532 LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S LETTER TO ELECTORS OF LONDON. [1845. suffering which it is frightful to contemplate." He complains that the queen's ministers had met and separated without affording any promise of seasonable relief. He points out that the duties on the importations of corn were so contrived, that "the corn barometer points to fair while the ship is bending under a storm." Then comes a declaration from the leader of the Whig party which forbids all further advocacy of " fixed duty" in opposition to "sliding scale." "I confess that on the general subject my views have in the course of twenty years undergone a great alteration. I used to be of opinion that corn was an exception to the general rules of political economy; but observation and experience have convinced me that we ought to abstain from all interference with the supply of food. Neither a Government nor a Legislature can ever regulate the corn market with the beneficial effects which the entire freedom of sale and purchase are sure of themselves to produce." It was no longer worth while, he said, to contend for a fixed duty; the imposition at present of any duty, without a provision for its speedy extinction, would only prolong a contest already sufficiently fruitful of animosity and discontent. "Let us then unite to put an end to a system which has been proved to be the blight of commerce, the bane of agriculture, the source of bitter division among classes, the cause of penury, fever, mortality, and crime among the people." Sir Robert Peel prints this letter in his Memoirs with this observation :- "It was asserted by many who were careless about the foundation of their assertions, that I had been influenced in the advice which I offered to the Cabinet by the appearance of this letter. A simple reference to dates will prove that this could not have been the case. On the 25th and 26th of November the Cabinet was occupied in the discussion of instructions to be given to the Commission which had been appointed, for the consideration and adoption of such measures as might tend to mitigate the evil consequences of the apprehended scarcity. These instructions were unanimously approved of by the Cabinet. Sir Robert Peel felt that the danger to be apprehended was so fully admitted and was set forth in such strong terms in the letter of the Secretary of State to the Lord Lieutenant, that it was "difficult to reconcile the issue of this letter with passiveness and inaction in respect to the means of increasing the supply of food." Before the instructions, therefore, contained in the letter were finally assented to by the Cabinet, he read to them a memorandum, of which the opening sentence was quite sufficient to indicate the final tendency of his opinions: "I cannot consent to the issue of these instructions, and undertake at the same time to maintain the existing Corn-Laws." On the 29th of November he put in circulation amongst his colleagues a memorandum, addressed in the first instance to the duke of Wellington, in which "are contained the reasons which induce me to advise the suspension of the existing Corn-Laws for a limited period." The answer of the duke of Wellington is very characteristic. He was of opinion that the government should avoid to break down the Corn-Laws till that measure should appear to be absolutely necessary. "But of this I do not entertain a doubt-if it is necessary to suspend the Corn-Laws to avoid real evils resulting from scarcity of food, we * Memoirs," p. 179. 1845.] DISSENSIONS IN THE CABINET-SIR R. PEEL RESIGNS. 533 ought not to hesitate." The duke then comes to the Party View of the question which sir Robert Peel had not discussed - could he carry on a government for the Queen, supposing that the support of the landed interest were withdrawn from him? The duke was afraid that sir Robert Peel must reckon upon its being withdrawn from him, unless he should be able to show clearly the necessity of the measure in question. "In respect to my own course, my only object in public life is to support sir Robert Peel's administration of the government for the Queen." The duke, if sir Robert Peel thought that his position in parliament and in the public view required that the course should be taken which he recommended, had no hesitation in saying, "I earnestly recommend that the Cabinet should support him, and I for one declare that I will do so." Others of the Cabinet took a very different view. Mr. Goulburn writes to sir Robert Peel,-" an abandonment of your former opinions now would, I think, prejudice your and our characters as public men, and would be fraught with fatal results to the country's best interests. . In my opinion the Party of which you are the head is the only barrier which remains against the revolutionary effects of the Reform Bill." Lord Wharncliffe was of opinion "that the Queen's speech, if it should ultimately be decided to recommend any modification or a temporary suspension of the Corn-Law, should do so in terms which would show our decided intention to uphold the principle of protection in some way or other." The discussions in the Cabinet continued till the 2nd of December, when sir Robert Peel brought before his colleagues a specific measure for the proposal of a new law which would be "founded upon the principle of the present law, while it continues in operation, but will in the course of that operation ensure the ultimate and not remote extinction of protective duties." He believed that some such measure as he had suggested might receive the assent of all his colleagues. Lord Stanley and the duke of Buccleugh, however, each signified his inability to support a measure involving the ultimate repeal of the Corn-Laws. Sir Robert Peel, thinking that the public interest would be very injuriously affected by the failure of an attempt made by a government to adjust the question of Corn-Laws, repaired to Osborne on the 5th of December, and humbly solicited the Queen to relieve him from duties which he could no longer discharge with advantage to her Majesty's service. The Queen then informed sir Robert Peel that it was her intention to propose to lord John Russell to undertake the formation of a government. In a letter to the Queen, written after the audience, sir Robert Peel stated that if the opinions of his colleagues had been in concurrence with his own, he had been fully prepared to take the responsibility of suspending the CornLaws, and of entering upon a comprehensive review of restrictions on the import of foreign grain and other articles of food, with a view to their gradual diminution and ultimate removal. With reference to the proposed new administration he adds-" Sir Robert Peel is prepared to support, in a private capacity, measures which may be in general conformity with those which he advised as a minister." Lord John Russell was at Edinburgh when a summons reached him to attend the Queen. He went to her Majesty with the conviction that he could not accept the great trust now offered to him. He felt that his party 534 FAILURE OF LORD J. RUSSELL TO FORM A MINISTRY. [1845. being in a large minority in the Commons, he could not properly undertake the formation of a government. But the offer of sir Robert Peel, to give his assistance in a private capacity towards the settlement of the Corn-Law question, determined lord John Russell to depart from this resolution. There was a week of negotiation as to the specific nature of this limited offer. Sir Robert Peel was "convinced that previous concert, or a previous pledge on his part, to support a particular measure of adjustment would be distasteful to the House of Commons, and embarrassing to all parties." With this view lord John Russell expressed his concurrence; but required at the same time that sir Robert Peel should give assurances, that would have amounted substantially to a pledge, that he would support the immediate and total repeal of the Corn-Laws. The ex-minister did not feel it to be consistent with his duty to enter upon the consideration of this important question in Parliament, being fettered by a previous engagement of the nature of that required from him. Nevertheless lord John Russell, in the afternoon of the 18th of December, stated to her Majesty at Windsor Castle that he was ready to undertake the formation of a government. In consequence sir Robert Peel was invited by her Majesty to a parting interview on his relinquishment of office. On entering the room at Windsor, on the 20th of December, her Majesty said to him very graciously, "So far from taking leave of you, sir Robert, I must require you to withdraw your resignation, and to remain in my service." Lord John Russell had written to the Queen on the morning of that day that he had found it impossible to form an administration. He had informed the Queen that he had had solely in view the settlement of the question of Corn-Laws; he admitted that sir Robert Peel had been willing, from the commencement to the end, to diminish the difficulties of a new government in attempting that settlement, although sir Robert Peel could not of course rely upon the support of his political friends. It was therefore necessary, he wrote, that all those who were prominent in the political party to which lord John Russell was attached, should give their zealous aid, and act in concert in the new administration. "Lord John Russell had in one instance been unable to obtain this concert, and he must now consider that task as hopeless which has been from the beginning hazardous." The one instance was that of lord Grey; he had objected to one proposed appointment, and lord John Russell had been unwilling to admit the force of the objection. We can easily understand how the self-asserting inheritor of a great name should have failed in substantiating his objection to a statesman with the reputation of lord Palmerston. Lord John Russell having absolutely relinquished the formation of a government, sir Robert Peel at once decided, if such were her Majesty's pleasure, on the resumption of his office. He wished, he said, to be able to announce to his late colleagues that he had not hesitated to re-accept the appointment of First Minister. The Cabinet met at Downing-street in the evening of the 20th, and he told them that, whether supported or not, he was firmly resolved to meet parliament as her Majesty's minister, and to propose such measures as the public exigencies required. Lord Stanley declared that he must persevere in resigning. He thought the Corn-Laws ought to be adhered to, and might have been maintained. The duke of Buccleugh would rot at once decide upon resigning. The other members of the Cabinet declared their determination to support sir Robert 1846.] 535 SIR R. PEEL RESUMES POWER-PARLIAMENT OPENED. Peel in the course he had announced to them. The duke of Wellington was the man to admire courage whether civil or military. He told the House of Lords, on the ministerial explanations, "I applauded the conduct of my right honourable friend; I was delighted with it. It was exactly the course which I should have followed myself under similar circumstances, and I therefore determined to stand by him." The new Cabinet enlisted an able coadjutor in lord Dalhousie; and Mr. Gladstone, who had retired from office some time previous, succeeded lord Stanley as Secretary of State for the Colonial Department. Lord Wharncliffe, the President of the Council, had died, during this great crisis, on the 19th of December. The biographer of sir Robert Peel has described his hesitation, in the session of 1845, to apply the strict principles of commercial freedom to the trade in corn, as the "touching perplexity of a sincere and conscientious mind, carried forward in the direction of its own inclination by a great flood of public opinion and passion, and struggling painfully against its adversaries, its friends, and itself." * The "perplexity" was now over. The struggle of the "sincere and conscientious mind" against itself was passed. Six days after sir Robert Peel had declared to the Cabinet that he was again her Majesty's minister, he wrote to the princess Lieven at Paris a short note, in which he casts off the reserve of the statesman to give unrestrained expression to his natural feelings: "However unexpected is the turn which affairs have taken, it is for the best. I resume power with greater means of rendering public service than I should have had if I had not relinquished it. But it is a strange dream." + It was the 22nd of January, 1846, when the Queen opened the Parliament in person. The Royal Speech necessarily alluded to the failure of the potato crops in Ireland, and to the means that had been adopted for alleviating the sufferings caused by this calamity. Her Majesty had had great satisfaction in giving her consent to the measures for the repeal of prohibitory, and the relaxation of protective, duties. The prosperous state of the revenue, the increased demand for labour, and the general improvement which had taken place in the internal condition of the country, were strong testimonies in favour of the course that had been pursued. “I recommend you," said the Queen, "to take into your early consideration, whether the principles on which you have acted may not with advantage be yet more extensively applied, and whether it may not be in your power, after a careful review of the existing duties upon many articles, the produce or manufacture of other countries, to make such further reductions and remissions as may tend to insure the continuance of the great benefits to which I have adverted." There might have been some doubt as to the interpretation of the words "further reductions and remissions;" but the ministerial explanations of sir Robert Peel and of lord John Russell, in which the details of the negotiations for the formation of a government were fully stated, left no doubt whatever that a free trade in corn, however gradually to be accomplished, was now the great object of sir Robert Peel's administration. After the mover and seconder of the Addresses in the House of Commons had delivered * Guizot-"Memoirs of Sir Robert Peel," p. 250. 536 SIR R. PEEL ASSERTS HIS DETERMINATION TO BE UNSHACKLED. [1846. their speeches, sir Robert Peel immediately rose. Having gone through the explanatory details expected from the head of the government after a ministerial crisis, he did not wait for the attacks of those adversaries who were once his submissive friends. He boldly proclaimed his determination to stand free from the trammels of party. Sir, believe me, to conduct the government of this country is a most arduous duty; I may say it without irreverence, that these ancient institutions, like our physical frames, are 'fearfully and wonderfully made.' It is no easy task to ensure the united action of an ancient monarchy, a proud aristocracy, and a reformed constituency. I have done everything I could do,-and have thought it consistent with true conservative policy,-to reconcile these three branches of the state. I have thought it consistent with true conservative policy to promote so much of happiness among the people that the voice of disaffection should be no longer heard, and that thoughts of the dissolution of our institutions should be forgotten in the midst of physical enjoyment. These were my attempts, and I thought them not inconsistent with true and enlarged conservative policy. These were my objects in accepting office-it is a burden too great for my physical, and far beyond my intellectual, structure; and to be relieved from it with perfect honour would be the greatest favour that could be conferred on me. But as a feeling of honour and a strong sense of duty require me to undertake those responsible functions, I declare, sir, that I am ready to incur these risks, to bear these burdens, and to front all these honourable dangers. But, sir, I will not take the step with mutilated power and shackled authority. I will not stand at the helm during such tempestuous nights as I have seen, if the vessel be not allowed fairly to pursue the course which I think she ought to take. I will not, sir, undertake to direct the course of the vessel by the observations taken in 1842. I will reserve to myself the marking out of that course; and I must, for the public interest, claim for myself the unfettered power of judging of those measures which I conceive will be better for the country to propose. Sir, I do not wish to be the minister of England; but while I have the high honour of holding that office, I am determined to hold it by no servile tenure. I will only hold that office upon the condition of being unshackled by any other obligations than those of consulting the public interests, and of providing for the public safety." * This speech was of course accepted as a declaration of war by all those who interpreted Conservative Policy as one almost exclusively directed to the upholding of class interests and class prejudices. Mr. Disraeli, in declaring his intention of adhering to the principles of protection which had sent him into that House, did not attempt to defend those principles, but confined himself, as he did for the greater part of the Session, to the bitterest attacks on the minister who was about to give them their final and irrevocable blow. Sir Robert Peel's conduct, he said, was that of the captain, who having received the command of a fleet from the sultan to attack Mehemet Ali, steered that fleet at once into the enemy's port. Sir Robert Peel, a great statesman, who was always marching after the events of his age! He was just as much a great statesman as he who got up behind a Hansard, vol. lxxxiii. col. 94. |