Memoirs of the Court of George IV. 1820-1830 Part 40

THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

July 15, 1822.

As far as I can judge from my conversations with Canning, he is perfectly _in earnest_ with respect to his intended voyage, and much as I regret it for the country, I think that considering the great personal disinclination both of the King and (I believe) the Duke of York towards him, the unstable nature of the Government, and the state of his own affairs, the course he pursues is far the best for his own interests. I think I told you that both Liverpool and Londonderry evidently considered the completion of this appointment as a great advantage gained, and were in high spirits on the occasion.

It cannot be doubted that Peel and Lord Bathurst strongly partic.i.p.ate in this feeling, and that the Chancellor carries it a good deal farther. Under these circ.u.mstances, the Duke of Wellington is the only man of any weight in the Cabinet, of whose co-operation in a plan for retaining Canning in this country there could be a hope, and without that, we could not hold out such a probability of success as alone could justify any communication to Canning, or expectation that he would listen to it. If it could be effected, I have no hesitation in saying that it would be a measure of great benefit to the country.

I have lately heard much general rumour of disinclination on the part of certain members of the Cabinet who are not cordial towards as, and of Peel's having said that things would not go on well till they had got rid of the Grenvilles. This I do not believe, as he is much too cautious a man to commit himself by such a speech, but I cannot but admit that the coldness and reserve of his manner to me make me think that the opinion, though not uttered, is not unlikely to be entertained by him. He a.s.sures me that he still continues in the same complete ignorance as to the persons lately arrested in Ireland. The only depositions transmitted are those of persons who believe them to be engaged in a traitorous conspiracy for the overthrow of the Government; but what the facts against them are, whether any papers have been taken, whether any of them have given information, and even whether they have been examined before the Privy Council, the Lord Lieutenant has not judged it necessary to inform him. It is evident things cannot go on in this way, and I do not think it unlikely that Peel is lying back in order to make as strong a case as he can, before he attacks Lord W----, after which he would more easily overturn us.

The last resolution was, I believe, in favour of the visit to Scotland, but not to stir beyond Edinburgh.

I am very glad that you are satisfied with the alterations in the Irish Constables Bill. I think you quite right in your plan of writing a letter to Plunket to explain your general views with respect to Ireland. He must remember that he is Attorney-General, and from his character ought to be House of Commons Minister for that country, besides being representative of that shabby body called Trinity College. He cannot conceal from himself the resolution of the Irish members, and indeed of the House, to force the t.i.the question, and that the only thing in his power to determine is, whether the Government will take the conduct and management of the business to themselves or leave it to the Opposition.

I have entered in this letter more fully into our position than I otherwise should, as you mention that it will reach you in _safety_. I never know exactly how far the post is to be trusted, but the time which elapses between putting in the letters and their dispatch by the mail is so _very short_, that I think, unless under very particular circ.u.mstances indeed, there can be little chance of private correspondence being violated. I know that it _can_ be done, but believe it very seldom is.

Arbuthnot spoke to Phillimore of the good disposition of Lord Liverpool and Londonderry towards us, as in contrast to some other members of the Cabinet, and Plunket has evidently taken the same opinion.

THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

East India Board, July 20, 1822.

MY DEAR B----,

Before Plunket left town, I had a conversation with him on the subject of the Armagh arrest, mentioned in my last, and found him very much inclined to fear that it had taken place on insufficient evidence, particularly of one individual who represents himself as having become a Protestant three or four years ago, but to have continued an ostensible Papist for the purpose of penetrating and betraying the Catholic plots now carrying on. The arrest was made by a Colonel Blacker, one of the most furious Orange agents, and of course the trial must take place at Armagh, by a red-hot Orange jury, which it may be expected will convict, however slight the case may be, and which will not obtain credit for having done justice even if the evidence be sufficient.

It is scarcely possible to make any complaint of Peel's manner, as though it is cold and reserved, I should be told that it is such to others, and that to notice it would only increase the evil. The reports which I mentioned of his conversation, are such as I do not myself believe to be true, though they may be founded upon what the inventors of them believe and hope to be his ulterior wishes.

The King is to be attended in Scotland by Peel and Lord Melville, but not to pay any visits; he is to be quartered at Dalkeith, and his suite in Holyrood House. We are, in consideration of the reversal of the Scotch attainders, to signalize his visit, but this is all undecided as yet.

Ever affectionately yours,

C. W. W.

THE RIGHT HON. W. H. FREMANTLE TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

House of Commons, July 23, 1822.

MY DEAR DUKE,

I have delayed answering your letter for some days, because I wished to ascertain the ground, and see how the thing looked before you ventured to take any steps with regard to communicating with so slippery and uncertain a man as C----. The fact is, you may be a.s.sured that he has the best disposition to trip these people up, but I am persuaded he will not be able to do it; and they are fully aware of his designs. My own opinion is, that no overture or communication will be had with him--there is no part of the Government who wish for his connexion. They find the strength and power of Peel have completely answered their purpose, and with more popularity and feeling of the House than the other would have done; and above all, be a.s.sured there is a mortal antipathy against C---- in the K----. All these circ.u.mstances combined would, in my judgment, not make it worth your while to attempt any movement through him, or to have any communication with him.

I cannot but think that Wynn is gaining strength in the Cabinet, and the best support he has is, in my opinion, Lord Londonderry's, which would be totally destroyed by any underhand communication with C----; and your seeing him or corresponding with him would have that effect. I should, therefore, on the whole, strongly advise all abstainment from all connexion with him.

Things look a great deal better than they did, though the K----, I should fear, is not quite in the good humour he was. He dislikes the journey to Scotland, and I have no idea why they plagued him to take it (which is said to have been the case). The intention is now only to stay in Scotland ten days, and visit no one. Peel and Lord Melville are the Ministers who attend him. He is to make a public entry into Edinburgh, but to live entirely at Dalkeith House.

I don't know the names of all his retinue in the yacht, but Lord Fife is invited to be one of his companions, and goes accordingly.

The Marchioness of C---- is going to Ireland, by Scotland, therefore I should not be surprised if _accident_ brings her to Edinburgh, about the same time.

We shall not adjourn this House till Friday week. I shall get out of town on Tuesday, I hope. Everybody but Hume and Bennett are sick to death of it, and literally every other Opposition man gone out of town.

I hope your sailing has done you a great deal of good, and that I shall have the pleasure of hearing you are quite re-established.

Ever most truly yours,

W. H. F.

THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

East India Board, July 26, 1822.

MY DEAR B----,

It was yesterday determined that Lord Londonderry should attend the Congress at Vienna, upon which subject _strict secrecy_ was recommended; but it was observed that it had on Tuesday night been communicated by Lord Francis Conyngham to all the ladies at the opera-house.

We have accounts of the Prince Royal of Portugal having been addressed to take on him the t.i.tle of Perpetual Regent of Brazil, to which he graciously consents, provided it shall appear to be the will of the people. The probable consequence will be his exclusion from the throne of Portugal, which there has been already a strong disposition to p.r.o.nounce.

The Cortes of Spain, though in possession of full evidence of the King and French Minister's share in the late attempt of the Guards to effect a counter-revolution, and even of his having placed each of his Ministers in separate confinement during the whole of the night of the attack, seem to think the time not yet ripe to get rid of him, and therefore conceal everything. If they are obliged to dispose of him before the country will allow them to proclaim a republic, they are many of them disposed to propose a union of the Peninsula under the King of Portugal, as the most inefficient shadow of royalty that can be set up.

Bobus Smith the other night proposed a caricature of a private conference between Hume and Vansittart as a dialogue of penny-wise and pound-foolish.

I see no reason to doubt Canning's going to India. His writ will, I believe, be moved the last day of the session, and as the K---- is going for Scotland immediately afterwards, there will be no room left for intrigue to avert it. The Duke of Wellington is the only one who has appeared to me at all sensible of the loss we shall experience in him, and he speaks of him as being nearly useless out of the walls of the House.

The town was startled in the month of August by a terrible incident.

The Marquis of Londonderry, on the 12th of the month, terminated his existence by his own hand, at one of his residences, North Cray Farm, near Bexley, Kent, in the fifty-third year of his age. The elevated position he had filled for many years in the Government of this great empire, had made him a prominent mark for the malicious shafts of those who had, or fancied they had, an interest in opposing his policy.

During his long and most honourable career, no statesman had accomplished such a series of important services. The Legislative Union of Great Britain and Ireland, had it been suffered to bear the fruit which only came to perfection thirty years later, was a measure of such vital importance to the State, that its successful settlement under the extraordinary circ.u.mstances which attended its discussion, ent.i.tled him to rank with the ablest ministers of his time; but eminently sagacious and beneficial as was this measure, it was thrown into the shade by the success of subsequent calculations of Lord Castlereagh, first as Secretary-at-War, and then as Foreign Secretary, which effected the overthrow of that brilliant genius by whom his country had so long been menaced. These services appear to have called into existence hosts of political enemies, imbued with the vindictive spirit that prevailed at this period, from whose attacks he was rarely free. They included in their ranks many of a younger generation of adventurers--quite as depreciatory in their opinions, if not as malicious--who regarded his downfall as affording an opening in the direction of place and power.

Nothing could exceed the manliness of his bearing in the unequal conflict in which every session he found himself engaged, unless it is to be looked for in the inexhaustible amiability that characterized his relations with the most implacable of his foes. It is, however, evident that as his health began to fail from the long course of exhausting labours which his office imposed upon him, he became more sensitive to such provocations, and though he carefully concealed it from outward view, an increasing irritability affected his whole nervous system.

The melancholy result, though unfortunately too easily explained, excited reports as ingenious as malevolent, to account for its suddenness, but like the injustice to his memory he has received from rivals or successors, who sought to raise a reputation by advocating an adverse policy, they had but a brief existence. As a statesman, as a gentleman, as a man, the Marquis of Londonderry was the Bayard of political chivalry, _sans peur et sans reproche_, and it reflects no slight disgrace on this monument-rearing age, that neither in the land of his nativity nor in that of his adoption has any memorial been raised worthy of his fame.

The characters of few public men have been so unfairly treated; his political opponents, numbering among them many writers of great ability and influence, have allowed their judgments to be warped by party animosity, and have descended to misrepresentation to an extent truly pitiable. Thus his countrymen have received impressions of his policy and administrative capacity during his long and arduous career, totally at variance with the truth.[88] One writer of eminence has, however, recently stepped forward to uphold his fame with emphatic earnestness, and we make no apology for inserting here his estimate of this distinguished and much-maligned statesman:

[88] His best advocate will be found in "The Castlereagh Despatches," in twelve volumes, edited by his brother, the late Marquis.

"His whole life was a continual struggle with the majority of his own or foreign lands: he combated to subdue or to bless them. He began his career by strenuous efforts to effect the Irish Union, and rescue his native country from the incapable Legislature by which its energies had so long been repressed. His mature strength was exerted in a long and desperate conflict with the despotism of revolutionary France, which his firmness as much as the arm of Wellington brought to a triumphant issue; his latter days in a ceaseless conflict with the revolutionary spirit in his own country, and an anxious effort to uphold the dignity of Great Britain and the independence of lesser States abroad. The uncompromising antagonist of Radicalism at home, he was at the same time the resolute opponent of despotism abroad. If Poland retained after the overthrow of Napoleon any remnant of nationality, it was owing to his persevering and almost unaided efforts, and at the very time when the savage wretches who raised a shout at his funeral were rejoicing at his death, he had been preparing to a.s.sert at Verona, as he had done to the Congresses of Laybach and Troppau, the independent action of Great Britain, and her non-accordance in the policy of the Continental sovereigns against the efforts of human freedom.

"His policy in domestic affairs was marked by the same far-seeing wisdom, the same intrepid resistance to the blindness of present clamour. He made the most strenuous efforts to uphold the Sinking Fund--that n.o.ble monument of Mr. Pitt's patriotic foresight; had those efforts been successful, the whole National Debt would have been paid off by the year 1845, and the nation _for ever_ have been freed from the payment of thirty millions a-year for its interest. He resisted with a firm hand, and at the expense of present popularity with the mult.i.tude, the efforts of faction during the seven trying years which followed the close of the war, and bequeathed the const.i.tution, after a season of peculiar danger, unshaken to his successors. The firm friend of freedom, he was on that very account the resolute opponent of democracy, the insidious enemy which, under the guise of a friend, has in every age blasted its progress and destroyed its substance.

Discerning the princ.i.p.al cause of the distress which had occasioned these convulsions, his last act was one that bequeathed to his country a currency adequate to its necessities, and which he alone of his Cabinet had the honesty to admit was a departure from former error.

Elegant and courteous in his manners, with a n.o.ble figure and finely chiselled countenance, he was beloved in his family circle and by all his friends, not less than respected by the wide circle of sovereigns and statesmen with whom he had so worthily upheld the honour and dignity of England."[89]

[89] Alison's "History of Europe," vol. ii. p. 526.

Lord Londonderry's colleagues entertained a similar opinion:--"Our own country and Europe," writes one of the most sagacious of them, "have suffered a loss, in my opinion irreparable. I had a great affection for him, and he deserved it from me, for to me he showed an uniform kindness, of which no other colleague's conduct furnished an example."[90]

[90] Twiss's "Life of Lord Eldon," vol. ii. p. 73.