere accident prevented
+this arrangement being accomplished. Lord George then requested his
+friend to make some other selection; but his adviser very sensibly
+replied, that although the House of Commons would have listened with
+respect to a gentleman who had given evidence of the sincerity of his
+convictions by the publication of a work which had no reference to
+Parliament, they would not endure the instance of a lawyer brought into
+the House merely to speak from his brief; and that the attempt would be
+utterly fruitless. He earnestly counselled Lord George himself to make
+the effort; but Lord George, with characteristic tenacity, clung for
+some time to his project, though his efforts to accomplish it were
+fortunately not successful.
+
+Some of the friends of Lord George Bentinck, remembering his
+inexperience in debate, aware of the great length at which he must
+necessarily treat the theme, and mindful that he was not physically
+well-qualified for controlling popular assemblies, not having a strong
+voice, or, naturally, a very fluent manner, were anxious that he should
+not postpone his speech until an hour so late; that an audience, jaded
+by twelve nights’ discussion, would be ill-attuned to statistical
+arguments and economical details. But still clinging to the hope
+that some accident might yet again postpone the division, so that
+the Protectionists might gain the vote of Mr. Hildyard, who had been
+returned that day for South Notts, having defeated a cabinet minister,
+Lord George remained motionless until long past midnight. Mr. Cobden
+having spoken on the part of the confederation, the closing of the
+debate was felt to be inevitable. Even then, by inducing a Protectionist
+to solicit the Speaker’s eye, Lord George attempted to avert the
+division; but no supporter of the government measure, of any colour,
+advancing to reply to this volunteer, Bentinck was obliged to rise.
+He came out like a lion forced from his lair. And so it happened, that
+after all his labours of body and mind, after all his research and
+unwearied application and singular vigilance, after having been at his
+post for a month, never leaving the House, even for refreshment, he
+had to undertake the most difficult enterprise in which a man can well
+embark, with a concurrence of every disadvantage which could ensure
+failure and defeat. It would seem that the audience, the subject, and
+the orator, must be equally exhausted; for the assembly had listened for
+twelve nights to the controversy, and he who was about to address them
+had, according to his strange habit, taken no sustenance the whole day;
+it being his custom to dine after the House was up, which was very
+often long after midnight, and this, with the exception of a slender
+breakfast, rigidly restricted to dry toast, was his only meal in the
+four-and-twenty hours.
+
+He had been forced to this regimen, from food exercising a lethargic
+influence over him; so that, in addition to some constitutional weakness
+in his organ, he usually laboured, when he addressed the House, under
+the disadvantage of general exhaustion. And this was, no doubt, a
+principal cause of that over-excitement and apparently unnecessary
+energy in his manner of speaking, of which he was himself perfectly,
+and even painfully, conscious. He was wont to say, that before he could
+speak he had to make a voice, and, as it were, to pump it from the very
+core of his frame. One who took a great interest in his success once
+impressed on him the expediency of trusting entirely to his natural
+voice and the interest and gravity of his matter, which, combined
+with his position as the recognized leader of a great party, would be
+adequate to command the attention of his audience; and he subsequently
+endeavoured very often to comply with this suggestion. He endeavoured
+also very much to control his redundancy of action and gesture, when
+that peculiarity was pointed out to him with the delicacy, but the
+sincerity, of friendship. He entirely freed himself from a very awkward
+feature of his first style of speaking, namely, the frequent repetition
+of a sentence, which seemed at first a habit inveterate with him; but
+such was his force of will, that when the necessity of ridding himself
+of this drawback was properly pointed out to him, he achieved the
+desired result. No one bore criticism more gently and kindly, so long as
+it was confined to his personal and intellectual characteristics, for he
+was a man absolutely without vanity or conceit, who thought very humbly
+of himself, in respect of abilities, and deemed no labour too great to
+achieve even a slight improvement. But though in these respects the very
+child of simplicity, he was a man of almost unexampled pride, and chafed
+under criticism, when his convictions or his conduct were questioned. He
+was very tenacious of his opinion, almost inexorable; and it required
+a courage nearly equal to his own, combined with a serene temper,
+successfully to impugn his conclusions.
+
+Not, therefore, excited by vanity, but sustained by self-respect, by
+an overpowering feeling that he owed it to himself and the opinions he
+held, to show to the world that they had not been lightly adopted and
+should not be lightly laid aside, Bentinck rose, long past the noon of
+night, at the end of this memorable debate, to undertake an office
+from which the most successful and most experienced rhetoricians of
+Parliament would have shrunk with intuitive discretion. But duty scorns
+prudence, and criticism has few terrors for a man with a great purpose.
+Unshaken by the adverse hour and circumstances, he proceeded to
+accomplish the object which he had long meditated, and for which he was
+fully prepared.
+
+Reminding the House, while he appealed to their indulgence, that, though
+he had had the honour of a seat for eight parliaments, he had never once
+ventured to trespass on its time on any subject of great debate, he
+at once took a clear and comprehensive ground of objection to the
+government scheme. He opposed it not only because he objected to the
+great change contemplated with respect to the agricultural interest,
+but, on principle, to the entire measure, ‘a great commercial
+revolution, which we are of opinion that the circumstances of the
+country do not by any means require.’
+
+Noticing the observation of the Secretary at War, that the agricultural
+interest, in submitting to this great change, might now accept it with
+honour, instead of its being eventually extorted by force, he happily
+retorted, that vicious as he thought the measure, he should feel it
+deprived of half its vice if it could be carried without loss of honour,
+damage to reputation, and forfeiture of public character to a vast
+number of gentlemen now present. And he proceeded to show among other
+testimonies, by an appeal to the distinct language of the speech from
+the throne on the dissolution of 1841, that ‘every member who occupied a
+seat in this House was returned pledged either to oppose or maintain the
+principle of protection to national industry.’
+
+Adverting to the new position, that the experience of the last
+three years justified the reversal of the system which the existing
+administration had been summoned to office to uphold, he wisely
+remarked, that ‘the country will not be satisfied with three years’
+experience of any system. Three years’ experience is not sufficiently
+extensive to afford a proper criterion by which we may decide the
+failure or success of any description of policy whatsoever.’
+
+Noticing that the minister had more especially founded ‘his present
+belief in doctrines contrary to those which he had heretofore uniformly
+maintained,’ by the assumption that the price of corn would not be more
+reduced than the price of cattle and other commodities affected by the
+tariff of 1842, and also by the results of previous experiments in the
+instances of silk and wool, Lord George ‘accepted his challenge’
+on these grounds, and proceeded in great detail to investigate these
+examples.
+
+The House listened with great attention for full two hours, during
+which he treated these subjects. This attention no doubt was generally
+accorded because it was felt due to the occasion, and, under the
+circumstances, to the speaker; but those who, however contrary might
+be the results at which they had arrived, had themselves deeply entered
+into these investigations, recognized very soon that Bentinck was
+master of his subject. Sir Robert Peel looked round very often with that
+expression of appreciation which it was impossible for his nature to
+refuse to parliamentary success, even when the ability displayed was
+hostile to his projects. The minister, with reference to the wool trade,
+had dwelt on the year 1842, when prices were much depressed, while they
+had greatly rallied in 1844, when the importation of foreign wool had
+risen from forty-five to sixty-five millions of pounds; and he had drawn
+a triumphant inference that the increase of importation and the increase
+of price were in consequence of the reduction of the duty. This instance
+had produced a great effect; but Lord George showed the House, by a
+reference to the tables of 1836, that the importation of foreign wool
+had then risen to sixty-five millions of pounds, and that large foreign
+importation was consistent with high prices to the domestic grower. Nor
+was he less successful about the foreign cattle. He reminded his friends
+on the Treasury bench how strenuously, previously to the introduction of
+the tariff of 1842, they had urged upon their agricultural friends that
+no foreign cattle could enter under their regulations, and that
+the whole object of the change was to strengthen the hands of the
+agricultural interest, as regarded more essential protection, by
+removing the odium of a nominal protection: ‘Convinced by my right
+honourable friends, in 1842, that their tariff would be as inoperative
+as it has proved, I gave my cordial support to the measure.’
+
+Perceiving that the House began to be wearied with the details of
+the silk trade, which he had investigated with extraordinary zeal, he
+postponed until the specific vote in committee his objections to the
+reduction of the timber duties. The fact is, he had so thoroughly
+mastered all these topics, that his observations on each of them would
+have themselves formed a speech of sufficient length and interest. But
+he successfully checked any interruption by what may be fairly styled
+his dignified diffidence.
+
+‘I trust the House will recollect that I am fighting the battle of a
+party whose leaders have deserted them; and though I cannot wield my
+weapons with the skill of the right honourable gentleman on the Treasury
+bench, I trust the House will remember the emergency which has dragged
+me out to intrude upon their indulgence.’
+
+And again, when he announced that he was now about to investigate the
+pretext of ‘famine in the land,’ and some impatience was exhibited, he
+drew up and said, ‘I think, having sat eighteen years in this house, and
+never once having trespassed on its time before in any one single
+great debate, I may appeal to the past as a proof that I duly weigh the
+measure of my abilities, and that I am painfully conscious of my proper
+place in this house.’
+
+It was impossible to resist such appeals from such a person, even at
+three o’clock in the morning; and diffident, but determined, he then
+entered into what was, perhaps, the most remarkable portion of his
+speech--an investigation of what was the real position of the country
+with respect to the supply of food in the past autumn and at the present
+moment. Having shown from the trade circulars that, far from there being
+at present ‘a wheat famine,’ the stocks in the granaries in bond were
+more than double in amount to what they were in the year 1845, ‘a year
+admitted by all to be a year of extraordinary abundance,’ he proceeded
+to the Irish part of the question: ‘I beg leave to say, that though this
+debate has now continued for three weeks, I am the first gentleman
+who has at all entered into the real state of the case as regards the
+allegation of a potato famine in Ireland, upon which, be it remembered,
+is founded the sole case of her Majesty’s ministers for a repeal of the
+corn laws.’
+
+And this was very true. The fact is, though the Protectionist party had
+made a most unexpected and gallant defence, no one was really prepared
+for the contest except Bentinck. Between the end of November and the
+meeting of Parliament, he had thrown all the energies of his passionate
+mind into this question. He had sought information on all points
+and always at the fountain-head. He had placed himself in immediate
+communication with the ablest representatives of every considerable
+interest attacked, and being ardent and indefatigable, gifted with
+a tenacious memory and a very clear and searching spirit, there was
+scarcely a detail or an argument connected with his subject which was
+not immediately at his command. No speeches in favour of the protective
+system have ever been made in the House of Commons compared with his in
+depth and range of knowledge; and had there been any member not
+connected with the government, who had been able to vindicate the merits
+of British agriculture as he did when the final struggle occurred, the
+impression which was made by the too-often unanswered speeches of the
+Manchester confederation would never have been effected. But the great
+Conservative party, exhausted by the labours of ten years of opposition,
+thought that after the triumph of ‘41 it might claim a furlough. The
+defence of their cause was left entirely to the ministers of their
+choice; and ministers, distracted with detail and wearied with official
+labour, are not always the most willing or the most efficient champions
+of the organic principles of a party.
+
+Sir Robert Peel, with respect to the disease in the Irish potato, had
+largely referred to the statements of the inspectors of police. Lord
+George wanted to know why the reports of the lieutenants of the Irish
+counties were not given. Being well-informed upon this head, he asked
+the government to produce the report of Lord Duncannon, the lord
+lieutenant of Carlow; especially that of his noble father, the earl of
+Bes-borough, lord lieutenant of Kilkenny. ‘Is there any man in England
+or in Ireland whose opinion, from his business-like habits, his great
+practical knowledge, and the warm and affectionate interest which for
+a long period of years he has taken in everything which concerns the
+interests of Ireland, especially of the Irish peasantry--is there
+any man whose opinion would have greater weight? The opinion of Lord
+Bes-borough on an Irish subject, the lieutenant of an Irish county, and
+himself long a cabinet minister? Well, sir, I am assured that, having
+taken the utmost pains to investigate this matter, Lord Besborough has
+made an elaborate report to the Irish government. Well, then, I
+desire to know why Lord Besborough’s report to the Irish government
+is suppressed? Is it because that report would not assist the present
+policy of her Majesty’s government?’
+
+He alleged the names of many other individuals of high station who
+had officially reported on the subject to the government: of Lord
+Castlereagh, the lieutenant of Down, a member of the House; of Lord
+de Vesci, whose son was sitting for the Queen’s County, over which his
+father presided in the name of the queen. A murmur ran round the House,
+that it would have been as well if these reports had been produced.
+
+The last portion of this argumentative harangue referred to the most
+important division of the subject. Bentinck met it boldly, without
+evasion; nor was there any portion of his address more interesting, more
+satisfactory, and more successful. ‘I now come,’ he said, ‘to the great
+challenge, which is ever and anon put forth by the Anti-Corn Law League,
+and now by their disciples, her Majesty’s ministers. How are we, they
+ask, with our limited extent of territory, to feed a population annually
+and rapidly increasing at the rate of three hundred thousand a-year,
+as generally stated by the member for Stockport--a rate increased by my
+noble friend, the member for the West Riding, to a thousand a day, or
+three hundred and sixty-five thousand a year?’
+
+He first proved in a complete manner that, from the year 1821 to the
+year 1844, the population of the country had increased at the rate of
+less than thirty-two per cent., while the growth of wheat during the
+same period had increased no less than sixty-four per cent. He then
+proceeded to inquire why, with such an increased produce, we were still,
+as regards bread corn, to a certain extent, an importing nation? This he
+accounted for by the universally improved condition of the people, and
+the enlarged command of food by the working classes. He drew an animated
+picture, founded entirely on the representations of writers and public
+men adverse to the Protective System, of the superior condition of the
+people of ‘England, happy England,’ to that of other countries: how they
+consumed much more of the best food, and lived much longer. This was
+under Protection, which Lord John Russell had stigmatized, in his
+letter, ‘the bane of agriculture.’ ‘In the history of my noble friend’s
+illustrious family,’ he continued, ‘I should have thought that he would
+have found a remarkable refutation of such a notion.’ And then he drew a
+lively sketch of the colossal and patriotic works of the Earls and
+Dukes of Bedford, ‘whereby they had drained and reclaimed three
+hundred thousand acres of land drowned in water, and brought them
+into cultivation, and thus converted into fertile fields a vast morass
+extending over seven counties in England.’ Could the system which had
+inspired such enterprise be justly denounced as baneful?
+
+To show the means of the country to sustain even a much-increasing
+population, and that those means were in operation, he entered into one
+of the most original and interesting calculations that was perhaps
+ever offered to the House of Commons. Reminding the House that in the
+preceding year (1845) the farmers of England, at a cost of two millions
+sterling, had imported two hundred and eighty thousand tons of guano, he
+proceeded to estimate what would be the effect on the productive powers
+of the land of that novel application. Two hundred thousand tons, or, in
+other words, four million hundred-weight, were expended on the land
+in 1845. Half of these, he assumed, would be applied to the growth of
+wheat, and the other half to the growth of turnips preparatory to the
+wheat crop of the ensuing year. According to the experiments tried and
+recorded in the Royal Agricultural Journal, it would seem that by the
+application of two hundred-weight of guano to an acre of wheat land, the
+produce would be increased by one quarter per acre. At this rate, one
+hundred thousand tons, or two million hundred-weight of guano would add
+one million quarters of wheat to the crop, or bread for one year for
+one million of people. But as he was very careful never to over-state
+a case, Lord George assumed, that it would require three hundred
+hundredweight of guano to an acre to produce an extra quarter of wheat.
+According to this estimate, one hundred thousand tons of guano, applied
+to the land in 1845, must have added six hundred and sixty-six thousand
+six hundred and sixty-six quarters of grain to the wheat crop, or, in
+other words, bread for six hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred
+and sixty-six additional mouths. ‘And now for turnips,’ he continued.
+The Norfolk authorities whom he quoted have in like manner proved that
+two hundred-weight of guano will add ten tons per acre to the turnip
+crop. But again, for fear of exaggeration, he supposed that three
+hundred-weight would be requisite to create such increased fertility. In
+this case, two million hundredweight of guano would add six million six
+hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty tons to the natural
+unmanured produce of the crop. Now it is generally considered that one
+ton of Swedes would last twenty sheep three weeks, and that each sheep
+should gain half a pound of meat per week, or one pound and a half in
+three weeks; thus twenty sheep feeding on one ton of turnips in three
+weeks should in the aggregate make, as the graziers say, thirty pounds
+of mutton. But to be safe in his estimate, he would assume that one ton
+of turnips makes only half this quantity. ‘Multiply, then,’ exclaimed
+Bentinck with the earnest air of a crusader, ‘six million six hundred
+and sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty by fifteen, and you have no
+less than ninety-nine million nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand and
+nine hundred pounds of mutton as the fruits of one hundred thousand tons
+of guano; which, at ninety-two pounds per man--the average Englishman’s
+allowance--affords meat for one million eight hundred and sixty thousand
+nine hundred and fifty-five--nearly two million of her Majesty’s
+subjects.’
+
+This is a specimen of those original and startling calculations to
+which the House was soon to become accustomed from his lips. They were
+received at first with astonishment and incredulity; but they were never
+impugned. The fact is, he was extremely cautious in his data, and no
+man was more accustomed ever to impress upon his friends the extreme
+expediency of not over-stating a case. It should also be remarked of
+Lord George Bentinck, that in his most complicated calculations he never
+sought aid from notes.
+
+We have necessarily only noticed a few of the traits of this remarkable
+performance. Its termination was impressive.
+
+‘We have heard in the course of these discussions a good deal about an
+ancient monarchy, a reformed House of Commons, and a proud aristocracy.
+Sir, with regard to our ancient monarchy, I have no observation to make;
+but, if so humble an individual as myself might be permitted to whisper,
+a word in the ear of that illustrious and royal personage who, as
+he stands nearest, so is he justly dearest, to her who sits upon the
+throne, I would take leave to say, that I cannot but think he listened
+to ill advice, when, on the first night of this great discussion, he
+allowed himself to be seduced by the first minister of the crown to
+come down to this House to usher in, to give _éclat_, and as it were
+by reflection from the queen, to give the semblance of the personal
+sanction of her Majesty to a measure which, be it for good or for evil,
+a great majority at least of the landed aristocracy of England, of
+Scotland, and of Ireland, imagine fraught with deep injury, if not ruin,
+to them
+
+--a measure which, not confined in its operation to this great class,
+is calculated to grind down countless smaller interests engaged in the
+domestic trades and, interests of the empire, transferring the profits
+of all these interests--English, Scotch, Irish, and Colonial
+
+--great and small alike, from Englishmen, from Scotchmen, and from
+Irishmen, to Americans, to Frenchmen, to Russians, to Poles, to
+Prussians, and to Germans. Sir, I come now to the reformed House of
+Commons; and as one who was a party to that great measure, I cannot but
+feel a deep interest in its success, and more especially in that
+portion of it which extended the franchise to the largest and the most
+respectable body in the kingdom--I mean the landed tenantry of England;
+and deeply should I regret should any large proportion of those members
+who have been sent to Parliament to represent them in this House,
+prove to be the men to bring lasting dishonour upon themselves, their
+constituencies, and this House, by an act of tergiversation so gross
+as to be altogether unprecedented in the annals of any reformed
+or unreformed House of Commons. Sir, lastly, I come to the “proud
+aristocracy.” We are a proud aristocracy, but if we are proud, it is
+that we are proud in the chastity of our honour. If we assisted in ‘41
+in turning the Whigs out of office, because we did not consider a
+fixed duty of eight shillings a quarter on foreign corn a sufficient
+protection, it was with honesty of purpose and in single-mindedness we
+did so; and as we were not before the fact, we will not be accomplices
+after the fact in the fraud by which the Whig ministers were expelled
+from power. If we are a proud aristocracy, we are proud of our honour,
+inasmuch as we never have been guilty, and never can be guilty, of
+double-dealing with the farmers of England--of swindling our opponents,
+deceiving our friends, or betraying our constituents.’
+
+The division was called. The West-India interest, notwithstanding
+the amendment was moved by the member for Bristol, deserted the
+Protectionists. Deaf to the appeals, and the remonstrances, and the
+warnings of Lord George, one of their leading members replied, with
+a smile of triumphant content, that ‘they had made a satisfactory
+arrangement for themselves.’ How satisfactory did the West-Indians find
+it four months subsequently? All the shipping interest deserted the
+land. They were for everything free, except navigation; there was no
+danger of that being interfered with; ‘it rested on quite distinct
+grounds--national grounds.’ They were warned, but they smiled in
+derisive self-complacency. Lord George Bentinck lived to have the
+West-India interest and the shipping interest on their knees to him,
+to defend their perilled or to restore their ruined fortunes; and with
+characteristic generosity and proud consistency, he undertook the task,
+and sacrificed his life in the attempt.
+
+Notwithstanding these terrible defalcations, when the numbers were
+announced, at nearly four o’clock in the morning, the majority had
+not reached those three magical figures supposed necessary, under the
+circumstances, to success. In a house of five hundred and eighty-one
+members present, the amendment of the Protectionists was defeated only
+by ninety-seven; and two hundred and forty-two gentlemen, in spite of
+desertion, difficulty, and defeat, still maintained the ‘chastity of
+their honour.’
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     _The Irish Question_
+
+IN THE meantime, besides the prolonged and unforeseen resistance of the
+Protectionists, there were other and unexpected causes at work which
+equally, or perhaps even more powerfully tended to the fulfilment of the
+scheme of delay, which Lord George Bentinck had recommended his friends
+to adopt and encourage.
+
+In the latter months of the year 1845, there broke out in some of the
+counties of Ireland one of those series of outrages which have hitherto
+periodically occurred in districts of that country. Assassination and
+crimes of violence were rife: men on the queen’s highway were shot from
+behind hedges, or suddenly torn from their horses and beaten to death
+with clubs; houses were visited in the night by bodies of men, masked
+and armed--their owners dragged from their beds, and, in the presence
+of their wives and children, maimed and mutilated; the administration of
+unlawful oaths, with circumstances of terror, indicated the existence of
+secret confederations, whose fell intents, profusely and ostentatiously
+announced by threatening letters, were frequently and savagely
+perpetrated.
+
+These barbarous distempers had their origin in the tenure of land in
+Ireland, and in the modes of its occupation. A combination of causes,
+political, social, and economical, had for more than a century unduly
+stimulated the population of a country which had no considerable
+resources except in the soil. That soil had become divided into minute
+allotments, held by a pauper tenantry, at exorbitant rents, of a class
+of middlemen, themselves necessitous, and who were mere traders in land.
+A fierce competition raged amid the squalid multitude for these strips
+of earth which were their sole means of existence. To regulate this
+fatal rivalry, and restrain this emulation of despair, the peasantry,
+enrolled in secret societies, found refuge in an inexorable code. He who
+supplanted another in the occupation of the soil was doomed by an occult
+tribunal, from which there was no appeal, to a terrible retribution. His
+house was visited in the night by whitefeet and ribbonmen--his doom was
+communicated to him, by the post, in letters, signed by Terry Alt, or
+Molly M’Guire, or he was suddenly shot, like a dog, by the orders of
+Captain Rock. Yet even these violent inflictions rather punished than
+prevented the conduct against which they were directed. The Irish
+peasant had to choose between starving and assassination. If, in
+deference to an anonymous mandate, he relinquished his holding, he and
+those who depended on him were outcasts and wanderers; if he retained or
+accepted it, his life might be the forfeit, but subsistence was secured;
+and in poor and lawless countries, the means of living are more valued
+than life. Those who have treated of the agrarian crimes of Ireland
+have remarked, that the facility with which these outrages have been
+committed has only been equalled by the difficulty of punishing them. A
+murder, perpetrated at noonday, in the sight of many persons, cannot be
+proved in a court of justice. The spectators are never witnesses; and it
+has been inferred from this, that the outrage is national, and that the
+heart of the populace is with the criminal. But though a chief landlord,
+or a stipendiary magistrate, may occasionally be sacrificed, the great
+majority of victims are furnished by the humblest class. Not sympathy,
+but terror, seals the lip and clouds the eye of the bystander. And this
+is proved by the fact that while those who have suffered have almost
+always publicly declared that they were unable to recognize their
+assailants, and believed them to be strangers, they have frequently, in
+confidence, furnished the police with the names of the guilty.
+
+Thus, there is this remarkable characteristic of the agrarian anarchy
+of Ireland which marks it out from all similar conditions of other
+countries: it is a war of the poor against the poor.
+
+Before the rapid increase of population had forced governments to study
+political economy and to investigate the means of subsisting a people,
+statesmen had contented themselves by attributing to political causes
+these predial disturbances, and by recommending for them political
+remedies. The course of time, which had aggravated the condition of the
+Irish peasantry, had increased the numbers, the wealth, and the general
+importance of those of the middle classes of Ireland who professed the
+Roman Catholic faith. Shut out from the political privileges of the
+constitution, these formed a party of discontent that was a valuable
+ally to the modern Whigs, too long excluded from that periodical share
+of power which is the life-blood of a parliamentary government and the
+safeguard of a constitutional monarchy. The misgovernment of Ireland
+became therefore a stock topic of the earlier Opposition of the present
+century; and advocating the cause of their clients, who wished to become
+mayors, and magistrates, and members of the legislature, they argued
+that in the concession of those powers and dignities, and perhaps in
+the discreet confiscation of the property of the Church, the only cures
+could be found for threatening notices, robbery of arms, administering
+of unlawful oaths, burglary, murder, and arson.
+
+Yet if these acts of violence were attributable to defective political
+institutions, why, as was usually the case, were they partial in their
+occurrence? Why were they limited to particular districts? If political
+grievances were the cause, the injustice would be as sharp in tranquil
+Wexford as in turbulent Tipperary. Yet out of the thirty-two counties
+of Ireland, the outrages prevailed usually in less than a third. These
+outrages were never insurrectionary: they were not directed against
+existing authorities; they were stimulated by no public cause or
+clamour; it was the private individual who was attacked, and for a
+private reason. This was their characteristic.
+
+But as time elapsed, two considerable events occurred: the Roman
+Catholic restrictions were repealed, and the Whigs became ministers.
+Notwithstanding these great changes, the condition of the Irish
+peasantry remained the same; the tenure of land was unchanged, the modes
+of its occupation were unaltered, its possession was equally necessary
+and equally perilous. The same circumstances produced the same
+consequences. Notwithstanding even that the Irish Church had been
+remodelled, and its revenues not only commuted but curtailed;
+notwithstanding that Roman Catholics had not only become members of
+Parliament but even Parliament had been reformed; Irish outrage became
+more flagrant and more extensive than at any previous epoch--and the
+Whigs were ministers.
+
+Placed in this responsible position, forced to repress the evil, the
+causes of which they had so often explained, and which with their
+cooperation had apparently been so effectually removed, the Whig
+government were obliged to have recourse to the very means which they
+had so frequently denounced when recommended by their rivals, and that,
+too, on a scale of unusual magnitude and severity. They proposed for
+the adoption of Parliament one of those measures which would suspend the
+constitution of Ireland, and which are generally known by the name of
+Coercion Acts.
+
+The main and customary provisions of these Coercion Acts were of
+severe restraint, and scarcely less violent than the conduct they were
+constructed to repress. They invested the lord lieutenant with power
+to proclaim a district as disturbed, and then to place its inhabitants
+without the pale of the established law; persons out of their dwellings
+between sunset and sunrise were liable to transportation; and to secure
+the due execution of the law, prisoners were tried before military
+tribunals, and not by their peers, whose verdicts, from sympathy or
+terror, were usually found to baffle justice.
+
+These Coercion Acts were effectual; they invariably obtained their end,
+and the proclaimed districts became tranquil. But they were an affair
+of police, not of government; essentially temporary, their effect was
+almost as transient as their sway, and as they were never accompanied
+with any deep and sincere attempt to cope with the social circumstances
+which produced disorder, the recurrence of the chronic anarchy was
+merely an affair of time. Whether it were that they did not sufficiently
+apprehend the causes, or that they shrank from a solution which must
+bring them in contact with the millions of a surplus population, there
+seems always to have been an understanding between the public men
+of both parties, that the Irish difficulty should be deemed a purely
+political, or at the utmost a religious one. And even so late as 1846,
+no less a personage than the present chief secretary, put forward by
+his party to oppose an Irish Coercion Bill which themselves had loudly
+called for, declared that he could not sanction its penal enactments
+unless they were accompanied by the remedial measures that were
+necessary, to wit, an Irish Franchise Bill, and a Bill for the amendment
+of municipal corporations!
+
+When Sir Robert Peel, in 1841, after a memorable opposition of ten
+years, acceded to office, sustained by all the sympathies of the
+country, his Irish policy, not sufficiently noticed amid the vast and
+urgent questions with which he had immediately to deal, was, however, to
+the political observer significant and interesting. As a mere matter of
+party tactics, it was not for him too much to impute Irish disturbances
+to political and religious causes, even if the accumulated experience
+of the last ten years were not developing a conviction in his mind, that
+the methods hitherto adopted to ensure the tranquillity of that country
+were superficial and fallacious. His cabinet immediately recognized
+a distinction between political and predial sources of disorder.
+The first, they resolved into a mere system of agitation, no longer
+justifiable by the circumstances, and this they determined to put down.
+The second, they sought in the conditions under which land was occupied,
+and these they determined to investigate. Hence, on the one hand, the
+O’Connell prosecution: on the other, the Devon commission.
+
+This was the bold and prudent policy of a minister who felt he had
+the confidence of the country and was sustained by great parliamentary
+majorities; and when the summoner of monster meetings was convicted, and
+the efficient though impartial manner in which the labours of the land
+commission were simultaneously conducted came to be bruited about, there
+seemed at last some prospect of the system of political quackery of
+which Ireland had been so long the victim being at last subverted. But
+there is nothing in which the power of circumstances is more evident
+than in politics. They baffle the forethought of statesmen, and control
+even the apparently inflexible laws of national development and decay.
+
+Had the government of 1841 succeeded in its justifiable expectation of
+terminating the trade of political agitation in Ireland, armed with all
+the authority and all the information with which the labours of the land
+commission would have furnished them, they would in all probability have
+successfully grappled with the real causes of Irish misery and misrule.
+They might have thoroughly reformed the modes by which land is holden
+and occupied; have anticipated the spontaneous emigration that now rages
+by an administrative enterprise scarcely more costly than the barren
+loan of ‘47, and which would have wafted native energies to imperial
+shores; have limited under these circumstances the evil of the potato
+famine, even if the improved culture of the interval might not have
+altogether prevented that visitation; while the laws which regulated the
+competition between home and foreign industry in agricultural produce
+might have been modified with so much prudence, or, if necessary,
+ultimately repealed with so much precaution, that those rapid and
+startling vicissitudes that have so shattered the social fabric of
+Ireland might altogether have been avoided.
+
+But it was decreed that it should be otherwise. Having achieved the
+incredible conviction of O’Connell, by an Irish jury, the great culprit
+baffled the vengeance of the law by a quirk which a lawyer only could
+have devised. As regards his Irish policy, Sir Robert Peel never
+recovered this blow, the severity of which was proportionably increased
+by its occurrence at a moment of unprecedented success. Resolute not to
+recur to his ancient Orangeism, yet desperate after his discomfiture of
+rallying a moderate party around his ministry, his practical mind,
+more clear-sighted than foreseeing, was alarmed at the absence of all
+influences for the government of Ireland. The tranquillity which might
+result from a reformed tenure of the soil, must, if attainable, be
+a distant blessing, and at present he saw only the obstacles to its
+fulfilment--prejudiced landlords, and the claims and necessities of
+pauper millions. He shrank from a theory which might be an illusion. He
+required a policy for the next post and the next division. There was
+in his view only one course to take, to outbid his predecessors as
+successfully in Irish politics as he was doing in taxes and tariffs. He
+resolved to appropriate the liberal party of Ireland, and merge it into
+the great Conservative confederation which was destined to destroy so
+many things. He acted with promptitude and energy, for Sir Robert Peel
+never hesitated when he had made up his mind. His real character was
+very different from his public reputation. Far from being timid
+and wary, he was audacious and even headstrong. It was his cold and
+constrained demeanour that misled the public. There never was a man who
+did such rash things in so circumspect a manner. He had been fortunate
+in early disembarrassing himself of the Orange counsellors who had
+conducted his Irish questions when in opposition; vacant judgeships
+had opportunely satisfied the recognized and respectable claims of
+Mr. Serjeant Jackson and Mr. Lefroy; and so Sir Robert Peel, without
+a qualm, suddenly began to govern Ireland by sending it ‘messages of
+peace.’
+
+They took various forms; sometimes a Charitable Bequests Act virtually
+placed the Roman Catholic hierarchy in friendly equality with the
+prelates of the Established Church; sometimes a ‘godless college’
+called forth a moan from alarmed and irritated Oxford; the endowment
+of Maynooth struck wider and deeper, and the middle-classes of England,
+roused from their religious lethargy, called in vain to the rescue of
+a Protestantism betrayed. But the minister was unshaken. Successful
+and self-sufficient, impressed with a conviction that his government
+in duration would rival that of a Walpole or a Pitt, and exceed both
+in lustre, he treated every remonstrance with imperious disdain. He had
+even accustomed his mind to contemplate an ecclesiastical adjustment
+of Ireland which would have allied in that country the Papacy with the
+State, and have terminated the constitutional supremacy of the Anglican
+Church, when suddenly, in the very heat of all this arrogant fortune,
+the mighty fabric of delusion shivered and fell to the ground.
+
+An abused and indignant soil repudiated the ungrateful race that had
+exhausted and degraded its once exuberant bosom. The land refused
+to hold those who would not hold the land on terms of justice and of
+science. All the economical palliatives and political pretences of
+long years seemed only to aggravate the suffering and confusion. The
+poor-rate was levied upon a community of paupers, and the ‘godless
+colleges’ were denounced by Rome as well as Oxford.
+
+After a wild dream of famine and fever, imperial loans, rates in
+aid, jobbing public works, confiscated estates, constituencies
+self-disfranchised, and St. Peter’s bearding St. James’s in a spirit
+becoming Christendom rather than Europe, time topped the climax of Irish
+misgovernment; and by the publication of the census of 1851, proved that
+the millions with whose evils no statesmen would sincerely deal,
+but whose condition had been the pretext for so much empiricism, had
+disappeared, and nature, more powerful than politicians, had settled the
+‘great difficulty.’
+
+Ere the publication of that document, the mortal career of Sir Robert
+Peel had closed, and indeed several of the circumstances to which we
+have just alluded did not occur in his administration; but the contrast
+between his policy and its results was nevertheless scarcely less
+striking. It was in ‘45 that he transmitted his most important ‘message
+of peace’ to Ireland, to be followed by an autumnal visit of her Majesty
+to that kingdom, painted in complacent and prophetic colours by her
+prime minister. The visit was not made. In the course of that autumn,
+ten counties of Ireland were in a state of anarchy; and, mainly in
+that period, there were 136 homicides committed, 138 houses burned, 483
+houses attacked, and 138 fired into; there were 544 cases of aggravated
+assault, and 551 of robbery of arms; there were 89 cases of bands
+appearing in arms; there were more than 200 cases of administering
+unlawful oaths; and there were 1,944 cases of sending threatening
+letters. By the end of the year, the general crime of Ireland had
+doubled in amount and enormity compared with the preceding year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     _The Cure for Irish Ills_
+
+LORD GEORGE BENTINCK had large but defined views as to the policy which
+should be pursued with respect to Ireland. He was a firm supporter of
+the constitutional preponderance allotted to the land in our scheme of
+government, not from any jealousy or depreciation of the other great
+sources of public wealth, for his sympathy with the trading classes
+was genuine, but because he believed that constitutional preponderance,
+while not inconsistent with great commercial prosperity, to be the best
+security for public liberty and the surest foundation of enduring power.
+But as reality was the characteristic of his vigorous and sagacious
+nature, he felt that a merely formal preponderance, one not sustained
+and authorized by an equivalent material superiority, was a position not
+calculated to endure in the present age, and one especially difficult to
+maintain with our rapidly increasing population. For this reason he was
+always very anxious to identify the policy of Great Britain with that
+of Ireland, the latter being a country essentially agricultural; and he
+always shrank from any proposition which admitted a difference in the
+interests of the two kingdoms.
+
+Liberal politicians, who some years ago were very loud for justice to
+Ireland, and would maintain at all hazards the identity of the interests
+of the two countries, have of late frequently found it convenient
+to omit that kingdom from their statistical bulletins of national
+prosperity. Lord George Bentinck, on the contrary, would impress on his
+friends, that if they wished to maintain the territorial constitution of
+their country, they must allow no sectarian considerations to narrow the
+basis of sympathy on which it should rest; and in the acres and millions
+of Ireland, in its soil and its people, equally neglected, he would have
+sought the natural auxiliaries of our institutions. To secure for our
+Irish fellow-subjects a regular market for their produce; to develop
+the resources of their country by public works on a great scale; and
+to obtain a decent provision for the Roman Catholic priesthood from the
+land and not from the consolidated fund, were three measures which he
+looked upon as in the highest degree conservative.
+
+When the project of the cabinet of 1846 had transpired, Lord George at
+once declared, and was in the habit of reiterating his opinion, that ‘it
+would ruin the 500,000 small farmers of Ireland,’ and he watched with
+great interest and anxiety the conduct of their representatives in
+the House of Commons. It was with great difficulty that he could bring
+himself to believe, that political liberalism would induce the members
+for the south and west of Ireland to support a policy in his opinion so
+fatal to their countrymen as the unconditional repeal of the corn laws;
+and, indeed, before they took that step, which almost all of them
+have since publicly regretted and attempted to compensate for by their
+subsequent votes in the House of Commons, the prospect of their conduct
+frequently and considerably varied.
+
+The Earl of St. Germans, the chief secretary of the Lord Lieutenant,
+introduced the Coercion Bill to the House of Lords on the 24th of
+February, and, considering the exigency, and the important reference
+to it in the speech from the throne, this step on the part of the
+government was certainly not precipitate. It was observed that the
+strongest supporters of the measure in the House of Lords on this
+occasion were the leaders of the Whig party. Lord Lansdowne, ‘so far
+from complaining of the Government for bringing forward the measure at
+so early a period of the session, was ready to admit, that after the
+declaration of her Majesty, a declaration unhappily warranted by
+facts known to many of their lordships, every day was lost in which an
+effectual remedy was not at least attempted to put an end to a state
+of society so horrible.’ Lord Clanricarde ‘gave his ready assent to the
+bill;’ and even Lord Grey, ‘though he regretted the necessity for this
+measure, was of opinion that the chief secretary had established a
+sufficient case for arming the executive government with some additional
+powers.’ When, therefore, at the end of the month of March, Lord George
+Bentinck was invited to attend a meeting of his friends, held at the
+house of Mr. Bankes, to consider the course which should be adopted
+by the Protectionist party with respect to the Coercion Bill, it was
+assumed, as a matter of course, that the coalition of the government
+and the Whigs must secure the passing of the measure, even if the
+Protectionists were disposed, for the chance of embarrassing the
+ministry, to resist it; and of course there was no great tendency in
+that direction. Men are apt to believe that crime and coercion are
+inevitably associated. There was abundance of precedent for the course,
+which seemed also a natural one.
+
+In less than a century there had been seventeen coercive acts for
+Ireland, a circumstance which might make some ponder whether
+such legislation were as efficacious as it was violent. However,
+assassination rife, Captain Rock and Molly M’Guire out at night, Whigs
+and Tories all agreed, it was easy to catch at a glance the foregone
+conclusion of the meeting. One advantage of having a recognized organ of
+a political party is, that its members do not decide too precipitately.
+They listen before they determine, and if they have a doubt, they
+will grant the benefit of it to him whose general ability they have
+acknowledged, and to whom they willingly give credit for having viewed
+the question at issue in a more laborious and painful manner than
+themselves. Without a leader, they commit themselves to opinions
+carelessly and hastily adopted. This is fatal to a party in debate; but
+it often entails very serious consequences when the mistakes have been
+committed in a less public and responsible scene than the House of
+Commons.
+
+In the present case, there was only one individual who took any
+considerable lead in the management of the party who ventured to suggest
+the expediency of pausing before they pledged themselves to support an
+unconstitutional measure, proposed by a government against which they
+were arrayed under circumstances of urgent and unusual opposition. The
+support of an unconstitutional measure may be expedient, but it cannot
+be denied that it is the most indubitable evidence of confidence. This
+suggestion, though received with kindness, elicited little sympathy, and
+Lord George Bentinck, who had not yet spoken, and who always refrained
+at these meetings from taking that directing part which he never wished
+to assume, marking the general feeling of those present, and wishing to
+guide it to a practical result advantageous to their policy, observed
+that the support of the Coercion Bill by the Protectionists, ought to be
+made conditional on the government proving the sincerity of their policy
+by immediately proceeding with their measure; that if life were in
+such danger in Ireland as was officially stated, and as he was bound
+to believe, no Corn or Customs’ Bill could compete in urgency with the
+necessity of pressing forward a bill, the object of which was to arrest
+wholesale assassination. He was, therefore, for giving the government
+a hearty support, provided they proved they were in earnest in their
+determination to put down murder and outrage in Ireland, by giving a
+priority in the conduct of public business to the measure in question.
+
+This view of the situation, which was certainly adroit, for it combined
+the vindication of order with an indefinite delay of the measures for
+the repeal of the protective system, seemed to please every one; there
+was a murmur of approbation, and when one of the most considerable of
+the country gentlemen expressed the prevalent feeling, and added that
+all that was now to be desired was that Lord George Bentinck would
+kindly consent to be the organ of the party on the occasion, and state
+their view to the House, the cheering was very hearty. It came from the
+hearts of more than two hundred gentlemen, scarcely one of whom had a
+personal object in this almost hopeless struggle beyond the maintenance
+of a system which he deemed advantageous to his country; but they wished
+to show their generous admiration of the man who, in the dark hour of
+difficulty and desertion, had proved his courage and resource, had
+saved them from public contempt, and taught them to have confidence in
+themselves. And after all, there are few rewards in life which equal
+such sympathy from such men. The favour of courts and the applause
+of senates may have their moments of excitement and delight, but the
+incident of deepest and most enduring gratification in public life is to
+possess the cordial confidence of a high-spirited party, for it touches
+the heart as well as the intellect, and combines all the softer feelings
+of private life with the ennobling consciousness of public duty.
+
+Lord George Bentinck, deeply moved, consented to become the organ of the
+Protectionists in this matter; but he repeated in a marked manner his
+previous declaration, that his duty must be limited to the occasion: he
+would serve with them, but he could not pretend to be the leader of a
+party. In that capacity, however, the government chose to recognize him,
+and there occurred in consequence, very shortly after this meeting, a
+scene in the House of Commons, which occasioned at the time a great deal
+of surprise and scandal. The Secretary of the Treasury, in pursuance
+of one of his principal duties, which is to facilitate by mutual
+understanding the conduct of public business in the House of Commons,
+applied to Lord George Bentinck, confessedly at the request of Sir
+Robert Peel, to ‘enter into some arrangement’ as to the conduct of
+public business before Easter. The arrangement suggested was, that if
+the Protectionists supported the Coercion Bill, which it was the wish
+of Sir Robert Peel should be read a first time before Easter, the third
+reading of the Bill for the Repeal of the Corn Laws should be postponed
+until after Easter. The interview by appointment took place in the Vote
+Office, where the Secretary of the Treasury ‘called Lord George aside’
+and made this proposition. Lord George stated in reply, ‘what he
+believed to be the views of the party with whom he served,’ and they
+were those we have already intimated. The ‘arrangement’ was concluded,
+and it was at the same time agreed that certain questions, of which
+notice had been given by Lord John Russell, relative to the progress
+of these very measures, should be allowed by the Protectionists to pass
+_sub silentio_. This ‘pledge,’ made by the noble lord for himself and
+his friends, was ‘scrupulously observed.’ Nevertheless, after all this,
+a letter arrived from the Secretary of the Treasury, addressed to the
+noble lord, stating that the secretary ‘had not been authorized in
+saying as much as he had said,’ and requesting that the conversation
+which had taken place might be considered private. Upon this, Lord
+George Bentinck drew up a statement, ‘setting forth all that had
+passed,’ and forwarded it to the secretary as his reply. Subsequently,
+he met that gentleman, who admitted that ‘every word in that statement,
+as respected the conversation which had passed, was perfectly correct.’
+
+This being the state of the case, on the second night of the debate
+on Mr. Eliot Yorke’s amendment, which we have noticed, and after the
+adjournment had been moved and carried, the government proceeded with
+some motions of form, which indicated their intention to secure, if
+possible, the third reading of the Corn Bill before Easter. Upon
+this, Lord George Bentinck, after a hurried and apparently agitated
+conversation with the Secretary of the Treasury and others connected
+with the government, rose to move the adjournment of the House. He then
+gave as his reason the circumstances which we have briefly conveyed. A
+scene of considerable confusion occurred; the Secretary of the Treasury
+admitted the correctness of the statement; the First Lord of the
+Treasury rejected the alleged authority of the secretary. Mr. Tuffnell,
+on the part of the Whigs, intimated that public business could not be
+carried on if the recognized organs were repudiated by their chief. The
+feeling of all parties coincided with Mr. Tuffnell; finally, an Irish
+repealer rose and announced that the government were bartering their
+Corn Bill to secure coercion to Ireland. Lord George Bentinck said the
+Coercion Bill was ‘a second Curfew Act,’ that nothing but necessity
+could justify it, and if it were necessary it must be immediate. Sir
+Robert remained irritated and obstinate. He would not give up a stage
+either of the Corn Bill or the Coercion Bill; he wanted to advance both
+before Easter. The mere division of the House between Free-traders and
+Protectionists had already ceased; there were breakers ahead, and it
+was not difficult from this night to perceive that the course of the
+government would not be so summary as they had once expected.
+
+This strange interlude occurred after midnight on the 26th of March. On
+Friday, the 27th, the House divided on the amendment of Mr. Eliot Yorke,
+and the Corn Bill was read for the second time. On the reassembling of
+the House on Monday, the 30th, an extraordinary scene took place.
+
+It appears that the cabinet, after painful deliberation, had arrived at
+the conclusion that, notwithstanding the importance of sending up
+the Corn Bill to the House of Lords before Easter, it was absolutely
+necessary to proceed at once with the Coercion Bill; and it was resolved
+that the Secretary of State should on this evening lay before the House
+the facts and reasons which ‘induce the Government to believe in the
+necessity of the measure.’ Mr. O’Connell and his followers had already
+announced their intention of opposing the first reading of the bill,
+an allowable but very unusual course. It is competent to the House of
+Commons to refuse a first reading to any bill sent down to it; but the
+journals afford few examples of the exercise of such a privilege. A
+member of the House of Lords may lay on the table, as a matter of pure
+right, any bill which he thinks proper to introduce, and it is read a
+first time as a matter of course; the orders of the House of Commons are
+different, and a member must obtain permission before he introduces a
+bill. This permission is occasionally refused; but when a bill comes
+from the House of Lords, the almost invariable custom is to read it
+for the first time without discussion. There are, however, as we have
+observed, instances to the contrary, and the Irish Coercion Bill of ‘33
+was one of them. So pregnant a precedent could not be forgotten on
+the present occasion. The government therefore were prepared for an
+opposition to the first reading of their bill; but trusting to the
+strength of their case and the assumed support of the Whig party, they
+believed that this opposition would not be stubborn, more especially
+as there were numerous stages of the measure on which the views of its
+opponents might be subsequently expressed, and as they themselves were
+prepared to engage that they would not proceed further than this
+first reading until the Corn Bill had passed the House of Commons. The
+consternation, therefore, of the government could scarcely be
+concealed, when they found on Monday night that they had to encounter a
+well-organized party opposition, headed by Sir William Somerville, and
+sanctioned and supported in debate by Lord John Russell and Sir George
+Grey.
+
+It would seem indeed a difficult and somewhat graceless office for the
+Whigs to oppose the first reading of a government bill, concerning,
+too, the highest duties of administration, which had received such
+unqualified approval from all the leading members of their party in the
+House of Lords, who had competed in declarations of its necessity and
+acknowledgments of its moderation, while they only regretted the too
+tardy progress of a measure so indispensable to the safety of
+the country and the security of her Majesty’s subjects. A curious
+circumstance, however, saved them from this dilemma, which yet in
+the strange history of faction they had nevertheless in due time to
+encounter.
+
+As the Coercion Bill coming from the Lords appeared on the paper of
+the day in the form of a notice of motion, the Secretary of State,
+this being a day on which orders have precedence, had to move that such
+orders of the day should be postponed, so that he might proceed with
+the motion on the state of Ireland, of which notice had been given. The
+strict rule of the House is, that on Mondays and Fridays, orders of
+the day should have precedence of notices of motion, so that it was
+impossible for the Secretary of State to make his motion, that a certain
+bill (the Protection of Life--Ireland--Bill) should be read a first time
+without permission of the House, a permission always granted as a matter
+of course on such nights to the government, since the business which can
+be brought forward, whether in the shape of orders or motions, is
+purely government business, and thus the interests and privilege of no
+independent member of Parliament can be affected by a relaxation of
+the rules which the convenience of a ministry and the conduct of public
+business occasionally require. However, on this night, no sooner had
+the Secretary of State made, in a few formal words, this formal request,
+than up sprang Sir William Somerville to move an amendment, that the
+orders of the day should not be postponed, which he supported in a
+spirited address, mainly on the ground of the great inconvenience that
+must be suffered from the postponement of the Corn Bill. The motion of
+the Secretary of State would produce a long, exciting, and exasperating
+debate. Time would be lost--for what? To advance one stage of a measure
+which it was avowedly not the intention of the government to press at
+the present moment. Sir William concluded with a very earnest appeal
+to Lord George Bentinck and his friends, who might at no very distant
+period have the government of Ireland entrusted to them, not, for the
+sake of a momentary postponement of the Corn Bill, to place themselves,
+by voting for this measure of coercion, in collision with the Irish
+nation.’ He called upon Lord George Bentinck to weigh the position in
+which he was placed.
+
+This amendment was seconded by Mr. Smith O’Brien, the member for the
+county of Limerick, who warned the government that they ‘were entering
+on a contest which would continue for months.’ He taunted the minister
+with governing the country without a party. What chance was there of
+reconciliation with his estranged friends? After the treatment of that
+‘disavowed plenipotentiary,’ the Secretary of the Treasury, who would be
+again found willing to undertake the mission of patching up a truce?
+He was not present when the terms of the treaty were exposed: but he
+understood, that if the government introduced this Coercion Bill before
+Easter, then that Lord George Bentinck would deem it wise, proper, and
+expedient; but if after Easter, then the complexion and character of the
+bill were, in the noble lord’s judgment, utterly transformed, and it was
+declared to be quite untenable and unconstitutional. Was that the kind
+of support on which the government calculated for passing this measure?
+
+The Secretary of State made a dexterous, conciliatory, almost humble
+address, in reply to the taunts of Mr. Smith O’Brien. He said that he
+was well aware of the fact of which he had been just reminded, that, in
+the present state of parties, the declared adherents of the government
+were a small minority; he even, while excusing the delay in the progress
+of the Irish measure, reminded the House of the curious fact, that since
+the meeting of Parliament, two successive Irish secretaries had lost
+their seats in the House of Commons in consequence of supporting the
+administration of which they were members.
+
+The case of the government was really so good and clear, that for a
+moment it seemed the opposition could hardly persist in their unusual
+proceeding: but this was a night of misfortunes.
+
+There had been for some time a smouldering feud between the secretary
+and the Recorder of Dublin. The learned gentleman had seized the
+occasion which the present state of parties afforded, and in the
+course of the recent debate on the second reading of the Corn Bill, had
+declared that the asserted famine in Ireland was, on the part of the
+government, ‘a great exaggeration.’ The secretary had addressed himself
+particularly to this observation in his speech on the 27th, the night
+of the division, and had noticed it in a tone of acerbity. He had even
+intimated that it might have been used by one who was a disappointed
+solicitor for high office, and whom the government had declined to
+assist in an unwarrantable arrangement of the duties and salary of
+the judicial post he at present occupied. The learned Recorder, justly
+indignant at this depreciating innuendo, resolved to make an opportunity
+on the following Monday for his vindication and retort. He rose,
+therefore, immediately after the skilful and winning appeal of the
+secretary, and pronounced an invective against the right honourable
+gentleman which was neither ill-conceived nor ill-delivered. It
+revived the passions that for a moment seemed inclined to lull, and
+the Protectionists, who on this occasion were going to support the
+government, forgot the common point of union, while the secretary was
+described as ‘the evil genius of the cabinet.’
+
+After this, it was impossible to arrest the course of debate. Mr.
+O’Connell, who appeared to be in a state of great debility, made one
+of those acute points for which he was distinguished. He said the
+government complained of the threat held out by those who opposed the
+bill, that they would avail themselves of the forms of the House to
+give it every opposition in their power. But what did the government do
+themselves? Why, they were trying to trample upon one of the sessional
+orders and to abrogate the forms of the House in order to coerce the
+Irish people. Lord George Bentinck said, that ‘the chief minister had
+told them, that this was a bill to put down murder and assassination; in
+that case, if this bill were delayed, the blood of every man murdered
+in Ireland was on the head of her Majesty’s ministers.’ Sir George Grey
+followed, and avoiding any discussion of the state of Ireland, in
+which Lord George had entered, supported the amendment of Sir William
+Somerville, on the broad ground that the bill for the repeal of the corn
+laws ought not to be for a moment delayed. ‘The debates on that
+measure had continued several weeks; and all who had any lengthened
+parliamentary experience must be convinced, that if the further progress
+of the Corn Bill was postponed until after Easter, they would have much
+longer and protracted debates in its future stages, than if the bill
+were pushed _de die in diem_. As he had understood, the government had
+intended that this bill should have gone up to the House of Lords before
+Easter, when it would have been printed, and the second reading could
+have taken place at an early day after the holidays; but if it were put
+off until after Easter, he would defy any man to show any reasonable
+expectation of its getting to a second reading in the other House before
+June, or July, or even August.’ This was encouraging, and the plot
+seemed to thicken. The Secretary at War was put up by the government to
+neutralize the effect of the speech of Sir George Grey, and he said, ‘I
+speak not only as a cabinet minister, but also as a considerable
+Irish proprietor.’ He said, ‘that anything so horrible as the state of
+demoralization and crime in which many parts of Ireland were plunged,
+anything so perfect as the suspension of the law in those parts of the
+country, anything, in short, so complete as the abrogation of liberty
+that obtained there, was, perhaps never known.’ He thought that, ‘no man
+and no minister could, under these circumstances, decline to admit that
+every and any measure ought to be postponed until a division had been
+taken, at least upon the principle of a measure which had for its object
+the suppression of these horrors.’ After such a declaration it was clear
+the government were in a false position when by the same organ it had to
+state, ‘that in asking to read this bill to-night, they only intended to
+postpone the Corn Bill for one night.’
+
+Lord John Russell following, admitted, that ‘in voting for the motion of
+Sir William Somerville it was not to be supposed, that if the Secretary
+of State made out a case, he would not support the government bill;’
+yet how the secretary was ever to find an opportunity of making out his
+case, if the amendment of Sir William Somerville was carried, was
+not very apparent. Sir Robert Peel, who was disquieted by the whole
+proceedings connected with the Coercion Bill, irritated by the episode
+of ‘the disavowed plenipotentiary,’ from which he did not for some
+time recover, and really alarmed at the indefinite prospect of delay in
+passing his all-important measures which now began to open, could not
+conceal his vexation in the remarks which he offered, and speaking of
+the amendment as one ‘of a frivolous character,’ indignant cries of ‘No,
+no,’ from his usual admirers, obliged him to withdraw the expression.
+His feelings were not soothed when, later in the evening, even Mr.
+Cobden rose to deplore the conduct of that minister whom he otherwise so
+much admired. ‘He certainly regarded it as a great calamity. Something
+had actuated the government which he could not understand. He had a
+perfect belief in the sincerity of the prime minister, but in all human
+probability the Corn Bill would not now enter the House of Lords before
+the beginning or middle of May; and when it would come out again, heaven
+only knew!’
+
+The House now divided, and being supported by all the Protectionists
+present, the government had a majority of thirty-nine, so the standing
+order was for that night rescinded; and, although the hour was late for
+such a statement, the secretary proceeded with the official exposition.
+Notwithstanding the depressing circumstances of the previous debate,
+the speech of Sir James Graham was distinguished by all that lucid
+arrangement of details and that comprehensive management of his subject
+which distinguished him. The statement made a great impression upon the
+House and the country; but, unfortunately for the government, the more
+necessary they made the measure appear, the more unjustifiable was their
+conduct in not immediately and vehemently pursuing it. They had, indeed,
+in the speech from the throne at the commencement of this memorable
+session, taken up a false position for their campaign; and we shall see,
+as we pursue this narrative of these interesting events, that the fall
+of Sir Robert Peel was perhaps occasioned not so much by his repeal
+of the corn laws as by the mistake in tactics which this adroit and
+experienced parliamentary commander so strangely committed.
+
+On this night of the 30th the government made no advance; immediately
+after the secretary had finished, the followers of Mr. O’Connell moved
+the adjournment of the House, and persisted in this line notwithstanding
+the almost querulous appeal of the first minister.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     _The Passing of O’Connell._
+
+LORD GEORGE wrote the next morning (Tuesday, March 31st) to a friend,
+who had not been able to attend the debate: ‘I look upon last night as
+the most awkward night the government have had yet; I believe they would
+have given their ears to have been beaten. We have now fairly set
+them and the tail at loggerheads, and I cannot see how they are to get
+another stage of either the tariff or Corn Bill before next Tuesday at
+any rate. I doubt if they will do anything before Easter.’
+
+It was understood that the House would adjourn for the Easter recess
+on the 8th instant. There were therefore only two nights remaining for
+government business before the holidays. On the first of these (Friday,
+April the 3rd), Mr. O’Connell had announced that he should state his
+views at length on the condition of Ireland, and the causes of these
+agrarian outrages. Accordingly, when the order of the day for resuming
+the adjourned debate was read, he rose at once to propose an amendment
+to the motion. He sat in an unusual place--in that generally occupied by
+the leader of the opposition--and spoke from the red box, convenient
+to him from the number of documents to which he had to refer. His
+appearance was of great debility, and the tones of his voice were very
+still. His words, indeed, only reached those who were immediately around
+him and the ministers sitting on the other side of the green table, who
+listened with that interest and respectful attention which became the
+occasion.
+
+It was a strange and touching spectacle to those who remembered the
+form of colossal energy and the clear and thrilling tones that had once
+startled, disturbed, and controlled senates. Mr. O’Connell was on his
+legs for nearly two hours, assisted occasionally in the management of
+his documents by some devoted aide-de-camp. To the House generally it
+was a performance in dumb show, a feeble old man muttering before a
+table; but respect for the great parliamentary personage kept all as
+orderly as if the fortunes of a party hung upon his rhetoric; and though
+not an accent reached the gallery, means were taken that next morning
+the country should not lose the last and not the least interesting of
+the speeches of one who had so long occupied and agitated the mind of
+nations.
+
+This remarkable address was an abnegation of the whole policy of Mr.
+O’Connell’s career. It proved, by a mass of authentic evidence ranging
+over a long term of years, that Irish outrage was the consequence of
+physical misery, and that the social evils of that country could not be
+successfully encountered by political remedies. To complete the picture,
+it concluded with a panegyric of Ulster and a patriotic quotation from
+Lord Clare.
+
+Lord John Russell, who, as an experienced parliamentary leader, had
+already made more than one effort to extricate the Whigs from the
+consequences of the hearty support given to the government measures in
+the other House by Lords Lansdowne and Clanricarde, and even by Lord
+Grey, ventured to-night even to say that if he should agree that the
+House would do well to assent to the first reading of this bill, he
+thought he was bound to state also that in the future stages of it, he
+should have ‘objections to offer, going to the foundations of some of
+its principal provisions.’
+
+His speech was curious, as perhaps the last considerable manifesto of
+Whig delusion respecting Ireland. Coercion Bills might be occasionally
+necessary; no doubt of it; Lord Grey had once a Coercion Bill, and Lord
+John Russell had voted for it; but then remedial measures ought to be
+introduced with coercive ones: the evil should be repressed, but also
+cured. Thus, Lord Althorp, when the government introduced their great
+Coercion Bill, introduced also a measure which, besides making a great
+reform in the Protestant Church of Ireland, exempted the whole Catholic
+community of Ireland from the payment of church cess, which had
+previously been felt as a very great grievance. On another day Lord
+Althorp declared his intention of pressing through Parliament a Jury
+Bill, which had been brought into the House the previous session, but
+which was allowed to drop in the House of Lords.
+
+Again, there was another declaration which Lord Althorp had made, which,
+somehow or other, seemed to have been forgotten; it was a declaration
+with respect to the municipal corporations of Ireland. Lord Althorp said
+it was exceedingly desirable that the institutions of the two countries
+should be assimilated as much as possible; and that, as a general rule,
+the corporate bodies of Ireland should be the same as England. Mr.
+O’Connell had said on that occasion that there was no greater grievance
+in Ireland than the existence of corporations in their then shape. Lord
+John contrasted this language of Lord Althorp, ‘simple, plain, emphatic,
+and decided,’ with the language of the government of Sir Robert Peel;
+and held up to admiration the Whig policy of 1833, certainly coercive,
+but with remedial measures--a measure for the abolition of church cess,
+introduced ten days before the Coercion Bill, and a promise of municipal
+reform made simultaneously with the proclamation of martial law. This
+was real statesmanship and touching the root of the evil. Whereas
+‘Sir Robert Peel had only consented to passing the Municipal Bill in a
+crippled state, and only now (in 1846) promised, that the corporations
+of Ireland should be placed on the same footing as the corporations of
+England.’ Who could be surprised that such a policy-should end in famine
+and pestilence?
+
+The followers of Mr. O’Connell again succeeded in adjourning the debate
+until Monday the 6th. On that day Sir Robert Peel made ‘an earnest
+appeal’ to extricate himself from the almost perilous position in which
+he found his administration suddenly involved. In case the division on
+the first reading of the Irish Bill should not take place that night, he
+endeavoured to prevail on those members who had notices on the paper
+for the following night (Tuesday the 7th), the last night before the
+holidays, to relinquish their right and to permit the Irish debate
+to proceed and conclude. ‘He had no wish to interfere with the due
+discussion of the measure; but he believed that the Irish members, if
+they permitted the House to proceed with the Corn Bill, by concluding
+the discussion on the Irish Bill, would be rendering an essential
+service to their country.’
+
+But this earnest appeal only influenced still more the fiery resolves
+of Mr. Smith O’Brien and his friends. They threw the responsibility for
+delay of the Corn Bill on the government. The inconvenience which
+the country suffered was occasioned by the minister, not by the Irish
+members. He ought, on Friday last, to have adjourned the discussion on
+the Coercion Bill until after Easter. He and other members who were
+on the paper for to-morrow would willingly relinquish their right of
+priority in favour of the Corn Bill, or of any measure of a remedial
+kind, but not in favour of a Coercion Bill. He did not wish to have any
+concealment with the minister as to the course which the Irish members
+would pursue. It was their bounden duty to take care that _pari passu_
+with the discussion of the Coercion Bill there should be discussions
+as to the misgovernment of Ireland; and that, in the absence of any
+remedial measures of the government, they should have an opportunity of
+suggesting such as they thought advisable for removing those evils which
+they utterly denied that the measure now before the House would remove.
+
+In vain Sir Robert, in his blandest tones and with that remarkable
+command of a temper not naturally serene which distinguished him,
+acknowledged to a certain degree the propriety of the course intimated
+by Mr. Smith O’Brien; but suggested at the same time that it was
+compatible with allowing the Irish bill to be now read for a first time,
+since on its subsequent stages Mr. O’Brien and his friends would have
+the full opportunity which they desired, of laying before the House the
+whole condition of the country. All was useless. No less a personage
+than Mr. John O’Connell treated the appeal with contempt, and lectured
+the first minister on the ‘great mistake’ which he had made. Little
+traits like these revealed the true parliamentary position of the once
+omnipotent leader of the great Conservative party. With the legions
+of the Protectionists watching their prey in grim silence, while
+the liberal sections were united in hostile manouvres against the
+government, it was recognised at once that the great minister had a
+staff without an army; not a reconnoitring could take place without the
+whole cabinet being under orders, and scarcely a sharpshooter sallied
+from the opposite ranks without the prime minister returning his fire in
+person.
+
+Sir Robert Peel mournfully observed that he ‘did not wish to provoke
+a recriminatory discussion,’ and he resigned himself to his fate.
+Immediately the third night of the adjourned debate on the Irish bill
+commenced, and was sustained principally by the Irish members until a
+late hour. It had not been the intention of Lord George Bentinck to have
+spoken on this occasion, though he had never been absent for a moment
+from his seat, and watched all that occurred with that keen relish which
+was usual with him when he thought things were going right; but having
+been personally and not very courteously appealed to by the late Mr.
+Dillon Browne, and deeming also the occasion, just before the holidays,
+a not unhappy one, he rose and concluded the debate. His speech was not
+long, it was not prepared, and it was very animated.
+
+Recapitulating himself the main features of the disturbed district, he
+said: ‘It is because of these things, sir, that I am prepared to support
+at least the first reading of a bill, which I freely admit to be most
+unconstitutional in itself.’
+
+Noticing a speech made in the course of the evening by Lord Morpeth,
+who had himself once been chief secretary of the Lord Lieutenant,
+Lord George thought it discreet to remind the House of the unequivocal
+support given to this bill by the Whig leaders in another place: ‘Sir, I
+think when we see all the great leaders of the Whig party supporting the
+measure elsewhere, we cannot be justly impugned for doing as they do.’
+Lord Morpeth had referred to ‘remedial measures which he thinks
+should be introduced for Ireland: to measures for the extension of the
+municipal, and also of the parliamentary, franchise of that country; and
+he expressed his desire to see those franchises put on the same footing
+as the franchises of England.’ ‘For the life of me,’ exclaimed Lord
+George, ‘I confess, I cannot see in what way the extension of political
+franchises of any description in Ireland would afford a remedy for
+the evils which this measure aims to suppress. I think, sir, it is
+impossible not to perceive that there is a connection between agrarian
+outrage and the poverty of the people.’
+
+After noticing the inadequate poor-law which then existed in Ireland,
+he added: ‘There is also another point immediately connected with
+this subject to which I must refer. I allude, sir, to the system of
+absenteeism. I cannot disguise from myself the conviction, that many
+of the evils of Ireland arise from the system of receiving rents by
+absentee landlords who spend them in other countries. I am well aware
+that, in holding this doctrine, I am not subscribing to the creed of
+political economists. I am well aware that Messrs. Senior and M’Culloch
+hold that it makes no difference whether the Irish landlord spends his
+rents in Dublin, on his Irish estates, in London, in Bath, or elsewhere.
+I profess, sir, I cannot understand that theory. I believe that the
+first ingredient in the happiness of a people is, that the gentry should
+reside on their native soil, and spend their rents among those from whom
+they receive them. I cannot help expressing a wish that some arrangement
+may be made connected with the levying of the poor-rate in Ireland, by
+which absentee landlords may be made to contribute in something like a
+fair proportion to the wants of the poor in the district in which they
+ought to reside. There is an arrangement in the hop-growing districts in
+England in respect to tithe, which might, I think, afford a very useful
+suggestion. There are two tithes: the one, the ordinary tithe; the
+other, extraordinary; which is levied only so long as the land is
+cultivated in hops. I think if there were two poor-rates introduced into
+Ireland, the one applying to all occupiers of land, and the other to all
+those who did not spend a certain portion of the year on some portion of
+their estates in Ireland, it would prove useful. I think, that by thus
+appealing to their interests, it might induce absentee landlords to
+reside much more in Ireland, than is now unfortunately the case.
+
+‘But, sir, I think there are other remedial measures. Some days ago, the
+Secretary of State told the member for Stroud (Mr. Poulett Scrope),
+when he suggested some such measure, that he was treading on dangerous
+ground, and that the doctrines he was advocating might be written in
+letters of blood in Ireland; but, notwithstanding all this, I still say
+that I think measures might be introduced for improving the relations
+between landlord and tenant in Ireland. I do not think that some
+guarantee might and ought to be given to the tenantry of Ireland for the
+improvements they make upon their farms.
+
+‘Sir, the Secretary of State, in introducing this measure, maintained
+a doctrine which, I think, much more likely to be written in letters of
+blood, for he bound up the question of the corn laws with the present
+one. He said, that unless he could, have prevailed on his colleagues
+to accede to his free-trade measures as regards corn, he would not have
+introduced this bill. Why, sir, far from giving food to the people of
+Ireland, in my opinion the measures of her Majesty’s ministers will take
+away from the people of Ireland their food, by destroying the profits
+of their only manufacture--the manufacture of corn--and injuring their
+agriculture; depriving them of employment; in fact, by taking away from
+them the very means of procuring subsistence. Sir, I cannot see how the
+repeal of those laws affecting corn can be In any way connected with the
+suppression of outrage and the protection of life. What is this but to
+say, that unless we have a free trade in corn, we must be prepared to
+concede a free trade in agrarian outrage--a free trade in maiming and
+houghing cattle--a free trade in incendiarism--a free trade in the
+burning and sacking of houses--a free trade in midnight murder, and in
+noon-day assassination? What is this but telling the people of
+Ireland, that assassination, murder, incendiarism, are of such light
+consideration in the eyes of the Secretary of State, that their sanction
+or suppression by the minister of the crown hinges upon the condition of
+the corn market and the difference in the price of potatoes?
+
+‘Sir, what has the potato disease to do with the outrages in Ireland?
+Some think a great deal. I have taken the trouble of looking into
+the matter. I have examined into the state of crime in at least five
+counties--Tipperary, Roscommon, Limerick, Leitrim, and Clare--and I
+find, that during the three months prior to the first appearance of
+the potato disease, and when in fact food was as cheap in Ireland as at
+almost any former period--when plenty abounded in all quarters of the
+empire, that the amount of crime exceeded that in the three months
+immediately following. Now, those who doubt this statement will have an
+opportunity of ascertaining the correctness of my figures, for I will
+not deal in general assertions. Well then, sir, I find in the three
+months, May, June, and July last, that the number of crimes committed in
+the five counties I have mentioned amounted to no less than 1,180, while
+in the three months immediately after the potato disease, or famine as
+it is called, the amount of crime committed in the same three months was
+not 1,180, but 870. I should like to know, therefore, what this agrarian
+outrage has to do with the potato famine; and where is the justification
+for a minister coming down to this House, and declaring that unless we
+pass a free-trade measure, we are not to obey her Majesty’s commands
+by passing a measure for the protection of life in Ireland. Why, sir, I
+think when this language reaches the people of Ireland--coming, too, as
+it does from the Treasury, above all, from the Secretary of State for
+the Home Department--there is indeed danger to be apprehended that such
+a doctrine may be written in letters of blood in that country. Why, sir,
+if we are to hear such language as this from that minister of the crown
+charged with the peace of the country, we may just as well have Captain
+Rock established as lord lieutenant in the castle of Dublin, a Whitefoot
+for chief secretary, and Molly M’Guire installed at Whitehall with the
+seals of the home department.’
+
+And afterwards he remarked, ‘I have been taunted that when I may be
+entrusted with the government of Ireland, I should perhaps then learn
+that Tyrone was an Orange county. Sir, in answer to that taunt, I must
+take leave to ask what expression of mine, either in this house or out
+of it, justifies any such remark? When or where can it be said that I
+have ever permitted myself to know any distinction between an Orangeman
+and a Catholic; when, in the whole course of my parliamentary career,
+have I ever given a vote or uttered a sentiment hostile or unfriendly to
+the Roman Catholics, either of England or Ireland?’ This speech, though
+delivered generally in favour of the Irish bill, attracted very much
+the attention, and, as it appeared afterwards, the approbation of those
+Irish members, who, although sitting on the Liberal benches, did not
+acknowledge the infallible authority of Mr. O’Connell, and was the
+origin of a political connection between them and Lord George Bentinck,
+which, on more than one subsequent occasion, promised to bring important
+results.
+
+Two successive motions were now made for the adjournment of the debate,
+and Sir Robert Peel at length said, that he ‘saw it was useless to
+persist.’ He agreed to the adjournment until the next day, with the
+understanding that if it did come on, he would name the time to which it
+should be postponed after the holidays.
+
+Upon this, Sir William Somerville made one more appeal to the minister
+to postpone the further discussion of the Irish bill altogether until
+the Corn Bill had passed the Commons. He intimated that unless the
+government at once adopted this resolution, they would find themselves
+after Easter in the same perplexity which now paralyzed them. They would
+not be permitted to bring on this measure except upon government nights,
+and the discussion might then last weeks.
+
+The minister, exceedingly embarrassed, would not, however, relent. On
+the following day, when he moved the adjournment of the House for the
+holidays, he reduced the vacation three days, in order to obtain Friday,
+a government night, which otherwise would have been absorbed in the
+holidays, and he announced the determination of the government again
+to proceed on that night with the Irish bill in preference to the Corn
+Bill. The Irish members glanced defiance, and the Protectionists could
+scarcely conceal their satisfaction. The reputation of Sir Robert
+Peel for parliamentary management seemed to be vanishing; never was a
+government in a more tottering state; and the Whigs especially began to
+renew their laments that the Edinburgh letter and its consequences had
+prevented the settlement of the corn question from devolving to the
+natural arbitrator in the great controversy, their somewhat rash but
+still unrivalled leader, Lord John Russell.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     _A Third Party_
+
+THE members of the Protectionist opposition returned to their
+constituents with the sanguine feelings which success naturally
+inspires. Their efforts had surprised, not displeased, the country;
+the elections were in their favour; the government business halted; the
+delay in the calculated arrival of the famine had taken the edge off the
+necessity which it was supposed would have already carried the Corn Bill
+through the Commons; while the twin measure which the throes of Ireland
+had engendered had developed elements of opposition which even the
+calmest observer thought might possibly end in overthrow. Above all,
+that seemed to have happened which the most experienced in parliamentary
+life had always deemed to be impracticable; namely, the formation of a
+third party in the House of Commons.
+
+How completely this latter and difficult result was owing to the
+abilities and energies of one man, and how anomalous was the position
+which he chose to occupy in not taking the formal lead of a party which
+was entirely guided by his example, were convictions and considerations
+that at this juncture much occupied men’s minds. And it was resolved
+among the most considerable of the country gentlemen to make some
+earnest and well-combined effort, during the recess, to induce Lord
+George Bentinck to waive the unwillingness he had so often expressed of
+becoming their avowed and responsible leader.
+
+When Lord George Bentinck first threw himself into the breach, he was
+influenced only by a feeling of indignation at the manner in which he
+thought the Conservative party had been trifled with by the government
+and Lord Stanley, his personal friend and political leader, deserted by
+a majority of the cabinet. As affairs developed, and it became evident
+that the bulk of the Conservative party throughout the country had
+rallied round his standard, Lord George could not conceal from himself
+the consequences of such an event, or believe that it was possible
+that the party in the House of Commons, although Lord Stanley might
+eventually think fit to guide it by his counsels, and become, if
+necessary, personally responsible for its policy, could be long held
+together unless it were conducted by a leader present in the same
+assembly, and competent under all circumstances to represent its
+opinions in debate. Lord George, although a very proud man, had no
+vanity or self-conceit. He took a very humble view of his own powers,
+and he had at the same time a very exalted one of those necessary to a
+leader of the House of Commons. His illustrious connection, Mr. Canning,
+was his standard. He had been the private secretary of that minister
+in his youth, and the dazzling qualities of that eminent personage
+had influenced the most susceptible time of life of one who was very
+tenacious of his impressions. What Lord George Bentinck appreciated
+most in a parliamentary speaker was brilliancy: quickness of perception,
+promptness of repartee, clear and concise argument, a fresh and
+felicitous quotation, wit and picture, and, if necessary, a passionate
+appeal that should never pass the line of high-bred sentiment. Believing
+himself not to be distinguished by these rhetorical qualities, he would
+listen with no complacency to those who would urge in private that the
+present period of parliamentary life was different from the days of Mr.
+Canning, and that accumulated facts and well-digested reasoning on their
+bearing, a command of all the materials of commercial controversy, and
+a mastery of the laws that regulate the production and distribution of
+public wealth, combined with habits of great diligence and application,
+would ensure the attention of a popular assembly, especially when united
+to a high character and great social position. This might be urged;
+but he would only shake his head, with a ray of humour twinkling in his
+piercing eyes, and say, in a half-drawling tone, ‘If Mr. Canning were
+alive, he could do all this better than any of them, and be not a whit
+less brilliant.’
+
+There was also another reason why Lord George Bentinck was unwilling to
+assume the post of leader of the Conservative party, and this very much
+influenced him. Sprung from a great Whig house, and inheriting all the
+principles and prejudices of that renowned political connection which
+had expelled the Stuarts, he had accepted, in an unqualified sense, the
+dogma of religious liberty. This principle was first introduced into
+active politics in order to preserve the possessions of that portion
+of the aristocracy which had established itself on the plunder of
+the Church. It was to form the basis of a party which should prevent
+reaction and restitution of church lands. Whether the principle be a
+true one, and whether its unqualified application by any party in the
+state be possible, are questions yet unsettled. It is not probable, for
+example, that the worship of Juggernaut, which Lord Dalhousie permits
+in Orissa, would be permitted even by Lord John Russell at Westminster.
+Even a papist procession is forbidden, and wisely. The application of
+the principle, however, in Lord George Bentinck’s mind, was among other
+things associated with the public recognition of the Roman Catholic
+hierarchy by the state, and a provision for its maintenance in Ireland
+in accordance with the plan of Mr. Pitt. What had happened, with respect
+to the vote on the endowment of Maynooth in 1845, had convinced him that
+his opinions on this subject presented an insuperable barrier to his
+ever becoming the leader of a party which had contributed three-fourths
+of the memorable minority on that occasion. It was in vain that it
+was impressed upon him by those most renowned for their Protestant
+principles, and who were at the same time most anxious to see Lord
+George Bentinck in his right position, that the question of Maynooth was
+settled, and there was now no prospect of future measures of a similar
+character. This was not the opinion of Lord George Bentinck. He nursed
+in his secret soul a great scheme for the regeneration and settlement
+of Ireland, which he thought ought to be one of the mainstays of a
+Conservative party; and it was his opinion that the condition of the
+Roman Catholic priesthood must be considered.
+
+It was in vain, in order to assist in removing these scruples, that it
+was represented to him by others that endowment of a priesthood by the
+state was a notion somewhat old-fashioned, and opposed to the spirit
+of the age which associated true religious freedom with the full
+development of the voluntary principle. He listened to these suggestions
+with distrust, and even with a little contempt. Mr. Canning had been in
+favour of the endowment of the Irish priesthood--that was sufficient for
+that particular; and as for the voluntary principle, he looked upon it
+as priestcraft in disguise; his idea of religious liberty being that all
+religions should be controlled by the state.
+
+Besides these two prominent objections to accepting the offered post,
+namely, his unaffected distrust in his parliamentary abilities and his
+assumed want of concordance with his followers on a great principle
+of modern politics, we must also remember that his compliance with
+the request involved no ordinary sacrifice of much which renders life
+delightful. He was to relinquish pursuits of noble excitement to which
+he was passionately attached, and to withdraw in a great degree from
+a circle of high-spirited friends, many of them of different political
+connection from himself, by whom he was adored. With all his unrivalled
+powers of application when under the influence of a great impulse, he
+was constitutionally indolent and even lethargic. There was nothing,
+therefore, in his position or his temperature to prick him on in ‘46;
+it was nothing but his strong will acting upon his indignation which
+sustained him. It is not, therefore, marvellous that he exhibited great
+reluctance to commit irretrievably his future life. At a subsequent
+period, indignation had become ambition, and circumstances of various
+kinds had made him resolve to succeed or die.
+
+On the adjournment, Lord George had gone down to Newmarket, which he
+greatly enjoyed after his exhausting campaign. Here some letters on the
+subject of the leadership passed, but nothing was definitely arranged
+till some time after the re-assembling of Parliament. For convenience
+we mention here the result. The wish of the party was repeatedly
+and personally urged by the popular and much-esteemed member for
+Dorsetshire, and at last Lord George consented to their wishes, on these
+conditions: that he should relinquish his post the moment the right man
+was discovered, who, according to his theory, would ultimately turn up;
+and secondly, that his responsible post was not to restrict or embarrass
+him on any questions in which a religious principle was involved.
+
+Before, however, this negotiation was concluded, and while yet at
+Newmarket, he wrote to a friend, the day before the House met (April
+16th).
+
+‘I think there is no doubt, but that the Irish will take care of Friday
+(to-morrow) night. I have not much hope of their keeping up the debate
+beyond Friday.
+
+‘It is quite clear from O’Connell’s language at Dublin that we have no
+hope from the Irish tail.
+
+‘I still think myself, that delay affords a great chance of something
+turning up in our favour; already the rejection of any reciprocity by
+M. Guizot has provided us with a grand weapon, which, I trust, you drive
+well home into * * * * ’s vitals; a very short delay would probably
+bring over similar intelligence from the United States and their Congress.
+I trust we shall have an important deputation over from Canada,
+representing that the inevitable results of these free-trade measures
+in corn and timber will be to alienate the feelings of our Canadian
+colonists, and to induce them to follow their sordid interests, which
+will now, undoubtedly, be best consulted and most promoted by annexation
+to the United States.
+
+‘Lord------‘s intended tergiversation has been, I believe, some time
+known; he admits that all farmers without capital, in short, all little
+men, must be sacrificed. What a barbarous and odious policy, that
+goes upon the principle that none but capitalists are henceforth to
+be allowed to live, as farmers at least. We must turn the tables upon
+Lord------and all such heartless doctrinaires!
+
+‘I fear the majority in the Lords will be greater than was expected;
+I am told that we must endeavour to put ministers in a minority two or
+three times before the bill gets to its second reading in the Lords,
+no matter upon what question. I hear there are many peers whose votes
+depend entirely upon their notions, whether or not Peel can, by hook or
+by crook, carry on.’
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     _Railroads for Ireland_
+
+IF WE take a general view of the career of Lord George Bentinck during
+the last year--from the time indeed when he was trying to find a lawyer
+to convey his convictions to the House of Commons until the moment when
+her Majesty prorogued her Parliament, the results will be found to be
+very remarkable. So much was never done so unexpectedly by any public
+man in the same space of time. He had rallied a great party which seemed
+hopelessly routed; he had established a parliamentary discipline,
+in their ranks which old political connections, led by experienced
+statesmen, have seldom surpassed; he had brought forward from those
+ranks, entirely through his discrimination and by his personal
+encouragement, considerable talents in debate; he had himself proved a
+master in detail and in argument of all the great questions arising
+out of the reconstruction of our commercial system; he had made a
+vindication of the results of the Protective principle as applied to
+agriculture, which certainly, so far as the materials are concerned, is
+the most efficient plea that ever was urged in the House of Commons
+in favour of the abrogated law; he had exhibited similar instances of
+investigation in considerable statements with respect to the silk trade
+and other branches of our industry; he had asserted the claims of the
+productive classes in Ireland, and in our timber and sugar producing
+colonies, with the effect which results from a thorough acquaintance
+with a subject; he had promulgated distinct principles with regard to
+our financial as well as to our commercial system; he had maintained
+the expediency cf relieving the consumer by the repeal of excise in
+preference to customs’ duties, and of establishing fiscal reciprocity as
+a condition of mercantile exchange. On subjects of a more occasional
+but analogous nature he had shown promptitude and knowledge, as in the
+instances of the urgent condition of Mexico and of our carrying trade
+with the Spanish colonies, both of which he brought forward in the last
+hours of the session, but the importance of which motions was recognized
+by all parties. Finally, he had attracted the notice, and in many
+instances obtained the confidence, of large bodies of men in the
+country, who recognized in him a great capacity of labour combined with
+firmness of character and honesty of purpose.
+
+At the close of the session (August 28), Cord George visited Norfolk,
+where he received an entertainment from his constituents at King’s Lynn,
+proud of their member, and to whom he vindicated the course which he had
+taken, and offered his views generally as to the relations which should
+subsist between the legislation of the country and its industry.
+From Norfolk he repaired to Belvoir Castle, on a visit to the Duke of
+Rutland, and was present at a banquet given by the agriculturists of
+Leicestershire to his friend and supporter the Marquis of Granby. After
+this he returned to Welbeck, where he seems to have enjoyed a little
+repose. Thus he writes to a friend from that place on the 22nd
+September:
+
+‘Thanks for your advice, which I am following, having got Lord
+Malmesbury’s Diary; but I am relapsing into my natural dawdling, lazy,
+and somnolent habits, and can with difficulty get through the leaders
+even of the “Times.”
+
+* * * * ‘The vehemence of the farmers is personal against Peel; it is
+quite clear that the rising price of wheat has cured their alarm. The
+railway expenditure must keep up prices and prosperity, both of which
+would have been far greater without free trade; but in face of high
+prices, railway prosperity, and potato famine, depend upon it we shall
+have an uphill game to fight.
+
+‘O’Connell talks of Parliament meeting in November, to mend the Irish
+Labour-rate Act. Do you believe this?’
+
+The Labour-rate Act, passed at the end of the session [‘46), was one by
+which the Lord Lieutenant was enabled to require special barony
+sessions to meet in order to make presentments for public works for the
+employment of the people, the whole of the money requisite for their
+construction to be supplied by the imperial treasury, though to
+be afterwards repaid. The machinery of this act did not work
+satisfactorily, but the government ultimately made the necessary
+alterations on their own responsibility, and obtained an indemnity from
+Parliament when it met in ‘47. The early session, therefore, talked
+of by Mr. O’Connell, became unnecessary. As the only object of this
+Labour-rate Act was to employ the people, and as it was supposed there
+were no public works of a reproductive nature which could be undertaken
+on a sufficient scale to ensure that employment, the Irish people were
+occupied, towards the end of the autumn of ‘46, mainly in making roads,
+which, as afterwards described by the first minister, ‘were not wanted.’
+In the month of September more than thirty thousand persons were thus
+employed; but when the harvest was over, and it was ascertained that its
+terrible deficiency had converted pauperism into famine, the numbers
+on the public works became greatly increased, so that at the end of
+November the amount of persons engaged was four hundred thousand,
+receiving wages at the rate of nearly five millions sterling per annum.
+These immense amounts went on increasing every week, and when Parliament
+met in February, 1847, five hundred thousand persons were employed on
+these public works, which could bring no possible public advantage, at
+an expense to the country of between £700,000 and £800,000 per month.
+No Board of Works could efficiently superintend such a multitude, or
+prevent flagrant imposition, though the dimensions of that
+department appeared almost proportionably to have expanded. What
+with commissioners, chief clerks, check clerks, and pay clerks, the
+establishment of the Board of Works in Ireland, at the end of ‘46,
+consisted of more than eleven thousand persons.
+
+Always intent upon Ireland, this condition of affairs early and
+earnestly attracted the attention of Lord George Bentinck. So vast an
+expenditure in unproductive labour dismayed him. He would not
+easily assent to the conclusion that profitable enterprise under the
+circumstances was impossible. Such a conclusion seemed to him unnatural,
+and that an occasion where we commenced with despair justified a bold
+and venturesome course. The field is legitimately open to speculation
+where all agree that all is hopeless. The construction of harbours, the
+development of fisheries, the redemption of waste lands, were resources
+which had been often canvassed, and whatever their recommendations, with
+the exception of the last, they were necessarily very limited; and the
+last, though it might afford prompt, could hardly secure profitable,
+employment. Prompt and profitable employment was the object which Lord
+George wished to accomplish. Where millions were to be expended by the
+state, something more advantageous to the community should accrue than
+the temporary subsistence of the multitude.
+
+Lord George had always been a great supporter of railway enterprise in
+England, on the ground that, irrespective of all the peculiar advantages
+of those undertakings, the money was spent in the country; and that if
+our surplus capital were not directed to such channels, it would go, as
+it had gone before, to foreign mines and foreign loans, from which in a
+great degree no return would arrive. When millions were avowedly to be
+laid out in useless and unprofitable undertakings, it became a question
+whether it were not wiser even somewhat to anticipate the time when the
+necessities of Ireland would require railways on a considerable scale;
+and whether by embarking in such enterprises, we might not only find
+prompt and profitable employment for the people, but by giving a new
+character to the country and increasing its social relations and the
+combinations of its industry, might not greatly advance the period when
+such modes of communication would be absolutely requisite.
+
+Full of these views, Lord George, in the course of the autumn, consulted
+in confidence some gentlemen very competent to assist him in such an
+inquiry, and especially Mr. Robert Stephenson, Mr. Hudson, and Mr.
+Laing. With their advice and at their suggestion, two engineers of
+great ability, Mr. Bidder and Mr. Smith, were despatched to Ireland,
+personally to investigate the whole question of railroads in that
+country.
+
+Meditating over the condition of Ireland, a subject very frequently
+in his thoughts, and of the means to combat its vast and inveterate
+pauperism, Lord George was frequently in the habit of reverting to
+the years ‘41-42 in England, when there were fifteen hundred thousand
+persons on the parish rates; eighty-three thousand able-bodied men,
+actually confined within the walls of the workhouse, and more than four
+hundred thousand able-bodied men receiving out-door relief. What changed
+all this and restored England in a very brief space to a condition
+of affluence hardly before known in her annals? Not certainly the
+alterations in the tariff which were made by Sir Robert Peel at the
+commencement of his government, prudent and salutary as they were. No
+one would pretend that the abolition of the slight duty (five-sixteenths
+of a penny) on the raw material of the cotton manufacturer, or the free
+introduction of some twenty-seven thousand head of foreign cattle,
+or even the admission of foreign timber at reduced duties, could have
+effected this. Unquestionably it was the railway enterprise which
+then began to prevail that was the cause of this national renovation.
+Suddenly, and for several years, an additional sum of thirteen millions
+of pounds sterling a year was spent in the wages of our native industry;
+two hundred thousand able-bodied labourers received each upon an average
+twenty-two shillings a week, stimulating the revenue both in excise and
+customs by their enormous consumption of malt and spirits, tobacco and
+tea. This was the main cause of the contrast between the England of ‘41
+and the England of ‘45.
+
+Was there any reason why a proportionate application of the same remedy
+to Ireland should not proportionately produce a similar result? Was
+there anything wild or unauthorized in the suggestion? On the contrary:
+ten years before (1836), the subject had engaged the attention of her
+Majesty’s government, and a royal commission had been issued to inquire
+into the expediency of establishing railway communication in Ireland.
+The commissioners, men of great eminence, recommended that a system
+of railways should be established in Ireland, and by the pecuniary
+assistance of government. They rested their recommendation mainly on the
+abundant evidence existing of the vast benefits which easy communication
+had accomplished in Ireland, and of the complete success which had
+attended every Parliamentary grant for improving roads in that country.
+
+The weakness of the government, arising from the balanced state of
+parties, rendered it impossible at that time for them to prosecute the
+measures recommended by the royal commissioners, though they made an
+ineffectual attempt in that direction. Could it be suspected that the
+recommendation of the commissioners had been biassed by any political
+consideration? Was it a Whig commission attempting to fulfil a Whig
+object? Another commission, more memorable, at the head of which was the
+Earl of Devon, was appointed by a Tory government some years afterwards,
+virtually to consider the condition of the people of Ireland, and the
+best means for their amelioration. The report of the Devon commission
+confirmed all the recommendations of the railway commissioners of ‘36,
+and pointed to these new methods of communication, by the assistance of
+loans from the government, as the best means of providing employment for
+the people.
+
+When Mr. Smith of Deanston was examined by a Parliamentary committee,
+and asked what measure of all others would be the one most calculated to
+improve the agriculture and condition of Ireland, he did not reply, as
+some might have anticipated, that the most efficient measure would be
+to drain the bogs; but his answer was, ‘advance the construction of
+railways, and then agricultural improvement will speedily follow.’
+
+To illustrate the value of railways to an agricultural population, Mr.
+Smith, of Deanston, said, ‘that the improvement of the land for one mile
+only on each side of the railway so constructed would be so great, that
+it would pay the cost of the whole construction.’ He added, that there
+were few districts’ in Ireland, in which railway communication could
+be introduced, where the value of the country through which the railway
+passed would not be raised to an extent equal to the whole cost of the
+railway.
+
+Arguing on an area of six hundred and forty acres for every square mile,
+after deducting the land occupied by fences, roads, and buildings, Mr.
+Smith, of Deanston, entered into a calculation of the gain deliverable
+from the mere carriage of the produce of the land, and the back carriage
+of manure, coals, tiles, bricks, and other materials, and estimated the
+saving through those means on every square mile to more than £300, or
+something above £600 on 1,280 acres abutting each mile of railway,
+this being the difference of the cost of carriage under the old mode of
+conveyance as compared with the new. Following up this calculation,
+he showed that fifteen hundred miles of railway would improve the land
+through which it passed to the extent of nearly two million acres at the
+rate of a mile on each side; and, taken at twenty-five years’ purchase,
+would equal twenty-four millions sterling in the permanent improvement
+of the land.
+
+The ground, therefore, was sound on which Lord George cautiously, and
+after due reflection, ventured to place his foot.
+
+And now, after the reports of these two royal commissions, what was the
+state of railway enterprise in Ireland in the autumn of ‘46, when a vast
+multitude could only subsist by being employed by the government, and
+when the government had avowedly no reproductive or even useful work
+whereon to place them; but allotted them to operations which were
+described by Colonel Douglas, the inspector of the government himself,
+‘as works which would answer no other purpose than that of obstructing
+the public conveyances?’
+
+In ‘46, acts of Parliament were in existence authorizing the
+construction of more than fifteen hundred miles of railway in Ireland,
+and some of these acts had passed so long as eleven years previously,
+yet at the end of ‘46 only one hundred and twenty-three miles of railway
+had been completed, and only one hundred and sixty-four were in the
+course of completion, though arrested in their progress from want of
+funds. Almost in the same period, two thousand six hundred miles of
+railway had been completed in England, and acts of Parliament had passed
+for constructing five thousand four hundred miles in addition: in the
+whole, eight thousand miles.
+
+What then was the reason of this debility in Ireland in prosecuting
+these undertakings? Were they really not required; were the elements
+of success wanting? The first element of success in railway enterprise,
+according to the highest authorities, is population; property is only
+the second consideration. Now, Ireland in ‘46 was more densely inhabited
+than England. A want of population could not therefore be the cause.
+But a population so impoverished as the Irish could not perhaps avail
+themselves of the means of locomotion; and yet it appeared from research
+that the rate of passengers on the two Irish railways that were open
+greatly exceeded in number that of the passengers upon English and
+Scotch railways. The average number of passengers on English and Scotch
+railways was not twelve thousand per mile per annum, while on the Ulster
+railway the number was nearly twenty-two thousand, and on the Dublin and
+Drogheda line the number exceeded eighteen thousand.
+
+The cause of the weakness in Ireland to prosecute these undertakings
+was the total want of domestic capital for the purpose, and the
+unwillingness of English capitalists to embark their funds in a country
+whose social and political condition they viewed with distrust, however
+promising and even profitable the investment might otherwise appear.
+This was remarkably illustrated by the instance of the Great Southern
+and Western Railway of Ireland, one of the undertakings of which the
+completion was arrested by want of funds, yet partially open. Compared
+with a well-known railway in Great Britain, the Irish railway had cost
+in its construction £15,000 per mile, and the British upwards of £26,000
+per mile; the weekly traffic on the two railways, allowing for some
+difference in their extent, was about the same on both, in amount
+varying from £1,000 to £1,300 per week; yet the unfinished British
+railway was at £40 premium in the market, and the incomplete Irish
+railway at £2 discount. It was clear, therefore, that the commercial
+principle, omnipotent in England, was not competent to cope with the
+peculiar circumstances of Ireland.
+
+Brooding over the suggestions afforded by the details which we have
+slightly indicated, Lord George Bentinck, taking into consideration
+not merely the advantage that would accrue to the country from the
+establishment of a system of railroads, but also remembering the
+peculiar circumstances of the times, the absolute necessity of employing
+the people, and the inevitable advance of public money for that purpose,
+framed a scheme with reference to all these considerations, and which
+he believed would meet all the conditions of the case. He spared no
+thought, or time, or labour, for his purpose. He availed himself of the
+advice of the most experienced, and prosecuted his researches ardently
+and thoroughly. When he had matured his scheme, he had it thrown into
+the form of a parliamentary bill by the ablest hands, and then submitted
+the whole to the judgment and criticism of those who shared his
+confidence and counsels. Towards the end of November he was at Knowsley,
+from whence he communicated with the writer of these pages. ‘I am here
+hatching secret plans for the next session; and now, if you have not
+quite abjured politics, as you threatened for the next three months to
+do, devoting yourself to poetry and romance, I think I ought to have a
+quiet day with you, in order that we may hold council together and talk
+over all our policy. I shall be at Harcourt House on the 30th. I shall
+stay there till the 3rd of December, for a meeting on that day of the
+Norfolk Estuary Company, of which I am chairman. Would that evening
+suit you--or Friday--or Wednesday? I am not well acquainted with the
+geography of Buckinghamshire, but presume you are accessible either by
+rail or road in less than twelve hours.
+
+‘The activity in the dockyard must be in preparation to interfere in
+Portugal, to keep King Leopold upon the Portuguese throne: it cannot be
+for Mexico, for our friend the “Times” formally abandoned Mexico in his
+leader some days ago.
+
+‘* * * * has been entertaining Lord * * * * in Ireland, and writes: “How
+Peel must chuckle at the Whig difficulties.” I dare say he does, but
+in Ireland it seems to me Lord Besborough is putting the fate Irish
+government to shame, whilst the rupture of the _entente cordiale_, the
+conquest of California and New Mexico, and the complications in the
+river Plata,--are complete inheritances from Lord Aberdeen.
+
+‘Eaton has come to life again: else there was a prospect of George
+Manners quietly succeeding him in Cambridgeshire. I fear we shall do no
+good in Lincolnshire, notwithstanding the industry of our dear friend
+the “Morning Post,” in getting hold of Lord Ebrington’s and Lord Rich’s
+letters to Lord Yarborough. I suppose there is no mistake in Lord
+Dalhousie (“the large trout”) going out to Bombay with the reversion of
+Bengal.
+
+‘The duchy of Lancaster is to be put in commission, Lord * * * * to
+be one of the commissioners, _but unpaid_. He has begun, I presume, to
+overcome the false delicacy which prevented his acceptance of office
+under the Whigs in July. S * * * * thought G * * * * was to be another
+of the Board, but that turns out a mistake, but Lord H * * * * is to be.
+
+‘The manufacturers are working short time, and reducing wages in
+all directions, John Bright and Sons at Rochdale among the rest. The
+Zollverein increasing their import duties on cotton and linen yarn, and
+putting export duties of 25 per cent. (some of the states at least) on
+grain.’
+
+We must not omit to record, that in the autumn of this year, at Goodwood
+races, the sporting world was astounded by hearing that Lord George
+Bentinck had parted with his racing stud at an almost nominal price.
+Lord George was present, as was his custom, at this meeting, held in the
+demesne of one who was among his dearest friends. Lord George was not
+only present but apparently absorbed in the sport, and his horses
+were very successful. The world has hardly done justice to the great
+sacrifice which he made on this occasion to a high sense of duty. He not
+only parted with the finest racing stud in England, but he parted with
+it at a moment when its prospects were never so brilliant; and he knew
+this well. We may have hereafter to notice on this head an interesting
+passage in his life.
+
+He could scarcely have quitted the turf that day without a pang. He had
+become the lord paramount of that strange world, so difficult to sway,
+and which requires for its government both a stern resolve and a courtly
+breeding. He had them both; and though the blackleg might quail before
+the awful scrutiny of his piercing eye, there never was a man so
+scrupulously polite to his inferiors as Lord George Bentinck. The
+turf, too, was not merely the scene of the triumphs of his stud and
+his betting-book. He had purified its practice and had elevated its
+character, and he was prouder of this achievement than of any other
+connected with his sporting life. Notwithstanding his mighty stakes and
+the keenness with which he backed his opinion, no one perhaps ever cared
+less for money. His habits were severely simple, and he was the most
+generous of men. He valued the acquisition of money on the turf, because
+there it was the test of success. He counted his thousands after a great
+race as a victorious general counts his cannon and his prisoners.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     _The Versatility of Lord George Bentinck_
+
+THOSE who throw their eye over the debates of the session of ‘47,
+cannot fail to be struck by the variety of important questions in the
+discussion of which Lord George Bentinck took a leading or prominent
+part. And it must be borne in mind that he never offered his opinion on
+any subject which he had not diligently investigated and attempted
+to comprehend in all its bearings. His opponents might object to his
+principles or challenge his conclusions, but no one could deny that
+his conclusions were drawn from extensive information and that his
+principles were clear and distinct. He spared no pains to acquire by
+reading, correspondence, and personal research, the most authentic
+intelligence on every subject in debate. He never chattered. He never
+uttered a sentence in the House of Commons which did not convey a
+conviction or a fact. He was too profuse indeed with his facts: he had
+not the art of condensation. But those who have occasion to refer to his
+speeches and calmly to examine them, will be struck by the amplitude
+and the freshness of his knowledge, the clearness of his views, the
+coherence in all his efforts, and often--a point for which he never had
+sufficient credit--by his graphic idiom.
+
+The best speech on the affairs of Cracow, for example, the most
+vigorous and the best informed, touching all the points with a thorough
+acquaintance, was that of Lord George Bentinck. The discussion on
+Cracow, which lasted several nights and followed very shortly after
+the defeat of his Irish bill, appeared to relate to a class of subjects
+which would not have engaged his attention; but on the contrary, he had
+given days and nights to this theme, had critically examined all the
+documents, and conferred with those qualified to supply him with any
+supplementary information requisite. He spoke several times this session
+on questions connected with our foreign affairs, and always impressed
+the House with a conviction that he was addressing it after a due study
+of his subject: as for example, his speech against our interference in
+Portugal, and the statement in which he brought forward the claims of
+the holders of Spanish bonds on the government of Spain before the House
+of Commons. In the instance of Portugal, a motion of censure on
+the conduct of ministers had been introduced by Mr. Hume, and the
+government were only saved from a minority by the friendly interposition
+of Mr. Duncombe, who proposed an amendment to the motion of Mr. Hume
+which broke the line of the liberal force. Lord George Bentinck in this
+case followed Mr. Macaulay, whose speech, as was his wont, had been rich
+in historical illustration. ‘The right honourable and learned member for
+Edinburgh,’ Lord George replied, ‘had entered into a very interesting
+history of various interferences which had taken place in the affairs
+of Portugal; but in making that statement he forgot to mention one
+circumstance which had occurred in that history, and it was this
+
+--that when Philip II. of Spain sought to conquer Portugal, the method
+he had recourse to for that purpose was one which he thought her
+Majesty’s ministers had successfully practised on the present occasion
+
+--he persuaded the leaders in Portugal to mix sand with the powder of
+their troops. And so, on this occasion, her Majesty’s ministers had
+prevailed on the member for Finsbury, and those other members who were
+so ready to profess a love of liberty, to mix sand with their powder.’
+
+In a previous chapter we have treated at some length of the means
+proposed or adopted by the Parliament for the sustenance and relief
+of the people of Ireland. The new poor law for that country also much
+engaged the attention of both Houses this session. Lord George Bentinck
+took a very active part in these transactions, and moved the most
+important of all the amendments to the government measure, namely, an
+attempt to assimilate the poor law of Ireland as much as possible to
+that of England, and make the entire rates be paid by the occupying
+tenant. His object, he said, was to ‘prevent lavish expenditure and
+encourage profitable employment to the people.’ This amendment was only
+lost by a majority of four.
+
+On the 26th of March, on the government bringing forward their bill on
+the rum duties, Lord George Bentinck brought before the House the
+case of the British and Irish distillers, not with any preference
+or partiality towards English, Scotch, or Irish distillers over the
+colonial producer. ‘I am no advocate of any monopoly whatever. I desire
+only equal and exact justice between both parties; and the only way in
+which that end can, in my opinion, be properly attained, is in a select
+committee upstairs, consisting of impartial members of this house.’
+
+He often used to say that no subject ever gave him more trouble
+thoroughly to master than the spirit duties; and he noticed the
+character of the theme at the beginning of his speech. He said he
+required, not only the most especial indulgence, but even the toleration
+of the House, ‘for of all the dry and dull subjects which could possibly
+be introduced, the question which it is now my misfortune to bring under
+the consideration of the House is the driest and the dullest. If this
+question had been one merely of pounds, shillings, and pence, it would
+have been dull and complicated enough; but this is a question in which
+are concerned not pounds and shillings, but pence, and halfpence, and
+farthings.’
+
+The Whitsuntide holidays occurred at the end of May. It had originally
+been the intention of Lord George Bentinck, at the request of leading
+merchants and manufacturers of all parties and opinions, to have brought
+forward the question of the Bank Act after these holidays, and to move a
+resolution that some discretionary power should be established as to the
+issue of notes. He thus alludes to this point in a letter to Mr. Wright,
+of the 24th of May:--
+
+‘I return you No. 1019, of the “Bankers’ Circular,” with many thanks.
+
+‘This delightful and timely change in the weather will do wonders for
+the country, and by producing an abundant and seasonable harvest, will
+save the country, and _may save the Bank Charter Act_; but it is pretty
+well settled that I am to give notice immediately after the holidays,
+of a resolution very much in the spirit of the memorial contained in the
+paper I am returning to you.
+
+‘Things are better in the City and at Liverpool, and with this weather
+will continue to improve; but it seems to me any reverse in the weather,
+such as would occasion a late and deficient harvest, could not fail to
+bring the commerce of the country to a dead lock.
+
+‘The opinion is gaining ground, that in the present state not only
+of Ireland, but of many districts in England, the government will not
+venture upon a general election till after the harvest, and not then,
+unless the harvest should prove favourable.
+
+‘I am glad to read your opinion in opposition to Lord Ashburton’s, that
+railways keep the gold in the country, and do not send it out. Glyn gave
+strong evidence last year to this effect before the railway committee.’
+
+Neither of the prospects in this letter was realised. The commercial and
+manufacturing interest, after the Whitsun recess, thought it advisable
+for reasons of great weight that Lord George Bentinck should postpone
+for a month or six weeks his intended motion on the Bank Charter, and
+the ministers resolved to dissolve Parliament before the harvest: thus
+it happened that the merchants and manufacturers lost their chance of
+relief from the yoke, and experienced the reign of terror in the autumn,
+the terrible events of which ultimately occasioned the assembling of the
+new Parliament in November.
+
+Anticipating the immediate dissolution of Parliament, Sir Robert Peel
+had issued an address to the electors of Tamworth, justifying his
+commercial policy. In the opinion of Lord George Bentinck it set forth
+a statement as to the effect and operation of those financial measures
+which had taken place in the course of the last six years, which, if
+left altogether unrefuted, might have a dangerous tendency at the
+coming elections. The general effect of that statement was, that by the
+reduction of duties to a large extent, it was possible to relieve the
+people of this country of burdens amounting to more than seven millions
+and a half sterling with little or no loss whatever to the revenue. But
+the truth was, Sir Robert Peel in his reductions had dealt only with
+little more than ten millions sterling of the revenue of the country,
+and had left the remaining thirty-seven millions untouched. Now on
+that portion of the revenue with which alone he had dealt, there was
+a deficiency, through his changes, to the amount of five millions
+sterling, which loss was compensated by the increase on those very
+articles which Sir Robert had left untouched. It was the opinion of Lord
+George Bentinck that the conclusion which Sir Robert Peel had drawn
+from the comparatively barren results of the increased duties on imports
+carried by the Whigs in 1840, viz., that indirect taxation had reached
+its limit, and which was indeed the basis of his new system, was a
+fallacy, and that the anticipated increase of import duties had not
+accrued in 1840 in consequence of our having had three successive bad
+harvests, ‘and a bad cotton crop to boot,’ all of which had checked the
+consuming power of the community. Sir Robert Peel had been favoured by
+three successive good harvests and nearly £100,000,000 invested in six
+years in domestic enterprise. ‘The interposition of Providence,’ said
+Lord George, ‘is never a part of our debates.’
+
+Under these circumstances, Lord George took occasion to review the
+commercial policy of Sir Robert Peel, on the 20th July, in the House of
+Commons, only three days before the prorogation, and in one of his most
+successful speeches. He was much assisted by the fact that the exports
+of all our staple manufactures had then greatly diminished, and of
+course he urged this point triumphantly. ‘If we had been indemnified for
+the dead loss of £650,000 on cotton wool by any great impulse given
+to our manufacturers, it would be a consolation which unfortunately we
+could not enjoy.’ He traced all the consumption to railway enterprise,
+and showed that it alone had compensated for the fruitless loss of
+revenue which we had incurred in vainly stimulating the exports of our
+manufactures, which had actually diminished. He was so impressed with
+the importance that, ‘on the eve of a dissolution, such a statement
+as that of Sir Robert Peel should not go forth to the country
+uncontroverted, as in that case the necessary result would be that
+the people would come to the opinion that they might abolish taxes
+altogether and yet maintain the revenue,’ that he sat up all night
+writing an address to his constituents, the electors of King’s Lynn,
+which took up nearly two columns of the newspapers, in which he
+presented his refutation to the public of the commercial manifesto of
+Tamworth, illustrated by the necessary tables and documents.
+
+There is a sentence in this speech which, as a distinct expression of
+policy, should perhaps be quoted:
+
+‘Sir, I am one of those who seek for the repeal of the malt tax and the
+hop duties. I am one of those who think that the excise duties ought to
+be taken off. But, sir, I do not pretend that you can repeal the malt
+tax or the hop duties, or remove the soap tax without commutation for
+other taxes. I will not delude the people by pretending that I could
+take off more than seven millions and a half of taxes without replacing
+them by others, and not leave the nation bankrupt. But I think these
+reforms of Sir Robert Peel have been in a mistaken direction; I think
+that revenue duties on all foreign imports ought to be maintained, and
+that a revenue equal to those excise duties which I have mentioned can
+be levied upon the produce of foreign countries and foreign industry,
+without imposing any greater tax than one which shall fall far short of
+Mr. Walker’s “perfect revenue standard of 20 per cent.” I say that by
+imposing a tax far less than 20 per cent. upon all articles of foreign
+import, a revenue might be derived far less burdensome to this country
+than that of excise, a revenue of which the burden would be largely
+shared in by foreign countries, and in many cases paid altogether by
+foreign countries.’
+
+Lord George at this time watched with great interest a novel feature
+in our commercial transactions. He wrote on the 29th May (1847), to Mr.
+Burn, the editor of the ‘Commercial Glance,’ and an individual of whose
+intelligence, accuracy, and zeal he had a high and just opinion, ‘Can
+you inform me how the raw cotton purchased for exportation stands in
+the first three weeks of the present month of May, as compared with the
+corresponding periods of ‘46--5--4--3?
+
+‘I observe from a cotton circular sent to me the other day, that seven
+thousand five hundred bags of cotton had been purchased for exportation
+between the 1st and 21st of May. If with reduced stocks of raw cotton
+we are commencing a career of increased exportation, it appears to me to
+involve very serious consequences for our cotton manufactures as growing
+out of the existing monetary difficulties of the manufacturers.
+
+‘If you could answer me these queries within the next three or four
+days, I should feel greatly obliged to you.’
+
+Again, on the 22d of July, on the point of going down to his
+constituents, he was still pursuing his inquiries in the same quarter.’
+I want particularly to compare,’ he says to Mr. Burn, ‘the export of the
+last ten weeks of raw cotton with the corresponding ten weeks of ‘46
+and ‘45, and at the same time to compare the importations and deliveries
+into the hands of the manufacturers during these same periods.
+
+‘Pray address me, Lynn, Norfolk, where I go on Saturday, and shall
+remain till after my election on Thursday.’
+
+He writes again from Lynn, with great thanks for the information which
+had been accordingly forwarded to him there. ‘Might I ask you to give me
+an account of the cotton wool imported weekly into Liverpool, and also
+the quantity sold to dealers, exporters, and speculators, in the three
+corresponding weeks of ‘45-46.
+
+‘This information by return of post would greatly oblige me.’
+
+On the 23d of July, 1847, the last day of the second Parliament of Queen
+Victoria, Lord George went down to the House of Commons early, and took
+the opportunity of making a statement respecting the condition of our
+sugar-producing colonies, which were now experiencing the consequences
+of the unjustifiable legislation of the preceding year. He said there
+were appearances in the political horizon which betokened that he should
+not be able to obtain a select committee in the present session, and
+therefore, if he had the honour of a seat in the next Parliament, he
+begged to announce that he would take the earliest occasion to move for
+a committee to inquire into the present power of our colonies to compete
+with those countries which have still the advantage of the enforced
+labour of slaves. The returns just laid upon the table of the House
+could leave no doubt, he thought, on any man’s mind on that point. Since
+the emancipation, the produce of sugar by the colonies, from ‘31 to ‘46,
+had been reduced one half, and of rum and coffee had been reduced to one
+fourth. When the act of last year which admitted slave-grown sugar was
+introduced, the allegation of the English colonies, that they could
+not compete with the labour of slaves, was denied. The proof of that
+allegation was, that they were already overwhelmed.
+
+When one recalls all to which this speech led, the most memorable effort
+of that ardent, energetic life to which it was perhaps fatal, one can
+scarcely observe the origin of such vast exertions without emotion.
+
+The Under Secretary of State replied to Lord George, making a cry of
+cheap sugar for the hustings which were before everybody’s eyes, but
+making also this remarkable declaration, that ‘the Island of Mauritius
+was in a state of the greatest prosperity.’ While Lord George was
+speaking, the cannon were heard that announced the departure of her
+majesty from the palace.
+
+Then followed a motion of Mr. Bankes about the sale of bread, which led
+to some discussion. Mr. Bankes threatened a division. Lord Palmerston,
+who on this occasion was leading the House, said it would be acting like
+a set of schoolboys, if when Black Rod appeared they should be in the
+lobby instead of attending the Speaker to the other House. But as the
+members seemed very much inclined to act like schoolboys, the Secretary
+of State had to speak against time on the subject of baking. He analyzed
+the petition, which he said he would not read through, but the last
+paragraph was of great importance.
+
+At these words, Black Rod knocked at the door, and duly making his
+appearance, summoned the House to attend the Queen in the House of
+Lords, and Mr. Speaker, followed by a crowd of members, duly obeyed the
+summons.
+
+In about a quarter of an hour, Mr. Speaker returned without the mace,
+and standing at the table read her Majesty’s speech to the members
+around, after which they retired, the Parliament being prorogued. In the
+course of the afternoon, the Parliament was dissolved by proclamation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     _The Great Panic_
+
+THE general election of 1847 did not materially alter the position of
+parties in the House of Commons. The high prices of agricultural produce
+which then prevailed naturally rendered the agricultural interest
+apathetic, and although the rural constituencies, from a feeling of
+esteem, again returned those members who had been faithful to the
+protective principle, the farmers did not exert themselves to increase
+the number of their supporters. The necessity of doing so was earnestly
+impressed upon them by Lord George Bentinck, who warned them then that
+the pinching hour was inevitable; but the caution was disregarded, and
+many of those individuals who are now the loudest in their imprecations
+on the memory of Sir Robert Peel, and who are the least content with the
+temperate course which is now recommended to them by those who have the
+extremely difficult office of upholding their interests in the House of
+Commons, entirely kept aloof, or would smile when they were asked for
+their support with sarcastic self-complacency, saying, ‘Well, Sir, do
+you think after all that free trade has done us so much harm?’ Perhaps
+they think now, that if they had taken the advice of Lord George
+Bentinck and exerted themselves to return a majority to the House of
+Commons, it would have profited them more than useless execrations and
+barren discontent. But it is observable, that no individuals now grumble
+so much as the farmers who voted for free trader in 1847, unless indeed
+it be the shipowners, every one of whom for years, both in and out of
+Parliament, supported the repeal of the corn laws.
+
+The Protectionists maintained their numbers, though they did not
+increase them, in the new Parliament. Lord George Bentinck however
+gained an invaluable coadjutor by the re-appearance of Mr. Herries
+in public life, a gentleman whose official as well as parliamentary
+experience, fine judgment, and fertile resource, have been of
+inestimable service to the Protectionist party. The political connection
+which gained most were the Whigs; they were much more numerous and
+compact, but it was in a great measure at the expense of the general
+liberal element, and partly at the cost of the following of Sir Robert
+Peel. The triumphant Conservative majority of 1841 had disappeared;
+but the government, with all shades of supporters, had not an absolute
+majority.
+
+Had the general election been postponed until the autumn, the results
+might have been very different. That storm--which had been long
+gathering in the commercial atmosphere--then burst like a typhoon. The
+annals of our trade afford no parallel for the widespread disaster and
+the terrible calamities. In the month of September, fifteen of the most
+considerable houses in the city of London stopped payment for between
+five and six millions sterling. The governor of the Bank of England
+was himself a partner in one of these firms; a gentleman who had lately
+filled that office, was another victim; two other Bank directors were
+included in the list. The failures were not limited to the metropolis,
+but were accompanied by others of great extent in the provinces. At
+Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow large firms were obliged to suspend
+payments. This shock of credit arrested all the usual accommodation,
+and the pressure in the money-market, so terrible in the spring, was
+revived. The excitement and the alarm in the city of London were so
+great that when the Chancellor of the Exchequer hurried up to town on
+the 1st of October, he found that the interest of money was at the rate
+of 60 per cent. per annum. The Bank Charter produced the same injurious
+effect as it had done in April; it aggravated the evil by forcing men
+to hoard. In vain the commercial world deplored the refusal of the
+government to comply with the suggestion made by Lord George Bentinck
+and Mr. Thomas Baring in the spring; in vain they entreated them at
+least now to adopt it, and to authorize the Bank of England to enlarge
+the amount of their discounts and advances on approved security, without
+reference to the stringent clause of the charter. The government,
+acting, it is believed, with the encouragement and sanction of Sir
+Robert Peel, were obstinate, and three weeks then occurred during
+which the commercial credit of this country was threatened with total
+destruction. Nine more considerable mercantile houses stopped payment
+in the metropolis, the disasters in the provinces were still more
+extensive. The Royal Bank of Liverpool failed; among several principal
+establishments in that town, one alone stopped payment for upwards of a
+million sterling. The havoc at Manchester was also great. The Newcastle
+bank and the North and South Wales bank stopped. Consols fell to 79 1/4,
+and exchequer bills were at last at 35 per cent, discount. The ordinary
+rate of discount at the Bank of England was between 8 and 9 per cent.,
+but out of doors accommodation was not to be obtained. In such a state
+of affairs, the small houses of course gave way. From their rising in
+the morning until their hour of retirement at night, the First Lord of
+the Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer were employed in
+seeing persons of all descriptions, who entreated them to interfere and
+preserve the community from universal bankruptcy. ‘Perish the world,
+sooner than violate a principle,’ was the philosophical exclamation of
+her Majesty’s ministers, sustained by the sympathy and the sanction of
+Sir Robert Peel. At last, the governor and the deputy-governor of the
+Bank of England waited on Downing Street, and said it could go on no
+more. The Scotch banks had applied to them for assistance. The
+whole demand for discount was thrown upon the Bank of England. Two
+bill-brokers had stopped; two others were paralyzed. The Bank of England
+could discount no longer. Thanks to the Bank Charter, they were safe and
+their treasury full of bullion, but it appeared that everybody else
+must fall, for in four-and-twenty hours the machinery of credit would
+be entirely stopped. The position was frightful, and the government gave
+way. They did that on the 25th of October, after houses had fallen to
+the amount of fifteen millions sterling, which they had been counselled
+to do by Lord George Bentinck on the 25th of April. It turned out
+exactly as Mr. Thomas Baring had foretold. It was not want of capital or
+deficiency of circulation which had occasioned these awful consequences.
+It was sheer panic, occasioned by an unwisely stringent law. No sooner
+had the government freed the Bank of England from that stringency,
+than the panic ceased. The very morning the letter of license from
+the government to the Bank of England appeared, thousands and tens of
+thousands of pounds sterling were taken from the hoards, some from boxes
+deposited with bankers, although the depositors would not leave the
+notes in their bankers’ hands. Large parcels of notes were returned to
+the Bank of England cut into halves, as they had been sent down into the
+country, and so small was the real demand for an additional quantity of
+currency, that the whole amount taken from the Bank, when the unlimited
+power of issue was given, was under £400,000, and the Bank consequently
+never availed itself of the privilege which the government had accorded
+it. The restoration of confidence produced an ample currency, and
+that confidence had solely been withdrawn from the apprehension of the
+stringent clauses of the Bank Charter Act of 1844.
+
+These extraordinary events had not occurred unnoticed by Lord George
+Bentinck. The two subjects that mostly engaged his attention after the
+general election were the action of the Bank Charter and the state of
+our sugar colonies. Perhaps it would be best to give some extracts from
+his correspondence at this period. He was a good letter-writer, easy and
+clear. His characteristic love of details also rendered this style
+of communication interesting. It is not possible to give more than
+extracts, and it is necessary to omit all those circumstances which
+generally in letter-reading are most acceptable. His comments on men and
+things were naturally free and full, and he always endeavoured, for the
+amusement of his correspondents, to communicate the social gossip of the
+hour. But although all this must necessarily be omitted, his letters may
+afford some illustrations of his earnestness and energy, the constancy
+of his aim, and the untiring vigilance with which he pursued his
+object--especially those which are addressed to gentlemen engaged in
+commercial pursuits who cooperated with him in his investigations.
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Harcourt House, August 30, 1847.
+
+An answer is come out to my address to my constituents at King’s Lynn,
+and to my speech in answer to Peel’s manifesto. Pray read it. At first
+I thought I could swear to its being * * * *, I now think I can swear
+to its being * * * *; the servility to Peel, and the official red-tape
+style would equally do for either; but the no-popery page, I think,
+fixes it on * * * *.
+
+I think it wretchedly weak, and have written some notes on the margin,
+showing up the principal points. The nine months’ famine of 1846-47, as
+contrasted with Peel’s famine, shows a difference of between £6,000,000
+and £7,000,000; that is to say, on the balance in the nine months
+1845-46, Ireland exported about three millions’ worth of breadstuffs,
+and not a soul died of famine. In the nine months 1846-47, she imported
+three millions’ sterling worth of bread-stuffs, which insufficed to
+prevent one million--or say half a million--of the people from dying of
+starvation.
+
+At present I have seen no notice of the pamphlet in any of the
+newspapers: if it is either * * * *’s, or * * * *’s, or * * * *’s we
+shall see it reviewed in ‘Times,’ ‘Chronicle,’ and ‘Spectator.’
+
+The Bank of England has raised the interest on * * * *’s mortgage
+one-third per cent., making an additional annual charge of £1,500 a year
+to him. I am very sorry for him, but I know nothing so likely to rouse
+the landed aristocracy from their apathy, and to weaken their idolatry
+of Peel so much as this warning note of the joint operation of his free
+trade and restrictive currency laws.
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Harcourt House, September 2, 1847.
+
+I think it is * * * *. The trickster, I observe, has carefully reduced
+the pounds of cotton to cwts., in the hopes of concealing a great fraud
+to which he has condescended; taking, in the Whig year of 1841, the home
+consumption of cotton, whilst in Peel’s year he gives entire importation
+as the home consumption, representing both as home consumption.
+
+In Peel’s year, 1846, officially we have only the gross importation; but
+in the Whig year, 1841, the entire importation and the home consumption
+are given separately: the importation exceeding the home consumption by
+fifty million pounds. Burn’s ‘Glance,’ however, gives the importation
+and home consumption for both years; unfortunately, however, not in
+lbs. or cwts., but in bags. * * * *’s fraud, however, is not the less
+apparent.
+
+He selects a Whig year when the home consumption was 220,-000 bags under
+the importation, and a year for Peel when the importation exceeded the
+home consumption by 280,000 bags, and claps down the figures as alike
+describing the home consumption.
+
+None of the Peel papers have taken up the subject: if they should, the
+‘Morning Post’ will answer the pamphlet; but I should like to have mine
+back again, in order that I may furnish them with the notes.
+
+* * * * was with me this morning, and called my attention to the
+circumstance that the author starts with ‘We,’ but drops into the
+singular number; * * * * fancies it is Peel himself, but the page on
+endowment fixes it on * * * *.
+
+Lord L * * * * means, I presume, that Peel’s savage hatred is applied
+to the Protectionist portion of his old party, not of course to the
+janissaries and renegade portion.
+
+
+The following letter was in reply to one of a friend who had sent him
+information, several days before they occurred, of the great failures
+that were about to happen in the city of London. The list was
+unfortunately quite accurate, with the exception indeed of the
+particular house respecting which Lord George quotes the opinion of
+Baron Rothschild.
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Welbeck, September 17, 1847.
+
+A thousand thanks for your letter, the intelligence in which created a
+great sensation at Doncaster.
+
+As yet none of the houses appear to have failed except S * * * *. Baron
+Rothschild was at Doncaster. I talked with him on the subject; he seemed
+not to doubt the probable failure of any of the houses you named, except
+* * * *. He declared very emphatically ‘that * * * * house was as sound
+as any house in London.’
+
+Lord Fitzwilliam declares ‘it is no free trade without free trade in
+money.’
+
+Lord Clanricarde is here--laughs at the idea of Parliament meeting in
+October; but talks much of the difficulties of Ireland--says he does not
+see how the rates are to be paid.
+
+Messrs. Drummond are calling in their mortgages. I expect to hear that
+this practice will be general; money dear, corn cheap, incumbrances
+enhanced, and rents depressed. What will become of the apathetic country
+gentlemen? I judge from * * * * ‘s language, that Lord John Russell
+will stand or fall by the Bank Charter Act-but that he feels very
+apprehensive of being unable to maintain it.
+
+I agree with Bonham, in thinking that the Protectionist party is
+smashed for the present Parliament; but I must say I think Protectionist
+principles and policy are likely to come into repute again far sooner
+than was expected; and though Peel’s party be a compact body, and
+formidable in the House of Commons, I cannot think that there appears
+that in the working of his measures to make it likely that he should be
+soon again carried into power on the shoulders of the people. I think
+his political reputation must ebb further before it can rise again,
+if it should ever rise again. * * * * thought him ‘broken and in low
+spirits,’ when he met him at Longshaw; but Lord * * * *, who was there
+at the same time, came away more Peelite than ever, and told them at
+Bretby that Sir Robert said, ‘That he was quite surprised at the number
+of letters he got every day from members returned to Parliament, saying
+they meant to vote with him.’
+
+You may rely upon it the Peelites are very sanguine that they will be in
+power again almost directly. We must keep them out.
+
+
+TO MR. BURN, EDITOR OF THE ‘COMMERCIAL GLANCE.’
+
+Welbeck, September 38, 1847. To the many courtesies you have already
+bestowed upon me, I will sincerely thank you to add that of informing me
+what have been the estimated cotton crops in the United States in
+each of the last four years. I would also thank you to inform me the
+comparative importation, home consumption, re-exportation, and stocks
+on hand of cotton of the first seven months of the current and three
+preceding years.
+
+
+TO MR. BURN.
+
+Welbeck, October 4, 1847.
+
+Your statistics have reached me in the very nick of time, and are
+invaluable. I care nothing about ‘outsides,’ it is ‘insides’ I look to;
+give me a good ‘heart,’ and I don’t care how rough the ‘bark’ is.
+
+Anything so good I fear to spoil by suggesting the most trivial
+addition, else I should say it would be an interesting feature to
+classify the exports of cotton goods, etc., etc., under three heads:--
+
+1st. To the British colonies and British possessions abroad.
+
+2nd. To the northern states of Europe, France, Spain, Germany, Italy,
+etc., etc., the United States of America, and other countries having
+high tariffs.
+
+3rd. To China, Turkey, Africa, and the Southern States of America, and
+countries with low tariffs.
+
+I fear these failures of East and West India houses must entail great
+distress upon Manchester, and the manufacturing interests generally. You
+have given an account of the bankruptcies in the cotton trade during a
+long series of years till last year inclusive; are you able to say how
+the first nine months of the current year stands in comparison with its
+predecessors?
+
+I so highly prize your new work, that I must ask for a dozen copies to
+distribute among my friends.
+
+P. S. I have already parted with the copy you sent me; may I, therefore,
+beg another without waiting for any other binding?
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Welbeck, October 5, 1847.
+
+I shall go up to town on Friday evening, in my way to Newmarket,
+and shall be at Harcourt House all Saturday and Sunday, and shall be
+delighted to see you, and have a thorough good talk with you. Free trade
+seems working mischief faster than the most fearful of us predicted,
+and Manchester houses, as I am told, ‘failing in rows,’ ashamed to
+do penance in public, are secretly weeping in sackcloth and ashes, and
+heartily praying that Peel and Cobden had been hanged before they were
+allowed to ruin the country.
+
+Money at Manchester is quoted one and a quarter per cent, for ten days:
+£45 12s. 6d. per cent. per annum!
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Harcourt House, October 22, 1847. I have this moment got a note from
+Stuart, telling me that ‘the Chancellor has this afternoon sent out his
+notice of the business to be taken in his own court during Michaelmas
+term, that is, from the 2nd of November till the 26th, and below it
+there is this notice--_except those days on which the Lord Chancellor
+may sit in the House of Lords_!!!’
+
+Surely this must portend a November session.
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Harcourt House, October 23, 1847. The fat banker’s gossip is all stuff.
+Peel goes to Windsor today, I believe on an invitation of some standing.
+* * * * who had been dining at Palmerston’s last night, tells me that he
+does not think that ministers mean calling Parliament together, and is
+confident they mean to maintain the Bank Charter Act. There have been
+some first-rate articles and letters in the ‘Morning Chronicle’ lately
+on this subject.
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Harcourt House, November 6, 1847.
+
+I will stay over Tuesday, that I may have the pleasure of a thorough
+talk with you.
+
+I am told things are gradually getting better. I expect, however, a
+fresh reverse about six weeks or two months hence, when the returned
+lists of the stoppages in the East and West Indies, consequent upon the
+late failures here, come home. The Western Bank of Scotland is whispered
+about. If that were to fail, it might bring the canny Scots to their
+senses; but they are a headstrong race.
+
+A committee on commercial distress having been appointed, the principal
+reason for the summoning of the new Parliament in the autumn had been
+satisfied, and an adjournment until a month after Christmas was in
+prospect. Before, however, this took place, a new and interesting
+question arose, which led to considerable discussion, and which
+ultimately influenced in no immaterial manner the parliamentary position
+of Lord George Bentinck.
+
+The city of London at the general election had sent to the House of
+Commons, as a colleague of the first minister, a member who found a
+difficulty in taking one of the oaths appointed by the House to be
+sworn preliminarily to any member exercising his right of voting. The
+difficulty arose from this member being not only of the Jewish race, but
+unfortunately believing only in the first part of the Jewish religion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     _The Jews_
+
+THE relations that subsist between the Bedoueen race that, under the
+name of Jews, is found in every country of Europe, and the Teutonic,
+Sclavonian, and Celtic races which have appropriated that division of
+the globe, will form hereafter one of the most remarkable chapters in
+a philosophical history of man. The Saxon, the Sclav, and the Celt
+have adopted most of the laws and many of the customs of these Arabian
+tribes, all their literature and all their religion. They are therefore
+indebted to them for much that regulates, much that charms, and much
+that solaces existence. The toiling multitude rest every seventh day
+by virtue of a Jewish law; they are perpetually reading, ‘for their
+example,’ the records of Jewish history, and singing the odes and
+elegies of Jewish poets; and they daily acknowledge on their knees, with
+reverent gratitude, that the only medium of communication between the
+Creator and themselves is the Jewish race. Yet they treat that race as
+the vilest of generations; and instead of logically looking upon them
+as the human family that has contributed most to human happiness, they
+extend to them every term of obloquy and every form of persecution.
+
+Let us endeavour to penetrate this social anomaly that has harassed and
+perplexed centuries.
+
+It is alleged that the dispersion of the Jewish race is a penalty
+incurred for the commission of a great crime: namely, the crucifixion
+of our blessed Lord in the form of a Jewish prince, by the Romans, at
+Jerusalem, and at the instigation of some Jews, in the reign of Tiberius
+Augustus Caesar. Upon this, it may be observed, that the allegation is
+neither historically true nor dogmatically sound.
+
+I. _Not historically true_. It is not historically true, because at the
+time of the advent of our Lord, the Jewish race was as much dispersed
+throughout the world as at this present time, and had been so for many
+centuries. Europe, with the exception of those shores which are bathed
+by the midland sea, was then a primeval forest, but in every city of the
+great Eastern monarchies and in every province of the Roman empire, the
+Jews had been long settled. We have not precise authority for saying
+that at the advent there were more Jews established in Egypt than in
+Palestine, but it may unquestionably be asserted that at that period
+there were more Jews living, and that too in great prosperity and
+honour, at Alexandria than at Jerusalem. It is evident from various
+Roman authors, that the Jewish race formed no inconsiderable portion
+of the multitude that filled Rome itself, and that the Mosaic religion,
+undisturbed by the state, even made proselytes. But it is unnecessary to
+enter into any curious researches on this head, though the authorities
+are neither scant nor uninteresting. We are furnished with evidence
+the most complete and unanswerable of the pre-dispersion by the sacred
+writings themselves. Not two months after the crucifixion, when the
+Third Person of the Holy Trinity first descended on Jerusalem, it being
+the time of the great festivals, when the Jews, according to the custom
+of the Arabian tribes pursued to this day in the pilgrimage to Mecca,
+repaired from all quarters to the central sacred place, the holy
+writings inform us that there were gathered together in Jerusalem ‘Jews,
+devout men, out of every nation under heaven.’ And that this expression,
+so general but so precise, should not be mistaken, we are shortly
+afterwards, though incidentally, informed, that there were Parthians,
+Medes, and Persians at Jerusalem, professing the Mosaic faith; Jews from
+Mesopotamia and Syria, from the countries of the lesser and the greater
+Asia; Egyptian, Libyan, Greek, and Arabian Jews; and, especially, Jews
+from Rome itself, some of which latter are particularly mentioned as
+Roman proselytes. Nor is it indeed historically true that the small
+section of the Jewish race which dwelt in Palestine rejected Christ.
+The reverse is the truth. Had it not been for the Jews of Palestine,
+the good tidings of our Lord would have been unknown for ever to the
+northern and western races. The first preachers of the gospel were Jews,
+and none else; the historians of the gospel were Jews, and none else. No
+one has ever been permitted to write under the inspiration of the Holy
+Spirit, except a Jew. For nearly a century no one believed in the good
+tidings except Jews. They nursed the sacred flame of which they were the
+consecrated and hereditary depositaries. And when the time was ripe to
+diffuse the truth among the ethnics, it was not a senator of Rome or a
+philosopher of Athens who was personally appointed by our Lord for that
+office, but a Jew of Tarsus, who founded the seven churches of Asia. And
+that greater church, great even amid its terrible corruptions, that has
+avenged the victory of Titus by subjugating the capital of the Caesars,
+and has changed every one of the Olympian temples into altars of the God
+of Sinai and of Calvary, was founded by another Jew, a Jew of Galilee.
+
+From all which it appears that the dispersion of the Jewish race,
+preceding as it did for countless ages the advent of our Lord, could not
+be for conduct which occurred subsequently to the advent, and that they
+are also guiltless of that subsequent conduct which has been imputed to
+them as a crime, since for Him and His blessed name, they preached, and
+wrote, and shed their blood ‘as witnesses.’
+
+But, is it possible that that which is not historically true can be
+dogmatically sound? Such a conclusion would impugn the foundations of
+all faith. The followers of Jesus, of whatever race, need not however be
+alarmed. The belief that the present condition of the Jewish race is a
+penal infliction for the part which some Jews took at the crucifixion is
+not dogmatically sound.
+
+2. _Not dogmatically sound_. There is no passage in the sacred writings
+that in the slightest degree warrants the penal assumption. The
+imprecation of the mob at the crucifixion is sometimes strangely quoted
+as a divine decree. It is not a principle of jurisprudence, human or
+inspired, to permit the criminal to ordain his own punishment. Why, too,
+should they transfer any portion of the infliction to their posterity?
+What evidence have we that the wild suggestion was sanctioned by
+Omnipotence? On the contrary, amid the expiating agony, a Divine Voice
+at the same time solicited and secured forgiveness. And if unforgiven,
+could the cry of a rabble at such a scene bind a nation?
+
+But, dogmatically considered, the subject of the crucifixion must be
+viewed in a deeper spirit. We must pause with awe to remember what was
+the principal office to be fulfilled by the advent. When the ineffable
+mystery of the Incarnation was consummated, a Divine Person moved on the
+face of the earth in the shape of a child of Israel, not to teach but to
+expiate. True it is that no word could fall from such lips, whether in
+the form of profound parable, or witty retort, or preceptive lore, but
+to guide and enlighten; but they who, in those somewhat lax effusions
+which in these days are honoured with the holy name of theology, speak
+of the morality of the Gospel as a thing apart and of novel revelation,
+would do well to remember that in promulgating such doctrines they are
+treading on very perilous ground. There cannot be two moralities; and to
+hold that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity could teach a different
+morality from that which had been already revealed by the First Person
+of the Holy Trinity, is a dogma so full of terror that it may perhaps
+be looked upon as the ineffable sin against the Holy Spirit. When the
+lawyer tempted our Lord, and inquired how he was to inherit eternal
+life, the great Master of Galilee referred him to the writings of Moses.
+There he would find recorded ‘the whole duty of man;’ to love God with
+all his heart, and soul, and strength, and mind, and his neighbour as
+himself. These two principles are embalmed in the writings of Moses, and
+are the essence of Christian morals.*
+
+     * ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.’
+     --Leviticus xix.  18.
+
+
+It was for something deeper than this, higher and holier than even Moses
+could fulfil, that angels announced the Coming. It was to accomplish an
+event pre-ordained by the Creator of the world for countless ages.
+Born from the chosen house of the chosen people, yet blending in his
+inexplicable nature the Divine essence with the human elements, a
+sacrificial Mediator was to appear, appointed before all time, to purify
+with his atoning blood the myriads that had preceded and the myriads
+that will follow him. The doctrine embraces all space and time--nay,
+chaos and eternity; Divine persons are the agents, and the redemption of
+the whole family of man the result. If the Jews had not prevailed upon
+the Romans to crucify our Lord, what would have become of the Atonement?
+But the human mind cannot contemplate the idea that the most important
+deed of time could depend upon human will. The immolators were
+preordained like the victim, and the holy race supplied both. Could that
+be a crime which secured for all mankind eternal joy--which vanquished
+Satan, and opened the gates of Paradise? Such a tenet would sully and
+impugn the doctrine that is the corner-stone of our faith and hope. Men
+must not presume to sit in judgment on such an act. They must bow their
+heads in awe and astonishment and trembling gratitude.
+
+But, though the opinion that the dispersion of the Jewish race must be
+deemed a penalty incurred for their connection with the crucifixion
+has neither historical nor doctrinal sanction, it is possible that its
+degrading influence upon its victims may have been as efficacious as if
+their present condition were indeed a judicial infliction. Persecution,
+in a word, although unjust, may have reduced the modern Jews to a state
+almost justifying malignant vengeance. They may have become so odious
+and so hostile to mankind, as to merit for their present conduct, no
+matter how occasioned, the obloquy and ill-treatment of the communities
+in which they dwell and with which they are scarcely permitted to
+mingle.
+
+Let us examine this branch of the subject, which, though of more limited
+interest, is not without instruction.
+
+In all the great cities of Europe, and in some of the great cities of
+Asia, among the infamous classes therein existing, there will always be
+found Jews. They are not the only people who are usurers, gladiators,
+and followers of mean and scandalous occupations, nor are they anywhere
+a majority of such, but considering their general numbers, they
+contribute perhaps more than their proportion to the aggregate of the
+vile. In this they obey the law which regulates the destiny of all
+persecuted races: the infamous is the business of the dishonoured; and
+as infamous pursuits are generally illegal pursuits, the persecuted race
+which has most ability will be most successful in combating the law.
+The Jews have never been so degraded as the Greeks were throughout the
+Levant before the emancipation, and the degradation of the Greeks was
+produced by a period of persecution which, both in amount and suffering,
+cannot compare with that which has been endured by the children of
+Israel. This peculiarity, however, attends the Jews under the most
+unfavourable circumstances; the other degraded races wear out and
+disappear; the Jew remains, as determined, as expert, as persevering,
+as full of resource and resolution as ever. Viewed in this light, the
+degradation of the Jewish race is alone a striking evidence of its
+excellence, for none but one of the great races could have survived the
+trials which it has endured.
+
+But, though a material organization of the highest class may account for
+so strange a consequence, the persecuted Hebrew is supported by other
+means. He is sustained by a sublime religion. Obdurate, malignant,
+odious, and revolting as the lowest Jew appears to us, he is rarely
+demoralized. Beneath his own roof his heart opens to the influence of
+his beautiful Arabian traditions. All his ceremonies, his customs, and
+his festivals are still to celebrate the bounty of nature and the favour
+of Jehovah. The patriarchal feeling lingers about his hearth. A man,
+however fallen, who loves his home is not wholly lost. The trumpet of
+Sinai still sounds in the Hebrew ear, and a Jew is never seen upon the
+scaffold, unless it be at an _auto da fè_.
+
+But, having made this full admission of the partial degradation of the
+Jewish race, we are not prepared to agree that this limited degeneracy
+is any justification of the prejudices and persecution which originated
+in barbarous or mediæval superstitions. On the contrary, viewing the
+influence of the Jewish race upon the modern communities, without
+any reference to the past history or the future promises of Israel;
+dismissing from our minds and memories, if indeed that be possible, all
+that the Hebrews have done in the olden time for man and all which it
+may be their destiny yet to fulfil, we hold that instead of being an
+object of aversion, they should receive all that honour and favour from
+the northern and western races, which, in civilized and refined nations,
+should be the lot of those who charm the public taste and elevate the
+public feeling. We hesitate not to say that there is no race at this
+present, and following in this only the example of a long period, that
+so much delights, and fascinates, and elevates, and ennobles Europe, as
+the Jewish.
+
+We dwell not on the fact, that the most admirable artists of the drama
+have been and still are of the Hebrew race: or, that the most entrancing
+singers, graceful dancers, and exquisite musicians, are sons and
+daughters of Israel: though this were much. But these brilliant
+accessories are forgotten in the sublimer claim.
+
+It seems that the only means by which in these modern times we
+are permitted to develop the beautiful is music. It would appear
+definitively settled that excellence in the plastic arts is the
+privilege of the earlier ages of the world. All that is now produced
+in this respect is mimetic, and, at the best, the skilful adaptation
+of traditional methods. The creative faculty of modern man seems by an
+irresistible law at work on the virgin soil of science, daily increasing
+by its inventions our command over nature, and multiplying the material
+happiness of man. But the happiness of man is not merely material. Were
+it not for music, we might in these days say, the beautiful is dead.
+Music seems to be the only means of creating the beautiful, in which we
+not only equal, but in all probability greatly excel, the ancients. The
+music of modern Europe ranks with the transcendent creations of human
+genius; the poetry, the statues, the temples, of Greece. It produces and
+represents as they did whatever is most beautiful in the spirit of
+man and often expresses what is most profound. And who are the great
+composers, who hereafter will rank with Homer, with Sophocles, with
+Praxiteles, or with Phidias? They are the descendants of those Arabian
+tribes who conquered Canaan, and who by favour of the Most High have
+done more with less means even than the Athenians.
+
+Forty years ago--not a longer period than the children of Israel were
+wandering in the desert--the two most dishonoured races in Europe were
+the Attic and the Hebrew, and they were the two races that had done most
+for mankind. Their fortunes had some similarity: their countries were
+the two smallest in the world, equally barren and equally famous; they
+both divided themselves into tribes: both built a most famous temple on
+an acropolis; and both produced a literature which all European nations
+have accepted with reverence and admiration. Athens has been sacked
+oftener than Jerusalem, and oftener razed to the ground; but the
+Athenians have escaped expatriation, which is purely an Oriental custom.
+The sufferings of the Jews, however, have been infinitely more prolonged
+and varied than those of the Athenians. The Greek nevertheless appears
+exhausted. The creative genius of Israel, on the contrary, never shone
+so bright; and when the Russian, the Frenchman, and the Anglo-Saxon,
+amid applauding theatres or the choral voices of solemn temples, yield
+themselves to the full spell of a Mozart or a Mendelssohn, it seems
+difficult to comprehend how these races can reconcile it to their hearts
+to persecute a Jew.
+
+We have shown that the theological prejudice against the Jews has no
+foundation, historical or doctrinal; we have shown that the social
+prejudice, originating in the theological but sustained by superficial
+observations, irrespective of religious prejudice, is still more
+unjust, and that no existing race is so much entitled to the esteem
+and gratitude of society as the Hebrew. It remains for us to notice the
+injurious consequences to European society of the course pursued by
+the communities to this race; and this view of the subject leads us to
+considerations which it would become existing statesmen to ponder.
+
+The world has by this time discovered that it is impossible to destroy
+the Jews. The attempt to extirpate them has been made under the most
+favourable auspices and on the largest scale; the most considerable
+means that man could command have been pertinaciously applied to this
+object for the longest period of recorded time. Egyptian Pharaohs,
+Assyrian kings, Roman emperors, Scandinavian crusaders, Gothic princes,
+and holy inquisitors have alike devoted their energies to the fulfilment
+of this common purpose. Expatriation, exile, captivity, confiscation,
+torture on the most ingenious, and massacre on the most extensive,
+scale, with a curious system of degrading customs and debasing laws
+which would have broken the heart of any other people, have been tried,
+and in vain. The Jews, after all this havoc, are probably more numerous
+at this date than they were during the reign of Solomon the Wise, are
+found in all lands, and, unfortunately, prospering in most. All of which
+proves that it is in vain for man to attempt to battle the inexorable
+law of nature, which has decreed that a superior race shall never be
+destroyed or absorbed by an inferior.
+
+But the influence of a great race will be felt; its greatness does not
+depend upon its numbers, otherwise the English would not have vanquished
+the Chinese, nor would the Aztecs have been overthrown by Cortez and
+a handful of Goths. That greatness results from its organization, the
+consequences of which are shown in its energy and enterprise, in the
+strength of its will and the fertility of its brain. Let us observe
+what should be the influence of the Jews, and then ascertain how it
+is exercised. The Jewish race connects the modern populations with the
+early ages of the world, when the relations of the Creator with the
+created were more intimate than in these days, when angels visited
+the earth, and God himself even spoke with man. The Jews represent the
+Semitic principle; all that is spiritual in our nature. They are the
+trustees of tradition and the conservators of the religious element.
+They are a living and the most striking evidence of the falsity of that
+pernicious doctrine of modern times--the natural equality of man.
+The political equality of a particular race is a matter of municipal
+arrangement, and depends entirely on political considerations and
+circumstances; but the natural equality of man now in vogue, and taking
+the form of cosmopolitan fraternity, is a principle which, were it
+possible to act on it, would deteriorate the great races and destroy
+all the genius of the world. What would be the consequence on the great
+Anglo-Saxon republic, for example, were its citizens to secede from
+their sound principle of reserve, and mingle with their negro and
+coloured populations? In the course of time they would become so
+deteriorated that their states would probably be reconquered and
+regained by the aborigines whom they have expelled, and who would then
+be their superiors. But though nature will never ultimately permit this
+theory of natural equality to be practised, the preaching of this dogma
+has already caused much mischief, and may occasion much more. The native
+tendency of the Jewish race, who are justly proud of their blood, is
+against the doctrine of the equality of man. They have also another
+characteristic, the faculty of acquisition. Although the European
+laws have endeavoured to prevent their obtaining property, they have
+nevertheless become remarkable for their accumulated wealth. Thus
+it will be seen that all the tendencies of the Jewish race are
+conservative. Their bias is to religion, property, and natural
+aristocracy: and it should be the interest of statesmen that this bias
+of a great race should be encouraged, and their energies and creative
+powers enlisted in the cause of existing society.
+
+But existing society has chosen to persecute this race which should
+furnish its choice allies, and what have been the consequences?
+
+They may be traced in the last outbreak of the destructive principle in
+Europe. An insurrection takes place against tradition and aristocracy,
+against religion and property. Destruction of the Semitic principle,
+extirpation of the Jewish religion, whether in the Mosaic or in the
+Christian form, the natural equality of man, and the abrogation of
+property, are proclaimed by the secret societies who form provisional
+governments, and men of Jewish race are found at the head of every one
+of them. The people of God coöperate with atheists; the most skilful
+accumulators of property ally themselves with communists; the peculiar
+and chosen race touch the hand of all the scum and low castes of Europe!
+And all this because they wish to destroy that ungrateful Christendom
+which owes to them even its name, and whose tyranny they can no longer
+endure.
+
+When the secret societies, in February, 1848, surprised Europe, they
+were themselves surprised by the unexpected opportunity, and so little
+capable were they of seizing the occasion, that had it not been for the
+Jews, who of late years unfortunately have been connecting themselves
+with these unhallowed associations, imbecile as were the governments,
+the uncalled-for outbreak would not have ravaged Europe. But the fiery
+energy and the teeming resources of the children of Israel maintained
+for a long time the unnecessary and useless struggle. If the reader
+throw his eye over the provisional governments of Germany and Italy, and
+even of France, formed at that period, he will recognize everywhere the
+Jewish element. Even the insurrection, and defence, and administration
+of Venice, which, from the resource and statesmanlike moderation
+displayed, commanded almost the respect and sympathy of Europe, were
+accomplished by a Jew--Manini--who, by the bye, is a Jew who professes
+the whole of the Jewish religion, and believes in Calvary as well as
+Sinai,--‘a converted Jew,’ as the Lombards styled him, quite forgetting,
+in the confusion of their ideas, that it is the Lombards who are the
+converts--not Manini.
+
+Thus it will be seen, that the persecution of the Jewish race has
+deprived European society of an important conservative element, and
+added to the destructive party an influential ally. Prince Metternich,
+the most enlightened of modern statesmen, not to say the most
+intellectual of men, was, though himself a victim of the secret
+societies, fully aware of these premises. It was always his custom,
+great as were the difficulties which in so doing he had to encounter,
+to employ as much as possible the Hebrew race in the public service. He
+could never forget that Napoleon, in his noontide hour, had been checked
+by the pen of the greatest of political writers; he had found that
+illustrious author as great in the cabinet as in the study; he knew that
+no one had more contributed to the deliverance of Europe. It was not
+as a patron, but as an appreciating and devoted friend, that the
+High Chancellor of Austria appointed Frederick Gentz secretary to the
+Congress of Vienna--and Frederick Gentz was a child of Israel.
+
+It is no doubt to be deplored that several millions of the Jewish race
+should persist in believing in only a part of their religion; but this
+is a circumstance which does not affect Europe, and time, with different
+treatment, may remove the anomaly which perhaps may be accounted for. It
+should be recollected, that the existing Jews are perhaps altogether the
+descendants of those various colonies and emigrations which, voluntary
+or forced, long preceded the advent. Between the vast carnage of the
+Roman wars, from Titus to Hadrian, and the profession of Christ by his
+countrymen, which must have been very prevalent, since the Christian
+religion was solely sustained by the Jews of Palestine during the
+greater part of its first century, it is improbable that any descendants
+of the Jews of Palestine exist who disbelieve in Christ. After the fall
+of Jerusalem and the failure of Barchochebas, no doubt some portion of
+the Jews found refuge in the desert, returning to their original land
+after such long and strange vicissitudes. This natural movement would
+account for those Arabian tribes, of whose resistance to Mohammed we
+have ample and authentic details, and who, if we are to credit the
+accounts which perplex modern travellers, are to this day governed by
+the Pentateuch instead of the Koran.
+
+When Christianity was presented to the ancestors of the present Jews,
+it came from a very suspicious quarter, and was offered in a very
+questionable shape. Centuries must have passed in many instances before
+the Jewish colonies heard of the advent, the crucifixion, and the
+atonement; the latter, however, a doctrine in perfect harmony with
+Jewish ideas. When they first heard of Christianity, it appeared to be a
+Gentile religion, accompanied by idolatrous practices, from which severe
+monotheists, like the Arabians, always recoil, and holding the Jewish
+race up to public scorn and hatred. This is not the way to make
+converts.
+
+There have been two great colonies of the Jewish race in Europe; in
+Spain and in Sarmatia. The origin of the Jews in Spain is lost in
+the night of time. That it was of great antiquity we have proof. The
+tradition, once derided, that the Iberian Jews were a Phoenician colony
+has been favoured by the researches of modern antiquaries, who have
+traced the Hebrew language in the ancient names of the localities.
+It may be observed, however, that the languages of the Jews and the
+Philistines, or Phoenicians, were probably too similar to sanction any
+positive induction from such phenomena; while on the other hand, in
+reply to those who have urged the improbability of the Jews, who had no
+seaports, colonizing Spain, it may be remarked that the colony may
+have been an expatriation by the Philistines in the course of the long
+struggle which occurred between them and the invading tribes previous
+to the foundation of the Hebrew monarchy. We know that in the time of
+Cicero the Jews had been settled immemorially in Spain. When the Romans,
+converted to Christianity and acted on by the priesthood, began to
+trouble the Spanish Jews, it appears by a decree of Constantine that
+they were owners and cultivators of the soil, a circumstance which
+alone proves the antiquity and the nobility of their settlement, for
+the possession of the land is never conceded to a degraded race.
+The conquest of Spain by the Goths in the fifth and sixth centuries
+threatened the Spanish Jews, however, with more serious adversaries than
+the Romans. The Gothic tribes, very recently converted to their Syrian
+faith, were full of barbaric zeal against those whom they looked upon as
+the enemies of Jesus. But the Spanish Jews sought assistance from
+their kinsmen the Saracens on the opposite coast; Spain was invaded and
+subdued by the Moors, and for several centuries the Jew and the Saracen
+lived under the same benignant laws and shared the same brilliant
+prosperity. In the history of Spain during the Saracenic supremacy any
+distinction of religion or race is no longer traced. And so it came
+to pass that when at the end of the fourteenth century, after the fell
+triumph of the Dominicans over the Albigenses, the holy inquisition was
+introduced into Spain, it was reported to Torquemada that two-thirds of
+the nobility of Arragon, that is to say of the proprietors of the land,
+were Jews.
+
+All that these men knew of Christianity was, that it was a religion
+of fire and sword, and that one of its first duties was to avenge some
+mysterious and inexplicable crime which had been committed ages ago by
+some unheard of ancestors of theirs in an unknown land. The inquisitors
+addressed themselves to the Spanish Jews in the same abrupt and
+ferocious manner in which the monks saluted the Mexicans and the
+Peruvians. All those of the Spanish Jews, who did not conform after
+the fall of the Mohammedan kingdoms, were expatriated by the victorious
+Goths, and these refugees were the main source of the Italian Jews, and
+of the most respectable portion of the Jews of Holland. These exiles
+found refuge in two republics; Venice and the United Provinces. The
+Portuguese Jews, it is well known, came from Spain, and their ultimate
+expulsion from Portugal was attended by the same results as the Spanish
+expatriation.
+
+The other great division of Jews in Europe are the Sarmatian Jews, and
+they are very numerous. They amount to nearly three millions. These
+unquestionably entered Europe with the other Sarmatian nations,
+descending the Borysthenes and ascending the Danube, and are according
+to all probability the progeny of the expatriations of the times of
+Tiglath-Pileser and Nebuchadnezzar. They are the posterity of those
+‘devout men,’ Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, who were attending the
+festivals at Jerusalem at the time of the descent of the Holy Spirit.
+Living among barbarous pagans, who never molested them, these people
+went on very well, until suddenly the barbarous pagans, under the
+influence of an Italian priesthood, were converted to the Jewish
+religion, and then as a necessary consequence the converts began to
+harass, persecute, and massacre the Jews.
+
+These people had never heard of Christ. Had the Romans not destroyed
+Jerusalem, these Sarmatian Jews would have had a fair chance of
+obtaining from civilized beings some clear and coherent account of the
+great events which had occurred. They and their fathers before them
+would have gone up in customary pilgrimage to the central sacred place,
+both for purposes of devotion and purposes of trade, and they might have
+heard from Semitic lips that there were good tidings for Israel. What
+they heard from their savage companions, and the Italian priesthood
+which acted on them, was, that there were good tidings for all the world
+except Israel, and that Israel, for the commission of a great crime
+of which they had never heard and could not comprehend, was to be
+plundered, massacred, hewn to pieces, and burnt alive in the name of
+Christ and for the sake of Christianity.
+
+The Eastern Jews, who are very numerous, are in general the descendants
+of those who in the course of repeated captivities settled in the great
+Eastern monarchies, and which they never quitted. They live in the same
+cities and follow the same customs as they did in the days of Cyrus.
+They are to be found in Persia, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor; at Bagdad,
+at Hamadan, at Smyrna. We know from the Jewish books how very scant was
+the following which accompanied Esdras and Nehemiah back to Jerusalem.
+A fortress city, built on a ravine, surrounded by stony mountains and
+watered by a scanty stream, had no temptations after the gardens of
+Babylon and the broad waters of the Euphrates. But Babylon has vanished
+and Jerusalem remains, and what are the waters of Euphrates to the brook
+of Kedron! It is another name than that of Jesus of Nazareth with which
+these Jews have been placed in collision, and the Ishmaelites have not
+forgotten the wrongs of Hagar in their conduct to the descendants of
+Sarah.
+
+Is it therefore wonderful that a great portion of the Jewish race should
+not believe in the most important portion of the Jewish religion? As,
+however, the converted races become more humane in their behaviour to
+the Jews, and the latter have opportunity fully to comprehend and deeply
+to ponder over true Christianity, it is difficult to suppose that the
+result will not be very different. Whether presented by a Roman or
+Anglo-Catholic or Genevese divine, by pope, bishop, or presbyter, there
+is nothing, one would suppose, very repugnant to the feelings of a Jew
+when he learns that the redemption of the human race has been effected
+by the mediatorial agency of a child of Israel: if the ineffable mystery
+of the Incarnation be developed to him, he will remember that the
+blood of Jacob is a chosen and peculiar blood; and if so transcendent a
+consummation is to occur, he will scarcely deny that only one race could
+be deemed worthy of accomplishing it. There may be points of doctrine
+on which the northern and western races may perhaps never agree. The
+Jew like them may follow that path in those respects which reason and
+feeling alike dictate; but nevertheless it can hardly be maintained that
+there is anything revolting to a Jew to learn that a Jewess is the queen
+of heaven, or that the flower of the Jewish race are even now sitting on
+the right hand of the Lord God of Sabaoth.
+
+Perhaps, too, in this enlightened age, as his mind expands, and he takes
+a comprehensive view of this period of progress, the pupil of Moses may
+ask himself, whether all the princes of the house of David have done so
+much for the Jews as that prince who was crucified on Calvary. Had it
+not been for Him, the Jews would have been comparatively unknown, or
+known only as a high Oriental caste which had lost its country. Has not
+He made their history the most famous in the world? Has not He hung up
+their laws in every temple? Has not He vindicated all their wrongs?
+Has not He avenged the victory of Titus and conquered the Caesars? What
+successes did they anticipate from their Messiah? The wildest dreams of
+their rabbis have been far exceeded. Has not Jesus conquered Europe and
+changed its name into Christendom? All countries that refuse the cross
+wither, while the whole of the new world is devoted to the Semitic
+principle and its most glorious offspring the Jewish faith, and the time
+will come when the vast communities and countless myriads of America
+and Australia, looking upon Europe as Europe now looks upon Greece, and
+wondering how so small a space could have achieved such great deeds,
+will still find music in the songs of Sion and still seek solace in the
+parables of Galilee.
+
+These may be dreams, but there is one fact which none can contest.
+Christians may continue to persecute Jews, and Jews may persist in
+disbelieving Christians, but who can deny that Jesus of Nazareth, the
+Incarnate Son of the Most High God, is the eternal glory of the Jewish
+race?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+     _Jewish Disabilities_
+
+IT WOULD seem to follow from the views expressed in the preceding
+chaptet, that in communities professing a belief in our Lord, the
+Jewish race ought not to be subject to any legislative dishonour or
+disqualification. These views, however, were not those which influenced
+Lord George Bentinck in forming his opinion that the civil disabilities
+of those subjects of her Majesty who profess that limited belief in
+divine revelation which is commonly called the Jewish religion should
+be removed. He had supported a measure to this effect in the year
+1833, guided in that conduct by his devoted attachment to the equivocal
+principle of religious liberty, the unqualified application of which
+principle seems hardly consistent with that recognition of religious
+truth by the state to which we yet adhere, and without which it is
+highly probable that the northern and western races, after a disturbing
+and rapidly degrading period of atheistic anarchy, may fatally recur
+to their old national idolatries, modified and mythically dressed up
+according to the spirit of the age. It may be observed that the decline
+and disasters of modern communities have generally been relative to
+their degree of sedition against the Semitic principle. Since the great
+revolt of the Celts against the first and second testament, at the close
+of the last century, France has been alternately in a state of collapse
+or convulsion. Throughout the awful trials of the last sixty years,
+England, notwithstanding her deficient and meagre theology, has always
+remembered Sion. The great Transatlantic republic is intensely
+Semitic, and has prospered accordingly. This sacred principle alone has
+consolidated the mighty empire of all the Russias. How omnipotent it
+is cannot be more clearly shown than by the instance of Rome, where it
+appears in its most corrupt form. An old man on a Semitic throne baffles
+the modern Attilas, and the recent invasion of the barbarians, under the
+form of red republicans, socialists, communists, all different phases
+which describe the relapse of the once converted races into their
+primitive condition of savagery. Austria would long ago have dissolved
+but for the Semitic principle, and if the north of Germany has never
+succeeded in attaining that imperial position which seemed its natural
+destiny, it is that the north of Germany has never at any time been
+thoroughly converted. Some perhaps may point to Spain as a remarkable
+instance of decline in a country where the Semitic principle has
+exercised great influence. But the fall of Spain was occasioned by the
+expulsion of her Semitic population: a million families of Jews and
+Saracens, the most distinguished of her citizens for their industry and
+their intelligence, their learning and their wealth.
+
+It appears that Lord George Bentinck had offended some of his followers
+by an opinion expressed in his address to his constituency in ‘47, that
+in accordance with the suggestion of Mr. Pitt, some provision should
+be made for the Roman Catholic priesthood of Ireland out of the land.
+Although this opinion might offend the religious sentiments of some,
+and might be justly looked upon by others as a scheme ill-suited to the
+character of an age adverse to any further religious endowments, it must
+be acknowledged that no member of the Protectionist party had any just
+cause of complaint against Lord George for the expression of an opinion
+which he had always upheld, and of his constancy to which he had fairly
+given his friends notice. This was so generally felt that the repining
+died away. The Jewish question, as it was called, revived these
+religious emotions. These feelings, as springing from the highest
+sentiment of our nature, and founded, however mistaken in their
+application, on religious truth, are entitled to deep respect and
+tenderness; but no one can indulge them by the compromise of the highest
+principles, or by sanctioning a course which he really believes to be
+destructive of the very object which their votaries wish to cherish.
+
+As there are very few Englishmen of what is commonly called the Jewish
+faith, and as therefore it was supposed that political considerations
+could not enter into the question, it was hoped by many of the followers
+of Lord George Bentinck that he would not separate himself from his
+party on this subject, and very earnest requests and representations
+were made to him with that view. He was not insensible to them; he gave
+them prolonged and painful consideration; they greatly disquieted him.
+In his confidential correspondence he often recurs to the distress
+and anxiety which this question and its consequences as regarded his
+position with those friends to whom he was much attached occasioned him.
+It must not, therefore, be supposed that, in the line he ultimately
+took with reference to this question, he was influenced, as some have
+unkindly and unwarrantably fancied, by a self-willed, inexorable, and
+imperious spirit. He was no doubt, by nature, a proud man, inclined even
+to arrogance, and naturally impatient of contradiction; but two
+severe campaigns in the House of Commons had already mitigated these
+characteristics: he understood human nature, he was fond of his party,
+and, irrespective of other considerations, it pained his ardent and
+generous heart to mortify his comrades. It was therefore not in any
+degree from temper, but from principle,--from as pure, as high, and as
+noble a sense of duty as ever actuated a man in public life,--that Lord
+George Bentinck ultimately resolved that it was impossible for him
+to refuse to vote for the removal of what are commonly called Jewish
+disabilities. He had voted in this particular cause shortly after
+his entrance into public life; it was in accordance with that general
+principle of religious liberty to which he was an uncompromising
+adherent; it was in complete agreement with the understanding which
+subsisted between himself and the Protectionist party, when at their
+urgent request he unwillingly assumed the helm. He was entreated not to
+vote at all; to stay away, which the severe indisposition under which
+he was then labouring warranted. He did not rudely repulse these latter
+representations, as has been circulated. On the contrary, he listened
+to them with kindness, and was not uninfluenced by them. Enfeebled by
+illness, he had nearly brought himself to a compliance with a request
+urged with affectionate importunity, but from which his reason and sense
+of duty held him aloof. After long and deep and painful pondering, when
+the hour arrived, he rose from his bed of sickness, walked into the
+House of Commons, and not only voted, but spoke in favour of his
+convictions. His speech remains, one of the best ever delivered on the
+subject, not only full of weighty argument, but touched with a high and
+even tender vein of sentiment.
+
+This vote and speech of Lord George Bentinck no doubt mortified at the
+moment a considerable portion of his followers, and occasioned great
+dissatisfaction among a very respectable though limited section of
+them. This latter body must either have forgotten or they must have been
+strangely unacquainted with the distinct understanding on which Lord
+George had undertaken the lead of the party, or otherwise they could
+not have felt authorized in conveying to him their keen sense of
+disapprobation. Unfortunately he received this when the House had
+adjourned for the holidays, and when Mr. Bankes, who had been the organ
+of communication with him in ‘46, was in the country, and when the party
+was of course generally dispersed. Lord George did not take any pains to
+ascertain whether the representation which was made to him was that of
+the general feeling of a large party, or that only of a sincere, highly
+estimable, but limited section. He was enfeebled and exhausted by
+indisposition; he often felt, even when in health, that the toil of his
+life was beyond both his physical and moral energies; and though he was
+of that ardent and tenacious nature that he never would have complained,
+but have died at his post, the opportunity of release coming to him at
+a moment when he was physically prostrate was rather eagerly seized, and
+the world suddenly learnt at Christmas, with great astonishment, that
+the renowned leader of the Protectionist party had relinquished his
+trust.
+
+The numerous communications which he received must have convinced
+him that the assumed circumstances under which he acted had not been
+accurately appreciated by him. He was implored to reconsider his course,
+as one very detrimental to the cause to which he was devoted, and
+which would probably tend to the triumph of those whose policy he
+had attempted to defeat, and whose personal conduct he had at least
+succeeded in punishing.
+
+‘The prophesied time has come,’ he wrote to his friend Mr. Bankes, on
+the 23rd of December, 1847, ‘when I have ceased to be able to serve
+the party, the great cause of Protection, or my country, by any longer
+retaining the commission bestowed on me in the spring of 1846. You will
+remember, however, that when unfeignedly and honestly, but in vain,
+trying to escape from being raised to a position which I foresaw I must
+fail to maintain with advantage to you or honour to myself, I at last
+gave my consent, I only did so on the express understanding that my
+advancement should be held to be merely a pro tempore appointment,
+waiting till the country should have the opportunity of sending to
+Parliament other men better fitted to lead the country gentlemen of
+England. I have recalled these circumstances to your mind with no other
+purpose than that the party may feel how entirely free they are, without
+even the suspicion of doing an injustice to me or of showing me in
+this any disrespect, to remodel their arrangements, and to supersede my
+lieutenancy by the appointment of a superior and permanent commander.’
+
+And again on Christmas-day, to the same gentleman, in reply to an
+acknowledgment of the preceding, he says, while thanking Mr. Bankes
+‘for his warm-hearted letter as very grateful to his feelings,’--’
+Confidentially I tell you, that far from feeling in the least annoyed,
+I shall feel greatly relieved by a restoration to privacy and freedom. I
+worked upon my spirit in ‘46 and ‘47; but I have learnt now that I have
+shaken my constitution to the foundation, and I seriously doubt my being
+able to work on much longer.’
+
+He wrote on the 24th of December to one of his most intimate friends and
+warmest supporters, Mr. Christopher, the member for Lincolnshire, who
+had remonstrated with him as to his decision: ‘It is not in my nature to
+retain a station one moment after I get a hint even that any portion
+of those who raised me to it are wearied of seeing me there. The old
+members of the party will all recollect how clearly I foresaw and
+foretold that I should be found a very inconvenient as well as a very
+inefficient leader, so soon as the great Protection battle was brought
+to a close. I predicted all that has since occurred; and no one more
+cordially agrees than I do in the wisdom of the present decision, the
+spirit I presume of which is that no great party or large body of men
+can be successfully, or to any good purpose, led except by a man
+who heart and soul sympathizes with them in all their feelings,
+partialities, and prejudices. Cold reason has a poor chance against such
+influences. There can be no _esprit de corps_ and no zeal where there
+is not a union of prejudices as well as of commercial opinions. The
+election of a leader united with the great body of the party in these
+respects, will tend greatly to reunite its scattered particles, even on
+those questions where I shall be able to give my aid with all my wonted
+zeal, which will not be the less spirited because it will be free and
+independent.’
+
+At a later period, acknowledging an address signed by the great body
+of the Protectionist party, and presented to him by the present Earl
+Talbot, then a member of the House of Commons, Lord George wrote, ‘The
+considerations which obliged me to surrender a post of honour which
+every independent and high-minded English gentleman has at all times
+prized above the highest rewards in the gift of the crown, “the
+leadership of the country gentlemen of England,” will never influence
+me to swerve from any endeavours of which my poor abilities and bodily
+energies are capable in the promotion of the prosperity of all classes
+in the British empire at home and in the colonies, any more than
+they can ever make me forget the attachment, the friendship, and the
+enthusiastic support of those who stood by me to the end of the death
+struggle for British interests and for English good faith and political
+honour, and to whose continued friendship and constancy I know I am
+indebted for this graceful and grateful compliment.’
+
+If Lord George Bentinck was inexorable to the entreaties of his friends,
+it must not be supposed that he was influenced in the course which he
+pursued, as was presumed by many at the time not acquainted with the
+circumstances, by any feeling of pique or brooding sullenness. No
+high-spirited man under vexatious and distressing circumstances ever
+behaved with more magnanimity. In this he was actuated in a great degree
+by a sense of duty, but still more by that peculiar want of selfishness
+which was one of the most beautiful traits of his character. The moment
+he had at all recovered from the severe attack by which, to use his own
+language, he had been ‘struck down in the first week of the session,’
+and from the effects of which it may be doubted whether he ever entirely
+recovered, he laboured zealously to induce some competent person to
+undertake the office which he had thought it expedient to resign,
+offering in several instances to serve in the ranks, and to assist with
+his utmost energies, both in and out of the House, the individual who
+would undertake the responsible direction in the Commons.
+
+These efforts, though indefatigable, were not successful, for those who
+were competent to the office cared not to serve under any one except
+himself. About this time, a personage of great station, and who very
+much admired Lord George Bentinck, wrote to him, and recommended him
+not to trouble himself about the general discipline of the party, but
+to follow his own course, and lead that body of friends who under all
+circumstances would adhere to him, instancing the case of Mr. Canning,
+under circumstances not altogether dissimilar. Lord George replied: ‘As
+for my rallying a personal party round myself, as Mr. Canning did, I
+have no pretension to anything of the kind; when Mr. Canning did that,
+the House of Commons, and England too, acknowledged him to be the
+greatest orator who had survived Pitt and Fox; he had been Secretary of
+State for foreign affairs, and had taken a conspicuous part in rousing
+the country to carry on the war against France.’
+
+The nature of the subject, dealing as it necessarily does with so
+many personal details, renders it impossible to make public the
+correspondence in which Lord George Bentinck was engaged at this time in
+his attempts to place the Protectionist party under the guidance of one
+who would unite all sympathies; but were that publication possible, it
+would place Lord George Bentinck in a very noble and amiable light, and
+prove a gentleness and softness in his nature for which those who were
+not very intimate with him did not give him credit. Not that it must be
+for a moment supposed that he was insensible to what was occurring. He
+was the most sensitive as well as the proudest of men. When the writer
+called at Harcourt House, to bid him farewell, before the Christmas
+holidays, and, conversing very frankly on the course which he was then
+pursuing, inquired as to his future proceedings, Lord George said with
+emotion: ‘In this cause I have shaken my constitution and shortened
+my days, and I will succeed or die.’ In the course of the year 1848,
+walking home, talking together, from the House of Commons, he twice
+recurred to this terrible alternative.
+
+But all considerations were merged at this moment in the predominant one
+which was to keep the party together. He wrote to a friend at the end of
+January, who urged him, as the hour of work approached and the injurious
+inconveniences of his abdication would be more felt, to confer with his
+former followers and reconsider his position, that no personal feeling
+prevented his taking that course, but that he felt any resumption of
+responsibility on his part would not be pleasing to a section of those
+who formerly served with him, and that there would be a ‘split’ in the
+ranks. ‘As far as I am personally concerned,’ he added, ‘I could submit
+to anything short of having my ears cut off and appearing as a “Croppy,”
+ to be free again. My pride cannot stand leading an unwilling party; I
+would just as soon thrust myself into a dinner-room where I was at once
+an uninvited and an unwelcome guest.’
+
+In the meantime, according to his custom, the moment that he had
+sufficiently recovered from his illness, he prepared with the utmost
+zeal for the coming struggle respecting the fate of our sugar colonies,
+in which subject he was soon absorbed.
+
+Parliament reassembled on the 3rd of February, and on that night Lord
+George Bentinck brought forward his motion for ‘a select committee
+to inquire into the present condition and prospects of the interests
+connected with and dependent on sugar and coffee planting in her
+Majesty’s East and West Indian possessions and the Mauritius, and to
+consider whether any and what measures can be adopted by Parliament for
+their relief.’ When he entered the House, Lord George walked up to the
+head of the second bench below the gangway, on the opposition side,
+and thus significantly announced that he was no longer the responsible
+leader of the Protectionist party. It was the wish of the writer of
+these pages, who had resolved to stand or fall by him, to have followed
+his example and to have abdicated the prominent seat in which the writer
+had been unwillingly and fortuitously placed; but by the advice, or
+rather at the earnest request, of Lord George Bentinck, this course was
+relinquished as indicative of schism, which he wished to discourage; and
+the circumstance is only mentioned as showing that Lord George was not
+less considerate at this moment of the interests of the Protectionist
+party than when he led them with so much confidence and authority.
+The session, however, was to commence without a leader, without any
+recognized organ of communication between parties, or any responsible
+representative of opinion in debate. All again was chaos. There is,
+however, something so vital in the Conservative party that it seems
+always to rally under every disadvantage.
+
+Lord George spoke well to his resolution: the House soon recognized
+he was master of his case, and though few foresaw at the moment the
+important consequences to which this motion would lead, the House was
+interested from the first; and though there was no division, the debate
+lasted two days, and was sustained on both sides with great animation.
+
+The mover vindicated himself very successfully for only proposing a
+committee of inquiry. ‘It has been represented to me,’ he said, ‘by the
+colonies and by persons in this country who are interested in them, that
+the course which I am proposing is not consistent with the necessities
+of the case; that there is something pusillanimous in the motion which
+I am going to make; that in point of fact the interests connected with
+sugar and coffee planting are in extremis; and that while the question
+of their redress is being discussed in a committee above-stairs, these
+great interests will perish. They say to me that a committee of inquiry
+will be to them of the nature of that comfort which,
+
+     “Like cordials after death, come late; ”
+
+and that before the committee shall have reported, the West-Indian
+interest will be altogether past recovery. But, sir, it is for me to
+consider what my power is to obtain any substantial relief by a direct
+vote of this House; and when I remember that in July, 1846, I moved a
+resolution the purport of which was, to maintain the protection for
+the West-Indian and the East-Indian free-labour colonies which they now
+seek, and that I had but one hundred and thirty gentlemen to support me,
+while two hundred and sixty-five votes were recorded in favour of the
+measure of the Government admitting slave-labour sugar, I feel that it
+is hopeless for me to endeavour in this House, where I have no reason
+to suppose any addition has been made to the members acquiescing in my
+views, to convert that minority into a majority; and more especially
+when I recollect that on that occasion but five gentlemen connected with
+the West-Indian and East-Indian interests recorded their votes with me,
+I think the West-Indian interest has not a good case against me when
+they blame me for not taking a more resolute step on this occasion.’
+
+He was not, however, without hope from the course which he had decided
+to pursue. ‘Looking, as I have done, at the deplorable state of the
+West Indies, the East Indies, and the Mauritius, and holding, as I do,
+in my hand a list of forty-eight great houses in England--twenty-six
+of the first commercial houses in London, sixteen in Liverpool, and six
+elsewhere--which have failed, and whose liabilities amount in the whole
+to £6,300,000 and upwards, none of which I believe would have fallen had
+it not been for the ruin brought upon them by the change in the sugar
+duties and the consequent reduction in the price of their produce,--I
+do hope, through the intervention of a committee of this House, I may be
+able to prevail upon the House to change its policy with regard to this
+great question.’
+
+Lord George was supported in this debate by Mr. Thomas Baring, in one
+of the best speeches ever made in the House of Commons. Few more combine
+mastery of the case with parliamentary point than this gentleman. It is
+not impossible to find a man capable of addressing the House of Commons
+who understands the subject; it is not impossible to find a man who
+can convey his impressions on any subject to the House in a lively and
+captivating manner, though both instances are rarer than the world would
+imagine; but a man who at the same time understands a question and can
+handle it before a popular assembly in a popular style, who teaches
+without being pedantic, can convey an argument in an epigram, and
+instruct as the Mexicans did by picture, possesses a talent for the
+exercise of which he is responsible to his sovereign and his country.
+
+Mr. Baring said that he could not perfectly agree either with Lord John
+Russell or Lord George Bentinck, that Protection or Free Trade must be
+in what they called a circle, round which in their legislation they must
+always move; that they must either give protection to everything or
+free trade to everything. He could not say that because sugar claimed
+protection, coals must have protection also. Neither would he, on the
+other hand, apply free trade to every article. He acknowledged the
+advantage of competition as a stimulus: he thought that, placing things
+on equal grounds, competition was undoubtedly a great advantage. He
+could understand a competition to try the mutual speed of race-horses;
+but there could be no competition between a race-horse and a
+steam-engine, for the power of the animal could bear no comparison with
+that of the machine!
+
+Mr. Baring could look back to no legislation more humiliating than the
+legislation regarding our colonies. No great interest was ever so much
+trifled with, so much sacrificed to the cry of the day; at one moment to
+no slavery and another to cheap sugar.
+
+The committee was granted, and it was generally felt that the question
+was consequently quieted for the session.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+     _Leader Perforce_
+
+DURING the first six weeks of this famous committee the attendance
+of its members was not very regular, and its labours attracted little
+attention. The evidence on the East-India part of the question was
+closed and reported to the House by the end of February; after that
+period the evidence was reported to the House every week or ten
+days. Towards the end of March, rumours began to circulate of the
+extraordinary vigour and ability with which this investigation was
+pursued, and of the novel, authentic, and striking evidence that had
+been elicited. The proceedings were talked of in the House of Commons
+and on the Royal Exchange; the City men who were examined went back
+to their companions with wondrous tales of the energy and acuteness
+of Harcourt House, and the order, method, and discipline of the
+committee-room at Westminster. As time elapsed, the hopes of the
+colonial interest again revived. It was generally felt that Lord George
+had succeeded in establishing an irresistible case. It was rumoured that
+the government could not withstand it. Those who had originally murmured
+at the course which he had adopted of moving for a committee of inquiry,
+instead of proposing a specific measure of relief, and had treated an
+investigation as a mere means of securing inaction, now recanted their
+rash criticism, and did justice to his prescience and superior judgment,
+as well as to his vast information and indefatigable exertions. The week
+during which the committee sat on their report was a very anxious
+one; the divisions were known every day in the House of Commons; the
+alternations of success and discomfiture, and the balanced numbers that
+so often called for the interposition of the chairman, were calculated
+to sustain the excitement; and when, on the 29th of May, it was known
+that the report was at length agreed to, and that a committee of free
+traders had absolutely recommended a differential duty of 10s. in favour
+of our own produce, one might have fancied from the effect visibly
+produced, that a government was changed.
+
+A few days before--it was the day after the Derby, May 25th--the writer
+met Lord George Ben-tinck in the library of the House of Commons. He
+was standing before the book-shelves, with a volume in his hand, and
+his countenance was greatly disturbed. His resolutions in favour of
+the colonial interest after all his labours had been negatived by the
+committee on the 22nd, and on the 24th, his horse Surplice, whom he
+had parted with among the rest of his stud, solely that he might pursue
+without distraction his labours on behalf of the great interests of the
+country, had won that paramount and Olympian stake, to gain which had
+been the object of his life. He had nothing to console him, and nothing
+to sustain him except his pride. Even that deserted him before a heart
+which he knew at least could yield him sympathy. He gave a sort of
+superb groan:--
+
+‘All my life I have been trying for this, and for what have I sacrificed
+it!’ he murmured.
+
+It was in vain to offer solace.
+
+‘You do not know what the Derby is,’ he moaned out.
+
+‘Yes, I do; it is the blue ribbon of the turf.’
+
+‘It is the blue ribbon of the turf,’ he slowly repeated to himself, and
+sitting down at the table, he buried himself in a folio of statistics.
+
+But on Monday, the 29th, when the resolution in favour of a 10s.
+differential duty for the colonies had at the last moment been carried,
+and carried by his casting vote, ‘the blue ribbons of the turf were all
+forgotten. Not for all the honours and successes of all the meetings,
+spring or autumn, Newmarket, Epsom, Goodwood, Doncaster, would he have
+exchanged that hour of rapture. His eye sparkled with fire, his nostril
+dilated with triumph, his brow was elate like a conqueror, his sanguine
+spirit saw a future of continued and illimitable success.
+
+‘We have saved the colonies,’ he said,--‘saved the colonies. I knew it
+must be so. It is the knell of free trade.’
+
+Notwithstanding the formal renunciation of the leadership of the
+Protectionist party by Lord George Bentinck, it was soon evident to the
+House and the country that that renunciation was merely formal. In these
+days of labour, the leader of a party must be the man who does the work,
+and that work cannot now be accomplished without the devotion of a life.
+Whenever a great question arose, the people out of doors went to Lord
+George Bentinck, and when the discussion commenced, he was always found
+to be the man armed with the authority of knowledge. There was, however,
+no organized debate and no party discipline. No one was requested to
+take a part, and no attendance was ever summoned. The vast majority
+sitting on the Protectionist benches always followed Bentinck, who,
+whatever might be his numbers in the lobby, always made a redoubtable
+stand in the House. The situation however, it cannot be denied, was a
+dangerous one for a great party to persevere in, but no permanent damage
+accrued, because almost every one hoped that before the session was
+over, the difficulty would find a natural solution in the virtual chief
+resuming his formal and responsible post. Notwithstanding his labours on
+the two great committees of the year--those on colonial and commercial
+distress,--Lord George Bentinck found time to master the case of the
+shipping interest when the navigation laws were attacked, to impugn in
+a formal motion the whole of the commercial policy of Sir Robert Peel,
+even while the sugar and coffee planting committee was still sitting,
+and to produce, early in March, a rival budget. It was mainly through
+the prolonged resistance which he organized against the repeal of the
+navigation laws, that the government, in 1848, was forced to abandon
+their project. The resistance was led with great ability by Mr. Herries,
+and the whole party put forward their utmost strength to support him.
+But it is very difficult to convey a complete picture of the laborious
+life of Lord George Bentinck during the sitting of Parliament.
+At half-past nine o’clock there called upon him the commercial
+representatives of the question of the day; after these conferences came
+his elaborate and methodical correspondence, all of which he carried
+on himself in a handwriting clear as print, and never employing a
+secretary; at twelve or one o’clock he was at a committee, and he only
+left the committee-room to take his seat in the House of Commons, which
+he never quitted till the House adjourned, always long past midnight,
+and often at two o’clock in the morning. Here he was ready for all
+comers, never omitting an opportunity to vindicate his opinions, or
+watching with lynx-like vigilance the conduct of a public office. What
+was not his least remarkable trait is, that although he only breakfasted
+on dry toast, he took no sustenance all this time, dining at White’s
+at half-past two o’clock in the morning. After his severe attack of
+the influenza he broke through this habit a little during the last
+few months of his life, moved by the advice of his physician and the
+instance of his friends. The writer of these observations prevailed
+upon him a little the last year to fall into the easy habit of dining
+at Bellamy’s, which saves much time, and permits the transaction of
+business in conversation with a congenial friend. But he grudged it:
+he always thought that something would be said or done in his absence,
+which would not have occurred had he been there; some motion whisked
+through, or some return altered. His principle was that a member should
+never be absent from his seat.
+
+The session of ‘48 had been one of unexampled length, having lasted ten
+months, and, as usual under such circumstances, the obstacles to the
+transaction of public business were sought everywhere except in the
+real quarter. The forms of the House and the propensity to unnecessary
+discussion among its members were chiefly denounced. Lord George
+Bentinck did not agree in the justness of these criminations; they were
+eagerly caught by the thoughtless and the superficial, but it was his
+habit to investigate and analyze everything, and he found that these
+charges had no basis. The forms of the House of Commons are the
+result of accumulated experience and have rarely been tampered with
+successfully, while on the other hand a parliamentary government is by
+name and nature essentially a government of discussion. It is not at all
+difficult to conceive a mode of governing a country more expeditious
+than by a parliament; but where truth as well as strength is held to
+be an essential element of legislation, opinion must be secured an
+unrestricted organ. Superfluity of debate may often be inconvenient to
+a minister, and sometimes perhaps even distasteful to the community;
+but criticizing such a security for justice and liberty as a free-spoken
+parliament is like quarrelling with the weather because there is too
+much rain or too much sunshine. The casual inconvenience should be
+forgotten in the permanent blessing. Acting upon these false imputations
+a committee was even appointed, two years ago, of the most eminent
+members of the House of Commons, to investigate the subject and suggest
+remedies, and some votaries of the Transatlantic type recommended the
+adoption of the rules of Congress where each speaker is limited to
+an hour. But an hour from an uninteresting speaker would be a great
+infliction. The good sense and the good taste of the House of Commons
+will be found on the whole to be the best regulators of the duration of
+a debate.
+
+The truth is that the delay in the conduct of parliamentary business
+which has been much complained of during the last few years, murmurs of
+which were especially rife in 1848, is attributable to the fact that the
+ministry, though formed of men inferior in point of ability to none who
+could be reasonably intrusted with administration, had not
+sufficient parliamentary strength. After all their deliberations and
+foresight,--after all their observations of the times and study of the
+public interest, their measures when launched from the cabinet into the
+House were not received by a confiding majority, firm in their faith
+in the statesmanlike qualities of the authors of these measures and in
+their sympathy with the general political system of which the ministry
+was the representative. On the contrary, the success of the measures
+depended on a* variety of sections who in their aggregate exceeded in
+number and influence the party of the ministers. These became critics
+and took the ministerial measures in hand; the measures became, the
+measures, not of the cabinet, but of the House of Commons; and a purely
+legislative assembly became, in consequence of the weakness of the
+government, yearly more administrative. This was undoubtedly a great
+evil, and occasioned, besides great delay, many crude enactments, as
+will be the case where all are constructors and none are responsible,
+but the evil was not occasioned by the forms of the House or the
+length of the speeches. Sir Robert Peel was unquestionably a very able
+administrator, but if he had not had a majority of ninety he would
+have fallen in as ill repute as has been too often the lot of Lord John
+Russell.
+
+Lord George Bentinck was very anxious that there should be a
+parliamentary summary of this enormous and eventful session of ‘48, that
+the conduct of business by the ministry should be traced and criticized
+and the character of the House of Commons vindicated, and he appealed to
+the writer of these observations to undertake the task. But the writer
+was unwilling to accede to this suggestion, not only because at the end
+of August he shrank from a laborious effort, but principally because he
+did not hold that his position in the House of Commons warranted on his
+part such an interference, since, after all, he was only the comrade in
+arms of one who chose to be only an independent member of the House. He
+therefore unaffectedly stated that he thought the office was somewhat
+above his measure. But Lord George Bentinck would not listen to these
+representations. ‘I don’t pretend to know much,’ he said, ‘but I can
+judge of men and horses.’ It is difficult to refuse those who are
+themselves setting a constant example of self-sacrifice, and therefore,
+so far as the labour was concerned, the writer would not have shrunk
+from the exertion even on the last day of the month of August, and when
+the particular wish of Lord George was found to be more general than the
+writer presumed to suppose, he accordingly endeavoured to accomplish the
+intention.
+
+Three or four days after this, the writer, about to leave London, called
+at Harcourt House, to say farewell to his comrade in arms. He
+passed with Lord George the whole morning, rather indulging in the
+contemplation of the future than in retrospect. Lord George was serene,
+cheerful, and happy. He was content with himself, which was rarely the
+case, and remembered nothing of his career but its distinction, and the
+ennobling sense of having done his duty.
+
+Any misunderstandings that may have for a moment irritated him seemed
+forgotten; he appeared conscious that he possessed the confidence
+and cordial regard of the great majority of the Protectionist party,
+although he chose to occupy a private post, and he was proud of the
+consciousness. He was still more sensible of the sympathy which he had
+created out of doors, which he greatly appreciated, and to which, though
+with his usual modesty, he more than once recurred. ‘The thing is
+to get the people out of doors with you,’ he repeated, ‘men like the
+merchants; all the rest follow.’ It was evident that the success of his
+colonial committee had greatly satisfied his spirit. He had received
+that day the vote of thanks of the West-India body for his exertions.
+He said more than once, that with a weak government, a parliamentary
+committee properly worked might do wonders. He said he would have a
+committee on import duties next year, and have all the merchants to show
+what share the foreigners had obtained of the reductions that had been
+made of late years. He maintained, that, quite irrespective of the
+general arrangements of the new commercial system, Sir Robert Peel had
+thrown away a great revenue on a number of articles of very inferior
+importance, and he would prove this to the country. He said our colonial
+empire ought to be reconstructed by a total abolition of all duties on
+produce from her Majesty’s dominions abroad.
+
+All his ideas were large, clear, and coherent. He dwelt much on the
+vicissitudes which most attend all merely foreign trade, which, though
+it should be encouraged, ought not to be solely relied on, as was the
+fashion of this day. Looking upon war as occasionally inevitable, he
+thought a commercial system based upon the presumption of perpetual
+peace to be full of ruin. His policy was essentially imperial and not
+cosmopolitan.
+
+About to part probably for many months, and listening to him as he
+spoke, according to his custom, with so much fervour and sincerity, one
+could not refrain from musing over his singular and sudden career. It
+was not three years since he had in an instant occupied the minds
+of men. No series of parliamentary labours had ever produced so much
+influence in the country in so short a time. Never was a reputation so
+substantial built up in so brief a period. AH the questions with which
+he had dealt were colossal questions: the laws that should regulate
+competition between native and foreign labour; the interference of the
+state in the development of the resources of Ireland; the social and
+commercial condition of our tropical colonies; the principles upon which
+our revenue should be raised; the laws which should regulate and protect
+our navigation. But it was not that he merely expressed opinions
+upon these subjects; he came forward with details in support of his
+principles and policy, which it had before been believed none but a
+minister could command. Instead of experiencing the usual and almost
+inevitable doom of private members of Parliament, and having his
+statements shattered by official information, Lord George Bentinck on
+the contrary, was the assailant, and the successful assailant, of
+an administration on these very heads. He often did their work more
+effectually than all their artificial training enabled them to do it.
+His acute research, and his peculiar sources of information, roused
+the vigilance of all the public offices of the country. Since his time,
+there has been more care in preparing official returns, and in arranging
+the public correspondence placed on the table of the House of Commons.
+
+When one remembered that in this room, not three years ago, he was
+trying to find a lawyer who would make a speech for him in Parliament,
+it was curious to remember that no one in the period had probably
+addressed the House of Commons oftener. Though his manner, which was
+daily improving, was not felicitous in the House, the authority of his
+intellect, his knowledge, and his character, made him one of the great
+personages of debate; but with the country who only read his speeches
+he ranked high as an orator. It is only those who have had occasion
+critically to read and examine the long series of his speeches who can
+be conscious of their considerable merits. The information is always
+full and often fresh, the scope large, the argument close, and the
+style, though simple, never bald, but vigorous, idiomatic, and often
+picturesque. He had not credit for this in his day, but the passages
+which have been quoted in this sketch will prove the justness of this
+criticism. As a speaker and writer, his principal need was condensation.
+He could not bear that anything should remain untold. He was deficient
+in taste, but he had fervour of feeling, and was by no means void of
+imagination.
+
+The writer, in his frequent communications with him of faithful and
+unbounded confidence, was often reminded of the character by Mr. Burke
+of my Lord Keppell.
+
+The labours of Lord George Bentinck had been supernatural, and one ought
+perhaps to have felt then that it was impossible they could be continued
+on such a scale of exhaustion; but no friend could control his eager
+life in this respect; he obeyed the law of his vehement and fiery
+nature, being one of those men who in whatever they undertake know no
+medium, but will ‘succeed or die.’
+
+But why talk here and now of death! He goes to his native county and his
+father’s proud domain, to breathe the air of his boyhood and move amid
+the parks and meads of his youth. Every breeze will bear health, and the
+sight of every hallowed haunt will stimulate his pulse. He is scarcely
+older than Julius Cæsar when he commenced his public career, he looks as
+high and brave, and he springs from a long-lived race.
+
+He stood upon the _perron_ of Harcourt House, the last of the great
+hotels of an age of stately dwellings with its wings, and court-yard,
+and carriage portal, and huge outward walls. He put forth his hand to
+bid farewell, and his last words were characteristic of the man--of his
+warm feelings and of his ruling passion: ‘God bless you; we must work,
+and the country will come round us.’
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+     _The Curtain Falls_
+
+
+
+THE heavens darken; a new character enters upon the scene.
+
+They say that when great men arise they have a mission to accomplish
+and do not disappear until it is fulfilled. Yet this is not always true.
+After all his deep study and his daring action Mr. Hampden died on an
+obscure field, almost before the commencement of that mighty struggle
+which he seemed born to direct. In the great contention between the
+patriotic and the cosmopolitan principle which has hardly begun, and
+on the issue of which the fate of this island as a powerful community
+depends, Lord George Ben-tinck appeared to be produced to represent the
+traditionary influences of our country in their most captivating form.
+Born a natural leader of the people, he was equal to the post. Free from
+prejudices, his large mind sympathized with all classes of the realm.
+His courage and his constancy were never surpassed by man. He valued
+life only as a means of fulfilling duty, and truly it may be said of
+him, that he feared none but God.
+
+A few days after the interview noticed in the last chapter, Lord George
+Bentinck returned to Welbeck. Some there were who thought him worn by
+the exertions of the session, and that an unusual pallor had settled
+upon that mantling and animated countenance. He himself never felt in
+better health or was ever in higher spirits, and greatly enjoyed the
+change of life, and that change to a scene so dear to him.
+
+On the 21 st of September, after breakfasting with his family, he
+retired to his room, where he employed himself With some papers, and
+then wrote three letters, one to Lord Enfield, another to the Duke of
+Richmond, and the third to the writer of these pages. That letter is
+now at hand; it is of considerable length, consisting of seven sheets of
+note-paper, full of interesting details of men and things, and written
+not only in a cheerful but even a merry mood. Then, when his letters
+were sealed, about four o’clock he took his staff and went forth to
+walk to Thoresby, the seat of Lord Manvers, distant between five and six
+miles from Welbeck, where Lord George was to make a visit of two days.
+In consequence of this his valet drove over to Thoresby at the same time
+to meet his master. But the master never came. Hours passed on and the
+master never came. At length the anxious servant returned to Welbeck,
+and called up the groom who had driven him over to Thoresby and who was
+in bed, and inquired whether he had seen anything of Lord George on the
+way back, as his lord had never reached Thoresby. The groom got up, and
+accompanied by the valet and two others took lanthorns, and followed
+the footpath which they had seen Lord George pursuing as they themselves
+went to Thoresby.
+
+About a mile from the Abbey, on the path which they had observed him
+following, lying close to the gate which separates a water meadow from
+the deer-park, they found the body of Lord George Bentinck. He was lying
+on his face; his arms were under his body, and in one hand he grasped
+his walking-stick. His hat was a yard or two before him, having
+evidently been thrown off in falling. The body was cold and stiff. He
+had been long dead.
+
+A woodman and some peasants passing near the spot, about two hundred
+yards from the gate in question, had observed Lord George, whom at the
+distance they had mistaken for his brother the Marquis of Titchfield,
+leaning against this gate. It was then about half-past four o’clock, or
+it might be a quarter to five, so he could not have left his home much
+more than half an hour. The woodman and his companions thought ‘the
+gentleman’ was reading, as he held his head down. One of them lingered
+for a minute looking at the gentleman, who then turned round, and might
+have seen these passers-by, but he made no sign to them.
+
+Thus it seems that the attack, which was supposed to be a spasm of the
+heart, was not instantaneous in its effects, but with proper remedies
+might have been baffled. Terrible to think of him in his death-struggle
+without aid, and so near a devoted hearth! For that hearth, too, what an
+impending future!
+
+The terrible news reached Nottingham on the morning of the 22nd, at
+half-past nine o’clock, and, immediately telegraphed to London,
+was announced by a second edition of the ‘Times’ to the country.
+Consternation and deep grief fell upon all men. One week later, the
+remains arrived from Welbeck at Harcourt House, to be entombed in the
+family vault of the Bentincks, that is to be found in a small building
+in a dingy street, now a chapel of ease, but in old days the parish
+church among the fields of the pretty village of Marylebone.
+
+The day of interment was dark, and cold, and drizzling. Although the
+last offices were performed in the most scrupulously private manner, the
+feelings of the community could not be repressed. From nine till eleven
+o’clock that day all the British shipping in the docks and the river,
+from London Bridge to Gravesend, hoisted their flags half-mast high,
+and minute guns were fired from appointed stations along the Thames.
+The same mournful ceremony was observed in all the ports of England and
+Ireland; and not only in these, for the flag was half-mast high on every
+British ship at Antwerp, at Rotterdam, and at Havre.
+
+Ere the last minute gun sounded, all was over. Followed to his tomb by
+those brothers who, if not consoled, might at this moment be sustained
+by the remembrance that to him they had ever been brothers not only in
+name but in spirit, the vault at length closed on the mortal remains of
+_George Bentinck_.
+
+One who stood by his side in an arduous and unequal struggle, who often
+shared his councils and sometimes perhaps soothed his cares, who knew
+well the greatness of his nature and esteemed his friendship among
+the chief of worldly blessings, has stepped aside from the strife and
+passion of public life to draw up this record of his deeds and thoughts,
+that those who come after us may form some conception of his character
+and career, and trace in these faithful though imperfect pages the
+portraiture of an _English Worthy_.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg’s Lord George Bentinck, by Benjamin Disraeli
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord George Bentinck, by Benjamin Disraeli
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Lord George Bentinck
+       A Political Biography
+
+Author: Benjamin Disraeli
+
+Release Date: December 3, 2006 [EBook #20007]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD GEORGE BENTINCK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LORD GEORGE BENTINCK
+
+A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
+
+By Benjamin Disraeli
+
+
+
+'He left us the legacy of heroes: the memory of his great name and the
+inspiration of his great example.'
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+LORD HENRY BENTINCK,
+
+IS INSCRIBED
+
+This Political Biography
+
+ONE FOR WHOM HE ENTERTAINED A DEEP AFFECTION,
+
+AND WHOSE TALENTS AND VIRTUES
+
+HE SHARES.
+
+
+
+LORD GEORGE BENTINCK
+
+A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
+
+[Illustration: bentink-page009]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     _The Man_
+
+THE political career of Lord George Bentinck was peculiar. He had, to
+use his own expression, 'sate in eight Parliaments without having taken
+part in any great debate,' when remarkable events suddenly impelled him
+to advance and occupy not only a considerable but a leading position
+in our public affairs. During three years, under circumstances of great
+difficulty, he displayed some of the highest qualities of political
+life: courage and a lofty spirit; a mastery of details which experience
+usually alone confers; a quick apprehension and a clear intelligence;
+indomitable firmness; promptness, punctuality, and perseverance which
+never failed; an energy seldom surpassed; and a capacity for labour
+which was perhaps never equalled. At the very moment when he had
+overcome many contrarieties and prejudices; when he had been most
+successful in the House of Commons, and, sustained only by his own
+resources, had considerably modified the legislation of the government
+which he opposed on a measure of paramount importance; when the nation,
+which had long watched him with interest, began to congratulate itself
+on the devotion of such a man to the business of the country, he was in
+an instant taken from us. Then it was that, the memory of the past and
+the hope of the future blending together, all men seemed to mourn over
+this untimely end, and there was that pang in the public heart which
+accompanies the unexpected disappearance of a strong character.
+
+What manner of man this was, who thus on a sudden in the middle term of
+life relinquished all the ease and pleasure of a patrician existence to
+work often eighteen hours daily, not for a vain and brilliant notoriety,
+which was foreign alike both to his tastes and his turn of mind, but for
+the advancement of principles, the advocacy of which in the chief scene
+of his efforts was sure to obtain for him only contention and unkindly
+feelings; what were his motives, purposes and opinions; how and why
+did he labour; what were the whole scope and tendency of this original,
+vigorous, and self-schooled intelligence; these would appear to be
+subjects not unworthy of contemplation, and especially not uninteresting
+to a free and political community.
+
+The difficulty of treating cotemporary characters and events has been
+ever acknowledged; but it may be doubted whether the difficulty is
+diminished when we would commemorate the men and things that have
+preceded us. The cloud of passion in the first instance, or in the
+other the mist of time, may render it equally hard and perplexing to
+discriminate.
+
+It should not be forgotten that the most authentic and interesting
+histories are those which have been composed by actors in the
+transactions which they record. The cotemporary writer who is personally
+familiar with his theme has unquestionably a great advantage; but it is
+assumed that his pen can scarcely escape the bias of private friendship
+or political connection. Yet truth, after all, is the sovereign passion
+of mankind; nor is the writer of these pages prepared to relinquish his
+conviction that it is possible to combine the accuracy of the present
+with the impartiality of the future.
+
+Lord George Bentinck had sat for eighteen years in Parliament, and,
+before he entered it, had been for three years private secretary to Mr.
+Canning, who had married the sister of the Duchess of Portland. Such a
+post would seem a happy commencement of a public career; but whether
+it were the untimely death of his distinguished relative, or a natural
+indisposition, Lord George--though he retained the seat for King's
+Lynn, in which he had succeeded his uncle, the late governor-general of
+India--directed his energies to other than parliamentary pursuits. For
+some time he had followed his profession, which was that of arms, but
+of late years he had become absorbed in the pastime and fortunes of the
+turf, in which his whole being seemed engrossed, and which he pursued on
+a scale that perhaps has never been equalled.
+
+Lord George had withdrawn his support from the government of the Duke of
+Wellington, when the friends of Mr. Canning quitted that administration;
+and when in time they formed not the least considerable portion of the
+cabinet of Lord Grey, he resumed his seat on the ministerial benches. On
+that occasion an administrative post was offered him and declined; and
+on subsequent occasions similar requests to him to take office were
+equally in vain. Lord George, therefore, was an original and hearty
+supporter of the Reform Bill, and he continued to uphold the Whigs in
+all their policy until the secession of Lord Stanley, between whom and
+himself there subsisted warm personal as well as political sympathies.
+Although he was not only a friend to religious liberty, as we shall have
+occasion afterwards to remark, but always viewed with great sympathy
+the condition of the Roman Catholic portion of the Irish population, he
+shrank from the taint of the ultra-montane intrigue. Accompanying
+Lord Stanley, he became in due time a member of the great Conservative
+opposition, and, as he never did anything by halves, became one of
+the most earnest, as he certainly was one of the most enlightened,
+supporters of Sir Robert Peel. His trust in that minister was indeed
+absolute, and he has subsequently stated in conversation that when,
+towards the end of the session of '45, a member of the Tory party
+ventured to predict and denounce the impending defection of the
+minister, there was no member of the Conservative party who more
+violently condemned the unfounded attack, or more readily impugned the
+motives of the assailant.
+
+He was not a very frequent attendant in the House. He might be counted
+on for a party division, and when, towards the termination of the
+Melbourne ministry, the forces were very nearly balanced, and the
+struggle became very close, he might have been observed, on more
+than one occasion, entering the House at a late hour, clad in a
+white great-coat, which softened, but did not conceal, the scarlet
+hunting-coat.
+
+Although he took no part in debate, and attended the House rather as a
+club than as a senate, he possessed a great and peculiar influence in
+it. He was viewed with interest, and often with extraordinary regard,
+by every sporting man in the House. With almost all of these he was
+acquainted; some of them, on either side, were his intimate companions
+and confederates.
+
+His eager and energetic disposition; his quick perception, clear
+judgment, and prompt decision; the tenacity with which he clung to his
+opinions; his frankness and love of truth; his daring and speculative
+spirit; his lofty bearing, blended as it was with a simplicity of manner
+very remarkable; the ardour of his friendships, even the fierceness
+of his hates and prejudices--all combined to form one of those strong
+characters who, whatever may be their pursuit, must always direct and
+lead.
+
+Nature had clothed this vehement spirit with a material form which was
+in perfect harmony with its noble and commanding character. He was tall
+and remarkable for his presence; his countenance almost a model of manly
+beauty; the face oval, the complexion clear and mantling; the forehead
+lofty and white; the nose aquiline and delicately moulded; the upper
+lip short. But it was in the dark-brown eye, which flashed with piercing
+scrutiny, that all the character of the man came forth: a brilliant
+glance, not soft, but ardent, acute, imperious, incapable of deception
+or of being deceived.
+
+Although he had not much sustained his literary culture, and of late
+years, at any rate, had not given his mind to political study, he had
+in the course of his life seen and heard a great deal, and with profit.
+Nothing escaped his observation; he forgot nothing and always thought.
+So it was that on all the great political questions of the day he had
+arrived at conclusions which guided him. He always took large views
+and had no prejudices about things, whatever he might indulge in as
+to persons. He was always singularly anxious to acquire the truth, and
+would spare no pains for that purpose; but when once his mind was made
+up, it was impossible to influence him.
+
+In politics, he was a Whig of 1688, which became him, modified, however,
+by all the experience of the present age. He wished to see our society
+founded on a broad basis of civil and religious liberty. He retained
+much of the old jealousy of the court, but had none of popular
+franchises. He was for the Established Church, but for nothing more,
+and was very repugnant to priestly domination. As for the industrial
+question, he was sincerely opposed to the Manchester scheme, because
+he thought that its full development would impair and might subvert our
+territorial constitution, which he held to be the real security of our
+freedom, and because he believed that it would greatly injure Ireland,
+and certainly dissolve our colonial empire.
+
+He had a great respect for merchants, though he looked with some
+degree of jealousy on the development of our merely foreign trade. His
+knowledge of character qualified him in a great degree to govern men.
+and if some drawbacks from this influence might be experienced in his
+too rigid tenacity of opinion, and in some quickness of temper, which,
+however, always sprang from a too sensitive heart, great compensation
+might be found in the fact that there probably never was a human being
+so entirely devoid of conceit and so completely exempt from selfishness.
+Nothing delighted him more than to assist and advance others. All the
+fruits of his laborious investigations were always at the service of
+his friends without reserve or self-consideration. He encouraged them
+by making occasions for their exertions, and would relinquish his own
+opportunity without a moment's hesitation, if he thought the abandonment
+might aid a better man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     _The Protection Problem_
+
+THERE was at this time a metropolitan society for the protection of
+agriculture, of which the Duke of Richmond was chairman, and which
+had been established to counteract the proceedings of the Manchester
+confederation. It was in communication with the local Protection
+societies throughout the country; and although the adhesion to its
+service by the parliamentary members of the old Conservative party had
+been more limited than might have been expected, nevertheless many
+county members were enrolled in its ranks, and a few of the most eminent
+were actively engaged in its management. In this they were assisted by
+an equal number of the most considerable tenant-farmers. In the present
+state of affairs, the council of the Protection Society afforded the
+earliest and readiest means to collect opinion and methodize action; and
+it was therefore resolved among its managers to invite all members of
+Parliament who sympathized with their purpose, though they might not be
+members of their society, to attend their meeting and aid them at the
+present crisis with their counsel.
+
+A compliance with this request occasioned the first public appearance
+of Lord George Bentinck, as one of the organizers of a political
+party,--for he aspired to no more. The question was, whether a third
+political party could be created and sustained,--a result at all times
+and under any circumstances difficult to achieve, and which had failed
+even under the auspices of accomplished and experienced statesmen. In
+the present emergency, was there that degree of outraged public feeling
+in the country, which would overcome all obstacles and submit to any
+inconveniences, in order to ensure its representation in the House of
+Commons? It was the opinion of Lord George Bentinck that such was the
+case; that if for the moment that feeling was inert and latent, it was
+an apathy which arose from the sudden shock of public confidence, and
+the despair which under such circumstances takes possession of men;
+that if it could be shown to the country, that the great bulk of the
+Conservative party were true to their faith, and were not afraid, even
+against the fearful odds which they would have to encounter, to proclaim
+it, the confidence and the courage of the country would rally, and the
+party in the House of Commons would find external sympathy and support.
+
+With these views it became of paramount importance that the discussion
+on the government measure should be sustained on the part of the
+Protectionists with their utmost powers. They must prove to the country,
+that they could represent their cause in debate, and to this end all
+their energies must be directed. It would be fatal to them if the
+discussion were confined to one or two nights, and they overborne by
+the leading and habitual speakers. They must bring forward new men; they
+must encourage the efforts of those now unrecognized and comparatively
+unknown; they must overcome all reserve and false shame, and act as
+became men called upon to a critical and leading part, not by their
+arrogance or ambition, but by the desertion and treachery of those to
+whose abilities they had bowed without impatience and reluctance. There
+was a probability of several vacancies immediately taking place in
+counties where the seats were filled by converts, but men of too
+scrupulous an honour to retain the charge which they had sought and
+accepted as the professors of opinions contrary to those which now
+received their mournful adhesion. The result of these elections would
+greatly depend upon the spirit and figure of the party in the House of
+Commons, in their first encounter with the enemy.
+
+These views, so just and so spirited, advanced with high-bred
+earnestness by one rarely met in political turmoils, and enforced with a
+freshness and an affable simplicity which were very winning, wonderfully
+encouraged those to whom they were addressed. All seemed touched by the
+flame which burned in the breast of that man, so lofty in his thoughts
+but so humble in his ambition, who counselled ever the highest deeds,
+and was himself ever prepared to undertake the humblest duties.
+
+The business of this day was notable. Calculations were made of those
+who might be fairly counted on to take a part in debate; some discussion
+even ensued as to who should venture to reply late at night to the
+minister; a committee was appointed to communicate with all members on
+either side supposed to be favourable to the principle of Protection to
+the labour of the country; a parliamentary staff was organized, not only
+to secure the attendance of members, but to guard over the elections;
+finally, the form of the amendment to the government measure was
+discussed and settled, and it was agreed that, if possible, it should be
+moved by Mr. Philip Miles, the member for the city of Bristol, and
+who had the ear of the House not merely from the importance of his
+constituency, and seconded by Sir William Heathcote, the member for the
+county of Hampshire, a country gentleman of great accomplishments, and
+so highly considered by both sides that he was very generally spoken of
+as a probable successor to the chair.
+
+All was furnished by this lately forlorn party except a leader, and even
+then many eyes were turned and some hopeful murmurs addressed towards
+Lord George Bentinck, who in the course of this morning had given such
+various proofs of his fitness and such evidence of his resource. But he
+shook his head with a sort of suppressed smile, a faint blush, and an
+air of proud humility that was natural to him: 'I think,' he said, 'we
+have had enough of leaders; it is not in my way; I shall remain the last
+of the rank and file.'
+
+So little desirous, originally, was Lord George Bentinck to interfere
+actively in that great controversy in which ultimately he took so
+leading a part, that before the meeting of Parliament in 1846 he begged
+a gentleman whom he greatly esteemed, a member of the legal profession,
+and since raised to its highest honours, to call upon him at Harcourt
+House, when he said that he had taken great pains to master the case
+of the protective system; that he was convinced its abrogation would
+ultimately be very injurious to this country; but although, both
+in point of argument and materials, he feared no opponent, he felt
+constitutionally so incapable of ever making a speech, that he wished
+to induce some eminent lawyer to enter the House of Commons, and avail
+himself of his views and materials, which he had, with that object,
+reduced to writing. He begged, therefore, that his friend, although a
+free-trader, would assist him, by suggesting a fitting person for this
+office.
+
+Accordingly, the name of a distinguished member of the bar, who had
+already published a work of merit, impugning the principles of the new
+commercial system, was mentioned, and this learned gentleman was applied
+to, and was not indisposed to accept the task. A mere accident prevented
+this arrangement being accomplished. Lord George then requested his
+friend to make some other selection; but his adviser very sensibly
+replied, that although the House of Commons would have listened with
+respect to a gentleman who had given evidence of the sincerity of his
+convictions by the publication of a work which had no reference to
+Parliament, they would not endure the instance of a lawyer brought into
+the House merely to speak from his brief; and that the attempt would be
+utterly fruitless. He earnestly counselled Lord George himself to make
+the effort; but Lord George, with characteristic tenacity, clung for
+some time to his project, though his efforts to accomplish it were
+fortunately not successful.
+
+Some of the friends of Lord George Bentinck, remembering his
+inexperience in debate, aware of the great length at which he must
+necessarily treat the theme, and mindful that he was not physically
+well-qualified for controlling popular assemblies, not having a strong
+voice, or, naturally, a very fluent manner, were anxious that he should
+not postpone his speech until an hour so late; that an audience, jaded
+by twelve nights' discussion, would be ill-attuned to statistical
+arguments and economical details. But still clinging to the hope
+that some accident might yet again postpone the division, so that
+the Protectionists might gain the vote of Mr. Hildyard, who had been
+returned that day for South Notts, having defeated a cabinet minister,
+Lord George remained motionless until long past midnight. Mr. Cobden
+having spoken on the part of the confederation, the closing of the
+debate was felt to be inevitable. Even then, by inducing a Protectionist
+to solicit the Speaker's eye, Lord George attempted to avert the
+division; but no supporter of the government measure, of any colour,
+advancing to reply to this volunteer, Bentinck was obliged to rise.
+He came out like a lion forced from his lair. And so it happened, that
+after all his labours of body and mind, after all his research and
+unwearied application and singular vigilance, after having been at his
+post for a month, never leaving the House, even for refreshment, he
+had to undertake the most difficult enterprise in which a man can well
+embark, with a concurrence of every disadvantage which could ensure
+failure and defeat. It would seem that the audience, the subject, and
+the orator, must be equally exhausted; for the assembly had listened for
+twelve nights to the controversy, and he who was about to address them
+had, according to his strange habit, taken no sustenance the whole day;
+it being his custom to dine after the House was up, which was very
+often long after midnight, and this, with the exception of a slender
+breakfast, rigidly restricted to dry toast, was his only meal in the
+four-and-twenty hours.
+
+He had been forced to this regimen, from food exercising a lethargic
+influence over him; so that, in addition to some constitutional weakness
+in his organ, he usually laboured, when he addressed the House, under
+the disadvantage of general exhaustion. And this was, no doubt, a
+principal cause of that over-excitement and apparently unnecessary
+energy in his manner of speaking, of which he was himself perfectly,
+and even painfully, conscious. He was wont to say, that before he could
+speak he had to make a voice, and, as it were, to pump it from the very
+core of his frame. One who took a great interest in his success once
+impressed on him the expediency of trusting entirely to his natural
+voice and the interest and gravity of his matter, which, combined
+with his position as the recognized leader of a great party, would be
+adequate to command the attention of his audience; and he subsequently
+endeavoured very often to comply with this suggestion. He endeavoured
+also very much to control his redundancy of action and gesture, when
+that peculiarity was pointed out to him with the delicacy, but the
+sincerity, of friendship. He entirely freed himself from a very awkward
+feature of his first style of speaking, namely, the frequent repetition
+of a sentence, which seemed at first a habit inveterate with him; but
+such was his force of will, that when the necessity of ridding himself
+of this drawback was properly pointed out to him, he achieved the
+desired result. No one bore criticism more gently and kindly, so long as
+it was confined to his personal and intellectual characteristics, for he
+was a man absolutely without vanity or conceit, who thought very humbly
+of himself, in respect of abilities, and deemed no labour too great to
+achieve even a slight improvement. But though in these respects the very
+child of simplicity, he was a man of almost unexampled pride, and chafed
+under criticism, when his convictions or his conduct were questioned. He
+was very tenacious of his opinion, almost inexorable; and it required
+a courage nearly equal to his own, combined with a serene temper,
+successfully to impugn his conclusions.
+
+Not, therefore, excited by vanity, but sustained by self-respect, by
+an overpowering feeling that he owed it to himself and the opinions he
+held, to show to the world that they had not been lightly adopted and
+should not be lightly laid aside, Bentinck rose, long past the noon of
+night, at the end of this memorable debate, to undertake an office
+from which the most successful and most experienced rhetoricians of
+Parliament would have shrunk with intuitive discretion. But duty scorns
+prudence, and criticism has few terrors for a man with a great purpose.
+Unshaken by the adverse hour and circumstances, he proceeded to
+accomplish the object which he had long meditated, and for which he was
+fully prepared.
+
+Reminding the House, while he appealed to their indulgence, that, though
+he had had the honour of a seat for eight parliaments, he had never once
+ventured to trespass on its time on any subject of great debate, he
+at once took a clear and comprehensive ground of objection to the
+government scheme. He opposed it not only because he objected to the
+great change contemplated with respect to the agricultural interest,
+but, on principle, to the entire measure, 'a great commercial
+revolution, which we are of opinion that the circumstances of the
+country do not by any means require.'
+
+Noticing the observation of the Secretary at War, that the agricultural
+interest, in submitting to this great change, might now accept it with
+honour, instead of its being eventually extorted by force, he happily
+retorted, that vicious as he thought the measure, he should feel it
+deprived of half its vice if it could be carried without loss of honour,
+damage to reputation, and forfeiture of public character to a vast
+number of gentlemen now present. And he proceeded to show among other
+testimonies, by an appeal to the distinct language of the speech from
+the throne on the dissolution of 1841, that 'every member who occupied a
+seat in this House was returned pledged either to oppose or maintain the
+principle of protection to national industry.'
+
+Adverting to the new position, that the experience of the last
+three years justified the reversal of the system which the existing
+administration had been summoned to office to uphold, he wisely
+remarked, that 'the country will not be satisfied with three years'
+experience of any system. Three years' experience is not sufficiently
+extensive to afford a proper criterion by which we may decide the
+failure or success of any description of policy whatsoever.'
+
+Noticing that the minister had more especially founded 'his present
+belief in doctrines contrary to those which he had heretofore uniformly
+maintained,' by the assumption that the price of corn would not be more
+reduced than the price of cattle and other commodities affected by the
+tariff of 1842, and also by the results of previous experiments in the
+instances of silk and wool, Lord George 'accepted his challenge'
+on these grounds, and proceeded in great detail to investigate these
+examples.
+
+The House listened with great attention for full two hours, during
+which he treated these subjects. This attention no doubt was generally
+accorded because it was felt due to the occasion, and, under the
+circumstances, to the speaker; but those who, however contrary might
+be the results at which they had arrived, had themselves deeply entered
+into these investigations, recognized very soon that Bentinck was
+master of his subject. Sir Robert Peel looked round very often with that
+expression of appreciation which it was impossible for his nature to
+refuse to parliamentary success, even when the ability displayed was
+hostile to his projects. The minister, with reference to the wool trade,
+had dwelt on the year 1842, when prices were much depressed, while they
+had greatly rallied in 1844, when the importation of foreign wool had
+risen from forty-five to sixty-five millions of pounds; and he had drawn
+a triumphant inference that the increase of importation and the increase
+of price were in consequence of the reduction of the duty. This instance
+had produced a great effect; but Lord George showed the House, by a
+reference to the tables of 1836, that the importation of foreign wool
+had then risen to sixty-five millions of pounds, and that large foreign
+importation was consistent with high prices to the domestic grower. Nor
+was he less successful about the foreign cattle. He reminded his friends
+on the Treasury bench how strenuously, previously to the introduction of
+the tariff of 1842, they had urged upon their agricultural friends that
+no foreign cattle could enter under their regulations, and that
+the whole object of the change was to strengthen the hands of the
+agricultural interest, as regarded more essential protection, by
+removing the odium of a nominal protection: 'Convinced by my right
+honourable friends, in 1842, that their tariff would be as inoperative
+as it has proved, I gave my cordial support to the measure.'
+
+Perceiving that the House began to be wearied with the details of
+the silk trade, which he had investigated with extraordinary zeal, he
+postponed until the specific vote in committee his objections to the
+reduction of the timber duties. The fact is, he had so thoroughly
+mastered all these topics, that his observations on each of them would
+have themselves formed a speech of sufficient length and interest. But
+he successfully checked any interruption by what may be fairly styled
+his dignified diffidence.
+
+'I trust the House will recollect that I am fighting the battle of a
+party whose leaders have deserted them; and though I cannot wield my
+weapons with the skill of the right honourable gentleman on the Treasury
+bench, I trust the House will remember the emergency which has dragged
+me out to intrude upon their indulgence.'
+
+And again, when he announced that he was now about to investigate the
+pretext of 'famine in the land,' and some impatience was exhibited, he
+drew up and said, 'I think, having sat eighteen years in this house, and
+never once having trespassed on its time before in any one single
+great debate, I may appeal to the past as a proof that I duly weigh the
+measure of my abilities, and that I am painfully conscious of my proper
+place in this house.'
+
+It was impossible to resist such appeals from such a person, even at
+three o'clock in the morning; and diffident, but determined, he then
+entered into what was, perhaps, the most remarkable portion of his
+speech--an investigation of what was the real position of the country
+with respect to the supply of food in the past autumn and at the present
+moment. Having shown from the trade circulars that, far from there being
+at present 'a wheat famine,' the stocks in the granaries in bond were
+more than double in amount to what they were in the year 1845, 'a year
+admitted by all to be a year of extraordinary abundance,' he proceeded
+to the Irish part of the question: 'I beg leave to say, that though this
+debate has now continued for three weeks, I am the first gentleman
+who has at all entered into the real state of the case as regards the
+allegation of a potato famine in Ireland, upon which, be it remembered,
+is founded the sole case of her Majesty's ministers for a repeal of the
+corn laws.'
+
+And this was very true. The fact is, though the Protectionist party had
+made a most unexpected and gallant defence, no one was really prepared
+for the contest except Bentinck. Between the end of November and the
+meeting of Parliament, he had thrown all the energies of his passionate
+mind into this question. He had sought information on all points
+and always at the fountain-head. He had placed himself in immediate
+communication with the ablest representatives of every considerable
+interest attacked, and being ardent and indefatigable, gifted with
+a tenacious memory and a very clear and searching spirit, there was
+scarcely a detail or an argument connected with his subject which was
+not immediately at his command. No speeches in favour of the protective
+system have ever been made in the House of Commons compared with his in
+depth and range of knowledge; and had there been any member not
+connected with the government, who had been able to vindicate the merits
+of British agriculture as he did when the final struggle occurred, the
+impression which was made by the too-often unanswered speeches of the
+Manchester confederation would never have been effected. But the great
+Conservative party, exhausted by the labours of ten years of opposition,
+thought that after the triumph of '41 it might claim a furlough. The
+defence of their cause was left entirely to the ministers of their
+choice; and ministers, distracted with detail and wearied with official
+labour, are not always the most willing or the most efficient champions
+of the organic principles of a party.
+
+Sir Robert Peel, with respect to the disease in the Irish potato, had
+largely referred to the statements of the inspectors of police. Lord
+George wanted to know why the reports of the lieutenants of the Irish
+counties were not given. Being well-informed upon this head, he asked
+the government to produce the report of Lord Duncannon, the lord
+lieutenant of Carlow; especially that of his noble father, the earl of
+Bes-borough, lord lieutenant of Kilkenny. 'Is there any man in England
+or in Ireland whose opinion, from his business-like habits, his great
+practical knowledge, and the warm and affectionate interest which for
+a long period of years he has taken in everything which concerns the
+interests of Ireland, especially of the Irish peasantry--is there
+any man whose opinion would have greater weight? The opinion of Lord
+Bes-borough on an Irish subject, the lieutenant of an Irish county, and
+himself long a cabinet minister? Well, sir, I am assured that, having
+taken the utmost pains to investigate this matter, Lord Besborough has
+made an elaborate report to the Irish government. Well, then, I
+desire to know why Lord Besborough's report to the Irish government
+is suppressed? Is it because that report would not assist the present
+policy of her Majesty's government?'
+
+He alleged the names of many other individuals of high station who
+had officially reported on the subject to the government: of Lord
+Castlereagh, the lieutenant of Down, a member of the House; of Lord
+de Vesci, whose son was sitting for the Queen's County, over which his
+father presided in the name of the queen. A murmur ran round the House,
+that it would have been as well if these reports had been produced.
+
+The last portion of this argumentative harangue referred to the most
+important division of the subject. Bentinck met it boldly, without
+evasion; nor was there any portion of his address more interesting, more
+satisfactory, and more successful. 'I now come,' he said, 'to the great
+challenge, which is ever and anon put forth by the Anti-Corn Law League,
+and now by their disciples, her Majesty's ministers. How are we, they
+ask, with our limited extent of territory, to feed a population annually
+and rapidly increasing at the rate of three hundred thousand a-year,
+as generally stated by the member for Stockport--a rate increased by my
+noble friend, the member for the West Riding, to a thousand a day, or
+three hundred and sixty-five thousand a year?'
+
+He first proved in a complete manner that, from the year 1821 to the
+year 1844, the population of the country had increased at the rate of
+less than thirty-two per cent., while the growth of wheat during the
+same period had increased no less than sixty-four per cent. He then
+proceeded to inquire why, with such an increased produce, we were still,
+as regards bread corn, to a certain extent, an importing nation? This he
+accounted for by the universally improved condition of the people, and
+the enlarged command of food by the working classes. He drew an animated
+picture, founded entirely on the representations of writers and public
+men adverse to the Protective System, of the superior condition of the
+people of 'England, happy England,' to that of other countries: how they
+consumed much more of the best food, and lived much longer. This was
+under Protection, which Lord John Russell had stigmatized, in his
+letter, 'the bane of agriculture.' 'In the history of my noble friend's
+illustrious family,' he continued, 'I should have thought that he would
+have found a remarkable refutation of such a notion.' And then he drew a
+lively sketch of the colossal and patriotic works of the Earls and
+Dukes of Bedford, 'whereby they had drained and reclaimed three
+hundred thousand acres of land drowned in water, and brought them
+into cultivation, and thus converted into fertile fields a vast morass
+extending over seven counties in England.' Could the system which had
+inspired such enterprise be justly denounced as baneful?
+
+To show the means of the country to sustain even a much-increasing
+population, and that those means were in operation, he entered into one
+of the most original and interesting calculations that was perhaps
+ever offered to the House of Commons. Reminding the House that in the
+preceding year (1845) the farmers of England, at a cost of two millions
+sterling, had imported two hundred and eighty thousand tons of guano, he
+proceeded to estimate what would be the effect on the productive powers
+of the land of that novel application. Two hundred thousand tons, or, in
+other words, four million hundred-weight, were expended on the land
+in 1845. Half of these, he assumed, would be applied to the growth of
+wheat, and the other half to the growth of turnips preparatory to the
+wheat crop of the ensuing year. According to the experiments tried and
+recorded in the Royal Agricultural Journal, it would seem that by the
+application of two hundred-weight of guano to an acre of wheat land, the
+produce would be increased by one quarter per acre. At this rate, one
+hundred thousand tons, or two million hundred-weight of guano would add
+one million quarters of wheat to the crop, or bread for one year for
+one million of people. But as he was very careful never to over-state
+a case, Lord George assumed, that it would require three hundred
+hundredweight of guano to an acre to produce an extra quarter of wheat.
+According to this estimate, one hundred thousand tons of guano, applied
+to the land in 1845, must have added six hundred and sixty-six thousand
+six hundred and sixty-six quarters of grain to the wheat crop, or, in
+other words, bread for six hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred
+and sixty-six additional mouths. 'And now for turnips,' he continued.
+The Norfolk authorities whom he quoted have in like manner proved that
+two hundred-weight of guano will add ten tons per acre to the turnip
+crop. But again, for fear of exaggeration, he supposed that three
+hundred-weight would be requisite to create such increased fertility. In
+this case, two million hundredweight of guano would add six million six
+hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty tons to the natural
+unmanured produce of the crop. Now it is generally considered that one
+ton of Swedes would last twenty sheep three weeks, and that each sheep
+should gain half a pound of meat per week, or one pound and a half in
+three weeks; thus twenty sheep feeding on one ton of turnips in three
+weeks should in the aggregate make, as the graziers say, thirty pounds
+of mutton. But to be safe in his estimate, he would assume that one ton
+of turnips makes only half this quantity. 'Multiply, then,' exclaimed
+Bentinck with the earnest air of a crusader, 'six million six hundred
+and sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty by fifteen, and you have no
+less than ninety-nine million nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand and
+nine hundred pounds of mutton as the fruits of one hundred thousand tons
+of guano; which, at ninety-two pounds per man--the average Englishman's
+allowance--affords meat for one million eight hundred and sixty thousand
+nine hundred and fifty-five--nearly two million of her Majesty's
+subjects.'
+
+This is a specimen of those original and startling calculations to
+which the House was soon to become accustomed from his lips. They were
+received at first with astonishment and incredulity; but they were never
+impugned. The fact is, he was extremely cautious in his data, and no
+man was more accustomed ever to impress upon his friends the extreme
+expediency of not over-stating a case. It should also be remarked of
+Lord George Bentinck, that in his most complicated calculations he never
+sought aid from notes.
+
+We have necessarily only noticed a few of the traits of this remarkable
+performance. Its termination was impressive.
+
+'We have heard in the course of these discussions a good deal about an
+ancient monarchy, a reformed House of Commons, and a proud aristocracy.
+Sir, with regard to our ancient monarchy, I have no observation to make;
+but, if so humble an individual as myself might be permitted to whisper,
+a word in the ear of that illustrious and royal personage who, as
+he stands nearest, so is he justly dearest, to her who sits upon the
+throne, I would take leave to say, that I cannot but think he listened
+to ill advice, when, on the first night of this great discussion, he
+allowed himself to be seduced by the first minister of the crown to
+come down to this House to usher in, to give _�clat_, and as it were
+by reflection from the queen, to give the semblance of the personal
+sanction of her Majesty to a measure which, be it for good or for evil,
+a great majority at least of the landed aristocracy of England, of
+Scotland, and of Ireland, imagine fraught with deep injury, if not ruin,
+to them
+
+--a measure which, not confined in its operation to this great class,
+is calculated to grind down countless smaller interests engaged in the
+domestic trades and, interests of the empire, transferring the profits
+of all these interests--English, Scotch, Irish, and Colonial
+
+--great and small alike, from Englishmen, from Scotchmen, and from
+Irishmen, to Americans, to Frenchmen, to Russians, to Poles, to
+Prussians, and to Germans. Sir, I come now to the reformed House of
+Commons; and as one who was a party to that great measure, I cannot but
+feel a deep interest in its success, and more especially in that
+portion of it which extended the franchise to the largest and the most
+respectable body in the kingdom--I mean the landed tenantry of England;
+and deeply should I regret should any large proportion of those members
+who have been sent to Parliament to represent them in this House,
+prove to be the men to bring lasting dishonour upon themselves, their
+constituencies, and this House, by an act of tergiversation so gross
+as to be altogether unprecedented in the annals of any reformed
+or unreformed House of Commons. Sir, lastly, I come to the "proud
+aristocracy." We are a proud aristocracy, but if we are proud, it is
+that we are proud in the chastity of our honour. If we assisted in '41
+in turning the Whigs out of office, because we did not consider a
+fixed duty of eight shillings a quarter on foreign corn a sufficient
+protection, it was with honesty of purpose and in single-mindedness we
+did so; and as we were not before the fact, we will not be accomplices
+after the fact in the fraud by which the Whig ministers were expelled
+from power. If we are a proud aristocracy, we are proud of our honour,
+inasmuch as we never have been guilty, and never can be guilty, of
+double-dealing with the farmers of England--of swindling our opponents,
+deceiving our friends, or betraying our constituents.'
+
+The division was called. The West-India interest, notwithstanding
+the amendment was moved by the member for Bristol, deserted the
+Protectionists. Deaf to the appeals, and the remonstrances, and the
+warnings of Lord George, one of their leading members replied, with
+a smile of triumphant content, that 'they had made a satisfactory
+arrangement for themselves.' How satisfactory did the West-Indians find
+it four months subsequently? All the shipping interest deserted the
+land. They were for everything free, except navigation; there was no
+danger of that being interfered with; 'it rested on quite distinct
+grounds--national grounds.' They were warned, but they smiled in
+derisive self-complacency. Lord George Bentinck lived to have the
+West-India interest and the shipping interest on their knees to him,
+to defend their perilled or to restore their ruined fortunes; and with
+characteristic generosity and proud consistency, he undertook the task,
+and sacrificed his life in the attempt.
+
+Notwithstanding these terrible defalcations, when the numbers were
+announced, at nearly four o'clock in the morning, the majority had
+not reached those three magical figures supposed necessary, under the
+circumstances, to success. In a house of five hundred and eighty-one
+members present, the amendment of the Protectionists was defeated only
+by ninety-seven; and two hundred and forty-two gentlemen, in spite of
+desertion, difficulty, and defeat, still maintained the 'chastity of
+their honour.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     _The Irish Question_
+
+IN THE meantime, besides the prolonged and unforeseen resistance of the
+Protectionists, there were other and unexpected causes at work which
+equally, or perhaps even more powerfully tended to the fulfilment of the
+scheme of delay, which Lord George Bentinck had recommended his friends
+to adopt and encourage.
+
+In the latter months of the year 1845, there broke out in some of the
+counties of Ireland one of those series of outrages which have hitherto
+periodically occurred in districts of that country. Assassination and
+crimes of violence were rife: men on the queen's highway were shot from
+behind hedges, or suddenly torn from their horses and beaten to death
+with clubs; houses were visited in the night by bodies of men, masked
+and armed--their owners dragged from their beds, and, in the presence
+of their wives and children, maimed and mutilated; the administration of
+unlawful oaths, with circumstances of terror, indicated the existence of
+secret confederations, whose fell intents, profusely and ostentatiously
+announced by threatening letters, were frequently and savagely
+perpetrated.
+
+These barbarous distempers had their origin in the tenure of land in
+Ireland, and in the modes of its occupation. A combination of causes,
+political, social, and economical, had for more than a century unduly
+stimulated the population of a country which had no considerable
+resources except in the soil. That soil had become divided into minute
+allotments, held by a pauper tenantry, at exorbitant rents, of a class
+of middlemen, themselves necessitous, and who were mere traders in land.
+A fierce competition raged amid the squalid multitude for these strips
+of earth which were their sole means of existence. To regulate this
+fatal rivalry, and restrain this emulation of despair, the peasantry,
+enrolled in secret societies, found refuge in an inexorable code. He who
+supplanted another in the occupation of the soil was doomed by an occult
+tribunal, from which there was no appeal, to a terrible retribution. His
+house was visited in the night by whitefeet and ribbonmen--his doom was
+communicated to him, by the post, in letters, signed by Terry Alt, or
+Molly M'Guire, or he was suddenly shot, like a dog, by the orders of
+Captain Rock. Yet even these violent inflictions rather punished than
+prevented the conduct against which they were directed. The Irish
+peasant had to choose between starving and assassination. If, in
+deference to an anonymous mandate, he relinquished his holding, he and
+those who depended on him were outcasts and wanderers; if he retained or
+accepted it, his life might be the forfeit, but subsistence was secured;
+and in poor and lawless countries, the means of living are more valued
+than life. Those who have treated of the agrarian crimes of Ireland
+have remarked, that the facility with which these outrages have been
+committed has only been equalled by the difficulty of punishing them. A
+murder, perpetrated at noonday, in the sight of many persons, cannot be
+proved in a court of justice. The spectators are never witnesses; and it
+has been inferred from this, that the outrage is national, and that the
+heart of the populace is with the criminal. But though a chief landlord,
+or a stipendiary magistrate, may occasionally be sacrificed, the great
+majority of victims are furnished by the humblest class. Not sympathy,
+but terror, seals the lip and clouds the eye of the bystander. And this
+is proved by the fact that while those who have suffered have almost
+always publicly declared that they were unable to recognize their
+assailants, and believed them to be strangers, they have frequently, in
+confidence, furnished the police with the names of the guilty.
+
+Thus, there is this remarkable characteristic of the agrarian anarchy
+of Ireland which marks it out from all similar conditions of other
+countries: it is a war of the poor against the poor.
+
+Before the rapid increase of population had forced governments to study
+political economy and to investigate the means of subsisting a people,
+statesmen had contented themselves by attributing to political causes
+these predial disturbances, and by recommending for them political
+remedies. The course of time, which had aggravated the condition of the
+Irish peasantry, had increased the numbers, the wealth, and the general
+importance of those of the middle classes of Ireland who professed the
+Roman Catholic faith. Shut out from the political privileges of the
+constitution, these formed a party of discontent that was a valuable
+ally to the modern Whigs, too long excluded from that periodical share
+of power which is the life-blood of a parliamentary government and the
+safeguard of a constitutional monarchy. The misgovernment of Ireland
+became therefore a stock topic of the earlier Opposition of the present
+century; and advocating the cause of their clients, who wished to become
+mayors, and magistrates, and members of the legislature, they argued
+that in the concession of those powers and dignities, and perhaps in
+the discreet confiscation of the property of the Church, the only cures
+could be found for threatening notices, robbery of arms, administering
+of unlawful oaths, burglary, murder, and arson.
+
+Yet if these acts of violence were attributable to defective political
+institutions, why, as was usually the case, were they partial in their
+occurrence? Why were they limited to particular districts? If political
+grievances were the cause, the injustice would be as sharp in tranquil
+Wexford as in turbulent Tipperary. Yet out of the thirty-two counties
+of Ireland, the outrages prevailed usually in less than a third. These
+outrages were never insurrectionary: they were not directed against
+existing authorities; they were stimulated by no public cause or
+clamour; it was the private individual who was attacked, and for a
+private reason. This was their characteristic.
+
+But as time elapsed, two considerable events occurred: the Roman
+Catholic restrictions were repealed, and the Whigs became ministers.
+Notwithstanding these great changes, the condition of the Irish
+peasantry remained the same; the tenure of land was unchanged, the modes
+of its occupation were unaltered, its possession was equally necessary
+and equally perilous. The same circumstances produced the same
+consequences. Notwithstanding even that the Irish Church had been
+remodelled, and its revenues not only commuted but curtailed;
+notwithstanding that Roman Catholics had not only become members of
+Parliament but even Parliament had been reformed; Irish outrage became
+more flagrant and more extensive than at any previous epoch--and the
+Whigs were ministers.
+
+Placed in this responsible position, forced to repress the evil, the
+causes of which they had so often explained, and which with their
+cooperation had apparently been so effectually removed, the Whig
+government were obliged to have recourse to the very means which they
+had so frequently denounced when recommended by their rivals, and that,
+too, on a scale of unusual magnitude and severity. They proposed for
+the adoption of Parliament one of those measures which would suspend the
+constitution of Ireland, and which are generally known by the name of
+Coercion Acts.
+
+The main and customary provisions of these Coercion Acts were of
+severe restraint, and scarcely less violent than the conduct they were
+constructed to repress. They invested the lord lieutenant with power
+to proclaim a district as disturbed, and then to place its inhabitants
+without the pale of the established law; persons out of their dwellings
+between sunset and sunrise were liable to transportation; and to secure
+the due execution of the law, prisoners were tried before military
+tribunals, and not by their peers, whose verdicts, from sympathy or
+terror, were usually found to baffle justice.
+
+These Coercion Acts were effectual; they invariably obtained their end,
+and the proclaimed districts became tranquil. But they were an affair
+of police, not of government; essentially temporary, their effect was
+almost as transient as their sway, and as they were never accompanied
+with any deep and sincere attempt to cope with the social circumstances
+which produced disorder, the recurrence of the chronic anarchy was
+merely an affair of time. Whether it were that they did not sufficiently
+apprehend the causes, or that they shrank from a solution which must
+bring them in contact with the millions of a surplus population, there
+seems always to have been an understanding between the public men
+of both parties, that the Irish difficulty should be deemed a purely
+political, or at the utmost a religious one. And even so late as 1846,
+no less a personage than the present chief secretary, put forward by
+his party to oppose an Irish Coercion Bill which themselves had loudly
+called for, declared that he could not sanction its penal enactments
+unless they were accompanied by the remedial measures that were
+necessary, to wit, an Irish Franchise Bill, and a Bill for the amendment
+of municipal corporations!
+
+When Sir Robert Peel, in 1841, after a memorable opposition of ten
+years, acceded to office, sustained by all the sympathies of the
+country, his Irish policy, not sufficiently noticed amid the vast and
+urgent questions with which he had immediately to deal, was, however, to
+the political observer significant and interesting. As a mere matter of
+party tactics, it was not for him too much to impute Irish disturbances
+to political and religious causes, even if the accumulated experience
+of the last ten years were not developing a conviction in his mind, that
+the methods hitherto adopted to ensure the tranquillity of that country
+were superficial and fallacious. His cabinet immediately recognized
+a distinction between political and predial sources of disorder.
+The first, they resolved into a mere system of agitation, no longer
+justifiable by the circumstances, and this they determined to put down.
+The second, they sought in the conditions under which land was occupied,
+and these they determined to investigate. Hence, on the one hand, the
+O'Connell prosecution: on the other, the Devon commission.
+
+This was the bold and prudent policy of a minister who felt he had
+the confidence of the country and was sustained by great parliamentary
+majorities; and when the summoner of monster meetings was convicted, and
+the efficient though impartial manner in which the labours of the land
+commission were simultaneously conducted came to be bruited about, there
+seemed at last some prospect of the system of political quackery of
+which Ireland had been so long the victim being at last subverted. But
+there is nothing in which the power of circumstances is more evident
+than in politics. They baffle the forethought of statesmen, and control
+even the apparently inflexible laws of national development and decay.
+
+Had the government of 1841 succeeded in its justifiable expectation of
+terminating the trade of political agitation in Ireland, armed with all
+the authority and all the information with which the labours of the land
+commission would have furnished them, they would in all probability have
+successfully grappled with the real causes of Irish misery and misrule.
+They might have thoroughly reformed the modes by which land is holden
+and occupied; have anticipated the spontaneous emigration that now rages
+by an administrative enterprise scarcely more costly than the barren
+loan of '47, and which would have wafted native energies to imperial
+shores; have limited under these circumstances the evil of the potato
+famine, even if the improved culture of the interval might not have
+altogether prevented that visitation; while the laws which regulated the
+competition between home and foreign industry in agricultural produce
+might have been modified with so much prudence, or, if necessary,
+ultimately repealed with so much precaution, that those rapid and
+startling vicissitudes that have so shattered the social fabric of
+Ireland might altogether have been avoided.
+
+But it was decreed that it should be otherwise. Having achieved the
+incredible conviction of O'Connell, by an Irish jury, the great culprit
+baffled the vengeance of the law by a quirk which a lawyer only could
+have devised. As regards his Irish policy, Sir Robert Peel never
+recovered this blow, the severity of which was proportionably increased
+by its occurrence at a moment of unprecedented success. Resolute not to
+recur to his ancient Orangeism, yet desperate after his discomfiture of
+rallying a moderate party around his ministry, his practical mind,
+more clear-sighted than foreseeing, was alarmed at the absence of all
+influences for the government of Ireland. The tranquillity which might
+result from a reformed tenure of the soil, must, if attainable, be
+a distant blessing, and at present he saw only the obstacles to its
+fulfilment--prejudiced landlords, and the claims and necessities of
+pauper millions. He shrank from a theory which might be an illusion. He
+required a policy for the next post and the next division. There was
+in his view only one course to take, to outbid his predecessors as
+successfully in Irish politics as he was doing in taxes and tariffs. He
+resolved to appropriate the liberal party of Ireland, and merge it into
+the great Conservative confederation which was destined to destroy so
+many things. He acted with promptitude and energy, for Sir Robert Peel
+never hesitated when he had made up his mind. His real character was
+very different from his public reputation. Far from being timid
+and wary, he was audacious and even headstrong. It was his cold and
+constrained demeanour that misled the public. There never was a man who
+did such rash things in so circumspect a manner. He had been fortunate
+in early disembarrassing himself of the Orange counsellors who had
+conducted his Irish questions when in opposition; vacant judgeships
+had opportunely satisfied the recognized and respectable claims of
+Mr. Serjeant Jackson and Mr. Lefroy; and so Sir Robert Peel, without
+a qualm, suddenly began to govern Ireland by sending it 'messages of
+peace.'
+
+They took various forms; sometimes a Charitable Bequests Act virtually
+placed the Roman Catholic hierarchy in friendly equality with the
+prelates of the Established Church; sometimes a 'godless college'
+called forth a moan from alarmed and irritated Oxford; the endowment
+of Maynooth struck wider and deeper, and the middle-classes of England,
+roused from their religious lethargy, called in vain to the rescue of
+a Protestantism betrayed. But the minister was unshaken. Successful
+and self-sufficient, impressed with a conviction that his government
+in duration would rival that of a Walpole or a Pitt, and exceed both
+in lustre, he treated every remonstrance with imperious disdain. He had
+even accustomed his mind to contemplate an ecclesiastical adjustment
+of Ireland which would have allied in that country the Papacy with the
+State, and have terminated the constitutional supremacy of the Anglican
+Church, when suddenly, in the very heat of all this arrogant fortune,
+the mighty fabric of delusion shivered and fell to the ground.
+
+An abused and indignant soil repudiated the ungrateful race that had
+exhausted and degraded its once exuberant bosom. The land refused
+to hold those who would not hold the land on terms of justice and of
+science. All the economical palliatives and political pretences of
+long years seemed only to aggravate the suffering and confusion. The
+poor-rate was levied upon a community of paupers, and the 'godless
+colleges' were denounced by Rome as well as Oxford.
+
+After a wild dream of famine and fever, imperial loans, rates in
+aid, jobbing public works, confiscated estates, constituencies
+self-disfranchised, and St. Peter's bearding St. James's in a spirit
+becoming Christendom rather than Europe, time topped the climax of Irish
+misgovernment; and by the publication of the census of 1851, proved that
+the millions with whose evils no statesmen would sincerely deal,
+but whose condition had been the pretext for so much empiricism, had
+disappeared, and nature, more powerful than politicians, had settled the
+'great difficulty.'
+
+Ere the publication of that document, the mortal career of Sir Robert
+Peel had closed, and indeed several of the circumstances to which we
+have just alluded did not occur in his administration; but the contrast
+between his policy and its results was nevertheless scarcely less
+striking. It was in '45 that he transmitted his most important 'message
+of peace' to Ireland, to be followed by an autumnal visit of her Majesty
+to that kingdom, painted in complacent and prophetic colours by her
+prime minister. The visit was not made. In the course of that autumn,
+ten counties of Ireland were in a state of anarchy; and, mainly in
+that period, there were 136 homicides committed, 138 houses burned, 483
+houses attacked, and 138 fired into; there were 544 cases of aggravated
+assault, and 551 of robbery of arms; there were 89 cases of bands
+appearing in arms; there were more than 200 cases of administering
+unlawful oaths; and there were 1,944 cases of sending threatening
+letters. By the end of the year, the general crime of Ireland had
+doubled in amount and enormity compared with the preceding year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     _The Cure for Irish Ills_
+
+LORD GEORGE BENTINCK had large but defined views as to the policy which
+should be pursued with respect to Ireland. He was a firm supporter of
+the constitutional preponderance allotted to the land in our scheme of
+government, not from any jealousy or depreciation of the other great
+sources of public wealth, for his sympathy with the trading classes
+was genuine, but because he believed that constitutional preponderance,
+while not inconsistent with great commercial prosperity, to be the best
+security for public liberty and the surest foundation of enduring power.
+But as reality was the characteristic of his vigorous and sagacious
+nature, he felt that a merely formal preponderance, one not sustained
+and authorized by an equivalent material superiority, was a position not
+calculated to endure in the present age, and one especially difficult to
+maintain with our rapidly increasing population. For this reason he was
+always very anxious to identify the policy of Great Britain with that
+of Ireland, the latter being a country essentially agricultural; and he
+always shrank from any proposition which admitted a difference in the
+interests of the two kingdoms.
+
+Liberal politicians, who some years ago were very loud for justice to
+Ireland, and would maintain at all hazards the identity of the interests
+of the two countries, have of late frequently found it convenient
+to omit that kingdom from their statistical bulletins of national
+prosperity. Lord George Bentinck, on the contrary, would impress on his
+friends, that if they wished to maintain the territorial constitution of
+their country, they must allow no sectarian considerations to narrow the
+basis of sympathy on which it should rest; and in the acres and millions
+of Ireland, in its soil and its people, equally neglected, he would have
+sought the natural auxiliaries of our institutions. To secure for our
+Irish fellow-subjects a regular market for their produce; to develop
+the resources of their country by public works on a great scale; and
+to obtain a decent provision for the Roman Catholic priesthood from the
+land and not from the consolidated fund, were three measures which he
+looked upon as in the highest degree conservative.
+
+When the project of the cabinet of 1846 had transpired, Lord George at
+once declared, and was in the habit of reiterating his opinion, that 'it
+would ruin the 500,000 small farmers of Ireland,' and he watched with
+great interest and anxiety the conduct of their representatives in
+the House of Commons. It was with great difficulty that he could bring
+himself to believe, that political liberalism would induce the members
+for the south and west of Ireland to support a policy in his opinion so
+fatal to their countrymen as the unconditional repeal of the corn laws;
+and, indeed, before they took that step, which almost all of them
+have since publicly regretted and attempted to compensate for by their
+subsequent votes in the House of Commons, the prospect of their conduct
+frequently and considerably varied.
+
+The Earl of St. Germans, the chief secretary of the Lord Lieutenant,
+introduced the Coercion Bill to the House of Lords on the 24th of
+February, and, considering the exigency, and the important reference
+to it in the speech from the throne, this step on the part of the
+government was certainly not precipitate. It was observed that the
+strongest supporters of the measure in the House of Lords on this
+occasion were the leaders of the Whig party. Lord Lansdowne, 'so far
+from complaining of the Government for bringing forward the measure at
+so early a period of the session, was ready to admit, that after the
+declaration of her Majesty, a declaration unhappily warranted by
+facts known to many of their lordships, every day was lost in which an
+effectual remedy was not at least attempted to put an end to a state
+of society so horrible.' Lord Clanricarde 'gave his ready assent to the
+bill;' and even Lord Grey, 'though he regretted the necessity for this
+measure, was of opinion that the chief secretary had established a
+sufficient case for arming the executive government with some additional
+powers.' When, therefore, at the end of the month of March, Lord George
+Bentinck was invited to attend a meeting of his friends, held at the
+house of Mr. Bankes, to consider the course which should be adopted
+by the Protectionist party with respect to the Coercion Bill, it was
+assumed, as a matter of course, that the coalition of the government
+and the Whigs must secure the passing of the measure, even if the
+Protectionists were disposed, for the chance of embarrassing the
+ministry, to resist it; and of course there was no great tendency in
+that direction. Men are apt to believe that crime and coercion are
+inevitably associated. There was abundance of precedent for the course,
+which seemed also a natural one.
+
+In less than a century there had been seventeen coercive acts for
+Ireland, a circumstance which might make some ponder whether
+such legislation were as efficacious as it was violent. However,
+assassination rife, Captain Rock and Molly M'Guire out at night, Whigs
+and Tories all agreed, it was easy to catch at a glance the foregone
+conclusion of the meeting. One advantage of having a recognized organ of
+a political party is, that its members do not decide too precipitately.
+They listen before they determine, and if they have a doubt, they
+will grant the benefit of it to him whose general ability they have
+acknowledged, and to whom they willingly give credit for having viewed
+the question at issue in a more laborious and painful manner than
+themselves. Without a leader, they commit themselves to opinions
+carelessly and hastily adopted. This is fatal to a party in debate; but
+it often entails very serious consequences when the mistakes have been
+committed in a less public and responsible scene than the House of
+Commons.
+
+In the present case, there was only one individual who took any
+considerable lead in the management of the party who ventured to suggest
+the expediency of pausing before they pledged themselves to support an
+unconstitutional measure, proposed by a government against which they
+were arrayed under circumstances of urgent and unusual opposition. The
+support of an unconstitutional measure may be expedient, but it cannot
+be denied that it is the most indubitable evidence of confidence. This
+suggestion, though received with kindness, elicited little sympathy, and
+Lord George Bentinck, who had not yet spoken, and who always refrained
+at these meetings from taking that directing part which he never wished
+to assume, marking the general feeling of those present, and wishing to
+guide it to a practical result advantageous to their policy, observed
+that the support of the Coercion Bill by the Protectionists, ought to be
+made conditional on the government proving the sincerity of their policy
+by immediately proceeding with their measure; that if life were in
+such danger in Ireland as was officially stated, and as he was bound
+to believe, no Corn or Customs' Bill could compete in urgency with the
+necessity of pressing forward a bill, the object of which was to arrest
+wholesale assassination. He was, therefore, for giving the government
+a hearty support, provided they proved they were in earnest in their
+determination to put down murder and outrage in Ireland, by giving a
+priority in the conduct of public business to the measure in question.
+
+This view of the situation, which was certainly adroit, for it combined
+the vindication of order with an indefinite delay of the measures for
+the repeal of the protective system, seemed to please every one; there
+was a murmur of approbation, and when one of the most considerable of
+the country gentlemen expressed the prevalent feeling, and added that
+all that was now to be desired was that Lord George Bentinck would
+kindly consent to be the organ of the party on the occasion, and state
+their view to the House, the cheering was very hearty. It came from the
+hearts of more than two hundred gentlemen, scarcely one of whom had a
+personal object in this almost hopeless struggle beyond the maintenance
+of a system which he deemed advantageous to his country; but they wished
+to show their generous admiration of the man who, in the dark hour of
+difficulty and desertion, had proved his courage and resource, had
+saved them from public contempt, and taught them to have confidence in
+themselves. And after all, there are few rewards in life which equal
+such sympathy from such men. The favour of courts and the applause
+of senates may have their moments of excitement and delight, but the
+incident of deepest and most enduring gratification in public life is to
+possess the cordial confidence of a high-spirited party, for it touches
+the heart as well as the intellect, and combines all the softer feelings
+of private life with the ennobling consciousness of public duty.
+
+Lord George Bentinck, deeply moved, consented to become the organ of the
+Protectionists in this matter; but he repeated in a marked manner his
+previous declaration, that his duty must be limited to the occasion: he
+would serve with them, but he could not pretend to be the leader of a
+party. In that capacity, however, the government chose to recognize him,
+and there occurred in consequence, very shortly after this meeting, a
+scene in the House of Commons, which occasioned at the time a great deal
+of surprise and scandal. The Secretary of the Treasury, in pursuance
+of one of his principal duties, which is to facilitate by mutual
+understanding the conduct of public business in the House of Commons,
+applied to Lord George Bentinck, confessedly at the request of Sir
+Robert Peel, to 'enter into some arrangement' as to the conduct of
+public business before Easter. The arrangement suggested was, that if
+the Protectionists supported the Coercion Bill, which it was the wish
+of Sir Robert Peel should be read a first time before Easter, the third
+reading of the Bill for the Repeal of the Corn Laws should be postponed
+until after Easter. The interview by appointment took place in the Vote
+Office, where the Secretary of the Treasury 'called Lord George aside'
+and made this proposition. Lord George stated in reply, 'what he
+believed to be the views of the party with whom he served,' and they
+were those we have already intimated. The 'arrangement' was concluded,
+and it was at the same time agreed that certain questions, of which
+notice had been given by Lord John Russell, relative to the progress
+of these very measures, should be allowed by the Protectionists to pass
+_sub silentio_. This 'pledge,' made by the noble lord for himself and
+his friends, was 'scrupulously observed.' Nevertheless, after all this,
+a letter arrived from the Secretary of the Treasury, addressed to the
+noble lord, stating that the secretary 'had not been authorized in
+saying as much as he had said,' and requesting that the conversation
+which had taken place might be considered private. Upon this, Lord
+George Bentinck drew up a statement, 'setting forth all that had
+passed,' and forwarded it to the secretary as his reply. Subsequently,
+he met that gentleman, who admitted that 'every word in that statement,
+as respected the conversation which had passed, was perfectly correct.'
+
+This being the state of the case, on the second night of the debate
+on Mr. Eliot Yorke's amendment, which we have noticed, and after the
+adjournment had been moved and carried, the government proceeded with
+some motions of form, which indicated their intention to secure, if
+possible, the third reading of the Corn Bill before Easter. Upon
+this, Lord George Bentinck, after a hurried and apparently agitated
+conversation with the Secretary of the Treasury and others connected
+with the government, rose to move the adjournment of the House. He then
+gave as his reason the circumstances which we have briefly conveyed. A
+scene of considerable confusion occurred; the Secretary of the Treasury
+admitted the correctness of the statement; the First Lord of the
+Treasury rejected the alleged authority of the secretary. Mr. Tuffnell,
+on the part of the Whigs, intimated that public business could not be
+carried on if the recognized organs were repudiated by their chief. The
+feeling of all parties coincided with Mr. Tuffnell; finally, an Irish
+repealer rose and announced that the government were bartering their
+Corn Bill to secure coercion to Ireland. Lord George Bentinck said the
+Coercion Bill was 'a second Curfew Act,' that nothing but necessity
+could justify it, and if it were necessary it must be immediate. Sir
+Robert remained irritated and obstinate. He would not give up a stage
+either of the Corn Bill or the Coercion Bill; he wanted to advance both
+before Easter. The mere division of the House between Free-traders and
+Protectionists had already ceased; there were breakers ahead, and it
+was not difficult from this night to perceive that the course of the
+government would not be so summary as they had once expected.
+
+This strange interlude occurred after midnight on the 26th of March. On
+Friday, the 27th, the House divided on the amendment of Mr. Eliot Yorke,
+and the Corn Bill was read for the second time. On the reassembling of
+the House on Monday, the 30th, an extraordinary scene took place.
+
+It appears that the cabinet, after painful deliberation, had arrived at
+the conclusion that, notwithstanding the importance of sending up
+the Corn Bill to the House of Lords before Easter, it was absolutely
+necessary to proceed at once with the Coercion Bill; and it was resolved
+that the Secretary of State should on this evening lay before the House
+the facts and reasons which 'induce the Government to believe in the
+necessity of the measure.' Mr. O'Connell and his followers had already
+announced their intention of opposing the first reading of the bill,
+an allowable but very unusual course. It is competent to the House of
+Commons to refuse a first reading to any bill sent down to it; but the
+journals afford few examples of the exercise of such a privilege. A
+member of the House of Lords may lay on the table, as a matter of pure
+right, any bill which he thinks proper to introduce, and it is read a
+first time as a matter of course; the orders of the House of Commons are
+different, and a member must obtain permission before he introduces a
+bill. This permission is occasionally refused; but when a bill comes
+from the House of Lords, the almost invariable custom is to read it
+for the first time without discussion. There are, however, as we have
+observed, instances to the contrary, and the Irish Coercion Bill of '33
+was one of them. So pregnant a precedent could not be forgotten on
+the present occasion. The government therefore were prepared for an
+opposition to the first reading of their bill; but trusting to the
+strength of their case and the assumed support of the Whig party, they
+believed that this opposition would not be stubborn, more especially
+as there were numerous stages of the measure on which the views of its
+opponents might be subsequently expressed, and as they themselves were
+prepared to engage that they would not proceed further than this
+first reading until the Corn Bill had passed the House of Commons. The
+consternation, therefore, of the government could scarcely be
+concealed, when they found on Monday night that they had to encounter a
+well-organized party opposition, headed by Sir William Somerville, and
+sanctioned and supported in debate by Lord John Russell and Sir George
+Grey.
+
+It would seem indeed a difficult and somewhat graceless office for the
+Whigs to oppose the first reading of a government bill, concerning,
+too, the highest duties of administration, which had received such
+unqualified approval from all the leading members of their party in the
+House of Lords, who had competed in declarations of its necessity and
+acknowledgments of its moderation, while they only regretted the too
+tardy progress of a measure so indispensable to the safety of
+the country and the security of her Majesty's subjects. A curious
+circumstance, however, saved them from this dilemma, which yet in
+the strange history of faction they had nevertheless in due time to
+encounter.
+
+As the Coercion Bill coming from the Lords appeared on the paper of
+the day in the form of a notice of motion, the Secretary of State,
+this being a day on which orders have precedence, had to move that such
+orders of the day should be postponed, so that he might proceed with
+the motion on the state of Ireland, of which notice had been given. The
+strict rule of the House is, that on Mondays and Fridays, orders of
+the day should have precedence of notices of motion, so that it was
+impossible for the Secretary of State to make his motion, that a certain
+bill (the Protection of Life--Ireland--Bill) should be read a first time
+without permission of the House, a permission always granted as a matter
+of course on such nights to the government, since the business which can
+be brought forward, whether in the shape of orders or motions, is
+purely government business, and thus the interests and privilege of no
+independent member of Parliament can be affected by a relaxation of
+the rules which the convenience of a ministry and the conduct of public
+business occasionally require. However, on this night, no sooner had
+the Secretary of State made, in a few formal words, this formal request,
+than up sprang Sir William Somerville to move an amendment, that the
+orders of the day should not be postponed, which he supported in a
+spirited address, mainly on the ground of the great inconvenience that
+must be suffered from the postponement of the Corn Bill. The motion of
+the Secretary of State would produce a long, exciting, and exasperating
+debate. Time would be lost--for what? To advance one stage of a measure
+which it was avowedly not the intention of the government to press at
+the present moment. Sir William concluded with a very earnest appeal
+to Lord George Bentinck and his friends, who might at no very distant
+period have the government of Ireland entrusted to them, not, for the
+sake of a momentary postponement of the Corn Bill, to place themselves,
+by voting for this measure of coercion, in collision with the Irish
+nation.' He called upon Lord George Bentinck to weigh the position in
+which he was placed.
+
+This amendment was seconded by Mr. Smith O'Brien, the member for the
+county of Limerick, who warned the government that they 'were entering
+on a contest which would continue for months.' He taunted the minister
+with governing the country without a party. What chance was there of
+reconciliation with his estranged friends? After the treatment of that
+'disavowed plenipotentiary,' the Secretary of the Treasury, who would be
+again found willing to undertake the mission of patching up a truce?
+He was not present when the terms of the treaty were exposed: but he
+understood, that if the government introduced this Coercion Bill before
+Easter, then that Lord George Bentinck would deem it wise, proper, and
+expedient; but if after Easter, then the complexion and character of the
+bill were, in the noble lord's judgment, utterly transformed, and it was
+declared to be quite untenable and unconstitutional. Was that the kind
+of support on which the government calculated for passing this measure?
+
+The Secretary of State made a dexterous, conciliatory, almost humble
+address, in reply to the taunts of Mr. Smith O'Brien. He said that he
+was well aware of the fact of which he had been just reminded, that, in
+the present state of parties, the declared adherents of the government
+were a small minority; he even, while excusing the delay in the progress
+of the Irish measure, reminded the House of the curious fact, that since
+the meeting of Parliament, two successive Irish secretaries had lost
+their seats in the House of Commons in consequence of supporting the
+administration of which they were members.
+
+The case of the government was really so good and clear, that for a
+moment it seemed the opposition could hardly persist in their unusual
+proceeding: but this was a night of misfortunes.
+
+There had been for some time a smouldering feud between the secretary
+and the Recorder of Dublin. The learned gentleman had seized the
+occasion which the present state of parties afforded, and in the
+course of the recent debate on the second reading of the Corn Bill, had
+declared that the asserted famine in Ireland was, on the part of the
+government, 'a great exaggeration.' The secretary had addressed himself
+particularly to this observation in his speech on the 27th, the night
+of the division, and had noticed it in a tone of acerbity. He had even
+intimated that it might have been used by one who was a disappointed
+solicitor for high office, and whom the government had declined to
+assist in an unwarrantable arrangement of the duties and salary of
+the judicial post he at present occupied. The learned Recorder, justly
+indignant at this depreciating innuendo, resolved to make an opportunity
+on the following Monday for his vindication and retort. He rose,
+therefore, immediately after the skilful and winning appeal of the
+secretary, and pronounced an invective against the right honourable
+gentleman which was neither ill-conceived nor ill-delivered. It
+revived the passions that for a moment seemed inclined to lull, and
+the Protectionists, who on this occasion were going to support the
+government, forgot the common point of union, while the secretary was
+described as 'the evil genius of the cabinet.'
+
+After this, it was impossible to arrest the course of debate. Mr.
+O'Connell, who appeared to be in a state of great debility, made one
+of those acute points for which he was distinguished. He said the
+government complained of the threat held out by those who opposed the
+bill, that they would avail themselves of the forms of the House to
+give it every opposition in their power. But what did the government do
+themselves? Why, they were trying to trample upon one of the sessional
+orders and to abrogate the forms of the House in order to coerce the
+Irish people. Lord George Bentinck said, that 'the chief minister had
+told them, that this was a bill to put down murder and assassination; in
+that case, if this bill were delayed, the blood of every man murdered
+in Ireland was on the head of her Majesty's ministers.' Sir George Grey
+followed, and avoiding any discussion of the state of Ireland, in
+which Lord George had entered, supported the amendment of Sir William
+Somerville, on the broad ground that the bill for the repeal of the corn
+laws ought not to be for a moment delayed. 'The debates on that
+measure had continued several weeks; and all who had any lengthened
+parliamentary experience must be convinced, that if the further progress
+of the Corn Bill was postponed until after Easter, they would have much
+longer and protracted debates in its future stages, than if the bill
+were pushed _de die in diem_. As he had understood, the government had
+intended that this bill should have gone up to the House of Lords before
+Easter, when it would have been printed, and the second reading could
+have taken place at an early day after the holidays; but if it were put
+off until after Easter, he would defy any man to show any reasonable
+expectation of its getting to a second reading in the other House before
+June, or July, or even August.' This was encouraging, and the plot
+seemed to thicken. The Secretary at War was put up by the government to
+neutralize the effect of the speech of Sir George Grey, and he said, 'I
+speak not only as a cabinet minister, but also as a considerable
+Irish proprietor.' He said, 'that anything so horrible as the state of
+demoralization and crime in which many parts of Ireland were plunged,
+anything so perfect as the suspension of the law in those parts of the
+country, anything, in short, so complete as the abrogation of liberty
+that obtained there, was, perhaps never known.' He thought that, 'no man
+and no minister could, under these circumstances, decline to admit that
+every and any measure ought to be postponed until a division had been
+taken, at least upon the principle of a measure which had for its object
+the suppression of these horrors.' After such a declaration it was clear
+the government were in a false position when by the same organ it had to
+state, 'that in asking to read this bill to-night, they only intended to
+postpone the Corn Bill for one night.'
+
+Lord John Russell following, admitted, that 'in voting for the motion of
+Sir William Somerville it was not to be supposed, that if the Secretary
+of State made out a case, he would not support the government bill;'
+yet how the secretary was ever to find an opportunity of making out his
+case, if the amendment of Sir William Somerville was carried, was
+not very apparent. Sir Robert Peel, who was disquieted by the whole
+proceedings connected with the Coercion Bill, irritated by the episode
+of 'the disavowed plenipotentiary,' from which he did not for some
+time recover, and really alarmed at the indefinite prospect of delay in
+passing his all-important measures which now began to open, could not
+conceal his vexation in the remarks which he offered, and speaking of
+the amendment as one 'of a frivolous character,' indignant cries of 'No,
+no,' from his usual admirers, obliged him to withdraw the expression.
+His feelings were not soothed when, later in the evening, even Mr.
+Cobden rose to deplore the conduct of that minister whom he otherwise so
+much admired. 'He certainly regarded it as a great calamity. Something
+had actuated the government which he could not understand. He had a
+perfect belief in the sincerity of the prime minister, but in all human
+probability the Corn Bill would not now enter the House of Lords before
+the beginning or middle of May; and when it would come out again, heaven
+only knew!'
+
+The House now divided, and being supported by all the Protectionists
+present, the government had a majority of thirty-nine, so the standing
+order was for that night rescinded; and, although the hour was late for
+such a statement, the secretary proceeded with the official exposition.
+Notwithstanding the depressing circumstances of the previous debate,
+the speech of Sir James Graham was distinguished by all that lucid
+arrangement of details and that comprehensive management of his subject
+which distinguished him. The statement made a great impression upon the
+House and the country; but, unfortunately for the government, the more
+necessary they made the measure appear, the more unjustifiable was their
+conduct in not immediately and vehemently pursuing it. They had, indeed,
+in the speech from the throne at the commencement of this memorable
+session, taken up a false position for their campaign; and we shall see,
+as we pursue this narrative of these interesting events, that the fall
+of Sir Robert Peel was perhaps occasioned not so much by his repeal
+of the corn laws as by the mistake in tactics which this adroit and
+experienced parliamentary commander so strangely committed.
+
+On this night of the 30th the government made no advance; immediately
+after the secretary had finished, the followers of Mr. O'Connell moved
+the adjournment of the House, and persisted in this line notwithstanding
+the almost querulous appeal of the first minister.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     _The Passing of O'Connell._
+
+LORD GEORGE wrote the next morning (Tuesday, March 31st) to a friend,
+who had not been able to attend the debate: 'I look upon last night as
+the most awkward night the government have had yet; I believe they would
+have given their ears to have been beaten. We have now fairly set
+them and the tail at loggerheads, and I cannot see how they are to get
+another stage of either the tariff or Corn Bill before next Tuesday at
+any rate. I doubt if they will do anything before Easter.'
+
+It was understood that the House would adjourn for the Easter recess
+on the 8th instant. There were therefore only two nights remaining for
+government business before the holidays. On the first of these (Friday,
+April the 3rd), Mr. O'Connell had announced that he should state his
+views at length on the condition of Ireland, and the causes of these
+agrarian outrages. Accordingly, when the order of the day for resuming
+the adjourned debate was read, he rose at once to propose an amendment
+to the motion. He sat in an unusual place--in that generally occupied by
+the leader of the opposition--and spoke from the red box, convenient
+to him from the number of documents to which he had to refer. His
+appearance was of great debility, and the tones of his voice were very
+still. His words, indeed, only reached those who were immediately around
+him and the ministers sitting on the other side of the green table, who
+listened with that interest and respectful attention which became the
+occasion.
+
+It was a strange and touching spectacle to those who remembered the
+form of colossal energy and the clear and thrilling tones that had once
+startled, disturbed, and controlled senates. Mr. O'Connell was on his
+legs for nearly two hours, assisted occasionally in the management of
+his documents by some devoted aide-de-camp. To the House generally it
+was a performance in dumb show, a feeble old man muttering before a
+table; but respect for the great parliamentary personage kept all as
+orderly as if the fortunes of a party hung upon his rhetoric; and though
+not an accent reached the gallery, means were taken that next morning
+the country should not lose the last and not the least interesting of
+the speeches of one who had so long occupied and agitated the mind of
+nations.
+
+This remarkable address was an abnegation of the whole policy of Mr.
+O'Connell's career. It proved, by a mass of authentic evidence ranging
+over a long term of years, that Irish outrage was the consequence of
+physical misery, and that the social evils of that country could not be
+successfully encountered by political remedies. To complete the picture,
+it concluded with a panegyric of Ulster and a patriotic quotation from
+Lord Clare.
+
+Lord John Russell, who, as an experienced parliamentary leader, had
+already made more than one effort to extricate the Whigs from the
+consequences of the hearty support given to the government measures in
+the other House by Lords Lansdowne and Clanricarde, and even by Lord
+Grey, ventured to-night even to say that if he should agree that the
+House would do well to assent to the first reading of this bill, he
+thought he was bound to state also that in the future stages of it, he
+should have 'objections to offer, going to the foundations of some of
+its principal provisions.'
+
+His speech was curious, as perhaps the last considerable manifesto of
+Whig delusion respecting Ireland. Coercion Bills might be occasionally
+necessary; no doubt of it; Lord Grey had once a Coercion Bill, and Lord
+John Russell had voted for it; but then remedial measures ought to be
+introduced with coercive ones: the evil should be repressed, but also
+cured. Thus, Lord Althorp, when the government introduced their great
+Coercion Bill, introduced also a measure which, besides making a great
+reform in the Protestant Church of Ireland, exempted the whole Catholic
+community of Ireland from the payment of church cess, which had
+previously been felt as a very great grievance. On another day Lord
+Althorp declared his intention of pressing through Parliament a Jury
+Bill, which had been brought into the House the previous session, but
+which was allowed to drop in the House of Lords.
+
+Again, there was another declaration which Lord Althorp had made, which,
+somehow or other, seemed to have been forgotten; it was a declaration
+with respect to the municipal corporations of Ireland. Lord Althorp said
+it was exceedingly desirable that the institutions of the two countries
+should be assimilated as much as possible; and that, as a general rule,
+the corporate bodies of Ireland should be the same as England. Mr.
+O'Connell had said on that occasion that there was no greater grievance
+in Ireland than the existence of corporations in their then shape. Lord
+John contrasted this language of Lord Althorp, 'simple, plain, emphatic,
+and decided,' with the language of the government of Sir Robert Peel;
+and held up to admiration the Whig policy of 1833, certainly coercive,
+but with remedial measures--a measure for the abolition of church cess,
+introduced ten days before the Coercion Bill, and a promise of municipal
+reform made simultaneously with the proclamation of martial law. This
+was real statesmanship and touching the root of the evil. Whereas
+'Sir Robert Peel had only consented to passing the Municipal Bill in a
+crippled state, and only now (in 1846) promised, that the corporations
+of Ireland should be placed on the same footing as the corporations of
+England.' Who could be surprised that such a policy-should end in famine
+and pestilence?
+
+The followers of Mr. O'Connell again succeeded in adjourning the debate
+until Monday the 6th. On that day Sir Robert Peel made 'an earnest
+appeal' to extricate himself from the almost perilous position in which
+he found his administration suddenly involved. In case the division on
+the first reading of the Irish Bill should not take place that night, he
+endeavoured to prevail on those members who had notices on the paper
+for the following night (Tuesday the 7th), the last night before the
+holidays, to relinquish their right and to permit the Irish debate
+to proceed and conclude. 'He had no wish to interfere with the due
+discussion of the measure; but he believed that the Irish members, if
+they permitted the House to proceed with the Corn Bill, by concluding
+the discussion on the Irish Bill, would be rendering an essential
+service to their country.'
+
+But this earnest appeal only influenced still more the fiery resolves
+of Mr. Smith O'Brien and his friends. They threw the responsibility for
+delay of the Corn Bill on the government. The inconvenience which
+the country suffered was occasioned by the minister, not by the Irish
+members. He ought, on Friday last, to have adjourned the discussion on
+the Coercion Bill until after Easter. He and other members who were
+on the paper for to-morrow would willingly relinquish their right of
+priority in favour of the Corn Bill, or of any measure of a remedial
+kind, but not in favour of a Coercion Bill. He did not wish to have any
+concealment with the minister as to the course which the Irish members
+would pursue. It was their bounden duty to take care that _pari passu_
+with the discussion of the Coercion Bill there should be discussions
+as to the misgovernment of Ireland; and that, in the absence of any
+remedial measures of the government, they should have an opportunity of
+suggesting such as they thought advisable for removing those evils which
+they utterly denied that the measure now before the House would remove.
+
+In vain Sir Robert, in his blandest tones and with that remarkable
+command of a temper not naturally serene which distinguished him,
+acknowledged to a certain degree the propriety of the course intimated
+by Mr. Smith O'Brien; but suggested at the same time that it was
+compatible with allowing the Irish bill to be now read for a first time,
+since on its subsequent stages Mr. O'Brien and his friends would have
+the full opportunity which they desired, of laying before the House the
+whole condition of the country. All was useless. No less a personage
+than Mr. John O'Connell treated the appeal with contempt, and lectured
+the first minister on the 'great mistake' which he had made. Little
+traits like these revealed the true parliamentary position of the once
+omnipotent leader of the great Conservative party. With the legions
+of the Protectionists watching their prey in grim silence, while
+the liberal sections were united in hostile manouvres against the
+government, it was recognised at once that the great minister had a
+staff without an army; not a reconnoitring could take place without the
+whole cabinet being under orders, and scarcely a sharpshooter sallied
+from the opposite ranks without the prime minister returning his fire in
+person.
+
+Sir Robert Peel mournfully observed that he 'did not wish to provoke
+a recriminatory discussion,' and he resigned himself to his fate.
+Immediately the third night of the adjourned debate on the Irish bill
+commenced, and was sustained principally by the Irish members until a
+late hour. It had not been the intention of Lord George Bentinck to have
+spoken on this occasion, though he had never been absent for a moment
+from his seat, and watched all that occurred with that keen relish which
+was usual with him when he thought things were going right; but having
+been personally and not very courteously appealed to by the late Mr.
+Dillon Browne, and deeming also the occasion, just before the holidays,
+a not unhappy one, he rose and concluded the debate. His speech was not
+long, it was not prepared, and it was very animated.
+
+Recapitulating himself the main features of the disturbed district, he
+said: 'It is because of these things, sir, that I am prepared to support
+at least the first reading of a bill, which I freely admit to be most
+unconstitutional in itself.'
+
+Noticing a speech made in the course of the evening by Lord Morpeth,
+who had himself once been chief secretary of the Lord Lieutenant,
+Lord George thought it discreet to remind the House of the unequivocal
+support given to this bill by the Whig leaders in another place: 'Sir, I
+think when we see all the great leaders of the Whig party supporting the
+measure elsewhere, we cannot be justly impugned for doing as they do.'
+Lord Morpeth had referred to 'remedial measures which he thinks
+should be introduced for Ireland: to measures for the extension of the
+municipal, and also of the parliamentary, franchise of that country; and
+he expressed his desire to see those franchises put on the same footing
+as the franchises of England.' 'For the life of me,' exclaimed Lord
+George, 'I confess, I cannot see in what way the extension of political
+franchises of any description in Ireland would afford a remedy for
+the evils which this measure aims to suppress. I think, sir, it is
+impossible not to perceive that there is a connection between agrarian
+outrage and the poverty of the people.'
+
+After noticing the inadequate poor-law which then existed in Ireland,
+he added: 'There is also another point immediately connected with
+this subject to which I must refer. I allude, sir, to the system of
+absenteeism. I cannot disguise from myself the conviction, that many
+of the evils of Ireland arise from the system of receiving rents by
+absentee landlords who spend them in other countries. I am well aware
+that, in holding this doctrine, I am not subscribing to the creed of
+political economists. I am well aware that Messrs. Senior and M'Culloch
+hold that it makes no difference whether the Irish landlord spends his
+rents in Dublin, on his Irish estates, in London, in Bath, or elsewhere.
+I profess, sir, I cannot understand that theory. I believe that the
+first ingredient in the happiness of a people is, that the gentry should
+reside on their native soil, and spend their rents among those from whom
+they receive them. I cannot help expressing a wish that some arrangement
+may be made connected with the levying of the poor-rate in Ireland, by
+which absentee landlords may be made to contribute in something like a
+fair proportion to the wants of the poor in the district in which they
+ought to reside. There is an arrangement in the hop-growing districts in
+England in respect to tithe, which might, I think, afford a very useful
+suggestion. There are two tithes: the one, the ordinary tithe; the
+other, extraordinary; which is levied only so long as the land is
+cultivated in hops. I think if there were two poor-rates introduced into
+Ireland, the one applying to all occupiers of land, and the other to all
+those who did not spend a certain portion of the year on some portion of
+their estates in Ireland, it would prove useful. I think, that by thus
+appealing to their interests, it might induce absentee landlords to
+reside much more in Ireland, than is now unfortunately the case.
+
+'But, sir, I think there are other remedial measures. Some days ago, the
+Secretary of State told the member for Stroud (Mr. Poulett Scrope),
+when he suggested some such measure, that he was treading on dangerous
+ground, and that the doctrines he was advocating might be written in
+letters of blood in Ireland; but, notwithstanding all this, I still say
+that I think measures might be introduced for improving the relations
+between landlord and tenant in Ireland. I do not think that some
+guarantee might and ought to be given to the tenantry of Ireland for the
+improvements they make upon their farms.
+
+'Sir, the Secretary of State, in introducing this measure, maintained
+a doctrine which, I think, much more likely to be written in letters of
+blood, for he bound up the question of the corn laws with the present
+one. He said, that unless he could, have prevailed on his colleagues
+to accede to his free-trade measures as regards corn, he would not have
+introduced this bill. Why, sir, far from giving food to the people of
+Ireland, in my opinion the measures of her Majesty's ministers will take
+away from the people of Ireland their food, by destroying the profits
+of their only manufacture--the manufacture of corn--and injuring their
+agriculture; depriving them of employment; in fact, by taking away from
+them the very means of procuring subsistence. Sir, I cannot see how the
+repeal of those laws affecting corn can be In any way connected with the
+suppression of outrage and the protection of life. What is this but to
+say, that unless we have a free trade in corn, we must be prepared to
+concede a free trade in agrarian outrage--a free trade in maiming and
+houghing cattle--a free trade in incendiarism--a free trade in the
+burning and sacking of houses--a free trade in midnight murder, and in
+noon-day assassination? What is this but telling the people of
+Ireland, that assassination, murder, incendiarism, are of such light
+consideration in the eyes of the Secretary of State, that their sanction
+or suppression by the minister of the crown hinges upon the condition of
+the corn market and the difference in the price of potatoes?
+
+'Sir, what has the potato disease to do with the outrages in Ireland?
+Some think a great deal. I have taken the trouble of looking into
+the matter. I have examined into the state of crime in at least five
+counties--Tipperary, Roscommon, Limerick, Leitrim, and Clare--and I
+find, that during the three months prior to the first appearance of
+the potato disease, and when in fact food was as cheap in Ireland as at
+almost any former period--when plenty abounded in all quarters of the
+empire, that the amount of crime exceeded that in the three months
+immediately following. Now, those who doubt this statement will have an
+opportunity of ascertaining the correctness of my figures, for I will
+not deal in general assertions. Well then, sir, I find in the three
+months, May, June, and July last, that the number of crimes committed in
+the five counties I have mentioned amounted to no less than 1,180, while
+in the three months immediately after the potato disease, or famine as
+it is called, the amount of crime committed in the same three months was
+not 1,180, but 870. I should like to know, therefore, what this agrarian
+outrage has to do with the potato famine; and where is the justification
+for a minister coming down to this House, and declaring that unless we
+pass a free-trade measure, we are not to obey her Majesty's commands
+by passing a measure for the protection of life in Ireland. Why, sir, I
+think when this language reaches the people of Ireland--coming, too, as
+it does from the Treasury, above all, from the Secretary of State for
+the Home Department--there is indeed danger to be apprehended that such
+a doctrine may be written in letters of blood in that country. Why, sir,
+if we are to hear such language as this from that minister of the crown
+charged with the peace of the country, we may just as well have Captain
+Rock established as lord lieutenant in the castle of Dublin, a Whitefoot
+for chief secretary, and Molly M'Guire installed at Whitehall with the
+seals of the home department.'
+
+And afterwards he remarked, 'I have been taunted that when I may be
+entrusted with the government of Ireland, I should perhaps then learn
+that Tyrone was an Orange county. Sir, in answer to that taunt, I must
+take leave to ask what expression of mine, either in this house or out
+of it, justifies any such remark? When or where can it be said that I
+have ever permitted myself to know any distinction between an Orangeman
+and a Catholic; when, in the whole course of my parliamentary career,
+have I ever given a vote or uttered a sentiment hostile or unfriendly to
+the Roman Catholics, either of England or Ireland?' This speech, though
+delivered generally in favour of the Irish bill, attracted very much
+the attention, and, as it appeared afterwards, the approbation of those
+Irish members, who, although sitting on the Liberal benches, did not
+acknowledge the infallible authority of Mr. O'Connell, and was the
+origin of a political connection between them and Lord George Bentinck,
+which, on more than one subsequent occasion, promised to bring important
+results.
+
+Two successive motions were now made for the adjournment of the debate,
+and Sir Robert Peel at length said, that he 'saw it was useless to
+persist.' He agreed to the adjournment until the next day, with the
+understanding that if it did come on, he would name the time to which it
+should be postponed after the holidays.
+
+Upon this, Sir William Somerville made one more appeal to the minister
+to postpone the further discussion of the Irish bill altogether until
+the Corn Bill had passed the Commons. He intimated that unless the
+government at once adopted this resolution, they would find themselves
+after Easter in the same perplexity which now paralyzed them. They would
+not be permitted to bring on this measure except upon government nights,
+and the discussion might then last weeks.
+
+The minister, exceedingly embarrassed, would not, however, relent. On
+the following day, when he moved the adjournment of the House for the
+holidays, he reduced the vacation three days, in order to obtain Friday,
+a government night, which otherwise would have been absorbed in the
+holidays, and he announced the determination of the government again
+to proceed on that night with the Irish bill in preference to the Corn
+Bill. The Irish members glanced defiance, and the Protectionists could
+scarcely conceal their satisfaction. The reputation of Sir Robert
+Peel for parliamentary management seemed to be vanishing; never was a
+government in a more tottering state; and the Whigs especially began to
+renew their laments that the Edinburgh letter and its consequences had
+prevented the settlement of the corn question from devolving to the
+natural arbitrator in the great controversy, their somewhat rash but
+still unrivalled leader, Lord John Russell.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     _A Third Party_
+
+THE members of the Protectionist opposition returned to their
+constituents with the sanguine feelings which success naturally
+inspires. Their efforts had surprised, not displeased, the country;
+the elections were in their favour; the government business halted; the
+delay in the calculated arrival of the famine had taken the edge off the
+necessity which it was supposed would have already carried the Corn Bill
+through the Commons; while the twin measure which the throes of Ireland
+had engendered had developed elements of opposition which even the
+calmest observer thought might possibly end in overthrow. Above all,
+that seemed to have happened which the most experienced in parliamentary
+life had always deemed to be impracticable; namely, the formation of a
+third party in the House of Commons.
+
+How completely this latter and difficult result was owing to the
+abilities and energies of one man, and how anomalous was the position
+which he chose to occupy in not taking the formal lead of a party which
+was entirely guided by his example, were convictions and considerations
+that at this juncture much occupied men's minds. And it was resolved
+among the most considerable of the country gentlemen to make some
+earnest and well-combined effort, during the recess, to induce Lord
+George Bentinck to waive the unwillingness he had so often expressed of
+becoming their avowed and responsible leader.
+
+When Lord George Bentinck first threw himself into the breach, he was
+influenced only by a feeling of indignation at the manner in which he
+thought the Conservative party had been trifled with by the government
+and Lord Stanley, his personal friend and political leader, deserted by
+a majority of the cabinet. As affairs developed, and it became evident
+that the bulk of the Conservative party throughout the country had
+rallied round his standard, Lord George could not conceal from himself
+the consequences of such an event, or believe that it was possible
+that the party in the House of Commons, although Lord Stanley might
+eventually think fit to guide it by his counsels, and become, if
+necessary, personally responsible for its policy, could be long held
+together unless it were conducted by a leader present in the same
+assembly, and competent under all circumstances to represent its
+opinions in debate. Lord George, although a very proud man, had no
+vanity or self-conceit. He took a very humble view of his own powers,
+and he had at the same time a very exalted one of those necessary to a
+leader of the House of Commons. His illustrious connection, Mr. Canning,
+was his standard. He had been the private secretary of that minister
+in his youth, and the dazzling qualities of that eminent personage
+had influenced the most susceptible time of life of one who was very
+tenacious of his impressions. What Lord George Bentinck appreciated
+most in a parliamentary speaker was brilliancy: quickness of perception,
+promptness of repartee, clear and concise argument, a fresh and
+felicitous quotation, wit and picture, and, if necessary, a passionate
+appeal that should never pass the line of high-bred sentiment. Believing
+himself not to be distinguished by these rhetorical qualities, he would
+listen with no complacency to those who would urge in private that the
+present period of parliamentary life was different from the days of Mr.
+Canning, and that accumulated facts and well-digested reasoning on their
+bearing, a command of all the materials of commercial controversy, and
+a mastery of the laws that regulate the production and distribution of
+public wealth, combined with habits of great diligence and application,
+would ensure the attention of a popular assembly, especially when united
+to a high character and great social position. This might be urged;
+but he would only shake his head, with a ray of humour twinkling in his
+piercing eyes, and say, in a half-drawling tone, 'If Mr. Canning were
+alive, he could do all this better than any of them, and be not a whit
+less brilliant.'
+
+There was also another reason why Lord George Bentinck was unwilling to
+assume the post of leader of the Conservative party, and this very much
+influenced him. Sprung from a great Whig house, and inheriting all the
+principles and prejudices of that renowned political connection which
+had expelled the Stuarts, he had accepted, in an unqualified sense, the
+dogma of religious liberty. This principle was first introduced into
+active politics in order to preserve the possessions of that portion
+of the aristocracy which had established itself on the plunder of
+the Church. It was to form the basis of a party which should prevent
+reaction and restitution of church lands. Whether the principle be a
+true one, and whether its unqualified application by any party in the
+state be possible, are questions yet unsettled. It is not probable, for
+example, that the worship of Juggernaut, which Lord Dalhousie permits
+in Orissa, would be permitted even by Lord John Russell at Westminster.
+Even a papist procession is forbidden, and wisely. The application of
+the principle, however, in Lord George Bentinck's mind, was among other
+things associated with the public recognition of the Roman Catholic
+hierarchy by the state, and a provision for its maintenance in Ireland
+in accordance with the plan of Mr. Pitt. What had happened, with respect
+to the vote on the endowment of Maynooth in 1845, had convinced him that
+his opinions on this subject presented an insuperable barrier to his
+ever becoming the leader of a party which had contributed three-fourths
+of the memorable minority on that occasion. It was in vain that it
+was impressed upon him by those most renowned for their Protestant
+principles, and who were at the same time most anxious to see Lord
+George Bentinck in his right position, that the question of Maynooth was
+settled, and there was now no prospect of future measures of a similar
+character. This was not the opinion of Lord George Bentinck. He nursed
+in his secret soul a great scheme for the regeneration and settlement
+of Ireland, which he thought ought to be one of the mainstays of a
+Conservative party; and it was his opinion that the condition of the
+Roman Catholic priesthood must be considered.
+
+It was in vain, in order to assist in removing these scruples, that it
+was represented to him by others that endowment of a priesthood by the
+state was a notion somewhat old-fashioned, and opposed to the spirit
+of the age which associated true religious freedom with the full
+development of the voluntary principle. He listened to these suggestions
+with distrust, and even with a little contempt. Mr. Canning had been in
+favour of the endowment of the Irish priesthood--that was sufficient for
+that particular; and as for the voluntary principle, he looked upon it
+as priestcraft in disguise; his idea of religious liberty being that all
+religions should be controlled by the state.
+
+Besides these two prominent objections to accepting the offered post,
+namely, his unaffected distrust in his parliamentary abilities and his
+assumed want of concordance with his followers on a great principle
+of modern politics, we must also remember that his compliance with
+the request involved no ordinary sacrifice of much which renders life
+delightful. He was to relinquish pursuits of noble excitement to which
+he was passionately attached, and to withdraw in a great degree from
+a circle of high-spirited friends, many of them of different political
+connection from himself, by whom he was adored. With all his unrivalled
+powers of application when under the influence of a great impulse, he
+was constitutionally indolent and even lethargic. There was nothing,
+therefore, in his position or his temperature to prick him on in '46;
+it was nothing but his strong will acting upon his indignation which
+sustained him. It is not, therefore, marvellous that he exhibited great
+reluctance to commit irretrievably his future life. At a subsequent
+period, indignation had become ambition, and circumstances of various
+kinds had made him resolve to succeed or die.
+
+On the adjournment, Lord George had gone down to Newmarket, which he
+greatly enjoyed after his exhausting campaign. Here some letters on the
+subject of the leadership passed, but nothing was definitely arranged
+till some time after the re-assembling of Parliament. For convenience
+we mention here the result. The wish of the party was repeatedly
+and personally urged by the popular and much-esteemed member for
+Dorsetshire, and at last Lord George consented to their wishes, on these
+conditions: that he should relinquish his post the moment the right man
+was discovered, who, according to his theory, would ultimately turn up;
+and secondly, that his responsible post was not to restrict or embarrass
+him on any questions in which a religious principle was involved.
+
+Before, however, this negotiation was concluded, and while yet at
+Newmarket, he wrote to a friend, the day before the House met (April
+16th).
+
+'I think there is no doubt, but that the Irish will take care of Friday
+(to-morrow) night. I have not much hope of their keeping up the debate
+beyond Friday.
+
+'It is quite clear from O'Connell's language at Dublin that we have no
+hope from the Irish tail.
+
+'I still think myself, that delay affords a great chance of something
+turning up in our favour; already the rejection of any reciprocity by
+M. Guizot has provided us with a grand weapon, which, I trust, you drive
+well home into * * * *'s vitals; a very short delay would probably bring
+over similar intelligence from the United States and their Congress.
+I trust we shall have an important deputation over from Canada,
+representing that the inevitable results of these free-trade measures
+in corn and timber will be to alienate the feelings of our Canadian
+colonists, and to induce them to follow their sordid interests, which
+will now, undoubtedly, be best consulted and most promoted by annexation
+to the United States.
+
+'Lord------'s intended tergiversation has been, I believe, some time
+known; he admits that all farmers without capital, in short, all little
+men, must be sacrificed. What a barbarous and odious policy, that
+goes upon the principle that none but capitalists are henceforth to
+be allowed to live, as farmers at least. We must turn the tables upon
+Lord------and all such heartless doctrinaires!
+
+'I fear the majority in the Lords will be greater than was expected;
+I am told that we must endeavour to put ministers in a minority two or
+three times before the bill gets to its second reading in the Lords,
+no matter upon what question. I hear there are many peers whose votes
+depend entirely upon their notions, whether or not Peel can, by hook or
+by crook, carry on.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     _Railroads for Ireland_
+
+IF WE take a general view of the career of Lord George Bentinck during
+the last year--from the time indeed when he was trying to find a lawyer
+to convey his convictions to the House of Commons until the moment when
+her Majesty prorogued her Parliament, the results will be found to be
+very remarkable. So much was never done so unexpectedly by any public
+man in the same space of time. He had rallied a great party which seemed
+hopelessly routed; he had established a parliamentary discipline,
+in their ranks which old political connections, led by experienced
+statesmen, have seldom surpassed; he had brought forward from those
+ranks, entirely through his discrimination and by his personal
+encouragement, considerable talents in debate; he had himself proved a
+master in detail and in argument of all the great questions arising
+out of the reconstruction of our commercial system; he had made a
+vindication of the results of the Protective principle as applied to
+agriculture, which certainly, so far as the materials are concerned, is
+the most efficient plea that ever was urged in the House of Commons
+in favour of the abrogated law; he had exhibited similar instances of
+investigation in considerable statements with respect to the silk trade
+and other branches of our industry; he had asserted the claims of the
+productive classes in Ireland, and in our timber and sugar producing
+colonies, with the effect which results from a thorough acquaintance
+with a subject; he had promulgated distinct principles with regard to
+our financial as well as to our commercial system; he had maintained
+the expediency cf relieving the consumer by the repeal of excise in
+preference to customs' duties, and of establishing fiscal reciprocity as
+a condition of mercantile exchange. On subjects of a more occasional
+but analogous nature he had shown promptitude and knowledge, as in the
+instances of the urgent condition of Mexico and of our carrying trade
+with the Spanish colonies, both of which he brought forward in the last
+hours of the session, but the importance of which motions was recognized
+by all parties. Finally, he had attracted the notice, and in many
+instances obtained the confidence, of large bodies of men in the
+country, who recognized in him a great capacity of labour combined with
+firmness of character and honesty of purpose.
+
+At the close of the session (August 28), Cord George visited Norfolk,
+where he received an entertainment from his constituents at King's Lynn,
+proud of their member, and to whom he vindicated the course which he had
+taken, and offered his views generally as to the relations which should
+subsist between the legislation of the country and its industry.
+From Norfolk he repaired to Belvoir Castle, on a visit to the Duke of
+Rutland, and was present at a banquet given by the agriculturists of
+Leicestershire to his friend and supporter the Marquis of Granby. After
+this he returned to Welbeck, where he seems to have enjoyed a little
+repose. Thus he writes to a friend from that place on the 22nd
+September:
+
+'Thanks for your advice, which I am following, having got Lord
+Malmesbury's Diary; but I am relapsing into my natural dawdling, lazy,
+and somnolent habits, and can with difficulty get through the leaders
+even of the "Times."
+
+* * * * 'The vehemence of the farmers is personal against Peel; it is
+quite clear that the rising price of wheat has cured their alarm. The
+railway expenditure must keep up prices and prosperity, both of which
+would have been far greater without free trade; but in face of high
+prices, railway prosperity, and potato famine, depend upon it we shall
+have an uphill game to fight.
+
+'O'Connell talks of Parliament meeting in November, to mend the Irish
+Labour-rate Act. Do you believe this?'
+
+The Labour-rate Act, passed at the end of the session ('46), was one by
+which the Lord Lieutenant was enabled to require special barony
+sessions to meet in order to make presentments for public works for the
+employment of the people, the whole of the money requisite for their
+construction to be supplied by the imperial treasury, though to
+be afterwards repaid. The machinery of this act did not work
+satisfactorily, but the government ultimately made the necessary
+alterations on their own responsibility, and obtained an indemnity from
+Parliament when it met in '47. The early session, therefore, talked
+of by Mr. O'Connell, became unnecessary. As the only object of this
+Labour-rate Act was to employ the people, and as it was supposed there
+were no public works of a reproductive nature which could be undertaken
+on a sufficient scale to ensure that employment, the Irish people were
+occupied, towards the end of the autumn of '46, mainly in making roads,
+which, as afterwards described by the first minister, 'were not wanted.'
+In the month of September more than thirty thousand persons were thus
+employed; but when the harvest was over, and it was ascertained that its
+terrible deficiency had converted pauperism into famine, the numbers
+on the public works became greatly increased, so that at the end of
+November the amount of persons engaged was four hundred thousand,
+receiving wages at the rate of nearly five millions sterling per annum.
+These immense amounts went on increasing every week, and when Parliament
+met in February, 1847, five hundred thousand persons were employed on
+these public works, which could bring no possible public advantage, at
+an expense to the country of between �700,000 and �800,000 per month.
+No Board of Works could efficiently superintend such a multitude, or
+prevent flagrant imposition, though the dimensions of that
+department appeared almost proportionably to have expanded. What
+with commissioners, chief clerks, check clerks, and pay clerks, the
+establishment of the Board of Works in Ireland, at the end of '46,
+consisted of more than eleven thousand persons.
+
+Always intent upon Ireland, this condition of affairs early and
+earnestly attracted the attention of Lord George Bentinck. So vast an
+expenditure in unproductive labour dismayed him. He would not
+easily assent to the conclusion that profitable enterprise under the
+circumstances was impossible. Such a conclusion seemed to him unnatural,
+and that an occasion where we commenced with despair justified a bold
+and venturesome course. The field is legitimately open to speculation
+where all agree that all is hopeless. The construction of harbours, the
+development of fisheries, the redemption of waste lands, were resources
+which had been often canvassed, and whatever their recommendations, with
+the exception of the last, they were necessarily very limited; and the
+last, though it might afford prompt, could hardly secure profitable,
+employment. Prompt and profitable employment was the object which Lord
+George wished to accomplish. Where millions were to be expended by the
+state, something more advantageous to the community should accrue than
+the temporary subsistence of the multitude.
+
+Lord George had always been a great supporter of railway enterprise in
+England, on the ground that, irrespective of all the peculiar advantages
+of those undertakings, the money was spent in the country; and that if
+our surplus capital were not directed to such channels, it would go, as
+it had gone before, to foreign mines and foreign loans, from which in a
+great degree no return would arrive. When millions were avowedly to be
+laid out in useless and unprofitable undertakings, it became a question
+whether it were not wiser even somewhat to anticipate the time when the
+necessities of Ireland would require railways on a considerable scale;
+and whether by embarking in such enterprises, we might not only find
+prompt and profitable employment for the people, but by giving a new
+character to the country and increasing its social relations and the
+combinations of its industry, might not greatly advance the period when
+such modes of communication would be absolutely requisite.
+
+Full of these views, Lord George, in the course of the autumn, consulted
+in confidence some gentlemen very competent to assist him in such an
+inquiry, and especially Mr. Robert Stephenson, Mr. Hudson, and Mr.
+Laing. With their advice and at their suggestion, two engineers of
+great ability, Mr. Bidder and Mr. Smith, were despatched to Ireland,
+personally to investigate the whole question of railroads in that
+country.
+
+Meditating over the condition of Ireland, a subject very frequently
+in his thoughts, and of the means to combat its vast and inveterate
+pauperism, Lord George was frequently in the habit of reverting to
+the years '41-42 in England, when there were fifteen hundred thousand
+persons on the parish rates; eighty-three thousand able-bodied men,
+actually confined within the walls of the workhouse, and more than four
+hundred thousand able-bodied men receiving out-door relief. What changed
+all this and restored England in a very brief space to a condition
+of affluence hardly before known in her annals? Not certainly the
+alterations in the tariff which were made by Sir Robert Peel at the
+commencement of his government, prudent and salutary as they were. No
+one would pretend that the abolition of the slight duty (five-sixteenths
+of a penny) on the raw material of the cotton manufacturer, or the free
+introduction of some twenty-seven thousand head of foreign cattle,
+or even the admission of foreign timber at reduced duties, could have
+effected this. Unquestionably it was the railway enterprise which
+then began to prevail that was the cause of this national renovation.
+Suddenly, and for several years, an additional sum of thirteen millions
+of pounds sterling a year was spent in the wages of our native industry;
+two hundred thousand able-bodied labourers received each upon an average
+twenty-two shillings a week, stimulating the revenue both in excise and
+customs by their enormous consumption of malt and spirits, tobacco and
+tea. This was the main cause of the contrast between the England of '41
+and the England of '45.
+
+Was there any reason why a proportionate application of the same remedy
+to Ireland should not proportionately produce a similar result? Was
+there anything wild or unauthorized in the suggestion? On the contrary:
+ten years before (1836), the subject had engaged the attention of her
+Majesty's government, and a royal commission had been issued to inquire
+into the expediency of establishing railway communication in Ireland.
+The commissioners, men of great eminence, recommended that a system
+of railways should be established in Ireland, and by the pecuniary
+assistance of government. They rested their recommendation mainly on the
+abundant evidence existing of the vast benefits which easy communication
+had accomplished in Ireland, and of the complete success which had
+attended every Parliamentary grant for improving roads in that country.
+
+The weakness of the government, arising from the balanced state of
+parties, rendered it impossible at that time for them to prosecute the
+measures recommended by the royal commissioners, though they made an
+ineffectual attempt in that direction. Could it be suspected that the
+recommendation of the commissioners had been biassed by any political
+consideration? Was it a Whig commission attempting to fulfil a Whig
+object? Another commission, more memorable, at the head of which was the
+Earl of Devon, was appointed by a Tory government some years afterwards,
+virtually to consider the condition of the people of Ireland, and the
+best means for their amelioration. The report of the Devon commission
+confirmed all the recommendations of the railway commissioners of '36,
+and pointed to these new methods of communication, by the assistance of
+loans from the government, as the best means of providing employment for
+the people.
+
+When Mr. Smith of Deanston was examined by a Parliamentary committee,
+and asked what measure of all others would be the one most calculated to
+improve the agriculture and condition of Ireland, he did not reply, as
+some might have anticipated, that the most efficient measure would be
+to drain the bogs; but his answer was, 'advance the construction of
+railways, and then agricultural improvement will speedily follow.'
+
+To illustrate the value of railways to an agricultural population, Mr.
+Smith, of Deanston, said, 'that the improvement of the land for one mile
+only on each side of the railway so constructed would be so great, that
+it would pay the cost of the whole construction.' He added, that there
+were few districts' in Ireland, in which railway communication could
+be introduced, where the value of the country through which the railway
+passed would not be raised to an extent equal to the whole cost of the
+railway.
+
+Arguing on an area of six hundred and forty acres for every square mile,
+after deducting the land occupied by fences, roads, and buildings, Mr.
+Smith, of Deanston, entered into a calculation of the gain deliverable
+from the mere carriage of the produce of the land, and the back carriage
+of manure, coals, tiles, bricks, and other materials, and estimated the
+saving through those means on every square mile to more than �300, or
+something above �600 on 1,280 acres abutting each mile of railway,
+this being the difference of the cost of carriage under the old mode of
+conveyance as compared with the new. Following up this calculation,
+he showed that fifteen hundred miles of railway would improve the land
+through which it passed to the extent of nearly two million acres at the
+rate of a mile on each side; and, taken at twenty-five years' purchase,
+would equal twenty-four millions sterling in the permanent improvement
+of the land.
+
+The ground, therefore, was sound on which Lord George cautiously, and
+after due reflection, ventured to place his foot.
+
+And now, after the reports of these two royal commissions, what was the
+state of railway enterprise in Ireland in the autumn of '46, when a vast
+multitude could only subsist by being employed by the government, and
+when the government had avowedly no reproductive or even useful work
+whereon to place them; but allotted them to operations which were
+described by Colonel Douglas, the inspector of the government himself,
+'as works which would answer no other purpose than that of obstructing
+the public conveyances?'
+
+In '46, acts of Parliament were in existence authorizing the
+construction of more than fifteen hundred miles of railway in Ireland,
+and some of these acts had passed so long as eleven years previously,
+yet at the end of '46 only one hundred and twenty-three miles of railway
+had been completed, and only one hundred and sixty-four were in the
+course of completion, though arrested in their progress from want of
+funds. Almost in the same period, two thousand six hundred miles of
+railway had been completed in England, and acts of Parliament had passed
+for constructing five thousand four hundred miles in addition: in the
+whole, eight thousand miles.
+
+What then was the reason of this debility in Ireland in prosecuting
+these undertakings? Were they really not required; were the elements
+of success wanting? The first element of success in railway enterprise,
+according to the highest authorities, is population; property is only
+the second consideration. Now, Ireland in '46 was more densely inhabited
+than England. A want of population could not therefore be the cause.
+But a population so impoverished as the Irish could not perhaps avail
+themselves of the means of locomotion; and yet it appeared from research
+that the rate of passengers on the two Irish railways that were open
+greatly exceeded in number that of the passengers upon English and
+Scotch railways. The average number of passengers on English and Scotch
+railways was not twelve thousand per mile per annum, while on the Ulster
+railway the number was nearly twenty-two thousand, and on the Dublin and
+Drogheda line the number exceeded eighteen thousand.
+
+The cause of the weakness in Ireland to prosecute these undertakings
+was the total want of domestic capital for the purpose, and the
+unwillingness of English capitalists to embark their funds in a country
+whose social and political condition they viewed with distrust, however
+promising and even profitable the investment might otherwise appear.
+This was remarkably illustrated by the instance of the Great Southern
+and Western Railway of Ireland, one of the undertakings of which the
+completion was arrested by want of funds, yet partially open. Compared
+with a well-known railway in Great Britain, the Irish railway had cost
+in its construction �15,000 per mile, and the British upwards of �26,000
+per mile; the weekly traffic on the two railways, allowing for some
+difference in their extent, was about the same on both, in amount
+varying from �1,000 to �1,300 per week; yet the unfinished British
+railway was at �40 premium in the market, and the incomplete Irish
+railway at �2 discount. It was clear, therefore, that the commercial
+principle, omnipotent in England, was not competent to cope with the
+peculiar circumstances of Ireland.
+
+Brooding over the suggestions afforded by the details which we have
+slightly indicated, Lord George Bentinck, taking into consideration
+not merely the advantage that would accrue to the country from the
+establishment of a system of railroads, but also remembering the
+peculiar circumstances of the times, the absolute necessity of employing
+the people, and the inevitable advance of public money for that purpose,
+framed a scheme with reference to all these considerations, and which
+he believed would meet all the conditions of the case. He spared no
+thought, or time, or labour, for his purpose. He availed himself of the
+advice of the most experienced, and prosecuted his researches ardently
+and thoroughly. When he had matured his scheme, he had it thrown into
+the form of a parliamentary bill by the ablest hands, and then submitted
+the whole to the judgment and criticism of those who shared his
+confidence and counsels. Towards the end of November he was at Knowsley,
+from whence he communicated with the writer of these pages. 'I am here
+hatching secret plans for the next session; and now, if you have not
+quite abjured politics, as you threatened for the next three months to
+do, devoting yourself to poetry and romance, I think I ought to have a
+quiet day with you, in order that we may hold council together and talk
+over all our policy. I shall be at Harcourt House on the 30th. I shall
+stay there till the 3rd of December, for a meeting on that day of the
+Norfolk Estuary Company, of which I am chairman. Would that evening
+suit you--or Friday--or Wednesday? I am not well acquainted with the
+geography of Buckinghamshire, but presume you are accessible either by
+rail or road in less than twelve hours.
+
+'The activity in the dockyard must be in preparation to interfere in
+Portugal, to keep King Leopold upon the Portuguese throne: it cannot be
+for Mexico, for our friend the "Times" formally abandoned Mexico in his
+leader some days ago.
+
+'* * * * has been entertaining Lord * * * * in Ireland, and writes: "How
+Peel must chuckle at the Whig difficulties." I dare say he does, but
+in Ireland it seems to me Lord Besborough is putting the fate Irish
+government to shame, whilst the rupture of the _entente cordiale_, the
+conquest of California and New Mexico, and the complications in the
+river Plata,--are complete inheritances from Lord Aberdeen.
+
+'Eaton has come to life again: else there was a prospect of George
+Manners quietly succeeding him in Cambridgeshire. I fear we shall do no
+good in Lincolnshire, notwithstanding the industry of our dear friend
+the "Morning Post," in getting hold of Lord Ebrington's and Lord Rich's
+letters to Lord Yarborough. I suppose there is no mistake in Lord
+Dalhousie ("the large trout") going out to Bombay with the reversion of
+Bengal.
+
+'The duchy of Lancaster is to be put in commission, Lord * * * * to
+be one of the commissioners, _but unpaid_. He has begun, I presume, to
+overcome the false delicacy which prevented his acceptance of office
+under the Whigs in July. S * * * * thought G * * * * was to be another
+of the Board, but that turns out a mistake, but Lord H * * * * is to be.
+
+'The manufacturers are working short time, and reducing wages in
+all directions, John Bright and Sons at Rochdale among the rest. The
+Zollverein increasing their import duties on cotton and linen yarn, and
+putting export duties of 25 per cent. (some of the states at least) on
+grain.'
+
+We must not omit to record, that in the autumn of this year, at Goodwood
+races, the sporting world was astounded by hearing that Lord George
+Bentinck had parted with his racing stud at an almost nominal price.
+Lord George was present, as was his custom, at this meeting, held in the
+demesne of one who was among his dearest friends. Lord George was not
+only present but apparently absorbed in the sport, and his horses
+were very successful. The world has hardly done justice to the great
+sacrifice which he made on this occasion to a high sense of duty. He not
+only parted with the finest racing stud in England, but he parted with
+it at a moment when its prospects were never so brilliant; and he knew
+this well. We may have hereafter to notice on this head an interesting
+passage in his life.
+
+He could scarcely have quitted the turf that day without a pang. He had
+become the lord paramount of that strange world, so difficult to sway,
+and which requires for its government both a stern resolve and a courtly
+breeding. He had them both; and though the blackleg might quail before
+the awful scrutiny of his piercing eye, there never was a man so
+scrupulously polite to his inferiors as Lord George Bentinck. The
+turf, too, was not merely the scene of the triumphs of his stud and
+his betting-book. He had purified its practice and had elevated its
+character, and he was prouder of this achievement than of any other
+connected with his sporting life. Notwithstanding his mighty stakes and
+the keenness with which he backed his opinion, no one perhaps ever cared
+less for money. His habits were severely simple, and he was the most
+generous of men. He valued the acquisition of money on the turf, because
+there it was the test of success. He counted his thousands after a great
+race as a victorious general counts his cannon and his prisoners.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     _The Versatility of Lord George Bentinck_
+
+THOSE who throw their eye over the debates of the session of '47,
+cannot fail to be struck by the variety of important questions in the
+discussion of which Lord George Bentinck took a leading or prominent
+part. And it must be borne in mind that he never offered his opinion on
+any subject which he had not diligently investigated and attempted
+to comprehend in all its bearings. His opponents might object to his
+principles or challenge his conclusions, but no one could deny that
+his conclusions were drawn from extensive information and that his
+principles were clear and distinct. He spared no pains to acquire by
+reading, correspondence, and personal research, the most authentic
+intelligence on every subject in debate. He never chattered. He never
+uttered a sentence in the House of Commons which did not convey a
+conviction or a fact. He was too profuse indeed with his facts: he had
+not the art of condensation. But those who have occasion to refer to his
+speeches and calmly to examine them, will be struck by the amplitude
+and the freshness of his knowledge, the clearness of his views, the
+coherence in all his efforts, and often--a point for which he never had
+sufficient credit--by his graphic idiom.
+
+The best speech on the affairs of Cracow, for example, the most
+vigorous and the best informed, touching all the points with a thorough
+acquaintance, was that of Lord George Bentinck. The discussion on
+Cracow, which lasted several nights and followed very shortly after
+the defeat of his Irish bill, appeared to relate to a class of subjects
+which would not have engaged his attention; but on the contrary, he had
+given days and nights to this theme, had critically examined all the
+documents, and conferred with those qualified to supply him with any
+supplementary information requisite. He spoke several times this session
+on questions connected with our foreign affairs, and always impressed
+the House with a conviction that he was addressing it after a due study
+of his subject: as for example, his speech against our interference in
+Portugal, and the statement in which he brought forward the claims of
+the holders of Spanish bonds on the government of Spain before the House
+of Commons. In the instance of Portugal, a motion of censure on
+the conduct of ministers had been introduced by Mr. Hume, and the
+government were only saved from a minority by the friendly interposition
+of Mr. Duncombe, who proposed an amendment to the motion of Mr. Hume
+which broke the line of the liberal force. Lord George Bentinck in this
+case followed Mr. Macaulay, whose speech, as was his wont, had been rich
+in historical illustration. 'The right honourable and learned member for
+Edinburgh,' Lord George replied, 'had entered into a very interesting
+history of various interferences which had taken place in the affairs
+of Portugal; but in making that statement he forgot to mention one
+circumstance which had occurred in that history, and it was this
+
+--that when Philip II. of Spain sought to conquer Portugal, the method
+he had recourse to for that purpose was one which he thought her
+Majesty's ministers had successfully practised on the present occasion
+
+--he persuaded the leaders in Portugal to mix sand with the powder of
+their troops. And so, on this occasion, her Majesty's ministers had
+prevailed on the member for Finsbury, and those other members who were
+so ready to profess a love of liberty, to mix sand with their powder.'
+
+In a previous chapter we have treated at some length of the means
+proposed or adopted by the Parliament for the sustenance and relief
+of the people of Ireland. The new poor law for that country also much
+engaged the attention of both Houses this session. Lord George Bentinck
+took a very active part in these transactions, and moved the most
+important of all the amendments to the government measure, namely, an
+attempt to assimilate the poor law of Ireland as much as possible to
+that of England, and make the entire rates be paid by the occupying
+tenant. His object, he said, was to 'prevent lavish expenditure and
+encourage profitable employment to the people.' This amendment was only
+lost by a majority of four.
+
+On the 26th of March, on the government bringing forward their bill on
+the rum duties, Lord George Bentinck brought before the House the
+case of the British and Irish distillers, not with any preference
+or partiality towards English, Scotch, or Irish distillers over the
+colonial producer. 'I am no advocate of any monopoly whatever. I desire
+only equal and exact justice between both parties; and the only way in
+which that end can, in my opinion, be properly attained, is in a select
+committee upstairs, consisting of impartial members of this house.'
+
+He often used to say that no subject ever gave him more trouble
+thoroughly to master than the spirit duties; and he noticed the
+character of the theme at the beginning of his speech. He said he
+required, not only the most especial indulgence, but even the toleration
+of the House, 'for of all the dry and dull subjects which could possibly
+be introduced, the question which it is now my misfortune to bring under
+the consideration of the House is the driest and the dullest. If this
+question had been one merely of pounds, shillings, and pence, it would
+have been dull and complicated enough; but this is a question in which
+are concerned not pounds and shillings, but pence, and halfpence, and
+farthings.'
+
+The Whitsuntide holidays occurred at the end of May. It had originally
+been the intention of Lord George Bentinck, at the request of leading
+merchants and manufacturers of all parties and opinions, to have brought
+forward the question of the Bank Act after these holidays, and to move a
+resolution that some discretionary power should be established as to the
+issue of notes. He thus alludes to this point in a letter to Mr. Wright,
+of the 24th of May:--
+
+'I return you No. 1019, of the "Bankers' Circular," with many thanks.
+
+'This delightful and timely change in the weather will do wonders for
+the country, and by producing an abundant and seasonable harvest, will
+save the country, and _may save the Bank Charter Act_; but it is pretty
+well settled that I am to give notice immediately after the holidays,
+of a resolution very much in the spirit of the memorial contained in the
+paper I am returning to you.
+
+'Things are better in the City and at Liverpool, and with this weather
+will continue to improve; but it seems to me any reverse in the weather,
+such as would occasion a late and deficient harvest, could not fail to
+bring the commerce of the country to a dead lock.
+
+'The opinion is gaining ground, that in the present state not only
+of Ireland, but of many districts in England, the government will not
+venture upon a general election till after the harvest, and not then,
+unless the harvest should prove favourable.
+
+'I am glad to read your opinion in opposition to Lord Ashburton's, that
+railways keep the gold in the country, and do not send it out. Glyn gave
+strong evidence last year to this effect before the railway committee.'
+
+Neither of the prospects in this letter was realised. The commercial and
+manufacturing interest, after the Whitsun recess, thought it advisable
+for reasons of great weight that Lord George Bentinck should postpone
+for a month or six weeks his intended motion on the Bank Charter, and
+the ministers resolved to dissolve Parliament before the harvest: thus
+it happened that the merchants and manufacturers lost their chance of
+relief from the yoke, and experienced the reign of terror in the autumn,
+the terrible events of which ultimately occasioned the assembling of the
+new Parliament in November.
+
+Anticipating the immediate dissolution of Parliament, Sir Robert Peel
+had issued an address to the electors of Tamworth, justifying his
+commercial policy. In the opinion of Lord George Bentinck it set forth
+a statement as to the effect and operation of those financial measures
+which had taken place in the course of the last six years, which, if
+left altogether unrefuted, might have a dangerous tendency at the
+coming elections. The general effect of that statement was, that by the
+reduction of duties to a large extent, it was possible to relieve the
+people of this country of burdens amounting to more than seven millions
+and a half sterling with little or no loss whatever to the revenue. But
+the truth was, Sir Robert Peel in his reductions had dealt only with
+little more than ten millions sterling of the revenue of the country,
+and had left the remaining thirty-seven millions untouched. Now on
+that portion of the revenue with which alone he had dealt, there was
+a deficiency, through his changes, to the amount of five millions
+sterling, which loss was compensated by the increase on those very
+articles which Sir Robert had left untouched. It was the opinion of Lord
+George Bentinck that the conclusion which Sir Robert Peel had drawn
+from the comparatively barren results of the increased duties on imports
+carried by the Whigs in 1840, viz., that indirect taxation had reached
+its limit, and which was indeed the basis of his new system, was a
+fallacy, and that the anticipated increase of import duties had not
+accrued in 1840 in consequence of our having had three successive bad
+harvests, 'and a bad cotton crop to boot,' all of which had checked the
+consuming power of the community. Sir Robert Peel had been favoured by
+three successive good harvests and nearly �100,000,000 invested in six
+years in domestic enterprise. 'The interposition of Providence,' said
+Lord George, 'is never a part of our debates.'
+
+Under these circumstances, Lord George took occasion to review the
+commercial policy of Sir Robert Peel, on the 20th July, in the House of
+Commons, only three days before the prorogation, and in one of his most
+successful speeches. He was much assisted by the fact that the exports
+of all our staple manufactures had then greatly diminished, and of
+course he urged this point triumphantly. 'If we had been indemnified for
+the dead loss of �650,000 on cotton wool by any great impulse given
+to our manufacturers, it would be a consolation which unfortunately we
+could not enjoy.' He traced all the consumption to railway enterprise,
+and showed that it alone had compensated for the fruitless loss of
+revenue which we had incurred in vainly stimulating the exports of our
+manufactures, which had actually diminished. He was so impressed with
+the importance that, 'on the eve of a dissolution, such a statement
+as that of Sir Robert Peel should not go forth to the country
+uncontroverted, as in that case the necessary result would be that
+the people would come to the opinion that they might abolish taxes
+altogether and yet maintain the revenue,' that he sat up all night
+writing an address to his constituents, the electors of King's Lynn,
+which took up nearly two columns of the newspapers, in which he
+presented his refutation to the public of the commercial manifesto of
+Tamworth, illustrated by the necessary tables and documents.
+
+There is a sentence in this speech which, as a distinct expression of
+policy, should perhaps be quoted:
+
+'Sir, I am one of those who seek for the repeal of the malt tax and the
+hop duties. I am one of those who think that the excise duties ought to
+be taken off. But, sir, I do not pretend that you can repeal the malt
+tax or the hop duties, or remove the soap tax without commutation for
+other taxes. I will not delude the people by pretending that I could
+take off more than seven millions and a half of taxes without replacing
+them by others, and not leave the nation bankrupt. But I think these
+reforms of Sir Robert Peel have been in a mistaken direction; I think
+that revenue duties on all foreign imports ought to be maintained, and
+that a revenue equal to those excise duties which I have mentioned can
+be levied upon the produce of foreign countries and foreign industry,
+without imposing any greater tax than one which shall fall far short of
+Mr. Walker's "perfect revenue standard of 20 per cent." I say that by
+imposing a tax far less than 20 per cent. upon all articles of foreign
+import, a revenue might be derived far less burdensome to this country
+than that of excise, a revenue of which the burden would be largely
+shared in by foreign countries, and in many cases paid altogether by
+foreign countries.'
+
+Lord George at this time watched with great interest a novel feature
+in our commercial transactions. He wrote on the 29th May (1847), to Mr.
+Burn, the editor of the 'Commercial Glance,' and an individual of whose
+intelligence, accuracy, and zeal he had a high and just opinion, 'Can
+you inform me how the raw cotton purchased for exportation stands in
+the first three weeks of the present month of May, as compared with the
+corresponding periods of '46--5--4--3?
+
+'I observe from a cotton circular sent to me the other day, that seven
+thousand five hundred bags of cotton had been purchased for exportation
+between the 1st and 21st of May. If with reduced stocks of raw cotton
+we are commencing a career of increased exportation, it appears to me to
+involve very serious consequences for our cotton manufactures as growing
+out of the existing monetary difficulties of the manufacturers.
+
+'If you could answer me these queries within the next three or four
+days, I should feel greatly obliged to you.'
+
+Again, on the 22d of July, on the point of going down to his
+constituents, he was still pursuing his inquiries in the same quarter.'
+I want particularly to compare,' he says to Mr. Burn, 'the export of the
+last ten weeks of raw cotton with the corresponding ten weeks of '46
+and '45, and at the same time to compare the importations and deliveries
+into the hands of the manufacturers during these same periods.
+
+'Pray address me, Lynn, Norfolk, where I go on Saturday, and shall
+remain till after my election on Thursday.'
+
+He writes again from Lynn, with great thanks for the information which
+had been accordingly forwarded to him there. 'Might I ask you to give me
+an account of the cotton wool imported weekly into Liverpool, and also
+the quantity sold to dealers, exporters, and speculators, in the three
+corresponding weeks of '45-46.
+
+'This information by return of post would greatly oblige me.'
+
+On the 23d of July, 1847, the last day of the second Parliament of Queen
+Victoria, Lord George went down to the House of Commons early, and took
+the opportunity of making a statement respecting the condition of our
+sugar-producing colonies, which were now experiencing the consequences
+of the unjustifiable legislation of the preceding year. He said there
+were appearances in the political horizon which betokened that he should
+not be able to obtain a select committee in the present session, and
+therefore, if he had the honour of a seat in the next Parliament, he
+begged to announce that he would take the earliest occasion to move for
+a committee to inquire into the present power of our colonies to compete
+with those countries which have still the advantage of the enforced
+labour of slaves. The returns just laid upon the table of the House
+could leave no doubt, he thought, on any man's mind on that point. Since
+the emancipation, the produce of sugar by the colonies, from '31 to '46,
+had been reduced one half, and of rum and coffee had been reduced to one
+fourth. When the act of last year which admitted slave-grown sugar was
+introduced, the allegation of the English colonies, that they could
+not compete with the labour of slaves, was denied. The proof of that
+allegation was, that they were already overwhelmed.
+
+When one recalls all to which this speech led, the most memorable effort
+of that ardent, energetic life to which it was perhaps fatal, one can
+scarcely observe the origin of such vast exertions without emotion.
+
+The Under Secretary of State replied to Lord George, making a cry of
+cheap sugar for the hustings which were before everybody's eyes, but
+making also this remarkable declaration, that 'the Island of Mauritius
+was in a state of the greatest prosperity.' While Lord George was
+speaking, the cannon were heard that announced the departure of her
+majesty from the palace.
+
+Then followed a motion of Mr. Bankes about the sale of bread, which led
+to some discussion. Mr. Bankes threatened a division. Lord Palmerston,
+who on this occasion was leading the House, said it would be acting like
+a set of schoolboys, if when Black Rod appeared they should be in the
+lobby instead of attending the Speaker to the other House. But as the
+members seemed very much inclined to act like schoolboys, the Secretary
+of State had to speak against time on the subject of baking. He analyzed
+the petition, which he said he would not read through, but the last
+paragraph was of great importance.
+
+At these words, Black Rod knocked at the door, and duly making his
+appearance, summoned the House to attend the Queen in the House of
+Lords, and Mr. Speaker, followed by a crowd of members, duly obeyed the
+summons.
+
+In about a quarter of an hour, Mr. Speaker returned without the mace,
+and standing at the table read her Majesty's speech to the members
+around, after which they retired, the Parliament being prorogued. In the
+course of the afternoon, the Parliament was dissolved by proclamation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     _The Great Panic_
+
+THE general election of 1847 did not materially alter the position of
+parties in the House of Commons. The high prices of agricultural produce
+which then prevailed naturally rendered the agricultural interest
+apathetic, and although the rural constituencies, from a feeling of
+esteem, again returned those members who had been faithful to the
+protective principle, the farmers did not exert themselves to increase
+the number of their supporters. The necessity of doing so was earnestly
+impressed upon them by Lord George Bentinck, who warned them then that
+the pinching hour was inevitable; but the caution was disregarded, and
+many of those individuals who are now the loudest in their imprecations
+on the memory of Sir Robert Peel, and who are the least content with the
+temperate course which is now recommended to them by those who have the
+extremely difficult office of upholding their interests in the House of
+Commons, entirely kept aloof, or would smile when they were asked for
+their support with sarcastic self-complacency, saying, 'Well, Sir, do
+you think after all that free trade has done us so much harm?' Perhaps
+they think now, that if they had taken the advice of Lord George
+Bentinck and exerted themselves to return a majority to the House of
+Commons, it would have profited them more than useless execrations and
+barren discontent. But it is observable, that no individuals now grumble
+so much as the farmers who voted for free trader in 1847, unless indeed
+it be the shipowners, every one of whom for years, both in and out of
+Parliament, supported the repeal of the corn laws.
+
+The Protectionists maintained their numbers, though they did not
+increase them, in the new Parliament. Lord George Bentinck however
+gained an invaluable coadjutor by the re-appearance of Mr. Herries
+in public life, a gentleman whose official as well as parliamentary
+experience, fine judgment, and fertile resource, have been of
+inestimable service to the Protectionist party. The political connection
+which gained most were the Whigs; they were much more numerous and
+compact, but it was in a great measure at the expense of the general
+liberal element, and partly at the cost of the following of Sir Robert
+Peel. The triumphant Conservative majority of 1841 had disappeared;
+but the government, with all shades of supporters, had not an absolute
+majority.
+
+Had the general election been postponed until the autumn, the results
+might have been very different. That storm--which had been long
+gathering in the commercial atmosphere--then burst like a typhoon. The
+annals of our trade afford no parallel for the widespread disaster and
+the terrible calamities. In the month of September, fifteen of the most
+considerable houses in the city of London stopped payment for between
+five and six millions sterling. The governor of the Bank of England
+was himself a partner in one of these firms; a gentleman who had lately
+filled that office, was another victim; two other Bank directors were
+included in the list. The failures were not limited to the metropolis,
+but were accompanied by others of great extent in the provinces. At
+Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow large firms were obliged to suspend
+payments. This shock of credit arrested all the usual accommodation,
+and the pressure in the money-market, so terrible in the spring, was
+revived. The excitement and the alarm in the city of London were so
+great that when the Chancellor of the Exchequer hurried up to town on
+the 1st of October, he found that the interest of money was at the rate
+of 60 per cent. per annum. The Bank Charter produced the same injurious
+effect as it had done in April; it aggravated the evil by forcing men
+to hoard. In vain the commercial world deplored the refusal of the
+government to comply with the suggestion made by Lord George Bentinck
+and Mr. Thomas Baring in the spring; in vain they entreated them at
+least now to adopt it, and to authorize the Bank of England to enlarge
+the amount of their discounts and advances on approved security, without
+reference to the stringent clause of the charter. The government,
+acting, it is believed, with the encouragement and sanction of Sir
+Robert Peel, were obstinate, and three weeks then occurred during
+which the commercial credit of this country was threatened with total
+destruction. Nine more considerable mercantile houses stopped payment
+in the metropolis, the disasters in the provinces were still more
+extensive. The Royal Bank of Liverpool failed; among several principal
+establishments in that town, one alone stopped payment for upwards of a
+million sterling. The havoc at Manchester was also great. The Newcastle
+bank and the North and South Wales bank stopped. Consols fell to 79 1/4,
+and exchequer bills were at last at 35 per cent, discount. The ordinary
+rate of discount at the Bank of England was between 8 and 9 per cent.,
+but out of doors accommodation was not to be obtained. In such a state
+of affairs, the small houses of course gave way. From their rising in
+the morning until their hour of retirement at night, the First Lord of
+the Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer were employed in
+seeing persons of all descriptions, who entreated them to interfere and
+preserve the community from universal bankruptcy. 'Perish the world,
+sooner than violate a principle,' was the philosophical exclamation of
+her Majesty's ministers, sustained by the sympathy and the sanction of
+Sir Robert Peel. At last, the governor and the deputy-governor of the
+Bank of England waited on Downing Street, and said it could go on no
+more. The Scotch banks had applied to them for assistance. The
+whole demand for discount was thrown upon the Bank of England. Two
+bill-brokers had stopped; two others were paralyzed. The Bank of England
+could discount no longer. Thanks to the Bank Charter, they were safe and
+their treasury full of bullion, but it appeared that everybody else
+must fall, for in four-and-twenty hours the machinery of credit would
+be entirely stopped. The position was frightful, and the government gave
+way. They did that on the 25th of October, after houses had fallen to
+the amount of fifteen millions sterling, which they had been counselled
+to do by Lord George Bentinck on the 25th of April. It turned out
+exactly as Mr. Thomas Baring had foretold. It was not want of capital or
+deficiency of circulation which had occasioned these awful consequences.
+It was sheer panic, occasioned by an unwisely stringent law. No sooner
+had the government freed the Bank of England from that stringency,
+than the panic ceased. The very morning the letter of license from
+the government to the Bank of England appeared, thousands and tens of
+thousands of pounds sterling were taken from the hoards, some from boxes
+deposited with bankers, although the depositors would not leave the
+notes in their bankers' hands. Large parcels of notes were returned to
+the Bank of England cut into halves, as they had been sent down into the
+country, and so small was the real demand for an additional quantity of
+currency, that the whole amount taken from the Bank, when the unlimited
+power of issue was given, was under �400,000, and the Bank consequently
+never availed itself of the privilege which the government had accorded
+it. The restoration of confidence produced an ample currency, and
+that confidence had solely been withdrawn from the apprehension of the
+stringent clauses of the Bank Charter Act of 1844.
+
+These extraordinary events had not occurred unnoticed by Lord George
+Bentinck. The two subjects that mostly engaged his attention after the
+general election were the action of the Bank Charter and the state of
+our sugar colonies. Perhaps it would be best to give some extracts from
+his correspondence at this period. He was a good letter-writer, easy and
+clear. His characteristic love of details also rendered this style
+of communication interesting. It is not possible to give more than
+extracts, and it is necessary to omit all those circumstances which
+generally in letter-reading are most acceptable. His comments on men and
+things were naturally free and full, and he always endeavoured, for the
+amusement of his correspondents, to communicate the social gossip of the
+hour. But although all this must necessarily be omitted, his letters may
+afford some illustrations of his earnestness and energy, the constancy
+of his aim, and the untiring vigilance with which he pursued his
+object--especially those which are addressed to gentlemen engaged in
+commercial pursuits who cooperated with him in his investigations.
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Harcourt House, August 30, 1847.
+
+An answer is come out to my address to my constituents at King's Lynn,
+and to my speech in answer to Peel's manifesto. Pray read it. At first
+I thought I could swear to its being * * * *, I now think I can swear
+to its being * * * *; the servility to Peel, and the official red-tape
+style would equally do for either; but the no-popery page, I think,
+fixes it on * * * *.
+
+I think it wretchedly weak, and have written some notes on the margin,
+showing up the principal points. The nine months' famine of 1846-47, as
+contrasted with Peel's famine, shows a difference of between �6,000,000
+and �7,000,000; that is to say, on the balance in the nine months
+1845-46, Ireland exported about three millions' worth of breadstuffs,
+and not a soul died of famine. In the nine months 1846-47, she imported
+three millions' sterling worth of bread-stuffs, which insufficed to
+prevent one million--or say half a million--of the people from dying of
+starvation.
+
+At present I have seen no notice of the pamphlet in any of the
+newspapers: if it is either * * * *'s, or * * * *'s, or * * * *'s we
+shall see it reviewed in 'Times,' 'Chronicle,' and 'Spectator.'
+
+The Bank of England has raised the interest on * * * *'s mortgage
+one-third per cent., making an additional annual charge of �1,500 a year
+to him. I am very sorry for him, but I know nothing so likely to rouse
+the landed aristocracy from their apathy, and to weaken their idolatry
+of Peel so much as this warning note of the joint operation of his free
+trade and restrictive currency laws.
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Harcourt House, September 2, 1847.
+
+I think it is * * * *. The trickster, I observe, has carefully reduced
+the pounds of cotton to cwts., in the hopes of concealing a great fraud
+to which he has condescended; taking, in the Whig year of 1841, the home
+consumption of cotton, whilst in Peel's year he gives entire importation
+as the home consumption, representing both as home consumption.
+
+In Peel's year, 1846, officially we have only the gross importation; but
+in the Whig year, 1841, the entire importation and the home consumption
+are given separately: the importation exceeding the home consumption by
+fifty million pounds. Burn's 'Glance,' however, gives the importation
+and home consumption for both years; unfortunately, however, not in
+lbs. or cwts., but in bags. * * * *'s fraud, however, is not the less
+apparent.
+
+He selects a Whig year when the home consumption was 220,-000 bags under
+the importation, and a year for Peel when the importation exceeded the
+home consumption by 280,000 bags, and claps down the figures as alike
+describing the home consumption.
+
+None of the Peel papers have taken up the subject: if they should, the
+'Morning Post' will answer the pamphlet; but I should like to have mine
+back again, in order that I may furnish them with the notes.
+
+* * * * was with me this morning, and called my attention to the
+circumstance that the author starts with 'We,' but drops into the
+singular number; * * * * fancies it is Peel himself, but the page on
+endowment fixes it on * * * *.
+
+Lord L * * * * means, I presume, that Peel's savage hatred is applied
+to the Protectionist portion of his old party, not of course to the
+janissaries and renegade portion.
+
+
+The following letter was in reply to one of a friend who had sent him
+information, several days before they occurred, of the great failures
+that were about to happen in the city of London. The list was
+unfortunately quite accurate, with the exception indeed of the
+particular house respecting which Lord George quotes the opinion of
+Baron Rothschild.
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Welbeck, September 17, 1847.
+
+A thousand thanks for your letter, the intelligence in which created a
+great sensation at Doncaster.
+
+As yet none of the houses appear to have failed except S * * * *. Baron
+Rothschild was at Doncaster. I talked with him on the subject; he seemed
+not to doubt the probable failure of any of the houses you named, except
+* * * *. He declared very emphatically 'that * * * * house was as sound
+as any house in London.'
+
+Lord Fitzwilliam declares 'it is no free trade without free trade in
+money.'
+
+Lord Clanricarde is here--laughs at the idea of Parliament meeting in
+October; but talks much of the difficulties of Ireland--says he does not
+see how the rates are to be paid.
+
+Messrs. Drummond are calling in their mortgages. I expect to hear that
+this practice will be general; money dear, corn cheap, incumbrances
+enhanced, and rents depressed. What will become of the apathetic country
+gentlemen? I judge from * * * * 's language, that Lord John Russell
+will stand or fall by the Bank Charter Act-but that he feels very
+apprehensive of being unable to maintain it.
+
+I agree with Bonham, in thinking that the Protectionist party is
+smashed for the present Parliament; but I must say I think Protectionist
+principles and policy are likely to come into repute again far sooner
+than was expected; and though Peel's party be a compact body, and
+formidable in the House of Commons, I cannot think that there appears
+that in the working of his measures to make it likely that he should be
+soon again carried into power on the shoulders of the people. I think
+his political reputation must ebb further before it can rise again,
+if it should ever rise again. * * * * thought him 'broken and in low
+spirits,' when he met him at Longshaw; but Lord * * * *, who was there
+at the same time, came away more Peelite than ever, and told them at
+Bretby that Sir Robert said, 'That he was quite surprised at the number
+of letters he got every day from members returned to Parliament, saying
+they meant to vote with him.'
+
+You may rely upon it the Peelites are very sanguine that they will be in
+power again almost directly. We must keep them out.
+
+
+TO MR. BURN, EDITOR OF THE 'COMMERCIAL GLANCE.'
+
+Welbeck, September 38, 1847. To the many courtesies you have already
+bestowed upon me, I will sincerely thank you to add that of informing me
+what have been the estimated cotton crops in the United States in
+each of the last four years. I would also thank you to inform me the
+comparative importation, home consumption, re-exportation, and stocks
+on hand of cotton of the first seven months of the current and three
+preceding years.
+
+
+TO MR. BURN.
+
+Welbeck, October 4, 1847.
+
+Your statistics have reached me in the very nick of time, and are
+invaluable. I care nothing about 'outsides,' it is 'insides' I look to;
+give me a good 'heart,' and I don't care how rough the 'bark' is.
+
+Anything so good I fear to spoil by suggesting the most trivial
+addition, else I should say it would be an interesting feature to
+classify the exports of cotton goods, etc., etc., under three heads:--
+
+1st. To the British colonies and British possessions abroad.
+
+2nd. To the northern states of Europe, France, Spain, Germany, Italy,
+etc., etc., the United States of America, and other countries having
+high tariffs.
+
+3rd. To China, Turkey, Africa, and the Southern States of America, and
+countries with low tariffs.
+
+I fear these failures of East and West India houses must entail great
+distress upon Manchester, and the manufacturing interests generally. You
+have given an account of the bankruptcies in the cotton trade during a
+long series of years till last year inclusive; are you able to say how
+the first nine months of the current year stands in comparison with its
+predecessors?
+
+I so highly prize your new work, that I must ask for a dozen copies to
+distribute among my friends.
+
+P. S. I have already parted with the copy you sent me; may I, therefore,
+beg another without waiting for any other binding?
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Welbeck, October 5, 1847.
+
+I shall go up to town on Friday evening, in my way to Newmarket,
+and shall be at Harcourt House all Saturday and Sunday, and shall be
+delighted to see you, and have a thorough good talk with you. Free trade
+seems working mischief faster than the most fearful of us predicted,
+and Manchester houses, as I am told, 'failing in rows,' ashamed to
+do penance in public, are secretly weeping in sackcloth and ashes, and
+heartily praying that Peel and Cobden had been hanged before they were
+allowed to ruin the country.
+
+Money at Manchester is quoted one and a quarter per cent, for ten days:
+�45 12s. 6d. per cent. per annum!
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Harcourt House, October 22, 1847. I have this moment got a note from
+Stuart, telling me that 'the Chancellor has this afternoon sent out his
+notice of the business to be taken in his own court during Michaelmas
+term, that is, from the 2nd of November till the 26th, and below it
+there is this notice--_except those days on which the Lord Chancellor
+may sit in the House of Lords_!!!'
+
+Surely this must portend a November session.
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Harcourt House, October 23, 1847. The fat banker's gossip is all stuff.
+Peel goes to Windsor today, I believe on an invitation of some standing.
+* * * * who had been dining at Palmerston's last night, tells me that he
+does not think that ministers mean calling Parliament together, and is
+confident they mean to maintain the Bank Charter Act. There have been
+some first-rate articles and letters in the 'Morning Chronicle' lately
+on this subject.
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Harcourt House, November 6, 1847.
+
+I will stay over Tuesday, that I may have the pleasure of a thorough
+talk with you.
+
+I am told things are gradually getting better. I expect, however, a
+fresh reverse about six weeks or two months hence, when the returned
+lists of the stoppages in the East and West Indies, consequent upon the
+late failures here, come home. The Western Bank of Scotland is whispered
+about. If that were to fail, it might bring the canny Scots to their
+senses; but they are a headstrong race.
+
+A committee on commercial distress having been appointed, the principal
+reason for the summoning of the new Parliament in the autumn had been
+satisfied, and an adjournment until a month after Christmas was in
+prospect. Before, however, this took place, a new and interesting
+question arose, which led to considerable discussion, and which
+ultimately influenced in no immaterial manner the parliamentary position
+of Lord George Bentinck.
+
+The city of London at the general election had sent to the House of
+Commons, as a colleague of the first minister, a member who found a
+difficulty in taking one of the oaths appointed by the House to be
+sworn preliminarily to any member exercising his right of voting. The
+difficulty arose from this member being not only of the Jewish race, but
+unfortunately believing only in the first part of the Jewish religion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     _The Jews_
+
+THE relations that subsist between the Bedoueen race that, under the
+name of Jews, is found in every country of Europe, and the Teutonic,
+Sclavonian, and Celtic races which have appropriated that division of
+the globe, will form hereafter one of the most remarkable chapters in
+a philosophical history of man. The Saxon, the Sclav, and the Celt
+have adopted most of the laws and many of the customs of these Arabian
+tribes, all their literature and all their religion. They are therefore
+indebted to them for much that regulates, much that charms, and much
+that solaces existence. The toiling multitude rest every seventh day
+by virtue of a Jewish law; they are perpetually reading, 'for their
+example,' the records of Jewish history, and singing the odes and
+elegies of Jewish poets; and they daily acknowledge on their knees, with
+reverent gratitude, that the only medium of communication between the
+Creator and themselves is the Jewish race. Yet they treat that race as
+the vilest of generations; and instead of logically looking upon them
+as the human family that has contributed most to human happiness, they
+extend to them every term of obloquy and every form of persecution.
+
+Let us endeavour to penetrate this social anomaly that has harassed and
+perplexed centuries.
+
+It is alleged that the dispersion of the Jewish race is a penalty
+incurred for the commission of a great crime: namely, the crucifixion
+of our blessed Lord in the form of a Jewish prince, by the Romans, at
+Jerusalem, and at the instigation of some Jews, in the reign of Tiberius
+Augustus Caesar. Upon this, it may be observed, that the allegation is
+neither historically true nor dogmatically sound.
+
+I. _Not historically true_. It is not historically true, because at the
+time of the advent of our Lord, the Jewish race was as much dispersed
+throughout the world as at this present time, and had been so for many
+centuries. Europe, with the exception of those shores which are bathed
+by the midland sea, was then a primeval forest, but in every city of the
+great Eastern monarchies and in every province of the Roman empire, the
+Jews had been long settled. We have not precise authority for saying
+that at the advent there were more Jews established in Egypt than in
+Palestine, but it may unquestionably be asserted that at that period
+there were more Jews living, and that too in great prosperity and
+honour, at Alexandria than at Jerusalem. It is evident from various
+Roman authors, that the Jewish race formed no inconsiderable portion
+of the multitude that filled Rome itself, and that the Mosaic religion,
+undisturbed by the state, even made proselytes. But it is unnecessary to
+enter into any curious researches on this head, though the authorities
+are neither scant nor uninteresting. We are furnished with evidence
+the most complete and unanswerable of the pre-dispersion by the sacred
+writings themselves. Not two months after the crucifixion, when the
+Third Person of the Holy Trinity first descended on Jerusalem, it being
+the time of the great festivals, when the Jews, according to the custom
+of the Arabian tribes pursued to this day in the pilgrimage to Mecca,
+repaired from all quarters to the central sacred place, the holy
+writings inform us that there were gathered together in Jerusalem 'Jews,
+devout men, out of every nation under heaven.' And that this expression,
+so general but so precise, should not be mistaken, we are shortly
+afterwards, though incidentally, informed, that there were Parthians,
+Medes, and Persians at Jerusalem, professing the Mosaic faith; Jews from
+Mesopotamia and Syria, from the countries of the lesser and the greater
+Asia; Egyptian, Libyan, Greek, and Arabian Jews; and, especially, Jews
+from Rome itself, some of which latter are particularly mentioned as
+Roman proselytes. Nor is it indeed historically true that the small
+section of the Jewish race which dwelt in Palestine rejected Christ.
+The reverse is the truth. Had it not been for the Jews of Palestine,
+the good tidings of our Lord would have been unknown for ever to the
+northern and western races. The first preachers of the gospel were Jews,
+and none else; the historians of the gospel were Jews, and none else. No
+one has ever been permitted to write under the inspiration of the Holy
+Spirit, except a Jew. For nearly a century no one believed in the good
+tidings except Jews. They nursed the sacred flame of which they were the
+consecrated and hereditary depositaries. And when the time was ripe to
+diffuse the truth among the ethnics, it was not a senator of Rome or a
+philosopher of Athens who was personally appointed by our Lord for that
+office, but a Jew of Tarsus, who founded the seven churches of Asia. And
+that greater church, great even amid its terrible corruptions, that has
+avenged the victory of Titus by subjugating the capital of the Caesars,
+and has changed every one of the Olympian temples into altars of the God
+of Sinai and of Calvary, was founded by another Jew, a Jew of Galilee.
+
+From all which it appears that the dispersion of the Jewish race,
+preceding as it did for countless ages the advent of our Lord, could not
+be for conduct which occurred subsequently to the advent, and that they
+are also guiltless of that subsequent conduct which has been imputed to
+them as a crime, since for Him and His blessed name, they preached, and
+wrote, and shed their blood 'as witnesses.'
+
+But, is it possible that that which is not historically true can be
+dogmatically sound? Such a conclusion would impugn the foundations of
+all faith. The followers of Jesus, of whatever race, need not however be
+alarmed. The belief that the present condition of the Jewish race is a
+penal infliction for the part which some Jews took at the crucifixion is
+not dogmatically sound.
+
+2. _Not dogmatically sound_. There is no passage in the sacred writings
+that in the slightest degree warrants the penal assumption. The
+imprecation of the mob at the crucifixion is sometimes strangely quoted
+as a divine decree. It is not a principle of jurisprudence, human or
+inspired, to permit the criminal to ordain his own punishment. Why, too,
+should they transfer any portion of the infliction to their posterity?
+What evidence have we that the wild suggestion was sanctioned by
+Omnipotence? On the contrary, amid the expiating agony, a Divine Voice
+at the same time solicited and secured forgiveness. And if unforgiven,
+could the cry of a rabble at such a scene bind a nation?
+
+But, dogmatically considered, the subject of the crucifixion must be
+viewed in a deeper spirit. We must pause with awe to remember what was
+the principal office to be fulfilled by the advent. When the ineffable
+mystery of the Incarnation was consummated, a Divine Person moved on the
+face of the earth in the shape of a child of Israel, not to teach but to
+expiate. True it is that no word could fall from such lips, whether in
+the form of profound parable, or witty retort, or preceptive lore, but
+to guide and enlighten; but they who, in those somewhat lax effusions
+which in these days are honoured with the holy name of theology, speak
+of the morality of the Gospel as a thing apart and of novel revelation,
+would do well to remember that in promulgating such doctrines they are
+treading on very perilous ground. There cannot be two moralities; and to
+hold that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity could teach a different
+morality from that which had been already revealed by the First Person
+of the Holy Trinity, is a dogma so full of terror that it may perhaps
+be looked upon as the ineffable sin against the Holy Spirit. When the
+lawyer tempted our Lord, and inquired how he was to inherit eternal
+life, the great Master of Galilee referred him to the writings of Moses.
+There he would find recorded 'the whole duty of man;' to love God with
+all his heart, and soul, and strength, and mind, and his neighbour as
+himself. These two principles are embalmed in the writings of Moses, and
+are the essence of Christian morals.*
+
+     * 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.'
+     --Leviticus xix.  18.
+
+
+It was for something deeper than this, higher and holier than even Moses
+could fulfil, that angels announced the Coming. It was to accomplish an
+event pre-ordained by the Creator of the world for countless ages.
+Born from the chosen house of the chosen people, yet blending in his
+inexplicable nature the Divine essence with the human elements, a
+sacrificial Mediator was to appear, appointed before all time, to purify
+with his atoning blood the myriads that had preceded and the myriads
+that will follow him. The doctrine embraces all space and time--nay,
+chaos and eternity; Divine persons are the agents, and the redemption of
+the whole family of man the result. If the Jews had not prevailed upon
+the Romans to crucify our Lord, what would have become of the Atonement?
+But the human mind cannot contemplate the idea that the most important
+deed of time could depend upon human will. The immolators were
+preordained like the victim, and the holy race supplied both. Could that
+be a crime which secured for all mankind eternal joy--which vanquished
+Satan, and opened the gates of Paradise? Such a tenet would sully and
+impugn the doctrine that is the corner-stone of our faith and hope. Men
+must not presume to sit in judgment on such an act. They must bow their
+heads in awe and astonishment and trembling gratitude.
+
+But, though the opinion that the dispersion of the Jewish race must be
+deemed a penalty incurred for their connection with the crucifixion
+has neither historical nor doctrinal sanction, it is possible that its
+degrading influence upon its victims may have been as efficacious as if
+their present condition were indeed a judicial infliction. Persecution,
+in a word, although unjust, may have reduced the modern Jews to a state
+almost justifying malignant vengeance. They may have become so odious
+and so hostile to mankind, as to merit for their present conduct, no
+matter how occasioned, the obloquy and ill-treatment of the communities
+in which they dwell and with which they are scarcely permitted to
+mingle.
+
+Let us examine this branch of the subject, which, though of more limited
+interest, is not without instruction.
+
+In all the great cities of Europe, and in some of the great cities of
+Asia, among the infamous classes therein existing, there will always be
+found Jews. They are not the only people who are usurers, gladiators,
+and followers of mean and scandalous occupations, nor are they anywhere
+a majority of such, but considering their general numbers, they
+contribute perhaps more than their proportion to the aggregate of the
+vile. In this they obey the law which regulates the destiny of all
+persecuted races: the infamous is the business of the dishonoured; and
+as infamous pursuits are generally illegal pursuits, the persecuted race
+which has most ability will be most successful in combating the law.
+The Jews have never been so degraded as the Greeks were throughout the
+Levant before the emancipation, and the degradation of the Greeks was
+produced by a period of persecution which, both in amount and suffering,
+cannot compare with that which has been endured by the children of
+Israel. This peculiarity, however, attends the Jews under the most
+unfavourable circumstances; the other degraded races wear out and
+disappear; the Jew remains, as determined, as expert, as persevering,
+as full of resource and resolution as ever. Viewed in this light, the
+degradation of the Jewish race is alone a striking evidence of its
+excellence, for none but one of the great races could have survived the
+trials which it has endured.
+
+But, though a material organization of the highest class may account for
+so strange a consequence, the persecuted Hebrew is supported by other
+means. He is sustained by a sublime religion. Obdurate, malignant,
+odious, and revolting as the lowest Jew appears to us, he is rarely
+demoralized. Beneath his own roof his heart opens to the influence of
+his beautiful Arabian traditions. All his ceremonies, his customs, and
+his festivals are still to celebrate the bounty of nature and the favour
+of Jehovah. The patriarchal feeling lingers about his hearth. A man,
+however fallen, who loves his home is not wholly lost. The trumpet of
+Sinai still sounds in the Hebrew ear, and a Jew is never seen upon the
+scaffold, unless it be at an _auto da f�_.
+
+But, having made this full admission of the partial degradation of the
+Jewish race, we are not prepared to agree that this limited degeneracy
+is any justification of the prejudices and persecution which originated
+in barbarous or medi�val superstitions. On the contrary, viewing the
+influence of the Jewish race upon the modern communities, without
+any reference to the past history or the future promises of Israel;
+dismissing from our minds and memories, if indeed that be possible, all
+that the Hebrews have done in the olden time for man and all which it
+may be their destiny yet to fulfil, we hold that instead of being an
+object of aversion, they should receive all that honour and favour from
+the northern and western races, which, in civilized and refined nations,
+should be the lot of those who charm the public taste and elevate the
+public feeling. We hesitate not to say that there is no race at this
+present, and following in this only the example of a long period, that
+so much delights, and fascinates, and elevates, and ennobles Europe, as
+the Jewish.
+
+We dwell not on the fact, that the most admirable artists of the drama
+have been and still are of the Hebrew race: or, that the most entrancing
+singers, graceful dancers, and exquisite musicians, are sons and
+daughters of Israel: though this were much. But these brilliant
+accessories are forgotten in the sublimer claim.
+
+It seems that the only means by which in these modern times we
+are permitted to develop the beautiful is music. It would appear
+definitively settled that excellence in the plastic arts is the
+privilege of the earlier ages of the world. All that is now produced
+in this respect is mimetic, and, at the best, the skilful adaptation
+of traditional methods. The creative faculty of modern man seems by an
+irresistible law at work on the virgin soil of science, daily increasing
+by its inventions our command over nature, and multiplying the material
+happiness of man. But the happiness of man is not merely material. Were
+it not for music, we might in these days say, the beautiful is dead.
+Music seems to be the only means of creating the beautiful, in which we
+not only equal, but in all probability greatly excel, the ancients. The
+music of modern Europe ranks with the transcendent creations of human
+genius; the poetry, the statues, the temples, of Greece. It produces and
+represents as they did whatever is most beautiful in the spirit of
+man and often expresses what is most profound. And who are the great
+composers, who hereafter will rank with Homer, with Sophocles, with
+Praxiteles, or with Phidias? They are the descendants of those Arabian
+tribes who conquered Canaan, and who by favour of the Most High have
+done more with less means even than the Athenians.
+
+Forty years ago--not a longer period than the children of Israel were
+wandering in the desert--the two most dishonoured races in Europe were
+the Attic and the Hebrew, and they were the two races that had done most
+for mankind. Their fortunes had some similarity: their countries were
+the two smallest in the world, equally barren and equally famous; they
+both divided themselves into tribes: both built a most famous temple on
+an acropolis; and both produced a literature which all European nations
+have accepted with reverence and admiration. Athens has been sacked
+oftener than Jerusalem, and oftener razed to the ground; but the
+Athenians have escaped expatriation, which is purely an Oriental custom.
+The sufferings of the Jews, however, have been infinitely more prolonged
+and varied than those of the Athenians. The Greek nevertheless appears
+exhausted. The creative genius of Israel, on the contrary, never shone
+so bright; and when the Russian, the Frenchman, and the Anglo-Saxon,
+amid applauding theatres or the choral voices of solemn temples, yield
+themselves to the full spell of a Mozart or a Mendelssohn, it seems
+difficult to comprehend how these races can reconcile it to their hearts
+to persecute a Jew.
+
+We have shown that the theological prejudice against the Jews has no
+foundation, historical or doctrinal; we have shown that the social
+prejudice, originating in the theological but sustained by superficial
+observations, irrespective of religious prejudice, is still more
+unjust, and that no existing race is so much entitled to the esteem
+and gratitude of society as the Hebrew. It remains for us to notice the
+injurious consequences to European society of the course pursued by
+the communities to this race; and this view of the subject leads us to
+considerations which it would become existing statesmen to ponder.
+
+The world has by this time discovered that it is impossible to destroy
+the Jews. The attempt to extirpate them has been made under the most
+favourable auspices and on the largest scale; the most considerable
+means that man could command have been pertinaciously applied to this
+object for the longest period of recorded time. Egyptian Pharaohs,
+Assyrian kings, Roman emperors, Scandinavian crusaders, Gothic princes,
+and holy inquisitors have alike devoted their energies to the fulfilment
+of this common purpose. Expatriation, exile, captivity, confiscation,
+torture on the most ingenious, and massacre on the most extensive,
+scale, with a curious system of degrading customs and debasing laws
+which would have broken the heart of any other people, have been tried,
+and in vain. The Jews, after all this havoc, are probably more numerous
+at this date than they were during the reign of Solomon the Wise, are
+found in all lands, and, unfortunately, prospering in most. All of which
+proves that it is in vain for man to attempt to battle the inexorable
+law of nature, which has decreed that a superior race shall never be
+destroyed or absorbed by an inferior.
+
+But the influence of a great race will be felt; its greatness does not
+depend upon its numbers, otherwise the English would not have vanquished
+the Chinese, nor would the Aztecs have been overthrown by Cortez and
+a handful of Goths. That greatness results from its organization, the
+consequences of which are shown in its energy and enterprise, in the
+strength of its will and the fertility of its brain. Let us observe
+what should be the influence of the Jews, and then ascertain how it
+is exercised. The Jewish race connects the modern populations with the
+early ages of the world, when the relations of the Creator with the
+created were more intimate than in these days, when angels visited
+the earth, and God himself even spoke with man. The Jews represent the
+Semitic principle; all that is spiritual in our nature. They are the
+trustees of tradition and the conservators of the religious element.
+They are a living and the most striking evidence of the falsity of that
+pernicious doctrine of modern times--the natural equality of man.
+The political equality of a particular race is a matter of municipal
+arrangement, and depends entirely on political considerations and
+circumstances; but the natural equality of man now in vogue, and taking
+the form of cosmopolitan fraternity, is a principle which, were it
+possible to act on it, would deteriorate the great races and destroy
+all the genius of the world. What would be the consequence on the great
+Anglo-Saxon republic, for example, were its citizens to secede from
+their sound principle of reserve, and mingle with their negro and
+coloured populations? In the course of time they would become so
+deteriorated that their states would probably be reconquered and
+regained by the aborigines whom they have expelled, and who would then
+be their superiors. But though nature will never ultimately permit this
+theory of natural equality to be practised, the preaching of this dogma
+has already caused much mischief, and may occasion much more. The native
+tendency of the Jewish race, who are justly proud of their blood, is
+against the doctrine of the equality of man. They have also another
+characteristic, the faculty of acquisition. Although the European
+laws have endeavoured to prevent their obtaining property, they have
+nevertheless become remarkable for their accumulated wealth. Thus
+it will be seen that all the tendencies of the Jewish race are
+conservative. Their bias is to religion, property, and natural
+aristocracy: and it should be the interest of statesmen that this bias
+of a great race should be encouraged, and their energies and creative
+powers enlisted in the cause of existing society.
+
+But existing society has chosen to persecute this race which should
+furnish its choice allies, and what have been the consequences?
+
+They may be traced in the last outbreak of the destructive principle in
+Europe. An insurrection takes place against tradition and aristocracy,
+against religion and property. Destruction of the Semitic principle,
+extirpation of the Jewish religion, whether in the Mosaic or in the
+Christian form, the natural equality of man, and the abrogation of
+property, are proclaimed by the secret societies who form provisional
+governments, and men of Jewish race are found at the head of every one
+of them. The people of God co�perate with atheists; the most skilful
+accumulators of property ally themselves with communists; the peculiar
+and chosen race touch the hand of all the scum and low castes of Europe!
+And all this because they wish to destroy that ungrateful Christendom
+which owes to them even its name, and whose tyranny they can no longer
+endure.
+
+When the secret societies, in February, 1848, surprised Europe, they
+were themselves surprised by the unexpected opportunity, and so little
+capable were they of seizing the occasion, that had it not been for the
+Jews, who of late years unfortunately have been connecting themselves
+with these unhallowed associations, imbecile as were the governments,
+the uncalled-for outbreak would not have ravaged Europe. But the fiery
+energy and the teeming resources of the children of Israel maintained
+for a long time the unnecessary and useless struggle. If the reader
+throw his eye over the provisional governments of Germany and Italy, and
+even of France, formed at that period, he will recognize everywhere the
+Jewish element. Even the insurrection, and defence, and administration
+of Venice, which, from the resource and statesmanlike moderation
+displayed, commanded almost the respect and sympathy of Europe, were
+accomplished by a Jew--Manini--who, by the bye, is a Jew who professes
+the whole of the Jewish religion, and believes in Calvary as well as
+Sinai,--'a converted Jew,' as the Lombards styled him, quite forgetting,
+in the confusion of their ideas, that it is the Lombards who are the
+converts--not Manini.
+
+Thus it will be seen, that the persecution of the Jewish race has
+deprived European society of an important conservative element, and
+added to the destructive party an influential ally. Prince Metternich,
+the most enlightened of modern statesmen, not to say the most
+intellectual of men, was, though himself a victim of the secret
+societies, fully aware of these premises. It was always his custom,
+great as were the difficulties which in so doing he had to encounter,
+to employ as much as possible the Hebrew race in the public service. He
+could never forget that Napoleon, in his noontide hour, had been checked
+by the pen of the greatest of political writers; he had found that
+illustrious author as great in the cabinet as in the study; he knew that
+no one had more contributed to the deliverance of Europe. It was not
+as a patron, but as an appreciating and devoted friend, that the
+High Chancellor of Austria appointed Frederick Gentz secretary to the
+Congress of Vienna--and Frederick Gentz was a child of Israel.
+
+It is no doubt to be deplored that several millions of the Jewish race
+should persist in believing in only a part of their religion; but this
+is a circumstance which does not affect Europe, and time, with different
+treatment, may remove the anomaly which perhaps may be accounted for. It
+should be recollected, that the existing Jews are perhaps altogether the
+descendants of those various colonies and emigrations which, voluntary
+or forced, long preceded the advent. Between the vast carnage of the
+Roman wars, from Titus to Hadrian, and the profession of Christ by his
+countrymen, which must have been very prevalent, since the Christian
+religion was solely sustained by the Jews of Palestine during the
+greater part of its first century, it is improbable that any descendants
+of the Jews of Palestine exist who disbelieve in Christ. After the fall
+of Jerusalem and the failure of Barchochebas, no doubt some portion of
+the Jews found refuge in the desert, returning to their original land
+after such long and strange vicissitudes. This natural movement would
+account for those Arabian tribes, of whose resistance to Mohammed we
+have ample and authentic details, and who, if we are to credit the
+accounts which perplex modern travellers, are to this day governed by
+the Pentateuch instead of the Koran.
+
+When Christianity was presented to the ancestors of the present Jews,
+it came from a very suspicious quarter, and was offered in a very
+questionable shape. Centuries must have passed in many instances before
+the Jewish colonies heard of the advent, the crucifixion, and the
+atonement; the latter, however, a doctrine in perfect harmony with
+Jewish ideas. When they first heard of Christianity, it appeared to be a
+Gentile religion, accompanied by idolatrous practices, from which severe
+monotheists, like the Arabians, always recoil, and holding the Jewish
+race up to public scorn and hatred. This is not the way to make
+converts.
+
+There have been two great colonies of the Jewish race in Europe; in
+Spain and in Sarmatia. The origin of the Jews in Spain is lost in
+the night of time. That it was of great antiquity we have proof. The
+tradition, once derided, that the Iberian Jews were a Phoenician colony
+has been favoured by the researches of modern antiquaries, who have
+traced the Hebrew language in the ancient names of the localities.
+It may be observed, however, that the languages of the Jews and the
+Philistines, or Phoenicians, were probably too similar to sanction any
+positive induction from such phenomena; while on the other hand, in
+reply to those who have urged the improbability of the Jews, who had no
+seaports, colonizing Spain, it may be remarked that the colony may
+have been an expatriation by the Philistines in the course of the long
+struggle which occurred between them and the invading tribes previous
+to the foundation of the Hebrew monarchy. We know that in the time of
+Cicero the Jews had been settled immemorially in Spain. When the Romans,
+converted to Christianity and acted on by the priesthood, began to
+trouble the Spanish Jews, it appears by a decree of Constantine that
+they were owners and cultivators of the soil, a circumstance which
+alone proves the antiquity and the nobility of their settlement, for
+the possession of the land is never conceded to a degraded race.
+The conquest of Spain by the Goths in the fifth and sixth centuries
+threatened the Spanish Jews, however, with more serious adversaries than
+the Romans. The Gothic tribes, very recently converted to their Syrian
+faith, were full of barbaric zeal against those whom they looked upon as
+the enemies of Jesus. But the Spanish Jews sought assistance from
+their kinsmen the Saracens on the opposite coast; Spain was invaded and
+subdued by the Moors, and for several centuries the Jew and the Saracen
+lived under the same benignant laws and shared the same brilliant
+prosperity. In the history of Spain during the Saracenic supremacy any
+distinction of religion or race is no longer traced. And so it came
+to pass that when at the end of the fourteenth century, after the fell
+triumph of the Dominicans over the Albigenses, the holy inquisition was
+introduced into Spain, it was reported to Torquemada that two-thirds of
+the nobility of Arragon, that is to say of the proprietors of the land,
+were Jews.
+
+All that these men knew of Christianity was, that it was a religion
+of fire and sword, and that one of its first duties was to avenge some
+mysterious and inexplicable crime which had been committed ages ago by
+some unheard of ancestors of theirs in an unknown land. The inquisitors
+addressed themselves to the Spanish Jews in the same abrupt and
+ferocious manner in which the monks saluted the Mexicans and the
+Peruvians. All those of the Spanish Jews, who did not conform after
+the fall of the Mohammedan kingdoms, were expatriated by the victorious
+Goths, and these refugees were the main source of the Italian Jews, and
+of the most respectable portion of the Jews of Holland. These exiles
+found refuge in two republics; Venice and the United Provinces. The
+Portuguese Jews, it is well known, came from Spain, and their ultimate
+expulsion from Portugal was attended by the same results as the Spanish
+expatriation.
+
+The other great division of Jews in Europe are the Sarmatian Jews, and
+they are very numerous. They amount to nearly three millions. These
+unquestionably entered Europe with the other Sarmatian nations,
+descending the Borysthenes and ascending the Danube, and are according
+to all probability the progeny of the expatriations of the times of
+Tiglath-Pileser and Nebuchadnezzar. They are the posterity of those
+'devout men,' Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, who were attending the
+festivals at Jerusalem at the time of the descent of the Holy Spirit.
+Living among barbarous pagans, who never molested them, these people
+went on very well, until suddenly the barbarous pagans, under the
+influence of an Italian priesthood, were converted to the Jewish
+religion, and then as a necessary consequence the converts began to
+harass, persecute, and massacre the Jews.
+
+These people had never heard of Christ. Had the Romans not destroyed
+Jerusalem, these Sarmatian Jews would have had a fair chance of
+obtaining from civilized beings some clear and coherent account of the
+great events which had occurred. They and their fathers before them
+would have gone up in customary pilgrimage to the central sacred place,
+both for purposes of devotion and purposes of trade, and they might have
+heard from Semitic lips that there were good tidings for Israel. What
+they heard from their savage companions, and the Italian priesthood
+which acted on them, was, that there were good tidings for all the world
+except Israel, and that Israel, for the commission of a great crime
+of which they had never heard and could not comprehend, was to be
+plundered, massacred, hewn to pieces, and burnt alive in the name of
+Christ and for the sake of Christianity.
+
+The Eastern Jews, who are very numerous, are in general the descendants
+of those who in the course of repeated captivities settled in the great
+Eastern monarchies, and which they never quitted. They live in the same
+cities and follow the same customs as they did in the days of Cyrus.
+They are to be found in Persia, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor; at Bagdad,
+at Hamadan, at Smyrna. We know from the Jewish books how very scant was
+the following which accompanied Esdras and Nehemiah back to Jerusalem.
+A fortress city, built on a ravine, surrounded by stony mountains and
+watered by a scanty stream, had no temptations after the gardens of
+Babylon and the broad waters of the Euphrates. But Babylon has vanished
+and Jerusalem remains, and what are the waters of Euphrates to the brook
+of Kedron! It is another name than that of Jesus of Nazareth with which
+these Jews have been placed in collision, and the Ishmaelites have not
+forgotten the wrongs of Hagar in their conduct to the descendants of
+Sarah.
+
+Is it therefore wonderful that a great portion of the Jewish race should
+not believe in the most important portion of the Jewish religion? As,
+however, the converted races become more humane in their behaviour to
+the Jews, and the latter have opportunity fully to comprehend and deeply
+to ponder over true Christianity, it is difficult to suppose that the
+result will not be very different. Whether presented by a Roman or
+Anglo-Catholic or Genevese divine, by pope, bishop, or presbyter, there
+is nothing, one would suppose, very repugnant to the feelings of a Jew
+when he learns that the redemption of the human race has been effected
+by the mediatorial agency of a child of Israel: if the ineffable mystery
+of the Incarnation be developed to him, he will remember that the
+blood of Jacob is a chosen and peculiar blood; and if so transcendent a
+consummation is to occur, he will scarcely deny that only one race could
+be deemed worthy of accomplishing it. There may be points of doctrine
+on which the northern and western races may perhaps never agree. The
+Jew like them may follow that path in those respects which reason and
+feeling alike dictate; but nevertheless it can hardly be maintained that
+there is anything revolting to a Jew to learn that a Jewess is the queen
+of heaven, or that the flower of the Jewish race are even now sitting on
+the right hand of the Lord God of Sabaoth.
+
+Perhaps, too, in this enlightened age, as his mind expands, and he takes
+a comprehensive view of this period of progress, the pupil of Moses may
+ask himself, whether all the princes of the house of David have done so
+much for the Jews as that prince who was crucified on Calvary. Had it
+not been for Him, the Jews would have been comparatively unknown, or
+known only as a high Oriental caste which had lost its country. Has not
+He made their history the most famous in the world? Has not He hung up
+their laws in every temple? Has not He vindicated all their wrongs?
+Has not He avenged the victory of Titus and conquered the Caesars? What
+successes did they anticipate from their Messiah? The wildest dreams of
+their rabbis have been far exceeded. Has not Jesus conquered Europe and
+changed its name into Christendom? All countries that refuse the cross
+wither, while the whole of the new world is devoted to the Semitic
+principle and its most glorious offspring the Jewish faith, and the time
+will come when the vast communities and countless myriads of America
+and Australia, looking upon Europe as Europe now looks upon Greece, and
+wondering how so small a space could have achieved such great deeds,
+will still find music in the songs of Sion and still seek solace in the
+parables of Galilee.
+
+These may be dreams, but there is one fact which none can contest.
+Christians may continue to persecute Jews, and Jews may persist in
+disbelieving Christians, but who can deny that Jesus of Nazareth, the
+Incarnate Son of the Most High God, is the eternal glory of the Jewish
+race?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+     _Jewish Disabilities_
+
+IT WOULD seem to follow from the views expressed in the preceding
+chaptet, that in communities professing a belief in our Lord, the
+Jewish race ought not to be subject to any legislative dishonour or
+disqualification. These views, however, were not those which influenced
+Lord George Bentinck in forming his opinion that the civil disabilities
+of those subjects of her Majesty who profess that limited belief in
+divine revelation which is commonly called the Jewish religion should
+be removed. He had supported a measure to this effect in the year
+1833, guided in that conduct by his devoted attachment to the equivocal
+principle of religious liberty, the unqualified application of which
+principle seems hardly consistent with that recognition of religious
+truth by the state to which we yet adhere, and without which it is
+highly probable that the northern and western races, after a disturbing
+and rapidly degrading period of atheistic anarchy, may fatally recur
+to their old national idolatries, modified and mythically dressed up
+according to the spirit of the age. It may be observed that the decline
+and disasters of modern communities have generally been relative to
+their degree of sedition against the Semitic principle. Since the great
+revolt of the Celts against the first and second testament, at the close
+of the last century, France has been alternately in a state of collapse
+or convulsion. Throughout the awful trials of the last sixty years,
+England, notwithstanding her deficient and meagre theology, has always
+remembered Sion. The great Transatlantic republic is intensely
+Semitic, and has prospered accordingly. This sacred principle alone has
+consolidated the mighty empire of all the Russias. How omnipotent it
+is cannot be more clearly shown than by the instance of Rome, where it
+appears in its most corrupt form. An old man on a Semitic throne baffles
+the modern Attilas, and the recent invasion of the barbarians, under the
+form of red republicans, socialists, communists, all different phases
+which describe the relapse of the once converted races into their
+primitive condition of savagery. Austria would long ago have dissolved
+but for the Semitic principle, and if the north of Germany has never
+succeeded in attaining that imperial position which seemed its natural
+destiny, it is that the north of Germany has never at any time been
+thoroughly converted. Some perhaps may point to Spain as a remarkable
+instance of decline in a country where the Semitic principle has
+exercised great influence. But the fall of Spain was occasioned by the
+expulsion of her Semitic population: a million families of Jews and
+Saracens, the most distinguished of her citizens for their industry and
+their intelligence, their learning and their wealth.
+
+It appears that Lord George Bentinck had offended some of his followers
+by an opinion expressed in his address to his constituency in '47, that
+in accordance with the suggestion of Mr. Pitt, some provision should
+be made for the Roman Catholic priesthood of Ireland out of the land.
+Although this opinion might offend the religious sentiments of some,
+and might be justly looked upon by others as a scheme ill-suited to the
+character of an age adverse to any further religious endowments, it must
+be acknowledged that no member of the Protectionist party had any just
+cause of complaint against Lord George for the expression of an opinion
+which he had always upheld, and of his constancy to which he had fairly
+given his friends notice. This was so generally felt that the repining
+died away. The Jewish question, as it was called, revived these
+religious emotions. These feelings, as springing from the highest
+sentiment of our nature, and founded, however mistaken in their
+application, on religious truth, are entitled to deep respect and
+tenderness; but no one can indulge them by the compromise of the highest
+principles, or by sanctioning a course which he really believes to be
+destructive of the very object which their votaries wish to cherish.
+
+As there are very few Englishmen of what is commonly called the Jewish
+faith, and as therefore it was supposed that political considerations
+could not enter into the question, it was hoped by many of the followers
+of Lord George Bentinck that he would not separate himself from his
+party on this subject, and very earnest requests and representations
+were made to him with that view. He was not insensible to them; he gave
+them prolonged and painful consideration; they greatly disquieted him.
+In his confidential correspondence he often recurs to the distress
+and anxiety which this question and its consequences as regarded his
+position with those friends to whom he was much attached occasioned him.
+It must not, therefore, be supposed that, in the line he ultimately
+took with reference to this question, he was influenced, as some have
+unkindly and unwarrantably fancied, by a self-willed, inexorable, and
+imperious spirit. He was no doubt, by nature, a proud man, inclined even
+to arrogance, and naturally impatient of contradiction; but two
+severe campaigns in the House of Commons had already mitigated these
+characteristics: he understood human nature, he was fond of his party,
+and, irrespective of other considerations, it pained his ardent and
+generous heart to mortify his comrades. It was therefore not in any
+degree from temper, but from principle,--from as pure, as high, and as
+noble a sense of duty as ever actuated a man in public life,--that Lord
+George Bentinck ultimately resolved that it was impossible for him
+to refuse to vote for the removal of what are commonly called Jewish
+disabilities. He had voted in this particular cause shortly after
+his entrance into public life; it was in accordance with that general
+principle of religious liberty to which he was an uncompromising
+adherent; it was in complete agreement with the understanding which
+subsisted between himself and the Protectionist party, when at their
+urgent request he unwillingly assumed the helm. He was entreated not to
+vote at all; to stay away, which the severe indisposition under which
+he was then labouring warranted. He did not rudely repulse these latter
+representations, as has been circulated. On the contrary, he listened
+to them with kindness, and was not uninfluenced by them. Enfeebled by
+illness, he had nearly brought himself to a compliance with a request
+urged with affectionate importunity, but from which his reason and sense
+of duty held him aloof. After long and deep and painful pondering, when
+the hour arrived, he rose from his bed of sickness, walked into the
+House of Commons, and not only voted, but spoke in favour of his
+convictions. His speech remains, one of the best ever delivered on the
+subject, not only full of weighty argument, but touched with a high and
+even tender vein of sentiment.
+
+This vote and speech of Lord George Bentinck no doubt mortified at the
+moment a considerable portion of his followers, and occasioned great
+dissatisfaction among a very respectable though limited section of
+them. This latter body must either have forgotten or they must have been
+strangely unacquainted with the distinct understanding on which Lord
+George had undertaken the lead of the party, or otherwise they could
+not have felt authorized in conveying to him their keen sense of
+disapprobation. Unfortunately he received this when the House had
+adjourned for the holidays, and when Mr. Bankes, who had been the organ
+of communication with him in '46, was in the country, and when the party
+was of course generally dispersed. Lord George did not take any pains to
+ascertain whether the representation which was made to him was that of
+the general feeling of a large party, or that only of a sincere, highly
+estimable, but limited section. He was enfeebled and exhausted by
+indisposition; he often felt, even when in health, that the toil of his
+life was beyond both his physical and moral energies; and though he was
+of that ardent and tenacious nature that he never would have complained,
+but have died at his post, the opportunity of release coming to him at
+a moment when he was physically prostrate was rather eagerly seized, and
+the world suddenly learnt at Christmas, with great astonishment, that
+the renowned leader of the Protectionist party had relinquished his
+trust.
+
+The numerous communications which he received must have convinced
+him that the assumed circumstances under which he acted had not been
+accurately appreciated by him. He was implored to reconsider his course,
+as one very detrimental to the cause to which he was devoted, and
+which would probably tend to the triumph of those whose policy he
+had attempted to defeat, and whose personal conduct he had at least
+succeeded in punishing.
+
+'The prophesied time has come,' he wrote to his friend Mr. Bankes, on
+the 23rd of December, 1847, 'when I have ceased to be able to serve
+the party, the great cause of Protection, or my country, by any longer
+retaining the commission bestowed on me in the spring of 1846. You will
+remember, however, that when unfeignedly and honestly, but in vain,
+trying to escape from being raised to a position which I foresaw I must
+fail to maintain with advantage to you or honour to myself, I at last
+gave my consent, I only did so on the express understanding that my
+advancement should be held to be merely a pro tempore appointment,
+waiting till the country should have the opportunity of sending to
+Parliament other men better fitted to lead the country gentlemen of
+England. I have recalled these circumstances to your mind with no other
+purpose than that the party may feel how entirely free they are, without
+even the suspicion of doing an injustice to me or of showing me in
+this any disrespect, to remodel their arrangements, and to supersede my
+lieutenancy by the appointment of a superior and permanent commander.'
+
+And again on Christmas-day, to the same gentleman, in reply to an
+acknowledgment of the preceding, he says, while thanking Mr. Bankes
+'for his warm-hearted letter as very grateful to his feelings,'--'
+Confidentially I tell you, that far from feeling in the least annoyed,
+I shall feel greatly relieved by a restoration to privacy and freedom. I
+worked upon my spirit in '46 and '47; but I have learnt now that I have
+shaken my constitution to the foundation, and I seriously doubt my being
+able to work on much longer.'
+
+He wrote on the 24th of December to one of his most intimate friends and
+warmest supporters, Mr. Christopher, the member for Lincolnshire, who
+had remonstrated with him as to his decision: 'It is not in my nature to
+retain a station one moment after I get a hint even that any portion
+of those who raised me to it are wearied of seeing me there. The old
+members of the party will all recollect how clearly I foresaw and
+foretold that I should be found a very inconvenient as well as a very
+inefficient leader, so soon as the great Protection battle was brought
+to a close. I predicted all that has since occurred; and no one more
+cordially agrees than I do in the wisdom of the present decision, the
+spirit I presume of which is that no great party or large body of men
+can be successfully, or to any good purpose, led except by a man
+who heart and soul sympathizes with them in all their feelings,
+partialities, and prejudices. Cold reason has a poor chance against such
+influences. There can be no _esprit de corps_ and no zeal where there
+is not a union of prejudices as well as of commercial opinions. The
+election of a leader united with the great body of the party in these
+respects, will tend greatly to reunite its scattered particles, even on
+those questions where I shall be able to give my aid with all my wonted
+zeal, which will not be the less spirited because it will be free and
+independent.'
+
+At a later period, acknowledging an address signed by the great body
+of the Protectionist party, and presented to him by the present Earl
+Talbot, then a member of the House of Commons, Lord George wrote, 'The
+considerations which obliged me to surrender a post of honour which
+every independent and high-minded English gentleman has at all times
+prized above the highest rewards in the gift of the crown, "the
+leadership of the country gentlemen of England," will never influence
+me to swerve from any endeavours of which my poor abilities and bodily
+energies are capable in the promotion of the prosperity of all classes
+in the British empire at home and in the colonies, any more than
+they can ever make me forget the attachment, the friendship, and the
+enthusiastic support of those who stood by me to the end of the death
+struggle for British interests and for English good faith and political
+honour, and to whose continued friendship and constancy I know I am
+indebted for this graceful and grateful compliment.'
+
+If Lord George Bentinck was inexorable to the entreaties of his friends,
+it must not be supposed that he was influenced in the course which he
+pursued, as was presumed by many at the time not acquainted with the
+circumstances, by any feeling of pique or brooding sullenness. No
+high-spirited man under vexatious and distressing circumstances ever
+behaved with more magnanimity. In this he was actuated in a great degree
+by a sense of duty, but still more by that peculiar want of selfishness
+which was one of the most beautiful traits of his character. The moment
+he had at all recovered from the severe attack by which, to use his own
+language, he had been 'struck down in the first week of the session,'
+and from the effects of which it may be doubted whether he ever entirely
+recovered, he laboured zealously to induce some competent person to
+undertake the office which he had thought it expedient to resign,
+offering in several instances to serve in the ranks, and to assist with
+his utmost energies, both in and out of the House, the individual who
+would undertake the responsible direction in the Commons.
+
+These efforts, though indefatigable, were not successful, for those who
+were competent to the office cared not to serve under any one except
+himself. About this time, a personage of great station, and who very
+much admired Lord George Bentinck, wrote to him, and recommended him
+not to trouble himself about the general discipline of the party, but
+to follow his own course, and lead that body of friends who under all
+circumstances would adhere to him, instancing the case of Mr. Canning,
+under circumstances not altogether dissimilar. Lord George replied: 'As
+for my rallying a personal party round myself, as Mr. Canning did, I
+have no pretension to anything of the kind; when Mr. Canning did that,
+the House of Commons, and England too, acknowledged him to be the
+greatest orator who had survived Pitt and Fox; he had been Secretary of
+State for foreign affairs, and had taken a conspicuous part in rousing
+the country to carry on the war against France.'
+
+The nature of the subject, dealing as it necessarily does with so
+many personal details, renders it impossible to make public the
+correspondence in which Lord George Bentinck was engaged at this time in
+his attempts to place the Protectionist party under the guidance of one
+who would unite all sympathies; but were that publication possible, it
+would place Lord George Bentinck in a very noble and amiable light, and
+prove a gentleness and softness in his nature for which those who were
+not very intimate with him did not give him credit. Not that it must be
+for a moment supposed that he was insensible to what was occurring. He
+was the most sensitive as well as the proudest of men. When the writer
+called at Harcourt House, to bid him farewell, before the Christmas
+holidays, and, conversing very frankly on the course which he was then
+pursuing, inquired as to his future proceedings, Lord George said with
+emotion: 'In this cause I have shaken my constitution and shortened
+my days, and I will succeed or die.' In the course of the year 1848,
+walking home, talking together, from the House of Commons, he twice
+recurred to this terrible alternative.
+
+But all considerations were merged at this moment in the predominant one
+which was to keep the party together. He wrote to a friend at the end of
+January, who urged him, as the hour of work approached and the injurious
+inconveniences of his abdication would be more felt, to confer with his
+former followers and reconsider his position, that no personal feeling
+prevented his taking that course, but that he felt any resumption of
+responsibility on his part would not be pleasing to a section of those
+who formerly served with him, and that there would be a 'split' in the
+ranks. 'As far as I am personally concerned,' he added, 'I could submit
+to anything short of having my ears cut off and appearing as a "Croppy,"
+to be free again. My pride cannot stand leading an unwilling party; I
+would just as soon thrust myself into a dinner-room where I was at once
+an uninvited and an unwelcome guest.'
+
+In the meantime, according to his custom, the moment that he had
+sufficiently recovered from his illness, he prepared with the utmost
+zeal for the coming struggle respecting the fate of our sugar colonies,
+in which subject he was soon absorbed.
+
+Parliament reassembled on the 3rd of February, and on that night Lord
+George Bentinck brought forward his motion for 'a select committee
+to inquire into the present condition and prospects of the interests
+connected with and dependent on sugar and coffee planting in her
+Majesty's East and West Indian possessions and the Mauritius, and to
+consider whether any and what measures can be adopted by Parliament for
+their relief.' When he entered the House, Lord George walked up to the
+head of the second bench below the gangway, on the opposition side,
+and thus significantly announced that he was no longer the responsible
+leader of the Protectionist party. It was the wish of the writer of
+these pages, who had resolved to stand or fall by him, to have followed
+his example and to have abdicated the prominent seat in which the writer
+had been unwillingly and fortuitously placed; but by the advice, or
+rather at the earnest request, of Lord George Bentinck, this course was
+relinquished as indicative of schism, which he wished to discourage; and
+the circumstance is only mentioned as showing that Lord George was not
+less considerate at this moment of the interests of the Protectionist
+party than when he led them with so much confidence and authority.
+The session, however, was to commence without a leader, without any
+recognized organ of communication between parties, or any responsible
+representative of opinion in debate. All again was chaos. There is,
+however, something so vital in the Conservative party that it seems
+always to rally under every disadvantage.
+
+Lord George spoke well to his resolution: the House soon recognized
+he was master of his case, and though few foresaw at the moment the
+important consequences to which this motion would lead, the House was
+interested from the first; and though there was no division, the debate
+lasted two days, and was sustained on both sides with great animation.
+
+The mover vindicated himself very successfully for only proposing a
+committee of inquiry. 'It has been represented to me,' he said, 'by the
+colonies and by persons in this country who are interested in them, that
+the course which I am proposing is not consistent with the necessities
+of the case; that there is something pusillanimous in the motion which
+I am going to make; that in point of fact the interests connected with
+sugar and coffee planting are in extremis; and that while the question
+of their redress is being discussed in a committee above-stairs, these
+great interests will perish. They say to me that a committee of inquiry
+will be to them of the nature of that comfort which,
+
+     "Like cordials after death, come late; "
+
+and that before the committee shall have reported, the West-Indian
+interest will be altogether past recovery. But, sir, it is for me to
+consider what my power is to obtain any substantial relief by a direct
+vote of this House; and when I remember that in July, 1846, I moved a
+resolution the purport of which was, to maintain the protection for
+the West-Indian and the East-Indian free-labour colonies which they now
+seek, and that I had but one hundred and thirty gentlemen to support me,
+while two hundred and sixty-five votes were recorded in favour of the
+measure of the Government admitting slave-labour sugar, I feel that it
+is hopeless for me to endeavour in this House, where I have no reason
+to suppose any addition has been made to the members acquiescing in my
+views, to convert that minority into a majority; and more especially
+when I recollect that on that occasion but five gentlemen connected with
+the West-Indian and East-Indian interests recorded their votes with me,
+I think the West-Indian interest has not a good case against me when
+they blame me for not taking a more resolute step on this occasion.'
+
+He was not, however, without hope from the course which he had decided
+to pursue. 'Looking, as I have done, at the deplorable state of the
+West Indies, the East Indies, and the Mauritius, and holding, as I do,
+in my hand a list of forty-eight great houses in England--twenty-six
+of the first commercial houses in London, sixteen in Liverpool, and six
+elsewhere--which have failed, and whose liabilities amount in the whole
+to �6,300,000 and upwards, none of which I believe would have fallen had
+it not been for the ruin brought upon them by the change in the sugar
+duties and the consequent reduction in the price of their produce,--I
+do hope, through the intervention of a committee of this House, I may be
+able to prevail upon the House to change its policy with regard to this
+great question.'
+
+Lord George was supported in this debate by Mr. Thomas Baring, in one
+of the best speeches ever made in the House of Commons. Few more combine
+mastery of the case with parliamentary point than this gentleman. It is
+not impossible to find a man capable of addressing the House of Commons
+who understands the subject; it is not impossible to find a man who
+can convey his impressions on any subject to the House in a lively and
+captivating manner, though both instances are rarer than the world would
+imagine; but a man who at the same time understands a question and can
+handle it before a popular assembly in a popular style, who teaches
+without being pedantic, can convey an argument in an epigram, and
+instruct as the Mexicans did by picture, possesses a talent for the
+exercise of which he is responsible to his sovereign and his country.
+
+Mr. Baring said that he could not perfectly agree either with Lord John
+Russell or Lord George Bentinck, that Protection or Free Trade must be
+in what they called a circle, round which in their legislation they must
+always move; that they must either give protection to everything or
+free trade to everything. He could not say that because sugar claimed
+protection, coals must have protection also. Neither would he, on the
+other hand, apply free trade to every article. He acknowledged the
+advantage of competition as a stimulus: he thought that, placing things
+on equal grounds, competition was undoubtedly a great advantage. He
+could understand a competition to try the mutual speed of race-horses;
+but there could be no competition between a race-horse and a
+steam-engine, for the power of the animal could bear no comparison with
+that of the machine!
+
+Mr. Baring could look back to no legislation more humiliating than the
+legislation regarding our colonies. No great interest was ever so much
+trifled with, so much sacrificed to the cry of the day; at one moment to
+no slavery and another to cheap sugar.
+
+The committee was granted, and it was generally felt that the question
+was consequently quieted for the session.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+     _Leader Perforce_
+
+DURING the first six weeks of this famous committee the attendance
+of its members was not very regular, and its labours attracted little
+attention. The evidence on the East-India part of the question was
+closed and reported to the House by the end of February; after that
+period the evidence was reported to the House every week or ten
+days. Towards the end of March, rumours began to circulate of the
+extraordinary vigour and ability with which this investigation was
+pursued, and of the novel, authentic, and striking evidence that had
+been elicited. The proceedings were talked of in the House of Commons
+and on the Royal Exchange; the City men who were examined went back
+to their companions with wondrous tales of the energy and acuteness
+of Harcourt House, and the order, method, and discipline of the
+committee-room at Westminster. As time elapsed, the hopes of the
+colonial interest again revived. It was generally felt that Lord George
+had succeeded in establishing an irresistible case. It was rumoured that
+the government could not withstand it. Those who had originally murmured
+at the course which he had adopted of moving for a committee of inquiry,
+instead of proposing a specific measure of relief, and had treated an
+investigation as a mere means of securing inaction, now recanted their
+rash criticism, and did justice to his prescience and superior judgment,
+as well as to his vast information and indefatigable exertions. The week
+during which the committee sat on their report was a very anxious
+one; the divisions were known every day in the House of Commons; the
+alternations of success and discomfiture, and the balanced numbers that
+so often called for the interposition of the chairman, were calculated
+to sustain the excitement; and when, on the 29th of May, it was known
+that the report was at length agreed to, and that a committee of free
+traders had absolutely recommended a differential duty of 10s. in favour
+of our own produce, one might have fancied from the effect visibly
+produced, that a government was changed.
+
+A few days before--it was the day after the Derby, May 25th--the writer
+met Lord George Ben-tinck in the library of the House of Commons. He
+was standing before the book-shelves, with a volume in his hand, and
+his countenance was greatly disturbed. His resolutions in favour of
+the colonial interest after all his labours had been negatived by the
+committee on the 22nd, and on the 24th, his horse Surplice, whom he
+had parted with among the rest of his stud, solely that he might pursue
+without distraction his labours on behalf of the great interests of the
+country, had won that paramount and Olympian stake, to gain which had
+been the object of his life. He had nothing to console him, and nothing
+to sustain him except his pride. Even that deserted him before a heart
+which he knew at least could yield him sympathy. He gave a sort of
+superb groan:--
+
+'All my life I have been trying for this, and for what have I sacrificed
+it!' he murmured.
+
+It was in vain to offer solace.
+
+'You do not know what the Derby is,' he moaned out.
+
+'Yes, I do; it is the blue ribbon of the turf.'
+
+'It is the blue ribbon of the turf,' he slowly repeated to himself, and
+sitting down at the table, he buried himself in a folio of statistics.
+
+But on Monday, the 29th, when the resolution in favour of a 10s.
+differential duty for the colonies had at the last moment been carried,
+and carried by his casting vote, 'the blue ribbons of the turf were all
+forgotten. Not for all the honours and successes of all the meetings,
+spring or autumn, Newmarket, Epsom, Goodwood, Doncaster, would he have
+exchanged that hour of rapture. His eye sparkled with fire, his nostril
+dilated with triumph, his brow was elate like a conqueror, his sanguine
+spirit saw a future of continued and illimitable success.
+
+'We have saved the colonies,' he said,--'saved the colonies. I knew it
+must be so. It is the knell of free trade.'
+
+Notwithstanding the formal renunciation of the leadership of the
+Protectionist party by Lord George Bentinck, it was soon evident to the
+House and the country that that renunciation was merely formal. In these
+days of labour, the leader of a party must be the man who does the work,
+and that work cannot now be accomplished without the devotion of a life.
+Whenever a great question arose, the people out of doors went to Lord
+George Bentinck, and when the discussion commenced, he was always found
+to be the man armed with the authority of knowledge. There was, however,
+no organized debate and no party discipline. No one was requested to
+take a part, and no attendance was ever summoned. The vast majority
+sitting on the Protectionist benches always followed Bentinck, who,
+whatever might be his numbers in the lobby, always made a redoubtable
+stand in the House. The situation however, it cannot be denied, was a
+dangerous one for a great party to persevere in, but no permanent damage
+accrued, because almost every one hoped that before the session was
+over, the difficulty would find a natural solution in the virtual chief
+resuming his formal and responsible post. Notwithstanding his labours on
+the two great committees of the year--those on colonial and commercial
+distress,--Lord George Bentinck found time to master the case of the
+shipping interest when the navigation laws were attacked, to impugn in
+a formal motion the whole of the commercial policy of Sir Robert Peel,
+even while the sugar and coffee planting committee was still sitting,
+and to produce, early in March, a rival budget. It was mainly through
+the prolonged resistance which he organized against the repeal of the
+navigation laws, that the government, in 1848, was forced to abandon
+their project. The resistance was led with great ability by Mr. Herries,
+and the whole party put forward their utmost strength to support him.
+But it is very difficult to convey a complete picture of the laborious
+life of Lord George Bentinck during the sitting of Parliament.
+At half-past nine o'clock there called upon him the commercial
+representatives of the question of the day; after these conferences came
+his elaborate and methodical correspondence, all of which he carried
+on himself in a handwriting clear as print, and never employing a
+secretary; at twelve or one o'clock he was at a committee, and he only
+left the committee-room to take his seat in the House of Commons, which
+he never quitted till the House adjourned, always long past midnight,
+and often at two o'clock in the morning. Here he was ready for all
+comers, never omitting an opportunity to vindicate his opinions, or
+watching with lynx-like vigilance the conduct of a public office. What
+was not his least remarkable trait is, that although he only breakfasted
+on dry toast, he took no sustenance all this time, dining at White's
+at half-past two o'clock in the morning. After his severe attack of
+the influenza he broke through this habit a little during the last
+few months of his life, moved by the advice of his physician and the
+instance of his friends. The writer of these observations prevailed
+upon him a little the last year to fall into the easy habit of dining
+at Bellamy's, which saves much time, and permits the transaction of
+business in conversation with a congenial friend. But he grudged it:
+he always thought that something would be said or done in his absence,
+which would not have occurred had he been there; some motion whisked
+through, or some return altered. His principle was that a member should
+never be absent from his seat.
+
+The session of '48 had been one of unexampled length, having lasted ten
+months, and, as usual under such circumstances, the obstacles to the
+transaction of public business were sought everywhere except in the
+real quarter. The forms of the House and the propensity to unnecessary
+discussion among its members were chiefly denounced. Lord George
+Bentinck did not agree in the justness of these criminations; they were
+eagerly caught by the thoughtless and the superficial, but it was his
+habit to investigate and analyze everything, and he found that these
+charges had no basis. The forms of the House of Commons are the
+result of accumulated experience and have rarely been tampered with
+successfully, while on the other hand a parliamentary government is by
+name and nature essentially a government of discussion. It is not at all
+difficult to conceive a mode of governing a country more expeditious
+than by a parliament; but where truth as well as strength is held to
+be an essential element of legislation, opinion must be secured an
+unrestricted organ. Superfluity of debate may often be inconvenient to
+a minister, and sometimes perhaps even distasteful to the community;
+but criticizing such a security for justice and liberty as a free-spoken
+parliament is like quarrelling with the weather because there is too
+much rain or too much sunshine. The casual inconvenience should be
+forgotten in the permanent blessing. Acting upon these false imputations
+a committee was even appointed, two years ago, of the most eminent
+members of the House of Commons, to investigate the subject and suggest
+remedies, and some votaries of the Transatlantic type recommended the
+adoption of the rules of Congress where each speaker is limited to
+an hour. But an hour from an uninteresting speaker would be a great
+infliction. The good sense and the good taste of the House of Commons
+will be found on the whole to be the best regulators of the duration of
+a debate.
+
+The truth is that the delay in the conduct of parliamentary business
+which has been much complained of during the last few years, murmurs of
+which were especially rife in 1848, is attributable to the fact that the
+ministry, though formed of men inferior in point of ability to none who
+could be reasonably intrusted with administration, had not
+sufficient parliamentary strength. After all their deliberations and
+foresight,--after all their observations of the times and study of the
+public interest, their measures when launched from the cabinet into the
+House were not received by a confiding majority, firm in their faith
+in the statesmanlike qualities of the authors of these measures and in
+their sympathy with the general political system of which the ministry
+was the representative. On the contrary, the success of the measures
+depended on a* variety of sections who in their aggregate exceeded in
+number and influence the party of the ministers. These became critics
+and took the ministerial measures in hand; the measures became, the
+measures, not of the cabinet, but of the House of Commons; and a purely
+legislative assembly became, in consequence of the weakness of the
+government, yearly more administrative. This was undoubtedly a great
+evil, and occasioned, besides great delay, many crude enactments, as
+will be the case where all are constructors and none are responsible,
+but the evil was not occasioned by the forms of the House or the
+length of the speeches. Sir Robert Peel was unquestionably a very able
+administrator, but if he had not had a majority of ninety he would
+have fallen in as ill repute as has been too often the lot of Lord John
+Russell.
+
+Lord George Bentinck was very anxious that there should be a
+parliamentary summary of this enormous and eventful session of '48, that
+the conduct of business by the ministry should be traced and criticized
+and the character of the House of Commons vindicated, and he appealed to
+the writer of these observations to undertake the task. But the writer
+was unwilling to accede to this suggestion, not only because at the end
+of August he shrank from a laborious effort, but principally because he
+did not hold that his position in the House of Commons warranted on his
+part such an interference, since, after all, he was only the comrade in
+arms of one who chose to be only an independent member of the House. He
+therefore unaffectedly stated that he thought the office was somewhat
+above his measure. But Lord George Bentinck would not listen to these
+representations. 'I don't pretend to know much,' he said, 'but I can
+judge of men and horses.' It is difficult to refuse those who are
+themselves setting a constant example of self-sacrifice, and therefore,
+so far as the labour was concerned, the writer would not have shrunk
+from the exertion even on the last day of the month of August, and when
+the particular wish of Lord George was found to be more general than the
+writer presumed to suppose, he accordingly endeavoured to accomplish the
+intention.
+
+Three or four days after this, the writer, about to leave London, called
+at Harcourt House, to say farewell to his comrade in arms. He
+passed with Lord George the whole morning, rather indulging in the
+contemplation of the future than in retrospect. Lord George was serene,
+cheerful, and happy. He was content with himself, which was rarely the
+case, and remembered nothing of his career but its distinction, and the
+ennobling sense of having done his duty.
+
+Any misunderstandings that may have for a moment irritated him seemed
+forgotten; he appeared conscious that he possessed the confidence
+and cordial regard of the great majority of the Protectionist party,
+although he chose to occupy a private post, and he was proud of the
+consciousness. He was still more sensible of the sympathy which he had
+created out of doors, which he greatly appreciated, and to which, though
+with his usual modesty, he more than once recurred. 'The thing is
+to get the people out of doors with you,' he repeated, 'men like the
+merchants; all the rest follow.' It was evident that the success of his
+colonial committee had greatly satisfied his spirit. He had received
+that day the vote of thanks of the West-India body for his exertions.
+He said more than once, that with a weak government, a parliamentary
+committee properly worked might do wonders. He said he would have a
+committee on import duties next year, and have all the merchants to show
+what share the foreigners had obtained of the reductions that had been
+made of late years. He maintained, that, quite irrespective of the
+general arrangements of the new commercial system, Sir Robert Peel had
+thrown away a great revenue on a number of articles of very inferior
+importance, and he would prove this to the country. He said our colonial
+empire ought to be reconstructed by a total abolition of all duties on
+produce from her Majesty's dominions abroad.
+
+All his ideas were large, clear, and coherent. He dwelt much on the
+vicissitudes which most attend all merely foreign trade, which, though
+it should be encouraged, ought not to be solely relied on, as was the
+fashion of this day. Looking upon war as occasionally inevitable, he
+thought a commercial system based upon the presumption of perpetual
+peace to be full of ruin. His policy was essentially imperial and not
+cosmopolitan.
+
+About to part probably for many months, and listening to him as he
+spoke, according to his custom, with so much fervour and sincerity, one
+could not refrain from musing over his singular and sudden career. It
+was not three years since he had in an instant occupied the minds
+of men. No series of parliamentary labours had ever produced so much
+influence in the country in so short a time. Never was a reputation so
+substantial built up in so brief a period. AH the questions with which
+he had dealt were colossal questions: the laws that should regulate
+competition between native and foreign labour; the interference of the
+state in the development of the resources of Ireland; the social and
+commercial condition of our tropical colonies; the principles upon which
+our revenue should be raised; the laws which should regulate and protect
+our navigation. But it was not that he merely expressed opinions
+upon these subjects; he came forward with details in support of his
+principles and policy, which it had before been believed none but a
+minister could command. Instead of experiencing the usual and almost
+inevitable doom of private members of Parliament, and having his
+statements shattered by official information, Lord George Bentinck on
+the contrary, was the assailant, and the successful assailant, of
+an administration on these very heads. He often did their work more
+effectually than all their artificial training enabled them to do it.
+His acute research, and his peculiar sources of information, roused
+the vigilance of all the public offices of the country. Since his time,
+there has been more care in preparing official returns, and in arranging
+the public correspondence placed on the table of the House of Commons.
+
+When one remembered that in this room, not three years ago, he was
+trying to find a lawyer who would make a speech for him in Parliament,
+it was curious to remember that no one in the period had probably
+addressed the House of Commons oftener. Though his manner, which was
+daily improving, was not felicitous in the House, the authority of his
+intellect, his knowledge, and his character, made him one of the great
+personages of debate; but with the country who only read his speeches
+he ranked high as an orator. It is only those who have had occasion
+critically to read and examine the long series of his speeches who can
+be conscious of their considerable merits. The information is always
+full and often fresh, the scope large, the argument close, and the
+style, though simple, never bald, but vigorous, idiomatic, and often
+picturesque. He had not credit for this in his day, but the passages
+which have been quoted in this sketch will prove the justness of this
+criticism. As a speaker and writer, his principal need was condensation.
+He could not bear that anything should remain untold. He was deficient
+in taste, but he had fervour of feeling, and was by no means void of
+imagination.
+
+The writer, in his frequent communications with him of faithful and
+unbounded confidence, was often reminded of the character by Mr. Burke
+of my Lord Keppell.
+
+The labours of Lord George Bentinck had been supernatural, and one ought
+perhaps to have felt then that it was impossible they could be continued
+on such a scale of exhaustion; but no friend could control his eager
+life in this respect; he obeyed the law of his vehement and fiery
+nature, being one of those men who in whatever they undertake know no
+medium, but will 'succeed or die.'
+
+But why talk here and now of death! He goes to his native county and his
+father's proud domain, to breathe the air of his boyhood and move amid
+the parks and meads of his youth. Every breeze will bear health, and the
+sight of every hallowed haunt will stimulate his pulse. He is scarcely
+older than Julius C�sar when he commenced his public career, he looks as
+high and brave, and he springs from a long-lived race.
+
+He stood upon the _perron_ of Harcourt House, the last of the great
+hotels of an age of stately dwellings with its wings, and court-yard,
+and carriage portal, and huge outward walls. He put forth his hand to
+bid farewell, and his last words were characteristic of the man--of his
+warm feelings and of his ruling passion: 'God bless you; we must work,
+and the country will come round us.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+     _The Curtain Falls_
+
+
+
+THE heavens darken; a new character enters upon the scene.
+
+They say that when great men arise they have a mission to accomplish
+and do not disappear until it is fulfilled. Yet this is not always true.
+After all his deep study and his daring action Mr. Hampden died on an
+obscure field, almost before the commencement of that mighty struggle
+which he seemed born to direct. In the great contention between the
+patriotic and the cosmopolitan principle which has hardly begun, and
+on the issue of which the fate of this island as a powerful community
+depends, Lord George Ben-tinck appeared to be produced to represent the
+traditionary influences of our country in their most captivating form.
+Born a natural leader of the people, he was equal to the post. Free from
+prejudices, his large mind sympathized with all classes of the realm.
+His courage and his constancy were never surpassed by man. He valued
+life only as a means of fulfilling duty, and truly it may be said of
+him, that he feared none but God.
+
+A few days after the interview noticed in the last chapter, Lord George
+Bentinck returned to Welbeck. Some there were who thought him worn by
+the exertions of the session, and that an unusual pallor had settled
+upon that mantling and animated countenance. He himself never felt in
+better health or was ever in higher spirits, and greatly enjoyed the
+change of life, and that change to a scene so dear to him.
+
+On the 21 st of September, after breakfasting with his family, he
+retired to his room, where he employed himself With some papers, and
+then wrote three letters, one to Lord Enfield, another to the Duke of
+Richmond, and the third to the writer of these pages. That letter is
+now at hand; it is of considerable length, consisting of seven sheets of
+note-paper, full of interesting details of men and things, and written
+not only in a cheerful but even a merry mood. Then, when his letters
+were sealed, about four o'clock he took his staff and went forth to
+walk to Thoresby, the seat of Lord Manvers, distant between five and six
+miles from Welbeck, where Lord George was to make a visit of two days.
+In consequence of this his valet drove over to Thoresby at the same time
+to meet his master. But the master never came. Hours passed on and the
+master never came. At length the anxious servant returned to Welbeck,
+and called up the groom who had driven him over to Thoresby and who was
+in bed, and inquired whether he had seen anything of Lord George on the
+way back, as his lord had never reached Thoresby. The groom got up, and
+accompanied by the valet and two others took lanthorns, and followed
+the footpath which they had seen Lord George pursuing as they themselves
+went to Thoresby.
+
+About a mile from the Abbey, on the path which they had observed him
+following, lying close to the gate which separates a water meadow from
+the deer-park, they found the body of Lord George Bentinck. He was lying
+on his face; his arms were under his body, and in one hand he grasped
+his walking-stick. His hat was a yard or two before him, having
+evidently been thrown off in falling. The body was cold and stiff. He
+had been long dead.
+
+A woodman and some peasants passing near the spot, about two hundred
+yards from the gate in question, had observed Lord George, whom at the
+distance they had mistaken for his brother the Marquis of Titchfield,
+leaning against this gate. It was then about half-past four o'clock, or
+it might be a quarter to five, so he could not have left his home much
+more than half an hour. The woodman and his companions thought 'the
+gentleman' was reading, as he held his head down. One of them lingered
+for a minute looking at the gentleman, who then turned round, and might
+have seen these passers-by, but he made no sign to them.
+
+Thus it seems that the attack, which was supposed to be a spasm of the
+heart, was not instantaneous in its effects, but with proper remedies
+might have been baffled. Terrible to think of him in his death-struggle
+without aid, and so near a devoted hearth! For that hearth, too, what an
+impending future!
+
+The terrible news reached Nottingham on the morning of the 22nd, at
+half-past nine o'clock, and, immediately telegraphed to London,
+was announced by a second edition of the 'Times' to the country.
+Consternation and deep grief fell upon all men. One week later, the
+remains arrived from Welbeck at Harcourt House, to be entombed in the
+family vault of the Bentincks, that is to be found in a small building
+in a dingy street, now a chapel of ease, but in old days the parish
+church among the fields of the pretty village of Marylebone.
+
+The day of interment was dark, and cold, and drizzling. Although the
+last offices were performed in the most scrupulously private manner, the
+feelings of the community could not be repressed. From nine till eleven
+o'clock that day all the British shipping in the docks and the river,
+from London Bridge to Gravesend, hoisted their flags half-mast high,
+and minute guns were fired from appointed stations along the Thames.
+The same mournful ceremony was observed in all the ports of England and
+Ireland; and not only in these, for the flag was half-mast high on every
+British ship at Antwerp, at Rotterdam, and at Havre.
+
+Ere the last minute gun sounded, all was over. Followed to his tomb by
+those brothers who, if not consoled, might at this moment be sustained
+by the remembrance that to him they had ever been brothers not only in
+name but in spirit, the vault at length closed on the mortal remains of
+_George Bentinck_.
+
+One who stood by his side in an arduous and unequal struggle, who often
+shared his councils and sometimes perhaps soothed his cares, who knew
+well the greatness of his nature and esteemed his friendship among
+the chief of worldly blessings, has stepped aside from the strife and
+passion of public life to draw up this record of his deeds and thoughts,
+that those who come after us may form some conception of his character
+and career, and trace in these faithful though imperfect pages the
+portraiture of an _English Worthy_.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Lord George Bentinck, by Benjamin Disraeli
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+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
+    <title>
+      Lord George Bentinck, by Benjamin Disraeli
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    pre     { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
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+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord George Bentinck, by Benjamin Disraeli
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Lord George Bentinck
+       A Political Biography
+
+Author: Benjamin Disraeli
+
+Release Date: December 3, 2006 [EBook #20007]
+Last Updated: September 7, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD GEORGE BENTINCK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      LORD GEORGE BENTINCK
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
+    </h2>
+    <h2>
+      By Benjamin Disraeli
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      &lsquo;He left us the legacy of heroes: <br /> the memory of his great name <br />
+      and the inspiration of his great example.&rsquo; 
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <table summary="">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p>
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> <big><b>LORD GEORGE BENTINCK</b></big>
+            </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      TO
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      LORD HENRY BENTINCK,
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      IS INSCRIBED This Political Biography ONE FOR WHOM HE ENTERTAINED A DEEP
+      AFFECTION, AND WHOSE TALENTS AND VIRTUES HE SHARES. <a name="link2H_4_0002"
+       id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LORD GEORGE BENTINCK
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/bentink_page009.jpg" alt="Bentink-page009" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Man</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE political career of Lord George Bentinck was peculiar. He had, to use
+      his own expression, &lsquo;sate in eight Parliaments without having taken part
+      in any great debate,&rsquo; when remarkable events suddenly impelled him to
+      advance and occupy not only a considerable but a leading position in our
+      public affairs. During three years, under circumstances of great
+      difficulty, he displayed some of the highest qualities of political life:
+      courage and a lofty spirit; a mastery of details which experience usually
+      alone confers; a quick apprehension and a clear intelligence; indomitable
+      firmness; promptness, punctuality, and perseverance which never failed; an
+      energy seldom surpassed; and a capacity for labour which was perhaps never
+      equalled. At the very moment when he had overcome many contrarieties and
+      prejudices; when he had been most successful in the House of Commons, and,
+      sustained only by his own resources, had considerably modified the
+      legislation of the government which he opposed on a measure of paramount
+      importance; when the nation, which had long watched him with interest,
+      began to congratulate itself on the devotion of such a man to the business
+      of the country, he was in an instant taken from us. Then it was that, the
+      memory of the past and the hope of the future blending together, all men
+      seemed to mourn over this untimely end, and there was that pang in the
+      public heart which accompanies the unexpected disappearance of a strong
+      character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What manner of man this was, who thus on a sudden in the middle term of
+      life relinquished all the ease and pleasure of a patrician existence to
+      work often eighteen hours daily, not for a vain and brilliant notoriety,
+      which was foreign alike both to his tastes and his turn of mind, but for
+      the advancement of principles, the advocacy of which in the chief scene of
+      his efforts was sure to obtain for him only contention and unkindly
+      feelings; what were his motives, purposes and opinions; how and why did he
+      labour; what were the whole scope and tendency of this original, vigorous,
+      and self-schooled intelligence; these would appear to be subjects not
+      unworthy of contemplation, and especially not uninteresting to a free and
+      political community.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The difficulty of treating cotemporary characters and events has been ever
+      acknowledged; but it may be doubted whether the difficulty is diminished
+      when we would commemorate the men and things that have preceded us. The
+      cloud of passion in the first instance, or in the other the mist of time,
+      may render it equally hard and perplexing to discriminate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It should not be forgotten that the most authentic and interesting
+      histories are those which have been composed by actors in the transactions
+      which they record. The cotemporary writer who is personally familiar with
+      his theme has unquestionably a great advantage; but it is assumed that his
+      pen can scarcely escape the bias of private friendship or political
+      connection. Yet truth, after all, is the sovereign passion of mankind; nor
+      is the writer of these pages prepared to relinquish his conviction that it
+      is possible to combine the accuracy of the present with the impartiality
+      of the future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George Bentinck had sat for eighteen years in Parliament, and, before
+      he entered it, had been for three years private secretary to Mr. Canning,
+      who had married the sister of the Duchess of Portland. Such a post would
+      seem a happy commencement of a public career; but whether it were the
+      untimely death of his distinguished relative, or a natural indisposition,
+      Lord George&mdash;though he retained the seat for King&rsquo;s Lynn, in which he
+      had succeeded his uncle, the late governor-general of India&mdash;directed
+      his energies to other than parliamentary pursuits. For some time he had
+      followed his profession, which was that of arms, but of late years he had
+      become absorbed in the pastime and fortunes of the turf, in which his
+      whole being seemed engrossed, and which he pursued on a scale that perhaps
+      has never been equalled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George had withdrawn his support from the government of the Duke of
+      Wellington, when the friends of Mr. Canning quitted that administration;
+      and when in time they formed not the least considerable portion of the
+      cabinet of Lord Grey, he resumed his seat on the ministerial benches. On
+      that occasion an administrative post was offered him and declined; and on
+      subsequent occasions similar requests to him to take office were equally
+      in vain. Lord George, therefore, was an original and hearty supporter of
+      the Reform Bill, and he continued to uphold the Whigs in all their policy
+      until the secession of Lord Stanley, between whom and himself there
+      subsisted warm personal as well as political sympathies. Although he was
+      not only a friend to religious liberty, as we shall have occasion
+      afterwards to remark, but always viewed with great sympathy the condition
+      of the Roman Catholic portion of the Irish population, he shrank from the
+      taint of the ultra-montane intrigue. Accompanying Lord Stanley, he became
+      in due time a member of the great Conservative opposition, and, as he
+      never did anything by halves, became one of the most earnest, as he
+      certainly was one of the most enlightened, supporters of Sir Robert Peel.
+      His trust in that minister was indeed absolute, and he has subsequently
+      stated in conversation that when, towards the end of the session of &lsquo;45, a
+      member of the Tory party ventured to predict and denounce the impending
+      defection of the minister, there was no member of the Conservative party
+      who more violently condemned the unfounded attack, or more readily
+      impugned the motives of the assailant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was not a very frequent attendant in the House. He might be counted on
+      for a party division, and when, towards the termination of the Melbourne
+      ministry, the forces were very nearly balanced, and the struggle became
+      very close, he might have been observed, on more than one occasion,
+      entering the House at a late hour, clad in a white great-coat, which
+      softened, but did not conceal, the scarlet hunting-coat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although he took no part in debate, and attended the House rather as a
+      club than as a senate, he possessed a great and peculiar influence in it.
+      He was viewed with interest, and often with extraordinary regard, by every
+      sporting man in the House. With almost all of these he was acquainted;
+      some of them, on either side, were his intimate companions and
+      confederates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His eager and energetic disposition; his quick perception, clear judgment,
+      and prompt decision; the tenacity with which he clung to his opinions; his
+      frankness and love of truth; his daring and speculative spirit; his lofty
+      bearing, blended as it was with a simplicity of manner very remarkable;
+      the ardour of his friendships, even the fierceness of his hates and
+      prejudices&mdash;all combined to form one of those strong characters who,
+      whatever may be their pursuit, must always direct and lead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nature had clothed this vehement spirit with a material form which was in
+      perfect harmony with its noble and commanding character. He was tall and
+      remarkable for his presence; his countenance almost a model of manly
+      beauty; the face oval, the complexion clear and mantling; the forehead
+      lofty and white; the nose aquiline and delicately moulded; the upper lip
+      short. But it was in the dark-brown eye, which flashed with piercing
+      scrutiny, that all the character of the man came forth: a brilliant
+      glance, not soft, but ardent, acute, imperious, incapable of deception or
+      of being deceived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although he had not much sustained his literary culture, and of late
+      years, at any rate, had not given his mind to political study, he had in
+      the course of his life seen and heard a great deal, and with profit.
+      Nothing escaped his observation; he forgot nothing and always thought. So
+      it was that on all the great political questions of the day he had arrived
+      at conclusions which guided him. He always took large views and had no
+      prejudices about things, whatever he might indulge in as to persons. He
+      was always singularly anxious to acquire the truth, and would spare no
+      pains for that purpose; but when once his mind was made up, it was
+      impossible to influence him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In politics, he was a Whig of 1688, which became him, modified, however,
+      by all the experience of the present age. He wished to see our society
+      founded on a broad basis of civil and religious liberty. He retained much
+      of the old jealousy of the court, but had none of popular franchises. He
+      was for the Established Church, but for nothing more, and was very
+      repugnant to priestly domination. As for the industrial question, he was
+      sincerely opposed to the Manchester scheme, because he thought that its
+      full development would impair and might subvert our territorial
+      constitution, which he held to be the real security of our freedom, and
+      because he believed that it would greatly injure Ireland, and certainly
+      dissolve our colonial empire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had a great respect for merchants, though he looked with some degree of
+      jealousy on the development of our merely foreign trade. His knowledge of
+      character qualified him in a great degree to govern men. and if some
+      drawbacks from this influence might be experienced in his too rigid
+      tenacity of opinion, and in some quickness of temper, which, however,
+      always sprang from a too sensitive heart, great compensation might be
+      found in the fact that there probably never was a human being so entirely
+      devoid of conceit and so completely exempt from selfishness. Nothing
+      delighted him more than to assist and advance others. All the fruits of
+      his laborious investigations were always at the service of his friends
+      without reserve or self-consideration. He encouraged them by making
+      occasions for their exertions, and would relinquish his own opportunity
+      without a moment&rsquo;s hesitation, if he thought the abandonment might aid a
+      better man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Protection Problem</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THERE was at this time a metropolitan society for the protection of
+      agriculture, of which the Duke of Richmond was chairman, and which had
+      been established to counteract the proceedings of the Manchester
+      confederation. It was in communication with the local Protection societies
+      throughout the country; and although the adhesion to its service by the
+      parliamentary members of the old Conservative party had been more limited
+      than might have been expected, nevertheless many county members were
+      enrolled in its ranks, and a few of the most eminent were actively engaged
+      in its management. In this they were assisted by an equal number of the
+      most considerable tenant-farmers. In the present state of affairs, the
+      council of the Protection Society afforded the earliest and readiest means
+      to collect opinion and methodize action; and it was therefore resolved
+      among its managers to invite all members of Parliament who sympathized
+      with their purpose, though they might not be members of their society, to
+      attend their meeting and aid them at the present crisis with their
+      counsel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A compliance with this request occasioned the first public appearance of
+      Lord George Bentinck, as one of the organizers of a political party,&mdash;for
+      he aspired to no more. The question was, whether a third political party
+      could be created and sustained,&mdash;a result at all times and under any
+      circumstances difficult to achieve, and which had failed even under the
+      auspices of accomplished and experienced statesmen. In the present
+      emergency, was there that degree of outraged public feeling in the
+      country, which would overcome all obstacles and submit to any
+      inconveniences, in order to ensure its representation in the House of
+      Commons? It was the opinion of Lord George Bentinck that such was the
+      case; that if for the moment that feeling was inert and latent, it was an
+      apathy which arose from the sudden shock of public confidence, and the
+      despair which under such circumstances takes possession of men; that if it
+      could be shown to the country, that the great bulk of the Conservative
+      party were true to their faith, and were not afraid, even against the
+      fearful odds which they would have to encounter, to proclaim it, the
+      confidence and the courage of the country would rally, and the party in
+      the House of Commons would find external sympathy and support.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With these views it became of paramount importance that the discussion on
+      the government measure should be sustained on the part of the
+      Protectionists with their utmost powers. They must prove to the country,
+      that they could represent their cause in debate, and to this end all their
+      energies must be directed. It would be fatal to them if the discussion
+      were confined to one or two nights, and they overborne by the leading and
+      habitual speakers. They must bring forward new men; they must encourage
+      the efforts of those now unrecognized and comparatively unknown; they must
+      overcome all reserve and false shame, and act as became men called upon to
+      a critical and leading part, not by their arrogance or ambition, but by
+      the desertion and treachery of those to whose abilities they had bowed
+      without impatience and reluctance. There was a probability of several
+      vacancies immediately taking place in counties where the seats were filled
+      by converts, but men of too scrupulous an honour to retain the charge
+      which they had sought and accepted as the professors of opinions contrary
+      to those which now received their mournful adhesion. The result of these
+      elections would greatly depend upon the spirit and figure of the party in
+      the House of Commons, in their first encounter with the enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These views, so just and so spirited, advanced with high-bred earnestness
+      by one rarely met in political turmoils, and enforced with a freshness and
+      an affable simplicity which were very winning, wonderfully encouraged
+      those to whom they were addressed. All seemed touched by the flame which
+      burned in the breast of that man, so lofty in his thoughts but so humble
+      in his ambition, who counselled ever the highest deeds, and was himself
+      ever prepared to undertake the humblest duties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The business of this day was notable. Calculations were made of those who
+      might be fairly counted on to take a part in debate; some discussion even
+      ensued as to who should venture to reply late at night to the minister; a
+      committee was appointed to communicate with all members on either side
+      supposed to be favourable to the principle of Protection to the labour of
+      the country; a parliamentary staff was organized, not only to secure the
+      attendance of members, but to guard over the elections; finally, the form
+      of the amendment to the government measure was discussed and settled, and
+      it was agreed that, if possible, it should be moved by Mr. Philip Miles,
+      the member for the city of Bristol, and who had the ear of the House not
+      merely from the importance of his constituency, and seconded by Sir
+      William Heathcote, the member for the county of Hampshire, a country
+      gentleman of great accomplishments, and so highly considered by both sides
+      that he was very generally spoken of as a probable successor to the chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All was furnished by this lately forlorn party except a leader, and even
+      then many eyes were turned and some hopeful murmurs addressed towards Lord
+      George Bentinck, who in the course of this morning had given such various
+      proofs of his fitness and such evidence of his resource. But he shook his
+      head with a sort of suppressed smile, a faint blush, and an air of proud
+      humility that was natural to him: &lsquo;I think,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;we have had enough
+      of leaders; it is not in my way; I shall remain the last of the rank and
+      file.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So little desirous, originally, was Lord George Bentinck to interfere
+      actively in that great controversy in which ultimately he took so leading
+      a part, that before the meeting of Parliament in 1846 he begged a
+      gentleman whom he greatly esteemed, a member of the legal profession, and
+      since raised to its highest honours, to call upon him at Harcourt House,
+      when he said that he had taken great pains to master the case of the
+      protective system; that he was convinced its abrogation would ultimately
+      be very injurious to this country; but although, both in point of argument
+      and materials, he feared no opponent, he felt constitutionally so
+      incapable of ever making a speech, that he wished to induce some eminent
+      lawyer to enter the House of Commons, and avail himself of his views and
+      materials, which he had, with that object, reduced to writing. He begged,
+      therefore, that his friend, although a free-trader, would assist him, by
+      suggesting a fitting person for this office.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, the name of a distinguished member of the bar, who had
+      already published a work of merit, impugning the principles of the new
+      commercial system, was mentioned, and this learned gentleman was applied
+      to, and was not indisposed to accept the task. A mere accident prevented
+      this arrangement being accomplished. Lord George then requested his friend
+      to make some other selection; but his adviser very sensibly replied, that
+      although the House of Commons would have listened with respect to a
+      gentleman who had given evidence of the sincerity of his convictions by
+      the publication of a work which had no reference to Parliament, they would
+      not endure the instance of a lawyer brought into the House merely to speak
+      from his brief; and that the attempt would be utterly fruitless. He
+      earnestly counselled Lord George himself to make the effort; but Lord
+      George, with characteristic tenacity, clung for some time to his project,
+      though his efforts to accomplish it were fortunately not successful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of the friends of Lord George Bentinck, remembering his inexperience
+      in debate, aware of the great length at which he must necessarily treat
+      the theme, and mindful that he was not physically well-qualified for
+      controlling popular assemblies, not having a strong voice, or, naturally,
+      a very fluent manner, were anxious that he should not postpone his speech
+      until an hour so late; that an audience, jaded by twelve nights&rsquo; 
+      discussion, would be ill-attuned to statistical arguments and economical
+      details. But still clinging to the hope that some accident might yet again
+      postpone the division, so that the Protectionists might gain the vote of
+      Mr. Hildyard, who had been returned that day for South Notts, having
+      defeated a cabinet minister, Lord George remained motionless until long
+      past midnight. Mr. Cobden having spoken on the part of the confederation,
+      the closing of the debate was felt to be inevitable. Even then, by
+      inducing a Protectionist to solicit the Speaker&rsquo;s eye, Lord George
+      attempted to avert the division; but no supporter of the government
+      measure, of any colour, advancing to reply to this volunteer, Bentinck was
+      obliged to rise. He came out like a lion forced from his lair. And so it
+      happened, that after all his labours of body and mind, after all his
+      research and unwearied application and singular vigilance, after having
+      been at his post for a month, never leaving the House, even for
+      refreshment, he had to undertake the most difficult enterprise in which a
+      man can well embark, with a concurrence of every disadvantage which could
+      ensure failure and defeat. It would seem that the audience, the subject,
+      and the orator, must be equally exhausted; for the assembly had listened
+      for twelve nights to the controversy, and he who was about to address them
+      had, according to his strange habit, taken no sustenance the whole day; it
+      being his custom to dine after the House was up, which was very often long
+      after midnight, and this, with the exception of a slender breakfast,
+      rigidly restricted to dry toast, was his only meal in the four-and-twenty
+      hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had been forced to this regimen, from food exercising a lethargic
+      influence over him; so that, in addition to some constitutional weakness
+      in his organ, he usually laboured, when he addressed the House, under the
+      disadvantage of general exhaustion. And this was, no doubt, a principal
+      cause of that over-excitement and apparently unnecessary energy in his
+      manner of speaking, of which he was himself perfectly, and even painfully,
+      conscious. He was wont to say, that before he could speak he had to make a
+      voice, and, as it were, to pump it from the very core of his frame. One
+      who took a great interest in his success once impressed on him the
+      expediency of trusting entirely to his natural voice and the interest and
+      gravity of his matter, which, combined with his position as the recognized
+      leader of a great party, would be adequate to command the attention of his
+      audience; and he subsequently endeavoured very often to comply with this
+      suggestion. He endeavoured also very much to control his redundancy of
+      action and gesture, when that peculiarity was pointed out to him with the
+      delicacy, but the sincerity, of friendship. He entirely freed himself from
+      a very awkward feature of his first style of speaking, namely, the
+      frequent repetition of a sentence, which seemed at first a habit
+      inveterate with him; but such was his force of will, that when the
+      necessity of ridding himself of this drawback was properly pointed out to
+      him, he achieved the desired result. No one bore criticism more gently and
+      kindly, so long as it was confined to his personal and intellectual
+      characteristics, for he was a man absolutely without vanity or conceit,
+      who thought very humbly of himself, in respect of abilities, and deemed no
+      labour too great to achieve even a slight improvement. But though in these
+      respects the very child of simplicity, he was a man of almost unexampled
+      pride, and chafed under criticism, when his convictions or his conduct
+      were questioned. He was very tenacious of his opinion, almost inexorable;
+      and it required a courage nearly equal to his own, combined with a serene
+      temper, successfully to impugn his conclusions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not, therefore, excited by vanity, but sustained by self-respect, by an
+      overpowering feeling that he owed it to himself and the opinions he held,
+      to show to the world that they had not been lightly adopted and should not
+      be lightly laid aside, Bentinck rose, long past the noon of night, at the
+      end of this memorable debate, to undertake an office from which the most
+      successful and most experienced rhetoricians of Parliament would have
+      shrunk with intuitive discretion. But duty scorns prudence, and criticism
+      has few terrors for a man with a great purpose. Unshaken by the adverse
+      hour and circumstances, he proceeded to accomplish the object which he had
+      long meditated, and for which he was fully prepared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Reminding the House, while he appealed to their indulgence, that, though
+      he had had the honour of a seat for eight parliaments, he had never once
+      ventured to trespass on its time on any subject of great debate, he at
+      once took a clear and comprehensive ground of objection to the government
+      scheme. He opposed it not only because he objected to the great change
+      contemplated with respect to the agricultural interest, but, on principle,
+      to the entire measure, &lsquo;a great commercial revolution, which we are of
+      opinion that the circumstances of the country do not by any means
+      require.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Noticing the observation of the Secretary at War, that the agricultural
+      interest, in submitting to this great change, might now accept it with
+      honour, instead of its being eventually extorted by force, he happily
+      retorted, that vicious as he thought the measure, he should feel it
+      deprived of half its vice if it could be carried without loss of honour,
+      damage to reputation, and forfeiture of public character to a vast number
+      of gentlemen now present. And he proceeded to show among other
+      testimonies, by an appeal to the distinct language of the speech from the
+      throne on the dissolution of 1841, that &lsquo;every member who occupied a seat
+      in this House was returned pledged either to oppose or maintain the
+      principle of protection to national industry.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Adverting to the new position, that the experience of the last three years
+      justified the reversal of the system which the existing administration had
+      been summoned to office to uphold, he wisely remarked, that &lsquo;the country
+      will not be satisfied with three years&rsquo; experience of any system. Three
+      years&rsquo; experience is not sufficiently extensive to afford a proper
+      criterion by which we may decide the failure or success of any description
+      of policy whatsoever.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Noticing that the minister had more especially founded &lsquo;his present belief
+      in doctrines contrary to those which he had heretofore uniformly
+      maintained,&rsquo; by the assumption that the price of corn would not be more
+      reduced than the price of cattle and other commodities affected by the
+      tariff of 1842, and also by the results of previous experiments in the
+      instances of silk and wool, Lord George &lsquo;accepted his challenge&rsquo; on these
+      grounds, and proceeded in great detail to investigate these examples.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The House listened with great attention for full two hours, during which
+      he treated these subjects. This attention no doubt was generally accorded
+      because it was felt due to the occasion, and, under the circumstances, to
+      the speaker; but those who, however contrary might be the results at which
+      they had arrived, had themselves deeply entered into these investigations,
+      recognized very soon that Bentinck was master of his subject. Sir Robert
+      Peel looked round very often with that expression of appreciation which it
+      was impossible for his nature to refuse to parliamentary success, even
+      when the ability displayed was hostile to his projects. The minister, with
+      reference to the wool trade, had dwelt on the year 1842, when prices were
+      much depressed, while they had greatly rallied in 1844, when the
+      importation of foreign wool had risen from forty-five to sixty-five
+      millions of pounds; and he had drawn a triumphant inference that the
+      increase of importation and the increase of price were in consequence of
+      the reduction of the duty. This instance had produced a great effect; but
+      Lord George showed the House, by a reference to the tables of 1836, that
+      the importation of foreign wool had then risen to sixty-five millions of
+      pounds, and that large foreign importation was consistent with high prices
+      to the domestic grower. Nor was he less successful about the foreign
+      cattle. He reminded his friends on the Treasury bench how strenuously,
+      previously to the introduction of the tariff of 1842, they had urged upon
+      their agricultural friends that no foreign cattle could enter under their
+      regulations, and that the whole object of the change was to strengthen the
+      hands of the agricultural interest, as regarded more essential protection,
+      by removing the odium of a nominal protection: &lsquo;Convinced by my right
+      honourable friends, in 1842, that their tariff would be as inoperative as
+      it has proved, I gave my cordial support to the measure.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perceiving that the House began to be wearied with the details of the silk
+      trade, which he had investigated with extraordinary zeal, he postponed
+      until the specific vote in committee his objections to the reduction of
+      the timber duties. The fact is, he had so thoroughly mastered all these
+      topics, that his observations on each of them would have themselves formed
+      a speech of sufficient length and interest. But he successfully checked
+      any interruption by what may be fairly styled his dignified diffidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I trust the House will recollect that I am fighting the battle of a party
+      whose leaders have deserted them; and though I cannot wield my weapons
+      with the skill of the right honourable gentleman on the Treasury bench, I
+      trust the House will remember the emergency which has dragged me out to
+      intrude upon their indulgence.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And again, when he announced that he was now about to investigate the
+      pretext of &lsquo;famine in the land,&rsquo; and some impatience was exhibited, he
+      drew up and said, &lsquo;I think, having sat eighteen years in this house, and
+      never once having trespassed on its time before in any one single great
+      debate, I may appeal to the past as a proof that I duly weigh the measure
+      of my abilities, and that I am painfully conscious of my proper place in
+      this house.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was impossible to resist such appeals from such a person, even at three
+      o&rsquo;clock in the morning; and diffident, but determined, he then entered
+      into what was, perhaps, the most remarkable portion of his speech&mdash;an
+      investigation of what was the real position of the country with respect to
+      the supply of food in the past autumn and at the present moment. Having
+      shown from the trade circulars that, far from there being at present &lsquo;a
+      wheat famine,&rsquo; the stocks in the granaries in bond were more than double
+      in amount to what they were in the year 1845, &lsquo;a year admitted by all to
+      be a year of extraordinary abundance,&rsquo; he proceeded to the Irish part of
+      the question: &lsquo;I beg leave to say, that though this debate has now
+      continued for three weeks, I am the first gentleman who has at all entered
+      into the real state of the case as regards the allegation of a potato
+      famine in Ireland, upon which, be it remembered, is founded the sole case
+      of her Majesty&rsquo;s ministers for a repeal of the corn laws.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And this was very true. The fact is, though the Protectionist party had
+      made a most unexpected and gallant defence, no one was really prepared for
+      the contest except Bentinck. Between the end of November and the meeting
+      of Parliament, he had thrown all the energies of his passionate mind into
+      this question. He had sought information on all points and always at the
+      fountain-head. He had placed himself in immediate communication with the
+      ablest representatives of every considerable interest attacked, and being
+      ardent and indefatigable, gifted with a tenacious memory and a very clear
+      and searching spirit, there was scarcely a detail or an argument connected
+      with his subject which was not immediately at his command. No speeches in
+      favour of the protective system have ever been made in the House of
+      Commons compared with his in depth and range of knowledge; and had there
+      been any member not connected with the government, who had been able to
+      vindicate the merits of British agriculture as he did when the final
+      struggle occurred, the impression which was made by the too-often
+      unanswered speeches of the Manchester confederation would never have been
+      effected. But the great Conservative party, exhausted by the labours of
+      ten years of opposition, thought that after the triumph of &lsquo;41 it might
+      claim a furlough. The defence of their cause was left entirely to the
+      ministers of their choice; and ministers, distracted with detail and
+      wearied with official labour, are not always the most willing or the most
+      efficient champions of the organic principles of a party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Robert Peel, with respect to the disease in the Irish potato, had
+      largely referred to the statements of the inspectors of police. Lord
+      George wanted to know why the reports of the lieutenants of the Irish
+      counties were not given. Being well-informed upon this head, he asked the
+      government to produce the report of Lord Duncannon, the lord lieutenant of
+      Carlow; especially that of his noble father, the earl of Bes-borough, lord
+      lieutenant of Kilkenny. &lsquo;Is there any man in England or in Ireland whose
+      opinion, from his business-like habits, his great practical knowledge, and
+      the warm and affectionate interest which for a long period of years he has
+      taken in everything which concerns the interests of Ireland, especially of
+      the Irish peasantry&mdash;is there any man whose opinion would have
+      greater weight? The opinion of Lord Bes-borough on an Irish subject, the
+      lieutenant of an Irish county, and himself long a cabinet minister? Well,
+      sir, I am assured that, having taken the utmost pains to investigate this
+      matter, Lord Besborough has made an elaborate report to the Irish
+      government. Well, then, I desire to know why Lord Besborough&rsquo;s report to
+      the Irish government is suppressed? Is it because that report would not
+      assist the present policy of her Majesty&rsquo;s government?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He alleged the names of many other individuals of high station who had
+      officially reported on the subject to the government: of Lord Castlereagh,
+      the lieutenant of Down, a member of the House; of Lord de Vesci, whose son
+      was sitting for the Queen&rsquo;s County, over which his father presided in the
+      name of the queen. A murmur ran round the House, that it would have been
+      as well if these reports had been produced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last portion of this argumentative harangue referred to the most
+      important division of the subject. Bentinck met it boldly, without
+      evasion; nor was there any portion of his address more interesting, more
+      satisfactory, and more successful. &lsquo;I now come,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;to the great
+      challenge, which is ever and anon put forth by the Anti-Corn Law League,
+      and now by their disciples, her Majesty&rsquo;s ministers. How are we, they ask,
+      with our limited extent of territory, to feed a population annually and
+      rapidly increasing at the rate of three hundred thousand a-year, as
+      generally stated by the member for Stockport&mdash;a rate increased by my
+      noble friend, the member for the West Riding, to a thousand a day, or
+      three hundred and sixty-five thousand a year?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He first proved in a complete manner that, from the year 1821 to the year
+      1844, the population of the country had increased at the rate of less than
+      thirty-two per cent., while the growth of wheat during the same period had
+      increased no less than sixty-four per cent. He then proceeded to inquire
+      why, with such an increased produce, we were still, as regards bread corn,
+      to a certain extent, an importing nation? This he accounted for by the
+      universally improved condition of the people, and the enlarged command of
+      food by the working classes. He drew an animated picture, founded entirely
+      on the representations of writers and public men adverse to the Protective
+      System, of the superior condition of the people of &lsquo;England, happy
+      England,&rsquo; to that of other countries: how they consumed much more of the
+      best food, and lived much longer. This was under Protection, which Lord
+      John Russell had stigmatized, in his letter, &lsquo;the bane of agriculture.&rsquo; 
+      &lsquo;In the history of my noble friend&rsquo;s illustrious family,&rsquo; he continued, &lsquo;I
+      should have thought that he would have found a remarkable refutation of
+      such a notion.&rsquo; And then he drew a lively sketch of the colossal and
+      patriotic works of the Earls and Dukes of Bedford, &lsquo;whereby they had
+      drained and reclaimed three hundred thousand acres of land drowned in
+      water, and brought them into cultivation, and thus converted into fertile
+      fields a vast morass extending over seven counties in England.&rsquo; Could the
+      system which had inspired such enterprise be justly denounced as baneful?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To show the means of the country to sustain even a much-increasing
+      population, and that those means were in operation, he entered into one of
+      the most original and interesting calculations that was perhaps ever
+      offered to the House of Commons. Reminding the House that in the preceding
+      year (1845) the farmers of England, at a cost of two millions sterling,
+      had imported two hundred and eighty thousand tons of guano, he proceeded
+      to estimate what would be the effect on the productive powers of the land
+      of that novel application. Two hundred thousand tons, or, in other words,
+      four million hundred-weight, were expended on the land in 1845. Half of
+      these, he assumed, would be applied to the growth of wheat, and the other
+      half to the growth of turnips preparatory to the wheat crop of the ensuing
+      year. According to the experiments tried and recorded in the Royal
+      Agricultural Journal, it would seem that by the application of two
+      hundred-weight of guano to an acre of wheat land, the produce would be
+      increased by one quarter per acre. At this rate, one hundred thousand
+      tons, or two million hundred-weight of guano would add one million
+      quarters of wheat to the crop, or bread for one year for one million of
+      people. But as he was very careful never to over-state a case, Lord George
+      assumed, that it would require three hundred hundredweight of guano to an
+      acre to produce an extra quarter of wheat. According to this estimate, one
+      hundred thousand tons of guano, applied to the land in 1845, must have
+      added six hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty-six
+      quarters of grain to the wheat crop, or, in other words, bread for six
+      hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty-six additional
+      mouths. &lsquo;And now for turnips,&rsquo; he continued. The Norfolk authorities whom
+      he quoted have in like manner proved that two hundred-weight of guano will
+      add ten tons per acre to the turnip crop. But again, for fear of
+      exaggeration, he supposed that three hundred-weight would be requisite to
+      create such increased fertility. In this case, two million hundredweight
+      of guano would add six million six hundred and sixty-six thousand six
+      hundred and sixty tons to the natural unmanured produce of the crop. Now
+      it is generally considered that one ton of Swedes would last twenty sheep
+      three weeks, and that each sheep should gain half a pound of meat per
+      week, or one pound and a half in three weeks; thus twenty sheep feeding on
+      one ton of turnips in three weeks should in the aggregate make, as the
+      graziers say, thirty pounds of mutton. But to be safe in his estimate, he
+      would assume that one ton of turnips makes only half this quantity.
+      &lsquo;Multiply, then,&rsquo; exclaimed Bentinck with the earnest air of a crusader,
+      &lsquo;six million six hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty by
+      fifteen, and you have no less than ninety-nine million nine hundred and
+      ninety-nine thousand and nine hundred pounds of mutton as the fruits of
+      one hundred thousand tons of guano; which, at ninety-two pounds per man&mdash;the
+      average Englishman&rsquo;s allowance&mdash;affords meat for one million eight
+      hundred and sixty thousand nine hundred and fifty-five&mdash;nearly two
+      million of her Majesty&rsquo;s subjects.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is a specimen of those original and startling calculations to which
+      the House was soon to become accustomed from his lips. They were received
+      at first with astonishment and incredulity; but they were never impugned.
+      The fact is, he was extremely cautious in his data, and no man was more
+      accustomed ever to impress upon his friends the extreme expediency of not
+      over-stating a case. It should also be remarked of Lord George Bentinck,
+      that in his most complicated calculations he never sought aid from notes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have necessarily only noticed a few of the traits of this remarkable
+      performance. Its termination was impressive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We have heard in the course of these discussions a good deal about an
+      ancient monarchy, a reformed House of Commons, and a proud aristocracy.
+      Sir, with regard to our ancient monarchy, I have no observation to make;
+      but, if so humble an individual as myself might be permitted to whisper, a
+      word in the ear of that illustrious and royal personage who, as he stands
+      nearest, so is he justly dearest, to her who sits upon the throne, I would
+      take leave to say, that I cannot but think he listened to ill advice,
+      when, on the first night of this great discussion, he allowed himself to
+      be seduced by the first minister of the crown to come down to this House
+      to usher in, to give <i>éclat</i>, and as it were by reflection from the
+      queen, to give the semblance of the personal sanction of her Majesty to a
+      measure which, be it for good or for evil, a great majority at least of
+      the landed aristocracy of England, of Scotland, and of Ireland, imagine
+      fraught with deep injury, if not ruin, to them
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;a measure which, not confined in its operation to this great class,
+      is calculated to grind down countless smaller interests engaged in the
+      domestic trades and, interests of the empire, transferring the profits of
+      all these interests&mdash;English, Scotch, Irish, and Colonial
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;great and small alike, from Englishmen, from Scotchmen, and from
+      Irishmen, to Americans, to Frenchmen, to Russians, to Poles, to Prussians,
+      and to Germans. Sir, I come now to the reformed House of Commons; and as
+      one who was a party to that great measure, I cannot but feel a deep
+      interest in its success, and more especially in that portion of it which
+      extended the franchise to the largest and the most respectable body in the
+      kingdom&mdash;I mean the landed tenantry of England; and deeply should I
+      regret should any large proportion of those members who have been sent to
+      Parliament to represent them in this House, prove to be the men to bring
+      lasting dishonour upon themselves, their constituencies, and this House,
+      by an act of tergiversation so gross as to be altogether unprecedented in
+      the annals of any reformed or unreformed House of Commons. Sir, lastly, I
+      come to the &ldquo;proud aristocracy.&rdquo; We are a proud aristocracy, but if we are
+      proud, it is that we are proud in the chastity of our honour. If we
+      assisted in &lsquo;41 in turning the Whigs out of office, because we did not
+      consider a fixed duty of eight shillings a quarter on foreign corn a
+      sufficient protection, it was with honesty of purpose and in
+      single-mindedness we did so; and as we were not before the fact, we will
+      not be accomplices after the fact in the fraud by which the Whig ministers
+      were expelled from power. If we are a proud aristocracy, we are proud of
+      our honour, inasmuch as we never have been guilty, and never can be
+      guilty, of double-dealing with the farmers of England&mdash;of swindling
+      our opponents, deceiving our friends, or betraying our constituents.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The division was called. The West-India interest, notwithstanding the
+      amendment was moved by the member for Bristol, deserted the
+      Protectionists. Deaf to the appeals, and the remonstrances, and the
+      warnings of Lord George, one of their leading members replied, with a
+      smile of triumphant content, that &lsquo;they had made a satisfactory
+      arrangement for themselves.&rsquo; How satisfactory did the West-Indians find it
+      four months subsequently? All the shipping interest deserted the land.
+      They were for everything free, except navigation; there was no danger of
+      that being interfered with; &lsquo;it rested on quite distinct grounds&mdash;national
+      grounds.&rsquo; They were warned, but they smiled in derisive self-complacency.
+      Lord George Bentinck lived to have the West-India interest and the
+      shipping interest on their knees to him, to defend their perilled or to
+      restore their ruined fortunes; and with characteristic generosity and
+      proud consistency, he undertook the task, and sacrificed his life in the
+      attempt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding these terrible defalcations, when the numbers were
+      announced, at nearly four o&rsquo;clock in the morning, the majority had not
+      reached those three magical figures supposed necessary, under the
+      circumstances, to success. In a house of five hundred and eighty-one
+      members present, the amendment of the Protectionists was defeated only by
+      ninety-seven; and two hundred and forty-two gentlemen, in spite of
+      desertion, difficulty, and defeat, still maintained the &lsquo;chastity of their
+      honour.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Irish Question</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      IN THE meantime, besides the prolonged and unforeseen resistance of the
+      Protectionists, there were other and unexpected causes at work which
+      equally, or perhaps even more powerfully tended to the fulfilment of the
+      scheme of delay, which Lord George Bentinck had recommended his friends to
+      adopt and encourage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the latter months of the year 1845, there broke out in some of the
+      counties of Ireland one of those series of outrages which have hitherto
+      periodically occurred in districts of that country. Assassination and
+      crimes of violence were rife: men on the queen&rsquo;s highway were shot from
+      behind hedges, or suddenly torn from their horses and beaten to death with
+      clubs; houses were visited in the night by bodies of men, masked and armed&mdash;their
+      owners dragged from their beds, and, in the presence of their wives and
+      children, maimed and mutilated; the administration of unlawful oaths, with
+      circumstances of terror, indicated the existence of secret confederations,
+      whose fell intents, profusely and ostentatiously announced by threatening
+      letters, were frequently and savagely perpetrated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These barbarous distempers had their origin in the tenure of land in
+      Ireland, and in the modes of its occupation. A combination of causes,
+      political, social, and economical, had for more than a century unduly
+      stimulated the population of a country which had no considerable resources
+      except in the soil. That soil had become divided into minute allotments,
+      held by a pauper tenantry, at exorbitant rents, of a class of middlemen,
+      themselves necessitous, and who were mere traders in land. A fierce
+      competition raged amid the squalid multitude for these strips of earth
+      which were their sole means of existence. To regulate this fatal rivalry,
+      and restrain this emulation of despair, the peasantry, enrolled in secret
+      societies, found refuge in an inexorable code. He who supplanted another
+      in the occupation of the soil was doomed by an occult tribunal, from which
+      there was no appeal, to a terrible retribution. His house was visited in
+      the night by whitefeet and ribbonmen&mdash;his doom was communicated to
+      him, by the post, in letters, signed by Terry Alt, or Molly M&rsquo;Guire, or he
+      was suddenly shot, like a dog, by the orders of Captain Rock. Yet even
+      these violent inflictions rather punished than prevented the conduct
+      against which they were directed. The Irish peasant had to choose between
+      starving and assassination. If, in deference to an anonymous mandate, he
+      relinquished his holding, he and those who depended on him were outcasts
+      and wanderers; if he retained or accepted it, his life might be the
+      forfeit, but subsistence was secured; and in poor and lawless countries,
+      the means of living are more valued than life. Those who have treated of
+      the agrarian crimes of Ireland have remarked, that the facility with which
+      these outrages have been committed has only been equalled by the
+      difficulty of punishing them. A murder, perpetrated at noonday, in the
+      sight of many persons, cannot be proved in a court of justice. The
+      spectators are never witnesses; and it has been inferred from this, that
+      the outrage is national, and that the heart of the populace is with the
+      criminal. But though a chief landlord, or a stipendiary magistrate, may
+      occasionally be sacrificed, the great majority of victims are furnished by
+      the humblest class. Not sympathy, but terror, seals the lip and clouds the
+      eye of the bystander. And this is proved by the fact that while those who
+      have suffered have almost always publicly declared that they were unable
+      to recognize their assailants, and believed them to be strangers, they
+      have frequently, in confidence, furnished the police with the names of the
+      guilty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus, there is this remarkable characteristic of the agrarian anarchy of
+      Ireland which marks it out from all similar conditions of other countries:
+      it is a war of the poor against the poor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before the rapid increase of population had forced governments to study
+      political economy and to investigate the means of subsisting a people,
+      statesmen had contented themselves by attributing to political causes
+      these predial disturbances, and by recommending for them political
+      remedies. The course of time, which had aggravated the condition of the
+      Irish peasantry, had increased the numbers, the wealth, and the general
+      importance of those of the middle classes of Ireland who professed the
+      Roman Catholic faith. Shut out from the political privileges of the
+      constitution, these formed a party of discontent that was a valuable ally
+      to the modern Whigs, too long excluded from that periodical share of power
+      which is the life-blood of a parliamentary government and the safeguard of
+      a constitutional monarchy. The misgovernment of Ireland became therefore a
+      stock topic of the earlier Opposition of the present century; and
+      advocating the cause of their clients, who wished to become mayors, and
+      magistrates, and members of the legislature, they argued that in the
+      concession of those powers and dignities, and perhaps in the discreet
+      confiscation of the property of the Church, the only cures could be found
+      for threatening notices, robbery of arms, administering of unlawful oaths,
+      burglary, murder, and arson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet if these acts of violence were attributable to defective political
+      institutions, why, as was usually the case, were they partial in their
+      occurrence? Why were they limited to particular districts? If political
+      grievances were the cause, the injustice would be as sharp in tranquil
+      Wexford as in turbulent Tipperary. Yet out of the thirty-two counties of
+      Ireland, the outrages prevailed usually in less than a third. These
+      outrages were never insurrectionary: they were not directed against
+      existing authorities; they were stimulated by no public cause or clamour;
+      it was the private individual who was attacked, and for a private reason.
+      This was their characteristic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But as time elapsed, two considerable events occurred: the Roman Catholic
+      restrictions were repealed, and the Whigs became ministers.
+      Notwithstanding these great changes, the condition of the Irish peasantry
+      remained the same; the tenure of land was unchanged, the modes of its
+      occupation were unaltered, its possession was equally necessary and
+      equally perilous. The same circumstances produced the same consequences.
+      Notwithstanding even that the Irish Church had been remodelled, and its
+      revenues not only commuted but curtailed; notwithstanding that Roman
+      Catholics had not only become members of Parliament but even Parliament
+      had been reformed; Irish outrage became more flagrant and more extensive
+      than at any previous epoch&mdash;and the Whigs were ministers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Placed in this responsible position, forced to repress the evil, the
+      causes of which they had so often explained, and which with their
+      cooperation had apparently been so effectually removed, the Whig
+      government were obliged to have recourse to the very means which they had
+      so frequently denounced when recommended by their rivals, and that, too,
+      on a scale of unusual magnitude and severity. They proposed for the
+      adoption of Parliament one of those measures which would suspend the
+      constitution of Ireland, and which are generally known by the name of
+      Coercion Acts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The main and customary provisions of these Coercion Acts were of severe
+      restraint, and scarcely less violent than the conduct they were
+      constructed to repress. They invested the lord lieutenant with power to
+      proclaim a district as disturbed, and then to place its inhabitants
+      without the pale of the established law; persons out of their dwellings
+      between sunset and sunrise were liable to transportation; and to secure
+      the due execution of the law, prisoners were tried before military
+      tribunals, and not by their peers, whose verdicts, from sympathy or
+      terror, were usually found to baffle justice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These Coercion Acts were effectual; they invariably obtained their end,
+      and the proclaimed districts became tranquil. But they were an affair of
+      police, not of government; essentially temporary, their effect was almost
+      as transient as their sway, and as they were never accompanied with any
+      deep and sincere attempt to cope with the social circumstances which
+      produced disorder, the recurrence of the chronic anarchy was merely an
+      affair of time. Whether it were that they did not sufficiently apprehend
+      the causes, or that they shrank from a solution which must bring them in
+      contact with the millions of a surplus population, there seems always to
+      have been an understanding between the public men of both parties, that
+      the Irish difficulty should be deemed a purely political, or at the utmost
+      a religious one. And even so late as 1846, no less a personage than the
+      present chief secretary, put forward by his party to oppose an Irish
+      Coercion Bill which themselves had loudly called for, declared that he
+      could not sanction its penal enactments unless they were accompanied by
+      the remedial measures that were necessary, to wit, an Irish Franchise
+      Bill, and a Bill for the amendment of municipal corporations!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Sir Robert Peel, in 1841, after a memorable opposition of ten years,
+      acceded to office, sustained by all the sympathies of the country, his
+      Irish policy, not sufficiently noticed amid the vast and urgent questions
+      with which he had immediately to deal, was, however, to the political
+      observer significant and interesting. As a mere matter of party tactics,
+      it was not for him too much to impute Irish disturbances to political and
+      religious causes, even if the accumulated experience of the last ten years
+      were not developing a conviction in his mind, that the methods hitherto
+      adopted to ensure the tranquillity of that country were superficial and
+      fallacious. His cabinet immediately recognized a distinction between
+      political and predial sources of disorder. The first, they resolved into a
+      mere system of agitation, no longer justifiable by the circumstances, and
+      this they determined to put down. The second, they sought in the
+      conditions under which land was occupied, and these they determined to
+      investigate. Hence, on the one hand, the O&rsquo;Connell prosecution: on the
+      other, the Devon commission.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the bold and prudent policy of a minister who felt he had the
+      confidence of the country and was sustained by great parliamentary
+      majorities; and when the summoner of monster meetings was convicted, and
+      the efficient though impartial manner in which the labours of the land
+      commission were simultaneously conducted came to be bruited about, there
+      seemed at last some prospect of the system of political quackery of which
+      Ireland had been so long the victim being at last subverted. But there is
+      nothing in which the power of circumstances is more evident than in
+      politics. They baffle the forethought of statesmen, and control even the
+      apparently inflexible laws of national development and decay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had the government of 1841 succeeded in its justifiable expectation of
+      terminating the trade of political agitation in Ireland, armed with all
+      the authority and all the information with which the labours of the land
+      commission would have furnished them, they would in all probability have
+      successfully grappled with the real causes of Irish misery and misrule.
+      They might have thoroughly reformed the modes by which land is holden and
+      occupied; have anticipated the spontaneous emigration that now rages by an
+      administrative enterprise scarcely more costly than the barren loan of
+      &lsquo;47, and which would have wafted native energies to imperial shores; have
+      limited under these circumstances the evil of the potato famine, even if
+      the improved culture of the interval might not have altogether prevented
+      that visitation; while the laws which regulated the competition between
+      home and foreign industry in agricultural produce might have been modified
+      with so much prudence, or, if necessary, ultimately repealed with so much
+      precaution, that those rapid and startling vicissitudes that have so
+      shattered the social fabric of Ireland might altogether have been avoided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it was decreed that it should be otherwise. Having achieved the
+      incredible conviction of O&rsquo;Connell, by an Irish jury, the great culprit
+      baffled the vengeance of the law by a quirk which a lawyer only could have
+      devised. As regards his Irish policy, Sir Robert Peel never recovered this
+      blow, the severity of which was proportionably increased by its occurrence
+      at a moment of unprecedented success. Resolute not to recur to his ancient
+      Orangeism, yet desperate after his discomfiture of rallying a moderate
+      party around his ministry, his practical mind, more clear-sighted than
+      foreseeing, was alarmed at the absence of all influences for the
+      government of Ireland. The tranquillity which might result from a reformed
+      tenure of the soil, must, if attainable, be a distant blessing, and at
+      present he saw only the obstacles to its fulfilment&mdash;prejudiced
+      landlords, and the claims and necessities of pauper millions. He shrank
+      from a theory which might be an illusion. He required a policy for the
+      next post and the next division. There was in his view only one course to
+      take, to outbid his predecessors as successfully in Irish politics as he
+      was doing in taxes and tariffs. He resolved to appropriate the liberal
+      party of Ireland, and merge it into the great Conservative confederation
+      which was destined to destroy so many things. He acted with promptitude
+      and energy, for Sir Robert Peel never hesitated when he had made up his
+      mind. His real character was very different from his public reputation.
+      Far from being timid and wary, he was audacious and even headstrong. It
+      was his cold and constrained demeanour that misled the public. There never
+      was a man who did such rash things in so circumspect a manner. He had been
+      fortunate in early disembarrassing himself of the Orange counsellors who
+      had conducted his Irish questions when in opposition; vacant judgeships
+      had opportunely satisfied the recognized and respectable claims of Mr.
+      Serjeant Jackson and Mr. Lefroy; and so Sir Robert Peel, without a qualm,
+      suddenly began to govern Ireland by sending it &lsquo;messages of peace.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They took various forms; sometimes a Charitable Bequests Act virtually
+      placed the Roman Catholic hierarchy in friendly equality with the prelates
+      of the Established Church; sometimes a &lsquo;godless college&rsquo; called forth a
+      moan from alarmed and irritated Oxford; the endowment of Maynooth struck
+      wider and deeper, and the middle-classes of England, roused from their
+      religious lethargy, called in vain to the rescue of a Protestantism
+      betrayed. But the minister was unshaken. Successful and self-sufficient,
+      impressed with a conviction that his government in duration would rival
+      that of a Walpole or a Pitt, and exceed both in lustre, he treated every
+      remonstrance with imperious disdain. He had even accustomed his mind to
+      contemplate an ecclesiastical adjustment of Ireland which would have
+      allied in that country the Papacy with the State, and have terminated the
+      constitutional supremacy of the Anglican Church, when suddenly, in the
+      very heat of all this arrogant fortune, the mighty fabric of delusion
+      shivered and fell to the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An abused and indignant soil repudiated the ungrateful race that had
+      exhausted and degraded its once exuberant bosom. The land refused to hold
+      those who would not hold the land on terms of justice and of science. All
+      the economical palliatives and political pretences of long years seemed
+      only to aggravate the suffering and confusion. The poor-rate was levied
+      upon a community of paupers, and the &lsquo;godless colleges&rsquo; were denounced by
+      Rome as well as Oxford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a wild dream of famine and fever, imperial loans, rates in aid,
+      jobbing public works, confiscated estates, constituencies
+      self-disfranchised, and St. Peter&rsquo;s bearding St. James&rsquo;s in a spirit
+      becoming Christendom rather than Europe, time topped the climax of Irish
+      misgovernment; and by the publication of the census of 1851, proved that
+      the millions with whose evils no statesmen would sincerely deal, but whose
+      condition had been the pretext for so much empiricism, had disappeared,
+      and nature, more powerful than politicians, had settled the &lsquo;great
+      difficulty.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ere the publication of that document, the mortal career of Sir Robert Peel
+      had closed, and indeed several of the circumstances to which we have just
+      alluded did not occur in his administration; but the contrast between his
+      policy and its results was nevertheless scarcely less striking. It was in
+      &lsquo;45 that he transmitted his most important &lsquo;message of peace&rsquo; to Ireland,
+      to be followed by an autumnal visit of her Majesty to that kingdom,
+      painted in complacent and prophetic colours by her prime minister. The
+      visit was not made. In the course of that autumn, ten counties of Ireland
+      were in a state of anarchy; and, mainly in that period, there were 136
+      homicides committed, 138 houses burned, 483 houses attacked, and 138 fired
+      into; there were 544 cases of aggravated assault, and 551 of robbery of
+      arms; there were 89 cases of bands appearing in arms; there were more than
+      200 cases of administering unlawful oaths; and there were 1,944 cases of
+      sending threatening letters. By the end of the year, the general crime of
+      Ireland had doubled in amount and enormity compared with the preceding
+      year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Cure for Irish Ills</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      LORD GEORGE BENTINCK had large but defined views as to the policy which
+      should be pursued with respect to Ireland. He was a firm supporter of the
+      constitutional preponderance allotted to the land in our scheme of
+      government, not from any jealousy or depreciation of the other great
+      sources of public wealth, for his sympathy with the trading classes was
+      genuine, but because he believed that constitutional preponderance, while
+      not inconsistent with great commercial prosperity, to be the best security
+      for public liberty and the surest foundation of enduring power. But as
+      reality was the characteristic of his vigorous and sagacious nature, he
+      felt that a merely formal preponderance, one not sustained and authorized
+      by an equivalent material superiority, was a position not calculated to
+      endure in the present age, and one especially difficult to maintain with
+      our rapidly increasing population. For this reason he was always very
+      anxious to identify the policy of Great Britain with that of Ireland, the
+      latter being a country essentially agricultural; and he always shrank from
+      any proposition which admitted a difference in the interests of the two
+      kingdoms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Liberal politicians, who some years ago were very loud for justice to
+      Ireland, and would maintain at all hazards the identity of the interests
+      of the two countries, have of late frequently found it convenient to omit
+      that kingdom from their statistical bulletins of national prosperity. Lord
+      George Bentinck, on the contrary, would impress on his friends, that if
+      they wished to maintain the territorial constitution of their country,
+      they must allow no sectarian considerations to narrow the basis of
+      sympathy on which it should rest; and in the acres and millions of
+      Ireland, in its soil and its people, equally neglected, he would have
+      sought the natural auxiliaries of our institutions. To secure for our
+      Irish fellow-subjects a regular market for their produce; to develop the
+      resources of their country by public works on a great scale; and to obtain
+      a decent provision for the Roman Catholic priesthood from the land and not
+      from the consolidated fund, were three measures which he looked upon as in
+      the highest degree conservative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the project of the cabinet of 1846 had transpired, Lord George at
+      once declared, and was in the habit of reiterating his opinion, that &lsquo;it
+      would ruin the 500,000 small farmers of Ireland,&rsquo; and he watched with
+      great interest and anxiety the conduct of their representatives in the
+      House of Commons. It was with great difficulty that he could bring himself
+      to believe, that political liberalism would induce the members for the
+      south and west of Ireland to support a policy in his opinion so fatal to
+      their countrymen as the unconditional repeal of the corn laws; and,
+      indeed, before they took that step, which almost all of them have since
+      publicly regretted and attempted to compensate for by their subsequent
+      votes in the House of Commons, the prospect of their conduct frequently
+      and considerably varied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl of St. Germans, the chief secretary of the Lord Lieutenant,
+      introduced the Coercion Bill to the House of Lords on the 24th of
+      February, and, considering the exigency, and the important reference to it
+      in the speech from the throne, this step on the part of the government was
+      certainly not precipitate. It was observed that the strongest supporters
+      of the measure in the House of Lords on this occasion were the leaders of
+      the Whig party. Lord Lansdowne, &lsquo;so far from complaining of the Government
+      for bringing forward the measure at so early a period of the session, was
+      ready to admit, that after the declaration of her Majesty, a declaration
+      unhappily warranted by facts known to many of their lordships, every day
+      was lost in which an effectual remedy was not at least attempted to put an
+      end to a state of society so horrible.&rsquo; Lord Clanricarde &lsquo;gave his ready
+      assent to the bill;&rsquo; and even Lord Grey, &lsquo;though he regretted the
+      necessity for this measure, was of opinion that the chief secretary had
+      established a sufficient case for arming the executive government with
+      some additional powers.&rsquo; When, therefore, at the end of the month of
+      March, Lord George Bentinck was invited to attend a meeting of his
+      friends, held at the house of Mr. Bankes, to consider the course which
+      should be adopted by the Protectionist party with respect to the Coercion
+      Bill, it was assumed, as a matter of course, that the coalition of the
+      government and the Whigs must secure the passing of the measure, even if
+      the Protectionists were disposed, for the chance of embarrassing the
+      ministry, to resist it; and of course there was no great tendency in that
+      direction. Men are apt to believe that crime and coercion are inevitably
+      associated. There was abundance of precedent for the course, which seemed
+      also a natural one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In less than a century there had been seventeen coercive acts for Ireland,
+      a circumstance which might make some ponder whether such legislation were
+      as efficacious as it was violent. However, assassination rife, Captain
+      Rock and Molly M&rsquo;Guire out at night, Whigs and Tories all agreed, it was
+      easy to catch at a glance the foregone conclusion of the meeting. One
+      advantage of having a recognized organ of a political party is, that its
+      members do not decide too precipitately. They listen before they
+      determine, and if they have a doubt, they will grant the benefit of it to
+      him whose general ability they have acknowledged, and to whom they
+      willingly give credit for having viewed the question at issue in a more
+      laborious and painful manner than themselves. Without a leader, they
+      commit themselves to opinions carelessly and hastily adopted. This is
+      fatal to a party in debate; but it often entails very serious consequences
+      when the mistakes have been committed in a less public and responsible
+      scene than the House of Commons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the present case, there was only one individual who took any
+      considerable lead in the management of the party who ventured to suggest
+      the expediency of pausing before they pledged themselves to support an
+      unconstitutional measure, proposed by a government against which they were
+      arrayed under circumstances of urgent and unusual opposition. The support
+      of an unconstitutional measure may be expedient, but it cannot be denied
+      that it is the most indubitable evidence of confidence. This suggestion,
+      though received with kindness, elicited little sympathy, and Lord George
+      Bentinck, who had not yet spoken, and who always refrained at these
+      meetings from taking that directing part which he never wished to assume,
+      marking the general feeling of those present, and wishing to guide it to a
+      practical result advantageous to their policy, observed that the support
+      of the Coercion Bill by the Protectionists, ought to be made conditional
+      on the government proving the sincerity of their policy by immediately
+      proceeding with their measure; that if life were in such danger in Ireland
+      as was officially stated, and as he was bound to believe, no Corn or
+      Customs&rsquo; Bill could compete in urgency with the necessity of pressing
+      forward a bill, the object of which was to arrest wholesale assassination.
+      He was, therefore, for giving the government a hearty support, provided
+      they proved they were in earnest in their determination to put down murder
+      and outrage in Ireland, by giving a priority in the conduct of public
+      business to the measure in question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This view of the situation, which was certainly adroit, for it combined
+      the vindication of order with an indefinite delay of the measures for the
+      repeal of the protective system, seemed to please every one; there was a
+      murmur of approbation, and when one of the most considerable of the
+      country gentlemen expressed the prevalent feeling, and added that all that
+      was now to be desired was that Lord George Bentinck would kindly consent
+      to be the organ of the party on the occasion, and state their view to the
+      House, the cheering was very hearty. It came from the hearts of more than
+      two hundred gentlemen, scarcely one of whom had a personal object in this
+      almost hopeless struggle beyond the maintenance of a system which he
+      deemed advantageous to his country; but they wished to show their generous
+      admiration of the man who, in the dark hour of difficulty and desertion,
+      had proved his courage and resource, had saved them from public contempt,
+      and taught them to have confidence in themselves. And after all, there are
+      few rewards in life which equal such sympathy from such men. The favour of
+      courts and the applause of senates may have their moments of excitement
+      and delight, but the incident of deepest and most enduring gratification
+      in public life is to possess the cordial confidence of a high-spirited
+      party, for it touches the heart as well as the intellect, and combines all
+      the softer feelings of private life with the ennobling consciousness of
+      public duty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George Bentinck, deeply moved, consented to become the organ of the
+      Protectionists in this matter; but he repeated in a marked manner his
+      previous declaration, that his duty must be limited to the occasion: he
+      would serve with them, but he could not pretend to be the leader of a
+      party. In that capacity, however, the government chose to recognize him,
+      and there occurred in consequence, very shortly after this meeting, a
+      scene in the House of Commons, which occasioned at the time a great deal
+      of surprise and scandal. The Secretary of the Treasury, in pursuance of
+      one of his principal duties, which is to facilitate by mutual
+      understanding the conduct of public business in the House of Commons,
+      applied to Lord George Bentinck, confessedly at the request of Sir Robert
+      Peel, to &lsquo;enter into some arrangement&rsquo; as to the conduct of public
+      business before Easter. The arrangement suggested was, that if the
+      Protectionists supported the Coercion Bill, which it was the wish of Sir
+      Robert Peel should be read a first time before Easter, the third reading
+      of the Bill for the Repeal of the Corn Laws should be postponed until
+      after Easter. The interview by appointment took place in the Vote Office,
+      where the Secretary of the Treasury &lsquo;called Lord George aside&rsquo; and made
+      this proposition. Lord George stated in reply, &lsquo;what he believed to be the
+      views of the party with whom he served,&rsquo; and they were those we have
+      already intimated. The &lsquo;arrangement&rsquo; was concluded, and it was at the same
+      time agreed that certain questions, of which notice had been given by Lord
+      John Russell, relative to the progress of these very measures, should be
+      allowed by the Protectionists to pass <i>sub silentio</i>. This &lsquo;pledge,&rsquo; 
+      made by the noble lord for himself and his friends, was &lsquo;scrupulously
+      observed.&rsquo; Nevertheless, after all this, a letter arrived from the
+      Secretary of the Treasury, addressed to the noble lord, stating that the
+      secretary &lsquo;had not been authorized in saying as much as he had said,&rsquo; and
+      requesting that the conversation which had taken place might be considered
+      private. Upon this, Lord George Bentinck drew up a statement, &lsquo;setting
+      forth all that had passed,&rsquo; and forwarded it to the secretary as his
+      reply. Subsequently, he met that gentleman, who admitted that &lsquo;every word
+      in that statement, as respected the conversation which had passed, was
+      perfectly correct.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This being the state of the case, on the second night of the debate on Mr.
+      Eliot Yorke&rsquo;s amendment, which we have noticed, and after the adjournment
+      had been moved and carried, the government proceeded with some motions of
+      form, which indicated their intention to secure, if possible, the third
+      reading of the Corn Bill before Easter. Upon this, Lord George Bentinck,
+      after a hurried and apparently agitated conversation with the Secretary of
+      the Treasury and others connected with the government, rose to move the
+      adjournment of the House. He then gave as his reason the circumstances
+      which we have briefly conveyed. A scene of considerable confusion
+      occurred; the Secretary of the Treasury admitted the correctness of the
+      statement; the First Lord of the Treasury rejected the alleged authority
+      of the secretary. Mr. Tuffnell, on the part of the Whigs, intimated that
+      public business could not be carried on if the recognized organs were
+      repudiated by their chief. The feeling of all parties coincided with Mr.
+      Tuffnell; finally, an Irish repealer rose and announced that the
+      government were bartering their Corn Bill to secure coercion to Ireland.
+      Lord George Bentinck said the Coercion Bill was &lsquo;a second Curfew Act,&rsquo; 
+      that nothing but necessity could justify it, and if it were necessary it
+      must be immediate. Sir Robert remained irritated and obstinate. He would
+      not give up a stage either of the Corn Bill or the Coercion Bill; he
+      wanted to advance both before Easter. The mere division of the House
+      between Free-traders and Protectionists had already ceased; there were
+      breakers ahead, and it was not difficult from this night to perceive that
+      the course of the government would not be so summary as they had once
+      expected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This strange interlude occurred after midnight on the 26th of March. On
+      Friday, the 27th, the House divided on the amendment of Mr. Eliot Yorke,
+      and the Corn Bill was read for the second time. On the reassembling of the
+      House on Monday, the 30th, an extraordinary scene took place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It appears that the cabinet, after painful deliberation, had arrived at
+      the conclusion that, notwithstanding the importance of sending up the Corn
+      Bill to the House of Lords before Easter, it was absolutely necessary to
+      proceed at once with the Coercion Bill; and it was resolved that the
+      Secretary of State should on this evening lay before the House the facts
+      and reasons which &lsquo;induce the Government to believe in the necessity of
+      the measure.&rsquo; Mr. O&rsquo;Connell and his followers had already announced their
+      intention of opposing the first reading of the bill, an allowable but very
+      unusual course. It is competent to the House of Commons to refuse a first
+      reading to any bill sent down to it; but the journals afford few examples
+      of the exercise of such a privilege. A member of the House of Lords may
+      lay on the table, as a matter of pure right, any bill which he thinks
+      proper to introduce, and it is read a first time as a matter of course;
+      the orders of the House of Commons are different, and a member must obtain
+      permission before he introduces a bill. This permission is occasionally
+      refused; but when a bill comes from the House of Lords, the almost
+      invariable custom is to read it for the first time without discussion.
+      There are, however, as we have observed, instances to the contrary, and
+      the Irish Coercion Bill of &lsquo;33 was one of them. So pregnant a precedent
+      could not be forgotten on the present occasion. The government therefore
+      were prepared for an opposition to the first reading of their bill; but
+      trusting to the strength of their case and the assumed support of the Whig
+      party, they believed that this opposition would not be stubborn, more
+      especially as there were numerous stages of the measure on which the views
+      of its opponents might be subsequently expressed, and as they themselves
+      were prepared to engage that they would not proceed further than this
+      first reading until the Corn Bill had passed the House of Commons. The
+      consternation, therefore, of the government could scarcely be concealed,
+      when they found on Monday night that they had to encounter a
+      well-organized party opposition, headed by Sir William Somerville, and
+      sanctioned and supported in debate by Lord John Russell and Sir George
+      Grey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would seem indeed a difficult and somewhat graceless office for the
+      Whigs to oppose the first reading of a government bill, concerning, too,
+      the highest duties of administration, which had received such unqualified
+      approval from all the leading members of their party in the House of
+      Lords, who had competed in declarations of its necessity and
+      acknowledgments of its moderation, while they only regretted the too tardy
+      progress of a measure so indispensable to the safety of the country and
+      the security of her Majesty&rsquo;s subjects. A curious circumstance, however,
+      saved them from this dilemma, which yet in the strange history of faction
+      they had nevertheless in due time to encounter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Coercion Bill coming from the Lords appeared on the paper of the
+      day in the form of a notice of motion, the Secretary of State, this being
+      a day on which orders have precedence, had to move that such orders of the
+      day should be postponed, so that he might proceed with the motion on the
+      state of Ireland, of which notice had been given. The strict rule of the
+      House is, that on Mondays and Fridays, orders of the day should have
+      precedence of notices of motion, so that it was impossible for the
+      Secretary of State to make his motion, that a certain bill (the Protection
+      of Life&mdash;Ireland&mdash;Bill) should be read a first time without
+      permission of the House, a permission always granted as a matter of course
+      on such nights to the government, since the business which can be brought
+      forward, whether in the shape of orders or motions, is purely government
+      business, and thus the interests and privilege of no independent member of
+      Parliament can be affected by a relaxation of the rules which the
+      convenience of a ministry and the conduct of public business occasionally
+      require. However, on this night, no sooner had the Secretary of State
+      made, in a few formal words, this formal request, than up sprang Sir
+      William Somerville to move an amendment, that the orders of the day should
+      not be postponed, which he supported in a spirited address, mainly on the
+      ground of the great inconvenience that must be suffered from the
+      postponement of the Corn Bill. The motion of the Secretary of State would
+      produce a long, exciting, and exasperating debate. Time would be lost&mdash;for
+      what? To advance one stage of a measure which it was avowedly not the
+      intention of the government to press at the present moment. Sir William
+      concluded with a very earnest appeal to Lord George Bentinck and his
+      friends, who might at no very distant period have the government of
+      Ireland entrusted to them, not, for the sake of a momentary postponement
+      of the Corn Bill, to place themselves, by voting for this measure of
+      coercion, in collision with the Irish nation.&rsquo; He called upon Lord George
+      Bentinck to weigh the position in which he was placed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This amendment was seconded by Mr. Smith O&rsquo;Brien, the member for the
+      county of Limerick, who warned the government that they &lsquo;were entering on
+      a contest which would continue for months.&rsquo; He taunted the minister with
+      governing the country without a party. What chance was there of
+      reconciliation with his estranged friends? After the treatment of that
+      &lsquo;disavowed plenipotentiary,&rsquo; the Secretary of the Treasury, who would be
+      again found willing to undertake the mission of patching up a truce? He
+      was not present when the terms of the treaty were exposed: but he
+      understood, that if the government introduced this Coercion Bill before
+      Easter, then that Lord George Bentinck would deem it wise, proper, and
+      expedient; but if after Easter, then the complexion and character of the
+      bill were, in the noble lord&rsquo;s judgment, utterly transformed, and it was
+      declared to be quite untenable and unconstitutional. Was that the kind of
+      support on which the government calculated for passing this measure?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Secretary of State made a dexterous, conciliatory, almost humble
+      address, in reply to the taunts of Mr. Smith O&rsquo;Brien. He said that he was
+      well aware of the fact of which he had been just reminded, that, in the
+      present state of parties, the declared adherents of the government were a
+      small minority; he even, while excusing the delay in the progress of the
+      Irish measure, reminded the House of the curious fact, that since the
+      meeting of Parliament, two successive Irish secretaries had lost their
+      seats in the House of Commons in consequence of supporting the
+      administration of which they were members.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The case of the government was really so good and clear, that for a moment
+      it seemed the opposition could hardly persist in their unusual proceeding:
+      but this was a night of misfortunes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There had been for some time a smouldering feud between the secretary and
+      the Recorder of Dublin. The learned gentleman had seized the occasion
+      which the present state of parties afforded, and in the course of the
+      recent debate on the second reading of the Corn Bill, had declared that
+      the asserted famine in Ireland was, on the part of the government, &lsquo;a
+      great exaggeration.&rsquo; The secretary had addressed himself particularly to
+      this observation in his speech on the 27th, the night of the division, and
+      had noticed it in a tone of acerbity. He had even intimated that it might
+      have been used by one who was a disappointed solicitor for high office,
+      and whom the government had declined to assist in an unwarrantable
+      arrangement of the duties and salary of the judicial post he at present
+      occupied. The learned Recorder, justly indignant at this depreciating
+      innuendo, resolved to make an opportunity on the following Monday for his
+      vindication and retort. He rose, therefore, immediately after the skilful
+      and winning appeal of the secretary, and pronounced an invective against
+      the right honourable gentleman which was neither ill-conceived nor
+      ill-delivered. It revived the passions that for a moment seemed inclined
+      to lull, and the Protectionists, who on this occasion were going to
+      support the government, forgot the common point of union, while the
+      secretary was described as &lsquo;the evil genius of the cabinet.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this, it was impossible to arrest the course of debate. Mr.
+      O&rsquo;Connell, who appeared to be in a state of great debility, made one of
+      those acute points for which he was distinguished. He said the government
+      complained of the threat held out by those who opposed the bill, that they
+      would avail themselves of the forms of the House to give it every
+      opposition in their power. But what did the government do themselves? Why,
+      they were trying to trample upon one of the sessional orders and to
+      abrogate the forms of the House in order to coerce the Irish people. Lord
+      George Bentinck said, that &lsquo;the chief minister had told them, that this
+      was a bill to put down murder and assassination; in that case, if this
+      bill were delayed, the blood of every man murdered in Ireland was on the
+      head of her Majesty&rsquo;s ministers.&rsquo; Sir George Grey followed, and avoiding
+      any discussion of the state of Ireland, in which Lord George had entered,
+      supported the amendment of Sir William Somerville, on the broad ground
+      that the bill for the repeal of the corn laws ought not to be for a moment
+      delayed. &lsquo;The debates on that measure had continued several weeks; and all
+      who had any lengthened parliamentary experience must be convinced, that if
+      the further progress of the Corn Bill was postponed until after Easter,
+      they would have much longer and protracted debates in its future stages,
+      than if the bill were pushed <i>de die in diem</i>. As he had understood,
+      the government had intended that this bill should have gone up to the
+      House of Lords before Easter, when it would have been printed, and the
+      second reading could have taken place at an early day after the holidays;
+      but if it were put off until after Easter, he would defy any man to show
+      any reasonable expectation of its getting to a second reading in the other
+      House before June, or July, or even August.&rsquo; This was encouraging, and the
+      plot seemed to thicken. The Secretary at War was put up by the government
+      to neutralize the effect of the speech of Sir George Grey, and he said, &lsquo;I
+      speak not only as a cabinet minister, but also as a considerable Irish
+      proprietor.&rsquo; He said, &lsquo;that anything so horrible as the state of
+      demoralization and crime in which many parts of Ireland were plunged,
+      anything so perfect as the suspension of the law in those parts of the
+      country, anything, in short, so complete as the abrogation of liberty that
+      obtained there, was, perhaps never known.&rsquo; He thought that, &lsquo;no man and no
+      minister could, under these circumstances, decline to admit that every and
+      any measure ought to be postponed until a division had been taken, at
+      least upon the principle of a measure which had for its object the
+      suppression of these horrors.&rsquo; After such a declaration it was clear the
+      government were in a false position when by the same organ it had to
+      state, &lsquo;that in asking to read this bill to-night, they only intended to
+      postpone the Corn Bill for one night.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord John Russell following, admitted, that &lsquo;in voting for the motion of
+      Sir William Somerville it was not to be supposed, that if the Secretary of
+      State made out a case, he would not support the government bill;&rsquo; yet how
+      the secretary was ever to find an opportunity of making out his case, if
+      the amendment of Sir William Somerville was carried, was not very
+      apparent. Sir Robert Peel, who was disquieted by the whole proceedings
+      connected with the Coercion Bill, irritated by the episode of &lsquo;the
+      disavowed plenipotentiary,&rsquo; from which he did not for some time recover,
+      and really alarmed at the indefinite prospect of delay in passing his
+      all-important measures which now began to open, could not conceal his
+      vexation in the remarks which he offered, and speaking of the amendment as
+      one &lsquo;of a frivolous character,&rsquo; indignant cries of &lsquo;No, no,&rsquo; from his
+      usual admirers, obliged him to withdraw the expression. His feelings were
+      not soothed when, later in the evening, even Mr. Cobden rose to deplore
+      the conduct of that minister whom he otherwise so much admired. &lsquo;He
+      certainly regarded it as a great calamity. Something had actuated the
+      government which he could not understand. He had a perfect belief in the
+      sincerity of the prime minister, but in all human probability the Corn
+      Bill would not now enter the House of Lords before the beginning or middle
+      of May; and when it would come out again, heaven only knew!&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The House now divided, and being supported by all the Protectionists
+      present, the government had a majority of thirty-nine, so the standing
+      order was for that night rescinded; and, although the hour was late for
+      such a statement, the secretary proceeded with the official exposition.
+      Notwithstanding the depressing circumstances of the previous debate, the
+      speech of Sir James Graham was distinguished by all that lucid arrangement
+      of details and that comprehensive management of his subject which
+      distinguished him. The statement made a great impression upon the House
+      and the country; but, unfortunately for the government, the more necessary
+      they made the measure appear, the more unjustifiable was their conduct in
+      not immediately and vehemently pursuing it. They had, indeed, in the
+      speech from the throne at the commencement of this memorable session,
+      taken up a false position for their campaign; and we shall see, as we
+      pursue this narrative of these interesting events, that the fall of Sir
+      Robert Peel was perhaps occasioned not so much by his repeal of the corn
+      laws as by the mistake in tactics which this adroit and experienced
+      parliamentary commander so strangely committed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this night of the 30th the government made no advance; immediately
+      after the secretary had finished, the followers of Mr. O&rsquo;Connell moved the
+      adjournment of the House, and persisted in this line notwithstanding the
+      almost querulous appeal of the first minister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Passing of O&rsquo;Connell.</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      LORD GEORGE wrote the next morning (Tuesday, March 31st) to a friend, who
+      had not been able to attend the debate: &lsquo;I look upon last night as the
+      most awkward night the government have had yet; I believe they would have
+      given their ears to have been beaten. We have now fairly set them and the
+      tail at loggerheads, and I cannot see how they are to get another stage of
+      either the tariff or Corn Bill before next Tuesday at any rate. I doubt if
+      they will do anything before Easter.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was understood that the House would adjourn for the Easter recess on
+      the 8th instant. There were therefore only two nights remaining for
+      government business before the holidays. On the first of these (Friday,
+      April the 3rd), Mr. O&rsquo;Connell had announced that he should state his views
+      at length on the condition of Ireland, and the causes of these agrarian
+      outrages. Accordingly, when the order of the day for resuming the
+      adjourned debate was read, he rose at once to propose an amendment to the
+      motion. He sat in an unusual place&mdash;in that generally occupied by the
+      leader of the opposition&mdash;and spoke from the red box, convenient to
+      him from the number of documents to which he had to refer. His appearance
+      was of great debility, and the tones of his voice were very still. His
+      words, indeed, only reached those who were immediately around him and the
+      ministers sitting on the other side of the green table, who listened with
+      that interest and respectful attention which became the occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a strange and touching spectacle to those who remembered the form
+      of colossal energy and the clear and thrilling tones that had once
+      startled, disturbed, and controlled senates. Mr. O&rsquo;Connell was on his legs
+      for nearly two hours, assisted occasionally in the management of his
+      documents by some devoted aide-de-camp. To the House generally it was a
+      performance in dumb show, a feeble old man muttering before a table; but
+      respect for the great parliamentary personage kept all as orderly as if
+      the fortunes of a party hung upon his rhetoric; and though not an accent
+      reached the gallery, means were taken that next morning the country should
+      not lose the last and not the least interesting of the speeches of one who
+      had so long occupied and agitated the mind of nations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This remarkable address was an abnegation of the whole policy of Mr.
+      O&rsquo;Connell&rsquo;s career. It proved, by a mass of authentic evidence ranging
+      over a long term of years, that Irish outrage was the consequence of
+      physical misery, and that the social evils of that country could not be
+      successfully encountered by political remedies. To complete the picture,
+      it concluded with a panegyric of Ulster and a patriotic quotation from
+      Lord Clare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord John Russell, who, as an experienced parliamentary leader, had
+      already made more than one effort to extricate the Whigs from the
+      consequences of the hearty support given to the government measures in the
+      other House by Lords Lansdowne and Clanricarde, and even by Lord Grey,
+      ventured to-night even to say that if he should agree that the House would
+      do well to assent to the first reading of this bill, he thought he was
+      bound to state also that in the future stages of it, he should have
+      &lsquo;objections to offer, going to the foundations of some of its principal
+      provisions.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His speech was curious, as perhaps the last considerable manifesto of Whig
+      delusion respecting Ireland. Coercion Bills might be occasionally
+      necessary; no doubt of it; Lord Grey had once a Coercion Bill, and Lord
+      John Russell had voted for it; but then remedial measures ought to be
+      introduced with coercive ones: the evil should be repressed, but also
+      cured. Thus, Lord Althorp, when the government introduced their great
+      Coercion Bill, introduced also a measure which, besides making a great
+      reform in the Protestant Church of Ireland, exempted the whole Catholic
+      community of Ireland from the payment of church cess, which had previously
+      been felt as a very great grievance. On another day Lord Althorp declared
+      his intention of pressing through Parliament a Jury Bill, which had been
+      brought into the House the previous session, but which was allowed to drop
+      in the House of Lords.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, there was another declaration which Lord Althorp had made, which,
+      somehow or other, seemed to have been forgotten; it was a declaration with
+      respect to the municipal corporations of Ireland. Lord Althorp said it was
+      exceedingly desirable that the institutions of the two countries should be
+      assimilated as much as possible; and that, as a general rule, the
+      corporate bodies of Ireland should be the same as England. Mr. O&rsquo;Connell
+      had said on that occasion that there was no greater grievance in Ireland
+      than the existence of corporations in their then shape. Lord John
+      contrasted this language of Lord Althorp, &lsquo;simple, plain, emphatic, and
+      decided,&rsquo; with the language of the government of Sir Robert Peel; and held
+      up to admiration the Whig policy of 1833, certainly coercive, but with
+      remedial measures&mdash;a measure for the abolition of church cess,
+      introduced ten days before the Coercion Bill, and a promise of municipal
+      reform made simultaneously with the proclamation of martial law. This was
+      real statesmanship and touching the root of the evil. Whereas &lsquo;Sir Robert
+      Peel had only consented to passing the Municipal Bill in a crippled state,
+      and only now (in 1846) promised, that the corporations of Ireland should
+      be placed on the same footing as the corporations of England.&rsquo; Who could
+      be surprised that such a policy-should end in famine and pestilence?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The followers of Mr. O&rsquo;Connell again succeeded in adjourning the debate
+      until Monday the 6th. On that day Sir Robert Peel made &lsquo;an earnest appeal&rsquo; 
+      to extricate himself from the almost perilous position in which he found
+      his administration suddenly involved. In case the division on the first
+      reading of the Irish Bill should not take place that night, he endeavoured
+      to prevail on those members who had notices on the paper for the following
+      night (Tuesday the 7th), the last night before the holidays, to relinquish
+      their right and to permit the Irish debate to proceed and conclude. &lsquo;He
+      had no wish to interfere with the due discussion of the measure; but he
+      believed that the Irish members, if they permitted the House to proceed
+      with the Corn Bill, by concluding the discussion on the Irish Bill, would
+      be rendering an essential service to their country.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this earnest appeal only influenced still more the fiery resolves of
+      Mr. Smith O&rsquo;Brien and his friends. They threw the responsibility for delay
+      of the Corn Bill on the government. The inconvenience which the country
+      suffered was occasioned by the minister, not by the Irish members. He
+      ought, on Friday last, to have adjourned the discussion on the Coercion
+      Bill until after Easter. He and other members who were on the paper for
+      to-morrow would willingly relinquish their right of priority in favour of
+      the Corn Bill, or of any measure of a remedial kind, but not in favour of
+      a Coercion Bill. He did not wish to have any concealment with the minister
+      as to the course which the Irish members would pursue. It was their
+      bounden duty to take care that <i>pari passu</i> with the discussion of
+      the Coercion Bill there should be discussions as to the misgovernment of
+      Ireland; and that, in the absence of any remedial measures of the
+      government, they should have an opportunity of suggesting such as they
+      thought advisable for removing those evils which they utterly denied that
+      the measure now before the House would remove.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In vain Sir Robert, in his blandest tones and with that remarkable command
+      of a temper not naturally serene which distinguished him, acknowledged to
+      a certain degree the propriety of the course intimated by Mr. Smith
+      O&rsquo;Brien; but suggested at the same time that it was compatible with
+      allowing the Irish bill to be now read for a first time, since on its
+      subsequent stages Mr. O&rsquo;Brien and his friends would have the full
+      opportunity which they desired, of laying before the House the whole
+      condition of the country. All was useless. No less a personage than Mr.
+      John O&rsquo;Connell treated the appeal with contempt, and lectured the first
+      minister on the &lsquo;great mistake&rsquo; which he had made. Little traits like
+      these revealed the true parliamentary position of the once omnipotent
+      leader of the great Conservative party. With the legions of the
+      Protectionists watching their prey in grim silence, while the liberal
+      sections were united in hostile manouvres against the government, it was
+      recognised at once that the great minister had a staff without an army;
+      not a reconnoitring could take place without the whole cabinet being under
+      orders, and scarcely a sharpshooter sallied from the opposite ranks
+      without the prime minister returning his fire in person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Robert Peel mournfully observed that he &lsquo;did not wish to provoke a
+      recriminatory discussion,&rsquo; and he resigned himself to his fate.
+      Immediately the third night of the adjourned debate on the Irish bill
+      commenced, and was sustained principally by the Irish members until a late
+      hour. It had not been the intention of Lord George Bentinck to have spoken
+      on this occasion, though he had never been absent for a moment from his
+      seat, and watched all that occurred with that keen relish which was usual
+      with him when he thought things were going right; but having been
+      personally and not very courteously appealed to by the late Mr. Dillon
+      Browne, and deeming also the occasion, just before the holidays, a not
+      unhappy one, he rose and concluded the debate. His speech was not long, it
+      was not prepared, and it was very animated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Recapitulating himself the main features of the disturbed district, he
+      said: &lsquo;It is because of these things, sir, that I am prepared to support
+      at least the first reading of a bill, which I freely admit to be most
+      unconstitutional in itself.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Noticing a speech made in the course of the evening by Lord Morpeth, who
+      had himself once been chief secretary of the Lord Lieutenant, Lord George
+      thought it discreet to remind the House of the unequivocal support given
+      to this bill by the Whig leaders in another place: &lsquo;Sir, I think when we
+      see all the great leaders of the Whig party supporting the measure
+      elsewhere, we cannot be justly impugned for doing as they do.&rsquo; Lord
+      Morpeth had referred to &lsquo;remedial measures which he thinks should be
+      introduced for Ireland: to measures for the extension of the municipal,
+      and also of the parliamentary, franchise of that country; and he expressed
+      his desire to see those franchises put on the same footing as the
+      franchises of England.&rsquo; &lsquo;For the life of me,&rsquo; exclaimed Lord George, &lsquo;I
+      confess, I cannot see in what way the extension of political franchises of
+      any description in Ireland would afford a remedy for the evils which this
+      measure aims to suppress. I think, sir, it is impossible not to perceive
+      that there is a connection between agrarian outrage and the poverty of the
+      people.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After noticing the inadequate poor-law which then existed in Ireland, he
+      added: &lsquo;There is also another point immediately connected with this
+      subject to which I must refer. I allude, sir, to the system of
+      absenteeism. I cannot disguise from myself the conviction, that many of
+      the evils of Ireland arise from the system of receiving rents by absentee
+      landlords who spend them in other countries. I am well aware that, in
+      holding this doctrine, I am not subscribing to the creed of political
+      economists. I am well aware that Messrs. Senior and M&rsquo;Culloch hold that it
+      makes no difference whether the Irish landlord spends his rents in Dublin,
+      on his Irish estates, in London, in Bath, or elsewhere. I profess, sir, I
+      cannot understand that theory. I believe that the first ingredient in the
+      happiness of a people is, that the gentry should reside on their native
+      soil, and spend their rents among those from whom they receive them. I
+      cannot help expressing a wish that some arrangement may be made connected
+      with the levying of the poor-rate in Ireland, by which absentee landlords
+      may be made to contribute in something like a fair proportion to the wants
+      of the poor in the district in which they ought to reside. There is an
+      arrangement in the hop-growing districts in England in respect to tithe,
+      which might, I think, afford a very useful suggestion. There are two
+      tithes: the one, the ordinary tithe; the other, extraordinary; which is
+      levied only so long as the land is cultivated in hops. I think if there
+      were two poor-rates introduced into Ireland, the one applying to all
+      occupiers of land, and the other to all those who did not spend a certain
+      portion of the year on some portion of their estates in Ireland, it would
+      prove useful. I think, that by thus appealing to their interests, it might
+      induce absentee landlords to reside much more in Ireland, than is now
+      unfortunately the case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But, sir, I think there are other remedial measures. Some days ago, the
+      Secretary of State told the member for Stroud (Mr. Poulett Scrope), when
+      he suggested some such measure, that he was treading on dangerous ground,
+      and that the doctrines he was advocating might be written in letters of
+      blood in Ireland; but, notwithstanding all this, I still say that I think
+      measures might be introduced for improving the relations between landlord
+      and tenant in Ireland. I do not think that some guarantee might and ought
+      to be given to the tenantry of Ireland for the improvements they make upon
+      their farms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sir, the Secretary of State, in introducing this measure, maintained a
+      doctrine which, I think, much more likely to be written in letters of
+      blood, for he bound up the question of the corn laws with the present one.
+      He said, that unless he could, have prevailed on his colleagues to accede
+      to his free-trade measures as regards corn, he would not have introduced
+      this bill. Why, sir, far from giving food to the people of Ireland, in my
+      opinion the measures of her Majesty&rsquo;s ministers will take away from the
+      people of Ireland their food, by destroying the profits of their only
+      manufacture&mdash;the manufacture of corn&mdash;and injuring their
+      agriculture; depriving them of employment; in fact, by taking away from
+      them the very means of procuring subsistence. Sir, I cannot see how the
+      repeal of those laws affecting corn can be In any way connected with the
+      suppression of outrage and the protection of life. What is this but to
+      say, that unless we have a free trade in corn, we must be prepared to
+      concede a free trade in agrarian outrage&mdash;a free trade in maiming and
+      houghing cattle&mdash;a free trade in incendiarism&mdash;a free trade in
+      the burning and sacking of houses&mdash;a free trade in midnight murder,
+      and in noon-day assassination? What is this but telling the people of
+      Ireland, that assassination, murder, incendiarism, are of such light
+      consideration in the eyes of the Secretary of State, that their sanction
+      or suppression by the minister of the crown hinges upon the condition of
+      the corn market and the difference in the price of potatoes?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sir, what has the potato disease to do with the outrages in Ireland? Some
+      think a great deal. I have taken the trouble of looking into the matter. I
+      have examined into the state of crime in at least five counties&mdash;Tipperary,
+      Roscommon, Limerick, Leitrim, and Clare&mdash;and I find, that during the
+      three months prior to the first appearance of the potato disease, and when
+      in fact food was as cheap in Ireland as at almost any former period&mdash;when
+      plenty abounded in all quarters of the empire, that the amount of crime
+      exceeded that in the three months immediately following. Now, those who
+      doubt this statement will have an opportunity of ascertaining the
+      correctness of my figures, for I will not deal in general assertions. Well
+      then, sir, I find in the three months, May, June, and July last, that the
+      number of crimes committed in the five counties I have mentioned amounted
+      to no less than 1,180, while in the three months immediately after the
+      potato disease, or famine as it is called, the amount of crime committed
+      in the same three months was not 1,180, but 870. I should like to know,
+      therefore, what this agrarian outrage has to do with the potato famine;
+      and where is the justification for a minister coming down to this House,
+      and declaring that unless we pass a free-trade measure, we are not to obey
+      her Majesty&rsquo;s commands by passing a measure for the protection of life in
+      Ireland. Why, sir, I think when this language reaches the people of
+      Ireland&mdash;coming, too, as it does from the Treasury, above all, from
+      the Secretary of State for the Home Department&mdash;there is indeed
+      danger to be apprehended that such a doctrine may be written in letters of
+      blood in that country. Why, sir, if we are to hear such language as this
+      from that minister of the crown charged with the peace of the country, we
+      may just as well have Captain Rock established as lord lieutenant in the
+      castle of Dublin, a Whitefoot for chief secretary, and Molly M&rsquo;Guire
+      installed at Whitehall with the seals of the home department.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And afterwards he remarked, &lsquo;I have been taunted that when I may be
+      entrusted with the government of Ireland, I should perhaps then learn that
+      Tyrone was an Orange county. Sir, in answer to that taunt, I must take
+      leave to ask what expression of mine, either in this house or out of it,
+      justifies any such remark? When or where can it be said that I have ever
+      permitted myself to know any distinction between an Orangeman and a
+      Catholic; when, in the whole course of my parliamentary career, have I
+      ever given a vote or uttered a sentiment hostile or unfriendly to the
+      Roman Catholics, either of England or Ireland?&rsquo; This speech, though
+      delivered generally in favour of the Irish bill, attracted very much the
+      attention, and, as it appeared afterwards, the approbation of those Irish
+      members, who, although sitting on the Liberal benches, did not acknowledge
+      the infallible authority of Mr. O&rsquo;Connell, and was the origin of a
+      political connection between them and Lord George Bentinck, which, on more
+      than one subsequent occasion, promised to bring important results.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two successive motions were now made for the adjournment of the debate,
+      and Sir Robert Peel at length said, that he &lsquo;saw it was useless to
+      persist.&rsquo; He agreed to the adjournment until the next day, with the
+      understanding that if it did come on, he would name the time to which it
+      should be postponed after the holidays.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon this, Sir William Somerville made one more appeal to the minister to
+      postpone the further discussion of the Irish bill altogether until the
+      Corn Bill had passed the Commons. He intimated that unless the government
+      at once adopted this resolution, they would find themselves after Easter
+      in the same perplexity which now paralyzed them. They would not be
+      permitted to bring on this measure except upon government nights, and the
+      discussion might then last weeks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The minister, exceedingly embarrassed, would not, however, relent. On the
+      following day, when he moved the adjournment of the House for the
+      holidays, he reduced the vacation three days, in order to obtain Friday, a
+      government night, which otherwise would have been absorbed in the
+      holidays, and he announced the determination of the government again to
+      proceed on that night with the Irish bill in preference to the Corn Bill.
+      The Irish members glanced defiance, and the Protectionists could scarcely
+      conceal their satisfaction. The reputation of Sir Robert Peel for
+      parliamentary management seemed to be vanishing; never was a government in
+      a more tottering state; and the Whigs especially began to renew their
+      laments that the Edinburgh letter and its consequences had prevented the
+      settlement of the corn question from devolving to the natural arbitrator
+      in the great controversy, their somewhat rash but still unrivalled leader,
+      Lord John Russell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>A Third Party</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE members of the Protectionist opposition returned to their constituents
+      with the sanguine feelings which success naturally inspires. Their efforts
+      had surprised, not displeased, the country; the elections were in their
+      favour; the government business halted; the delay in the calculated
+      arrival of the famine had taken the edge off the necessity which it was
+      supposed would have already carried the Corn Bill through the Commons;
+      while the twin measure which the throes of Ireland had engendered had
+      developed elements of opposition which even the calmest observer thought
+      might possibly end in overthrow. Above all, that seemed to have happened
+      which the most experienced in parliamentary life had always deemed to be
+      impracticable; namely, the formation of a third party in the House of
+      Commons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How completely this latter and difficult result was owing to the abilities
+      and energies of one man, and how anomalous was the position which he chose
+      to occupy in not taking the formal lead of a party which was entirely
+      guided by his example, were convictions and considerations that at this
+      juncture much occupied men&rsquo;s minds. And it was resolved among the most
+      considerable of the country gentlemen to make some earnest and
+      well-combined effort, during the recess, to induce Lord George Bentinck to
+      waive the unwillingness he had so often expressed of becoming their avowed
+      and responsible leader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Lord George Bentinck first threw himself into the breach, he was
+      influenced only by a feeling of indignation at the manner in which he
+      thought the Conservative party had been trifled with by the government and
+      Lord Stanley, his personal friend and political leader, deserted by a
+      majority of the cabinet. As affairs developed, and it became evident that
+      the bulk of the Conservative party throughout the country had rallied
+      round his standard, Lord George could not conceal from himself the
+      consequences of such an event, or believe that it was possible that the
+      party in the House of Commons, although Lord Stanley might eventually think
+      fit to guide it by his counsels, and become, if necessary, personally
+      responsible for its policy, could be long held together unless it were
+      conducted by a leader present in the same assembly, and competent under
+      all circumstances to represent its opinions in debate. Lord George,
+      although a very proud man, had no vanity or self-conceit. He took a very
+      humble view of his own powers, and he had at the same time a very exalted
+      one of those necessary to a leader of the House of Commons. His
+      illustrious connection, Mr. Canning, was his standard. He had been the
+      private secretary of that minister in his youth, and the dazzling
+      qualities of that eminent personage had influenced the most susceptible
+      time of life of one who was very tenacious of his impressions. What Lord
+      George Bentinck appreciated most in a parliamentary speaker was
+      brilliancy: quickness of perception, promptness of repartee, clear and
+      concise argument, a fresh and felicitous quotation, wit and picture, and,
+      if necessary, a passionate appeal that should never pass the line of
+      high-bred sentiment. Believing himself not to be distinguished by these
+      rhetorical qualities, he would listen with no complacency to those who
+      would urge in private that the present period of parliamentary life was
+      different from the days of Mr. Canning, and that accumulated facts and
+      well-digested reasoning on their bearing, a command of all the materials
+      of commercial controversy, and a mastery of the laws that regulate the
+      production and distribution of public wealth, combined with habits of
+      great diligence and application, would ensure the attention of a popular
+      assembly, especially when united to a high character and great social
+      position. This might be urged; but he would only shake his head, with a
+      ray of humour twinkling in his piercing eyes, and say, in a half-drawling
+      tone, &lsquo;If Mr. Canning were alive, he could do all this better than any of
+      them, and be not a whit less brilliant.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was also another reason why Lord George Bentinck was unwilling to
+      assume the post of leader of the Conservative party, and this very much
+      influenced him. Sprung from a great Whig house, and inheriting all the
+      principles and prejudices of that renowned political connection which had
+      expelled the Stuarts, he had accepted, in an unqualified sense, the dogma
+      of religious liberty. This principle was first introduced into active
+      politics in order to preserve the possessions of that portion of the
+      aristocracy which had established itself on the plunder of the Church. It
+      was to form the basis of a party which should prevent reaction and
+      restitution of church lands. Whether the principle be a true one, and
+      whether its unqualified application by any party in the state be possible,
+      are questions yet unsettled. It is not probable, for example, that the
+      worship of Juggernaut, which Lord Dalhousie permits in Orissa, would be
+      permitted even by Lord John Russell at Westminster. Even a papist
+      procession is forbidden, and wisely. The application of the principle,
+      however, in Lord George Bentinck&rsquo;s mind, was among other things associated
+      with the public recognition of the Roman Catholic hierarchy by the state,
+      and a provision for its maintenance in Ireland in accordance with the plan
+      of Mr. Pitt. What had happened, with respect to the vote on the endowment
+      of Maynooth in 1845, had convinced him that his opinions on this subject
+      presented an insuperable barrier to his ever becoming the leader of a
+      party which had contributed three-fourths of the memorable minority on
+      that occasion. It was in vain that it was impressed upon him by those most
+      renowned for their Protestant principles, and who were at the same time
+      most anxious to see Lord George Bentinck in his right position, that the
+      question of Maynooth was settled, and there was now no prospect of future
+      measures of a similar character. This was not the opinion of Lord George
+      Bentinck. He nursed in his secret soul a great scheme for the regeneration
+      and settlement of Ireland, which he thought ought to be one of the
+      mainstays of a Conservative party; and it was his opinion that the
+      condition of the Roman Catholic priesthood must be considered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in vain, in order to assist in removing these scruples, that it was
+      represented to him by others that endowment of a priesthood by the state
+      was a notion somewhat old-fashioned, and opposed to the spirit of the age
+      which associated true religious freedom with the full development of the
+      voluntary principle. He listened to these suggestions with distrust, and
+      even with a little contempt. Mr. Canning had been in favour of the
+      endowment of the Irish priesthood&mdash;that was sufficient for that
+      particular; and as for the voluntary principle, he looked upon it as
+      priestcraft in disguise; his idea of religious liberty being that all
+      religions should be controlled by the state.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides these two prominent objections to accepting the offered post,
+      namely, his unaffected distrust in his parliamentary abilities and his
+      assumed want of concordance with his followers on a great principle of
+      modern politics, we must also remember that his compliance with the
+      request involved no ordinary sacrifice of much which renders life
+      delightful. He was to relinquish pursuits of noble excitement to which he
+      was passionately attached, and to withdraw in a great degree from a circle
+      of high-spirited friends, many of them of different political connection
+      from himself, by whom he was adored. With all his unrivalled powers of
+      application when under the influence of a great impulse, he was
+      constitutionally indolent and even lethargic. There was nothing,
+      therefore, in his position or his temperature to prick him on in &lsquo;46; it
+      was nothing but his strong will acting upon his indignation which
+      sustained him. It is not, therefore, marvellous that he exhibited great
+      reluctance to commit irretrievably his future life. At a subsequent
+      period, indignation had become ambition, and circumstances of various
+      kinds had made him resolve to succeed or die.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the adjournment, Lord George had gone down to Newmarket, which he
+      greatly enjoyed after his exhausting campaign. Here some letters on the
+      subject of the leadership passed, but nothing was definitely arranged till
+      some time after the re-assembling of Parliament. For convenience we
+      mention here the result. The wish of the party was repeatedly and
+      personally urged by the popular and much-esteemed member for Dorsetshire,
+      and at last Lord George consented to their wishes, on these conditions:
+      that he should relinquish his post the moment the right man was
+      discovered, who, according to his theory, would ultimately turn up; and
+      secondly, that his responsible post was not to restrict or embarrass him
+      on any questions in which a religious principle was involved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before, however, this negotiation was concluded, and while yet at
+      Newmarket, he wrote to a friend, the day before the House met (April
+      16th).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I think there is no doubt, but that the Irish will take care of Friday
+      (to-morrow) night. I have not much hope of their keeping up the debate
+      beyond Friday.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is quite clear from O&rsquo;Connell&rsquo;s language at Dublin that we have no
+      hope from the Irish tail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I still think myself, that delay affords a great chance of something
+      turning up in our favour; already the rejection of any reciprocity by M.
+      Guizot has provided us with a grand weapon, which, I trust, you drive well
+      home into * * * *&lsquo;s vitals; a very short delay would probably bring over
+      similar intelligence from the United States and their Congress. I trust we
+      shall have an important deputation over from Canada, representing that the
+      inevitable results of these free-trade measures in corn and timber will be
+      to alienate the feelings of our Canadian colonists, and to induce them to
+      follow their sordid interests, which will now, undoubtedly, be best
+      consulted and most promoted by annexation to the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Lord&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&lsquo;s intended tergiversation has been, I believe,
+      some time known; he admits that all farmers without capital, in short, all
+      little men, must be sacrificed. What a barbarous and odious policy, that
+      goes upon the principle that none but capitalists are henceforth to be
+      allowed to live, as farmers at least. We must turn the tables upon Lord&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;and
+      all such heartless doctrinaires!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I fear the majority in the Lords will be greater than was expected; I am
+      told that we must endeavour to put ministers in a minority two or three
+      times before the bill gets to its second reading in the Lords, no matter
+      upon what question. I hear there are many peers whose votes depend
+      entirely upon their notions, whether or not Peel can, by hook or by crook,
+      carry on.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Railroads for Ireland</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      IF WE take a general view of the career of Lord George Bentinck during the
+      last year&mdash;from the time indeed when he was trying to find a lawyer
+      to convey his convictions to the House of Commons until the moment when
+      her Majesty prorogued her Parliament, the results will be found to be very
+      remarkable. So much was never done so unexpectedly by any public man in
+      the same space of time. He had rallied a great party which seemed
+      hopelessly routed; he had established a parliamentary discipline, in their
+      ranks which old political connections, led by experienced statesmen, have
+      seldom surpassed; he had brought forward from those ranks, entirely
+      through his discrimination and by his personal encouragement, considerable
+      talents in debate; he had himself proved a master in detail and in
+      argument of all the great questions arising out of the reconstruction of
+      our commercial system; he had made a vindication of the results of the
+      Protective principle as applied to agriculture, which certainly, so far as
+      the materials are concerned, is the most efficient plea that ever was
+      urged in the House of Commons in favour of the abrogated law; he had
+      exhibited similar instances of investigation in considerable statements
+      with respect to the silk trade and other branches of our industry; he had
+      asserted the claims of the productive classes in Ireland, and in our
+      timber and sugar producing colonies, with the effect which results from a
+      thorough acquaintance with a subject; he had promulgated distinct
+      principles with regard to our financial as well as to our commercial
+      system; he had maintained the expediency cf relieving the consumer by the
+      repeal of excise in preference to customs&rsquo; duties, and of establishing
+      fiscal reciprocity as a condition of mercantile exchange. On subjects of a
+      more occasional but analogous nature he had shown promptitude and
+      knowledge, as in the instances of the urgent condition of Mexico and of
+      our carrying trade with the Spanish colonies, both of which he brought
+      forward in the last hours of the session, but the importance of which
+      motions was recognized by all parties. Finally, he had attracted the
+      notice, and in many instances obtained the confidence, of large bodies of
+      men in the country, who recognized in him a great capacity of labour
+      combined with firmness of character and honesty of purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the close of the session (August 28), Cord George visited Norfolk,
+      where he received an entertainment from his constituents at King&rsquo;s Lynn,
+      proud of their member, and to whom he vindicated the course which he had
+      taken, and offered his views generally as to the relations which should
+      subsist between the legislation of the country and its industry. From
+      Norfolk he repaired to Belvoir Castle, on a visit to the Duke of Rutland,
+      and was present at a banquet given by the agriculturists of Leicestershire
+      to his friend and supporter the Marquis of Granby. After this he returned
+      to Welbeck, where he seems to have enjoyed a little repose. Thus he writes
+      to a friend from that place on the 22nd September:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Thanks for your advice, which I am following, having got Lord
+      Malmesbury&rsquo;s Diary; but I am relapsing into my natural dawdling, lazy, and
+      somnolent habits, and can with difficulty get through the leaders even of
+      the &ldquo;Times.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      * * * * &lsquo;The vehemence of the farmers is personal against Peel; it is
+      quite clear that the rising price of wheat has cured their alarm. The
+      railway expenditure must keep up prices and prosperity, both of which
+      would have been far greater without free trade; but in face of high
+      prices, railway prosperity, and potato famine, depend upon it we shall
+      have an uphill game to fight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;O&rsquo;Connell talks of Parliament meeting in November, to mend the Irish
+      Labour-rate Act. Do you believe this?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Labour-rate Act, passed at the end of the session (&lsquo;46), was one by
+      which the Lord Lieutenant was enabled to require special barony sessions
+      to meet in order to make presentments for public works for the employment
+      of the people, the whole of the money requisite for their construction to
+      be supplied by the imperial treasury, though to be afterwards repaid. The
+      machinery of this act did not work satisfactorily, but the government
+      ultimately made the necessary alterations on their own responsibility, and
+      obtained an indemnity from Parliament when it met in &lsquo;47. The early
+      session, therefore, talked of by Mr. O&rsquo;Connell, became unnecessary. As the
+      only object of this Labour-rate Act was to employ the people, and as it
+      was supposed there were no public works of a reproductive nature which
+      could be undertaken on a sufficient scale to ensure that employment, the
+      Irish people were occupied, towards the end of the autumn of &lsquo;46, mainly
+      in making roads, which, as afterwards described by the first minister,
+      &lsquo;were not wanted.&rsquo; In the month of September more than thirty thousand
+      persons were thus employed; but when the harvest was over, and it was
+      ascertained that its terrible deficiency had converted pauperism into
+      famine, the numbers on the public works became greatly increased, so that
+      at the end of November the amount of persons engaged was four hundred
+      thousand, receiving wages at the rate of nearly five millions sterling per
+      annum. These immense amounts went on increasing every week, and when
+      Parliament met in February, 1847, five hundred thousand persons were
+      employed on these public works, which could bring no possible public
+      advantage, at an expense to the country of between £700,000 and £800,000
+      per month. No Board of Works could efficiently superintend such a
+      multitude, or prevent flagrant imposition, though the dimensions of that
+      department appeared almost proportionably to have expanded. What with
+      commissioners, chief clerks, check clerks, and pay clerks, the
+      establishment of the Board of Works in Ireland, at the end of &lsquo;46,
+      consisted of more than eleven thousand persons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Always intent upon Ireland, this condition of affairs early and earnestly
+      attracted the attention of Lord George Bentinck. So vast an expenditure in
+      unproductive labour dismayed him. He would not easily assent to the
+      conclusion that profitable enterprise under the circumstances was
+      impossible. Such a conclusion seemed to him unnatural, and that an
+      occasion where we commenced with despair justified a bold and venturesome
+      course. The field is legitimately open to speculation where all agree that
+      all is hopeless. The construction of harbours, the development of
+      fisheries, the redemption of waste lands, were resources which had been
+      often canvassed, and whatever their recommendations, with the exception of
+      the last, they were necessarily very limited; and the last, though it
+      might afford prompt, could hardly secure profitable, employment. Prompt
+      and profitable employment was the object which Lord George wished to
+      accomplish. Where millions were to be expended by the state, something
+      more advantageous to the community should accrue than the temporary
+      subsistence of the multitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George had always been a great supporter of railway enterprise in
+      England, on the ground that, irrespective of all the peculiar advantages
+      of those undertakings, the money was spent in the country; and that if our
+      surplus capital were not directed to such channels, it would go, as it had
+      gone before, to foreign mines and foreign loans, from which in a great
+      degree no return would arrive. When millions were avowedly to be laid out
+      in useless and unprofitable undertakings, it became a question whether it
+      were not wiser even somewhat to anticipate the time when the necessities
+      of Ireland would require railways on a considerable scale; and whether by
+      embarking in such enterprises, we might not only find prompt and
+      profitable employment for the people, but by giving a new character to the
+      country and increasing its social relations and the combinations of its
+      industry, might not greatly advance the period when such modes of
+      communication would be absolutely requisite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Full of these views, Lord George, in the course of the autumn, consulted
+      in confidence some gentlemen very competent to assist him in such an
+      inquiry, and especially Mr. Robert Stephenson, Mr. Hudson, and Mr. Laing.
+      With their advice and at their suggestion, two engineers of great ability,
+      Mr. Bidder and Mr. Smith, were despatched to Ireland, personally to
+      investigate the whole question of railroads in that country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meditating over the condition of Ireland, a subject very frequently in his
+      thoughts, and of the means to combat its vast and inveterate pauperism,
+      Lord George was frequently in the habit of reverting to the years &lsquo;41-42
+      in England, when there were fifteen hundred thousand persons on the parish
+      rates; eighty-three thousand able-bodied men, actually confined within the
+      walls of the workhouse, and more than four hundred thousand able-bodied
+      men receiving out-door relief. What changed all this and restored England
+      in a very brief space to a condition of affluence hardly before known in
+      her annals? Not certainly the alterations in the tariff which were made by
+      Sir Robert Peel at the commencement of his government, prudent and
+      salutary as they were. No one would pretend that the abolition of the
+      slight duty (five-sixteenths of a penny) on the raw material of the cotton
+      manufacturer, or the free introduction of some twenty-seven thousand head
+      of foreign cattle, or even the admission of foreign timber at reduced
+      duties, could have effected this. Unquestionably it was the railway
+      enterprise which then began to prevail that was the cause of this national
+      renovation. Suddenly, and for several years, an additional sum of thirteen
+      millions of pounds sterling a year was spent in the wages of our native
+      industry; two hundred thousand able-bodied labourers received each upon an
+      average twenty-two shillings a week, stimulating the revenue both in
+      excise and customs by their enormous consumption of malt and spirits,
+      tobacco and tea. This was the main cause of the contrast between the
+      England of &lsquo;41 and the England of &lsquo;45.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Was there any reason why a proportionate application of the same remedy to
+      Ireland should not proportionately produce a similar result? Was there
+      anything wild or unauthorized in the suggestion? On the contrary: ten
+      years before (1836), the subject had engaged the attention of her
+      Majesty&rsquo;s government, and a royal commission had been issued to inquire
+      into the expediency of establishing railway communication in Ireland. The
+      commissioners, men of great eminence, recommended that a system of
+      railways should be established in Ireland, and by the pecuniary assistance
+      of government. They rested their recommendation mainly on the abundant
+      evidence existing of the vast benefits which easy communication had
+      accomplished in Ireland, and of the complete success which had attended
+      every Parliamentary grant for improving roads in that country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The weakness of the government, arising from the balanced state of
+      parties, rendered it impossible at that time for them to prosecute the
+      measures recommended by the royal commissioners, though they made an
+      ineffectual attempt in that direction. Could it be suspected that the
+      recommendation of the commissioners had been biassed by any political
+      consideration? Was it a Whig commission attempting to fulfil a Whig
+      object? Another commission, more memorable, at the head of which was the
+      Earl of Devon, was appointed by a Tory government some years afterwards,
+      virtually to consider the condition of the people of Ireland, and the best
+      means for their amelioration. The report of the Devon commission confirmed
+      all the recommendations of the railway commissioners of &lsquo;36, and pointed
+      to these new methods of communication, by the assistance of loans from the
+      government, as the best means of providing employment for the people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Mr. Smith of Deanston was examined by a Parliamentary committee, and
+      asked what measure of all others would be the one most calculated to
+      improve the agriculture and condition of Ireland, he did not reply, as
+      some might have anticipated, that the most efficient measure would be to
+      drain the bogs; but his answer was, &lsquo;advance the construction of railways,
+      and then agricultural improvement will speedily follow.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To illustrate the value of railways to an agricultural population, Mr.
+      Smith, of Deanston, said, &lsquo;that the improvement of the land for one mile
+      only on each side of the railway so constructed would be so great, that it
+      would pay the cost of the whole construction.&rsquo; He added, that there were
+      few districts&rsquo; in Ireland, in which railway communication could be
+      introduced, where the value of the country through which the railway
+      passed would not be raised to an extent equal to the whole cost of the
+      railway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arguing on an area of six hundred and forty acres for every square mile,
+      after deducting the land occupied by fences, roads, and buildings, Mr.
+      Smith, of Deanston, entered into a calculation of the gain deliverable
+      from the mere carriage of the produce of the land, and the back carriage
+      of manure, coals, tiles, bricks, and other materials, and estimated the
+      saving through those means on every square mile to more than £300, or
+      something above £600 on 1,280 acres abutting each mile of railway, this
+      being the difference of the cost of carriage under the old mode of
+      conveyance as compared with the new. Following up this calculation, he
+      showed that fifteen hundred miles of railway would improve the land
+      through which it passed to the extent of nearly two million acres at the
+      rate of a mile on each side; and, taken at twenty-five years&rsquo; purchase,
+      would equal twenty-four millions sterling in the permanent improvement of
+      the land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ground, therefore, was sound on which Lord George cautiously, and
+      after due reflection, ventured to place his foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now, after the reports of these two royal commissions, what was the
+      state of railway enterprise in Ireland in the autumn of &lsquo;46, when a vast
+      multitude could only subsist by being employed by the government, and when
+      the government had avowedly no reproductive or even useful work whereon to
+      place them; but allotted them to operations which were described by
+      Colonel Douglas, the inspector of the government himself, &lsquo;as works which
+      would answer no other purpose than that of obstructing the public
+      conveyances?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In &lsquo;46, acts of Parliament were in existence authorizing the construction
+      of more than fifteen hundred miles of railway in Ireland, and some of
+      these acts had passed so long as eleven years previously, yet at the end
+      of &lsquo;46 only one hundred and twenty-three miles of railway had been
+      completed, and only one hundred and sixty-four were in the course of
+      completion, though arrested in their progress from want of funds. Almost
+      in the same period, two thousand six hundred miles of railway had been
+      completed in England, and acts of Parliament had passed for constructing
+      five thousand four hundred miles in addition: in the whole, eight thousand
+      miles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What then was the reason of this debility in Ireland in prosecuting these
+      undertakings? Were they really not required; were the elements of success
+      wanting? The first element of success in railway enterprise, according to
+      the highest authorities, is population; property is only the second
+      consideration. Now, Ireland in &lsquo;46 was more densely inhabited than
+      England. A want of population could not therefore be the cause. But a
+      population so impoverished as the Irish could not perhaps avail themselves
+      of the means of locomotion; and yet it appeared from research that the
+      rate of passengers on the two Irish railways that were open greatly
+      exceeded in number that of the passengers upon English and Scotch
+      railways. The average number of passengers on English and Scotch railways
+      was not twelve thousand per mile per annum, while on the Ulster railway
+      the number was nearly twenty-two thousand, and on the Dublin and Drogheda
+      line the number exceeded eighteen thousand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cause of the weakness in Ireland to prosecute these undertakings was
+      the total want of domestic capital for the purpose, and the unwillingness
+      of English capitalists to embark their funds in a country whose social and
+      political condition they viewed with distrust, however promising and even
+      profitable the investment might otherwise appear. This was remarkably
+      illustrated by the instance of the Great Southern and Western Railway of
+      Ireland, one of the undertakings of which the completion was arrested by
+      want of funds, yet partially open. Compared with a well-known railway in
+      Great Britain, the Irish railway had cost in its construction £15,000 per
+      mile, and the British upwards of £26,000 per mile; the weekly traffic on
+      the two railways, allowing for some difference in their extent, was about
+      the same on both, in amount varying from £1,000 to £1,300 per week; yet
+      the unfinished British railway was at £40 premium in the market, and the
+      incomplete Irish railway at £2 discount. It was clear, therefore, that the
+      commercial principle, omnipotent in England, was not competent to cope
+      with the peculiar circumstances of Ireland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Brooding over the suggestions afforded by the details which we have
+      slightly indicated, Lord George Bentinck, taking into consideration not
+      merely the advantage that would accrue to the country from the
+      establishment of a system of railroads, but also remembering the peculiar
+      circumstances of the times, the absolute necessity of employing the
+      people, and the inevitable advance of public money for that purpose,
+      framed a scheme with reference to all these considerations, and which he
+      believed would meet all the conditions of the case. He spared no thought,
+      or time, or labour, for his purpose. He availed himself of the advice of
+      the most experienced, and prosecuted his researches ardently and
+      thoroughly. When he had matured his scheme, he had it thrown into the form
+      of a parliamentary bill by the ablest hands, and then submitted the whole
+      to the judgment and criticism of those who shared his confidence and
+      counsels. Towards the end of November he was at Knowsley, from whence he
+      communicated with the writer of these pages. &lsquo;I am here hatching secret
+      plans for the next session; and now, if you have not quite abjured
+      politics, as you threatened for the next three months to do, devoting
+      yourself to poetry and romance, I think I ought to have a quiet day with
+      you, in order that we may hold council together and talk over all our
+      policy. I shall be at Harcourt House on the 30th. I shall stay there till
+      the 3rd of December, for a meeting on that day of the Norfolk Estuary
+      Company, of which I am chairman. Would that evening suit you&mdash;or
+      Friday&mdash;or Wednesday? I am not well acquainted with the geography of
+      Buckinghamshire, but presume you are accessible either by rail or road in
+      less than twelve hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The activity in the dockyard must be in preparation to interfere in
+      Portugal, to keep King Leopold upon the Portuguese throne: it cannot be
+      for Mexico, for our friend the &ldquo;Times&rdquo; formally abandoned Mexico in his
+      leader some days ago.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;* * * * has been entertaining Lord * * * * in Ireland, and writes: &ldquo;How
+      Peel must chuckle at the Whig difficulties.&rdquo; I dare say he does, but in
+      Ireland it seems to me Lord Besborough is putting the fate Irish
+      government to shame, whilst the rupture of the <i>entente cordiale</i>,
+      the conquest of California and New Mexico, and the complications in the
+      river Plata,&mdash;are complete inheritances from Lord Aberdeen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Eaton has come to life again: else there was a prospect of George Manners
+      quietly succeeding him in Cambridgeshire. I fear we shall do no good in
+      Lincolnshire, notwithstanding the industry of our dear friend the &ldquo;Morning
+      Post,&rdquo; in getting hold of Lord Ebrington&rsquo;s and Lord Rich&rsquo;s letters to Lord
+      Yarborough. I suppose there is no mistake in Lord Dalhousie (&ldquo;the large
+      trout&rdquo;) going out to Bombay with the reversion of Bengal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The duchy of Lancaster is to be put in commission, Lord * * * * to be one
+      of the commissioners, <i>but unpaid</i>. He has begun, I presume, to
+      overcome the false delicacy which prevented his acceptance of office under
+      the Whigs in July. S * * * * thought G * * * * was to be another of the
+      Board, but that turns out a mistake, but Lord H * * * * is to be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The manufacturers are working short time, and reducing wages in all
+      directions, John Bright and Sons at Rochdale among the rest. The
+      Zollverein increasing their import duties on cotton and linen yarn, and
+      putting export duties of 25 per cent. (some of the states at least) on
+      grain.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We must not omit to record, that in the autumn of this year, at Goodwood
+      races, the sporting world was astounded by hearing that Lord George
+      Bentinck had parted with his racing stud at an almost nominal price. Lord
+      George was present, as was his custom, at this meeting, held in the
+      demesne of one who was among his dearest friends. Lord George was not only
+      present but apparently absorbed in the sport, and his horses were very
+      successful. The world has hardly done justice to the great sacrifice which
+      he made on this occasion to a high sense of duty. He not only parted with
+      the finest racing stud in England, but he parted with it at a moment when
+      its prospects were never so brilliant; and he knew this well. We may have
+      hereafter to notice on this head an interesting passage in his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He could scarcely have quitted the turf that day without a pang. He had
+      become the lord paramount of that strange world, so difficult to sway, and
+      which requires for its government both a stern resolve and a courtly
+      breeding. He had them both; and though the blackleg might quail before the
+      awful scrutiny of his piercing eye, there never was a man so scrupulously
+      polite to his inferiors as Lord George Bentinck. The turf, too, was not
+      merely the scene of the triumphs of his stud and his betting-book. He had
+      purified its practice and had elevated its character, and he was prouder
+      of this achievement than of any other connected with his sporting life.
+      Notwithstanding his mighty stakes and the keenness with which he backed
+      his opinion, no one perhaps ever cared less for money. His habits were
+      severely simple, and he was the most generous of men. He valued the
+      acquisition of money on the turf, because there it was the test of
+      success. He counted his thousands after a great race as a victorious
+      general counts his cannon and his prisoners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Versatility of Lord George Bentinck</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THOSE who throw their eye over the debates of the session of &lsquo;47, cannot
+      fail to be struck by the variety of important questions in the discussion
+      of which Lord George Bentinck took a leading or prominent part. And it
+      must be borne in mind that he never offered his opinion on any subject
+      which he had not diligently investigated and attempted to comprehend in
+      all its bearings. His opponents might object to his principles or
+      challenge his conclusions, but no one could deny that his conclusions were
+      drawn from extensive information and that his principles were clear and
+      distinct. He spared no pains to acquire by reading, correspondence, and
+      personal research, the most authentic intelligence on every subject in
+      debate. He never chattered. He never uttered a sentence in the House of
+      Commons which did not convey a conviction or a fact. He was too profuse
+      indeed with his facts: he had not the art of condensation. But those who
+      have occasion to refer to his speeches and calmly to examine them, will be
+      struck by the amplitude and the freshness of his knowledge, the clearness
+      of his views, the coherence in all his efforts, and often&mdash;a point
+      for which he never had sufficient credit&mdash;by his graphic idiom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The best speech on the affairs of Cracow, for example, the most vigorous
+      and the best informed, touching all the points with a thorough
+      acquaintance, was that of Lord George Bentinck. The discussion on Cracow,
+      which lasted several nights and followed very shortly after the defeat of
+      his Irish bill, appeared to relate to a class of subjects which would not
+      have engaged his attention; but on the contrary, he had given days and
+      nights to this theme, had critically examined all the documents, and
+      conferred with those qualified to supply him with any supplementary
+      information requisite. He spoke several times this session on questions
+      connected with our foreign affairs, and always impressed the House with a
+      conviction that he was addressing it after a due study of his subject: as
+      for example, his speech against our interference in Portugal, and the
+      statement in which he brought forward the claims of the holders of Spanish
+      bonds on the government of Spain before the House of Commons. In the
+      instance of Portugal, a motion of censure on the conduct of ministers had
+      been introduced by Mr. Hume, and the government were only saved from a
+      minority by the friendly interposition of Mr. Duncombe, who proposed an
+      amendment to the motion of Mr. Hume which broke the line of the liberal
+      force. Lord George Bentinck in this case followed Mr. Macaulay, whose
+      speech, as was his wont, had been rich in historical illustration. &lsquo;The
+      right honourable and learned member for Edinburgh,&rsquo; Lord George replied,
+      &lsquo;had entered into a very interesting history of various interferences
+      which had taken place in the affairs of Portugal; but in making that
+      statement he forgot to mention one circumstance which had occurred in that
+      history, and it was this
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;that when Philip II. of Spain sought to conquer Portugal, the
+      method he had recourse to for that purpose was one which he thought her
+      Majesty&rsquo;s ministers had successfully practised on the present occasion
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;he persuaded the leaders in Portugal to mix sand with the powder of
+      their troops. And so, on this occasion, her Majesty&rsquo;s ministers had
+      prevailed on the member for Finsbury, and those other members who were so
+      ready to profess a love of liberty, to mix sand with their powder.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a previous chapter we have treated at some length of the means proposed
+      or adopted by the Parliament for the sustenance and relief of the people
+      of Ireland. The new poor law for that country also much engaged the
+      attention of both Houses this session. Lord George Bentinck took a very
+      active part in these transactions, and moved the most important of all the
+      amendments to the government measure, namely, an attempt to assimilate the
+      poor law of Ireland as much as possible to that of England, and make the
+      entire rates be paid by the occupying tenant. His object, he said, was to
+      &lsquo;prevent lavish expenditure and encourage profitable employment to the
+      people.&rsquo; This amendment was only lost by a majority of four.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 26th of March, on the government bringing forward their bill on the
+      rum duties, Lord George Bentinck brought before the House the case of the
+      British and Irish distillers, not with any preference or partiality
+      towards English, Scotch, or Irish distillers over the colonial producer.
+      &lsquo;I am no advocate of any monopoly whatever. I desire only equal and exact
+      justice between both parties; and the only way in which that end can, in
+      my opinion, be properly attained, is in a select committee upstairs,
+      consisting of impartial members of this house.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He often used to say that no subject ever gave him more trouble thoroughly
+      to master than the spirit duties; and he noticed the character of the
+      theme at the beginning of his speech. He said he required, not only the
+      most especial indulgence, but even the toleration of the House, &lsquo;for of
+      all the dry and dull subjects which could possibly be introduced, the
+      question which it is now my misfortune to bring under the consideration of
+      the House is the driest and the dullest. If this question had been one
+      merely of pounds, shillings, and pence, it would have been dull and
+      complicated enough; but this is a question in which are concerned not
+      pounds and shillings, but pence, and halfpence, and farthings.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Whitsuntide holidays occurred at the end of May. It had originally
+      been the intention of Lord George Bentinck, at the request of leading
+      merchants and manufacturers of all parties and opinions, to have brought
+      forward the question of the Bank Act after these holidays, and to move a
+      resolution that some discretionary power should be established as to the
+      issue of notes. He thus alludes to this point in a letter to Mr. Wright,
+      of the 24th of May:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I return you No. 1019, of the &ldquo;Bankers&rsquo; Circular,&rdquo; with many thanks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This delightful and timely change in the weather will do wonders for the
+      country, and by producing an abundant and seasonable harvest, will save
+      the country, and <i>may save the Bank Charter Act</i>; but it is pretty
+      well settled that I am to give notice immediately after the holidays, of a
+      resolution very much in the spirit of the memorial contained in the paper
+      I am returning to you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Things are better in the City and at Liverpool, and with this weather
+      will continue to improve; but it seems to me any reverse in the weather,
+      such as would occasion a late and deficient harvest, could not fail to
+      bring the commerce of the country to a dead lock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The opinion is gaining ground, that in the present state not only of
+      Ireland, but of many districts in England, the government will not venture
+      upon a general election till after the harvest, and not then, unless the
+      harvest should prove favourable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am glad to read your opinion in opposition to Lord Ashburton&rsquo;s, that
+      railways keep the gold in the country, and do not send it out. Glyn gave
+      strong evidence last year to this effect before the railway committee.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither of the prospects in this letter was realised. The commercial and
+      manufacturing interest, after the Whitsun recess, thought it advisable for
+      reasons of great weight that Lord George Bentinck should postpone for a
+      month or six weeks his intended motion on the Bank Charter, and the
+      ministers resolved to dissolve Parliament before the harvest: thus it
+      happened that the merchants and manufacturers lost their chance of relief
+      from the yoke, and experienced the reign of terror in the autumn, the
+      terrible events of which ultimately occasioned the assembling of the new
+      Parliament in November.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anticipating the immediate dissolution of Parliament, Sir Robert Peel had
+      issued an address to the electors of Tamworth, justifying his commercial
+      policy. In the opinion of Lord George Bentinck it set forth a statement as
+      to the effect and operation of those financial measures which had taken
+      place in the course of the last six years, which, if left altogether
+      unrefuted, might have a dangerous tendency at the coming elections. The
+      general effect of that statement was, that by the reduction of duties to a
+      large extent, it was possible to relieve the people of this country of
+      burdens amounting to more than seven millions and a half sterling with
+      little or no loss whatever to the revenue. But the truth was, Sir Robert
+      Peel in his reductions had dealt only with little more than ten millions
+      sterling of the revenue of the country, and had left the remaining
+      thirty-seven millions untouched. Now on that portion of the revenue with
+      which alone he had dealt, there was a deficiency, through his changes, to
+      the amount of five millions sterling, which loss was compensated by the
+      increase on those very articles which Sir Robert had left untouched. It
+      was the opinion of Lord George Bentinck that the conclusion which Sir
+      Robert Peel had drawn from the comparatively barren results of the
+      increased duties on imports carried by the Whigs in 1840, viz., that
+      indirect taxation had reached its limit, and which was indeed the basis of
+      his new system, was a fallacy, and that the anticipated increase of import
+      duties had not accrued in 1840 in consequence of our having had three
+      successive bad harvests, &lsquo;and a bad cotton crop to boot,&rsquo; all of which had
+      checked the consuming power of the community. Sir Robert Peel had been
+      favoured by three successive good harvests and nearly £100,000,000
+      invested in six years in domestic enterprise. &lsquo;The interposition of
+      Providence,&rsquo; said Lord George, &lsquo;is never a part of our debates.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under these circumstances, Lord George took occasion to review the
+      commercial policy of Sir Robert Peel, on the 20th July, in the House of
+      Commons, only three days before the prorogation, and in one of his most
+      successful speeches. He was much assisted by the fact that the exports of
+      all our staple manufactures had then greatly diminished, and of course he
+      urged this point triumphantly. &lsquo;If we had been indemnified for the dead
+      loss of £650,000 on cotton wool by any great impulse given to our
+      manufacturers, it would be a consolation which unfortunately we could not
+      enjoy.&rsquo; He traced all the consumption to railway enterprise, and showed
+      that it alone had compensated for the fruitless loss of revenue which we
+      had incurred in vainly stimulating the exports of our manufactures, which
+      had actually diminished. He was so impressed with the importance that, &lsquo;on
+      the eve of a dissolution, such a statement as that of Sir Robert Peel
+      should not go forth to the country uncontroverted, as in that case the
+      necessary result would be that the people would come to the opinion that
+      they might abolish taxes altogether and yet maintain the revenue,&rsquo; that he
+      sat up all night writing an address to his constituents, the electors of
+      King&rsquo;s Lynn, which took up nearly two columns of the newspapers, in which
+      he presented his refutation to the public of the commercial manifesto of
+      Tamworth, illustrated by the necessary tables and documents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is a sentence in this speech which, as a distinct expression of
+      policy, should perhaps be quoted:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sir, I am one of those who seek for the repeal of the malt tax and the
+      hop duties. I am one of those who think that the excise duties ought to be
+      taken off. But, sir, I do not pretend that you can repeal the malt tax or
+      the hop duties, or remove the soap tax without commutation for other
+      taxes. I will not delude the people by pretending that I could take off
+      more than seven millions and a half of taxes without replacing them by
+      others, and not leave the nation bankrupt. But I think these reforms of
+      Sir Robert Peel have been in a mistaken direction; I think that revenue
+      duties on all foreign imports ought to be maintained, and that a revenue
+      equal to those excise duties which I have mentioned can be levied upon the
+      produce of foreign countries and foreign industry, without imposing any
+      greater tax than one which shall fall far short of Mr. Walker&rsquo;s &ldquo;perfect
+      revenue standard of 20 per cent.&rdquo; I say that by imposing a tax far less
+      than 20 per cent. upon all articles of foreign import, a revenue might be
+      derived far less burdensome to this country than that of excise, a revenue
+      of which the burden would be largely shared in by foreign countries, and
+      in many cases paid altogether by foreign countries.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George at this time watched with great interest a novel feature in
+      our commercial transactions. He wrote on the 29th May (1847), to Mr. Burn,
+      the editor of the &lsquo;Commercial Glance,&rsquo; and an individual of whose
+      intelligence, accuracy, and zeal he had a high and just opinion, &lsquo;Can you
+      inform me how the raw cotton purchased for exportation stands in the first
+      three weeks of the present month of May, as compared with the
+      corresponding periods of &lsquo;46&mdash;5&mdash;4&mdash;3?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I observe from a cotton circular sent to me the other day, that seven
+      thousand five hundred bags of cotton had been purchased for exportation
+      between the 1st and 21st of May. If with reduced stocks of raw cotton we
+      are commencing a career of increased exportation, it appears to me to
+      involve very serious consequences for our cotton manufactures as growing
+      out of the existing monetary difficulties of the manufacturers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If you could answer me these queries within the next three or four days,
+      I should feel greatly obliged to you.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, on the 22d of July, on the point of going down to his constituents,
+      he was still pursuing his inquiries in the same quarter.&rsquo; I want
+      particularly to compare,&rsquo; he says to Mr. Burn, &lsquo;the export of the last ten
+      weeks of raw cotton with the corresponding ten weeks of &lsquo;46 and &lsquo;45, and
+      at the same time to compare the importations and deliveries into the hands
+      of the manufacturers during these same periods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Pray address me, Lynn, Norfolk, where I go on Saturday, and shall remain
+      till after my election on Thursday.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He writes again from Lynn, with great thanks for the information which had
+      been accordingly forwarded to him there. &lsquo;Might I ask you to give me an
+      account of the cotton wool imported weekly into Liverpool, and also the
+      quantity sold to dealers, exporters, and speculators, in the three
+      corresponding weeks of &lsquo;45-46.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This information by return of post would greatly oblige me.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 23d of July, 1847, the last day of the second Parliament of Queen
+      Victoria, Lord George went down to the House of Commons early, and took
+      the opportunity of making a statement respecting the condition of our
+      sugar-producing colonies, which were now experiencing the consequences of
+      the unjustifiable legislation of the preceding year. He said there were
+      appearances in the political horizon which betokened that he should not be
+      able to obtain a select committee in the present session, and therefore,
+      if he had the honour of a seat in the next Parliament, he begged to
+      announce that he would take the earliest occasion to move for a committee
+      to inquire into the present power of our colonies to compete with those
+      countries which have still the advantage of the enforced labour of slaves.
+      The returns just laid upon the table of the House could leave no doubt, he
+      thought, on any man&rsquo;s mind on that point. Since the emancipation, the
+      produce of sugar by the colonies, from &lsquo;31 to &lsquo;46, had been reduced one
+      half, and of rum and coffee had been reduced to one fourth. When the act
+      of last year which admitted slave-grown sugar was introduced, the
+      allegation of the English colonies, that they could not compete with the
+      labour of slaves, was denied. The proof of that allegation was, that they
+      were already overwhelmed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When one recalls all to which this speech led, the most memorable effort
+      of that ardent, energetic life to which it was perhaps fatal, one can
+      scarcely observe the origin of such vast exertions without emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Under Secretary of State replied to Lord George, making a cry of cheap
+      sugar for the hustings which were before everybody&rsquo;s eyes, but making also
+      this remarkable declaration, that &lsquo;the Island of Mauritius was in a state
+      of the greatest prosperity.&rsquo; While Lord George was speaking, the cannon
+      were heard that announced the departure of her majesty from the palace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then followed a motion of Mr. Bankes about the sale of bread, which led to
+      some discussion. Mr. Bankes threatened a division. Lord Palmerston, who on
+      this occasion was leading the House, said it would be acting like a set of
+      schoolboys, if when Black Rod appeared they should be in the lobby instead
+      of attending the Speaker to the other House. But as the members seemed
+      very much inclined to act like schoolboys, the Secretary of State had to
+      speak against time on the subject of baking. He analyzed the petition,
+      which he said he would not read through, but the last paragraph was of
+      great importance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At these words, Black Rod knocked at the door, and duly making his
+      appearance, summoned the House to attend the Queen in the House of Lords,
+      and Mr. Speaker, followed by a crowd of members, duly obeyed the summons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In about a quarter of an hour, Mr. Speaker returned without the mace, and
+      standing at the table read her Majesty&rsquo;s speech to the members around,
+      after which they retired, the Parliament being prorogued. In the course of
+      the afternoon, the Parliament was dissolved by proclamation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Great Panic</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE general election of 1847 did not materially alter the position of
+      parties in the House of Commons. The high prices of agricultural produce
+      which then prevailed naturally rendered the agricultural interest
+      apathetic, and although the rural constituencies, from a feeling of
+      esteem, again returned those members who had been faithful to the
+      protective principle, the farmers did not exert themselves to increase the
+      number of their supporters. The necessity of doing so was earnestly
+      impressed upon them by Lord George Bentinck, who warned them then that the
+      pinching hour was inevitable; but the caution was disregarded, and many of
+      those individuals who are now the loudest in their imprecations on the
+      memory of Sir Robert Peel, and who are the least content with the
+      temperate course which is now recommended to them by those who have the
+      extremely difficult office of upholding their interests in the House of
+      Commons, entirely kept aloof, or would smile when they were asked for
+      their support with sarcastic self-complacency, saying, &lsquo;Well, Sir, do you
+      think after all that free trade has done us so much harm?&rsquo; Perhaps they
+      think now, that if they had taken the advice of Lord George Bentinck and
+      exerted themselves to return a majority to the House of Commons, it would
+      have profited them more than useless execrations and barren discontent.
+      But it is observable, that no individuals now grumble so much as the
+      farmers who voted for free trader in 1847, unless indeed it be the
+      shipowners, every one of whom for years, both in and out of Parliament,
+      supported the repeal of the corn laws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Protectionists maintained their numbers, though they did not increase
+      them, in the new Parliament. Lord George Bentinck however gained an
+      invaluable coadjutor by the re-appearance of Mr. Herries in public life, a
+      gentleman whose official as well as parliamentary experience, fine
+      judgment, and fertile resource, have been of inestimable service to the
+      Protectionist party. The political connection which gained most were the
+      Whigs; they were much more numerous and compact, but it was in a great
+      measure at the expense of the general liberal element, and partly at the
+      cost of the following of Sir Robert Peel. The triumphant Conservative
+      majority of 1841 had disappeared; but the government, with all shades of
+      supporters, had not an absolute majority.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had the general election been postponed until the autumn, the results
+      might have been very different. That storm&mdash;which had been long
+      gathering in the commercial atmosphere&mdash;then burst like a typhoon.
+      The annals of our trade afford no parallel for the widespread disaster and
+      the terrible calamities. In the month of September, fifteen of the most
+      considerable houses in the city of London stopped payment for between five
+      and six millions sterling. The governor of the Bank of England was himself
+      a partner in one of these firms; a gentleman who had lately filled that
+      office, was another victim; two other Bank directors were included in the
+      list. The failures were not limited to the metropolis, but were
+      accompanied by others of great extent in the provinces. At Manchester,
+      Liverpool, and Glasgow large firms were obliged to suspend payments. This
+      shock of credit arrested all the usual accommodation, and the pressure in
+      the money-market, so terrible in the spring, was revived. The excitement
+      and the alarm in the city of London were so great that when the Chancellor
+      of the Exchequer hurried up to town on the 1st of October, he found that
+      the interest of money was at the rate of 60 per cent. per annum. The Bank
+      Charter produced the same injurious effect as it had done in April; it
+      aggravated the evil by forcing men to hoard. In vain the commercial world
+      deplored the refusal of the government to comply with the suggestion made
+      by Lord George Bentinck and Mr. Thomas Baring in the spring; in vain they
+      entreated them at least now to adopt it, and to authorize the Bank of
+      England to enlarge the amount of their discounts and advances on approved
+      security, without reference to the stringent clause of the charter. The
+      government, acting, it is believed, with the encouragement and sanction of
+      Sir Robert Peel, were obstinate, and three weeks then occurred during
+      which the commercial credit of this country was threatened with total
+      destruction. Nine more considerable mercantile houses stopped payment in
+      the metropolis, the disasters in the provinces were still more extensive.
+      The Royal Bank of Liverpool failed; among several principal establishments
+      in that town, one alone stopped payment for upwards of a million sterling.
+      The havoc at Manchester was also great. The Newcastle bank and the North
+      and South Wales bank stopped. Consols fell to 79 1/4, and exchequer bills
+      were at last at 35 per cent, discount. The ordinary rate of discount at
+      the Bank of England was between 8 and 9 per cent., but out of doors
+      accommodation was not to be obtained. In such a state of affairs, the
+      small houses of course gave way. From their rising in the morning until
+      their hour of retirement at night, the First Lord of the Treasury and the
+      Chancellor of the Exchequer were employed in seeing persons of all
+      descriptions, who entreated them to interfere and preserve the community
+      from universal bankruptcy. &lsquo;Perish the world, sooner than violate a
+      principle,&rsquo; was the philosophical exclamation of her Majesty&rsquo;s ministers,
+      sustained by the sympathy and the sanction of Sir Robert Peel. At last,
+      the governor and the deputy-governor of the Bank of England waited on
+      Downing Street, and said it could go on no more. The Scotch banks had
+      applied to them for assistance. The whole demand for discount was thrown
+      upon the Bank of England. Two bill-brokers had stopped; two others were
+      paralyzed. The Bank of England could discount no longer. Thanks to the
+      Bank Charter, they were safe and their treasury full of bullion, but it
+      appeared that everybody else must fall, for in four-and-twenty hours the
+      machinery of credit would be entirely stopped. The position was frightful,
+      and the government gave way. They did that on the 25th of October, after
+      houses had fallen to the amount of fifteen millions sterling, which they
+      had been counselled to do by Lord George Bentinck on the 25th of April. It
+      turned out exactly as Mr. Thomas Baring had foretold. It was not want of
+      capital or deficiency of circulation which had occasioned these awful
+      consequences. It was sheer panic, occasioned by an unwisely stringent law.
+      No sooner had the government freed the Bank of England from that
+      stringency, than the panic ceased. The very morning the letter of license
+      from the government to the Bank of England appeared, thousands and tens of
+      thousands of pounds sterling were taken from the hoards, some from boxes
+      deposited with bankers, although the depositors would not leave the notes
+      in their bankers&rsquo; hands. Large parcels of notes were returned to the Bank
+      of England cut into halves, as they had been sent down into the country,
+      and so small was the real demand for an additional quantity of currency,
+      that the whole amount taken from the Bank, when the unlimited power of
+      issue was given, was under £400,000, and the Bank consequently never
+      availed itself of the privilege which the government had accorded it. The
+      restoration of confidence produced an ample currency, and that confidence
+      had solely been withdrawn from the apprehension of the stringent clauses
+      of the Bank Charter Act of 1844.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These extraordinary events had not occurred unnoticed by Lord George
+      Bentinck. The two subjects that mostly engaged his attention after the
+      general election were the action of the Bank Charter and the state of our
+      sugar colonies. Perhaps it would be best to give some extracts from his
+      correspondence at this period. He was a good letter-writer, easy and
+      clear. His characteristic love of details also rendered this style of
+      communication interesting. It is not possible to give more than extracts,
+      and it is necessary to omit all those circumstances which generally in
+      letter-reading are most acceptable. His comments on men and things were
+      naturally free and full, and he always endeavoured, for the amusement of
+      his correspondents, to communicate the social gossip of the hour. But
+      although all this must necessarily be omitted, his letters may afford some
+      illustrations of his earnestness and energy, the constancy of his aim, and
+      the untiring vigilance with which he pursued his object&mdash;especially
+      those which are addressed to gentlemen engaged in commercial pursuits who
+      cooperated with him in his investigations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO A FRIEND.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harcourt House, August 30, 1847.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An answer is come out to my address to my constituents at King&rsquo;s Lynn, and
+      to my speech in answer to Peel&rsquo;s manifesto. Pray read it. At first I
+      thought I could swear to its being * * * *, I now think I can swear to its
+      being * * * *; the servility to Peel, and the official red-tape style
+      would equally do for either; but the no-popery page, I think, fixes it on
+      * * * *.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I think it wretchedly weak, and have written some notes on the margin,
+      showing up the principal points. The nine months&rsquo; famine of 1846-47, as
+      contrasted with Peel&rsquo;s famine, shows a difference of between £6,000,000
+      and £7,000,000; that is to say, on the balance in the nine months 1845-46,
+      Ireland exported about three millions&rsquo; worth of breadstuffs, and not a
+      soul died of famine. In the nine months 1846-47, she imported three
+      millions&rsquo; sterling worth of bread-stuffs, which insufficed to prevent one
+      million&mdash;or say half a million&mdash;of the people from dying of
+      starvation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At present I have seen no notice of the pamphlet in any of the newspapers:
+      if it is either * * * *&lsquo;s, or * * * *&lsquo;s, or * * * *&lsquo;s we shall see it
+      reviewed in &lsquo;Times,&rsquo; &lsquo;Chronicle,&rsquo; and &lsquo;Spectator.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Bank of England has raised the interest on * * * *&lsquo;s mortgage
+      one-third per cent., making an additional annual charge of £1,500 a year
+      to him. I am very sorry for him, but I know nothing so likely to rouse the
+      landed aristocracy from their apathy, and to weaken their idolatry of Peel
+      so much as this warning note of the joint operation of his free trade and
+      restrictive currency laws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO A FRIEND.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harcourt House, September 2, 1847.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I think it is * * * *. The trickster, I observe, has carefully reduced the
+      pounds of cotton to cwts., in the hopes of concealing a great fraud to
+      which he has condescended; taking, in the Whig year of 1841, the home
+      consumption of cotton, whilst in Peel&rsquo;s year he gives entire importation
+      as the home consumption, representing both as home consumption.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Peel&rsquo;s year, 1846, officially we have only the gross importation; but
+      in the Whig year, 1841, the entire importation and the home consumption
+      are given separately: the importation exceeding the home consumption by
+      fifty million pounds. Burn&rsquo;s &lsquo;Glance,&rsquo; however, gives the importation and
+      home consumption for both years; unfortunately, however, not in lbs. or
+      cwts., but in bags. * * * *&lsquo;s fraud, however, is not the less apparent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He selects a Whig year when the home consumption was 220,-000 bags under
+      the importation, and a year for Peel when the importation exceeded the
+      home consumption by 280,000 bags, and claps down the figures as alike
+      describing the home consumption.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      None of the Peel papers have taken up the subject: if they should, the
+      &lsquo;Morning Post&rsquo; will answer the pamphlet; but I should like to have mine
+      back again, in order that I may furnish them with the notes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      * * * * was with me this morning, and called my attention to the
+      circumstance that the author starts with &lsquo;We,&rsquo; but drops into the singular
+      number; * * * * fancies it is Peel himself, but the page on endowment
+      fixes it on * * * *.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord L * * * * means, I presume, that Peel&rsquo;s savage hatred is applied to
+      the Protectionist portion of his old party, not of course to the
+      janissaries and renegade portion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The following letter was in reply to one of a friend who had sent him
+      information, several days before they occurred, of the great failures that
+      were about to happen in the city of London. The list was unfortunately
+      quite accurate, with the exception indeed of the particular house
+      respecting which Lord George quotes the opinion of Baron Rothschild.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO A FRIEND.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Welbeck, September 17, 1847.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A thousand thanks for your letter, the intelligence in which created a
+      great sensation at Doncaster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As yet none of the houses appear to have failed except S * * * *. Baron
+      Rothschild was at Doncaster. I talked with him on the subject; he seemed
+      not to doubt the probable failure of any of the houses you named, except *
+      * * *. He declared very emphatically &lsquo;that * * * * house was as sound as
+      any house in London.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord Fitzwilliam declares &lsquo;it is no free trade without free trade in
+      money.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord Clanricarde is here&mdash;laughs at the idea of Parliament meeting in
+      October; but talks much of the difficulties of Ireland&mdash;says he does
+      not see how the rates are to be paid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Messrs. Drummond are calling in their mortgages. I expect to hear that
+      this practice will be general; money dear, corn cheap, incumbrances
+      enhanced, and rents depressed. What will become of the apathetic country
+      gentlemen? I judge from * * * * &lsquo;s language, that Lord John Russell will
+      stand or fall by the Bank Charter Act-but that he feels very apprehensive
+      of being unable to maintain it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I agree with Bonham, in thinking that the Protectionist party is smashed
+      for the present Parliament; but I must say I think Protectionist
+      principles and policy are likely to come into repute again far sooner than
+      was expected; and though Peel&rsquo;s party be a compact body, and formidable in
+      the House of Commons, I cannot think that there appears that in the
+      working of his measures to make it likely that he should be soon again
+      carried into power on the shoulders of the people. I think his political
+      reputation must ebb further before it can rise again, if it should ever
+      rise again. * * * * thought him &lsquo;broken and in low spirits,&rsquo; when he met
+      him at Longshaw; but Lord * * * *, who was there at the same time, came
+      away more Peelite than ever, and told them at Bretby that Sir Robert said,
+      &lsquo;That he was quite surprised at the number of letters he got every day
+      from members returned to Parliament, saying they meant to vote with him.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You may rely upon it the Peelites are very sanguine that they will be in
+      power again almost directly. We must keep them out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. BURN, EDITOR OF THE &lsquo;COMMERCIAL GLANCE.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Welbeck, September 38, 1847. To the many courtesies you have already
+      bestowed upon me, I will sincerely thank you to add that of informing me
+      what have been the estimated cotton crops in the United States in each of
+      the last four years. I would also thank you to inform me the comparative
+      importation, home consumption, re-exportation, and stocks on hand of
+      cotton of the first seven months of the current and three preceding years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. BURN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Welbeck, October 4, 1847.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your statistics have reached me in the very nick of time, and are
+      invaluable. I care nothing about &lsquo;outsides,&rsquo; it is &lsquo;insides&rsquo; I look to;
+      give me a good &lsquo;heart,&rsquo; and I don&rsquo;t care how rough the &lsquo;bark&rsquo; is.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anything so good I fear to spoil by suggesting the most trivial addition,
+      else I should say it would be an interesting feature to classify the
+      exports of cotton goods, etc., etc., under three heads:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1st. To the British colonies and British possessions abroad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2nd. To the northern states of Europe, France, Spain, Germany, Italy,
+      etc., etc., the United States of America, and other countries having high
+      tariffs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3rd. To China, Turkey, Africa, and the Southern States of America, and
+      countries with low tariffs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I fear these failures of East and West India houses must entail great
+      distress upon Manchester, and the manufacturing interests generally. You
+      have given an account of the bankruptcies in the cotton trade during a
+      long series of years till last year inclusive; are you able to say how the
+      first nine months of the current year stands in comparison with its
+      predecessors?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I so highly prize your new work, that I must ask for a dozen copies to
+      distribute among my friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P. S. I have already parted with the copy you sent me; may I, therefore,
+      beg another without waiting for any other binding?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO A FRIEND.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Welbeck, October 5, 1847.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I shall go up to town on Friday evening, in my way to Newmarket, and shall
+      be at Harcourt House all Saturday and Sunday, and shall be delighted to
+      see you, and have a thorough good talk with you. Free trade seems working
+      mischief faster than the most fearful of us predicted, and Manchester
+      houses, as I am told, &lsquo;failing in rows,&rsquo; ashamed to do penance in public,
+      are secretly weeping in sackcloth and ashes, and heartily praying that
+      Peel and Cobden had been hanged before they were allowed to ruin the
+      country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Money at Manchester is quoted one and a quarter per cent, for ten days:
+      £45 12s. 6d. per cent. per annum!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO A FRIEND.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harcourt House, October 22, 1847. I have this moment got a note from
+      Stuart, telling me that &lsquo;the Chancellor has this afternoon sent out his
+      notice of the business to be taken in his own court during Michaelmas
+      term, that is, from the 2nd of November till the 26th, and below it there
+      is this notice&mdash;<i>except those days on which the Lord Chancellor may
+      sit in the House of Lords</i>!!!&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Surely this must portend a November session.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO A FRIEND.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harcourt House, October 23, 1847. The fat banker&rsquo;s gossip is all stuff.
+      Peel goes to Windsor today, I believe on an invitation of some standing. *
+      * * * who had been dining at Palmerston&rsquo;s last night, tells me that he
+      does not think that ministers mean calling Parliament together, and is
+      confident they mean to maintain the Bank Charter Act. There have been some
+      first-rate articles and letters in the &lsquo;Morning Chronicle&rsquo; lately on this
+      subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO A FRIEND.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harcourt House, November 6, 1847.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will stay over Tuesday, that I may have the pleasure of a thorough talk
+      with you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am told things are gradually getting better. I expect, however, a fresh
+      reverse about six weeks or two months hence, when the returned lists of
+      the stoppages in the East and West Indies, consequent upon the late
+      failures here, come home. The Western Bank of Scotland is whispered about.
+      If that were to fail, it might bring the canny Scots to their senses; but
+      they are a headstrong race.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A committee on commercial distress having been appointed, the principal
+      reason for the summoning of the new Parliament in the autumn had been
+      satisfied, and an adjournment until a month after Christmas was in
+      prospect. Before, however, this took place, a new and interesting question
+      arose, which led to considerable discussion, and which ultimately
+      influenced in no immaterial manner the parliamentary position of Lord
+      George Bentinck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The city of London at the general election had sent to the House of
+      Commons, as a colleague of the first minister, a member who found a
+      difficulty in taking one of the oaths appointed by the House to be sworn
+      preliminarily to any member exercising his right of voting. The difficulty
+      arose from this member being not only of the Jewish race, but
+      unfortunately believing only in the first part of the Jewish religion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Jews</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE relations that subsist between the Bedoueen race that, under the name
+      of Jews, is found in every country of Europe, and the Teutonic,
+      Sclavonian, and Celtic races which have appropriated that division of the
+      globe, will form hereafter one of the most remarkable chapters in a
+      philosophical history of man. The Saxon, the Sclav, and the Celt have
+      adopted most of the laws and many of the customs of these Arabian tribes,
+      all their literature and all their religion. They are therefore indebted
+      to them for much that regulates, much that charms, and much that solaces
+      existence. The toiling multitude rest every seventh day by virtue of a
+      Jewish law; they are perpetually reading, &lsquo;for their example,&rsquo; the records
+      of Jewish history, and singing the odes and elegies of Jewish poets; and
+      they daily acknowledge on their knees, with reverent gratitude, that the
+      only medium of communication between the Creator and themselves is the
+      Jewish race. Yet they treat that race as the vilest of generations; and
+      instead of logically looking upon them as the human family that has
+      contributed most to human happiness, they extend to them every term of
+      obloquy and every form of persecution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us endeavour to penetrate this social anomaly that has harassed and
+      perplexed centuries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is alleged that the dispersion of the Jewish race is a penalty incurred
+      for the commission of a great crime: namely, the crucifixion of our
+      blessed Lord in the form of a Jewish prince, by the Romans, at Jerusalem,
+      and at the instigation of some Jews, in the reign of Tiberius Augustus
+      Caesar. Upon this, it may be observed, that the allegation is neither
+      historically true nor dogmatically sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I. <i>Not historically true</i>. It is not historically true, because at
+      the time of the advent of our Lord, the Jewish race was as much dispersed
+      throughout the world as at this present time, and had been so for many
+      centuries. Europe, with the exception of those shores which are bathed by
+      the midland sea, was then a primeval forest, but in every city of the
+      great Eastern monarchies and in every province of the Roman empire, the
+      Jews had been long settled. We have not precise authority for saying that
+      at the advent there were more Jews established in Egypt than in Palestine,
+      but it may unquestionably be asserted that at that period there were more
+      Jews living, and that too in great prosperity and honour, at Alexandria
+      than at Jerusalem. It is evident from various Roman authors, that the
+      Jewish race formed no inconsiderable portion of the multitude that filled
+      Rome itself, and that the Mosaic religion, undisturbed by the state, even
+      made proselytes. But it is unnecessary to enter into any curious
+      researches on this head, though the authorities are neither scant nor
+      uninteresting. We are furnished with evidence the most complete and
+      unanswerable of the pre-dispersion by the sacred writings themselves. Not
+      two months after the crucifixion, when the Third Person of the Holy
+      Trinity first descended on Jerusalem, it being the time of the great
+      festivals, when the Jews, according to the custom of the Arabian tribes
+      pursued to this day in the pilgrimage to Mecca, repaired from all quarters
+      to the central sacred place, the holy writings inform us that there were
+      gathered together in Jerusalem &lsquo;Jews, devout men, out of every nation
+      under heaven.&rsquo; And that this expression, so general but so precise, should
+      not be mistaken, we are shortly afterwards, though incidentally, informed,
+      that there were Parthians, Medes, and Persians at Jerusalem, professing
+      the Mosaic faith; Jews from Mesopotamia and Syria, from the countries of
+      the lesser and the greater Asia; Egyptian, Libyan, Greek, and Arabian
+      Jews; and, especially, Jews from Rome itself, some of which latter are
+      particularly mentioned as Roman proselytes. Nor is it indeed historically
+      true that the small section of the Jewish race which dwelt in Palestine
+      rejected Christ. The reverse is the truth. Had it not been for the Jews of
+      Palestine, the good tidings of our Lord would have been unknown for ever
+      to the northern and western races. The first preachers of the gospel were
+      Jews, and none else; the historians of the gospel were Jews, and none
+      else. No one has ever been permitted to write under the inspiration of the
+      Holy Spirit, except a Jew. For nearly a century no one believed in the
+      good tidings except Jews. They nursed the sacred flame of which they were
+      the consecrated and hereditary depositaries. And when the time was ripe to
+      diffuse the truth among the ethnics, it was not a senator of Rome or a
+      philosopher of Athens who was personally appointed by our Lord for that
+      office, but a Jew of Tarsus, who founded the seven churches of Asia. And
+      that greater church, great even amid its terrible corruptions, that has
+      avenged the victory of Titus by subjugating the capital of the Caesars,
+      and has changed every one of the Olympian temples into altars of the God
+      of Sinai and of Calvary, was founded by another Jew, a Jew of Galilee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From all which it appears that the dispersion of the Jewish race,
+      preceding as it did for countless ages the advent of our Lord, could not
+      be for conduct which occurred subsequently to the advent, and that they
+      are also guiltless of that subsequent conduct which has been imputed to
+      them as a crime, since for Him and His blessed name, they preached, and
+      wrote, and shed their blood &lsquo;as witnesses.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, is it possible that that which is not historically true can be
+      dogmatically sound? Such a conclusion would impugn the foundations of all
+      faith. The followers of Jesus, of whatever race, need not however be
+      alarmed. The belief that the present condition of the Jewish race is a
+      penal infliction for the part which some Jews took at the crucifixion is
+      not dogmatically sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. <i>Not dogmatically sound</i>. There is no passage in the sacred
+      writings that in the slightest degree warrants the penal assumption. The
+      imprecation of the mob at the crucifixion is sometimes strangely quoted as
+      a divine decree. It is not a principle of jurisprudence, human or
+      inspired, to permit the criminal to ordain his own punishment. Why, too,
+      should they transfer any portion of the infliction to their posterity?
+      What evidence have we that the wild suggestion was sanctioned by
+      Omnipotence? On the contrary, amid the expiating agony, a Divine Voice at
+      the same time solicited and secured forgiveness. And if unforgiven, could
+      the cry of a rabble at such a scene bind a nation?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, dogmatically considered, the subject of the crucifixion must be
+      viewed in a deeper spirit. We must pause with awe to remember what was the
+      principal office to be fulfilled by the advent. When the ineffable mystery
+      of the Incarnation was consummated, a Divine Person moved on the face of
+      the earth in the shape of a child of Israel, not to teach but to expiate.
+      True it is that no word could fall from such lips, whether in the form of
+      profound parable, or witty retort, or preceptive lore, but to guide and
+      enlighten; but they who, in those somewhat lax effusions which in these
+      days are honoured with the holy name of theology, speak of the morality of
+      the Gospel as a thing apart and of novel revelation, would do well to
+      remember that in promulgating such doctrines they are treading on very
+      perilous ground. There cannot be two moralities; and to hold that the
+      Second Person of the Holy Trinity could teach a different morality from
+      that which had been already revealed by the First Person of the Holy
+      Trinity, is a dogma so full of terror that it may perhaps be looked upon
+      as the ineffable sin against the Holy Spirit. When the lawyer tempted our
+      Lord, and inquired how he was to inherit eternal life, the great Master of
+      Galilee referred him to the writings of Moses. There he would find
+      recorded &lsquo;the whole duty of man;&rsquo; to love God with all his heart, and
+      soul, and strength, and mind, and his neighbour as himself. These two
+      principles are embalmed in the writings of Moses, and are the essence of
+      Christian morals.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * &lsquo;Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.&rsquo; 
+     &mdash;Leviticus xix.  18.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It was for something deeper than this, higher and holier than even Moses
+      could fulfil, that angels announced the Coming. It was to accomplish an
+      event pre-ordained by the Creator of the world for countless ages. Born
+      from the chosen house of the chosen people, yet blending in his
+      inexplicable nature the Divine essence with the human elements, a
+      sacrificial Mediator was to appear, appointed before all time, to purify
+      with his atoning blood the myriads that had preceded and the myriads that
+      will follow him. The doctrine embraces all space and time&mdash;nay, chaos
+      and eternity; Divine persons are the agents, and the redemption of the
+      whole family of man the result. If the Jews had not prevailed upon the
+      Romans to crucify our Lord, what would have become of the Atonement? But
+      the human mind cannot contemplate the idea that the most important deed of
+      time could depend upon human will. The immolators were preordained like
+      the victim, and the holy race supplied both. Could that be a crime which
+      secured for all mankind eternal joy&mdash;which vanquished Satan, and
+      opened the gates of Paradise? Such a tenet would sully and impugn the
+      doctrine that is the corner-stone of our faith and hope. Men must not
+      presume to sit in judgment on such an act. They must bow their heads in
+      awe and astonishment and trembling gratitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, though the opinion that the dispersion of the Jewish race must be
+      deemed a penalty incurred for their connection with the crucifixion has
+      neither historical nor doctrinal sanction, it is possible that its
+      degrading influence upon its victims may have been as efficacious as if
+      their present condition were indeed a judicial infliction. Persecution, in
+      a word, although unjust, may have reduced the modern Jews to a state
+      almost justifying malignant vengeance. They may have become so odious and
+      so hostile to mankind, as to merit for their present conduct, no matter
+      how occasioned, the obloquy and ill-treatment of the communities in which
+      they dwell and with which they are scarcely permitted to mingle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us examine this branch of the subject, which, though of more limited
+      interest, is not without instruction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In all the great cities of Europe, and in some of the great cities of
+      Asia, among the infamous classes therein existing, there will always be
+      found Jews. They are not the only people who are usurers, gladiators, and
+      followers of mean and scandalous occupations, nor are they anywhere a
+      majority of such, but considering their general numbers, they contribute
+      perhaps more than their proportion to the aggregate of the vile. In this
+      they obey the law which regulates the destiny of all persecuted races: the
+      infamous is the business of the dishonoured; and as infamous pursuits are
+      generally illegal pursuits, the persecuted race which has most ability
+      will be most successful in combating the law. The Jews have never been so
+      degraded as the Greeks were throughout the Levant before the emancipation,
+      and the degradation of the Greeks was produced by a period of persecution
+      which, both in amount and suffering, cannot compare with that which has
+      been endured by the children of Israel. This peculiarity, however, attends
+      the Jews under the most unfavourable circumstances; the other degraded
+      races wear out and disappear; the Jew remains, as determined, as expert,
+      as persevering, as full of resource and resolution as ever. Viewed in this
+      light, the degradation of the Jewish race is alone a striking evidence of
+      its excellence, for none but one of the great races could have survived
+      the trials which it has endured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, though a material organization of the highest class may account for
+      so strange a consequence, the persecuted Hebrew is supported by other
+      means. He is sustained by a sublime religion. Obdurate, malignant, odious,
+      and revolting as the lowest Jew appears to us, he is rarely demoralized.
+      Beneath his own roof his heart opens to the influence of his beautiful
+      Arabian traditions. All his ceremonies, his customs, and his festivals are
+      still to celebrate the bounty of nature and the favour of Jehovah. The
+      patriarchal feeling lingers about his hearth. A man, however fallen, who
+      loves his home is not wholly lost. The trumpet of Sinai still sounds in
+      the Hebrew ear, and a Jew is never seen upon the scaffold, unless it be at
+      an <i>auto da fè</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, having made this full admission of the partial degradation of the
+      Jewish race, we are not prepared to agree that this limited degeneracy is
+      any justification of the prejudices and persecution which originated in
+      barbarous or mediæval superstitions. On the contrary, viewing the
+      influence of the Jewish race upon the modern communities, without any
+      reference to the past history or the future promises of Israel; dismissing
+      from our minds and memories, if indeed that be possible, all that the
+      Hebrews have done in the olden time for man and all which it may be their
+      destiny yet to fulfil, we hold that instead of being an object of
+      aversion, they should receive all that honour and favour from the northern
+      and western races, which, in civilized and refined nations, should be the
+      lot of those who charm the public taste and elevate the public feeling. We
+      hesitate not to say that there is no race at this present, and following
+      in this only the example of a long period, that so much delights, and
+      fascinates, and elevates, and ennobles Europe, as the Jewish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We dwell not on the fact, that the most admirable artists of the drama
+      have been and still are of the Hebrew race: or, that the most entrancing
+      singers, graceful dancers, and exquisite musicians, are sons and daughters
+      of Israel: though this were much. But these brilliant accessories are
+      forgotten in the sublimer claim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seems that the only means by which in these modern times we are
+      permitted to develop the beautiful is music. It would appear definitively
+      settled that excellence in the plastic arts is the privilege of the
+      earlier ages of the world. All that is now produced in this respect is
+      mimetic, and, at the best, the skilful adaptation of traditional methods.
+      The creative faculty of modern man seems by an irresistible law at work on
+      the virgin soil of science, daily increasing by its inventions our command
+      over nature, and multiplying the material happiness of man. But the
+      happiness of man is not merely material. Were it not for music, we might
+      in these days say, the beautiful is dead. Music seems to be the only means
+      of creating the beautiful, in which we not only equal, but in all
+      probability greatly excel, the ancients. The music of modern Europe ranks
+      with the transcendent creations of human genius; the poetry, the statues,
+      the temples, of Greece. It produces and represents as they did whatever is
+      most beautiful in the spirit of man and often expresses what is most
+      profound. And who are the great composers, who hereafter will rank with
+      Homer, with Sophocles, with Praxiteles, or with Phidias? They are the
+      descendants of those Arabian tribes who conquered Canaan, and who by
+      favour of the Most High have done more with less means even than the
+      Athenians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Forty years ago&mdash;not a longer period than the children of Israel were
+      wandering in the desert&mdash;the two most dishonoured races in Europe
+      were the Attic and the Hebrew, and they were the two races that had done
+      most for mankind. Their fortunes had some similarity: their countries were
+      the two smallest in the world, equally barren and equally famous; they
+      both divided themselves into tribes: both built a most famous temple on an
+      acropolis; and both produced a literature which all European nations have
+      accepted with reverence and admiration. Athens has been sacked oftener
+      than Jerusalem, and oftener razed to the ground; but the Athenians have
+      escaped expatriation, which is purely an Oriental custom. The sufferings
+      of the Jews, however, have been infinitely more prolonged and varied than
+      those of the Athenians. The Greek nevertheless appears exhausted. The
+      creative genius of Israel, on the contrary, never shone so bright; and
+      when the Russian, the Frenchman, and the Anglo-Saxon, amid applauding
+      theatres or the choral voices of solemn temples, yield themselves to the
+      full spell of a Mozart or a Mendelssohn, it seems difficult to comprehend
+      how these races can reconcile it to their hearts to persecute a Jew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have shown that the theological prejudice against the Jews has no
+      foundation, historical or doctrinal; we have shown that the social
+      prejudice, originating in the theological but sustained by superficial
+      observations, irrespective of religious prejudice, is still more unjust,
+      and that no existing race is so much entitled to the esteem and gratitude
+      of society as the Hebrew. It remains for us to notice the injurious
+      consequences to European society of the course pursued by the communities
+      to this race; and this view of the subject leads us to considerations
+      which it would become existing statesmen to ponder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The world has by this time discovered that it is impossible to destroy the
+      Jews. The attempt to extirpate them has been made under the most
+      favourable auspices and on the largest scale; the most considerable means
+      that man could command have been pertinaciously applied to this object for
+      the longest period of recorded time. Egyptian Pharaohs, Assyrian kings,
+      Roman emperors, Scandinavian crusaders, Gothic princes, and holy
+      inquisitors have alike devoted their energies to the fulfilment of this
+      common purpose. Expatriation, exile, captivity, confiscation, torture on
+      the most ingenious, and massacre on the most extensive, scale, with a
+      curious system of degrading customs and debasing laws which would have
+      broken the heart of any other people, have been tried, and in vain. The
+      Jews, after all this havoc, are probably more numerous at this date than
+      they were during the reign of Solomon the Wise, are found in all lands,
+      and, unfortunately, prospering in most. All of which proves that it is in
+      vain for man to attempt to battle the inexorable law of nature, which has
+      decreed that a superior race shall never be destroyed or absorbed by an
+      inferior.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the influence of a great race will be felt; its greatness does not
+      depend upon its numbers, otherwise the English would not have vanquished
+      the Chinese, nor would the Aztecs have been overthrown by Cortez and a
+      handful of Goths. That greatness results from its organization, the
+      consequences of which are shown in its energy and enterprise, in the
+      strength of its will and the fertility of its brain. Let us observe what
+      should be the influence of the Jews, and then ascertain how it is
+      exercised. The Jewish race connects the modern populations with the early
+      ages of the world, when the relations of the Creator with the created were
+      more intimate than in these days, when angels visited the earth, and God
+      himself even spoke with man. The Jews represent the Semitic principle; all
+      that is spiritual in our nature. They are the trustees of tradition and
+      the conservators of the religious element. They are a living and the most
+      striking evidence of the falsity of that pernicious doctrine of modern
+      times&mdash;the natural equality of man. The political equality of a
+      particular race is a matter of municipal arrangement, and depends entirely
+      on political considerations and circumstances; but the natural equality of
+      man now in vogue, and taking the form of cosmopolitan fraternity, is a
+      principle which, were it possible to act on it, would deteriorate the
+      great races and destroy all the genius of the world. What would be the
+      consequence on the great Anglo-Saxon republic, for example, were its
+      citizens to secede from their sound principle of reserve, and mingle with
+      their negro and coloured populations? In the course of time they would
+      become so deteriorated that their states would probably be reconquered and
+      regained by the aborigines whom they have expelled, and who would then be
+      their superiors. But though nature will never ultimately permit this
+      theory of natural equality to be practised, the preaching of this dogma
+      has already caused much mischief, and may occasion much more. The native
+      tendency of the Jewish race, who are justly proud of their blood, is
+      against the doctrine of the equality of man. They have also another
+      characteristic, the faculty of acquisition. Although the European laws
+      have endeavoured to prevent their obtaining property, they have
+      nevertheless become remarkable for their accumulated wealth. Thus it will
+      be seen that all the tendencies of the Jewish race are conservative. Their
+      bias is to religion, property, and natural aristocracy: and it should be
+      the interest of statesmen that this bias of a great race should be
+      encouraged, and their energies and creative powers enlisted in the cause
+      of existing society.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But existing society has chosen to persecute this race which should
+      furnish its choice allies, and what have been the consequences?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They may be traced in the last outbreak of the destructive principle in
+      Europe. An insurrection takes place against tradition and aristocracy,
+      against religion and property. Destruction of the Semitic principle,
+      extirpation of the Jewish religion, whether in the Mosaic or in the
+      Christian form, the natural equality of man, and the abrogation of
+      property, are proclaimed by the secret societies who form provisional
+      governments, and men of Jewish race are found at the head of every one of
+      them. The people of God coöperate with atheists; the most skilful
+      accumulators of property ally themselves with communists; the peculiar and
+      chosen race touch the hand of all the scum and low castes of Europe! And
+      all this because they wish to destroy that ungrateful Christendom which
+      owes to them even its name, and whose tyranny they can no longer endure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the secret societies, in February, 1848, surprised Europe, they were
+      themselves surprised by the unexpected opportunity, and so little capable
+      were they of seizing the occasion, that had it not been for the Jews, who
+      of late years unfortunately have been connecting themselves with these
+      unhallowed associations, imbecile as were the governments, the
+      uncalled-for outbreak would not have ravaged Europe. But the fiery energy
+      and the teeming resources of the children of Israel maintained for a long
+      time the unnecessary and useless struggle. If the reader throw his eye
+      over the provisional governments of Germany and Italy, and even of France,
+      formed at that period, he will recognize everywhere the Jewish element.
+      Even the insurrection, and defence, and administration of Venice, which,
+      from the resource and statesmanlike moderation displayed, commanded almost
+      the respect and sympathy of Europe, were accomplished by a Jew&mdash;Manini&mdash;who,
+      by the bye, is a Jew who professes the whole of the Jewish religion, and
+      believes in Calvary as well as Sinai,&mdash;&lsquo;a converted Jew,&rsquo; as the
+      Lombards styled him, quite forgetting, in the confusion of their ideas,
+      that it is the Lombards who are the converts&mdash;not Manini.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus it will be seen, that the persecution of the Jewish race has deprived
+      European society of an important conservative element, and added to the
+      destructive party an influential ally. Prince Metternich, the most
+      enlightened of modern statesmen, not to say the most intellectual of men,
+      was, though himself a victim of the secret societies, fully aware of these
+      premises. It was always his custom, great as were the difficulties which
+      in so doing he had to encounter, to employ as much as possible the Hebrew
+      race in the public service. He could never forget that Napoleon, in his
+      noontide hour, had been checked by the pen of the greatest of political
+      writers; he had found that illustrious author as great in the cabinet as
+      in the study; he knew that no one had more contributed to the deliverance
+      of Europe. It was not as a patron, but as an appreciating and devoted
+      friend, that the High Chancellor of Austria appointed Frederick Gentz
+      secretary to the Congress of Vienna&mdash;and Frederick Gentz was a child
+      of Israel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is no doubt to be deplored that several millions of the Jewish race
+      should persist in believing in only a part of their religion; but this is
+      a circumstance which does not affect Europe, and time, with different
+      treatment, may remove the anomaly which perhaps may be accounted for. It
+      should be recollected, that the existing Jews are perhaps altogether the
+      descendants of those various colonies and emigrations which, voluntary or
+      forced, long preceded the advent. Between the vast carnage of the Roman
+      wars, from Titus to Hadrian, and the profession of Christ by his
+      countrymen, which must have been very prevalent, since the Christian
+      religion was solely sustained by the Jews of Palestine during the greater
+      part of its first century, it is improbable that any descendants of the
+      Jews of Palestine exist who disbelieve in Christ. After the fall of
+      Jerusalem and the failure of Barchochebas, no doubt some portion of the
+      Jews found refuge in the desert, returning to their original land after
+      such long and strange vicissitudes. This natural movement would account
+      for those Arabian tribes, of whose resistance to Mohammed we have ample
+      and authentic details, and who, if we are to credit the accounts which
+      perplex modern travellers, are to this day governed by the Pentateuch
+      instead of the Koran.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Christianity was presented to the ancestors of the present Jews, it
+      came from a very suspicious quarter, and was offered in a very
+      questionable shape. Centuries must have passed in many instances before
+      the Jewish colonies heard of the advent, the crucifixion, and the
+      atonement; the latter, however, a doctrine in perfect harmony with Jewish
+      ideas. When they first heard of Christianity, it appeared to be a Gentile
+      religion, accompanied by idolatrous practices, from which severe
+      monotheists, like the Arabians, always recoil, and holding the Jewish race
+      up to public scorn and hatred. This is not the way to make converts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There have been two great colonies of the Jewish race in Europe; in Spain
+      and in Sarmatia. The origin of the Jews in Spain is lost in the night of
+      time. That it was of great antiquity we have proof. The tradition, once
+      derided, that the Iberian Jews were a Phoenician colony has been favoured
+      by the researches of modern antiquaries, who have traced the Hebrew
+      language in the ancient names of the localities. It may be observed,
+      however, that the languages of the Jews and the Philistines, or
+      Phoenicians, were probably too similar to sanction any positive induction
+      from such phenomena; while on the other hand, in reply to those who have
+      urged the improbability of the Jews, who had no seaports, colonizing
+      Spain, it may be remarked that the colony may have been an expatriation by
+      the Philistines in the course of the long struggle which occurred between
+      them and the invading tribes previous to the foundation of the Hebrew
+      monarchy. We know that in the time of Cicero the Jews had been settled
+      immemorially in Spain. When the Romans, converted to Christianity and
+      acted on by the priesthood, began to trouble the Spanish Jews, it appears
+      by a decree of Constantine that they were owners and cultivators of the
+      soil, a circumstance which alone proves the antiquity and the nobility of
+      their settlement, for the possession of the land is never conceded to a
+      degraded race. The conquest of Spain by the Goths in the fifth and sixth
+      centuries threatened the Spanish Jews, however, with more serious
+      adversaries than the Romans. The Gothic tribes, very recently converted to
+      their Syrian faith, were full of barbaric zeal against those whom they
+      looked upon as the enemies of Jesus. But the Spanish Jews sought
+      assistance from their kinsmen the Saracens on the opposite coast; Spain
+      was invaded and subdued by the Moors, and for several centuries the Jew
+      and the Saracen lived under the same benignant laws and shared the same
+      brilliant prosperity. In the history of Spain during the Saracenic
+      supremacy any distinction of religion or race is no longer traced. And so
+      it came to pass that when at the end of the fourteenth century, after the
+      fell triumph of the Dominicans over the Albigenses, the holy inquisition
+      was introduced into Spain, it was reported to Torquemada that two-thirds
+      of the nobility of Arragon, that is to say of the proprietors of the land,
+      were Jews.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All that these men knew of Christianity was, that it was a religion of
+      fire and sword, and that one of its first duties was to avenge some
+      mysterious and inexplicable crime which had been committed ages ago by
+      some unheard of ancestors of theirs in an unknown land. The inquisitors
+      addressed themselves to the Spanish Jews in the same abrupt and ferocious
+      manner in which the monks saluted the Mexicans and the Peruvians. All
+      those of the Spanish Jews, who did not conform after the fall of the
+      Mohammedan kingdoms, were expatriated by the victorious Goths, and these
+      refugees were the main source of the Italian Jews, and of the most
+      respectable portion of the Jews of Holland. These exiles found refuge in
+      two republics; Venice and the United Provinces. The Portuguese Jews, it is
+      well known, came from Spain, and their ultimate expulsion from Portugal
+      was attended by the same results as the Spanish expatriation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other great division of Jews in Europe are the Sarmatian Jews, and
+      they are very numerous. They amount to nearly three millions. These
+      unquestionably entered Europe with the other Sarmatian nations, descending
+      the Borysthenes and ascending the Danube, and are according to all
+      probability the progeny of the expatriations of the times of
+      Tiglath-Pileser and Nebuchadnezzar. They are the posterity of those
+      &lsquo;devout men,&rsquo; Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, who were attending the
+      festivals at Jerusalem at the time of the descent of the Holy Spirit.
+      Living among barbarous pagans, who never molested them, these people went
+      on very well, until suddenly the barbarous pagans, under the influence of
+      an Italian priesthood, were converted to the Jewish religion, and then as
+      a necessary consequence the converts began to harass, persecute, and
+      massacre the Jews.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These people had never heard of Christ. Had the Romans not destroyed
+      Jerusalem, these Sarmatian Jews would have had a fair chance of obtaining
+      from civilized beings some clear and coherent account of the great events
+      which had occurred. They and their fathers before them would have gone up
+      in customary pilgrimage to the central sacred place, both for purposes of
+      devotion and purposes of trade, and they might have heard from Semitic
+      lips that there were good tidings for Israel. What they heard from their
+      savage companions, and the Italian priesthood which acted on them, was,
+      that there were good tidings for all the world except Israel, and that
+      Israel, for the commission of a great crime of which they had never heard
+      and could not comprehend, was to be plundered, massacred, hewn to pieces,
+      and burnt alive in the name of Christ and for the sake of Christianity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Eastern Jews, who are very numerous, are in general the descendants of
+      those who in the course of repeated captivities settled in the great
+      Eastern monarchies, and which they never quitted. They live in the same
+      cities and follow the same customs as they did in the days of Cyrus. They
+      are to be found in Persia, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor; at Bagdad, at
+      Hamadan, at Smyrna. We know from the Jewish books how very scant was the
+      following which accompanied Esdras and Nehemiah back to Jerusalem. A
+      fortress city, built on a ravine, surrounded by stony mountains and
+      watered by a scanty stream, had no temptations after the gardens of
+      Babylon and the broad waters of the Euphrates. But Babylon has vanished
+      and Jerusalem remains, and what are the waters of Euphrates to the brook
+      of Kedron! It is another name than that of Jesus of Nazareth with which
+      these Jews have been placed in collision, and the Ishmaelites have not
+      forgotten the wrongs of Hagar in their conduct to the descendants of
+      Sarah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is it therefore wonderful that a great portion of the Jewish race should
+      not believe in the most important portion of the Jewish religion? As,
+      however, the converted races become more humane in their behaviour to the
+      Jews, and the latter have opportunity fully to comprehend and deeply to
+      ponder over true Christianity, it is difficult to suppose that the result
+      will not be very different. Whether presented by a Roman or Anglo-Catholic
+      or Genevese divine, by pope, bishop, or presbyter, there is nothing, one
+      would suppose, very repugnant to the feelings of a Jew when he learns that
+      the redemption of the human race has been effected by the mediatorial
+      agency of a child of Israel: if the ineffable mystery of the Incarnation
+      be developed to him, he will remember that the blood of Jacob is a chosen
+      and peculiar blood; and if so transcendent a consummation is to occur, he
+      will scarcely deny that only one race could be deemed worthy of
+      accomplishing it. There may be points of doctrine on which the northern
+      and western races may perhaps never agree. The Jew like them may follow
+      that path in those respects which reason and feeling alike dictate; but
+      nevertheless it can hardly be maintained that there is anything revolting
+      to a Jew to learn that a Jewess is the queen of heaven, or that the flower
+      of the Jewish race are even now sitting on the right hand of the Lord God
+      of Sabaoth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps, too, in this enlightened age, as his mind expands, and he takes a
+      comprehensive view of this period of progress, the pupil of Moses may ask
+      himself, whether all the princes of the house of David have done so much
+      for the Jews as that prince who was crucified on Calvary. Had it not been
+      for Him, the Jews would have been comparatively unknown, or known only as
+      a high Oriental caste which had lost its country. Has not He made their
+      history the most famous in the world? Has not He hung up their laws in
+      every temple? Has not He vindicated all their wrongs? Has not He avenged
+      the victory of Titus and conquered the Caesars? What successes did they
+      anticipate from their Messiah? The wildest dreams of their rabbis have
+      been far exceeded. Has not Jesus conquered Europe and changed its name
+      into Christendom? All countries that refuse the cross wither, while the
+      whole of the new world is devoted to the Semitic principle and its most
+      glorious offspring the Jewish faith, and the time will come when the vast
+      communities and countless myriads of America and Australia, looking upon
+      Europe as Europe now looks upon Greece, and wondering how so small a space
+      could have achieved such great deeds, will still find music in the songs
+      of Sion and still seek solace in the parables of Galilee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These may be dreams, but there is one fact which none can contest.
+      Christians may continue to persecute Jews, and Jews may persist in
+      disbelieving Christians, but who can deny that Jesus of Nazareth, the
+      Incarnate Son of the Most High God, is the eternal glory of the Jewish
+      race?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Jewish Disabilities</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      IT WOULD seem to follow from the views expressed in the preceding chaptet,
+      that in communities professing a belief in our Lord, the Jewish race ought
+      not to be subject to any legislative dishonour or disqualification. These
+      views, however, were not those which influenced Lord George Bentinck in
+      forming his opinion that the civil disabilities of those subjects of her
+      Majesty who profess that limited belief in divine revelation which is
+      commonly called the Jewish religion should be removed. He had supported a
+      measure to this effect in the year 1833, guided in that conduct by his
+      devoted attachment to the equivocal principle of religious liberty, the
+      unqualified application of which principle seems hardly consistent with
+      that recognition of religious truth by the state to which we yet adhere,
+      and without which it is highly probable that the northern and western
+      races, after a disturbing and rapidly degrading period of atheistic
+      anarchy, may fatally recur to their old national idolatries, modified and
+      mythically dressed up according to the spirit of the age. It may be
+      observed that the decline and disasters of modern communities have
+      generally been relative to their degree of sedition against the Semitic
+      principle. Since the great revolt of the Celts against the first and
+      second testament, at the close of the last century, France has been
+      alternately in a state of collapse or convulsion. Throughout the awful
+      trials of the last sixty years, England, notwithstanding her deficient and
+      meagre theology, has always remembered Sion. The great Transatlantic
+      republic is intensely Semitic, and has prospered accordingly. This sacred
+      principle alone has consolidated the mighty empire of all the Russias. How
+      omnipotent it is cannot be more clearly shown than by the instance of
+      Rome, where it appears in its most corrupt form. An old man on a Semitic
+      throne baffles the modern Attilas, and the recent invasion of the
+      barbarians, under the form of red republicans, socialists, communists, all
+      different phases which describe the relapse of the once converted races
+      into their primitive condition of savagery. Austria would long ago have
+      dissolved but for the Semitic principle, and if the north of Germany has
+      never succeeded in attaining that imperial position which seemed its
+      natural destiny, it is that the north of Germany has never at any time
+      been thoroughly converted. Some perhaps may point to Spain as a remarkable
+      instance of decline in a country where the Semitic principle has exercised
+      great influence. But the fall of Spain was occasioned by the expulsion of
+      her Semitic population: a million families of Jews and Saracens, the most
+      distinguished of her citizens for their industry and their intelligence,
+      their learning and their wealth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It appears that Lord George Bentinck had offended some of his followers by
+      an opinion expressed in his address to his constituency in &lsquo;47, that in
+      accordance with the suggestion of Mr. Pitt, some provision should be made
+      for the Roman Catholic priesthood of Ireland out of the land. Although
+      this opinion might offend the religious sentiments of some, and might be
+      justly looked upon by others as a scheme ill-suited to the character of an
+      age adverse to any further religious endowments, it must be acknowledged
+      that no member of the Protectionist party had any just cause of complaint
+      against Lord George for the expression of an opinion which he had always
+      upheld, and of his constancy to which he had fairly given his friends
+      notice. This was so generally felt that the repining died away. The Jewish
+      question, as it was called, revived these religious emotions. These
+      feelings, as springing from the highest sentiment of our nature, and
+      founded, however mistaken in their application, on religious truth, are
+      entitled to deep respect and tenderness; but no one can indulge them by
+      the compromise of the highest principles, or by sanctioning a course which
+      he really believes to be destructive of the very object which their
+      votaries wish to cherish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As there are very few Englishmen of what is commonly called the Jewish
+      faith, and as therefore it was supposed that political considerations
+      could not enter into the question, it was hoped by many of the followers
+      of Lord George Bentinck that he would not separate himself from his party
+      on this subject, and very earnest requests and representations were made
+      to him with that view. He was not insensible to them; he gave them
+      prolonged and painful consideration; they greatly disquieted him. In his
+      confidential correspondence he often recurs to the distress and anxiety
+      which this question and its consequences as regarded his position with
+      those friends to whom he was much attached occasioned him. It must not,
+      therefore, be supposed that, in the line he ultimately took with reference
+      to this question, he was influenced, as some have unkindly and
+      unwarrantably fancied, by a self-willed, inexorable, and imperious spirit.
+      He was no doubt, by nature, a proud man, inclined even to arrogance, and
+      naturally impatient of contradiction; but two severe campaigns in the
+      House of Commons had already mitigated these characteristics: he
+      understood human nature, he was fond of his party, and, irrespective of
+      other considerations, it pained his ardent and generous heart to mortify
+      his comrades. It was therefore not in any degree from temper, but from
+      principle,&mdash;from as pure, as high, and as noble a sense of duty as
+      ever actuated a man in public life,&mdash;that Lord George Bentinck
+      ultimately resolved that it was impossible for him to refuse to vote for
+      the removal of what are commonly called Jewish disabilities. He had voted
+      in this particular cause shortly after his entrance into public life; it
+      was in accordance with that general principle of religious liberty to
+      which he was an uncompromising adherent; it was in complete agreement with
+      the understanding which subsisted between himself and the Protectionist
+      party, when at their urgent request he unwillingly assumed the helm. He
+      was entreated not to vote at all; to stay away, which the severe
+      indisposition under which he was then labouring warranted. He did not
+      rudely repulse these latter representations, as has been circulated. On
+      the contrary, he listened to them with kindness, and was not uninfluenced
+      by them. Enfeebled by illness, he had nearly brought himself to a
+      compliance with a request urged with affectionate importunity, but from
+      which his reason and sense of duty held him aloof. After long and deep and
+      painful pondering, when the hour arrived, he rose from his bed of
+      sickness, walked into the House of Commons, and not only voted, but spoke
+      in favour of his convictions. His speech remains, one of the best ever
+      delivered on the subject, not only full of weighty argument, but touched
+      with a high and even tender vein of sentiment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This vote and speech of Lord George Bentinck no doubt mortified at the
+      moment a considerable portion of his followers, and occasioned great
+      dissatisfaction among a very respectable though limited section of them.
+      This latter body must either have forgotten or they must have been
+      strangely unacquainted with the distinct understanding on which Lord
+      George had undertaken the lead of the party, or otherwise they could not
+      have felt authorized in conveying to him their keen sense of
+      disapprobation. Unfortunately he received this when the House had
+      adjourned for the holidays, and when Mr. Bankes, who had been the organ of
+      communication with him in &lsquo;46, was in the country, and when the party was
+      of course generally dispersed. Lord George did not take any pains to
+      ascertain whether the representation which was made to him was that of the
+      general feeling of a large party, or that only of a sincere, highly
+      estimable, but limited section. He was enfeebled and exhausted by
+      indisposition; he often felt, even when in health, that the toil of his
+      life was beyond both his physical and moral energies; and though he was of
+      that ardent and tenacious nature that he never would have complained, but
+      have died at his post, the opportunity of release coming to him at a
+      moment when he was physically prostrate was rather eagerly seized, and the
+      world suddenly learnt at Christmas, with great astonishment, that the
+      renowned leader of the Protectionist party had relinquished his trust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The numerous communications which he received must have convinced him that
+      the assumed circumstances under which he acted had not been accurately
+      appreciated by him. He was implored to reconsider his course, as one very
+      detrimental to the cause to which he was devoted, and which would probably
+      tend to the triumph of those whose policy he had attempted to defeat, and
+      whose personal conduct he had at least succeeded in punishing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The prophesied time has come,&rsquo; he wrote to his friend Mr. Bankes, on the
+      23rd of December, 1847, &lsquo;when I have ceased to be able to serve the party,
+      the great cause of Protection, or my country, by any longer retaining the
+      commission bestowed on me in the spring of 1846. You will remember,
+      however, that when unfeignedly and honestly, but in vain, trying to escape
+      from being raised to a position which I foresaw I must fail to maintain
+      with advantage to you or honour to myself, I at last gave my consent, I
+      only did so on the express understanding that my advancement should be
+      held to be merely a pro tempore appointment, waiting till the country
+      should have the opportunity of sending to Parliament other men better
+      fitted to lead the country gentlemen of England. I have recalled these
+      circumstances to your mind with no other purpose than that the party may
+      feel how entirely free they are, without even the suspicion of doing an
+      injustice to me or of showing me in this any disrespect, to remodel their
+      arrangements, and to supersede my lieutenancy by the appointment of a
+      superior and permanent commander.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And again on Christmas-day, to the same gentleman, in reply to an
+      acknowledgment of the preceding, he says, while thanking Mr. Bankes &lsquo;for
+      his warm-hearted letter as very grateful to his feelings,&rsquo;&mdash;&rsquo; 
+      Confidentially I tell you, that far from feeling in the least annoyed, I
+      shall feel greatly relieved by a restoration to privacy and freedom. I
+      worked upon my spirit in &lsquo;46 and &lsquo;47; but I have learnt now that I have
+      shaken my constitution to the foundation, and I seriously doubt my being
+      able to work on much longer.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He wrote on the 24th of December to one of his most intimate friends and
+      warmest supporters, Mr. Christopher, the member for Lincolnshire, who had
+      remonstrated with him as to his decision: &lsquo;It is not in my nature to
+      retain a station one moment after I get a hint even that any portion of
+      those who raised me to it are wearied of seeing me there. The old members
+      of the party will all recollect how clearly I foresaw and foretold that I
+      should be found a very inconvenient as well as a very inefficient leader,
+      so soon as the great Protection battle was brought to a close. I predicted
+      all that has since occurred; and no one more cordially agrees than I do in
+      the wisdom of the present decision, the spirit I presume of which is that
+      no great party or large body of men can be successfully, or to any good
+      purpose, led except by a man who heart and soul sympathizes with them in
+      all their feelings, partialities, and prejudices. Cold reason has a poor
+      chance against such influences. There can be no <i>esprit de corps</i> and
+      no zeal where there is not a union of prejudices as well as of commercial
+      opinions. The election of a leader united with the great body of the party
+      in these respects, will tend greatly to reunite its scattered particles,
+      even on those questions where I shall be able to give my aid with all my
+      wonted zeal, which will not be the less spirited because it will be free
+      and independent.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At a later period, acknowledging an address signed by the great body of
+      the Protectionist party, and presented to him by the present Earl Talbot,
+      then a member of the House of Commons, Lord George wrote, &lsquo;The
+      considerations which obliged me to surrender a post of honour which every
+      independent and high-minded English gentleman has at all times prized
+      above the highest rewards in the gift of the crown, &ldquo;the leadership of the
+      country gentlemen of England,&rdquo; will never influence me to swerve from any
+      endeavours of which my poor abilities and bodily energies are capable in
+      the promotion of the prosperity of all classes in the British empire at
+      home and in the colonies, any more than they can ever make me forget the
+      attachment, the friendship, and the enthusiastic support of those who
+      stood by me to the end of the death struggle for British interests and for
+      English good faith and political honour, and to whose continued friendship
+      and constancy I know I am indebted for this graceful and grateful
+      compliment.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If Lord George Bentinck was inexorable to the entreaties of his friends,
+      it must not be supposed that he was influenced in the course which he
+      pursued, as was presumed by many at the time not acquainted with the
+      circumstances, by any feeling of pique or brooding sullenness. No
+      high-spirited man under vexatious and distressing circumstances ever
+      behaved with more magnanimity. In this he was actuated in a great degree
+      by a sense of duty, but still more by that peculiar want of selfishness
+      which was one of the most beautiful traits of his character. The moment he
+      had at all recovered from the severe attack by which, to use his own
+      language, he had been &lsquo;struck down in the first week of the session,&rsquo; and
+      from the effects of which it may be doubted whether he ever entirely
+      recovered, he laboured zealously to induce some competent person to
+      undertake the office which he had thought it expedient to resign, offering
+      in several instances to serve in the ranks, and to assist with his utmost
+      energies, both in and out of the House, the individual who would undertake
+      the responsible direction in the Commons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These efforts, though indefatigable, were not successful, for those who
+      were competent to the office cared not to serve under any one except
+      himself. About this time, a personage of great station, and who very much
+      admired Lord George Bentinck, wrote to him, and recommended him not to
+      trouble himself about the general discipline of the party, but to follow
+      his own course, and lead that body of friends who under all circumstances
+      would adhere to him, instancing the case of Mr. Canning, under
+      circumstances not altogether dissimilar. Lord George replied: &lsquo;As for my
+      rallying a personal party round myself, as Mr. Canning did, I have no
+      pretension to anything of the kind; when Mr. Canning did that, the House
+      of Commons, and England too, acknowledged him to be the greatest orator
+      who had survived Pitt and Fox; he had been Secretary of State for foreign
+      affairs, and had taken a conspicuous part in rousing the country to carry
+      on the war against France.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nature of the subject, dealing as it necessarily does with so many
+      personal details, renders it impossible to make public the correspondence
+      in which Lord George Bentinck was engaged at this time in his attempts to
+      place the Protectionist party under the guidance of one who would unite
+      all sympathies; but were that publication possible, it would place Lord
+      George Bentinck in a very noble and amiable light, and prove a gentleness
+      and softness in his nature for which those who were not very intimate with
+      him did not give him credit. Not that it must be for a moment supposed
+      that he was insensible to what was occurring. He was the most sensitive as
+      well as the proudest of men. When the writer called at Harcourt House, to
+      bid him farewell, before the Christmas holidays, and, conversing very
+      frankly on the course which he was then pursuing, inquired as to his
+      future proceedings, Lord George said with emotion: &lsquo;In this cause I have
+      shaken my constitution and shortened my days, and I will succeed or die.&rsquo; 
+      In the course of the year 1848, walking home, talking together, from the
+      House of Commons, he twice recurred to this terrible alternative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But all considerations were merged at this moment in the predominant one
+      which was to keep the party together. He wrote to a friend at the end of
+      January, who urged him, as the hour of work approached and the injurious
+      inconveniences of his abdication would be more felt, to confer with his
+      former followers and reconsider his position, that no personal feeling
+      prevented his taking that course, but that he felt any resumption of
+      responsibility on his part would not be pleasing to a section of those who
+      formerly served with him, and that there would be a &lsquo;split&rsquo; in the ranks.
+      &lsquo;As far as I am personally concerned,&rsquo; he added, &lsquo;I could submit to
+      anything short of having my ears cut off and appearing as a &ldquo;Croppy,&rdquo; to
+      be free again. My pride cannot stand leading an unwilling party; I would
+      just as soon thrust myself into a dinner-room where I was at once an
+      uninvited and an unwelcome guest.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meantime, according to his custom, the moment that he had
+      sufficiently recovered from his illness, he prepared with the utmost zeal
+      for the coming struggle respecting the fate of our sugar colonies, in
+      which subject he was soon absorbed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Parliament reassembled on the 3rd of February, and on that night Lord
+      George Bentinck brought forward his motion for &lsquo;a select committee to
+      inquire into the present condition and prospects of the interests
+      connected with and dependent on sugar and coffee planting in her Majesty&rsquo;s
+      East and West Indian possessions and the Mauritius, and to consider
+      whether any and what measures can be adopted by Parliament for their
+      relief.&rsquo; When he entered the House, Lord George walked up to the head of
+      the second bench below the gangway, on the opposition side, and thus
+      significantly announced that he was no longer the responsible leader of
+      the Protectionist party. It was the wish of the writer of these pages, who
+      had resolved to stand or fall by him, to have followed his example and to
+      have abdicated the prominent seat in which the writer had been unwillingly
+      and fortuitously placed; but by the advice, or rather at the earnest
+      request, of Lord George Bentinck, this course was relinquished as
+      indicative of schism, which he wished to discourage; and the circumstance
+      is only mentioned as showing that Lord George was not less considerate at
+      this moment of the interests of the Protectionist party than when he led
+      them with so much confidence and authority. The session, however, was to
+      commence without a leader, without any recognized organ of communication
+      between parties, or any responsible representative of opinion in debate.
+      All again was chaos. There is, however, something so vital in the
+      Conservative party that it seems always to rally under every disadvantage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George spoke well to his resolution: the House soon recognized he was
+      master of his case, and though few foresaw at the moment the important
+      consequences to which this motion would lead, the House was interested
+      from the first; and though there was no division, the debate lasted two
+      days, and was sustained on both sides with great animation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mover vindicated himself very successfully for only proposing a
+      committee of inquiry. &lsquo;It has been represented to me,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;by the
+      colonies and by persons in this country who are interested in them, that
+      the course which I am proposing is not consistent with the necessities of
+      the case; that there is something pusillanimous in the motion which I am
+      going to make; that in point of fact the interests connected with sugar
+      and coffee planting are in extremis; and that while the question of their
+      redress is being discussed in a committee above-stairs, these great
+      interests will perish. They say to me that a committee of inquiry will be
+      to them of the nature of that comfort which,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Like cordials after death, come late; &rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      and that before the committee shall have reported, the West-Indian
+      interest will be altogether past recovery. But, sir, it is for me to
+      consider what my power is to obtain any substantial relief by a direct
+      vote of this House; and when I remember that in July, 1846, I moved a
+      resolution the purport of which was, to maintain the protection for the
+      West-Indian and the East-Indian free-labour colonies which they now seek,
+      and that I had but one hundred and thirty gentlemen to support me, while
+      two hundred and sixty-five votes were recorded in favour of the measure of
+      the Government admitting slave-labour sugar, I feel that it is hopeless
+      for me to endeavour in this House, where I have no reason to suppose any
+      addition has been made to the members acquiescing in my views, to convert
+      that minority into a majority; and more especially when I recollect that
+      on that occasion but five gentlemen connected with the West-Indian and
+      East-Indian interests recorded their votes with me, I think the
+      West-Indian interest has not a good case against me when they blame me for
+      not taking a more resolute step on this occasion.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was not, however, without hope from the course which he had decided to
+      pursue. &lsquo;Looking, as I have done, at the deplorable state of the West
+      Indies, the East Indies, and the Mauritius, and holding, as I do, in my
+      hand a list of forty-eight great houses in England&mdash;twenty-six of the
+      first commercial houses in London, sixteen in Liverpool, and six elsewhere&mdash;which
+      have failed, and whose liabilities amount in the whole to £6,300,000 and
+      upwards, none of which I believe would have fallen had it not been for the
+      ruin brought upon them by the change in the sugar duties and the
+      consequent reduction in the price of their produce,&mdash;I do hope,
+      through the intervention of a committee of this House, I may be able to
+      prevail upon the House to change its policy with regard to this great
+      question.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George was supported in this debate by Mr. Thomas Baring, in one of
+      the best speeches ever made in the House of Commons. Few more combine
+      mastery of the case with parliamentary point than this gentleman. It is
+      not impossible to find a man capable of addressing the House of Commons
+      who understands the subject; it is not impossible to find a man who can
+      convey his impressions on any subject to the House in a lively and
+      captivating manner, though both instances are rarer than the world would
+      imagine; but a man who at the same time understands a question and can
+      handle it before a popular assembly in a popular style, who teaches
+      without being pedantic, can convey an argument in an epigram, and instruct
+      as the Mexicans did by picture, possesses a talent for the exercise of
+      which he is responsible to his sovereign and his country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Baring said that he could not perfectly agree either with Lord John
+      Russell or Lord George Bentinck, that Protection or Free Trade must be in
+      what they called a circle, round which in their legislation they must
+      always move; that they must either give protection to everything or free
+      trade to everything. He could not say that because sugar claimed
+      protection, coals must have protection also. Neither would he, on the
+      other hand, apply free trade to every article. He acknowledged the
+      advantage of competition as a stimulus: he thought that, placing things on
+      equal grounds, competition was undoubtedly a great advantage. He could
+      understand a competition to try the mutual speed of race-horses; but there
+      could be no competition between a race-horse and a steam-engine, for the
+      power of the animal could bear no comparison with that of the machine!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Baring could look back to no legislation more humiliating than the
+      legislation regarding our colonies. No great interest was ever so much
+      trifled with, so much sacrificed to the cry of the day; at one moment to
+      no slavery and another to cheap sugar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The committee was granted, and it was generally felt that the question was
+      consequently quieted for the session.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Leader Perforce</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      DURING the first six weeks of this famous committee the attendance of its
+      members was not very regular, and its labours attracted little attention.
+      The evidence on the East-India part of the question was closed and
+      reported to the House by the end of February; after that period the
+      evidence was reported to the House every week or ten days. Towards the end
+      of March, rumours began to circulate of the extraordinary vigour and
+      ability with which this investigation was pursued, and of the novel,
+      authentic, and striking evidence that had been elicited. The proceedings
+      were talked of in the House of Commons and on the Royal Exchange; the City
+      men who were examined went back to their companions with wondrous tales of
+      the energy and acuteness of Harcourt House, and the order, method, and
+      discipline of the committee-room at Westminster. As time elapsed, the
+      hopes of the colonial interest again revived. It was generally felt that
+      Lord George had succeeded in establishing an irresistible case. It was
+      rumoured that the government could not withstand it. Those who had
+      originally murmured at the course which he had adopted of moving for a
+      committee of inquiry, instead of proposing a specific measure of relief,
+      and had treated an investigation as a mere means of securing inaction, now
+      recanted their rash criticism, and did justice to his prescience and
+      superior judgment, as well as to his vast information and indefatigable
+      exertions. The week during which the committee sat on their report was a
+      very anxious one; the divisions were known every day in the House of
+      Commons; the alternations of success and discomfiture, and the balanced
+      numbers that so often called for the interposition of the chairman, were
+      calculated to sustain the excitement; and when, on the 29th of May, it was
+      known that the report was at length agreed to, and that a committee of
+      free traders had absolutely recommended a differential duty of 10s. in
+      favour of our own produce, one might have fancied from the effect visibly
+      produced, that a government was changed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few days before&mdash;it was the day after the Derby, May 25th&mdash;the
+      writer met Lord George Ben-tinck in the library of the House of Commons.
+      He was standing before the book-shelves, with a volume in his hand, and
+      his countenance was greatly disturbed. His resolutions in favour of the
+      colonial interest after all his labours had been negatived by the
+      committee on the 22nd, and on the 24th, his horse Surplice, whom he had
+      parted with among the rest of his stud, solely that he might pursue
+      without distraction his labours on behalf of the great interests of the
+      country, had won that paramount and Olympian stake, to gain which had been
+      the object of his life. He had nothing to console him, and nothing to
+      sustain him except his pride. Even that deserted him before a heart which
+      he knew at least could yield him sympathy. He gave a sort of superb groan:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;All my life I have been trying for this, and for what have I sacrificed
+      it!&rsquo; he murmured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in vain to offer solace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You do not know what the Derby is,&rsquo; he moaned out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, I do; it is the blue ribbon of the turf.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is the blue ribbon of the turf,&rsquo; he slowly repeated to himself, and
+      sitting down at the table, he buried himself in a folio of statistics.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But on Monday, the 29th, when the resolution in favour of a 10s.
+      differential duty for the colonies had at the last moment been carried,
+      and carried by his casting vote, &lsquo;the blue ribbons of the turf were all
+      forgotten. Not for all the honours and successes of all the meetings,
+      spring or autumn, Newmarket, Epsom, Goodwood, Doncaster, would he have
+      exchanged that hour of rapture. His eye sparkled with fire, his nostril
+      dilated with triumph, his brow was elate like a conqueror, his sanguine
+      spirit saw a future of continued and illimitable success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We have saved the colonies,&rsquo; he said,&mdash;&lsquo;saved the colonies. I knew
+      it must be so. It is the knell of free trade.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding the formal renunciation of the leadership of the
+      Protectionist party by Lord George Bentinck, it was soon evident to the
+      House and the country that that renunciation was merely formal. In these
+      days of labour, the leader of a party must be the man who does the work,
+      and that work cannot now be accomplished without the devotion of a life.
+      Whenever a great question arose, the people out of doors went to Lord
+      George Bentinck, and when the discussion commenced, he was always found to
+      be the man armed with the authority of knowledge. There was, however, no
+      organized debate and no party discipline. No one was requested to take a
+      part, and no attendance was ever summoned. The vast majority sitting on
+      the Protectionist benches always followed Bentinck, who, whatever might be
+      his numbers in the lobby, always made a redoubtable stand in the House.
+      The situation however, it cannot be denied, was a dangerous one for a
+      great party to persevere in, but no permanent damage accrued, because
+      almost every one hoped that before the session was over, the difficulty
+      would find a natural solution in the virtual chief resuming his formal and
+      responsible post. Notwithstanding his labours on the two great committees
+      of the year&mdash;those on colonial and commercial distress,&mdash;Lord
+      George Bentinck found time to master the case of the shipping interest
+      when the navigation laws were attacked, to impugn in a formal motion the
+      whole of the commercial policy of Sir Robert Peel, even while the sugar
+      and coffee planting committee was still sitting, and to produce, early in
+      March, a rival budget. It was mainly through the prolonged resistance
+      which he organized against the repeal of the navigation laws, that the
+      government, in 1848, was forced to abandon their project. The resistance
+      was led with great ability by Mr. Herries, and the whole party put forward
+      their utmost strength to support him. But it is very difficult to convey a
+      complete picture of the laborious life of Lord George Bentinck during the
+      sitting of Parliament. At half-past nine o&rsquo;clock there called upon him the
+      commercial representatives of the question of the day; after these
+      conferences came his elaborate and methodical correspondence, all of which
+      he carried on himself in a handwriting clear as print, and never employing
+      a secretary; at twelve or one o&rsquo;clock he was at a committee, and he only
+      left the committee-room to take his seat in the House of Commons, which he
+      never quitted till the House adjourned, always long past midnight, and
+      often at two o&rsquo;clock in the morning. Here he was ready for all comers,
+      never omitting an opportunity to vindicate his opinions, or watching with
+      lynx-like vigilance the conduct of a public office. What was not his least
+      remarkable trait is, that although he only breakfasted on dry toast, he
+      took no sustenance all this time, dining at White&rsquo;s at half-past two
+      o&rsquo;clock in the morning. After his severe attack of the influenza he broke
+      through this habit a little during the last few months of his life, moved
+      by the advice of his physician and the instance of his friends. The writer
+      of these observations prevailed upon him a little the last year to fall
+      into the easy habit of dining at Bellamy&rsquo;s, which saves much time, and
+      permits the transaction of business in conversation with a congenial
+      friend. But he grudged it: he always thought that something would be said
+      or done in his absence, which would not have occurred had he been there;
+      some motion whisked through, or some return altered. His principle was
+      that a member should never be absent from his seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The session of &lsquo;48 had been one of unexampled length, having lasted ten
+      months, and, as usual under such circumstances, the obstacles to the
+      transaction of public business were sought everywhere except in the real
+      quarter. The forms of the House and the propensity to unnecessary
+      discussion among its members were chiefly denounced. Lord George Bentinck
+      did not agree in the justness of these criminations; they were eagerly
+      caught by the thoughtless and the superficial, but it was his habit to
+      investigate and analyze everything, and he found that these charges had no
+      basis. The forms of the House of Commons are the result of accumulated
+      experience and have rarely been tampered with successfully, while on the
+      other hand a parliamentary government is by name and nature essentially a
+      government of discussion. It is not at all difficult to conceive a mode of
+      governing a country more expeditious than by a parliament; but where truth
+      as well as strength is held to be an essential element of legislation,
+      opinion must be secured an unrestricted organ. Superfluity of debate may
+      often be inconvenient to a minister, and sometimes perhaps even
+      distasteful to the community; but criticizing such a security for justice
+      and liberty as a free-spoken parliament is like quarrelling with the
+      weather because there is too much rain or too much sunshine. The casual
+      inconvenience should be forgotten in the permanent blessing. Acting upon
+      these false imputations a committee was even appointed, two years ago, of
+      the most eminent members of the House of Commons, to investigate the
+      subject and suggest remedies, and some votaries of the Transatlantic type
+      recommended the adoption of the rules of Congress where each speaker is
+      limited to an hour. But an hour from an uninteresting speaker would be a
+      great infliction. The good sense and the good taste of the House of
+      Commons will be found on the whole to be the best regulators of the
+      duration of a debate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The truth is that the delay in the conduct of parliamentary business which
+      has been much complained of during the last few years, murmurs of which
+      were especially rife in 1848, is attributable to the fact that the
+      ministry, though formed of men inferior in point of ability to none who
+      could be reasonably intrusted with administration, had not sufficient
+      parliamentary strength. After all their deliberations and foresight,&mdash;after
+      all their observations of the times and study of the public interest,
+      their measures when launched from the cabinet into the House were not
+      received by a confiding majority, firm in their faith in the statesmanlike
+      qualities of the authors of these measures and in their sympathy with the
+      general political system of which the ministry was the representative. On
+      the contrary, the success of the measures depended on a* variety of
+      sections who in their aggregate exceeded in number and influence the party
+      of the ministers. These became critics and took the ministerial measures
+      in hand; the measures became, the measures, not of the cabinet, but of the
+      House of Commons; and a purely legislative assembly became, in consequence
+      of the weakness of the government, yearly more administrative. This was
+      undoubtedly a great evil, and occasioned, besides great delay, many crude
+      enactments, as will be the case where all are constructors and none are
+      responsible, but the evil was not occasioned by the forms of the House or
+      the length of the speeches. Sir Robert Peel was unquestionably a very able
+      administrator, but if he had not had a majority of ninety he would have
+      fallen in as ill repute as has been too often the lot of Lord John
+      Russell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George Bentinck was very anxious that there should be a parliamentary
+      summary of this enormous and eventful session of &lsquo;48, that the conduct of
+      business by the ministry should be traced and criticized and the character
+      of the House of Commons vindicated, and he appealed to the writer of these
+      observations to undertake the task. But the writer was unwilling to accede
+      to this suggestion, not only because at the end of August he shrank from a
+      laborious effort, but principally because he did not hold that his
+      position in the House of Commons warranted on his part such an
+      interference, since, after all, he was only the comrade in arms of one who
+      chose to be only an independent member of the House. He therefore
+      unaffectedly stated that he thought the office was somewhat above his
+      measure. But Lord George Bentinck would not listen to these
+      representations. &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t pretend to know much,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;but I can judge
+      of men and horses.&rsquo; It is difficult to refuse those who are themselves
+      setting a constant example of self-sacrifice, and therefore, so far as the
+      labour was concerned, the writer would not have shrunk from the exertion
+      even on the last day of the month of August, and when the particular wish
+      of Lord George was found to be more general than the writer presumed to
+      suppose, he accordingly endeavoured to accomplish the intention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three or four days after this, the writer, about to leave London, called
+      at Harcourt House, to say farewell to his comrade in arms. He passed with
+      Lord George the whole morning, rather indulging in the contemplation of
+      the future than in retrospect. Lord George was serene, cheerful, and
+      happy. He was content with himself, which was rarely the case, and
+      remembered nothing of his career but its distinction, and the ennobling
+      sense of having done his duty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Any misunderstandings that may have for a moment irritated him seemed
+      forgotten; he appeared conscious that he possessed the confidence and
+      cordial regard of the great majority of the Protectionist party, although
+      he chose to occupy a private post, and he was proud of the consciousness.
+      He was still more sensible of the sympathy which he had created out of
+      doors, which he greatly appreciated, and to which, though with his usual
+      modesty, he more than once recurred. &lsquo;The thing is to get the people out
+      of doors with you,&rsquo; he repeated, &lsquo;men like the merchants; all the rest
+      follow.&rsquo; It was evident that the success of his colonial committee had
+      greatly satisfied his spirit. He had received that day the vote of thanks
+      of the West-India body for his exertions. He said more than once, that
+      with a weak government, a parliamentary committee properly worked might do
+      wonders. He said he would have a committee on import duties next year, and
+      have all the merchants to show what share the foreigners had obtained of
+      the reductions that had been made of late years. He maintained, that,
+      quite irrespective of the general arrangements of the new commercial
+      system, Sir Robert Peel had thrown away a great revenue on a number of
+      articles of very inferior importance, and he would prove this to the
+      country. He said our colonial empire ought to be reconstructed by a total
+      abolition of all duties on produce from her Majesty&rsquo;s dominions abroad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All his ideas were large, clear, and coherent. He dwelt much on the
+      vicissitudes which most attend all merely foreign trade, which, though it
+      should be encouraged, ought not to be solely relied on, as was the fashion
+      of this day. Looking upon war as occasionally inevitable, he thought a
+      commercial system based upon the presumption of perpetual peace to be full
+      of ruin. His policy was essentially imperial and not cosmopolitan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About to part probably for many months, and listening to him as he spoke,
+      according to his custom, with so much fervour and sincerity, one could not
+      refrain from musing over his singular and sudden career. It was not three
+      years since he had in an instant occupied the minds of men. No series of
+      parliamentary labours had ever produced so much influence in the country
+      in so short a time. Never was a reputation so substantial built up in so
+      brief a period. AH the questions with which he had dealt were colossal
+      questions: the laws that should regulate competition between native and
+      foreign labour; the interference of the state in the development of the
+      resources of Ireland; the social and commercial condition of our tropical
+      colonies; the principles upon which our revenue should be raised; the laws
+      which should regulate and protect our navigation. But it was not that he
+      merely expressed opinions upon these subjects; he came forward with
+      details in support of his principles and policy, which it had before been
+      believed none but a minister could command. Instead of experiencing the
+      usual and almost inevitable doom of private members of Parliament, and
+      having his statements shattered by official information, Lord George
+      Bentinck on the contrary, was the assailant, and the successful assailant,
+      of an administration on these very heads. He often did their work more
+      effectually than all their artificial training enabled them to do it. His
+      acute research, and his peculiar sources of information, roused the
+      vigilance of all the public offices of the country. Since his time, there
+      has been more care in preparing official returns, and in arranging the
+      public correspondence placed on the table of the House of Commons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When one remembered that in this room, not three years ago, he was trying
+      to find a lawyer who would make a speech for him in Parliament, it was
+      curious to remember that no one in the period had probably addressed the
+      House of Commons oftener. Though his manner, which was daily improving,
+      was not felicitous in the House, the authority of his intellect, his
+      knowledge, and his character, made him one of the great personages of
+      debate; but with the country who only read his speeches he ranked high as
+      an orator. It is only those who have had occasion critically to read and
+      examine the long series of his speeches who can be conscious of their
+      considerable merits. The information is always full and often fresh, the
+      scope large, the argument close, and the style, though simple, never bald,
+      but vigorous, idiomatic, and often picturesque. He had not credit for this
+      in his day, but the passages which have been quoted in this sketch will
+      prove the justness of this criticism. As a speaker and writer, his
+      principal need was condensation. He could not bear that anything should
+      remain untold. He was deficient in taste, but he had fervour of feeling,
+      and was by no means void of imagination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The writer, in his frequent communications with him of faithful and
+      unbounded confidence, was often reminded of the character by Mr. Burke of
+      my Lord Keppell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The labours of Lord George Bentinck had been supernatural, and one ought
+      perhaps to have felt then that it was impossible they could be continued
+      on such a scale of exhaustion; but no friend could control his eager life
+      in this respect; he obeyed the law of his vehement and fiery nature, being
+      one of those men who in whatever they undertake know no medium, but will
+      &lsquo;succeed or die.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But why talk here and now of death! He goes to his native county and his
+      father&rsquo;s proud domain, to breathe the air of his boyhood and move amid the
+      parks and meads of his youth. Every breeze will bear health, and the sight
+      of every hallowed haunt will stimulate his pulse. He is scarcely older
+      than Julius Cæsar when he commenced his public career, he looks as high
+      and brave, and he springs from a long-lived race.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood upon the <i>perron</i> of Harcourt House, the last of the great
+      hotels of an age of stately dwellings with its wings, and court-yard, and
+      carriage portal, and huge outward walls. He put forth his hand to bid
+      farewell, and his last words were characteristic of the man&mdash;of his
+      warm feelings and of his ruling passion: &lsquo;God bless you; we must work, and
+      the country will come round us.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Curtain Falls</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE heavens darken; a new character enters upon the scene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They say that when great men arise they have a mission to accomplish and
+      do not disappear until it is fulfilled. Yet this is not always true. After
+      all his deep study and his daring action Mr. Hampden died on an obscure
+      field, almost before the commencement of that mighty struggle which he
+      seemed born to direct. In the great contention between the patriotic and
+      the cosmopolitan principle which has hardly begun, and on the issue of
+      which the fate of this island as a powerful community depends, Lord George
+      Ben-tinck appeared to be produced to represent the traditionary influences
+      of our country in their most captivating form. Born a natural leader of
+      the people, he was equal to the post. Free from prejudices, his large mind
+      sympathized with all classes of the realm. His courage and his constancy
+      were never surpassed by man. He valued life only as a means of fulfilling
+      duty, and truly it may be said of him, that he feared none but God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few days after the interview noticed in the last chapter, Lord George
+      Bentinck returned to Welbeck. Some there were who thought him worn by the
+      exertions of the session, and that an unusual pallor had settled upon that
+      mantling and animated countenance. He himself never felt in better health
+      or was ever in higher spirits, and greatly enjoyed the change of life, and
+      that change to a scene so dear to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 21 st of September, after breakfasting with his family, he retired
+      to his room, where he employed himself With some papers, and then wrote
+      three letters, one to Lord Enfield, another to the Duke of Richmond, and
+      the third to the writer of these pages. That letter is now at hand; it is
+      of considerable length, consisting of seven sheets of note-paper, full of
+      interesting details of men and things, and written not only in a cheerful
+      but even a merry mood. Then, when his letters were sealed, about four
+      o&rsquo;clock he took his staff and went forth to walk to Thoresby, the seat of
+      Lord Manvers, distant between five and six miles from Welbeck, where Lord
+      George was to make a visit of two days. In consequence of this his valet
+      drove over to Thoresby at the same time to meet his master. But the master
+      never came. Hours passed on and the master never came. At length the
+      anxious servant returned to Welbeck, and called up the groom who had
+      driven him over to Thoresby and who was in bed, and inquired whether he
+      had seen anything of Lord George on the way back, as his lord had never
+      reached Thoresby. The groom got up, and accompanied by the valet and two
+      others took lanthorns, and followed the footpath which they had seen Lord
+      George pursuing as they themselves went to Thoresby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About a mile from the Abbey, on the path which they had observed him
+      following, lying close to the gate which separates a water meadow from the
+      deer-park, they found the body of Lord George Bentinck. He was lying on
+      his face; his arms were under his body, and in one hand he grasped his
+      walking-stick. His hat was a yard or two before him, having evidently been
+      thrown off in falling. The body was cold and stiff. He had been long dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A woodman and some peasants passing near the spot, about two hundred yards
+      from the gate in question, had observed Lord George, whom at the distance
+      they had mistaken for his brother the Marquis of Titchfield, leaning
+      against this gate. It was then about half-past four o&rsquo;clock, or it might
+      be a quarter to five, so he could not have left his home much more than
+      half an hour. The woodman and his companions thought &lsquo;the gentleman&rsquo; was
+      reading, as he held his head down. One of them lingered for a minute
+      looking at the gentleman, who then turned round, and might have seen these
+      passers-by, but he made no sign to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus it seems that the attack, which was supposed to be a spasm of the
+      heart, was not instantaneous in its effects, but with proper remedies
+      might have been baffled. Terrible to think of him in his death-struggle
+      without aid, and so near a devoted hearth! For that hearth, too, what an
+      impending future!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The terrible news reached Nottingham on the morning of the 22nd, at
+      half-past nine o&rsquo;clock, and, immediately telegraphed to London, was
+      announced by a second edition of the &lsquo;Times&rsquo; to the country. Consternation
+      and deep grief fell upon all men. One week later, the remains arrived from
+      Welbeck at Harcourt House, to be entombed in the family vault of the
+      Bentincks, that is to be found in a small building in a dingy street, now
+      a chapel of ease, but in old days the parish church among the fields of
+      the pretty village of Marylebone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day of interment was dark, and cold, and drizzling. Although the last
+      offices were performed in the most scrupulously private manner, the
+      feelings of the community could not be repressed. From nine till eleven
+      o&rsquo;clock that day all the British shipping in the docks and the river, from
+      London Bridge to Gravesend, hoisted their flags half-mast high, and minute
+      guns were fired from appointed stations along the Thames. The same
+      mournful ceremony was observed in all the ports of England and Ireland;
+      and not only in these, for the flag was half-mast high on every British
+      ship at Antwerp, at Rotterdam, and at Havre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ere the last minute gun sounded, all was over. Followed to his tomb by
+      those brothers who, if not consoled, might at this moment be sustained by
+      the remembrance that to him they had ever been brothers not only in name
+      but in spirit, the vault at length closed on the mortal remains of <i>George
+      Bentinck</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One who stood by his side in an arduous and unequal struggle, who often
+      shared his councils and sometimes perhaps soothed his cares, who knew well
+      the greatness of his nature and esteemed his friendship among the chief of
+      worldly blessings, has stepped aside from the strife and passion of public
+      life to draw up this record of his deeds and thoughts, that those who come
+      after us may form some conception of his character and career, and trace
+      in these faithful though imperfect pages the portraiture of an <i>English
+      Worthy</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg&rsquo;s Lord George Bentinck, by Benjamin Disraeli
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord George Bentinck, by Benjamin Disraeli
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Lord George Bentinck
+       A Political Biography
+
+Author: Benjamin Disraeli
+
+Release Date: December 3, 2006 [EBook #20007]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD GEORGE BENTINCK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LORD GEORGE BENTINCK
+
+A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
+
+By Benjamin Disraeli
+
+
+
+'He left us the legacy of heroes: the memory of his great name and the
+inspiration of his great example.'
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+LORD HENRY BENTINCK,
+
+IS INSCRIBED
+
+This Political Biography
+
+ONE FOR WHOM HE ENTERTAINED A DEEP AFFECTION,
+
+AND WHOSE TALENTS AND VIRTUES
+
+HE SHARES.
+
+
+
+LORD GEORGE BENTINCK
+
+A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
+
+[Illustration: bentink-page009]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     _The Man_
+
+THE political career of Lord George Bentinck was peculiar. He had, to
+use his own expression, 'sate in eight Parliaments without having taken
+part in any great debate,' when remarkable events suddenly impelled him
+to advance and occupy not only a considerable but a leading position
+in our public affairs. During three years, under circumstances of great
+difficulty, he displayed some of the highest qualities of political
+life: courage and a lofty spirit; a mastery of details which experience
+usually alone confers; a quick apprehension and a clear intelligence;
+indomitable firmness; promptness, punctuality, and perseverance which
+never failed; an energy seldom surpassed; and a capacity for labour
+which was perhaps never equalled. At the very moment when he had
+overcome many contrarieties and prejudices; when he had been most
+successful in the House of Commons, and, sustained only by his own
+resources, had considerably modified the legislation of the government
+which he opposed on a measure of paramount importance; when the nation,
+which had long watched him with interest, began to congratulate itself
+on the devotion of such a man to the business of the country, he was in
+an instant taken from us. Then it was that, the memory of the past and
+the hope of the future blending together, all men seemed to mourn over
+this untimely end, and there was that pang in the public heart which
+accompanies the unexpected disappearance of a strong character.
+
+What manner of man this was, who thus on a sudden in the middle term of
+life relinquished all the ease and pleasure of a patrician existence to
+work often eighteen hours daily, not for a vain and brilliant notoriety,
+which was foreign alike both to his tastes and his turn of mind, but for
+the advancement of principles, the advocacy of which in the chief scene
+of his efforts was sure to obtain for him only contention and unkindly
+feelings; what were his motives, purposes and opinions; how and why
+did he labour; what were the whole scope and tendency of this original,
+vigorous, and self-schooled intelligence; these would appear to be
+subjects not unworthy of contemplation, and especially not uninteresting
+to a free and political community.
+
+The difficulty of treating cotemporary characters and events has been
+ever acknowledged; but it may be doubted whether the difficulty is
+diminished when we would commemorate the men and things that have
+preceded us. The cloud of passion in the first instance, or in the
+other the mist of time, may render it equally hard and perplexing to
+discriminate.
+
+It should not be forgotten that the most authentic and interesting
+histories are those which have been composed by actors in the
+transactions which they record. The cotemporary writer who is personally
+familiar with his theme has unquestionably a great advantage; but it is
+assumed that his pen can scarcely escape the bias of private friendship
+or political connection. Yet truth, after all, is the sovereign passion
+of mankind; nor is the writer of these pages prepared to relinquish his
+conviction that it is possible to combine the accuracy of the present
+with the impartiality of the future.
+
+Lord George Bentinck had sat for eighteen years in Parliament, and,
+before he entered it, had been for three years private secretary to Mr.
+Canning, who had married the sister of the Duchess of Portland. Such a
+post would seem a happy commencement of a public career; but whether
+it were the untimely death of his distinguished relative, or a natural
+indisposition, Lord George--though he retained the seat for King's
+Lynn, in which he had succeeded his uncle, the late governor-general of
+India--directed his energies to other than parliamentary pursuits. For
+some time he had followed his profession, which was that of arms, but
+of late years he had become absorbed in the pastime and fortunes of the
+turf, in which his whole being seemed engrossed, and which he pursued on
+a scale that perhaps has never been equalled.
+
+Lord George had withdrawn his support from the government of the Duke of
+Wellington, when the friends of Mr. Canning quitted that administration;
+and when in time they formed not the least considerable portion of the
+cabinet of Lord Grey, he resumed his seat on the ministerial benches. On
+that occasion an administrative post was offered him and declined; and
+on subsequent occasions similar requests to him to take office were
+equally in vain. Lord George, therefore, was an original and hearty
+supporter of the Reform Bill, and he continued to uphold the Whigs in
+all their policy until the secession of Lord Stanley, between whom and
+himself there subsisted warm personal as well as political sympathies.
+Although he was not only a friend to religious liberty, as we shall have
+occasion afterwards to remark, but always viewed with great sympathy
+the condition of the Roman Catholic portion of the Irish population, he
+shrank from the taint of the ultra-montane intrigue. Accompanying
+Lord Stanley, he became in due time a member of the great Conservative
+opposition, and, as he never did anything by halves, became one of
+the most earnest, as he certainly was one of the most enlightened,
+supporters of Sir Robert Peel. His trust in that minister was indeed
+absolute, and he has subsequently stated in conversation that when,
+towards the end of the session of '45, a member of the Tory party
+ventured to predict and denounce the impending defection of the
+minister, there was no member of the Conservative party who more
+violently condemned the unfounded attack, or more readily impugned the
+motives of the assailant.
+
+He was not a very frequent attendant in the House. He might be counted
+on for a party division, and when, towards the termination of the
+Melbourne ministry, the forces were very nearly balanced, and the
+struggle became very close, he might have been observed, on more
+than one occasion, entering the House at a late hour, clad in a
+white great-coat, which softened, but did not conceal, the scarlet
+hunting-coat.
+
+Although he took no part in debate, and attended the House rather as a
+club than as a senate, he possessed a great and peculiar influence in
+it. He was viewed with interest, and often with extraordinary regard,
+by every sporting man in the House. With almost all of these he was
+acquainted; some of them, on either side, were his intimate companions
+and confederates.
+
+His eager and energetic disposition; his quick perception, clear
+judgment, and prompt decision; the tenacity with which he clung to his
+opinions; his frankness and love of truth; his daring and speculative
+spirit; his lofty bearing, blended as it was with a simplicity of manner
+very remarkable; the ardour of his friendships, even the fierceness
+of his hates and prejudices--all combined to form one of those strong
+characters who, whatever may be their pursuit, must always direct and
+lead.
+
+Nature had clothed this vehement spirit with a material form which was
+in perfect harmony with its noble and commanding character. He was tall
+and remarkable for his presence; his countenance almost a model of manly
+beauty; the face oval, the complexion clear and mantling; the forehead
+lofty and white; the nose aquiline and delicately moulded; the upper
+lip short. But it was in the dark-brown eye, which flashed with piercing
+scrutiny, that all the character of the man came forth: a brilliant
+glance, not soft, but ardent, acute, imperious, incapable of deception
+or of being deceived.
+
+Although he had not much sustained his literary culture, and of late
+years, at any rate, had not given his mind to political study, he had
+in the course of his life seen and heard a great deal, and with profit.
+Nothing escaped his observation; he forgot nothing and always thought.
+So it was that on all the great political questions of the day he had
+arrived at conclusions which guided him. He always took large views
+and had no prejudices about things, whatever he might indulge in as
+to persons. He was always singularly anxious to acquire the truth, and
+would spare no pains for that purpose; but when once his mind was made
+up, it was impossible to influence him.
+
+In politics, he was a Whig of 1688, which became him, modified, however,
+by all the experience of the present age. He wished to see our society
+founded on a broad basis of civil and religious liberty. He retained
+much of the old jealousy of the court, but had none of popular
+franchises. He was for the Established Church, but for nothing more,
+and was very repugnant to priestly domination. As for the industrial
+question, he was sincerely opposed to the Manchester scheme, because
+he thought that its full development would impair and might subvert our
+territorial constitution, which he held to be the real security of our
+freedom, and because he believed that it would greatly injure Ireland,
+and certainly dissolve our colonial empire.
+
+He had a great respect for merchants, though he looked with some
+degree of jealousy on the development of our merely foreign trade. His
+knowledge of character qualified him in a great degree to govern men.
+and if some drawbacks from this influence might be experienced in his
+too rigid tenacity of opinion, and in some quickness of temper, which,
+however, always sprang from a too sensitive heart, great compensation
+might be found in the fact that there probably never was a human being
+so entirely devoid of conceit and so completely exempt from selfishness.
+Nothing delighted him more than to assist and advance others. All the
+fruits of his laborious investigations were always at the service of
+his friends without reserve or self-consideration. He encouraged them
+by making occasions for their exertions, and would relinquish his own
+opportunity without a moment's hesitation, if he thought the abandonment
+might aid a better man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     _The Protection Problem_
+
+THERE was at this time a metropolitan society for the protection of
+agriculture, of which the Duke of Richmond was chairman, and which
+had been established to counteract the proceedings of the Manchester
+confederation. It was in communication with the local Protection
+societies throughout the country; and although the adhesion to its
+service by the parliamentary members of the old Conservative party had
+been more limited than might have been expected, nevertheless many
+county members were enrolled in its ranks, and a few of the most eminent
+were actively engaged in its management. In this they were assisted by
+an equal number of the most considerable tenant-farmers. In the present
+state of affairs, the council of the Protection Society afforded the
+earliest and readiest means to collect opinion and methodize action; and
+it was therefore resolved among its managers to invite all members of
+Parliament who sympathized with their purpose, though they might not be
+members of their society, to attend their meeting and aid them at the
+present crisis with their counsel.
+
+A compliance with this request occasioned the first public appearance
+of Lord George Bentinck, as one of the organizers of a political
+party,--for he aspired to no more. The question was, whether a third
+political party could be created and sustained,--a result at all times
+and under any circumstances difficult to achieve, and which had failed
+even under the auspices of accomplished and experienced statesmen. In
+the present emergency, was there that degree of outraged public feeling
+in the country, which would overcome all obstacles and submit to any
+inconveniences, in order to ensure its representation in the House of
+Commons? It was the opinion of Lord George Bentinck that such was the
+case; that if for the moment that feeling was inert and latent, it was
+an apathy which arose from the sudden shock of public confidence, and
+the despair which under such circumstances takes possession of men;
+that if it could be shown to the country, that the great bulk of the
+Conservative party were true to their faith, and were not afraid, even
+against the fearful odds which they would have to encounter, to proclaim
+it, the confidence and the courage of the country would rally, and the
+party in the House of Commons would find external sympathy and support.
+
+With these views it became of paramount importance that the discussion
+on the government measure should be sustained on the part of the
+Protectionists with their utmost powers. They must prove to the country,
+that they could represent their cause in debate, and to this end all
+their energies must be directed. It would be fatal to them if the
+discussion were confined to one or two nights, and they overborne by
+the leading and habitual speakers. They must bring forward new men; they
+must encourage the efforts of those now unrecognized and comparatively
+unknown; they must overcome all reserve and false shame, and act as
+became men called upon to a critical and leading part, not by their
+arrogance or ambition, but by the desertion and treachery of those to
+whose abilities they had bowed without impatience and reluctance. There
+was a probability of several vacancies immediately taking place in
+counties where the seats were filled by converts, but men of too
+scrupulous an honour to retain the charge which they had sought and
+accepted as the professors of opinions contrary to those which now
+received their mournful adhesion. The result of these elections would
+greatly depend upon the spirit and figure of the party in the House of
+Commons, in their first encounter with the enemy.
+
+These views, so just and so spirited, advanced with high-bred
+earnestness by one rarely met in political turmoils, and enforced with a
+freshness and an affable simplicity which were very winning, wonderfully
+encouraged those to whom they were addressed. All seemed touched by the
+flame which burned in the breast of that man, so lofty in his thoughts
+but so humble in his ambition, who counselled ever the highest deeds,
+and was himself ever prepared to undertake the humblest duties.
+
+The business of this day was notable. Calculations were made of those
+who might be fairly counted on to take a part in debate; some discussion
+even ensued as to who should venture to reply late at night to the
+minister; a committee was appointed to communicate with all members on
+either side supposed to be favourable to the principle of Protection to
+the labour of the country; a parliamentary staff was organized, not only
+to secure the attendance of members, but to guard over the elections;
+finally, the form of the amendment to the government measure was
+discussed and settled, and it was agreed that, if possible, it should be
+moved by Mr. Philip Miles, the member for the city of Bristol, and
+who had the ear of the House not merely from the importance of his
+constituency, and seconded by Sir William Heathcote, the member for the
+county of Hampshire, a country gentleman of great accomplishments, and
+so highly considered by both sides that he was very generally spoken of
+as a probable successor to the chair.
+
+All was furnished by this lately forlorn party except a leader, and even
+then many eyes were turned and some hopeful murmurs addressed towards
+Lord George Bentinck, who in the course of this morning had given such
+various proofs of his fitness and such evidence of his resource. But he
+shook his head with a sort of suppressed smile, a faint blush, and an
+air of proud humility that was natural to him: 'I think,' he said, 'we
+have had enough of leaders; it is not in my way; I shall remain the last
+of the rank and file.'
+
+So little desirous, originally, was Lord George Bentinck to interfere
+actively in that great controversy in which ultimately he took so
+leading a part, that before the meeting of Parliament in 1846 he begged
+a gentleman whom he greatly esteemed, a member of the legal profession,
+and since raised to its highest honours, to call upon him at Harcourt
+House, when he said that he had taken great pains to master the case
+of the protective system; that he was convinced its abrogation would
+ultimately be very injurious to this country; but although, both
+in point of argument and materials, he feared no opponent, he felt
+constitutionally so incapable of ever making a speech, that he wished
+to induce some eminent lawyer to enter the House of Commons, and avail
+himself of his views and materials, which he had, with that object,
+reduced to writing. He begged, therefore, that his friend, although a
+free-trader, would assist him, by suggesting a fitting person for this
+office.
+
+Accordingly, the name of a distinguished member of the bar, who had
+already published a work of merit, impugning the principles of the new
+commercial system, was mentioned, and this learned gentleman was applied
+to, and was not indisposed to accept the task. A mere accident prevented
+this arrangement being accomplished. Lord George then requested his
+friend to make some other selection; but his adviser very sensibly
+replied, that although the House of Commons would have listened with
+respect to a gentleman who had given evidence of the sincerity of his
+convictions by the publication of a work which had no reference to
+Parliament, they would not endure the instance of a lawyer brought into
+the House merely to speak from his brief; and that the attempt would be
+utterly fruitless. He earnestly counselled Lord George himself to make
+the effort; but Lord George, with characteristic tenacity, clung for
+some time to his project, though his efforts to accomplish it were
+fortunately not successful.
+
+Some of the friends of Lord George Bentinck, remembering his
+inexperience in debate, aware of the great length at which he must
+necessarily treat the theme, and mindful that he was not physically
+well-qualified for controlling popular assemblies, not having a strong
+voice, or, naturally, a very fluent manner, were anxious that he should
+not postpone his speech until an hour so late; that an audience, jaded
+by twelve nights' discussion, would be ill-attuned to statistical
+arguments and economical details. But still clinging to the hope
+that some accident might yet again postpone the division, so that
+the Protectionists might gain the vote of Mr. Hildyard, who had been
+returned that day for South Notts, having defeated a cabinet minister,
+Lord George remained motionless until long past midnight. Mr. Cobden
+having spoken on the part of the confederation, the closing of the
+debate was felt to be inevitable. Even then, by inducing a Protectionist
+to solicit the Speaker's eye, Lord George attempted to avert the
+division; but no supporter of the government measure, of any colour,
+advancing to reply to this volunteer, Bentinck was obliged to rise.
+He came out like a lion forced from his lair. And so it happened, that
+after all his labours of body and mind, after all his research and
+unwearied application and singular vigilance, after having been at his
+post for a month, never leaving the House, even for refreshment, he
+had to undertake the most difficult enterprise in which a man can well
+embark, with a concurrence of every disadvantage which could ensure
+failure and defeat. It would seem that the audience, the subject, and
+the orator, must be equally exhausted; for the assembly had listened for
+twelve nights to the controversy, and he who was about to address them
+had, according to his strange habit, taken no sustenance the whole day;
+it being his custom to dine after the House was up, which was very
+often long after midnight, and this, with the exception of a slender
+breakfast, rigidly restricted to dry toast, was his only meal in the
+four-and-twenty hours.
+
+He had been forced to this regimen, from food exercising a lethargic
+influence over him; so that, in addition to some constitutional weakness
+in his organ, he usually laboured, when he addressed the House, under
+the disadvantage of general exhaustion. And this was, no doubt, a
+principal cause of that over-excitement and apparently unnecessary
+energy in his manner of speaking, of which he was himself perfectly,
+and even painfully, conscious. He was wont to say, that before he could
+speak he had to make a voice, and, as it were, to pump it from the very
+core of his frame. One who took a great interest in his success once
+impressed on him the expediency of trusting entirely to his natural
+voice and the interest and gravity of his matter, which, combined
+with his position as the recognized leader of a great party, would be
+adequate to command the attention of his audience; and he subsequently
+endeavoured very often to comply with this suggestion. He endeavoured
+also very much to control his redundancy of action and gesture, when
+that peculiarity was pointed out to him with the delicacy, but the
+sincerity, of friendship. He entirely freed himself from a very awkward
+feature of his first style of speaking, namely, the frequent repetition
+of a sentence, which seemed at first a habit inveterate with him; but
+such was his force of will, that when the necessity of ridding himself
+of this drawback was properly pointed out to him, he achieved the
+desired result. No one bore criticism more gently and kindly, so long as
+it was confined to his personal and intellectual characteristics, for he
+was a man absolutely without vanity or conceit, who thought very humbly
+of himself, in respect of abilities, and deemed no labour too great to
+achieve even a slight improvement. But though in these respects the very
+child of simplicity, he was a man of almost unexampled pride, and chafed
+under criticism, when his convictions or his conduct were questioned. He
+was very tenacious of his opinion, almost inexorable; and it required
+a courage nearly equal to his own, combined with a serene temper,
+successfully to impugn his conclusions.
+
+Not, therefore, excited by vanity, but sustained by self-respect, by
+an overpowering feeling that he owed it to himself and the opinions he
+held, to show to the world that they had not been lightly adopted and
+should not be lightly laid aside, Bentinck rose, long past the noon of
+night, at the end of this memorable debate, to undertake an office
+from which the most successful and most experienced rhetoricians of
+Parliament would have shrunk with intuitive discretion. But duty scorns
+prudence, and criticism has few terrors for a man with a great purpose.
+Unshaken by the adverse hour and circumstances, he proceeded to
+accomplish the object which he had long meditated, and for which he was
+fully prepared.
+
+Reminding the House, while he appealed to their indulgence, that, though
+he had had the honour of a seat for eight parliaments, he had never once
+ventured to trespass on its time on any subject of great debate, he
+at once took a clear and comprehensive ground of objection to the
+government scheme. He opposed it not only because he objected to the
+great change contemplated with respect to the agricultural interest,
+but, on principle, to the entire measure, 'a great commercial
+revolution, which we are of opinion that the circumstances of the
+country do not by any means require.'
+
+Noticing the observation of the Secretary at War, that the agricultural
+interest, in submitting to this great change, might now accept it with
+honour, instead of its being eventually extorted by force, he happily
+retorted, that vicious as he thought the measure, he should feel it
+deprived of half its vice if it could be carried without loss of honour,
+damage to reputation, and forfeiture of public character to a vast
+number of gentlemen now present. And he proceeded to show among other
+testimonies, by an appeal to the distinct language of the speech from
+the throne on the dissolution of 1841, that 'every member who occupied a
+seat in this House was returned pledged either to oppose or maintain the
+principle of protection to national industry.'
+
+Adverting to the new position, that the experience of the last
+three years justified the reversal of the system which the existing
+administration had been summoned to office to uphold, he wisely
+remarked, that 'the country will not be satisfied with three years'
+experience of any system. Three years' experience is not sufficiently
+extensive to afford a proper criterion by which we may decide the
+failure or success of any description of policy whatsoever.'
+
+Noticing that the minister had more especially founded 'his present
+belief in doctrines contrary to those which he had heretofore uniformly
+maintained,' by the assumption that the price of corn would not be more
+reduced than the price of cattle and other commodities affected by the
+tariff of 1842, and also by the results of previous experiments in the
+instances of silk and wool, Lord George 'accepted his challenge'
+on these grounds, and proceeded in great detail to investigate these
+examples.
+
+The House listened with great attention for full two hours, during
+which he treated these subjects. This attention no doubt was generally
+accorded because it was felt due to the occasion, and, under the
+circumstances, to the speaker; but those who, however contrary might
+be the results at which they had arrived, had themselves deeply entered
+into these investigations, recognized very soon that Bentinck was
+master of his subject. Sir Robert Peel looked round very often with that
+expression of appreciation which it was impossible for his nature to
+refuse to parliamentary success, even when the ability displayed was
+hostile to his projects. The minister, with reference to the wool trade,
+had dwelt on the year 1842, when prices were much depressed, while they
+had greatly rallied in 1844, when the importation of foreign wool had
+risen from forty-five to sixty-five millions of pounds; and he had drawn
+a triumphant inference that the increase of importation and the increase
+of price were in consequence of the reduction of the duty. This instance
+had produced a great effect; but Lord George showed the House, by a
+reference to the tables of 1836, that the importation of foreign wool
+had then risen to sixty-five millions of pounds, and that large foreign
+importation was consistent with high prices to the domestic grower. Nor
+was he less successful about the foreign cattle. He reminded his friends
+on the Treasury bench how strenuously, previously to the introduction of
+the tariff of 1842, they had urged upon their agricultural friends that
+no foreign cattle could enter under their regulations, and that
+the whole object of the change was to strengthen the hands of the
+agricultural interest, as regarded more essential protection, by
+removing the odium of a nominal protection: 'Convinced by my right
+honourable friends, in 1842, that their tariff would be as inoperative
+as it has proved, I gave my cordial support to the measure.'
+
+Perceiving that the House began to be wearied with the details of
+the silk trade, which he had investigated with extraordinary zeal, he
+postponed until the specific vote in committee his objections to the
+reduction of the timber duties. The fact is, he had so thoroughly
+mastered all these topics, that his observations on each of them would
+have themselves formed a speech of sufficient length and interest. But
+he successfully checked any interruption by what may be fairly styled
+his dignified diffidence.
+
+'I trust the House will recollect that I am fighting the battle of a
+party whose leaders have deserted them; and though I cannot wield my
+weapons with the skill of the right honourable gentleman on the Treasury
+bench, I trust the House will remember the emergency which has dragged
+me out to intrude upon their indulgence.'
+
+And again, when he announced that he was now about to investigate the
+pretext of 'famine in the land,' and some impatience was exhibited, he
+drew up and said, 'I think, having sat eighteen years in this house, and
+never once having trespassed on its time before in any one single
+great debate, I may appeal to the past as a proof that I duly weigh the
+measure of my abilities, and that I am painfully conscious of my proper
+place in this house.'
+
+It was impossible to resist such appeals from such a person, even at
+three o'clock in the morning; and diffident, but determined, he then
+entered into what was, perhaps, the most remarkable portion of his
+speech--an investigation of what was the real position of the country
+with respect to the supply of food in the past autumn and at the present
+moment. Having shown from the trade circulars that, far from there being
+at present 'a wheat famine,' the stocks in the granaries in bond were
+more than double in amount to what they were in the year 1845, 'a year
+admitted by all to be a year of extraordinary abundance,' he proceeded
+to the Irish part of the question: 'I beg leave to say, that though this
+debate has now continued for three weeks, I am the first gentleman
+who has at all entered into the real state of the case as regards the
+allegation of a potato famine in Ireland, upon which, be it remembered,
+is founded the sole case of her Majesty's ministers for a repeal of the
+corn laws.'
+
+And this was very true. The fact is, though the Protectionist party had
+made a most unexpected and gallant defence, no one was really prepared
+for the contest except Bentinck. Between the end of November and the
+meeting of Parliament, he had thrown all the energies of his passionate
+mind into this question. He had sought information on all points
+and always at the fountain-head. He had placed himself in immediate
+communication with the ablest representatives of every considerable
+interest attacked, and being ardent and indefatigable, gifted with
+a tenacious memory and a very clear and searching spirit, there was
+scarcely a detail or an argument connected with his subject which was
+not immediately at his command. No speeches in favour of the protective
+system have ever been made in the House of Commons compared with his in
+depth and range of knowledge; and had there been any member not
+connected with the government, who had been able to vindicate the merits
+of British agriculture as he did when the final struggle occurred, the
+impression which was made by the too-often unanswered speeches of the
+Manchester confederation would never have been effected. But the great
+Conservative party, exhausted by the labours of ten years of opposition,
+thought that after the triumph of '41 it might claim a furlough. The
+defence of their cause was left entirely to the ministers of their
+choice; and ministers, distracted with detail and wearied with official
+labour, are not always the most willing or the most efficient champions
+of the organic principles of a party.
+
+Sir Robert Peel, with respect to the disease in the Irish potato, had
+largely referred to the statements of the inspectors of police. Lord
+George wanted to know why the reports of the lieutenants of the Irish
+counties were not given. Being well-informed upon this head, he asked
+the government to produce the report of Lord Duncannon, the lord
+lieutenant of Carlow; especially that of his noble father, the earl of
+Bes-borough, lord lieutenant of Kilkenny. 'Is there any man in England
+or in Ireland whose opinion, from his business-like habits, his great
+practical knowledge, and the warm and affectionate interest which for
+a long period of years he has taken in everything which concerns the
+interests of Ireland, especially of the Irish peasantry--is there
+any man whose opinion would have greater weight? The opinion of Lord
+Bes-borough on an Irish subject, the lieutenant of an Irish county, and
+himself long a cabinet minister? Well, sir, I am assured that, having
+taken the utmost pains to investigate this matter, Lord Besborough has
+made an elaborate report to the Irish government. Well, then, I
+desire to know why Lord Besborough's report to the Irish government
+is suppressed? Is it because that report would not assist the present
+policy of her Majesty's government?'
+
+He alleged the names of many other individuals of high station who
+had officially reported on the subject to the government: of Lord
+Castlereagh, the lieutenant of Down, a member of the House; of Lord
+de Vesci, whose son was sitting for the Queen's County, over which his
+father presided in the name of the queen. A murmur ran round the House,
+that it would have been as well if these reports had been produced.
+
+The last portion of this argumentative harangue referred to the most
+important division of the subject. Bentinck met it boldly, without
+evasion; nor was there any portion of his address more interesting, more
+satisfactory, and more successful. 'I now come,' he said, 'to the great
+challenge, which is ever and anon put forth by the Anti-Corn Law League,
+and now by their disciples, her Majesty's ministers. How are we, they
+ask, with our limited extent of territory, to feed a population annually
+and rapidly increasing at the rate of three hundred thousand a-year,
+as generally stated by the member for Stockport--a rate increased by my
+noble friend, the member for the West Riding, to a thousand a day, or
+three hundred and sixty-five thousand a year?'
+
+He first proved in a complete manner that, from the year 1821 to the
+year 1844, the population of the country had increased at the rate of
+less than thirty-two per cent., while the growth of wheat during the
+same period had increased no less than sixty-four per cent. He then
+proceeded to inquire why, with such an increased produce, we were still,
+as regards bread corn, to a certain extent, an importing nation? This he
+accounted for by the universally improved condition of the people, and
+the enlarged command of food by the working classes. He drew an animated
+picture, founded entirely on the representations of writers and public
+men adverse to the Protective System, of the superior condition of the
+people of 'England, happy England,' to that of other countries: how they
+consumed much more of the best food, and lived much longer. This was
+under Protection, which Lord John Russell had stigmatized, in his
+letter, 'the bane of agriculture.' 'In the history of my noble friend's
+illustrious family,' he continued, 'I should have thought that he would
+have found a remarkable refutation of such a notion.' And then he drew a
+lively sketch of the colossal and patriotic works of the Earls and
+Dukes of Bedford, 'whereby they had drained and reclaimed three
+hundred thousand acres of land drowned in water, and brought them
+into cultivation, and thus converted into fertile fields a vast morass
+extending over seven counties in England.' Could the system which had
+inspired such enterprise be justly denounced as baneful?
+
+To show the means of the country to sustain even a much-increasing
+population, and that those means were in operation, he entered into one
+of the most original and interesting calculations that was perhaps
+ever offered to the House of Commons. Reminding the House that in the
+preceding year (1845) the farmers of England, at a cost of two millions
+sterling, had imported two hundred and eighty thousand tons of guano, he
+proceeded to estimate what would be the effect on the productive powers
+of the land of that novel application. Two hundred thousand tons, or, in
+other words, four million hundred-weight, were expended on the land
+in 1845. Half of these, he assumed, would be applied to the growth of
+wheat, and the other half to the growth of turnips preparatory to the
+wheat crop of the ensuing year. According to the experiments tried and
+recorded in the Royal Agricultural Journal, it would seem that by the
+application of two hundred-weight of guano to an acre of wheat land, the
+produce would be increased by one quarter per acre. At this rate, one
+hundred thousand tons, or two million hundred-weight of guano would add
+one million quarters of wheat to the crop, or bread for one year for
+one million of people. But as he was very careful never to over-state
+a case, Lord George assumed, that it would require three hundred
+hundredweight of guano to an acre to produce an extra quarter of wheat.
+According to this estimate, one hundred thousand tons of guano, applied
+to the land in 1845, must have added six hundred and sixty-six thousand
+six hundred and sixty-six quarters of grain to the wheat crop, or, in
+other words, bread for six hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred
+and sixty-six additional mouths. 'And now for turnips,' he continued.
+The Norfolk authorities whom he quoted have in like manner proved that
+two hundred-weight of guano will add ten tons per acre to the turnip
+crop. But again, for fear of exaggeration, he supposed that three
+hundred-weight would be requisite to create such increased fertility. In
+this case, two million hundredweight of guano would add six million six
+hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty tons to the natural
+unmanured produce of the crop. Now it is generally considered that one
+ton of Swedes would last twenty sheep three weeks, and that each sheep
+should gain half a pound of meat per week, or one pound and a half in
+three weeks; thus twenty sheep feeding on one ton of turnips in three
+weeks should in the aggregate make, as the graziers say, thirty pounds
+of mutton. But to be safe in his estimate, he would assume that one ton
+of turnips makes only half this quantity. 'Multiply, then,' exclaimed
+Bentinck with the earnest air of a crusader, 'six million six hundred
+and sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty by fifteen, and you have no
+less than ninety-nine million nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand and
+nine hundred pounds of mutton as the fruits of one hundred thousand tons
+of guano; which, at ninety-two pounds per man--the average Englishman's
+allowance--affords meat for one million eight hundred and sixty thousand
+nine hundred and fifty-five--nearly two million of her Majesty's
+subjects.'
+
+This is a specimen of those original and startling calculations to
+which the House was soon to become accustomed from his lips. They were
+received at first with astonishment and incredulity; but they were never
+impugned. The fact is, he was extremely cautious in his data, and no
+man was more accustomed ever to impress upon his friends the extreme
+expediency of not over-stating a case. It should also be remarked of
+Lord George Bentinck, that in his most complicated calculations he never
+sought aid from notes.
+
+We have necessarily only noticed a few of the traits of this remarkable
+performance. Its termination was impressive.
+
+'We have heard in the course of these discussions a good deal about an
+ancient monarchy, a reformed House of Commons, and a proud aristocracy.
+Sir, with regard to our ancient monarchy, I have no observation to make;
+but, if so humble an individual as myself might be permitted to whisper,
+a word in the ear of that illustrious and royal personage who, as
+he stands nearest, so is he justly dearest, to her who sits upon the
+throne, I would take leave to say, that I cannot but think he listened
+to ill advice, when, on the first night of this great discussion, he
+allowed himself to be seduced by the first minister of the crown to
+come down to this House to usher in, to give _eclat_, and as it were
+by reflection from the queen, to give the semblance of the personal
+sanction of her Majesty to a measure which, be it for good or for evil,
+a great majority at least of the landed aristocracy of England, of
+Scotland, and of Ireland, imagine fraught with deep injury, if not ruin,
+to them
+
+--a measure which, not confined in its operation to this great class,
+is calculated to grind down countless smaller interests engaged in the
+domestic trades and, interests of the empire, transferring the profits
+of all these interests--English, Scotch, Irish, and Colonial
+
+--great and small alike, from Englishmen, from Scotchmen, and from
+Irishmen, to Americans, to Frenchmen, to Russians, to Poles, to
+Prussians, and to Germans. Sir, I come now to the reformed House of
+Commons; and as one who was a party to that great measure, I cannot but
+feel a deep interest in its success, and more especially in that
+portion of it which extended the franchise to the largest and the most
+respectable body in the kingdom--I mean the landed tenantry of England;
+and deeply should I regret should any large proportion of those members
+who have been sent to Parliament to represent them in this House,
+prove to be the men to bring lasting dishonour upon themselves, their
+constituencies, and this House, by an act of tergiversation so gross
+as to be altogether unprecedented in the annals of any reformed
+or unreformed House of Commons. Sir, lastly, I come to the "proud
+aristocracy." We are a proud aristocracy, but if we are proud, it is
+that we are proud in the chastity of our honour. If we assisted in '41
+in turning the Whigs out of office, because we did not consider a
+fixed duty of eight shillings a quarter on foreign corn a sufficient
+protection, it was with honesty of purpose and in single-mindedness we
+did so; and as we were not before the fact, we will not be accomplices
+after the fact in the fraud by which the Whig ministers were expelled
+from power. If we are a proud aristocracy, we are proud of our honour,
+inasmuch as we never have been guilty, and never can be guilty, of
+double-dealing with the farmers of England--of swindling our opponents,
+deceiving our friends, or betraying our constituents.'
+
+The division was called. The West-India interest, notwithstanding
+the amendment was moved by the member for Bristol, deserted the
+Protectionists. Deaf to the appeals, and the remonstrances, and the
+warnings of Lord George, one of their leading members replied, with
+a smile of triumphant content, that 'they had made a satisfactory
+arrangement for themselves.' How satisfactory did the West-Indians find
+it four months subsequently? All the shipping interest deserted the
+land. They were for everything free, except navigation; there was no
+danger of that being interfered with; 'it rested on quite distinct
+grounds--national grounds.' They were warned, but they smiled in
+derisive self-complacency. Lord George Bentinck lived to have the
+West-India interest and the shipping interest on their knees to him,
+to defend their perilled or to restore their ruined fortunes; and with
+characteristic generosity and proud consistency, he undertook the task,
+and sacrificed his life in the attempt.
+
+Notwithstanding these terrible defalcations, when the numbers were
+announced, at nearly four o'clock in the morning, the majority had
+not reached those three magical figures supposed necessary, under the
+circumstances, to success. In a house of five hundred and eighty-one
+members present, the amendment of the Protectionists was defeated only
+by ninety-seven; and two hundred and forty-two gentlemen, in spite of
+desertion, difficulty, and defeat, still maintained the 'chastity of
+their honour.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     _The Irish Question_
+
+IN THE meantime, besides the prolonged and unforeseen resistance of the
+Protectionists, there were other and unexpected causes at work which
+equally, or perhaps even more powerfully tended to the fulfilment of the
+scheme of delay, which Lord George Bentinck had recommended his friends
+to adopt and encourage.
+
+In the latter months of the year 1845, there broke out in some of the
+counties of Ireland one of those series of outrages which have hitherto
+periodically occurred in districts of that country. Assassination and
+crimes of violence were rife: men on the queen's highway were shot from
+behind hedges, or suddenly torn from their horses and beaten to death
+with clubs; houses were visited in the night by bodies of men, masked
+and armed--their owners dragged from their beds, and, in the presence
+of their wives and children, maimed and mutilated; the administration of
+unlawful oaths, with circumstances of terror, indicated the existence of
+secret confederations, whose fell intents, profusely and ostentatiously
+announced by threatening letters, were frequently and savagely
+perpetrated.
+
+These barbarous distempers had their origin in the tenure of land in
+Ireland, and in the modes of its occupation. A combination of causes,
+political, social, and economical, had for more than a century unduly
+stimulated the population of a country which had no considerable
+resources except in the soil. That soil had become divided into minute
+allotments, held by a pauper tenantry, at exorbitant rents, of a class
+of middlemen, themselves necessitous, and who were mere traders in land.
+A fierce competition raged amid the squalid multitude for these strips
+of earth which were their sole means of existence. To regulate this
+fatal rivalry, and restrain this emulation of despair, the peasantry,
+enrolled in secret societies, found refuge in an inexorable code. He who
+supplanted another in the occupation of the soil was doomed by an occult
+tribunal, from which there was no appeal, to a terrible retribution. His
+house was visited in the night by whitefeet and ribbonmen--his doom was
+communicated to him, by the post, in letters, signed by Terry Alt, or
+Molly M'Guire, or he was suddenly shot, like a dog, by the orders of
+Captain Rock. Yet even these violent inflictions rather punished than
+prevented the conduct against which they were directed. The Irish
+peasant had to choose between starving and assassination. If, in
+deference to an anonymous mandate, he relinquished his holding, he and
+those who depended on him were outcasts and wanderers; if he retained or
+accepted it, his life might be the forfeit, but subsistence was secured;
+and in poor and lawless countries, the means of living are more valued
+than life. Those who have treated of the agrarian crimes of Ireland
+have remarked, that the facility with which these outrages have been
+committed has only been equalled by the difficulty of punishing them. A
+murder, perpetrated at noonday, in the sight of many persons, cannot be
+proved in a court of justice. The spectators are never witnesses; and it
+has been inferred from this, that the outrage is national, and that the
+heart of the populace is with the criminal. But though a chief landlord,
+or a stipendiary magistrate, may occasionally be sacrificed, the great
+majority of victims are furnished by the humblest class. Not sympathy,
+but terror, seals the lip and clouds the eye of the bystander. And this
+is proved by the fact that while those who have suffered have almost
+always publicly declared that they were unable to recognize their
+assailants, and believed them to be strangers, they have frequently, in
+confidence, furnished the police with the names of the guilty.
+
+Thus, there is this remarkable characteristic of the agrarian anarchy
+of Ireland which marks it out from all similar conditions of other
+countries: it is a war of the poor against the poor.
+
+Before the rapid increase of population had forced governments to study
+political economy and to investigate the means of subsisting a people,
+statesmen had contented themselves by attributing to political causes
+these predial disturbances, and by recommending for them political
+remedies. The course of time, which had aggravated the condition of the
+Irish peasantry, had increased the numbers, the wealth, and the general
+importance of those of the middle classes of Ireland who professed the
+Roman Catholic faith. Shut out from the political privileges of the
+constitution, these formed a party of discontent that was a valuable
+ally to the modern Whigs, too long excluded from that periodical share
+of power which is the life-blood of a parliamentary government and the
+safeguard of a constitutional monarchy. The misgovernment of Ireland
+became therefore a stock topic of the earlier Opposition of the present
+century; and advocating the cause of their clients, who wished to become
+mayors, and magistrates, and members of the legislature, they argued
+that in the concession of those powers and dignities, and perhaps in
+the discreet confiscation of the property of the Church, the only cures
+could be found for threatening notices, robbery of arms, administering
+of unlawful oaths, burglary, murder, and arson.
+
+Yet if these acts of violence were attributable to defective political
+institutions, why, as was usually the case, were they partial in their
+occurrence? Why were they limited to particular districts? If political
+grievances were the cause, the injustice would be as sharp in tranquil
+Wexford as in turbulent Tipperary. Yet out of the thirty-two counties
+of Ireland, the outrages prevailed usually in less than a third. These
+outrages were never insurrectionary: they were not directed against
+existing authorities; they were stimulated by no public cause or
+clamour; it was the private individual who was attacked, and for a
+private reason. This was their characteristic.
+
+But as time elapsed, two considerable events occurred: the Roman
+Catholic restrictions were repealed, and the Whigs became ministers.
+Notwithstanding these great changes, the condition of the Irish
+peasantry remained the same; the tenure of land was unchanged, the modes
+of its occupation were unaltered, its possession was equally necessary
+and equally perilous. The same circumstances produced the same
+consequences. Notwithstanding even that the Irish Church had been
+remodelled, and its revenues not only commuted but curtailed;
+notwithstanding that Roman Catholics had not only become members of
+Parliament but even Parliament had been reformed; Irish outrage became
+more flagrant and more extensive than at any previous epoch--and the
+Whigs were ministers.
+
+Placed in this responsible position, forced to repress the evil, the
+causes of which they had so often explained, and which with their
+cooperation had apparently been so effectually removed, the Whig
+government were obliged to have recourse to the very means which they
+had so frequently denounced when recommended by their rivals, and that,
+too, on a scale of unusual magnitude and severity. They proposed for
+the adoption of Parliament one of those measures which would suspend the
+constitution of Ireland, and which are generally known by the name of
+Coercion Acts.
+
+The main and customary provisions of these Coercion Acts were of
+severe restraint, and scarcely less violent than the conduct they were
+constructed to repress. They invested the lord lieutenant with power
+to proclaim a district as disturbed, and then to place its inhabitants
+without the pale of the established law; persons out of their dwellings
+between sunset and sunrise were liable to transportation; and to secure
+the due execution of the law, prisoners were tried before military
+tribunals, and not by their peers, whose verdicts, from sympathy or
+terror, were usually found to baffle justice.
+
+These Coercion Acts were effectual; they invariably obtained their end,
+and the proclaimed districts became tranquil. But they were an affair
+of police, not of government; essentially temporary, their effect was
+almost as transient as their sway, and as they were never accompanied
+with any deep and sincere attempt to cope with the social circumstances
+which produced disorder, the recurrence of the chronic anarchy was
+merely an affair of time. Whether it were that they did not sufficiently
+apprehend the causes, or that they shrank from a solution which must
+bring them in contact with the millions of a surplus population, there
+seems always to have been an understanding between the public men
+of both parties, that the Irish difficulty should be deemed a purely
+political, or at the utmost a religious one. And even so late as 1846,
+no less a personage than the present chief secretary, put forward by
+his party to oppose an Irish Coercion Bill which themselves had loudly
+called for, declared that he could not sanction its penal enactments
+unless they were accompanied by the remedial measures that were
+necessary, to wit, an Irish Franchise Bill, and a Bill for the amendment
+of municipal corporations!
+
+When Sir Robert Peel, in 1841, after a memorable opposition of ten
+years, acceded to office, sustained by all the sympathies of the
+country, his Irish policy, not sufficiently noticed amid the vast and
+urgent questions with which he had immediately to deal, was, however, to
+the political observer significant and interesting. As a mere matter of
+party tactics, it was not for him too much to impute Irish disturbances
+to political and religious causes, even if the accumulated experience
+of the last ten years were not developing a conviction in his mind, that
+the methods hitherto adopted to ensure the tranquillity of that country
+were superficial and fallacious. His cabinet immediately recognized
+a distinction between political and predial sources of disorder.
+The first, they resolved into a mere system of agitation, no longer
+justifiable by the circumstances, and this they determined to put down.
+The second, they sought in the conditions under which land was occupied,
+and these they determined to investigate. Hence, on the one hand, the
+O'Connell prosecution: on the other, the Devon commission.
+
+This was the bold and prudent policy of a minister who felt he had
+the confidence of the country and was sustained by great parliamentary
+majorities; and when the summoner of monster meetings was convicted, and
+the efficient though impartial manner in which the labours of the land
+commission were simultaneously conducted came to be bruited about, there
+seemed at last some prospect of the system of political quackery of
+which Ireland had been so long the victim being at last subverted. But
+there is nothing in which the power of circumstances is more evident
+than in politics. They baffle the forethought of statesmen, and control
+even the apparently inflexible laws of national development and decay.
+
+Had the government of 1841 succeeded in its justifiable expectation of
+terminating the trade of political agitation in Ireland, armed with all
+the authority and all the information with which the labours of the land
+commission would have furnished them, they would in all probability have
+successfully grappled with the real causes of Irish misery and misrule.
+They might have thoroughly reformed the modes by which land is holden
+and occupied; have anticipated the spontaneous emigration that now rages
+by an administrative enterprise scarcely more costly than the barren
+loan of '47, and which would have wafted native energies to imperial
+shores; have limited under these circumstances the evil of the potato
+famine, even if the improved culture of the interval might not have
+altogether prevented that visitation; while the laws which regulated the
+competition between home and foreign industry in agricultural produce
+might have been modified with so much prudence, or, if necessary,
+ultimately repealed with so much precaution, that those rapid and
+startling vicissitudes that have so shattered the social fabric of
+Ireland might altogether have been avoided.
+
+But it was decreed that it should be otherwise. Having achieved the
+incredible conviction of O'Connell, by an Irish jury, the great culprit
+baffled the vengeance of the law by a quirk which a lawyer only could
+have devised. As regards his Irish policy, Sir Robert Peel never
+recovered this blow, the severity of which was proportionably increased
+by its occurrence at a moment of unprecedented success. Resolute not to
+recur to his ancient Orangeism, yet desperate after his discomfiture of
+rallying a moderate party around his ministry, his practical mind,
+more clear-sighted than foreseeing, was alarmed at the absence of all
+influences for the government of Ireland. The tranquillity which might
+result from a reformed tenure of the soil, must, if attainable, be
+a distant blessing, and at present he saw only the obstacles to its
+fulfilment--prejudiced landlords, and the claims and necessities of
+pauper millions. He shrank from a theory which might be an illusion. He
+required a policy for the next post and the next division. There was
+in his view only one course to take, to outbid his predecessors as
+successfully in Irish politics as he was doing in taxes and tariffs. He
+resolved to appropriate the liberal party of Ireland, and merge it into
+the great Conservative confederation which was destined to destroy so
+many things. He acted with promptitude and energy, for Sir Robert Peel
+never hesitated when he had made up his mind. His real character was
+very different from his public reputation. Far from being timid
+and wary, he was audacious and even headstrong. It was his cold and
+constrained demeanour that misled the public. There never was a man who
+did such rash things in so circumspect a manner. He had been fortunate
+in early disembarrassing himself of the Orange counsellors who had
+conducted his Irish questions when in opposition; vacant judgeships
+had opportunely satisfied the recognized and respectable claims of
+Mr. Serjeant Jackson and Mr. Lefroy; and so Sir Robert Peel, without
+a qualm, suddenly began to govern Ireland by sending it 'messages of
+peace.'
+
+They took various forms; sometimes a Charitable Bequests Act virtually
+placed the Roman Catholic hierarchy in friendly equality with the
+prelates of the Established Church; sometimes a 'godless college'
+called forth a moan from alarmed and irritated Oxford; the endowment
+of Maynooth struck wider and deeper, and the middle-classes of England,
+roused from their religious lethargy, called in vain to the rescue of
+a Protestantism betrayed. But the minister was unshaken. Successful
+and self-sufficient, impressed with a conviction that his government
+in duration would rival that of a Walpole or a Pitt, and exceed both
+in lustre, he treated every remonstrance with imperious disdain. He had
+even accustomed his mind to contemplate an ecclesiastical adjustment
+of Ireland which would have allied in that country the Papacy with the
+State, and have terminated the constitutional supremacy of the Anglican
+Church, when suddenly, in the very heat of all this arrogant fortune,
+the mighty fabric of delusion shivered and fell to the ground.
+
+An abused and indignant soil repudiated the ungrateful race that had
+exhausted and degraded its once exuberant bosom. The land refused
+to hold those who would not hold the land on terms of justice and of
+science. All the economical palliatives and political pretences of
+long years seemed only to aggravate the suffering and confusion. The
+poor-rate was levied upon a community of paupers, and the 'godless
+colleges' were denounced by Rome as well as Oxford.
+
+After a wild dream of famine and fever, imperial loans, rates in
+aid, jobbing public works, confiscated estates, constituencies
+self-disfranchised, and St. Peter's bearding St. James's in a spirit
+becoming Christendom rather than Europe, time topped the climax of Irish
+misgovernment; and by the publication of the census of 1851, proved that
+the millions with whose evils no statesmen would sincerely deal,
+but whose condition had been the pretext for so much empiricism, had
+disappeared, and nature, more powerful than politicians, had settled the
+'great difficulty.'
+
+Ere the publication of that document, the mortal career of Sir Robert
+Peel had closed, and indeed several of the circumstances to which we
+have just alluded did not occur in his administration; but the contrast
+between his policy and its results was nevertheless scarcely less
+striking. It was in '45 that he transmitted his most important 'message
+of peace' to Ireland, to be followed by an autumnal visit of her Majesty
+to that kingdom, painted in complacent and prophetic colours by her
+prime minister. The visit was not made. In the course of that autumn,
+ten counties of Ireland were in a state of anarchy; and, mainly in
+that period, there were 136 homicides committed, 138 houses burned, 483
+houses attacked, and 138 fired into; there were 544 cases of aggravated
+assault, and 551 of robbery of arms; there were 89 cases of bands
+appearing in arms; there were more than 200 cases of administering
+unlawful oaths; and there were 1,944 cases of sending threatening
+letters. By the end of the year, the general crime of Ireland had
+doubled in amount and enormity compared with the preceding year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     _The Cure for Irish Ills_
+
+LORD GEORGE BENTINCK had large but defined views as to the policy which
+should be pursued with respect to Ireland. He was a firm supporter of
+the constitutional preponderance allotted to the land in our scheme of
+government, not from any jealousy or depreciation of the other great
+sources of public wealth, for his sympathy with the trading classes
+was genuine, but because he believed that constitutional preponderance,
+while not inconsistent with great commercial prosperity, to be the best
+security for public liberty and the surest foundation of enduring power.
+But as reality was the characteristic of his vigorous and sagacious
+nature, he felt that a merely formal preponderance, one not sustained
+and authorized by an equivalent material superiority, was a position not
+calculated to endure in the present age, and one especially difficult to
+maintain with our rapidly increasing population. For this reason he was
+always very anxious to identify the policy of Great Britain with that
+of Ireland, the latter being a country essentially agricultural; and he
+always shrank from any proposition which admitted a difference in the
+interests of the two kingdoms.
+
+Liberal politicians, who some years ago were very loud for justice to
+Ireland, and would maintain at all hazards the identity of the interests
+of the two countries, have of late frequently found it convenient
+to omit that kingdom from their statistical bulletins of national
+prosperity. Lord George Bentinck, on the contrary, would impress on his
+friends, that if they wished to maintain the territorial constitution of
+their country, they must allow no sectarian considerations to narrow the
+basis of sympathy on which it should rest; and in the acres and millions
+of Ireland, in its soil and its people, equally neglected, he would have
+sought the natural auxiliaries of our institutions. To secure for our
+Irish fellow-subjects a regular market for their produce; to develop
+the resources of their country by public works on a great scale; and
+to obtain a decent provision for the Roman Catholic priesthood from the
+land and not from the consolidated fund, were three measures which he
+looked upon as in the highest degree conservative.
+
+When the project of the cabinet of 1846 had transpired, Lord George at
+once declared, and was in the habit of reiterating his opinion, that 'it
+would ruin the 500,000 small farmers of Ireland,' and he watched with
+great interest and anxiety the conduct of their representatives in
+the House of Commons. It was with great difficulty that he could bring
+himself to believe, that political liberalism would induce the members
+for the south and west of Ireland to support a policy in his opinion so
+fatal to their countrymen as the unconditional repeal of the corn laws;
+and, indeed, before they took that step, which almost all of them
+have since publicly regretted and attempted to compensate for by their
+subsequent votes in the House of Commons, the prospect of their conduct
+frequently and considerably varied.
+
+The Earl of St. Germans, the chief secretary of the Lord Lieutenant,
+introduced the Coercion Bill to the House of Lords on the 24th of
+February, and, considering the exigency, and the important reference
+to it in the speech from the throne, this step on the part of the
+government was certainly not precipitate. It was observed that the
+strongest supporters of the measure in the House of Lords on this
+occasion were the leaders of the Whig party. Lord Lansdowne, 'so far
+from complaining of the Government for bringing forward the measure at
+so early a period of the session, was ready to admit, that after the
+declaration of her Majesty, a declaration unhappily warranted by
+facts known to many of their lordships, every day was lost in which an
+effectual remedy was not at least attempted to put an end to a state
+of society so horrible.' Lord Clanricarde 'gave his ready assent to the
+bill;' and even Lord Grey, 'though he regretted the necessity for this
+measure, was of opinion that the chief secretary had established a
+sufficient case for arming the executive government with some additional
+powers.' When, therefore, at the end of the month of March, Lord George
+Bentinck was invited to attend a meeting of his friends, held at the
+house of Mr. Bankes, to consider the course which should be adopted
+by the Protectionist party with respect to the Coercion Bill, it was
+assumed, as a matter of course, that the coalition of the government
+and the Whigs must secure the passing of the measure, even if the
+Protectionists were disposed, for the chance of embarrassing the
+ministry, to resist it; and of course there was no great tendency in
+that direction. Men are apt to believe that crime and coercion are
+inevitably associated. There was abundance of precedent for the course,
+which seemed also a natural one.
+
+In less than a century there had been seventeen coercive acts for
+Ireland, a circumstance which might make some ponder whether
+such legislation were as efficacious as it was violent. However,
+assassination rife, Captain Rock and Molly M'Guire out at night, Whigs
+and Tories all agreed, it was easy to catch at a glance the foregone
+conclusion of the meeting. One advantage of having a recognized organ of
+a political party is, that its members do not decide too precipitately.
+They listen before they determine, and if they have a doubt, they
+will grant the benefit of it to him whose general ability they have
+acknowledged, and to whom they willingly give credit for having viewed
+the question at issue in a more laborious and painful manner than
+themselves. Without a leader, they commit themselves to opinions
+carelessly and hastily adopted. This is fatal to a party in debate; but
+it often entails very serious consequences when the mistakes have been
+committed in a less public and responsible scene than the House of
+Commons.
+
+In the present case, there was only one individual who took any
+considerable lead in the management of the party who ventured to suggest
+the expediency of pausing before they pledged themselves to support an
+unconstitutional measure, proposed by a government against which they
+were arrayed under circumstances of urgent and unusual opposition. The
+support of an unconstitutional measure may be expedient, but it cannot
+be denied that it is the most indubitable evidence of confidence. This
+suggestion, though received with kindness, elicited little sympathy, and
+Lord George Bentinck, who had not yet spoken, and who always refrained
+at these meetings from taking that directing part which he never wished
+to assume, marking the general feeling of those present, and wishing to
+guide it to a practical result advantageous to their policy, observed
+that the support of the Coercion Bill by the Protectionists, ought to be
+made conditional on the government proving the sincerity of their policy
+by immediately proceeding with their measure; that if life were in
+such danger in Ireland as was officially stated, and as he was bound
+to believe, no Corn or Customs' Bill could compete in urgency with the
+necessity of pressing forward a bill, the object of which was to arrest
+wholesale assassination. He was, therefore, for giving the government
+a hearty support, provided they proved they were in earnest in their
+determination to put down murder and outrage in Ireland, by giving a
+priority in the conduct of public business to the measure in question.
+
+This view of the situation, which was certainly adroit, for it combined
+the vindication of order with an indefinite delay of the measures for
+the repeal of the protective system, seemed to please every one; there
+was a murmur of approbation, and when one of the most considerable of
+the country gentlemen expressed the prevalent feeling, and added that
+all that was now to be desired was that Lord George Bentinck would
+kindly consent to be the organ of the party on the occasion, and state
+their view to the House, the cheering was very hearty. It came from the
+hearts of more than two hundred gentlemen, scarcely one of whom had a
+personal object in this almost hopeless struggle beyond the maintenance
+of a system which he deemed advantageous to his country; but they wished
+to show their generous admiration of the man who, in the dark hour of
+difficulty and desertion, had proved his courage and resource, had
+saved them from public contempt, and taught them to have confidence in
+themselves. And after all, there are few rewards in life which equal
+such sympathy from such men. The favour of courts and the applause
+of senates may have their moments of excitement and delight, but the
+incident of deepest and most enduring gratification in public life is to
+possess the cordial confidence of a high-spirited party, for it touches
+the heart as well as the intellect, and combines all the softer feelings
+of private life with the ennobling consciousness of public duty.
+
+Lord George Bentinck, deeply moved, consented to become the organ of the
+Protectionists in this matter; but he repeated in a marked manner his
+previous declaration, that his duty must be limited to the occasion: he
+would serve with them, but he could not pretend to be the leader of a
+party. In that capacity, however, the government chose to recognize him,
+and there occurred in consequence, very shortly after this meeting, a
+scene in the House of Commons, which occasioned at the time a great deal
+of surprise and scandal. The Secretary of the Treasury, in pursuance
+of one of his principal duties, which is to facilitate by mutual
+understanding the conduct of public business in the House of Commons,
+applied to Lord George Bentinck, confessedly at the request of Sir
+Robert Peel, to 'enter into some arrangement' as to the conduct of
+public business before Easter. The arrangement suggested was, that if
+the Protectionists supported the Coercion Bill, which it was the wish
+of Sir Robert Peel should be read a first time before Easter, the third
+reading of the Bill for the Repeal of the Corn Laws should be postponed
+until after Easter. The interview by appointment took place in the Vote
+Office, where the Secretary of the Treasury 'called Lord George aside'
+and made this proposition. Lord George stated in reply, 'what he
+believed to be the views of the party with whom he served,' and they
+were those we have already intimated. The 'arrangement' was concluded,
+and it was at the same time agreed that certain questions, of which
+notice had been given by Lord John Russell, relative to the progress
+of these very measures, should be allowed by the Protectionists to pass
+_sub silentio_. This 'pledge,' made by the noble lord for himself and
+his friends, was 'scrupulously observed.' Nevertheless, after all this,
+a letter arrived from the Secretary of the Treasury, addressed to the
+noble lord, stating that the secretary 'had not been authorized in
+saying as much as he had said,' and requesting that the conversation
+which had taken place might be considered private. Upon this, Lord
+George Bentinck drew up a statement, 'setting forth all that had
+passed,' and forwarded it to the secretary as his reply. Subsequently,
+he met that gentleman, who admitted that 'every word in that statement,
+as respected the conversation which had passed, was perfectly correct.'
+
+This being the state of the case, on the second night of the debate
+on Mr. Eliot Yorke's amendment, which we have noticed, and after the
+adjournment had been moved and carried, the government proceeded with
+some motions of form, which indicated their intention to secure, if
+possible, the third reading of the Corn Bill before Easter. Upon
+this, Lord George Bentinck, after a hurried and apparently agitated
+conversation with the Secretary of the Treasury and others connected
+with the government, rose to move the adjournment of the House. He then
+gave as his reason the circumstances which we have briefly conveyed. A
+scene of considerable confusion occurred; the Secretary of the Treasury
+admitted the correctness of the statement; the First Lord of the
+Treasury rejected the alleged authority of the secretary. Mr. Tuffnell,
+on the part of the Whigs, intimated that public business could not be
+carried on if the recognized organs were repudiated by their chief. The
+feeling of all parties coincided with Mr. Tuffnell; finally, an Irish
+repealer rose and announced that the government were bartering their
+Corn Bill to secure coercion to Ireland. Lord George Bentinck said the
+Coercion Bill was 'a second Curfew Act,' that nothing but necessity
+could justify it, and if it were necessary it must be immediate. Sir
+Robert remained irritated and obstinate. He would not give up a stage
+either of the Corn Bill or the Coercion Bill; he wanted to advance both
+before Easter. The mere division of the House between Free-traders and
+Protectionists had already ceased; there were breakers ahead, and it
+was not difficult from this night to perceive that the course of the
+government would not be so summary as they had once expected.
+
+This strange interlude occurred after midnight on the 26th of March. On
+Friday, the 27th, the House divided on the amendment of Mr. Eliot Yorke,
+and the Corn Bill was read for the second time. On the reassembling of
+the House on Monday, the 30th, an extraordinary scene took place.
+
+It appears that the cabinet, after painful deliberation, had arrived at
+the conclusion that, notwithstanding the importance of sending up
+the Corn Bill to the House of Lords before Easter, it was absolutely
+necessary to proceed at once with the Coercion Bill; and it was resolved
+that the Secretary of State should on this evening lay before the House
+the facts and reasons which 'induce the Government to believe in the
+necessity of the measure.' Mr. O'Connell and his followers had already
+announced their intention of opposing the first reading of the bill,
+an allowable but very unusual course. It is competent to the House of
+Commons to refuse a first reading to any bill sent down to it; but the
+journals afford few examples of the exercise of such a privilege. A
+member of the House of Lords may lay on the table, as a matter of pure
+right, any bill which he thinks proper to introduce, and it is read a
+first time as a matter of course; the orders of the House of Commons are
+different, and a member must obtain permission before he introduces a
+bill. This permission is occasionally refused; but when a bill comes
+from the House of Lords, the almost invariable custom is to read it
+for the first time without discussion. There are, however, as we have
+observed, instances to the contrary, and the Irish Coercion Bill of '33
+was one of them. So pregnant a precedent could not be forgotten on
+the present occasion. The government therefore were prepared for an
+opposition to the first reading of their bill; but trusting to the
+strength of their case and the assumed support of the Whig party, they
+believed that this opposition would not be stubborn, more especially
+as there were numerous stages of the measure on which the views of its
+opponents might be subsequently expressed, and as they themselves were
+prepared to engage that they would not proceed further than this
+first reading until the Corn Bill had passed the House of Commons. The
+consternation, therefore, of the government could scarcely be
+concealed, when they found on Monday night that they had to encounter a
+well-organized party opposition, headed by Sir William Somerville, and
+sanctioned and supported in debate by Lord John Russell and Sir George
+Grey.
+
+It would seem indeed a difficult and somewhat graceless office for the
+Whigs to oppose the first reading of a government bill, concerning,
+too, the highest duties of administration, which had received such
+unqualified approval from all the leading members of their party in the
+House of Lords, who had competed in declarations of its necessity and
+acknowledgments of its moderation, while they only regretted the too
+tardy progress of a measure so indispensable to the safety of
+the country and the security of her Majesty's subjects. A curious
+circumstance, however, saved them from this dilemma, which yet in
+the strange history of faction they had nevertheless in due time to
+encounter.
+
+As the Coercion Bill coming from the Lords appeared on the paper of
+the day in the form of a notice of motion, the Secretary of State,
+this being a day on which orders have precedence, had to move that such
+orders of the day should be postponed, so that he might proceed with
+the motion on the state of Ireland, of which notice had been given. The
+strict rule of the House is, that on Mondays and Fridays, orders of
+the day should have precedence of notices of motion, so that it was
+impossible for the Secretary of State to make his motion, that a certain
+bill (the Protection of Life--Ireland--Bill) should be read a first time
+without permission of the House, a permission always granted as a matter
+of course on such nights to the government, since the business which can
+be brought forward, whether in the shape of orders or motions, is
+purely government business, and thus the interests and privilege of no
+independent member of Parliament can be affected by a relaxation of
+the rules which the convenience of a ministry and the conduct of public
+business occasionally require. However, on this night, no sooner had
+the Secretary of State made, in a few formal words, this formal request,
+than up sprang Sir William Somerville to move an amendment, that the
+orders of the day should not be postponed, which he supported in a
+spirited address, mainly on the ground of the great inconvenience that
+must be suffered from the postponement of the Corn Bill. The motion of
+the Secretary of State would produce a long, exciting, and exasperating
+debate. Time would be lost--for what? To advance one stage of a measure
+which it was avowedly not the intention of the government to press at
+the present moment. Sir William concluded with a very earnest appeal
+to Lord George Bentinck and his friends, who might at no very distant
+period have the government of Ireland entrusted to them, not, for the
+sake of a momentary postponement of the Corn Bill, to place themselves,
+by voting for this measure of coercion, in collision with the Irish
+nation.' He called upon Lord George Bentinck to weigh the position in
+which he was placed.
+
+This amendment was seconded by Mr. Smith O'Brien, the member for the
+county of Limerick, who warned the government that they 'were entering
+on a contest which would continue for months.' He taunted the minister
+with governing the country without a party. What chance was there of
+reconciliation with his estranged friends? After the treatment of that
+'disavowed plenipotentiary,' the Secretary of the Treasury, who would be
+again found willing to undertake the mission of patching up a truce?
+He was not present when the terms of the treaty were exposed: but he
+understood, that if the government introduced this Coercion Bill before
+Easter, then that Lord George Bentinck would deem it wise, proper, and
+expedient; but if after Easter, then the complexion and character of the
+bill were, in the noble lord's judgment, utterly transformed, and it was
+declared to be quite untenable and unconstitutional. Was that the kind
+of support on which the government calculated for passing this measure?
+
+The Secretary of State made a dexterous, conciliatory, almost humble
+address, in reply to the taunts of Mr. Smith O'Brien. He said that he
+was well aware of the fact of which he had been just reminded, that, in
+the present state of parties, the declared adherents of the government
+were a small minority; he even, while excusing the delay in the progress
+of the Irish measure, reminded the House of the curious fact, that since
+the meeting of Parliament, two successive Irish secretaries had lost
+their seats in the House of Commons in consequence of supporting the
+administration of which they were members.
+
+The case of the government was really so good and clear, that for a
+moment it seemed the opposition could hardly persist in their unusual
+proceeding: but this was a night of misfortunes.
+
+There had been for some time a smouldering feud between the secretary
+and the Recorder of Dublin. The learned gentleman had seized the
+occasion which the present state of parties afforded, and in the
+course of the recent debate on the second reading of the Corn Bill, had
+declared that the asserted famine in Ireland was, on the part of the
+government, 'a great exaggeration.' The secretary had addressed himself
+particularly to this observation in his speech on the 27th, the night
+of the division, and had noticed it in a tone of acerbity. He had even
+intimated that it might have been used by one who was a disappointed
+solicitor for high office, and whom the government had declined to
+assist in an unwarrantable arrangement of the duties and salary of
+the judicial post he at present occupied. The learned Recorder, justly
+indignant at this depreciating innuendo, resolved to make an opportunity
+on the following Monday for his vindication and retort. He rose,
+therefore, immediately after the skilful and winning appeal of the
+secretary, and pronounced an invective against the right honourable
+gentleman which was neither ill-conceived nor ill-delivered. It
+revived the passions that for a moment seemed inclined to lull, and
+the Protectionists, who on this occasion were going to support the
+government, forgot the common point of union, while the secretary was
+described as 'the evil genius of the cabinet.'
+
+After this, it was impossible to arrest the course of debate. Mr.
+O'Connell, who appeared to be in a state of great debility, made one
+of those acute points for which he was distinguished. He said the
+government complained of the threat held out by those who opposed the
+bill, that they would avail themselves of the forms of the House to
+give it every opposition in their power. But what did the government do
+themselves? Why, they were trying to trample upon one of the sessional
+orders and to abrogate the forms of the House in order to coerce the
+Irish people. Lord George Bentinck said, that 'the chief minister had
+told them, that this was a bill to put down murder and assassination; in
+that case, if this bill were delayed, the blood of every man murdered
+in Ireland was on the head of her Majesty's ministers.' Sir George Grey
+followed, and avoiding any discussion of the state of Ireland, in
+which Lord George had entered, supported the amendment of Sir William
+Somerville, on the broad ground that the bill for the repeal of the corn
+laws ought not to be for a moment delayed. 'The debates on that
+measure had continued several weeks; and all who had any lengthened
+parliamentary experience must be convinced, that if the further progress
+of the Corn Bill was postponed until after Easter, they would have much
+longer and protracted debates in its future stages, than if the bill
+were pushed _de die in diem_. As he had understood, the government had
+intended that this bill should have gone up to the House of Lords before
+Easter, when it would have been printed, and the second reading could
+have taken place at an early day after the holidays; but if it were put
+off until after Easter, he would defy any man to show any reasonable
+expectation of its getting to a second reading in the other House before
+June, or July, or even August.' This was encouraging, and the plot
+seemed to thicken. The Secretary at War was put up by the government to
+neutralize the effect of the speech of Sir George Grey, and he said, 'I
+speak not only as a cabinet minister, but also as a considerable
+Irish proprietor.' He said, 'that anything so horrible as the state of
+demoralization and crime in which many parts of Ireland were plunged,
+anything so perfect as the suspension of the law in those parts of the
+country, anything, in short, so complete as the abrogation of liberty
+that obtained there, was, perhaps never known.' He thought that, 'no man
+and no minister could, under these circumstances, decline to admit that
+every and any measure ought to be postponed until a division had been
+taken, at least upon the principle of a measure which had for its object
+the suppression of these horrors.' After such a declaration it was clear
+the government were in a false position when by the same organ it had to
+state, 'that in asking to read this bill to-night, they only intended to
+postpone the Corn Bill for one night.'
+
+Lord John Russell following, admitted, that 'in voting for the motion of
+Sir William Somerville it was not to be supposed, that if the Secretary
+of State made out a case, he would not support the government bill;'
+yet how the secretary was ever to find an opportunity of making out his
+case, if the amendment of Sir William Somerville was carried, was
+not very apparent. Sir Robert Peel, who was disquieted by the whole
+proceedings connected with the Coercion Bill, irritated by the episode
+of 'the disavowed plenipotentiary,' from which he did not for some
+time recover, and really alarmed at the indefinite prospect of delay in
+passing his all-important measures which now began to open, could not
+conceal his vexation in the remarks which he offered, and speaking of
+the amendment as one 'of a frivolous character,' indignant cries of 'No,
+no,' from his usual admirers, obliged him to withdraw the expression.
+His feelings were not soothed when, later in the evening, even Mr.
+Cobden rose to deplore the conduct of that minister whom he otherwise so
+much admired. 'He certainly regarded it as a great calamity. Something
+had actuated the government which he could not understand. He had a
+perfect belief in the sincerity of the prime minister, but in all human
+probability the Corn Bill would not now enter the House of Lords before
+the beginning or middle of May; and when it would come out again, heaven
+only knew!'
+
+The House now divided, and being supported by all the Protectionists
+present, the government had a majority of thirty-nine, so the standing
+order was for that night rescinded; and, although the hour was late for
+such a statement, the secretary proceeded with the official exposition.
+Notwithstanding the depressing circumstances of the previous debate,
+the speech of Sir James Graham was distinguished by all that lucid
+arrangement of details and that comprehensive management of his subject
+which distinguished him. The statement made a great impression upon the
+House and the country; but, unfortunately for the government, the more
+necessary they made the measure appear, the more unjustifiable was their
+conduct in not immediately and vehemently pursuing it. They had, indeed,
+in the speech from the throne at the commencement of this memorable
+session, taken up a false position for their campaign; and we shall see,
+as we pursue this narrative of these interesting events, that the fall
+of Sir Robert Peel was perhaps occasioned not so much by his repeal
+of the corn laws as by the mistake in tactics which this adroit and
+experienced parliamentary commander so strangely committed.
+
+On this night of the 30th the government made no advance; immediately
+after the secretary had finished, the followers of Mr. O'Connell moved
+the adjournment of the House, and persisted in this line notwithstanding
+the almost querulous appeal of the first minister.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     _The Passing of O'Connell._
+
+LORD GEORGE wrote the next morning (Tuesday, March 31st) to a friend,
+who had not been able to attend the debate: 'I look upon last night as
+the most awkward night the government have had yet; I believe they would
+have given their ears to have been beaten. We have now fairly set
+them and the tail at loggerheads, and I cannot see how they are to get
+another stage of either the tariff or Corn Bill before next Tuesday at
+any rate. I doubt if they will do anything before Easter.'
+
+It was understood that the House would adjourn for the Easter recess
+on the 8th instant. There were therefore only two nights remaining for
+government business before the holidays. On the first of these (Friday,
+April the 3rd), Mr. O'Connell had announced that he should state his
+views at length on the condition of Ireland, and the causes of these
+agrarian outrages. Accordingly, when the order of the day for resuming
+the adjourned debate was read, he rose at once to propose an amendment
+to the motion. He sat in an unusual place--in that generally occupied by
+the leader of the opposition--and spoke from the red box, convenient
+to him from the number of documents to which he had to refer. His
+appearance was of great debility, and the tones of his voice were very
+still. His words, indeed, only reached those who were immediately around
+him and the ministers sitting on the other side of the green table, who
+listened with that interest and respectful attention which became the
+occasion.
+
+It was a strange and touching spectacle to those who remembered the
+form of colossal energy and the clear and thrilling tones that had once
+startled, disturbed, and controlled senates. Mr. O'Connell was on his
+legs for nearly two hours, assisted occasionally in the management of
+his documents by some devoted aide-de-camp. To the House generally it
+was a performance in dumb show, a feeble old man muttering before a
+table; but respect for the great parliamentary personage kept all as
+orderly as if the fortunes of a party hung upon his rhetoric; and though
+not an accent reached the gallery, means were taken that next morning
+the country should not lose the last and not the least interesting of
+the speeches of one who had so long occupied and agitated the mind of
+nations.
+
+This remarkable address was an abnegation of the whole policy of Mr.
+O'Connell's career. It proved, by a mass of authentic evidence ranging
+over a long term of years, that Irish outrage was the consequence of
+physical misery, and that the social evils of that country could not be
+successfully encountered by political remedies. To complete the picture,
+it concluded with a panegyric of Ulster and a patriotic quotation from
+Lord Clare.
+
+Lord John Russell, who, as an experienced parliamentary leader, had
+already made more than one effort to extricate the Whigs from the
+consequences of the hearty support given to the government measures in
+the other House by Lords Lansdowne and Clanricarde, and even by Lord
+Grey, ventured to-night even to say that if he should agree that the
+House would do well to assent to the first reading of this bill, he
+thought he was bound to state also that in the future stages of it, he
+should have 'objections to offer, going to the foundations of some of
+its principal provisions.'
+
+His speech was curious, as perhaps the last considerable manifesto of
+Whig delusion respecting Ireland. Coercion Bills might be occasionally
+necessary; no doubt of it; Lord Grey had once a Coercion Bill, and Lord
+John Russell had voted for it; but then remedial measures ought to be
+introduced with coercive ones: the evil should be repressed, but also
+cured. Thus, Lord Althorp, when the government introduced their great
+Coercion Bill, introduced also a measure which, besides making a great
+reform in the Protestant Church of Ireland, exempted the whole Catholic
+community of Ireland from the payment of church cess, which had
+previously been felt as a very great grievance. On another day Lord
+Althorp declared his intention of pressing through Parliament a Jury
+Bill, which had been brought into the House the previous session, but
+which was allowed to drop in the House of Lords.
+
+Again, there was another declaration which Lord Althorp had made, which,
+somehow or other, seemed to have been forgotten; it was a declaration
+with respect to the municipal corporations of Ireland. Lord Althorp said
+it was exceedingly desirable that the institutions of the two countries
+should be assimilated as much as possible; and that, as a general rule,
+the corporate bodies of Ireland should be the same as England. Mr.
+O'Connell had said on that occasion that there was no greater grievance
+in Ireland than the existence of corporations in their then shape. Lord
+John contrasted this language of Lord Althorp, 'simple, plain, emphatic,
+and decided,' with the language of the government of Sir Robert Peel;
+and held up to admiration the Whig policy of 1833, certainly coercive,
+but with remedial measures--a measure for the abolition of church cess,
+introduced ten days before the Coercion Bill, and a promise of municipal
+reform made simultaneously with the proclamation of martial law. This
+was real statesmanship and touching the root of the evil. Whereas
+'Sir Robert Peel had only consented to passing the Municipal Bill in a
+crippled state, and only now (in 1846) promised, that the corporations
+of Ireland should be placed on the same footing as the corporations of
+England.' Who could be surprised that such a policy-should end in famine
+and pestilence?
+
+The followers of Mr. O'Connell again succeeded in adjourning the debate
+until Monday the 6th. On that day Sir Robert Peel made 'an earnest
+appeal' to extricate himself from the almost perilous position in which
+he found his administration suddenly involved. In case the division on
+the first reading of the Irish Bill should not take place that night, he
+endeavoured to prevail on those members who had notices on the paper
+for the following night (Tuesday the 7th), the last night before the
+holidays, to relinquish their right and to permit the Irish debate
+to proceed and conclude. 'He had no wish to interfere with the due
+discussion of the measure; but he believed that the Irish members, if
+they permitted the House to proceed with the Corn Bill, by concluding
+the discussion on the Irish Bill, would be rendering an essential
+service to their country.'
+
+But this earnest appeal only influenced still more the fiery resolves
+of Mr. Smith O'Brien and his friends. They threw the responsibility for
+delay of the Corn Bill on the government. The inconvenience which
+the country suffered was occasioned by the minister, not by the Irish
+members. He ought, on Friday last, to have adjourned the discussion on
+the Coercion Bill until after Easter. He and other members who were
+on the paper for to-morrow would willingly relinquish their right of
+priority in favour of the Corn Bill, or of any measure of a remedial
+kind, but not in favour of a Coercion Bill. He did not wish to have any
+concealment with the minister as to the course which the Irish members
+would pursue. It was their bounden duty to take care that _pari passu_
+with the discussion of the Coercion Bill there should be discussions
+as to the misgovernment of Ireland; and that, in the absence of any
+remedial measures of the government, they should have an opportunity of
+suggesting such as they thought advisable for removing those evils which
+they utterly denied that the measure now before the House would remove.
+
+In vain Sir Robert, in his blandest tones and with that remarkable
+command of a temper not naturally serene which distinguished him,
+acknowledged to a certain degree the propriety of the course intimated
+by Mr. Smith O'Brien; but suggested at the same time that it was
+compatible with allowing the Irish bill to be now read for a first time,
+since on its subsequent stages Mr. O'Brien and his friends would have
+the full opportunity which they desired, of laying before the House the
+whole condition of the country. All was useless. No less a personage
+than Mr. John O'Connell treated the appeal with contempt, and lectured
+the first minister on the 'great mistake' which he had made. Little
+traits like these revealed the true parliamentary position of the once
+omnipotent leader of the great Conservative party. With the legions
+of the Protectionists watching their prey in grim silence, while
+the liberal sections were united in hostile manouvres against the
+government, it was recognised at once that the great minister had a
+staff without an army; not a reconnoitring could take place without the
+whole cabinet being under orders, and scarcely a sharpshooter sallied
+from the opposite ranks without the prime minister returning his fire in
+person.
+
+Sir Robert Peel mournfully observed that he 'did not wish to provoke
+a recriminatory discussion,' and he resigned himself to his fate.
+Immediately the third night of the adjourned debate on the Irish bill
+commenced, and was sustained principally by the Irish members until a
+late hour. It had not been the intention of Lord George Bentinck to have
+spoken on this occasion, though he had never been absent for a moment
+from his seat, and watched all that occurred with that keen relish which
+was usual with him when he thought things were going right; but having
+been personally and not very courteously appealed to by the late Mr.
+Dillon Browne, and deeming also the occasion, just before the holidays,
+a not unhappy one, he rose and concluded the debate. His speech was not
+long, it was not prepared, and it was very animated.
+
+Recapitulating himself the main features of the disturbed district, he
+said: 'It is because of these things, sir, that I am prepared to support
+at least the first reading of a bill, which I freely admit to be most
+unconstitutional in itself.'
+
+Noticing a speech made in the course of the evening by Lord Morpeth,
+who had himself once been chief secretary of the Lord Lieutenant,
+Lord George thought it discreet to remind the House of the unequivocal
+support given to this bill by the Whig leaders in another place: 'Sir, I
+think when we see all the great leaders of the Whig party supporting the
+measure elsewhere, we cannot be justly impugned for doing as they do.'
+Lord Morpeth had referred to 'remedial measures which he thinks
+should be introduced for Ireland: to measures for the extension of the
+municipal, and also of the parliamentary, franchise of that country; and
+he expressed his desire to see those franchises put on the same footing
+as the franchises of England.' 'For the life of me,' exclaimed Lord
+George, 'I confess, I cannot see in what way the extension of political
+franchises of any description in Ireland would afford a remedy for
+the evils which this measure aims to suppress. I think, sir, it is
+impossible not to perceive that there is a connection between agrarian
+outrage and the poverty of the people.'
+
+After noticing the inadequate poor-law which then existed in Ireland,
+he added: 'There is also another point immediately connected with
+this subject to which I must refer. I allude, sir, to the system of
+absenteeism. I cannot disguise from myself the conviction, that many
+of the evils of Ireland arise from the system of receiving rents by
+absentee landlords who spend them in other countries. I am well aware
+that, in holding this doctrine, I am not subscribing to the creed of
+political economists. I am well aware that Messrs. Senior and M'Culloch
+hold that it makes no difference whether the Irish landlord spends his
+rents in Dublin, on his Irish estates, in London, in Bath, or elsewhere.
+I profess, sir, I cannot understand that theory. I believe that the
+first ingredient in the happiness of a people is, that the gentry should
+reside on their native soil, and spend their rents among those from whom
+they receive them. I cannot help expressing a wish that some arrangement
+may be made connected with the levying of the poor-rate in Ireland, by
+which absentee landlords may be made to contribute in something like a
+fair proportion to the wants of the poor in the district in which they
+ought to reside. There is an arrangement in the hop-growing districts in
+England in respect to tithe, which might, I think, afford a very useful
+suggestion. There are two tithes: the one, the ordinary tithe; the
+other, extraordinary; which is levied only so long as the land is
+cultivated in hops. I think if there were two poor-rates introduced into
+Ireland, the one applying to all occupiers of land, and the other to all
+those who did not spend a certain portion of the year on some portion of
+their estates in Ireland, it would prove useful. I think, that by thus
+appealing to their interests, it might induce absentee landlords to
+reside much more in Ireland, than is now unfortunately the case.
+
+'But, sir, I think there are other remedial measures. Some days ago, the
+Secretary of State told the member for Stroud (Mr. Poulett Scrope),
+when he suggested some such measure, that he was treading on dangerous
+ground, and that the doctrines he was advocating might be written in
+letters of blood in Ireland; but, notwithstanding all this, I still say
+that I think measures might be introduced for improving the relations
+between landlord and tenant in Ireland. I do not think that some
+guarantee might and ought to be given to the tenantry of Ireland for the
+improvements they make upon their farms.
+
+'Sir, the Secretary of State, in introducing this measure, maintained
+a doctrine which, I think, much more likely to be written in letters of
+blood, for he bound up the question of the corn laws with the present
+one. He said, that unless he could, have prevailed on his colleagues
+to accede to his free-trade measures as regards corn, he would not have
+introduced this bill. Why, sir, far from giving food to the people of
+Ireland, in my opinion the measures of her Majesty's ministers will take
+away from the people of Ireland their food, by destroying the profits
+of their only manufacture--the manufacture of corn--and injuring their
+agriculture; depriving them of employment; in fact, by taking away from
+them the very means of procuring subsistence. Sir, I cannot see how the
+repeal of those laws affecting corn can be In any way connected with the
+suppression of outrage and the protection of life. What is this but to
+say, that unless we have a free trade in corn, we must be prepared to
+concede a free trade in agrarian outrage--a free trade in maiming and
+houghing cattle--a free trade in incendiarism--a free trade in the
+burning and sacking of houses--a free trade in midnight murder, and in
+noon-day assassination? What is this but telling the people of
+Ireland, that assassination, murder, incendiarism, are of such light
+consideration in the eyes of the Secretary of State, that their sanction
+or suppression by the minister of the crown hinges upon the condition of
+the corn market and the difference in the price of potatoes?
+
+'Sir, what has the potato disease to do with the outrages in Ireland?
+Some think a great deal. I have taken the trouble of looking into
+the matter. I have examined into the state of crime in at least five
+counties--Tipperary, Roscommon, Limerick, Leitrim, and Clare--and I
+find, that during the three months prior to the first appearance of
+the potato disease, and when in fact food was as cheap in Ireland as at
+almost any former period--when plenty abounded in all quarters of the
+empire, that the amount of crime exceeded that in the three months
+immediately following. Now, those who doubt this statement will have an
+opportunity of ascertaining the correctness of my figures, for I will
+not deal in general assertions. Well then, sir, I find in the three
+months, May, June, and July last, that the number of crimes committed in
+the five counties I have mentioned amounted to no less than 1,180, while
+in the three months immediately after the potato disease, or famine as
+it is called, the amount of crime committed in the same three months was
+not 1,180, but 870. I should like to know, therefore, what this agrarian
+outrage has to do with the potato famine; and where is the justification
+for a minister coming down to this House, and declaring that unless we
+pass a free-trade measure, we are not to obey her Majesty's commands
+by passing a measure for the protection of life in Ireland. Why, sir, I
+think when this language reaches the people of Ireland--coming, too, as
+it does from the Treasury, above all, from the Secretary of State for
+the Home Department--there is indeed danger to be apprehended that such
+a doctrine may be written in letters of blood in that country. Why, sir,
+if we are to hear such language as this from that minister of the crown
+charged with the peace of the country, we may just as well have Captain
+Rock established as lord lieutenant in the castle of Dublin, a Whitefoot
+for chief secretary, and Molly M'Guire installed at Whitehall with the
+seals of the home department.'
+
+And afterwards he remarked, 'I have been taunted that when I may be
+entrusted with the government of Ireland, I should perhaps then learn
+that Tyrone was an Orange county. Sir, in answer to that taunt, I must
+take leave to ask what expression of mine, either in this house or out
+of it, justifies any such remark? When or where can it be said that I
+have ever permitted myself to know any distinction between an Orangeman
+and a Catholic; when, in the whole course of my parliamentary career,
+have I ever given a vote or uttered a sentiment hostile or unfriendly to
+the Roman Catholics, either of England or Ireland?' This speech, though
+delivered generally in favour of the Irish bill, attracted very much
+the attention, and, as it appeared afterwards, the approbation of those
+Irish members, who, although sitting on the Liberal benches, did not
+acknowledge the infallible authority of Mr. O'Connell, and was the
+origin of a political connection between them and Lord George Bentinck,
+which, on more than one subsequent occasion, promised to bring important
+results.
+
+Two successive motions were now made for the adjournment of the debate,
+and Sir Robert Peel at length said, that he 'saw it was useless to
+persist.' He agreed to the adjournment until the next day, with the
+understanding that if it did come on, he would name the time to which it
+should be postponed after the holidays.
+
+Upon this, Sir William Somerville made one more appeal to the minister
+to postpone the further discussion of the Irish bill altogether until
+the Corn Bill had passed the Commons. He intimated that unless the
+government at once adopted this resolution, they would find themselves
+after Easter in the same perplexity which now paralyzed them. They would
+not be permitted to bring on this measure except upon government nights,
+and the discussion might then last weeks.
+
+The minister, exceedingly embarrassed, would not, however, relent. On
+the following day, when he moved the adjournment of the House for the
+holidays, he reduced the vacation three days, in order to obtain Friday,
+a government night, which otherwise would have been absorbed in the
+holidays, and he announced the determination of the government again
+to proceed on that night with the Irish bill in preference to the Corn
+Bill. The Irish members glanced defiance, and the Protectionists could
+scarcely conceal their satisfaction. The reputation of Sir Robert
+Peel for parliamentary management seemed to be vanishing; never was a
+government in a more tottering state; and the Whigs especially began to
+renew their laments that the Edinburgh letter and its consequences had
+prevented the settlement of the corn question from devolving to the
+natural arbitrator in the great controversy, their somewhat rash but
+still unrivalled leader, Lord John Russell.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     _A Third Party_
+
+THE members of the Protectionist opposition returned to their
+constituents with the sanguine feelings which success naturally
+inspires. Their efforts had surprised, not displeased, the country;
+the elections were in their favour; the government business halted; the
+delay in the calculated arrival of the famine had taken the edge off the
+necessity which it was supposed would have already carried the Corn Bill
+through the Commons; while the twin measure which the throes of Ireland
+had engendered had developed elements of opposition which even the
+calmest observer thought might possibly end in overthrow. Above all,
+that seemed to have happened which the most experienced in parliamentary
+life had always deemed to be impracticable; namely, the formation of a
+third party in the House of Commons.
+
+How completely this latter and difficult result was owing to the
+abilities and energies of one man, and how anomalous was the position
+which he chose to occupy in not taking the formal lead of a party which
+was entirely guided by his example, were convictions and considerations
+that at this juncture much occupied men's minds. And it was resolved
+among the most considerable of the country gentlemen to make some
+earnest and well-combined effort, during the recess, to induce Lord
+George Bentinck to waive the unwillingness he had so often expressed of
+becoming their avowed and responsible leader.
+
+When Lord George Bentinck first threw himself into the breach, he was
+influenced only by a feeling of indignation at the manner in which he
+thought the Conservative party had been trifled with by the government
+and Lord Stanley, his personal friend and political leader, deserted by
+a majority of the cabinet. As affairs developed, and it became evident
+that the bulk of the Conservative party throughout the country had
+rallied round his standard, Lord George could not conceal from himself
+the consequences of such an event, or believe that it was possible
+that the party in the House of Commons, although Lord Stanley might
+eventually think fit to guide it by his counsels, and become, if
+necessary, personally responsible for its policy, could be long held
+together unless it were conducted by a leader present in the same
+assembly, and competent under all circumstances to represent its
+opinions in debate. Lord George, although a very proud man, had no
+vanity or self-conceit. He took a very humble view of his own powers,
+and he had at the same time a very exalted one of those necessary to a
+leader of the House of Commons. His illustrious connection, Mr. Canning,
+was his standard. He had been the private secretary of that minister
+in his youth, and the dazzling qualities of that eminent personage
+had influenced the most susceptible time of life of one who was very
+tenacious of his impressions. What Lord George Bentinck appreciated
+most in a parliamentary speaker was brilliancy: quickness of perception,
+promptness of repartee, clear and concise argument, a fresh and
+felicitous quotation, wit and picture, and, if necessary, a passionate
+appeal that should never pass the line of high-bred sentiment. Believing
+himself not to be distinguished by these rhetorical qualities, he would
+listen with no complacency to those who would urge in private that the
+present period of parliamentary life was different from the days of Mr.
+Canning, and that accumulated facts and well-digested reasoning on their
+bearing, a command of all the materials of commercial controversy, and
+a mastery of the laws that regulate the production and distribution of
+public wealth, combined with habits of great diligence and application,
+would ensure the attention of a popular assembly, especially when united
+to a high character and great social position. This might be urged;
+but he would only shake his head, with a ray of humour twinkling in his
+piercing eyes, and say, in a half-drawling tone, 'If Mr. Canning were
+alive, he could do all this better than any of them, and be not a whit
+less brilliant.'
+
+There was also another reason why Lord George Bentinck was unwilling to
+assume the post of leader of the Conservative party, and this very much
+influenced him. Sprung from a great Whig house, and inheriting all the
+principles and prejudices of that renowned political connection which
+had expelled the Stuarts, he had accepted, in an unqualified sense, the
+dogma of religious liberty. This principle was first introduced into
+active politics in order to preserve the possessions of that portion
+of the aristocracy which had established itself on the plunder of
+the Church. It was to form the basis of a party which should prevent
+reaction and restitution of church lands. Whether the principle be a
+true one, and whether its unqualified application by any party in the
+state be possible, are questions yet unsettled. It is not probable, for
+example, that the worship of Juggernaut, which Lord Dalhousie permits
+in Orissa, would be permitted even by Lord John Russell at Westminster.
+Even a papist procession is forbidden, and wisely. The application of
+the principle, however, in Lord George Bentinck's mind, was among other
+things associated with the public recognition of the Roman Catholic
+hierarchy by the state, and a provision for its maintenance in Ireland
+in accordance with the plan of Mr. Pitt. What had happened, with respect
+to the vote on the endowment of Maynooth in 1845, had convinced him that
+his opinions on this subject presented an insuperable barrier to his
+ever becoming the leader of a party which had contributed three-fourths
+of the memorable minority on that occasion. It was in vain that it
+was impressed upon him by those most renowned for their Protestant
+principles, and who were at the same time most anxious to see Lord
+George Bentinck in his right position, that the question of Maynooth was
+settled, and there was now no prospect of future measures of a similar
+character. This was not the opinion of Lord George Bentinck. He nursed
+in his secret soul a great scheme for the regeneration and settlement
+of Ireland, which he thought ought to be one of the mainstays of a
+Conservative party; and it was his opinion that the condition of the
+Roman Catholic priesthood must be considered.
+
+It was in vain, in order to assist in removing these scruples, that it
+was represented to him by others that endowment of a priesthood by the
+state was a notion somewhat old-fashioned, and opposed to the spirit
+of the age which associated true religious freedom with the full
+development of the voluntary principle. He listened to these suggestions
+with distrust, and even with a little contempt. Mr. Canning had been in
+favour of the endowment of the Irish priesthood--that was sufficient for
+that particular; and as for the voluntary principle, he looked upon it
+as priestcraft in disguise; his idea of religious liberty being that all
+religions should be controlled by the state.
+
+Besides these two prominent objections to accepting the offered post,
+namely, his unaffected distrust in his parliamentary abilities and his
+assumed want of concordance with his followers on a great principle
+of modern politics, we must also remember that his compliance with
+the request involved no ordinary sacrifice of much which renders life
+delightful. He was to relinquish pursuits of noble excitement to which
+he was passionately attached, and to withdraw in a great degree from
+a circle of high-spirited friends, many of them of different political
+connection from himself, by whom he was adored. With all his unrivalled
+powers of application when under the influence of a great impulse, he
+was constitutionally indolent and even lethargic. There was nothing,
+therefore, in his position or his temperature to prick him on in '46;
+it was nothing but his strong will acting upon his indignation which
+sustained him. It is not, therefore, marvellous that he exhibited great
+reluctance to commit irretrievably his future life. At a subsequent
+period, indignation had become ambition, and circumstances of various
+kinds had made him resolve to succeed or die.
+
+On the adjournment, Lord George had gone down to Newmarket, which he
+greatly enjoyed after his exhausting campaign. Here some letters on the
+subject of the leadership passed, but nothing was definitely arranged
+till some time after the re-assembling of Parliament. For convenience
+we mention here the result. The wish of the party was repeatedly
+and personally urged by the popular and much-esteemed member for
+Dorsetshire, and at last Lord George consented to their wishes, on these
+conditions: that he should relinquish his post the moment the right man
+was discovered, who, according to his theory, would ultimately turn up;
+and secondly, that his responsible post was not to restrict or embarrass
+him on any questions in which a religious principle was involved.
+
+Before, however, this negotiation was concluded, and while yet at
+Newmarket, he wrote to a friend, the day before the House met (April
+16th).
+
+'I think there is no doubt, but that the Irish will take care of Friday
+(to-morrow) night. I have not much hope of their keeping up the debate
+beyond Friday.
+
+'It is quite clear from O'Connell's language at Dublin that we have no
+hope from the Irish tail.
+
+'I still think myself, that delay affords a great chance of something
+turning up in our favour; already the rejection of any reciprocity by
+M. Guizot has provided us with a grand weapon, which, I trust, you drive
+well home into * * * *'s vitals; a very short delay would probably bring
+over similar intelligence from the United States and their Congress.
+I trust we shall have an important deputation over from Canada,
+representing that the inevitable results of these free-trade measures
+in corn and timber will be to alienate the feelings of our Canadian
+colonists, and to induce them to follow their sordid interests, which
+will now, undoubtedly, be best consulted and most promoted by annexation
+to the United States.
+
+'Lord------'s intended tergiversation has been, I believe, some time
+known; he admits that all farmers without capital, in short, all little
+men, must be sacrificed. What a barbarous and odious policy, that
+goes upon the principle that none but capitalists are henceforth to
+be allowed to live, as farmers at least. We must turn the tables upon
+Lord------and all such heartless doctrinaires!
+
+'I fear the majority in the Lords will be greater than was expected;
+I am told that we must endeavour to put ministers in a minority two or
+three times before the bill gets to its second reading in the Lords,
+no matter upon what question. I hear there are many peers whose votes
+depend entirely upon their notions, whether or not Peel can, by hook or
+by crook, carry on.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     _Railroads for Ireland_
+
+IF WE take a general view of the career of Lord George Bentinck during
+the last year--from the time indeed when he was trying to find a lawyer
+to convey his convictions to the House of Commons until the moment when
+her Majesty prorogued her Parliament, the results will be found to be
+very remarkable. So much was never done so unexpectedly by any public
+man in the same space of time. He had rallied a great party which seemed
+hopelessly routed; he had established a parliamentary discipline,
+in their ranks which old political connections, led by experienced
+statesmen, have seldom surpassed; he had brought forward from those
+ranks, entirely through his discrimination and by his personal
+encouragement, considerable talents in debate; he had himself proved a
+master in detail and in argument of all the great questions arising
+out of the reconstruction of our commercial system; he had made a
+vindication of the results of the Protective principle as applied to
+agriculture, which certainly, so far as the materials are concerned, is
+the most efficient plea that ever was urged in the House of Commons
+in favour of the abrogated law; he had exhibited similar instances of
+investigation in considerable statements with respect to the silk trade
+and other branches of our industry; he had asserted the claims of the
+productive classes in Ireland, and in our timber and sugar producing
+colonies, with the effect which results from a thorough acquaintance
+with a subject; he had promulgated distinct principles with regard to
+our financial as well as to our commercial system; he had maintained
+the expediency cf relieving the consumer by the repeal of excise in
+preference to customs' duties, and of establishing fiscal reciprocity as
+a condition of mercantile exchange. On subjects of a more occasional
+but analogous nature he had shown promptitude and knowledge, as in the
+instances of the urgent condition of Mexico and of our carrying trade
+with the Spanish colonies, both of which he brought forward in the last
+hours of the session, but the importance of which motions was recognized
+by all parties. Finally, he had attracted the notice, and in many
+instances obtained the confidence, of large bodies of men in the
+country, who recognized in him a great capacity of labour combined with
+firmness of character and honesty of purpose.
+
+At the close of the session (August 28), Cord George visited Norfolk,
+where he received an entertainment from his constituents at King's Lynn,
+proud of their member, and to whom he vindicated the course which he had
+taken, and offered his views generally as to the relations which should
+subsist between the legislation of the country and its industry.
+From Norfolk he repaired to Belvoir Castle, on a visit to the Duke of
+Rutland, and was present at a banquet given by the agriculturists of
+Leicestershire to his friend and supporter the Marquis of Granby. After
+this he returned to Welbeck, where he seems to have enjoyed a little
+repose. Thus he writes to a friend from that place on the 22nd
+September:
+
+'Thanks for your advice, which I am following, having got Lord
+Malmesbury's Diary; but I am relapsing into my natural dawdling, lazy,
+and somnolent habits, and can with difficulty get through the leaders
+even of the "Times."
+
+* * * * 'The vehemence of the farmers is personal against Peel; it is
+quite clear that the rising price of wheat has cured their alarm. The
+railway expenditure must keep up prices and prosperity, both of which
+would have been far greater without free trade; but in face of high
+prices, railway prosperity, and potato famine, depend upon it we shall
+have an uphill game to fight.
+
+'O'Connell talks of Parliament meeting in November, to mend the Irish
+Labour-rate Act. Do you believe this?'
+
+The Labour-rate Act, passed at the end of the session ('46), was one by
+which the Lord Lieutenant was enabled to require special barony
+sessions to meet in order to make presentments for public works for the
+employment of the people, the whole of the money requisite for their
+construction to be supplied by the imperial treasury, though to
+be afterwards repaid. The machinery of this act did not work
+satisfactorily, but the government ultimately made the necessary
+alterations on their own responsibility, and obtained an indemnity from
+Parliament when it met in '47. The early session, therefore, talked
+of by Mr. O'Connell, became unnecessary. As the only object of this
+Labour-rate Act was to employ the people, and as it was supposed there
+were no public works of a reproductive nature which could be undertaken
+on a sufficient scale to ensure that employment, the Irish people were
+occupied, towards the end of the autumn of '46, mainly in making roads,
+which, as afterwards described by the first minister, 'were not wanted.'
+In the month of September more than thirty thousand persons were thus
+employed; but when the harvest was over, and it was ascertained that its
+terrible deficiency had converted pauperism into famine, the numbers
+on the public works became greatly increased, so that at the end of
+November the amount of persons engaged was four hundred thousand,
+receiving wages at the rate of nearly five millions sterling per annum.
+These immense amounts went on increasing every week, and when Parliament
+met in February, 1847, five hundred thousand persons were employed on
+these public works, which could bring no possible public advantage, at
+an expense to the country of between L700,000 and L800,000 per month.
+No Board of Works could efficiently superintend such a multitude, or
+prevent flagrant imposition, though the dimensions of that
+department appeared almost proportionably to have expanded. What
+with commissioners, chief clerks, check clerks, and pay clerks, the
+establishment of the Board of Works in Ireland, at the end of '46,
+consisted of more than eleven thousand persons.
+
+Always intent upon Ireland, this condition of affairs early and
+earnestly attracted the attention of Lord George Bentinck. So vast an
+expenditure in unproductive labour dismayed him. He would not
+easily assent to the conclusion that profitable enterprise under the
+circumstances was impossible. Such a conclusion seemed to him unnatural,
+and that an occasion where we commenced with despair justified a bold
+and venturesome course. The field is legitimately open to speculation
+where all agree that all is hopeless. The construction of harbours, the
+development of fisheries, the redemption of waste lands, were resources
+which had been often canvassed, and whatever their recommendations, with
+the exception of the last, they were necessarily very limited; and the
+last, though it might afford prompt, could hardly secure profitable,
+employment. Prompt and profitable employment was the object which Lord
+George wished to accomplish. Where millions were to be expended by the
+state, something more advantageous to the community should accrue than
+the temporary subsistence of the multitude.
+
+Lord George had always been a great supporter of railway enterprise in
+England, on the ground that, irrespective of all the peculiar advantages
+of those undertakings, the money was spent in the country; and that if
+our surplus capital were not directed to such channels, it would go, as
+it had gone before, to foreign mines and foreign loans, from which in a
+great degree no return would arrive. When millions were avowedly to be
+laid out in useless and unprofitable undertakings, it became a question
+whether it were not wiser even somewhat to anticipate the time when the
+necessities of Ireland would require railways on a considerable scale;
+and whether by embarking in such enterprises, we might not only find
+prompt and profitable employment for the people, but by giving a new
+character to the country and increasing its social relations and the
+combinations of its industry, might not greatly advance the period when
+such modes of communication would be absolutely requisite.
+
+Full of these views, Lord George, in the course of the autumn, consulted
+in confidence some gentlemen very competent to assist him in such an
+inquiry, and especially Mr. Robert Stephenson, Mr. Hudson, and Mr.
+Laing. With their advice and at their suggestion, two engineers of
+great ability, Mr. Bidder and Mr. Smith, were despatched to Ireland,
+personally to investigate the whole question of railroads in that
+country.
+
+Meditating over the condition of Ireland, a subject very frequently
+in his thoughts, and of the means to combat its vast and inveterate
+pauperism, Lord George was frequently in the habit of reverting to
+the years '41-42 in England, when there were fifteen hundred thousand
+persons on the parish rates; eighty-three thousand able-bodied men,
+actually confined within the walls of the workhouse, and more than four
+hundred thousand able-bodied men receiving out-door relief. What changed
+all this and restored England in a very brief space to a condition
+of affluence hardly before known in her annals? Not certainly the
+alterations in the tariff which were made by Sir Robert Peel at the
+commencement of his government, prudent and salutary as they were. No
+one would pretend that the abolition of the slight duty (five-sixteenths
+of a penny) on the raw material of the cotton manufacturer, or the free
+introduction of some twenty-seven thousand head of foreign cattle,
+or even the admission of foreign timber at reduced duties, could have
+effected this. Unquestionably it was the railway enterprise which
+then began to prevail that was the cause of this national renovation.
+Suddenly, and for several years, an additional sum of thirteen millions
+of pounds sterling a year was spent in the wages of our native industry;
+two hundred thousand able-bodied labourers received each upon an average
+twenty-two shillings a week, stimulating the revenue both in excise and
+customs by their enormous consumption of malt and spirits, tobacco and
+tea. This was the main cause of the contrast between the England of '41
+and the England of '45.
+
+Was there any reason why a proportionate application of the same remedy
+to Ireland should not proportionately produce a similar result? Was
+there anything wild or unauthorized in the suggestion? On the contrary:
+ten years before (1836), the subject had engaged the attention of her
+Majesty's government, and a royal commission had been issued to inquire
+into the expediency of establishing railway communication in Ireland.
+The commissioners, men of great eminence, recommended that a system
+of railways should be established in Ireland, and by the pecuniary
+assistance of government. They rested their recommendation mainly on the
+abundant evidence existing of the vast benefits which easy communication
+had accomplished in Ireland, and of the complete success which had
+attended every Parliamentary grant for improving roads in that country.
+
+The weakness of the government, arising from the balanced state of
+parties, rendered it impossible at that time for them to prosecute the
+measures recommended by the royal commissioners, though they made an
+ineffectual attempt in that direction. Could it be suspected that the
+recommendation of the commissioners had been biassed by any political
+consideration? Was it a Whig commission attempting to fulfil a Whig
+object? Another commission, more memorable, at the head of which was the
+Earl of Devon, was appointed by a Tory government some years afterwards,
+virtually to consider the condition of the people of Ireland, and the
+best means for their amelioration. The report of the Devon commission
+confirmed all the recommendations of the railway commissioners of '36,
+and pointed to these new methods of communication, by the assistance of
+loans from the government, as the best means of providing employment for
+the people.
+
+When Mr. Smith of Deanston was examined by a Parliamentary committee,
+and asked what measure of all others would be the one most calculated to
+improve the agriculture and condition of Ireland, he did not reply, as
+some might have anticipated, that the most efficient measure would be
+to drain the bogs; but his answer was, 'advance the construction of
+railways, and then agricultural improvement will speedily follow.'
+
+To illustrate the value of railways to an agricultural population, Mr.
+Smith, of Deanston, said, 'that the improvement of the land for one mile
+only on each side of the railway so constructed would be so great, that
+it would pay the cost of the whole construction.' He added, that there
+were few districts' in Ireland, in which railway communication could
+be introduced, where the value of the country through which the railway
+passed would not be raised to an extent equal to the whole cost of the
+railway.
+
+Arguing on an area of six hundred and forty acres for every square mile,
+after deducting the land occupied by fences, roads, and buildings, Mr.
+Smith, of Deanston, entered into a calculation of the gain deliverable
+from the mere carriage of the produce of the land, and the back carriage
+of manure, coals, tiles, bricks, and other materials, and estimated the
+saving through those means on every square mile to more than L300, or
+something above L600 on 1,280 acres abutting each mile of railway,
+this being the difference of the cost of carriage under the old mode of
+conveyance as compared with the new. Following up this calculation,
+he showed that fifteen hundred miles of railway would improve the land
+through which it passed to the extent of nearly two million acres at the
+rate of a mile on each side; and, taken at twenty-five years' purchase,
+would equal twenty-four millions sterling in the permanent improvement
+of the land.
+
+The ground, therefore, was sound on which Lord George cautiously, and
+after due reflection, ventured to place his foot.
+
+And now, after the reports of these two royal commissions, what was the
+state of railway enterprise in Ireland in the autumn of '46, when a vast
+multitude could only subsist by being employed by the government, and
+when the government had avowedly no reproductive or even useful work
+whereon to place them; but allotted them to operations which were
+described by Colonel Douglas, the inspector of the government himself,
+'as works which would answer no other purpose than that of obstructing
+the public conveyances?'
+
+In '46, acts of Parliament were in existence authorizing the
+construction of more than fifteen hundred miles of railway in Ireland,
+and some of these acts had passed so long as eleven years previously,
+yet at the end of '46 only one hundred and twenty-three miles of railway
+had been completed, and only one hundred and sixty-four were in the
+course of completion, though arrested in their progress from want of
+funds. Almost in the same period, two thousand six hundred miles of
+railway had been completed in England, and acts of Parliament had passed
+for constructing five thousand four hundred miles in addition: in the
+whole, eight thousand miles.
+
+What then was the reason of this debility in Ireland in prosecuting
+these undertakings? Were they really not required; were the elements
+of success wanting? The first element of success in railway enterprise,
+according to the highest authorities, is population; property is only
+the second consideration. Now, Ireland in '46 was more densely inhabited
+than England. A want of population could not therefore be the cause.
+But a population so impoverished as the Irish could not perhaps avail
+themselves of the means of locomotion; and yet it appeared from research
+that the rate of passengers on the two Irish railways that were open
+greatly exceeded in number that of the passengers upon English and
+Scotch railways. The average number of passengers on English and Scotch
+railways was not twelve thousand per mile per annum, while on the Ulster
+railway the number was nearly twenty-two thousand, and on the Dublin and
+Drogheda line the number exceeded eighteen thousand.
+
+The cause of the weakness in Ireland to prosecute these undertakings
+was the total want of domestic capital for the purpose, and the
+unwillingness of English capitalists to embark their funds in a country
+whose social and political condition they viewed with distrust, however
+promising and even profitable the investment might otherwise appear.
+This was remarkably illustrated by the instance of the Great Southern
+and Western Railway of Ireland, one of the undertakings of which the
+completion was arrested by want of funds, yet partially open. Compared
+with a well-known railway in Great Britain, the Irish railway had cost
+in its construction L15,000 per mile, and the British upwards of L26,000
+per mile; the weekly traffic on the two railways, allowing for some
+difference in their extent, was about the same on both, in amount
+varying from L1,000 to L1,300 per week; yet the unfinished British
+railway was at L40 premium in the market, and the incomplete Irish
+railway at L2 discount. It was clear, therefore, that the commercial
+principle, omnipotent in England, was not competent to cope with the
+peculiar circumstances of Ireland.
+
+Brooding over the suggestions afforded by the details which we have
+slightly indicated, Lord George Bentinck, taking into consideration
+not merely the advantage that would accrue to the country from the
+establishment of a system of railroads, but also remembering the
+peculiar circumstances of the times, the absolute necessity of employing
+the people, and the inevitable advance of public money for that purpose,
+framed a scheme with reference to all these considerations, and which
+he believed would meet all the conditions of the case. He spared no
+thought, or time, or labour, for his purpose. He availed himself of the
+advice of the most experienced, and prosecuted his researches ardently
+and thoroughly. When he had matured his scheme, he had it thrown into
+the form of a parliamentary bill by the ablest hands, and then submitted
+the whole to the judgment and criticism of those who shared his
+confidence and counsels. Towards the end of November he was at Knowsley,
+from whence he communicated with the writer of these pages. 'I am here
+hatching secret plans for the next session; and now, if you have not
+quite abjured politics, as you threatened for the next three months to
+do, devoting yourself to poetry and romance, I think I ought to have a
+quiet day with you, in order that we may hold council together and talk
+over all our policy. I shall be at Harcourt House on the 30th. I shall
+stay there till the 3rd of December, for a meeting on that day of the
+Norfolk Estuary Company, of which I am chairman. Would that evening
+suit you--or Friday--or Wednesday? I am not well acquainted with the
+geography of Buckinghamshire, but presume you are accessible either by
+rail or road in less than twelve hours.
+
+'The activity in the dockyard must be in preparation to interfere in
+Portugal, to keep King Leopold upon the Portuguese throne: it cannot be
+for Mexico, for our friend the "Times" formally abandoned Mexico in his
+leader some days ago.
+
+'* * * * has been entertaining Lord * * * * in Ireland, and writes: "How
+Peel must chuckle at the Whig difficulties." I dare say he does, but
+in Ireland it seems to me Lord Besborough is putting the fate Irish
+government to shame, whilst the rupture of the _entente cordiale_, the
+conquest of California and New Mexico, and the complications in the
+river Plata,--are complete inheritances from Lord Aberdeen.
+
+'Eaton has come to life again: else there was a prospect of George
+Manners quietly succeeding him in Cambridgeshire. I fear we shall do no
+good in Lincolnshire, notwithstanding the industry of our dear friend
+the "Morning Post," in getting hold of Lord Ebrington's and Lord Rich's
+letters to Lord Yarborough. I suppose there is no mistake in Lord
+Dalhousie ("the large trout") going out to Bombay with the reversion of
+Bengal.
+
+'The duchy of Lancaster is to be put in commission, Lord * * * * to
+be one of the commissioners, _but unpaid_. He has begun, I presume, to
+overcome the false delicacy which prevented his acceptance of office
+under the Whigs in July. S * * * * thought G * * * * was to be another
+of the Board, but that turns out a mistake, but Lord H * * * * is to be.
+
+'The manufacturers are working short time, and reducing wages in
+all directions, John Bright and Sons at Rochdale among the rest. The
+Zollverein increasing their import duties on cotton and linen yarn, and
+putting export duties of 25 per cent. (some of the states at least) on
+grain.'
+
+We must not omit to record, that in the autumn of this year, at Goodwood
+races, the sporting world was astounded by hearing that Lord George
+Bentinck had parted with his racing stud at an almost nominal price.
+Lord George was present, as was his custom, at this meeting, held in the
+demesne of one who was among his dearest friends. Lord George was not
+only present but apparently absorbed in the sport, and his horses
+were very successful. The world has hardly done justice to the great
+sacrifice which he made on this occasion to a high sense of duty. He not
+only parted with the finest racing stud in England, but he parted with
+it at a moment when its prospects were never so brilliant; and he knew
+this well. We may have hereafter to notice on this head an interesting
+passage in his life.
+
+He could scarcely have quitted the turf that day without a pang. He had
+become the lord paramount of that strange world, so difficult to sway,
+and which requires for its government both a stern resolve and a courtly
+breeding. He had them both; and though the blackleg might quail before
+the awful scrutiny of his piercing eye, there never was a man so
+scrupulously polite to his inferiors as Lord George Bentinck. The
+turf, too, was not merely the scene of the triumphs of his stud and
+his betting-book. He had purified its practice and had elevated its
+character, and he was prouder of this achievement than of any other
+connected with his sporting life. Notwithstanding his mighty stakes and
+the keenness with which he backed his opinion, no one perhaps ever cared
+less for money. His habits were severely simple, and he was the most
+generous of men. He valued the acquisition of money on the turf, because
+there it was the test of success. He counted his thousands after a great
+race as a victorious general counts his cannon and his prisoners.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     _The Versatility of Lord George Bentinck_
+
+THOSE who throw their eye over the debates of the session of '47,
+cannot fail to be struck by the variety of important questions in the
+discussion of which Lord George Bentinck took a leading or prominent
+part. And it must be borne in mind that he never offered his opinion on
+any subject which he had not diligently investigated and attempted
+to comprehend in all its bearings. His opponents might object to his
+principles or challenge his conclusions, but no one could deny that
+his conclusions were drawn from extensive information and that his
+principles were clear and distinct. He spared no pains to acquire by
+reading, correspondence, and personal research, the most authentic
+intelligence on every subject in debate. He never chattered. He never
+uttered a sentence in the House of Commons which did not convey a
+conviction or a fact. He was too profuse indeed with his facts: he had
+not the art of condensation. But those who have occasion to refer to his
+speeches and calmly to examine them, will be struck by the amplitude
+and the freshness of his knowledge, the clearness of his views, the
+coherence in all his efforts, and often--a point for which he never had
+sufficient credit--by his graphic idiom.
+
+The best speech on the affairs of Cracow, for example, the most
+vigorous and the best informed, touching all the points with a thorough
+acquaintance, was that of Lord George Bentinck. The discussion on
+Cracow, which lasted several nights and followed very shortly after
+the defeat of his Irish bill, appeared to relate to a class of subjects
+which would not have engaged his attention; but on the contrary, he had
+given days and nights to this theme, had critically examined all the
+documents, and conferred with those qualified to supply him with any
+supplementary information requisite. He spoke several times this session
+on questions connected with our foreign affairs, and always impressed
+the House with a conviction that he was addressing it after a due study
+of his subject: as for example, his speech against our interference in
+Portugal, and the statement in which he brought forward the claims of
+the holders of Spanish bonds on the government of Spain before the House
+of Commons. In the instance of Portugal, a motion of censure on
+the conduct of ministers had been introduced by Mr. Hume, and the
+government were only saved from a minority by the friendly interposition
+of Mr. Duncombe, who proposed an amendment to the motion of Mr. Hume
+which broke the line of the liberal force. Lord George Bentinck in this
+case followed Mr. Macaulay, whose speech, as was his wont, had been rich
+in historical illustration. 'The right honourable and learned member for
+Edinburgh,' Lord George replied, 'had entered into a very interesting
+history of various interferences which had taken place in the affairs
+of Portugal; but in making that statement he forgot to mention one
+circumstance which had occurred in that history, and it was this
+
+--that when Philip II. of Spain sought to conquer Portugal, the method
+he had recourse to for that purpose was one which he thought her
+Majesty's ministers had successfully practised on the present occasion
+
+--he persuaded the leaders in Portugal to mix sand with the powder of
+their troops. And so, on this occasion, her Majesty's ministers had
+prevailed on the member for Finsbury, and those other members who were
+so ready to profess a love of liberty, to mix sand with their powder.'
+
+In a previous chapter we have treated at some length of the means
+proposed or adopted by the Parliament for the sustenance and relief
+of the people of Ireland. The new poor law for that country also much
+engaged the attention of both Houses this session. Lord George Bentinck
+took a very active part in these transactions, and moved the most
+important of all the amendments to the government measure, namely, an
+attempt to assimilate the poor law of Ireland as much as possible to
+that of England, and make the entire rates be paid by the occupying
+tenant. His object, he said, was to 'prevent lavish expenditure and
+encourage profitable employment to the people.' This amendment was only
+lost by a majority of four.
+
+On the 26th of March, on the government bringing forward their bill on
+the rum duties, Lord George Bentinck brought before the House the
+case of the British and Irish distillers, not with any preference
+or partiality towards English, Scotch, or Irish distillers over the
+colonial producer. 'I am no advocate of any monopoly whatever. I desire
+only equal and exact justice between both parties; and the only way in
+which that end can, in my opinion, be properly attained, is in a select
+committee upstairs, consisting of impartial members of this house.'
+
+He often used to say that no subject ever gave him more trouble
+thoroughly to master than the spirit duties; and he noticed the
+character of the theme at the beginning of his speech. He said he
+required, not only the most especial indulgence, but even the toleration
+of the House, 'for of all the dry and dull subjects which could possibly
+be introduced, the question which it is now my misfortune to bring under
+the consideration of the House is the driest and the dullest. If this
+question had been one merely of pounds, shillings, and pence, it would
+have been dull and complicated enough; but this is a question in which
+are concerned not pounds and shillings, but pence, and halfpence, and
+farthings.'
+
+The Whitsuntide holidays occurred at the end of May. It had originally
+been the intention of Lord George Bentinck, at the request of leading
+merchants and manufacturers of all parties and opinions, to have brought
+forward the question of the Bank Act after these holidays, and to move a
+resolution that some discretionary power should be established as to the
+issue of notes. He thus alludes to this point in a letter to Mr. Wright,
+of the 24th of May:--
+
+'I return you No. 1019, of the "Bankers' Circular," with many thanks.
+
+'This delightful and timely change in the weather will do wonders for
+the country, and by producing an abundant and seasonable harvest, will
+save the country, and _may save the Bank Charter Act_; but it is pretty
+well settled that I am to give notice immediately after the holidays,
+of a resolution very much in the spirit of the memorial contained in the
+paper I am returning to you.
+
+'Things are better in the City and at Liverpool, and with this weather
+will continue to improve; but it seems to me any reverse in the weather,
+such as would occasion a late and deficient harvest, could not fail to
+bring the commerce of the country to a dead lock.
+
+'The opinion is gaining ground, that in the present state not only
+of Ireland, but of many districts in England, the government will not
+venture upon a general election till after the harvest, and not then,
+unless the harvest should prove favourable.
+
+'I am glad to read your opinion in opposition to Lord Ashburton's, that
+railways keep the gold in the country, and do not send it out. Glyn gave
+strong evidence last year to this effect before the railway committee.'
+
+Neither of the prospects in this letter was realised. The commercial and
+manufacturing interest, after the Whitsun recess, thought it advisable
+for reasons of great weight that Lord George Bentinck should postpone
+for a month or six weeks his intended motion on the Bank Charter, and
+the ministers resolved to dissolve Parliament before the harvest: thus
+it happened that the merchants and manufacturers lost their chance of
+relief from the yoke, and experienced the reign of terror in the autumn,
+the terrible events of which ultimately occasioned the assembling of the
+new Parliament in November.
+
+Anticipating the immediate dissolution of Parliament, Sir Robert Peel
+had issued an address to the electors of Tamworth, justifying his
+commercial policy. In the opinion of Lord George Bentinck it set forth
+a statement as to the effect and operation of those financial measures
+which had taken place in the course of the last six years, which, if
+left altogether unrefuted, might have a dangerous tendency at the
+coming elections. The general effect of that statement was, that by the
+reduction of duties to a large extent, it was possible to relieve the
+people of this country of burdens amounting to more than seven millions
+and a half sterling with little or no loss whatever to the revenue. But
+the truth was, Sir Robert Peel in his reductions had dealt only with
+little more than ten millions sterling of the revenue of the country,
+and had left the remaining thirty-seven millions untouched. Now on
+that portion of the revenue with which alone he had dealt, there was
+a deficiency, through his changes, to the amount of five millions
+sterling, which loss was compensated by the increase on those very
+articles which Sir Robert had left untouched. It was the opinion of Lord
+George Bentinck that the conclusion which Sir Robert Peel had drawn
+from the comparatively barren results of the increased duties on imports
+carried by the Whigs in 1840, viz., that indirect taxation had reached
+its limit, and which was indeed the basis of his new system, was a
+fallacy, and that the anticipated increase of import duties had not
+accrued in 1840 in consequence of our having had three successive bad
+harvests, 'and a bad cotton crop to boot,' all of which had checked the
+consuming power of the community. Sir Robert Peel had been favoured by
+three successive good harvests and nearly L100,000,000 invested in six
+years in domestic enterprise. 'The interposition of Providence,' said
+Lord George, 'is never a part of our debates.'
+
+Under these circumstances, Lord George took occasion to review the
+commercial policy of Sir Robert Peel, on the 20th July, in the House of
+Commons, only three days before the prorogation, and in one of his most
+successful speeches. He was much assisted by the fact that the exports
+of all our staple manufactures had then greatly diminished, and of
+course he urged this point triumphantly. 'If we had been indemnified for
+the dead loss of L650,000 on cotton wool by any great impulse given
+to our manufacturers, it would be a consolation which unfortunately we
+could not enjoy.' He traced all the consumption to railway enterprise,
+and showed that it alone had compensated for the fruitless loss of
+revenue which we had incurred in vainly stimulating the exports of our
+manufactures, which had actually diminished. He was so impressed with
+the importance that, 'on the eve of a dissolution, such a statement
+as that of Sir Robert Peel should not go forth to the country
+uncontroverted, as in that case the necessary result would be that
+the people would come to the opinion that they might abolish taxes
+altogether and yet maintain the revenue,' that he sat up all night
+writing an address to his constituents, the electors of King's Lynn,
+which took up nearly two columns of the newspapers, in which he
+presented his refutation to the public of the commercial manifesto of
+Tamworth, illustrated by the necessary tables and documents.
+
+There is a sentence in this speech which, as a distinct expression of
+policy, should perhaps be quoted:
+
+'Sir, I am one of those who seek for the repeal of the malt tax and the
+hop duties. I am one of those who think that the excise duties ought to
+be taken off. But, sir, I do not pretend that you can repeal the malt
+tax or the hop duties, or remove the soap tax without commutation for
+other taxes. I will not delude the people by pretending that I could
+take off more than seven millions and a half of taxes without replacing
+them by others, and not leave the nation bankrupt. But I think these
+reforms of Sir Robert Peel have been in a mistaken direction; I think
+that revenue duties on all foreign imports ought to be maintained, and
+that a revenue equal to those excise duties which I have mentioned can
+be levied upon the produce of foreign countries and foreign industry,
+without imposing any greater tax than one which shall fall far short of
+Mr. Walker's "perfect revenue standard of 20 per cent." I say that by
+imposing a tax far less than 20 per cent. upon all articles of foreign
+import, a revenue might be derived far less burdensome to this country
+than that of excise, a revenue of which the burden would be largely
+shared in by foreign countries, and in many cases paid altogether by
+foreign countries.'
+
+Lord George at this time watched with great interest a novel feature
+in our commercial transactions. He wrote on the 29th May (1847), to Mr.
+Burn, the editor of the 'Commercial Glance,' and an individual of whose
+intelligence, accuracy, and zeal he had a high and just opinion, 'Can
+you inform me how the raw cotton purchased for exportation stands in
+the first three weeks of the present month of May, as compared with the
+corresponding periods of '46--5--4--3?
+
+'I observe from a cotton circular sent to me the other day, that seven
+thousand five hundred bags of cotton had been purchased for exportation
+between the 1st and 21st of May. If with reduced stocks of raw cotton
+we are commencing a career of increased exportation, it appears to me to
+involve very serious consequences for our cotton manufactures as growing
+out of the existing monetary difficulties of the manufacturers.
+
+'If you could answer me these queries within the next three or four
+days, I should feel greatly obliged to you.'
+
+Again, on the 22d of July, on the point of going down to his
+constituents, he was still pursuing his inquiries in the same quarter.'
+I want particularly to compare,' he says to Mr. Burn, 'the export of the
+last ten weeks of raw cotton with the corresponding ten weeks of '46
+and '45, and at the same time to compare the importations and deliveries
+into the hands of the manufacturers during these same periods.
+
+'Pray address me, Lynn, Norfolk, where I go on Saturday, and shall
+remain till after my election on Thursday.'
+
+He writes again from Lynn, with great thanks for the information which
+had been accordingly forwarded to him there. 'Might I ask you to give me
+an account of the cotton wool imported weekly into Liverpool, and also
+the quantity sold to dealers, exporters, and speculators, in the three
+corresponding weeks of '45-46.
+
+'This information by return of post would greatly oblige me.'
+
+On the 23d of July, 1847, the last day of the second Parliament of Queen
+Victoria, Lord George went down to the House of Commons early, and took
+the opportunity of making a statement respecting the condition of our
+sugar-producing colonies, which were now experiencing the consequences
+of the unjustifiable legislation of the preceding year. He said there
+were appearances in the political horizon which betokened that he should
+not be able to obtain a select committee in the present session, and
+therefore, if he had the honour of a seat in the next Parliament, he
+begged to announce that he would take the earliest occasion to move for
+a committee to inquire into the present power of our colonies to compete
+with those countries which have still the advantage of the enforced
+labour of slaves. The returns just laid upon the table of the House
+could leave no doubt, he thought, on any man's mind on that point. Since
+the emancipation, the produce of sugar by the colonies, from '31 to '46,
+had been reduced one half, and of rum and coffee had been reduced to one
+fourth. When the act of last year which admitted slave-grown sugar was
+introduced, the allegation of the English colonies, that they could
+not compete with the labour of slaves, was denied. The proof of that
+allegation was, that they were already overwhelmed.
+
+When one recalls all to which this speech led, the most memorable effort
+of that ardent, energetic life to which it was perhaps fatal, one can
+scarcely observe the origin of such vast exertions without emotion.
+
+The Under Secretary of State replied to Lord George, making a cry of
+cheap sugar for the hustings which were before everybody's eyes, but
+making also this remarkable declaration, that 'the Island of Mauritius
+was in a state of the greatest prosperity.' While Lord George was
+speaking, the cannon were heard that announced the departure of her
+majesty from the palace.
+
+Then followed a motion of Mr. Bankes about the sale of bread, which led
+to some discussion. Mr. Bankes threatened a division. Lord Palmerston,
+who on this occasion was leading the House, said it would be acting like
+a set of schoolboys, if when Black Rod appeared they should be in the
+lobby instead of attending the Speaker to the other House. But as the
+members seemed very much inclined to act like schoolboys, the Secretary
+of State had to speak against time on the subject of baking. He analyzed
+the petition, which he said he would not read through, but the last
+paragraph was of great importance.
+
+At these words, Black Rod knocked at the door, and duly making his
+appearance, summoned the House to attend the Queen in the House of
+Lords, and Mr. Speaker, followed by a crowd of members, duly obeyed the
+summons.
+
+In about a quarter of an hour, Mr. Speaker returned without the mace,
+and standing at the table read her Majesty's speech to the members
+around, after which they retired, the Parliament being prorogued. In the
+course of the afternoon, the Parliament was dissolved by proclamation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     _The Great Panic_
+
+THE general election of 1847 did not materially alter the position of
+parties in the House of Commons. The high prices of agricultural produce
+which then prevailed naturally rendered the agricultural interest
+apathetic, and although the rural constituencies, from a feeling of
+esteem, again returned those members who had been faithful to the
+protective principle, the farmers did not exert themselves to increase
+the number of their supporters. The necessity of doing so was earnestly
+impressed upon them by Lord George Bentinck, who warned them then that
+the pinching hour was inevitable; but the caution was disregarded, and
+many of those individuals who are now the loudest in their imprecations
+on the memory of Sir Robert Peel, and who are the least content with the
+temperate course which is now recommended to them by those who have the
+extremely difficult office of upholding their interests in the House of
+Commons, entirely kept aloof, or would smile when they were asked for
+their support with sarcastic self-complacency, saying, 'Well, Sir, do
+you think after all that free trade has done us so much harm?' Perhaps
+they think now, that if they had taken the advice of Lord George
+Bentinck and exerted themselves to return a majority to the House of
+Commons, it would have profited them more than useless execrations and
+barren discontent. But it is observable, that no individuals now grumble
+so much as the farmers who voted for free trader in 1847, unless indeed
+it be the shipowners, every one of whom for years, both in and out of
+Parliament, supported the repeal of the corn laws.
+
+The Protectionists maintained their numbers, though they did not
+increase them, in the new Parliament. Lord George Bentinck however
+gained an invaluable coadjutor by the re-appearance of Mr. Herries
+in public life, a gentleman whose official as well as parliamentary
+experience, fine judgment, and fertile resource, have been of
+inestimable service to the Protectionist party. The political connection
+which gained most were the Whigs; they were much more numerous and
+compact, but it was in a great measure at the expense of the general
+liberal element, and partly at the cost of the following of Sir Robert
+Peel. The triumphant Conservative majority of 1841 had disappeared;
+but the government, with all shades of supporters, had not an absolute
+majority.
+
+Had the general election been postponed until the autumn, the results
+might have been very different. That storm--which had been long
+gathering in the commercial atmosphere--then burst like a typhoon. The
+annals of our trade afford no parallel for the widespread disaster and
+the terrible calamities. In the month of September, fifteen of the most
+considerable houses in the city of London stopped payment for between
+five and six millions sterling. The governor of the Bank of England
+was himself a partner in one of these firms; a gentleman who had lately
+filled that office, was another victim; two other Bank directors were
+included in the list. The failures were not limited to the metropolis,
+but were accompanied by others of great extent in the provinces. At
+Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow large firms were obliged to suspend
+payments. This shock of credit arrested all the usual accommodation,
+and the pressure in the money-market, so terrible in the spring, was
+revived. The excitement and the alarm in the city of London were so
+great that when the Chancellor of the Exchequer hurried up to town on
+the 1st of October, he found that the interest of money was at the rate
+of 60 per cent. per annum. The Bank Charter produced the same injurious
+effect as it had done in April; it aggravated the evil by forcing men
+to hoard. In vain the commercial world deplored the refusal of the
+government to comply with the suggestion made by Lord George Bentinck
+and Mr. Thomas Baring in the spring; in vain they entreated them at
+least now to adopt it, and to authorize the Bank of England to enlarge
+the amount of their discounts and advances on approved security, without
+reference to the stringent clause of the charter. The government,
+acting, it is believed, with the encouragement and sanction of Sir
+Robert Peel, were obstinate, and three weeks then occurred during
+which the commercial credit of this country was threatened with total
+destruction. Nine more considerable mercantile houses stopped payment
+in the metropolis, the disasters in the provinces were still more
+extensive. The Royal Bank of Liverpool failed; among several principal
+establishments in that town, one alone stopped payment for upwards of a
+million sterling. The havoc at Manchester was also great. The Newcastle
+bank and the North and South Wales bank stopped. Consols fell to 79 1/4,
+and exchequer bills were at last at 35 per cent, discount. The ordinary
+rate of discount at the Bank of England was between 8 and 9 per cent.,
+but out of doors accommodation was not to be obtained. In such a state
+of affairs, the small houses of course gave way. From their rising in
+the morning until their hour of retirement at night, the First Lord of
+the Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer were employed in
+seeing persons of all descriptions, who entreated them to interfere and
+preserve the community from universal bankruptcy. 'Perish the world,
+sooner than violate a principle,' was the philosophical exclamation of
+her Majesty's ministers, sustained by the sympathy and the sanction of
+Sir Robert Peel. At last, the governor and the deputy-governor of the
+Bank of England waited on Downing Street, and said it could go on no
+more. The Scotch banks had applied to them for assistance. The
+whole demand for discount was thrown upon the Bank of England. Two
+bill-brokers had stopped; two others were paralyzed. The Bank of England
+could discount no longer. Thanks to the Bank Charter, they were safe and
+their treasury full of bullion, but it appeared that everybody else
+must fall, for in four-and-twenty hours the machinery of credit would
+be entirely stopped. The position was frightful, and the government gave
+way. They did that on the 25th of October, after houses had fallen to
+the amount of fifteen millions sterling, which they had been counselled
+to do by Lord George Bentinck on the 25th of April. It turned out
+exactly as Mr. Thomas Baring had foretold. It was not want of capital or
+deficiency of circulation which had occasioned these awful consequences.
+It was sheer panic, occasioned by an unwisely stringent law. No sooner
+had the government freed the Bank of England from that stringency,
+than the panic ceased. The very morning the letter of license from
+the government to the Bank of England appeared, thousands and tens of
+thousands of pounds sterling were taken from the hoards, some from boxes
+deposited with bankers, although the depositors would not leave the
+notes in their bankers' hands. Large parcels of notes were returned to
+the Bank of England cut into halves, as they had been sent down into the
+country, and so small was the real demand for an additional quantity of
+currency, that the whole amount taken from the Bank, when the unlimited
+power of issue was given, was under L400,000, and the Bank consequently
+never availed itself of the privilege which the government had accorded
+it. The restoration of confidence produced an ample currency, and
+that confidence had solely been withdrawn from the apprehension of the
+stringent clauses of the Bank Charter Act of 1844.
+
+These extraordinary events had not occurred unnoticed by Lord George
+Bentinck. The two subjects that mostly engaged his attention after the
+general election were the action of the Bank Charter and the state of
+our sugar colonies. Perhaps it would be best to give some extracts from
+his correspondence at this period. He was a good letter-writer, easy and
+clear. His characteristic love of details also rendered this style
+of communication interesting. It is not possible to give more than
+extracts, and it is necessary to omit all those circumstances which
+generally in letter-reading are most acceptable. His comments on men and
+things were naturally free and full, and he always endeavoured, for the
+amusement of his correspondents, to communicate the social gossip of the
+hour. But although all this must necessarily be omitted, his letters may
+afford some illustrations of his earnestness and energy, the constancy
+of his aim, and the untiring vigilance with which he pursued his
+object--especially those which are addressed to gentlemen engaged in
+commercial pursuits who cooperated with him in his investigations.
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Harcourt House, August 30, 1847.
+
+An answer is come out to my address to my constituents at King's Lynn,
+and to my speech in answer to Peel's manifesto. Pray read it. At first
+I thought I could swear to its being * * * *, I now think I can swear
+to its being * * * *; the servility to Peel, and the official red-tape
+style would equally do for either; but the no-popery page, I think,
+fixes it on * * * *.
+
+I think it wretchedly weak, and have written some notes on the margin,
+showing up the principal points. The nine months' famine of 1846-47, as
+contrasted with Peel's famine, shows a difference of between L6,000,000
+and L7,000,000; that is to say, on the balance in the nine months
+1845-46, Ireland exported about three millions' worth of breadstuffs,
+and not a soul died of famine. In the nine months 1846-47, she imported
+three millions' sterling worth of bread-stuffs, which insufficed to
+prevent one million--or say half a million--of the people from dying of
+starvation.
+
+At present I have seen no notice of the pamphlet in any of the
+newspapers: if it is either * * * *'s, or * * * *'s, or * * * *'s we
+shall see it reviewed in 'Times,' 'Chronicle,' and 'Spectator.'
+
+The Bank of England has raised the interest on * * * *'s mortgage
+one-third per cent., making an additional annual charge of L1,500 a year
+to him. I am very sorry for him, but I know nothing so likely to rouse
+the landed aristocracy from their apathy, and to weaken their idolatry
+of Peel so much as this warning note of the joint operation of his free
+trade and restrictive currency laws.
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Harcourt House, September 2, 1847.
+
+I think it is * * * *. The trickster, I observe, has carefully reduced
+the pounds of cotton to cwts., in the hopes of concealing a great fraud
+to which he has condescended; taking, in the Whig year of 1841, the home
+consumption of cotton, whilst in Peel's year he gives entire importation
+as the home consumption, representing both as home consumption.
+
+In Peel's year, 1846, officially we have only the gross importation; but
+in the Whig year, 1841, the entire importation and the home consumption
+are given separately: the importation exceeding the home consumption by
+fifty million pounds. Burn's 'Glance,' however, gives the importation
+and home consumption for both years; unfortunately, however, not in
+lbs. or cwts., but in bags. * * * *'s fraud, however, is not the less
+apparent.
+
+He selects a Whig year when the home consumption was 220,-000 bags under
+the importation, and a year for Peel when the importation exceeded the
+home consumption by 280,000 bags, and claps down the figures as alike
+describing the home consumption.
+
+None of the Peel papers have taken up the subject: if they should, the
+'Morning Post' will answer the pamphlet; but I should like to have mine
+back again, in order that I may furnish them with the notes.
+
+* * * * was with me this morning, and called my attention to the
+circumstance that the author starts with 'We,' but drops into the
+singular number; * * * * fancies it is Peel himself, but the page on
+endowment fixes it on * * * *.
+
+Lord L * * * * means, I presume, that Peel's savage hatred is applied
+to the Protectionist portion of his old party, not of course to the
+janissaries and renegade portion.
+
+
+The following letter was in reply to one of a friend who had sent him
+information, several days before they occurred, of the great failures
+that were about to happen in the city of London. The list was
+unfortunately quite accurate, with the exception indeed of the
+particular house respecting which Lord George quotes the opinion of
+Baron Rothschild.
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Welbeck, September 17, 1847.
+
+A thousand thanks for your letter, the intelligence in which created a
+great sensation at Doncaster.
+
+As yet none of the houses appear to have failed except S * * * *. Baron
+Rothschild was at Doncaster. I talked with him on the subject; he seemed
+not to doubt the probable failure of any of the houses you named, except
+* * * *. He declared very emphatically 'that * * * * house was as sound
+as any house in London.'
+
+Lord Fitzwilliam declares 'it is no free trade without free trade in
+money.'
+
+Lord Clanricarde is here--laughs at the idea of Parliament meeting in
+October; but talks much of the difficulties of Ireland--says he does not
+see how the rates are to be paid.
+
+Messrs. Drummond are calling in their mortgages. I expect to hear that
+this practice will be general; money dear, corn cheap, incumbrances
+enhanced, and rents depressed. What will become of the apathetic country
+gentlemen? I judge from * * * * 's language, that Lord John Russell
+will stand or fall by the Bank Charter Act-but that he feels very
+apprehensive of being unable to maintain it.
+
+I agree with Bonham, in thinking that the Protectionist party is
+smashed for the present Parliament; but I must say I think Protectionist
+principles and policy are likely to come into repute again far sooner
+than was expected; and though Peel's party be a compact body, and
+formidable in the House of Commons, I cannot think that there appears
+that in the working of his measures to make it likely that he should be
+soon again carried into power on the shoulders of the people. I think
+his political reputation must ebb further before it can rise again,
+if it should ever rise again. * * * * thought him 'broken and in low
+spirits,' when he met him at Longshaw; but Lord * * * *, who was there
+at the same time, came away more Peelite than ever, and told them at
+Bretby that Sir Robert said, 'That he was quite surprised at the number
+of letters he got every day from members returned to Parliament, saying
+they meant to vote with him.'
+
+You may rely upon it the Peelites are very sanguine that they will be in
+power again almost directly. We must keep them out.
+
+
+TO MR. BURN, EDITOR OF THE 'COMMERCIAL GLANCE.'
+
+Welbeck, September 38, 1847. To the many courtesies you have already
+bestowed upon me, I will sincerely thank you to add that of informing me
+what have been the estimated cotton crops in the United States in
+each of the last four years. I would also thank you to inform me the
+comparative importation, home consumption, re-exportation, and stocks
+on hand of cotton of the first seven months of the current and three
+preceding years.
+
+
+TO MR. BURN.
+
+Welbeck, October 4, 1847.
+
+Your statistics have reached me in the very nick of time, and are
+invaluable. I care nothing about 'outsides,' it is 'insides' I look to;
+give me a good 'heart,' and I don't care how rough the 'bark' is.
+
+Anything so good I fear to spoil by suggesting the most trivial
+addition, else I should say it would be an interesting feature to
+classify the exports of cotton goods, etc., etc., under three heads:--
+
+1st. To the British colonies and British possessions abroad.
+
+2nd. To the northern states of Europe, France, Spain, Germany, Italy,
+etc., etc., the United States of America, and other countries having
+high tariffs.
+
+3rd. To China, Turkey, Africa, and the Southern States of America, and
+countries with low tariffs.
+
+I fear these failures of East and West India houses must entail great
+distress upon Manchester, and the manufacturing interests generally. You
+have given an account of the bankruptcies in the cotton trade during a
+long series of years till last year inclusive; are you able to say how
+the first nine months of the current year stands in comparison with its
+predecessors?
+
+I so highly prize your new work, that I must ask for a dozen copies to
+distribute among my friends.
+
+P. S. I have already parted with the copy you sent me; may I, therefore,
+beg another without waiting for any other binding?
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Welbeck, October 5, 1847.
+
+I shall go up to town on Friday evening, in my way to Newmarket,
+and shall be at Harcourt House all Saturday and Sunday, and shall be
+delighted to see you, and have a thorough good talk with you. Free trade
+seems working mischief faster than the most fearful of us predicted,
+and Manchester houses, as I am told, 'failing in rows,' ashamed to
+do penance in public, are secretly weeping in sackcloth and ashes, and
+heartily praying that Peel and Cobden had been hanged before they were
+allowed to ruin the country.
+
+Money at Manchester is quoted one and a quarter per cent, for ten days:
+L45 12s. 6d. per cent. per annum!
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Harcourt House, October 22, 1847. I have this moment got a note from
+Stuart, telling me that 'the Chancellor has this afternoon sent out his
+notice of the business to be taken in his own court during Michaelmas
+term, that is, from the 2nd of November till the 26th, and below it
+there is this notice--_except those days on which the Lord Chancellor
+may sit in the House of Lords_!!!'
+
+Surely this must portend a November session.
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Harcourt House, October 23, 1847. The fat banker's gossip is all stuff.
+Peel goes to Windsor today, I believe on an invitation of some standing.
+* * * * who had been dining at Palmerston's last night, tells me that he
+does not think that ministers mean calling Parliament together, and is
+confident they mean to maintain the Bank Charter Act. There have been
+some first-rate articles and letters in the 'Morning Chronicle' lately
+on this subject.
+
+
+TO A FRIEND.
+
+Harcourt House, November 6, 1847.
+
+I will stay over Tuesday, that I may have the pleasure of a thorough
+talk with you.
+
+I am told things are gradually getting better. I expect, however, a
+fresh reverse about six weeks or two months hence, when the returned
+lists of the stoppages in the East and West Indies, consequent upon the
+late failures here, come home. The Western Bank of Scotland is whispered
+about. If that were to fail, it might bring the canny Scots to their
+senses; but they are a headstrong race.
+
+A committee on commercial distress having been appointed, the principal
+reason for the summoning of the new Parliament in the autumn had been
+satisfied, and an adjournment until a month after Christmas was in
+prospect. Before, however, this took place, a new and interesting
+question arose, which led to considerable discussion, and which
+ultimately influenced in no immaterial manner the parliamentary position
+of Lord George Bentinck.
+
+The city of London at the general election had sent to the House of
+Commons, as a colleague of the first minister, a member who found a
+difficulty in taking one of the oaths appointed by the House to be
+sworn preliminarily to any member exercising his right of voting. The
+difficulty arose from this member being not only of the Jewish race, but
+unfortunately believing only in the first part of the Jewish religion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     _The Jews_
+
+THE relations that subsist between the Bedoueen race that, under the
+name of Jews, is found in every country of Europe, and the Teutonic,
+Sclavonian, and Celtic races which have appropriated that division of
+the globe, will form hereafter one of the most remarkable chapters in
+a philosophical history of man. The Saxon, the Sclav, and the Celt
+have adopted most of the laws and many of the customs of these Arabian
+tribes, all their literature and all their religion. They are therefore
+indebted to them for much that regulates, much that charms, and much
+that solaces existence. The toiling multitude rest every seventh day
+by virtue of a Jewish law; they are perpetually reading, 'for their
+example,' the records of Jewish history, and singing the odes and
+elegies of Jewish poets; and they daily acknowledge on their knees, with
+reverent gratitude, that the only medium of communication between the
+Creator and themselves is the Jewish race. Yet they treat that race as
+the vilest of generations; and instead of logically looking upon them
+as the human family that has contributed most to human happiness, they
+extend to them every term of obloquy and every form of persecution.
+
+Let us endeavour to penetrate this social anomaly that has harassed and
+perplexed centuries.
+
+It is alleged that the dispersion of the Jewish race is a penalty
+incurred for the commission of a great crime: namely, the crucifixion
+of our blessed Lord in the form of a Jewish prince, by the Romans, at
+Jerusalem, and at the instigation of some Jews, in the reign of Tiberius
+Augustus Caesar. Upon this, it may be observed, that the allegation is
+neither historically true nor dogmatically sound.
+
+I. _Not historically true_. It is not historically true, because at the
+time of the advent of our Lord, the Jewish race was as much dispersed
+throughout the world as at this present time, and had been so for many
+centuries. Europe, with the exception of those shores which are bathed
+by the midland sea, was then a primeval forest, but in every city of the
+great Eastern monarchies and in every province of the Roman empire, the
+Jews had been long settled. We have not precise authority for saying
+that at the advent there were more Jews established in Egypt than in
+Palestine, but it may unquestionably be asserted that at that period
+there were more Jews living, and that too in great prosperity and
+honour, at Alexandria than at Jerusalem. It is evident from various
+Roman authors, that the Jewish race formed no inconsiderable portion
+of the multitude that filled Rome itself, and that the Mosaic religion,
+undisturbed by the state, even made proselytes. But it is unnecessary to
+enter into any curious researches on this head, though the authorities
+are neither scant nor uninteresting. We are furnished with evidence
+the most complete and unanswerable of the pre-dispersion by the sacred
+writings themselves. Not two months after the crucifixion, when the
+Third Person of the Holy Trinity first descended on Jerusalem, it being
+the time of the great festivals, when the Jews, according to the custom
+of the Arabian tribes pursued to this day in the pilgrimage to Mecca,
+repaired from all quarters to the central sacred place, the holy
+writings inform us that there were gathered together in Jerusalem 'Jews,
+devout men, out of every nation under heaven.' And that this expression,
+so general but so precise, should not be mistaken, we are shortly
+afterwards, though incidentally, informed, that there were Parthians,
+Medes, and Persians at Jerusalem, professing the Mosaic faith; Jews from
+Mesopotamia and Syria, from the countries of the lesser and the greater
+Asia; Egyptian, Libyan, Greek, and Arabian Jews; and, especially, Jews
+from Rome itself, some of which latter are particularly mentioned as
+Roman proselytes. Nor is it indeed historically true that the small
+section of the Jewish race which dwelt in Palestine rejected Christ.
+The reverse is the truth. Had it not been for the Jews of Palestine,
+the good tidings of our Lord would have been unknown for ever to the
+northern and western races. The first preachers of the gospel were Jews,
+and none else; the historians of the gospel were Jews, and none else. No
+one has ever been permitted to write under the inspiration of the Holy
+Spirit, except a Jew. For nearly a century no one believed in the good
+tidings except Jews. They nursed the sacred flame of which they were the
+consecrated and hereditary depositaries. And when the time was ripe to
+diffuse the truth among the ethnics, it was not a senator of Rome or a
+philosopher of Athens who was personally appointed by our Lord for that
+office, but a Jew of Tarsus, who founded the seven churches of Asia. And
+that greater church, great even amid its terrible corruptions, that has
+avenged the victory of Titus by subjugating the capital of the Caesars,
+and has changed every one of the Olympian temples into altars of the God
+of Sinai and of Calvary, was founded by another Jew, a Jew of Galilee.
+
+From all which it appears that the dispersion of the Jewish race,
+preceding as it did for countless ages the advent of our Lord, could not
+be for conduct which occurred subsequently to the advent, and that they
+are also guiltless of that subsequent conduct which has been imputed to
+them as a crime, since for Him and His blessed name, they preached, and
+wrote, and shed their blood 'as witnesses.'
+
+But, is it possible that that which is not historically true can be
+dogmatically sound? Such a conclusion would impugn the foundations of
+all faith. The followers of Jesus, of whatever race, need not however be
+alarmed. The belief that the present condition of the Jewish race is a
+penal infliction for the part which some Jews took at the crucifixion is
+not dogmatically sound.
+
+2. _Not dogmatically sound_. There is no passage in the sacred writings
+that in the slightest degree warrants the penal assumption. The
+imprecation of the mob at the crucifixion is sometimes strangely quoted
+as a divine decree. It is not a principle of jurisprudence, human or
+inspired, to permit the criminal to ordain his own punishment. Why, too,
+should they transfer any portion of the infliction to their posterity?
+What evidence have we that the wild suggestion was sanctioned by
+Omnipotence? On the contrary, amid the expiating agony, a Divine Voice
+at the same time solicited and secured forgiveness. And if unforgiven,
+could the cry of a rabble at such a scene bind a nation?
+
+But, dogmatically considered, the subject of the crucifixion must be
+viewed in a deeper spirit. We must pause with awe to remember what was
+the principal office to be fulfilled by the advent. When the ineffable
+mystery of the Incarnation was consummated, a Divine Person moved on the
+face of the earth in the shape of a child of Israel, not to teach but to
+expiate. True it is that no word could fall from such lips, whether in
+the form of profound parable, or witty retort, or preceptive lore, but
+to guide and enlighten; but they who, in those somewhat lax effusions
+which in these days are honoured with the holy name of theology, speak
+of the morality of the Gospel as a thing apart and of novel revelation,
+would do well to remember that in promulgating such doctrines they are
+treading on very perilous ground. There cannot be two moralities; and to
+hold that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity could teach a different
+morality from that which had been already revealed by the First Person
+of the Holy Trinity, is a dogma so full of terror that it may perhaps
+be looked upon as the ineffable sin against the Holy Spirit. When the
+lawyer tempted our Lord, and inquired how he was to inherit eternal
+life, the great Master of Galilee referred him to the writings of Moses.
+There he would find recorded 'the whole duty of man;' to love God with
+all his heart, and soul, and strength, and mind, and his neighbour as
+himself. These two principles are embalmed in the writings of Moses, and
+are the essence of Christian morals.*
+
+     * 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.'
+     --Leviticus xix.  18.
+
+
+It was for something deeper than this, higher and holier than even Moses
+could fulfil, that angels announced the Coming. It was to accomplish an
+event pre-ordained by the Creator of the world for countless ages.
+Born from the chosen house of the chosen people, yet blending in his
+inexplicable nature the Divine essence with the human elements, a
+sacrificial Mediator was to appear, appointed before all time, to purify
+with his atoning blood the myriads that had preceded and the myriads
+that will follow him. The doctrine embraces all space and time--nay,
+chaos and eternity; Divine persons are the agents, and the redemption of
+the whole family of man the result. If the Jews had not prevailed upon
+the Romans to crucify our Lord, what would have become of the Atonement?
+But the human mind cannot contemplate the idea that the most important
+deed of time could depend upon human will. The immolators were
+preordained like the victim, and the holy race supplied both. Could that
+be a crime which secured for all mankind eternal joy--which vanquished
+Satan, and opened the gates of Paradise? Such a tenet would sully and
+impugn the doctrine that is the corner-stone of our faith and hope. Men
+must not presume to sit in judgment on such an act. They must bow their
+heads in awe and astonishment and trembling gratitude.
+
+But, though the opinion that the dispersion of the Jewish race must be
+deemed a penalty incurred for their connection with the crucifixion
+has neither historical nor doctrinal sanction, it is possible that its
+degrading influence upon its victims may have been as efficacious as if
+their present condition were indeed a judicial infliction. Persecution,
+in a word, although unjust, may have reduced the modern Jews to a state
+almost justifying malignant vengeance. They may have become so odious
+and so hostile to mankind, as to merit for their present conduct, no
+matter how occasioned, the obloquy and ill-treatment of the communities
+in which they dwell and with which they are scarcely permitted to
+mingle.
+
+Let us examine this branch of the subject, which, though of more limited
+interest, is not without instruction.
+
+In all the great cities of Europe, and in some of the great cities of
+Asia, among the infamous classes therein existing, there will always be
+found Jews. They are not the only people who are usurers, gladiators,
+and followers of mean and scandalous occupations, nor are they anywhere
+a majority of such, but considering their general numbers, they
+contribute perhaps more than their proportion to the aggregate of the
+vile. In this they obey the law which regulates the destiny of all
+persecuted races: the infamous is the business of the dishonoured; and
+as infamous pursuits are generally illegal pursuits, the persecuted race
+which has most ability will be most successful in combating the law.
+The Jews have never been so degraded as the Greeks were throughout the
+Levant before the emancipation, and the degradation of the Greeks was
+produced by a period of persecution which, both in amount and suffering,
+cannot compare with that which has been endured by the children of
+Israel. This peculiarity, however, attends the Jews under the most
+unfavourable circumstances; the other degraded races wear out and
+disappear; the Jew remains, as determined, as expert, as persevering,
+as full of resource and resolution as ever. Viewed in this light, the
+degradation of the Jewish race is alone a striking evidence of its
+excellence, for none but one of the great races could have survived the
+trials which it has endured.
+
+But, though a material organization of the highest class may account for
+so strange a consequence, the persecuted Hebrew is supported by other
+means. He is sustained by a sublime religion. Obdurate, malignant,
+odious, and revolting as the lowest Jew appears to us, he is rarely
+demoralized. Beneath his own roof his heart opens to the influence of
+his beautiful Arabian traditions. All his ceremonies, his customs, and
+his festivals are still to celebrate the bounty of nature and the favour
+of Jehovah. The patriarchal feeling lingers about his hearth. A man,
+however fallen, who loves his home is not wholly lost. The trumpet of
+Sinai still sounds in the Hebrew ear, and a Jew is never seen upon the
+scaffold, unless it be at an _auto da fe_.
+
+But, having made this full admission of the partial degradation of the
+Jewish race, we are not prepared to agree that this limited degeneracy
+is any justification of the prejudices and persecution which originated
+in barbarous or mediaeval superstitions. On the contrary, viewing the
+influence of the Jewish race upon the modern communities, without
+any reference to the past history or the future promises of Israel;
+dismissing from our minds and memories, if indeed that be possible, all
+that the Hebrews have done in the olden time for man and all which it
+may be their destiny yet to fulfil, we hold that instead of being an
+object of aversion, they should receive all that honour and favour from
+the northern and western races, which, in civilized and refined nations,
+should be the lot of those who charm the public taste and elevate the
+public feeling. We hesitate not to say that there is no race at this
+present, and following in this only the example of a long period, that
+so much delights, and fascinates, and elevates, and ennobles Europe, as
+the Jewish.
+
+We dwell not on the fact, that the most admirable artists of the drama
+have been and still are of the Hebrew race: or, that the most entrancing
+singers, graceful dancers, and exquisite musicians, are sons and
+daughters of Israel: though this were much. But these brilliant
+accessories are forgotten in the sublimer claim.
+
+It seems that the only means by which in these modern times we
+are permitted to develop the beautiful is music. It would appear
+definitively settled that excellence in the plastic arts is the
+privilege of the earlier ages of the world. All that is now produced
+in this respect is mimetic, and, at the best, the skilful adaptation
+of traditional methods. The creative faculty of modern man seems by an
+irresistible law at work on the virgin soil of science, daily increasing
+by its inventions our command over nature, and multiplying the material
+happiness of man. But the happiness of man is not merely material. Were
+it not for music, we might in these days say, the beautiful is dead.
+Music seems to be the only means of creating the beautiful, in which we
+not only equal, but in all probability greatly excel, the ancients. The
+music of modern Europe ranks with the transcendent creations of human
+genius; the poetry, the statues, the temples, of Greece. It produces and
+represents as they did whatever is most beautiful in the spirit of
+man and often expresses what is most profound. And who are the great
+composers, who hereafter will rank with Homer, with Sophocles, with
+Praxiteles, or with Phidias? They are the descendants of those Arabian
+tribes who conquered Canaan, and who by favour of the Most High have
+done more with less means even than the Athenians.
+
+Forty years ago--not a longer period than the children of Israel were
+wandering in the desert--the two most dishonoured races in Europe were
+the Attic and the Hebrew, and they were the two races that had done most
+for mankind. Their fortunes had some similarity: their countries were
+the two smallest in the world, equally barren and equally famous; they
+both divided themselves into tribes: both built a most famous temple on
+an acropolis; and both produced a literature which all European nations
+have accepted with reverence and admiration. Athens has been sacked
+oftener than Jerusalem, and oftener razed to the ground; but the
+Athenians have escaped expatriation, which is purely an Oriental custom.
+The sufferings of the Jews, however, have been infinitely more prolonged
+and varied than those of the Athenians. The Greek nevertheless appears
+exhausted. The creative genius of Israel, on the contrary, never shone
+so bright; and when the Russian, the Frenchman, and the Anglo-Saxon,
+amid applauding theatres or the choral voices of solemn temples, yield
+themselves to the full spell of a Mozart or a Mendelssohn, it seems
+difficult to comprehend how these races can reconcile it to their hearts
+to persecute a Jew.
+
+We have shown that the theological prejudice against the Jews has no
+foundation, historical or doctrinal; we have shown that the social
+prejudice, originating in the theological but sustained by superficial
+observations, irrespective of religious prejudice, is still more
+unjust, and that no existing race is so much entitled to the esteem
+and gratitude of society as the Hebrew. It remains for us to notice the
+injurious consequences to European society of the course pursued by
+the communities to this race; and this view of the subject leads us to
+considerations which it would become existing statesmen to ponder.
+
+The world has by this time discovered that it is impossible to destroy
+the Jews. The attempt to extirpate them has been made under the most
+favourable auspices and on the largest scale; the most considerable
+means that man could command have been pertinaciously applied to this
+object for the longest period of recorded time. Egyptian Pharaohs,
+Assyrian kings, Roman emperors, Scandinavian crusaders, Gothic princes,
+and holy inquisitors have alike devoted their energies to the fulfilment
+of this common purpose. Expatriation, exile, captivity, confiscation,
+torture on the most ingenious, and massacre on the most extensive,
+scale, with a curious system of degrading customs and debasing laws
+which would have broken the heart of any other people, have been tried,
+and in vain. The Jews, after all this havoc, are probably more numerous
+at this date than they were during the reign of Solomon the Wise, are
+found in all lands, and, unfortunately, prospering in most. All of which
+proves that it is in vain for man to attempt to battle the inexorable
+law of nature, which has decreed that a superior race shall never be
+destroyed or absorbed by an inferior.
+
+But the influence of a great race will be felt; its greatness does not
+depend upon its numbers, otherwise the English would not have vanquished
+the Chinese, nor would the Aztecs have been overthrown by Cortez and
+a handful of Goths. That greatness results from its organization, the
+consequences of which are shown in its energy and enterprise, in the
+strength of its will and the fertility of its brain. Let us observe
+what should be the influence of the Jews, and then ascertain how it
+is exercised. The Jewish race connects the modern populations with the
+early ages of the world, when the relations of the Creator with the
+created were more intimate than in these days, when angels visited
+the earth, and God himself even spoke with man. The Jews represent the
+Semitic principle; all that is spiritual in our nature. They are the
+trustees of tradition and the conservators of the religious element.
+They are a living and the most striking evidence of the falsity of that
+pernicious doctrine of modern times--the natural equality of man.
+The political equality of a particular race is a matter of municipal
+arrangement, and depends entirely on political considerations and
+circumstances; but the natural equality of man now in vogue, and taking
+the form of cosmopolitan fraternity, is a principle which, were it
+possible to act on it, would deteriorate the great races and destroy
+all the genius of the world. What would be the consequence on the great
+Anglo-Saxon republic, for example, were its citizens to secede from
+their sound principle of reserve, and mingle with their negro and
+coloured populations? In the course of time they would become so
+deteriorated that their states would probably be reconquered and
+regained by the aborigines whom they have expelled, and who would then
+be their superiors. But though nature will never ultimately permit this
+theory of natural equality to be practised, the preaching of this dogma
+has already caused much mischief, and may occasion much more. The native
+tendency of the Jewish race, who are justly proud of their blood, is
+against the doctrine of the equality of man. They have also another
+characteristic, the faculty of acquisition. Although the European
+laws have endeavoured to prevent their obtaining property, they have
+nevertheless become remarkable for their accumulated wealth. Thus
+it will be seen that all the tendencies of the Jewish race are
+conservative. Their bias is to religion, property, and natural
+aristocracy: and it should be the interest of statesmen that this bias
+of a great race should be encouraged, and their energies and creative
+powers enlisted in the cause of existing society.
+
+But existing society has chosen to persecute this race which should
+furnish its choice allies, and what have been the consequences?
+
+They may be traced in the last outbreak of the destructive principle in
+Europe. An insurrection takes place against tradition and aristocracy,
+against religion and property. Destruction of the Semitic principle,
+extirpation of the Jewish religion, whether in the Mosaic or in the
+Christian form, the natural equality of man, and the abrogation of
+property, are proclaimed by the secret societies who form provisional
+governments, and men of Jewish race are found at the head of every one
+of them. The people of God cooeperate with atheists; the most skilful
+accumulators of property ally themselves with communists; the peculiar
+and chosen race touch the hand of all the scum and low castes of Europe!
+And all this because they wish to destroy that ungrateful Christendom
+which owes to them even its name, and whose tyranny they can no longer
+endure.
+
+When the secret societies, in February, 1848, surprised Europe, they
+were themselves surprised by the unexpected opportunity, and so little
+capable were they of seizing the occasion, that had it not been for the
+Jews, who of late years unfortunately have been connecting themselves
+with these unhallowed associations, imbecile as were the governments,
+the uncalled-for outbreak would not have ravaged Europe. But the fiery
+energy and the teeming resources of the children of Israel maintained
+for a long time the unnecessary and useless struggle. If the reader
+throw his eye over the provisional governments of Germany and Italy, and
+even of France, formed at that period, he will recognize everywhere the
+Jewish element. Even the insurrection, and defence, and administration
+of Venice, which, from the resource and statesmanlike moderation
+displayed, commanded almost the respect and sympathy of Europe, were
+accomplished by a Jew--Manini--who, by the bye, is a Jew who professes
+the whole of the Jewish religion, and believes in Calvary as well as
+Sinai,--'a converted Jew,' as the Lombards styled him, quite forgetting,
+in the confusion of their ideas, that it is the Lombards who are the
+converts--not Manini.
+
+Thus it will be seen, that the persecution of the Jewish race has
+deprived European society of an important conservative element, and
+added to the destructive party an influential ally. Prince Metternich,
+the most enlightened of modern statesmen, not to say the most
+intellectual of men, was, though himself a victim of the secret
+societies, fully aware of these premises. It was always his custom,
+great as were the difficulties which in so doing he had to encounter,
+to employ as much as possible the Hebrew race in the public service. He
+could never forget that Napoleon, in his noontide hour, had been checked
+by the pen of the greatest of political writers; he had found that
+illustrious author as great in the cabinet as in the study; he knew that
+no one had more contributed to the deliverance of Europe. It was not
+as a patron, but as an appreciating and devoted friend, that the
+High Chancellor of Austria appointed Frederick Gentz secretary to the
+Congress of Vienna--and Frederick Gentz was a child of Israel.
+
+It is no doubt to be deplored that several millions of the Jewish race
+should persist in believing in only a part of their religion; but this
+is a circumstance which does not affect Europe, and time, with different
+treatment, may remove the anomaly which perhaps may be accounted for. It
+should be recollected, that the existing Jews are perhaps altogether the
+descendants of those various colonies and emigrations which, voluntary
+or forced, long preceded the advent. Between the vast carnage of the
+Roman wars, from Titus to Hadrian, and the profession of Christ by his
+countrymen, which must have been very prevalent, since the Christian
+religion was solely sustained by the Jews of Palestine during the
+greater part of its first century, it is improbable that any descendants
+of the Jews of Palestine exist who disbelieve in Christ. After the fall
+of Jerusalem and the failure of Barchochebas, no doubt some portion of
+the Jews found refuge in the desert, returning to their original land
+after such long and strange vicissitudes. This natural movement would
+account for those Arabian tribes, of whose resistance to Mohammed we
+have ample and authentic details, and who, if we are to credit the
+accounts which perplex modern travellers, are to this day governed by
+the Pentateuch instead of the Koran.
+
+When Christianity was presented to the ancestors of the present Jews,
+it came from a very suspicious quarter, and was offered in a very
+questionable shape. Centuries must have passed in many instances before
+the Jewish colonies heard of the advent, the crucifixion, and the
+atonement; the latter, however, a doctrine in perfect harmony with
+Jewish ideas. When they first heard of Christianity, it appeared to be a
+Gentile religion, accompanied by idolatrous practices, from which severe
+monotheists, like the Arabians, always recoil, and holding the Jewish
+race up to public scorn and hatred. This is not the way to make
+converts.
+
+There have been two great colonies of the Jewish race in Europe; in
+Spain and in Sarmatia. The origin of the Jews in Spain is lost in
+the night of time. That it was of great antiquity we have proof. The
+tradition, once derided, that the Iberian Jews were a Phoenician colony
+has been favoured by the researches of modern antiquaries, who have
+traced the Hebrew language in the ancient names of the localities.
+It may be observed, however, that the languages of the Jews and the
+Philistines, or Phoenicians, were probably too similar to sanction any
+positive induction from such phenomena; while on the other hand, in
+reply to those who have urged the improbability of the Jews, who had no
+seaports, colonizing Spain, it may be remarked that the colony may
+have been an expatriation by the Philistines in the course of the long
+struggle which occurred between them and the invading tribes previous
+to the foundation of the Hebrew monarchy. We know that in the time of
+Cicero the Jews had been settled immemorially in Spain. When the Romans,
+converted to Christianity and acted on by the priesthood, began to
+trouble the Spanish Jews, it appears by a decree of Constantine that
+they were owners and cultivators of the soil, a circumstance which
+alone proves the antiquity and the nobility of their settlement, for
+the possession of the land is never conceded to a degraded race.
+The conquest of Spain by the Goths in the fifth and sixth centuries
+threatened the Spanish Jews, however, with more serious adversaries than
+the Romans. The Gothic tribes, very recently converted to their Syrian
+faith, were full of barbaric zeal against those whom they looked upon as
+the enemies of Jesus. But the Spanish Jews sought assistance from
+their kinsmen the Saracens on the opposite coast; Spain was invaded and
+subdued by the Moors, and for several centuries the Jew and the Saracen
+lived under the same benignant laws and shared the same brilliant
+prosperity. In the history of Spain during the Saracenic supremacy any
+distinction of religion or race is no longer traced. And so it came
+to pass that when at the end of the fourteenth century, after the fell
+triumph of the Dominicans over the Albigenses, the holy inquisition was
+introduced into Spain, it was reported to Torquemada that two-thirds of
+the nobility of Arragon, that is to say of the proprietors of the land,
+were Jews.
+
+All that these men knew of Christianity was, that it was a religion
+of fire and sword, and that one of its first duties was to avenge some
+mysterious and inexplicable crime which had been committed ages ago by
+some unheard of ancestors of theirs in an unknown land. The inquisitors
+addressed themselves to the Spanish Jews in the same abrupt and
+ferocious manner in which the monks saluted the Mexicans and the
+Peruvians. All those of the Spanish Jews, who did not conform after
+the fall of the Mohammedan kingdoms, were expatriated by the victorious
+Goths, and these refugees were the main source of the Italian Jews, and
+of the most respectable portion of the Jews of Holland. These exiles
+found refuge in two republics; Venice and the United Provinces. The
+Portuguese Jews, it is well known, came from Spain, and their ultimate
+expulsion from Portugal was attended by the same results as the Spanish
+expatriation.
+
+The other great division of Jews in Europe are the Sarmatian Jews, and
+they are very numerous. They amount to nearly three millions. These
+unquestionably entered Europe with the other Sarmatian nations,
+descending the Borysthenes and ascending the Danube, and are according
+to all probability the progeny of the expatriations of the times of
+Tiglath-Pileser and Nebuchadnezzar. They are the posterity of those
+'devout men,' Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, who were attending the
+festivals at Jerusalem at the time of the descent of the Holy Spirit.
+Living among barbarous pagans, who never molested them, these people
+went on very well, until suddenly the barbarous pagans, under the
+influence of an Italian priesthood, were converted to the Jewish
+religion, and then as a necessary consequence the converts began to
+harass, persecute, and massacre the Jews.
+
+These people had never heard of Christ. Had the Romans not destroyed
+Jerusalem, these Sarmatian Jews would have had a fair chance of
+obtaining from civilized beings some clear and coherent account of the
+great events which had occurred. They and their fathers before them
+would have gone up in customary pilgrimage to the central sacred place,
+both for purposes of devotion and purposes of trade, and they might have
+heard from Semitic lips that there were good tidings for Israel. What
+they heard from their savage companions, and the Italian priesthood
+which acted on them, was, that there were good tidings for all the world
+except Israel, and that Israel, for the commission of a great crime
+of which they had never heard and could not comprehend, was to be
+plundered, massacred, hewn to pieces, and burnt alive in the name of
+Christ and for the sake of Christianity.
+
+The Eastern Jews, who are very numerous, are in general the descendants
+of those who in the course of repeated captivities settled in the great
+Eastern monarchies, and which they never quitted. They live in the same
+cities and follow the same customs as they did in the days of Cyrus.
+They are to be found in Persia, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor; at Bagdad,
+at Hamadan, at Smyrna. We know from the Jewish books how very scant was
+the following which accompanied Esdras and Nehemiah back to Jerusalem.
+A fortress city, built on a ravine, surrounded by stony mountains and
+watered by a scanty stream, had no temptations after the gardens of
+Babylon and the broad waters of the Euphrates. But Babylon has vanished
+and Jerusalem remains, and what are the waters of Euphrates to the brook
+of Kedron! It is another name than that of Jesus of Nazareth with which
+these Jews have been placed in collision, and the Ishmaelites have not
+forgotten the wrongs of Hagar in their conduct to the descendants of
+Sarah.
+
+Is it therefore wonderful that a great portion of the Jewish race should
+not believe in the most important portion of the Jewish religion? As,
+however, the converted races become more humane in their behaviour to
+the Jews, and the latter have opportunity fully to comprehend and deeply
+to ponder over true Christianity, it is difficult to suppose that the
+result will not be very different. Whether presented by a Roman or
+Anglo-Catholic or Genevese divine, by pope, bishop, or presbyter, there
+is nothing, one would suppose, very repugnant to the feelings of a Jew
+when he learns that the redemption of the human race has been effected
+by the mediatorial agency of a child of Israel: if the ineffable mystery
+of the Incarnation be developed to him, he will remember that the
+blood of Jacob is a chosen and peculiar blood; and if so transcendent a
+consummation is to occur, he will scarcely deny that only one race could
+be deemed worthy of accomplishing it. There may be points of doctrine
+on which the northern and western races may perhaps never agree. The
+Jew like them may follow that path in those respects which reason and
+feeling alike dictate; but nevertheless it can hardly be maintained that
+there is anything revolting to a Jew to learn that a Jewess is the queen
+of heaven, or that the flower of the Jewish race are even now sitting on
+the right hand of the Lord God of Sabaoth.
+
+Perhaps, too, in this enlightened age, as his mind expands, and he takes
+a comprehensive view of this period of progress, the pupil of Moses may
+ask himself, whether all the princes of the house of David have done so
+much for the Jews as that prince who was crucified on Calvary. Had it
+not been for Him, the Jews would have been comparatively unknown, or
+known only as a high Oriental caste which had lost its country. Has not
+He made their history the most famous in the world? Has not He hung up
+their laws in every temple? Has not He vindicated all their wrongs?
+Has not He avenged the victory of Titus and conquered the Caesars? What
+successes did they anticipate from their Messiah? The wildest dreams of
+their rabbis have been far exceeded. Has not Jesus conquered Europe and
+changed its name into Christendom? All countries that refuse the cross
+wither, while the whole of the new world is devoted to the Semitic
+principle and its most glorious offspring the Jewish faith, and the time
+will come when the vast communities and countless myriads of America
+and Australia, looking upon Europe as Europe now looks upon Greece, and
+wondering how so small a space could have achieved such great deeds,
+will still find music in the songs of Sion and still seek solace in the
+parables of Galilee.
+
+These may be dreams, but there is one fact which none can contest.
+Christians may continue to persecute Jews, and Jews may persist in
+disbelieving Christians, but who can deny that Jesus of Nazareth, the
+Incarnate Son of the Most High God, is the eternal glory of the Jewish
+race?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+     _Jewish Disabilities_
+
+IT WOULD seem to follow from the views expressed in the preceding
+chaptet, that in communities professing a belief in our Lord, the
+Jewish race ought not to be subject to any legislative dishonour or
+disqualification. These views, however, were not those which influenced
+Lord George Bentinck in forming his opinion that the civil disabilities
+of those subjects of her Majesty who profess that limited belief in
+divine revelation which is commonly called the Jewish religion should
+be removed. He had supported a measure to this effect in the year
+1833, guided in that conduct by his devoted attachment to the equivocal
+principle of religious liberty, the unqualified application of which
+principle seems hardly consistent with that recognition of religious
+truth by the state to which we yet adhere, and without which it is
+highly probable that the northern and western races, after a disturbing
+and rapidly degrading period of atheistic anarchy, may fatally recur
+to their old national idolatries, modified and mythically dressed up
+according to the spirit of the age. It may be observed that the decline
+and disasters of modern communities have generally been relative to
+their degree of sedition against the Semitic principle. Since the great
+revolt of the Celts against the first and second testament, at the close
+of the last century, France has been alternately in a state of collapse
+or convulsion. Throughout the awful trials of the last sixty years,
+England, notwithstanding her deficient and meagre theology, has always
+remembered Sion. The great Transatlantic republic is intensely
+Semitic, and has prospered accordingly. This sacred principle alone has
+consolidated the mighty empire of all the Russias. How omnipotent it
+is cannot be more clearly shown than by the instance of Rome, where it
+appears in its most corrupt form. An old man on a Semitic throne baffles
+the modern Attilas, and the recent invasion of the barbarians, under the
+form of red republicans, socialists, communists, all different phases
+which describe the relapse of the once converted races into their
+primitive condition of savagery. Austria would long ago have dissolved
+but for the Semitic principle, and if the north of Germany has never
+succeeded in attaining that imperial position which seemed its natural
+destiny, it is that the north of Germany has never at any time been
+thoroughly converted. Some perhaps may point to Spain as a remarkable
+instance of decline in a country where the Semitic principle has
+exercised great influence. But the fall of Spain was occasioned by the
+expulsion of her Semitic population: a million families of Jews and
+Saracens, the most distinguished of her citizens for their industry and
+their intelligence, their learning and their wealth.
+
+It appears that Lord George Bentinck had offended some of his followers
+by an opinion expressed in his address to his constituency in '47, that
+in accordance with the suggestion of Mr. Pitt, some provision should
+be made for the Roman Catholic priesthood of Ireland out of the land.
+Although this opinion might offend the religious sentiments of some,
+and might be justly looked upon by others as a scheme ill-suited to the
+character of an age adverse to any further religious endowments, it must
+be acknowledged that no member of the Protectionist party had any just
+cause of complaint against Lord George for the expression of an opinion
+which he had always upheld, and of his constancy to which he had fairly
+given his friends notice. This was so generally felt that the repining
+died away. The Jewish question, as it was called, revived these
+religious emotions. These feelings, as springing from the highest
+sentiment of our nature, and founded, however mistaken in their
+application, on religious truth, are entitled to deep respect and
+tenderness; but no one can indulge them by the compromise of the highest
+principles, or by sanctioning a course which he really believes to be
+destructive of the very object which their votaries wish to cherish.
+
+As there are very few Englishmen of what is commonly called the Jewish
+faith, and as therefore it was supposed that political considerations
+could not enter into the question, it was hoped by many of the followers
+of Lord George Bentinck that he would not separate himself from his
+party on this subject, and very earnest requests and representations
+were made to him with that view. He was not insensible to them; he gave
+them prolonged and painful consideration; they greatly disquieted him.
+In his confidential correspondence he often recurs to the distress
+and anxiety which this question and its consequences as regarded his
+position with those friends to whom he was much attached occasioned him.
+It must not, therefore, be supposed that, in the line he ultimately
+took with reference to this question, he was influenced, as some have
+unkindly and unwarrantably fancied, by a self-willed, inexorable, and
+imperious spirit. He was no doubt, by nature, a proud man, inclined even
+to arrogance, and naturally impatient of contradiction; but two
+severe campaigns in the House of Commons had already mitigated these
+characteristics: he understood human nature, he was fond of his party,
+and, irrespective of other considerations, it pained his ardent and
+generous heart to mortify his comrades. It was therefore not in any
+degree from temper, but from principle,--from as pure, as high, and as
+noble a sense of duty as ever actuated a man in public life,--that Lord
+George Bentinck ultimately resolved that it was impossible for him
+to refuse to vote for the removal of what are commonly called Jewish
+disabilities. He had voted in this particular cause shortly after
+his entrance into public life; it was in accordance with that general
+principle of religious liberty to which he was an uncompromising
+adherent; it was in complete agreement with the understanding which
+subsisted between himself and the Protectionist party, when at their
+urgent request he unwillingly assumed the helm. He was entreated not to
+vote at all; to stay away, which the severe indisposition under which
+he was then labouring warranted. He did not rudely repulse these latter
+representations, as has been circulated. On the contrary, he listened
+to them with kindness, and was not uninfluenced by them. Enfeebled by
+illness, he had nearly brought himself to a compliance with a request
+urged with affectionate importunity, but from which his reason and sense
+of duty held him aloof. After long and deep and painful pondering, when
+the hour arrived, he rose from his bed of sickness, walked into the
+House of Commons, and not only voted, but spoke in favour of his
+convictions. His speech remains, one of the best ever delivered on the
+subject, not only full of weighty argument, but touched with a high and
+even tender vein of sentiment.
+
+This vote and speech of Lord George Bentinck no doubt mortified at the
+moment a considerable portion of his followers, and occasioned great
+dissatisfaction among a very respectable though limited section of
+them. This latter body must either have forgotten or they must have been
+strangely unacquainted with the distinct understanding on which Lord
+George had undertaken the lead of the party, or otherwise they could
+not have felt authorized in conveying to him their keen sense of
+disapprobation. Unfortunately he received this when the House had
+adjourned for the holidays, and when Mr. Bankes, who had been the organ
+of communication with him in '46, was in the country, and when the party
+was of course generally dispersed. Lord George did not take any pains to
+ascertain whether the representation which was made to him was that of
+the general feeling of a large party, or that only of a sincere, highly
+estimable, but limited section. He was enfeebled and exhausted by
+indisposition; he often felt, even when in health, that the toil of his
+life was beyond both his physical and moral energies; and though he was
+of that ardent and tenacious nature that he never would have complained,
+but have died at his post, the opportunity of release coming to him at
+a moment when he was physically prostrate was rather eagerly seized, and
+the world suddenly learnt at Christmas, with great astonishment, that
+the renowned leader of the Protectionist party had relinquished his
+trust.
+
+The numerous communications which he received must have convinced
+him that the assumed circumstances under which he acted had not been
+accurately appreciated by him. He was implored to reconsider his course,
+as one very detrimental to the cause to which he was devoted, and
+which would probably tend to the triumph of those whose policy he
+had attempted to defeat, and whose personal conduct he had at least
+succeeded in punishing.
+
+'The prophesied time has come,' he wrote to his friend Mr. Bankes, on
+the 23rd of December, 1847, 'when I have ceased to be able to serve
+the party, the great cause of Protection, or my country, by any longer
+retaining the commission bestowed on me in the spring of 1846. You will
+remember, however, that when unfeignedly and honestly, but in vain,
+trying to escape from being raised to a position which I foresaw I must
+fail to maintain with advantage to you or honour to myself, I at last
+gave my consent, I only did so on the express understanding that my
+advancement should be held to be merely a pro tempore appointment,
+waiting till the country should have the opportunity of sending to
+Parliament other men better fitted to lead the country gentlemen of
+England. I have recalled these circumstances to your mind with no other
+purpose than that the party may feel how entirely free they are, without
+even the suspicion of doing an injustice to me or of showing me in
+this any disrespect, to remodel their arrangements, and to supersede my
+lieutenancy by the appointment of a superior and permanent commander.'
+
+And again on Christmas-day, to the same gentleman, in reply to an
+acknowledgment of the preceding, he says, while thanking Mr. Bankes
+'for his warm-hearted letter as very grateful to his feelings,'--'
+Confidentially I tell you, that far from feeling in the least annoyed,
+I shall feel greatly relieved by a restoration to privacy and freedom. I
+worked upon my spirit in '46 and '47; but I have learnt now that I have
+shaken my constitution to the foundation, and I seriously doubt my being
+able to work on much longer.'
+
+He wrote on the 24th of December to one of his most intimate friends and
+warmest supporters, Mr. Christopher, the member for Lincolnshire, who
+had remonstrated with him as to his decision: 'It is not in my nature to
+retain a station one moment after I get a hint even that any portion
+of those who raised me to it are wearied of seeing me there. The old
+members of the party will all recollect how clearly I foresaw and
+foretold that I should be found a very inconvenient as well as a very
+inefficient leader, so soon as the great Protection battle was brought
+to a close. I predicted all that has since occurred; and no one more
+cordially agrees than I do in the wisdom of the present decision, the
+spirit I presume of which is that no great party or large body of men
+can be successfully, or to any good purpose, led except by a man
+who heart and soul sympathizes with them in all their feelings,
+partialities, and prejudices. Cold reason has a poor chance against such
+influences. There can be no _esprit de corps_ and no zeal where there
+is not a union of prejudices as well as of commercial opinions. The
+election of a leader united with the great body of the party in these
+respects, will tend greatly to reunite its scattered particles, even on
+those questions where I shall be able to give my aid with all my wonted
+zeal, which will not be the less spirited because it will be free and
+independent.'
+
+At a later period, acknowledging an address signed by the great body
+of the Protectionist party, and presented to him by the present Earl
+Talbot, then a member of the House of Commons, Lord George wrote, 'The
+considerations which obliged me to surrender a post of honour which
+every independent and high-minded English gentleman has at all times
+prized above the highest rewards in the gift of the crown, "the
+leadership of the country gentlemen of England," will never influence
+me to swerve from any endeavours of which my poor abilities and bodily
+energies are capable in the promotion of the prosperity of all classes
+in the British empire at home and in the colonies, any more than
+they can ever make me forget the attachment, the friendship, and the
+enthusiastic support of those who stood by me to the end of the death
+struggle for British interests and for English good faith and political
+honour, and to whose continued friendship and constancy I know I am
+indebted for this graceful and grateful compliment.'
+
+If Lord George Bentinck was inexorable to the entreaties of his friends,
+it must not be supposed that he was influenced in the course which he
+pursued, as was presumed by many at the time not acquainted with the
+circumstances, by any feeling of pique or brooding sullenness. No
+high-spirited man under vexatious and distressing circumstances ever
+behaved with more magnanimity. In this he was actuated in a great degree
+by a sense of duty, but still more by that peculiar want of selfishness
+which was one of the most beautiful traits of his character. The moment
+he had at all recovered from the severe attack by which, to use his own
+language, he had been 'struck down in the first week of the session,'
+and from the effects of which it may be doubted whether he ever entirely
+recovered, he laboured zealously to induce some competent person to
+undertake the office which he had thought it expedient to resign,
+offering in several instances to serve in the ranks, and to assist with
+his utmost energies, both in and out of the House, the individual who
+would undertake the responsible direction in the Commons.
+
+These efforts, though indefatigable, were not successful, for those who
+were competent to the office cared not to serve under any one except
+himself. About this time, a personage of great station, and who very
+much admired Lord George Bentinck, wrote to him, and recommended him
+not to trouble himself about the general discipline of the party, but
+to follow his own course, and lead that body of friends who under all
+circumstances would adhere to him, instancing the case of Mr. Canning,
+under circumstances not altogether dissimilar. Lord George replied: 'As
+for my rallying a personal party round myself, as Mr. Canning did, I
+have no pretension to anything of the kind; when Mr. Canning did that,
+the House of Commons, and England too, acknowledged him to be the
+greatest orator who had survived Pitt and Fox; he had been Secretary of
+State for foreign affairs, and had taken a conspicuous part in rousing
+the country to carry on the war against France.'
+
+The nature of the subject, dealing as it necessarily does with so
+many personal details, renders it impossible to make public the
+correspondence in which Lord George Bentinck was engaged at this time in
+his attempts to place the Protectionist party under the guidance of one
+who would unite all sympathies; but were that publication possible, it
+would place Lord George Bentinck in a very noble and amiable light, and
+prove a gentleness and softness in his nature for which those who were
+not very intimate with him did not give him credit. Not that it must be
+for a moment supposed that he was insensible to what was occurring. He
+was the most sensitive as well as the proudest of men. When the writer
+called at Harcourt House, to bid him farewell, before the Christmas
+holidays, and, conversing very frankly on the course which he was then
+pursuing, inquired as to his future proceedings, Lord George said with
+emotion: 'In this cause I have shaken my constitution and shortened
+my days, and I will succeed or die.' In the course of the year 1848,
+walking home, talking together, from the House of Commons, he twice
+recurred to this terrible alternative.
+
+But all considerations were merged at this moment in the predominant one
+which was to keep the party together. He wrote to a friend at the end of
+January, who urged him, as the hour of work approached and the injurious
+inconveniences of his abdication would be more felt, to confer with his
+former followers and reconsider his position, that no personal feeling
+prevented his taking that course, but that he felt any resumption of
+responsibility on his part would not be pleasing to a section of those
+who formerly served with him, and that there would be a 'split' in the
+ranks. 'As far as I am personally concerned,' he added, 'I could submit
+to anything short of having my ears cut off and appearing as a "Croppy,"
+to be free again. My pride cannot stand leading an unwilling party; I
+would just as soon thrust myself into a dinner-room where I was at once
+an uninvited and an unwelcome guest.'
+
+In the meantime, according to his custom, the moment that he had
+sufficiently recovered from his illness, he prepared with the utmost
+zeal for the coming struggle respecting the fate of our sugar colonies,
+in which subject he was soon absorbed.
+
+Parliament reassembled on the 3rd of February, and on that night Lord
+George Bentinck brought forward his motion for 'a select committee
+to inquire into the present condition and prospects of the interests
+connected with and dependent on sugar and coffee planting in her
+Majesty's East and West Indian possessions and the Mauritius, and to
+consider whether any and what measures can be adopted by Parliament for
+their relief.' When he entered the House, Lord George walked up to the
+head of the second bench below the gangway, on the opposition side,
+and thus significantly announced that he was no longer the responsible
+leader of the Protectionist party. It was the wish of the writer of
+these pages, who had resolved to stand or fall by him, to have followed
+his example and to have abdicated the prominent seat in which the writer
+had been unwillingly and fortuitously placed; but by the advice, or
+rather at the earnest request, of Lord George Bentinck, this course was
+relinquished as indicative of schism, which he wished to discourage; and
+the circumstance is only mentioned as showing that Lord George was not
+less considerate at this moment of the interests of the Protectionist
+party than when he led them with so much confidence and authority.
+The session, however, was to commence without a leader, without any
+recognized organ of communication between parties, or any responsible
+representative of opinion in debate. All again was chaos. There is,
+however, something so vital in the Conservative party that it seems
+always to rally under every disadvantage.
+
+Lord George spoke well to his resolution: the House soon recognized
+he was master of his case, and though few foresaw at the moment the
+important consequences to which this motion would lead, the House was
+interested from the first; and though there was no division, the debate
+lasted two days, and was sustained on both sides with great animation.
+
+The mover vindicated himself very successfully for only proposing a
+committee of inquiry. 'It has been represented to me,' he said, 'by the
+colonies and by persons in this country who are interested in them, that
+the course which I am proposing is not consistent with the necessities
+of the case; that there is something pusillanimous in the motion which
+I am going to make; that in point of fact the interests connected with
+sugar and coffee planting are in extremis; and that while the question
+of their redress is being discussed in a committee above-stairs, these
+great interests will perish. They say to me that a committee of inquiry
+will be to them of the nature of that comfort which,
+
+     "Like cordials after death, come late; "
+
+and that before the committee shall have reported, the West-Indian
+interest will be altogether past recovery. But, sir, it is for me to
+consider what my power is to obtain any substantial relief by a direct
+vote of this House; and when I remember that in July, 1846, I moved a
+resolution the purport of which was, to maintain the protection for
+the West-Indian and the East-Indian free-labour colonies which they now
+seek, and that I had but one hundred and thirty gentlemen to support me,
+while two hundred and sixty-five votes were recorded in favour of the
+measure of the Government admitting slave-labour sugar, I feel that it
+is hopeless for me to endeavour in this House, where I have no reason
+to suppose any addition has been made to the members acquiescing in my
+views, to convert that minority into a majority; and more especially
+when I recollect that on that occasion but five gentlemen connected with
+the West-Indian and East-Indian interests recorded their votes with me,
+I think the West-Indian interest has not a good case against me when
+they blame me for not taking a more resolute step on this occasion.'
+
+He was not, however, without hope from the course which he had decided
+to pursue. 'Looking, as I have done, at the deplorable state of the
+West Indies, the East Indies, and the Mauritius, and holding, as I do,
+in my hand a list of forty-eight great houses in England--twenty-six
+of the first commercial houses in London, sixteen in Liverpool, and six
+elsewhere--which have failed, and whose liabilities amount in the whole
+to L6,300,000 and upwards, none of which I believe would have fallen had
+it not been for the ruin brought upon them by the change in the sugar
+duties and the consequent reduction in the price of their produce,--I
+do hope, through the intervention of a committee of this House, I may be
+able to prevail upon the House to change its policy with regard to this
+great question.'
+
+Lord George was supported in this debate by Mr. Thomas Baring, in one
+of the best speeches ever made in the House of Commons. Few more combine
+mastery of the case with parliamentary point than this gentleman. It is
+not impossible to find a man capable of addressing the House of Commons
+who understands the subject; it is not impossible to find a man who
+can convey his impressions on any subject to the House in a lively and
+captivating manner, though both instances are rarer than the world would
+imagine; but a man who at the same time understands a question and can
+handle it before a popular assembly in a popular style, who teaches
+without being pedantic, can convey an argument in an epigram, and
+instruct as the Mexicans did by picture, possesses a talent for the
+exercise of which he is responsible to his sovereign and his country.
+
+Mr. Baring said that he could not perfectly agree either with Lord John
+Russell or Lord George Bentinck, that Protection or Free Trade must be
+in what they called a circle, round which in their legislation they must
+always move; that they must either give protection to everything or
+free trade to everything. He could not say that because sugar claimed
+protection, coals must have protection also. Neither would he, on the
+other hand, apply free trade to every article. He acknowledged the
+advantage of competition as a stimulus: he thought that, placing things
+on equal grounds, competition was undoubtedly a great advantage. He
+could understand a competition to try the mutual speed of race-horses;
+but there could be no competition between a race-horse and a
+steam-engine, for the power of the animal could bear no comparison with
+that of the machine!
+
+Mr. Baring could look back to no legislation more humiliating than the
+legislation regarding our colonies. No great interest was ever so much
+trifled with, so much sacrificed to the cry of the day; at one moment to
+no slavery and another to cheap sugar.
+
+The committee was granted, and it was generally felt that the question
+was consequently quieted for the session.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+     _Leader Perforce_
+
+DURING the first six weeks of this famous committee the attendance
+of its members was not very regular, and its labours attracted little
+attention. The evidence on the East-India part of the question was
+closed and reported to the House by the end of February; after that
+period the evidence was reported to the House every week or ten
+days. Towards the end of March, rumours began to circulate of the
+extraordinary vigour and ability with which this investigation was
+pursued, and of the novel, authentic, and striking evidence that had
+been elicited. The proceedings were talked of in the House of Commons
+and on the Royal Exchange; the City men who were examined went back
+to their companions with wondrous tales of the energy and acuteness
+of Harcourt House, and the order, method, and discipline of the
+committee-room at Westminster. As time elapsed, the hopes of the
+colonial interest again revived. It was generally felt that Lord George
+had succeeded in establishing an irresistible case. It was rumoured that
+the government could not withstand it. Those who had originally murmured
+at the course which he had adopted of moving for a committee of inquiry,
+instead of proposing a specific measure of relief, and had treated an
+investigation as a mere means of securing inaction, now recanted their
+rash criticism, and did justice to his prescience and superior judgment,
+as well as to his vast information and indefatigable exertions. The week
+during which the committee sat on their report was a very anxious
+one; the divisions were known every day in the House of Commons; the
+alternations of success and discomfiture, and the balanced numbers that
+so often called for the interposition of the chairman, were calculated
+to sustain the excitement; and when, on the 29th of May, it was known
+that the report was at length agreed to, and that a committee of free
+traders had absolutely recommended a differential duty of 10s. in favour
+of our own produce, one might have fancied from the effect visibly
+produced, that a government was changed.
+
+A few days before--it was the day after the Derby, May 25th--the writer
+met Lord George Ben-tinck in the library of the House of Commons. He
+was standing before the book-shelves, with a volume in his hand, and
+his countenance was greatly disturbed. His resolutions in favour of
+the colonial interest after all his labours had been negatived by the
+committee on the 22nd, and on the 24th, his horse Surplice, whom he
+had parted with among the rest of his stud, solely that he might pursue
+without distraction his labours on behalf of the great interests of the
+country, had won that paramount and Olympian stake, to gain which had
+been the object of his life. He had nothing to console him, and nothing
+to sustain him except his pride. Even that deserted him before a heart
+which he knew at least could yield him sympathy. He gave a sort of
+superb groan:--
+
+'All my life I have been trying for this, and for what have I sacrificed
+it!' he murmured.
+
+It was in vain to offer solace.
+
+'You do not know what the Derby is,' he moaned out.
+
+'Yes, I do; it is the blue ribbon of the turf.'
+
+'It is the blue ribbon of the turf,' he slowly repeated to himself, and
+sitting down at the table, he buried himself in a folio of statistics.
+
+But on Monday, the 29th, when the resolution in favour of a 10s.
+differential duty for the colonies had at the last moment been carried,
+and carried by his casting vote, 'the blue ribbons of the turf were all
+forgotten. Not for all the honours and successes of all the meetings,
+spring or autumn, Newmarket, Epsom, Goodwood, Doncaster, would he have
+exchanged that hour of rapture. His eye sparkled with fire, his nostril
+dilated with triumph, his brow was elate like a conqueror, his sanguine
+spirit saw a future of continued and illimitable success.
+
+'We have saved the colonies,' he said,--'saved the colonies. I knew it
+must be so. It is the knell of free trade.'
+
+Notwithstanding the formal renunciation of the leadership of the
+Protectionist party by Lord George Bentinck, it was soon evident to the
+House and the country that that renunciation was merely formal. In these
+days of labour, the leader of a party must be the man who does the work,
+and that work cannot now be accomplished without the devotion of a life.
+Whenever a great question arose, the people out of doors went to Lord
+George Bentinck, and when the discussion commenced, he was always found
+to be the man armed with the authority of knowledge. There was, however,
+no organized debate and no party discipline. No one was requested to
+take a part, and no attendance was ever summoned. The vast majority
+sitting on the Protectionist benches always followed Bentinck, who,
+whatever might be his numbers in the lobby, always made a redoubtable
+stand in the House. The situation however, it cannot be denied, was a
+dangerous one for a great party to persevere in, but no permanent damage
+accrued, because almost every one hoped that before the session was
+over, the difficulty would find a natural solution in the virtual chief
+resuming his formal and responsible post. Notwithstanding his labours on
+the two great committees of the year--those on colonial and commercial
+distress,--Lord George Bentinck found time to master the case of the
+shipping interest when the navigation laws were attacked, to impugn in
+a formal motion the whole of the commercial policy of Sir Robert Peel,
+even while the sugar and coffee planting committee was still sitting,
+and to produce, early in March, a rival budget. It was mainly through
+the prolonged resistance which he organized against the repeal of the
+navigation laws, that the government, in 1848, was forced to abandon
+their project. The resistance was led with great ability by Mr. Herries,
+and the whole party put forward their utmost strength to support him.
+But it is very difficult to convey a complete picture of the laborious
+life of Lord George Bentinck during the sitting of Parliament.
+At half-past nine o'clock there called upon him the commercial
+representatives of the question of the day; after these conferences came
+his elaborate and methodical correspondence, all of which he carried
+on himself in a handwriting clear as print, and never employing a
+secretary; at twelve or one o'clock he was at a committee, and he only
+left the committee-room to take his seat in the House of Commons, which
+he never quitted till the House adjourned, always long past midnight,
+and often at two o'clock in the morning. Here he was ready for all
+comers, never omitting an opportunity to vindicate his opinions, or
+watching with lynx-like vigilance the conduct of a public office. What
+was not his least remarkable trait is, that although he only breakfasted
+on dry toast, he took no sustenance all this time, dining at White's
+at half-past two o'clock in the morning. After his severe attack of
+the influenza he broke through this habit a little during the last
+few months of his life, moved by the advice of his physician and the
+instance of his friends. The writer of these observations prevailed
+upon him a little the last year to fall into the easy habit of dining
+at Bellamy's, which saves much time, and permits the transaction of
+business in conversation with a congenial friend. But he grudged it:
+he always thought that something would be said or done in his absence,
+which would not have occurred had he been there; some motion whisked
+through, or some return altered. His principle was that a member should
+never be absent from his seat.
+
+The session of '48 had been one of unexampled length, having lasted ten
+months, and, as usual under such circumstances, the obstacles to the
+transaction of public business were sought everywhere except in the
+real quarter. The forms of the House and the propensity to unnecessary
+discussion among its members were chiefly denounced. Lord George
+Bentinck did not agree in the justness of these criminations; they were
+eagerly caught by the thoughtless and the superficial, but it was his
+habit to investigate and analyze everything, and he found that these
+charges had no basis. The forms of the House of Commons are the
+result of accumulated experience and have rarely been tampered with
+successfully, while on the other hand a parliamentary government is by
+name and nature essentially a government of discussion. It is not at all
+difficult to conceive a mode of governing a country more expeditious
+than by a parliament; but where truth as well as strength is held to
+be an essential element of legislation, opinion must be secured an
+unrestricted organ. Superfluity of debate may often be inconvenient to
+a minister, and sometimes perhaps even distasteful to the community;
+but criticizing such a security for justice and liberty as a free-spoken
+parliament is like quarrelling with the weather because there is too
+much rain or too much sunshine. The casual inconvenience should be
+forgotten in the permanent blessing. Acting upon these false imputations
+a committee was even appointed, two years ago, of the most eminent
+members of the House of Commons, to investigate the subject and suggest
+remedies, and some votaries of the Transatlantic type recommended the
+adoption of the rules of Congress where each speaker is limited to
+an hour. But an hour from an uninteresting speaker would be a great
+infliction. The good sense and the good taste of the House of Commons
+will be found on the whole to be the best regulators of the duration of
+a debate.
+
+The truth is that the delay in the conduct of parliamentary business
+which has been much complained of during the last few years, murmurs of
+which were especially rife in 1848, is attributable to the fact that the
+ministry, though formed of men inferior in point of ability to none who
+could be reasonably intrusted with administration, had not
+sufficient parliamentary strength. After all their deliberations and
+foresight,--after all their observations of the times and study of the
+public interest, their measures when launched from the cabinet into the
+House were not received by a confiding majority, firm in their faith
+in the statesmanlike qualities of the authors of these measures and in
+their sympathy with the general political system of which the ministry
+was the representative. On the contrary, the success of the measures
+depended on a* variety of sections who in their aggregate exceeded in
+number and influence the party of the ministers. These became critics
+and took the ministerial measures in hand; the measures became, the
+measures, not of the cabinet, but of the House of Commons; and a purely
+legislative assembly became, in consequence of the weakness of the
+government, yearly more administrative. This was undoubtedly a great
+evil, and occasioned, besides great delay, many crude enactments, as
+will be the case where all are constructors and none are responsible,
+but the evil was not occasioned by the forms of the House or the
+length of the speeches. Sir Robert Peel was unquestionably a very able
+administrator, but if he had not had a majority of ninety he would
+have fallen in as ill repute as has been too often the lot of Lord John
+Russell.
+
+Lord George Bentinck was very anxious that there should be a
+parliamentary summary of this enormous and eventful session of '48, that
+the conduct of business by the ministry should be traced and criticized
+and the character of the House of Commons vindicated, and he appealed to
+the writer of these observations to undertake the task. But the writer
+was unwilling to accede to this suggestion, not only because at the end
+of August he shrank from a laborious effort, but principally because he
+did not hold that his position in the House of Commons warranted on his
+part such an interference, since, after all, he was only the comrade in
+arms of one who chose to be only an independent member of the House. He
+therefore unaffectedly stated that he thought the office was somewhat
+above his measure. But Lord George Bentinck would not listen to these
+representations. 'I don't pretend to know much,' he said, 'but I can
+judge of men and horses.' It is difficult to refuse those who are
+themselves setting a constant example of self-sacrifice, and therefore,
+so far as the labour was concerned, the writer would not have shrunk
+from the exertion even on the last day of the month of August, and when
+the particular wish of Lord George was found to be more general than the
+writer presumed to suppose, he accordingly endeavoured to accomplish the
+intention.
+
+Three or four days after this, the writer, about to leave London, called
+at Harcourt House, to say farewell to his comrade in arms. He
+passed with Lord George the whole morning, rather indulging in the
+contemplation of the future than in retrospect. Lord George was serene,
+cheerful, and happy. He was content with himself, which was rarely the
+case, and remembered nothing of his career but its distinction, and the
+ennobling sense of having done his duty.
+
+Any misunderstandings that may have for a moment irritated him seemed
+forgotten; he appeared conscious that he possessed the confidence
+and cordial regard of the great majority of the Protectionist party,
+although he chose to occupy a private post, and he was proud of the
+consciousness. He was still more sensible of the sympathy which he had
+created out of doors, which he greatly appreciated, and to which, though
+with his usual modesty, he more than once recurred. 'The thing is
+to get the people out of doors with you,' he repeated, 'men like the
+merchants; all the rest follow.' It was evident that the success of his
+colonial committee had greatly satisfied his spirit. He had received
+that day the vote of thanks of the West-India body for his exertions.
+He said more than once, that with a weak government, a parliamentary
+committee properly worked might do wonders. He said he would have a
+committee on import duties next year, and have all the merchants to show
+what share the foreigners had obtained of the reductions that had been
+made of late years. He maintained, that, quite irrespective of the
+general arrangements of the new commercial system, Sir Robert Peel had
+thrown away a great revenue on a number of articles of very inferior
+importance, and he would prove this to the country. He said our colonial
+empire ought to be reconstructed by a total abolition of all duties on
+produce from her Majesty's dominions abroad.
+
+All his ideas were large, clear, and coherent. He dwelt much on the
+vicissitudes which most attend all merely foreign trade, which, though
+it should be encouraged, ought not to be solely relied on, as was the
+fashion of this day. Looking upon war as occasionally inevitable, he
+thought a commercial system based upon the presumption of perpetual
+peace to be full of ruin. His policy was essentially imperial and not
+cosmopolitan.
+
+About to part probably for many months, and listening to him as he
+spoke, according to his custom, with so much fervour and sincerity, one
+could not refrain from musing over his singular and sudden career. It
+was not three years since he had in an instant occupied the minds
+of men. No series of parliamentary labours had ever produced so much
+influence in the country in so short a time. Never was a reputation so
+substantial built up in so brief a period. AH the questions with which
+he had dealt were colossal questions: the laws that should regulate
+competition between native and foreign labour; the interference of the
+state in the development of the resources of Ireland; the social and
+commercial condition of our tropical colonies; the principles upon which
+our revenue should be raised; the laws which should regulate and protect
+our navigation. But it was not that he merely expressed opinions
+upon these subjects; he came forward with details in support of his
+principles and policy, which it had before been believed none but a
+minister could command. Instead of experiencing the usual and almost
+inevitable doom of private members of Parliament, and having his
+statements shattered by official information, Lord George Bentinck on
+the contrary, was the assailant, and the successful assailant, of
+an administration on these very heads. He often did their work more
+effectually than all their artificial training enabled them to do it.
+His acute research, and his peculiar sources of information, roused
+the vigilance of all the public offices of the country. Since his time,
+there has been more care in preparing official returns, and in arranging
+the public correspondence placed on the table of the House of Commons.
+
+When one remembered that in this room, not three years ago, he was
+trying to find a lawyer who would make a speech for him in Parliament,
+it was curious to remember that no one in the period had probably
+addressed the House of Commons oftener. Though his manner, which was
+daily improving, was not felicitous in the House, the authority of his
+intellect, his knowledge, and his character, made him one of the great
+personages of debate; but with the country who only read his speeches
+he ranked high as an orator. It is only those who have had occasion
+critically to read and examine the long series of his speeches who can
+be conscious of their considerable merits. The information is always
+full and often fresh, the scope large, the argument close, and the
+style, though simple, never bald, but vigorous, idiomatic, and often
+picturesque. He had not credit for this in his day, but the passages
+which have been quoted in this sketch will prove the justness of this
+criticism. As a speaker and writer, his principal need was condensation.
+He could not bear that anything should remain untold. He was deficient
+in taste, but he had fervour of feeling, and was by no means void of
+imagination.
+
+The writer, in his frequent communications with him of faithful and
+unbounded confidence, was often reminded of the character by Mr. Burke
+of my Lord Keppell.
+
+The labours of Lord George Bentinck had been supernatural, and one ought
+perhaps to have felt then that it was impossible they could be continued
+on such a scale of exhaustion; but no friend could control his eager
+life in this respect; he obeyed the law of his vehement and fiery
+nature, being one of those men who in whatever they undertake know no
+medium, but will 'succeed or die.'
+
+But why talk here and now of death! He goes to his native county and his
+father's proud domain, to breathe the air of his boyhood and move amid
+the parks and meads of his youth. Every breeze will bear health, and the
+sight of every hallowed haunt will stimulate his pulse. He is scarcely
+older than Julius Caesar when he commenced his public career, he looks as
+high and brave, and he springs from a long-lived race.
+
+He stood upon the _perron_ of Harcourt House, the last of the great
+hotels of an age of stately dwellings with its wings, and court-yard,
+and carriage portal, and huge outward walls. He put forth his hand to
+bid farewell, and his last words were characteristic of the man--of his
+warm feelings and of his ruling passion: 'God bless you; we must work,
+and the country will come round us.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+     _The Curtain Falls_
+
+
+
+THE heavens darken; a new character enters upon the scene.
+
+They say that when great men arise they have a mission to accomplish
+and do not disappear until it is fulfilled. Yet this is not always true.
+After all his deep study and his daring action Mr. Hampden died on an
+obscure field, almost before the commencement of that mighty struggle
+which he seemed born to direct. In the great contention between the
+patriotic and the cosmopolitan principle which has hardly begun, and
+on the issue of which the fate of this island as a powerful community
+depends, Lord George Ben-tinck appeared to be produced to represent the
+traditionary influences of our country in their most captivating form.
+Born a natural leader of the people, he was equal to the post. Free from
+prejudices, his large mind sympathized with all classes of the realm.
+His courage and his constancy were never surpassed by man. He valued
+life only as a means of fulfilling duty, and truly it may be said of
+him, that he feared none but God.
+
+A few days after the interview noticed in the last chapter, Lord George
+Bentinck returned to Welbeck. Some there were who thought him worn by
+the exertions of the session, and that an unusual pallor had settled
+upon that mantling and animated countenance. He himself never felt in
+better health or was ever in higher spirits, and greatly enjoyed the
+change of life, and that change to a scene so dear to him.
+
+On the 21 st of September, after breakfasting with his family, he
+retired to his room, where he employed himself With some papers, and
+then wrote three letters, one to Lord Enfield, another to the Duke of
+Richmond, and the third to the writer of these pages. That letter is
+now at hand; it is of considerable length, consisting of seven sheets of
+note-paper, full of interesting details of men and things, and written
+not only in a cheerful but even a merry mood. Then, when his letters
+were sealed, about four o'clock he took his staff and went forth to
+walk to Thoresby, the seat of Lord Manvers, distant between five and six
+miles from Welbeck, where Lord George was to make a visit of two days.
+In consequence of this his valet drove over to Thoresby at the same time
+to meet his master. But the master never came. Hours passed on and the
+master never came. At length the anxious servant returned to Welbeck,
+and called up the groom who had driven him over to Thoresby and who was
+in bed, and inquired whether he had seen anything of Lord George on the
+way back, as his lord had never reached Thoresby. The groom got up, and
+accompanied by the valet and two others took lanthorns, and followed
+the footpath which they had seen Lord George pursuing as they themselves
+went to Thoresby.
+
+About a mile from the Abbey, on the path which they had observed him
+following, lying close to the gate which separates a water meadow from
+the deer-park, they found the body of Lord George Bentinck. He was lying
+on his face; his arms were under his body, and in one hand he grasped
+his walking-stick. His hat was a yard or two before him, having
+evidently been thrown off in falling. The body was cold and stiff. He
+had been long dead.
+
+A woodman and some peasants passing near the spot, about two hundred
+yards from the gate in question, had observed Lord George, whom at the
+distance they had mistaken for his brother the Marquis of Titchfield,
+leaning against this gate. It was then about half-past four o'clock, or
+it might be a quarter to five, so he could not have left his home much
+more than half an hour. The woodman and his companions thought 'the
+gentleman' was reading, as he held his head down. One of them lingered
+for a minute looking at the gentleman, who then turned round, and might
+have seen these passers-by, but he made no sign to them.
+
+Thus it seems that the attack, which was supposed to be a spasm of the
+heart, was not instantaneous in its effects, but with proper remedies
+might have been baffled. Terrible to think of him in his death-struggle
+without aid, and so near a devoted hearth! For that hearth, too, what an
+impending future!
+
+The terrible news reached Nottingham on the morning of the 22nd, at
+half-past nine o'clock, and, immediately telegraphed to London,
+was announced by a second edition of the 'Times' to the country.
+Consternation and deep grief fell upon all men. One week later, the
+remains arrived from Welbeck at Harcourt House, to be entombed in the
+family vault of the Bentincks, that is to be found in a small building
+in a dingy street, now a chapel of ease, but in old days the parish
+church among the fields of the pretty village of Marylebone.
+
+The day of interment was dark, and cold, and drizzling. Although the
+last offices were performed in the most scrupulously private manner, the
+feelings of the community could not be repressed. From nine till eleven
+o'clock that day all the British shipping in the docks and the river,
+from London Bridge to Gravesend, hoisted their flags half-mast high,
+and minute guns were fired from appointed stations along the Thames.
+The same mournful ceremony was observed in all the ports of England and
+Ireland; and not only in these, for the flag was half-mast high on every
+British ship at Antwerp, at Rotterdam, and at Havre.
+
+Ere the last minute gun sounded, all was over. Followed to his tomb by
+those brothers who, if not consoled, might at this moment be sustained
+by the remembrance that to him they had ever been brothers not only in
+name but in spirit, the vault at length closed on the mortal remains of
+_George Bentinck_.
+
+One who stood by his side in an arduous and unequal struggle, who often
+shared his councils and sometimes perhaps soothed his cares, who knew
+well the greatness of his nature and esteemed his friendship among
+the chief of worldly blessings, has stepped aside from the strife and
+passion of public life to draw up this record of his deeds and thoughts,
+that those who come after us may form some conception of his character
+and career, and trace in these faithful though imperfect pages the
+portraiture of an _English Worthy_.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Lord George Bentinck, by Benjamin Disraeli
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+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Lord George Bentinck, by Benjamin Disraeli
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    pre     { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
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+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord George Bentinck, by Benjamin Disraeli
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Lord George Bentinck
+       A Political Biography
+
+Author: Benjamin Disraeli
+
+Release Date: December 3, 2006 [EBook #20007]
+Last Updated: September 7, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD GEORGE BENTINCK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      LORD GEORGE BENTINCK
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
+    </h2>
+    <h2>
+      By Benjamin Disraeli
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      &lsquo;He left us the legacy of heroes: <br /> the memory of his great name <br />
+      and the inspiration of his great example.&rsquo; 
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <table summary="">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p>
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> <big><b>LORD GEORGE BENTINCK</b></big>
+            </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      TO
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      LORD HENRY BENTINCK,
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      IS INSCRIBED This Political Biography ONE FOR WHOM HE ENTERTAINED A DEEP
+      AFFECTION, AND WHOSE TALENTS AND VIRTUES HE SHARES. <a name="link2H_4_0002"
+       id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      LORD GEORGE BENTINCK
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%;">
+      <img src="images/bentink_page009.jpg" alt="Bentink-page009" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Man</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE political career of Lord George Bentinck was peculiar. He had, to use
+      his own expression, &lsquo;sate in eight Parliaments without having taken part
+      in any great debate,&rsquo; when remarkable events suddenly impelled him to
+      advance and occupy not only a considerable but a leading position in our
+      public affairs. During three years, under circumstances of great
+      difficulty, he displayed some of the highest qualities of political life:
+      courage and a lofty spirit; a mastery of details which experience usually
+      alone confers; a quick apprehension and a clear intelligence; indomitable
+      firmness; promptness, punctuality, and perseverance which never failed; an
+      energy seldom surpassed; and a capacity for labour which was perhaps never
+      equalled. At the very moment when he had overcome many contrarieties and
+      prejudices; when he had been most successful in the House of Commons, and,
+      sustained only by his own resources, had considerably modified the
+      legislation of the government which he opposed on a measure of paramount
+      importance; when the nation, which had long watched him with interest,
+      began to congratulate itself on the devotion of such a man to the business
+      of the country, he was in an instant taken from us. Then it was that, the
+      memory of the past and the hope of the future blending together, all men
+      seemed to mourn over this untimely end, and there was that pang in the
+      public heart which accompanies the unexpected disappearance of a strong
+      character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What manner of man this was, who thus on a sudden in the middle term of
+      life relinquished all the ease and pleasure of a patrician existence to
+      work often eighteen hours daily, not for a vain and brilliant notoriety,
+      which was foreign alike both to his tastes and his turn of mind, but for
+      the advancement of principles, the advocacy of which in the chief scene of
+      his efforts was sure to obtain for him only contention and unkindly
+      feelings; what were his motives, purposes and opinions; how and why did he
+      labour; what were the whole scope and tendency of this original, vigorous,
+      and self-schooled intelligence; these would appear to be subjects not
+      unworthy of contemplation, and especially not uninteresting to a free and
+      political community.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The difficulty of treating cotemporary characters and events has been ever
+      acknowledged; but it may be doubted whether the difficulty is diminished
+      when we would commemorate the men and things that have preceded us. The
+      cloud of passion in the first instance, or in the other the mist of time,
+      may render it equally hard and perplexing to discriminate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It should not be forgotten that the most authentic and interesting
+      histories are those which have been composed by actors in the transactions
+      which they record. The cotemporary writer who is personally familiar with
+      his theme has unquestionably a great advantage; but it is assumed that his
+      pen can scarcely escape the bias of private friendship or political
+      connection. Yet truth, after all, is the sovereign passion of mankind; nor
+      is the writer of these pages prepared to relinquish his conviction that it
+      is possible to combine the accuracy of the present with the impartiality
+      of the future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George Bentinck had sat for eighteen years in Parliament, and, before
+      he entered it, had been for three years private secretary to Mr. Canning,
+      who had married the sister of the Duchess of Portland. Such a post would
+      seem a happy commencement of a public career; but whether it were the
+      untimely death of his distinguished relative, or a natural indisposition,
+      Lord George&mdash;though he retained the seat for King&rsquo;s Lynn, in which he
+      had succeeded his uncle, the late governor-general of India&mdash;directed
+      his energies to other than parliamentary pursuits. For some time he had
+      followed his profession, which was that of arms, but of late years he had
+      become absorbed in the pastime and fortunes of the turf, in which his
+      whole being seemed engrossed, and which he pursued on a scale that perhaps
+      has never been equalled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George had withdrawn his support from the government of the Duke of
+      Wellington, when the friends of Mr. Canning quitted that administration;
+      and when in time they formed not the least considerable portion of the
+      cabinet of Lord Grey, he resumed his seat on the ministerial benches. On
+      that occasion an administrative post was offered him and declined; and on
+      subsequent occasions similar requests to him to take office were equally
+      in vain. Lord George, therefore, was an original and hearty supporter of
+      the Reform Bill, and he continued to uphold the Whigs in all their policy
+      until the secession of Lord Stanley, between whom and himself there
+      subsisted warm personal as well as political sympathies. Although he was
+      not only a friend to religious liberty, as we shall have occasion
+      afterwards to remark, but always viewed with great sympathy the condition
+      of the Roman Catholic portion of the Irish population, he shrank from the
+      taint of the ultra-montane intrigue. Accompanying Lord Stanley, he became
+      in due time a member of the great Conservative opposition, and, as he
+      never did anything by halves, became one of the most earnest, as he
+      certainly was one of the most enlightened, supporters of Sir Robert Peel.
+      His trust in that minister was indeed absolute, and he has subsequently
+      stated in conversation that when, towards the end of the session of &lsquo;45, a
+      member of the Tory party ventured to predict and denounce the impending
+      defection of the minister, there was no member of the Conservative party
+      who more violently condemned the unfounded attack, or more readily
+      impugned the motives of the assailant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was not a very frequent attendant in the House. He might be counted on
+      for a party division, and when, towards the termination of the Melbourne
+      ministry, the forces were very nearly balanced, and the struggle became
+      very close, he might have been observed, on more than one occasion,
+      entering the House at a late hour, clad in a white great-coat, which
+      softened, but did not conceal, the scarlet hunting-coat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although he took no part in debate, and attended the House rather as a
+      club than as a senate, he possessed a great and peculiar influence in it.
+      He was viewed with interest, and often with extraordinary regard, by every
+      sporting man in the House. With almost all of these he was acquainted;
+      some of them, on either side, were his intimate companions and
+      confederates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His eager and energetic disposition; his quick perception, clear judgment,
+      and prompt decision; the tenacity with which he clung to his opinions; his
+      frankness and love of truth; his daring and speculative spirit; his lofty
+      bearing, blended as it was with a simplicity of manner very remarkable;
+      the ardour of his friendships, even the fierceness of his hates and
+      prejudices&mdash;all combined to form one of those strong characters who,
+      whatever may be their pursuit, must always direct and lead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nature had clothed this vehement spirit with a material form which was in
+      perfect harmony with its noble and commanding character. He was tall and
+      remarkable for his presence; his countenance almost a model of manly
+      beauty; the face oval, the complexion clear and mantling; the forehead
+      lofty and white; the nose aquiline and delicately moulded; the upper lip
+      short. But it was in the dark-brown eye, which flashed with piercing
+      scrutiny, that all the character of the man came forth: a brilliant
+      glance, not soft, but ardent, acute, imperious, incapable of deception or
+      of being deceived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although he had not much sustained his literary culture, and of late
+      years, at any rate, had not given his mind to political study, he had in
+      the course of his life seen and heard a great deal, and with profit.
+      Nothing escaped his observation; he forgot nothing and always thought. So
+      it was that on all the great political questions of the day he had arrived
+      at conclusions which guided him. He always took large views and had no
+      prejudices about things, whatever he might indulge in as to persons. He
+      was always singularly anxious to acquire the truth, and would spare no
+      pains for that purpose; but when once his mind was made up, it was
+      impossible to influence him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In politics, he was a Whig of 1688, which became him, modified, however,
+      by all the experience of the present age. He wished to see our society
+      founded on a broad basis of civil and religious liberty. He retained much
+      of the old jealousy of the court, but had none of popular franchises. He
+      was for the Established Church, but for nothing more, and was very
+      repugnant to priestly domination. As for the industrial question, he was
+      sincerely opposed to the Manchester scheme, because he thought that its
+      full development would impair and might subvert our territorial
+      constitution, which he held to be the real security of our freedom, and
+      because he believed that it would greatly injure Ireland, and certainly
+      dissolve our colonial empire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had a great respect for merchants, though he looked with some degree of
+      jealousy on the development of our merely foreign trade. His knowledge of
+      character qualified him in a great degree to govern men. and if some
+      drawbacks from this influence might be experienced in his too rigid
+      tenacity of opinion, and in some quickness of temper, which, however,
+      always sprang from a too sensitive heart, great compensation might be
+      found in the fact that there probably never was a human being so entirely
+      devoid of conceit and so completely exempt from selfishness. Nothing
+      delighted him more than to assist and advance others. All the fruits of
+      his laborious investigations were always at the service of his friends
+      without reserve or self-consideration. He encouraged them by making
+      occasions for their exertions, and would relinquish his own opportunity
+      without a moment&rsquo;s hesitation, if he thought the abandonment might aid a
+      better man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Protection Problem</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THERE was at this time a metropolitan society for the protection of
+      agriculture, of which the Duke of Richmond was chairman, and which had
+      been established to counteract the proceedings of the Manchester
+      confederation. It was in communication with the local Protection societies
+      throughout the country; and although the adhesion to its service by the
+      parliamentary members of the old Conservative party had been more limited
+      than might have been expected, nevertheless many county members were
+      enrolled in its ranks, and a few of the most eminent were actively engaged
+      in its management. In this they were assisted by an equal number of the
+      most considerable tenant-farmers. In the present state of affairs, the
+      council of the Protection Society afforded the earliest and readiest means
+      to collect opinion and methodize action; and it was therefore resolved
+      among its managers to invite all members of Parliament who sympathized
+      with their purpose, though they might not be members of their society, to
+      attend their meeting and aid them at the present crisis with their
+      counsel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A compliance with this request occasioned the first public appearance of
+      Lord George Bentinck, as one of the organizers of a political party,&mdash;for
+      he aspired to no more. The question was, whether a third political party
+      could be created and sustained,&mdash;a result at all times and under any
+      circumstances difficult to achieve, and which had failed even under the
+      auspices of accomplished and experienced statesmen. In the present
+      emergency, was there that degree of outraged public feeling in the
+      country, which would overcome all obstacles and submit to any
+      inconveniences, in order to ensure its representation in the House of
+      Commons? It was the opinion of Lord George Bentinck that such was the
+      case; that if for the moment that feeling was inert and latent, it was an
+      apathy which arose from the sudden shock of public confidence, and the
+      despair which under such circumstances takes possession of men; that if it
+      could be shown to the country, that the great bulk of the Conservative
+      party were true to their faith, and were not afraid, even against the
+      fearful odds which they would have to encounter, to proclaim it, the
+      confidence and the courage of the country would rally, and the party in
+      the House of Commons would find external sympathy and support.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With these views it became of paramount importance that the discussion on
+      the government measure should be sustained on the part of the
+      Protectionists with their utmost powers. They must prove to the country,
+      that they could represent their cause in debate, and to this end all their
+      energies must be directed. It would be fatal to them if the discussion
+      were confined to one or two nights, and they overborne by the leading and
+      habitual speakers. They must bring forward new men; they must encourage
+      the efforts of those now unrecognized and comparatively unknown; they must
+      overcome all reserve and false shame, and act as became men called upon to
+      a critical and leading part, not by their arrogance or ambition, but by
+      the desertion and treachery of those to whose abilities they had bowed
+      without impatience and reluctance. There was a probability of several
+      vacancies immediately taking place in counties where the seats were filled
+      by converts, but men of too scrupulous an honour to retain the charge
+      which they had sought and accepted as the professors of opinions contrary
+      to those which now received their mournful adhesion. The result of these
+      elections would greatly depend upon the spirit and figure of the party in
+      the House of Commons, in their first encounter with the enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These views, so just and so spirited, advanced with high-bred earnestness
+      by one rarely met in political turmoils, and enforced with a freshness and
+      an affable simplicity which were very winning, wonderfully encouraged
+      those to whom they were addressed. All seemed touched by the flame which
+      burned in the breast of that man, so lofty in his thoughts but so humble
+      in his ambition, who counselled ever the highest deeds, and was himself
+      ever prepared to undertake the humblest duties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The business of this day was notable. Calculations were made of those who
+      might be fairly counted on to take a part in debate; some discussion even
+      ensued as to who should venture to reply late at night to the minister; a
+      committee was appointed to communicate with all members on either side
+      supposed to be favourable to the principle of Protection to the labour of
+      the country; a parliamentary staff was organized, not only to secure the
+      attendance of members, but to guard over the elections; finally, the form
+      of the amendment to the government measure was discussed and settled, and
+      it was agreed that, if possible, it should be moved by Mr. Philip Miles,
+      the member for the city of Bristol, and who had the ear of the House not
+      merely from the importance of his constituency, and seconded by Sir
+      William Heathcote, the member for the county of Hampshire, a country
+      gentleman of great accomplishments, and so highly considered by both sides
+      that he was very generally spoken of as a probable successor to the chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All was furnished by this lately forlorn party except a leader, and even
+      then many eyes were turned and some hopeful murmurs addressed towards Lord
+      George Bentinck, who in the course of this morning had given such various
+      proofs of his fitness and such evidence of his resource. But he shook his
+      head with a sort of suppressed smile, a faint blush, and an air of proud
+      humility that was natural to him: &lsquo;I think,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;we have had enough
+      of leaders; it is not in my way; I shall remain the last of the rank and
+      file.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So little desirous, originally, was Lord George Bentinck to interfere
+      actively in that great controversy in which ultimately he took so leading
+      a part, that before the meeting of Parliament in 1846 he begged a
+      gentleman whom he greatly esteemed, a member of the legal profession, and
+      since raised to its highest honours, to call upon him at Harcourt House,
+      when he said that he had taken great pains to master the case of the
+      protective system; that he was convinced its abrogation would ultimately
+      be very injurious to this country; but although, both in point of argument
+      and materials, he feared no opponent, he felt constitutionally so
+      incapable of ever making a speech, that he wished to induce some eminent
+      lawyer to enter the House of Commons, and avail himself of his views and
+      materials, which he had, with that object, reduced to writing. He begged,
+      therefore, that his friend, although a free-trader, would assist him, by
+      suggesting a fitting person for this office.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, the name of a distinguished member of the bar, who had
+      already published a work of merit, impugning the principles of the new
+      commercial system, was mentioned, and this learned gentleman was applied
+      to, and was not indisposed to accept the task. A mere accident prevented
+      this arrangement being accomplished. Lord George then requested his friend
+      to make some other selection; but his adviser very sensibly replied, that
+      although the House of Commons would have listened with respect to a
+      gentleman who had given evidence of the sincerity of his convictions by
+      the publication of a work which had no reference to Parliament, they would
+      not endure the instance of a lawyer brought into the House merely to speak
+      from his brief; and that the attempt would be utterly fruitless. He
+      earnestly counselled Lord George himself to make the effort; but Lord
+      George, with characteristic tenacity, clung for some time to his project,
+      though his efforts to accomplish it were fortunately not successful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of the friends of Lord George Bentinck, remembering his inexperience
+      in debate, aware of the great length at which he must necessarily treat
+      the theme, and mindful that he was not physically well-qualified for
+      controlling popular assemblies, not having a strong voice, or, naturally,
+      a very fluent manner, were anxious that he should not postpone his speech
+      until an hour so late; that an audience, jaded by twelve nights&rsquo; 
+      discussion, would be ill-attuned to statistical arguments and economical
+      details. But still clinging to the hope that some accident might yet again
+      postpone the division, so that the Protectionists might gain the vote of
+      Mr. Hildyard, who had been returned that day for South Notts, having
+      defeated a cabinet minister, Lord George remained motionless until long
+      past midnight. Mr. Cobden having spoken on the part of the confederation,
+      the closing of the debate was felt to be inevitable. Even then, by
+      inducing a Protectionist to solicit the Speaker&rsquo;s eye, Lord George
+      attempted to avert the division; but no supporter of the government
+      measure, of any colour, advancing to reply to this volunteer, Bentinck was
+      obliged to rise. He came out like a lion forced from his lair. And so it
+      happened, that after all his labours of body and mind, after all his
+      research and unwearied application and singular vigilance, after having
+      been at his post for a month, never leaving the House, even for
+      refreshment, he had to undertake the most difficult enterprise in which a
+      man can well embark, with a concurrence of every disadvantage which could
+      ensure failure and defeat. It would seem that the audience, the subject,
+      and the orator, must be equally exhausted; for the assembly had listened
+      for twelve nights to the controversy, and he who was about to address them
+      had, according to his strange habit, taken no sustenance the whole day; it
+      being his custom to dine after the House was up, which was very often long
+      after midnight, and this, with the exception of a slender breakfast,
+      rigidly restricted to dry toast, was his only meal in the four-and-twenty
+      hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had been forced to this regimen, from food exercising a lethargic
+      influence over him; so that, in addition to some constitutional weakness
+      in his organ, he usually laboured, when he addressed the House, under the
+      disadvantage of general exhaustion. And this was, no doubt, a principal
+      cause of that over-excitement and apparently unnecessary energy in his
+      manner of speaking, of which he was himself perfectly, and even painfully,
+      conscious. He was wont to say, that before he could speak he had to make a
+      voice, and, as it were, to pump it from the very core of his frame. One
+      who took a great interest in his success once impressed on him the
+      expediency of trusting entirely to his natural voice and the interest and
+      gravity of his matter, which, combined with his position as the recognized
+      leader of a great party, would be adequate to command the attention of his
+      audience; and he subsequently endeavoured very often to comply with this
+      suggestion. He endeavoured also very much to control his redundancy of
+      action and gesture, when that peculiarity was pointed out to him with the
+      delicacy, but the sincerity, of friendship. He entirely freed himself from
+      a very awkward feature of his first style of speaking, namely, the
+      frequent repetition of a sentence, which seemed at first a habit
+      inveterate with him; but such was his force of will, that when the
+      necessity of ridding himself of this drawback was properly pointed out to
+      him, he achieved the desired result. No one bore criticism more gently and
+      kindly, so long as it was confined to his personal and intellectual
+      characteristics, for he was a man absolutely without vanity or conceit,
+      who thought very humbly of himself, in respect of abilities, and deemed no
+      labour too great to achieve even a slight improvement. But though in these
+      respects the very child of simplicity, he was a man of almost unexampled
+      pride, and chafed under criticism, when his convictions or his conduct
+      were questioned. He was very tenacious of his opinion, almost inexorable;
+      and it required a courage nearly equal to his own, combined with a serene
+      temper, successfully to impugn his conclusions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not, therefore, excited by vanity, but sustained by self-respect, by an
+      overpowering feeling that he owed it to himself and the opinions he held,
+      to show to the world that they had not been lightly adopted and should not
+      be lightly laid aside, Bentinck rose, long past the noon of night, at the
+      end of this memorable debate, to undertake an office from which the most
+      successful and most experienced rhetoricians of Parliament would have
+      shrunk with intuitive discretion. But duty scorns prudence, and criticism
+      has few terrors for a man with a great purpose. Unshaken by the adverse
+      hour and circumstances, he proceeded to accomplish the object which he had
+      long meditated, and for which he was fully prepared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Reminding the House, while he appealed to their indulgence, that, though
+      he had had the honour of a seat for eight parliaments, he had never once
+      ventured to trespass on its time on any subject of great debate, he at
+      once took a clear and comprehensive ground of objection to the government
+      scheme. He opposed it not only because he objected to the great change
+      contemplated with respect to the agricultural interest, but, on principle,
+      to the entire measure, &lsquo;a great commercial revolution, which we are of
+      opinion that the circumstances of the country do not by any means
+      require.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Noticing the observation of the Secretary at War, that the agricultural
+      interest, in submitting to this great change, might now accept it with
+      honour, instead of its being eventually extorted by force, he happily
+      retorted, that vicious as he thought the measure, he should feel it
+      deprived of half its vice if it could be carried without loss of honour,
+      damage to reputation, and forfeiture of public character to a vast number
+      of gentlemen now present. And he proceeded to show among other
+      testimonies, by an appeal to the distinct language of the speech from the
+      throne on the dissolution of 1841, that &lsquo;every member who occupied a seat
+      in this House was returned pledged either to oppose or maintain the
+      principle of protection to national industry.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Adverting to the new position, that the experience of the last three years
+      justified the reversal of the system which the existing administration had
+      been summoned to office to uphold, he wisely remarked, that &lsquo;the country
+      will not be satisfied with three years&rsquo; experience of any system. Three
+      years&rsquo; experience is not sufficiently extensive to afford a proper
+      criterion by which we may decide the failure or success of any description
+      of policy whatsoever.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Noticing that the minister had more especially founded &lsquo;his present belief
+      in doctrines contrary to those which he had heretofore uniformly
+      maintained,&rsquo; by the assumption that the price of corn would not be more
+      reduced than the price of cattle and other commodities affected by the
+      tariff of 1842, and also by the results of previous experiments in the
+      instances of silk and wool, Lord George &lsquo;accepted his challenge&rsquo; on these
+      grounds, and proceeded in great detail to investigate these examples.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The House listened with great attention for full two hours, during which
+      he treated these subjects. This attention no doubt was generally accorded
+      because it was felt due to the occasion, and, under the circumstances, to
+      the speaker; but those who, however contrary might be the results at which
+      they had arrived, had themselves deeply entered into these investigations,
+      recognized very soon that Bentinck was master of his subject. Sir Robert
+      Peel looked round very often with that expression of appreciation which it
+      was impossible for his nature to refuse to parliamentary success, even
+      when the ability displayed was hostile to his projects. The minister, with
+      reference to the wool trade, had dwelt on the year 1842, when prices were
+      much depressed, while they had greatly rallied in 1844, when the
+      importation of foreign wool had risen from forty-five to sixty-five
+      millions of pounds; and he had drawn a triumphant inference that the
+      increase of importation and the increase of price were in consequence of
+      the reduction of the duty. This instance had produced a great effect; but
+      Lord George showed the House, by a reference to the tables of 1836, that
+      the importation of foreign wool had then risen to sixty-five millions of
+      pounds, and that large foreign importation was consistent with high prices
+      to the domestic grower. Nor was he less successful about the foreign
+      cattle. He reminded his friends on the Treasury bench how strenuously,
+      previously to the introduction of the tariff of 1842, they had urged upon
+      their agricultural friends that no foreign cattle could enter under their
+      regulations, and that the whole object of the change was to strengthen the
+      hands of the agricultural interest, as regarded more essential protection,
+      by removing the odium of a nominal protection: &lsquo;Convinced by my right
+      honourable friends, in 1842, that their tariff would be as inoperative as
+      it has proved, I gave my cordial support to the measure.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perceiving that the House began to be wearied with the details of the silk
+      trade, which he had investigated with extraordinary zeal, he postponed
+      until the specific vote in committee his objections to the reduction of
+      the timber duties. The fact is, he had so thoroughly mastered all these
+      topics, that his observations on each of them would have themselves formed
+      a speech of sufficient length and interest. But he successfully checked
+      any interruption by what may be fairly styled his dignified diffidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I trust the House will recollect that I am fighting the battle of a party
+      whose leaders have deserted them; and though I cannot wield my weapons
+      with the skill of the right honourable gentleman on the Treasury bench, I
+      trust the House will remember the emergency which has dragged me out to
+      intrude upon their indulgence.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And again, when he announced that he was now about to investigate the
+      pretext of &lsquo;famine in the land,&rsquo; and some impatience was exhibited, he
+      drew up and said, &lsquo;I think, having sat eighteen years in this house, and
+      never once having trespassed on its time before in any one single great
+      debate, I may appeal to the past as a proof that I duly weigh the measure
+      of my abilities, and that I am painfully conscious of my proper place in
+      this house.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was impossible to resist such appeals from such a person, even at three
+      o&rsquo;clock in the morning; and diffident, but determined, he then entered
+      into what was, perhaps, the most remarkable portion of his speech&mdash;an
+      investigation of what was the real position of the country with respect to
+      the supply of food in the past autumn and at the present moment. Having
+      shown from the trade circulars that, far from there being at present &lsquo;a
+      wheat famine,&rsquo; the stocks in the granaries in bond were more than double
+      in amount to what they were in the year 1845, &lsquo;a year admitted by all to
+      be a year of extraordinary abundance,&rsquo; he proceeded to the Irish part of
+      the question: &lsquo;I beg leave to say, that though this debate has now
+      continued for three weeks, I am the first gentleman who has at all entered
+      into the real state of the case as regards the allegation of a potato
+      famine in Ireland, upon which, be it remembered, is founded the sole case
+      of her Majesty&rsquo;s ministers for a repeal of the corn laws.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And this was very true. The fact is, though the Protectionist party had
+      made a most unexpected and gallant defence, no one was really prepared for
+      the contest except Bentinck. Between the end of November and the meeting
+      of Parliament, he had thrown all the energies of his passionate mind into
+      this question. He had sought information on all points and always at the
+      fountain-head. He had placed himself in immediate communication with the
+      ablest representatives of every considerable interest attacked, and being
+      ardent and indefatigable, gifted with a tenacious memory and a very clear
+      and searching spirit, there was scarcely a detail or an argument connected
+      with his subject which was not immediately at his command. No speeches in
+      favour of the protective system have ever been made in the House of
+      Commons compared with his in depth and range of knowledge; and had there
+      been any member not connected with the government, who had been able to
+      vindicate the merits of British agriculture as he did when the final
+      struggle occurred, the impression which was made by the too-often
+      unanswered speeches of the Manchester confederation would never have been
+      effected. But the great Conservative party, exhausted by the labours of
+      ten years of opposition, thought that after the triumph of &lsquo;41 it might
+      claim a furlough. The defence of their cause was left entirely to the
+      ministers of their choice; and ministers, distracted with detail and
+      wearied with official labour, are not always the most willing or the most
+      efficient champions of the organic principles of a party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Robert Peel, with respect to the disease in the Irish potato, had
+      largely referred to the statements of the inspectors of police. Lord
+      George wanted to know why the reports of the lieutenants of the Irish
+      counties were not given. Being well-informed upon this head, he asked the
+      government to produce the report of Lord Duncannon, the lord lieutenant of
+      Carlow; especially that of his noble father, the earl of Bes-borough, lord
+      lieutenant of Kilkenny. &lsquo;Is there any man in England or in Ireland whose
+      opinion, from his business-like habits, his great practical knowledge, and
+      the warm and affectionate interest which for a long period of years he has
+      taken in everything which concerns the interests of Ireland, especially of
+      the Irish peasantry&mdash;is there any man whose opinion would have
+      greater weight? The opinion of Lord Bes-borough on an Irish subject, the
+      lieutenant of an Irish county, and himself long a cabinet minister? Well,
+      sir, I am assured that, having taken the utmost pains to investigate this
+      matter, Lord Besborough has made an elaborate report to the Irish
+      government. Well, then, I desire to know why Lord Besborough&rsquo;s report to
+      the Irish government is suppressed? Is it because that report would not
+      assist the present policy of her Majesty&rsquo;s government?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He alleged the names of many other individuals of high station who had
+      officially reported on the subject to the government: of Lord Castlereagh,
+      the lieutenant of Down, a member of the House; of Lord de Vesci, whose son
+      was sitting for the Queen&rsquo;s County, over which his father presided in the
+      name of the queen. A murmur ran round the House, that it would have been
+      as well if these reports had been produced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last portion of this argumentative harangue referred to the most
+      important division of the subject. Bentinck met it boldly, without
+      evasion; nor was there any portion of his address more interesting, more
+      satisfactory, and more successful. &lsquo;I now come,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;to the great
+      challenge, which is ever and anon put forth by the Anti-Corn Law League,
+      and now by their disciples, her Majesty&rsquo;s ministers. How are we, they ask,
+      with our limited extent of territory, to feed a population annually and
+      rapidly increasing at the rate of three hundred thousand a-year, as
+      generally stated by the member for Stockport&mdash;a rate increased by my
+      noble friend, the member for the West Riding, to a thousand a day, or
+      three hundred and sixty-five thousand a year?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He first proved in a complete manner that, from the year 1821 to the year
+      1844, the population of the country had increased at the rate of less than
+      thirty-two per cent., while the growth of wheat during the same period had
+      increased no less than sixty-four per cent. He then proceeded to inquire
+      why, with such an increased produce, we were still, as regards bread corn,
+      to a certain extent, an importing nation? This he accounted for by the
+      universally improved condition of the people, and the enlarged command of
+      food by the working classes. He drew an animated picture, founded entirely
+      on the representations of writers and public men adverse to the Protective
+      System, of the superior condition of the people of &lsquo;England, happy
+      England,&rsquo; to that of other countries: how they consumed much more of the
+      best food, and lived much longer. This was under Protection, which Lord
+      John Russell had stigmatized, in his letter, &lsquo;the bane of agriculture.&rsquo; 
+      &lsquo;In the history of my noble friend&rsquo;s illustrious family,&rsquo; he continued, &lsquo;I
+      should have thought that he would have found a remarkable refutation of
+      such a notion.&rsquo; And then he drew a lively sketch of the colossal and
+      patriotic works of the Earls and Dukes of Bedford, &lsquo;whereby they had
+      drained and reclaimed three hundred thousand acres of land drowned in
+      water, and brought them into cultivation, and thus converted into fertile
+      fields a vast morass extending over seven counties in England.&rsquo; Could the
+      system which had inspired such enterprise be justly denounced as baneful?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To show the means of the country to sustain even a much-increasing
+      population, and that those means were in operation, he entered into one of
+      the most original and interesting calculations that was perhaps ever
+      offered to the House of Commons. Reminding the House that in the preceding
+      year (1845) the farmers of England, at a cost of two millions sterling,
+      had imported two hundred and eighty thousand tons of guano, he proceeded
+      to estimate what would be the effect on the productive powers of the land
+      of that novel application. Two hundred thousand tons, or, in other words,
+      four million hundred-weight, were expended on the land in 1845. Half of
+      these, he assumed, would be applied to the growth of wheat, and the other
+      half to the growth of turnips preparatory to the wheat crop of the ensuing
+      year. According to the experiments tried and recorded in the Royal
+      Agricultural Journal, it would seem that by the application of two
+      hundred-weight of guano to an acre of wheat land, the produce would be
+      increased by one quarter per acre. At this rate, one hundred thousand
+      tons, or two million hundred-weight of guano would add one million
+      quarters of wheat to the crop, or bread for one year for one million of
+      people. But as he was very careful never to over-state a case, Lord George
+      assumed, that it would require three hundred hundredweight of guano to an
+      acre to produce an extra quarter of wheat. According to this estimate, one
+      hundred thousand tons of guano, applied to the land in 1845, must have
+      added six hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty-six
+      quarters of grain to the wheat crop, or, in other words, bread for six
+      hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty-six additional
+      mouths. &lsquo;And now for turnips,&rsquo; he continued. The Norfolk authorities whom
+      he quoted have in like manner proved that two hundred-weight of guano will
+      add ten tons per acre to the turnip crop. But again, for fear of
+      exaggeration, he supposed that three hundred-weight would be requisite to
+      create such increased fertility. In this case, two million hundredweight
+      of guano would add six million six hundred and sixty-six thousand six
+      hundred and sixty tons to the natural unmanured produce of the crop. Now
+      it is generally considered that one ton of Swedes would last twenty sheep
+      three weeks, and that each sheep should gain half a pound of meat per
+      week, or one pound and a half in three weeks; thus twenty sheep feeding on
+      one ton of turnips in three weeks should in the aggregate make, as the
+      graziers say, thirty pounds of mutton. But to be safe in his estimate, he
+      would assume that one ton of turnips makes only half this quantity.
+      &lsquo;Multiply, then,&rsquo; exclaimed Bentinck with the earnest air of a crusader,
+      &lsquo;six million six hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty by
+      fifteen, and you have no less than ninety-nine million nine hundred and
+      ninety-nine thousand and nine hundred pounds of mutton as the fruits of
+      one hundred thousand tons of guano; which, at ninety-two pounds per man&mdash;the
+      average Englishman&rsquo;s allowance&mdash;affords meat for one million eight
+      hundred and sixty thousand nine hundred and fifty-five&mdash;nearly two
+      million of her Majesty&rsquo;s subjects.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is a specimen of those original and startling calculations to which
+      the House was soon to become accustomed from his lips. They were received
+      at first with astonishment and incredulity; but they were never impugned.
+      The fact is, he was extremely cautious in his data, and no man was more
+      accustomed ever to impress upon his friends the extreme expediency of not
+      over-stating a case. It should also be remarked of Lord George Bentinck,
+      that in his most complicated calculations he never sought aid from notes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have necessarily only noticed a few of the traits of this remarkable
+      performance. Its termination was impressive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We have heard in the course of these discussions a good deal about an
+      ancient monarchy, a reformed House of Commons, and a proud aristocracy.
+      Sir, with regard to our ancient monarchy, I have no observation to make;
+      but, if so humble an individual as myself might be permitted to whisper, a
+      word in the ear of that illustrious and royal personage who, as he stands
+      nearest, so is he justly dearest, to her who sits upon the throne, I would
+      take leave to say, that I cannot but think he listened to ill advice,
+      when, on the first night of this great discussion, he allowed himself to
+      be seduced by the first minister of the crown to come down to this House
+      to usher in, to give <i>éclat</i>, and as it were by reflection from the
+      queen, to give the semblance of the personal sanction of her Majesty to a
+      measure which, be it for good or for evil, a great majority at least of
+      the landed aristocracy of England, of Scotland, and of Ireland, imagine
+      fraught with deep injury, if not ruin, to them
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;a measure which, not confined in its operation to this great class,
+      is calculated to grind down countless smaller interests engaged in the
+      domestic trades and, interests of the empire, transferring the profits of
+      all these interests&mdash;English, Scotch, Irish, and Colonial
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;great and small alike, from Englishmen, from Scotchmen, and from
+      Irishmen, to Americans, to Frenchmen, to Russians, to Poles, to Prussians,
+      and to Germans. Sir, I come now to the reformed House of Commons; and as
+      one who was a party to that great measure, I cannot but feel a deep
+      interest in its success, and more especially in that portion of it which
+      extended the franchise to the largest and the most respectable body in the
+      kingdom&mdash;I mean the landed tenantry of England; and deeply should I
+      regret should any large proportion of those members who have been sent to
+      Parliament to represent them in this House, prove to be the men to bring
+      lasting dishonour upon themselves, their constituencies, and this House,
+      by an act of tergiversation so gross as to be altogether unprecedented in
+      the annals of any reformed or unreformed House of Commons. Sir, lastly, I
+      come to the &ldquo;proud aristocracy.&rdquo; We are a proud aristocracy, but if we are
+      proud, it is that we are proud in the chastity of our honour. If we
+      assisted in &lsquo;41 in turning the Whigs out of office, because we did not
+      consider a fixed duty of eight shillings a quarter on foreign corn a
+      sufficient protection, it was with honesty of purpose and in
+      single-mindedness we did so; and as we were not before the fact, we will
+      not be accomplices after the fact in the fraud by which the Whig ministers
+      were expelled from power. If we are a proud aristocracy, we are proud of
+      our honour, inasmuch as we never have been guilty, and never can be
+      guilty, of double-dealing with the farmers of England&mdash;of swindling
+      our opponents, deceiving our friends, or betraying our constituents.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The division was called. The West-India interest, notwithstanding the
+      amendment was moved by the member for Bristol, deserted the
+      Protectionists. Deaf to the appeals, and the remonstrances, and the
+      warnings of Lord George, one of their leading members replied, with a
+      smile of triumphant content, that &lsquo;they had made a satisfactory
+      arrangement for themselves.&rsquo; How satisfactory did the West-Indians find it
+      four months subsequently? All the shipping interest deserted the land.
+      They were for everything free, except navigation; there was no danger of
+      that being interfered with; &lsquo;it rested on quite distinct grounds&mdash;national
+      grounds.&rsquo; They were warned, but they smiled in derisive self-complacency.
+      Lord George Bentinck lived to have the West-India interest and the
+      shipping interest on their knees to him, to defend their perilled or to
+      restore their ruined fortunes; and with characteristic generosity and
+      proud consistency, he undertook the task, and sacrificed his life in the
+      attempt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding these terrible defalcations, when the numbers were
+      announced, at nearly four o&rsquo;clock in the morning, the majority had not
+      reached those three magical figures supposed necessary, under the
+      circumstances, to success. In a house of five hundred and eighty-one
+      members present, the amendment of the Protectionists was defeated only by
+      ninety-seven; and two hundred and forty-two gentlemen, in spite of
+      desertion, difficulty, and defeat, still maintained the &lsquo;chastity of their
+      honour.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Irish Question</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      IN THE meantime, besides the prolonged and unforeseen resistance of the
+      Protectionists, there were other and unexpected causes at work which
+      equally, or perhaps even more powerfully tended to the fulfilment of the
+      scheme of delay, which Lord George Bentinck had recommended his friends to
+      adopt and encourage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the latter months of the year 1845, there broke out in some of the
+      counties of Ireland one of those series of outrages which have hitherto
+      periodically occurred in districts of that country. Assassination and
+      crimes of violence were rife: men on the queen&rsquo;s highway were shot from
+      behind hedges, or suddenly torn from their horses and beaten to death with
+      clubs; houses were visited in the night by bodies of men, masked and armed&mdash;their
+      owners dragged from their beds, and, in the presence of their wives and
+      children, maimed and mutilated; the administration of unlawful oaths, with
+      circumstances of terror, indicated the existence of secret confederations,
+      whose fell intents, profusely and ostentatiously announced by threatening
+      letters, were frequently and savagely perpetrated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These barbarous distempers had their origin in the tenure of land in
+      Ireland, and in the modes of its occupation. A combination of causes,
+      political, social, and economical, had for more than a century unduly
+      stimulated the population of a country which had no considerable resources
+      except in the soil. That soil had become divided into minute allotments,
+      held by a pauper tenantry, at exorbitant rents, of a class of middlemen,
+      themselves necessitous, and who were mere traders in land. A fierce
+      competition raged amid the squalid multitude for these strips of earth
+      which were their sole means of existence. To regulate this fatal rivalry,
+      and restrain this emulation of despair, the peasantry, enrolled in secret
+      societies, found refuge in an inexorable code. He who supplanted another
+      in the occupation of the soil was doomed by an occult tribunal, from which
+      there was no appeal, to a terrible retribution. His house was visited in
+      the night by whitefeet and ribbonmen&mdash;his doom was communicated to
+      him, by the post, in letters, signed by Terry Alt, or Molly M&rsquo;Guire, or he
+      was suddenly shot, like a dog, by the orders of Captain Rock. Yet even
+      these violent inflictions rather punished than prevented the conduct
+      against which they were directed. The Irish peasant had to choose between
+      starving and assassination. If, in deference to an anonymous mandate, he
+      relinquished his holding, he and those who depended on him were outcasts
+      and wanderers; if he retained or accepted it, his life might be the
+      forfeit, but subsistence was secured; and in poor and lawless countries,
+      the means of living are more valued than life. Those who have treated of
+      the agrarian crimes of Ireland have remarked, that the facility with which
+      these outrages have been committed has only been equalled by the
+      difficulty of punishing them. A murder, perpetrated at noonday, in the
+      sight of many persons, cannot be proved in a court of justice. The
+      spectators are never witnesses; and it has been inferred from this, that
+      the outrage is national, and that the heart of the populace is with the
+      criminal. But though a chief landlord, or a stipendiary magistrate, may
+      occasionally be sacrificed, the great majority of victims are furnished by
+      the humblest class. Not sympathy, but terror, seals the lip and clouds the
+      eye of the bystander. And this is proved by the fact that while those who
+      have suffered have almost always publicly declared that they were unable
+      to recognize their assailants, and believed them to be strangers, they
+      have frequently, in confidence, furnished the police with the names of the
+      guilty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus, there is this remarkable characteristic of the agrarian anarchy of
+      Ireland which marks it out from all similar conditions of other countries:
+      it is a war of the poor against the poor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before the rapid increase of population had forced governments to study
+      political economy and to investigate the means of subsisting a people,
+      statesmen had contented themselves by attributing to political causes
+      these predial disturbances, and by recommending for them political
+      remedies. The course of time, which had aggravated the condition of the
+      Irish peasantry, had increased the numbers, the wealth, and the general
+      importance of those of the middle classes of Ireland who professed the
+      Roman Catholic faith. Shut out from the political privileges of the
+      constitution, these formed a party of discontent that was a valuable ally
+      to the modern Whigs, too long excluded from that periodical share of power
+      which is the life-blood of a parliamentary government and the safeguard of
+      a constitutional monarchy. The misgovernment of Ireland became therefore a
+      stock topic of the earlier Opposition of the present century; and
+      advocating the cause of their clients, who wished to become mayors, and
+      magistrates, and members of the legislature, they argued that in the
+      concession of those powers and dignities, and perhaps in the discreet
+      confiscation of the property of the Church, the only cures could be found
+      for threatening notices, robbery of arms, administering of unlawful oaths,
+      burglary, murder, and arson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet if these acts of violence were attributable to defective political
+      institutions, why, as was usually the case, were they partial in their
+      occurrence? Why were they limited to particular districts? If political
+      grievances were the cause, the injustice would be as sharp in tranquil
+      Wexford as in turbulent Tipperary. Yet out of the thirty-two counties of
+      Ireland, the outrages prevailed usually in less than a third. These
+      outrages were never insurrectionary: they were not directed against
+      existing authorities; they were stimulated by no public cause or clamour;
+      it was the private individual who was attacked, and for a private reason.
+      This was their characteristic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But as time elapsed, two considerable events occurred: the Roman Catholic
+      restrictions were repealed, and the Whigs became ministers.
+      Notwithstanding these great changes, the condition of the Irish peasantry
+      remained the same; the tenure of land was unchanged, the modes of its
+      occupation were unaltered, its possession was equally necessary and
+      equally perilous. The same circumstances produced the same consequences.
+      Notwithstanding even that the Irish Church had been remodelled, and its
+      revenues not only commuted but curtailed; notwithstanding that Roman
+      Catholics had not only become members of Parliament but even Parliament
+      had been reformed; Irish outrage became more flagrant and more extensive
+      than at any previous epoch&mdash;and the Whigs were ministers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Placed in this responsible position, forced to repress the evil, the
+      causes of which they had so often explained, and which with their
+      cooperation had apparently been so effectually removed, the Whig
+      government were obliged to have recourse to the very means which they had
+      so frequently denounced when recommended by their rivals, and that, too,
+      on a scale of unusual magnitude and severity. They proposed for the
+      adoption of Parliament one of those measures which would suspend the
+      constitution of Ireland, and which are generally known by the name of
+      Coercion Acts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The main and customary provisions of these Coercion Acts were of severe
+      restraint, and scarcely less violent than the conduct they were
+      constructed to repress. They invested the lord lieutenant with power to
+      proclaim a district as disturbed, and then to place its inhabitants
+      without the pale of the established law; persons out of their dwellings
+      between sunset and sunrise were liable to transportation; and to secure
+      the due execution of the law, prisoners were tried before military
+      tribunals, and not by their peers, whose verdicts, from sympathy or
+      terror, were usually found to baffle justice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These Coercion Acts were effectual; they invariably obtained their end,
+      and the proclaimed districts became tranquil. But they were an affair of
+      police, not of government; essentially temporary, their effect was almost
+      as transient as their sway, and as they were never accompanied with any
+      deep and sincere attempt to cope with the social circumstances which
+      produced disorder, the recurrence of the chronic anarchy was merely an
+      affair of time. Whether it were that they did not sufficiently apprehend
+      the causes, or that they shrank from a solution which must bring them in
+      contact with the millions of a surplus population, there seems always to
+      have been an understanding between the public men of both parties, that
+      the Irish difficulty should be deemed a purely political, or at the utmost
+      a religious one. And even so late as 1846, no less a personage than the
+      present chief secretary, put forward by his party to oppose an Irish
+      Coercion Bill which themselves had loudly called for, declared that he
+      could not sanction its penal enactments unless they were accompanied by
+      the remedial measures that were necessary, to wit, an Irish Franchise
+      Bill, and a Bill for the amendment of municipal corporations!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Sir Robert Peel, in 1841, after a memorable opposition of ten years,
+      acceded to office, sustained by all the sympathies of the country, his
+      Irish policy, not sufficiently noticed amid the vast and urgent questions
+      with which he had immediately to deal, was, however, to the political
+      observer significant and interesting. As a mere matter of party tactics,
+      it was not for him too much to impute Irish disturbances to political and
+      religious causes, even if the accumulated experience of the last ten years
+      were not developing a conviction in his mind, that the methods hitherto
+      adopted to ensure the tranquillity of that country were superficial and
+      fallacious. His cabinet immediately recognized a distinction between
+      political and predial sources of disorder. The first, they resolved into a
+      mere system of agitation, no longer justifiable by the circumstances, and
+      this they determined to put down. The second, they sought in the
+      conditions under which land was occupied, and these they determined to
+      investigate. Hence, on the one hand, the O&rsquo;Connell prosecution: on the
+      other, the Devon commission.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the bold and prudent policy of a minister who felt he had the
+      confidence of the country and was sustained by great parliamentary
+      majorities; and when the summoner of monster meetings was convicted, and
+      the efficient though impartial manner in which the labours of the land
+      commission were simultaneously conducted came to be bruited about, there
+      seemed at last some prospect of the system of political quackery of which
+      Ireland had been so long the victim being at last subverted. But there is
+      nothing in which the power of circumstances is more evident than in
+      politics. They baffle the forethought of statesmen, and control even the
+      apparently inflexible laws of national development and decay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had the government of 1841 succeeded in its justifiable expectation of
+      terminating the trade of political agitation in Ireland, armed with all
+      the authority and all the information with which the labours of the land
+      commission would have furnished them, they would in all probability have
+      successfully grappled with the real causes of Irish misery and misrule.
+      They might have thoroughly reformed the modes by which land is holden and
+      occupied; have anticipated the spontaneous emigration that now rages by an
+      administrative enterprise scarcely more costly than the barren loan of
+      &lsquo;47, and which would have wafted native energies to imperial shores; have
+      limited under these circumstances the evil of the potato famine, even if
+      the improved culture of the interval might not have altogether prevented
+      that visitation; while the laws which regulated the competition between
+      home and foreign industry in agricultural produce might have been modified
+      with so much prudence, or, if necessary, ultimately repealed with so much
+      precaution, that those rapid and startling vicissitudes that have so
+      shattered the social fabric of Ireland might altogether have been avoided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it was decreed that it should be otherwise. Having achieved the
+      incredible conviction of O&rsquo;Connell, by an Irish jury, the great culprit
+      baffled the vengeance of the law by a quirk which a lawyer only could have
+      devised. As regards his Irish policy, Sir Robert Peel never recovered this
+      blow, the severity of which was proportionably increased by its occurrence
+      at a moment of unprecedented success. Resolute not to recur to his ancient
+      Orangeism, yet desperate after his discomfiture of rallying a moderate
+      party around his ministry, his practical mind, more clear-sighted than
+      foreseeing, was alarmed at the absence of all influences for the
+      government of Ireland. The tranquillity which might result from a reformed
+      tenure of the soil, must, if attainable, be a distant blessing, and at
+      present he saw only the obstacles to its fulfilment&mdash;prejudiced
+      landlords, and the claims and necessities of pauper millions. He shrank
+      from a theory which might be an illusion. He required a policy for the
+      next post and the next division. There was in his view only one course to
+      take, to outbid his predecessors as successfully in Irish politics as he
+      was doing in taxes and tariffs. He resolved to appropriate the liberal
+      party of Ireland, and merge it into the great Conservative confederation
+      which was destined to destroy so many things. He acted with promptitude
+      and energy, for Sir Robert Peel never hesitated when he had made up his
+      mind. His real character was very different from his public reputation.
+      Far from being timid and wary, he was audacious and even headstrong. It
+      was his cold and constrained demeanour that misled the public. There never
+      was a man who did such rash things in so circumspect a manner. He had been
+      fortunate in early disembarrassing himself of the Orange counsellors who
+      had conducted his Irish questions when in opposition; vacant judgeships
+      had opportunely satisfied the recognized and respectable claims of Mr.
+      Serjeant Jackson and Mr. Lefroy; and so Sir Robert Peel, without a qualm,
+      suddenly began to govern Ireland by sending it &lsquo;messages of peace.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They took various forms; sometimes a Charitable Bequests Act virtually
+      placed the Roman Catholic hierarchy in friendly equality with the prelates
+      of the Established Church; sometimes a &lsquo;godless college&rsquo; called forth a
+      moan from alarmed and irritated Oxford; the endowment of Maynooth struck
+      wider and deeper, and the middle-classes of England, roused from their
+      religious lethargy, called in vain to the rescue of a Protestantism
+      betrayed. But the minister was unshaken. Successful and self-sufficient,
+      impressed with a conviction that his government in duration would rival
+      that of a Walpole or a Pitt, and exceed both in lustre, he treated every
+      remonstrance with imperious disdain. He had even accustomed his mind to
+      contemplate an ecclesiastical adjustment of Ireland which would have
+      allied in that country the Papacy with the State, and have terminated the
+      constitutional supremacy of the Anglican Church, when suddenly, in the
+      very heat of all this arrogant fortune, the mighty fabric of delusion
+      shivered and fell to the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An abused and indignant soil repudiated the ungrateful race that had
+      exhausted and degraded its once exuberant bosom. The land refused to hold
+      those who would not hold the land on terms of justice and of science. All
+      the economical palliatives and political pretences of long years seemed
+      only to aggravate the suffering and confusion. The poor-rate was levied
+      upon a community of paupers, and the &lsquo;godless colleges&rsquo; were denounced by
+      Rome as well as Oxford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a wild dream of famine and fever, imperial loans, rates in aid,
+      jobbing public works, confiscated estates, constituencies
+      self-disfranchised, and St. Peter&rsquo;s bearding St. James&rsquo;s in a spirit
+      becoming Christendom rather than Europe, time topped the climax of Irish
+      misgovernment; and by the publication of the census of 1851, proved that
+      the millions with whose evils no statesmen would sincerely deal, but whose
+      condition had been the pretext for so much empiricism, had disappeared,
+      and nature, more powerful than politicians, had settled the &lsquo;great
+      difficulty.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ere the publication of that document, the mortal career of Sir Robert Peel
+      had closed, and indeed several of the circumstances to which we have just
+      alluded did not occur in his administration; but the contrast between his
+      policy and its results was nevertheless scarcely less striking. It was in
+      &lsquo;45 that he transmitted his most important &lsquo;message of peace&rsquo; to Ireland,
+      to be followed by an autumnal visit of her Majesty to that kingdom,
+      painted in complacent and prophetic colours by her prime minister. The
+      visit was not made. In the course of that autumn, ten counties of Ireland
+      were in a state of anarchy; and, mainly in that period, there were 136
+      homicides committed, 138 houses burned, 483 houses attacked, and 138 fired
+      into; there were 544 cases of aggravated assault, and 551 of robbery of
+      arms; there were 89 cases of bands appearing in arms; there were more than
+      200 cases of administering unlawful oaths; and there were 1,944 cases of
+      sending threatening letters. By the end of the year, the general crime of
+      Ireland had doubled in amount and enormity compared with the preceding
+      year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Cure for Irish Ills</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      LORD GEORGE BENTINCK had large but defined views as to the policy which
+      should be pursued with respect to Ireland. He was a firm supporter of the
+      constitutional preponderance allotted to the land in our scheme of
+      government, not from any jealousy or depreciation of the other great
+      sources of public wealth, for his sympathy with the trading classes was
+      genuine, but because he believed that constitutional preponderance, while
+      not inconsistent with great commercial prosperity, to be the best security
+      for public liberty and the surest foundation of enduring power. But as
+      reality was the characteristic of his vigorous and sagacious nature, he
+      felt that a merely formal preponderance, one not sustained and authorized
+      by an equivalent material superiority, was a position not calculated to
+      endure in the present age, and one especially difficult to maintain with
+      our rapidly increasing population. For this reason he was always very
+      anxious to identify the policy of Great Britain with that of Ireland, the
+      latter being a country essentially agricultural; and he always shrank from
+      any proposition which admitted a difference in the interests of the two
+      kingdoms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Liberal politicians, who some years ago were very loud for justice to
+      Ireland, and would maintain at all hazards the identity of the interests
+      of the two countries, have of late frequently found it convenient to omit
+      that kingdom from their statistical bulletins of national prosperity. Lord
+      George Bentinck, on the contrary, would impress on his friends, that if
+      they wished to maintain the territorial constitution of their country,
+      they must allow no sectarian considerations to narrow the basis of
+      sympathy on which it should rest; and in the acres and millions of
+      Ireland, in its soil and its people, equally neglected, he would have
+      sought the natural auxiliaries of our institutions. To secure for our
+      Irish fellow-subjects a regular market for their produce; to develop the
+      resources of their country by public works on a great scale; and to obtain
+      a decent provision for the Roman Catholic priesthood from the land and not
+      from the consolidated fund, were three measures which he looked upon as in
+      the highest degree conservative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the project of the cabinet of 1846 had transpired, Lord George at
+      once declared, and was in the habit of reiterating his opinion, that &lsquo;it
+      would ruin the 500,000 small farmers of Ireland,&rsquo; and he watched with
+      great interest and anxiety the conduct of their representatives in the
+      House of Commons. It was with great difficulty that he could bring himself
+      to believe, that political liberalism would induce the members for the
+      south and west of Ireland to support a policy in his opinion so fatal to
+      their countrymen as the unconditional repeal of the corn laws; and,
+      indeed, before they took that step, which almost all of them have since
+      publicly regretted and attempted to compensate for by their subsequent
+      votes in the House of Commons, the prospect of their conduct frequently
+      and considerably varied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earl of St. Germans, the chief secretary of the Lord Lieutenant,
+      introduced the Coercion Bill to the House of Lords on the 24th of
+      February, and, considering the exigency, and the important reference to it
+      in the speech from the throne, this step on the part of the government was
+      certainly not precipitate. It was observed that the strongest supporters
+      of the measure in the House of Lords on this occasion were the leaders of
+      the Whig party. Lord Lansdowne, &lsquo;so far from complaining of the Government
+      for bringing forward the measure at so early a period of the session, was
+      ready to admit, that after the declaration of her Majesty, a declaration
+      unhappily warranted by facts known to many of their lordships, every day
+      was lost in which an effectual remedy was not at least attempted to put an
+      end to a state of society so horrible.&rsquo; Lord Clanricarde &lsquo;gave his ready
+      assent to the bill;&rsquo; and even Lord Grey, &lsquo;though he regretted the
+      necessity for this measure, was of opinion that the chief secretary had
+      established a sufficient case for arming the executive government with
+      some additional powers.&rsquo; When, therefore, at the end of the month of
+      March, Lord George Bentinck was invited to attend a meeting of his
+      friends, held at the house of Mr. Bankes, to consider the course which
+      should be adopted by the Protectionist party with respect to the Coercion
+      Bill, it was assumed, as a matter of course, that the coalition of the
+      government and the Whigs must secure the passing of the measure, even if
+      the Protectionists were disposed, for the chance of embarrassing the
+      ministry, to resist it; and of course there was no great tendency in that
+      direction. Men are apt to believe that crime and coercion are inevitably
+      associated. There was abundance of precedent for the course, which seemed
+      also a natural one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In less than a century there had been seventeen coercive acts for Ireland,
+      a circumstance which might make some ponder whether such legislation were
+      as efficacious as it was violent. However, assassination rife, Captain
+      Rock and Molly M&rsquo;Guire out at night, Whigs and Tories all agreed, it was
+      easy to catch at a glance the foregone conclusion of the meeting. One
+      advantage of having a recognized organ of a political party is, that its
+      members do not decide too precipitately. They listen before they
+      determine, and if they have a doubt, they will grant the benefit of it to
+      him whose general ability they have acknowledged, and to whom they
+      willingly give credit for having viewed the question at issue in a more
+      laborious and painful manner than themselves. Without a leader, they
+      commit themselves to opinions carelessly and hastily adopted. This is
+      fatal to a party in debate; but it often entails very serious consequences
+      when the mistakes have been committed in a less public and responsible
+      scene than the House of Commons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the present case, there was only one individual who took any
+      considerable lead in the management of the party who ventured to suggest
+      the expediency of pausing before they pledged themselves to support an
+      unconstitutional measure, proposed by a government against which they were
+      arrayed under circumstances of urgent and unusual opposition. The support
+      of an unconstitutional measure may be expedient, but it cannot be denied
+      that it is the most indubitable evidence of confidence. This suggestion,
+      though received with kindness, elicited little sympathy, and Lord George
+      Bentinck, who had not yet spoken, and who always refrained at these
+      meetings from taking that directing part which he never wished to assume,
+      marking the general feeling of those present, and wishing to guide it to a
+      practical result advantageous to their policy, observed that the support
+      of the Coercion Bill by the Protectionists, ought to be made conditional
+      on the government proving the sincerity of their policy by immediately
+      proceeding with their measure; that if life were in such danger in Ireland
+      as was officially stated, and as he was bound to believe, no Corn or
+      Customs&rsquo; Bill could compete in urgency with the necessity of pressing
+      forward a bill, the object of which was to arrest wholesale assassination.
+      He was, therefore, for giving the government a hearty support, provided
+      they proved they were in earnest in their determination to put down murder
+      and outrage in Ireland, by giving a priority in the conduct of public
+      business to the measure in question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This view of the situation, which was certainly adroit, for it combined
+      the vindication of order with an indefinite delay of the measures for the
+      repeal of the protective system, seemed to please every one; there was a
+      murmur of approbation, and when one of the most considerable of the
+      country gentlemen expressed the prevalent feeling, and added that all that
+      was now to be desired was that Lord George Bentinck would kindly consent
+      to be the organ of the party on the occasion, and state their view to the
+      House, the cheering was very hearty. It came from the hearts of more than
+      two hundred gentlemen, scarcely one of whom had a personal object in this
+      almost hopeless struggle beyond the maintenance of a system which he
+      deemed advantageous to his country; but they wished to show their generous
+      admiration of the man who, in the dark hour of difficulty and desertion,
+      had proved his courage and resource, had saved them from public contempt,
+      and taught them to have confidence in themselves. And after all, there are
+      few rewards in life which equal such sympathy from such men. The favour of
+      courts and the applause of senates may have their moments of excitement
+      and delight, but the incident of deepest and most enduring gratification
+      in public life is to possess the cordial confidence of a high-spirited
+      party, for it touches the heart as well as the intellect, and combines all
+      the softer feelings of private life with the ennobling consciousness of
+      public duty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George Bentinck, deeply moved, consented to become the organ of the
+      Protectionists in this matter; but he repeated in a marked manner his
+      previous declaration, that his duty must be limited to the occasion: he
+      would serve with them, but he could not pretend to be the leader of a
+      party. In that capacity, however, the government chose to recognize him,
+      and there occurred in consequence, very shortly after this meeting, a
+      scene in the House of Commons, which occasioned at the time a great deal
+      of surprise and scandal. The Secretary of the Treasury, in pursuance of
+      one of his principal duties, which is to facilitate by mutual
+      understanding the conduct of public business in the House of Commons,
+      applied to Lord George Bentinck, confessedly at the request of Sir Robert
+      Peel, to &lsquo;enter into some arrangement&rsquo; as to the conduct of public
+      business before Easter. The arrangement suggested was, that if the
+      Protectionists supported the Coercion Bill, which it was the wish of Sir
+      Robert Peel should be read a first time before Easter, the third reading
+      of the Bill for the Repeal of the Corn Laws should be postponed until
+      after Easter. The interview by appointment took place in the Vote Office,
+      where the Secretary of the Treasury &lsquo;called Lord George aside&rsquo; and made
+      this proposition. Lord George stated in reply, &lsquo;what he believed to be the
+      views of the party with whom he served,&rsquo; and they were those we have
+      already intimated. The &lsquo;arrangement&rsquo; was concluded, and it was at the same
+      time agreed that certain questions, of which notice had been given by Lord
+      John Russell, relative to the progress of these very measures, should be
+      allowed by the Protectionists to pass <i>sub silentio</i>. This &lsquo;pledge,&rsquo; 
+      made by the noble lord for himself and his friends, was &lsquo;scrupulously
+      observed.&rsquo; Nevertheless, after all this, a letter arrived from the
+      Secretary of the Treasury, addressed to the noble lord, stating that the
+      secretary &lsquo;had not been authorized in saying as much as he had said,&rsquo; and
+      requesting that the conversation which had taken place might be considered
+      private. Upon this, Lord George Bentinck drew up a statement, &lsquo;setting
+      forth all that had passed,&rsquo; and forwarded it to the secretary as his
+      reply. Subsequently, he met that gentleman, who admitted that &lsquo;every word
+      in that statement, as respected the conversation which had passed, was
+      perfectly correct.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This being the state of the case, on the second night of the debate on Mr.
+      Eliot Yorke&rsquo;s amendment, which we have noticed, and after the adjournment
+      had been moved and carried, the government proceeded with some motions of
+      form, which indicated their intention to secure, if possible, the third
+      reading of the Corn Bill before Easter. Upon this, Lord George Bentinck,
+      after a hurried and apparently agitated conversation with the Secretary of
+      the Treasury and others connected with the government, rose to move the
+      adjournment of the House. He then gave as his reason the circumstances
+      which we have briefly conveyed. A scene of considerable confusion
+      occurred; the Secretary of the Treasury admitted the correctness of the
+      statement; the First Lord of the Treasury rejected the alleged authority
+      of the secretary. Mr. Tuffnell, on the part of the Whigs, intimated that
+      public business could not be carried on if the recognized organs were
+      repudiated by their chief. The feeling of all parties coincided with Mr.
+      Tuffnell; finally, an Irish repealer rose and announced that the
+      government were bartering their Corn Bill to secure coercion to Ireland.
+      Lord George Bentinck said the Coercion Bill was &lsquo;a second Curfew Act,&rsquo; 
+      that nothing but necessity could justify it, and if it were necessary it
+      must be immediate. Sir Robert remained irritated and obstinate. He would
+      not give up a stage either of the Corn Bill or the Coercion Bill; he
+      wanted to advance both before Easter. The mere division of the House
+      between Free-traders and Protectionists had already ceased; there were
+      breakers ahead, and it was not difficult from this night to perceive that
+      the course of the government would not be so summary as they had once
+      expected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This strange interlude occurred after midnight on the 26th of March. On
+      Friday, the 27th, the House divided on the amendment of Mr. Eliot Yorke,
+      and the Corn Bill was read for the second time. On the reassembling of the
+      House on Monday, the 30th, an extraordinary scene took place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It appears that the cabinet, after painful deliberation, had arrived at
+      the conclusion that, notwithstanding the importance of sending up the Corn
+      Bill to the House of Lords before Easter, it was absolutely necessary to
+      proceed at once with the Coercion Bill; and it was resolved that the
+      Secretary of State should on this evening lay before the House the facts
+      and reasons which &lsquo;induce the Government to believe in the necessity of
+      the measure.&rsquo; Mr. O&rsquo;Connell and his followers had already announced their
+      intention of opposing the first reading of the bill, an allowable but very
+      unusual course. It is competent to the House of Commons to refuse a first
+      reading to any bill sent down to it; but the journals afford few examples
+      of the exercise of such a privilege. A member of the House of Lords may
+      lay on the table, as a matter of pure right, any bill which he thinks
+      proper to introduce, and it is read a first time as a matter of course;
+      the orders of the House of Commons are different, and a member must obtain
+      permission before he introduces a bill. This permission is occasionally
+      refused; but when a bill comes from the House of Lords, the almost
+      invariable custom is to read it for the first time without discussion.
+      There are, however, as we have observed, instances to the contrary, and
+      the Irish Coercion Bill of &lsquo;33 was one of them. So pregnant a precedent
+      could not be forgotten on the present occasion. The government therefore
+      were prepared for an opposition to the first reading of their bill; but
+      trusting to the strength of their case and the assumed support of the Whig
+      party, they believed that this opposition would not be stubborn, more
+      especially as there were numerous stages of the measure on which the views
+      of its opponents might be subsequently expressed, and as they themselves
+      were prepared to engage that they would not proceed further than this
+      first reading until the Corn Bill had passed the House of Commons. The
+      consternation, therefore, of the government could scarcely be concealed,
+      when they found on Monday night that they had to encounter a
+      well-organized party opposition, headed by Sir William Somerville, and
+      sanctioned and supported in debate by Lord John Russell and Sir George
+      Grey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would seem indeed a difficult and somewhat graceless office for the
+      Whigs to oppose the first reading of a government bill, concerning, too,
+      the highest duties of administration, which had received such unqualified
+      approval from all the leading members of their party in the House of
+      Lords, who had competed in declarations of its necessity and
+      acknowledgments of its moderation, while they only regretted the too tardy
+      progress of a measure so indispensable to the safety of the country and
+      the security of her Majesty&rsquo;s subjects. A curious circumstance, however,
+      saved them from this dilemma, which yet in the strange history of faction
+      they had nevertheless in due time to encounter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Coercion Bill coming from the Lords appeared on the paper of the
+      day in the form of a notice of motion, the Secretary of State, this being
+      a day on which orders have precedence, had to move that such orders of the
+      day should be postponed, so that he might proceed with the motion on the
+      state of Ireland, of which notice had been given. The strict rule of the
+      House is, that on Mondays and Fridays, orders of the day should have
+      precedence of notices of motion, so that it was impossible for the
+      Secretary of State to make his motion, that a certain bill (the Protection
+      of Life&mdash;Ireland&mdash;Bill) should be read a first time without
+      permission of the House, a permission always granted as a matter of course
+      on such nights to the government, since the business which can be brought
+      forward, whether in the shape of orders or motions, is purely government
+      business, and thus the interests and privilege of no independent member of
+      Parliament can be affected by a relaxation of the rules which the
+      convenience of a ministry and the conduct of public business occasionally
+      require. However, on this night, no sooner had the Secretary of State
+      made, in a few formal words, this formal request, than up sprang Sir
+      William Somerville to move an amendment, that the orders of the day should
+      not be postponed, which he supported in a spirited address, mainly on the
+      ground of the great inconvenience that must be suffered from the
+      postponement of the Corn Bill. The motion of the Secretary of State would
+      produce a long, exciting, and exasperating debate. Time would be lost&mdash;for
+      what? To advance one stage of a measure which it was avowedly not the
+      intention of the government to press at the present moment. Sir William
+      concluded with a very earnest appeal to Lord George Bentinck and his
+      friends, who might at no very distant period have the government of
+      Ireland entrusted to them, not, for the sake of a momentary postponement
+      of the Corn Bill, to place themselves, by voting for this measure of
+      coercion, in collision with the Irish nation.&rsquo; He called upon Lord George
+      Bentinck to weigh the position in which he was placed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This amendment was seconded by Mr. Smith O&rsquo;Brien, the member for the
+      county of Limerick, who warned the government that they &lsquo;were entering on
+      a contest which would continue for months.&rsquo; He taunted the minister with
+      governing the country without a party. What chance was there of
+      reconciliation with his estranged friends? After the treatment of that
+      &lsquo;disavowed plenipotentiary,&rsquo; the Secretary of the Treasury, who would be
+      again found willing to undertake the mission of patching up a truce? He
+      was not present when the terms of the treaty were exposed: but he
+      understood, that if the government introduced this Coercion Bill before
+      Easter, then that Lord George Bentinck would deem it wise, proper, and
+      expedient; but if after Easter, then the complexion and character of the
+      bill were, in the noble lord&rsquo;s judgment, utterly transformed, and it was
+      declared to be quite untenable and unconstitutional. Was that the kind of
+      support on which the government calculated for passing this measure?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Secretary of State made a dexterous, conciliatory, almost humble
+      address, in reply to the taunts of Mr. Smith O&rsquo;Brien. He said that he was
+      well aware of the fact of which he had been just reminded, that, in the
+      present state of parties, the declared adherents of the government were a
+      small minority; he even, while excusing the delay in the progress of the
+      Irish measure, reminded the House of the curious fact, that since the
+      meeting of Parliament, two successive Irish secretaries had lost their
+      seats in the House of Commons in consequence of supporting the
+      administration of which they were members.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The case of the government was really so good and clear, that for a moment
+      it seemed the opposition could hardly persist in their unusual proceeding:
+      but this was a night of misfortunes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There had been for some time a smouldering feud between the secretary and
+      the Recorder of Dublin. The learned gentleman had seized the occasion
+      which the present state of parties afforded, and in the course of the
+      recent debate on the second reading of the Corn Bill, had declared that
+      the asserted famine in Ireland was, on the part of the government, &lsquo;a
+      great exaggeration.&rsquo; The secretary had addressed himself particularly to
+      this observation in his speech on the 27th, the night of the division, and
+      had noticed it in a tone of acerbity. He had even intimated that it might
+      have been used by one who was a disappointed solicitor for high office,
+      and whom the government had declined to assist in an unwarrantable
+      arrangement of the duties and salary of the judicial post he at present
+      occupied. The learned Recorder, justly indignant at this depreciating
+      innuendo, resolved to make an opportunity on the following Monday for his
+      vindication and retort. He rose, therefore, immediately after the skilful
+      and winning appeal of the secretary, and pronounced an invective against
+      the right honourable gentleman which was neither ill-conceived nor
+      ill-delivered. It revived the passions that for a moment seemed inclined
+      to lull, and the Protectionists, who on this occasion were going to
+      support the government, forgot the common point of union, while the
+      secretary was described as &lsquo;the evil genius of the cabinet.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this, it was impossible to arrest the course of debate. Mr.
+      O&rsquo;Connell, who appeared to be in a state of great debility, made one of
+      those acute points for which he was distinguished. He said the government
+      complained of the threat held out by those who opposed the bill, that they
+      would avail themselves of the forms of the House to give it every
+      opposition in their power. But what did the government do themselves? Why,
+      they were trying to trample upon one of the sessional orders and to
+      abrogate the forms of the House in order to coerce the Irish people. Lord
+      George Bentinck said, that &lsquo;the chief minister had told them, that this
+      was a bill to put down murder and assassination; in that case, if this
+      bill were delayed, the blood of every man murdered in Ireland was on the
+      head of her Majesty&rsquo;s ministers.&rsquo; Sir George Grey followed, and avoiding
+      any discussion of the state of Ireland, in which Lord George had entered,
+      supported the amendment of Sir William Somerville, on the broad ground
+      that the bill for the repeal of the corn laws ought not to be for a moment
+      delayed. &lsquo;The debates on that measure had continued several weeks; and all
+      who had any lengthened parliamentary experience must be convinced, that if
+      the further progress of the Corn Bill was postponed until after Easter,
+      they would have much longer and protracted debates in its future stages,
+      than if the bill were pushed <i>de die in diem</i>. As he had understood,
+      the government had intended that this bill should have gone up to the
+      House of Lords before Easter, when it would have been printed, and the
+      second reading could have taken place at an early day after the holidays;
+      but if it were put off until after Easter, he would defy any man to show
+      any reasonable expectation of its getting to a second reading in the other
+      House before June, or July, or even August.&rsquo; This was encouraging, and the
+      plot seemed to thicken. The Secretary at War was put up by the government
+      to neutralize the effect of the speech of Sir George Grey, and he said, &lsquo;I
+      speak not only as a cabinet minister, but also as a considerable Irish
+      proprietor.&rsquo; He said, &lsquo;that anything so horrible as the state of
+      demoralization and crime in which many parts of Ireland were plunged,
+      anything so perfect as the suspension of the law in those parts of the
+      country, anything, in short, so complete as the abrogation of liberty that
+      obtained there, was, perhaps never known.&rsquo; He thought that, &lsquo;no man and no
+      minister could, under these circumstances, decline to admit that every and
+      any measure ought to be postponed until a division had been taken, at
+      least upon the principle of a measure which had for its object the
+      suppression of these horrors.&rsquo; After such a declaration it was clear the
+      government were in a false position when by the same organ it had to
+      state, &lsquo;that in asking to read this bill to-night, they only intended to
+      postpone the Corn Bill for one night.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord John Russell following, admitted, that &lsquo;in voting for the motion of
+      Sir William Somerville it was not to be supposed, that if the Secretary of
+      State made out a case, he would not support the government bill;&rsquo; yet how
+      the secretary was ever to find an opportunity of making out his case, if
+      the amendment of Sir William Somerville was carried, was not very
+      apparent. Sir Robert Peel, who was disquieted by the whole proceedings
+      connected with the Coercion Bill, irritated by the episode of &lsquo;the
+      disavowed plenipotentiary,&rsquo; from which he did not for some time recover,
+      and really alarmed at the indefinite prospect of delay in passing his
+      all-important measures which now began to open, could not conceal his
+      vexation in the remarks which he offered, and speaking of the amendment as
+      one &lsquo;of a frivolous character,&rsquo; indignant cries of &lsquo;No, no,&rsquo; from his
+      usual admirers, obliged him to withdraw the expression. His feelings were
+      not soothed when, later in the evening, even Mr. Cobden rose to deplore
+      the conduct of that minister whom he otherwise so much admired. &lsquo;He
+      certainly regarded it as a great calamity. Something had actuated the
+      government which he could not understand. He had a perfect belief in the
+      sincerity of the prime minister, but in all human probability the Corn
+      Bill would not now enter the House of Lords before the beginning or middle
+      of May; and when it would come out again, heaven only knew!&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The House now divided, and being supported by all the Protectionists
+      present, the government had a majority of thirty-nine, so the standing
+      order was for that night rescinded; and, although the hour was late for
+      such a statement, the secretary proceeded with the official exposition.
+      Notwithstanding the depressing circumstances of the previous debate, the
+      speech of Sir James Graham was distinguished by all that lucid arrangement
+      of details and that comprehensive management of his subject which
+      distinguished him. The statement made a great impression upon the House
+      and the country; but, unfortunately for the government, the more necessary
+      they made the measure appear, the more unjustifiable was their conduct in
+      not immediately and vehemently pursuing it. They had, indeed, in the
+      speech from the throne at the commencement of this memorable session,
+      taken up a false position for their campaign; and we shall see, as we
+      pursue this narrative of these interesting events, that the fall of Sir
+      Robert Peel was perhaps occasioned not so much by his repeal of the corn
+      laws as by the mistake in tactics which this adroit and experienced
+      parliamentary commander so strangely committed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this night of the 30th the government made no advance; immediately
+      after the secretary had finished, the followers of Mr. O&rsquo;Connell moved the
+      adjournment of the House, and persisted in this line notwithstanding the
+      almost querulous appeal of the first minister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Passing of O&rsquo;Connell.</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      LORD GEORGE wrote the next morning (Tuesday, March 31st) to a friend, who
+      had not been able to attend the debate: &lsquo;I look upon last night as the
+      most awkward night the government have had yet; I believe they would have
+      given their ears to have been beaten. We have now fairly set them and the
+      tail at loggerheads, and I cannot see how they are to get another stage of
+      either the tariff or Corn Bill before next Tuesday at any rate. I doubt if
+      they will do anything before Easter.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was understood that the House would adjourn for the Easter recess on
+      the 8th instant. There were therefore only two nights remaining for
+      government business before the holidays. On the first of these (Friday,
+      April the 3rd), Mr. O&rsquo;Connell had announced that he should state his views
+      at length on the condition of Ireland, and the causes of these agrarian
+      outrages. Accordingly, when the order of the day for resuming the
+      adjourned debate was read, he rose at once to propose an amendment to the
+      motion. He sat in an unusual place&mdash;in that generally occupied by the
+      leader of the opposition&mdash;and spoke from the red box, convenient to
+      him from the number of documents to which he had to refer. His appearance
+      was of great debility, and the tones of his voice were very still. His
+      words, indeed, only reached those who were immediately around him and the
+      ministers sitting on the other side of the green table, who listened with
+      that interest and respectful attention which became the occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a strange and touching spectacle to those who remembered the form
+      of colossal energy and the clear and thrilling tones that had once
+      startled, disturbed, and controlled senates. Mr. O&rsquo;Connell was on his legs
+      for nearly two hours, assisted occasionally in the management of his
+      documents by some devoted aide-de-camp. To the House generally it was a
+      performance in dumb show, a feeble old man muttering before a table; but
+      respect for the great parliamentary personage kept all as orderly as if
+      the fortunes of a party hung upon his rhetoric; and though not an accent
+      reached the gallery, means were taken that next morning the country should
+      not lose the last and not the least interesting of the speeches of one who
+      had so long occupied and agitated the mind of nations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This remarkable address was an abnegation of the whole policy of Mr.
+      O&rsquo;Connell&rsquo;s career. It proved, by a mass of authentic evidence ranging
+      over a long term of years, that Irish outrage was the consequence of
+      physical misery, and that the social evils of that country could not be
+      successfully encountered by political remedies. To complete the picture,
+      it concluded with a panegyric of Ulster and a patriotic quotation from
+      Lord Clare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord John Russell, who, as an experienced parliamentary leader, had
+      already made more than one effort to extricate the Whigs from the
+      consequences of the hearty support given to the government measures in the
+      other House by Lords Lansdowne and Clanricarde, and even by Lord Grey,
+      ventured to-night even to say that if he should agree that the House would
+      do well to assent to the first reading of this bill, he thought he was
+      bound to state also that in the future stages of it, he should have
+      &lsquo;objections to offer, going to the foundations of some of its principal
+      provisions.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His speech was curious, as perhaps the last considerable manifesto of Whig
+      delusion respecting Ireland. Coercion Bills might be occasionally
+      necessary; no doubt of it; Lord Grey had once a Coercion Bill, and Lord
+      John Russell had voted for it; but then remedial measures ought to be
+      introduced with coercive ones: the evil should be repressed, but also
+      cured. Thus, Lord Althorp, when the government introduced their great
+      Coercion Bill, introduced also a measure which, besides making a great
+      reform in the Protestant Church of Ireland, exempted the whole Catholic
+      community of Ireland from the payment of church cess, which had previously
+      been felt as a very great grievance. On another day Lord Althorp declared
+      his intention of pressing through Parliament a Jury Bill, which had been
+      brought into the House the previous session, but which was allowed to drop
+      in the House of Lords.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, there was another declaration which Lord Althorp had made, which,
+      somehow or other, seemed to have been forgotten; it was a declaration with
+      respect to the municipal corporations of Ireland. Lord Althorp said it was
+      exceedingly desirable that the institutions of the two countries should be
+      assimilated as much as possible; and that, as a general rule, the
+      corporate bodies of Ireland should be the same as England. Mr. O&rsquo;Connell
+      had said on that occasion that there was no greater grievance in Ireland
+      than the existence of corporations in their then shape. Lord John
+      contrasted this language of Lord Althorp, &lsquo;simple, plain, emphatic, and
+      decided,&rsquo; with the language of the government of Sir Robert Peel; and held
+      up to admiration the Whig policy of 1833, certainly coercive, but with
+      remedial measures&mdash;a measure for the abolition of church cess,
+      introduced ten days before the Coercion Bill, and a promise of municipal
+      reform made simultaneously with the proclamation of martial law. This was
+      real statesmanship and touching the root of the evil. Whereas &lsquo;Sir Robert
+      Peel had only consented to passing the Municipal Bill in a crippled state,
+      and only now (in 1846) promised, that the corporations of Ireland should
+      be placed on the same footing as the corporations of England.&rsquo; Who could
+      be surprised that such a policy-should end in famine and pestilence?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The followers of Mr. O&rsquo;Connell again succeeded in adjourning the debate
+      until Monday the 6th. On that day Sir Robert Peel made &lsquo;an earnest appeal&rsquo; 
+      to extricate himself from the almost perilous position in which he found
+      his administration suddenly involved. In case the division on the first
+      reading of the Irish Bill should not take place that night, he endeavoured
+      to prevail on those members who had notices on the paper for the following
+      night (Tuesday the 7th), the last night before the holidays, to relinquish
+      their right and to permit the Irish debate to proceed and conclude. &lsquo;He
+      had no wish to interfere with the due discussion of the measure; but he
+      believed that the Irish members, if they permitted the House to proceed
+      with the Corn Bill, by concluding the discussion on the Irish Bill, would
+      be rendering an essential service to their country.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this earnest appeal only influenced still more the fiery resolves of
+      Mr. Smith O&rsquo;Brien and his friends. They threw the responsibility for delay
+      of the Corn Bill on the government. The inconvenience which the country
+      suffered was occasioned by the minister, not by the Irish members. He
+      ought, on Friday last, to have adjourned the discussion on the Coercion
+      Bill until after Easter. He and other members who were on the paper for
+      to-morrow would willingly relinquish their right of priority in favour of
+      the Corn Bill, or of any measure of a remedial kind, but not in favour of
+      a Coercion Bill. He did not wish to have any concealment with the minister
+      as to the course which the Irish members would pursue. It was their
+      bounden duty to take care that <i>pari passu</i> with the discussion of
+      the Coercion Bill there should be discussions as to the misgovernment of
+      Ireland; and that, in the absence of any remedial measures of the
+      government, they should have an opportunity of suggesting such as they
+      thought advisable for removing those evils which they utterly denied that
+      the measure now before the House would remove.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In vain Sir Robert, in his blandest tones and with that remarkable command
+      of a temper not naturally serene which distinguished him, acknowledged to
+      a certain degree the propriety of the course intimated by Mr. Smith
+      O&rsquo;Brien; but suggested at the same time that it was compatible with
+      allowing the Irish bill to be now read for a first time, since on its
+      subsequent stages Mr. O&rsquo;Brien and his friends would have the full
+      opportunity which they desired, of laying before the House the whole
+      condition of the country. All was useless. No less a personage than Mr.
+      John O&rsquo;Connell treated the appeal with contempt, and lectured the first
+      minister on the &lsquo;great mistake&rsquo; which he had made. Little traits like
+      these revealed the true parliamentary position of the once omnipotent
+      leader of the great Conservative party. With the legions of the
+      Protectionists watching their prey in grim silence, while the liberal
+      sections were united in hostile manouvres against the government, it was
+      recognised at once that the great minister had a staff without an army;
+      not a reconnoitring could take place without the whole cabinet being under
+      orders, and scarcely a sharpshooter sallied from the opposite ranks
+      without the prime minister returning his fire in person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Robert Peel mournfully observed that he &lsquo;did not wish to provoke a
+      recriminatory discussion,&rsquo; and he resigned himself to his fate.
+      Immediately the third night of the adjourned debate on the Irish bill
+      commenced, and was sustained principally by the Irish members until a late
+      hour. It had not been the intention of Lord George Bentinck to have spoken
+      on this occasion, though he had never been absent for a moment from his
+      seat, and watched all that occurred with that keen relish which was usual
+      with him when he thought things were going right; but having been
+      personally and not very courteously appealed to by the late Mr. Dillon
+      Browne, and deeming also the occasion, just before the holidays, a not
+      unhappy one, he rose and concluded the debate. His speech was not long, it
+      was not prepared, and it was very animated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Recapitulating himself the main features of the disturbed district, he
+      said: &lsquo;It is because of these things, sir, that I am prepared to support
+      at least the first reading of a bill, which I freely admit to be most
+      unconstitutional in itself.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Noticing a speech made in the course of the evening by Lord Morpeth, who
+      had himself once been chief secretary of the Lord Lieutenant, Lord George
+      thought it discreet to remind the House of the unequivocal support given
+      to this bill by the Whig leaders in another place: &lsquo;Sir, I think when we
+      see all the great leaders of the Whig party supporting the measure
+      elsewhere, we cannot be justly impugned for doing as they do.&rsquo; Lord
+      Morpeth had referred to &lsquo;remedial measures which he thinks should be
+      introduced for Ireland: to measures for the extension of the municipal,
+      and also of the parliamentary, franchise of that country; and he expressed
+      his desire to see those franchises put on the same footing as the
+      franchises of England.&rsquo; &lsquo;For the life of me,&rsquo; exclaimed Lord George, &lsquo;I
+      confess, I cannot see in what way the extension of political franchises of
+      any description in Ireland would afford a remedy for the evils which this
+      measure aims to suppress. I think, sir, it is impossible not to perceive
+      that there is a connection between agrarian outrage and the poverty of the
+      people.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After noticing the inadequate poor-law which then existed in Ireland, he
+      added: &lsquo;There is also another point immediately connected with this
+      subject to which I must refer. I allude, sir, to the system of
+      absenteeism. I cannot disguise from myself the conviction, that many of
+      the evils of Ireland arise from the system of receiving rents by absentee
+      landlords who spend them in other countries. I am well aware that, in
+      holding this doctrine, I am not subscribing to the creed of political
+      economists. I am well aware that Messrs. Senior and M&rsquo;Culloch hold that it
+      makes no difference whether the Irish landlord spends his rents in Dublin,
+      on his Irish estates, in London, in Bath, or elsewhere. I profess, sir, I
+      cannot understand that theory. I believe that the first ingredient in the
+      happiness of a people is, that the gentry should reside on their native
+      soil, and spend their rents among those from whom they receive them. I
+      cannot help expressing a wish that some arrangement may be made connected
+      with the levying of the poor-rate in Ireland, by which absentee landlords
+      may be made to contribute in something like a fair proportion to the wants
+      of the poor in the district in which they ought to reside. There is an
+      arrangement in the hop-growing districts in England in respect to tithe,
+      which might, I think, afford a very useful suggestion. There are two
+      tithes: the one, the ordinary tithe; the other, extraordinary; which is
+      levied only so long as the land is cultivated in hops. I think if there
+      were two poor-rates introduced into Ireland, the one applying to all
+      occupiers of land, and the other to all those who did not spend a certain
+      portion of the year on some portion of their estates in Ireland, it would
+      prove useful. I think, that by thus appealing to their interests, it might
+      induce absentee landlords to reside much more in Ireland, than is now
+      unfortunately the case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But, sir, I think there are other remedial measures. Some days ago, the
+      Secretary of State told the member for Stroud (Mr. Poulett Scrope), when
+      he suggested some such measure, that he was treading on dangerous ground,
+      and that the doctrines he was advocating might be written in letters of
+      blood in Ireland; but, notwithstanding all this, I still say that I think
+      measures might be introduced for improving the relations between landlord
+      and tenant in Ireland. I do not think that some guarantee might and ought
+      to be given to the tenantry of Ireland for the improvements they make upon
+      their farms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sir, the Secretary of State, in introducing this measure, maintained a
+      doctrine which, I think, much more likely to be written in letters of
+      blood, for he bound up the question of the corn laws with the present one.
+      He said, that unless he could, have prevailed on his colleagues to accede
+      to his free-trade measures as regards corn, he would not have introduced
+      this bill. Why, sir, far from giving food to the people of Ireland, in my
+      opinion the measures of her Majesty&rsquo;s ministers will take away from the
+      people of Ireland their food, by destroying the profits of their only
+      manufacture&mdash;the manufacture of corn&mdash;and injuring their
+      agriculture; depriving them of employment; in fact, by taking away from
+      them the very means of procuring subsistence. Sir, I cannot see how the
+      repeal of those laws affecting corn can be In any way connected with the
+      suppression of outrage and the protection of life. What is this but to
+      say, that unless we have a free trade in corn, we must be prepared to
+      concede a free trade in agrarian outrage&mdash;a free trade in maiming and
+      houghing cattle&mdash;a free trade in incendiarism&mdash;a free trade in
+      the burning and sacking of houses&mdash;a free trade in midnight murder,
+      and in noon-day assassination? What is this but telling the people of
+      Ireland, that assassination, murder, incendiarism, are of such light
+      consideration in the eyes of the Secretary of State, that their sanction
+      or suppression by the minister of the crown hinges upon the condition of
+      the corn market and the difference in the price of potatoes?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sir, what has the potato disease to do with the outrages in Ireland? Some
+      think a great deal. I have taken the trouble of looking into the matter. I
+      have examined into the state of crime in at least five counties&mdash;Tipperary,
+      Roscommon, Limerick, Leitrim, and Clare&mdash;and I find, that during the
+      three months prior to the first appearance of the potato disease, and when
+      in fact food was as cheap in Ireland as at almost any former period&mdash;when
+      plenty abounded in all quarters of the empire, that the amount of crime
+      exceeded that in the three months immediately following. Now, those who
+      doubt this statement will have an opportunity of ascertaining the
+      correctness of my figures, for I will not deal in general assertions. Well
+      then, sir, I find in the three months, May, June, and July last, that the
+      number of crimes committed in the five counties I have mentioned amounted
+      to no less than 1,180, while in the three months immediately after the
+      potato disease, or famine as it is called, the amount of crime committed
+      in the same three months was not 1,180, but 870. I should like to know,
+      therefore, what this agrarian outrage has to do with the potato famine;
+      and where is the justification for a minister coming down to this House,
+      and declaring that unless we pass a free-trade measure, we are not to obey
+      her Majesty&rsquo;s commands by passing a measure for the protection of life in
+      Ireland. Why, sir, I think when this language reaches the people of
+      Ireland&mdash;coming, too, as it does from the Treasury, above all, from
+      the Secretary of State for the Home Department&mdash;there is indeed
+      danger to be apprehended that such a doctrine may be written in letters of
+      blood in that country. Why, sir, if we are to hear such language as this
+      from that minister of the crown charged with the peace of the country, we
+      may just as well have Captain Rock established as lord lieutenant in the
+      castle of Dublin, a Whitefoot for chief secretary, and Molly M&rsquo;Guire
+      installed at Whitehall with the seals of the home department.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And afterwards he remarked, &lsquo;I have been taunted that when I may be
+      entrusted with the government of Ireland, I should perhaps then learn that
+      Tyrone was an Orange county. Sir, in answer to that taunt, I must take
+      leave to ask what expression of mine, either in this house or out of it,
+      justifies any such remark? When or where can it be said that I have ever
+      permitted myself to know any distinction between an Orangeman and a
+      Catholic; when, in the whole course of my parliamentary career, have I
+      ever given a vote or uttered a sentiment hostile or unfriendly to the
+      Roman Catholics, either of England or Ireland?&rsquo; This speech, though
+      delivered generally in favour of the Irish bill, attracted very much the
+      attention, and, as it appeared afterwards, the approbation of those Irish
+      members, who, although sitting on the Liberal benches, did not acknowledge
+      the infallible authority of Mr. O&rsquo;Connell, and was the origin of a
+      political connection between them and Lord George Bentinck, which, on more
+      than one subsequent occasion, promised to bring important results.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two successive motions were now made for the adjournment of the debate,
+      and Sir Robert Peel at length said, that he &lsquo;saw it was useless to
+      persist.&rsquo; He agreed to the adjournment until the next day, with the
+      understanding that if it did come on, he would name the time to which it
+      should be postponed after the holidays.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon this, Sir William Somerville made one more appeal to the minister to
+      postpone the further discussion of the Irish bill altogether until the
+      Corn Bill had passed the Commons. He intimated that unless the government
+      at once adopted this resolution, they would find themselves after Easter
+      in the same perplexity which now paralyzed them. They would not be
+      permitted to bring on this measure except upon government nights, and the
+      discussion might then last weeks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The minister, exceedingly embarrassed, would not, however, relent. On the
+      following day, when he moved the adjournment of the House for the
+      holidays, he reduced the vacation three days, in order to obtain Friday, a
+      government night, which otherwise would have been absorbed in the
+      holidays, and he announced the determination of the government again to
+      proceed on that night with the Irish bill in preference to the Corn Bill.
+      The Irish members glanced defiance, and the Protectionists could scarcely
+      conceal their satisfaction. The reputation of Sir Robert Peel for
+      parliamentary management seemed to be vanishing; never was a government in
+      a more tottering state; and the Whigs especially began to renew their
+      laments that the Edinburgh letter and its consequences had prevented the
+      settlement of the corn question from devolving to the natural arbitrator
+      in the great controversy, their somewhat rash but still unrivalled leader,
+      Lord John Russell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>A Third Party</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE members of the Protectionist opposition returned to their constituents
+      with the sanguine feelings which success naturally inspires. Their efforts
+      had surprised, not displeased, the country; the elections were in their
+      favour; the government business halted; the delay in the calculated
+      arrival of the famine had taken the edge off the necessity which it was
+      supposed would have already carried the Corn Bill through the Commons;
+      while the twin measure which the throes of Ireland had engendered had
+      developed elements of opposition which even the calmest observer thought
+      might possibly end in overthrow. Above all, that seemed to have happened
+      which the most experienced in parliamentary life had always deemed to be
+      impracticable; namely, the formation of a third party in the House of
+      Commons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How completely this latter and difficult result was owing to the abilities
+      and energies of one man, and how anomalous was the position which he chose
+      to occupy in not taking the formal lead of a party which was entirely
+      guided by his example, were convictions and considerations that at this
+      juncture much occupied men&rsquo;s minds. And it was resolved among the most
+      considerable of the country gentlemen to make some earnest and
+      well-combined effort, during the recess, to induce Lord George Bentinck to
+      waive the unwillingness he had so often expressed of becoming their avowed
+      and responsible leader.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Lord George Bentinck first threw himself into the breach, he was
+      influenced only by a feeling of indignation at the manner in which he
+      thought the Conservative party had been trifled with by the government and
+      Lord Stanley, his personal friend and political leader, deserted by a
+      majority of the cabinet. As affairs developed, and it became evident that
+      the bulk of the Conservative party throughout the country had rallied
+      round his standard, Lord George could not conceal from himself the
+      consequences of such an event, or believe that it was possible that the
+      party in the House of Commons, although Lord Stanley might eventually think
+      fit to guide it by his counsels, and become, if necessary, personally
+      responsible for its policy, could be long held together unless it were
+      conducted by a leader present in the same assembly, and competent under
+      all circumstances to represent its opinions in debate. Lord George,
+      although a very proud man, had no vanity or self-conceit. He took a very
+      humble view of his own powers, and he had at the same time a very exalted
+      one of those necessary to a leader of the House of Commons. His
+      illustrious connection, Mr. Canning, was his standard. He had been the
+      private secretary of that minister in his youth, and the dazzling
+      qualities of that eminent personage had influenced the most susceptible
+      time of life of one who was very tenacious of his impressions. What Lord
+      George Bentinck appreciated most in a parliamentary speaker was
+      brilliancy: quickness of perception, promptness of repartee, clear and
+      concise argument, a fresh and felicitous quotation, wit and picture, and,
+      if necessary, a passionate appeal that should never pass the line of
+      high-bred sentiment. Believing himself not to be distinguished by these
+      rhetorical qualities, he would listen with no complacency to those who
+      would urge in private that the present period of parliamentary life was
+      different from the days of Mr. Canning, and that accumulated facts and
+      well-digested reasoning on their bearing, a command of all the materials
+      of commercial controversy, and a mastery of the laws that regulate the
+      production and distribution of public wealth, combined with habits of
+      great diligence and application, would ensure the attention of a popular
+      assembly, especially when united to a high character and great social
+      position. This might be urged; but he would only shake his head, with a
+      ray of humour twinkling in his piercing eyes, and say, in a half-drawling
+      tone, &lsquo;If Mr. Canning were alive, he could do all this better than any of
+      them, and be not a whit less brilliant.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was also another reason why Lord George Bentinck was unwilling to
+      assume the post of leader of the Conservative party, and this very much
+      influenced him. Sprung from a great Whig house, and inheriting all the
+      principles and prejudices of that renowned political connection which had
+      expelled the Stuarts, he had accepted, in an unqualified sense, the dogma
+      of religious liberty. This principle was first introduced into active
+      politics in order to preserve the possessions of that portion of the
+      aristocracy which had established itself on the plunder of the Church. It
+      was to form the basis of a party which should prevent reaction and
+      restitution of church lands. Whether the principle be a true one, and
+      whether its unqualified application by any party in the state be possible,
+      are questions yet unsettled. It is not probable, for example, that the
+      worship of Juggernaut, which Lord Dalhousie permits in Orissa, would be
+      permitted even by Lord John Russell at Westminster. Even a papist
+      procession is forbidden, and wisely. The application of the principle,
+      however, in Lord George Bentinck&rsquo;s mind, was among other things associated
+      with the public recognition of the Roman Catholic hierarchy by the state,
+      and a provision for its maintenance in Ireland in accordance with the plan
+      of Mr. Pitt. What had happened, with respect to the vote on the endowment
+      of Maynooth in 1845, had convinced him that his opinions on this subject
+      presented an insuperable barrier to his ever becoming the leader of a
+      party which had contributed three-fourths of the memorable minority on
+      that occasion. It was in vain that it was impressed upon him by those most
+      renowned for their Protestant principles, and who were at the same time
+      most anxious to see Lord George Bentinck in his right position, that the
+      question of Maynooth was settled, and there was now no prospect of future
+      measures of a similar character. This was not the opinion of Lord George
+      Bentinck. He nursed in his secret soul a great scheme for the regeneration
+      and settlement of Ireland, which he thought ought to be one of the
+      mainstays of a Conservative party; and it was his opinion that the
+      condition of the Roman Catholic priesthood must be considered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in vain, in order to assist in removing these scruples, that it was
+      represented to him by others that endowment of a priesthood by the state
+      was a notion somewhat old-fashioned, and opposed to the spirit of the age
+      which associated true religious freedom with the full development of the
+      voluntary principle. He listened to these suggestions with distrust, and
+      even with a little contempt. Mr. Canning had been in favour of the
+      endowment of the Irish priesthood&mdash;that was sufficient for that
+      particular; and as for the voluntary principle, he looked upon it as
+      priestcraft in disguise; his idea of religious liberty being that all
+      religions should be controlled by the state.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides these two prominent objections to accepting the offered post,
+      namely, his unaffected distrust in his parliamentary abilities and his
+      assumed want of concordance with his followers on a great principle of
+      modern politics, we must also remember that his compliance with the
+      request involved no ordinary sacrifice of much which renders life
+      delightful. He was to relinquish pursuits of noble excitement to which he
+      was passionately attached, and to withdraw in a great degree from a circle
+      of high-spirited friends, many of them of different political connection
+      from himself, by whom he was adored. With all his unrivalled powers of
+      application when under the influence of a great impulse, he was
+      constitutionally indolent and even lethargic. There was nothing,
+      therefore, in his position or his temperature to prick him on in &lsquo;46; it
+      was nothing but his strong will acting upon his indignation which
+      sustained him. It is not, therefore, marvellous that he exhibited great
+      reluctance to commit irretrievably his future life. At a subsequent
+      period, indignation had become ambition, and circumstances of various
+      kinds had made him resolve to succeed or die.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the adjournment, Lord George had gone down to Newmarket, which he
+      greatly enjoyed after his exhausting campaign. Here some letters on the
+      subject of the leadership passed, but nothing was definitely arranged till
+      some time after the re-assembling of Parliament. For convenience we
+      mention here the result. The wish of the party was repeatedly and
+      personally urged by the popular and much-esteemed member for Dorsetshire,
+      and at last Lord George consented to their wishes, on these conditions:
+      that he should relinquish his post the moment the right man was
+      discovered, who, according to his theory, would ultimately turn up; and
+      secondly, that his responsible post was not to restrict or embarrass him
+      on any questions in which a religious principle was involved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before, however, this negotiation was concluded, and while yet at
+      Newmarket, he wrote to a friend, the day before the House met (April
+      16th).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I think there is no doubt, but that the Irish will take care of Friday
+      (to-morrow) night. I have not much hope of their keeping up the debate
+      beyond Friday.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is quite clear from O&rsquo;Connell&rsquo;s language at Dublin that we have no
+      hope from the Irish tail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I still think myself, that delay affords a great chance of something
+      turning up in our favour; already the rejection of any reciprocity by M.
+      Guizot has provided us with a grand weapon, which, I trust, you drive well
+      home into * * * *&lsquo;s vitals; a very short delay would probably bring over
+      similar intelligence from the United States and their Congress. I trust we
+      shall have an important deputation over from Canada, representing that the
+      inevitable results of these free-trade measures in corn and timber will be
+      to alienate the feelings of our Canadian colonists, and to induce them to
+      follow their sordid interests, which will now, undoubtedly, be best
+      consulted and most promoted by annexation to the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Lord&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&lsquo;s intended tergiversation has been, I believe,
+      some time known; he admits that all farmers without capital, in short, all
+      little men, must be sacrificed. What a barbarous and odious policy, that
+      goes upon the principle that none but capitalists are henceforth to be
+      allowed to live, as farmers at least. We must turn the tables upon Lord&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;and
+      all such heartless doctrinaires!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I fear the majority in the Lords will be greater than was expected; I am
+      told that we must endeavour to put ministers in a minority two or three
+      times before the bill gets to its second reading in the Lords, no matter
+      upon what question. I hear there are many peers whose votes depend
+      entirely upon their notions, whether or not Peel can, by hook or by crook,
+      carry on.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Railroads for Ireland</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      IF WE take a general view of the career of Lord George Bentinck during the
+      last year&mdash;from the time indeed when he was trying to find a lawyer
+      to convey his convictions to the House of Commons until the moment when
+      her Majesty prorogued her Parliament, the results will be found to be very
+      remarkable. So much was never done so unexpectedly by any public man in
+      the same space of time. He had rallied a great party which seemed
+      hopelessly routed; he had established a parliamentary discipline, in their
+      ranks which old political connections, led by experienced statesmen, have
+      seldom surpassed; he had brought forward from those ranks, entirely
+      through his discrimination and by his personal encouragement, considerable
+      talents in debate; he had himself proved a master in detail and in
+      argument of all the great questions arising out of the reconstruction of
+      our commercial system; he had made a vindication of the results of the
+      Protective principle as applied to agriculture, which certainly, so far as
+      the materials are concerned, is the most efficient plea that ever was
+      urged in the House of Commons in favour of the abrogated law; he had
+      exhibited similar instances of investigation in considerable statements
+      with respect to the silk trade and other branches of our industry; he had
+      asserted the claims of the productive classes in Ireland, and in our
+      timber and sugar producing colonies, with the effect which results from a
+      thorough acquaintance with a subject; he had promulgated distinct
+      principles with regard to our financial as well as to our commercial
+      system; he had maintained the expediency cf relieving the consumer by the
+      repeal of excise in preference to customs&rsquo; duties, and of establishing
+      fiscal reciprocity as a condition of mercantile exchange. On subjects of a
+      more occasional but analogous nature he had shown promptitude and
+      knowledge, as in the instances of the urgent condition of Mexico and of
+      our carrying trade with the Spanish colonies, both of which he brought
+      forward in the last hours of the session, but the importance of which
+      motions was recognized by all parties. Finally, he had attracted the
+      notice, and in many instances obtained the confidence, of large bodies of
+      men in the country, who recognized in him a great capacity of labour
+      combined with firmness of character and honesty of purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the close of the session (August 28), Cord George visited Norfolk,
+      where he received an entertainment from his constituents at King&rsquo;s Lynn,
+      proud of their member, and to whom he vindicated the course which he had
+      taken, and offered his views generally as to the relations which should
+      subsist between the legislation of the country and its industry. From
+      Norfolk he repaired to Belvoir Castle, on a visit to the Duke of Rutland,
+      and was present at a banquet given by the agriculturists of Leicestershire
+      to his friend and supporter the Marquis of Granby. After this he returned
+      to Welbeck, where he seems to have enjoyed a little repose. Thus he writes
+      to a friend from that place on the 22nd September:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Thanks for your advice, which I am following, having got Lord
+      Malmesbury&rsquo;s Diary; but I am relapsing into my natural dawdling, lazy, and
+      somnolent habits, and can with difficulty get through the leaders even of
+      the &ldquo;Times.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      * * * * &lsquo;The vehemence of the farmers is personal against Peel; it is
+      quite clear that the rising price of wheat has cured their alarm. The
+      railway expenditure must keep up prices and prosperity, both of which
+      would have been far greater without free trade; but in face of high
+      prices, railway prosperity, and potato famine, depend upon it we shall
+      have an uphill game to fight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;O&rsquo;Connell talks of Parliament meeting in November, to mend the Irish
+      Labour-rate Act. Do you believe this?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Labour-rate Act, passed at the end of the session (&lsquo;46), was one by
+      which the Lord Lieutenant was enabled to require special barony sessions
+      to meet in order to make presentments for public works for the employment
+      of the people, the whole of the money requisite for their construction to
+      be supplied by the imperial treasury, though to be afterwards repaid. The
+      machinery of this act did not work satisfactorily, but the government
+      ultimately made the necessary alterations on their own responsibility, and
+      obtained an indemnity from Parliament when it met in &lsquo;47. The early
+      session, therefore, talked of by Mr. O&rsquo;Connell, became unnecessary. As the
+      only object of this Labour-rate Act was to employ the people, and as it
+      was supposed there were no public works of a reproductive nature which
+      could be undertaken on a sufficient scale to ensure that employment, the
+      Irish people were occupied, towards the end of the autumn of &lsquo;46, mainly
+      in making roads, which, as afterwards described by the first minister,
+      &lsquo;were not wanted.&rsquo; In the month of September more than thirty thousand
+      persons were thus employed; but when the harvest was over, and it was
+      ascertained that its terrible deficiency had converted pauperism into
+      famine, the numbers on the public works became greatly increased, so that
+      at the end of November the amount of persons engaged was four hundred
+      thousand, receiving wages at the rate of nearly five millions sterling per
+      annum. These immense amounts went on increasing every week, and when
+      Parliament met in February, 1847, five hundred thousand persons were
+      employed on these public works, which could bring no possible public
+      advantage, at an expense to the country of between £700,000 and £800,000
+      per month. No Board of Works could efficiently superintend such a
+      multitude, or prevent flagrant imposition, though the dimensions of that
+      department appeared almost proportionably to have expanded. What with
+      commissioners, chief clerks, check clerks, and pay clerks, the
+      establishment of the Board of Works in Ireland, at the end of &lsquo;46,
+      consisted of more than eleven thousand persons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Always intent upon Ireland, this condition of affairs early and earnestly
+      attracted the attention of Lord George Bentinck. So vast an expenditure in
+      unproductive labour dismayed him. He would not easily assent to the
+      conclusion that profitable enterprise under the circumstances was
+      impossible. Such a conclusion seemed to him unnatural, and that an
+      occasion where we commenced with despair justified a bold and venturesome
+      course. The field is legitimately open to speculation where all agree that
+      all is hopeless. The construction of harbours, the development of
+      fisheries, the redemption of waste lands, were resources which had been
+      often canvassed, and whatever their recommendations, with the exception of
+      the last, they were necessarily very limited; and the last, though it
+      might afford prompt, could hardly secure profitable, employment. Prompt
+      and profitable employment was the object which Lord George wished to
+      accomplish. Where millions were to be expended by the state, something
+      more advantageous to the community should accrue than the temporary
+      subsistence of the multitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George had always been a great supporter of railway enterprise in
+      England, on the ground that, irrespective of all the peculiar advantages
+      of those undertakings, the money was spent in the country; and that if our
+      surplus capital were not directed to such channels, it would go, as it had
+      gone before, to foreign mines and foreign loans, from which in a great
+      degree no return would arrive. When millions were avowedly to be laid out
+      in useless and unprofitable undertakings, it became a question whether it
+      were not wiser even somewhat to anticipate the time when the necessities
+      of Ireland would require railways on a considerable scale; and whether by
+      embarking in such enterprises, we might not only find prompt and
+      profitable employment for the people, but by giving a new character to the
+      country and increasing its social relations and the combinations of its
+      industry, might not greatly advance the period when such modes of
+      communication would be absolutely requisite.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Full of these views, Lord George, in the course of the autumn, consulted
+      in confidence some gentlemen very competent to assist him in such an
+      inquiry, and especially Mr. Robert Stephenson, Mr. Hudson, and Mr. Laing.
+      With their advice and at their suggestion, two engineers of great ability,
+      Mr. Bidder and Mr. Smith, were despatched to Ireland, personally to
+      investigate the whole question of railroads in that country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meditating over the condition of Ireland, a subject very frequently in his
+      thoughts, and of the means to combat its vast and inveterate pauperism,
+      Lord George was frequently in the habit of reverting to the years &lsquo;41-42
+      in England, when there were fifteen hundred thousand persons on the parish
+      rates; eighty-three thousand able-bodied men, actually confined within the
+      walls of the workhouse, and more than four hundred thousand able-bodied
+      men receiving out-door relief. What changed all this and restored England
+      in a very brief space to a condition of affluence hardly before known in
+      her annals? Not certainly the alterations in the tariff which were made by
+      Sir Robert Peel at the commencement of his government, prudent and
+      salutary as they were. No one would pretend that the abolition of the
+      slight duty (five-sixteenths of a penny) on the raw material of the cotton
+      manufacturer, or the free introduction of some twenty-seven thousand head
+      of foreign cattle, or even the admission of foreign timber at reduced
+      duties, could have effected this. Unquestionably it was the railway
+      enterprise which then began to prevail that was the cause of this national
+      renovation. Suddenly, and for several years, an additional sum of thirteen
+      millions of pounds sterling a year was spent in the wages of our native
+      industry; two hundred thousand able-bodied labourers received each upon an
+      average twenty-two shillings a week, stimulating the revenue both in
+      excise and customs by their enormous consumption of malt and spirits,
+      tobacco and tea. This was the main cause of the contrast between the
+      England of &lsquo;41 and the England of &lsquo;45.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Was there any reason why a proportionate application of the same remedy to
+      Ireland should not proportionately produce a similar result? Was there
+      anything wild or unauthorized in the suggestion? On the contrary: ten
+      years before (1836), the subject had engaged the attention of her
+      Majesty&rsquo;s government, and a royal commission had been issued to inquire
+      into the expediency of establishing railway communication in Ireland. The
+      commissioners, men of great eminence, recommended that a system of
+      railways should be established in Ireland, and by the pecuniary assistance
+      of government. They rested their recommendation mainly on the abundant
+      evidence existing of the vast benefits which easy communication had
+      accomplished in Ireland, and of the complete success which had attended
+      every Parliamentary grant for improving roads in that country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The weakness of the government, arising from the balanced state of
+      parties, rendered it impossible at that time for them to prosecute the
+      measures recommended by the royal commissioners, though they made an
+      ineffectual attempt in that direction. Could it be suspected that the
+      recommendation of the commissioners had been biassed by any political
+      consideration? Was it a Whig commission attempting to fulfil a Whig
+      object? Another commission, more memorable, at the head of which was the
+      Earl of Devon, was appointed by a Tory government some years afterwards,
+      virtually to consider the condition of the people of Ireland, and the best
+      means for their amelioration. The report of the Devon commission confirmed
+      all the recommendations of the railway commissioners of &lsquo;36, and pointed
+      to these new methods of communication, by the assistance of loans from the
+      government, as the best means of providing employment for the people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Mr. Smith of Deanston was examined by a Parliamentary committee, and
+      asked what measure of all others would be the one most calculated to
+      improve the agriculture and condition of Ireland, he did not reply, as
+      some might have anticipated, that the most efficient measure would be to
+      drain the bogs; but his answer was, &lsquo;advance the construction of railways,
+      and then agricultural improvement will speedily follow.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To illustrate the value of railways to an agricultural population, Mr.
+      Smith, of Deanston, said, &lsquo;that the improvement of the land for one mile
+      only on each side of the railway so constructed would be so great, that it
+      would pay the cost of the whole construction.&rsquo; He added, that there were
+      few districts&rsquo; in Ireland, in which railway communication could be
+      introduced, where the value of the country through which the railway
+      passed would not be raised to an extent equal to the whole cost of the
+      railway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Arguing on an area of six hundred and forty acres for every square mile,
+      after deducting the land occupied by fences, roads, and buildings, Mr.
+      Smith, of Deanston, entered into a calculation of the gain deliverable
+      from the mere carriage of the produce of the land, and the back carriage
+      of manure, coals, tiles, bricks, and other materials, and estimated the
+      saving through those means on every square mile to more than £300, or
+      something above £600 on 1,280 acres abutting each mile of railway, this
+      being the difference of the cost of carriage under the old mode of
+      conveyance as compared with the new. Following up this calculation, he
+      showed that fifteen hundred miles of railway would improve the land
+      through which it passed to the extent of nearly two million acres at the
+      rate of a mile on each side; and, taken at twenty-five years&rsquo; purchase,
+      would equal twenty-four millions sterling in the permanent improvement of
+      the land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ground, therefore, was sound on which Lord George cautiously, and
+      after due reflection, ventured to place his foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now, after the reports of these two royal commissions, what was the
+      state of railway enterprise in Ireland in the autumn of &lsquo;46, when a vast
+      multitude could only subsist by being employed by the government, and when
+      the government had avowedly no reproductive or even useful work whereon to
+      place them; but allotted them to operations which were described by
+      Colonel Douglas, the inspector of the government himself, &lsquo;as works which
+      would answer no other purpose than that of obstructing the public
+      conveyances?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In &lsquo;46, acts of Parliament were in existence authorizing the construction
+      of more than fifteen hundred miles of railway in Ireland, and some of
+      these acts had passed so long as eleven years previously, yet at the end
+      of &lsquo;46 only one hundred and twenty-three miles of railway had been
+      completed, and only one hundred and sixty-four were in the course of
+      completion, though arrested in their progress from want of funds. Almost
+      in the same period, two thousand six hundred miles of railway had been
+      completed in England, and acts of Parliament had passed for constructing
+      five thousand four hundred miles in addition: in the whole, eight thousand
+      miles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What then was the reason of this debility in Ireland in prosecuting these
+      undertakings? Were they really not required; were the elements of success
+      wanting? The first element of success in railway enterprise, according to
+      the highest authorities, is population; property is only the second
+      consideration. Now, Ireland in &lsquo;46 was more densely inhabited than
+      England. A want of population could not therefore be the cause. But a
+      population so impoverished as the Irish could not perhaps avail themselves
+      of the means of locomotion; and yet it appeared from research that the
+      rate of passengers on the two Irish railways that were open greatly
+      exceeded in number that of the passengers upon English and Scotch
+      railways. The average number of passengers on English and Scotch railways
+      was not twelve thousand per mile per annum, while on the Ulster railway
+      the number was nearly twenty-two thousand, and on the Dublin and Drogheda
+      line the number exceeded eighteen thousand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cause of the weakness in Ireland to prosecute these undertakings was
+      the total want of domestic capital for the purpose, and the unwillingness
+      of English capitalists to embark their funds in a country whose social and
+      political condition they viewed with distrust, however promising and even
+      profitable the investment might otherwise appear. This was remarkably
+      illustrated by the instance of the Great Southern and Western Railway of
+      Ireland, one of the undertakings of which the completion was arrested by
+      want of funds, yet partially open. Compared with a well-known railway in
+      Great Britain, the Irish railway had cost in its construction £15,000 per
+      mile, and the British upwards of £26,000 per mile; the weekly traffic on
+      the two railways, allowing for some difference in their extent, was about
+      the same on both, in amount varying from £1,000 to £1,300 per week; yet
+      the unfinished British railway was at £40 premium in the market, and the
+      incomplete Irish railway at £2 discount. It was clear, therefore, that the
+      commercial principle, omnipotent in England, was not competent to cope
+      with the peculiar circumstances of Ireland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Brooding over the suggestions afforded by the details which we have
+      slightly indicated, Lord George Bentinck, taking into consideration not
+      merely the advantage that would accrue to the country from the
+      establishment of a system of railroads, but also remembering the peculiar
+      circumstances of the times, the absolute necessity of employing the
+      people, and the inevitable advance of public money for that purpose,
+      framed a scheme with reference to all these considerations, and which he
+      believed would meet all the conditions of the case. He spared no thought,
+      or time, or labour, for his purpose. He availed himself of the advice of
+      the most experienced, and prosecuted his researches ardently and
+      thoroughly. When he had matured his scheme, he had it thrown into the form
+      of a parliamentary bill by the ablest hands, and then submitted the whole
+      to the judgment and criticism of those who shared his confidence and
+      counsels. Towards the end of November he was at Knowsley, from whence he
+      communicated with the writer of these pages. &lsquo;I am here hatching secret
+      plans for the next session; and now, if you have not quite abjured
+      politics, as you threatened for the next three months to do, devoting
+      yourself to poetry and romance, I think I ought to have a quiet day with
+      you, in order that we may hold council together and talk over all our
+      policy. I shall be at Harcourt House on the 30th. I shall stay there till
+      the 3rd of December, for a meeting on that day of the Norfolk Estuary
+      Company, of which I am chairman. Would that evening suit you&mdash;or
+      Friday&mdash;or Wednesday? I am not well acquainted with the geography of
+      Buckinghamshire, but presume you are accessible either by rail or road in
+      less than twelve hours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The activity in the dockyard must be in preparation to interfere in
+      Portugal, to keep King Leopold upon the Portuguese throne: it cannot be
+      for Mexico, for our friend the &ldquo;Times&rdquo; formally abandoned Mexico in his
+      leader some days ago.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;* * * * has been entertaining Lord * * * * in Ireland, and writes: &ldquo;How
+      Peel must chuckle at the Whig difficulties.&rdquo; I dare say he does, but in
+      Ireland it seems to me Lord Besborough is putting the fate Irish
+      government to shame, whilst the rupture of the <i>entente cordiale</i>,
+      the conquest of California and New Mexico, and the complications in the
+      river Plata,&mdash;are complete inheritances from Lord Aberdeen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Eaton has come to life again: else there was a prospect of George Manners
+      quietly succeeding him in Cambridgeshire. I fear we shall do no good in
+      Lincolnshire, notwithstanding the industry of our dear friend the &ldquo;Morning
+      Post,&rdquo; in getting hold of Lord Ebrington&rsquo;s and Lord Rich&rsquo;s letters to Lord
+      Yarborough. I suppose there is no mistake in Lord Dalhousie (&ldquo;the large
+      trout&rdquo;) going out to Bombay with the reversion of Bengal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The duchy of Lancaster is to be put in commission, Lord * * * * to be one
+      of the commissioners, <i>but unpaid</i>. He has begun, I presume, to
+      overcome the false delicacy which prevented his acceptance of office under
+      the Whigs in July. S * * * * thought G * * * * was to be another of the
+      Board, but that turns out a mistake, but Lord H * * * * is to be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The manufacturers are working short time, and reducing wages in all
+      directions, John Bright and Sons at Rochdale among the rest. The
+      Zollverein increasing their import duties on cotton and linen yarn, and
+      putting export duties of 25 per cent. (some of the states at least) on
+      grain.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We must not omit to record, that in the autumn of this year, at Goodwood
+      races, the sporting world was astounded by hearing that Lord George
+      Bentinck had parted with his racing stud at an almost nominal price. Lord
+      George was present, as was his custom, at this meeting, held in the
+      demesne of one who was among his dearest friends. Lord George was not only
+      present but apparently absorbed in the sport, and his horses were very
+      successful. The world has hardly done justice to the great sacrifice which
+      he made on this occasion to a high sense of duty. He not only parted with
+      the finest racing stud in England, but he parted with it at a moment when
+      its prospects were never so brilliant; and he knew this well. We may have
+      hereafter to notice on this head an interesting passage in his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He could scarcely have quitted the turf that day without a pang. He had
+      become the lord paramount of that strange world, so difficult to sway, and
+      which requires for its government both a stern resolve and a courtly
+      breeding. He had them both; and though the blackleg might quail before the
+      awful scrutiny of his piercing eye, there never was a man so scrupulously
+      polite to his inferiors as Lord George Bentinck. The turf, too, was not
+      merely the scene of the triumphs of his stud and his betting-book. He had
+      purified its practice and had elevated its character, and he was prouder
+      of this achievement than of any other connected with his sporting life.
+      Notwithstanding his mighty stakes and the keenness with which he backed
+      his opinion, no one perhaps ever cared less for money. His habits were
+      severely simple, and he was the most generous of men. He valued the
+      acquisition of money on the turf, because there it was the test of
+      success. He counted his thousands after a great race as a victorious
+      general counts his cannon and his prisoners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Versatility of Lord George Bentinck</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THOSE who throw their eye over the debates of the session of &lsquo;47, cannot
+      fail to be struck by the variety of important questions in the discussion
+      of which Lord George Bentinck took a leading or prominent part. And it
+      must be borne in mind that he never offered his opinion on any subject
+      which he had not diligently investigated and attempted to comprehend in
+      all its bearings. His opponents might object to his principles or
+      challenge his conclusions, but no one could deny that his conclusions were
+      drawn from extensive information and that his principles were clear and
+      distinct. He spared no pains to acquire by reading, correspondence, and
+      personal research, the most authentic intelligence on every subject in
+      debate. He never chattered. He never uttered a sentence in the House of
+      Commons which did not convey a conviction or a fact. He was too profuse
+      indeed with his facts: he had not the art of condensation. But those who
+      have occasion to refer to his speeches and calmly to examine them, will be
+      struck by the amplitude and the freshness of his knowledge, the clearness
+      of his views, the coherence in all his efforts, and often&mdash;a point
+      for which he never had sufficient credit&mdash;by his graphic idiom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The best speech on the affairs of Cracow, for example, the most vigorous
+      and the best informed, touching all the points with a thorough
+      acquaintance, was that of Lord George Bentinck. The discussion on Cracow,
+      which lasted several nights and followed very shortly after the defeat of
+      his Irish bill, appeared to relate to a class of subjects which would not
+      have engaged his attention; but on the contrary, he had given days and
+      nights to this theme, had critically examined all the documents, and
+      conferred with those qualified to supply him with any supplementary
+      information requisite. He spoke several times this session on questions
+      connected with our foreign affairs, and always impressed the House with a
+      conviction that he was addressing it after a due study of his subject: as
+      for example, his speech against our interference in Portugal, and the
+      statement in which he brought forward the claims of the holders of Spanish
+      bonds on the government of Spain before the House of Commons. In the
+      instance of Portugal, a motion of censure on the conduct of ministers had
+      been introduced by Mr. Hume, and the government were only saved from a
+      minority by the friendly interposition of Mr. Duncombe, who proposed an
+      amendment to the motion of Mr. Hume which broke the line of the liberal
+      force. Lord George Bentinck in this case followed Mr. Macaulay, whose
+      speech, as was his wont, had been rich in historical illustration. &lsquo;The
+      right honourable and learned member for Edinburgh,&rsquo; Lord George replied,
+      &lsquo;had entered into a very interesting history of various interferences
+      which had taken place in the affairs of Portugal; but in making that
+      statement he forgot to mention one circumstance which had occurred in that
+      history, and it was this
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;that when Philip II. of Spain sought to conquer Portugal, the
+      method he had recourse to for that purpose was one which he thought her
+      Majesty&rsquo;s ministers had successfully practised on the present occasion
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &mdash;he persuaded the leaders in Portugal to mix sand with the powder of
+      their troops. And so, on this occasion, her Majesty&rsquo;s ministers had
+      prevailed on the member for Finsbury, and those other members who were so
+      ready to profess a love of liberty, to mix sand with their powder.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a previous chapter we have treated at some length of the means proposed
+      or adopted by the Parliament for the sustenance and relief of the people
+      of Ireland. The new poor law for that country also much engaged the
+      attention of both Houses this session. Lord George Bentinck took a very
+      active part in these transactions, and moved the most important of all the
+      amendments to the government measure, namely, an attempt to assimilate the
+      poor law of Ireland as much as possible to that of England, and make the
+      entire rates be paid by the occupying tenant. His object, he said, was to
+      &lsquo;prevent lavish expenditure and encourage profitable employment to the
+      people.&rsquo; This amendment was only lost by a majority of four.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 26th of March, on the government bringing forward their bill on the
+      rum duties, Lord George Bentinck brought before the House the case of the
+      British and Irish distillers, not with any preference or partiality
+      towards English, Scotch, or Irish distillers over the colonial producer.
+      &lsquo;I am no advocate of any monopoly whatever. I desire only equal and exact
+      justice between both parties; and the only way in which that end can, in
+      my opinion, be properly attained, is in a select committee upstairs,
+      consisting of impartial members of this house.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He often used to say that no subject ever gave him more trouble thoroughly
+      to master than the spirit duties; and he noticed the character of the
+      theme at the beginning of his speech. He said he required, not only the
+      most especial indulgence, but even the toleration of the House, &lsquo;for of
+      all the dry and dull subjects which could possibly be introduced, the
+      question which it is now my misfortune to bring under the consideration of
+      the House is the driest and the dullest. If this question had been one
+      merely of pounds, shillings, and pence, it would have been dull and
+      complicated enough; but this is a question in which are concerned not
+      pounds and shillings, but pence, and halfpence, and farthings.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Whitsuntide holidays occurred at the end of May. It had originally
+      been the intention of Lord George Bentinck, at the request of leading
+      merchants and manufacturers of all parties and opinions, to have brought
+      forward the question of the Bank Act after these holidays, and to move a
+      resolution that some discretionary power should be established as to the
+      issue of notes. He thus alludes to this point in a letter to Mr. Wright,
+      of the 24th of May:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I return you No. 1019, of the &ldquo;Bankers&rsquo; Circular,&rdquo; with many thanks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This delightful and timely change in the weather will do wonders for the
+      country, and by producing an abundant and seasonable harvest, will save
+      the country, and <i>may save the Bank Charter Act</i>; but it is pretty
+      well settled that I am to give notice immediately after the holidays, of a
+      resolution very much in the spirit of the memorial contained in the paper
+      I am returning to you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Things are better in the City and at Liverpool, and with this weather
+      will continue to improve; but it seems to me any reverse in the weather,
+      such as would occasion a late and deficient harvest, could not fail to
+      bring the commerce of the country to a dead lock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The opinion is gaining ground, that in the present state not only of
+      Ireland, but of many districts in England, the government will not venture
+      upon a general election till after the harvest, and not then, unless the
+      harvest should prove favourable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am glad to read your opinion in opposition to Lord Ashburton&rsquo;s, that
+      railways keep the gold in the country, and do not send it out. Glyn gave
+      strong evidence last year to this effect before the railway committee.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither of the prospects in this letter was realised. The commercial and
+      manufacturing interest, after the Whitsun recess, thought it advisable for
+      reasons of great weight that Lord George Bentinck should postpone for a
+      month or six weeks his intended motion on the Bank Charter, and the
+      ministers resolved to dissolve Parliament before the harvest: thus it
+      happened that the merchants and manufacturers lost their chance of relief
+      from the yoke, and experienced the reign of terror in the autumn, the
+      terrible events of which ultimately occasioned the assembling of the new
+      Parliament in November.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anticipating the immediate dissolution of Parliament, Sir Robert Peel had
+      issued an address to the electors of Tamworth, justifying his commercial
+      policy. In the opinion of Lord George Bentinck it set forth a statement as
+      to the effect and operation of those financial measures which had taken
+      place in the course of the last six years, which, if left altogether
+      unrefuted, might have a dangerous tendency at the coming elections. The
+      general effect of that statement was, that by the reduction of duties to a
+      large extent, it was possible to relieve the people of this country of
+      burdens amounting to more than seven millions and a half sterling with
+      little or no loss whatever to the revenue. But the truth was, Sir Robert
+      Peel in his reductions had dealt only with little more than ten millions
+      sterling of the revenue of the country, and had left the remaining
+      thirty-seven millions untouched. Now on that portion of the revenue with
+      which alone he had dealt, there was a deficiency, through his changes, to
+      the amount of five millions sterling, which loss was compensated by the
+      increase on those very articles which Sir Robert had left untouched. It
+      was the opinion of Lord George Bentinck that the conclusion which Sir
+      Robert Peel had drawn from the comparatively barren results of the
+      increased duties on imports carried by the Whigs in 1840, viz., that
+      indirect taxation had reached its limit, and which was indeed the basis of
+      his new system, was a fallacy, and that the anticipated increase of import
+      duties had not accrued in 1840 in consequence of our having had three
+      successive bad harvests, &lsquo;and a bad cotton crop to boot,&rsquo; all of which had
+      checked the consuming power of the community. Sir Robert Peel had been
+      favoured by three successive good harvests and nearly £100,000,000
+      invested in six years in domestic enterprise. &lsquo;The interposition of
+      Providence,&rsquo; said Lord George, &lsquo;is never a part of our debates.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under these circumstances, Lord George took occasion to review the
+      commercial policy of Sir Robert Peel, on the 20th July, in the House of
+      Commons, only three days before the prorogation, and in one of his most
+      successful speeches. He was much assisted by the fact that the exports of
+      all our staple manufactures had then greatly diminished, and of course he
+      urged this point triumphantly. &lsquo;If we had been indemnified for the dead
+      loss of £650,000 on cotton wool by any great impulse given to our
+      manufacturers, it would be a consolation which unfortunately we could not
+      enjoy.&rsquo; He traced all the consumption to railway enterprise, and showed
+      that it alone had compensated for the fruitless loss of revenue which we
+      had incurred in vainly stimulating the exports of our manufactures, which
+      had actually diminished. He was so impressed with the importance that, &lsquo;on
+      the eve of a dissolution, such a statement as that of Sir Robert Peel
+      should not go forth to the country uncontroverted, as in that case the
+      necessary result would be that the people would come to the opinion that
+      they might abolish taxes altogether and yet maintain the revenue,&rsquo; that he
+      sat up all night writing an address to his constituents, the electors of
+      King&rsquo;s Lynn, which took up nearly two columns of the newspapers, in which
+      he presented his refutation to the public of the commercial manifesto of
+      Tamworth, illustrated by the necessary tables and documents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is a sentence in this speech which, as a distinct expression of
+      policy, should perhaps be quoted:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sir, I am one of those who seek for the repeal of the malt tax and the
+      hop duties. I am one of those who think that the excise duties ought to be
+      taken off. But, sir, I do not pretend that you can repeal the malt tax or
+      the hop duties, or remove the soap tax without commutation for other
+      taxes. I will not delude the people by pretending that I could take off
+      more than seven millions and a half of taxes without replacing them by
+      others, and not leave the nation bankrupt. But I think these reforms of
+      Sir Robert Peel have been in a mistaken direction; I think that revenue
+      duties on all foreign imports ought to be maintained, and that a revenue
+      equal to those excise duties which I have mentioned can be levied upon the
+      produce of foreign countries and foreign industry, without imposing any
+      greater tax than one which shall fall far short of Mr. Walker&rsquo;s &ldquo;perfect
+      revenue standard of 20 per cent.&rdquo; I say that by imposing a tax far less
+      than 20 per cent. upon all articles of foreign import, a revenue might be
+      derived far less burdensome to this country than that of excise, a revenue
+      of which the burden would be largely shared in by foreign countries, and
+      in many cases paid altogether by foreign countries.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George at this time watched with great interest a novel feature in
+      our commercial transactions. He wrote on the 29th May (1847), to Mr. Burn,
+      the editor of the &lsquo;Commercial Glance,&rsquo; and an individual of whose
+      intelligence, accuracy, and zeal he had a high and just opinion, &lsquo;Can you
+      inform me how the raw cotton purchased for exportation stands in the first
+      three weeks of the present month of May, as compared with the
+      corresponding periods of &lsquo;46&mdash;5&mdash;4&mdash;3?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I observe from a cotton circular sent to me the other day, that seven
+      thousand five hundred bags of cotton had been purchased for exportation
+      between the 1st and 21st of May. If with reduced stocks of raw cotton we
+      are commencing a career of increased exportation, it appears to me to
+      involve very serious consequences for our cotton manufactures as growing
+      out of the existing monetary difficulties of the manufacturers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If you could answer me these queries within the next three or four days,
+      I should feel greatly obliged to you.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, on the 22d of July, on the point of going down to his constituents,
+      he was still pursuing his inquiries in the same quarter.&rsquo; I want
+      particularly to compare,&rsquo; he says to Mr. Burn, &lsquo;the export of the last ten
+      weeks of raw cotton with the corresponding ten weeks of &lsquo;46 and &lsquo;45, and
+      at the same time to compare the importations and deliveries into the hands
+      of the manufacturers during these same periods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Pray address me, Lynn, Norfolk, where I go on Saturday, and shall remain
+      till after my election on Thursday.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He writes again from Lynn, with great thanks for the information which had
+      been accordingly forwarded to him there. &lsquo;Might I ask you to give me an
+      account of the cotton wool imported weekly into Liverpool, and also the
+      quantity sold to dealers, exporters, and speculators, in the three
+      corresponding weeks of &lsquo;45-46.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This information by return of post would greatly oblige me.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 23d of July, 1847, the last day of the second Parliament of Queen
+      Victoria, Lord George went down to the House of Commons early, and took
+      the opportunity of making a statement respecting the condition of our
+      sugar-producing colonies, which were now experiencing the consequences of
+      the unjustifiable legislation of the preceding year. He said there were
+      appearances in the political horizon which betokened that he should not be
+      able to obtain a select committee in the present session, and therefore,
+      if he had the honour of a seat in the next Parliament, he begged to
+      announce that he would take the earliest occasion to move for a committee
+      to inquire into the present power of our colonies to compete with those
+      countries which have still the advantage of the enforced labour of slaves.
+      The returns just laid upon the table of the House could leave no doubt, he
+      thought, on any man&rsquo;s mind on that point. Since the emancipation, the
+      produce of sugar by the colonies, from &lsquo;31 to &lsquo;46, had been reduced one
+      half, and of rum and coffee had been reduced to one fourth. When the act
+      of last year which admitted slave-grown sugar was introduced, the
+      allegation of the English colonies, that they could not compete with the
+      labour of slaves, was denied. The proof of that allegation was, that they
+      were already overwhelmed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When one recalls all to which this speech led, the most memorable effort
+      of that ardent, energetic life to which it was perhaps fatal, one can
+      scarcely observe the origin of such vast exertions without emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Under Secretary of State replied to Lord George, making a cry of cheap
+      sugar for the hustings which were before everybody&rsquo;s eyes, but making also
+      this remarkable declaration, that &lsquo;the Island of Mauritius was in a state
+      of the greatest prosperity.&rsquo; While Lord George was speaking, the cannon
+      were heard that announced the departure of her majesty from the palace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then followed a motion of Mr. Bankes about the sale of bread, which led to
+      some discussion. Mr. Bankes threatened a division. Lord Palmerston, who on
+      this occasion was leading the House, said it would be acting like a set of
+      schoolboys, if when Black Rod appeared they should be in the lobby instead
+      of attending the Speaker to the other House. But as the members seemed
+      very much inclined to act like schoolboys, the Secretary of State had to
+      speak against time on the subject of baking. He analyzed the petition,
+      which he said he would not read through, but the last paragraph was of
+      great importance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At these words, Black Rod knocked at the door, and duly making his
+      appearance, summoned the House to attend the Queen in the House of Lords,
+      and Mr. Speaker, followed by a crowd of members, duly obeyed the summons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In about a quarter of an hour, Mr. Speaker returned without the mace, and
+      standing at the table read her Majesty&rsquo;s speech to the members around,
+      after which they retired, the Parliament being prorogued. In the course of
+      the afternoon, the Parliament was dissolved by proclamation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Great Panic</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE general election of 1847 did not materially alter the position of
+      parties in the House of Commons. The high prices of agricultural produce
+      which then prevailed naturally rendered the agricultural interest
+      apathetic, and although the rural constituencies, from a feeling of
+      esteem, again returned those members who had been faithful to the
+      protective principle, the farmers did not exert themselves to increase the
+      number of their supporters. The necessity of doing so was earnestly
+      impressed upon them by Lord George Bentinck, who warned them then that the
+      pinching hour was inevitable; but the caution was disregarded, and many of
+      those individuals who are now the loudest in their imprecations on the
+      memory of Sir Robert Peel, and who are the least content with the
+      temperate course which is now recommended to them by those who have the
+      extremely difficult office of upholding their interests in the House of
+      Commons, entirely kept aloof, or would smile when they were asked for
+      their support with sarcastic self-complacency, saying, &lsquo;Well, Sir, do you
+      think after all that free trade has done us so much harm?&rsquo; Perhaps they
+      think now, that if they had taken the advice of Lord George Bentinck and
+      exerted themselves to return a majority to the House of Commons, it would
+      have profited them more than useless execrations and barren discontent.
+      But it is observable, that no individuals now grumble so much as the
+      farmers who voted for free trader in 1847, unless indeed it be the
+      shipowners, every one of whom for years, both in and out of Parliament,
+      supported the repeal of the corn laws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Protectionists maintained their numbers, though they did not increase
+      them, in the new Parliament. Lord George Bentinck however gained an
+      invaluable coadjutor by the re-appearance of Mr. Herries in public life, a
+      gentleman whose official as well as parliamentary experience, fine
+      judgment, and fertile resource, have been of inestimable service to the
+      Protectionist party. The political connection which gained most were the
+      Whigs; they were much more numerous and compact, but it was in a great
+      measure at the expense of the general liberal element, and partly at the
+      cost of the following of Sir Robert Peel. The triumphant Conservative
+      majority of 1841 had disappeared; but the government, with all shades of
+      supporters, had not an absolute majority.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had the general election been postponed until the autumn, the results
+      might have been very different. That storm&mdash;which had been long
+      gathering in the commercial atmosphere&mdash;then burst like a typhoon.
+      The annals of our trade afford no parallel for the widespread disaster and
+      the terrible calamities. In the month of September, fifteen of the most
+      considerable houses in the city of London stopped payment for between five
+      and six millions sterling. The governor of the Bank of England was himself
+      a partner in one of these firms; a gentleman who had lately filled that
+      office, was another victim; two other Bank directors were included in the
+      list. The failures were not limited to the metropolis, but were
+      accompanied by others of great extent in the provinces. At Manchester,
+      Liverpool, and Glasgow large firms were obliged to suspend payments. This
+      shock of credit arrested all the usual accommodation, and the pressure in
+      the money-market, so terrible in the spring, was revived. The excitement
+      and the alarm in the city of London were so great that when the Chancellor
+      of the Exchequer hurried up to town on the 1st of October, he found that
+      the interest of money was at the rate of 60 per cent. per annum. The Bank
+      Charter produced the same injurious effect as it had done in April; it
+      aggravated the evil by forcing men to hoard. In vain the commercial world
+      deplored the refusal of the government to comply with the suggestion made
+      by Lord George Bentinck and Mr. Thomas Baring in the spring; in vain they
+      entreated them at least now to adopt it, and to authorize the Bank of
+      England to enlarge the amount of their discounts and advances on approved
+      security, without reference to the stringent clause of the charter. The
+      government, acting, it is believed, with the encouragement and sanction of
+      Sir Robert Peel, were obstinate, and three weeks then occurred during
+      which the commercial credit of this country was threatened with total
+      destruction. Nine more considerable mercantile houses stopped payment in
+      the metropolis, the disasters in the provinces were still more extensive.
+      The Royal Bank of Liverpool failed; among several principal establishments
+      in that town, one alone stopped payment for upwards of a million sterling.
+      The havoc at Manchester was also great. The Newcastle bank and the North
+      and South Wales bank stopped. Consols fell to 79 1/4, and exchequer bills
+      were at last at 35 per cent, discount. The ordinary rate of discount at
+      the Bank of England was between 8 and 9 per cent., but out of doors
+      accommodation was not to be obtained. In such a state of affairs, the
+      small houses of course gave way. From their rising in the morning until
+      their hour of retirement at night, the First Lord of the Treasury and the
+      Chancellor of the Exchequer were employed in seeing persons of all
+      descriptions, who entreated them to interfere and preserve the community
+      from universal bankruptcy. &lsquo;Perish the world, sooner than violate a
+      principle,&rsquo; was the philosophical exclamation of her Majesty&rsquo;s ministers,
+      sustained by the sympathy and the sanction of Sir Robert Peel. At last,
+      the governor and the deputy-governor of the Bank of England waited on
+      Downing Street, and said it could go on no more. The Scotch banks had
+      applied to them for assistance. The whole demand for discount was thrown
+      upon the Bank of England. Two bill-brokers had stopped; two others were
+      paralyzed. The Bank of England could discount no longer. Thanks to the
+      Bank Charter, they were safe and their treasury full of bullion, but it
+      appeared that everybody else must fall, for in four-and-twenty hours the
+      machinery of credit would be entirely stopped. The position was frightful,
+      and the government gave way. They did that on the 25th of October, after
+      houses had fallen to the amount of fifteen millions sterling, which they
+      had been counselled to do by Lord George Bentinck on the 25th of April. It
+      turned out exactly as Mr. Thomas Baring had foretold. It was not want of
+      capital or deficiency of circulation which had occasioned these awful
+      consequences. It was sheer panic, occasioned by an unwisely stringent law.
+      No sooner had the government freed the Bank of England from that
+      stringency, than the panic ceased. The very morning the letter of license
+      from the government to the Bank of England appeared, thousands and tens of
+      thousands of pounds sterling were taken from the hoards, some from boxes
+      deposited with bankers, although the depositors would not leave the notes
+      in their bankers&rsquo; hands. Large parcels of notes were returned to the Bank
+      of England cut into halves, as they had been sent down into the country,
+      and so small was the real demand for an additional quantity of currency,
+      that the whole amount taken from the Bank, when the unlimited power of
+      issue was given, was under £400,000, and the Bank consequently never
+      availed itself of the privilege which the government had accorded it. The
+      restoration of confidence produced an ample currency, and that confidence
+      had solely been withdrawn from the apprehension of the stringent clauses
+      of the Bank Charter Act of 1844.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These extraordinary events had not occurred unnoticed by Lord George
+      Bentinck. The two subjects that mostly engaged his attention after the
+      general election were the action of the Bank Charter and the state of our
+      sugar colonies. Perhaps it would be best to give some extracts from his
+      correspondence at this period. He was a good letter-writer, easy and
+      clear. His characteristic love of details also rendered this style of
+      communication interesting. It is not possible to give more than extracts,
+      and it is necessary to omit all those circumstances which generally in
+      letter-reading are most acceptable. His comments on men and things were
+      naturally free and full, and he always endeavoured, for the amusement of
+      his correspondents, to communicate the social gossip of the hour. But
+      although all this must necessarily be omitted, his letters may afford some
+      illustrations of his earnestness and energy, the constancy of his aim, and
+      the untiring vigilance with which he pursued his object&mdash;especially
+      those which are addressed to gentlemen engaged in commercial pursuits who
+      cooperated with him in his investigations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO A FRIEND.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harcourt House, August 30, 1847.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An answer is come out to my address to my constituents at King&rsquo;s Lynn, and
+      to my speech in answer to Peel&rsquo;s manifesto. Pray read it. At first I
+      thought I could swear to its being * * * *, I now think I can swear to its
+      being * * * *; the servility to Peel, and the official red-tape style
+      would equally do for either; but the no-popery page, I think, fixes it on
+      * * * *.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I think it wretchedly weak, and have written some notes on the margin,
+      showing up the principal points. The nine months&rsquo; famine of 1846-47, as
+      contrasted with Peel&rsquo;s famine, shows a difference of between £6,000,000
+      and £7,000,000; that is to say, on the balance in the nine months 1845-46,
+      Ireland exported about three millions&rsquo; worth of breadstuffs, and not a
+      soul died of famine. In the nine months 1846-47, she imported three
+      millions&rsquo; sterling worth of bread-stuffs, which insufficed to prevent one
+      million&mdash;or say half a million&mdash;of the people from dying of
+      starvation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At present I have seen no notice of the pamphlet in any of the newspapers:
+      if it is either * * * *&lsquo;s, or * * * *&lsquo;s, or * * * *&lsquo;s we shall see it
+      reviewed in &lsquo;Times,&rsquo; &lsquo;Chronicle,&rsquo; and &lsquo;Spectator.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Bank of England has raised the interest on * * * *&lsquo;s mortgage
+      one-third per cent., making an additional annual charge of £1,500 a year
+      to him. I am very sorry for him, but I know nothing so likely to rouse the
+      landed aristocracy from their apathy, and to weaken their idolatry of Peel
+      so much as this warning note of the joint operation of his free trade and
+      restrictive currency laws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO A FRIEND.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harcourt House, September 2, 1847.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I think it is * * * *. The trickster, I observe, has carefully reduced the
+      pounds of cotton to cwts., in the hopes of concealing a great fraud to
+      which he has condescended; taking, in the Whig year of 1841, the home
+      consumption of cotton, whilst in Peel&rsquo;s year he gives entire importation
+      as the home consumption, representing both as home consumption.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Peel&rsquo;s year, 1846, officially we have only the gross importation; but
+      in the Whig year, 1841, the entire importation and the home consumption
+      are given separately: the importation exceeding the home consumption by
+      fifty million pounds. Burn&rsquo;s &lsquo;Glance,&rsquo; however, gives the importation and
+      home consumption for both years; unfortunately, however, not in lbs. or
+      cwts., but in bags. * * * *&lsquo;s fraud, however, is not the less apparent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He selects a Whig year when the home consumption was 220,-000 bags under
+      the importation, and a year for Peel when the importation exceeded the
+      home consumption by 280,000 bags, and claps down the figures as alike
+      describing the home consumption.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      None of the Peel papers have taken up the subject: if they should, the
+      &lsquo;Morning Post&rsquo; will answer the pamphlet; but I should like to have mine
+      back again, in order that I may furnish them with the notes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      * * * * was with me this morning, and called my attention to the
+      circumstance that the author starts with &lsquo;We,&rsquo; but drops into the singular
+      number; * * * * fancies it is Peel himself, but the page on endowment
+      fixes it on * * * *.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord L * * * * means, I presume, that Peel&rsquo;s savage hatred is applied to
+      the Protectionist portion of his old party, not of course to the
+      janissaries and renegade portion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The following letter was in reply to one of a friend who had sent him
+      information, several days before they occurred, of the great failures that
+      were about to happen in the city of London. The list was unfortunately
+      quite accurate, with the exception indeed of the particular house
+      respecting which Lord George quotes the opinion of Baron Rothschild.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO A FRIEND.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Welbeck, September 17, 1847.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A thousand thanks for your letter, the intelligence in which created a
+      great sensation at Doncaster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As yet none of the houses appear to have failed except S * * * *. Baron
+      Rothschild was at Doncaster. I talked with him on the subject; he seemed
+      not to doubt the probable failure of any of the houses you named, except *
+      * * *. He declared very emphatically &lsquo;that * * * * house was as sound as
+      any house in London.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord Fitzwilliam declares &lsquo;it is no free trade without free trade in
+      money.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord Clanricarde is here&mdash;laughs at the idea of Parliament meeting in
+      October; but talks much of the difficulties of Ireland&mdash;says he does
+      not see how the rates are to be paid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Messrs. Drummond are calling in their mortgages. I expect to hear that
+      this practice will be general; money dear, corn cheap, incumbrances
+      enhanced, and rents depressed. What will become of the apathetic country
+      gentlemen? I judge from * * * * &lsquo;s language, that Lord John Russell will
+      stand or fall by the Bank Charter Act-but that he feels very apprehensive
+      of being unable to maintain it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I agree with Bonham, in thinking that the Protectionist party is smashed
+      for the present Parliament; but I must say I think Protectionist
+      principles and policy are likely to come into repute again far sooner than
+      was expected; and though Peel&rsquo;s party be a compact body, and formidable in
+      the House of Commons, I cannot think that there appears that in the
+      working of his measures to make it likely that he should be soon again
+      carried into power on the shoulders of the people. I think his political
+      reputation must ebb further before it can rise again, if it should ever
+      rise again. * * * * thought him &lsquo;broken and in low spirits,&rsquo; when he met
+      him at Longshaw; but Lord * * * *, who was there at the same time, came
+      away more Peelite than ever, and told them at Bretby that Sir Robert said,
+      &lsquo;That he was quite surprised at the number of letters he got every day
+      from members returned to Parliament, saying they meant to vote with him.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You may rely upon it the Peelites are very sanguine that they will be in
+      power again almost directly. We must keep them out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. BURN, EDITOR OF THE &lsquo;COMMERCIAL GLANCE.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Welbeck, September 38, 1847. To the many courtesies you have already
+      bestowed upon me, I will sincerely thank you to add that of informing me
+      what have been the estimated cotton crops in the United States in each of
+      the last four years. I would also thank you to inform me the comparative
+      importation, home consumption, re-exportation, and stocks on hand of
+      cotton of the first seven months of the current and three preceding years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO MR. BURN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Welbeck, October 4, 1847.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your statistics have reached me in the very nick of time, and are
+      invaluable. I care nothing about &lsquo;outsides,&rsquo; it is &lsquo;insides&rsquo; I look to;
+      give me a good &lsquo;heart,&rsquo; and I don&rsquo;t care how rough the &lsquo;bark&rsquo; is.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anything so good I fear to spoil by suggesting the most trivial addition,
+      else I should say it would be an interesting feature to classify the
+      exports of cotton goods, etc., etc., under three heads:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1st. To the British colonies and British possessions abroad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2nd. To the northern states of Europe, France, Spain, Germany, Italy,
+      etc., etc., the United States of America, and other countries having high
+      tariffs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3rd. To China, Turkey, Africa, and the Southern States of America, and
+      countries with low tariffs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I fear these failures of East and West India houses must entail great
+      distress upon Manchester, and the manufacturing interests generally. You
+      have given an account of the bankruptcies in the cotton trade during a
+      long series of years till last year inclusive; are you able to say how the
+      first nine months of the current year stands in comparison with its
+      predecessors?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I so highly prize your new work, that I must ask for a dozen copies to
+      distribute among my friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P. S. I have already parted with the copy you sent me; may I, therefore,
+      beg another without waiting for any other binding?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO A FRIEND.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Welbeck, October 5, 1847.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I shall go up to town on Friday evening, in my way to Newmarket, and shall
+      be at Harcourt House all Saturday and Sunday, and shall be delighted to
+      see you, and have a thorough good talk with you. Free trade seems working
+      mischief faster than the most fearful of us predicted, and Manchester
+      houses, as I am told, &lsquo;failing in rows,&rsquo; ashamed to do penance in public,
+      are secretly weeping in sackcloth and ashes, and heartily praying that
+      Peel and Cobden had been hanged before they were allowed to ruin the
+      country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Money at Manchester is quoted one and a quarter per cent, for ten days:
+      £45 12s. 6d. per cent. per annum!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO A FRIEND.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harcourt House, October 22, 1847. I have this moment got a note from
+      Stuart, telling me that &lsquo;the Chancellor has this afternoon sent out his
+      notice of the business to be taken in his own court during Michaelmas
+      term, that is, from the 2nd of November till the 26th, and below it there
+      is this notice&mdash;<i>except those days on which the Lord Chancellor may
+      sit in the House of Lords</i>!!!&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Surely this must portend a November session.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO A FRIEND.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harcourt House, October 23, 1847. The fat banker&rsquo;s gossip is all stuff.
+      Peel goes to Windsor today, I believe on an invitation of some standing. *
+      * * * who had been dining at Palmerston&rsquo;s last night, tells me that he
+      does not think that ministers mean calling Parliament together, and is
+      confident they mean to maintain the Bank Charter Act. There have been some
+      first-rate articles and letters in the &lsquo;Morning Chronicle&rsquo; lately on this
+      subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO A FRIEND.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Harcourt House, November 6, 1847.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will stay over Tuesday, that I may have the pleasure of a thorough talk
+      with you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am told things are gradually getting better. I expect, however, a fresh
+      reverse about six weeks or two months hence, when the returned lists of
+      the stoppages in the East and West Indies, consequent upon the late
+      failures here, come home. The Western Bank of Scotland is whispered about.
+      If that were to fail, it might bring the canny Scots to their senses; but
+      they are a headstrong race.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A committee on commercial distress having been appointed, the principal
+      reason for the summoning of the new Parliament in the autumn had been
+      satisfied, and an adjournment until a month after Christmas was in
+      prospect. Before, however, this took place, a new and interesting question
+      arose, which led to considerable discussion, and which ultimately
+      influenced in no immaterial manner the parliamentary position of Lord
+      George Bentinck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The city of London at the general election had sent to the House of
+      Commons, as a colleague of the first minister, a member who found a
+      difficulty in taking one of the oaths appointed by the House to be sworn
+      preliminarily to any member exercising his right of voting. The difficulty
+      arose from this member being not only of the Jewish race, but
+      unfortunately believing only in the first part of the Jewish religion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Jews</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE relations that subsist between the Bedoueen race that, under the name
+      of Jews, is found in every country of Europe, and the Teutonic,
+      Sclavonian, and Celtic races which have appropriated that division of the
+      globe, will form hereafter one of the most remarkable chapters in a
+      philosophical history of man. The Saxon, the Sclav, and the Celt have
+      adopted most of the laws and many of the customs of these Arabian tribes,
+      all their literature and all their religion. They are therefore indebted
+      to them for much that regulates, much that charms, and much that solaces
+      existence. The toiling multitude rest every seventh day by virtue of a
+      Jewish law; they are perpetually reading, &lsquo;for their example,&rsquo; the records
+      of Jewish history, and singing the odes and elegies of Jewish poets; and
+      they daily acknowledge on their knees, with reverent gratitude, that the
+      only medium of communication between the Creator and themselves is the
+      Jewish race. Yet they treat that race as the vilest of generations; and
+      instead of logically looking upon them as the human family that has
+      contributed most to human happiness, they extend to them every term of
+      obloquy and every form of persecution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us endeavour to penetrate this social anomaly that has harassed and
+      perplexed centuries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is alleged that the dispersion of the Jewish race is a penalty incurred
+      for the commission of a great crime: namely, the crucifixion of our
+      blessed Lord in the form of a Jewish prince, by the Romans, at Jerusalem,
+      and at the instigation of some Jews, in the reign of Tiberius Augustus
+      Caesar. Upon this, it may be observed, that the allegation is neither
+      historically true nor dogmatically sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I. <i>Not historically true</i>. It is not historically true, because at
+      the time of the advent of our Lord, the Jewish race was as much dispersed
+      throughout the world as at this present time, and had been so for many
+      centuries. Europe, with the exception of those shores which are bathed by
+      the midland sea, was then a primeval forest, but in every city of the
+      great Eastern monarchies and in every province of the Roman empire, the
+      Jews had been long settled. We have not precise authority for saying that
+      at the advent there were more Jews established in Egypt than in Palestine,
+      but it may unquestionably be asserted that at that period there were more
+      Jews living, and that too in great prosperity and honour, at Alexandria
+      than at Jerusalem. It is evident from various Roman authors, that the
+      Jewish race formed no inconsiderable portion of the multitude that filled
+      Rome itself, and that the Mosaic religion, undisturbed by the state, even
+      made proselytes. But it is unnecessary to enter into any curious
+      researches on this head, though the authorities are neither scant nor
+      uninteresting. We are furnished with evidence the most complete and
+      unanswerable of the pre-dispersion by the sacred writings themselves. Not
+      two months after the crucifixion, when the Third Person of the Holy
+      Trinity first descended on Jerusalem, it being the time of the great
+      festivals, when the Jews, according to the custom of the Arabian tribes
+      pursued to this day in the pilgrimage to Mecca, repaired from all quarters
+      to the central sacred place, the holy writings inform us that there were
+      gathered together in Jerusalem &lsquo;Jews, devout men, out of every nation
+      under heaven.&rsquo; And that this expression, so general but so precise, should
+      not be mistaken, we are shortly afterwards, though incidentally, informed,
+      that there were Parthians, Medes, and Persians at Jerusalem, professing
+      the Mosaic faith; Jews from Mesopotamia and Syria, from the countries of
+      the lesser and the greater Asia; Egyptian, Libyan, Greek, and Arabian
+      Jews; and, especially, Jews from Rome itself, some of which latter are
+      particularly mentioned as Roman proselytes. Nor is it indeed historically
+      true that the small section of the Jewish race which dwelt in Palestine
+      rejected Christ. The reverse is the truth. Had it not been for the Jews of
+      Palestine, the good tidings of our Lord would have been unknown for ever
+      to the northern and western races. The first preachers of the gospel were
+      Jews, and none else; the historians of the gospel were Jews, and none
+      else. No one has ever been permitted to write under the inspiration of the
+      Holy Spirit, except a Jew. For nearly a century no one believed in the
+      good tidings except Jews. They nursed the sacred flame of which they were
+      the consecrated and hereditary depositaries. And when the time was ripe to
+      diffuse the truth among the ethnics, it was not a senator of Rome or a
+      philosopher of Athens who was personally appointed by our Lord for that
+      office, but a Jew of Tarsus, who founded the seven churches of Asia. And
+      that greater church, great even amid its terrible corruptions, that has
+      avenged the victory of Titus by subjugating the capital of the Caesars,
+      and has changed every one of the Olympian temples into altars of the God
+      of Sinai and of Calvary, was founded by another Jew, a Jew of Galilee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From all which it appears that the dispersion of the Jewish race,
+      preceding as it did for countless ages the advent of our Lord, could not
+      be for conduct which occurred subsequently to the advent, and that they
+      are also guiltless of that subsequent conduct which has been imputed to
+      them as a crime, since for Him and His blessed name, they preached, and
+      wrote, and shed their blood &lsquo;as witnesses.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, is it possible that that which is not historically true can be
+      dogmatically sound? Such a conclusion would impugn the foundations of all
+      faith. The followers of Jesus, of whatever race, need not however be
+      alarmed. The belief that the present condition of the Jewish race is a
+      penal infliction for the part which some Jews took at the crucifixion is
+      not dogmatically sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. <i>Not dogmatically sound</i>. There is no passage in the sacred
+      writings that in the slightest degree warrants the penal assumption. The
+      imprecation of the mob at the crucifixion is sometimes strangely quoted as
+      a divine decree. It is not a principle of jurisprudence, human or
+      inspired, to permit the criminal to ordain his own punishment. Why, too,
+      should they transfer any portion of the infliction to their posterity?
+      What evidence have we that the wild suggestion was sanctioned by
+      Omnipotence? On the contrary, amid the expiating agony, a Divine Voice at
+      the same time solicited and secured forgiveness. And if unforgiven, could
+      the cry of a rabble at such a scene bind a nation?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, dogmatically considered, the subject of the crucifixion must be
+      viewed in a deeper spirit. We must pause with awe to remember what was the
+      principal office to be fulfilled by the advent. When the ineffable mystery
+      of the Incarnation was consummated, a Divine Person moved on the face of
+      the earth in the shape of a child of Israel, not to teach but to expiate.
+      True it is that no word could fall from such lips, whether in the form of
+      profound parable, or witty retort, or preceptive lore, but to guide and
+      enlighten; but they who, in those somewhat lax effusions which in these
+      days are honoured with the holy name of theology, speak of the morality of
+      the Gospel as a thing apart and of novel revelation, would do well to
+      remember that in promulgating such doctrines they are treading on very
+      perilous ground. There cannot be two moralities; and to hold that the
+      Second Person of the Holy Trinity could teach a different morality from
+      that which had been already revealed by the First Person of the Holy
+      Trinity, is a dogma so full of terror that it may perhaps be looked upon
+      as the ineffable sin against the Holy Spirit. When the lawyer tempted our
+      Lord, and inquired how he was to inherit eternal life, the great Master of
+      Galilee referred him to the writings of Moses. There he would find
+      recorded &lsquo;the whole duty of man;&rsquo; to love God with all his heart, and
+      soul, and strength, and mind, and his neighbour as himself. These two
+      principles are embalmed in the writings of Moses, and are the essence of
+      Christian morals.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * &lsquo;Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.&rsquo; 
+     &mdash;Leviticus xix.  18.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It was for something deeper than this, higher and holier than even Moses
+      could fulfil, that angels announced the Coming. It was to accomplish an
+      event pre-ordained by the Creator of the world for countless ages. Born
+      from the chosen house of the chosen people, yet blending in his
+      inexplicable nature the Divine essence with the human elements, a
+      sacrificial Mediator was to appear, appointed before all time, to purify
+      with his atoning blood the myriads that had preceded and the myriads that
+      will follow him. The doctrine embraces all space and time&mdash;nay, chaos
+      and eternity; Divine persons are the agents, and the redemption of the
+      whole family of man the result. If the Jews had not prevailed upon the
+      Romans to crucify our Lord, what would have become of the Atonement? But
+      the human mind cannot contemplate the idea that the most important deed of
+      time could depend upon human will. The immolators were preordained like
+      the victim, and the holy race supplied both. Could that be a crime which
+      secured for all mankind eternal joy&mdash;which vanquished Satan, and
+      opened the gates of Paradise? Such a tenet would sully and impugn the
+      doctrine that is the corner-stone of our faith and hope. Men must not
+      presume to sit in judgment on such an act. They must bow their heads in
+      awe and astonishment and trembling gratitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, though the opinion that the dispersion of the Jewish race must be
+      deemed a penalty incurred for their connection with the crucifixion has
+      neither historical nor doctrinal sanction, it is possible that its
+      degrading influence upon its victims may have been as efficacious as if
+      their present condition were indeed a judicial infliction. Persecution, in
+      a word, although unjust, may have reduced the modern Jews to a state
+      almost justifying malignant vengeance. They may have become so odious and
+      so hostile to mankind, as to merit for their present conduct, no matter
+      how occasioned, the obloquy and ill-treatment of the communities in which
+      they dwell and with which they are scarcely permitted to mingle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us examine this branch of the subject, which, though of more limited
+      interest, is not without instruction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In all the great cities of Europe, and in some of the great cities of
+      Asia, among the infamous classes therein existing, there will always be
+      found Jews. They are not the only people who are usurers, gladiators, and
+      followers of mean and scandalous occupations, nor are they anywhere a
+      majority of such, but considering their general numbers, they contribute
+      perhaps more than their proportion to the aggregate of the vile. In this
+      they obey the law which regulates the destiny of all persecuted races: the
+      infamous is the business of the dishonoured; and as infamous pursuits are
+      generally illegal pursuits, the persecuted race which has most ability
+      will be most successful in combating the law. The Jews have never been so
+      degraded as the Greeks were throughout the Levant before the emancipation,
+      and the degradation of the Greeks was produced by a period of persecution
+      which, both in amount and suffering, cannot compare with that which has
+      been endured by the children of Israel. This peculiarity, however, attends
+      the Jews under the most unfavourable circumstances; the other degraded
+      races wear out and disappear; the Jew remains, as determined, as expert,
+      as persevering, as full of resource and resolution as ever. Viewed in this
+      light, the degradation of the Jewish race is alone a striking evidence of
+      its excellence, for none but one of the great races could have survived
+      the trials which it has endured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, though a material organization of the highest class may account for
+      so strange a consequence, the persecuted Hebrew is supported by other
+      means. He is sustained by a sublime religion. Obdurate, malignant, odious,
+      and revolting as the lowest Jew appears to us, he is rarely demoralized.
+      Beneath his own roof his heart opens to the influence of his beautiful
+      Arabian traditions. All his ceremonies, his customs, and his festivals are
+      still to celebrate the bounty of nature and the favour of Jehovah. The
+      patriarchal feeling lingers about his hearth. A man, however fallen, who
+      loves his home is not wholly lost. The trumpet of Sinai still sounds in
+      the Hebrew ear, and a Jew is never seen upon the scaffold, unless it be at
+      an <i>auto da fè</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, having made this full admission of the partial degradation of the
+      Jewish race, we are not prepared to agree that this limited degeneracy is
+      any justification of the prejudices and persecution which originated in
+      barbarous or mediæval superstitions. On the contrary, viewing the
+      influence of the Jewish race upon the modern communities, without any
+      reference to the past history or the future promises of Israel; dismissing
+      from our minds and memories, if indeed that be possible, all that the
+      Hebrews have done in the olden time for man and all which it may be their
+      destiny yet to fulfil, we hold that instead of being an object of
+      aversion, they should receive all that honour and favour from the northern
+      and western races, which, in civilized and refined nations, should be the
+      lot of those who charm the public taste and elevate the public feeling. We
+      hesitate not to say that there is no race at this present, and following
+      in this only the example of a long period, that so much delights, and
+      fascinates, and elevates, and ennobles Europe, as the Jewish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We dwell not on the fact, that the most admirable artists of the drama
+      have been and still are of the Hebrew race: or, that the most entrancing
+      singers, graceful dancers, and exquisite musicians, are sons and daughters
+      of Israel: though this were much. But these brilliant accessories are
+      forgotten in the sublimer claim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seems that the only means by which in these modern times we are
+      permitted to develop the beautiful is music. It would appear definitively
+      settled that excellence in the plastic arts is the privilege of the
+      earlier ages of the world. All that is now produced in this respect is
+      mimetic, and, at the best, the skilful adaptation of traditional methods.
+      The creative faculty of modern man seems by an irresistible law at work on
+      the virgin soil of science, daily increasing by its inventions our command
+      over nature, and multiplying the material happiness of man. But the
+      happiness of man is not merely material. Were it not for music, we might
+      in these days say, the beautiful is dead. Music seems to be the only means
+      of creating the beautiful, in which we not only equal, but in all
+      probability greatly excel, the ancients. The music of modern Europe ranks
+      with the transcendent creations of human genius; the poetry, the statues,
+      the temples, of Greece. It produces and represents as they did whatever is
+      most beautiful in the spirit of man and often expresses what is most
+      profound. And who are the great composers, who hereafter will rank with
+      Homer, with Sophocles, with Praxiteles, or with Phidias? They are the
+      descendants of those Arabian tribes who conquered Canaan, and who by
+      favour of the Most High have done more with less means even than the
+      Athenians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Forty years ago&mdash;not a longer period than the children of Israel were
+      wandering in the desert&mdash;the two most dishonoured races in Europe
+      were the Attic and the Hebrew, and they were the two races that had done
+      most for mankind. Their fortunes had some similarity: their countries were
+      the two smallest in the world, equally barren and equally famous; they
+      both divided themselves into tribes: both built a most famous temple on an
+      acropolis; and both produced a literature which all European nations have
+      accepted with reverence and admiration. Athens has been sacked oftener
+      than Jerusalem, and oftener razed to the ground; but the Athenians have
+      escaped expatriation, which is purely an Oriental custom. The sufferings
+      of the Jews, however, have been infinitely more prolonged and varied than
+      those of the Athenians. The Greek nevertheless appears exhausted. The
+      creative genius of Israel, on the contrary, never shone so bright; and
+      when the Russian, the Frenchman, and the Anglo-Saxon, amid applauding
+      theatres or the choral voices of solemn temples, yield themselves to the
+      full spell of a Mozart or a Mendelssohn, it seems difficult to comprehend
+      how these races can reconcile it to their hearts to persecute a Jew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have shown that the theological prejudice against the Jews has no
+      foundation, historical or doctrinal; we have shown that the social
+      prejudice, originating in the theological but sustained by superficial
+      observations, irrespective of religious prejudice, is still more unjust,
+      and that no existing race is so much entitled to the esteem and gratitude
+      of society as the Hebrew. It remains for us to notice the injurious
+      consequences to European society of the course pursued by the communities
+      to this race; and this view of the subject leads us to considerations
+      which it would become existing statesmen to ponder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The world has by this time discovered that it is impossible to destroy the
+      Jews. The attempt to extirpate them has been made under the most
+      favourable auspices and on the largest scale; the most considerable means
+      that man could command have been pertinaciously applied to this object for
+      the longest period of recorded time. Egyptian Pharaohs, Assyrian kings,
+      Roman emperors, Scandinavian crusaders, Gothic princes, and holy
+      inquisitors have alike devoted their energies to the fulfilment of this
+      common purpose. Expatriation, exile, captivity, confiscation, torture on
+      the most ingenious, and massacre on the most extensive, scale, with a
+      curious system of degrading customs and debasing laws which would have
+      broken the heart of any other people, have been tried, and in vain. The
+      Jews, after all this havoc, are probably more numerous at this date than
+      they were during the reign of Solomon the Wise, are found in all lands,
+      and, unfortunately, prospering in most. All of which proves that it is in
+      vain for man to attempt to battle the inexorable law of nature, which has
+      decreed that a superior race shall never be destroyed or absorbed by an
+      inferior.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the influence of a great race will be felt; its greatness does not
+      depend upon its numbers, otherwise the English would not have vanquished
+      the Chinese, nor would the Aztecs have been overthrown by Cortez and a
+      handful of Goths. That greatness results from its organization, the
+      consequences of which are shown in its energy and enterprise, in the
+      strength of its will and the fertility of its brain. Let us observe what
+      should be the influence of the Jews, and then ascertain how it is
+      exercised. The Jewish race connects the modern populations with the early
+      ages of the world, when the relations of the Creator with the created were
+      more intimate than in these days, when angels visited the earth, and God
+      himself even spoke with man. The Jews represent the Semitic principle; all
+      that is spiritual in our nature. They are the trustees of tradition and
+      the conservators of the religious element. They are a living and the most
+      striking evidence of the falsity of that pernicious doctrine of modern
+      times&mdash;the natural equality of man. The political equality of a
+      particular race is a matter of municipal arrangement, and depends entirely
+      on political considerations and circumstances; but the natural equality of
+      man now in vogue, and taking the form of cosmopolitan fraternity, is a
+      principle which, were it possible to act on it, would deteriorate the
+      great races and destroy all the genius of the world. What would be the
+      consequence on the great Anglo-Saxon republic, for example, were its
+      citizens to secede from their sound principle of reserve, and mingle with
+      their negro and coloured populations? In the course of time they would
+      become so deteriorated that their states would probably be reconquered and
+      regained by the aborigines whom they have expelled, and who would then be
+      their superiors. But though nature will never ultimately permit this
+      theory of natural equality to be practised, the preaching of this dogma
+      has already caused much mischief, and may occasion much more. The native
+      tendency of the Jewish race, who are justly proud of their blood, is
+      against the doctrine of the equality of man. They have also another
+      characteristic, the faculty of acquisition. Although the European laws
+      have endeavoured to prevent their obtaining property, they have
+      nevertheless become remarkable for their accumulated wealth. Thus it will
+      be seen that all the tendencies of the Jewish race are conservative. Their
+      bias is to religion, property, and natural aristocracy: and it should be
+      the interest of statesmen that this bias of a great race should be
+      encouraged, and their energies and creative powers enlisted in the cause
+      of existing society.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But existing society has chosen to persecute this race which should
+      furnish its choice allies, and what have been the consequences?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They may be traced in the last outbreak of the destructive principle in
+      Europe. An insurrection takes place against tradition and aristocracy,
+      against religion and property. Destruction of the Semitic principle,
+      extirpation of the Jewish religion, whether in the Mosaic or in the
+      Christian form, the natural equality of man, and the abrogation of
+      property, are proclaimed by the secret societies who form provisional
+      governments, and men of Jewish race are found at the head of every one of
+      them. The people of God coöperate with atheists; the most skilful
+      accumulators of property ally themselves with communists; the peculiar and
+      chosen race touch the hand of all the scum and low castes of Europe! And
+      all this because they wish to destroy that ungrateful Christendom which
+      owes to them even its name, and whose tyranny they can no longer endure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the secret societies, in February, 1848, surprised Europe, they were
+      themselves surprised by the unexpected opportunity, and so little capable
+      were they of seizing the occasion, that had it not been for the Jews, who
+      of late years unfortunately have been connecting themselves with these
+      unhallowed associations, imbecile as were the governments, the
+      uncalled-for outbreak would not have ravaged Europe. But the fiery energy
+      and the teeming resources of the children of Israel maintained for a long
+      time the unnecessary and useless struggle. If the reader throw his eye
+      over the provisional governments of Germany and Italy, and even of France,
+      formed at that period, he will recognize everywhere the Jewish element.
+      Even the insurrection, and defence, and administration of Venice, which,
+      from the resource and statesmanlike moderation displayed, commanded almost
+      the respect and sympathy of Europe, were accomplished by a Jew&mdash;Manini&mdash;who,
+      by the bye, is a Jew who professes the whole of the Jewish religion, and
+      believes in Calvary as well as Sinai,&mdash;&lsquo;a converted Jew,&rsquo; as the
+      Lombards styled him, quite forgetting, in the confusion of their ideas,
+      that it is the Lombards who are the converts&mdash;not Manini.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus it will be seen, that the persecution of the Jewish race has deprived
+      European society of an important conservative element, and added to the
+      destructive party an influential ally. Prince Metternich, the most
+      enlightened of modern statesmen, not to say the most intellectual of men,
+      was, though himself a victim of the secret societies, fully aware of these
+      premises. It was always his custom, great as were the difficulties which
+      in so doing he had to encounter, to employ as much as possible the Hebrew
+      race in the public service. He could never forget that Napoleon, in his
+      noontide hour, had been checked by the pen of the greatest of political
+      writers; he had found that illustrious author as great in the cabinet as
+      in the study; he knew that no one had more contributed to the deliverance
+      of Europe. It was not as a patron, but as an appreciating and devoted
+      friend, that the High Chancellor of Austria appointed Frederick Gentz
+      secretary to the Congress of Vienna&mdash;and Frederick Gentz was a child
+      of Israel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is no doubt to be deplored that several millions of the Jewish race
+      should persist in believing in only a part of their religion; but this is
+      a circumstance which does not affect Europe, and time, with different
+      treatment, may remove the anomaly which perhaps may be accounted for. It
+      should be recollected, that the existing Jews are perhaps altogether the
+      descendants of those various colonies and emigrations which, voluntary or
+      forced, long preceded the advent. Between the vast carnage of the Roman
+      wars, from Titus to Hadrian, and the profession of Christ by his
+      countrymen, which must have been very prevalent, since the Christian
+      religion was solely sustained by the Jews of Palestine during the greater
+      part of its first century, it is improbable that any descendants of the
+      Jews of Palestine exist who disbelieve in Christ. After the fall of
+      Jerusalem and the failure of Barchochebas, no doubt some portion of the
+      Jews found refuge in the desert, returning to their original land after
+      such long and strange vicissitudes. This natural movement would account
+      for those Arabian tribes, of whose resistance to Mohammed we have ample
+      and authentic details, and who, if we are to credit the accounts which
+      perplex modern travellers, are to this day governed by the Pentateuch
+      instead of the Koran.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Christianity was presented to the ancestors of the present Jews, it
+      came from a very suspicious quarter, and was offered in a very
+      questionable shape. Centuries must have passed in many instances before
+      the Jewish colonies heard of the advent, the crucifixion, and the
+      atonement; the latter, however, a doctrine in perfect harmony with Jewish
+      ideas. When they first heard of Christianity, it appeared to be a Gentile
+      religion, accompanied by idolatrous practices, from which severe
+      monotheists, like the Arabians, always recoil, and holding the Jewish race
+      up to public scorn and hatred. This is not the way to make converts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There have been two great colonies of the Jewish race in Europe; in Spain
+      and in Sarmatia. The origin of the Jews in Spain is lost in the night of
+      time. That it was of great antiquity we have proof. The tradition, once
+      derided, that the Iberian Jews were a Phoenician colony has been favoured
+      by the researches of modern antiquaries, who have traced the Hebrew
+      language in the ancient names of the localities. It may be observed,
+      however, that the languages of the Jews and the Philistines, or
+      Phoenicians, were probably too similar to sanction any positive induction
+      from such phenomena; while on the other hand, in reply to those who have
+      urged the improbability of the Jews, who had no seaports, colonizing
+      Spain, it may be remarked that the colony may have been an expatriation by
+      the Philistines in the course of the long struggle which occurred between
+      them and the invading tribes previous to the foundation of the Hebrew
+      monarchy. We know that in the time of Cicero the Jews had been settled
+      immemorially in Spain. When the Romans, converted to Christianity and
+      acted on by the priesthood, began to trouble the Spanish Jews, it appears
+      by a decree of Constantine that they were owners and cultivators of the
+      soil, a circumstance which alone proves the antiquity and the nobility of
+      their settlement, for the possession of the land is never conceded to a
+      degraded race. The conquest of Spain by the Goths in the fifth and sixth
+      centuries threatened the Spanish Jews, however, with more serious
+      adversaries than the Romans. The Gothic tribes, very recently converted to
+      their Syrian faith, were full of barbaric zeal against those whom they
+      looked upon as the enemies of Jesus. But the Spanish Jews sought
+      assistance from their kinsmen the Saracens on the opposite coast; Spain
+      was invaded and subdued by the Moors, and for several centuries the Jew
+      and the Saracen lived under the same benignant laws and shared the same
+      brilliant prosperity. In the history of Spain during the Saracenic
+      supremacy any distinction of religion or race is no longer traced. And so
+      it came to pass that when at the end of the fourteenth century, after the
+      fell triumph of the Dominicans over the Albigenses, the holy inquisition
+      was introduced into Spain, it was reported to Torquemada that two-thirds
+      of the nobility of Arragon, that is to say of the proprietors of the land,
+      were Jews.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All that these men knew of Christianity was, that it was a religion of
+      fire and sword, and that one of its first duties was to avenge some
+      mysterious and inexplicable crime which had been committed ages ago by
+      some unheard of ancestors of theirs in an unknown land. The inquisitors
+      addressed themselves to the Spanish Jews in the same abrupt and ferocious
+      manner in which the monks saluted the Mexicans and the Peruvians. All
+      those of the Spanish Jews, who did not conform after the fall of the
+      Mohammedan kingdoms, were expatriated by the victorious Goths, and these
+      refugees were the main source of the Italian Jews, and of the most
+      respectable portion of the Jews of Holland. These exiles found refuge in
+      two republics; Venice and the United Provinces. The Portuguese Jews, it is
+      well known, came from Spain, and their ultimate expulsion from Portugal
+      was attended by the same results as the Spanish expatriation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other great division of Jews in Europe are the Sarmatian Jews, and
+      they are very numerous. They amount to nearly three millions. These
+      unquestionably entered Europe with the other Sarmatian nations, descending
+      the Borysthenes and ascending the Danube, and are according to all
+      probability the progeny of the expatriations of the times of
+      Tiglath-Pileser and Nebuchadnezzar. They are the posterity of those
+      &lsquo;devout men,&rsquo; Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, who were attending the
+      festivals at Jerusalem at the time of the descent of the Holy Spirit.
+      Living among barbarous pagans, who never molested them, these people went
+      on very well, until suddenly the barbarous pagans, under the influence of
+      an Italian priesthood, were converted to the Jewish religion, and then as
+      a necessary consequence the converts began to harass, persecute, and
+      massacre the Jews.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These people had never heard of Christ. Had the Romans not destroyed
+      Jerusalem, these Sarmatian Jews would have had a fair chance of obtaining
+      from civilized beings some clear and coherent account of the great events
+      which had occurred. They and their fathers before them would have gone up
+      in customary pilgrimage to the central sacred place, both for purposes of
+      devotion and purposes of trade, and they might have heard from Semitic
+      lips that there were good tidings for Israel. What they heard from their
+      savage companions, and the Italian priesthood which acted on them, was,
+      that there were good tidings for all the world except Israel, and that
+      Israel, for the commission of a great crime of which they had never heard
+      and could not comprehend, was to be plundered, massacred, hewn to pieces,
+      and burnt alive in the name of Christ and for the sake of Christianity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Eastern Jews, who are very numerous, are in general the descendants of
+      those who in the course of repeated captivities settled in the great
+      Eastern monarchies, and which they never quitted. They live in the same
+      cities and follow the same customs as they did in the days of Cyrus. They
+      are to be found in Persia, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor; at Bagdad, at
+      Hamadan, at Smyrna. We know from the Jewish books how very scant was the
+      following which accompanied Esdras and Nehemiah back to Jerusalem. A
+      fortress city, built on a ravine, surrounded by stony mountains and
+      watered by a scanty stream, had no temptations after the gardens of
+      Babylon and the broad waters of the Euphrates. But Babylon has vanished
+      and Jerusalem remains, and what are the waters of Euphrates to the brook
+      of Kedron! It is another name than that of Jesus of Nazareth with which
+      these Jews have been placed in collision, and the Ishmaelites have not
+      forgotten the wrongs of Hagar in their conduct to the descendants of
+      Sarah.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is it therefore wonderful that a great portion of the Jewish race should
+      not believe in the most important portion of the Jewish religion? As,
+      however, the converted races become more humane in their behaviour to the
+      Jews, and the latter have opportunity fully to comprehend and deeply to
+      ponder over true Christianity, it is difficult to suppose that the result
+      will not be very different. Whether presented by a Roman or Anglo-Catholic
+      or Genevese divine, by pope, bishop, or presbyter, there is nothing, one
+      would suppose, very repugnant to the feelings of a Jew when he learns that
+      the redemption of the human race has been effected by the mediatorial
+      agency of a child of Israel: if the ineffable mystery of the Incarnation
+      be developed to him, he will remember that the blood of Jacob is a chosen
+      and peculiar blood; and if so transcendent a consummation is to occur, he
+      will scarcely deny that only one race could be deemed worthy of
+      accomplishing it. There may be points of doctrine on which the northern
+      and western races may perhaps never agree. The Jew like them may follow
+      that path in those respects which reason and feeling alike dictate; but
+      nevertheless it can hardly be maintained that there is anything revolting
+      to a Jew to learn that a Jewess is the queen of heaven, or that the flower
+      of the Jewish race are even now sitting on the right hand of the Lord God
+      of Sabaoth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps, too, in this enlightened age, as his mind expands, and he takes a
+      comprehensive view of this period of progress, the pupil of Moses may ask
+      himself, whether all the princes of the house of David have done so much
+      for the Jews as that prince who was crucified on Calvary. Had it not been
+      for Him, the Jews would have been comparatively unknown, or known only as
+      a high Oriental caste which had lost its country. Has not He made their
+      history the most famous in the world? Has not He hung up their laws in
+      every temple? Has not He vindicated all their wrongs? Has not He avenged
+      the victory of Titus and conquered the Caesars? What successes did they
+      anticipate from their Messiah? The wildest dreams of their rabbis have
+      been far exceeded. Has not Jesus conquered Europe and changed its name
+      into Christendom? All countries that refuse the cross wither, while the
+      whole of the new world is devoted to the Semitic principle and its most
+      glorious offspring the Jewish faith, and the time will come when the vast
+      communities and countless myriads of America and Australia, looking upon
+      Europe as Europe now looks upon Greece, and wondering how so small a space
+      could have achieved such great deeds, will still find music in the songs
+      of Sion and still seek solace in the parables of Galilee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These may be dreams, but there is one fact which none can contest.
+      Christians may continue to persecute Jews, and Jews may persist in
+      disbelieving Christians, but who can deny that Jesus of Nazareth, the
+      Incarnate Son of the Most High God, is the eternal glory of the Jewish
+      race?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Jewish Disabilities</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      IT WOULD seem to follow from the views expressed in the preceding chaptet,
+      that in communities professing a belief in our Lord, the Jewish race ought
+      not to be subject to any legislative dishonour or disqualification. These
+      views, however, were not those which influenced Lord George Bentinck in
+      forming his opinion that the civil disabilities of those subjects of her
+      Majesty who profess that limited belief in divine revelation which is
+      commonly called the Jewish religion should be removed. He had supported a
+      measure to this effect in the year 1833, guided in that conduct by his
+      devoted attachment to the equivocal principle of religious liberty, the
+      unqualified application of which principle seems hardly consistent with
+      that recognition of religious truth by the state to which we yet adhere,
+      and without which it is highly probable that the northern and western
+      races, after a disturbing and rapidly degrading period of atheistic
+      anarchy, may fatally recur to their old national idolatries, modified and
+      mythically dressed up according to the spirit of the age. It may be
+      observed that the decline and disasters of modern communities have
+      generally been relative to their degree of sedition against the Semitic
+      principle. Since the great revolt of the Celts against the first and
+      second testament, at the close of the last century, France has been
+      alternately in a state of collapse or convulsion. Throughout the awful
+      trials of the last sixty years, England, notwithstanding her deficient and
+      meagre theology, has always remembered Sion. The great Transatlantic
+      republic is intensely Semitic, and has prospered accordingly. This sacred
+      principle alone has consolidated the mighty empire of all the Russias. How
+      omnipotent it is cannot be more clearly shown than by the instance of
+      Rome, where it appears in its most corrupt form. An old man on a Semitic
+      throne baffles the modern Attilas, and the recent invasion of the
+      barbarians, under the form of red republicans, socialists, communists, all
+      different phases which describe the relapse of the once converted races
+      into their primitive condition of savagery. Austria would long ago have
+      dissolved but for the Semitic principle, and if the north of Germany has
+      never succeeded in attaining that imperial position which seemed its
+      natural destiny, it is that the north of Germany has never at any time
+      been thoroughly converted. Some perhaps may point to Spain as a remarkable
+      instance of decline in a country where the Semitic principle has exercised
+      great influence. But the fall of Spain was occasioned by the expulsion of
+      her Semitic population: a million families of Jews and Saracens, the most
+      distinguished of her citizens for their industry and their intelligence,
+      their learning and their wealth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It appears that Lord George Bentinck had offended some of his followers by
+      an opinion expressed in his address to his constituency in &lsquo;47, that in
+      accordance with the suggestion of Mr. Pitt, some provision should be made
+      for the Roman Catholic priesthood of Ireland out of the land. Although
+      this opinion might offend the religious sentiments of some, and might be
+      justly looked upon by others as a scheme ill-suited to the character of an
+      age adverse to any further religious endowments, it must be acknowledged
+      that no member of the Protectionist party had any just cause of complaint
+      against Lord George for the expression of an opinion which he had always
+      upheld, and of his constancy to which he had fairly given his friends
+      notice. This was so generally felt that the repining died away. The Jewish
+      question, as it was called, revived these religious emotions. These
+      feelings, as springing from the highest sentiment of our nature, and
+      founded, however mistaken in their application, on religious truth, are
+      entitled to deep respect and tenderness; but no one can indulge them by
+      the compromise of the highest principles, or by sanctioning a course which
+      he really believes to be destructive of the very object which their
+      votaries wish to cherish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As there are very few Englishmen of what is commonly called the Jewish
+      faith, and as therefore it was supposed that political considerations
+      could not enter into the question, it was hoped by many of the followers
+      of Lord George Bentinck that he would not separate himself from his party
+      on this subject, and very earnest requests and representations were made
+      to him with that view. He was not insensible to them; he gave them
+      prolonged and painful consideration; they greatly disquieted him. In his
+      confidential correspondence he often recurs to the distress and anxiety
+      which this question and its consequences as regarded his position with
+      those friends to whom he was much attached occasioned him. It must not,
+      therefore, be supposed that, in the line he ultimately took with reference
+      to this question, he was influenced, as some have unkindly and
+      unwarrantably fancied, by a self-willed, inexorable, and imperious spirit.
+      He was no doubt, by nature, a proud man, inclined even to arrogance, and
+      naturally impatient of contradiction; but two severe campaigns in the
+      House of Commons had already mitigated these characteristics: he
+      understood human nature, he was fond of his party, and, irrespective of
+      other considerations, it pained his ardent and generous heart to mortify
+      his comrades. It was therefore not in any degree from temper, but from
+      principle,&mdash;from as pure, as high, and as noble a sense of duty as
+      ever actuated a man in public life,&mdash;that Lord George Bentinck
+      ultimately resolved that it was impossible for him to refuse to vote for
+      the removal of what are commonly called Jewish disabilities. He had voted
+      in this particular cause shortly after his entrance into public life; it
+      was in accordance with that general principle of religious liberty to
+      which he was an uncompromising adherent; it was in complete agreement with
+      the understanding which subsisted between himself and the Protectionist
+      party, when at their urgent request he unwillingly assumed the helm. He
+      was entreated not to vote at all; to stay away, which the severe
+      indisposition under which he was then labouring warranted. He did not
+      rudely repulse these latter representations, as has been circulated. On
+      the contrary, he listened to them with kindness, and was not uninfluenced
+      by them. Enfeebled by illness, he had nearly brought himself to a
+      compliance with a request urged with affectionate importunity, but from
+      which his reason and sense of duty held him aloof. After long and deep and
+      painful pondering, when the hour arrived, he rose from his bed of
+      sickness, walked into the House of Commons, and not only voted, but spoke
+      in favour of his convictions. His speech remains, one of the best ever
+      delivered on the subject, not only full of weighty argument, but touched
+      with a high and even tender vein of sentiment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This vote and speech of Lord George Bentinck no doubt mortified at the
+      moment a considerable portion of his followers, and occasioned great
+      dissatisfaction among a very respectable though limited section of them.
+      This latter body must either have forgotten or they must have been
+      strangely unacquainted with the distinct understanding on which Lord
+      George had undertaken the lead of the party, or otherwise they could not
+      have felt authorized in conveying to him their keen sense of
+      disapprobation. Unfortunately he received this when the House had
+      adjourned for the holidays, and when Mr. Bankes, who had been the organ of
+      communication with him in &lsquo;46, was in the country, and when the party was
+      of course generally dispersed. Lord George did not take any pains to
+      ascertain whether the representation which was made to him was that of the
+      general feeling of a large party, or that only of a sincere, highly
+      estimable, but limited section. He was enfeebled and exhausted by
+      indisposition; he often felt, even when in health, that the toil of his
+      life was beyond both his physical and moral energies; and though he was of
+      that ardent and tenacious nature that he never would have complained, but
+      have died at his post, the opportunity of release coming to him at a
+      moment when he was physically prostrate was rather eagerly seized, and the
+      world suddenly learnt at Christmas, with great astonishment, that the
+      renowned leader of the Protectionist party had relinquished his trust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The numerous communications which he received must have convinced him that
+      the assumed circumstances under which he acted had not been accurately
+      appreciated by him. He was implored to reconsider his course, as one very
+      detrimental to the cause to which he was devoted, and which would probably
+      tend to the triumph of those whose policy he had attempted to defeat, and
+      whose personal conduct he had at least succeeded in punishing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The prophesied time has come,&rsquo; he wrote to his friend Mr. Bankes, on the
+      23rd of December, 1847, &lsquo;when I have ceased to be able to serve the party,
+      the great cause of Protection, or my country, by any longer retaining the
+      commission bestowed on me in the spring of 1846. You will remember,
+      however, that when unfeignedly and honestly, but in vain, trying to escape
+      from being raised to a position which I foresaw I must fail to maintain
+      with advantage to you or honour to myself, I at last gave my consent, I
+      only did so on the express understanding that my advancement should be
+      held to be merely a pro tempore appointment, waiting till the country
+      should have the opportunity of sending to Parliament other men better
+      fitted to lead the country gentlemen of England. I have recalled these
+      circumstances to your mind with no other purpose than that the party may
+      feel how entirely free they are, without even the suspicion of doing an
+      injustice to me or of showing me in this any disrespect, to remodel their
+      arrangements, and to supersede my lieutenancy by the appointment of a
+      superior and permanent commander.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And again on Christmas-day, to the same gentleman, in reply to an
+      acknowledgment of the preceding, he says, while thanking Mr. Bankes &lsquo;for
+      his warm-hearted letter as very grateful to his feelings,&rsquo;&mdash;&rsquo; 
+      Confidentially I tell you, that far from feeling in the least annoyed, I
+      shall feel greatly relieved by a restoration to privacy and freedom. I
+      worked upon my spirit in &lsquo;46 and &lsquo;47; but I have learnt now that I have
+      shaken my constitution to the foundation, and I seriously doubt my being
+      able to work on much longer.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He wrote on the 24th of December to one of his most intimate friends and
+      warmest supporters, Mr. Christopher, the member for Lincolnshire, who had
+      remonstrated with him as to his decision: &lsquo;It is not in my nature to
+      retain a station one moment after I get a hint even that any portion of
+      those who raised me to it are wearied of seeing me there. The old members
+      of the party will all recollect how clearly I foresaw and foretold that I
+      should be found a very inconvenient as well as a very inefficient leader,
+      so soon as the great Protection battle was brought to a close. I predicted
+      all that has since occurred; and no one more cordially agrees than I do in
+      the wisdom of the present decision, the spirit I presume of which is that
+      no great party or large body of men can be successfully, or to any good
+      purpose, led except by a man who heart and soul sympathizes with them in
+      all their feelings, partialities, and prejudices. Cold reason has a poor
+      chance against such influences. There can be no <i>esprit de corps</i> and
+      no zeal where there is not a union of prejudices as well as of commercial
+      opinions. The election of a leader united with the great body of the party
+      in these respects, will tend greatly to reunite its scattered particles,
+      even on those questions where I shall be able to give my aid with all my
+      wonted zeal, which will not be the less spirited because it will be free
+      and independent.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At a later period, acknowledging an address signed by the great body of
+      the Protectionist party, and presented to him by the present Earl Talbot,
+      then a member of the House of Commons, Lord George wrote, &lsquo;The
+      considerations which obliged me to surrender a post of honour which every
+      independent and high-minded English gentleman has at all times prized
+      above the highest rewards in the gift of the crown, &ldquo;the leadership of the
+      country gentlemen of England,&rdquo; will never influence me to swerve from any
+      endeavours of which my poor abilities and bodily energies are capable in
+      the promotion of the prosperity of all classes in the British empire at
+      home and in the colonies, any more than they can ever make me forget the
+      attachment, the friendship, and the enthusiastic support of those who
+      stood by me to the end of the death struggle for British interests and for
+      English good faith and political honour, and to whose continued friendship
+      and constancy I know I am indebted for this graceful and grateful
+      compliment.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If Lord George Bentinck was inexorable to the entreaties of his friends,
+      it must not be supposed that he was influenced in the course which he
+      pursued, as was presumed by many at the time not acquainted with the
+      circumstances, by any feeling of pique or brooding sullenness. No
+      high-spirited man under vexatious and distressing circumstances ever
+      behaved with more magnanimity. In this he was actuated in a great degree
+      by a sense of duty, but still more by that peculiar want of selfishness
+      which was one of the most beautiful traits of his character. The moment he
+      had at all recovered from the severe attack by which, to use his own
+      language, he had been &lsquo;struck down in the first week of the session,&rsquo; and
+      from the effects of which it may be doubted whether he ever entirely
+      recovered, he laboured zealously to induce some competent person to
+      undertake the office which he had thought it expedient to resign, offering
+      in several instances to serve in the ranks, and to assist with his utmost
+      energies, both in and out of the House, the individual who would undertake
+      the responsible direction in the Commons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These efforts, though indefatigable, were not successful, for those who
+      were competent to the office cared not to serve under any one except
+      himself. About this time, a personage of great station, and who very much
+      admired Lord George Bentinck, wrote to him, and recommended him not to
+      trouble himself about the general discipline of the party, but to follow
+      his own course, and lead that body of friends who under all circumstances
+      would adhere to him, instancing the case of Mr. Canning, under
+      circumstances not altogether dissimilar. Lord George replied: &lsquo;As for my
+      rallying a personal party round myself, as Mr. Canning did, I have no
+      pretension to anything of the kind; when Mr. Canning did that, the House
+      of Commons, and England too, acknowledged him to be the greatest orator
+      who had survived Pitt and Fox; he had been Secretary of State for foreign
+      affairs, and had taken a conspicuous part in rousing the country to carry
+      on the war against France.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nature of the subject, dealing as it necessarily does with so many
+      personal details, renders it impossible to make public the correspondence
+      in which Lord George Bentinck was engaged at this time in his attempts to
+      place the Protectionist party under the guidance of one who would unite
+      all sympathies; but were that publication possible, it would place Lord
+      George Bentinck in a very noble and amiable light, and prove a gentleness
+      and softness in his nature for which those who were not very intimate with
+      him did not give him credit. Not that it must be for a moment supposed
+      that he was insensible to what was occurring. He was the most sensitive as
+      well as the proudest of men. When the writer called at Harcourt House, to
+      bid him farewell, before the Christmas holidays, and, conversing very
+      frankly on the course which he was then pursuing, inquired as to his
+      future proceedings, Lord George said with emotion: &lsquo;In this cause I have
+      shaken my constitution and shortened my days, and I will succeed or die.&rsquo; 
+      In the course of the year 1848, walking home, talking together, from the
+      House of Commons, he twice recurred to this terrible alternative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But all considerations were merged at this moment in the predominant one
+      which was to keep the party together. He wrote to a friend at the end of
+      January, who urged him, as the hour of work approached and the injurious
+      inconveniences of his abdication would be more felt, to confer with his
+      former followers and reconsider his position, that no personal feeling
+      prevented his taking that course, but that he felt any resumption of
+      responsibility on his part would not be pleasing to a section of those who
+      formerly served with him, and that there would be a &lsquo;split&rsquo; in the ranks.
+      &lsquo;As far as I am personally concerned,&rsquo; he added, &lsquo;I could submit to
+      anything short of having my ears cut off and appearing as a &ldquo;Croppy,&rdquo; to
+      be free again. My pride cannot stand leading an unwilling party; I would
+      just as soon thrust myself into a dinner-room where I was at once an
+      uninvited and an unwelcome guest.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meantime, according to his custom, the moment that he had
+      sufficiently recovered from his illness, he prepared with the utmost zeal
+      for the coming struggle respecting the fate of our sugar colonies, in
+      which subject he was soon absorbed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Parliament reassembled on the 3rd of February, and on that night Lord
+      George Bentinck brought forward his motion for &lsquo;a select committee to
+      inquire into the present condition and prospects of the interests
+      connected with and dependent on sugar and coffee planting in her Majesty&rsquo;s
+      East and West Indian possessions and the Mauritius, and to consider
+      whether any and what measures can be adopted by Parliament for their
+      relief.&rsquo; When he entered the House, Lord George walked up to the head of
+      the second bench below the gangway, on the opposition side, and thus
+      significantly announced that he was no longer the responsible leader of
+      the Protectionist party. It was the wish of the writer of these pages, who
+      had resolved to stand or fall by him, to have followed his example and to
+      have abdicated the prominent seat in which the writer had been unwillingly
+      and fortuitously placed; but by the advice, or rather at the earnest
+      request, of Lord George Bentinck, this course was relinquished as
+      indicative of schism, which he wished to discourage; and the circumstance
+      is only mentioned as showing that Lord George was not less considerate at
+      this moment of the interests of the Protectionist party than when he led
+      them with so much confidence and authority. The session, however, was to
+      commence without a leader, without any recognized organ of communication
+      between parties, or any responsible representative of opinion in debate.
+      All again was chaos. There is, however, something so vital in the
+      Conservative party that it seems always to rally under every disadvantage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George spoke well to his resolution: the House soon recognized he was
+      master of his case, and though few foresaw at the moment the important
+      consequences to which this motion would lead, the House was interested
+      from the first; and though there was no division, the debate lasted two
+      days, and was sustained on both sides with great animation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mover vindicated himself very successfully for only proposing a
+      committee of inquiry. &lsquo;It has been represented to me,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;by the
+      colonies and by persons in this country who are interested in them, that
+      the course which I am proposing is not consistent with the necessities of
+      the case; that there is something pusillanimous in the motion which I am
+      going to make; that in point of fact the interests connected with sugar
+      and coffee planting are in extremis; and that while the question of their
+      redress is being discussed in a committee above-stairs, these great
+      interests will perish. They say to me that a committee of inquiry will be
+      to them of the nature of that comfort which,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &ldquo;Like cordials after death, come late; &rdquo;
+ </pre>
+    <p>
+      and that before the committee shall have reported, the West-Indian
+      interest will be altogether past recovery. But, sir, it is for me to
+      consider what my power is to obtain any substantial relief by a direct
+      vote of this House; and when I remember that in July, 1846, I moved a
+      resolution the purport of which was, to maintain the protection for the
+      West-Indian and the East-Indian free-labour colonies which they now seek,
+      and that I had but one hundred and thirty gentlemen to support me, while
+      two hundred and sixty-five votes were recorded in favour of the measure of
+      the Government admitting slave-labour sugar, I feel that it is hopeless
+      for me to endeavour in this House, where I have no reason to suppose any
+      addition has been made to the members acquiescing in my views, to convert
+      that minority into a majority; and more especially when I recollect that
+      on that occasion but five gentlemen connected with the West-Indian and
+      East-Indian interests recorded their votes with me, I think the
+      West-Indian interest has not a good case against me when they blame me for
+      not taking a more resolute step on this occasion.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was not, however, without hope from the course which he had decided to
+      pursue. &lsquo;Looking, as I have done, at the deplorable state of the West
+      Indies, the East Indies, and the Mauritius, and holding, as I do, in my
+      hand a list of forty-eight great houses in England&mdash;twenty-six of the
+      first commercial houses in London, sixteen in Liverpool, and six elsewhere&mdash;which
+      have failed, and whose liabilities amount in the whole to £6,300,000 and
+      upwards, none of which I believe would have fallen had it not been for the
+      ruin brought upon them by the change in the sugar duties and the
+      consequent reduction in the price of their produce,&mdash;I do hope,
+      through the intervention of a committee of this House, I may be able to
+      prevail upon the House to change its policy with regard to this great
+      question.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George was supported in this debate by Mr. Thomas Baring, in one of
+      the best speeches ever made in the House of Commons. Few more combine
+      mastery of the case with parliamentary point than this gentleman. It is
+      not impossible to find a man capable of addressing the House of Commons
+      who understands the subject; it is not impossible to find a man who can
+      convey his impressions on any subject to the House in a lively and
+      captivating manner, though both instances are rarer than the world would
+      imagine; but a man who at the same time understands a question and can
+      handle it before a popular assembly in a popular style, who teaches
+      without being pedantic, can convey an argument in an epigram, and instruct
+      as the Mexicans did by picture, possesses a talent for the exercise of
+      which he is responsible to his sovereign and his country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Baring said that he could not perfectly agree either with Lord John
+      Russell or Lord George Bentinck, that Protection or Free Trade must be in
+      what they called a circle, round which in their legislation they must
+      always move; that they must either give protection to everything or free
+      trade to everything. He could not say that because sugar claimed
+      protection, coals must have protection also. Neither would he, on the
+      other hand, apply free trade to every article. He acknowledged the
+      advantage of competition as a stimulus: he thought that, placing things on
+      equal grounds, competition was undoubtedly a great advantage. He could
+      understand a competition to try the mutual speed of race-horses; but there
+      could be no competition between a race-horse and a steam-engine, for the
+      power of the animal could bear no comparison with that of the machine!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Baring could look back to no legislation more humiliating than the
+      legislation regarding our colonies. No great interest was ever so much
+      trifled with, so much sacrificed to the cry of the day; at one moment to
+      no slavery and another to cheap sugar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The committee was granted, and it was generally felt that the question was
+      consequently quieted for the session.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>Leader Perforce</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      DURING the first six weeks of this famous committee the attendance of its
+      members was not very regular, and its labours attracted little attention.
+      The evidence on the East-India part of the question was closed and
+      reported to the House by the end of February; after that period the
+      evidence was reported to the House every week or ten days. Towards the end
+      of March, rumours began to circulate of the extraordinary vigour and
+      ability with which this investigation was pursued, and of the novel,
+      authentic, and striking evidence that had been elicited. The proceedings
+      were talked of in the House of Commons and on the Royal Exchange; the City
+      men who were examined went back to their companions with wondrous tales of
+      the energy and acuteness of Harcourt House, and the order, method, and
+      discipline of the committee-room at Westminster. As time elapsed, the
+      hopes of the colonial interest again revived. It was generally felt that
+      Lord George had succeeded in establishing an irresistible case. It was
+      rumoured that the government could not withstand it. Those who had
+      originally murmured at the course which he had adopted of moving for a
+      committee of inquiry, instead of proposing a specific measure of relief,
+      and had treated an investigation as a mere means of securing inaction, now
+      recanted their rash criticism, and did justice to his prescience and
+      superior judgment, as well as to his vast information and indefatigable
+      exertions. The week during which the committee sat on their report was a
+      very anxious one; the divisions were known every day in the House of
+      Commons; the alternations of success and discomfiture, and the balanced
+      numbers that so often called for the interposition of the chairman, were
+      calculated to sustain the excitement; and when, on the 29th of May, it was
+      known that the report was at length agreed to, and that a committee of
+      free traders had absolutely recommended a differential duty of 10s. in
+      favour of our own produce, one might have fancied from the effect visibly
+      produced, that a government was changed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few days before&mdash;it was the day after the Derby, May 25th&mdash;the
+      writer met Lord George Ben-tinck in the library of the House of Commons.
+      He was standing before the book-shelves, with a volume in his hand, and
+      his countenance was greatly disturbed. His resolutions in favour of the
+      colonial interest after all his labours had been negatived by the
+      committee on the 22nd, and on the 24th, his horse Surplice, whom he had
+      parted with among the rest of his stud, solely that he might pursue
+      without distraction his labours on behalf of the great interests of the
+      country, had won that paramount and Olympian stake, to gain which had been
+      the object of his life. He had nothing to console him, and nothing to
+      sustain him except his pride. Even that deserted him before a heart which
+      he knew at least could yield him sympathy. He gave a sort of superb groan:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;All my life I have been trying for this, and for what have I sacrificed
+      it!&rsquo; he murmured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in vain to offer solace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You do not know what the Derby is,&rsquo; he moaned out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, I do; it is the blue ribbon of the turf.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is the blue ribbon of the turf,&rsquo; he slowly repeated to himself, and
+      sitting down at the table, he buried himself in a folio of statistics.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But on Monday, the 29th, when the resolution in favour of a 10s.
+      differential duty for the colonies had at the last moment been carried,
+      and carried by his casting vote, &lsquo;the blue ribbons of the turf were all
+      forgotten. Not for all the honours and successes of all the meetings,
+      spring or autumn, Newmarket, Epsom, Goodwood, Doncaster, would he have
+      exchanged that hour of rapture. His eye sparkled with fire, his nostril
+      dilated with triumph, his brow was elate like a conqueror, his sanguine
+      spirit saw a future of continued and illimitable success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We have saved the colonies,&rsquo; he said,&mdash;&lsquo;saved the colonies. I knew
+      it must be so. It is the knell of free trade.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding the formal renunciation of the leadership of the
+      Protectionist party by Lord George Bentinck, it was soon evident to the
+      House and the country that that renunciation was merely formal. In these
+      days of labour, the leader of a party must be the man who does the work,
+      and that work cannot now be accomplished without the devotion of a life.
+      Whenever a great question arose, the people out of doors went to Lord
+      George Bentinck, and when the discussion commenced, he was always found to
+      be the man armed with the authority of knowledge. There was, however, no
+      organized debate and no party discipline. No one was requested to take a
+      part, and no attendance was ever summoned. The vast majority sitting on
+      the Protectionist benches always followed Bentinck, who, whatever might be
+      his numbers in the lobby, always made a redoubtable stand in the House.
+      The situation however, it cannot be denied, was a dangerous one for a
+      great party to persevere in, but no permanent damage accrued, because
+      almost every one hoped that before the session was over, the difficulty
+      would find a natural solution in the virtual chief resuming his formal and
+      responsible post. Notwithstanding his labours on the two great committees
+      of the year&mdash;those on colonial and commercial distress,&mdash;Lord
+      George Bentinck found time to master the case of the shipping interest
+      when the navigation laws were attacked, to impugn in a formal motion the
+      whole of the commercial policy of Sir Robert Peel, even while the sugar
+      and coffee planting committee was still sitting, and to produce, early in
+      March, a rival budget. It was mainly through the prolonged resistance
+      which he organized against the repeal of the navigation laws, that the
+      government, in 1848, was forced to abandon their project. The resistance
+      was led with great ability by Mr. Herries, and the whole party put forward
+      their utmost strength to support him. But it is very difficult to convey a
+      complete picture of the laborious life of Lord George Bentinck during the
+      sitting of Parliament. At half-past nine o&rsquo;clock there called upon him the
+      commercial representatives of the question of the day; after these
+      conferences came his elaborate and methodical correspondence, all of which
+      he carried on himself in a handwriting clear as print, and never employing
+      a secretary; at twelve or one o&rsquo;clock he was at a committee, and he only
+      left the committee-room to take his seat in the House of Commons, which he
+      never quitted till the House adjourned, always long past midnight, and
+      often at two o&rsquo;clock in the morning. Here he was ready for all comers,
+      never omitting an opportunity to vindicate his opinions, or watching with
+      lynx-like vigilance the conduct of a public office. What was not his least
+      remarkable trait is, that although he only breakfasted on dry toast, he
+      took no sustenance all this time, dining at White&rsquo;s at half-past two
+      o&rsquo;clock in the morning. After his severe attack of the influenza he broke
+      through this habit a little during the last few months of his life, moved
+      by the advice of his physician and the instance of his friends. The writer
+      of these observations prevailed upon him a little the last year to fall
+      into the easy habit of dining at Bellamy&rsquo;s, which saves much time, and
+      permits the transaction of business in conversation with a congenial
+      friend. But he grudged it: he always thought that something would be said
+      or done in his absence, which would not have occurred had he been there;
+      some motion whisked through, or some return altered. His principle was
+      that a member should never be absent from his seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The session of &lsquo;48 had been one of unexampled length, having lasted ten
+      months, and, as usual under such circumstances, the obstacles to the
+      transaction of public business were sought everywhere except in the real
+      quarter. The forms of the House and the propensity to unnecessary
+      discussion among its members were chiefly denounced. Lord George Bentinck
+      did not agree in the justness of these criminations; they were eagerly
+      caught by the thoughtless and the superficial, but it was his habit to
+      investigate and analyze everything, and he found that these charges had no
+      basis. The forms of the House of Commons are the result of accumulated
+      experience and have rarely been tampered with successfully, while on the
+      other hand a parliamentary government is by name and nature essentially a
+      government of discussion. It is not at all difficult to conceive a mode of
+      governing a country more expeditious than by a parliament; but where truth
+      as well as strength is held to be an essential element of legislation,
+      opinion must be secured an unrestricted organ. Superfluity of debate may
+      often be inconvenient to a minister, and sometimes perhaps even
+      distasteful to the community; but criticizing such a security for justice
+      and liberty as a free-spoken parliament is like quarrelling with the
+      weather because there is too much rain or too much sunshine. The casual
+      inconvenience should be forgotten in the permanent blessing. Acting upon
+      these false imputations a committee was even appointed, two years ago, of
+      the most eminent members of the House of Commons, to investigate the
+      subject and suggest remedies, and some votaries of the Transatlantic type
+      recommended the adoption of the rules of Congress where each speaker is
+      limited to an hour. But an hour from an uninteresting speaker would be a
+      great infliction. The good sense and the good taste of the House of
+      Commons will be found on the whole to be the best regulators of the
+      duration of a debate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The truth is that the delay in the conduct of parliamentary business which
+      has been much complained of during the last few years, murmurs of which
+      were especially rife in 1848, is attributable to the fact that the
+      ministry, though formed of men inferior in point of ability to none who
+      could be reasonably intrusted with administration, had not sufficient
+      parliamentary strength. After all their deliberations and foresight,&mdash;after
+      all their observations of the times and study of the public interest,
+      their measures when launched from the cabinet into the House were not
+      received by a confiding majority, firm in their faith in the statesmanlike
+      qualities of the authors of these measures and in their sympathy with the
+      general political system of which the ministry was the representative. On
+      the contrary, the success of the measures depended on a* variety of
+      sections who in their aggregate exceeded in number and influence the party
+      of the ministers. These became critics and took the ministerial measures
+      in hand; the measures became, the measures, not of the cabinet, but of the
+      House of Commons; and a purely legislative assembly became, in consequence
+      of the weakness of the government, yearly more administrative. This was
+      undoubtedly a great evil, and occasioned, besides great delay, many crude
+      enactments, as will be the case where all are constructors and none are
+      responsible, but the evil was not occasioned by the forms of the House or
+      the length of the speeches. Sir Robert Peel was unquestionably a very able
+      administrator, but if he had not had a majority of ninety he would have
+      fallen in as ill repute as has been too often the lot of Lord John
+      Russell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord George Bentinck was very anxious that there should be a parliamentary
+      summary of this enormous and eventful session of &lsquo;48, that the conduct of
+      business by the ministry should be traced and criticized and the character
+      of the House of Commons vindicated, and he appealed to the writer of these
+      observations to undertake the task. But the writer was unwilling to accede
+      to this suggestion, not only because at the end of August he shrank from a
+      laborious effort, but principally because he did not hold that his
+      position in the House of Commons warranted on his part such an
+      interference, since, after all, he was only the comrade in arms of one who
+      chose to be only an independent member of the House. He therefore
+      unaffectedly stated that he thought the office was somewhat above his
+      measure. But Lord George Bentinck would not listen to these
+      representations. &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t pretend to know much,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;but I can judge
+      of men and horses.&rsquo; It is difficult to refuse those who are themselves
+      setting a constant example of self-sacrifice, and therefore, so far as the
+      labour was concerned, the writer would not have shrunk from the exertion
+      even on the last day of the month of August, and when the particular wish
+      of Lord George was found to be more general than the writer presumed to
+      suppose, he accordingly endeavoured to accomplish the intention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three or four days after this, the writer, about to leave London, called
+      at Harcourt House, to say farewell to his comrade in arms. He passed with
+      Lord George the whole morning, rather indulging in the contemplation of
+      the future than in retrospect. Lord George was serene, cheerful, and
+      happy. He was content with himself, which was rarely the case, and
+      remembered nothing of his career but its distinction, and the ennobling
+      sense of having done his duty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Any misunderstandings that may have for a moment irritated him seemed
+      forgotten; he appeared conscious that he possessed the confidence and
+      cordial regard of the great majority of the Protectionist party, although
+      he chose to occupy a private post, and he was proud of the consciousness.
+      He was still more sensible of the sympathy which he had created out of
+      doors, which he greatly appreciated, and to which, though with his usual
+      modesty, he more than once recurred. &lsquo;The thing is to get the people out
+      of doors with you,&rsquo; he repeated, &lsquo;men like the merchants; all the rest
+      follow.&rsquo; It was evident that the success of his colonial committee had
+      greatly satisfied his spirit. He had received that day the vote of thanks
+      of the West-India body for his exertions. He said more than once, that
+      with a weak government, a parliamentary committee properly worked might do
+      wonders. He said he would have a committee on import duties next year, and
+      have all the merchants to show what share the foreigners had obtained of
+      the reductions that had been made of late years. He maintained, that,
+      quite irrespective of the general arrangements of the new commercial
+      system, Sir Robert Peel had thrown away a great revenue on a number of
+      articles of very inferior importance, and he would prove this to the
+      country. He said our colonial empire ought to be reconstructed by a total
+      abolition of all duties on produce from her Majesty&rsquo;s dominions abroad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All his ideas were large, clear, and coherent. He dwelt much on the
+      vicissitudes which most attend all merely foreign trade, which, though it
+      should be encouraged, ought not to be solely relied on, as was the fashion
+      of this day. Looking upon war as occasionally inevitable, he thought a
+      commercial system based upon the presumption of perpetual peace to be full
+      of ruin. His policy was essentially imperial and not cosmopolitan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About to part probably for many months, and listening to him as he spoke,
+      according to his custom, with so much fervour and sincerity, one could not
+      refrain from musing over his singular and sudden career. It was not three
+      years since he had in an instant occupied the minds of men. No series of
+      parliamentary labours had ever produced so much influence in the country
+      in so short a time. Never was a reputation so substantial built up in so
+      brief a period. AH the questions with which he had dealt were colossal
+      questions: the laws that should regulate competition between native and
+      foreign labour; the interference of the state in the development of the
+      resources of Ireland; the social and commercial condition of our tropical
+      colonies; the principles upon which our revenue should be raised; the laws
+      which should regulate and protect our navigation. But it was not that he
+      merely expressed opinions upon these subjects; he came forward with
+      details in support of his principles and policy, which it had before been
+      believed none but a minister could command. Instead of experiencing the
+      usual and almost inevitable doom of private members of Parliament, and
+      having his statements shattered by official information, Lord George
+      Bentinck on the contrary, was the assailant, and the successful assailant,
+      of an administration on these very heads. He often did their work more
+      effectually than all their artificial training enabled them to do it. His
+      acute research, and his peculiar sources of information, roused the
+      vigilance of all the public offices of the country. Since his time, there
+      has been more care in preparing official returns, and in arranging the
+      public correspondence placed on the table of the House of Commons.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When one remembered that in this room, not three years ago, he was trying
+      to find a lawyer who would make a speech for him in Parliament, it was
+      curious to remember that no one in the period had probably addressed the
+      House of Commons oftener. Though his manner, which was daily improving,
+      was not felicitous in the House, the authority of his intellect, his
+      knowledge, and his character, made him one of the great personages of
+      debate; but with the country who only read his speeches he ranked high as
+      an orator. It is only those who have had occasion critically to read and
+      examine the long series of his speeches who can be conscious of their
+      considerable merits. The information is always full and often fresh, the
+      scope large, the argument close, and the style, though simple, never bald,
+      but vigorous, idiomatic, and often picturesque. He had not credit for this
+      in his day, but the passages which have been quoted in this sketch will
+      prove the justness of this criticism. As a speaker and writer, his
+      principal need was condensation. He could not bear that anything should
+      remain untold. He was deficient in taste, but he had fervour of feeling,
+      and was by no means void of imagination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The writer, in his frequent communications with him of faithful and
+      unbounded confidence, was often reminded of the character by Mr. Burke of
+      my Lord Keppell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The labours of Lord George Bentinck had been supernatural, and one ought
+      perhaps to have felt then that it was impossible they could be continued
+      on such a scale of exhaustion; but no friend could control his eager life
+      in this respect; he obeyed the law of his vehement and fiery nature, being
+      one of those men who in whatever they undertake know no medium, but will
+      &lsquo;succeed or die.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But why talk here and now of death! He goes to his native county and his
+      father&rsquo;s proud domain, to breathe the air of his boyhood and move amid the
+      parks and meads of his youth. Every breeze will bear health, and the sight
+      of every hallowed haunt will stimulate his pulse. He is scarcely older
+      than Julius Cæsar when he commenced his public career, he looks as high
+      and brave, and he springs from a long-lived race.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood upon the <i>perron</i> of Harcourt House, the last of the great
+      hotels of an age of stately dwellings with its wings, and court-yard, and
+      carriage portal, and huge outward walls. He put forth his hand to bid
+      farewell, and his last words were characteristic of the man&mdash;of his
+      warm feelings and of his ruling passion: &lsquo;God bless you; we must work, and
+      the country will come round us.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     <i>The Curtain Falls</i>
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      THE heavens darken; a new character enters upon the scene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They say that when great men arise they have a mission to accomplish and
+      do not disappear until it is fulfilled. Yet this is not always true. After
+      all his deep study and his daring action Mr. Hampden died on an obscure
+      field, almost before the commencement of that mighty struggle which he
+      seemed born to direct. In the great contention between the patriotic and
+      the cosmopolitan principle which has hardly begun, and on the issue of
+      which the fate of this island as a powerful community depends, Lord George
+      Ben-tinck appeared to be produced to represent the traditionary influences
+      of our country in their most captivating form. Born a natural leader of
+      the people, he was equal to the post. Free from prejudices, his large mind
+      sympathized with all classes of the realm. His courage and his constancy
+      were never surpassed by man. He valued life only as a means of fulfilling
+      duty, and truly it may be said of him, that he feared none but God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few days after the interview noticed in the last chapter, Lord George
+      Bentinck returned to Welbeck. Some there were who thought him worn by the
+      exertions of the session, and that an unusual pallor had settled upon that
+      mantling and animated countenance. He himself never felt in better health
+      or was ever in higher spirits, and greatly enjoyed the change of life, and
+      that change to a scene so dear to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 21 st of September, after breakfasting with his family, he retired
+      to his room, where he employed himself With some papers, and then wrote
+      three letters, one to Lord Enfield, another to the Duke of Richmond, and
+      the third to the writer of these pages. That letter is now at hand; it is
+      of considerable length, consisting of seven sheets of note-paper, full of
+      interesting details of men and things, and written not only in a cheerful
+      but even a merry mood. Then, when his letters were sealed, about four
+      o&rsquo;clock he took his staff and went forth to walk to Thoresby, the seat of
+      Lord Manvers, distant between five and six miles from Welbeck, where Lord
+      George was to make a visit of two days. In consequence of this his valet
+      drove over to Thoresby at the same time to meet his master. But the master
+      never came. Hours passed on and the master never came. At length the
+      anxious servant returned to Welbeck, and called up the groom who had
+      driven him over to Thoresby and who was in bed, and inquired whether he
+      had seen anything of Lord George on the way back, as his lord had never
+      reached Thoresby. The groom got up, and accompanied by the valet and two
+      others took lanthorns, and followed the footpath which they had seen Lord
+      George pursuing as they themselves went to Thoresby.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About a mile from the Abbey, on the path which they had observed him
+      following, lying close to the gate which separates a water meadow from the
+      deer-park, they found the body of Lord George Bentinck. He was lying on
+      his face; his arms were under his body, and in one hand he grasped his
+      walking-stick. His hat was a yard or two before him, having evidently been
+      thrown off in falling. The body was cold and stiff. He had been long dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A woodman and some peasants passing near the spot, about two hundred yards
+      from the gate in question, had observed Lord George, whom at the distance
+      they had mistaken for his brother the Marquis of Titchfield, leaning
+      against this gate. It was then about half-past four o&rsquo;clock, or it might
+      be a quarter to five, so he could not have left his home much more than
+      half an hour. The woodman and his companions thought &lsquo;the gentleman&rsquo; was
+      reading, as he held his head down. One of them lingered for a minute
+      looking at the gentleman, who then turned round, and might have seen these
+      passers-by, but he made no sign to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus it seems that the attack, which was supposed to be a spasm of the
+      heart, was not instantaneous in its effects, but with proper remedies
+      might have been baffled. Terrible to think of him in his death-struggle
+      without aid, and so near a devoted hearth! For that hearth, too, what an
+      impending future!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The terrible news reached Nottingham on the morning of the 22nd, at
+      half-past nine o&rsquo;clock, and, immediately telegraphed to London, was
+      announced by a second edition of the &lsquo;Times&rsquo; to the country. Consternation
+      and deep grief fell upon all men. One week later, the remains arrived from
+      Welbeck at Harcourt House, to be entombed in the family vault of the
+      Bentincks, that is to be found in a small building in a dingy street, now
+      a chapel of ease, but in old days the parish church among the fields of
+      the pretty village of Marylebone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day of interment was dark, and cold, and drizzling. Although the last
+      offices were performed in the most scrupulously private manner, the
+      feelings of the community could not be repressed. From nine till eleven
+      o&rsquo;clock that day all the British shipping in the docks and the river, from
+      London Bridge to Gravesend, hoisted their flags half-mast high, and minute
+      guns were fired from appointed stations along the Thames. The same
+      mournful ceremony was observed in all the ports of England and Ireland;
+      and not only in these, for the flag was half-mast high on every British
+      ship at Antwerp, at Rotterdam, and at Havre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ere the last minute gun sounded, all was over. Followed to his tomb by
+      those brothers who, if not consoled, might at this moment be sustained by
+      the remembrance that to him they had ever been brothers not only in name
+      but in spirit, the vault at length closed on the mortal remains of <i>George
+      Bentinck</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One who stood by his side in an arduous and unequal struggle, who often
+      shared his councils and sometimes perhaps soothed his cares, who knew well
+      the greatness of his nature and esteemed his friendship among the chief of
+      worldly blessings, has stepped aside from the strife and passion of public
+      life to draw up this record of his deeds and thoughts, that those who come
+      after us may form some conception of his character and career, and trace
+      in these faithful though imperfect pages the portraiture of an <i>English
+      Worthy</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
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