The Viceroys of Ireland Part 16

Lord Houghton's position in Ireland was certainly unique. In a country overwhelmingly Nationalist--using the word in its party sense--he was supposed to belong to the popular side. Hitherto, the Lord-Lieutenant had been more or less a Tory, for the average Liberal was too superior to descend into the c.o.c.kpit of Irish politics; but Lord Houghton was the Heaven-sent embodiment of Ireland's hopes of legislative independence. He was a member of the Government that had for its first and only object the settlement of the Irish question, and yet the viceroy, with all these aids, might have been the most {308} bigoted Tory of Tories, judging by the att.i.tude of the Nationalists. The native politician well maintained his reputation for suspecting his best friends. The prophets of gloom foretold of the fatal intervention of the House of Lords, and were so certain of defeat as to contribute towards it themselves. Lord Houghton was regarded as a sham, Gladstone's n.o.ble self-sacrifice as a mere trick; the whole body politic seemed dest.i.tute of honour and honesty. Wherever the viceroy went he was received in silence; there were no popular demonstrations in town or country. Ireland was in the position of the beggar who awaits charity with curses ready on her tongue in the case of refusal or dissatisfaction. She could not--would not--believe and understand that Mr. Gladstone was risking his own life, and that of his party, in his endeavour to grant the Nationalist demands. Eventually he wrecked Liberalism, but it has since recovered--Ireland has not.

The House of Lords is the stock enemy of Liberalism, but the peers did Lord Houghton a good turn when they rejected Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Bill and numbered the days of the ministry. Heroically enough, the viceroy agreed to continue in office when Lord Rosebery was unexpectedly given the premiership; but all men knew that the Government was merely a makeshift, and that a General Election and a Conservative-Unionist triumph was to be expected as a matter of course.

It came in 1895, and with it the end of Liberalism for ten years. Lord Houghton resigned with the ministry, and left {309} Dublin as glad to be out of the country as the country was as pleased to see the last of him. When the whirligig of time brought its revenges, and the Lord Houghton of the 1892-95 viceroyalty was an earl of ten years' standing, earls being remarkably scarce on the Liberal red benches, he was admitted to the Cabinet in the respectable capacity of Lord President of the Council. This post was vacated for a time when in Mr. Asquith's Ministry he was Lord Privy Seal and Secretary of State for the Colonies. In 1910 he became Secretary of State for India, exchanging offices with Viscount Morley.

Lord Crewe's marriage in 1898 to Lady Margaret Primrose, the youngest daughter of the Earl of Rosebery, was a brilliant social function, and the birth of a son and heir in 1911 was more welcome than the marquisate which came to the Indian Secretary in the Coronation Honours' List.

[Sidenote: Tory ascendancy]

The triumph of the Conservative and Liberal-Unionist coalition cleared the political atmosphere. Once more the rival parties in Ireland were on their old footing; the Castle and the Lodge would be exclusively Unionist, and the other side was saved the embarra.s.sment of having a friend in power. Lord Salisbury, in looking round for a suitable viceroy, found in his intimate friend and colleague, Lord Cadogan, the ideal viceroy. Twenty years previously they had been members of the same Government--Lord Salisbury in the Cabinet, and Lord Cadogan Under-Secretary at the War Office and the Colonial Office in turn.

{310} In Lord Salisbury's Government of 1886-92 he was Lord Privy Seal.

Their political friendship served to cement a private friendship that lasted until Lord Salisbury's death, and it was the premier's resignation in 1902 that caused the then viceroy to retire.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Earl Cadogan, K.G.]

Lord Cadogan was born in 1840, and in 1865 he married Lady Beatrix Craven, who died in 1907. Succeeding to the earldom in 1873, he was obliged to leave the House of Commons, to which he had been elected by the citizens of Bath the same year. From the day of his elevation to one of the wealthiest places in the peerage Lord Cadogan became a valued a.s.set of the Conservative party. An intimate friend of the then Prince and Princess of Wales, given to hospitality, married to a lady with more than the usual gift for entertaining, the owner of Chelsea House and his wife became social leaders of the party. Lord Salisbury was fortunate in securing Lord Cadogan for the viceroyalty, and a seat in the Cabinet was only right and proper for one whose influence and support were of paramount importance. As Chief Secretary, Mr. Gerald Balfour accompanied Lord Cadogan, and after an imposing state entry on August 12, 1895, they settled down to work.

In Dublin Castle there is an object-lesson of the relative political importance of the two chief executive officers of the Government in Ireland. The Lord-Lieutenant's room is small and unpretentious, that of the Chief Secretary roomy, well furnished, and comfortable; but during Lord Cadogan's term he overshadowed his first Chief {311} Secretary, although the latter was a brother of the leader of the House of Commons.

[Sidenote: Lord and Lady Cadogan]

Lord and Lady Cadogan quickly earned that popularity which never left them. Charming to everybody, the soul of courtesy to all ranks and cla.s.ses, ideal host and hostess, and spending their great wealth freely, it would have been surprising, indeed, if the viceroy and his wife had not achieved success. Nationalists, professional and amateur, learnt the advantage of having a wealthy Lord-Lieutenant, even if he had been nominated by the hated and detested Tories, and the unostentatious munificence of the viceregal pair was not the least factor that contributed towards their success. As a member of the Cabinet, Lord Cadogan's political sympathies were obvious, yet in an extraordinary way he managed to conceal the politician in the administrator. He was even accused of favouring the Nationalists and Roman Catholics, and aggrieved place-hunters ruefully declared that the only qualification for office and promotion was Nationalist leanings or adherence to the Church of Rome. Nevertheless, Lord and Lady Cadogan lost nothing of their influence over all cla.s.ses. Every Dublin season was brilliant and successful, simply because Lord and Lady Cadogan had the power to do things, and knew how to do them. The visit of the then Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of York in 1897--a brilliant success--was a triumph for Lord Cadogan's political perspicacity. The Local Government Bill of 1898--a measure frankly Liberal in tone--would have wrecked any other Lord-Lieutenant; it left Lord Cadogan as strong {312} as ever.

It is the irony of fate that the Conservative-Unionist party should have done, and still be doing, more for Ireland than Gladstone or his colleagues ever did. The Local Government Bill meant that the control of local affairs should pa.s.s from the hands of the minority to the majority. Protestant and Unionist councillors, Chairmen of County Councils, aldermen, magistrates, and other minor dignitaries were swept out of existence, and that nebulous host, the people, reigned in their stead. Had Gladstone proposed such a measure, and carried it, there would have been a revolt of the Unionists in Ireland, but as a Salisbury Government fathered the Act it was accepted without demur, and the revolution on the Nationalist side was a peaceful one. In a single phrase, the Act meant that in future the Catholic majority should be the masters of the Protestant minority. There is no quarter given or asked in Irish politics, and from that day to this the Protestants have had no share in the administration of local government in the country.

{313}

CHAPTER XXI

The outbreak of the South African War initiated a display of disloyalty in Ireland which might have embarra.s.sed a less adroit Administration.

The policy of killing Home Rule by kindness had not succeeded, and it was very evident that the throwing open of practically every office to the people had not satisfied them. Every Boer victory was received with jubilation, but it was mostly superficial. An English tourist, tactfully extracting the opinions of a cabdriver, was informed that the English deserved to be beaten, as he hoped they would, adding with a grin of delight, 'But we did make them run, sor, didn't we?' referring to the account of an English victory over the enemy the day before in which an Irish regiment had gained fresh laurels. Nothing is more ludicrous than the fervent politician who attempts unearthly consistency in thought, word, and deed. Few persons take seriously the over-serious politician.

The General Election of 1900 was preceded by a visit from Queen Victoria--the last of a successful series. It was a tribute to the good sense of the Irish and their innate loyalty, and Lord Cadogan did much to bring the queen to Ireland by {314} a.s.suring the Cabinet that there was not the slightest danger. Four and a half years' residence in the country had taught the viceroy a great deal about the Irish people, and his trust and confidence in them were confirmed when, on April 3, 1900, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Sir Thomas D. Pile, Bart., presented Her Majesty with the keys of the city and the civic sword.

She entered Dublin in triumph, and was received by Lord and Lady Cadogan at the Viceregal Lodge amid great rejoicing and splendour. The following day more than 50,000 children were reviewed in the Phoenix Park by the queen--a happy inspiration on the part of her advisers.

There was, of course, a review of the troops, the queen's youngest son, the Duke of Connaught, in command, and several other incidents of an historic occasion pa.s.sed off with as much success as though there was 'no such a thing' as Irish disloyalty. Thousands of persons who had cheered Boer victories without quite knowing why they did it cheered the queen until they were hoa.r.s.e, because heart and head combined to welcome their ill.u.s.trious visitor. Well might the aged monarch write a letter reflecting the emotion of a grateful and proud queen. No other monarch had the happy inspirations Queen Victoria constantly displayed in her messages to her people, and the secret of it all was that she wrote them as a woman, though compelled to publish them as a queen.

Shortly after the conclusion of her visit she wrote to Lord Cadogan: 'How very much gratified and how deeply touched she had been by her {315} reception. After the lapse of thirty-nine years her reception had equalled that of previous visits, and she carried away with her a most pleasant and affectionate memory of the time she had spent in Ireland, having been received by all ranks and creeds with an enthusiasm and affection which cannot be surpa.s.sed.'

[Sidenote: Death of Queen Victoria]

The next important event was the reconstruction of the Salisbury Ministry following the Election of 1900. Mr. Gerald Balfour, not too successful at the Irish Office, was transferred to the Board of Trade, and Mr. George Wyndham took his place in Ireland. The new Chief Secretary was eager to effect reforms, but the influence of the Lord-Lieutenant and the Prime Minister compelled him to pursue the conventional course of Chief Secretaries who are neither poets nor dandies. The death of Queen Victoria in January placed the court in mourning for a year, and when that was over the resignation of Lord Salisbury became an imminent event. To Lord Cadogan it meant something more than the severance of old ties. Lord Salisbury and he were bound together by numerous social and political ties, and when the great statesman resigned in the summer of 1902 Lord Cadogan immediately tendered his resignation to the king of the high office of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Speaking to his tenantry on the subject, the viceroy declared that all his political life had been bound up with Lord Salisbury's, and he had no desire to continue in it now that his old chief was retiring. He had spent seven years in Ireland--seven years of peace--and {316} his success was notable and inspiring. Mere wealth could not have achieved it unaided; it was personality and the desire to be as non-political as one in his position could be. It is no exaggeration to say that his departure was universally regretted.

For the time the acerbities of political life were forgotten, and Ireland turned out to say good-bye to a good friend and his charming comrade, Lady Cadogan. On all sides people expressed the opinion that Mr. Balfour would find it impossible to nominate a suitable successor, and bad times were predicted for the man brave enough to attempt to follow Lord Cadogan in the viceroyalty.

Had he chosen to do so, the retiring viceroy might have taken a high post in Mr. Balfour's ministry, but he stood aside to accompany Lord Salisbury into private life--that is, as private as the husband of a political hostess can be. His social services were still at the disposal of the party to which he belonged, and they were strong supporters of the Balfour regime.

In 1907 Lady Cadogan died, and this tragedy was succeeded by the death of his eldest son, Viscount Chelsea, in 1908. Two years later his grandson and heir pa.s.sed away. These events isolated Lord Cadogan, and he led a somewhat lonely life until he married for a second time. The marriage took place on January 12, 1911, the bride being the Countess Adele Palagi, a cousin of the bridegroom.

About two years after Lord Cadogan's retirement from the viceroyalty a deputation of leading {317} Irishmen called at his London residence to present him with a token of the esteem in which he was held by all those who had come in contact with him during his viceroyalty. The deputation was headed by Lord Iveagh, and included Sir David Harrel, Sir James Blyth, Sir Thomas Pile, Sir Lambert Ormsby, and Sir James Henderson. They represented all Ireland, and on their behalf the chairman presented the earl with an address, a silver bowl, and his portrait painted by Mr. Solomon J. Solomon, R.A. It was a unique ceremony, this tribute to one of the most successful viceroys Ireland had ever known.

[Sidenote: Lord and Lady Dudley]

Lord Dudley succeeded to the viceroyalty at the youthful age of thirty-five. For seven years he had been Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, and had proved himself to be a hard-working, ambitious peer. Immensely wealthy and generous, he was the most suitable man to follow Lord Cadogan, especially as Lady Dudley was a hostess of renown--one of the most popular of the younger hostesses--and a general favourite with royalty.

The Dudley reign in Ireland was full of incident, social and political.

It opened unluckily enough, for in the early days of December, 1902, Lady Dudley was seized with a serious illness at the Viceregal Lodge, and at one time the gravest fears were entertained. The operation for appendicitis, however, was successful, and the countess recovered to adorn the office she shared with her husband. The mother of a young family, she won the hearts of all Ireland by sending one of {318} her daughters to the Alexandra High School--an inst.i.tution deservedly famous for its successful training and teaching of girls. This was one of many triumphs achieved by tact and good nature, and within a few months of her arrival in Ireland there was no more popular person in the country. Mr. Balfour had been fortunate, indeed, in finding a Lady Dudley to follow a Lady Cadogan, while the Lord-Lieutenant at once proved himself to be strong, fearless, open-minded, and just. It was said of a Chief Secretary--Sir Robert Peel--that his one-sided opinions of Irish affairs were due to the fact that he had driven through the country on an outside car. Lord Dudley went all over Ireland in a motor-car, and therefore could not help but see both sides. Ever an enthusiastic motorist, His Excellency pursued his hobby all the time he was in Ireland, and unexpected visits to remote hamlets were numerous.

This pa.s.sion for motoring had a practical result--it enabled the viceroy to gather a great deal of first-hand information about the country and the people; and when he consented to become chairman of the Royal Commission on Congestion in Ireland, the year he retired from the viceroyalty, he brought to bear upon the subject and the problem a knowledge unequalled by any other non-Irish member of the Board.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lord Dudley]

[Sidenote: The Wyndham Land Act]

The supreme political event of Lord Dudley's term was undoubtedly Mr.

George Wyndham's Land Act of 1903. Had Gladstone lived to witness a Tory Chief Secretary piloting such a measure through Parliament he must a.s.suredly have gasped. {319} It caused great searchings of heart amongst the colleagues of Mr. Wyndham, but it came into the statute-book--another proof of the political axiom that the Tory party have done more for Ireland than the Liberal, that Tory Cabinets have worked more for Home Rule than their political rivals.

The revolutionary Tory Chief Secretary aroused the suspicions of his friends. Loud-voiced Unionists in Ireland declared that he was at heart a Home Ruler, and when the Lord-Lieutenant declined to take this accusation seriously he was in his turn labelled Home Ruler, too.

Reports were sent to London of the dreadful backsliding of Lord Dudley.

As time crawled by he was described as an out-and-out Nationalist, a traitor to the party he was sent to represent in Ireland. The devolution scheme ascribed to Lord Dunraven, the late Captain Shaw, and others, was said to have received the viceroy's benediction.

Superficially, that plan seemed the easiest method by which the eternal Irish question could be settled; it appeared so nice and equitable.

But there was the dangerous rock of finance, on which all devolution schemes must be wrecked. During the uproar the Lord-Lieutenant was compelled to adopt measures of precaution. The party leaders in England demanded a sign from him, for it would not do to permit Liberal and Nationalist orators to a.s.sure receptive and eager audiences night after night that the Tory Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland had learned by experience in Ireland that the only cure for the evils of the country was Home Rule. The Wyndham Land Act was merely a palliative, {320} they added. It was deemed necessary that Lord Dudley should write an elaborate explanation of his views on Ireland, and entrust the doc.u.ment to Lord Lansdowne, the leader of the Government in the House of Lords.

This precious epistle was to recline in the n.o.ble marquis's pocket until, goaded by the taunts of the Opposition, he should be able to produce it dramatically and confound the scoffers and unbelievers. The letter was written, but never read in the Lords, the minds of men turning to other matters when Mr. Wyndham was recalled from Ireland and Mr. Walter Long appointed Chief Secretary. It was Mr. Balfour's way of announcing his dislike of the already dead and buried devolution plan.

The period of doubt left the viceroy unshorn of his friends. Those who knew him personally were well aware that he was a genuine friend of Ireland, and the whole country knew that this English n.o.bleman stood rather to lose than gain by any active display of good-will towards the people he ruled in the name of the king. The personal popularity of Lord and Lady Dudley was such that no political crisis could affect materially. Lady Dudley, a clever woman of rare charm, an artist and a linguist, was not without experience of the vicissitudes of life, and her knowledge of things human had been increased thereby. The daughter of a once wealthy banker, she knew what poverty was, and at one time she was a.s.sociated along with her sister in the millinery shop their mother started in London soon after the Gurney bank failure. The shop was not a {321} success, and had to be abandoned. The girls were adopted by friends of the family, the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of Bedford taking charge of Miss Rachel Gurney. Under their wing she made the acquaintance of the young Earl of Dudley, and they were married in 1891, society, headed by the Prince of Wales, attending the function.

Never very strong, and often suffering great pain, Lady Dudley, nevertheless, preserved a sweetness of temper and a kindliness to all and sundry that both in Ireland and Australia helped immensely in establishing the influence of her husband. In Ireland, especially, a viceroy's wife has many opportunities, and they are not always easy to grasp. Lady Dudley succeeded every time, and it is not to be wondered at that by thousands of those whose experience ent.i.tle them to be considered experts on the subject she is named as the most successful and popular 'vicereine' the country has known for over a hundred years.

[Sidenote: Royal visitors]

The busiest social year of the Dudley regime was that of 1903, when King Edward and Queen Alexandra visited Ireland. It was the first occasion a King of England was seen in Ireland for eighty-two years, and the people marked the honour by a display of enthusiasm unequalled in the history of the country. The king and queen were greatly touched by the loyalty of the Irish, and under the capable direction of Lord and Lady Dudley the series of festivities went with a vim that gratified the distinguished visitors and added fresh laurels to those already earned by the _chatelaine_ of the Viceregal Lodge and Dublin Castle. {322} A royal visit produces more anxiety than pleasure, as a rule, for those whose duty it is to see that the arrangements for entertaining the guests are perfect and carried out to the letter; but a genius for organization displayed itself in the arrangements devised for the filling up of their Majesties' programme, and that was the genius of the Lord-Lieutenant and his wife. The most significant event of the visit was the Levee held at Dublin Castle by the king. All the leading men of Ireland were invited, irrespective of politics and religion. It was a daring thing to do, but Lord Dudley could count upon his own popularity, and he confidently invited Roman Catholic Archbishops, Catholic gentlemen, Nationalists, and many others whose political opinions were against the Government. The occasion was historic--a King of England holding a Levee in 'the worst castle in the worst situation in Christendom,' as a former viceroy described it--and it was almost unprecedented. With characteristic good feeling and understanding all cla.s.ses and creeds attended to do homage to His Majesty, who had the gratification of receiving many notable Irishmen and seeing them mingling together, their differences forgotten in the presence of their Sovereign. The success of that Levee was a splendid tribute to Lord Dudley's tenure of the post of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Another visit by King Edward and Queen Alexandra the following April was equally successful.

The dying days of the Balfour ministry found Irish affairs inert. The respectable Mr. Long was {323} ready to do anything to prove his stanch Unionist principles, but both countries and parties were in that frame of mind produced by a sense of impending death. There had been ten unbroken years of Unionist sway in Ireland; two viceroys of great wealth and popularity had carried on the Government, a.s.sisted by Chief Secretaries of varying qualities of statesmanship; the country had grown accustomed to Tory control, and rather liked it, judging by the experience of Liberal predecessors. Every charitable cause had met with a ready response from the Lord-Lieutenant and his wife, and for ten years the viceroy had appeared almost non-political. The numberless acts of kindness placed to the credit of Lady Cadogan and Lady Dudley created for them a genuine feeling of admiration and affection. The heads of the Government in Ireland were no longer mere party 'jobbers.' The anxiety to be impartial was at times almost painful, but it was not without effect.

[Sidenote: Social splendour]

Socially, the two viceroyalties had been brilliant successes. The Tory Government had everything in its favour. Two such hostesses as the wives of Lords Cadogan and Dudley are rarely met with, and for ten years in succession the Dublin season was ever one of splendour. There had been periods of mourning, but, apart from these, the years were notable.

And yet the cry for Home Rule was not less shrill nor less determined.

Nationalists could say with some reason that all that Lord Cadogan and Lord Dudley had done could be done again with {324} a Parliament in College Green. The growing feeling in English const.i.tuencies against the Conservative Government was hailed with delight by the Irish party.

They saw Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, an avowed Home Ruler, gladly and eagerly putting their demand for Home Rule in the forefront of the great fight, and when the polls had placed him in power making Home Rule the first plank in the programme of the resuscitated Liberal party.

England could not be expected to be impressed by the successes of the Tory Government in Dublin. As a matter of fact, English electors were feeling rather bored with Irish affairs, and at the polls they scarcely stopped to think about Home Rule, but voted for the Liberal candidate for the negative reason that they did not like his opponent. The General Election was a triumph for the pure, undiluted political faith of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and, besides smashing all hopes that the Irish party would be the masters of the situation, compelled those minute particles of Liberalism labelled Imperialists, Radicals, and so on, to unite under the lead of the new Prime Minister.

[Sidenote: The spirit of conciliation]

In the ordinary course of events Lord Dudley resigned with the Conservative Ministry, and on the appointment of a successor departed from Ireland. A few months' previously--September 21, 1905, to be exact--he had escaped death in the waters of Lough Erne, where, with a small party, he was unlucky enough to see his yacht capsize during a race. It was one adventure of many he {325} has experienced in his comparatively brief life. Following his resignation, he still evinced a keen interest in Ireland, and when the Liberal premier asked him to preside over the deliberations of a Royal Commission on Congestion, he accepted it as one who has never allowed his actions to be guided and controlled solely by party motives. The work of the Commission finishing, he went to the other end of the world as Governor-General of Australia, holding the post for three years, when Lady Dudley's ill-health compelled him to return home in 1911. This willingness to serve the Liberal party has been taken by some as additional evidence of his lukewarm Unionism, but Lord Dudley remains a member of the party that made him Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and he is a Unionist at heart, though he permits himself the luxury of thinking on the subject.

It is certain that while in Ireland he examined the claims and pretensions of the Home Rule party, and endeavoured to arrive at an understanding. The fact that he was not hounded out of the country by his fellow-Unionists is proof positive of the fact that a new spirit of conciliation has arisen, and that Irish political controversialists are aware that there can be two sides to every question, even an Irish one.