proposition it is intended to oppose a direct negative, importing that the House does not think the state of Ireland, or the laws affecting the Roman Catholics, deserve consideration. That is the issue upon which the House is now going to divide. The resolution goes no further than that the House should adopt the opinion of its predecessors, who sent three Bills up to the House of Lords, of relief to the Roman Catholics. On the other hand, if this resolution should be negatived, if the House of Commons should decide that the consideration of the state of Ireland is not worthy to be entered upon, then is the House of Commons changed indeed; and it would be more easy to imagine, than it would be safe for me to express, the consequence that may ensue from such a change." It was now just five years since Mr. Canning uttered in the House what he supposed would be his last appeal on behalf of the Catholics, — in 1822, previous to his intended departure for India. He was then mistaken; and now, when really uttering his last appeal, he was unconscious that it would be so. Never could he have been more earnest than now; for any retrogression of the Commons on this subject would be, at the moment, a most untoward circumstance for the cause and for himself. It was the moment when a new Administration was about to be formed; when its determining principle-whether avowed or not was to be concession or opposition to the Catholic claims; and when the King himself was falling back, on the removal of the rivalry of the Duke of York. The loss of the Commons from the cause must be most disastrous at such a crisis. This loss, however, had to be sustained. The division took place a little before five in the morning of the 7th of March, in a House of five hundred and forty-eight members; and there was a majority of four against the motion. The anti-Catholic party had gained by the elections. The Marquis of Lansdowne had given notice in the Lords of a motion grounded on the petitions sent up by the Catholics; but, on this decision of the Commons, he withdrew it, fairly avowing that he dared not go forward, nor brave the consequences of the disappointment to the Catholics, if both Houses should display a majority against them.1 This was an anxious season for the friends of the Catholics, to whom it appeared that the question had gone back, and who scarcely dared to reckon on the patience of their wronged fellow-subjects. But men rarely know what circumstances are really prosperous or adverse. This was but the step back, before the spring. It was too late now for the Catholics to be disheartened, when they had just seen what they could do in the field of the 1 Hansard, xvi. p. 1083. elections. They roused themselves for the struggle, which was to prove the final one. First, this question broke up another Cabinet. Of the existing New Admin- Cabinet, the Duke of Wellington and Mr. Peel were istration. the strong men on the one side, and Mr. Canning and Mr. Huskisson on the other. Lord Liverpool had kept them together hitherto, he having been openly of the anti-Catholic party all his life; but being well known among his colleagues to have arrived at the conviction, and to be about to act upon it, that the friends of the Catholics must soon carry their point. The repressive and combining influence of Lord Liverpool being now removed, the diverse elements of the government parted off, and rose up against each other; so that it became immediately necessary to decide which should have the ascendency. It was not yet considered indispensable, that there should be an undivided Cabinet on this question. The question might be left open; but whether the Premier should be of the one way of thinking or the other was the particular which could not but bring this allimportant matter to an issue. Canning Mr. Canning could not be dispensed with. The public showed that it thought so; the King certainly thought so; and the members of the Administration and their friends betrayed in their correspondence, and by their methods of consultation, that, if they themselves did not think so, they feared that everybody else did. Mr. Canning also held the second place in the Cabinet, and had the first right to look to the premiership, and to be consulted upon it. He it was, therefore, whom the King summoned, on the 27th of March, when it was found to be in vain to summoned. wait for any amendment in the state of Lord Liverpool, and when the restlessness of the country and of political parties showed that there must be no more delay in forming an administration. The interview was long, and embarrassing to both. The King requested Mr. Canning's opinion on the practicability of placing at the head of the Cabinet a statesman who held Lord Liverpool's avowed opinions on the Catholic question. Mr. Canning declared that it might, he believed, be done, and a wholly anti-Catholic government be formed, in which case, of course, he must retire; and he plainly intimated that he could not remain in the government except as Prime-minister. This could have been no surprise to the King; for there was no statesman of Mr. Canning's way of thinking, to whom he could, with any propriety, have been made subordinate. Yet the King could not bring himself at once to the point of nominating Mr. Canning; and this first negotiation was at an end. What might have been the next step, if the King had been let alone, there is no saying; but some anti-Catholic members of the aristocracy, alarmed at the strength of the popular expectation in favor of Mr. Canning, took a step of greater boldness than the sovereign was disposed to endure, and ruined their own cause by an attempt at intimidation which roused the royal resentment. A Tory peer, a duke and privy-councillor,' requested an audience of the King, and told His Majesty that he came as the express representative of eight peers,-all, like himself, holding great electoral influence, to declare, that, if Mr. Canning was placed at the head of the Cabinet, they would all withdraw their support from the government. This took place on the fourth Mr. Canning day after the abortive interview. The effect of this consulted. disrespectful and corrupt proceeding was to determine the King on the instant to send for Mr. Canning. Mr. Peel. By this time, Mr. Canning was aware, that, if he became Premier, the government must lose the services of Mr. Peel; for Mr. Peel had told him so on the 29th of March. Between these two statesmen there was, with all their differences of opinion, and much clashing of interests at this crisis, no ill-will. Private letters of Mr. Canning's are in existence, which declare that Mr. Peel was the only seceding member of the government who behaved well to him at this time; and it is known that he declared Mr. Peel to be his rightful political heir and successor. Mr. Peel's difficulty in this instance was a peculiar one. It arose from his being responsible in his office for the administration of the affairs of Ireland. He was disposed for a Cabinet divided on this question, as the House of Commons had just shown itself so very equally divided; and on almost every other question of importance, he was of the same mind with those of his colleagues who sat with him in the Commons. But he felt that he could not fill his place in the House as Irish Minister with any satisfaction under a Premier who advocated a policy in regard to the Catholics opposite to his own. Such were his reasons, assigned by himself in a frank and admirable letter to Lord Eldon, of the date of the 9th of April.2 He made no difficulty that could be helped, and caused no embarrassment. He spoke to no one but the King and Mr. Canning on the subject; and his intentions and feelings became known only by the King's mention of them to the Chancellor. It is a curious circumstance, that, while Mr. Canning was telling the King that he believed an anti-Catholic Cabinet could be formed, and offering in that case to retire, Mr. Peel was telling His Majesty that he "could not advise the attempt to form an exclusive Protestant government;" and that he could not be a party even to the attempt, if it should be contemplated. He was confident that the King was 2 Life of Lord Eldon, ii. p. 590. 1 Life of Canning, p. 360. of the same opinion. And so it appears by the result. This letter of Mr. Peel's was written on the 9th of April, and it was on the 10th that the king sent for Mr. Canning; not now, as before, merely in his character of privy-councillor, to consult and advise, but to receive the charge of forming an administration. The animus with which this result was anticipated by his antiCatholic colleagues is shown in various of Lord Eldon's letters.1 "I think who could have thought it? - that Mr. Canning will have his own way. I guess that I, Wellington, Peel, Bathurst, Westmoreland, &c., will be out." Some occasional notices in the old Chancellor's letters of the temper of the times unveil to us something of what the "political adventurer" had to go through, on taking possession of the highest political seat in the empire, and make but too natural his rapid descent to the grave. "The whole conversation in this town," writes Lord Eldon from London, "is made up of abusive, bitterly abusive talk of people about each other, — all fire and flame. I have known nothing like it.” think political enmity runs higher, and waxes warmer, than I ever knew it." "93 Thus it was, in private, before and during the Easter recess; and, after that recess, no one needed any other information than the reports of the debates, to learn how far the spirit of persecution, and the language of personality, could go among noblemen and gentlemen who were charged with the gravest of all trusts, but could neither discern the greatness of the man whose heart they were breaking, nor the needs of the time which he was summoned to rule. Doubtless it was the needs of the time, the political transition, that they quarrelled with, though they themselves believed, as did their victim, that it was the man; but, if this goes to palliate their conduct in any degree, it did not to him lessen the smart of the wounds they inflicted in every possible mode, and at every possible opportunity. 66 I We have seen that Mr. Canning received the King's commands on the 10th of April. He immediately applied to all his late colleagues, inviting them to remain in their offices. Of the replies that he received, the most extraordinary appears to be that of the Duke of Wellington, who requested to know, before signifying his intentions, who was to be at the head of the government. Mr. Canning's answer of course was, that it is usually understood that the individual charged with the construction of a government is to be at the head of it; and Resignation of seven Cabinet then the Duke resigned.* "It was on the 11th of Ministers. April," to adopt Mr. Canning's own statement of the affair, “that he received the resignation of Lord Westmoreland. Of the resignation of Mr. Peel he was aware some days before. 1 Life of Lord Eldon, ii. p. 588. 3 Life of Lord Eldon, ii. p. 604. 2 Life of Lord Eldon, ii. p. 588. He received the resignation of the Duke of Wellington on the 12th, at half-past ten, A.M. Lord Bexley sent in his shortly after. With these, and the verbal resignation of Mr. Peel, he went to St. James's. Those of Lord Eldon and Lord Bathurst arrived during his absence, and did not reach him till he was in the King's closet, having been sent after him, according to his directions, in case of their arrival. He would state further, that, so far were they from anticipating the resignation of Lord Eldon, that the King and himself were both under the delusion that there were the best reasons to expect the support of his services in the new arrangements. . . . It was bare justice to Lord Eldon to say, that his conduct was that of a man of the highest feelings of honor, and that throughout it had been above all exception. Mr. Canning presented this handful of resignations to the King, saying: "Here, Sire, is that which disables me from executing the orders I have received from you, respecting the formation of a new administration. It is now open to Your Majesty to adopt a new course, for no step has yet been taken in the execution of those orders that is irrecoverable; but it becomes my duty fairly to state to Your Majesty, that, if I am to go on in the position where you have been pleased to place me, my writ must be moved for to-day,”—it was the last day before the Easter recess, and orders for the moving of the writ had been given; "for, if we wait till the holidays, without adopting any definite steps, I see that it is quite hopeless for me to attempt to persevere in the objects I have undertaken." The King, in reply, gave him his hand to kiss, and confirmed him in his appointment; declaring, however, according to some accounts, that he himself was resolved to oppose any further concessions to the Catholics.2 In two hours after this interview in the royal closet, the House of Commons was ringing with acclamations; Mr. Wynn moving, "that a new writ be issued for the borough of New- Mr. Canning, port, in consequence of the Right Hon. George Can- Premier. ning having accepted the office of First Lord-commissioner of the Treasury." 3 "3 The Minister had now the Easter recess before him for constructing his Cabinet; but there were more resignations to come in. The Duke of Wellington gave up his office in the ordnance, as well as that of commander-in-chief. Lord Melville, though agreeing with Mr. Canning on the Catholic question, declined holding office with some whom he believed Mr. Canning about to solicit. The master of the mint, Mr. Wallace; the attorneygeneral, Sir Charles Wetherell; and the judge-advocate, Sir J. Beckett,―next resigned; and even four of the King's household 2 Annual Register, 1827, p. 102. 1 Hansard, xvi. p. 1434. |