LXIV. CHAP. justice over the strongest and most general feelings of resentment should have been lost from a desire to accelerate, by a few days only, the execution of the criminal. 1812. 41. the negotiation with the Whigs. This tragic event reopened to the Whigs the path to Renewal of power; for not only was the most determined opponent of them, and of the Catholic claims, now removed, but a general wish was felt and openly expressed in the nation for the formation of an administration on an extended basis; which, sinking all minor points of dispute, and embracing the leading men of both parties, should combine the whole talent of the nation in one phalanx, for the prosecution of the great contest in which it was engaged. This idea, so natural and apparently feasible to men inexperienced in public affairs—so impracticable to all acquainted with their real character, and the vital questions on which irreconcilable differences exist between equally able and conscientious statesmen-had got at this period such hold of the minds of the people, that repeated motions were made in parliament, after Mr Perceval's death, for the formation of a cabinet embracing the leading men of ability in all parties. On the 20th May a motion for an address to the Prince Regent, praying him to construct a cabinet on this principle, brought forward by Mr Stuart Wortley, (now Lord Wharncliffe,) and supported by the whole strength of the Whigs, was carried against ministers by a majority of four-the numbers being one hundred and seventyfour to one hundred and seventy. The subject was afterwards resumed with extraordinary anxiety, on more than one occasion, in both houses of parliament; and in the course of these discussions it transpired, both that the Prince Regent had taken the most decisive steps to carry into effect the wishes of the nation, and that the grand difficulty which obstructed the formation of a united administration was the question of Catholic emancipation. Lord Wellesley first received a commis May 20. June 1. - 5. 8. 11. LXIV. 1812. sion to form a government; and, when he failed, that CHAP. arduous duty was intrusted to Lord Moira. Lord Wellesley professed his willingness to take office on the principle of concession to the Irish Romanists, of adequate vigour in the Peninsular war, and of a union of parties in the cabinet; but the first principle the Prince Regent was not inclined to admit, and it was firmly rejected by Lord Liverpool and the Tories in office. After some discussion his royal highness, through Earl Moira, conveyed a wish to Lords Grey and Grenville, that they and their friends should form a leading part of the administration. Conferences took place accordingly: the differences about the Catholics of Ireland and the Spanish war were got over; everything appeared on the eve of a satisfactory adjustment, and no obstacles remained to prevent the return of the Whigs to power, on all the principles for which they had so long contended, when the negotiation was suddenly broken off, and the Tories were once more firmly seated in office, by one of those unforeseen and trivial obstacles which so often, in the affairs of state, derange the calcula-1 Parl. Deb. tions of the wisest statesmen, and yet decide the fate 381. of nations.1 xxiii. 250, 42. respecting of the In the course of Earl Moira's discussions with Earl Grey and Lord Grenville, which from the first were con- Difficulty ducted with the most perfect candour and good faith on the officers both sides, a difficulty occurred as to the appointment of household. the great officers of the royal household, which had not previously been anticipated, but which proved fatal to the whole negotiation, and to which events in subsequent times have given an unlooked-for degree of interest. It had generally, though not always, been the practice for the chief officers of the household to be changed with an alteration of ministry, upon the principle that a government could not be supposed to possess the royal confidence, and must necessarily be hampered and restricted in its measures, when persons belonging to an opposite LXIV. 1812. June 6. CHAP. and hostile party were in daily, almost hourly, communication, on the most intimate terms, with the sovereign. The Whig peers, in order to prevent such a difficulty arising in a more advanced stage of the administration, stated it as an indispensable condition of their accession to office, that they should enjoy the same privileges in this respect as had been exercised by their predecessors on similar occasions, and this preliminary led to secret conferences, more curious even than what passed at the public negotiations. "Are you prepared," said Lord Moira to the Prince Regent, "to concede the appointment of the household to the leaders of the new administration?" "I am," answered the Prince. "Then,” replied the chivalrous nobleman, “not one of your present servants shall be displaced: it is enough for the crown to yield the principle, without submitting also to the indignity of the removal." To complete the extraordinary chances which traversed this momentous negotiation, Mr Sheridan, to whom Lord Yarmouth, on the part of the lords of the household, intrusted a message stating their readiness to solve the difficulty by resigning, delayed to deliver this message 1 Personal till it was too late, in the hope of securing for his party and Lord a triumph over the throne; and Lord Moira, upon the part of the Prince Regent, declined to make any such concession a fundamental condition of the administration; and thus the negotiation was broken off.1 information, Yarmouth's speech. Parl. Deb. xxiii. 423. 43. The Prince, irritated at what he deemed an unwarrantWhich ex- able interference with the freedom of choice and personal Whigs from comfort of the sovereign, and acting under the direction cludes the office. of Lord Moira, who thought he had yielded all that could be required of the crown, immediately appointed Lord Liverpool first lord of the treasury. All the existing ministers were continued in their places, including Lord Castlereagh in the important one of minister of foreign affairs; and the Tories, lately so near shipwreck, found themselves, from the strong intermixture of personal LXIV. 1812. 1 Lord Yar feeling in the failure of the negotiations which had CHAP. excluded their rivals, more firmly seated in power than ever. Lord Yarmouth, the highest officer in the household, whose exclusion from office was probably the principal object which the Whig leaders had in view in June 11. insisting so much on this condition, afterwards stated in mouth's the House of Lords, that both he himself, and also the speech. other officers in the palace, were prepared to have resigned xxiii, 423; their offices the moment the arrangements for the forma- Ibid. App. tion of a new ministry were completed; and that all they Ann. Reg. wished for was, that they themselves, and their sove- 90. reign, should be saved the pain of a dismissal.1 Parl. Deb. and Papers i. 43; and 1812, 84, 44. on this In reflecting, with all the lights of subsequent experience, on the singular failure of this important negotiation, Reflections it is impossible to doubt that Lords Grey and Grenville subject. were right in the conditions which they so firmly insisted on as a condition of their taking office. It is no doubt easy for the satirist to inveigh against the eagerness for patronage which induces public men, after all questions of policy and principles of government have been adjusted, to break off negotiations, merely because they cannot agree upon who is to have the disposal of domestic appointments; and Mr Sheridan had a fair subject for his ridicule when he said that his friends the Whigs had fairly outdone James II., for he had lost three crowns for a mass, whereas they had lost the government of three kingdoms for three white sticks. But all this notwithstanding, it is sufficiently clear that the Whigs, who could not have foreseen the intended resignation of the Tory officers of the household, were right in stipulating for a power, if necessary, to remove them. Household appointments, of no small moment even to private individuals, are of vital consequence to kings, and still more to queens. The strongest intellect is seldom able to withstand the incessant influence of adverse opinions, delicately and skilfully applied by persons in intimate confidence, and possessing numerous opportunities for LXIV. 1812. CHAP. Successfully impressing them. If no man is a hero, still less is he a sage, to his valet-de-chambre. It is in vain to say that the private inclinations of the sovereign are to be consulted in preference to the wishes of his responsible ministers. Household appointments in a palace are, in truth, political situations, and must be in harmony with the principles of government which public opinion or external circumstances have rendered necessary for the country. To decide otherwise is to impose upon ministers the responsibility of office without its power; and hold up one government to the country as regulating its public concerns, while another is in secret directing all its movements. 45. rests at stake to Europe tiation. But the failure of this momentous negotiation suggests Vital inte another and a still more serious subject of consideration. All the great questions of policy, both in external and in this nego- internal concerns, had been arranged between the sovereign and the new ministry. The difficulties of Catholic emancipation, the Peninsular contest, and American concession, had been satisfactorily adjusted, and a vital change in the government and policy of the country was on the point of taking place, when it was prevented, and Mr Pitt's system continued as the ruling principle, by a mere contest about the appointment of three household officers! Yet what mighty interests, not only to Great Britain but to the human race, were then at stake; and what wondrous changes in the course of events must have ensued, if this seemingly providential difference about the household officers had not arisen! The contest with France, after a duration of nearly twenty years, had at length reached its crisis. The rock of Sisyphus, rolled with such difficulty to the summit of the steep, was about to recoil. The negotiation with the Whigs was broken off on the 6th June. On the 13th of the same month Wellington crossed the Portuguese frontier, and commenced the campaign of Salamanca ; while on the 23d Napoleon passed the Niemen, and perilled his crown and 1 Gurw. ix. 238. |