imprisonment of Don Carlos, the enclosure of commons, duelling in the army, gaming, and the question of recovering by law debts incurred at play; the sugar duties, the shipping interest, France and Morocco, the income tax, Maynooth College, railway accidents, and national defences-all obtained his attention and called forth his remarks. The reader will observe the stress laid on the 'more than one speech of three hours on the suppression of the slave trade.' It is indeed worthy of notice that there was no subject which, during his long political life, was taken up by Lord Palmerston with so much zeal and earnestness as the suppression of the slave trade. He was a man of the world, and it was a subject which did not interest men of the world in general. He was a politician, and it was a subject which did not much interest the ordinary run of politicians. It caused great trouble; it very often thwarted and crossed other views and combinations; it was the hobby in England of a class of men who generally opposed Lord Palmerston's views as to England's relations with foreign countries; and it was wholly misunderstood abroad, where some profound scheme of selfish advantage was generally presumed to be concealed under the cloak of disinterested philanthropy. Still, Lord Palmerston's conduct was unvarying and consistent. He never lost an occasion for advancing his humane object, nor ever pardoned an agent who overlooked it. This has been often alluded to with expressions of wonder, but these could only proceed from persons ignorant of a character which was essentially framed to understand and adopt a great simple idea, and to persevere in carrying it out. He looked upon the destruction of this odious trade not only as a work of generous humanity, but as a work especially connected with the pride and glory of England; and there may be traced throughout all his actions, and all his speeches, two dominant ideas: the one to maintain the prestige and power of Great Britain, and the other to enlist that power and prestige in the service of mankind. PUBLIC ESTIMATE OF HIM IN 1841. 437 The cause of justice, the cause of liberty, the cause of humanity, he always thought the cause of his country; and it was this which in the long run, as his motives became more and more appreciated, increased the number of his partisans and silenced his detractors, and gave him the exceptional position which towards the close of his life he triumphantly enjoyed. He was, however, in 1841, though far advanced in life, but imperfectly comprehended, and many yet looked upon him rather as an adventurous politician than a profound statesman. CHAPTER XIV. VISIT ΤΟ IRELAND-CORN LAW DEBATES-FACTORY BILL AND BRIBERY AT ELECTIONS-LETTERS-INTERVIEW WITH FACTORY DELEGATES-SPEECH ON SLAVE TRADE AND GENERAL FOREIGN POLICY. THE letters which follow show us Lord Palmerston out of office, enjoying the liberty and opportunity which his retirement from the Foreign Office afforded him. Parliament had been prorogued on the 7th of October, and he had taken advantage of his leisure to visit his property in Ireland and Wales. As early as the year 1825 he had joined with the late Duke of Cleveland (then Lord William Paulet) and Mr. Paxton in leasing and working a slate quarry in North Wales. For very many years it was a loss, and its final success was a striking result of his pluck and perseverance. Lord Palmerston also spent much money and trouble in constructing the harbour, to which reference is made in the following letter, for the use of the fishermen on his property in Ireland: Beaudesert: November 26, 1841. My dear William,-We arrived here yesterday in our way home from Ireland. We travel by easy stages, making a course of visits in our way, and we have some more to pay before we get home. I found everything belonging to me in Ireland going on satisfactorily: my estate much improved, and the people better clad, and living in better houses than when I last saw them, twelve years ago. My harbour, which I have been obliged to enlarge lately, is nearly finished; and though it bas cost more than I reckoned upon, it will now fully answer all purposes. It will be about 800 feet long, by 300 wide, and will have thirteen or fourteen feet of water at high spring tides. On VISIT TO IRELAND AND WALES. and 439 the other hand, our slate quarry in Wales will, I trust, now begin to be productive, and if our expectation should be realized, it will become a very profitable concern. Thus, I trust I shall soon find myself none the poorer for being out of office, certainly as yet I have been much the better for it in health, and much the freer and more amused in mind. I suppose that, like a horse about his stable, though now glad to have got out, I shall soon wish to get back again to my office; but that wish has not yet arisen, and I should, as far as regards myself, very much regret any change which should bring me back to my former labours for a year and a half to come. From Dublin we went to Powerscourt for a couple of days, and drove to see the cascade in one of the heaviest snow storms I ever remember. We came back as we went, by Liverpool, and had a smooth passage. From Liverpool we drove round the coast of North Wales, by Conway, the Menai Bridge, and Carnarvon, to our slate quarry, near Tan y Bwlch. The hills were covered with snow, which gave the country an alpine character, though it did not add to the rapidity of our progress-and certainly our speed was not that of railroads. We passed a day at Powis Castle, where we found Powis in high force. From thence we went for a day to the Levesons, at Aldenham, near Bridgenorth, the seat of Sir John Acton, his son, now a minor; and from thence we came on here yesterday, and have to-day had a good day's shooting. We go to-morrow to Hatherton's, at Teddesley, thence to the Duke of Sutherland's, at Trentham, then for a day to Melbourne, in Derbyshire. and thence to London, where we shall stay a week or ten days, and then go and settle at Broadlands till Parliament meets; and I look forward with great pleasure to hunting, shooting, and thinning plantations as in the olden time. I wish you were coming there too, but you are better employed where you are. I was lucky this year on the Turf; I had but one horse in training, and that was Ilione, and she won me about £1,700 at Newmarket in one stake, and though John Day will no doubt send me in a large bill to set against these winnings, yet a decent surplus must still remain.1 Lord Palmerston This mare, by Priam, won the Cesarewitch. usually named the animals which he bred himself after his farms or places near Broadlands; but this mare he bought for a small sum, selecting her himself out of a draft of Lord George Bentinck's, at Tattersall's, and found a name for her by recalling the lines in the Eneid: 'Præterea sceptum Ilione quod gesserit olim Maxima natarum Priami." Anglesey gave us two days' good shooting at Beaudesert. He is a wonderful man for his age-73 off, and rising 74—and with After her successes, a lively discussion arose among the classical patrons of the turf as to the correct pronunciation of the second i in the name. Some said it was long; some short; bets were made, authorities invoked, and, finally, a large amount of money changed hands on the decision of the Master of Trinity College that the vowel was short, of which there could be little doubt if Virgil is any authority. The story goes, that Lord Palmerston himself, when appealed to, gave the sportsmanlike answer, that they might call her just what they liked, so long as she had won the Cesarewitch;' but Lord Neaves, a Scotch Tory Judge, who published at the time the following amusing lines, gave a different version : 6 The Whigs can boast of many a name, 'Mongst Lords and legs a contest rose, And some said this, and some said that, 'With short and long-with sharp and flat, Then one bethought him of a way To terminate this acrimony; He called as umpire of the fray The Lord that owns that Ilione. His Lordship, though a scholar once, O Peel, your guilt what tongue can tell! Had I the might of Pindar's muse, Pindar, alas! is in his grave, |