The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald Volume II Part 11

To this end he wrote again to Sir James Graham, and also for the first time to the Earl of Aberdeen, on the 30th of December. "The pertinacious resistance made at Sebastopol, and the possibility of events that may still further disappoint expectation," he said to Sir James, "have induced me to address Lord Aberdeen, saying that 'if it is the opinion of the Cabinet, or of those whom they consult on military affairs, that, failing the early capture of Sebastopol, the British army may be in danger, I offer to the discernment of the Cabinet my still secret plans of attack,' whereby the garrisons would be expelled from the forts or annihilated, in defiance of numerical force, and possession obtained, at least during sufficient time to enable the chief defences to be blown up and the harbour fleet to be destroyed. If you will so far favour me, I should be gratified by having an opportunity of demonstrating to your strong mind, free from professional bias, the fact that combustible ships may be not only placed on a parity with stone forts fitted to fire red-hot shot, but secured from injury more effectually than if incased in iron."

Sir James Graham's answer was, like its forerunners, complimentary, but nothing more. "I can never cease," he wrote, "to do justice to your patriotic desire to serve your country, which is evinced by your desire to encounter, in your own person, the dangers attendant on your experiment, and not to transfer the hazard of the enterprise to others." But to the enterprise itself he would give no sanction. "Your plans," he said, "by my desire were submitted to the consideration of most competent naval and military officers, whose impartial judgment cannot be impugned, and, on the whole, they did not recommend the trial of the experiment which you are anxious to make. Neither Lord Aberdeen nor I can venture to place our individual opinions in opposition to a recorded judgment of the highest authority on a question which is purely professional. I see no advantage, therefore, in renewing the discussion with you at the present moment."

Had the "impartial judgment" by which Sir James Graham held himself bound been adverse to the principle of Lord Dundonald's plans, or declared them to be anything more than "inexpedient in present circ.u.mstances," more weight might have been attached to it; although even then he could have pointed to the opposite verdict, given in 1847, by other judges quite as impartial and competent, who, while objecting to part of them on the score of their deadly efficacy, had officially announced their belief in the applicability of another part--the part of which Lord Dundonald now proposed to make most use--and recommended its adoption "when the opportunity of employing it may occur."

He therefore refused to be thwarted in his efforts to render to his country the great service that he considered to be in his power, and Sir Charles Napier's removal from the command of the Baltic fleet, in January, 1855, gave him an opportunity of offering to use that power under conditions that would relieve the Admiralty of all direct responsibility in the event of his failure. "I am much gratified," he said in another letter to Sir James Graham, "to learn that her most gracious Majesty has been pleased to reserve the high dignity of Admiral of the Fleet as a reward for services. Under this impression, permit me to solicit the favour of being allowed to contend for that distinction, not by reference again to opinions, which may prove fallacious, but by actual experimental proof of the safety and facility of a.s.sailing fortifications by my secret plans. By them, the damage and loss of life sustained by the allied squadron in their late attack on the fortifications of Sebastopol might have been partly if not wholly averted, and probably a tenfold destruction inflicted on the enemy. If this is admitted--and I do not think it can be disputed--I hope you will allow me to demonstrate the general applicability of these simple, comparatively costless, and in my opinion infallible means of annihilating the power of all kinds of batteries that can be approached to windward within half a mile. These plans have been entertained and pondered over by me during forty years, and now again I offer to explain, to test, and to put them in execution."

Sir James Graham's answer was very terse. "I have had the honour," he wrote on the 23rd of January, "of receiving your lordship's letter, in which you tender your services to take command of the Baltic Fleet. I consider the tender highly honourable to you; but I cannot give any other a.s.surance."

No other a.s.surance would have been of any avail. The Earl of Aberdeen's Cabinet, having lost the confidence of the country, was dissolved almost immediately after that letter was written, to be replaced by an Administration in which Lord Palmerston was Premier, and Sir Charles Wood First Lord of the Admiralty.

To Lord Palmerston the Earl of Dundonald wrote on the 13th of February. "The high position of our country being at stake on the result of the war," he said, "and our long-established naval renown pledged on the successful conduct of affairs in the Baltic, I addressed my kind friend Lord Lansdowne, who has been long conversant with the objects which, by his advice, I now offer to your lordship's notice as First Minister of the Crown, conjointly, if you judge proper, with that of the Cabinet over which you preside." He then briefly described the principle of his secret plan, adding, "I respectfully offer to execute this plan, and answer for its success, against Cronstadt, and against all minor strongholds in the Baltic."

Four weeks elapsed before that letter was answered. In the meanwhile Lord Dundonald, beginning to despair of a satisfactory hearing from any Minister of State, unless he was induced thereto by a popular demand, addressed a pet.i.tion to the House of Commons, urging the importance of his plans, and praying for "a searching inquiry, to ascertain whether the aforesaid secret plans are capable speedily, certainly, and cheaply to surmount obstacles which our gallant, persevering, and costly armies and fleets have failed to accomplish."

His reasons for so doing he explained in a letter addressed to the "Times" on the 10th of March.

"Peace," he there said, "being desirable not only for the interests of our country, but for those of the world at large, and the negotiations now pending being doubtless injuriously influenced by the obstinate resistance of Sebastopol (which could be overcome in a day), and by the impossibility of successfully attacking Cronstadt by naval means (which might be as speedily reduced), I have drawn up a pet.i.tion to Parliament in order that secrecy and silence on my part, and deficiency of information on that of the public, may no longer prove injurious to the success of our arms. Hostilities having proceeded so far, a.s.suredly it is more expedient to reduce a restless nation to a third- or fourth-rate power, than be ourselves reduced. Let not my motive be mistaken. I have no wish to command a fleet of 100-gun ships, or to attack first-rate fortresses by incased batteries or steam gunboats. That which I desire is, first, secretly to demonstrate to competent persons the efficiency of my plans, and then to obtain authority, during eight or ten days of fine weather, to put them in execution. The means I contemplate are simple, cheap, and safe. They would spare thousands of lives, millions of money, great havoc and uncertainty of results. Their consequences might, and probably would, effect the emanc.i.p.ation of Poland, and give freedom to the usurped territories of Sweden. Those who judge unfavourably of all aged naval commanders a.s.suredly do not reflect that the useful employment of the energies of thousands and tens of thousands of men can best be developed and directed by a mind instructed by long observation matured by reflection;--an advantage to which physical power, that could clear its way by a broadsword, can bear no comparison. My unsupported opinion in regard to a naval enterprise in 1809 proved to be correct. Every other undertaking in the British service, and as Commander-in-Chief in Chili, Peru, Brazil, and Greece, was successful, and so would the protracted and unaccomplished undertaking, so injurious to the result of negotiation, have succeeded, had I possessed sufficient influence to be patiently listened to."

The pet.i.tion aroused much interest among the public, but was unheeded by the House of Commons, and therefore produced very slight effect on the Ministry. "My published pet.i.tion," wrote Lord Dundonald to Viscount Palmerston on the 17th of March, "has brought me numerous letters, and, amongst others, a communication, I believe from high authority, that if I do know any means whereby to spare the slaughter that must take place on storming Sebastopol, I ought to make it known.

I wish I could impart to your lordship what I feel under the present circ.u.mstances, and how anxiously I desire that a speedy decision may succeed the lingering delays that I have so long endured."

A few days after that, chiefly through the a.s.sistance of his friend Lord Brougham, Lord Dundonald obtained an interview with Lord Palmerston, at which he further detailed his plans, and urged that they should be promptly employed in hastening a conclusion of the war with Russia. To Lord Palmerston he also wrote again on the 31st of March. "It has occurred to me," he said, "that the supposed inhumanity of my plans may have caused the use of the word 'inexpedient' in the report of the commission appointed in July last by the Admiralty, and may even now influence the decision of the Cabinet. Perhaps another view may have been taken of the consequences of divulging my plans, as regards the security of this kingdom." To these possible objections he urged that no conduct that brought to a speedy termination a war which might otherwise last for years, and be attended by terrible bloodshed in numerous battles, could be called inhuman; and that the most powerful means of averting invasion, and, indeed, all future war, would be the introduction of a method of fighting which, rendering all vigorous defence impossible, would frighten every nation from running the risks of warfare at all.

Those arguments appear to have had some weight; but, after further correspondence, Lord Palmerston's Government, like all the other Governments to which they had been offered, refused to put the plans in execution. Further evidence in their favour was obtained from some eminent scientific men; and it was put beyond dispute that, though they might not have such deadly efficacy as Lord Dundonald antic.i.p.ated--on which point the critics spoke with hesitation--they could not fail, if properly applied, in producing very important results. But it was all in vain. All that Lord Palmerston would agree to was to have the experiment tried on a small scale at Sebastopol, and by two Engineer officers who were to be instructed in their work by Lord Dundonald. Lord Dundonald consented to the trial, if it was conducted by his son, Captain the Honourable Arthur Cochrane, R.N. But this was not agreed to, and the whole project fell to the ground.

At that result Lord Dundonald was hardly more disappointed than was a large section of the English public. Friends and strangers, soldiers, sailors, newspaper writers, and merchants, wrote to him from London, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Birmingham, Belfast, and all other parts of the kingdom, urging that, if the enterprise was not undertaken by Government, it should be executed by means of a private subscription.

"I am perfectly convinced," wrote one, "that you can do all the injury to the Russian fortifications that you say you can do. If miserable jealousy at the Admiralty refuses you the means, take them from those who, like myself, are very proud to be your countrymen. I am not a rich man, but I shall gladly subscribe one hundred pounds to any scheme that you will propose and carry out yourself." "If your lordship will appeal to the country," wrote another, "in less than a week you will receive subscriptions to any amount. You will then be independent of Government routine, and the public will, without further delay, have an opportunity of testing the value of your invention, towards which the eyes of all Europe are anxiously turned at the present juncture."

Those suggestions, and the evidence afforded by them of a widespread sympathy in his efforts to render a last great service to his country, afforded real satisfaction to Lord Dundonald; but their adoption was quite impossible. As a British officer, he could not for a moment think of entering upon a warlike project independently of the State.

Therefore he left the work on which his heart was set undone, and soon--though by no means so soon as he could have made it--the Russian war was brought to a conclusion.

Whatever may have been the cause of the rejection of his offer to hasten that conclusion by means of his secret war-plans, the Earl of Dundonald experienced no lack of personal courtesy during the period of the correspondence, or throughout the brief remainder of his life.

His closing years were cheered by many acts by which was nearly completed the tardy reparation for former injuries which was begun with his reinstatement in the navy by King William IV., and in which the most gratifying circ.u.mstance of all was the restoration of his honours as a Knight of the Bath by her gracious Majesty Queen Victoria.

"The death of Sir Byam Martin, and the promotion of Sir William Gage to the office of Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom," wrote Sir James Graham on the 23rd of October, 1854, "vacate the appointment of Rear-Admiral. It is an honorary distinction; and your standing in the naval service and your gallant achievements ent.i.tle you to this reward. I have taken her Majesty's pleasure, and the Queen has graciously approved my recommendation. I propose, therefore, with your lordship's permission, that you shall be gazetted Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom." "I accept the proposed honour with grat.i.tude to her Majesty and with thanks to you," answered Lord Dundonald, on the 24th.

"Permit me, however, to express a hope that such distinction shall not preclude my further service to the Crown and country, which long and matured consideration on professional subjects a.s.sures me I could now perform even more effectually than at an earlier period."

A month later he was honoured by a compliment from one who, kind and gracious in all his acts, had never failed in showing towards him special grace and kindness. "My dear lord," wrote Prince Albert on the 26th of November, "a vacancy has occurred in the list of Honorary Brethren of the Trinity House, by the lamented death of Sir Byam Martin. It has always been customary in that corporation to have the Royal Navy represented amongst the Elder Brethren by one of its most distinguished officers. I therefore write to inquire whether it would be agreeable to you to be elected a member of that body; as I should, in that case, have much pleasure in proposing, as Master of the Corporation, your name for the election of the Elder Brethren. Believe me always, my dear lord, yours truly,--Albert."

"May it please your Royal Highness," Lord Dundonald wrote in reply, on the 27th, "to accept my dutiful and most grateful thanks for the honour your Royal Highness is pleased to confer. I a.s.sure your Royal Highness that I shall ever look forward with anxiety to prove my devotion and grat.i.tude to her most gracious Majesty, for signal acts of justice and favour, and to your Royal Highness for this highly-appreciated mark of your consideration."

A token of the estimation in which Lord Dundonald was at length held by all cla.s.ses of his countrymen may here be recorded. After frequent refusal, on the ground of his age and love of privacy, he consented, in May, 1856, to seek admission to the United Service Club. Its members, thereupon, at once resolved, at the proposal of Vice-Admiral Sir George F. Seymour, which was seconded by Lieutenant-General Sir C. F. Smith, "to invite that highly-distinguished officer, Admiral the Earl of Dundonald, to become an honorary member of the Club, until the time of his lordship's ballot takes place."

In spite of compliments like these, however, it was his earnest desire that, before his life was ended, every shadow which had darkened it might be cleared away, and that he might not pa.s.s into the grave without the a.s.surance that he was formally, and in every respect, acquitted of the unjust charges brought against him nearly half a century before. While one single consequence of those charges remained in force, he considered that he was not so acquitted, and with this object he laboured to the last.

"I venture to remind your lordship," he wrote to Lord Palmerston, on the 26th of May, "that the undeviating rect.i.tude of my conduct through a long life has already induced the Crown, in the exercise of its justice, to restore my rank and honours. There yet remains, my dear lord, a gracious and important act to perform, namely, to order my banner to be replaced in King Henry VII.'s Chapel, and to direct the repayment of the fine inflicted by the Court of King's Bench, and the restoration of my half-pay suspended during my removal from the naval service. Unless these be done, I shall descend to my grave with the consciousness, not only that justice has not fully been done to me, but under the painful conviction that its omission will be construed to the injury of my character in the estimation of posterity.

Independently of the justice of this claim on its own merits, I venture to express a hope that your lordship will admit that, during my temporary absence from the naval service, my exertions tended materially to promote the interests of our country by opening to commerce the ports of the Pacific and those of all the northern provinces of Brazil."

The appeal was unsuccessful. The part of it having reference to the replacement of Lord Dundonald's banner in Westminster Abbey was considered by Lord Palmerston to be a question with which it was not in his province to deal. "With regard to the fine," he said, "I am afraid that there are no funds out of which it could be repaid, and I should doubt there being any precedent for such a proceeding; and I find, on inquiry, that pay or half-pay has not been granted to any naval officer for any period during which he may have been out of the service." That reply induced Lord Dundonald to write again to Lord Palmerston on the 7th of June. "I submit," he then said, "that, the fine being imposed for an alleged offence of which I was wholly innocent, it ought to be repaid, even if there be no special fund appropriated to such a purpose. The peculiarity of my case may account for there being no precedent for such a proceeding, if none there be.

The same peculiarity may distinguish my case from that of all other naval officers to whom no pay or half-pay has been allowed for any period during which they may have been out of the service. I may have been the only naval officer unjustly expelled, and a.s.suredly I have been the only one so expelled after manifesting, by various acts, a truly patriotic zeal for the honour and interest of our country. No other naval officer, after such acts, was ever expelled the service and otherwise punished on mere conjectural evidence, since demonstrated to have been utterly groundless. I submit that instances have occurred of military officers recovering pay or half-pay after unjust expulsion, as in the case of Sir Robert Wilson; and I am not aware of the existence of any cause for a distinction in this respect between the two services. I feel the deepest grat.i.tude and satisfaction that my life has been spared to a period when I may reasonably hope that the portion of justice yet due to me for the erroneous verdict and its injurious consequences will not be withheld.

Of that justice, the first instalment, namely, the restoration of my naval rank, was granted by his late Majesty King William, and the second by her present most gracious Majesty, who, on the representation of my n.o.ble friend the Marquess of Lansdowne, was pleased to reinstate me in the Order of the Bath. For the third and conclusive portion of justice still remaining due to me, I cannot desist from looking to your lordship."

It is not necessary to detail the later correspondence that ensued upon this subject. Lord Dundonald found that the final reparation which he sought was not, then at any rate, to be conceded to him by the Government; and therefore he resolved to employ his last remaining powers in seeking from his countrymen that thorough justice which he rightly considered would result from an honest review of the incidents of his life.

During 1858, and in the beginning of 1859, he was engaged in the preparation of his "Narrative of Services in the Liberation of Chili, Peru, and Brazil from Spanish and Portuguese Domination."[24] That work was immediately followed by his "Autobiography of a Seaman," of which the first volume was completed in December, 1859, the second in September, 1860; bringing down the story to the date from which it has been continued in the present work.[25]

[24] The following letter, dated "Buckingham Palace, March 4, 1859,"

gave pleasure to Lord Dundonald:--"My Lord,--I have received the commands of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort to return you his best thanks for the copy of your 'Narrative,' which you have been good enough to send to his Royal Highness, and upon which his Royal Highness will place a high value. I am directed further to say that it would add materially to that value if you would have the kindness to write in the first page of the accompanying volume that it was presented by your lordship to the Prince. I have the honour to be, my lord, your most obedient humble servant,--C. B. Phipps."

[25] Almost the last letter written by Lord Dundonald was this to Lord Brougham:--"My dear Lord Brougham,--I have the pleasure to forward you the second volume of my 'Autobiography,' in which you will find that use has been made of the kind expressions towards myself contained in your works. Of the injustice done to me I need not tell you, who are so well acquainted with the subject. If the accompanying volume succeeds in impressing on the public mind the sentiments so unflinchingly set forth in your works, it will have answered its purpose; and that it will do so I see no reason to doubt, now that the subject can be canva.s.sed apart from political rancour. I am, my dear Lord Brougham, ever faithfully yours,--Dundonald." Lord Brougham's answer was dated from Paris, on the 31st of October, the very day of his friend's death. "I have just received your very kind letter, and I daresay the volume will very speedily reach me.... One thing I fear you do not come down late enough to relate. I mean the impression made upon all present when I took you to the Tuileries; and when the name of Cochrane, so well known to them (and which I cannot bring myself to change for your present t.i.tle), was no sooner heard than there was a general start and shudder. I remember saying, as we drove away, that it ought to satisfy you as to your disappointment at Basque Roads; and you answered that you would rather have had the ships."

That his mind was full of vigour to the last is best proved by that autobiography. But the body was worn out. After two years of great physical suffering, pa.s.sed in the house of his eldest son at Queen's Gate, Kensington, he died on the 31st of October, 1860, eighty-five years old.

He was buried in Westminster Abbey, where in his last moments he had expressed a desire to rest, in company with other great servants of the nation. A public funeral was not granted to him; but his son was permitted to conduct that funeral in a way worthy of his great reputation, and agreeable to the wishes of all cla.s.ses of his countrymen. Through the personal intervention of her most gracious Majesty and the Prince Consort, moreover, who counteracted the efforts of subordinates, his insignia of the Order of the Bath, which had been ignominiously spurned from King Henry the Seventh's chapel, one-and-fifty years before, were restored to their place on the 13th of November. Thus his last and most cherished wish was fulfilled, and another precious boon was added to the many favours for which his family can never cease to be grateful to their Sovereign and her n.o.ble husband.

The burial was on the 14th of November. The pall-bearers were Admiral Sir George Seymour, the Brazilian Minister, Admiral Grenfell--who five-and-thirty years before had been a.s.sociated with Lord Dundonald in securing the independence of Brazil--Captain Goldsmith, Captain Schomberg, Captain Hay, and Captain Nolloth. Among the mourners was Lord Brougham, who had come from Paris to render this last honour to one who had been his friend through fifty years. Standing over the grave, and looking round upon the a.s.semblage, he exclaimed, "No Cabinet minister here! no officer of State to grace this great man's funeral!" But the funeral was graced by the reverent homage of hundreds gathered within the Abbey walls, and of the thousands who, though absent, acknowledged that England had lost one of her bravest warriors and most unselfish patriots, one whose warfare had been marked by acts of daring rarely equalled, and whose patriotism had brought upon him sufferings such as few in modern times have had to endure. The solemn anthem chanted over his grave, "His body is buried in peace, but his memory shall live for ever," echoed far and wide, and awakened in every breast keen sentiments of sympathy for what he had borne and of pride in what he had done.

Ashes to Ashes! Lay the hero down Within the grey old Abbey's glorious shade.

In our Walhalla ne'er was worthier laid Since martyr first won palm, or victor crown.

'Tis well the State he served no farthing pays To grace with pomp and honour all too late His grave, whom, living, Statesmen dogged with hate, Denying justice, and withholding praise.

Let England hide her face above his tomb, As much for shame as sorrow. Let her think Upon the bitter cup he had to drink-- Heroic soul, branded with felon's doom.

A Sea-King, whose fit place had been by Blake, Or our own Nelson, had he been but free To follow glory's quest upon the sea, Leading the conquered navies in his wake--

A Captain, whom it had been ours to cheer From conquest on to conquest, had our land But set its wisest, worthiest in command, Not such as hated all the good revere.

We let them cage the Lion while the fire In his high heart burnt clear and unsubdued; We let them stir that frank and forward mood From greatness to the self-consuming ire,

The fret and chafe that wait on service scorned, Justice denied, and truth to silence driven; From men we left him to appeal to Heaven, 'Gainst fraud set high, and evidence suborned--

We left him, with bound arms, to mark the sword Given to weak hands; left him, with working brain, To see rogues traffic, and fools rashly reign, Where Strength should have been guide, and Honour lord--

Left him to cry aloud, without support, Against the creeping things that eat away Our wooden walls, and boast as they betray, The base supporters of a baser Court,

The crawling worms that in corruption breed, And on corruption batten, till at last Mistaken honour the proud victim cast Out to their spite, to writhe, and pant, and bleed

Under their stings and slime; and bleed he did For years, till hope into heart-sickness grew, And he sought other seas and service new, And his bright sword in alien laurels hid--

Nor even so found grat.i.tude, but came Back to his England, bankrupt, save of praise, To eat his heart, through weary wishful days, And shape his strength to bearing of his shame,

Till, slow but sure, drew on a better time, And Statesmen owned the check of public will; And, at the last, light pierced the shadow chill That fouled his honour with the taint of crime.

And then they gave him back the knightly spurs Which he had never forfeited--the rank From which he ne'er by ill-deserving sank, More than the Lion sinks for yelp of curs.

Justice had lingered on its road too long: The Lion was grown old; the time gone by, When for his aid we vainly raised a cry, To save our flag from shame, our decks from wrong.