Coningsby
by
Benjamin Disraeli

Part 2 out of 9

shall never forget it as long as I live. However, there was the Lock House
at hand; and we got blankets and brandy. Coningsby was soon all right; but
Millbank, I can tell you, gave us some trouble. I thought it was all up.
Didn't you, Henry Sydney?'

'The most fishy thing I ever saw,' said Henry Sydney.

'Well, we were fairly frightened here,' said Sedgwick. 'The first report
was, that you had gone, but that seemed without foundation; but Coningsby
was quite given up. Where are they now?'

'They are both at their tutors'. I thought they had better keep quiet.
Vere is with Millbank, and we are going back to Coningsby directly; but we
thought it best to show, finding on our arrival that there were all sorts
of rumours about. I think it will be best to report at once to my tutor,
for he will be sure to hear something.'

'I would if I were you.'

CHAPTER X.

What wonderful things are events! The least are of greater importance than
the most sublime and comprehensive speculations! In what fanciful schemes
to obtain the friendship of Coningsby had Millbank in his reveries often
indulged! What combinations that were to extend over years and influence
their lives! But the moment that he entered the world of action, his pride
recoiled from the plans and hopes which his sympathy had inspired. His
sensibility and his inordinate self-respect were always at variance. And
he seldom exchanged a word with the being whose idea engrossed his
affection.

And now, suddenly, an event had occurred, like all events, unforeseen,
which in a few, brief, agitating, tumultuous moments had singularly and
utterly changed the relations that previously subsisted between him and
the former object of his concealed tenderness. Millbank now stood with
respect to Coningsby in the position of one who owes to another the
greatest conceivable obligation; a favour which time could permit him
neither to forget nor to repay. Pride was a sentiment that could no longer
subsist before the preserver of his life. Devotion to that being, open,
almost ostentatious, was now a duty, a paramount and absorbing tie. The
sense of past peril, the rapture of escape, a renewed relish for the life
so nearly forfeited, a deep sentiment of devout gratitude to the
providence that had guarded over him, for Millbank was an eminently
religious boy, a thought of home, and the anguish that might have
overwhelmed his hearth; all these were powerful and exciting emotions for
a young and fervent mind, in addition to the peculiar source of
sensibility on which we have already touched. Lord Vere, who lodged in the
same house as Millbank, and was sitting by his bedside, observed, as night
fell, that his mind wandered.

The illness of Millbank, the character of which soon transpired, and was
soon exaggerated, attracted the public attention with increased interest
to the circumstances out of which it had arisen, and from which the
parties principally concerned had wished to have diverted notice. The
sufferer, indeed, had transgressed the rules of the school by bathing at
an unlicensed spot, where there were no expert swimmers in attendance, as
is customary, to instruct the practice and to guard over the lives of the
young adventurers. But the circumstances with which this violation of
rules had been accompanied, and the assurance of several of the party that
they had not themselves infringed the regulations, combined with the high
character of Millbank, made the authorities not over anxious to visit with
penalties a breach of observance which, in the case of the only proved
offender, had been attended with such impressive consequences. The feat of
Coningsby was extolled by all as an act of high gallantry and skill. It
confirmed and increased the great reputation which he already enjoyed.

'Millbank is getting quite well,' said Buckhurst to Coningsby a few days
after the accident. 'Henry Sydney and I are going to see him. Will you
come?'

'I think we shall be too many. I will go another day,' replied Coningsby.

So they went without him. They found Millbank up and reading.

'Well, old fellow,' said Buckhurst, 'how are you? We should have come up
before, but they would not let us. And you are quite right now, eh?'

'Quite. Has there been any row about it?'

'All blown over,' said Henry Sydney; 'C*******y behaved like a trump.'

'I have seen nobody yet,' said Millbank; 'they would not let me till to-
day. Vere looked in this morning and left me this book, but I was asleep.
I hope they will let me out in a day or two. I want to thank Coningsby; I
never shall rest till I have thanked Coningsby.'

'Oh, he will come to see you,' said Henry Sydney; 'I asked him just now to
come with us.'

'Yes!' said Millbank, eagerly; 'and what did he say?'

'He thought we should be too many.'

'I hope I shall see him soon,' said Millbank, 'somehow or other.'

'I will tell him to come,' said Buckhurst.

'Oh! no, no, don't tell him to come,' said Millbank. 'Don't bore him.'

'I know he is going to play a match at fives this afternoon,' said
Buckhurst, 'for I am one.'

'And who are the others?' inquired Millbank.

'Herbert and Campbell.'

'Herbert is no match for Coningsby,' said Millbank.

And then they talked over all that had happened since his absence; and
Buckhurst gave him a graphic report of the excitement on the afternoon of
the accident; at last they were obliged to leave him.

'Well, good-bye, old fellow; we will come and see you every day. What can
we do for you? Any books, or anything?'

'If any fellow asks after me,' said Millbank, 'tell him I shall be glad to
see him. It is very dull being alone. But do not tell any fellow to come
if he does not ask after me.'

Notwithstanding the kind suggestions of Buckhurst and Henry Sydney,
Coningsby could not easily bring himself to call on Millbank. He felt a
constraint. It seemed as if he went to receive thanks. He would rather
have met Millbank again in school, or in the playing fields. Without being
able then to analyse his feelings, he shrank unconsciously from that
ebullition of sentiment, which in more artificial circles is described as
a scene. Not that any dislike of Millbank prompted him to this reserve. On
the contrary, since he had conferred a great obligation on Millbank, his
prejudice against him had sensibly decreased. How it would have been had
Millbank saved Coningsby's life, is quite another affair. Probably, as
Coningsby was by nature generous, his sense of justice might have
struggled successfully with his painful sense of the overwhelming
obligation. But in the present case there was no element to disturb his
fair self-satisfaction. He had greatly distinguished himself; he had
conferred on his rival an essential service; and the whole world rang with
his applause. He began rather to like Millbank; we will not say because
Millbank was the unintentional cause of his pleasurable sensations. Really
it was that the unusual circumstances had prompted him to a more impartial
judgment of his rival's character. In this mood, the day after the visit
of Buckhurst and Henry Sydney, Coningsby called on Millbank, but finding
his medical attendant with him, Coningsby availed himself of that excuse
for going away without seeing him.

The next day he left Millbank a newspaper on his way to school, time not
permitting a visit. Two days after, going into his room, he found on his
table a letter addressed to 'Harry Coningsby, Esq.'

ETON, May--, 1832.

'DEAR CONINGSBY, I very much fear that you must think me a very ungrateful
fellow, because you have not heard from me before; but I was in hopes that
I might get out and say to you what I feel; but whether I speak or write,
it is quite impossible for me to make you understand the feelings of my
heart to you. Now, I will say at once, that I have always liked you better
than any fellow in the school, and always thought you the cleverest;
indeed, I always thought that there was no one like you; but I never would
say this or show this, because you never seemed to care for me, and
because I was afraid you would think I merely wanted to con with you, as
they used to say of some other fellows, whose names I will not mention,
because they always tried to do so with Henry Sydney and you. I do not
want this at all; but I want, though we may not speak to each other more
than before, that we may be friends; and that you will always know that
there is nothing I will not do for you, and that I like you better than
any fellow at Eton. And I do not mean that this shall be only at Eton, but
afterwards, wherever we may be, that you will always remember that there
is nothing I will not do for you. Not because you saved my life, though
that is a great thing, but because before that I would have done anything
for you; only, for the cause above mentioned, I would not show it. I do
not expect that we shall be more together than before; nor can I ever
suppose that you could like me as you like Henry Sydney and Buckhurst, or
even as you like Vere; but still I hope you will always think of me with
kindness now, and let me sign myself, if ever I do write to you, 'Your
most attached, affectionate, and devoted friend,

'OSWALD MILLBANK.'

CHAPTER XI.

About a fortnight after this nearly fatal adventure on the river, it was
Montem. One need hardly remind the reader that this celebrated ceremony,
of which the origin is lost in obscurity, and which now occurs
triennially, is the tenure by which Eton College holds some of its
domains. It consists in the waving of a flag by one of the scholars, on a
mount near the village of Salt Hill, which, without doubt, derives its
name from the circumstance that on this day every visitor to Eton, and
every traveller in its vicinity, from the monarch to the peasant, are
stopped on the road by youthful brigands in picturesque costume, and
summoned to contribute 'salt,' in the shape of coin of the realm, to the
purse collecting for the Captain of Eton, the senior scholar on the
Foundation, who is about to repair to King's College, Cambridge.

On this day the Captain of Eton appears in a dress as martial as his
title: indeed, each sixth-form boy represents in his uniform, though not
perhaps according to the exact rules of the Horse Guards, an officer of
the army. One is a marshal, another an ensign. There is a lieutenant, too;
and the remainder are sergeants. Each of those who are intrusted with
these ephemeral commissions has one or more attendants, the number of
these varying according to his rank. These servitors are selected
according to the wishes of the several members of the sixth form, out of
the ranks of the lower boys, that is, those boys who are below the fifth
form; and all these attendants are arrayed in a variety of fancy dresses.
The Captain of the Oppidans and the senior Colleger next to the Captain of
the school, figure also in fancy costume, and are called 'Saltbearers.' It
is their business, together with the twelve senior Collegers of the fifth
form, who are called 'Runners,' and whose costume is also determined by
the taste of the wearers, to levy the contributions. And all the Oppidans
of the fifth form, among whom ranked Coningsby, class as 'Corporals;' and
are severally followed by one or more lower boys, who are denominated
'Polemen,' but who appear in their ordinary dress.

It was a fine, bright morning; the bells of Eton and Windsor rang merrily;
everybody was astir, and every moment some gay equipage drove into the
town. Gaily clustering in the thronged precincts of the College, might be
observed many a glistening form: airy Greek or sumptuous Ottoman, heroes
of the Holy Sepulchre, Spanish Hidalgos who had fought at Pavia, Highland
Chiefs who had charged at Culloden, gay in the tartan of Prince Charlie.
The Long Walk was full of busy groups in scarlet coats or fanciful
uniforms; some in earnest conversation, some criticising the arriving
guests; others encircling some magnificent hero, who astounded them with
his slashed doublet or flowing plume.

A knot of boys, sitting on the Long Walk wall, with their feet swinging in
the air, watched the arriving guests of the Provost.

'I say, Townshend,' said one, 'there's Grobbleton; he _was_ a bully. I
wonder if that's his wife? Who's this? The Duke of Agincourt. He wasn't an
Eton fellow? Yes, he was. He was called Poictiers then. Oh! ah! his name
is in the upper school, very large, under Charles Fox. I say, Townshend,
did you see Saville's turban? What was it made of? He says his mother
brought it from Grand Cairo. Didn't he just look like the Saracen's Head?
Here are some Dons. That's Hallam! We'll give him a cheer. I say,
Townshend, look at this fellow. He doesn't think small beer of himself. I
wonder who he is? The Duke of Wellington's valet come to say his master is
engaged. Oh! by Jove, he heard you! I wonder if the Duke will come? Won't
we give him a cheer!'

'By Jove! who is this?' exclaimed Townshend, and he jumped from the wall,
and, followed by his companions, rushed towards the road.

Two britskas, each drawn by four grey horses of mettle, and each
accompanied by outriders as well mounted, were advancing at a rapid pace
along the road that leads from Slough to the College. But they were
destined to an irresistible check. About fifty yards before they had
reached the gate that leads into Weston's Yard, a ruthless but splendid
Albanian, in crimson and gold embroidered jacket, and snowy camise,
started forward, and holding out his silver-sheathed yataghan commanded
the postilions to stop. A Peruvian Inca on the other side of the road gave
a simultaneous command, and would infallibly have transfixed the outriders
with an arrow from his unerring bow, had they for an instant hesitated.
The Albanian Chief then advanced to the door of the carriage, which he
opened, and in a tone of great courtesy, announced that he was under the
necessity of troubling its inmates for 'salt.' There was no delay. The
Lord of the equipage, with the amiable condescension of a 'grand
monarque,' expressed his hope that the collection would be an ample one,
and as an old Etonian, placed in the hands of the Albanian his
contribution, a magnificent purse, furnished for the occasion, and heavy
with gold.

'Don't be alarmed, ladies,' said a very handsome young officer, laughing,
and taking off his cocked hat.

'Ah!' exclaimed one of the ladies, turning at the voice, and starting a
little. 'Ah! it is Mr. Coningsby.'

Lord Eskdale paid the salt for the next carriage. 'Do they come down
pretty stiff?' he inquired, and then, pulling forth a roll of bank-notes
from the pocket of his pea-jacket, he wished them good morning.

The courtly Provost, then the benignant Goodall, a man who, though his
experience of life was confined to the colleges in which he had passed his
days, was naturally gifted with the rarest of all endowments, the talent
of reception; and whose happy bearing and gracious manner, a smile ever in
his eye and a lively word ever on his lip, must be recalled by all with
pleasant recollections, welcomed Lord Monmouth and his friends to an
assemblage of the noble, the beautiful, and the celebrated gathered
together in rooms not unworthy of them, as you looked upon their
interesting walls, breathing with the portraits of the heroes whom Eton
boasts, from Wotton to Wellesley. Music sounded in the quadrangle of the
College, in which the boys were already quickly assembling. The Duke of
Wellington had arrived, and the boys were cheering a hero, who was an Eton
field-marshal. From an oriel window in one of the Provost's rooms, Lord
Monmouth, surrounded by every circumstance that could make life
delightful, watched with some intentness the scene in the quadrangle
beneath.

'I would give his fame,' said Lord Monmouth, 'if I had it, and my wealth,
to be sixteen.'

Five hundred of the youth of England, sparkling with health, high spirits,
and fancy dresses, were now assembled in the quadrangle. They formed into
rank, and headed by a band of the Guards, thrice they marched round the
court. Then quitting the College, they commenced their progress 'ad
Montem.' It was a brilliant spectacle to see them defiling through the
playing fields, those bowery meads; the river sparkling in the sun, the
castled heights of Windsor, their glorious landscape; behind them, the
pinnacles of their College.

The road from Eton to Salt Hill was clogged with carriages; the broad
fields as far as eye could range were covered with human beings. Amid the
burst of martial music and the shouts of the multitude, the band of
heroes, as if they were marching from Athens, or Thebes, or Sparta, to
some heroic deed, encircled the mount; the ensign reaches its summit, and
then, amid a deafening cry of 'Floreat Etona!' he unfurls, and thrice
waves the consecrated standard.

'Lord Monmouth,' said Mr. Rigby to Coningsby, 'wishes that you should beg
your friends to dine with him. Of course you will ask Lord Henry and your
friend Sir Charles Buckhurst; and is there any one else that you would
like to invite?'

'Why, there is Vere,' said Coningsby, hesitating, 'and--'

'Vere! What Lord Vere?' said Rigby. 'Hum! He is one of your friends, is
he? His father has done a great deal of mischief, but still he is Lord
Vere. Well, of course, you can invite Vere.'

'There is another fellow I should like to ask very much,' said Coningsby.
'if Lord Monmouth would not think I was asking too many.'

'Never fear that; he sent me particularly to tell you to invite as many as
you liked.'

'Well, then, I should like to ask Millbank.'

'Millbank!' said Mr. Rigby, a little excited, and then he added, 'Is that
a son of Lady Albinia Millbank?'

'No; his mother is not a Lady Albinia, but he is a great friend of mine.
His father is a Lancashire manufacturer.'

'By no means,' exclaimed Mr. Rigby, quite agitated. 'There is nothing in
the world that Lord Monmouth dislikes so much as Manchester manufacturers,
and particularly if they bear the name of Millbank. It must not be thought
of, my dear Harry. I hope you have not spoken to the young man on the
subject. I assure you it is out of the question. It would make Lord
Monmouth quite ill. It would spoil everything, quite upset him.'

It was, of course, impossible for Coningsby to urge his wishes against
such representations. He was disappointed, rather amazed; but Madame
Colonna having sent for him to introduce her to some of the scenes and
details of Eton life, his vexation was soon absorbed in the pride of
acting in the face of his companions as the cavalier of a beautiful lady,
and becoming the cicerone of the most brilliant party that had attended
Montem. He presented his friends, too, to Lord. Monmouth, who gave them a
cordial invitation to dine with him at his hotel at Windsor, which they
warmly accepted. Buckhurst delighted the Marquess by his reckless genius.
Even Lucretia deigned to appear amused; especially when, on visiting the
upper school, the name of CARDIFF, the title Lord Monmouth bore in his
youthful days, was pointed out to her by Coningsby, cut with his
grandfather's own knife on the classic panels of that memorable wall in
which scarcely a name that has flourished in our history, since the
commencement of the eighteenth century, may not be observed with curious
admiration.

It was the humour of Lord Monmouth that the boys should be entertained
with the most various and delicious banquet that luxury could devise or
money could command. For some days beforehand orders had been given for
the preparation of this festival. Our friends did full justice to their
Lucullus; Buckhurst especially, who gave his opinion on the most refined
dishes with all the intrepidity of saucy ignorance, and occasionally shook
his head over a glass of Hermitage or Cote Rotie with a dissatisfaction
which a satiated Sybarite could not have exceeded. Considering all things,
Coningsby and his friends exhibited a great deal of self-command; but they
were gay, even to the verge of frolic. But then the occasion justified it,
as much as their youth. All were in high spirits. Madame Colonna declared
that she had met nothing in England equal to Montem; that it was a
Protestant Carnival; and that its only fault was that it did not last
forty days. The Prince himself was all animation, and took wine with every
one of the Etonians several times. All went on flowingly until Mr. Rigby
contradicted Buckhurst on some point of Eton discipline, which Buckhurst
would not stand. He rallied Mr. Rigby roundly, and Coningsby, full of
champagne, and owing Rigby several years of contradiction, followed up the
assault. Lord Monmouth, who liked a butt, and had a weakness for
boisterous gaiety, slily encouraged the boys, till Rigby began to lose his
temper and get noisy.

The lads had the best of it; they said a great many funny things, and
delivered themselves of several sharp retorts; whereas there was something
ridiculous in Rigby putting forth his 'slashing' talents against such
younkers. However, he brought the infliction on himself by his strange
habit of deciding on subjects of which he knew nothing, and of always
contradicting persons on the very subjects of which they were necessarily
masters.

To see Rigby baited was more amusement to Lord Monmouth even than Montem.
Lucian Gay, however, when the affair was getting troublesome, came forward
as a diversion. He sang an extemporaneous song on the ceremony of the day,
and introduced the names of all the guests at the dinner, and of a great
many other persons besides. This was capital! The boys were in raptures,
but when the singer threw forth a verse about Dr. Keate, the applause
became uproarious.

'Good-bye, my dear Harry,' said Lord Monmouth, when he bade his grandson
farewell. 'I am going abroad again; I cannot remain in this Radical-ridden
country. Remember, though I am away, Monmouth House is your home, at least
so long as it belongs to me. I understand my tailor has turned Liberal,
and is going to stand for one of the metropolitan districts, a friend of
Lord Durham; perhaps I shall find him in it when I return. I fear there
are evil days for the NEW GENERATION!'

END OF BOOK I.

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

It was early in November, 1834, and a large shooting party was assembled
at Beaumanoir, the seat of that great nobleman, who was the father of
Henry Sydney. England is unrivalled for two things, sporting and politics.
They were combined at Beaumanoir; for the guests came not merely to
slaughter the Duke's pheasants, but to hold council on the prospects of
the party, which it was supposed by the initiated, began at this time to
indicate some symptoms of brightening.

The success of the Reform Ministry on their first appeal to the new
constituency which they had created, had been fatally complete. But the
triumph was as destructive to the victors as to the vanquished.

'We are too strong,' prophetically exclaimed one of the fortunate cabinet,
which found itself supported by an inconceivable majority of three
hundred. It is to be hoped that some future publisher of private memoirs
may have preserved some of the traits of that crude and short-lived
parliament, when old Cobbett insolently thrust Sir Robert from the
prescriptive seat of the chief of opposition, and treasury understrappers
sneered at the 'queer lot' that had arrived from Ireland, little
foreseeing what a high bidding that 'queer lot' would eventually command.
Gratitude to Lord Grey was the hustings-cry at the end of 1832, the
pretext that was to return to the new-modelled House of Commons none but
men devoted to the Whig cause. The successful simulation, like everything
that is false, carried within it the seeds of its own dissolution.
Ingratitude to Lord Grey was more the fashion at the commencement of 1834,
and before the close of that eventful year, the once popular Reform
Ministry was upset, and the eagerly-sought Reformed Parliament dissolved!

It can scarcely be alleged that the public was altogether unprepared for
this catastrophe. Many deemed it inevitable; few thought it imminent. The
career of the Ministry, and the existence of the Parliament, had indeed
from the first been turbulent and fitful. It was known, from authority,
that there were dissensions in the cabinet, while a House of Commons which
passed votes on subjects not less important than the repeal of a tax, or
the impeachment of a judge, on one night, and rescinded its resolutions on
the following, certainly established no increased claims to the confidence
of its constituents in its discretion. Nevertheless, there existed at this
period a prevalent conviction that the Whig party, by a great stroke of
state, similar in magnitude and effect to that which in the preceding
century had changed the dynasty, had secured to themselves the government
of this country for, at least, the lives of the present generation. And
even the well-informed in such matters were inclined to look upon the
perplexing circumstances to which we have alluded rather as symptoms of a
want of discipline in a new system of tactics, than as evidences of any
essential and deeply-rooted disorder.

The startling rapidity, however, of the strange incidents of 1834; the
indignant, soon to become vituperative, secession of a considerable
section of the cabinet, some of them esteemed too at that time among its
most efficient members; the piteous deprecation of 'pressure from
without,' from lips hitherto deemed too stately for entreaty, followed by
the Trades' Union, thirty thousand strong, parading in procession to
Downing-street; the Irish negotiations of Lord Hatherton, strange blending
of complex intrigue and almost infantile ingenuousness; the still
inexplicable resignation of Lord Althorp, hurriedly followed by his still
more mysterious resumption of power, the only result of his precipitate
movements being the fall of Lord Grey himself, attended by circumstances
which even a friendly historian could scarcely describe as honourable to
his party or dignified to himself; latterly, the extemporaneous address of
King William to the Bishops; the vagrant and grotesque apocalypse of the
Lord Chancellor; and the fierce recrimination and memorable defiance of
the Edinburgh banquet, all these impressive instances of public affairs
and public conduct had combined to create a predominant opinion that,
whatever might be the consequences, the prolonged continuance of the
present party in power was a clear impossibility.

It is evident that the suicidal career of what was then styled the Liberal
party had been occasioned and stimulated by its unnatural excess of
strength. The apoplectic plethora of 1834 was not less fatal than the
paralytic tenuity of 1841. It was not feasible to gratify so many
ambitions, or to satisfy so many expectations. Every man had his double;
the heels of every placeman were dogged by friendly rivals ready to trip
them up. There were even two cabinets; the one that met in council, and
the one that met in cabal. The consequence of destroying the legitimate
Opposition of the country was, that a moiety of the supporters of
Government had to discharge the duties of Opposition.

Herein, then, we detect the real cause of all that irregular and unsettled
carriage of public men which so perplexed the nation after the passing of
the Reform Act. No government can be long secure without a formidable
Opposition. It reduces their supporters to that tractable number which can
be managed by the joint influences of fruition and of hope. It offers
vengeance to the discontented, and distinction to the ambitious; and
employs the energies of aspiring spirits, who otherwise may prove traitors
in a division or assassins in a debate.

The general election of 1832 abrogated the Parliamentary Opposition of
England, which had practically existed for more than a century and a half.
And what a series of equivocal transactions and mortifying adventures did
the withdrawal of this salutary restraint entail on the party which then
so loudly congratulated themselves and the country that they were at
length relieved from its odious repression! In the hurry of existence one
is apt too generally to pass over the political history of the times in
which we ourselves live. The two years that followed the Reform of the
House of Commons are full of instruction, on which a young man would do
well to ponder. It is hardly possible that he could rise from the study of
these annals without a confirmed disgust for political intrigue; a
dazzling practice, apt at first to fascinate youth, for it appeals at once
to our invention and our courage, but one which really should only be the
resource of the second-rate. Great minds must trust to great truths and
great talents for their rise, and nothing else.

While, however, as the autumn of 1834 advanced, the people of this country
became gradually sensible of the necessity of some change in the councils
of their Sovereign, no man felt capable of predicting by what means it was
to be accomplished, or from what quarry the new materials were to be
extracted. The Tory party, according to those perverted views of Toryism
unhappily too long prevalent in this country, was held to be literally
defunct, except by a few old battered crones of office, crouched round the
embers of faction which they were fanning, and muttering 'reaction' in
mystic whispers. It cannot be supposed indeed for a moment, that the
distinguished personage who had led that party in the House of Commons
previously to the passing of the act of 1832, ever despaired in
consequence of his own career. His then time of life, the perfection,
almost the prime, of manhood; his parliamentary practice, doubly estimable
in an inexperienced assembly; his political knowledge; his fair character
and reputable position; his talents and tone as a public speaker, which he
had always aimed to adapt to the habits and culture of that middle class
from which it was concluded the benches of the new Parliament were mainly
to be recruited, all these were qualities the possession of which must
have assured a mind not apt to be disturbed in its calculations by any
intemperate heats, that with time and patience the game was yet for him.

Unquestionably, whatever may have been insinuated, this distinguished
person had no inkling that his services in 1834 might be claimed by his
Sovereign. At the close of the session of that year he had quitted England
with his family, and had arrived at Rome, where it was his intention to
pass the winter. The party charges that have imputed to him a previous and
sinister knowledge of the intentions of the Court, appear to have been
made not only in ignorance of the personal character, but of the real
position, of the future minister.

It had been the misfortune of this eminent gentleman when he first entered
public life, to become identified with a political connection which,
having arrogated to itself the name of an illustrious historical party,
pursued a policy which was either founded on no principle whatever, or on
principles exactly contrary to those which had always guided the conduct
of the great Tory leaders. The chief members of this official confederacy
were men distinguished by none of the conspicuous qualities of statesmen.
They had none of the divine gifts that govern senates and guide councils.
They were not orators; they were not men of deep thought or happy
resource, or of penetrative and sagacious minds. Their political ken was
essentially dull and contracted. They expended some energy in obtaining a
defective, blundering acquaintance with foreign affairs; they knew as
little of the real state of their own country as savages of an approaching
eclipse. This factious league had shuffled themselves into power by
clinging to the skirts of a great minister, the last of Tory statesmen,
but who, in the unparalleled and confounding emergencies of his latter
years, had been forced, unfortunately for England, to relinquish Toryism.
His successors inherited all his errors without the latent genius, which
in him might have still rallied and extricated him from the consequences
of his disasters. His successors did not merely inherit his errors; they
exaggerated, they caricatured them. They rode into power on a springtide
of all the rampant prejudices and rancorous passions of their time. From
the King to the boor their policy was a mere pandering to public
ignorance. Impudently usurping the name of that party of which
nationality, and therefore universality, is the essence, these pseudo-
Tories made Exclusion the principle of their political constitution, and
Restriction the genius of their commercial code.

The blind goddess that plays with human fortunes has mixed up the memory
of these men with traditions of national glory. They conducted to a
prosperous conclusion the most renowned war in which England has ever been
engaged. Yet every military conception that emanated from their cabinet
was branded by their characteristic want of grandeur. Chance, however,
sent them a great military genius, whom they treated for a long time with
indifference, and whom they never heartily supported until his career had
made him their master. His transcendent exploits, and European events even
greater than his achievements, placed in the manikin grasp of the English
ministry, the settlement of Europe.

The act of the Congress of Vienna remains the eternal monument of their
diplomatic knowledge and political sagacity. Their capital feats were the
creation of two kingdoms, both of which are already erased from the map of
Europe. They made no single preparation for the inevitable, almost
impending, conjunctures of the East. All that remains of the pragmatic
arrangements of the mighty Congress of Vienna is the mediatisation of the
petty German princes.

But the settlement of Europe by the pseudo-Tories was the dictate of
inspiration compared with their settlement of England. The peace of Paris
found the government of this country in the hands of a body of men of whom
it is no exaggeration to say that they were ignorant of every principle of
every branch of political science. So long as our domestic administration
was confined merely to the raising of a revenue, they levied taxes with
gross facility from the industry of a country too busy to criticise or
complain. But when the excitement and distraction of war had ceased, and
they were forced to survey the social elements that surrounded them, they
seemed, for the first time, to have become conscious of their own
incapacity. These men, indeed, were the mere children of routine. They
prided themselves on being practical men. In the language of this defunct
school of statesmen, a practical man is a man who practises the blunders
of his predecessors.

Now commenced that Condition-of-England Question of which our generation
hears so much. During five-and-twenty years every influence that can
develop the energies and resources of a nation had been acting with
concentrated stimulation on the British Isles. National peril and national
glory; the perpetual menace of invasion, the continual triumph of
conquest; the most extensive foreign commerce that was ever conducted by a
single nation; an illimitable currency; an internal trade supported by
swarming millions whom manufacturers and inclosure-bills summoned into
existence; above all, the supreme control obtained by man over mechanic
power, these are some of the causes of that rapid advance of material
civilisation in England, to which the annals of the world can afford no
parallel. But there was no proportionate advance in our moral
civilisation. In the hurry-skurry of money-making, men-making, and
machine-making, we had altogether outgrown, not the spirit, but the
organisation, of our institutions.

The peace came; the stimulating influences suddenly ceased; the people, in
a novel and painful position, found themselves without guides. They went
to the ministry; they asked to be guided; they asked to be governed.
Commerce requested a code; trade required a currency; the unfranchised
subject solicited his equal privilege; suffering labour clamoured for its
rights; a new race demanded education. What did the ministry do?

They fell into a panic. Having fulfilled during their lives the duties of
administration, they were frightened because they were called upon, for
the first time, to perform the functions of government. Like all weak men,
they had recourse to what they called strong measures. They determined to
put down the multitude. They thought they were imitating Mr. Pitt, because
they mistook disorganisation for sedition.

Their projects of relief were as ridiculous as their system of coercion
was ruthless; both were alike founded in intense ignorance. When we recall
Mr. Vansittart with his currency resolutions; Lord Castlereagh with his
plans for the employment of labour; and Lord Sidmouth with his plots for
ensnaring the laborious; we are tempted to imagine that the present epoch
has been one of peculiar advances in political ability, and marvel how
England could have attained her present pitch under a series of such
governors.

We should, however, be labouring under a very erroneous impression. Run
over the statesmen that have figured in England since the accession of the
present family, and we may doubt whether there be one, with the exception
perhaps of the Duke of Newcastle, who would have been a worthy colleague
of the council of Mr. Perceval, or the early cabinet of Lord Liverpool.
Assuredly the genius of Bolingbroke and the sagacity of Walpole would have
alike recoiled from such men and such measures. And if we take the
individuals who were governing England immediately before the French
Revolution, one need only refer to the speeches of Mr. Pitt, and
especially to those of that profound statesman and most instructed man,
Lord Shelburne, to find that we can boast no remarkable superiority either
in political justice or in political economy. One must attribute this
degeneracy, therefore, to the long war and our insular position, acting
upon men naturally of inferior abilities, and unfortunately, in addition,
of illiterate habits.

In the meantime, notwithstanding all the efforts of the political
Panglosses who, in evening Journals and Quarterly Reviews were continually
proving that this was the best of all possible governments, it was evident
to the ministry itself that the machine must stop. The class of Rigbys
indeed at this period, one eminently favourable to that fungous tribe,
greatly distinguished themselves. They demonstrated in a manner absolutely
convincing, that it was impossible for any person to possess any ability,
knowledge, or virtue, any capacity of reasoning, any ray of fancy or
faculty of imagination, who was not a supporter of the existing
administration. If any one impeached the management of a department, the
public was assured that the accuser had embezzled; if any one complained
of the conduct of a colonial governor, the complainant was announced as a
returned convict. An amelioration of the criminal code was discountenanced
because a search in the parish register of an obscure village proved that
the proposer had not been born in wedlock. A relaxation of the commercial
system was denounced because one of its principal advocates was a
Socinian. The inutility of Parliamentary Reform was ever obvious since Mr.
Rigby was a member of the House of Commons.

To us, with our _Times_ newspaper every morning on our breakfast-table,
bringing, on every subject which can interest the public mind, a degree of
information and intelligence which must form a security against any
prolonged public misconception, it seems incredible that only five-and-
twenty years ago the English mind could have been so ridden and
hoodwinked, and that, too, by men of mean attainments and moderate
abilities. But the war had directed the energies of the English people
into channels by no means favourable to political education. Conquerors of
the world, with their ports filled with the shipping of every clime, and
their manufactories supplying the European continent, in the art of self-
government, that art in which their fathers excelled, they had become
literally children; and Rigby and his brother hirelings were the nurses
that frightened them with hideous fables and ugly words.

Notwithstanding, however, all this successful mystification, the Arch-
Mediocrity who presided, rather than ruled, over this Cabinet of
Mediocrities, became hourly more conscious that the inevitable transition
from fulfilling the duties of an administration to performing the
functions of a government could not be conducted without talents and
knowledge. The Arch-Mediocrity had himself some glimmering traditions of
political science. He was sprung from a laborious stock, had received some
training, and though not a statesman, might be classed among those whom
the Lord Keeper Williams used to call 'statemongers.' In a subordinate
position his meagre diligence and his frigid method might not have been
without value; but the qualities that he possessed were misplaced; nor can
any character be conceived less invested with the happy properties of a
leader. In the conduct of public affairs his disposition was exactly the
reverse of that which is the characteristic of great men. He was
peremptory in little questions, and great ones he left open.

In the natural course of events, in 1819 there ought to have been a change
of government, and another party in the state should have entered into
office; but the Whigs, though they counted in their ranks at that period
an unusual number of men of great ability, and formed, indeed, a compact
and spirited opposition, were unable to contend against the new adjustment
of borough influence which had occurred during the war, and under the
protracted administration by which that war had been conducted. New
families had arisen on the Tory side that almost rivalled old Newcastle
himself in their electioneering management; and it was evident that,
unless some reconstruction of the House of Commons could be effected, the
Whig party could never obtain a permanent hold of official power. Hence,
from that period, the Whigs became Parliamentary Reformers.

It was inevitable, therefore, that the country should be governed by the
same party; indispensable that the ministry should be renovated by new
brains and blood. Accordingly, a Mediocrity, not without repugnance, was
induced to withdraw, and the great name of Wellington supplied his place
in council. The talents of the Duke, as they were then understood, were
not exactly of the kind most required by the cabinet, and his colleagues
were careful that he should not occupy too prominent a post; but still it
was an impressive acquisition, and imparted to the ministry a semblance of
renown.

There was an individual who had not long entered public life, but who had
already filled considerable, though still subordinate offices. Having
acquired a certain experience of the duties of administration, and
distinction for his mode of fulfilling them, he had withdrawn from his
public charge; perhaps because he found it a barrier to the attainment of
that parliamentary reputation for which he had already shown both a desire
and a capacity; perhaps because, being young and independent, he was not
over-anxious irremediably to identify his career with a school of politics
of the infallibility of which his experience might have already made him a
little sceptical. But he possessed the talents that were absolutely
wanted, and the terms were at his own dictation. Another, and a very
distinguished Mediocrity, who would not resign, was thrust out, and Mr.
Peel became Secretary of State.

From this moment dates that intimate connection between the Duke of
Wellington and the present First Minister, which has exercised a
considerable influence over the career of individuals and the course of
affairs. It was the sympathetic result of superior minds placed among
inferior intelligences, and was, doubtless, assisted by a then mutual
conviction, that the difference of age, the circumstance of sitting in
different houses, and the general contrast of their previous pursuits and
accomplishments, rendered personal rivalry out of the question. From this
moment, too, the domestic government of the country assumed a new
character, and one universally admitted to have been distinguished by a
spirit of enlightened progress and comprehensive amelioration.

A short time after this, a third and most distinguished Mediocrity died;
and Canning, whom they had twice worried out of the cabinet, where they
had tolerated him some time in an obscure and ambiguous position, was
recalled just in time from his impending banishment, installed in the
first post in the Lower House, and intrusted with the seals of the Foreign
Office. The Duke of Wellington had coveted them, nor could Lord Liverpool
have been insensible to his Grace's peculiar fitness for such duties; but
strength was required in the House of Commons, where they had only one
Secretary of State, a young man already distinguished, yet untried as a
leader, and surrounded by colleagues notoriously incapable to assist him
in debate.

The accession of Mr. Canning to the cabinet, in a position, too, of
surpassing influence, soon led to a further weeding of the Mediocrities,
and, among other introductions, to the memorable entrance of Mr.
Huskisson. In this wise did that cabinet, once notable only for the
absence of all those qualities which authorise the possession of power,
come to be generally esteemed as a body of men, who, for parliamentary
eloquence, official practice, political information, sagacity in council,
and a due understanding of their epoch, were inferior to none that had
directed the policy of the empire since the Revolution.

If we survey the tenor of the policy of the Liverpool Cabinet during the
latter moiety of its continuance, we shall find its characteristic to be a
partial recurrence to those frank principles of government which Mr. Pitt
had revived during the latter part of the last century from precedents
that had been set us, either in practice or in dogma, during its earlier
period, by statesmen who then not only bore the title, but professed the
opinions, of Tories. Exclusive principles in the constitution, and
restrictive principles in commerce, have grown up together; and have
really nothing in common with the ancient character of our political
settlement, or the manners and customs of the English people. Confidence
in the loyalty of the nation, testified by munificent grants of rights and
franchises, and favour to an expansive system of traffic, were distinctive
qualities of the English sovereignty, until the House of Commons usurped
the better portion of its prerogatives. A widening of our electoral
scheme, great facilities to commerce, and the rescue of our Roman Catholic
fellow-subjects from the Puritanic yoke, from fetters which have been
fastened on them by English Parliaments in spite of the protests and
exertions of English Sovereigns; these were the three great elements and
fundamental truths of the real Pitt system, a system founded on the
traditions of our monarchy, and caught from the writings, the speeches,
the councils of those who, for the sake of these and analogous benefits,
had ever been anxious that the Sovereign of England should never be
degraded into the position of a Venetian Doge.

It is in the plunder of the Church that we must seek for the primary cause
of our political exclusion, and our commercial restraint. That unhallowed
booty created a factitious aristocracy, ever fearful that they might be
called upon to regorge their sacrilegious spoil. To prevent this they took
refuge in political religionism, and paltering with the disturbed
consciences, or the pious fantasies, of a portion of the people, they
organised them into religious sects. These became the unconscious
Praetorians of their ill-gotten domains. At the head of these
religionists, they have continued ever since to govern, or powerfully to
influence this country. They have in that time pulled down thrones and
churches, changed dynasties, abrogated and remodelled parliaments; they
have disfranchised Scotland and confiscated Ireland. One may admire the
vigour and consistency of the Whig party, and recognise in their career
that unity of purpose that can only spring from a great principle; but the
Whigs introduced sectarian religion, sectarian religion led to political
exclusion, and political exclusion was soon accompanied by commercial
restraint.

It would be fanciful to assume that the Liverpool Cabinet, in their
ameliorating career, was directed by any desire to recur to the primordial
tenets of the Tory party. That was not an epoch when statesmen cared to
prosecute the investigation of principles. It was a period of happy and
enlightened practice. A profounder policy is the offspring of a time like
the present, when the original postulates of institutions are called in
question. The Liverpool Cabinet unconsciously approximated to these
opinions, because from careful experiment they were convinced of their
beneficial tendency, and they thus bore an unintentional and impartial
testimony to their truth. Like many men, who think they are inventors,
they were only reproducing ancient wisdom.

But one must ever deplore that this ministry, with all their talents and
generous ardour, did not advance to principles. It is always perilous to
adopt expediency as a guide; but the choice may be sometimes imperative.
These statesmen, however, took expediency for their director, when
principle would have given them all that expediency ensured, and much
more.

This ministry, strong in the confidence of the sovereign, the parliament,
and the people, might, by the courageous promulgation of great historical
truths, have gradually formed a public opinion, that would have permitted
them to organise the Tory party on a broad, a permanent, and national
basis. They might have nobly effected a complete settlement of Ireland,
which a shattered section of this very cabinet was forced a few years
after to do partially, and in an equivocating and equivocal manner. They
might have concluded a satisfactory reconstruction of the third estate,
without producing that convulsion with which, from its violent
fabrication, our social system still vibrates. Lastly, they might have
adjusted the rights and properties of our national industries in a manner
which would have prevented that fierce and fatal rivalry that is now
disturbing every hearth of the United Kingdom.

We may, therefore, visit on the _laches_ of this ministry the introduction
of that new principle and power into our constitution which ultimately may
absorb all, AGITATION. This cabinet, then, with so much brilliancy on its
surface, is the real parent of the Roman Catholic Association, the
Political Unions, the Anti-Corn-Law League.

There is no influence at the same time so powerful and so singular as that
of individual character. It arises as often from the weakness of the
character as from its strength. The dispersion of this clever and showy
ministry is a fine illustration of this truth. One morning the Arch-
Mediocrity himself died. At the first blush, it would seem that little
difficulties could be experienced in finding his substitute. His long
occupation of the post proved, at any rate, that the qualification was not
excessive. But this cabinet, with its serene and blooming visage, had been
all this time charged with fierce and emulous ambitions. They waited the
signal, but they waited in grim repose. The death of the nominal leader,
whose formal superiority, wounding no vanity, and offending no pride,
secured in their councils equality among the able, was the tocsin of their
anarchy. There existed in this cabinet two men, who were resolved
immediately to be prime ministers; a third who was resolved eventually to
be prime minister, but would at any rate occupy no ministerial post
without the lead of a House of Parliament; and a fourth, who felt himself
capable of being prime minister, but despaired of the revolution which
could alone make him one; and who found an untimely end when that
revolution had arrived.

Had Mr. Secretary Canning remained leader of the House of Commons under
the Duke of Wellington, all that he would have gained by the death of Lord
Liverpool was a master. Had the Duke of Wellington become Secretary of
State under Mr. Canning he would have materially advanced his political
position, not only by holding the seals of a high department in which he
was calculated to excel, but by becoming leader of the House of Lords. But
his Grace was induced by certain court intriguers to believe that the King
would send for him, and he was also aware that Mr. Peel would no longer
serve under any ministry in the House of Commons. Under any circumstances
it would have been impossible to keep the Liverpool Cabinet together. The
struggle, therefore, between the Duke of Wellington and 'my dear Mr.
Canning' was internecine, and ended somewhat unexpectedly.

And here we must stop to do justice to our friend Mr. Rigby, whose conduct
on this occasion was distinguished by a bustling dexterity which was quite
charming. He had, as we have before intimated, on the credit of some
clever lampoons written during the Queen's trial, which were, in fact, the
effusions of Lucian Gay, wriggled himself into a sort of occasional
unworthy favour at the palace, where he was half butt and half buffoon.
Here, during the interregnum occasioned by the death, or rather inevitable
retirement, of Lord Liverpool, Mr. Rigby contrived to scrape up a
conviction that the Duke was the winning horse, and in consequence there
appeared a series of leading articles in a notorious evening newspaper, in
which it was, as Tadpole and Taper declared, most 'slashingly' shown, that
the son of an actress could never be tolerated as a Prime Minister of
England. Not content with this, and never doubting for a moment the
authentic basis of his persuasion, Mr. Rigby poured forth his coarse
volubility on the subject at several of the new clubs which he was getting
up in order to revenge himself for having been black-balled at White's.

What with arrangements about Lord Monmouth's boroughs, and the lucky
bottling of some claret which the Duke had imported on Mr. Rigby's
recommendation, this distinguished gentleman contrived to pay almost
hourly visits at Apsley House, and so bullied Tadpole and Taper that they
scarcely dared address him. About four-and-twenty hours before the result,
and when it was generally supposed that the Duke was in, Mr. Rigby, who
had gone down to Windsor to ask his Majesty the date of some obscure
historical incident, which Rigby, of course, very well knew, found that
audiences were impossible, that Majesty was agitated, and learned, from an
humble but secure authority, that in spite of all his slashing articles,
and Lucian Gay's parodies of the Irish melodies, Canning was to be Prime
Minister.

This would seem something of a predicament! To common minds; there are no
such things as scrapes for gentlemen with Mr. Rigby's talents for action.
He had indeed, in the world, the credit of being an adept in machinations,
and was supposed ever to be involved in profound and complicated
contrivances. This was quite a mistake. There was nothing profound about
Mr. Rigby; and his intellect was totally incapable of devising or
sustaining an intricate or continuous scheme. He was, in short, a man who
neither felt nor thought; but who possessed, in a very remarkable degree,
a restless instinct for adroit baseness. On the present occasion he got
into his carriage, and drove at the utmost speed from Windsor to the
Foreign Office. The Secretary of State was engaged when he arrived; but
Mr. Rigby would listen to no difficulties. He rushed upstairs, flung open
the door, and with agitated countenance, and eyes suffused with tears,
threw himself into the arms of the astonished Mr. Canning.

'All is right,' exclaimed the devoted Rigby, in broken tones; 'I have
convinced the King that the First Minister must be in the House of
Commons. No one knows it but myself; but it is certain.'

We have seen that at an early period of his career, Mr. Peel withdrew from
official life. His course had been one of unbroken prosperity; the hero of
the University had become the favourite of the House of Commons. His
retreat, therefore, was not prompted by chagrin. Nor need it have been
suggested by a calculating ambition, for the ordinary course of events was
fast bearing to him all to which man could aspire. One might rather
suppose, that he had already gained sufficient experience, perhaps in his
Irish Secretaryship, to make him pause in that career of superficial
success which education and custom had hitherto chalked out for him,
rather than the creative energies of his own mind. A thoughtful intellect
may have already detected elements in our social system which required a
finer observation, and a more unbroken study, than the gyves and trammels
of office would permit. He may have discovered that the representation of
the University, looked upon in those days as the blue ribbon of the House
of Commons, was a sufficient fetter without unnecessarily adding to its
restraint. He may have wished to reserve himself for a happier occasion,
and a more progressive period. He may have felt the strong necessity of
arresting himself in his rapid career of felicitous routine, to survey his
position in calmness, and to comprehend the stirring age that was
approaching.

For that, he could not but be conscious that the education which he had
consummated, however ornate and refined, was not sufficient. That age of
economical statesmanship which Lord Shelburne had predicted in 1787, when
he demolished, in the House of Lords, Bishop Watson and the Balance of
Trade, which Mr. Pitt had comprehended; and for which he was preparing the
nation when the French Revolution diverted the public mind into a stronger
and more turbulent current, was again impending, while the intervening
history of the country had been prolific in events which had aggravated
the necessity of investigating the sources of the wealth of nations. The
time had arrived when parliamentary preeminence could no longer be
achieved or maintained by gorgeous abstractions borrowed from Burke, or
shallow systems purloined from De Lolme, adorned with Horatian points, or
varied with Virgilian passages. It was to be an age of abstruse
disquisition, that required a compact and sinewy intellect, nurtured in a
class of learning not yet honoured in colleges, and which might arrive at
conclusions conflicting with predominant prejudices.

Adopting this view of the position of Mr. Peel, strengthened as it is by
his early withdrawal for a while from the direction of public affairs, it
may not only be a charitable but a true estimate of the motives which
influenced him in his conduct towards Mr. Canning, to conclude that he was
not guided in that transaction by the disingenuous rivalry usually imputed
to him. His statement in Parliament of the determining circumstances of
his conduct, coupled with his subsequent and almost immediate policy, may
perhaps always leave this a painful and ambiguous passage in his career;
but in passing judgment on public men, it behoves us ever to take large
and extended views of their conduct; and previous incidents will often
satisfactorily explain subsequent events, which, without their
illustrating aid, are involved in misapprehension or mystery.

It would seem, therefore, that Sir Robert Peel, from an early period,
meditated his emancipation from the political confederacy in which he was
implicated, and that he has been continually baffled in this project. He
broke loose from Lord Liverpool; he retired from Mr. Canning. Forced again
into becoming the subordinate leader of the weakest government in
parliamentary annals, he believed he had at length achieved his
emancipation, when he declared to his late colleagues, after the overthrow
of 1830, that he would never again accept a secondary position in office.
But the Duke of Wellington was too old a tactician to lose so valuable an
ally. So his Grace declared after the Reform Bill was passed, as its
inevitable result, that thenceforth the Prime Minister must be a member of
the House of Commons; and this aphorism, cited as usual by the Duke's
parasites as demonstration of his supreme sagacity, was a graceful mode of
resigning the preeminence which had been productive of such great party
disasters. It is remarkable that the party who devised and passed the
Reform Bill, and who, in consequence, governed the nation for ten years,
never once had their Prime Minister in the House of Commons: but that does
not signify; the Duke's maxim is still quoted as an oracle almost equal in
prescience to his famous query, 'How is the King's government to be
carried on?' a question to which his Grace by this time has contrived to
give a tolerably practical answer.

Sir Robert Peel, who had escaped from Lord Liverpool, escaped from Mr.
Canning, escaped even from the Duke of Wellington in 1832, was at length
caught in 1834; the victim of ceaseless intriguers, who neither
comprehended his position, nor that of their country.

CHAPTER II.

Beaumanoir was one of those Palladian palaces, vast and ornate, such as
the genius of Kent and Campbell delighted in at the beginning of the
eighteenth century. Placed on a noble elevation, yet screened from the
northern blast, its sumptuous front, connected with its far-spreading
wings by Corinthian colonnades, was the boast and pride of the midland
counties. The surrounding gardens, equalling in extent the size of
ordinary parks, were crowded with temples dedicated to abstract virtues
and to departed friends. Occasionally a triumphal arch celebrated a
general whom the family still esteemed a hero; and sometimes a votive
column commemorated the great statesman who had advanced the family a step
in the peerage. Beyond the limits of this pleasance the hart and hind
wandered in a wilderness abounding in ferny coverts and green and stately
trees.

The noble proprietor of this demesne had many of the virtues of his class;
a few of their failings. He had that public spirit which became his
station. He was not one of those who avoided the exertions and the
sacrifices which should be inseparable from high position, by the hollow
pretext of a taste for privacy, and a devotion to domestic joys. He was
munificent, tender, and bounteous to the poor, and loved a flowing
hospitality. A keen sportsman, he was not untinctured by letters, and had
indeed a cultivated taste for the fine arts. Though an ardent politician,
he was tolerant to adverse opinions, and full of amenity to his opponents.
A firm supporter of the corn-laws, he never refused a lease.
Notwithstanding there ran through his whole demeanour and the habit of his
mind, a vein of native simplicity that was full of charm, his manner was
finished. He never offended any one's self-love. His good breeding,
indeed, sprang from the only sure source of gentle manners, a kind heart.
To have pained others would have pained himself. Perhaps, too, this noble
sympathy may have been in some degree prompted by the ancient blood in his
veins, an accident of lineage rather rare with the English nobility. One
could hardly praise him for the strong affections that bound him to his
hearth, for fortune had given him the most pleasing family in the world;
but, above all, a peerless wife.

The Duchess was one of those women who are the delight of existence. She
was sprung from a house not inferior to that with which she had blended,
and was gifted with that rare beauty which time ever spares, so that she
seemed now only the elder sister of her own beautiful daughters. She, too,
was distinguished by that perfect good breeding which is the result of
nature and not of education: for it may be found in a cottage, and may be
missed in a palace. 'Tis a genial regard for the feelings of others that
springs from an absence of selfishness. The Duchess, indeed, was in every
sense a fine lady; her manners were refined and full of dignity; but
nothing in the world could have induced her to appear bored when another
was addressing or attempting to amuse her. She was not one of those vulgar
fine ladies who meet you one day with a vacant stare, as if unconscious of
your existence, and address you on another in a tone of impertinent
familiarity. Her temper, perhaps, was somewhat quick, which made this
consideration for the feelings of others still more admirable, for it was
the result of a strict moral discipline acting on a good heart. Although
the best of wives and mothers, she had some charity for her neighbours.
Needing herself no indulgence, she could be indulgent; and would by no
means favour that strait-laced morality that would constrain the innocent
play of the social body. She was accomplished, well read, and had a lively
fancy. Add to this that sunbeam of a happy home, a gay and cheerful spirit
in its mistress, and one might form some faint idea of this gracious
personage.

The eldest son of this house was now on the continent; of his two younger
brothers, one was with his regiment and the other was Coningsby's friend
at Eton, our Henry Sydney. The two eldest daughters had just married, on
the same day, and at the same altar; and the remaining one, Theresa, was
still a child.

The Duke had occupied a chief post in the Household under the late
administration, and his present guests chiefly consisted of his former
colleagues in office. There were several members of the late cabinet,
several members for his Grace's late boroughs, looking very much like
martyrs, full of suffering and of hope. Mr. Tadpole and Mr. Taper were
also there; they too had lost their seats since 1832; but being men of
business, and accustomed from early life to look about them, they had
already commenced the combinations which on a future occasion were to bear
them back to the assembly where they were so missed.

Taper had his eye on a small constituency which had escaped the fatal
schedules, and where he had what they called a 'connection;' that is to
say, a section of the suffrages who had a lively remembrance of Treasury
favours once bestowed by Mr. Taper, and who had not been so liberally
dealt with by the existing powers. This connection of Taper was in time to
leaven the whole mass of the constituent body, and make it rise in full
rebellion against its present liberal representative, who being one of a
majority of three hundred, could get nothing when he called at Whitehall
or Downing Street.

Tadpole, on the contrary, who was of a larger grasp of mind than Taper,
with more of imagination and device but not so safe a man, was coquetting
with a manufacturing town and a large constituency, where he was to
succeed by the aid of the Wesleyans, of which pious body he had suddenly
become a fervent admirer. The great Mr. Rigby, too, was a guest out of
Parliament, nor caring to be in; but hearing that his friends had some
hopes, he thought he would just come down to dash them.

The political grapes were sour for Mr. Rigby; a prophet of evil, he
preached only mortification and repentance and despair to his late
colleagues. It was the only satisfaction left Mr. Rigby, except assuring
the Duke that the finest pictures in his gallery were copies, and
recommending him to pull down Beaumanoir, and rebuild it on a design with
which Mr. Rigby would furnish him.

The battue and the banquet were over; the ladies had withdrawn; and the
butler placed fresh claret on the table.

'And you really think you could give us a majority, Tadpole?' said the
Duke.

Mr. Tadpole, with some ceremony, took a memorandum-book out of his pocket,
amid the smiles and the faint well-bred merriment of his friends.

'Tadpole is nothing without his book,' whispered Lord Fitz-Booby.

'It is here,' said Mr. Tadpole, emphatically patting his volume, 'a clear
working majority of twenty-two.'

'Near sailing that!' cried the Duke.

'A far better majority than the present Government have,' said Mr.
Tadpole.

'There is nothing like a good small majority,' said Mr. Taper, 'and a good
registration.'

'Ay! register, register, register!' said the Duke. 'Those were immortal
words.'

'I can tell your Grace three far better ones,' said Mr. Tadpole, with a
self-complacent air. 'Object, object, object!'

'You may register, and you may object,' said Mr. Rigby, 'but you will
never get rid of Schedule A and Schedule B.'

'But who could have supposed two years ago that affairs would be in their
present position?' said Mr. Taper, deferentially.

'I foretold it,' said Mr. Rigby. 'Every one knows that no government now
can last twelve months.'

'We may make fresh boroughs,' said Taper. 'We have reduced Shabbyton at
the last registration under three hundred.'

'And the Wesleyans!' said Tadpole. 'We never counted on the Wesleyans!'

'I am told these Wesleyans are really a respectable body,' said Lord Fitz-
Booby. 'I believe there is no material difference between their tenets and
those of the Establishment. I never heard of them much till lately. We
have too long confounded them with the mass of Dissenters, but their
conduct at several of the later elections proves that they are far from
being unreasonable and disloyal individuals. When we come in, something
should be done for the Wesleyans, eh, Rigby?'

'All that your Lordship can do for the Wesleyans is what they will very
shortly do for themselves, appropriate a portion of the Church Revenues to
their own use.'

'Nay, nay,' said Mr. Tadpole with a chuckle, 'I don't think we shall find
the Church attacked again in a hurry. I only wish they would try! A good
Church cry before a registration,' he continued, rubbing his hands; 'eh,
my Lord, I think that would do.'

'But how are we to turn them out?' said the Duke.

'Ah!' said Mr. Taper, 'that is a great question.'

'What do you think of a repeal of the Malt Tax?' said Lord Fitz-Booby.
'They have been trying it on in ----shire, and I am told it goes down very
well.'

'No repeal of any tax,' said Taper, sincerely shocked, and shaking his
head; 'and the Malt Tax of all others. I am all against that.'

'It is a very good cry though, if there be no other,' said Tadpole.

'I am all for a religious cry,' said Taper. 'It means nothing, and, if
successful, does not interfere with business when we are in.'

'You will have religious cries enough in a short time,' said Mr. Rigby,
rather wearied of any one speaking but himself, and thereat he commenced a
discourse, which was, in fact, one of his 'slashing' articles in petto on
Church Reform, and which abounded in parallels between the present affairs
and those of the reign of Charles I. Tadpole, who did not pretend to know
anything but the state of the registration, and Taper, whose political
reading was confined to an intimate acquaintance with the Red Book and
Beatson's Political Index, which he could repeat backwards, were silenced.
The Duke, who was well instructed and liked to be talked to, sipped his
claret, and was rather amused by Rigby's lecture, particularly by one or
two statements characterised by Rigby's happy audacity, but which the Duke
was too indolent to question. Lord Fitz-Booby listened with his mouth
open, but rather bored. At length, when there was a momentary pause, he
said:

'In my time, the regular thing was to move an amendment on the address.'

'Quite out of the question,' exclaimed Tadpole, with a scoff.

'Entirely given up,' said Taper, with a sneer.

'If you will drink no more claret, we will go and hear some music,' said
the Duke.

CHAPTER III.

A breakfast at Beaumanoir was a meal of some ceremony. Every guest was
expected to attend, and at a somewhat early hour. Their host and hostess
set them the example of punctuality. 'Tis an old form rigidly adhered to
in some great houses, but, it must be confessed, does not contrast very
agreeably with the easier arrangements of establishments of less
pretension and of more modern order.

The morning after the dinner to which we have been recently introduced,
there was one individual absent from the breakfast-table whose non-
appearance could scarcely be passed over without notice; and several
inquired with some anxiety, whether their host were indisposed.

'The Duke has received some letters from London which detain him,' replied
the Duchess. 'He will join us.'

'Your Grace will be glad to hear that your son Henry is very well,' said
Mr. Rigby; 'I heard of him this morning. Harry Coningsby enclosed me a
letter for his grandfather, and tells me that he and Henry Sydney had just
had a capital run with the King's hounds.'

'It is three years since we have seen Mr. Coningsby,' said the Duchess.
'Once he was often here. He was a great favourite of mine. I hardly ever
knew a more interesting boy.'

'Yes, I have done a great deal for him,' said Mr. Rigby. 'Lord Monmouth is
fond of him, and wishes that he should make a figure; but how any one is
to distinguish himself now, I am really at a loss to comprehend.'

'But are affairs so very bad?' said the Duchess, smiling. 'I thought that
we were all regaining our good sense and good temper.'

'I believe all the good sense and all the good temper in England are
concentrated in your Grace,' said Mr. Rigby, gallantly.

'I should be sorry to be such a monopolist. But Lord Fitz-Booby was giving
me last night quite a glowing report of Mr. Tadpole's prospects for the
nation. We were all to have our own again; and Percy to carry the county.'

'My dear Madam, before twelve months are past, there will not be a county
in England. Why should there be? If boroughs are to be disfranchised, why
should not counties be destroyed?'

At this moment the Duke entered, apparently agitated. He bowed to his
guests, and apologised for his unusual absence. 'The truth is,' he
continued, 'I have just received a very important despatch. An event has
occurred which may materially affect affairs. Lord Spencer is dead.'

A thunderbolt in a summer sky, as Sir William Temple says, could not have
produced a greater sensation. The business of the repast ceased in a
moment. The knives and forks were suddenly silent. All was still.

'It is an immense event,' said Tadpole.

'I don't see my way,' said Taper.

'When did he die?' said Lord Fitz-Booby.

'I don't believe it,' said Mr. Rigby.

'They have got their man ready,' said Tadpole.

'It is impossible to say what will happen,' said Taper.

'Now is the time for an amendment on the address,' said Fitz-Booby.

'There are two reasons which convince me that Lord Spencer is not dead,'
said Mr. Rigby.

'I fear there is no doubt of it,' said the Duke, shaking his head.

'Lord Althorp was the only man who could keep them together,' said Lord
Fitz-Booby.

'On the contrary,' said Tadpole. 'If I be right in my man, and I have no
doubt of it, you will have a radical programme, and they will be stronger
than ever.'

'Do you think they can get the steam up again?' said Taper, musingly.

'They will bid high,' replied Tadpole. 'Nothing could be more unfortunate
than this death. Things were going on so well and so quietly! The
Wesleyans almost with us!'

'And Shabbyton too!' mournfully exclaimed Taper. 'Another registration and
quiet times, and I could have reduced the constituency to two hundred and
fifty.'

'If Lord Spencer had died on the 10th,' said Rigby, 'it must have been
known to Henry Rivers. And I have a letter from Henry Rivers by this post.
Now, Althorp is in Northamptonshire, mark that, and Northampton is a
county--'

'My dear Rigby,' said the Duke, 'pardon me for interrupting you.
Unhappily, there is no doubt Lord Spencer is dead, for I am one of his
executors.'

This announcement silenced even Mr. Rigby, and the conversation now
entirely merged in speculations on what would occur. Numerous were the
conjectures hazarded, but the prevailing impression was, that this
unforeseen event might embarrass those secret expectations of Court
succour in which a certain section of the party had for some time reason
to indulge.

From the moment, however, of the announcement of Lord Spencer's death, a
change might be visibly observed in the tone of the party at Beaumanoir.
They became silent, moody, and restless. There seemed a general, though
not avowed, conviction that a crisis of some kind or other was at hand.
The post, too, brought letters every day from town teeming with fanciful
speculations, and occasionally mysterious hopes.

'I kept this cover for Peel,' said the Duke pensively, as he loaded his
gun on the morning of the 14th. 'Do you know, I was always against his
going to Rome.'

'It is very odd,' said Tadpole, 'but I was thinking of the very same
thing.'

'It will be fifteen years before England will see a Tory Government,' said
Mr. Rigby, drawing his ramrod, 'and then it will only last five months.'

'Melbourne, Althorp, and Durham, all in the Lords,' said Taper. 'Three
leaders! They must quarrel.'

'If Durham come in, mark me, he will dissolve on Household Suffrage and
the Ballot,' said Tadpole.

'Not nearly so good a cry as Church,' replied Taper.

'With the Malt Tax,' said Tadpole. 'Church, without the Malt Tax, will not
do against Household Suffrage and Ballot.'

'Malt Tax is madness,' said Taper. 'A good farmer's friend cry without
Malt Tax would work just as well.'

'They will never dissolve,' said the Duke. 'They are so strong.'

'They cannot go on with three hundred majority,' said Taper. 'Forty is as
much as can be managed with open constituencies.'

'If he had only gone to Paris instead of Rome!' said the Duke.

'Yes,' said Mr. Rigby, 'I could have written to him then by every post,
and undeceived him as to his position.'

'After all he is the only man,' said the Duke; 'and I really believe the
country thinks so.'

'Pray, what is the country?' inquired Mr. Rigby. 'The country is nothing;
it is the constituency you have to deal with.'

'And to manage them you must have a good cry,' said Taper. 'All now
depends upon a good cry.'

'So much for the science of politics,' said the Duke, bringing down a
pheasant. 'How Peel would have enjoyed this cover!'

'He will have plenty of time for sport during his life,' said Mr. Rigby.

On the evening of the 15th of November, a despatch arrived at Beaumanoir,
informing his Grace that the King had dismissed the Whig Ministry, and
sent for the Duke of Wellington. Thus the first agitating suspense was
over; to be succeeded, however, by expectation still more anxious. It was
remarkable that every individual suddenly found that he had particular
business in London which could not be neglected. The Duke very properly
pleaded his executorial duties; but begged his guests on no account to be
disturbed by his inevitable absence. Lord Fitz-Booby had just received a
letter from his daughter, who was indisposed at Brighton, and he was most
anxious to reach her. Tadpole had to receive deputations from Wesleyans,
and well-registered boroughs anxious to receive well-principled
candidates. Taper was off to get the first job at the contingent Treasury,
in favour of the Borough of Shabbyton. Mr. Rigby alone was silent; but he
quietly ordered a post-chaise at daybreak, and long before his fellow
guests were roused from their slumbers, he was halfway to London, ready to
give advice, either at the pavilion or at Apsley House.

CHAPTER IV.

Although it is far from improbable that, had Sir Robert Peel been in
England in the autumn of 1834, the Whig government would not have been
dismissed; nevertheless, whatever may now be the opinion of the policy of
that measure; whether it be looked on as a premature movement which
necessarily led to the compact reorganisation of the Liberal party, or as
a great stroke of State, which, by securing at all events a dissolution of
the Parliament of 1832, restored the healthy balance of parties in the
Legislature, questions into which we do not now wish to enter, it must be
generally admitted, that the conduct of every individual eminently
concerned in that great historical transaction was characterised by the
rarest and most admirable quality of public life, moral courage. The
Sovereign who dismissed a Ministry apparently supported by an overwhelming
majority in the Parliament and the nation, and called to his councils the
absent chief of a parliamentary section, scarcely numbering at that moment
one hundred and forty individuals, and of a party in the country supposed
to be utterly discomfited by a recent revolution; the two ministers who in
this absence provisionally administered the affairs of the kingdom in the
teeth of an enraged and unscrupulous Opposition, and perhaps themselves
not sustained by a profound conviction, that the arrival of their expected
leader would convert their provisional into a permanent position; above
all the statesman who accepted the great charge at a time and under
circumstances which marred probably the deep projects of his own prescient
sagacity and maturing ambition; were all men gifted with a high spirit of
enterprise, and animated by that active fortitude which is the soul of
free governments.

It was a lively season, that winter of 1834! What hopes, what fears, and
what bets! From the day on which Mr. Hudson was to arrive at Rome to the
election of the Speaker, not a contingency that was not the subject of a
wager! People sprang up like mushrooms; town suddenly became full.
Everybody who had been in office, and everybody who wished to be in
office; everybody who had ever had anything, and everybody who ever
expected to have anything, were alike visible. All of course by mere
accident; one might meet the same men regularly every day for a month, who
were only 'passing through town.'

Now was the time for men to come forward who had never despaired of their
country. True they had voted for the Reform Bill, but that was to prevent
a revolution. And now they were quite ready to vote against the Reform
Bill, but this was to prevent a dissolution. These are the true patriots,
whose confidence in the good sense of their countrymen and in their own
selfishness is about equal. In the meantime, the hundred and forty threw a
grim glance on the numerous waiters on Providence, and amiable trimmers,
who affectionately enquired every day when news might be expected of Sir
Robert. Though too weak to form a government, and having contributed in no
wise by their exertions to the fall of the late, the cohort of
Parliamentary Tories felt all the alarm of men who have accidentally
stumbled on some treasure-trove, at the suspicious sympathy of new allies.
But, after all, who were to form the government, and what was the
government to be? Was it to be a Tory government, or an Enlightened-
Spirit-of-the-Age Liberal-Moderate-Reform government; was it to be a
government of high philosophy or of low practice; of principle or of
expediency; of great measures or of little men? A government of statesmen
or of clerks? Of Humbug or of Humdrum? Great questions these, but
unfortunately there was nobody to answer them. They tried the Duke; but
nothing could be pumped out of him. All that he knew, which he told in his
curt, husky manner, was, that he had to carry on the King's government. As
for his solitary colleague, he listened and smiled, and then in his
musical voice asked them questions in return, which is the best possible
mode of avoiding awkward inquiries. It was very unfair this; for no one
knew what tone to take; whether they should go down to their public
dinners and denounce the Reform Act or praise it; whether the Church was
to be re-modelled or only admonished; whether Ireland was to be conquered
or conciliated.

'This can't go on much longer,' said Taper to Tadpole, as they reviewed
together their electioneering correspondence on the 1st of December; 'we
have no cry.'

'He is half way by this time,' said Tadpole; 'send an extract from a
private letter to the _Standard_, dated Augsburg, and say he will be here
in four days.'

At last he came; the great man in a great position, summoned from Rome to
govern England. The very day that he arrived he had his audience with the
King.

It was two days after this audience; the town, though November, in a state
of excitement; clubs crowded, not only morning rooms, but halls and
staircases swarming with members eager to give and to receive rumours
equally vain; streets lined with cabs and chariots, grooms and horses; it
was two days after this audience that Mr. Ormsby, celebrated for his
political dinners, gave one to a numerous party. Indeed his saloons to-
day, during the half-hour of gathering which precedes dinner, offered in
the various groups, the anxious countenances, the inquiring voices, and
the mysterious whispers, rather the character of an Exchange or Bourse
than the tone of a festive society.

Here might be marked a murmuring knot of greyheaded privy-councillors, who
had held fat offices under Perceval and Liverpool, and who looked back to
the Reform Act as to a hideous dream; there some middle-aged aspirants
might be observed who had lost their seats in the convulsion, but who
flattered themselves they had done something for the party in the
interval, by spending nothing except their breath in fighting hopeless
boroughs, and occasionally publishing a pamphlet, which really produced
less effect than chalking the walls. Light as air, and proud as a young
peacock, tripped on his toes a young Tory, who had contrived to keep his
seat in a Parliament where he had done nothing, but who thought an Under-
Secretaryship was now secure, particularly as he was the son of a noble
Lord who had also in a public capacity plundered and blundered in the good
old time. The true political adventurer, who with dull desperation had
stuck at nothing, had never neglected a treasury note, had been present at
every division, never spoke when he was asked to be silent, and was always
ready on any subject when they wanted him to open his mouth; who had
treated his leaders with servility even behind their backs, and was happy
for the day if a future Secretary of the Treasury bowed to him; who had
not only discountenanced discontent in the party, but had regularly
reported in strict confidence every instance of insubordination which came
to his knowledge; might there too be detected under all the agonies of the
crisis; just beginning to feel the dread misgiving, whether being a slave
and a sneak were sufficient qualifications for office, without family or
connection. Poor fellow! half the industry he had wasted on his cheerless
craft might have made his fortune in some decent trade!

In dazzling contrast with these throes of low ambition, were some
brilliant personages who had just scampered up from Melton, thinking it
probable that Sir Robert might want some moral lords of the bed-chamber.
Whatever may have been their private fears or feelings, all however seemed
smiling and significant, as if they knew something if they chose to tell
it, and that something very much to their own satisfaction. The only grave
countenance that was occasionally ushered into the room belonged to some
individual whose destiny was not in doubt, and who was already practising
the official air that was in future to repress the familiarity of his
former fellow-stragglers.

'Do you hear anything?' said a great noble who wanted something in the
general scramble, but what he knew not; only he had a vague feeling he
ought to have something, having made such great sacrifices.

'There is a report that Clifford is to be Secretary to the Board of
Control,' said Mr. Earwig, whose whole soul was in this subaltern
arrangement, of which the Minister of course had not even thought; 'but I
cannot trace it to any authority.'

'I wonder who will be their Master of the Horse,' said the great noble,
loving gossip though he despised the gossiper.

'Clifford has done nothing for the party,' said Mr. Earwig.

'I dare say Rambrooke will have the Buckhounds,' said the great noble,
musingly.

'Your Lordship has not heard Clifford's name mentioned?' continued Mr.
Earwig.

'I should think they had not come to that sort of thing,' said the great
noble, with ill-disguised contempt.' The first thing after the Cabinet is
formed is the Household: the things you talk of are done last;' and he
turned upon his heel, and met the imperturbable countenance and clear
sarcastic eye of Lord Eskdale.

'You have not heard anything?' asked the great noble of his brother
patrician.

'Yes, a great deal since I have been in this room; but unfortunately it is
all untrue.'

'There is a report that Rambrooke is to have the Buck-hounds; but I cannot
trace it to any authority.'

'Pooh!' said Lord Eskdale.

'I don't see that Rambrooke should have the Buckhounds any more than
anybody else. What sacrifices has he made?'

'Past sacrifices are nothing,' said Lord Eskdale. 'Present sacrifices are
the thing we want: men who will sacrifice their principles and join us.'

'You have not heard Rambrooke's name mentioned?'

'When a Minister has no Cabinet, and only one hundred and forty supporters
in the House of Commons, he has something else to think of than places at
Court,' said Lord Eskdale, as he slowly turned away to ask Lucian Gay
whether it were true that Jenny Colon was coming over.

Shortly after this, Henry Sydney's father, who dined with Mr. Ornisby,
drew Lord Eskdale into a window, and said in an undertone:

'So there is to be a kind of programme: something is to be written.'

'Well, we want a cue,' said Lord Eskdale. 'I heard of this last night:
Rigby has written something.'

The Duke shook his head.

'No; Peel means to do it himself.'

But at this moment Mr. Ornisby begged his Grace to lead them to dinner.

'Something is to be written.' It is curious to recall the vague terms in
which the first projection of documents, that are to exercise a vast
influence on the course of affairs or the minds of nations, is often
mentioned. This 'something to be written' was written; and speedily; and
has ever since been talked of.

We believe we may venture to assume that at no period during the movements
of 1834-5 did Sir Robert Peel ever believe in the success of his
administration. Its mere failure could occasion him little
dissatisfaction; he was compensated for it by the noble opportunity
afforded to him for the display of those great qualities, both moral and
intellectual, which the swaddling-clothes of a routine prosperity had long
repressed, but of which his opposition to the Reform Bill had given to the
nation a significant intimation. The brief administration elevated him in
public opinion, and even in the eye of Europe; and it is probable that a
much longer term of power would not have contributed more to his fame.

The probable effect of the premature effort of his party on his future
position as a Minister was, however, far from being so satisfactory. At
the lowest ebb of his political fortunes, it cannot be doubted that Sir
Robert Peel looked forward, perhaps through the vista of many years, to a
period when the national mind, arrived by reflection and experience at
certain conclusions, would seek in him a powerful expositor of its
convictions. His time of life permitted him to be tranquil in adversity,
and to profit by its salutary uses. He would then have acceded to power as
the representative of a Creed, instead of being the leader of a
Confederacy, and he would have been supported by earnest and enduring
enthusiasm, instead of by that churlish sufferance which is the result of
a supposed balance of advantages in his favour. This is the consequence of
the tactics of those short-sighted intriguers, who persisted in looking
upon a revolution as a mere party struggle, and would not permit the mind
of the nation to work through the inevitable phases that awaited it. In
1834, England, though frightened at the reality of Reform, still adhered
to its phrases; it was inclined, as practical England, to maintain
existing institutions; but, as theoretical England, it was suspicious that
they were indefensible.

No one had arisen either in Parliament, the Universities, or the Press, to
lead the public mind to the investigation of principles; and not to
mistake, in their reformations, the corruption of practice for fundamental
ideas. It was this perplexed, ill-informed, jaded, shallow generation,
repeating cries which they did not comprehend, and wearied with the
endless ebullitions of their own barren conceit, that Sir Robert Peel was
summoned to govern. It was from such materials, ample in quantity, but in
all spiritual qualities most deficient; with great numbers, largely acred,
consoled up to their chins, but without knowledge, genius, thought, truth,
or faith, that Sir Robert Peel was to form a 'great Conservative party on
a comprehensive basis.' That he did this like a dexterous politician, who
can deny? Whether he realised those prescient views of a great statesman
in which he had doubtless indulged, and in which, though still clogged by
the leadership of 1834, he may yet find fame for himself and salvation for
his country, is altogether another question. His difficult attempt was
expressed in an address to his constituents, which now ranks among state
papers. We shall attempt briefly to consider it with the impartiality of
the future.

CHAPTER V.

The Tamworth Manifesto of 1834 was an attempt to construct a party without
principles; its basis therefore was necessarily Latitudinarianism; and its
inevitable consequence has been Political Infidelity.

At an epoch of political perplexity and social alarm, the confederation
was convenient, and was calculated by aggregation to encourage the timid
and confused. But when the perturbation was a little subsided, and men
began to inquire why they were banded together, the difficulty of defining
their purpose proved that the league, however respectable, was not a
party. The leaders indeed might profit by their eminent position to obtain
power for their individual gratification, but it was impossible to secure
their followers that which, after all, must be the great recompense of a
political party, the putting in practice of their opinions; for they had
none.

There was indeed a considerable shouting about what they called
Conservative principles; but the awkward question naturally arose, what
will you conserve? The prerogatives of the Crown, provided they are not
exercised; the independence of the House of Lords, provided it is not
asserted; the Ecclesiastical estate, provided it is regulated by a
commission of laymen. Everything, in short, that is established, as long
as it is a phrase and not a fact.

In the meantime, while forms and phrases are religiously cherished in
order to make the semblance of a creed, the rule of practice is to bend to
the passion or combination of the hour. Conservatism assumes in theory
that everything established should be maintained; but adopts in practice
that everything that is established is indefensible. To reconcile this
theory and this practice, they produce what they call 'the best bargain;'
some arrangement which has no principle and no purpose, except to obtain a
temporary lull of agitation, until the mind of the Conservatives, without
a guide and without an aim, distracted, tempted, and bewildered, is
prepared for another arrangement, equally statesmanlike with the preceding
one.

Conservatism was an attempt to carry on affairs by substituting the
fulfilment of the duties of office for the performance of the functions of
government; and to maintain this negative system by the mere influence of
property, reputable private conduct, and what are called good connections.
Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows
Progress; having rejected all respect for Antiquity, it offers no redress
for the Present, and makes no preparation for the Future. It is obvious
that for a time, under favourable circumstances, such a confederation
might succeed; but it is equally clear, that on the arrival of one of
those critical conjunctures that will periodically occur in all states,
and which such an unimpassioned system is even calculated ultimately to
create, all power of resistance will be wanting: the barren curse of
political infidelity will paralyse all action; and the Conservative
Constitution will be discovered to be a Caput Mortuum.

CHAPTER VI.

In the meantime, after dinner, Tadpole and Taper, who were among the
guests of Mr. Ormsby, withdrew to a distant sofa, out of earshot, and
indulged in confidential talk.

'Such a strength in debate was never before found on a Treasury bench,'
said Mr. Tadpole; 'the other side will be dumbfounded.'

'And what do you put our numbers at now?' inquired Mr. Taper.

'Would you take fifty-five for our majority?' rejoined Mr. Tadpole.

'It is not so much the tail they have, as the excuse their junction will
be for the moderate, sensible men to come over,' said Taper. 'Our friend
Sir Everard for example, it would settle him.'

'He is a solemn impostor,' rejoined Mr. Tadpole; 'but he is a baronet and
a county member, and very much looked up to by the Wesleyans. The other
men, I know, have refused him a peerage.'

'And we might hold out judicious hopes,' said Taper.

'No one can do that better than you,' said Tadpole. 'I am apt to say too
much about those things.'

'I make it a rule never to open my mouth on such subjects,' said Taper. 'A
nod or a wink will speak volumes. An affectionate pressure of the hand
will sometimes do a great deal; and I have promised many a peerage without
committing myself, by an ingenious habit of deference which cannot be
mistaken by the future noble.'

'I wonder what they will do with Rigby,' said Tadpole.

'He wants a good deal,' said Taper.

'I tell you what, Mr. Taper, the time is gone by when a Marquess of
Monmouth was Letter A, No. 1.'

'Very true, Mr. Tadpole. A wise man would do well now to look to the great
middle class, as I said the other day to the electors of Shabbyton.'

'I had sooner be supported by the Wesleyans,' said Mr. Tadpole, 'than by
all the marquesses in the peerage.'

'At the same time,' said Mr. Taper, 'Rigby is a considerable man. If we
want a slashing article--'

'Pooh!' said Mr. Tadpole. 'He is quite gone by. He takes three months for
his slashing articles. Give me the man who can write a leader. Rigby can't
write a leader.'

'Very few can,' said Mr. Taper. 'However, I don't think much of the press.
Its power is gone by. They overdid it.'

'There is Tom Chudleigh,' said Tadpole. 'What is he to have?'

'Nothing, I hope,' said Taper. 'I hate him. A coxcomb! Cracking his jokes
and laughing at us.'

'He has done a good deal for the party, though,' said Tadpole. 'That, to
be sure, is only an additional reason for throwing him over, as he is too
far committed to venture to oppose us. But I am afraid from something that
dropped to-day, that Sir Robert thinks he has claims.'

'We must stop them,' said Taper, growing pale. 'Fellows like Chudleigh,
when they once get in, are always in one's way. I have no objection to
young noblemen being put forward, for they are preferred so rapidly, and
then their fathers die, that in the long run they do not practically
interfere with us.'

'Well, his name was mentioned,' said Tadpole. 'There is no concealing
that.'

'I will speak to Earwig,' said Taper. 'He shall just drop into Sir
Robert's ear by chance, that Chudleigh used to quiz him in the smoking-
room. Those little bits of information do a great deal of good.'

'Well, I leave him to you,' said Tadpole. 'I am heartily with you in
keeping out all fellows like Chudleigh. They are very well for opposition;
but in office we don't want wits.'

'And when shall we have the answer from Knowsley?' inquired Taper. 'You
anticipate no possible difficulty?'

'I tell you it is "carte blanche,"' replied Tadpole. 'Four places in the
cabinet. Two secretaryships at the least. Do you happen to know any
gentleman of your acquaintance, Mr. Taper, who refuses Secretaryships of
State so easily, that you can for an instant doubt of the present
arrangement?'

'I know none indeed,' said Mr. Taper, with a grim smile.

'The thing is done,' said Mr. Tadpole.

'And now for our cry,' said Mr. Taper.

'It is not a Cabinet for a good cry,' said Tadpole; 'but then, on the
other hand, it is a Cabinet that will sow dissension in the opposite
ranks, and prevent them having a good cry.'

'Ancient institutions and modern improvements, I suppose, Mr. Tadpole?'

'Ameliorations is the better word, ameliorations. Nobody knows exactly
what it means.'

'We go strong on the Church?' said Mr. Taper.

'And no repeal of the Malt Tax; you were right, Taper. It can't be
listened to for a moment.'

'Something might be done with prerogative,' said Mr. Taper; 'the King's
constitutional choice.'

'Not too much,' replied Mr. Tadpole. 'It is a raw time yet for
prerogative.'

'Ah! Tadpole,' said Mr. Taper, getting a little maudlin; 'I often think,
if the time should ever come, when you and I should be joint Secretaries
of the Treasury!'

'We shall see, we shall see. All we have to do is to get into Parliament,
work well together, and keep other men down.'

'We will do our best,' said Taper. 'A dissolution you hold inevitable?'

'How are you and I to get into Parliament if there be not one? We must
make it inevitable. I tell you what, Taper, the lists must prove a
dissolution inevitable. You understand me? If the present Parliament goes
on, where shall we be? We shall have new men cropping up every session.'

'True, terribly true,' said Mr. Taper. 'That we should ever live to see a
Tory government again! We have reason to be very thankful.'

'Hush!' said Mr. Tadpole. 'The time has gone by for Tory governments; what
the country requires is a sound Conservative government.'

'A sound Conservative government,' said Taper, musingly. 'I understand:
Tory men and Whig measures.'

CHAPTER VII.

Amid the contentions of party, the fierce struggles of ambition, and the
intricacies of political intrigue, let us not forget our Eton friends.
During the period which elapsed from the failure of the Duke of Wellington
to form a government in 1832, to the failure of Sir Robert Peel to carry
on a government in 1835, the boys had entered, and advanced in youth. The
ties of friendship which then united several of them had only been
confirmed by continued companionship. Coningsby and Henry Sydney, and
Buckhurst and Vere, were still bound together by entire sympathy, and by
the affection of which sympathy is the only sure spring. But their
intimacies had been increased by another familiar friend. There had risen
up between Coningsby and Millbank mutual sentiments of deep, and even
ardent, regard. Acquaintance had developed the superior qualities of
Millbank. His thoughtful and inquiring mind, his inflexible integrity, his
stern independence, and yet the engaging union of extreme tenderness of
heart with all this strength of character, had won the goodwill, and often
excited the admiration, of Coningsby. Our hero, too, was gratified by the
affectionate deference that was often shown to him by one who condescended
to no other individual; he was proud of having saved the life of a member
of their community whom masters and boys alike considered; and he ended by
loving the being on whom he had conferred a great obligation.

The friends of Coningsby, the sweet-tempered and intelligent Henry Sydney,
the fiery and generous Buckhurst, and the calm and sagacious Vere, had
ever been favourably inclined to Millbank, and had they not been, the
example of Coningsby would soon have influenced them. He had obtained over
his intimates the ascendant power, which is the destiny of genius. Nor was
this submission of such spirits to be held cheap. Although they were
willing to take the colour of their minds from him, they were in intellect
and attainments, in personal accomplishments and general character, the
leaders of the school; an authority not to be won from five hundred high-
spirited boys without the possession of great virtues and great talents.

As for the dominion of Coningsby himself, it was not limited to the
immediate circle of his friends. He had become the hero of Eton; the being
of whose existence everybody was proud, and in whose career every boy took
an interest. They talked of him, they quoted him, they imitated him. Fame
and power are the objects of all men. Even their partial fruition is
gained by very few; and that too at the expense of social pleasure,
health, conscience, life. Yet what power of manhood in passionate
intenseness, appealing at the same time to the subject and the votary, can
rival that which is exercised by the idolised chieftain of a great public
school? What fame of after days equals the rapture of celebrity that
thrills the youthful poet, as in tones of rare emotion he recites his
triumphant verses amid the devoted plaudits of the flower of England?
That's fame, that's power; real, unquestioned, undoubted, catholic. Alas!
the schoolboy, when he becomes a man, finds that power, even fame, like
everything else, is an affair of party.

Coningsby liked very much to talk politics with Millbank. He heard things
from Millbank which were new to him. Himself, as he supposed, a high Tory,
which he was according to the revelation of the Rigbys, he was also
sufficiently familiar with the hereditary tenets of his Whig friend, Lord
Vere. Politics had as yet appeared to him a struggle whether the country
was to be governed by Whig nobles or Tory nobles; and he thought it very
unfortunate that he should probably have to enter life with his friends
out of power, and his family boroughs destroyed. But in conversing with
Millbank, he heard for the first time of influential classes in the
country who were not noble, and were yet determined to acquire power. And
although Millbank's views, which were of course merely caught up from his
father, without the intervention of his own intelligence, were doubtless
crude enough, and were often very acutely canvassed and satisfactorily
demolished by the clever prejudices of another school, which Coningsby had
at command, still they were, unconsciously to the recipient, materials for
thought, and insensibly provoked in his mind a spirit of inquiry into
political questions, for which he had a predisposition.

It may be said, indeed, that generally among the upper boys there might be
observed at this time, at Eton, a reigning inclination for political
discussion. The school truly had at all times been proud of its statesmen
and its parliamentary heroes, but this was merely a superficial feeling in
comparison with the sentiment which now first became prevalent. The great
public questions that were the consequence of the Reform of the House of
Commons, had also agitated their young hearts. And especially the
controversies that were now rife respecting the nature and character of
ecclesiastical establishments, wonderfully addressed themselves to their
excited intelligence. They read their newspapers with a keen relish,
canvassed debates, and criticised speeches; and although in their debating
society, which had been instituted more than a quarter of a century,
discussion on topics of the day was prohibited, still by fixing on periods
of our history when affairs were analogous to the present, many a youthful
orator contrived very effectively to reply to Lord John, or to refute the
fallacies of his rival.

As the political opinions predominant in the school were what in ordinary
parlance are styled Tory, and indeed were far better entitled to that
glorious epithet than the flimsy shifts which their fathers were
professing in Parliament and the country; the formation and the fall of
Sir Robert Peel's government had been watched by Etonians with great
interest, and even excitement. The memorable efforts which the Minister
himself made, supported only by the silent votes of his numerous
adherents, and contending alone against the multiplied assaults of his
able and determined foes, with a spirit equal to the great occasion, and
with resources of parliamentary contest which seemed to increase with
every exigency; these great and unsupported struggles alone were
calculated to gain the sympathy of youthful and generous spirits. The
assault on the revenues of the Church; the subsequent crusade against the
House of Lords; the display of intellect and courage exhibited by Lord
Lyndhurst in that assembly, when all seemed cowed and faint-hearted; all
these were incidents or personal traits apt to stir the passions, and
create in breasts not yet schooled to repress emotion, a sentiment even of
enthusiasm. It is the personal that interests mankind, that fires their
imagination, and wins their hearts. A cause is a great abstraction, and
fit only for students; embodied in a party, it stirs men to action; but
place at the head of that party a leader who can inspire enthusiasm, lie
commands the world. Divine faculty! Rare and incomparable privilege! A
parliamentary leader who possesses it, doubles his majority; and he who
has it not, may shroud himself in artificial reserve, and study with
undignified arrogance an awkward haughtiness, but he will nevertheless be
as far from controlling the spirit as from captivating the hearts of his
sullen followers.

However, notwithstanding this general feeling at Eton, in 1835, in favour
of 'Conservative principles,' which was, in fact, nothing more than a
confused and mingled sympathy with some great political truths, which were
at the bottom of every boy's heart, but nowhere else; and with the
personal achievements and distinction of the chieftains of the party; when
all this hubbub had subsided, and retrospection, in the course of a year,
had exercised its moralising influence over the more thoughtful part of
the nation, inquiries, at first faint and unpretending, and confined
indeed for a long period to limited, though inquisitive, circles, began
gently to circulate, what Conservative principles were.

These inquiries, urged indeed with a sort of hesitating scepticism, early
reached Eton. They came, no doubt, from the Universities. They were of a
character, however, far too subtile and refined to exercise any immediate
influence over the minds of youth. To pursue them required previous
knowledge and habitual thought. They were not yet publicly prosecuted by
any school of politicians, or any section of the public press. They had

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ConingsbybyBenjamin Disraeli

Part 2 out of 9

Coningsby
by
Benjamin Disraeli