CHAP. VIII.] DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT. 193 appointment of office seems never to have been clearly told; but no one can wonder that, among so strange a diversity of men, the greatest of them being gone, there could be little union. We find so much praise of Lord Howick's moderation, and good temper and manners, that we must suppose that the more liberal party in the Cabinet had some difficulty in standing its ground. Lord Howick succeeded to Fox's most arduous office, and yielded his own, at the Admiralty, to Mr. T. Grenville.1 Lord Holland, the nephew of Mr. Fox, was the only new member brought in. He took Lord Sidmouth's office; and Lord Sidmouth became President of the Council, in the place of Lord Fitzwilliam, who went out. Lord Minto, late Sir Gilbert Elliot, became Governor-General of Bengal. Three weeks from Mr. Fox's death were occupied in preparations for his funeral, which was as imposing as it was mournful. He was buried at Westminster Abbey, on the 10th of October. Hitherto, the nation had been divided for many years, not so much into Tories and Whigs as into Pittites and Fox- Dissolution ites. The men who had at first stood as symbols of of parties. principles had become, as symbols are apt to do, idols. The idols were broken, and men must find out afresh what their principles were, and choose fresh exponents of them. It did not appear that there were any men before the eyes of the nation qualified to become such exponents, at present. It seemed that new parties must be formed, on grounds to be newly explored and ascertained. The broad and deep middle class of Great Britain always affords a basis and materials for a great popular party. It had long been unduly depressed, by a combination of unfavorable influences; and one great question now to be decided was, whether it was sufficiently aware of the dignity and soundness of its permanent interests to assert itself in opposition to the self-will of royalty, and of an aristocracy which is always most powerful in a period of war. The leading Ministers considered it necessary, though earnestly opposed by the Tory members of the Cabinet, and vehemently blamed by a host of observers without, to give the people an opportunity of declaring their minds at so marked a crisis; and they therefore engaged the King to dis- Dissolution of solve parliament on the 25th of October. These Parliament. leaders were well aware that their popularity had been declining ever since they entered office; 2 and that, if seen already to be weak, they might be regarded as contemptible now that Mr. Fox was gone. They might risk everything by calling a new parliaBut it was essential to their self-respect, and their confidence in office, that the opinion of the people in regard to them should be pronounced, and that the policy of the coming period ment. 1 Annual Register, 1806, p. 262. VOL. I. 2 Ibid. p. 451. 194 NEW PARLIAMENT CALLED. [BOOK I. should be indicated by the nation before it was prosecuted by themselves. So, though the King frowned, and Lord Sidmouth shook his head, and Mr. Wilberforce owned himself shocked, and a host of Liberals doubted and wondered, Lord Grenville decided that a new parliament should meet on the 15th of December. CHAP. IX.] STRENGTH OF THE CABINET. 195 CHAPTER IX. "1 THE elections seemed to settle the point of the further probation of the Grenville Ministry. They had so large a majority that the Opposition were quite disheartened. We Strength of find Lord Eldon growing very angry at this discour the Cabinet. agement, and telling his Tory friends that all good people hate coalitions; and that, if the Opposition would even now take for their ground the coalition of the Grenvilles and Foxites, they would find themselves supported by all the virtue of the country. He complained bitterly of the whole Tory party, from the King himself to Mr. Canning, for their guilty supineness. He pitied his sovereign for the ignorance of his value, shown in not making him Chancellor again; ascribed this desertion of his old servants by the King to his age, his blindness, his being surrounded by evil domestic influences, and his wish to avoid those who had seen him in his fits of insanity. "The King's conduct," he concludes, "does not astonish me, though I think it has destroyed him.' It is amusing, after this, to read the protestations made by Lord Eldon, only three months later, of the perfect vigor of the King's understanding, and the noble independence of his action. As for the Opposition, Lord Eldon says he could never induce them to form any plan, to agree upon any system; and thus they only railed at the Administration, without overthrowing it. This was precisely the complaint of the best men of the liberal party, who cared more about seeing the country well governed than about maintaining any particular set of men in power. "I look upon it as a serious misfortune to the country," wrote Francis Horner,2 on the opening of the new parliament, "that it is for the present deprived of that very important part of our political system a party arrayed against the Ministers, for the purposes of popular vigilance and inquisition, upon fixed and assignable principles." Thus the machinery for governing, during this important period of probation, consisted of a reluctant sovereign, supported by a carping family and Court; an ill-compacted Cabinet, sufficiently supported as to numbers in parliament, but abundantly thwarted and censured there, without any Opposition which could bring their principles of government to any satisfac1 Life of Lord Eldon, ii. p. 11. 2 Memoirs, i. p. 386. 196 LORD HOWICK. CANNING. [BOOK I. tory test. As for the most vexatious member of Opposition, Mr. Canning, Lord Eldon was more angry with him by far than Lord Grenville was; for Canning was already showing a power of progression which isolated him from all but the few true Pittites who remained connected with public affairs. During this November, Lord Grenville made liberal offers to Mr. Canning of office for himself and three or four supporters: 1 Mr. Canning refused them; but Lord Eldon could not forgive him for having been so sought. He said that Lord Grenville was flattering the vanity of the youngster, and pretending to make him of consequence; and he held up Canning to the distrust of all good Tories. Lord Wellesley was the negotiator between Lord Grenville and Canning. His own position was a strange one. An impeachment was hanging over him, which had been desired and supported by some members of Lord Grenville's Cabinet, and had been deferred only because the requisite information could not be obtained before the close of the session; and the time was coming when the government of the country was to be offered to him. While he was thus standing unconsciously between threatened ignominy on the one hand, and proffered honor on the other, he was laboring to recruit a partially hostile Cabinet from the noisiest part of the Opposition. For once, parliament was not allowed the usual Christmas The failure of the negotiations for peace, and No Christmas recess. recess. the state of the war on the Continent, were pressing for consideration; and the new parliament, which met on the 15th of December, continued its sittings almost from day to day. Mr. Abbott was again chosen Speaker; 2 and the Royal Speech was communicated by Commission, the principal topic being the failure of the negotiation with France. Lord Howick's speech on the Address was considered by friends and Lord Howick. foes the best he had ever made. It is interesting now to look back upon the manifestations, during that year, of the ability of various kinds in various men, which was afterwards to have so much influence over the affairs of the world. Lord Howick was not very young in years; but he was in power; and now he began to manifest, to the admiration of his opponents, the loftiness of principle and sentiment which enabled him to hold the same tone in power as in Opposition. Mr. Canning's speech in reading an amendment which he did not move was pronounced on all hands very able. Some objected to its tone of personal assertion, which looked like a desire "to fix himself in the throne of Opposition." Those who uttered the objection were probably unaware of the recent offers made to him, which rendered his present self-assertion necessary. Mr. Canning. 1 Malmesbury Diaries, iv. p. 362. 2 Hansard, viii. p. 16. Mr. CHAP. IX.] OTHER RISING MEN. 197 Mr. Perceval. Perceval, of whom little had been heard before, except in his character of a violent partisan Attorney-General, in Pitt's last administration, was now coming out in a character of his own as an enemy to all relaxation of religious tests. From this time his rigid, narrow mind, honest and unphilosophical; his temper, amiable towards friends, and bitter and arrogant towards opponents; his manners, simple and affectionate to his connections, and ludicrously presumptuous and offensive to all persons whom he considered heterodox, these qualities were now beginning to be conspicuous in the man whom nature never intended to be conspicuous, but who, by one of those apparent mistakes of fate which make statesmen of very small personages, was soon to be at the head of affairs for a series of years. - In this same year, on occasion of Lord Melville's trial, Sir Samuel Romilly made what was called at the time his first pub- Romilly. lic appearance. His function as Solicitor-General drew all eyes upon him; and no doubt afterwards existed anywhere as to what his goodness was, and what his greatness ought to be. By some few he had long been affectionately revered; he was now to be the dread of the oppressor, and the hope of the pure and the merciful in heart. —Another man entered parliament this session from whom great things were expected, and who lived just long enough to show that such expectation could hardly have been exaggerated. Francis Horner now took his seat for St. Ives. Dur- Francis Horing this short session, he did not prove his quality to ner. strangers, speaking only twice, very shortly, and modestly watching, instead of aiding, the discussion of the great questions of the time. But he was there, with his high integrity and intelligence, ready to aid every good cause when the time should come. On this occasion William Lamb was one of the striking Hon. Wm. novelties. He moved the Address in the Commons; Lamb. and it was agreed that whatever his abilities might prove to be, he had the most impressive manner and voice of any man yet known in the House. Such was the judgment pronounced on the future Melbourne 1. the fourth future Prime Minister in this short list of rising men. Another young man was there who was to make a brilliant manifestation of his powers before the end of the short session, and to raise and justify new hopes during a series of years, and show what he could do in office, and then sink into insanity and death. J. W. Ward, af- Hon. J. W. terwards Earl of Dudley, sat among a few friends who Ward. promised deep for him, but were soon almost ashamed not to have engaged for much more. The young Lord Palm- Lord Palm"He is but a lad," some one had erston. just written of him to Wilberforce; but his opinions were never1 Memoirs of Horner, i. p. 386. erston was there. |