Emancipation which Pitt appeared to promise. He knew that the Irish people in general looked forward to it with dread, and that they had no lawful and constitutional means of expressing their genuine convictions. He knew also very well that Lord Cornwallis, the Viceroy, Lord Castlereagh, the Secretary of State, and Lord Clare, the Chancellor, were actively engaged in buying supporters of the ministerial plan.* This fact alone would have disinclined him towards it; for he held that a righteous cause stands in no need of artifice and corruption. He saw, moreover, that the influx of one hundred Irish members, representing close boroughs, into the English House of Commons, would strengthen the power of ministers and decrease the chances of an independent parliament. It was otherwise thirty years afterwards, when Emancipation had been granted, and when Reform was probable. Then he vigorously resisted O'Connell's agitation for Repeal, and defended very properly the Union which he had once opposed.

On the eastern coast of Northumberland, and about a mile from the sea, rises the mansion of Howick, in the midst of glens richly wooded and rocks sloping to the beach. About it, in every direction, are romantic walks, seven miles in their aggregate length. There every variety of inland and marine scenery is to be enjoyed. There may be seen from the Heugh all the indentures of

* Flanagan's "British and Irish History,” p. 828; "Life and Opinions of Earl Grey," p. 52.

the coast, with Dunstanborough and Bamborough in the distance (as Scott describes them in " Marmion "*) on one side, and Warkworth and Coquet Island, with its white lighthouse, on the other; and there the beauty of nature's solitude was even less invaded at the beginning of the century than it is now. To journey thence to town at that period was the weary work of four long days. But the retreat had its recluse-a man eminently qualified for public life, and destined to be at a later epoch prime minister of England and chief agent in the accomplishment of one of the most important events in her history.

It was there, in short, in 1801, that Mr. Grey, who had become Lord Howick when his father was raised to the peerage by Addington, retired from the arena of politics which he detested,† and buried himself, like Fox at St. Ann's Hill, in sylvan and domestic delights. There, with a wife and children whom he tenderly loved, he planted with his own hand almost every tree now standing; there he farmed and laid out walks, clambered over the rocks with the boys, read Tacitus, watched the growth of his hyacinths, and wrote long letters to Fox.

When urged by that statesman to return to his parliamentary duties, he, who was of all men most capable, pleaded his incapacity for business. Yet he did not resist beyond a certain point. He yielded at last—it was in 1803—to the importunity of his friends. He would +"Correspondence," 1804.

* Canto ii.

quit the gardens of Howick, where the bees hummed and the surf resounded. The Peace of Amiens was about to be broken, and the voice of wise counsels was to be drowned by the drums of gathering hosts. He would go up and look on the weakness of Addington's cabinet. He would see what could be done to maintain peace, if indeed Napoleon were not unalterably bent on war. He would warn Fox not to be too lenient in his interpretation of the Corsican's designs. He would sustain the honour of England in arms, if to arms she was forced. He might too, under some not very probable circumstances-he might consent to a union with Addington, if Fox and himself were sure of having a majority in the cabinet. He might, failing this combination, join the Grenvilles, though they had shared in Pitt's government and had approved his policy.

To town, therefore, he went, but not as yet to unite with any but his old leader, Fox. The Opposition, consisting of Foxites, Grenvillites, and, at the last, of Pitt himself, moved in separate columns. Before this formidable array"the Doctor" fairly ran away. Lord Eldon had secretly betrayed him, and coquetted with Pitt. The great orator was recalled, and made overtures to some of Fox's party, when the King resolutely refused to let Fox himself sit in the cabinet. But Lord Howick's attachment to his friend was sincere, and "no earthly consideration," he said, "should make him accept office without Fox." There is little doubt that what Canning said was

true, and that Pitt might, if he had chosen, have overruled the King's objection to Fox. It is impossible, however, not to respect the loyalty with which Pitt deferred on this and on other occasions to the wishes and prejudices of his royal master. A king is not to be regarded merely as an individual: he is a representative personage. He is not only the head of the nation, but is, as it were, the nation impersonated; and a prime minister who should pride himself on reducing his sovereign to submissionwho should push him to extremities, even at the risk of his becoming insane-would have the heart of a traitor and the head of a democrat.

It was not until the Pitt administration was dissolved by its leader's death that Lord Howick rose to a place in the government. He was one of the brightest stars in the galaxy called "All the Talents." The esteem in which he was held by Lord Holland may be gathered from the lines written by the latter on himself:

But in the ministry he

was all but powerless, being unsupported by the King. If his politics had been mixed, like those of Grenville, who was the enemy of Reform, or changeable, like those of the Duke of Portland, who was a Whig-deserter, he might have got on better; but he was made of stouter material. He preferred doing nothing to

doing wrong. As First Lord of the Admiralty he found it a hard task to satisfy applicants for places and pensions. His happiness, he said, had fled with the cares of office, his nights passed without sleep, and he longed to resign. Nor would he avail himself of his position to enrich his family. So firmly was he set against nepotism, that when premier in after life, from 1830 to 1834, not one of his seven younger sons, all indifferently provided for, derived any advantage from his being at the head of the government. The death of Fox in 1806 placed him in the foremost ranks of the Whigs. The letters of condolence which he received from the Prince of Wales, containing unbounded profession of attachment to the memory and politics of Fox, were strikingly characteristic of the faithlessness of the writer. In the light of his subsequent conduct they read like the language of an accomplished hypocrite.

During Lord Howick's short tenure of office little opportunity was afforded him of carrying into effect one of the objects dearest to his heart—the relief of Irish Roman Catholics. He knew how hopeless it was to plead their cause before the Commons, then assembled. He might as well have discoursed on mercy and justice to a pack of wolves. "We have had two debates," he wrote on the 6th of March, 1807, to his uncle, Lord Ponsonby; "one on the extended grant to Maynooth, and the other on the introduction of the bill (for admitting Catholic officers into the army and navy) yesterday, which have