CHAPTER XXVIII.

Prince at Agricultural Society's Meeting at York-Success of his Speech there-Prepara tions for Rebellion in Ireland-Defeat and Capture of Smith O'Brien-Trial and Sentence of Rebel Leaders-Frankfort Central Government-Struggles for German Unity -Insurrection in Frankfort-Collapse of Chartism in England.

It was a pleasure to the Prince to be recalled for a time from the study of the great but saddening political problems which were being worked out abroad and at home to topics, always favourites with him, which dealt purely with the advancement of the arts of peace, and with what Bacon has called 'the relief of man's estate.' Such were those to be discussed at the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society, to be held at York upon the 13th of July, where he had agreed to pay an old debt,' as he told the meeting, by being present. He had been for upwards of six years a Governor of the Society. His appearance on this occasion called forth a display of loyalty more demonstrative than usual, and he charmed his audience by a speech at once graceful, compact, suggestive, and playful. In the few words in which he proposed the success of the Society he seemed to have spoken what other men would have taken long to say. What the Society proposed to do and what it had done was put in a way, too, which must have persuaded even those enthusiasts to whom highfarming and the improvement of stock are the great business of life, that the speaker was inspired by a knowledge and a zeal no whit inferior to their own. When he told his large audience what we agriculturists of England' had in view, this identification of himself with their pursuits sent a thrill of pleasure through the meeting, which broke out in loud acclamations. This and a naïve avowal at the close that he had himself experienced the pleasures and the little pangs' attendant on agricultural pursuits,' made all feel how thor

1 The Prince had exhibited in 1843 and each subsequent year at the Smithfield Shows, and taken prizes there, and also at the Shows of the Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland, and the Royal Dublin Society. In 1848 he took the first prize, and was very proud of taking it, at the Smithfield Show for the best Hereford ox.

80

PRINCE VISITS YORK.

1848

oughly English their young Prince had grown in his tastes, and how well he knew the way to the hearts of the people, to whose welfare his best thoughts were devoted.

2

No man was better able than the Prince to appreciate the value of any mechanical invention or improvement. He was unusually quick to comprehend its principle, and the eminently practical character of his mind impelled him at once to measure how far it was likely to accomplish the object aimed at. The inspection of the implements brought together at a meeting of this kind was therefore not merely a delight to him, but a matter also of close and thoughtful study. It is not, therefore, surprising to find him acknowledging in the following letter to the Queen that, having spent in the Show-yard the morning hours, when the rest of the world were either asleep or idling, he was 'pretty well done up' even before his public work for the day began.

. . I am already pretty well done up: I have still much before me. Soon after five this morning, certainly by six, we were in the "Show-yard" to inspect the farm implements, which are certainly wonderfully ingenious, and kept our attention on the stretch for a couple of hours. I then went over the Museum and the Museum Garden. In an hour I go to the Cathedral, about half-past two back to the Show-yard, which will then be open to the public. About four the grand dinner comes off, which will last several hours. In the evening I go to the Ball, which is given at the Mansion House by the City, and the Mayor has just suggested that I should be

·

2 A remarkable instance of the Prince's accuracy of observation in matters of this kind has been brought to our notice by Mr. Jowitt, of Harehills, Leeds. During the visit of the Queen and Prince to Leeds in 1858, for the purpose of opening the Town Hall there, the Prince made a private visit to the Exhibition of Social Industry. In one of the rooms, the separate pieces of machinery which made up Mr. Donisthorpe's wool-combing machine were laid out upon a table. "The Prince,' Mr. Jowitt writes, was interested in looking at them, having seen the machine at work in the Great Exhibition of 1851. In another part of the building machinery in motion was exhibited, and Mr. Donisthorpe was there to explain his machine to the Prince. He needed, however, no explanation, at once understanding this complex and most valuable invention : but, looking closely at the machine, he remarked that there was a wheel or something of that kind wanting, pointing out where and how it should be introduced,-to the great surprise of Mr. Donisthorpe, who said it was so,-(it had been accidentally left out)-but that not one man in ten thousand would have noticed the omission. Mr. Darnton Lupton and others who were present are now dead, but the incident is very fresh in my memory.' Many other facts of a similar character might be adduced in confirmation of what is said in the text.

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SUCCESS OF PRINCE'S SPEECH AT YORK.

81

present about midnight after the Ball at his Banquet in the Guildhall, but this I have declined. To-morrow we shall be stirring betimes, so as to be in London by two. . . .

'The dinner yesterday was very tedious and very hot!! Of people I knew there were present Lord Yarborough (in the chair), Lords Fortescue, Morpeth, and Lonsdale, then Van de Weyer, Bunsen, and Bancroft (as Foreign Ministers), the Duke of Richmond, Lord Feversham, Lord Talbot, Lord Chichester, Lord George Bentinck, Sir John Johnstone, Mr. Shelley, Colonel Challoner, Captain Pelham, Mr. Hudson, Mr. Monckton Milnes, Captain Duncombe, Hon. A. Duncombe, &c. &c. After dinner there was a discussion on farming. The dinner was infamous without method and without viands. No wine, muddy water, no patatoes, the fish without sauce. That of to-day will be cold! Heaven defend my

stomach!

'York, Judges' Lodgings,

13th July, 1848: ten o'clock A. M.'

The Prince returned next day to London, where the pressure of public affairs made his absence from the Queen's side even for a day a matter of difficulty. In all their manifold details he was soon once more immersed. Meanwhile the echo of the general applause with which his speech at York was received throughout the country reached him, and gave him much satisfaction. He refers to it with his usual modesty at the end of a long letter on foreign politics to Baron Stockmar:

. . . German affairs seem to have taken a turn for the better in consequence of the acceptance of the Archduke. It is true that all the difficult questions are as far from being solved as before, but greater confidence has been inspired, and this is a preliminary condition indispensable for their solution.

3

'I have just returned from York, where I was several days at the Agricultural Meeting, and was received with enthusiasm. I had to speak, too, and was immensely applauded for what I said. Pray do not say "Mouche du Coche!" to this. I only mention it because I believe it will give you pleasure, as you have often urged me to have more confidence in matters of this kind.

'Buckingham Palace, 18th July, 1848.'

3 See this allusion explained in Note 3, p. 379 of the first volume.

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PREPARATIONS FOR REBELLION

1848

It was natural that the Queen should speak more unreservedly of the effect produced by the Prince's appearance at York. To Baron Stockmar Her Majesty wrote: "The Prince's visit to York was a complete triumph, and he was most enthusiastically received. He made another most successful speech, and he is himself quite astonished at being such an excellent speaker, as he says it is the last thing he ever dreamt he should have success in. He possesses one other great quality, which is "tact; " he never says a word too much or too little.' Writing to King Leopold the same day, Her Majesty again adverts to this last quality of the Prince's mind in these words: Independently of his acute mind and pure and excellent heart, he has rare tact, and always knows what to say, and how to say it.'

Ireland, the Prince found upon his return from York, was once more the subject of pressing anxiety. The leaders of Young Ireland had been too deeply pledged to action by their own wild oratory to take warning by their narrow escape from the fate which had overtaken Mr. Mitchel. His paper, The United Irishman, was no sooner suppressed than it was succeeded by The Irish Felon, a journal which fully justified its name by the character of its contents. The Nation and The Tribune, the two other Dublin organs of the party, made the defiance of the Government and the establishment of a republic the burden of their leaders. Meanwhile clubs were organised throughout the country with the avowed object of preparing for a general rising. Midnight drills were carried on with increased vigour, arms were bought up and distributed in large numbers, and the well-affected, who turned a deaf ear to the appeals to join the clubs, were denounced as the enemies of the country. Revolution, not Repeal, was openly avowed as the thing to be aimed at. This, it was true, had the effect of separating the Old Ireland party from the movement. They saw only too well the bloody issue which was likely to be provoked. But even Repeal, purchased at such a price, their great leader, O'Connell, had in past days told them again and again would have been too dear. No political change was worth, in his view, the shedding of a single drop of blood. The mass of the country

4

4 The favourite weapon was the pike. There were eight different kinds of these, of which a drawing, obtained by the Prince at the time, is before us. For the purposes of massacre they were admirably designed. For use in the field against well-armed troops, they were worthless.

1848

IN IRELAND.

83

people, too, were totally indifferent to any political subject. To them Repeal or Republic were little more than words; but on any successful outbreak in Dublin the Government had reason to apprehend that they might follow the example, in the delusive hope of getting the land into their own hands, which Mr. Meagher and other. fiery rhetoricians were constantly assuring them would be only a resumption of what was in fact their own. The state of uneasiness had become intolerable. No one could tell to what extent the disaffection had spread, or how soon it might explode into open revolt. Trade was at a standstill, and the paralysis of industry, caused by the continued agitation, threatened to involve thousands in bankruptcy and ruin.

Lord Clarendon, then Lord Lieutenant, felt that a crisis. had been reached, which made it necessary to strike at the heart of the threatened rebellion. The two Acts, which had been passed within the last ten months with the view of arresting its progress, had proved wholly insufficient for the purpose. This was so well known, that the House of Commons, despite their natural aversion to conceding to Government summary and arbitrary powers, did not hesitate for a moment in applying this drastic remedy to what they felt to be a desperate disease. Accordingly Lord John Russell was received with cheers when he announced, on the 21st of July, that he should next day ask leave to bring in a Bill to enable the Lord Lieutenant to apprehend and detain until the 1st of March, 1849, such persons as he shall suspect of conspiring against Her Majesty's Government.'

ure.

The statement which he laid before the House on introducing the Bill left no doubt as to the necessity of the measThe general facts were already familiar to all; but any hesitation which might have been felt was removed by the language of a letter received that morning from Lord Clarendou, and read to the House, in which he declared that the change which had come over the people within the last ten days was most alarming, and was greater than any which had ever been seen before in Ireland.' 'No doubt,' Lord John Russell added, after quoting this letter, any attempt at insurrection would be put down, but it could not be done without much bloodshed and the sacrifice of many lives.' After such an announcement the House were not likely to give much heed to an amendment moved by Mr. Sharman Crawford, 'that the present distracted state of Ireland arises from