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that travel had exhausted his resources, and that his physical weakness was aggravated by a sense of pecuniary embarrassment. The paragraph caught the attention of some members of the Government;' and in consequence Mr. Lockhart, the poet's son-in-law, 'received a private communication that, if the case were as stated, Sir Walter's family had only to say what sum would relieve him from embarrassment, and it would be immediately advanced by the Treasury. The then Paymaster of the Forces, Lord John Russell, had the delicacy. to convey this message through a lady with whose friendship he knew us to be honoured.' The offer was gratefully refused, but posterity will do well to recollect that the statesman in the hour of his greatest victory was not unmindful of suffering worth, and to acknowledge that such acts as these, and not mere political triumphs, form

That best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremember'd acts
Of kindness and of love.

1 Lockhart's Life of Scott, ch. lxxxiii.

181

CHAPTER VIII.

THE FALL OF LORD GREY.

THE second Parliament of William IV. was dissolved in December 1832. The great measure which had been passed during its short existence had made Lord John Russell the most popular man in the country. Whatever credit attached to Lord Grey in the one House, or to Lord Althorp in the other, the people, as a whole, deemed the Reform Act as his work. Its success, they thought, was largely due to the persistent manner in which he had advocated Reform from 1819 to 1830. The heat of the struggle had been borne by him; and, if the crown of victory had been awarded by popular vote, it would have been placed on his brow.

Under such circumstances, Lord John's re-election was certain. He paid his constituents the compliment of going down to Devonshire in September. But Mr. Moore, who met him at Bowood in October, and who returned with him to London, recorded that 'he was in excellent spirits after his canvass; and again that he was very agreeable, laughed like a schoolboy half the time.' During their journey to London the two friends 'never ceased talking on one subject or another the whole way.' Mr. Moore, who had always regarded the Reform Bill with alarm, declared that he retained his opinion as to the rashness of giving so much to the people.' But Lord John replied that—

So far from its being rash, he thought it the most prudent thing. they could have done. It was a very different measure they had to take of the quantum of Reform necessary when in and out. While in opposition, they were obliged to take what they could get; but, when in power, and called upon to originate a measure themselves, they were pledged, he thought, to give the amplest they could with safety.

Devon

Mr. Moore was not convinced; but he

was much struck, during this whole day's conversation, not only with. the manly frankness of Lord John himself, but still more at [sic] the temper and candour with which he bore the free speaking of his companion.

The friends lunched

at Reading, and arrived at the Pay Office before seven. Found a snug dinner ready and also a snug bedroom, into which, instead of going to Fielding's, I turned for the night, Lord John expressing his regret that he could not ask me to use it all the time I remained in town, as he expected Lady William up daily from Woburn.

Lord John told me as we came up that he had been employed during his other great occupations not only in writing a book but in printing it.

Lord John did not remain for many weeks in London. At the beginning of December he returned to Devonshire for his election; and thence wrote the following letter to Mr. Moore :

ment.

Endsleigh: Dec. 9.

My dear Moore,-I am glad to find, what I should have been sorry to find on any other occasion, that you are not coming into ParliaI should have been sorry to see you going out into the Lobby when I was staying in ; and, as I am convinced that must have been the case, I would rather have a worse man in your place than have that violence done to my feelings.'

I can well enter into your Irish rebel sentiments. I wish I knew what to do to help your country. But, as I do not, it is of no use giving her smooth words, as O'Connell told me, and I must be silent. Indeed, when I want to say anything in favour of Liberal measures to the Irish, O'Connell's conduct (to which he has put the finishing stroke by turning out Duncannon) takes the argument out of my

mouth.

I am going to publish what you saw without my name for the public rumination. Pray do not betray me.2

1 Mr. Moore had been invited to stand for Limerick. His reply to the requisition will be found in Memoirs, vi. 305. The whole of this paragraph is quoted by him in his Diary (ibid. 307).

2 Lord John published the Essay on the Causes of the French Revolution in 1833. The publication was anonymous, but the veil was very thin: on p. 29

We shall have a keen contest. here between Bulteel and Buller. Yours truly,

J. RUSSELL.

It is evident from this letter, that Lord John, in 1832, embraced the views on Irish policy which have been ordinarily held by English statesmen. It has been their constant misfortune that they have been unable to appreciate the causes which have made the Irish perpetually dissatisfied and disloyal. During the Administration of Lord Grey, Whig statesmen were specially unable to probe the true causes of Irish discontent. For thirty years they had been educated in the belief that religious disabilities formed the chief Irish grievance. The disqualification had been removed; and the Irish were justifying by their conduct the Tory prediction that the redress of one grievance would only lead to an agitation for the removal of another. In the twenties, Ireland. had been organised to secure the Emancipation of the Roman Catholics; in the thirties, the Irish Government was confronted with a tithe war.

Unhappily, moreover, the Whig Ministers were themselves partly to blame for the difficulties which they encountered. In forming his Administration, Lord Grey chose as Irish Viceroy the distinguished General, Lord Anglesey, who had already filled that position under the Duke of Wellington. He gave him as his Chief Secretary Mr. Stanley, a man whose abilities qualified him to shine in almost any capacity, but whose temperament made it certain that he would fail to conciliate the Irish. And the initial blunder was followed by sins of omission and commission. The Whig Ministers not only refused to offer office to Mr. O'Connell, but they deliberately conferred the Chief Justiceship of the Common Pleas on Mr. Doherty, who had been the Duke of Wellington's

Lord John wrote, 'We have seen at the beginning of this work the manners and morals of the Court in the days of Lewis the Fourteenth ;' and the beginning of this work is, of course, the opening chapter of the Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe.

Mr. John Croker Bulteel, who was the son-in-law of Lord Grey, stood with Lord John for the southern of the two divisions into which Devonshire had been divided by the Reform Act. He was successful.

legal adviser; they offered the post of Attorney-General to Mr. Pennefather, a Tory: and on his refusal of it they appointed a Conservative to that office and a Protestant to the Solicitor-Generalship. The Irish, therefore, in the earliest days of the new Ministry, received the plainest evidence that no change was to be introduced into the principles of Irish government, and that Irish patriots had nothing to expect from a Whig Administration.

Every one acquainted with Irish history could have predicted the results of such a policy. Lord Anglesey was soon actively engaged in prohibiting meetings and proclaiming associations; and Mr. O'Connell was employed in devising methods of evading the Viceroy's proclamations. The Viceroy, after some difficulty, succeeded in procuring the conviction of the agitator, and the English Government, requiring his vote on the Reform Bill, allowed judgment to be postponed.

Unhappily, too, a new and unprecedented difficulty was forcing itself on the Irish Government. The indiscreet conduct of one or two Protestant clergymen led to an organised resistance to the payment of tithes. Whatever opinion it might entertain of the justice of a system which compelled the Irish Roman Catholics to pay tithe and cess in support of a Protestant Church, the Irish Government could not avoid. attempting to enforce the law. But, as 1831 wore on, it became evident that, though it had constabulary and troops at its back, it could not collect the tithes. In consequence, the Ministry, at the commencement of 1832, acting nominally on the advice of select committees, but in reality carrying out a scheme of Mr. Stanley's, passed two Acts: (1) enabling the Irish Government to relieve the distressed incumbent, and to repay itself by collecting the tithes which the incumbent had failed to obtain; (2) providing for the compulsory composition of tithes; and throwing the payment, as tenancies fell in, on the sub-lessee, lessee, and landlord.

These measures, good in themselves, failed, because they did not go far enough. Though, under one of them, the tenant at will was relieved from the payment of tithes, the small farmers, who held leases either for terms of years or on lives, obtained no relief. The Irish Roman Catholics naturally

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