BOOKS.
ROEBUCK'S HISTORY OF THE wine MINISTRY OF 1830.* TEN passing of the Reform Bill will ever be a landmark in Eng- lish history. By it the power of the commercial classes was in- augurated; and they whose energy, enterprise, and industry, had long mainly supplied the resources of the nation's influence and prosperity, became participators in the legislative decisions which regulated and controlled the employment and distribution of wealth. The direct effect of the Reform Bill was to put the owners of pro- perty of all descriptions more on a level than they had before been with the owners of land, and as a consequence to secure a due re- gard to the interests of the holders of capital of whatever it might consist. An oligarchy had disappeared ; a class had no longer the sole power of imposing taxes and framing laws; the general good sense of the community had thenceforth fair play in the work of legisla- tion; and whatever defects have been since observable in Parliament and its operations, the blame has lain not so much with the con- stitution of Parliament as with the want of political wisdoni and vir- tue, and especially of eminent statesmanship among us. The Reform Bill could not create these, but it has removed powerful obstructions in the way of their development and free action. The direct and immediate effects of the Reform Bill, however, were not of more importance than the lessons taught to all classes during the struggle for its success. The people learned that there was no power in the state which 'could oppose a permanent hinderance to a desire strongly and unanimously urged by them • that at no fu- ture time would there be need of violence or armed insurrection to attain their wishes, but that they might and assuredly would be always attained by patience, firmness, and public discussion. The aristocracy, both Whig and Tory, learnt that the people were not an undistinguishable mob, to be coaxed or curbed as occasion might require, but that beneath themselves, and the great bankers and merchants with whom they were acquainted, were hundreds of thousands of intelligent, well-informed, high-minded men, with a graduated scale of wealth and social power, capable of definite political aims, and as well able as any of themselves to defend those aims by argument and to attain them by those methods and qualities of mind on which they most valued themselves. The Re- form Bill not only diminished the number of the classes dangerous to the constitution because discontented with it, but the process of the struggle proved the groundlessness of much of that fear which had lain at the root of the obstinacy with which the exclusion was maintained. It not only gave political power, but revealed a fitness for it, which perhaps not many "advanced Liberals" had been very confident of before. The struggle for the Reform Bill, like a gallantly-contested prize-fight, impressed the combatants with mutual respect ; classes which had known little of each other before, now recognized each other's good qualities; even the obsti- nate pluck of the Peers lost them nothing in the long run, though it was very near losing them everything at the time ; perhaps the Bishops were the only order irreparably damaged, as they certainly were made for the moment the scapegoats on whose unlucky heads public indignation discharged itself. But one lesson stands out, as we read the history of the Reform struggle by the light of 1848. How different might the result have been, if, like the great military mo- narchies of the Continent, we had from necessity or vanity kept up large ;standing armies isolated from the rest of the population in sympathy and by education, forming a caste having interests distinct from and opposed to the general well- being of the country. Indeed, as it was, we scarcely yet know for certain whether England was not saved by a mere accident from military government in May 1832. That the attempt would have recoiled on those who made it, and have insured not only their certain and speedy ruin, but that of the institutions in whose defence it would have sought its justification, is scarcely to be doubted; but from what we do know, we may feel not less certain that from this terrible experiment we were saved by the good for- tune or the wisdom which had kept our standing army within moderate limits, and had not allowed it to be co ted in great masses. Are we again too audaciously anticipating the disclosures of history, if to the Reform struggle we attribute that training which afterwards made Sir Robert Peel eminently the popular Mi- nister of our century? Was it not the experience he then gained of the power of the commercial and manufacturing classes, together with his consciousness of the fearful risk of a civil war that was then incurred—combined, may be, with an increased respect for the political ability and temper of those classes—which led him to terminate so abruptly and by a Parliamentary coup- de-main the struggle which appeared imminent between them and the land-owning and land-cultivating classes ?—a struggle which must have been even more perilous than the former, inas- much as the physical force on either side was more evenly balanced. The process of a contest in which lessons of so great influence were learnt, the characters of the men who led the nation through it, and the course of conduct which depressed those men from a height of popularity never .before surpassed to comparative contempt and dislike, must continue to be objects of interest as long as the Eng- lish nation exists, and cannot fail to suggest valuable instruction to statesmen and students of history. At the present moment, when the -Prime Minister who proposed the first Reform Bill has just laid before the House of Commons what he considers a requi- , • History of the Whig Minis of 1830, to the Passing of the Reform Bill. By I John Arthur Roebuck, M.P. try Volumes Land II. Published by Parker and Son. site supplement to that great measure, a work professing to give the history of the first bill must command universal attention. Such a work Mr. Roebuck has undertaken. In the present two volumes, he carries his history, to the close of the last Unreformed Parliament ; prefacing it with a sketch of political proceedings from the Peace of 1815 to the formation of lord Grey's Ministry in November 1830. Considering how much of Mr. Roebuck's ma- terials are public property, it would perhaps have been a wise plan had he condensed or wholly omitted this previous portion, occu- pying the greater part of his first volume, and supplied its place by sketches of the political lives and characters of the men who were to play a leading part in the subsequent transactions ; had he in fact, prefaced part history with a short explanation of the causes that led to the identification of the great Whig families with the Popular party, and made his readers com- prehend how it was that the confidence of the people came to be placed in them. Nor can a history of the Reform Bill be considered as either artistically complete or so practically useful as it might be, which gives no account of the system which that bill modified. The manner in which representation had been so largely changed to nomination, and the hands into which the political power so purloined had been transferred, form necessary parts of such a history—far more necessary than a minute record of the proceedings of the Ministries of Mr. Canning and the Duke of Wellington. It would also have conduced greatly to the interest of Mr. Roebuck's narrative, had he not con- fined himself so exclusively to proceedings in Parliament, es- pecially as the real struggle for the Reform Bill was car- ried on out of "the House," however eminent were the ser- vices of the -leaders within it. Altogether, he writes too much like a Member of Parliament ; even keeping up that ridiculous conventional style in which Members speak of one another as " the honourable" or "right honourable gentleman" and the "noble lord." This is altogether beneath the style of history, and must be the unconscious result of long habit; but it is a blemish that might be advantageously omitted in future volumes, and future editions of these first two. One other general objection seems to us, viewing Mr. Roebuck's work simply as Parliamentary history, to be the omission of all those splendid oratorical displays which the Reform struggle called forth, and which were in themselves no in- efficient agents in the excitement that prevailed. But little more space would have been filled than is now taken up by extracts from various speeches which are introduced with no particular effect, and where narrative would have served the writer's purpose equally well. The actual amount of new information supplied by Mr. Roebuck is necessarily small. _Hansard and the Mirror of Parliament have furnished the raw material ; the author has woven this into a very readable narrative, explaining, commenting on, and criticizing abundantly the positions of persons and parties, as they fall within the range of his description. Indeed, considering how well known most of the facts are, it would seem that political criticism rather than history proper must have been Mr. Roebuck's object, and po- litical criticism intended to affect living men. All persons inte- rested in politics know pretty well who and what Mr. Roebuck is, and what his criticisms are likely to be. Their failing is not want of boldness or sincerity, nor does any party bias lead him astray; perhaps he is more generous and considerate towards political op- ponents than towards those with whom he has been in the habit of voting. For the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel—though treated with freedom, and held up in certain acts and declarations of their lives as crucial instances of human folly and inconsistency —he evidently has a sneaking kindness, even though habit and his general theory of the baseness and absurdity of mankind com- pel him to fling hard names at them. All men are great fools and greater rogues, but they not so much as others. Some of the Whig leaders, too, he occasionally omits to sneer at, always pro- viding they are dead. A kind of Diogenes is Mr. Roebuck, look- ing in vain with his cynical-radical lantern for an honest and en- lightened man. Certainly, for one of his turn of mind and temper, Parliamentary politics, with their farcical conventionalisms, their hollow lies, sham courtesies, and that most unreal unreality of stump-oratory on which they all rest, afford infinite resource to feed a contemplative malice. But, after all, history must not be written in the cynical spirit, but in the larger spirit of one who reveres humanity and its objects, while he can yet suspect the littleness in himself and others which mars both. Mr. Roebuck is an acute, a clearsighted, an unrelenting critic ; but historical painting requires a broader treatment, a more glowing enthusiasm, a more genial sympathy, and a more tolerant heart. In writing history, a man has no business to go on the theory that the actors in it are bad, mean-motived, and tricky, without specific facts to justify his representation. More or less of this feel- ing does pervade Mr. Roebuck's book. He speaks heartily well of nobody, exceedingly ill of most people ; and where he says nothing specific, leaves an unfavourable impression by his manner. With respect to living Whig statesmen, over and above what is due to historic truth and his own habitual convictions, something of the acrimony observable must be attributed to the inspiration under which the work has been avowedly written. Speaking, in the preface, of the friends who have contributed information, Mr. Roebuck says—" Among those friends, it is well known that Lord Brougham has been the most confiding." Hence, the book, while it freely criticizes Brougham's motives and arguments, puts events la a light favourable to him, and makes him prominent in those Scenes behind the curtain which are narrated. After the frank
statement in the preface, there can be no objection to this ; but it needs to be borne in mind, eTecially as Mr. Roebuck, with a singu- larly admirable candour, tells a story which does not tend to implicit reliance on the accuracy of the Chancellor's memory.
I have often heard Lord Brougham relate a circumstance connected with this celebrated motion, which vividly illustrates the ignorance of the Admin- istration, even at the eleventh hour, as to the real feelings of the people. The members of the Cabinet who were not in the House of Commons dined that day with the Lord Chancellor ; whose Secretary, Mr. now Sir Denis Le Merchant, sat under the gallery of the Commons, and sent half-hour bulle- tins to the noble Lord, describing the progress of the debate. They ran thus —' Lord John has been up ten minutes ; House very full; great interest and anxiety shown.' Another came describing the extraordinary sensation pro- duced by the plan on both aides of the House. At last came one saying, 'Lord John is near the end of his speech ; my next will tell you who follows him.' `Now,' said the noble host and narrator of the story, we had often talked over and guessed at the probable course of the Opposition, and I al- ways said, were I in Peel's place, I would not condescend to argue the point, but would, so soon as John Russell sat down, get up and declare that I would not debate so revolutionary, so mad a proposal ; and would insist upon divi- ding upon it at once. If he does this, I used to say, we are dead beat ; but if he allows himself to be drawn into a discussion, we shall succeed. When Le Merchant's bulletin at length came which was to tell us the course adopted by the Opposition, I held the note unopened in my hand, and laugh- ing., said—Now this decides our fete; therefore, let us take a glass of wine all round, in order that we may, with proper nerve read the fatal missive. Having done so, I opened the note, and seeing the first line, which was- ' Peel has been up twenty minutes,' I flourished the note round my head, and shouted, Hurrah ! hurrah ! Victory ! victory ! Peel has been speaking twenty minutes ; and so we took another glass to congratulate ourselves upon our good fortune.' Such is the anecdote ; which proves, among other things, how uncertain as guides are such anecdotes for history. The events doubt- less occurred much as Lord Brougham is accustomed to relate them ; but Sir Robert Peel did not speak on that night's debate. Sir John Sebright se- conded lord John Russell's motion, and Sir Robert Inglis was the next suc- ceeding speaker, in vehement, nay, fierce reply to Lord John. But I relate the story, because it proves how httle aware the Ministry was of the state of popular feeling; how little they knew of the intensity of that feeling, when they believed that Sir Robert Peel could so have disposed of the proposed measure. So daring and insolent a disregard of popular opinion would have risked everything which Sir Robert Peel and every wise man holds dear."
A point never .yet cleared -up is the difficulty that attended Mr. Brougham's joining the Grey Ministry at its first formation. It is certain that on the day on which Lord Grey first saw the King, Mr. Brougham was offered the Attorney-Generalship, and con- sidered himself wronged by the offer. He himself desired to be Master of the Rolls, in order to secure a permanent office and at the same time to retain his seat in the House of Commons. The question is, who prevented this—the King, or Lord Grey, or Lord Grey's allies ? Mr. Roebuck states the different accounts or our+ nines of the transaction, and then gives his own opinion.
" My own opinion on all the facts that I have been able to ascertain, does not agree with either of the above explanations, but is as follows. Mr. Brougham desired the Rolls—the Whigs were resolved that he should not have that office. Of these two assertions, the first I believe on direct testi- mony; the second is a matter of inference. That the situation of Attor- ney-General was offered and refused on the 16th, is proved also by direct testimony—viz. that of Lord Grey himself; and I therefore do not believe the statement which attributes to Lord Grey a determination to re- move Mr. Brougham from the House of Commons if he became in any way connected with the Government. And after the statements above quot4 more especially that in which Lord Grey proposes that in case he makes a Government, Mr. Brougham should lead the House of Commons, and in which he states that he cannot conceive his attempting to form a Govern- ment possible unless Mr. Brougham was to form part of it—such a determi- nation on the part of Lord Grey seems utterly incredible. That the King spontaneously resolved to refuse Mr. Brougham the office of Master of the Rolls is highly improbable : Mr. Brougham's friends knew that he was anxious to have it, but there is no evidence that his political opponents were aware of his wishes on that head. It would seem more probable, therefore, that if the King were prompted on the occasion, that the prompt- ing was by the Whigs, than that it came from the Duke of Wellington or Mr. Peel."
The story of the mode in which the King was persuaded to dis- solve Parliament in April 1831, has been before the public with a variety of melodramatic details not easy to reconcile with the following statement,—itself, however, sufficiently dramatic, even without the famous hackney-coach, or Lord Durham's irruption on Lord Albemarle's late breakfast.
" On the morning, however, of the 22d, Lord Grey and the Lord Chan- cellor waited on the King, in order to request that he would instantly, and on that day, dissolve the House. The whole scene of this interview of the King and his Ministers, as related by those who could:alone describe it, is a curious illustration of the way in which the great interests of mankind often seem to depend on petty incidents, and in which ludicrous puerilities often mix themselves up with events most important to the welfare of whole na- tions. The necessity of a dissolution had long been foreseen and decided on by the Ministers; but the King had not yet been persuaded to consent to so bold a measure ; and now the two chiefs of the Administration were about to intrude themselves into the llo_yal closet, not only to advise and ask for a dissolution, but to request the King on the sudden—on this very day, and within a few hours, to go down and put an end to his Parliament in the midst of the session, and with all the ordinary business of the session yet un- finished. The bolder mind of the Chancellor took the lead, and Lord Grey anxiously solicited him to manage the King on the occasion. So soon as they were admitted, the Chancellor, with some care and circumlocution, pro- pounded to the King the object of the interview they had sought. The startled Monarch no sooner understood the drift of the Chancellor's some- what periphrastic statement, than he exclaimed in wonder and anger against the very idea of such a proceeding. How is it poble, my lords, that I can after this fashion repay the kmdness of Parliament to the Queen and myself? They have just granted me a most liberal civil list, and to the Queen a splendid annuity in case she survives Inc.' The Chancellor con- fessed that they had as regarded his Majesty, been a liberal and wise Par- liament, but said that nevertheless their further existence was incompatible with the peace and safety of the kingdom. Both he and Lord Grey then strenuously insisted upon the absolute necessity.y of their request, and gave his Majesty to understand, that this advice was by his Ministers unanimously resolved on, and that they felt themselves unable to conduct the affairs of the country in the present condition of the Parliament. This last statement made the King feel that a general resignation would be the consequence of a further refusal : of this, in spite of his secret wishes, he was at the moment really afraid, and therefore he, by employing petty excuses, and suggesting small and temporary difficulties, soon .to show that he was about to yield. 'But, my Lords, nothing is prepared— the great officers of state are not summoned.' `Pardon me, Sir,' said the Chancellor, bowing with profound apparent humility, we have taken the great liberty of giving them to understand that your Majesty commanded their attendance at the proper hour.' But, my Lords, the crown, and the robes, and other things needed, are not prepared." Again I most humbly entreat your Majesty's pardon for my boldness,' said the Chancellor, 'they are all prepared and ready—the prow officers being desired to attend in pro- per form and time.' But, my Lor4' said the King, reiterating the form in which he put his objection, 'you know the thing is wholly impossible; the guards, the troops, lave had no orders, and cannot be ready in time.' This objection was in reality the most formidable one. The orders to the troops on such occasions emanate always directly from the King, and no person but the King can in truth command them for such service ; and as the Prime Minister and daring Chancellor well knew the nature of Royal susceptibility on such matters, they were in no slight degree doubtful and anxious as to the result. The Chancellor, therefore, with some real hesitation, began again as before, 'Pardon me, Sir; we know how bold the step is, that, presuming on your great goodness, and your anxious desire for the safety of your king- dom and happiness of your people, we have presumed to take—I have given orders, and the troops are ready.' The King started in serious anger, flamed red in the face, and burst forth with, 'What, my Lords, have you dared to act thus? Such a thing was never heard of. Yon, my Lord Chancellor, ought to know, that such an act is treason, high treason, my Lord.' Yes, Sir,' said the Chancellor, do know it; and nothing but my thorough know- ledge of your Majesty's goodness, of your paternal anxiety for the good of your people, and my own solemn belief that the safety of the state depends upon this day's proceedings, could have emboldened me to the performance of so unusual, and in ordinary circumstances so improper a proceeding. In all hu- mility I submit myself to your Majesty, and am ready in my own person to bear all the blame and receive all the punishment which your Majesty may deem needful ; but I again entreat your Majesty to listen to us and to follow our counsel, and,. as you value the security of your crown and the peace of your realms, to yield to our most earnest solicitations.' After some further expostulations by both his Ministers, the King cooled down, and consented. Having consented, he became anxious that everything should be done in the proper manner, and gave minute directions respecting the ceremonial. The speech to be spoken by him at the prorogation was ready prepared and in the Chancellor's pocket. To this he agreed—desired that everybody might punctually attend, and dismissed his Ministers for the moment, with some- thing between a menace and a joke upon the audacity of their proceeding."
The King's consent to the creation of Peers, and Sir Herbert Taylor's famous circular, have been generally considered as rendering between them the passing of the Reform Bill certain. Mr. Roebuck, however, gives reasons for supposing that had the circular proved ineffective, the creation might not have been
into nto operation after all.
"It is clear that Lord Grey was far from satisfied that the power to make Peers was sufficient for his purpose, neither is it certain that he would have exercised the power he possessed had the Opposition remained stanch. His object in obtaining the promise of the King was to terrify the Peers into se- cession, and not to obtain a majority by creation. On the 17th of May, he had the King's promise, but he said he was not yet sure of being able to pass the bill in all its essentials ; but on the 18th he knew that the promise had brought about the end he desired—i. e. the Peers, he had learned from Sir Herbert Taylor, were frightened, and in their turn had consented to se- cede. Then, but not till then, he consented to remain Minister, saying now be could carry the bill.* "In after times these circumstances were often discussed by the chief actors in them; - and they, that is, Lord Grey and the Chancellor, both de- clared, that if the Conservative Lords had stood firm, the Reform Adminis- tration was defeated, together with their bill, because they would not have ex- acted from the King the fulfilment of the promise they had compelled him to give. This declaration gives rise to serious reflections ; it proves, beyond all doubt, that Lord Grey and the Chancellor were wholly ignorant of the ex- tent and intensity of the popular excitement. They had raised a spirit over which, in fact, they had lost control—most unwisely trifling with the peace and happiness of a great nation—because apparently utterly ignorant of the terrible risks which they thus rashly encountered. Had the Opposition Peers stood firm, and had Lord Grey retired without having exercised the power confided to him by the King, the Whig party would at once and for ever have been set aside ; a bolder race of politicians would have taken the lead of the people ; civil war would have been dared ; and the House of Lords, pos- sibly the Throne itself, would have been swept away in the tempest that would thus have been raised. Fortunately for the fame of Lord Grey and the Lord Chancellor, fortunately for the happiness of England, the practical mood seine of the Duke of Wellington extricated the nation from the terrible difficulty into which the House of Lords and the Administration had brought it."
We have endeavoured in our extracts to give specimens of what was newest in Mr. Roebuck's book as a contribution to our know- ledge of fact, rather than what was most intrinsically interesting in it as a great political pamphlet. The time has not come for writing the secret history of the Reform Cabinet; though perhaps the partial disclosures in this book may have the effect of eliciting others, and so bring about a complete revelation earlier than would otherwise have been judged advisable. Till then, the public acts of its mem- bers are the only reliable evidence of their characters and inten- tions. When the papers of Lords Grey, Durham, and Althorp, are published, we may be able more accurately to apportion praise and blame. But the importance of such revelations belongs much more to the subsequent history of the Reform Ministry than to that period of their existence which Mr. Roebuck has here narrated. Floated on the high tide of popularity and success, there was little room for quarrelling among themselves or giving dissatis- faction to others ; the differences of opinion and weaknesses of character which were lost sight of in the excitement and triumph of the great straggle came out afterwards, and rapidly dissolved an ill-assorted confed.eracy. Mr. Roebuck must, in recording and analyzing the process of that dissolution, be on his guard against i
onesided nformation, however eminent its source. MivLs (hag, Bra, IleXti748so, 'Axaiios is not a fit invocation to the Muse of His- • " From this time forward the situation of the Ministry, in relation to the King, as of a less friendly character than formerly, and the Queen was now evidently openly hostile. When the Ministry resigned, her Attorney and Solicitor General re- signed also. She did not reappoint them on the return of Lord Grey, but chose others out of Parliament, and, as she said, 'unconnected with politics.'" tory, even though the Achilles be so illustrious a stateman and so generous a man as Henry Brougham. But above all, before he can write a history of a stormy and debateable period, which shall carry with it the calm approval of his reader's judgment, he must be on his guard against that particular form of narrowness which men of his acute but not profound intellect are especially liable to, the narrowness which consists in ignoring all but the logical results of certain propositions generally allowed to be yea. sonable, or at least held to be so by himself, and estimating the conduct and character of statesmen by the degree in which their measures approximate to those logical results. Abstract reason. ing and logical consistency have had little to do with rearing our institutions, neither have they been the ground upon which our great statesmen have carried on the business of the country, or from time to time altered our institutions : and the historian who regards man as simply a logical animal, or sneers at him for not being so, may say clever things, detect laughable absurdities, and perplex simple or stupid people, but he will fail to comprehend the leading men of any rem, or to penetrate the meaning of the events he comments upon.
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