XXI. 1827. emancipation now rested in the vault of Windsor, its CHAP. supporter wielded the whole power and patronage of Government; the hero of the Peninsula was in retirement, and the new premier had recently sent the British standards to Lisbon to support a liberal constitution, and boasted he had severed the dominions of an ancient ally, and "called a new world into existence to redress the balance of the old." Changes so vast could not fail to exercise a powerful influence on the course of events in future times; and it was the greater that they were in great part themselves the result of an alteration in general opinion, and the approach of a new era in human affairs. which the ceived in The magnitude of the change which had taken place 68. appeared in the most decided manner when the minis- Manner in terial explanations, as usual in such cases, took place in changes Parliament. Both Houses were crowded to excess, both were rein the highest degree excited; but the excitement in the Parliament. two was as different as the poles are asunder. In the Commons it was the triumph of victory; in the Peers the consternation of defeat. So clearly was this evinced, that it obliterated for a time the deep lines of party distinction, and brought the two Houses, almost as hostile bodies united under different standards, into the presence of each other. The Commons rung with acclamations when the new premier made his triumphant explanation from the head of the ministerial bench; but they were still louder, when Mr Peel from the cross benches out of office said, "They may call me illiberal and Tory; but it will be found that some of the most necessary measures of useful legislation of late years are inscribed with my name." The tide of reform had become so strong that even the avowed Tory leaders in the Lower House were fain to take credit by sailing along with it. In the House of Lords, on the other hand, the feeling of the majority was decidedly hostile to the new administration, and that not merely on the Tory benches, where it might naturally have been looked for, but among the old XXI. 1827. CHAP. Whig nobility, who had long considered government as an appanage of their estates. The forms of that decorous assembly prevented any outward indication of excitement, but it was not felt the less strongly within ; and it was hard to say whether the old Peers on both sides responded more strongly to the Duke of Wellington and Lord Eldon's explanation of their reasons for declining to hold office, or to Earl Grey's powerful and impassioned attack on the new premier. The division of the two Houses was clearly pronounced: the one presaged its approaching triumph, the other its coming 1 Parl. Deb. downfall. A secret sense of coming change had ranged their members in unwonted combinations; and the vital distinction of interest and order had for the time superseded the old divisions of party.1 xvii. 410, 411,722, 731, May 10, 1827. 69. Character of Lord now retired life. LORD ELDON, who resigned with his Tory colleagues on this occasion, and from his advanced years, and the Eldon, who semi-liberal character of all subsequent administrations, from public never was again called to the labours of office, was one of the most remarkable men who ever sat on the Woolsack, and, from the decided uncompromising character of his political opinions, the most exposed to party violence and misrepresentation. Indeed, so uniformly has such vituperation, for a long period, attached to every independent intrepid character on either side in politics, that its intensity may be considered as not the worst test of real merit and ability. The people can tolerate anything but independence of their wishes and commands; but they will not waste their abuse except on those they fear. The insignificant they pass over in silence. As a lawyer, Lord Eldon is now acknowledged, by all men of all parties capable of judging of the subject, to have attained the very highest eminence. He was the greatest of the many great lawyers who ever sat on the English bench. He was said at the time to be dilatory and undecided; but the first is now known to have arisen from the enormous and overwhelming mass of business with which he was XXI. 1827. oppressed; the last is the frequent accompaniment of the CHAP. most acute and penetrating intellect. Men of such mental characters often seem undecided, not because they see little, but because they see much. Everything which can be adduced on either side presents itself at once and so forcibly to their clear and far-seeing mental vision, that instant decision is impossible. Decision of character, the quality of all others the most important for success in life, often arises from the will being more powerful than the judgment; and the opposite side being disregarded, not because it cannot, but because it will not, be looked at. Witness Napoleon's obstinate perseverance in the Moscow campaign. 70. ter as a As a political character, while there is everything to esteem so far as purity of intention, conscientiousness of His characdisposition, and intrepidity of mind are concerned, there statesman. is less in Lord Eldon to admire without reservation. He was the very first of the steadfast class of statesmen, those who abide by the ancient land-marks, and resist as dangerous or pernicious every change from the established order of things. Such men must always be respectable, if their motives are disinterested, from the principles by which they are guided, and sometimes useful from the obstacles they oppose to hasty and ill-advised legislation ; but they are as often detrimental, from the resistance they present to real improvement, and dangerous, from the vehemence which their firmness excites in the movement party. A great general is not he who never retreats, and would be cut to pieces where he stands rather than retire; but he who knows when to advance and when to recede, and prepares by cautious movements, whether to the front or rear, the means of ultimate victory. Wellington was even greater when he retired to Torres Vedras, than when he gave the signal of advance at Waterloo. It belongs to the highest class of intellect to discern the time and place for resolute resistance, and the season for judicious concession. But it is scarcely possible that this XXI. 1827. CHAP. frame of mind can coexist with that of a great lawyer; for the latter is based on the invariable observance of, and vast acquaintance with, precedent; the former is dependent on the power to discern when it is to be discarded, and entrance afforded to new influences. In private life Lord Eldon was simple and unostentatious in his manners, kindly and affectionate in his disposition. During the quarter of a century that he held office, he made a judicious and conscientious use of the immense patronage at his disposal; and though he died rich, he had become so from the legitimate emoluments of his office, not any improper devices to increase his fortune.* 71. lic Bill is March 7. Although, however, liberal principles were thus in the The Catho- ascendant in the Cabinet and the House of Commons, rejected. there was one question on which the Whigs had lost ground by the election. For the first time, for several years, the Catholic question was lost in the Lower House. The debate began on March 5, and was opened by a most powerful speech by Sir Francis Burdett. It continued three nights, and was concluded at five in the morning of the 7th, by a majority of four against the Catholics, the numbers being 276 to 272. The arguments were the same as those so often before urged, and of which a summary will be given in recounting the final debate on the subject. But the speech of Mr Peel on the occasion deserves to be recorded, both from the weight of the argu1 Ann. Reg. ments it contained, and the strange contrast it presented to those adduced by him so soon after on the same subject;1 and it was evident, from the increase in the anti-Catholic 1827, 48, 72. * Lord Eldon has left a curious proof of the grasping disposition of applicants for situations, in which all who have had the misfortune to be intrusted with patronage will probably concur. On the eve of his retirement he thus wrote to Lady J. T. Bankes: "If I had all the livings in the kingdom vacant when I communicated my resignation (for what since that falls vacant I have nothing to do with), and they were cut each into three-score livings, I could not do what is asked of me, by letters received every five minutes, full of eulogies upon my virtues, all which will depart when my resignation actually takes place, and all concluding with: Pray give me a living before you go out."Lord ELDON to Lady J. T. BANKES, April 7, 1827; Eldon's Life, ii. 594. party in the House, and the manner in which his speech CHAP. XXI. was received by the country, that, under a real repre- 1827. sentation of the people of Great Britain, the Catholic question had little chance of being carried. 72. speech emancipa Mr Pitt Mr Peel observed on this occasion: "The reasons advanced for the emancipation of the Catholics increase my Mr Peel's dislike to it; and I cannot admit that the great names against pressed into the service stand at all in my way. had always ruled his reasons for the removal of disabilities upon grounds entirely different from those now adduced. When Mr Fox proposed the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts in 1790, a measure the same in principle as the one now proposed, Mr Pitt repudiated the change in the strongest terms which it was possible for man to use; and in 1805, he said that he would not allow, at any time, or under any circumstances, the Catholics could claim the removal of their disabilities as a matter of right. Neither can I do so; and looking on it only as a question deeply involving the public good, I find myself unable to vote for what is termed Emancipation, and compelled to say frankly that I prefer a system of exclusion to one of securities. 73. "I fairly confess that I have a distrust of the Roman Catholics. I do not find fault with the faith of any man, Continued. and I think quite as highly of a Catholic as a Protestant; but if on a man's faith there be founded a scheme of political influence, then we have a right to inquire into that scheme; and I cannot contemplate the doctrines of absolution, and confession, and indulgences, without having a strong suspicion that these doctrines are maintained for the purpose of confirming the influence which man exercises over man. What is it to me whether that authority be called spiritual or otherwise, if it is such as practically to influence man's conduct in society? Is it because religious doctrines are made subservient to worldly and political purposes that they are therefore to be excluded from the consideration of the legislature |