Charles Greville

“ Clarendon is now very hot on this war, which he fancies is to produce great and uncontemplated effects. He says for very many years past Russia has been the great incubus on European improvement, and the real cause of half the calamities that have afflicted the world, and he thinks a great opportunity now presents itself of extinguishing her pernicious influence, and by liberating other countries from it, the march of improvement and better government will of necessity be developed and accelerated, and in this way civilisation itself may be the gainer by this contest. ”

“ Everybody expects that he will make an able speech; but brilliant speeches do not produce very great effect, and more anxiety is felt for the measures he will propose than for the dexterity and ingenuity he may display in proposing them. Parliament is ready to vote without grumbling any money that is asked for, and as yet public opinion has not begun to waver and complain; but we are only yet at the very beginning of this horrible mess, and people are still looking with eager interest to the successes they anticipate, and have not yet begun to feel the cost. ”

“ He does not, indeed, prove, nor attempt to prove, that the Emperor of Russia is in the right absolutely, but he makes out that he is in the right as against England and France, and he shows up the conduct of the Western Powers very successfully. But in the present temper of the country, and while the war fever is still raging with undiminished violence, all appeals to truth and reason will be totally unavailing. Those who entertain such opinions either wholly or in part do not dare to avow them, and all are hurried along in the vortex. ”

“ February 9th.—Nobody now thinks of anything but of the coming war and its vigorous prosecution. The national blood is up, and those who most earnestly deprecated war are all for hitting as hard as we can now that it is forced upon us. The publication of the Blue Books has relieved the Government from a vast amount of prejudice and suspicion. The public judgement of their management of the Eastern Question is generally very favourable, and impartial people applaud their persevering efforts to avert war, and are satisfied that everything was done that the national honour or dignity required. ”

“ Whether the extreme elasticity of our institutions, and the power of adaptation to circumstances which seems to pervade them, will enable us to find remedies and resources, and that the apparent derangement will right itself, remains to be seen. But it is a condition of affairs full of uncertainty, therefore of danger, and which makes me very uneasy whenever I think of it. It is evident that this Government is now backed by no great party, and that it has very few independent adherents on whom it can count. ”

“ And when they are told that our laws afford these people an asylum, which no Government has the power to deny them, and that Parliament and public opinion will not consent to arm the Government with the powers of restraint or coercion they do not possess, they only explode the more loudly in denunciations against that free and constitutional system which is not only a perpetual reproach, but, as they think, a source of continual danger to their own. ”

“ January 5th, 1853.—The elections are all going on well, except Gladstone's, who appears in great jeopardy. Nothing could exceed the disgraceful conduct of his opponents, lying, tricking, and shuffling, as might be expected from such a party. The best thing that could happen for Gladstone would be to be beaten, if it were not for the triumph it would be to the blackguards who have got up the contest; for the representation of Oxford is always an embarrassment to a statesman, and Peel's losing his election there in 1829 was the most fortunate event possible for him. ”

“ What makes our conduct the more absurd is that we do more harm than good to the objects of our interest, for no Government can, with any regard to its own dignity and independence, yield to our dictation and impertinent interference. The Grand Duke of Tuscany said that the Madiai would have been let out of prison long ago but for our interference. John Russell's published letter on this subject, which was very palateable to the public, was as objectionable as possible, and quite as insolent and presumptuous as any Palmerston used to write. ”

“ Brougham, Ellice, and myself were the men he was most intimate with. He was very fond of his sister, but never much liked Palmerston, and was bitterly opposed to his policy when he was at the Foreign Office, which was a very sore subject between himself and them, and for a long time, and on many occasions, embittered or interrupted their intercourse; but as he was naturally affectionate, had a very good temper, and loved an easy life, such clouds were always soon dispersed, and no permanent estrangement ever took place. ”

“ The wonderful thing is the impunity which he continues to enjoy, and how, daring and unscrupulous as he is, and determined to have his own way, he constantly escapes detection and exposure. The good case which the Government has put forward, and the approach of war, have apparently extinguished or suspended all opposition, and the Session, which everybody expected to be so stormy and dangerous, bids fair to be as easy as possible. Great difference of opinion exists as to the wisdom of committing our Baltic fleet to Charles Napier. ”

“ Nothing can wear a gloomier aspect than affairs do at home and abroad—the Government weak, unpopular, dispirited, and divided, the army in the Crimea in a deplorable state, and the prospects of the war far from brilliant, no confidence in the commanding officers there, and no likelihood of finding more competent ones, everybody agreeing that till we have 150,000 men in the Crimea we cannot count on taking Sebastopol, and the difficulty of ever assembling such a force appearing very great. ”

“ In reading the various and innumerable narratives of the battle, and the comments of the 'correspondents,' it is impossible to avoid coming to some conclusions which may nevertheless be erroneous; and I have always thought that people who are totally ignorant of military matters, and who are living at ease at home, should not venture to criticise operations of which they can be no judges, and the conduct of men who cannot explain that conduct, and who are nobly doing their duty according to their own judgement, which is more likely to be right than any opinions we can form. ”

“ In the majority were found Christopher and a few Tories besides, who, however, only voted with the object and hope of damaging the bill itself and procuring its rejection in the House of Lords. Never was man placed in so deplorable and humiliating a position as John Russell, and nothing can exceed his folly and mismanagement in getting himself into such a scrape. The indignation and resentment of the Liberals are boundless, and I think he has completely put an extinguisher on himself as a statesman and as the leader of a party; they never will forgive him or feel any confidence in him again. ”

“ June 5th.—I saw Clarendon on Friday morning for a few minutes; he takes a very gloomy view of the Russo-Turkish question, and is greatly disgusted at having been deceived by the Emperor; he says he is harassed to death with the whole affair, and with the multiplicity of business he has besides; he has a difficult task to perform, taking a middle position in the Cabinet between the opposite opinions of those who are for more stringent measures and those who, like himself, are for patience and moderation. ”

“ He would then have gone out amidst shouts of applause; he would have put the Government into an immense difficulty, and he would have reserved to himself to take whatever course he thought fit about Reform. He has acted much more honestly, but less cunningly for his own interest, supposing that he has the views and projects that are attributed to him. Lord Lansdowne is placed in great embarrassment, for he agrees entirely with Palmerston; and if he acts consistently on his own convictions, he will retire too—that is, cease to form a part of the Cabinet. Clarendon expects he will do so. ”

“ But while this, which is the most essential, has also been their strongest point, on everything else, without exception, they have been almost powerless, and the House of Commons has run riot with an independence and waywardness and a caprice of which it would be impossible to find an example. The Government has had no majority on which it could depend, and it has never brought forward any measure which it could count upon carrying through. ”

“ It was in vain that the 'Times' proclaimed that it was the Reform Bill and not the Eastern Question which was the cause of it. The statement was scouted with the utmost scorn, and the public incredulity was confirmed when the 'Morning Post,' which was notoriously devoted to Palmerston, asserted the direct contrary. Everybody imagined that the Government would go to pieces, that when Parliament met there would be prodigious revelations, and that the Eastern Question with its supposed mismanagement would prove fatal to the Coalition Cabinet. ”

“ Ellenborough, puffed up with conceit and soured by disappointment and the nullity of his position, commenced a furious attack on this bill in an able speech replete with bitterness and sarcasm. Derby, too happy to join in any mischief, brought the support of his party, and a debate ensued, in which, as usual, the speaking of Ellenborough and Derby gave them the advantage, but the Government got a majority enough for their purpose. ”

“ The people are wild about this war, and besides the general confidence that we are to obtain very signal success in our naval and military operations, there is a violent desire to force the Emperor to make a very humiliating peace, and a strong conviction that he will very soon be compelled to do so. This belief is the cause of the great rise which has been taking place in the public securities, and all sorts of stories are rife of the terror and dislike of the war which prevail in Russia, and of the agitation and melancholy in which the Emperor is said to be plunged. ”

“ The most serious of all difficulties seems to be rapidly coming, the insurrection of the Greek population; and this is a matter which has already caused a good deal of difference of opinion and debate in the Cabinet, one half wanting to assist in putting down the Greeks, the other half opposing this scheme. The danger of attacking the Greeks is, that we should thereby throw them at once into the arms of Russia, whereas the true policy is to persuade them if possible to be quiet, and induce them to look up to us for protection and future support. ”

“ If this Government should be overthrown, I see no other man who could form one. Derby is in such a deplorable state of health that I do not think he could possibly undertake it, and though Palmerston's difficulties would be great, they would not be insurmountable, and the very necessity of having a Government, and the impossibility of any other man forming one, would give him great facilities, and draw a great many people from various parties to enlist under him. ”

“ War has had little or no effect on trade, which is steady and flourishing; but he thinks, unless some great successes infuse fresh animation into the public mind, that before long they will begin to tire of the contest, and to reflect that it is being carried on at an enormous cost for no rational object whatever, and merely from motives of pride and vanity and a false notion of honour. Charles Villiers thinks differently, and that there is already a manifest change of opinion, and that opposition to the war has already begun. ”

“ To overrate the strength and power of the allies, and to underrate that of Russia on her own territory, has been the fault and folly of the English public, and if they find themselves deceived in their calculations and disappointed in their expectations, their rage and fury will know no bounds, and be lavished on everybody but themselves. ”

“ The great question that lies behind it is, whether Prussia will follow in the wake of Austria, and the rest of Germany with her. If all Germany joins the Allies it seems absolutely impossible that Russia should offer any effectual resistance to such a combination of forces; and it will then be to be seen what impression can be made on an Empire which, with many political deficiencies, nature has made so strong for defensive purposes, and, if the contest continues, whether the opinions and object of the Allies will not diverge and ultimately break up the alliance. ”

“ It is in fact a second edition of the Vienna Conference and proposals, with this difference, that, while on the last occasion the Emperor knocked under to us and reluctantly agreed to go on with the war, he is now determined to go on with it no longer, and requires that we should defer to his wishes. Our Government are aware that they have no alternative, and that nothing is left for them but to acquiesce with a good grace and make the best case they can for themselves here, the case being that the Emperor is determined to make peace, and that we cannot carry on the war alone. ”

“ It is not very easy to ascertain what the feeling is in Russia about the war, but there is reason to believe that the nobles are getting very sick of it, and are very discontented with the Emperor, not so much for having engaged in it as for the manner in which it has been carried on. At St. Petersburg there prevails an intense hostility to us, and great wrath against Austria, and instead of yielding, or any thought of it, the notion is that they mean to redouble their efforts next year, and bring into the field far greater forces than they have yet done. ”

“ Last night the Duke of Newcastle defended himself in the House of Lords against John Russell, and replied to his statements in the House of Commons, and did it very successfully, carrying the House with him. The whole affair, as it is gradually evolved, places John Russell in a disgraceful and odious light, and ought to demolish him as a public man, for he has shown himself to be actuated by motives of pique, personal ambition, and mortified vanity, and to have been insincere, vacillating, uncandid, and untruthful. ”

“ With a war so popular, and supported cordially by Parliament, and a flourishing revenue and trade, Government would look round on a cloudless horizon, if it were not for the Reform Bill [Pg 141] , which is a matter replete with uncertainty, difficulty, and danger. Nobody has an idea whether it will be carried in the House of Commons; almost all the friends of Government want Lord John to withdraw it, and the Cabinet is divided on the subject, Lord John, Graham, and Aberdeen being strongly in favour of pressing it on at all hazards, Palmerston violently against. ”