each under the delusion that there were the best reasons to expect the support of his services in the new arrangement; the resignation of the noble and learned lord, with that of Lord Bexley, only reached him when he was in the King's closet, on the 12th of April, the day when he kissed hands as First Lord of the Treasury." He added, "It is bare justice to Lord Eldon to say, that his conduct was that of a man of the highest feelings of honour, and that throughout it had been above all exception."* Lord Eldon, in his own explanation, was at great pains to refute the imputed charge of "combination" between him and some [MAX 2.] of his late colleagues, which he denominated "a base and gross falsehood." He said, "he had for years been meditating whether it was not his duty to resign. Allowing the King to have a constitutional right to choose his Ministers, every subject must consider whether, under the selection made, he could usefully serve the public?” Having at great length vindicated his opinion on the Catholic question, he observed, that "though he found it possible to serve in an Administration having such a man at the head of it as Lord Liverpool, yet in an Administration headed by the present Prime Minister (to whom he gave full credit for sincerity of opinion) he could not serve. The letter which informed him who was to be Prime Minister, stated that the Administration was to be formed on the same principle as Lord Liverpool's, but he never could agree that it was so,-Lord Liverpool being a zealous opponent of Catholic Emancipation, and the present Prime Minister its most zealous advocate. He trusted that, as he had never doubted the sincerity of noble lords while they were supporting opinions opposed to his own, their lordships would not doubt at present of the sincerity of his motives." He gracefully concluded with expressing thanks to the House for "the kindness with which they had always supported him in the discharge of the arduous duties from which he had just been relieved."+ In a few days after, he wrote to his grandson: "We ex-Ministers have been as much abused for cabal and conspiracy as if we had formed another Cato Street gang; and we were tried in the House of Lords, as if we had been a band of culprits. We all pleaded not guilty, and I believe we were all, in the opinion of all, most honourably acquitted. The fact is, that, with my principles, to remain in office under a Prime Minister of different principles (either his principles or mine being, but both certainly not being, consistent with the support of the pure reformed established religion of the country, and the support of its political liberties) appeared to me to be unworthy conduct on my part, being satisfied that my own principles were right. I look back to fortyfour or five years, spent in Parliament with perfect consistency in conduct -no deviation whatever-I have been either always right or always wrong, Servetur, ad, &c. &c. Not that consistency in error is otherwise than most blamable, if the person, observing that consistency, has † Ibid. 450. * 17 Hansard, 446, 522. discovered that he has been in error. This discovery I have not been able to make; and the line that I have taken in the support of the religion and political constitution of my country, after a most anxious endeavour to inform myself aright upon subjects so interesting, I think, upon severe reflection, was the line I ought to pursue in the discharge of my duty to myself, my descendants, my fellow-subjects, their descendants, my Sovereign, and the Throne; and, with all due humility, I add, my duty to God. Esto perpetua, is my prayer as to the Constitution in Church and State. 1 tremble somewhat when I see a Prime Minister supported by those individuals who have been thought to hold Jacobinical and radical doctrines for years past, and when I see some of our supposed Whigs joining them: can this long endure? My defensive speech, I have reason to believe, did me and my family no discredit, and I think it will do none to my memory. The House was much surprised with the ability, clearness, judgment, and power with which the Duke of Wellington spoke. "The King parted with me in a very kind and affectionate manner. The piece of magnificent plate which he has presented to me upon parting, will, I think, very much please you; and it is certainly a very valuable family possession."* In his high hope at the outset of the new Government, [MAY, 1827.] that its duration would be very short, and that he himself would speedily be restored to office, he wrote to Lady Frances:— "I think political enmity runs higher, and waxes warmer, than I ever knew it. God bless us all!—to think of our Prime Minister's principal supporters in the House of Commons being Burdett and Brougham! Surely such things can't remain long. I still think that the Minister must either fall, or be borne up by the Lansdowne party. That, however, seems very small, as one looks at them when congregated in the House of Lords. Think of Lord King sitting among the Bishops! I am afraid. that that Bench, as to some of them, will do themselves no credit." He was right as to the duration of the Government, for the hand of death was upon its chief; but his own official career had terminated for ever. He ought to have been contented, however, as he had held the Great Seal longer than any Chancellor, clerical or lay, since the Norman Conquest.† * This consisted of a tankard of silver gilt, its lid having an "accession medal? of the King placed in it; and bore the following inscription: "The Gift of His Majesty King GEORGE IV. to his highly-valued and excellent Friend, LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND, &C., The key of the case in which it stood was put into Lord Eldon's hand by the King himself. It is unaccountable that on his final retirement there was no address to him from the Bar, by whom generally he was very much respected and beloved, although some members of the body, particularly among the Tories, were much dissatisfied with the stingy manner in which he had distributed professional honours among them.* The Masters in Chancery, all of whom he had appointed, sent him a touching address, to which he returned the following answer: "May 7th, 1827. "Lord Eldon has received with great satisfaction the letter which the Masters in Chancery have been pleased to address to him. "He reflects with great pleasure upon the fact, that he has given to the public the benefit of the services of all these gentlemen. "Separated from them, as being no longer in a judicial situation, he trusts that he may carry with him in retirement their good opinions; and he assures them that, in what remains to him of life, he shall most anxiously promote, as far he can, their honour and welfare." I may here likewise appropriately mention a grand dinner afterwards given to him in London by the Northern Circuit, which was attended not only by the existing members of that distinguished [JUNE 22, 1829.] body, but by contemporaries of Jack Scott, who, having been initiated in its mysteries, had long left the Bar. All were eager to do honour to their illustrious guest, and he was as merry and as boyish as he had been when assisting to play off tricks on Jack Lee and Jemmy Boswell half a century before.† * I myself never felt personally aggrieved, although he had refused me a silk gown when I had been for years leading the Oxford Circuit in "stuff." There were zealous political adherents, and even personal connexions of his own, who, from as strong claims being as little attended to, were very bitter against him. I was included in a batch of King's counsel made by the new Chancellor, which, with one exception, was supposed to include all, whatever their politics, who had a fair claim to this distinction. Mr. Denman was still proscribed; but justice was soon after done to him through the firmness of the Duke of Wellington, who is entitled to our gratitude for gallantly giving good advice to the Sovereign, as well as for leading our armies to victory. † I have heard many amusing anecdotes of the sayings and doings at this memorable meeting; but the court sat foribus clausis, and I am not at liberty to disclose them. From the records of the Circuit it appears that the following late or present members attended :-" Earl of Clarendon" (the late Earl, who was at the Bar when a younger brother;) "Lord Auckland" (now First Lord of the Admiralty ;) "Sir Nicholas Tindal" (late Chief Justice of Common Pleas;) "Sir John Beckett" (late M. P. for Leeds;) "Sir James Allan Park" (late a Judge of Common Pleas;) "Sir John Hullock" (late a Baron of the Exchequer;) "Sir Joseph Littledale" (late a Judge of King's Bench;) "Sir James Parke" (now a Baron of the Exchequer;) "Hon. G. Lamb" (late Under Secretary of State;) "Raine" (late a Welsh Judge;) "Brougham" (my noble and learned friend the Lord Brougham and Vaux;) "Pollock" (now Chief Baron of the Exchequer;) "Williams" (late a Judge of the Queen's Bench;) "Alderson" (now a Baron of the Exchequer;) "Coltman" (now a Judge of the Common Pleas ;) "Patteson" (now a Judge of the Queen's Bench;) "Cresswell" (now a Judge of the Common Pleas;) "Wightman" (now a Judge of the Queen's Bench;) "Dundas" (now Solicitor General.)-1847. CHAPTER CCVIII. CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD ELDON TILL THE PASSING OF THE BILL TO REPEAL THE TEST ACT. WE are again to view Lord Eldon in the trying situation of an exChancellor, in which my heroes have differed much more than in office,-where they were almost all alike en- [A. D. 1827.] grossed by the common objects of retaining power, and doing as much good to their country as was consistent with their own ease and aggrandisement. It would have been very delightful to me if I could have recorded that this, the last of my series, taking Lord Somers for his model, had now devoted himself to literature and science,—and had eclipsed his great judicial reputation by reforming the laws and improving the institutions of his country. It really might have been expected, that the pupil of Moises, and the brother of Sir William Scott, would eagerly return to a perusal of the classics, when duty no longer required him to pore over the interminable tomes of Equity Reports; and that although hitherto his eyes being dazzled by the bright beam of royal favour-he had been blind to the faults of the system over which he had presided, he would at last distinctly see them in all their deformity, and would struggle to remove them. But, alas! he had for ever lost all taste for any reading more recondite than the newspapers, -complaining even that "now-a-days they are too bulky, and presume to discuss subjects which should be left to pamphlets and reviews." Instead of framing a reformation of Chancery procedure, to be known by posterity under the title of " Lord Eldon's Equity Jeofails Act," he gave himself no farther trouble in carrying out the Report of the Chancery Commission; and though he had been driven by pressure from without to show it some countenance, he probably thought that its suggestions were dangerous innovations, which in their remote consequences, might lead to the subversion of the monarchy. When the "Advertisements" in the "TIMES" had been exhausted, I am afraid that he had no resource except counting over the money in his chest-and receiving gossiping visits from a few old professional friends, who flattered him with reminiscences of his former greatness, and censures of the proceedings of his successor. The listless day appeared dreadfully long to him, and he must often have been impatient for the hour of dinner, when he could soothe his inaction with a bottle of Newcastle Port." But the full misery of idleness, awaiting a mere lawyer in retirement, was not experienced by him till after the formation of the Duke of Wellington's Government, in the beginning of the following yearwhen he considered himself abandoned by all his political associates, and he certainly knew that he never was again to be in office. For the present he was excited by the hope of seeing the usurpers of power turned adrift, and of assisting in that occupation in which he took such pleasure and had often displayed such skill-the formation of a "downright Tory Government." He forgot all he had suffered in giving up the Great Seal when he [MAY 2, 1827.] heard the Duke of Wellington's explanation which was very damaging to Mr. Canning,*-and he was thrown into raptures by Lord Grey's tremendous attack upon that Minister which soon followed, although a considerable section of the Whigs were supporting him.† Hating all coalitions, he [MAY 10.] thought that there was little danger of a coalition between these leaders, for Lord Grey on this very occasion had renewed his pledge to support Catholic Emancipation, and had assigned the promise of the new Chief to postpone it-with the appointment of a professing Anti-Catholic Chancellor,-as strong reasons for withholding confidence from the present Government; but he hoped that without concert there would be co-operation between them, and, knowing the King's increased dislike to the "early friends," he anticipated that in the course of a few months the true old genuine Tories would be in possession of undivided empire. He was made more sanguine when Mr. Canning's foreign policy, particularly with respect to Portugal, was condemned by these opposite leaders; and still more so when, by their simultaneous though independent efforts, the Government bill for a relaxation of the corn laws, which had passed the House of Commons, was defeated in the House of Lords.‡ The only alloy to these joys was, that the Dissenters' Marriage Bill again coming up from the Commons,-although the ex-Chancellor abused very handsomely the measure itself and the Bishops who supported it-upon a division there was now a majority in its favour,§ * 17 Hansard, 454. Ibid. 720. This is said to have made the new Premier so angry that he actually wrote a letter to the King, asking a peerage, that he might come and answer it, and that it was not till after the lapse of several days that his friends could drive him from this purpose. ‡ 17 Hansard, 984, 1217, 1258.—I regret very much that, in a note which I carelessly appended to my Life of Lord Northington (Vol. V. p. 207,) in comparing Lord Rockingham's first Administration in 1766 to Mr. Canning's Administration in 1827, I used language from which it might be supposed that 1 represented the Duke of Wellington and Lord Grey acting against Mr. Canning in concert, with a view to turn him out. Lord Grey, retaining all his own high principles, did (I think erroneously) express a very unfavourable opinion of Mr. Canning and his measures; but it is well known that he grounded that opinion upon his belief that the manner in which Mr. Canning had acted would tend to retard the accomplishment of Catholic Emancipation and other necessary reforms. Hence he thought that he could not support an Administration of which he had formed this judgment, and still less could he enter into any alliance with those who were as deeply pledged against Catholic Emancipation as Lord Eldon himself. I could hardly be supposed, by any one who knows me, to intend to cast any reflection on the honour or consistency of Lord Grey,-having formerly been proud of him as my political chief, and now venerating his memory. § 61 to 54. 17 Hansard, 1424. |