reform. Lord John at once introduced, and succeeded in carrying, a Bill for the constitution of constabulary forces in Manchester and Birmingham; as well as a measure empowering the magistrates in any county to establish a local police.

These various measures for the prevention of crime, for the more rational punishment of the older, and for the reformation of the younger criminals, are perhaps connected by few people with Lord John Russell. Yet no one acquainted with the highest teachings of modern history will doubt either their success or their importance. Sir E. du Cane writes, in a passage which has already been quoted by the present author in another work, but which will bear quoting again—

The convict population of Great Britain, with its population of about 15,000,000, then [at the beginning of the present reign] consisted of 43,000 convicts in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, besides others in the penal settlements; the convicts in ten hulks in Great Britain, of which the usual number was stated in 1828 to be 3000 or 4000; several hundreds in the penitentiary at Millbank; about 900 (in 1838) at Gibraltar, and probably as many or more at Bermuda: about 50,000 in all. This large number is represented now by less than 9000 from our population of 27,000,000, to which should be added, say, 2000 on ticket-of-leave.

He would be a bold man who would ascribe this extraordinary improvement to any one man or any one measure.

But

feeling the least apDrummond and the Blakeney, with whom

place to demand the temporary services of three or four others he would not feel any more than I should afraid of the present tranquillity of this country being disturbed by their withdrawal.' And again on July 18: 'You may draw upon this place for a further reinforcement without my prehension for the safety or tranquillity of the country. Attorney-General are quite of this opinion; and Sir E. I have just been talking on the subject, does not dissent with reference to our present state, though, with the prudence of an experienced commander, he claims the return of the loan as soon as the emergency which may call for it is over.'

It is perhaps an even more striking testimony to the success of the Irish administration of Lords Mulgrave and Ebrington, that Lord John, speaking in 1840, said of the Irish, 'The people are as easily governed as any on the face of the globe' (Hansard, liv. 213). It would be difficult to name any other leader of the House of Commons in the present century who could have made such an admission.

he would be a still bolder man who would deny that, foremost among the causes which have operated for good, are the spread of elementary education and the more rational treatment of crime. It is certain that both of these remedies owe more to Lord John Russell than to any other statesman who has filled the office of Secretary of State for the Home Department.

While, then, earnest politicians are inclined to deplore the easy temperament of Lord Melbourne, and the circumstances in which he persuaded his colleagues to remain in office in 1838, and to resume office in 1839, intelligent critics will at least reflect that his doing so led to the accomplishment of much good both in Ireland and Great Britain. Even the humiliating defeat which the Whig party experienced in 1841. was hardly too high a price to pay for the spread of education. and the diminution of crime. These blessings England owes directly to Lord John Russell's administration of the Home Office; they are the enduring monuments of his share in the Government of 1835.1

1 In the thirties, as in later times, police magistrates were occasionally a little too loquacious on the bench. Lord John wrote to Mr Fox Maule: 'It appears to me that the police magistrates are continually exposing themselves to attack by their very unnecessary custom of making obiter remarks from the Bench on all that comes before them. . . . There are too many cases where the thing to be complained of is not so much the decision as the practice of chattering for the benefit of the public and the reporters. Would it not be possible to draw up some circular advising moderation and discretion in this respect? If done at all, however, it must be done very civilly.'

CHAPTER XIII.

THE CRISIS OF 1840.

IN May 1839 it was clear that a necessity existed for strengthening the Administration; but it was also evident that the Ministry could not venture to risk the re-elections which its reconstruction would involve. In August changes were easier than they had appeared in May: Sir John New port's retirement made a vacancy in his office, and Mr. Spring Rice became Lord Monteagle and Controller of the Exchequer. The Governorship of Canada, which was refused by Lord Clarendon and Lord Dunfermline, was conferred on Mr. Poulett Thomson; and two younger men, Mr. Francis Baring and Mr. Labouchere, were promoted, in succession to Mr. Spring Rice and Mr. Thomson, to the Cabinet.

These changes did not effect much. It was gradually becoming plain that Lord Normanby was not much more efficient as Colonial Minister than Lord Glenelg; and that it was requisite to place the only strong man in the Cabinet in the post of difficulty and danger. Lord John wrote to Lord Melbourne on July 16—

If you could manage it, giving Normandy the Admiralty, Minto the Home Office, and me the Colonial would improve the Ministry.

And again on the 19th

No one in these days seems disposed to make any sacrifice for the general advantage. Thomson wants to have a peerage before he consents to go to Canada. This will not do. Minto's reply puts an end to that notion [i.e. the notion of Lord Minto taking the Home Office]. Still I believe it will be best that Normanby should change places with me. Without Labouchere I fear he

would be at a loss. The Home Office is always more immediately under your control, and nothing can be done there without your

consent.

The change thus suggested was practically announced at the end of the session, and it led, indirectly, to another alteration of importance. During the previous year Lord Howick had differed from his colleagues on many questions of importance. He shared his father's opinions, and Lord Grey disapproved much that Lord Melbourne was doing. He had been on the eve of retiring from the Cabinet on Sir H. Fleetwood's motion. He had disliked the Colonial policy of the Government under Lord Glenelg. He disliked still more the Colonial policy of Lord Normanby. In the course of July, Lord Duncannon, who was in intimate communication with Lord Melbourne and Lord John, suggested that, among other alterations, Lord Howick should be promoted to the Post Office and called to the House of Lords. In the beginning of August, Lord John communicated this proposal to Lord Howick himself, who expressed himself disinclined to leave the House of Commons, but added that he presumed that the offer was part of some larger arrangement with which he was unacquainted. Informed for the first time of the proposed appointment of Mr. Poulett Thomson to Canada and of Lord Normanby to the Home Office, he complained of Lord Melbourne's want of confidence in concealing these arrangements from him. He considered that the character of the Administration was changed, and not improved, by these appointments; and he doubted, for many reasons, the expediency of Lord Normanby's appointment to the Home Office; and the possibility of Lord John undertaking the complicated duties of the Colonial Department while discharging the business of a leader of the House of Commons. So thinking, he made up his mind to retire,1 and, though Lord John personally endeavoured to shake his conclusion, he failed to make any impression on him. With Lord Howick, his brotherin-law, Mr. Charles Wood, left the Administration.

1 Lord Howick's reasons for resigning have never previously been stated.

The Prime Minister took Lord Howick's resignation with easy indifference. Lord John, on the contrary, was unaffectedly sorry at his separation from an old colleague. He told Lord Melbourne, on the 29th of August, that he thought that Lord Howick should have heard earlier about Mr. Thomson's appointment, and that he had been under the impression that he knew it. He added on the 31st that he could not say how sorry he was about Howick, and that he should try to keep friends with him. Regret, however, could not repair the evil. All that the Ministry could do was to fill up the vacant places as well as they could; and, with Lord John's consent, the office of Secretary at War was conferred on Mr. Macaulay, while Lord Clarendon was simultaneously admitted to the Cabinet as Lord Privy Seal.

Before these arrangements were concluded Lord John had formally entered on his new duties at the Colonial Office. Secretary of State is theoretically able to discharge the duties of his brother Secretaries, and the change involved neither reelection nor any more formal proceeding than walking into the Colonial Office, carrying with him the seals he had held as Home Secretary. The Under-Secretaryship of the Colonies. was filled at that time by Sir James Stephen, one of the most remarkable men who have held high permanent office under the Crown; while Sir Henry Taylor, the author of Philip van Artevelde,' was serving in the ranks of the department. However distant and cold Lord John may have been with his supporters, he was always on easy terms with men of capacity. Sir H. Taylor wrote to Mr. Edward Villiers

You once asked me how Stephen and I liked Lord John's way of doing business. Very much. Very different from anything before him.1

1 Sir H. Taylor's Autobiography, i. 265. Sir J. Stephen wrote to Lord John in December, 1839, with reference to an attack of Mr. Croker's in the Quarterly: 'I must be prepared to pay the penalties for the situation I hold. As to such as are exacted of me by the Quarterly Review, I am not very anxious about them. It is utterly idle to attempt, in public life, to overtake calumny even when a man holds a substantial position with a right of self-deWhen, as in my case, the nature of his office is such as to make self

ence.