Volume II Part 9 (1/2)
In another effort to obtain full justice for himself, however, he was unsuccessful. The great expenses that sprang out of his long-continued scientific and mechanical pursuits had absorbed all his scanty sources of income, and he forcibly urged that in accordance with the precedent furnished by a similar grant to Sir Robert Wilson, in 1832, he was ent.i.tled to the arrears of pay due to him for the seventeen years during which he had been kept out of his position in the British navy.
But his request was refused; and the heavy pecuniary loss, as well as other and much heavier deprivations, consequent on a persecution that has been since admitted to have been wholly undeserved, has never been compensated.[20]
[20] Part of a letter which Lord Dundonald received on this subject four years afterwards from Mr. Joseph Hume, though quoted in his ”Autobiography,” is too important to be here omitted. ”I considered,”
wrote the great champion of public economy, on the 10th of May, 1852, ”that you were incapable of taking the means that were resorted to by Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, and for which you suffered; and I was pleased to learn that you had been restored to your rank. I considered that act a proof that the Government which had restored you to the rank and honours of your profession, and had afterwards appointed you to the command in the West Indies, must have come to the same conclusion; and, until the perusal of your draft pet.i.tion, I concluded that you had all your arrears paid to you as a tardy, though inadequate, return to your lords.h.i.+p, whose early exploits did honour to yourself, and gave additional l.u.s.tre to the naval service of the country to which you belonged.... His Majesty King William IV. was satisfied with the innocence of Sir Robert Wilson, and he was restored to the service--was, I understand, paid all the arrears of pay and allowances during his suspension, and afterwards appointed to the command of Gibraltar. I was pleased at the result; and it would give me equal pleasure to learn that your application to her Majesty should be attended with an act of justice to you equally merited.” Lord Palmerston subsequently, in answer to an application from Lord Dundonald--forgetting Sir Robert Wilson's case--said there was no precedent for such an act. Lord Dundonald answered that there was no precedent for such injustice as had been done to him.
Shortly after that event Lord Dundonald sought to be elected one of the Scotch representative peers in the House of Lords. Now that his load of unmerited disgrace was shaken off, he desired to resume his old functions as a legislator--and this with no abatement of his zeal for the welfare of the people; but with none of the violence which his own heavy sufferings at the time of their first and heaviest pressure had partly caused him to show during his former parliamentary career.
Being now a peer, he could not return to his seat in the House of Commons, and being a Scotch peer, he could only sit in the House of Lords as one of the delegates from the aristocracy of his native land.
Among these he therefore asked for a place at the election in September, 1847. He did not, however, begin to seek it early enough.
Other candidates had, according to custom, obtained promises of a majority of votes from the electors before he thought of canva.s.sing, and he was thus left in a minority. Many peers, however, who on this occasion were unable to support him, offered to pledge their votes to him for the next election.
A minor favour was at this time shown to Lord Dundonald, which afforded him real gratification. In 1835, he had been allowed by King William IV. to use the insignia of a Grand Commander of the Order of the Saviour of Greece, conferred upon him by King Otho. In August, 1847, he applied to the Cabinet for permission to use the t.i.tle of Marquis of Maranham and the Grand Cross of Brazil, both of which had been conferred upon him by the Emperor Pedro I., in 1823. ”I have to acquaint your lords.h.i.+p,” wrote Lord Palmerston, then Foreign Secretary, on the 11th of October, ”that under the peculiar circ.u.mstances of the case, which have prevented the application being made earlier, the Queen has signified her pleasure that you should be permitted to accept the Grand Cross of the Order of the Cruziero. With regard, however, to the t.i.tle of Marquis of Maranham, it is my duty to state to your lords.h.i.+p that, after full consideration, her Majesty's Government regret that they cannot advise the Queen to grant you the desired permission. While her Majesty's Government duly appreciate the services rendered by your lords.h.i.+p to the Crown of Brazil, they consider it to be on general principles so undesirable that distinguished officers of the British navy should have foreign t.i.tles, that they feel themselves compelled to decline complying with the request.” ”I beg to a.s.sure your lords.h.i.+p,” wrote Lord Dundonald in reply, on the 18th of October, ”that I feel more grat.i.tude in being informed of the sentiments of her Majesty's Government in regard to my faithful and zealous services in Brazil than I ever experienced from the t.i.tle conferred on me as the honorary portion of my reward for such services. As far as relates to a.s.suming the t.i.tle in my native country, I entreat your lords.h.i.+p to believe that I never entertained the intention.”
A memorable occurrence soon followed. Now that his honours as well as his naval rank were restored to him, he had no reason for holding back from active service in his profession; and the Earl of Auckland, anxious to make use--as far as use could be made in peace-time--of his great and varied experience, and also to give further proof of the desire at last to render him all possible honour, was prompt in offering him fresh employment on the sea. ”I shall shortly have to name a Commander-in-Chief for the North American and West Indian Station,” wrote Lord Auckland on the 27th of December, 1847. ”Will you accept the appointment? I shall feel it to be an honour and a pleasure to have named you to it, and I am satisfied that your nomination will be agreeable to her Majesty, as it will be to the country, and, particularly, to the navy.”
Lord Dundonald did accept the appointment, rejoicing in it as a further step in reparation for the injuries by which he had been hindered, a whole generation before, from rising to the highest rank in the naval service of his country. He might then have achieved victories over the French which would have surpa.s.sed his brilliant exploit at Basque Roads. He could now only direct the quiet operations of a small fleet in time of peace. This, however, being the best that it was now possible for him to do, he gladly undertook. ”Permit me,”
he wrote to Lord Auckland, ”to a.s.sure your lords.h.i.+p that this gracious act has further tended to obliterate the deep and painful impressions made by thirty years of mental suffering, such as no language can describe; for, my lord, the agony produced by false accusations on an honourable mind is infinitely greater than merited infliction of death itself. I leave your lords.h.i.+p then to estimate the amount of obligation I fail to convey, and beg you will allow me to express a hope that your generous recommendation to her Majesty will be justified by my zealous endeavours to fulfil the duties I owe to my sovereign and country.”
”I have waited for her Majesty's a.s.sent to your appointment,” said the Earl of Auckland in a letter written on the 3rd of January, 1848, ”before answering your letter of the 28th ultimo. This a.s.sent has been most cordially given, and you may now consider yourself Commander-in-Chief of the North American and West Indian Station, and I may repeat that my share in this proceeding has given me very great pleasure, and that I am confirmed in my feelings of gratification by the terms in which you speak of occupying your proper place in the navy. I am glad for you, and I am glad for myself that I have done this just and honourable act.”
Very hearty was the satisfaction expressed by all cla.s.ses as soon as Lord Dundonald's appointment was made public. ”I beg,” wrote Mr.
Delane, the editor of the ”Times,” earliest of all in tendering his compliments, ”to offer my very hearty congratulations upon your appointment--all that remained to efface the stain of such unmerited persecution.” ”The communication you have just made to me,” wrote the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, ”is most gratifying, and the First Lord of the Admiralty has done himself immortal honour in appointing that naval officer commander in one hemisphere who had previously ill.u.s.trated his name by his most brilliant exploits in the other.
Everything I think has now been done to undo the foul aspersions with which you have been a.s.sailed; and I am sure now everything will be done that can most serve to establish the ability of the officer and the delicacy of the gentleman. I congratulate you most sincerely upon your appointment, and I hope you will meet with difficulties when you arrive at your destination. Don't be surprised at this my wish. It proceeds from knowing the ample resources of my friend to overcome them, and his constant desire to sacrifice everything to duty and honour.” ”I derive the greatest pleasure and satisfaction from your appointment to the command of a British fleet,” wrote Sir George Sinclair, ”an appointment not less creditable to the ministry than honourable to yourself. I cannot help contemplating with affectionate sorrow the portrait of our dearest friend, Sir Francis Burdett, now suspended over the chimney-piece, and thinking how happy he would have been had he witnessed this most welcome and delightful consummation.”
”Permit me the honour,” wrote Admiral John White, ”to bear testimony to the high gratification I felt at seeing by the papers the announcement of your lords.h.i.+p's having taken the command of the West India and Halifax Stations. The whole British empire has expressed great joy at this justice having been done to the bravery of your lords.h.i.+p as an officer and your goodness and honour as a man.” That last sentence told no more than the truth.
CHAPTER XXVII.
LORD DUNDONALD'S DEPARTURE FOR NORTH AMERICA.--EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF LORD AUCKLAND AND OTHERS RESPECTING WEST INDIAN AFFAIRS AND EUROPEAN POLITICS.--BERMUDA.--THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1848 AND ITS ISSUES.--IRELAND AND THE CHARTISTS.--THE DEATH OF LORD AUCKLAND.
[1848.]
Lord Dundonald left London for Devonport on the 16th of March, 1848, and on the following day hoisted his flag on board the _Wellesley_ as Admiral in command of the North American and West Indian Fleet. On the 25th of March he set sail for Halifax, which was soon reached, and was, during three years, the head-quarters from which he proceeded on numerous voyages in fulfilment of the duties of his office. These duties were not very onerous or various. They were relieved, however, by much careful study of the circ.u.mstances and prospects of our colonies in British North America, and by correspondence thereupon, and on other subjects, with influential friends at home, and especially with Lord Auckland, the First Lord of the Admiralty. From this correspondence some selections will be made in the ensuing pages.
”I am very much pleased with your letter of the 19th,” wrote Lord Auckland, on the 21st of March, while the _Wellesley_ was still at Devonport, ”and the good spirit with which you look forward to your coming duties. I know how irksome is the succession of the petty duties which are incident to places of authority, and how far more attractive is the excitement of great actions to those who are capable of performing them. But even the first cla.s.s of duties is not without interest, and carries credit as it is performed with justice and exactness; and I hope that for the second the necessity of great exertions will not arise. But it is always well that the possibility of their being called for should be borne in mind; and, while you follow the peaceful avocations of your station, I should be glad that you become acquainted with all its points of strength and of weakness.
All the information and advice that you may give to me will be gratefully received and carefully considered.”
”I hope,” wrote Lord Auckland, three days later, ”that the Mosquito affair will have been brought to a termination before your arrival, and that the necessity for the presence of s.h.i.+ps in the Bay of Mexico will have terminated with a cessation of hostilities between the United States and Mexico. You will then have the slave-trade and the fisheries mainly to attend to. You will learn from the Consul at Cuba whether the slave-trade is now actively carried on. It had for some time entirely ceased, but it may have revived, and, with good information and force for interception applied at the right time, I should hope that it will not require many of your s.h.i.+ps. The fisheries will, for a season, be a regular and fixed object of attention. Though I feel that your number of s.h.i.+ps is small, it is difficult for me to increase it. I hate to fritter away our men and naval strength on a mult.i.tude of brigs and sloops and petty objects.”
Lord Auckland communicated to his friend many interesting opinions respecting the state of politics and the condition of affairs on both sides of the Atlantic. A letter from him, dated the 30th of April, had reference chiefly to the troubles occasioned at that time by the interference of Nicaragua with British commerce, which had necessitated the sending of Captain Lock, in the _Alarm_, to watch the course of events and compel proper behaviour by the turbulent state.
”A 'little war' is always a vexatious thing,” he wrote, ”and our relations with the state of Mosquito, though they have long and ancient standing to recommend them, are strange and anomalous. But the insults of Nicaragua were highly provoking. The detention of British subjects was not to be borne, and the spirit which has been exhibited by Captain Lock, the spirit and enterprise with which his operations were directed, the conduct of all who served under him, and the successful results which have been achieved, are all highly to be applauded. I am glad, however, that they have left the river of San Juan. I see that in 1780 Nelson lost by the climate there fifteen hundred out of eighteen hundred men; and I well know what is the effect of a low country in the tropics, particularly after exertion and fatigue.”
The rest of the letter related to the turmoil excited in Europe by the deposition of Louis Philippe in February, 1848, and the less successful revolutions in other countries. ”We continue to be on the very best terms with the Provisional Government, and there is a better disposition towards us on the part of the French people than there was at the first outbreak of the Revolution. I have therefore at present no apprehension of war. There is, however, this danger; that Germany and Italy are greatly disturbed, and that Austria and Sardinia are engaged in war on the side of Italy, and Prussia and Denmark to the north, and it will not be easy for France and England to be peaceful lookers-on. Besides which, the Government of France will long be subject to popular gusts, and it is never easy to say in what direction they may blow. In the meantime, however, all wears the appearance of peace, and at home the chances of disturbance both from Chartists and Repealers have become less. We have only danger from the distress and want of employment which have followed upon the shock given to credit throughout Europe.”
Unfortunately, most of the letters written by Lord Dundonald during these months have been lost; but something of their purport may be gathered from the replies to them. ”I am very glad,” Lord Auckland wrote, on the 28th of May, ”that your thoughts appear to be very considerately given to the health of those that are under your command. You will, of course, have consideration for the s.h.i.+ps that have served in the Gulf of Mexico, or other unhealthy places, and give them a turn in the north. I did not lose a moment in sending to Lord Grey your suggestions in favour of removing the convict hulks at Bermuda, and he has promised me that he will, without delay, issue orders accordingly.”
Lord Auckland wrote again to his friend on the 23rd of June. ”I have your valuable memoranda on the defences and dockyard of Bermuda,” he said, ”and I am greatly obliged to you for them, as will be Lord Grey.