The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-02 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 2, 1863.

effected what was the grand achievement of his Ministry—
the Abolition of the Slave Trade ; but the measure was

originated by Fox, and it was carried so triumphantly
through both Houses of Parliament as to prove that the
great struggle of 20 years which had thus gloriously ended
might have been crowned with victory much sooner if pre-
vious Ministers had been so minded. All parties were

agreed in their abhorrence of the trade, The first real
difficulty which the Ministers had to encounter was a diffi-
culty of their own raising, and the Cabinet went to work
upon it. Lord Howick introduced " a Bill to enable his
Majesty to avail himself of the services of all his liege sub-

jects in his naval and militaryforces in the manner therein

Mentioned"—that is to say, by their taking an oath which

would admit Catholics into the service of the country.

When the King, who was always tender on the Catholic
question, expressed his disapprobation o: the bill, Ministers
agreed to withdraw it, reserving to themselves the right
expressed in the Uabinet minutes of bringing it forward at

some future time, The minute was couched in terms so

positive as well as disrespectful to the King, who had never
been very cordial with Lords Grenville and Howick, that
he demanded from them a pledge in writing that
they would never again press him on the subject.

The Ministers, who had overrated their strength, retused

to consent until it was too late, and their only course was
to resign. It was on this occasion that Sheridan said, with

reference to the conduct of the Premier, that ho had often
heard of a man knocking his head against a wall, but never
before had he heard of a man building, clamping, and
squaring a wall for the express purpose of doing so.
We have dwelt with so much detail on Lord Henry

Petty's first appearance as a Minister because it was, per-

haps, the most brilliant episode of his life. Never after-
wards did he occupy so prominent a position in the eyes of
the nation. He did, indeed, occupy posts as high and per-
form duties as onerous, but he was no longer the miracle he
was then considered. He was a young nobleman of amiable
disposition, of good education, of considerable ability, and
of great ambition, but he was not the heaven .born states-
men his friends had imagined. Homer, who had great
hopes of him, but who also took his measure accurately, as
our college friends generally do, describes him as having
" a cool, clear-thinking head, a plain, firm, manly judg-
ment ;" and that is precisely the character which Lord
Lansdowne earned throughout his life. As a speaker, he
was at this time said to resemble Whitbread, without his
passion. Byron, in giving his idea of eloquence, describes
him as a mere debater : —" Pitt I never heard ; Fox but
once, and then he struck me as a debater, which to me seems
as different from an orator as an improvisatore or a versifier
from a poet. . . . Lord Lansdowne good, but still only
a debater." His powers in debate, however, were so for-
midable that, on the death of Fox, it was proposed that he
should lead the House of Commons, and it was probably
through his own diffidence that this onerous post was in-
trusted to a very different personage. In one respect he
was eminently fitted fer the lead. He was remarkable for
self-possession, and it is reported as a striking proof of it
that in the midst of his maiden speech he stopped with
amazing coolness to adjust his cravat, which had got out
of order. To Moore he afterwards observed that he
hardly ever spoke in the House of Lords without
some loss of self-pcssession, and that the only way to
surmount it was to talk on at all hazards. He could
talk, He was almost always fluent enough, and sometimes
rose into eloquence. Whatever public talents he had, how-
ever, he was now destined to retire very much from public
life. He gave up one of the highest offices under the Crown,
he entered into the bonds of matrimony, and he obtained a
splendid peerage all about the same time.
His father had died in May, 1805, only a few days after
Lord Henry Petty had signalised himself in debate—the
debate on Lord Melville. The old lord had by this time
passed very much out of popular notice, and the principal
cause of public regret for his demise was that only a fort-
night before his death he had declared his knowledge of the
Junius secret, and yet among his papers were to be found
no indication that could lead to its discovery. He was suc-
ceeded by his eldest son, the Earl of Wycombe, whose first
aet on coming into possession was to sell almost all the
literary and artistic treasures which his father had accumu-
lated with so much love and labour. The greater part of
these were dispersed under the hammer of the auctioneer,
many of the pictures going to enrich the Grosvenor, the
National, and other galleries; only the Lansdowne MSS.
were kept together, being purchased by the British Mu-
seum; while the gallery of antique marbles was the sole
portion of the collection for which the Marquis showed any
appreciation,—his opinion being expressed in the fact that
he purchased it from his father's executors for £6,000. He
died in November, 1809, and was succeeded by his half-
brother, the late Marquis, whose first care was to purchase
the antique marbles from his sister-in-law, and there at
Lansdowne-house they may now be seen—some of them, as
the youthful Hercules and the Mercury, considered the
finest statues of the kind that have found their:way to this
country. As for the pictures, when the Marquis succeeded
to the title there was not one in this splendid mansion, with
the exception of a few family portraits ; but love of art was
an instinct of the family, and Lord Lansdowne set himself to
the formation of a gallery which now comprises 200 pictures
of rare interest and value, but miscellaneous in their cha-
racter, no school nor master predominating unless it be
Sir Joshua Reynolds. Some of the portraits in this col-
lection are of great interest. There is the celebrated por-

trait of Pope by Jervas; Reynolds's wonderful portrait of

Sterne; one of Franklin, by Gainsborough ; a beautiful one
of Peg Woffington, by Hogarth ; Lady Hamilton appears
twice—as a bacchante and a gipsy, from the pencil of Rom-
ney ; Homer, the old College friend of Lord Lansdowne,
is not forgotten; but, most interesting of all, there is the
lovely portrait of Mrs. Sheridan, as St. Cecilia, painted by
Reynolds. It may recall with some vividness the fashion
of those times if we record a little incident connected with
this portrait. During the short-lived Ministry of " All the
Talents," ' the Whig leaders celebrated their return to
power by a continual round of festivities, in which Sheri-
dan outvied all hie colleagues. One Sunday (25th of May,
1806) he gave a grand dinner; on the Monday following a
supper and ball, at which the dancing was prolonged to past
8 o'clock next morning; on the Tuesday a christening, a
masque, and another ball, the Prince being present on each
occasion, and the Lord Chancellor Erskine and the young
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Henry Petty, being conspi-
cuous among the dancers. On the occasion of the dinner
the portrait of Mrs. Sheridan was redeemed for one night
only from the pawnbroker's, and exhibited in its place in
the dining-room; when poor Sheridan died it was still in
possession of the pawnbroker; it then fell into the hands of
Sheridan's solicitor, and from him it was purchased for
£6OO by Lord Lansdowne. In this little incident we get
some glimpses of that conviviality for which the Whigs
were distinguished. "Le Whig est la femme de votre
Gouvernement," says Balzac, and the truth of the remark
is especially illustrated in that social influence which the
Whigs have always cultivated more than the Tories.
For more than 20 years after the death of Fox a brilliant
social existence was almost all that the Whigs had to boast
of as a party. It is useless to deny that they were unpo-
pular with the nation ; and we naturally ask, how was it
that they were so long excluded from power. Lord Jeffrey
in one of his reviews tries to answer this question, and
would have us believe that, by a necessity of their posi-
tion as friends of progress in advance of the age, the
Whigs must always be content to forego the sweets
of office in virtue of their superior enlightenment. The
theory is, at all events, flattering to the party. It is pleasant
to forget that the Whig leaders in the House of Commons
were incapable, and that the Whig policy bequeathed
by Fox was anti-national; that these two causes acted and
reacted upon each other, so as more and more to estrange
men of ability who might be disgusted with Tory manage-
moat, and to render contemptible a policy that before was
only disliked and dreaded. Fox was dead ; Henry Petty
had gone to the Upper House, where, with Grey and Gren-
ville, the best part of Whiggism was to be found—found,
however, as effectually hidden under the three coronets as
a light under a bushel. The Whig Lords were dispirited,
the Whig Commons were disorganised, the whole party was
at a discount. In the Lower House there were still Wynd-
ham and Whitbread and Sheridan, but those were man
who could not lead, and who very soon died out Wynde
ham died from the effect of an accident ; Whitbread com-
mitted suicide ; poor Romilly, before long, followed his ex •
ample; Sheridan died a pauper; andyonsonby, the leader
of the Opposition, died of apoplexy the day after Sheridan.
He was succeeded by Tierney, who led the Whig knights
of the people through many a dreary desert of debate.
What could be done under such direction ? Brougham was
much the most able man of the party; but he had no fol-
lowing, and the Whig magnates refused to grant him the
leadership of the Commons. If anything can clearly illus-
trate the mediocrity of the Opposition, it is the medi-
ocrity of the Cabinet. These were the inglorious
days of Castlereagh and Liverpool, who, in spite of a
domestic policy that was not only invidious but stupid, re-
tained power—so strong was the national feeling—simply
from the zeal with which they carried out a foreign policy
that had been bequeathed to them by greater men. Gradu-
ally the Whig policy began to make way. At first Whig
measures were carried by Tory Ministers. The severity
of the criminal code
rather of humanity wtl'esaninoit; mitigated; but s
o this
thatis na questiono
wonder
if all parties aro agreed on the point. It is a nearer ap •
proach to genuine politics to meddle with the currency of
the country; still, when Peel worked up the Whig bullion
scheme into a Bank Act, the question presented itself rather
as one of commercial safety than of political rivalry. But
next turned up the claims of the Catholics, and now the
great struggle commenced that was completely to remodel
par the that was to give life and vigour to the Whigs, and
that was to inaugurate a new epoch in our domestic legis-

lation.
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istecwtaariatnhefralnVehhiigsse
gilt to undo their own work.
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it was the Whigs who now SOU
Ocnaththoelicoitshmeruhsaea hand, their
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a sy on
opponentsirnymf
hador never Tory Toryism, n
forgotten
coondthttehadet
strength of their opposition to Emancipation lconsisted
rather of religions than political objections. These objec-
tions were not insuperable. Pitt had been in favour of the
Catholic claims ; so among his successors were Castlereagh,
Canning, Palmerston, and others; and, as it turned out,
those who ultimately carried Emancipation wore precisely
those who had opposed it most vehemently. On this great

subject, therefore, it appears that all the landmarks of party
were delusive. Here were all the Whigs and a goodly num-
ber of the Tories united in a common object. The contro-

versy at length raged so fiercely that the more formal bonds
of party were burst asunder, the nation was agitated to its
centre, and, Lord Grey alone dissenting, the Whigs amal-
gamated with those of the Tories who had all along been
favourable to Emancipation, and who had the sense to
perceive that the domestic legislation with which successive
Tory Governments had been identified was essentially due
to the Whigs. The condition of Tories and Whigs uncle'

Canning marks an epoch in the Parliamentary history of
the country. It was not the first great coalition to which

Lord Lansdowne belonged ; neither was it the last.
The history of this coalition, as far as Canning was con-
cerned, is painful from the party jealousies which appear in
all the negotiations with his late colleagues. It is sufficient
to say that when about the middle of February, 1827, Lord
Liverpool was struck with apoplexy, the King sent for Can-
ning as the most eminent statesman in office. Now, al-
though in the Cabinet of Lord Liverpool Catholic Relief was
an open question, still tiV ellington, Peel, and some others of
Canning's colleagues in that Administration, refusedto join
a Ministry in which the question might still be left open,

but the head of which was committed in favour of Emanci•

pation. Deserted by his Tory friends, Canning threw him-

sell into the arms of the Whigs, with Lord Lansdowne at
their head. Lord Brougham takes the credit of having ef-

fected this alliance, an alliance which established a Govern-

ment that seemed the strongest the country had seep since
the Administration of " All the Talents." If Brougham
was the mediator in this alliance, it is to Lord Lansdowne's

influence that we must attribute the hearty support of the

Whigs, Lord Grey was the most experienced of the Whig
statesmen, and he might be regarded as the foremost
champion of Catholic Relief ; but he alone of his party held
•• _ _ _ _

aloof from the coalition, and the real leader of the Oppo-
sition stood out to view when almost to a man the Whigs

forsook Lord Grey to follow Lord Lansdowne in supporting
Mr. Canning. It is exceedingly characteristic of Lord

Lansdowne,-and gives some idea of his courteous bearing,
his social disposition, and his moderate politics, that he

should take so active a part in the formation of three peat
coalitions which are the most striking events in the history
of Cabinets during the present century. In the first

coalition he joined himself with Tories of the Sidmouth
and Ellenborough stamp; it was an alliance, the
practical effect of which was to absorb Whiggism in a pro-
secution of the war, however unwilling, and to secure the
ascendancy of Toryism. In the second coalition he joined
himself with Tories of the Canning and Lyndhurst and
Palmerston order, the effect of which was to disintegrate
existing parties, to pave the way for the advent of the more
liberal Conservatives into the Whig ranks, to absorb Tory
ism in the consideration of domestic abuses, and ultimately
to secure for an indefinite period the ascendancy of Whig
principles. In the third coalition he united his party with
the remnant of the Tories who had separated themselves
from Canning. Those Conservatives who on the Tory
schism of 1827 declined the leadership of Canning accepted
the leadership of Peel ; and, as Lord Lansdowne then
formed an alliance, not indeed with Peel, far he was no
more, but with his friends and disciples.
We have said that before the Coalition Ministry of 1806
was formed, Fox, in attending the funeral of Nelson, was
arrested by sickness, which in a few months proved to be
mortal, and, killing him, destroyed the Cabinet. In like
manner, before the coalition of 1827 was formed, Canning,
in attending the funeral of the Duke of York, caught a
severe cold, from which he never quite recovered, which,
combined with harassing duties, hurried him to the grave,
when he had been but a few months in office, and which,
fatal to him, was also fatal to his Cabinet. Lord Goderich
tried to fill his place at the head of the Ministry but failed.
The Government carried no important measure, not even
that of Catholic Relief. Its grand result, as we have inti-
mated, was that it prepared the way for the reconstruction
of parties. Next year saw the extreme Tories again in
power, but saw them also, to the astonishment of the na-
tion, not only consenting to the repeal of the Test and Cor-
poration Act, but introducing a bill for the relief of the Ca-
tholics. The Whigs had triumphed again. In the reform of
our criminal code and in the regulation of the currency it
was their principles that had triumphed in the hands of
Tory Ministers. In the emancipation of the Catholics and
Relief of Dissenters their principles had again been passed
into law, and they also narrowly missed the honour of pass
ing these measures in a Ministerial capacity. In the next
great reform they were to attain a still greater success; they
were to drive the Tories from power, and, in spite of oppo-
sition, to see their own policy carried out by themselves.
Parliamentary Reform was the watchword ; the Bill, the
whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill." The Tories were
oblige to succumb. Reform they rejected absolutely, and
without reform they could not retain their places. They
became restless in their batting. The Duke was bowled out,
Peel was caught out, and the Whigs took their innings.
They entered office with Lord Grey at their head, and it
seemed as if their rule would be eternal. The Whig eternity
consisted of ten years, and even that short space was inter-
rupted by threatened and by actual loss of power. Yet in
this term, during which Lord Lansdowne occupied the posi-
tion of President of the Council, many important measures
were passed, and services were rendered, some of which,
long years ;afterwards, were regarded almost as .works of
supererogation that in the individuals who took part in them
atoned for every error and outbalanced every deficiency,
Parliament was reformed, Slavery was abolished, tithes were
commuted, the Poor Law was passed, education made way.
Unfortunately, the Whigs, spite of principle, proved to be
more aristocratic than the Tories themselves. Their nepo-
tism soon began to be felt, the middle classes were alien-
ated,the lower classes were disgusted ; worst:of all they had
not an idea en finance " Great would be the joy of the
Three per Cents, if Spring Rice would go into Holy
Orders," wrote Sydney Smith. The great financier of
1806 was leading the House of Lords. right glad to escape
from the mysteries of political arithmetic, While the Ex-
chequer was thus getting into a mess, the greatest financier
since Pitt—a Tory toboot—was bidding for power, issuing
Tamworth manifestoes, in which he woudrously proved
himself all things to all men—a Conservative to the Con-
servatives, and a Liberal to the Liberals. He came into
power on the great principles of Cocker.
During the greater part of this period, and for the next 10
years, Lord Lansdowne, as he was the acknowledged hoad
of the party, was naturally its leader in the Upper House.
There never was a leader who commanded more respect,
and who while effectually serving his party more fully ob-
tained the confidence of his opponents. It was not simply
h
was dignified, that his manner was courte-
ous,tat his
that bearinghi s
tact was consummate. In the House of Lords
a leader must not merely have those qualities which insure
success in the House of Commons; he must not only be
masterly in attack, he must also be masterly in the midst
of inaction. In the Upper House it is possible at any mo-
ment to force a march and to steal a victory, and this ad-
vantage a leader must frequently be content to forego, so
that the contest is without surprises and the vote is a fair
trial of strength. It is obvious that in these circumstances
forbearance is required in a leader ; he is trammelled by the
very superabundance of power, and he must adjourn a
debate or postpone a motion in order to suit the convenience
of his adversary. It is one of those tyrannies which the
weak exert over the strong, and to which the strong must
submit with the best possible grace. Lord Lansdowne per-
formed his part with a gentleness that won the perfect con-
fidence of his political foes, and lost nothing for his political
friends. For five years—namely, during Sir Robert Peel's
lease of power from 1841 to 1846—he was in opposition ;
for six years afterwards—namely, during the Ministry of
Lord John Russell—he was in the Government; but,
whether in power or in opposition, during the 20 years that
frnithe passing of Reform to the advent of Lord
Derby's Administration in 1852, he was the good genius of
elapsed
the House of Peers.
Although Lord Lansdowne formally bade farewell to
office in 1852, he at the same time declared that it would
be his duty as well his pleasure to take part in important
discussions, and to express his opinion unbiassed by official
relations. He knew not how soon he was to be called upon
to fulfil his promise. The Duke of Wellington died in the
same year—the venerable hero who knew all parties, who
had studied all public questions, who had tried the
strength of every nation in}Europe, and who, in every:emer-
gency, was always at the side of the Queen to give her
the benefit of that old experience which in him was sup-
posed to have attained to something of prophetic strain.
After Wellington the most distinguished Peer was the
Marquis of Lansdowne,—from a boy noted for the solidity
of his judgment; as a man, remarkable for his clear head,
his kindly nature, and the perfect consistency with which
be pursued the calm talenr of his way, now raised by expe-
rpiaerntciees; and
above the prejudice and by years above the strife of
to him the Queen looked for ad vice in the
emergencies of State. It is with this view that when, early
in 1853, Lord Derby tendered the resignation of himself and
his colleagues to her Majesty, the Queen applied to Lord
Lansdowne for direction, and it was through his great in-
fluence that the Whigs formed that celebrated coalition with
the followers of Sir Robert Peel under Lord Aberdeen. He
net only advised this alliance, he consented to take part in
it by accepting a seat in the Cabinet, though without office.
When this coalition was dissolved he still retained his seat
under Lord Palmerston's Ministry until March, 1858. The
position which he thus occupied was by no means a sine-
cure. Although he did not feel himself equal to the cares
of an office, he always accepted the responsibility of the Go-
vernment measures; he gave his most careful attention to
all that came before the Cabinet, and nothing important
was even determined without his sanction.
A statesman utterly unselfish, a nobleman per-
fectly genial, a man of large sympathies and the
roughly well-balanced mind—such was Lord Lansdowne
to the last. The head of a great party, he was not a party
man—for there vas no conceit in him. He never put him-
selfaril for
w---• Almost all the great incidents of his political
life are instances of self-denial. He refused a dukedom.
Had he been a pushing man, he might more than once have
been Prime Minister, and on one occason he had the chance
of leading the House of Commons. He was not without
ambition, but his ambition was completely under the con-
trol of his judgment. He always said and did the right
thing irrespective of himself. And this unselfishness
which in public • life manifested itself as perfect modera-
tion, showed itself in private
as genuine kindliness
of nature. The fine old man. was beloved by all who
knew hint. -le was always ready with a helping hand for
those who needed it, with a kind and a warm remem

brance for his friends, with a pleasant smile for all. Now
that he has gone his place will not soon be filled, and his
memory will not soon pass away. His eldest son, the Earl
of Kerry, died in 1830 ; and he is succeeded by his
second son, the Earl of Shelburne, who was called to the
House of Lords in 1856, under the title of Baron Wy..
combe. Lord Lansdowne married, in 1808, a daughter of
the second Earl of Ilchester. She died in 1851, and was
the mother of, besides the two sons we have named, a
daughter married to the Hon. James Howard.