308

THE CATHOLIC CLAIMS AGAIN.

the various stages with facility, and became law on the 2nd of May.

The Catholic claims were brought forward by Sir Francis Burdett, and a resolution declaring it expedient to consider the laws affecting Roman Catholics, with a view to their final and conciliatory adjustment, was carried by a majority of six (May 8th). By direction of the House, it was communicated to the House of Lords at a conference. The Marquis of Lansdowne, in a speech of great ability, invited their lordships to concur in the resolution; and was supported in the debate by the Dukes of Sussex and Gloucester, the Marquis of Londonderry, the Marquis of Wellesley, Lords Goderich and Plunket, and other peers. The opposition was conducted by the Duke of Cumberland, Lord Lyndhurst (the Chancellor), * Lord Eldon (ex-Chancellor), the Duke of Wellington, and a phalanx of peers. After a brilliant discussion, extending over two nights, the Lords rejected the resolution by a majority of 44. †

In the course of the debate in the Commons, Brougham remarked that no single member of those who had opposed Sir Francis Burdett's motion, had affirmed the proposition that things could remain as they were; and Peel, as well, perhaps, as other ministers, could not conceal or deny the great progress which the question of

* Lord Lyndhurst at this time exercised an extraordinary influence. He was reputed to have had much to do with the formation of the new Government, and had high credit for his address in contriving to hold the Great Seal under three premiers in one year.-LORD CAMPBELL, 'Lives of the Lord Chancellors,' iii. 58.

Hansard, 2nd series, xix. 1214,

A MINISTERIAL QUARREL.

309

Catholic Relief had made in Parliament, and the greater progress which it had made out of doors.* In spite of the Lords, the battle was nearly ended, and the victory was to fall to the champions of religious liberty. A fact which specially forced itself upon the observant mind of Peel as peculiarly significant of the progress of public opinion, and of the ultimate issue of the contest, was this; that many of the younger members of the House of Commons, who had previously taken a part against the Roman Catholic claims, now admitted their change of opinion; while he also remarked that the roll of speakers against concession was rarely if ever strengthened by the adhesion of a young member even of ordinary ability.

Meanwhile, the settlement of this great question was being facilitated by a ministerial quarrel which arose on a wholly different subject. The Cabinet had not been altogether a happy family. There had been a misunderstanding between the Premier and Mr. Huskisson with respect to language used by the latter in his election speech at Liverpool. He was reported to have said that he had obtained from the Duke a guarantee that Mr. Canning's principles would be followed out; but he proved that he had really said nothing more than that the composition of the Cabinet was a guarantee for its adoption of a liberal policy. There had been a misunderstanding about the Corn Bill, from which Huskisson successfully insisted on omitting all provisions of a prohibitory character. Lastly, in the month of May, Mr. Peel introduced a bill for disfranchising the corrupt borough of East Retford, and transferring

*Memoirs by Sir Robert Peel,' i. 101.

310

MR. HUSKISSON AND THE DUKE.

the franchise to the neighbouring hundreds. But Huskisson felt bound by previous declarations to vote for its transference to Birmingham, as proposed by Mr. Tennyson. He was at the time in feeble health, and weary with heavy work. Going home, exhausted and yet excited, after a stormy debate, in which he had been forced to abandon his colleagues, he sat down and wrote a hasty letter to the Duke of Wellington, intended as an offer to resign. The Premier, not unwilling to get rid of a lieutenant between whom and himself no great sympathy existed, treated the letter as an actual and formal resignation, and immediately laid it before the King. Mr. Huskisson, unprepared for so swift an acceptance of his offer, sent Lord Dudley, and afterwards Lord Palmerston, to explain to the Duke that he had mistaken the purport of the letter. With characteristic abruptness, the Duke replied, "It is no mistake, it can be no mistake, it shall be no mistake;" and refused to allow that he had acted hastily or under misconception.* A correspondence followed between the Duke and Huskisson; but as the latter would not ask permission to withdraw his unfortunate letter, and the former would not request him to withdraw it, no result was arrived at. By his own act Mr. Huskisson had thrown himself out of the race, and we do not judge the Duke unfairly in imputing to him a secret feeling of satisfaction. Morally, his conduct was beyond criticism; the letter was really and truly a resignation, and he was certainly within his right in so construing it. Politically,

* Biographical Memorials of Huskisson.' p. 172.

THE CLARE ELECTION.

311

however, he was guilty of a grave error; for, as with Huskisson, the other Canningites resigned, Lord Dudley, Lord Palmerston, Mr. Charles Grant, and Mr. William Lamb, he deprived himself of the support of an influential party.* This was clearly apparent to the sagacious old ex-Chancellor. "The Minister," said Lord Eldon,† "will have great difficulties to struggle with. The Whigs, the Canningites, and the Huskissonites will join, and be very strong."+

Mr. Grant's resignation of the Presidency of the Board of Trade led to the appointment of Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald, who thereupon vacated his seat in the House as member for the county of Clare. He was a supporter of the Catholic claims, and his re-election was considered certain. But the Catholic leaders seized the opportunity thus afforded of bringing matters to a crisis. They put forward O'Connell for the vacancy; for though, as a Catholic, he could not take the oaths which would seat him in the House of Commons, he was not legally disqualified as a candidate. His appearance in this capacity roused an immense popular enthusiasm. The county of Clare was overrun by an

* Sir G. C. Lewis, 'British Administrations,' p. 421. Twiss, 'Life of Lord Eldon,' iii. 48.

Mr. Greville remarks:-" When upon the East Retford affair Huskisson resigned, and in such an extraordinary manner, the Duke felt that there was a disposition to embarrass him by these perpetual tenders of resignation, which he believed they thought he would not venture to accept. I believe that Huskisson had no intention of embarrassing the Duke and none of resigning; but for a cool and sensible man his conduct is most extraordinary, for he acted with the precipitation of a schoolboy and shewed a complete want of all those qualities of prudence and calm deliberation for which he has the greatest credit."— The Greville Memoirs,' i. 131.

312

O'CONNELL AS A CANDIDATE.

army of O'Connellite canvassers and lecturers. Meetings were held everywhere and every day. The Catholic clergy entered heartily into the movement; and, as Sheil said, each altar became a tribune. The position of the electors, it is true, was not altogether pleasant; for if the priests appealed to their religious and patriotic sympathies, the landlords worked upon their fears. But the cause was one which inevitably triumphed over purely personal interests. "The time is come," said the great Irish agitator, "when the system which has been pursued towards this country must be put a stop to. It will not do for the future to say, 'Sweet friend, I wish you well '; but it must be shown by acts that they do wish us well. It is time that this system should be put an end to; and I am come here to put an end to it." As Sir George Lewis observes, the speaker had now arrived at the conviction-which he only too successfully impressed upon the mind of the Irish people—that nothing was to be hoped from the justice of England, and that the relief which he sought must be extorted from her fears. The mode of remonstrance which he adopted, without being a resort to violence or a breach of the law, was not the less a defiance to England. “He approached the portals of the Constitution with a demand, not a petition, for admittance. We think that he was right: the patience of the Irish Catholics had been long tried, and had borne much; but the intolerant spirit of Great Britain seemed equally proof against time and reason.

Quam neque longa dies, pietas nec mitigat ulla.