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HUSSELIi, THE RIGHT HON. LORD JOHN. 



RUSSELL, THE RIGHT HON. LORD JOHN. 



210 



because the country wished them to carry it. The man on whom the 

 most important part of the work devolved was Lord John Russell. 

 He was one of four members of the ministry the others being Lord 

 Durham, Sir James Graham, and Lord Duncaunon who were 

 appointed to shape and prepare the bill and submit it to their 

 colleagues; and on the 1st of March 1831 he brought before the 

 House of Commons, the bill so prepared and agreed upon. Some 

 measure of reform had been expected ; but a bill of so comprehensive 

 a kind as this took the country by surprise. It annihilated or put 

 into Schedule A sixty close boroughs ; it put into Schedule B, or, in 

 other words, deprived of one member each, forty-seven decayed 

 boroughs ; it extended the franchise in counties to all copyholders to 

 the value of 101. per annum, and to leaseholders of 501. or upwards ; in 

 boroughs it conferred the right to vote on all householders rated at 

 IQL or upwards; it erected twenty -seven towns for the first time into 

 boroughs; it created four new metropolitan boroughs; and it separated 

 twenty-seven of the larger counties into electoral divisions. A bill so 

 sweeping (the merit of the more than Whig liberality of which is 

 supposed to have been owing chiefly to Lord Durham, who is said to 

 have even persuaded his colleagues in the committee of preparation to 

 introduce the ballot into the draft, though it was afterwards struck 

 out by the ministry) was considered to amount to little less than a 

 social revolution. When Lord John produced it in the House, it was 

 received by the opposite party almost with derision, as utterly im- 

 practicable. But the enthusiasm with which the bill so far surpassing 

 all expectations was taken up out of doors changed the derision into 

 alarm. The members of the Tory party mustered all their strength 

 against the bill; and in the Commons Sir Charles Wetherell, Mr. 

 Croker, Mr. Bankes, and Sir Robert Peel appeared as champions more 

 especially of ' close boroughs ' as a necessary part of the British Con- 

 stitution. After debates of unparalleled violence, Lord John's bill 

 passed the second reading by a majority of one. On the motion for 

 going into committee, however, the bill was thrown out by a majority 

 of eight; and it became necessary that the ministry should either 

 resign or dissolve parliament. 



They adopted tbe latter alternative. The nation responded with 

 extraordinary decision. Regarding the promised ' Reform ' as little 

 short of a promised millennium, the constituencies withstood the 

 influence of great Tory landlords, &c., and to a greater extent than 

 could have been conceived possible, returned Reformers. In this 

 general election Lord John was returned for the county of Devon. 

 When the new parliament met, the progress of the bill through the 

 House of Commons was, of course, triumphant. Then came the oppo- 

 sition of the peers. The bill reached the House of Lords on the 22nd 

 of September 1831 ; and on the second reading it was thrown out by 

 a majority of 41. A vote of confidence passed in the Commons by a 

 majority of 131 was the immediate answer to this ; and it saved the 

 ministry the necessity of resigning. Parliament was prorogued to 

 give opportunity for modifying the bill; and on its re-assembling the 

 bill again went to the Lords altered in some points, but with the all- 

 important Schedule A and the Ten Pound Household franchise still 

 remaining. Still the Lords were hostile ; Lord Grey was placed in a 

 minority of 35 ; and, after a long interview with the king, he and his 

 colleagues resigned, and the government was entrusted to the Duke of 

 Wellington (May 9, 1832). It was now a face to face contest between 

 the duke as the representative of Toryism, and the nation vehement 

 for reform and ready to go to civil war for it. The issue is known. 

 The Duke saw that he and the peers must yield ; Earl Grey resumed 

 the ministry (May 18), and on the 7th of June 1832 the Reform Bill 

 became the law of the land. The name of Lord John Russell will be 

 ever identified with this important crisis in the history of his country 

 and his conduct during the fifteen months in which the bill was in 

 suspense added greatly to his popularity. 



In the new or first reformed parliament Lord John sat as member 

 for the electoral district of South Devon (1832-35). He still continued 

 to hold the comparatively subordinate office of Paymaster of th 

 Forces in tbe Grey and Melbourne ministry, till that ministry was 

 broken up by internal differences and secessions, and succeedec 

 (December 1834) by the Conservative ministry of Sir Robert Peel. In 

 the _ various important measures that had been passed by the Grej 

 ministry he had had his full share ; and when he went into opposition 

 it was with the character of having been one of the most consisten 

 of the ministry in genuine Whig principles. Earl Grey had by this 

 time withdrawn from public life ; Lord Stanley and Sir James Graham 

 had seceded from the Whigs on the question of the Irish Church 

 Lord Brougham was assuming that position of political isolation in 

 which he has since remained ; and Lord Durham was tending toward, 

 radicalism. With the exception of Lord Melbourne, Lord John 

 Russell was now preeminently the representative of historical Whiggiam 

 Accordingly, when Sir Robert Peel, finding his attempt at a Conser 

 vative government abortive, resigned office in April 1835, and a new 

 Whig ministry was formed under Lord Melbourne, the Home Secre 

 taryship, and with it, the dignity of ministerial leader in the House 

 of Commons, was assigned to Lord John. He had been ousted from 

 his seat for South Devon and now sat for Stroud a borough whicl 

 he continued to represent till 1841. In 1839, Lord John exchange* 

 the post of Home Secretary in the Melbourne ministry for that o 

 Colonial Secretary, which he held while the ministry lasted. In both 



BIOG. DIV. VOL. V. 



hese posts he earned the character of a punctual and able admi- 



istrator ; while his contemporary activity in parliament in carrying 



he Municipal Reform Act and the other measures of the ministry 



corresponded with his place as its virtual head. About this time 



owever the character of being too much of a ' Finality ' Reformer 



)egan to attach to him; and the more advanced liberals of the 



country began to attack him in that character. Ah Exposition of 



much of his political creed at this time will be found in his published 



Letters to the Electors of Stroud on the Principles of the Reform 



Act ' which went through various editions. 



But Whiggism generally was not eo popular throughout the country 

 as it had been, the experience of some nine years having abated tbe 

 enormous expectations awakened by the Reform Bill, while the for- 

 midable power of O'Connell was also telling against the Whigs. Thi 

 was shown by the result of the general election of 1841. In the 

 August of that year, Lord Melbourne in the House of Lords, and Lord 

 John Russell in the House of Commons, announced the resignation of 

 ;he Whig ministry. Sir Robert Peel came into power at the head of 

 ;hat Conservative administration which lasted till July 1846. During 

 these five years (August 1841 to July 1846) Lord John's position in 

 parliament was that of leader of the Whig opposition. He no longer 

 however sat for Stroud, but for the city of London, having been elected 

 in 1841 as one of the representatives of this great constituency. As 

 leader of the opposition he was true to his character as a moderate 

 Whig of the historical school rather than a violent chief of faction 

 eager to oust his opponents and adapting his principles and his pro- 

 mises to that end. But the great movement of the day was not one 

 having much connection with Whiggism proper. While Messrs. Cobden 

 and Bright were conducting the Anti-Corn Law agitation out of doors, 

 and the opinion of the country was flowing mainly in the channel of 

 this great question, Lord John Russell's relation to it was rather that 

 of an observer from within parliament than of an active guide one 

 way or the other. At first, indeed, he, as well as the Conservatives, 

 was opposed to the League ; and his favourite solution of the problem 

 was by a small fixed duty on foreign corn. At length however in a 

 letter from Edinburgh addressed to his constituents, he spoke out in " 

 favour of total repeal. This was in the autumn of 1845. It was not 

 destined however that a Whig ministry should settle this great ques- 

 tion. Sir Robert Peel himself came to the desired conclusion, and by 

 his exertions and influence among the Conservatives, the Corn Laws 

 were abolished (July 26, 1846). 



The ministry of Sir Robert Peel having been shortly afterwards 

 broken up by the rejection of his Irish coercion bill, Lord John Russell 

 was called to the premiership as the head of a Whig ministry. He 

 held the office of premier from July 1846 to March 1852. The general 

 complaint made against his administration both at the time and since, 

 was that it was non-progressive and fruitless of important measures. 

 " The Whigs in office," it was said " do less than the Conservatives." 

 The reason of this complaint, so far as it was just, may have lain 

 partly in Lord John's own character, as a Whig of the historical 

 school, adverse not only to the ballot but to many of those other 

 measures on which the more advanced Liberals had set their hopes 

 and which they had in view when they spoke of progress. In a great 

 measure however it consisted in the broken-up state of parliamentary 

 parties. There were now the Peelites, and the Protectionists or 

 Derbyites, as well as the Whigs and the advanced Liberals, and among 

 these parties Lord John could depend on but a small and varying 

 majority. Nor in those cases in which he did make attempts of an 

 energetic character was he fortunate in conciliating support to his 

 policy. His ' Letter to the Bishop of Durham in reference to the 

 usurpation of the Pope of Rome' published in 1850, just after the bull 

 appointing Cardinal Wiseman Roman Catholic Primate of England 

 and other Roman Catholic Bishops in various English sees, occasioned 

 much adverse comment ; and the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, dealing with 

 the same question, proved a failure. Towards the close of 1851, too, 

 his government was fa,rther weakened by the secession of Lord Palmer- 

 ston, who then quitted the foreign office in circumstances having the 

 appearance of a rupture with the Whigs on account of offence taken 

 at his foreign policy. Accordingly, in March 1852, the country saw 

 with little concern Lord John's ministry defeated on a Militia Bill, 

 which they had introduced with a view to provide for the defence of 

 the country in case of a foreign war. The blow to the ministry was 

 given by Lord Palmerston, who proposed an important alteration in 

 the ministerial measure. The government thus passed into the hands 

 of Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli, who had in the mean time reorganised 

 a strong Protectionist or old Tory party. 



After holding office for some months, the Derby-Disraeli government 

 broke down on the budget, and the celebrated Coalition Cabinet was 

 formed with Lord Aberdeen at its head (December 1852). In this 

 cabinet Lord Palmerston took tbe office of Home Secretary ; and Lord 

 John Russell held that of Foreign Secretary till February 1853, when 

 he resigned it to Lord Clarendon. From February 1853 till June 1854 

 he preferred the somewhat anomalous position of a member of the 

 Cabinet without office ; but in June 1854 he accepted the office of 

 Lord President of the Council. In this office, he brought forward in 

 that year a new Reform Bill which he had prepared in the last year 

 of his own premiership and had hoped then to carry. Both the 

 country and Parliament however being then engrossed with the begin- 



p 



