^f 1 • V7 /l/ /Z . /990 . MEMOIR OF JOPI?^ CtREY. Edinburgh: Printed by Thomas Constable, FOR EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS. LONDON HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. CAMBRIDGE MACMILLAN AND CO. OLASGOVV ... . . JAMES MACLEIIOSE. Ex Libris C. K. OGDEN MEMOIR OF JOHN GEEY OF DILSTON. BY HIS DAUGHTER, JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER. KDIXr.LMtdll: KDMOXSTUX AND UOUGLAS. 18G9. [All [ii'jhU lUjiiTi-fil] PA y b -rlBi SANTA p. . CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. GLENDALE AND THE BORDER COUNTRY-BIRTH AND EARLY RECOLLECTIONS-ILLNESS AND RECOVERY- LITERARY TASTES AND PRIVATE THOUGHTS- TOUR ON THE CONTINENT — MARRIAGE — FIRST PUBLIC SPEECH — INTRODUCTION TO POLITICS — THE PRO- PERTY-TAX-LORD ALTHORP AND MR. LAMBTON, . CHAPTER II. AGRICULTURE: ITS HISTORY AND ITS LEADERS-ITS RAPID PROGRESS ON THE BORDERS — RELATION OF AGRICULTURE TO POLITICS-THE CORN BILL OF 1815-POLITICAL AGITATION AND AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS- BORDERERS SUSPECTED OF DISLOYALTY — PUBLIC SPEECHES AND MEETINGS — PROTESTS AGAINST THE QUEEN'S TRIAL— MISUSE OF PUBLIC FUNDS, ETC.-JOSEPH HUME-THR CURRENCY— THE CASE OF THE INFERIOR LANDOWNERS-LEri'ERS TO THE TIMES, no VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. PAGE EXERTIONS IN THE ANTI-SLAVERY CAUSE— ACQUAINT- ANCE WITH CLARKSON — PETITIONS TO PARLIA- MENT-FAMILY BEREAVEMENTS, 86 CHAPTER IV. THE NORTHUMBERLAND ELECTION OF 1826— DEFEAT OF THE WHIGS — LETTERS FROM EARL GREY — REMOVAL OF TAX FROM SHEPHERDS' DOGS — AGRICULTURAL CUSTOMS IN NORTHUMBERLAND— HINDS-BONDAGE SYSTEM — FEMALE LABOUR IN THE FIELDS— LIFE AT MILFIELD HILL- RIDING AND FAVOURITE HORSES, 101 CHAPTER V. THE REFORM BILL -THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN OUR COLONIES-THE REFORM OF THE POOR LAWS —MY FATHER'S CONNEXION WITH, AND CORRE- SPONDENCE ON, THESE SUBJECTS, .... 125 CHAPTER VI. APPOINTMENT TO THE RECEIVERSHIP OF GREENWICH HOSPITAL ESTATES -THE VARIED CHARACTER OF THE WORK AT DILSTON— WOODLANDS, MINING, RIVER EMBANKMENTS, COLLIERIES, ETC. -CANA- DIAN AFFAIRS-LORD DURHAM'S MISSION— ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY— BEAUTY OF OUR DILSTON CONTENTS. Vll PAGE HOME— FAMILY JOYS AND SORROWS-A DARK SHA- DOW—HOPE UNDYING -SECESSION OF THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND-DEATH OF EARL SPENCER, IJl CHAPTER Vll. REPEAL OF THE CORN-LAWS- CORRESPONDENCE ON THE SUBJECT— PROTECTIONIST REACTION— INQUIRY ISSUED BY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT— GREAT MEETING AT NEWCASTLE - EDUCATION IN AGRI- CULTURAL DISTRICTS— PUBLIC TESTIMONIAL— LOSS OF FORTUNE, AND OF FRIENDS, 20] CHAPTER VIII. SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE— AGRI- CULTURAL CHEMISTRY— DUTIES OF LANDLORDS AND TENANTS — LABOURERS' COTTAGES — GAME- PRESERVING - AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION — HIS VIEWS ON THESE SUBJECTS — HIS INCULCATION OF COURAGE AND SELF-RELIANCE— HIS FAITHFUL AND ABLE STEWARDSHIP, 245 CHAPTER IX. CANADIAN CORRESPONDENCE-LETTERS TO HIS DAUGH- TERS-DEATH OF HIS WIFE-HIS SORROW— FA.MILY CORRESPONDENCE-RETIREMENT FROM HIS OFFICE AT DILHTON — REMOVAL TO LIPWOOD — EMPLOY- MENT OF LEISURE- LECTURES ON POETRY— VISIT TO SWITZERLAND- FAMILY GATHERINGS— CONTINUED Vlll CONTENTS. PAGK INTEREST IN PUBLIC MATTERS — A DAUGHTER'S SKETCH OF HIS CHARACTER— PERSONAL TRAITS- PURITY OF MIND AND OF LIFE, 280 CHAPTER X. LAST ACTS — PEACEFUL DEATH — THE TESTIMONY OF POOR MEN— EXTERNAL FRUITS OF HIS LABOURS— THE LOSS TO NORTHUMBERLAND, 342 APPENDIX. LETTERS TO EARL GREY, 349 CHAPTEl! f. ' Still linger in our northern clime Sonic remnants of tlie good old time : And still, within our valleys here, We hold the kindred title dear, Even when perchance its far-fetched claim To Southern ear sounds empty name." It seems to me that any life of my father must in- clude, to some extent, a history of the county in -svliich he was born, lived, and died. He loved the place of liis birth, — sweet Glendale. His affections were largely drawn out to that Border countiy, — not only to the livino- beings who peopled it, but to the scenes themselves, the hilLs, the valleys, and the rivers. All through his life there will be found evidence of heart-yearnings towards them ; and these are shared by his children, to whom there seems no spot on earth like Glendale. This at- tachment to our native country is perliaps stron<^er among us than among some families, because for so many generations back we were rooted there. Greys abounded on the Borders ; they were keepers often of the Border castles and towers, living a life not always very peaceful in regard to their Scottish neiglibours. Glendale is rich in romantic associations; every name in and around it brings to tlic mind some inci- dent of war, or lover's adventure, or heroic exploit, recorded in Englisli ballads, or sung to sweet Scottish tunes, or woven later into the poems of Sir Walter Scott. A 2 MEMOIR OF JOHN GKEY. Of Druidical and Eoman vestiges there are not a few. The beautiful mountain stream, the Glen, from which Glendale takes its name, has a kind of sacred character, from the stories connected with it of St. Paulinus, who, according to the Venerable Bede, baptized in it several thousands of poor Britons. "Paulinus coming," he says, "to a place called Ad Gebrin, now Yeavring, abode there thirty-six days, during which time he did nothing from morning till night but instruct the mul- titudes who came to him in the saving word of Christ, and being instructed, he baptized them to the for- giveness of their sins in the river Glen, which is hard by." It is a very beautiful range of hills which skirts Glendale to the west; their very names, Yeavring Bell, Heathpool Bell, Newton Torr, Hetlia, Hedge- hope, and Cheviot, were delightful to my fatlier's ear. Directly in front of our old home, Milfield Hill, lies the scene of innumerable fights between Scotch and English, Milfield Plain, and from its windows might have been seen the famous battle of Humbledon Hill. In 1402, Earl Douglas entered Northumberland with 10,000 warriors, the flower of Scotland. "The banner of the Douglas," we read, " flew like a meteor from the Lothians to the Tweed, from the Tweed to the Tyne." He carried a successful raid as far as Newcastle, finding no one to oppose him ; he then retraced his steps, and, loaded with plunder and drunk with pride, marched in a careless, loitering manner back to the Tweed. Mean- while the Earl of Northumberland, with his son Hot- spur Percy, and the disaffected Scotch Earl of March, the deadly enemy of the Douglas, gathered a large army in his rear. Douglas, hampered with spoil, came suddenly upon this army in Milfield Plain. He per- GLENDALE. 3 ceived a strong position on Ilumbledon Hill, and seized it The English, with the Eaii of ^March's men, occu- pied the opposite hill. The English archers advanced, and shot upwards from the plain with wonderful force and a sure aim. Douglas, as if infatuated, stood still, leaving his people drawn up on the face of the lull, a mark to the enemy. Scarcely an English arrow flew in vain ; the Scots fell in heaps without hghting, until a knight called Swinton cried out, " my brave fellow- soldiers, what fascinates you to-day, tliat you stand like deer and fawns in a park to be shot, instead of show- ing yom- ancient valour, and meeting your foes hand to hand ? Let those who will descend with me, and in the name of the Lord we will break that host and conquer, or if not, we will at least die with honour, like soldiers !" Douglas's army descended, and the English bowmen retired a little, but they pulled their bows as they went backward, and, halting again, sent a cloud of arrows so sharp and strong that no armour could withstand it. The Douglas was wounded in the eye, fell, and was made prisoner ; 800 of the Scots were left dead on the field; 500 were drowned in the Till and the Tweed, whose waters have so oftentimes been reddened by the blood of contending warriors. Among the illustrious slain were names familiar at this day : Swinton, Gordon, Livingstone of Callendar, liamsay of Dalhousie, John Sinclair, and Walter Scott. Such was the battle of Ilumbledon Hill. In that century, North- umberland suffered so much by the incursions of the Scots, that at the request of Parliament the King re- mitted to them all taxes due to the Crown. The famous James Graham, ^lan^uis of Montrose, stationed his forces for rest on the banks of the river Glen, when 4 MEMOIll OF JOHN GIIEY. lie entered England in 1640. Before the battle of Flodden, a fierce contest took place on Milfield Plain, in which Sir William Bulmer defeated the Scots, who, to the number of 1000, had hidden themselves among the tall broom with which the plain was covered. From that time the Scots called the road through Milfield Plain "the ill road." Flodden Hill, about a mile to the north of Milfield Hill, hides beneath its soil traces of the great battle of 1513: broken pieces of armour of men and horses were sometimes dug or ploughed up, and brought to the house, to be treasured up as relics. Many a time did my father recite to his children every incident of that battle, as he rode or walked with them over Flodden, sometimes resting at the " King's Chair " or by Sybil's Well. His memory was so good that he could go through almost the whole of " Marmion," and other poems relat- ing to that woful day, " Wlien shivered was fair Scotland's spear, And broken was her shield." His dislike of the Stuarts was great, but he would tell, with a sorrowful sympathy, how the "flowers of the forest," the noble youth of Scotland, "were a' w^ede away." Looking on the waters of the fair Tweed, he often recalled the words — " I've seen the morning with gold the hills adorning, And the dread temjiest roaring before parting day ; T 've seen Tweed's silver streams Glitt'ring in the sunny beams, Grow drumlie and dark as they rolled on their way." This feeling was kept alive by the deep pathos of the Scotch songs which he so dearly loved. Not far, again, from Flodden stand the ancient castles of Ford, Etal, STATE OF THE BORDER COUNTRY. f) Wark, Twizel, Berwick, and Norliam, whose very names call up memories of innumerable IJorcler tales of tragedy and romance. A little further, and by the sea is Bamborough Castle, the old stronghold of Ida, King of Xorthumbria, and near the coast lie the Fames, with Holy Island (Lindisfarn), full of traditions of St. Cuthbcrt, and of later associations with our brave Xorthumbrian girl, Grace Darling, who could never understand the sensation caused by her heroic deed, saying (and truly) that there were girls all along the coast who would and did accompany their fathers and brothers to sea in great storms, when there was a chance of savins: life. Tlie scene of the battle of Chevy Chase, for which there is none but ballad authority, is laid among the Cheviots. " The poet has used a license in his description of it," says an old hLstorian, " and mixed in it some events of the battle of Otterburn farther south, for neither a Percy nor a Douglas fell in this woful hunting." After the battle of Flodden the Border warfare de- generated into a system of recriminative plunder, which continued till comparatively recent times. It is only a few generations back that our Northumbrians used to watch the fords all night long, with their trained mas- tiffs, to prevent the Scotch from carrying away their cattle. At one of the early meetings of tlie Highland Society at Kelso, my father said — " There was a time, and that at no distant period, when, had it been pos- sible for such animals as we have seen to-day to exist, it would have required the escort of our honourable vice-president. Sir John lIoj)e, and his cavalry, in bringing each lot to tiie show ground, to secure it against the chance of being roasted among the heather 6 MEMOIR OF JOHN GKEY. of the Highlands, or boiled in the pots of Cumberland." It is no marvel that a district which was the scene of so many vicissitudes, during centuries of predatory war- fare, should have presented the aspect of a land wasted and blighted, which this part of the country did in the last century. Hutchinson, the historian of Northum- berland, describes the desolateness of all this Border country in 1776. "From the openness of the country, where not a guide-post has been known since tlie crea- tion, the traveller is compelled," he says, " to ask his way from some of the herdsmen of the Cheviots ; and such is the ferocity and suUenness of these men, that when they give you instruction, it is as if they would chase a beast from trespass !" But Mackenzie, another local historian, says, in 1825, " Mr. Hutchinson describes the inhabitants of these hills as a most ferocious race of beings ; but the Cheviot men are now neither so brutish nor so miserable as he represents them." He declares he found them " sober, shrewd, hospitable, and with a strong- taste for religious disputations." It was however scarcely possible to exaggerate the bleak and almost savage character of the country. My fiither speaks of it in a paper, written by him at the request of Lord Spencer for the Eoyal Agricultural Society's Journal : — " Such was the state of society in that part of the county traversed by the Koman Wall, that those great antiquaries, Sir Robert Cotton and Mr. Camden, were deterred from following its course in 1600, as stated in Camden's own words : ' From hence the wall bends about by Iveston ; Forster and Chester on the wall near Busy-gaj), noted for robberies, where we heard there were forts, but we durst not go and view them for fear of the moss-troopers.' And Warburton, who was Somerset Herald to George ii., and STATE OF THE BOPxDEK COUNTRY. 7 publislied bis J'aUum Iiomanum in 1753, says, in reference to the same subject, ' Such was the wild and barren state of this country, even at the time I made my survey, that in those ])aits now called the wastes, and heretofore the debatealtle grounds, I have frequently discoveied the ves- tiges of towns and camps that seemed never to have been trod upon by any human creature than myself since the Komans abandoned them; the traces of streets and the foundations of the buildings being still visible, only grown over with grass;' and it is certain that it was not till after the accession of George iii. in 17 GO that the King's Avrit might be said to run througliout the countiy. The now liighly cultivated vale of the Till was in former days nuich covered by broom, the classic I'lanta Gtitife my mother's opinion on it, and what remark would my brother make. I read, and, to my own reflections, add what I think would be made at home. I join you in all your occupations, set; your niaidy form and sunburnt face, 1 6 MEMOIR OF JOHN GllEY. while busied in the simple, primitive employment of all men : Heureux, mon fils, de ne connattre que les devoirs champetres ! I figure you with our sagacious uncles met in council, drawing down the lines of your faces, as if the address were to begin, ' Conscript Fathers ! ' or as if the speech would decide whether Bonaparte shall be Emperor of all the Gauls, whereas it is only, ' Shall not the wide- horned ox be felled?' or 'What's a wether but a sheep?' I daresay you go to see what they are doing with the sheep on the hill, or whether they are getting the stack in, as if you had done it all twenty years before, and look as auld- farrant as if you was not born yesterday. I intend you, nevertheless, my brother, to be a man of taste and a man of honour as well as a man of business, and will have you to be a favourite with a great many people besides my uncles. You should not talk of stoicism and gloominess ; these may be terms convenient for the aged, the misanthrope, and Jean Jacques Rousseau, but a young man entering the world under favourable auspices may as well give way to the sensibilities of youth and hope. What a number of comfortable married people we shall have in our neigh- bourhood ! I think the state of society must be much improved by it. The social, domestic ties, well formed, are the best framers of the heart for all the more extensive communications of mankind in the collective body. We went yesterday a country walk to Hornseywood. The green fields, with a few frolicsome lambs, and the primroses among the underwood, brought to my mind the burn-side way to Cross Burn, one of my favourite Avalks at this season, which I remember to have taken this time last year, wondering, when I saw the moon rise, where I should be at the same time next year. (How do the plantations thrive 1) Joseph Turnbull desires to be introduced to you with compliments ; he is between eighteen and nineteen, of a serious temper, and complains (like some other young people whom you know) of a confined education, and the obscurity of unguided researches. . . . We have been at Covent Garden, seeing 'The Man of the World.' Cook HIS SISTERS. 1 7 lias perfectly satisfied me in Sir Pertinax ; he tells us he rose in the world by ' parsevering industry, regid economy, and a plialnlity of body that wad ne'er let him stand streight in a rech man's presence a* his life.' He gives instructions to his son in the conduct of his life which a genercius-hearted young man could not enter into nor understand. There are some very good sentiments in the piece, and I was pleased to observe that, whatever tlic practice of the world may be, they know what is good, and always bestow their plaudits on noble sentiments. Harry Siddons performed Egerton, Sir P.'s son. ... In London you choose your society because you like the people, not because they are your neighbours. Of course the com]>any we see most of are generally agreeable people, who attend Tabernacle, and converse on last Sunday's discourse. I am often instructed and amused by our conversation. Mr. T. holds plays very Avicked amusements ; the devil is fond of them. He once knew no better than to go to such places ; he has seen the players thump on their breasts, and call on the heathen gods in such a manner as quite shocked him. I suppose if he knew that we had been there, he would think us all on the wrong road. I would be very grateful for a line from my dear brother to let me know that I am not forgotten. I regret the Plain, where I have spent the happiest hours of my life ; but I can still climb dikes, and rin ower the plowed land. AVhat stupid people you are not to dance ! Next winter the ^liss Greys will have come out, and will take you all off. Give my love and duty to our dear mother. God bless you, my brother, is the fervent prayer of your " Margauetta." The Miss Greys did come out, bnt sunshine and dancing did not monopolize the picture which they may have drawn to themselves of the future. Sorrows came, and a deeper life. Weightier questions presented them- selves to the strong mind of Margaretta than she had yet grappled witli, and deeper interests were suggested 1 8 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. to her than those which had satisfied her so far. Hers was not a mind to shimber again when once awakened. She might be carried away by mistaken enthusiasms, and she was not over- mindful of the conventions of society, or disposed to think anything was right because other people did it. She thought and acted indepen- dently, and sometimes erred, but frivolity was never her snare, nor did the world attract her ; it rather re- pelled. Soon after she returned to Northumberland, she married her cousin Henry Grey, and they went to live at Stanton. To continue Mrs. Duncan's narrative : — " We had removed to the house on the hill, and John had become master. Mamma was seized with fever, and John took it from her ; it turned to typhus. I was but an ignorant nurse, and a more ignorant Christian. Mamma longed to ask help from our vicar, who was really an en- lightened man, but without faith enough to follow duty in the face of infection. Mamma said, ' will he not come up"?' and groaned, ' Will no one tell me what I must do to be saved 1' I, poor, stupid, and ignorant, offered to read and pray with her, and the dear one was glad and com- forted. This continued long after she was restored to us. My brother, alarmed for his mother, got up from his bed and came to see her. The moment he entered her room, he fainted, and the tall man fell prostrate on the floor. It was a trying scene ; we got him back to his bed. Next morn- ing he whispered to me, 'A word troubles me, . . . whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth ; but there is more of it.' Ignorant as I was I found the passage, and read it to him, and left him my Bible, which book I did not see again for many days ; we had so little talked of Divine things that that book was a secret, or something to be ashamed of. Before he was ill I was one day singing quietly, — " Sweet is the work, my God and King, To praise Thy name, give thanks, and sing," SERIOUS ILLNESS. 19 when he said angrilj-, ' What is that you are crooning atl' though when I opened the piano he was the first to join me in a merry song. However, one day after many days, tlie Bihle fell from under his pillow, and then he conf(\ssed he had been reading it nmch, and was reading it when I came into the room. This broke through the reserve there had been. Manmia was able to come to John's room, and then cousin Margaret Vardy came, and Avith her help we conversed and read, and my mother's heart was filled with peace, and I think I never was happier in my life." The attendant sister wrote tlie following letter to the absent one : — " MiLFiF.LD Hill, December 3L " We had fainted, unless we had believed to see the good- ness of the Lord in the land of the living, for indeed he was sick nigh unto death, but the Lord had mercy on him, and not on him only, V»ut on us also, lest we should have sorrow upon sorrow. Ah ! my dear sister, you have little dreamed of the fevered nights, the watching days, the bursting hearts which the Father of mercies has sent us. It was no cold my mother had, though I thought so when I wrote to you. She is now improving, but we feared a relapse, her anxiety about our precious John has been so unbounded. I always fancied John would get easily through. Ah me ! I looked at his well-built frame, and presumptuously thought that it would nf)t be quickly pulled down, and indeed it lias taken a great deal to do it. I had not thought of danger till Friday, when a sad conviction came on me, seeing the doctor arrive unlooked for. Christmas-day was a day, not of joy, })ut of dust and ashes. It was sad never to sec him open his eyes till Sunday evening, never to hear him speak, Init to ask me to wet his lips with cold water. I have had little time, and less room for weeping, for I dared not let my iiif)ther see. I have forebodeil tht; worst, but still trusted tliat that worst would l)e averted. I asked him one day if he was uiili:ip].y. ' No,' he said, ' he prayed, anrance in family worship, till then unknown among us. She was too glad to answer except by tears. The first evening there were nine assembled in the dining- room ; he in his dressing-gown, Avith his pale thin face and trembling \\])s, the servants all very solemn, and poor foolish I with a heart bursting with joy. He told me after- wards, ' I intended to have said so-and-so in my prayer, but had not courage ;' -what he did say I do not know." " A\'hat a joyful meeting was that," continues Mrs. Dim- can, " when little Mary was weaned and brought to ISIilHcld Hill ; first grandchild and niece. How my dear brother rejoiced over Tolly ,^ as he called lier, as he hoisted her on his slu)ulder, and taught her the names of his greyhounds. What cheerful gatherings we liad in the scliool-house at ^lilfield I It seemed that all our objects and motives were changed ; we felt it, and the people around us felt it too. My brother got up a Sunday-school in tlu^ village, and I one in our own hou.se. Cousin Margaret .said, as she roeing lifted ujion the knee of the venerable John "SVesley, a man with white silvery hair and a benevolent countenance, wlio placed his two hands upon the head 26 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. of the golden-haired little girl and pronounced over her a tender and solemn benediction. She passed some very happy years of school life among the Mora- vians of Fulneck, for whom she preserved to the end of her life a great affection. She often described to us the settlement of that fraternity, their simplicity of manners, their love for music, flowers, and white dresses. She was, while there, one of the favourite pupils of Christian Ignatius Latrobe, under whose teaching she became a thoroughly scientific musician. Like many persons of artistic temperament, he had irritable nerves, and would sometimes hurl his har- monium bodily at his class of boys and girls (for they learned together at Fulneck) when they sang out of tune ; but this in nowise lessened their affection for him. When my father went to travel abroad in the spring of 1814, it was with the protrait of his lady-love in his breast, and the hope of returning to make her his wife. He travelled in Holland, Belgium, Germany, and France. He kept a journal, which shows that he made good use of his opportunities in the observation of character and countries, at a crisis when there was abundant subject of thought about the past, and specu- lation about the future of Europe. On his return home he wrote to her : — " How long, my Hannah, are these dreary moors to separate us ?" But the dreary moors did not separate them long, for they were married in the winter of the same year ; the bride riding to church, dressed in a beautiful pale blue riding-habit, richly embroidered. His mother went to live at Humbledon, his sister Mary married, and his brother George some years later FirST SPEECH IN rUBLIC. 27 took a farm near London ; and the first family group was scattered, to give place to a large circle of young children who gradually filled the old family home. Mrs. Duncan writes — " Many of the newspapers have spoken of my brother's early speeches of a jiulitical cast ; but I remember his first pul»lic speech, and the emotion it excited in my mother and me. It was a Bible Society speech in Wooler cluuch. He was clear, calm, and self-possessed. It was cheering to see the young man come forward so boldly, and was a great contrast to the book hidden under his pillow a few years before." !My father wrote thus of his first public speech — " My heart beat hard at first getting up and looking at the crowd of gazers I was going to address, but before finishing one sentence, finding that my voice would easily fill the churcli, its tone became firm and my spirits com- posed, and I went on to the end without ditficulty." The Bible Society, founded in 1804, was one of the first practical evidences of the awakening of the nation from the torpor of preceding generations to a sense of the spiritual wants of the people. My father's high hopes for his country, and his bright ideal of her future mission, may have been in after years somewhat clouded. Speaking for laymen, he said on this occasion — " Wlien I observe that the advocates of this great cause are exclusively confined to the clergy, I own I feel iinxi(jus to re.scue ourselves from the possibility of an iinitutation that thry are the oidy persons interested in its progress. . . . We live in an ago of great events, — events so signal and 80 important, and that have succeeded each othei- with such a rapidity as to throw into the shade tlie history of fonner times. . . . We seem to be a i)eoph' pecubarly dihtinguiahed in the plan of Trovidcnce, preserved, perhaps, 28 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. from the devastations that have so awfully visited the other nations of Europe, to accomplish God's great designs upon the earth ; for though we have heard the thunders of war at a distance, there has been peace in our borders. . . . Our country" presents to the world a strange and lovely spectacle, — the phenomenon of an evangelist nation, — a nation whose senators, warriors, rulers, and people, as if by one consentaneous impulse, are contributing to bring life and immortality to light through the gospel of peace." Pausing from the survey of his hopes for the future mission of England among the nations, it was with a noble gravity and somewhat of inspiration in his face that the young man uttered the closing words of his address, " The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ." To his wife, on a short absence from home with her first child, he wrote — " MiLFiELD Hill, 1816. " I kept continually thinking on Tuesday evening how far that coach would be on its journey which contained so much of my treasure. I confess I find it somewhat lone- some when I come in and find your chair and Georgie's chair unoccupied, and I sometimes find my attention arrested by some noise, as of the feet or the tongue of the dear little prattler. But I feel happy in the thought of your enjoyment with your friends, and as this fine weather affords me abundant occupation out of doors I shall not greatly weary. I was on the far hill this morning before sunrise, and was not within doors again till six this evening. George came here early on Saturday morning, and we rode together to West Ord, where he boated across the river, and went to see his sheep and cattle on turnips on the other side, while I took advantage of the delightful day to mark off the new fences and plantations that are to be done this season. Philip has had hard work to bring the * Unity ' sloop to her moorings. She is now tied with PETITION AGAINST THE PROPERTY-TAX. 29 cables to the plantation below the house, ami I liave let her to some men to take to pieces. Tiiey luul to caulk her to keep out the water, and then fix a row of empty casks along each side to make her tioat over the shallows. After all, she grounded often, and took three tides, and the help of both men and horses to get her home. I suppose there never was half so large a vessel as high up the Tweed, and perhaps none whose voyage excited so much observation and amusement since the days when St. Cuthbert's stone boat scudded up the tiile. I had two olfers for my tishing on Saturday — one of £100 and another of £150 — but have not resolved to take either. It is poor doing, but these industrious Dutchmen send so many fish to our markets now, that they are little worth." Northumberland was at this time a very Conservative county, and some among its greatest lauded proprietors were not less wedded to their own interests, and to the prejudices peculiar to their class, thau were the majority of landowners throughout England. But the petitions to Parliament, which from time to time, from very early in the century, were sent up from Glendale Ward, are witnesses to a degree of enlightenment not a little ad- mirable, when it is remembered how far, geographically, Glendale was situated from the great centres of mental activity and political life. jMy father got up a largely signed petition in 181G against the proposed Property Tax ; but so little sympathy did he meet with in some of his richer neighbours, that he was unable to call together a jiublic meeting aljout it. Lord Grey, to whose care he sent the petition, wrote in acknowledg- njent : — " March 12, 1816, Portman Squaue. " I have had the pleasure of receivijig your letter, with llie accompanying resolutions, voteil at a meeting of the inhabitants of Glendale ^\'ard, as a basis of a petition 30 MEMOIR OF JOHX GREY. against the Property Tax. I have since received the peti- tion, and. shall present it to-day or to-morrow to the House of Lords. A petition of this description, both from the circumstances under which it has been obtained, and the character of the petitioners, is peculiarly deserving of atten- tion. I wish the spirit that has animated the inhabitants of Glendale Ward had been more generally diffused through- out the country. I concur with you in regretting that the measure of calling a county meeting has been abandoned. The Ministers seem determined to persevere in their en- deavours to carry through this odious tax, though supported by ever so small a majority, — a most indecent determination when the sense of the public has been so decidedly expressed. The division will probably be very near : and I should hope, if the country is only true to itself, that the measure may ultimately be defeated ; but every attempt is being made to reconcile people to it by the modifications that are to be proposed, by which I am afraid too many have allowed themselves to be duped. — I am, with very great regard, yours truly, Grey." My father, I am told, had a pleasant playful way of discussing these questions of taxation and other matters of political economy with his brother magistrates. Sometimes he affected to adopt the opposite view, and by his halting arguments exposed its weakness ; and we all remember the roguish smile and merry twinkle of the eye characteristic of his kindliness of heart, joined with the humorous view he took of his adversary's position. He sometimes hit hard, it is true, but only where it was deserved. He hated conceit, pretentious- ness, and the arrogance and dogmatism of youth, when it flowed forth in unceasing talk without judgment. What Lucy Hutchinson says of her husband in her celebrated memoir of him was equally true of my father, — that there was notliing he disliked more than "an insig- THE PROPERTY-TAX. 31 nificant gallant, that could only iiiakchis legs, and prune himself, and court a lady, but had not brains to employ himself in things more suitable;" but I do not think that he ever wounded au honest or a humble person by a word, " In my ritle over the moors, I met your friend J. S.," he wrote to his wife. " I knew his intention of assailing me on a matter personal to myself, which I wished to avoid, I therefore lost no time in attacking him most roundly for having — he being a lawyer — erroneously argued a point of law in an appeal l)efore my brother commissioners a few days before, which, after a vain attempt to defend, he gave up as a question of right, and very honestly confessed the latitude of his conscience and the rectitude of his princii^les, by saj-ing that the Property Tax ■was one so infamous tliat he had no scruple in -withhokhng as much of it as he could by any means. So liaving gained my victory and attained my end, I galloped off, crying. For shame ! " Tliis proposed tax occasioned a hot and prolonged conflict in Parliament. The opposition was supported by petitions from many mercantile populations, who complained of the injustice of taxing in the same pro- portion incomes of a short duration and those derived from permanent property in land. From four o'clock every evening till midnight the battle was fought for many weeks, and the campaign was kept up with so much spirit, that one night close upon midnight, the debate having lasted eight hours, the last speaker sat down, and instead of any manifested disposition to retire, one whole bench of mendjers rose and ad- dressed the chair at once. This si'Mi of unabated li'dit- ing zeal, so delightful to the Pritish heart, drew down loud api)lause from the whole House. This was not a Whig and Tory battle. Many Tories rejoiced in 32 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. the decision. Ministers were defeated, and the bill thrown out. FROM MY FATHER TO HIS MOTHER. " MiLFiELD Hill, 1819. " My dear Mother, — The object of Aaron's mission is to inform you of what may a little surprise you, — that I purpose setting off by to-morrow's coach for London. I had a hasty letter from George on Saturday. He has had an interview with the proprietor of Woodcot, and seems much pleased with the appearance of the place. He says, ' I think I must settle there at last ; ' but as if wanting confidence in his own opinion, he says he is much at a loss for want of my judgment and advice. Dear George ! I pray that he may be well directed at last. " How shocking and distressing is the awful and melan- choly end of poor Sir Samuel Romilly ! He was in every respect a most estimable man, and ' take him for all in all, we may not look upon his like again.' It is an event to cloud a whole nation with sorrow. I have just had a visit from the sweet boys in their night-shirts. George sends grandmamma a kiss. — Your ever affectionate son, " John Grey." About this time began my father's friendship with Lord Althorp, which continued during the whole of his life. " 1820. " My dear Mother, — Lord Strathmore and the Clerical party in Durham are anxious to get up an opposition to Lambton, but have not yet succeeded in finding a candidate sufficiently hardy to make the attempt ; and he had need be in earnest who does so, for he will find Lambton in earnest. I had a letter from him a few days ago on the subject. He, moreover, though he may have increased the enmity of some, has gained the favour of many by his bold assertion of his sentiments as to the necessity of Reform. Lord Althorp says, ' Lambton is one of the LORD ALTIIORP AND MR. LAMBTON. 33 cleverest men goincr, 1>ut of had temper on the days when lie is bilious.' Lord Althorp is one of the best-tempered men I have seen, he talks and laughs so heartily ; he gave us a great deal of Parliamentary information and anecdote. He had been appointed to present the address to Lord Fitz- AVilliam three days before he was hen? ; he did not tell us what a fine speech he himself made, but much of Lord Fitz-AVilliam's feeling and tears. "We regretted his hasty departure on account of the King's death ; he was obliged to go to Northamptonshire, which he represents, to see if there was any stir there, on his way to town. He came by mail to Newcastle, having sent his horses on before. He is the son of Karl Spencer, and talks about his father and mother with gi-eat simplicity. His wife died at the birth of the first child, and I thought he looked gravely though kindly on Johnny, who hung about him a good deal. Our boys have had famous employment with the horses. The little lady grows apace, and is constant in her preference of papa. Hannah sends her kind love with mine to you. — Your affectionate son, " John Grey." One of the first persons with whom my father actively co-operated in promoting Liberal principles was the man of whom he speaks thus truly, when he says he who opposes him had need be in earnest, for he will find him in earnest, — John George I^aml)ton, afterwards Lord Durham. A general election followed the death of the old King. The Parliament returned Mas not much more favourable to the prospects of lleform than that wliich preceded it, Mr. Lambton wrote to my father, — " I well know the extent of your influence in North Durliam, and will write to you innnediutely if I see a prospect of any contest. 1 fear the prc'spect of the friends of indcjjend- ence is not us cheering in Northumbcrlund us it is here." C 34 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. There ^vas a contest, and Mr. Lambton M'as successful. The rule " Wliatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might," was not neglected by my father. On the occasion of this canvass he rose one morning at three o'clock, took a horse and rode out at that early hour, galloped through a wide district, obtained the votes of the liberally disposed, and came home to breakfast. As he rode up the hill to the house, his tired horse stumbled and fell, and threw him over its head. Several of his ribs were broken, and he was a good deal bruised. He said not a word to his wife, but ate his breakfast, mounted a fresh horse, and rode off for the rest of the day to canvass another part of the country. She knew nothing, until the evening, of his hurt. At the subsequent election meeting, the agent of the opposite party reproached him for taking an unfair advantage of him by such early rising. My father answered him with some good-natured witticism. Early rising, prompt action, and forcible argument were the limits of the unfairness of which he could be accused in any electioneering transactions. Mr. Lamb- ton lost no time, after his election, in bringing before the House a motion for Parliamentary Reform, which, however, he was obliged some weeks later to withdraw, because the public mind was so much agitated about the Queen's trial The success of a Liberal candidate in those times was a matter of much greater excitement and interest to his electors than it can be in times when, under a reformed representation of the people, the fate of great measures does not so absolutely depend on the ascendency of one party or another in the Cabinet. For these were times when public liberties had been invaded, when every POLITICS. 35 effort was being made by the Govcrnracnt to prevent the people from expressing their opinions, and when hinguage of indignant disapproval of Government measures was held l»y the wisest men of the day. Feelings, not of rebellion or discontent, but of the best and noblest kind, might then be appealed to in the people, by those who were opposed to the principalities and powers of the time being. But it may be as well to go back a few years, and sketch very slightly a few of the features of that troubled time. Although in years long after the dangers which threatened the country -were past, my father often recounted in his family, with laughter and merriment, some amusing passages of that period, with stories of Lord Eldon, Lord Sidmouth, and others, of whom he could then speak with a good-humoured tolerance, he often said that " thev were tunes to shake a man's soul." CHAPTEE II. ..." Our appeal Is unto Him, who counts a nation's tears, With whom are the oppressor and opprest, And vengeance, and the recompensing years." English agriculture can scarcely be said to have had a history until about the accession of George ill., and it had no literature, properly speaking, till much later than that date. Its history may be divided into four periods :— Is^. From the accession of George iii. to the end of the last century. 2d. Erom the beginning of this century to the Peace of 1815. This was a period of some progress, and of much outward prosperity to agriculturists. This pro- sperity, however, was less real than apparent, for it was based on an insecure foundation. This was the time of the European war, when the prices of agricul- tural produce rose very high. Sd. Erom the Peace of 1815 to the repeal of the Corn Laws, 184G. This was a time of perpetually recurring and great distress among agriculturists, during which the Legislature persevered in the vain attempt to pro- tect the agricultural interests by restrictions on foreign produce. At the latter part of this period, however, an impulse was given, more full of promise than any which had gone before. Adversity taught what prosperity could not. The Koyal Agricultural Society came into being at this time (1838), of which more hereafter. PATRIARCnS OF AGRICULTURE. 37 ■ith. From the repeal of the Corn Laws until now — a time of unrestricted competition with the whole world, and of sound progress. During this period thousands of tons of foreign manure liave been imported, incalcul- ably increasing the producing powers of the soil, and many of the physical sciences have been studied in relation to agriculture, and practically brought to bear upon it, especially chemistry, meteorology, geology, and mechanics. The patriarch of English agriculture, good old Arthur Young, died in 1820, at eighty years of age. He had been totally blind for ten years ; but so clear-sighted was he in another sense, that he prophesied much which has since come to pass in the history of agricul- ture. So far back as 17G9, he wrote an essay urging the expediency of free-trade in corn, for which mon- strous and unpatriotic proposition he was burned in effigy. He was a man of a very pure and innocent nature. His enthusiasm about agriculture caused many people to wonder. But there were otlier men of pure and manly nature, who were, tlie very year of his death, studying his subject with a like enthusiasm, and in no unpliilosophic spirit. Our leading agriculturists do not seem to have inclined to metaphysics. Tliey have been brought much in contact with the beautiful works of God under the open sky ; and it has been foolisldy supposed tliat the simple, primitive occupation of hus- bandry needs only to claim for its service the most ordinary kind of men, with more of sinew than brain. Shallow p(diticians are still too nnieli in the hal)it of making invidious compari.sons between the cultivators of the soil and ])eople wIkj are employed in other kinda of industry, and to as.sume that the former class 38 MEMOIE OF JOHN GREY. present a solitary exception to the law of energetic pro- gress wliicli prevails in our manufactures and arts. It is true that our feudal institutions, which tended to pro- duce anti- commercial habits of thouglit still too much influence our laws and ideas about landed property; that our large landowners are too seldom men of business, that territorial acquisitions give a factitious importance ; without the exercise of business talent or judgment; and. that the condition of some of our rural populations, in re- gard to education, material prosperity, and moral char- acter, is a disgrace to our boasted civilisation. This is a remnant of the old regime which supposed only one noble class, and required the enslavement and degrada- tion of all other classes in order to support it — the tail of the snake, which lives and is dangerous after the head is destroyed. But agriculture, like every other noble cause, has had its apostles and its prophets ; and the work of these men has been, with strong brains and unprejudiced minds, to grapple with questions which demand the clear understanding of the laws that regulate society, and upon the right understanding of which the well-being of the community depends, added to an acquaintance with the physical laws of the uni- verse, and experience of their subtle workings brought to light by science, together with a sound knowledge of rural, political, and international economy. My father was accustomed to say that if agriculture was ever to rank with other great sciences, "the culture of tlie mind must precede that of the land ;" and in this rule he wished to see every class if possible included, dowii to the humblest field- labourer. Of all the branches of enterprise in which our great commercial England is embarked, there is none in AGRICULTURISTS. 39 N\ liicli tlie capital invested, the industry employed, or the result produced is so large in amount, or so impor- tant in kind, as in agriculture. It is one which em- braces vast and varied interests, and which requires the sen'ice of brains not less calm and clear than those of Arthur Young, and the men who followed him. Agriculturists, as a class, have been accused, and not unjustly, of narrowness and selfishness in urging the consideration of their own interests on the Government, when those interests, as has so often been the case, seemed to be in opposition to those of all other classes ; but nowhere can we find lives more unselfish or more devoted to tlie public good than those of our great scientific agriculturists. Hearts as well as brains worked in the great cause ; and I think that the si)irit of the man who labours with a constant concern for the clieapening of the people's bread, is very closely akin to the compassionate spirit which prompted the C[uestion, " Children, have ye any meat ?" which could not endure to send the multitudes away fasting, and multi- plied the loaves for their use. My father expressed his hopes for the future of agi-iculture in his spirited sketch of its rapid and vigorous development in his own county. " This part of the country," lie says, " continual in a great measure wild and uncultivated so late as the begin- ning of the la.st century, when peace and industry had jirdduccd tlicir happy cffi'cts in llio improved a|i]K'ar;iiice and increa.sc'd i>ro(luctiveness of the more southeiii pro- vinces of the kingdom. And if it sli<»uld e.xcite surprise that large districts, which even within tin- last eighty years were in a state of nature, covered with broom, furze, or nishes, the indigenous firoductions of the s(»il, — wliidi Mere, the latest in attnictiiig the attention of the lius1)aii(lnian, and e.xperienting the benefit of his skill and industry, — 40 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. should in the interval have outstripped those in the inarch of agricultural improvement, which had been for centuries in a course of cultivation, the fact may, perhaps, be in some measure accounted for by the existence of the very circum- stances which at first sight seem unfavourable to such a result. Agriculture had begun to experience considerable encouragement, and to make considerable progress in dif- ferent parts of England, while the country on both sides of the Scottish border continued to be the scene of rapine and violence, of hostile incursions and of predatory war- fare. Such a state of society afforded no security for life, and no protection for property ; the fruits of industry were too uncertain and precarious to induce to its exercise in the cultivation of the soil, and the habits and disposition of the people were little fitted for the task. Nor did they for a long time after that blessed union had been effected, which put an end to the state of hatred and hostility which existed between the two countries, and which has contri- buted so essentially to the happiness and prosperity of both, betake themselves to settled and industrious habits. They lived in houses of the meanest description, and the accommo- dation supplied to their cattle was scanty and inconvenient. The country remained generally unenclosed ; and the part on which they bestowed cultivation, such as it was, con- sisted of small crofts adjoining their dwellings. The Ijlough then in use is described as a clumsy and inefficient instrument, and the harrow was constructed without joints and without iron, of branches of the mountain-birch fixed together with wooden pegs, with tines of the tough broom, which it was the business of the husbandman to sharpen or renew by help of his clasp-knife, while his unshod cattle, yoked by hempen traces, were turned off to regale them- selves uj)on the neighbouring waste. The rent then paid consisted of a contribution in kind from the produce of the land, and in personal service. Such was the state of things in the Border counties at a period when the fields of ' Merry England ' were already divided by luxuriant hedgerows, and yielded their annual harvests to the culti- THE DAWN OF ENTERPRISE ON THE BORDERS. 41 vator's toil. But this apparently unpromising state of things contained within it the seeds of a rapid improvement, and the gro^\•th of a system of agriculture approaching l>robably as near to perfection as any that this country at present exhibits. Habits of domestic peace and industry gradually succeeded those of broils and discord. The open country, hitherto undrained of its fertility, offered a tempt- ing field for tlie exercise of skill, industry, and enterprise. But few enclosures of inconvenient size, and fences of waste- ful dimensions, stood in the way of laying out and dividing farms into fields of approved size and convenient arrange- ment; and what is of still greater importance, perhaps, few of those customs and prejudices were to l)e overcome and uprooted, which too freijuently impede the introduc- tion of improvements among the occupiers of anciently cultivated districts. '' ^len of intelligence, activity, and industry were attracted from other quarters to settle in the fertile vales in the northern parts of this county, of whom none bear a more distinguished name in the annals of agricultural improve- ment, or are more deserving of the praise and gratitude of their countrymen, than the late Messrs. Culley. The examjtle set by these and other energetic and spirited agriculturists, together with the signal success which at- tended their exertions, gave a stimulus to the surrounding district, and in a few years tlie inexpert operations and languid system of husbandry whicli had previously pre- vailed gave place to others of extraordinary expedition and efficacy. The owners of property too, fortunately for thcmst'lves, for the cause of improvement, and the bene- fit of tiie country at large, co-operated with their spirited tenants in the great work which was in progress, by giving them farm.s of such size as to afford scope for their opera- tions to 1»(* conductt'(l with economy and effect, and such h-ngtli of lease (not less than twenty-one y«'ars) as afforded t\u' guarantee of a return for their outlay ami industiy. \\ ithout the security and inducement to spend capital whicli leujjes afford to tenants, such a rapid change as that 42 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. we are contemplating never could have been effected. The prevalence of turnip-growmg in the place of naked fallows, or crops of peas full of weeds, together with the use of artificial grasses, which was introduced about the same time, made a complete revolution in the management and value of land, and added immensely to the productiveness of the country. The money which was made by farming was again eagerly applied, under the encouragement of leases, to the reclaiming of waste lands and the promotion of agricultural improvement. Section after section of the outfield land, so called, was brought into productive cul- tivation ; the sober labour of the flail became too slow a process for the increased produce. Threshing-machines, worked by horses, or driven by water, and sometimes by Avind, became general, although in our days the latter fickle and uncertain power has been universally superseded by steam ; comfortable and substantial farm-houses were built, and commodious sets of farm-offices, laid out upon regular and compact plans, were erected in central situations, with roads diverging from them, so as to give the easiest access to all parts. The gradual increase of rents after the termina- tion of the unfortunate American War in 1783 encouraged landlords in the outlay necessary to eff"ect such substantial and permanent improvements ; an increase in the demand for labour in manufactures, in the rate of wages, and in the population, all tended to an advance of the farmer's profits, and a consequent increase of the competition for land, and of the rents offered for it. And when the war arising out of the French Revolution, with the extraordinary expendi- ture and unprecedented issues of paper money attending it, was in full operation, producing, if not real wealth, yet something which for the time stood in the place of it, the rents of farms which fell out of lease from the year 1795 to 1805 were advanced frequently three, and in some cases four fold. Then it was that the last great impulse was given to the already rapidly improving system of North- umbrian agriculture. The farmers found themselves in possession of abundant capital, with habits, energy, and RAPID rnoGUESs. 43 capacity for tlie greatest exertions; the last remaining jior- tiuns of land which were by any means accessible to the plougli were jnit in requisition ; large stones were dug up and removed from the sides of mountains to ]>rocure an arable surface; bogs were drained, and lands hitherto open and unproductive were enclosed, and, by the a})])lication of lime and good husbandry, made to wave with golden har- vests. Reductions of rent, failure of tenants, and change of occupancy, were the etiVct of sul)se(iuent events ; but still the system of agriculture which a time of unexampled prosperity produced has been maintained, and a substitute has even in a great measure been found for the high jirices of the war, in the increased jiroduce obtained by recent improvements, such as the use of bone-manure, extensive and systematic draining, sub-soil ploughing, and a some- what better understanding of the application of animal and vegetable chemistry to agricultural objects, or, in other words, the combination of the science with the practice of agriculture. The grand desideratum, however, of basing the practice of agriculture upon scientific ])rinciples, it must be confessed, has as yet made but small ])rogress. To effect that important end the culture of the miml must precede that of the land ; and although the farmers of the district now under review, holding large tracts of land, and possessed of great capital, have received a more liberal education, and are more distinguished for intelligence and information than many others, yet the daily occui)ati(ins of the practical farmer, as such, are in no way favourable to scientific research and intellectual attainments. We must look to other quarters for the consummation of this great object; and happily a new era is opening upon us, and brighter prospects are rising to our view ; the great and infiuential in the land have engaged themselves in the work. This most imjjortant branch of our national in- dustry, and source r)f our national )>rosperity, is no longer to be left freserves him from many temptations to idleness which he otherwise might be subject to. Those great veterans and leaders in agricul- tural improvement, the Messrs. Culley, who saw me, a youth, inexperienced, and yet in circumstances of great responsibility, bestowed upon me much kindness and much valuable instruction. To them I was indebted for the parental advice which otherwise I would have been deprived of. I was then also associated at an early time with uther agriculturists in forming agricultural societies, which Avere not common as they are now. One, for instance, the Tweedside Society, which was originated at Cornhill, and afterwards amalgamated with the Border Society of Kelso, which since that time has stood as the Union Society, was of great importance to the Tweedside district. I then became knoAVTi to that venerable agricul- turist Sir John Sinclair, he whose zeal in agriculture led him to spend his entire life in obtaining information, and in diffusing it by numerous jKiblications. Those publica- tions have been very much set aside, and have become obsolete, by the progress of improvement, and l)y the great number of works since published on agricultural subjects. 1 lowever, there is one work of his, — his S/nlislicid History of Scolland, — which will always rciiiain a valuable record of that country. When In- was engaged nn lijs last and largest work, his Code of yfr/rirullure, wliidi is a romp<'ndiuin of many of the others, he did nif the hoiiniir to call me to his aid, and to refer to me tin* various sheets for remark and criticism before j)ublication. I advert to this, gentlemen, to show you that 1 was called, 46 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. in former life, to study agriculture in theory as well as in practice. At a later time than that I had much inter- course with those valuable men who are now, alas ! taken from us, — the late Lord Althorp, Mr. Pusey, and Mr. Handley, in originating the Eoyal Agricultural Society of England. With them I had a bulky correspondence, which I preserve to this day. When that Society was originated I was invited from year to year to act as one of their judges, and to contribute to their publications, and amona;st other contributions of mine there stands to this day the first report from any county in the kingdom." The first year of my father's married life (1815) was one iu which questions of vital import rose on the political horizon, presenting many a hard problem to thou"htful minds. He bei^an to address himself, in the quiet of his home, to the subject of economical politics, a science, if it could be called a science at all, then quite in its infancy. It was the great year of the Peace, a year of re-adjustments and re-arrangements, of solemn considerations for the future policy of the nations, for the settlement of Europe, and the establishment of a just balance of power. The public men to whom my father felt the greatest attraction from his youth were invariably men of high moral courage and rectitude, and of wide and liberal views. In his old age he read and re-read the Life of Francis Horner, and recom- mended it to his children, pointing out how his was the work of a thinker in an age of debaters, how he worked for an end not near of attainment, labouring without personal ambition, and seeing other men enter into his labours and reap reward. My father's political views did not undergo any material change from the time that he first began to think on public questions until his death. They may have been modified to some UIS POLITICAL PRINCIPLES. 47 degree by experience aiul changing circumstances, and he constantly confessed himself to be a learner ; but there was a great degree of uniformity and consistency both in his opinions and acts. Where abrupt changes in political principles have taken place in the minds of public men, for which there is ever too great a readi- ness in opposing parties on either side to impute unworthy and interested motives, the reason of tliese changes may in part be, that the conclusions so abruptly abandoned were the result of an intellectual process solely, unsupported by the profounder conviction which has its seat in the heart ; and I have thought that the secret of my father's consistency lay in the fact that his opinions had their root very deep in his soul and affections, that they were indigenous, so to speak, not grafted from without. God made him a Liberal ; and a Liberal in the true sense he continued to be to the end of his life. In conversation with him on any public questions, one could not but observe how much such questions were matters of feeling with him. I believe that his political principles and public actions were alike the direct fruit of that which held rule within his soul, — I mean his large benevolence, his tender com- passionateness, and his respect for the rights and liberties of the individual man. His life was a sus- tained effort for the good of others, flowing from these affections. He had no gi'udge against rank or wealth, no restless desire of change for its own sake, still less any rude love of demolition ; but he could not endure to see oppression or wrong of any kind inflicted on man, woman, or child. " You canncjt treat men and women exactly as you do one pound bank-notes, to be used or rejected a.s you think proper," lie said in a letter to the 48 MEMOIR OF JOHN GEEY. Times, when that paper was advocating some ill-con- sidered changes, beneficial to one class, but leaving out of account a residue of humble folk upon whom they would entail great suffering. In the cause of any maltreated or neglected creature he was uncompromis- ing to the last, and when brought into opposition with the perpetrators of any social injustice he became an enemy to be feared. Some who remembered him in early manhood have described his commanding presence when he stood forth on public occasions as the champion of liberal principles, " unsubdued b}^ the blandishments of his partisans, and unabashed by the rancour of his opponents." There was seldom to be found a flaw in his argument or a fault in his grammar on those occasions, when " he carried confusion and dismay into the enemy's camp," yet the force which his hearers acknow- ledged lay in his love of truth, his clearness of judg- ment, and the known innocency of his life, rather than in rhetoric. The true key to an occasional bitterness against those whom he thought wrong-doers, lay also in his great sensitiveness to wrong done. There was no self- satisfaction in his denunciation of evil ; the contemplation of cruelty in any form was intolerable to him ; he would speak of the imposition of social disabilities of any kind, by one class of persons on another, with kindling eyes and breath which came quickly, but he always turned away with a sense of relief from the subject of the evil-doers, or the evil done, to the persons who suffered, whose position his compassionate instinct would set him at once to the task of ameliorating. His children remember the large old Family Bible, which he used punctually to bring forth every Sunday afternoon and peruse for PREFERENCE FOR PRIVATE LUfX 49 liours, and his appeals to them to listen to the grandeur of certain favourite passages which he often read aloud. The Book of the Prophet Isaiah was a great favourite, and his love for such words as the following, which he often quoted, was an index of the complexion of his mind : — " Is not this the fast that I liave chosen : to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heaAy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break ever}' yoke ?" He was free from personal ambition. He never was in Parliament, though several times solicited to stand for towns in the north. He loved the country and all country pursuits, and dreaded any lengthened residence in London, having all his life a strong aversion to cities. His influence in political matters Avas, from this cause, less direct, but not the less distinct in its kind. It was the testimony of one who wrote of him after his death, that, " there are not a few living now, both men and women, in whose souls he kindled an enthusiasm about public matters, which has been lasting and fruitful, whose whole lives have been coloured by his influence, and who, through that influence, have aspired and attained to much which they would otherwise have tliouglit Ijeyond tlieir reach." Another says of him, " It was from liim I first learned what j^uhlic spirit really means." Literature was not his line. He wrote no book. With no seat in the councils of the nation, no claims to autliorship, his work for his country being compre- hended in liis lon<; and successfid labours for the advancement of agriculture, and in his furtherance of many great and useful movements and measures ])y piihlic Hi>caking, private persuasions, and frL'(|uent con- D 50 MEMOIR or JOHN GREY. tributions to piiHic journals, etc., whence the motive, it may be asked, for presenting a written record of him, further than the wish of those who loved him best — his children — to hand down to their children some sort of portrait of him, by which they also may learn to love and to imitate ? But the answer will occur to many. Men of great integrity and purity of life, who have no thought of pushing into any ambitious sphere, but only of doing with all their might the work which their hand finds to do, are the salt of society, the strength of a nation, and it is not well that such should be forgot. Their example, too, is more within the reach of the many than is that of men who have filled with honour more conspicuous places open only to the few. A writer in the Edinburgh Review, in the year of the passing of the Keform Bill (1832), preaches wisely on this head : — " All reform, except a moral one, will prove unavailing. Political reform, pressingly enough wanted, can indeed root out the weeds, (gross, deep-fixed, lazy dockweeds, poisonous, obscene hemlocks, ineff"ectual spurry in abun- dance !) but it leaves the ground einidy, ready either for noble fruits or for new worse tares. And how else is a moral reform to be looked for but in this way, that more and more good men are, by a bountiful Providence, sent hither to disseminate goodness, literally to soiv it, as in seeds shaken abroad by the living tree ] For such, in all ages and places, is the nature of a good man ; he is ever a mystic, creative centre of goodness ; his influence, if we consider it, is not to be measured, for his works do not die, but, being of eternity, are eternal, and in new trans- formation, and ever wider diff'usion, endure, living and life-giving. Thou who exclaimest over the horrors and baseness of the time, and how Diogenes would now need RELATION OF AGRICULTURE TO rOLITICS. 01 hco lantenis in daylight, think of tliis ! Over the time thou hast no power ; to redeem a workl sunk in dishonesty has not been given thee. Sok^ly over one man therein tliou hast a quite absohite unoontrolhible power ; him redeem, him make honest ! It viiW be something, it "will be much, and thy life and labour not in vain." I can scarcely demonstrate my father's share in public questions without tracing, in a slight sketch of the times, the intimate connexion between agricultural interests and all other political interests. To return, therefore, to the year 1815. It was hoped that pro- sperity would go hand in hand with peace ; but war is the great destroyer of capital throughout the world. England did not become sensible of this fact during the war. She had been free from the curse of the presence of armies on her own soil, there had been the outward appearance of prosperity at liome, and our exports had been great ; but gold had been thrown away, right and left, on the great desolating marches of Napoleon, The resources of the Continent were exhausted, and foreign countries had no money to ex- change for English productions. Our ships lay in foreign harbours, with their freights rotting, or eaten up by rats. The proclamation of the peace was the beginning of a period of great perplexity to politicians. Our annual war expenditure had been forty millions. The exhaustion of capital, the sudden fall in the value of agricultural jtroduce, the depreciation of the currency, the restric- tions on trade preventing us from seeking relief through the surplus produce of other countries, and, in turn, emptying our own superabundance into foreign i)orts, together with other causes, combined to produce a paralysis of iudustiy, and a prevalence of poverty and 52 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. misery, which found vent, a few years later, in plots and attempted insurrections. There were hard problems to be solved during the long administration of Lord Liverpool. A Government in which Lord Eldon was Chancellor, Lord Sidmouth in the Home Office, and Lord Castlerea^h in the Foreign Office (whatever may be said in favour of Castlereagh's foreign policy), was not one likely to take a wise or large view of measures needful to be adopted at home. Ministers could not see that a different policy was re- quired in a time of peace from what was necessary in a time of war. It became evident to the Liberals that whatever good the nation might hope for from such a Government must be wrested from it by the will of the people ; but that will had no adequate expression, for the representation was so bad that to many it seemed that nothing but the name of a representative system remained. The political education of the people was not, however, altogether retarded during this period of adversity; their growing restlessness under the sense of the need of a reformed representation began from the year 1815 to prepare the way for the great Reform Bill of 1832. The distress among agriculturists (of whom I have more particularly to speak) aided the reform movement. If the landowners and cultivators had been in a state of prosperity during the twenty years which preceded the Eeform Act, they — naturally the most inert class in the country — would have been the last to wish for any change, and the great reform of Parliament would have been postponed ; but as it was they had been long discontented with Parliament, and became at last as desirous as any other class to have a better constituted House of Commons. The agitations EELATION OF AGRICULTURE TO TOUTICS. 53 of those years succeeding the proclamation of peace were, it is clear, productive of good, but they were iu- comprehensible and displeasing to Lords Liverpool, Sidmouth, Eldon, and Castlereagh, who thought that when the war was ended the people had nothing to do but to go quietly back to their homes and enjoy life, failing to see that a people with any life in it requires a national idea to work up to. The war had supplied a national idea for a time, though a much lower one than a people ought to have. The country had come out of the war, and needed some worthy aim presented to it ; the people could not " keep still, fold the hands to sleep, and leave the conduct of affairs to their rulers;' but the rulers of that day could not perceive this, and hence their period of office became a long series of quarrels, a protracted struggle between them and the people. Faults were justly found with the want of economy, the misuse of public money, and the multi- tude of sinecure offices. The vicious life and extrava- gance of the liegent at the same time, and his frequent demands for an increase of revenue, aggravated the dis- content of the people, and tried their patience and loyalty. A succession of wonderfully beautiful seasons had produced those rich harvests which, under a restrictive commercial system, were the curse of the farmers. The large crop of 1813 had left a surplus produce of two or three years. The price of corn fell so low that fanners began to be ruined. In 1815, Mr. "Western laid before the House a })aper of fourteen resolutions, de- claring the unexampled distress of agriculturists, show- ing that the demand for their ])roduce was too small to enable them to meet the heavy taxation, and pray- ing for the removal of their burdens, and the imposition 54 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. of restrictions and duties on all articles produced by foreign agriculture. The landed interest preponderated greatly in Parliament then, and these requests, which sound rather strange to us now, were respectfully listened to. A Corn Bill was passed in this year, which absolutely closed the ports, and forbade the landing of foreign corn until the price of wheat at home had risen to eighty shillings a quarter. This law had the immediate effect of protecting our producers from distress during a time when the price of corn was low. It lessened tempo- rarily agricultural distress, but its effect on the com- munity at large was to cut off the resources in years of scarcity which other countries might have supplied, and to produce again and again a universal distress. It is easy for us to see now that it was short-sighted legisla- tion for a single class, whose interests appeared to be, but were not actually, in opposition to the interest of the nation at large. Bread was sold again at war prices in 1817 and 1818. The commercial and manufacturing population petitioned largely and solemnly against this hastily made Corn Law ; for it must not be supposed that because bread had been cheap for a few years therefore these classes were prosperous. The means of purchase were exhausted ; there was a general lower- ing of the prices of all kinds of productions, and of the value of fixed property, " entailing a convergence of losses and failures" among all classes. Great excite- ment prevailed everywhere; the farmers were in terror; they dared not look forward, for, even with their much- desired protective measures secured, they could not fail to see that the almost exclusive cultivation of wheat forced upon them by the prohibitions on foreign sup - THE CORN BILL OF 1815. 55 plies, would quickly iinpoverisli the soil and become injurious to other kinds of productive cultivation. The arguments in favour of protection could not be expected to find favour with famishing city populations, and the idea that the high price of bread was maintained by artificial means greatly increased the tendency to popu- lar commotion in the large towns. The commercial classes petitioned eagerly, but they had very little voice in the representation, for at this time Leeds, Birmingham, ]\ranchester, Sheffield, Eochdale, Halifax, etc., were unrepresented. And while they were petitioning against the Corn Bill, a fresh petition was urged upon the House for further protection by a large body of landed proprietors. Thus they petitioned against each other, but the voice of the commercial people was drowned by the pitiful wail of the agriculturists, who imceasingly paraded their woes, and met with condolence and indulgence from the landed aristocracy in Parliament. Some, however, of the greatest among landed proprietors — Buckingham, Carlisle, Devonshire, Spencer, Grey, and Grenville — recorded their memorable protest against this Corn Law, asserting that " monopoly is the parent of scarcity, dearness, and imcertaiuty." The law passed, diffusing its bad effects far beyond our own country, exciting in foreign rulers a rival spirit, and producing a " confiict of retaliatory exclusion" injurious to all. I'ut the time came, tlujugh not very soon, for wiser men to take office, and to act in the belief of the more philosophical, that no laws can be good which do not embrace the well-being of the whole community, and that the •sulfi-ring necessarily involved in the self-sacrifice of a particular class for the general good, is a transitory 56 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. suffering, which is followed by a sounder state of prosperity. The year 1817 opened darkly and ominously. In January Lord Sidmouth presented a message to Parlia- ment from the Prince Eegent on the subject of the supposed disaffection of large bodies of the people, and announced at the same time that on the return of the state -carriage through the Park, " the glass of the window had been perforated by two stones from an air-gun, which appeared to have been levelled at the royal person." The temper of the Eegent after this assault was one of suspicion and sullen revengefulness. He gave orders on the 3d of February that papers should be laid before the Houses " containino- information concerning certain practices, meetings, and combina- tions in the metropolis and different parts of the king- dom, evidently calculated to endanger the public tranquillity, to alienate the affections of His Majesty's subjects from His Majesty's person and government, and to bring into hatred and contempt the whole system of our laws and institutions." It is instructive to observe the opposite metliods adopted by the Government and the people in the furtherance of their several objects. With the one it was secrecy, with the other publicity. Lord Sidmouth moved that the above matters should be referred to a committee of secrecy, consisting of eleven Lords. This committee of secrecy examined spies and defaulters, many of whom were wretches of the most miserable character. On the evidence of these men, the secret committee drew up a report, which was laid before the House. This report spoke of undoubted conspiracies in language as solemn as Cicero's denunciation of Catiline, It included in LORD SIDMOUTII. 57 one general condemnation tlie rioters and fanatics wlio are always ready to rush to the front and bring dis- credit and ruin on every popular movement, — the ma- chine-breakers, Spaiield conspirators, and the just and moderate advocates of reform. The anarchist and the noblest spirits of the day were denounced without distinction. lieformers were called seducers, and atten- tion was drawn to the increasing multitudes of the seduced, and the inadequacy of the existing laws to ward oil' the danger. Lord Sidmouth confirmed this awful representation of things in a speech, wherein he said, — " Such was the nature of the evidence, that it left no doubt that a traitorous conspiracy had been formed, for the purpose of overthrowing, by means of a general insurrection, the established government, and of effecting a general plunder and division of property." Let us see what were the measures employed by the liard-pressed and famine-stricken people. The most uufiivourable judge of their proceedings, Lord Sidmouth himself, said in this same speech, — " The seditious are proceeding in their operations with an industry wholly unexampled. Their chief instruments are jtublic meetiuf's ;" he added " that a svstem of clubs had been established by them, under the semblance of demanding rarliamentary reform, but many of them, he was convinced, had that specious pretext in their mouths only, but rebellion ami revolution in llicir hearts." That man's knowledge of human nature must liave been .shallow indeed, who could believe, as lx)rd Sid- moutli and his coUeagues did, to the end of their Hves,that the men who a.ssembled in sober slow-moving thou.sands after the hdunirs of the day — lean, hungry mechanics, cureworn men, elderly, giiive fathers of families, — were 58 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. actuated and inspired by an abstract " love of anarchy," and "spirit of rebellion and revolution," — simple rowdies, with no starving families at home, nor deep questions troublino- their inmost souls. The end of it all was the adoption of that measure, so disgraceful to Lord Liverpool's Administration, the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, the boldest invasion of public liberties attempted since the age of the Stuarts. A month later, Lord Sidmouth wrote a circular letter to the lords-lieutenant of counties, stating that he had obtained the authority of the law- of&cers to proclaim that a Justice of the Peace may issue a warrant to apprehend persons charged before him, upon oath, wdth the publication of seditious pamphlets and libels. Privately, he wrote that he considered it his duty to " avail himself of every means for the disclosure of any offence, either perpetrated or meditated." Every political writer was thiis placed in a most degrading position, and subjected to the danger of being imprisoned on suspicion by the Secretary of State's warrant. This crisis called forth the eloquence of Earl Grey, some portions of whose speech on the liberty of the Press, and the difficulty of defining libel, are not unworthy of Milton's Areopagitica. There now began a little " reign of terror." Men were hanged in rows ; jails were filled with persons sus- pected, or suspected of being suspected. Lord Sidmouth became an important man. He was complimented on the number of plots he brought to light, and on his success in silencing the popular voice. He was told that " the welfare of millions depended on his courage and vigilance." A well-known but not wise divine wrote to him, — " These are times of awful danger ; but, BORDERERS SUSPECTED. 69 my Lord, the great God of heaven has placed your Lordship in the breach :" He established his family at Malvern for safety, while, in a fever of excitement, in an atmosphere of " sedition and treason," he himself bustled back and forward with his OTeen bair, in which were deposited the names of political seducers ; among them was that of my father, who, toiijether with other liberal men in the country, was suspected in a general way of sowing dragons' teeth, which would afterwards spring up armed men, and himself de- nounced, in particular, for his mischievous habit of " haranguing mobs." That Lord Sidmouth was an honourable man, Avith a strong sense of duty to his King, there is no doubt. He has been called a " sober, industrious, vigilant rat-catcher," whose heart was ti-uly in his work. And there is something in the exultation with which his admirers wrote to each other, "Sidmouth has discovered another plot!" not unlike the shout of a party of boys watching with keen delight the operations of a rat-catcher. He laljoured to crush sedition, in which he would, if he could, have crushed also much worthy aspiration ; and this he called up- holding the monarchy. It is curious to obsei-ve the difierence in the opinions of near neighbours as to the state of things in loyal but protesting Northumberland. Northumberland's great Duke wrote to Lord Sidmouth at this time, communicating to him a series of facts relating to his own lieutenancy. AWrv a drtiiil of the facts he .says — "From all tlicso difTcrciit circumstaucos, I confess it apjH-ars to uie that a very widi; and I'.xtcnsive ])lan of iiisurrectifm has lieon funned. ... It is to lie hnpcd that the intentions of these infamou.s revolutionists have Imcii 60 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. frustrated for the present, but, nevertheless, the constant vigilance of ministers and magistrates is required to stop the very first appearance of riot or seditious meetings ; and your Lordship must give me leave to say, that from some extraordinary expressions dropped in a large company at Paris, in the hearing of one of my friends, I cannot enter- • tain the least doubt but that we are obliged to foreign propagandists for the mischief intended. ... I am sure, my Lord, the intended march of the delegates from Man- chester to London must too forcibly have reminded your Lordship of the march of the Marseillois to Paris at the com- mencement of the French Revolution. — I have the honour to be, with the highest regard and esteem, your Lordship's most faithful servant, NORTHUMBERLAND." " We were told," said Mr. Lambton, in a speech to the electors of his county, " that the men of the north were in rebellion, and that they were united in societies to overturn the Constitution. I was told that my property was to be partitioned, and that on my return I should find others enjoying it. What was my answer? I said, I don't believe it ; but if it be true, I would much rather my property should be partitioned among my friends in the north, than among the corruptionists of the House of Commons." It was reported that there were a hundred thousand men in arms in Northumber- land, and this included a company of the Cheviot shepherds, nightly drilled by my father ! A meeting was held in the northern part of the county, by the quiet and determined friends of reform, on which oc- casion my father thus expressed himself, in proposing " The cause of Civil and Eeligious Liberty all over the World "— " There exists now-a-days a set of men who, arrogating to themselves the possession of all that is valuable in patriotism and all that is virtuous in loyalty, scruple not SPEECH rROTESTI>T. AGAINST MINISTERIAL MEASURES. 6 1 to load with obloquy and reproach those whose sentiments lead them to pursue a contrary course of conduct. But the definition of loyalty is substantially altered now from the acceptation it bore in the better days of our constitu- tion. He is not now accounted the loyal subject who, living in uniform compliance Avith the laws of his country, contributes in her hour of need, both by his purse and his person, to her safety, and who reveres his king as the in- alienable safeguard of that constitution, the health and strength of which he considers himself to be supporting when he supports the rujhts of the people, in union with the privileges of the monarch. No ! but he is dignified with the appellation who is content basely to truckle to the minions of power, to follow an existing administration through all its devious paths of mis-rule, and to sacrifice liis liberty on the shrine of corruption. A spirit of political persecution has gone abroad, — the natural offspring of that odious Act of the last session by which the writ of Habeas Corpus was suspended, and that best palhuliuna of British liberty dashed to the ground — a spirit which, I am sorry to observe, has manifested itself in no small degree in our own immediate neighbourhood ; one instance, which at this moment occurs to my recollection, is that of some re- spectable individuals, who were considered unfit to hold the situation of high-constables in a district, and for no other reason, in my conscience I believe, than that they were known to have been active in promoting the very constitutional measure of petitioning Parliament against that very unconstitutional favourite of ministers, the Pro- perty Tax. Of another gentleman it was reported that he had been fuuncen converted into a productive source of misery to the people of this country 1 How comes it, that whilst other nations are reduein" their debts and taxes, we onlv ex- perience an aggravation of our burdens and an aljridgment of our liberties ] ^Vhence is it, that amid the bounties of Providence, genial sea.sons and abundant harvests, our land is heard to groan with juiujierism and wretchedness? Is not the cause to be found, in a great degree, in the wa.stc- E G6 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. fill expenditure of the public treasure, and in that im- politic system of restrictions on our foreign intercourse, which check the springs of commerce, and paralyse the industry, the ingenuity, and the enterprise of our country- men 1 These are the benefits which the present system of government has produced. It has filled the land with misery — that misery has naturally created discontent — and that discontent, construed into disafi"ection, has formed the pretext for suspending our rights, and gratifying our rulers, by the adoption of more despotic measures. It has even been asserted, gentlemen, that the peaceful mountains that now surround us are the abodes of Radicals, by which they mean men who would overturn the established government of their country ; but I deny the assertion : my experience of the conduct and character of their inhabitants, the very aspect and order of the present meeting, prove its falsehood. And if there is one man here so deluded as to propose to himself to create his own happiness by spreading misery around him — so wicked and so foolish as to hope to enrich himself by converting his country into a desert — then from my heart I declare that I regard him with an equal feeling of compassion and contempt. But there is no such person, and I rejoice that I have this day an oj^portunity to stand forward and repel the calumny. " I should be sorry to trespass unwarrantably upon your time, but as I never had before, and may never have again, an opiDortunity of meeting so many of my neighbours and fellow-parishioners together, may I entreat you to bear with me for a few minutes if I venture to remind you that we have duties to perform as well as rights to defend ; that whilst we are bold in asserting our rights, and earnest in maintaining our privileges, we ought to be equally careful to perform our duties. I would remind you of those duties which we owe to society and to ourselves, as good citizens and as good Christians : for you may rest assured, that there is no guarantee for the good government of a State, or for the honest administration of its public aff"airs, equal to that which is found in the intelligence, the indepen- PLACEMEN AND PENSIOXEKS. 67 (lence, the morality, and the virtue of the great bodj' of the people. 77«,vv', gentlemen, are the glorious safeguards that liberty raises around herself for her own protection. And lastly, I Avould remind you of those duties which we owe to posterity, as men to whose care is committed the presentation of that Constitution which was framed by the wisdom of our forefatliers, which has been preserved to us by their firmness, and consecrated by the best of their blood, — that Constitution which gave energy to our councils and valour to our soldiers, which filled our haltita- tions Anth industry, and stimulated our mechanics to skill and our merchants to enterprise, because it conferred liberty on the subject, — that Constitution which has borne the vessel of the State triumphant through many storms and tempests, and will still save her from the impending evil of the times, and the misrule of a pusillanimous Ad- ministration, if the men of England will but make it their peculiar care, and consider it to be their paramount duty, to preserve it unimpaired for the benefit of posterity." " Placemen and pensioners " were a constant source of dissatisfaction to the people. Their case was bad enough. An Act of the 50th George iir. had enabled public officers to retire on pensions. At the time the bill passed the amount of allowances to retired officers of the Customs was only £7800, but in 1820 they amounted to no less than £90,000. Numbers of per- sons retired from offices, not because they were super- annuated or unfit, but because Ministers "wished to make provision for otlier persons. Others, however, retired from office after office on account of unfitness, and received a pension on each resignation, as Sir l'>ellingham Graham, who in 1818 was receiving retired allowances for f(jur offices, for each of which he had been declared unfit. The giant ing of pensions was carried on with much mystery and secrecy. Josej)h G8 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. Hume laboriously sought out and brouglit to light many of these abuses. The good effect of his labours was manifested some years afterwards, when several officers applied for leave to retire on pensions, and were not allowed, " because," said the Ministers, " if we allow it, Joe Hume will be down upon us." Mr. Hume visited Northumberland soon after his first successful campaign against the misuse of the public money. At a reception given to him at Berwick, my father being called upon to speak, made the following remarks : — " I hold it to be no very difficult task for a member to rise in his place in Parliament, and declaim generally about the pressure of taxation, the extravagance or impolicy of the measures of the Ministry, or the corruption of their own honourable House ! But for a man to wade through all tlie complicated details of financial operations, detecting errors, and suggesting improvements, and to devote with unremitted labour his days and his nights to the work, testifies a perseverance and patriotism that can originate in no trivial motive, and are deserving of no light com- mendation. Mr. Hume's Parliamentary conduct has afforded an extraordinary example of zeal and ability in the dis- charge of the trust that his constituents have committed to his care. I rejoice in the object of the present meeting, because it has often occurred to me that we are too tardy and indifferent in expressing our sense of the merits of such services. If news of a victory reaches us, immediately fires are kindled on every hill-top, and every town and every house bears testimony to the general joy ; and should the con- quering hero come among us, at once every hat is in the air, and all throats are distended to send his name to the skies, whUst we allow to pass almost without notice the more silent but not less important services of peaceful men. But so it is, — ' We mark tlie tempest's rage, the comet's fires, Forget the shower, the sunshine, and the breeze.' JOSEPH HUME. C9 I will yield to no one in zeal for my oountrj''s glory. I weiukl nut bestow on that man who risks his life and all that is dear in family, fortune, or connexions in his country's cause a niggard share of praise. But the legislator of peace- ful times, who devotes his life and talents to promote the welfare of his country, to chock the extravagance of an Administration, or rei>ress the encroachments of power, and by so doing to strengthen the fabric of social order, is not he deserving of a more lasting gratitude, than he who marks the course of his life with the desolations of con- quest ? Such have been the objects of Mr. Hume's un- remitting labours, — labours which, I will venture to say, have not been exceeded by those of any official stipendiary', whilst there exists this difference, that the one is paid for them and the other is not. Did I say that he is not paid for his labours ? I am sure he will himself be the first to check me in the assertion, for I would ask you, gentlemen, is he not paid for exertions however great, who receives the thanks of every honest man ] But he possesses more, — something which I am sure he holds more precious than any expression of praise or gratitude, — I mean the internal consciousness of deserving them, and I rejoice that I now have the opf)ortunity of wishing him health and every blessing and ail success in his future exertions.' For some years after this meeting, Mr. Hume cor- responded with my father on the subjects about which he was occupied in I'arliament, taxation, etc. "Do not think," he said, writing to my father in 1827, " that I have forgotten you. No bustle will ever obliterate from my recollection the manly and patriotic sentiments delivered hy you at Berwick. I shall be happy at every <)]»portunity to renew your acquaintance, and shall en- • je.ivuur to secure by my future public c(jiulueand occupation of land under the depreciating system ; expensive improvements M-ere undertaken ; and innumer- able contracts entered into, which the forcible restriction of the currency, by the passing of Peel's bill, has had the eflFect of rendering completely ruinous. " Formerly, the jiroprietor of an estate worth £20,000 imagined he could safely take a mortgage of £10,000 upon it, and still be possessed of an interest ■worth £10,000 in his ]iropcrty. The owner and mortgagee had thus equal stakes in the land ; but how do tlu'y stand now ] The estate will only sell for £15,000, yet the mortgagee is entitled to the payment of his £10,000, and that too at a time when it is worth £13,000 or £14,000 of the money that he invested ; so that the parties who started equally in the transaction come off, the one possessed of 10,000 good hard sovereigns in lieu of the 10,000 bank-notes which he advanced, worth actually about los. 9d. each; and the other, after all the drawbacks which the transfer and pos- session of land are subjected to in the way of stamps, con- veyances, repairs, and management, with at most £5000; and such, sir, is the actual condition of a large portion of the landowners uprm whom yon draw down the public odium, by calling upon them to ' reduce their rents, and be content to live less luxuriously,' as if they were the cormo- rants who consume the food of the commonwealth, leaving others to starve. " So far with regard to that much-.suffering class, the inferior owners of land, to whom the reduction in the price of such articles as constitute their family and household exiK-nses is in no degree commensurate with the dimimition of their property. " Now, a« to the deplorable condition of the peasantry, nothing can be worse than tin- ])lau you no deservedly reproliate, of eking out insnflicient wages l)y a donation from the poor's fund. Hut is there not something e(iually §2 . MEMOm OF JOHN GREY. mischievous and impolitic in the plan that has been yielded to by the employers in various districts, of fixing a minimum price of labour, or a uniform rate of wages ] The price of labour, like everything else, will regulate itself, if left to find its level, by the supply and demand. While the labour of one man may be worth fifteen shillings, that of an inferior workman may not be worth more than seven or eight shillings, yet he is to claim equal wages with his superior in strength and dexterity — a rule which would soon reduce all labourers to the standard of the most in- efiicient, making them, so long as they stand their appointed hours, very indiff'erent as to the quantity of work they perform." ■"■ 1 The followiig letter, written by my eldest brother, on the subject of " piece-work," may be interesting in connexion with the above :— "MiLFIELD, Scpf. 1, 1868. " Referring to onr conversation about the earnings of South of England and Northern Counties of England labourers, 1 have looked back to a circum- stance which came under my own knowledge and management, which bears on the subject. "In 1855, some letters appeared in the Times, throwing blame on land- owners for not giving employment at fair wages to labourers, and stating the wages that an able-bodied man had to support his family of so many children was from 8s. to 9s. a week. I ventured to reply to these by saying it was unfair to expect proprietors to give more than the market price for labour, or to find work that they did not think necessary or to be remunerative, and unreasonable to require work to be found at the door of the labourers, when there was actually a greater demand for labour than it could be foimd to supply in other districts. " I went on to say that I had at that time about 2000 men employed in di'ainage works, at which they were averaging from 20s. to 25s. a week by piece-work ; and that I engaged to employ any number that might be sent, on the same works, at the same piece-work wages. I was shortly inundated with letters from all parts of the South of England :—Godalming, Surrey; Ripley, do. ; Long Stratton, Norfolk ; Woodbridge, Suffolk ; Ampthill, Bedfordshire ; Colchester, Essex ; Market Harborough, Leicestershire ; Pinner, Middlesex ; Bishop-Stortford, Herts, and many other places. I believe about 200 men came to me, who were stated to be good workmen, and accustomed to use the spade and pick-axe. I ai)portioued these in ten or twenty different places where draining was going on, according as lodgings could be obtained. It was soon found that where tlie cutting was hard and stony they could do nothing, and many left without fmishmg any work. Some went on for a few weeks or months, but none made more . L.VBOUE AND WAGES. 83 My father compared the state of Scotland with that of England, in one of the letters alluded to above : — " There is a marked difference between the healthful and respectable appearance of the peasantry in the northern districts of Eui,dand and the soutlunn jiarts of Scotland, and the look of poverty, too frequently joined to that of dissipation, whicli is observable in the same class of people in the south of England. As regards Scotland, this must than 12s. a week, or from one-third to one-half less than our Northumbrians were niakini; in the same fields. " Before the year wa.s out, all had left except ten out of the twenty who were allotted to Chevington. There the soil was clay without stone, and cut easily. These few remained for several years, and got to be tolerably expert workmen ; but owing to want of strength and energy, they never got Wyond 15s. a week ; indeed, there was not a man amongst tlie whole importation that had legs or shoulders to compare with our lads of seven- teen years of age. My e.\[ierience was afterwards confirmed by the opinion of the most accomplished man I ever knew, Mr. John Girdwood, of 49 Pall Mall, London, who at the time had works of great extent going on in everj* county of England except three. He said that the cost of piece or contract work was nearly the same in every district, but that there was a most marked difference in the wages earned by labourers in different parts of England, and he found none equal to those in Nortliumberlaud, Dur- ham, CumlK-riand, and Lancashire. He considered that three were equal to four of the men of almost any other county, and that two were e(|ual to three in many, and that they were as one to two of some of the southern and midland county men. " It is difficult to say whether this is owing to diff"erence of race and blood, and that the hardy and indomitable Norse blood still ti-lls in the men of the north, or whether it is that enterprise in the cultivation of the soils of the north has caused a demand for labour, and consequent higher wages, and, as a con8e<|uence, the people have been better fed and clot]ieerr)' Tower." Tlic following account of a Himilar importation of Nortlmmberland men to the wjulh U very intcreuting in connexion witli my brother's experience. 84 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. be imputed, in some measure, to the superior education and intelligence, as well as to the religious character and habits of the peasantry, and to the absence of the demoralizing influence of the Poor-Laws, which in England have gone far to extinguish all spirit of independence in that class of society, as well as every feeling of obligation and gratitude. In Scotland, too, the farmer is better off" than in England, and that enables him to be more regular in the employ- ment of his labourers. The evil of tithes is unknoAvn to the Scotch tenant, and the superior system of banking established in Scotland has given its population the advan- tage of a regular and abundant circulating medium, in all its transactions, and in its remotest districts. There is no Mr. T. Bailey Denton, who has collected many statistics, and among others the proportion of beer-sellers to agricultural labourers in different counties, says, " I can illustrate this important question by stating a case within my experience, which can hardly fail to exhibit the fact that low wages and in- ferior work are associated with a preponderating use of beer. In the year 1852 I had the control of some extensive works in Dorsetshire, and at that time the agricultural money wages of the district ranged from 7s. to 9s. a week. Impressed that sucli pay was inconsistent with suitable labour, I imported into the work some north-country labourers from Northumber- land, practised in draining, to afford an example for such local men as chose to enter the trenches and dig by the piece. I guaranteed to the northern men a minimum of 18s. a week, although I could command as many Dorsetshire labourers as I desired to employ at half that price. "The result showed that I was right in bringing high-priced competent men amongst low-priced inferior ones, for as soon as the Dorsetshire men knew what the north-country men were getting, and saw the character of the work execiited by them, they applied all their energies in imitation. At first they drank more beer, thinking that by such means they could do more work. They soon saw their error, and it was both amusing and in- structive at the same time to see how struck they were when they found that the northern men had for their dinners good meat and bread, while they were living on bread, tobacco, and miserable beer or cider. It was by very slow degrees that tlie Dorsetshire men realized the truth that the butcher's meat was more strengthening than bad beer. Eventually, by the example afforded them, the technical education given them by the Northum- berland men, and by the effect of improved food, the despised Dorsetshire men were enabled to earn as much as their teachers." It is to be hoped that the Northumbrian lal)ourers will always persevere in the abstinence from beer and strong drink which has been one of their characteristics for a century past. LABOUR AKD WAGES. 85 farmer in Scotland, at all respectable in character and con- nexion, who cannot obtain a bank-credit to some amonnt, whidi precludes the necessity of dispusing of his produce at an unfavourable period, or of turning off his labourers till he has some grain fit to carry to market. All his surplus cash, too, as he collects it, to meet his rent-day, or any other payment, instead of lieing unprofitably and per- haps insecurely locked up in his own desk, is deposited in perfect safety in the bank, where he receives it when wanted, with the addition of interest. " I have observed above that in the north of England, also, whicli does not enjoy the blessings with which Scot- land is peculiarly favoured, there is a marked superiority in the condition and character of its peasantry over that of the southern counties, which superiority must be ascribed in part to the different manner in which they are paid their wages, and to the effect which is thereby produced upon their moral habits, character, and sentiments." CHAPTEPt III. " Love, then, had hope of richer store : What end is here to my complaint ? This haunting wliisper makes me faint, ' More years had made me love thee more.' But death returns an answer sweet : ' My sudden frost was sudden gain. And gave all ripeness to the grain. It might have drawn from after-heat.' " In 1806, the abolition of tlie trade in slaves between the English colonies and the African coast was carried through both Houses of Parliament. Charles Grey, afterwards Earl Grey, was then First Lord of the Admiralty, and was a main instrument in the achieve- ment of this measure. The original promoters of the cause of the abolition of slavery itself were supported, not by Parliament, nor at first by public sympathy, but by a deeply rooted conviction and a high re- ligious motive. In 1818, Sir Samuel Eomilly brought before the Commons motion after motion on the sub- ject of the condition of the slaves in our "West In- dian colonies. These motions resulted in little or nothing. It was not till five years afterwards that Parliament began to take up the matter at all seriously. Long and eager debates followed. Some members declared their horror of slavery, but strongly depre- cated any mention of the subject in Parliament, lest it should excite to rebellion, liesolutions were finally ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. 87 passed, declaring the expediency of ameliorating the condition of colonial slaves, and a hope that the slaves would become gradually fit for freedom. The resolu- tions were laid before the King, and forwarded, with a circular from Downing Street, to the functionaries of the several "West India Islands. From the date of the issue of this famous circular up to August 1833, — ten years and three months, — the state of the colonial slaves remained practically unchanged, unless, indeed, by some aggravation of the evils of their condition ; for the Downinfj Street circular excited much iudicrnation among the planter oligarchy, and a great fear that a ser\-ile insurrection would inevitably follow, on the negroes learning what had been the feeling of the British Government ; consequently a more rigid system of surveillance and a severer system of puuishments w^ere adopted. ^leanwhile public opinion at home gained strength year by year. From the time that Parliament sent advice to the planters, the doom of slavery was fixed. The question never slumbered ; it was perpetually agitated by the men and women in whose souls respect lor the freedom of man had become a principle as deeply fixed as the fear of God. The colonies too were agitated. ^Masters and slaves alike were made restless by the occasional arrival of orders in Council, and by the appointment by Parliament of " protectors of slaves." The slaves began to hope. The planters, with some ex- ceptions, resented the interference of the Home Govern- ment, and the authorities in Trinidad made a proposition that the iidial)itants of the island should refuse to pay taxes until the histnrder in Council should be rescinded. There was no indecision in niy father's views on 88 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. tliis subject. The Slavery Question was one of the tests at the elections for Parliament of those ten years. At a large election meeting he said — " This subject is one which closely concerns the honour and character of our country, and involves in it the welfare of many millions of our fellow-creatures. As far as regards my own sentiments on the subject, I may remark that I happen to possess the right of voting in three counties in the north of England, and that to this I have fully made up my mind, that I never will vote for, nor in any manner nor measure contribute to advance to a seat in Parliament, any representative who does not declare his open hostility to the continuance of slavery, — nay more, who will not undertake to use his best efforts to wipe from our country the foul stain that her character has contracted, in abetting for so long a course of years that most cruel and wicked system, a system in my mind repugnant to every principle of justice and to every feeling of humanity." My father worked assiduously throughout the winter of 1823 to arouse an interest in the Border counties, in the subject, and to get up petitions to Parliament. The following, which he received the next spring, testifies to some extent to his earnestness : — " Anti-Slavery Office, February 12, 1824. " Sir, — I had the satisfaction to present your letter of the 3d instant to our General Committee, who desire me to express to you their feelings of obligation for your zealous and successful exertions in promoting the views of this most important Society. " The Committee consider it highly important that petitions follow up the King's speech as early as may be convenient to a friend whose operations are so extensive as yours. If the people work well with their King, all will end well. Ministers must be supported by the people to carry into effect their good resolutions. You cannot do THOMAS CLARKSOX. 89 l)etter tlian forward your petitions either to Lord Althorji, Mr. Lambton, or Mr. Curwen. " You will find the respectable Scotch Church, the Seceders, very favourable to our views. Dr. Dick of Glasgow would receive fiivourably any communication. " I have just received a letter from our correspondent Mr. Home of Berwick, who is commencing operations. — I remain, Sir, very respectfully and faithfully yours, " W. L. Hanbury, Senj." My fiitlier made the acquaintance of Thomas Clark- son early in this year. Clarkson, like Zachary Macaulay, had been fired with this enthusiasm from his earliest youth. While he was yet but a boy at Cambridge, he had pondered and planned how this great curse might be removed from the face of the earth. He eagerly sought my father's acquaintance, when he heard of his independent character, his hatred of aU. tyrannies, and his perseverance in any work he took up. He wrote to my father in INIarch 1824 : — " Platford Hai-l, W. Ipswich, Suffolk. " My dear Sir, — I hope you will excuse the liberty I am taking in offering my opinion to you on a subject which you are equally capable of exercising your judgment upon as myst'lf. On my return home last week (for I have been travelling to promote the good cause ever since I had the pleasure of seeing you), I learned that some of our friends in the country wished to postpone sending their petitions to Parliament till they should see what Ministers proposed there. Permit me then, with respectful deference, to in- form you that, feeling more tlian ever anxious for the wel- fare of our cause, and exercising my thoughts upon it night and day, I differ, and so must our committee in London, from those who entertain the opinion just nu-ntioned. Let lue then Kul)niit to you the necessity of o])tniniiig iiiiniedi- ately, and of despatching to London, those petitions which 90 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. you may have in view. For what are the petitions for 1 Not to urge Ministers to take hasty steps, nor indeed to urge them at all, but to support them, and give them courage to carry into effect {in spite of the threats and in- timidations of interested persons) what they intended to do when they put their benevolent resolutions on the jour- nals of the House of Commons in May last. But how are Ministers to know they are supported, but by seeing the petitions coming in day after day in favour of those reso- lutions 1 There is not a doubt in my mind that the pro- positions to be made by Ministers will be very different as they find themselves supported or not. In the first case, they will go up to their original intentions ; in the second, they will stop below them. " Let me entreat, then, that all your petitions may go in before Government bring their propositions into the House. If you want to see what Ministers will do (situated as they are between two conflicting parties), I fear you may injure, though unintentionally, our cause ; for what are Ministers likely to do under such circumstances'? If they see but few petitions coming in, they will have a right to suppose that the people are become cold or indifferent, or that, con- vinced by the publications of our opponents, they have changed their minds upon the subject ; and judging thus, and finding no support from the people, will they not bring propositions into the House of Commons, embracing only half measures, because dictated under a feeling of intimida- tion 1 But if these should contain only half measures, Avill any petitions of the people introduced afterwards cause them to be altered or erased 1 Indeed, who will petition then at all 1 If some of the friends of Government refuse to petition now under the laudable fear of embarrassing Government, how much more will they object, then, on the same ground, and also that they will then be actually op- posing Government, and forcing them to go beyond what they themselves thought pioident 1 " The above was written hastily yesterday. Since then I have learnt that you have already sent in three petitions. THOiMAS CLARKSON'. 9 1 to London to be presented to Parliament. "What, tlion, lias been ^n-itten above Avill not ai»i>ly to you, excei)t there be places such as Berwick-upon-Twccd, Kelso, and others, which you may have under your care, but which have not yet peti- tioned. Be so good, if there be such, to hasten their steps. " I have but just arrived at home, -Nvorn out and ex- hausted by travelling and anxiety of mind and calling ])eople together, having been absent 240 days from lu)me, and gone over 3700 miles of ground, and organized to our wishes England, Scotland, and "\\'a]es. "We are all, however, alive here, in my own county, Suffolk, which ^\ill send forty petitions of itself. " I hope your good people in Scotland have not been terrified by the Demerara insurrections. All insurrections are the natural offsjjring of slavery. Take away slavery, and you take away the cause of insurrections. All insur- rections, therefore, are arguments, if we are friends to the colonies and our country, in our favour. They encourage us not to suspend our efforts, but to increase them with a ten-fold energy. The Demerara insurrection, Avhen faith- fully given to the world, will involve the Demerara planters in eternal disgrace. " I should be very glad to see you here if you should be visiting London. 1 purpose joining the committee in a fortnight. Li the meantime, while getting repose in the country, I emjjloy myself in writing a few letters, if ^vrit- ing as fast as the hand can move can be called Avriting, and if such employment can be called re])ose. — I am, my dear Sir, with very great esteem, yours truly, " Thumas Clarkson." Before this wa.s Avritten my father had, however, sent up several petitions to I^ndon. One which followed a few days later was a petition from (Uendale, accom- jtanied by a formal letter to Earl Grey : — " .)farch 3, 1824. "My Lord, — Petitions to both Houses of Parliament from Glendale AVard, jiraying for the mitigation and liiial 92 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. extinction of slavery in our "West India colonies, are now in a course of signature. I understand they are to be put under my care as a member of the committee of the Anti- Slavery Society of Northumberland, to transmit them to members who will do us the favour to present them in their respective Houses. We look to your Lordship, of course, as the natural representative of our sentiments in the House of Lords— and did we need any inducement in making the selection, besides that which arises from local connexion and personal attachment and esteem, we should find a most prevailing one in the remembrance of the honest ardour, eloquence, and feeling, with which your Lordship advocated that cause by the side of your benevo- lent and much-lamented friend and colleague, Mr. Fox. " I take the liberty, therefore, of troubling your Lordship with the request that you Avill have the goodness to let me know if there is a probability of your being in town in the course of the present month or in the beginning of April, as the petition should not perhaps be later than that in being presented, and if so, whether I may be permitted the honour of forwarding the petition to your Lordship. The late disturbances in the colonies will, I fear, have been very prejudicial to the cause of poor negroes, although I do not see that that should be the case, for insubordina- tion is a natural consequence of cruel treatment, injustice, and oppression ; and discontent on the part of the slaves, and fear and suspicion on that of their owners, must be the constant accompaniments of so unnatural a state of society. I have sent a petition on this subject from Bel- ford to the care of Lord Althorp, and shall send that from Glendale Ward to Mr. Bennett, for Ave are unfortunately situated for county members at present. — I have the honour to subscribe myself, your Lordship's obedient servant, " John Grey." It is evident that the leaders of this cause hoped to see a much earlier settlement of tlie question than they did. But this, with other great measures, was destined DOMESTIC SOK^vO^V, 93 to remain in embryo until the entrance into office of the AVhig Administration of 1831-34. I leave the subject for further notice under that date. The summer of this year was fine, and the harvest good. The corn had been gathered in, and there was sunshine both outside and inside the happy home at ]Miltield Hill. But the autumn fell clouded with sor- row. My father's brother George was beloved by all who knew hun. He was fair-haired, with sweet hazel eyes, and a countenance full of candour. He was of a generous, affectionate, and winning nature, but some- times careless and wayward, and deep in his heart, perhaps, there lay hid some sorrow which was the key to the discordance. In the month of October, his brother received the following letter from a friend in London ; it Avas the sequel of an announcement de- spatched about the same time that George had been thrown from his horse or carriage : — " My dear Friend, — Your brother's increased illness presses me to write to urge you to be here as soon as pos- sible. I only heard of the accident by mere chance on Saturday afternoon, and I thought by the answer to my inquiries tliat all danger was past, and was therefore tlie less prepared for the intelligence of yesterday. " I will go out again tliis evening and do all I can — would it were a thousand-fold increased — to supi)ly your place till you arrive. He has every attention. " God grant His blessing to him and all of us with this dispensation ! How true it is that our present lives arc but shadows, of which the enduring substance is beyond the j^Tuve. — Vou know how much you are loved l)y your affectionate friend, K(JliEUT Selby. " /'.,S'. — Ti-n niintites iM-fi.re five. His stniggles have ccaaed exactly an hour. I cannot say more." 94 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. The bitterness of grief conveyed by this short post- script may not be told. My father had been to Edin - burgh and was returning by coach. They met the coach going the other way. The one guard whispered to tlie other that George Grey was dead. He did not know the meaning of the grave look and shaken head until he reached Kelso, where he learned the tidings. He restrained himself in the presence of his mother, that he might not add to her grief, but when she left him he flung himself on a sofa, and beat his breast, and cried out in a voice of woe, " my Benjamin, my Benjamin !" He was usually very restrained in the expression of his feelings. He took a tender leave of his mother, with words as brave as might be, and hurried to London. The journey was long in those old coaching days, and his feelings were bitter. He wrote to his wife on his arrival : — " WooDCOT, Wed7iesdai/, Oct. 20, 1824. " My dearest Hannah, — I wish I could at this moment press you to my heart, and mingle my tears with yours, instead of claiming only the cold sympathy of 300 or 400 miles distance. what a dreadful thing is death ! how summary and imperative in his call — how undeniable his demands — what a breaking up of all our cherished ties and connexions in those that are left — and Avhat a journey to an unseen world for those that are taken ! What enjoy- ment should I have had in a visit to this place, had the dear active form which is ever present to my mind's eye, and the blithe countenance that was ever the index of the kind heart, been here to animate the now deathlike, deso- late scene ! I always loved my dear George, but I think now I love him a hundred times more — for I did not know how deep a hold I had of his affections and esteem ; the mention he made of me in his intervals of suffering are most touching to my heart, and at every recurrence to HIS SISTERS GRIEF. 95 them fill my soul with sorrow and my eyes with tears. ' His poor mother and his dear brother,' were often on his lips, and tlie last articulate words he spoke, were ' my John, my dear, dear brother.' I have many aftecting thiuiTS to toll von of him whieh I cannot endure to do now, or I .>^hould not get through this lett«>r, but one thing 1 must say : Isaac was the only person about who could en- dure the watching, and the evidence of the pain he suHered when the spasms affected him, and yet show him the ten- derness of a brother. R. Hook was taken one night to let Isaac rest, but he fainted and was carried out — it being necessary to hold the leg liard whilst the spasms lasted. Isaac tells me that he was much engaged, he thought, in secret prayer, and sinnetimes would utter ejaculations half aloud, though not intending them to be heard. On the day before the last of his dear life, he said, when alone with Isaac, and after some minutes of composure, which was not sleep, ' Isaac, it will soon be over with me now,' ' sir, I hope you may yet enjoy many happy days ' (lor such was the language the doctors held to every one till the very la.st day). ' Yes,' he said, ' I do hope for brighter days thai! I used ever to think of,' and he fell again into a quiet frame. IIow fruitless are our regrets — had I known at the time the fatal accident happened, and been with him at the earliest day, I might never have been allowed to converse with him, for the doctors did not wish me to come, — ' That brother he speaks so much of nuist not come, compo.sure is everything;' they spoke of certain nerves being wounded that caused great irritability and pain, and evidently from the first con-sidered ami)Utation neces.sary, if his constitution could be reduced to a fit 6tate." Tliere was deep and passionate grief in the lieart.s uf those to whom he was most dear, but also a liunibh^ acceptance of such consolation as was granted. His sister Margarctta wrote : — " Your two most welcome letters, my very dear Ilauuah, 96 MEMOIR OF JOHN GKEY, came together on Monday morning. I had much desired the account they brought me, and perhajis the plenitude of satisfaction derived from having the whole before me at once had been designed for my abundant consolation. " The crash that my hopes sustained from the fatal cata- strophe, together with the absence of all information, had plunged my soul in the deepest gloom. I was fearful of indulging expectation of comfort from what yet remained to be related, though very small things in that way would have been eagerly embraced by my desolated heart. Be- sides the irreparable loss, you cannot think what a cloud settled over all my religious prospects. I was afraid to hope anything, or to believe that any prayer of mine had ever been accepted. I seemed to wish for nothing now, I would have given the temporal lives of my husband and children to have it well with my dear George. All thought of good to others was insignificant to me, and the idea of any one being excited to seek after salvation through this event was purgatory ; anything gained at the expense of such a sacrifice was worse than valueless to me. At times the most bitter emotions smote through my heart. I would think — We are to put on mourning for a certain time, and then to put it off again. We shall weep for a few days, and then our tears must be dried, and we must go on with our common affairs as we used to do. Ah ! it is easy for us to be comforted, but what sympathy may not his sorrows require of us 1 But I am ashamed to express such feelings ; they arose from that hardening of the heart that attends the want of a persuasion of the mercy of God, and of His tender value for, and interest in, all His creatures. I did not think of His power and love, and of the office of the Saviour, whose very work and destination it is to rescue those who are lost. However, glad news have come at last. I never experienced any truer or more melting thankfulness than came to me in reading over, revolving, and renewedly reading the account, in all its accuracy of expression, contained in your letters. It seemed as life from the dead. I was shedding abundance of such pleasant HIS sister's gkief. 97 tears as I had not wept before, when a lady stole into the room, the only one in Edinburgh whose presence at such a time woidd not have incommoded me. It was Mary Ross. She knew all that had gone before. I had only to share with her pure and fervent spirit the treasure of my thank- fulness. Have you ever felt the sight of a holy person as a sort of good omen at a particular time 1 I had no thought of her, knowing that she had been ill in bed the day before." FROM THE SAME. " My DEARE.ST Joiix, — I thank you for all that you have done for us all in fuliilling the little that remained for us to do for our dear lost George. Does it not seem to you as if God had -ttTought a heavenly composure in his mind, awakening him to spiritual sensibility while under the discipline of pain 1 There is, I think, naturally, in the suspension of strong pain, a feeling of thankfulness and submission. We feel ourselves in the hands of a Sovereign Being who could crush, but who spares, and, grace abetting, the soul clings to the hand that smites, and breathes out its acknowledgments and longings to be at peace with Him. . . . Henry was saying to me last night, ' What matter about the ceremony of your prayers at a ])arti- cular time to our Heavenly Father, for a thing He knew you continually desired and had often asked ] If we knew of anything which our Mary, who is absent, would be sure to wish and undouljtedly ask if she were here, shouhl we be less inclined to do it for her because she is not here to a-sk iti Your prayers might be granted, as it were, by anticipation. We are apt to limit the proceedings of our Heavenly Father by our own narrow notions.'" The bereaved mother did not survive this beloved son many years. She died in 1S2 7. Tlie following wa.s found among soTue papers, sealed up until 18G8, headed " Private liccollections, J. G.rcy :" — o 98 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. " My beloved mother dei^arted this life at Kelso Manse, on the 27th August 1827, aged 68 years. She spent the month of June and the greater part of July immediately preceding her death at Milfield Hill and Newtown. At the former place she seemed to have great enjoyment in the affectionate attentions of her grandchildren. She walked daily in the garden, attending to their operations, and was interested in the progress of a sheltered walk, which they cut out in the adjoining plantation, and a shady seat that they constructed, which used to serve her as a resting-place. " During the whole of her stay with us, her serenity and cheerfulness of temper were most uniform, and her affectionate feelings were in as lively exercise as ever. She accompanied me to Kirk-Newton and joined in the sacra- ment. How little did I think on that day, that in eight more short weeks I should be called upon to accompany her to the same place, but in circumstances how altered, — a bereaved mourner over the tomb of a dearly beloved and highly honoured parent ! But how selfish it seems to mourn for her ! We would not wish her back amid the pains and sorrows of this world, who is now, through the merits of her Redeemer, enjoying an endless and unmixed communion with Him in the heavenly mansions. " Her serenity of temper never forsook her, nor did she ever give way to repining on her own account, though she often expressed her regret at the trouble her condition imposed upon others. She was blessed in the enjoyment of a faith and confidence that su^^ported her under trial, and re- mained steadfast unto the end. On the evening of Saturday the 25 th of August, I went from Berwick to Kelso to see her. Not reaching Kelso till nine o'clock, I entered the house quietly by the low door, lest she should have gone to rest and might be disturbed by noise ; and finding that to be the case, would not have her informed of my arrival. About midnight she awoke, and calling to my sister, who slept constantly by her during her illness, said, ' Mary, my John has come and has been talking with me.' 'You HIS MOTHER S DEATH. 99 must be mistaken, mothor,' was the reply, ' there has been no one in the room.' ' Dear,' said she, with disappoint- ment, ' was it but a dream V ' But,' said my sister, ' it may come tnie ; you shall see John in the morning. He was detained on business at Berwick, and did not arrive here till late, and would not disturb you last night.' This satisfied her, and with the kindness she at all times exercised towards others, she remarked, ' Poor fellow, did he come all that Avay 1 AVhat a weary day he must have had ; he would be very tired.' I was much beside her bed, which she scarcely left the following day. " She inquired with her accustomed affectionate interest about Hannah and tlie children, who Avere at that time at Holy Island. She spoke more slowly than usual from breathlessness, but conversed with cheerfulness and interest on many subjects, and mentioned the kindness of the Duchess of Roxburgh supplying her with quantities of fine grapes, which she thought it selfish in her to monopolize, and insisted upon my taking some of them. I took leave of her in the evening, little thinking it would be for the last time, to return home, and the latest words I heard uttered by that affectionate voice, as I pressed her cheek with my lips, were ' My dear, dear son.' . . . "That night the breathing, th at Avas quick and embarrassed, became fainter and fainter, and just as the clock struck 1 2, the features .settled into the stillness of death, and that tender, benevolent spirit was recalled from earth by the Cod who gave it. . . . In passing the end of the lane leading to Milfield Hill, the funeral was joined by six of my oldest ser\ants, married men, on horseback, who fell in behind the chaises and acted as under-bean^rs to cairy the body from the hearse to the church, and tlicn to the grave. The pa-ssage of the funeral through the village of Milfield was very affecting to my feelings. It was the scene in former times of my dear mother's aetive exertions ; the pla<'e where for UKiny years slic was th(! person of tlie greatest import- ance ; where she had borne and brought up her family, and where she had spent many hapjty and many toilsome days. 100 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. She was still known, after an absence of many years, to most of its inhabitants, and remembered by some as their old and kind mistress. No one seemed left within doors ; all were assembled to gaze on the mournful procession, and one might distinguish from the general crowd some groups of elderly women, decently attired in deep mourning, who walked for some distance by the side of the hearse, and wept as they went. These were the servants and contem- poraries of her early days, now declining in the vale of life, and thinking, perhaps, that they too must shortly follow in the Avay of the kind mistress to whose remains they were now anxious to pay the last sad testimony of respect." CHAPTER IV. "... If we did not flght Ex.ictly, wo firod inusket.s up the void, To show that victory was ours of riglit." Between the year 1820 and the dissokition of Parlia- ment in 1826 some progress was made in public aflairs, and some good accomplished for the country. Catholic Emancipation was debated, and had the powerful advo- cacy of Canning. In the midst of the divergence of opinion on financial matters between " Prosperity Eobin- son " and " Advei'sity Hume," taxation was being gradually reduced. The repeal of the Corn-Laws, longed for as much by an enlightened minority of country gentlemen as by any one in Parliament or in commercial life, seemed as yet very far off, and almost insurmountable obstacles appeared to stand in the way of the great Parliamentary reform ; yet there was a gradual growth and ripening for the achievements of later years. In all these questions my father took a deep interest. Occasional evenings spent at Lord Jeffrey's in Edinburgh, and visits to London, brought him into contact with some of the leaders of public affairs. In 1825, during a visit to Lord Althorp in London, he heard some of the exciting battles in the Commons over the Catholic question. FROM LORD GREY. " Hanoveu Squaue, April 24, 1822. " My i»f:.\u Sir, 1 hav«' rcn-ivcd your letter, with tli»! cin-ular fn.iii the Tax-Ollice. I will take the first oppur- UN1\T.R?1TY (>vr>TM-()KNIA SANTA BAUKAUA 102 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. tunity of stating the case you bring before me, in the House of Lords, or of speaking to Lord Liverpool about it. In the meantime, I think it would be advisable for the persons in your own neighbourhood who suffer from this tax, to concur in framing a petition against it, to be pre- sented with as little delay as possible. You will oblige me very much by sending me any information that you may think useful respecting the state of agricultural distress in the north, and its effect on the retail trades in the towns. I beg that you will not hesitate at all times to write to me on any part of the public interests. I place great reliance on your judgment, and always find your remarks very just and very useful. — Yours very truly, Grey." Parliament was dissolved on the 31st of May 1826. The general election that followed was very exciting. In Northumberland, the contest will never be forgotten by those who took part in it, and who, years afterwards, were forced to recall the memory with a mixture of melancholy and amusement, for it must be confessed that the great principles contested were for a time partially forgotten in the ardour of personal and party feeling. It was the hottest summer that had been known in the century. Many people engaged in the elections died of sunstroke. Water being scarce, ex- hausted electors drank the more beer. " The richest meadow-lands were burnt up as if a fire had passed over them ; the deer in noblemen's parks died of drought ; hard-working people sat up all night to watch the springs to carry home drink to their children." For four long months of this hot summer, Northumberland was agi- tated by this furious contest. My father received the signal for the gathering of forces in the following war- whoop from Mr. Lambton : — " Dear Sir, — Our opponents have engaged all the car- REFORM MEETING. 103 riagos in North Shields for the purpose of bringing sup- porters to Morpeth on Tuesday. It is most likely they will do the same in other places. We must therefore be on the alert. I trust you will raise your country far and wide. We meet on this side of Mor]ieth at ten — our horsemen I mean. All going on well. — Yours, Lambton." A preliminary meeting was held by the friends of Eeform, at which there was eloquent speaking, but with too inuch confidence of the result. My father answered objections made to the extreme youth of the Whig candidate, Lord Howick, pleading that his sagacity was beyond his years, and to the charge that he was a bad canvasser, replied, " It is said that he is too sincere to press liis suit after a refusal, and wants the importunity, or, as some call it, the impudence, by which others succeed. If I do not greatly mistake, that is a want that will attend his Lordship during the wdiole of his life, and I shall blush for my country when sincerity and modesty shall be imputed to a man as a reproach." An aged man, ^Ir. T. Haggerston, got up at this meet- ing, and hesitatingly asked wliether any one had any ol»jection, on account of his religion, to his saying a few words. He spoke, but almost inaudibly, of the re- straints under which the Catholics laboured, while their lives and their blood always answered for their loyalty. Tlie feeble, trembling voice of the old man had scarcely ceased when Mr. Lamljton sprang to his feet (having, tlie moment he caught the meaning of Mr. Ilaggerston's words, whispered for permission to speak ne.xt), and poured forth a generous and jjussionate remonstrance. " I lament deeply," he said, "to hear that venerable gen- tleman express for orle mf)m«'nt his fears lest, as a Catholic, he bhould not be jicniiittcd to raise his voice here. Doe.^^ I ' 104 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. lie imagine that I would sit here for one moment if I thought that a man would be prevented, on account of his religious opinions, from being heard on a question of public interest affecting his and our common right 1 Little did he know the character of this meeting if he thought that such an attempt would be made, or countenanced for a moment, if attempted. And yet, perhaps, I ought not to be surprised that such a feeling should cross his mind. He sees, as we all do, with indignation, the attempts made to revive the infamous cry of religious persecution, and to continue poli- tical disqualifications on account of religious differences of opinion. In the name of that God whom we all adore, whatever may be our forms of worship, I protest against this impious interference ; I claim for every man political freedom ; I assert that his religious opinions should be left to himself, his conscience, and his God, and that any inter- ference with them is a sacrilegious assumption of the divine attributes." Mr. Lambton was suffering much in health. He had joined the meeting late, and left it early. " He quitted the room," says the newspaper report, " as he had entered it, the company all standing up, and evincing in the most marked manner their respect and admiration." It is difficult to gain a notion from the crowded columns of contemporary newspapers of anything but wild disorder and excitement around the Alnwick hust- ings during the fifteen days of voting and speech-making. The nights were almost as hot as the days, and the combatants spent the sultry hours more often in pacing their chambers than in sleep. My father was more able physically to bear the heat and fatigue than most were. He was regarded by friends and foes as the athlete of the contest, and he looked it, as he stood on the hustings, with his heart full of an almost fatherly Icindness for the pale, slight youth by whose side he XOUTIIUMBERLAND ELECTION OF 1826. 105 stood, and \vhose cause he supported. A newspaper notice says — " Mr. Grey was then in full vigour. The Black Prince of the North he Wiis sometimes called, in allusion to his swarthy but comely countenance. Lord Howick was low- est in the poll at that great, and what we must now term absurd, contest ; but ]\Ir. Grey of ^liltielil was the man to obtain victory for his party, if victory f(n' a Whig of the Grey school had been at that time practicable. Northumber- land was then a genuine Tory county, and the enlightened principles of young Howick Avere not in the ascendant." In the newspaper reports we read that John Grey came forward amidst loud and enthusiastic cheers, mingled with groans and hisses. He, Howick, and Lanil)ton stood together, but before long it was impossilde to hear a word spoken by any of them. " In consequence of the indescribable confusion and uproar," the Sheriff (with Tory sympathies) was called to do his duty. He essayed to dissolve the meeting, but his voice was not heard. Again my father tried to speak, but the Tory band of musicians, with horrible discord, drowned his voice, whereupon clenched fists of" friends of independ- ence" made ghastly rents in the drums, which stopped their noise, and the musicians were driven helter-skelter from the scene. But in vain ; though there were " loud cries for ^Ir. Grey," he seems to have been unalde to make his arguments heard. His attempt to do so being regarded as the occasion of the confusion, the Sheriff arose and forbade him to speak. He was (jbliged to hear in silence the attacks of an opposing member, prefaced with, " If there is a gentleman of the name of (irey liere — I mean Grey of Milfield Hill, 1 wish to liave a word or two with my witty friend;" upon which follows counter wit .seasoned with vinegar. 106 MEMOm OF JOHN GREY. At last came the closing day of the poll, with a furious sun shining in a cloudless sky, high words exchanged from the hustings, the challenge offered and accepted between Mr. Lambton and Colonel Beaumont, followed by a night and day of grievous suspense. Mr. Lambton had been brought, by his exertions, and the extreme heat of the weather, into the condition Lord Althorp spoke of when he described him as " of bad tem- per on the days when he is bilious." He was sensitive and fiery, but his flashes of anger were short-lived, and bad feeling of any kind never found a lodgment in a breast so generous and noble. The forty- eight hours of suspense which followed for the friends of Mr. Lambton will not easily be forgotten by any who shared it ; the magistrates dogged the steps of the duellists, delaying the encounter. On Friday they attempted the meeting at the Three-mile Stone on Alnwick Moor; but Sir David Smith came thunder- ing after them, with police, in a carriage and four. Again a rendezvous was fixed, and again they were intercepted. At last the duel was fought on the sands near Bamborougli Castle. At three o'clock on Saturday morning. Lord Grey arose from his sleepless bed, and declining the services of a groom, rode out alone in the cool silence of the summer morning, with his heart full of apprehension ; he rode to Alnwick, to sustain the courage of his daughter. Lady Louisa Lamb- ton, who was waiting there for tidings. That evening there was great joy when it was announced that the affair had ended without bloodshed, and crowds came out to cheer Mr. Lambton, the " beloved of the people," as he drove into Alnwick, and the papers recorded the fact " that he looked happy, and smiled as he bowed to THE WHIGS BEATEN. 107 the people."^ So ended the fierce election contest of 1 82G, long remembered in the county whicli it agitated so mucli. In the same general election INIr. Brougham was beaten by the Lowthers in "Westmoreland, and Lord John Eussell failed in Huntingdonshire. Charles, now General Grey, who possessed, like my father, great strength of early and local attachments, wrote to him in 18GG : — " My memory goes back to the early and happy days of childhood, when I fii-st made acquaintance with ^lil- field Hill (those were the days when we toddled after you and your greyhounds as well as we could over Flodden Hill), and to the many and various events of after-life, which have strengthened the affectionate regard that I have ever felt for all connected with it. Even the wretched election of '26 has its pleasant memories." " I most sincerely regret having missed you in town," "v^Tote Mr. Lambton, then Lord Durham, to my father, a couple of years afterwards ; " you well know the respect and esteem I have always had for you. The events of the Northumberland election added greatly to those sentiments." The pleasant memories were those of powerful help given and re- ceived, and of thankfulness that the wounds intiicted were not long in healing. The angry w'ords, and even pistol-shots, were not deadly in their effects, and the combatants shook hands not long afterwards, confess- ing that they had all been a little too much excited. Administrations succeeded each other quickly during ' An old attached nurse in Lord Orey's family, who had hoen very de- voted to Lord Howick during his deliratc infancy, wii.s sliocked and jfrieved by Home election squihs and caricatures wliicli a]>])eared at that time. Wlien my father went to Kee her one day, she hurst into tears, and said, " O Mr. (irey, you vjxn feel for nic ; you know how sore my lieart is when they nay kucH thinf^ of my poor }>aini." My father comforted her, and cheered her (freatly by jjredictiunu of a useful ami honourable career in store for her i>oor bairn ! 108 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. the next few years. Earl Grey, it is well known, did not place much faith in the coalitions which were sometimes formed, and which indeed seemed not suffi- ciently homogeneous for vitality. His letters to my father were numerous at this time, and it is not possible to read his remarks on Canning without a painful feeling of regret, now that these two great men, who stood so aloof from each other, have both passed away, to take their place among the heroes of history. Earl Grey seems to have laboured under a sense of isolation and sadness at this time. He was growing old, and he believed his political life would close without his witnessing the end of his hopes, — the great organic change in our Constitution for which he had laboured. TO MY FATHER. " London, J^me 1827. " Of public matters the papers will give you an account. They are much too painful for me to enter upon when I can avoid it. You at least will believe me when I say that my only concern is for the pubhc interest. The Ministers, you will see, have abandoned the Corn bill. The Duke of Wellington certainly did not propose, and I am sure you will believe that I did not support, the amendment with any view of defeating the bill. I thought it an improve- ment in guarding against too great an accumulation of corn under the bonding system. . . . — Yours very truly, " Grey." from lord althorp. "Jl/ayl828. " Political affairs seem to be in a very comical state. We are, it appears, going to enter upon the fifth Adminis- tration which has existed during the last year and a half. I cannot say that I think the secession of Huskinson's party of much consequence. He was very clever certainly, but that is all that can be said for him. I shall not con- DUKE OF "WELLINGTON PREMIER. 109 sider myself in opposition till I see a little what is going on. — Believe me, my dear Sir, yours most sincerely, " Althorp." AVhen Lord Goderich resigned, the King, weary of mixed Administrations, determined to have a thorough Tory Government, and sent for the Iron Duke, who in January 1828 became Prime Minister. The gi-eat achievement of this year was the removal of the Dissenters' disabilities. The Duke, a shrewd if a prejudiced man, saw that it was no longer possible to oppose this popular movement, and the repeal of the Test and Corporation Act passed, to the credit of his Adminis- tration. It involved a quarrel with his old crony. Lord Eldon, who expressed his belief that true religion would die out of the land, if that " most shameful bill " should pass, which recognised Dissenters as fellow- Christians. The religious old gentleman was so much moved about it, that when the Duke asked him his opinion of the ^linistry which had passed it, he replied devoutly that he considered it " a damned bad one." The Catholic Relief Bill was passed the next year. FROM earl grey TO MY FATHER. " London, June 2, 1828. " The account you give of the state of the agricultural interests in Northuniberhind is most afflicting, and 1 am afraid too true. I wish I could hold out any prospect of relief; but nothing can be more gloomy than all present aftpcarances. f]verything foreign and doiiiestic, — the war wliich is beginning on the Continent, the state of out finances, the insecurity of the (Jovernment, the increasing discontents in Ireland, the distress that prevails here in all our gnat interests, commercial, mamifactiiring, and agri- cultural, furnish subjects of general alarm. Tliat the ( Jovt-rn- ment is weak is in such a crisis a great national misfortune, 1 1 10 MEMOIE OF JOHN GREY. \ but I do not know, except that almost every change is a symptom of weakness, that it is much more so than it was. It does not appear to be much changed in its general principles, and more has been done since the Duke of Wellington came into office, in favour both of civil and religious liberty, than by any previous Administration. On the Catholic question, which is becoming of the most urgent consequence, he undoubtedly is hampered both by previously declared opinions and by the feelings of the King. But I cannot doubt his seeing how desirable, or rather how necessary it is, that it should be settled, and that he would, if he saw the means, take measures for that purpose. " My position therefore remains as it was. Homck is working hard in the Finance Committee, Avhich I agree with you in fearing will not do much good. — Yours most truly, Grey." Meanwhile my father was working hard for the good of his poorer neighbours in his own county. " John can never be happy," his wife wrote, "without as much work on hand as would satisfy three ordinary men." Lord Althorp constantly exchanged farming experiences with him, and confessed his envy of Tweedside excel- lence. "My farm is exactly 258 miles from Milfield Hill," he wrote, — " an appalling distance !" An old friend has supplied me with the following remembrance :— " No doubt some Avill remember how Lord Althorp was hampered about taking the tax off shepherds' dogs. Your father was the person who effected it, through his repre- sentations to the Chancellor of the Exchequer ; and how great a benefit it proved to a deserving class of men, in facilitating their daily labour, a class in that district and in parts of Scotland the most important — I mean the hill shepherds ! The general public do not know to this day what a boon to a considerable class of daily labourers was the removal of this tax. How the Act was appreciated the subsequent acknowledgments from the beneficiaries clearly showed." shepherds' dogs. Ill The duties of these dogs — the wise and invaluable collies — are both ouerous aud various, so various that they cannot ahvays be compassed by one dog. On farms where the sheep are scattered far abroad, one dog cannot possibly accomplish the duties of the hirsel. Moreover, a time of apprenticeship under the old dogs is needful for the young dogs, to qualify them for their profession. Therefore it liappens that almost every shepherd is burdened with two dogs, sometimes with tlu-ee or four. As the earnings of the shep- herds were small, and the maintenance of a dog is nearly equal to that of a child (among porridge - eating races), the additional burden of a tax of sLx- teen, twenty-four, or thirty-two shillings, was felt to be a great injustice. My father's strong remonstrance to Mr. Goulburn resulted in an order from the Treasury, to the effect " that all shepherds having a direct interest in the flocks they tend, shall enjoy the same exemption from tax as is granted to farmers occupying land under £100 rent." The moral and material welfare of agricultural labourers has interested the public mind a good deal since the Commission of Inquiry was instituted, the Report of which appeared in the summer of 18G8. In a review of this lieport which appeared in the Times of November 2G, 18G8, North Northumberland was called the " paradise of agricultural labourers." Now this is too strong an expression, and theru is a danger uf exaggerating the excellence of a picture, which, by the force of its contrast to pictures of the same class of society, y)resented in many parts of England, impels us to wonder and admiration. The part of wisdom wf)ul(l be to find out and lay hold of the real eau.ses of the good state of the a-aiculturists of Northumberland, which 112 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. good state is not directly traceable to the existence or non-existence of certain customs prevalent elsewhere, and which undoubtedly exists in spite of certain faulty parts of the agricultural arrangements of that county, such as the "bondage 'system." That system is dying out. My father describes it in the letters which I am about to give, not as, himself, an originator or a de- fender of the system, but as it actually worked before his eyes. It was liable to great abuse, and that on some estates it was not abused, was owing, as I have hinted, to causes, some of which lie deeper and are more remote in their beginnings. It is interesting to compare the following letter, written in 1829, with Mr. Henley's Keport in 1868, extracts from which I give in a note :— "MiLFiELD Hill, Deceniber 1829. " To J. C. Blackden, Esq., Ford Castle. " Sir, — In answer to your inquiries respecting the manner in which the labouring classes in this county are hired, the amount of their earnings, the conditions of their en- gagement, and the probable effects upon master and servant if it were abolished, I shall begin by observing that a number of persons are hired upon each farm, adequate to do the regular work of it throughout the year, — I mean ex- clusive of harvest, hay-making, and turnip -hoeing, when some extra hands may be required, — who are called hinds, and are householders. " Each man is provided with a cottage and small garden, free of rent, for himself and family, several of whom, in many cases, are engaged by the year, as well as himself, upon the farm. The wages of the hind are invariably paid in kind, and those of his son or sons, if he have any of an age to work, either in money, or partly in money and partly in corn, as best suits his convenience ; but it is generally an object with him to have such a proportion of the earn- ings of his family paid in kind as will keep him out of the market for such articles as meat, potatoes, butter, cheese. NORTHUMBRIAN HINDS, THEIR WAGES, ETC. 113 bacon, etc. ; and notwithstanding -what the Economists say about money being the only proper medium of exchange for labour, as well as other things, the custom of paying farm-labourers in kind works well both for master and servant. In times when grain sells at a high price, the 'conditions' of the hind will stand his master to more than the ordinary rate of wages for day-labourers at the same season, but, on the other hand, in times of great de- pression the conditions are the same, though tlie fanner at such times would be required to sell nearly double the produce to enable him to pay his labourers in cash, — for although money-wages must ultimately be regulated by the price of produce and of food, they do not accommodate themselves so quickly to the variations of the market, as to follow all the changes that the farmer is constantly obliged to experience. The advantages on the part of the servant are, I think, greater and more obvious. The ' con- ditions ' (as his payment in kind is denominated) which he receives are proved by innumerable instances to be adequate, under a proper economy, to the support of a man, his wife, and any ordinary number of children, and it often happens that a hind with but few in family has a good deal of corn to dispose of at the end of the year, for which, of course, his master is always wilhng to give him the market price. The corn given to hinds is always of the best the farm produces, with a little more than ordinary care be- stowed upon the dressing of it. It is sent to the mill and ground into meal of different kinds, and thus the inter- mediate profits of nn-al-seller and baker are all .saved. The produce of his garden, his cow, and his small potatoes, enable him to fatten two pigs in the year. He sells his calf, if it be early in the season, for 40s. or thereabouts, if later for 308., and if his wif<; Ix' a frugal manager, and his cow a good one, he can sell a lirkiu of butter for 10s., and some- times 508., besides the milk and cheese used by the family. Tlif keep of his cow is supjtlied entirely by the master, unrl consists of j)a.sturag»' in sununer (coniinoiily till (.'lirist- mas), with as much straw as In; choo.sc.s to take, and a ton of hay in winter, or ten double-horse cart-loads of turnips, H 114 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. as may be bargained for. The keep is commonly reckoned by the master at £8 or £8, 10s., but it is evident that a good cow, producing a calf, must be worth much more to the owner. He receives twenty-four pounds of wool, which gives employ- ment to the females to spin and knit into stockings in the vrinter evenings. Besides the garden ground, each hind is allowed potato-ground in the field to the extent of 1000 yards in length, the master doing the ploughing and giving the manure, whilst the servant supplies the seed, and all the labour of planting, hoeing, and digging. This plan I have altered on my farms, not thinking it right that in an article so important to their comfort and support, they should be subject to the vicissitude of seasons, the changeableness of soil, and the bad effects sometimes arising from improper seed or bad management, and besides not being satisfied often with their mode of hoeing and cleaning the land. I therefore give the potatoes as I do any other farm produce, and when they are taken up give to each hind six bolls heaped imperial measure, of the best potatoes, free of all expense. One very obvious benefit arising from this mode of paying in kind, besides that of having a store of whole- some food always at command, which has not been taxed by the profits of intermediate agents, is the absence of all temptation, which the receipt of weekly wages and the necessity of resorting to a village or town to buy provisions holds out, of spending some portion of them in the ale-house, instead of providing for the wants of the family ; and to this circumstance, probably, we are much indebted for the remarkable sobriety and exemplary moral conduct of the peasantry of this county. Another advantage that the hind enjoys is the hiring for the year. In seasons when employment is very scarce, when all day-labourers are turned adrift, and in storms of snow for instance, when all piece-work is at a stand, however unproductive his services may be to his master his wages go on, and even months of confinement by ill-health produce no diminution in his in- come. And thus it is, that however small his wages per day may seem to be, yet at the end of the year he is com- WIDOWS AND CHILDREN OF HINDS. 115 monly found in better circumstances than the mason or slater, who, working nominally for much higher wages, is liable to great loss of time and uncertainty of employment. It may seem hard at first sight that a farmer whose ser- vant, after having entered upon his service for the year, has fallen ill or become unable to work, should still have to make good his bargain ; but such is the custom, and were it otherwise the family would soon, in most cases, be thrown upon the parish. Tlie farmer may as well then take the chance of supporting his own for a while, as be compelled to contribute to the support of all who might fall into such circumstances throughout the parish. Another good at- tending the custom is that it gives rise to a sentiment of gratitude to a master, and avoids the feeling of degradation that ought, and in many cases still does, accompany an application for parochial relief He has every inducement to behave himself respectably and give satisfaction to his employer. While on the other hand, such removal of senants being attended ^vith inconvenience and loss of time to the master, it is his interest to encourage and retain a respectable servant, and in this way a mutual accommoda- tion and respect are produced, Avhich lead to frequent instances of very long servnces. 1 could mention the names of ver}- old men that have died in my service ^^^thin eight years, who were servants upon the same farm to my father, before I was bom ; one man lives here to this day, though now only able to hjok after the cows, whom I remember from my earliest cliildhood. And so little are the pe.'isantry inclined to shift their quarters, that if I were called upon to name the average length of service of at least forty householders upon my farms, I should be quite safe in stating it at twelve years. Such local and personal attachments must Ije considered to exercise a beneficial influence on society. The widow and children of an old ser\'ant are not upon his death tunied out to seek supp(»rt from tlic poor's-rates, but l)y extending some indulgence to tht-m for a few years, they get up to manage for themselves. An old servant of mine died about twenty years ago, leav- 116 MEMOIK OF JOHN GKEY. ing a widow and three boys and two girls, all young. By giving them a house, and employment as soon as they were capable of it, they not only got on without parochial relief, but obtained respectable educations. The eldest son has been bailiff on one of my farms for some years, the second is my groom and horsebreaker, — both married men ; the youngest is supported by them whilst serving his ap- prenticeship with a joiner. One of the girls is respectably married, and the other, one of the most faithful of human beings, has been our nursery-maid since the birth of our eldest child, fourteen years ago, and such is her attachment to the family that no offer can induce her to leave her situa- tion. I could give other histories of thriving families, the children of old servants, who were early left under similar circumstances ; but if I have not already said enough to prove that the connexion between master and servant that exists in this county produces a reciprocal attachment (with some exceptions, of course), which has a beneficial effect on both parties, I fear I must at least have said so much as completely to exhaust your patience. — I am, etc. «J. G." SECOND LETTER TO MR. BLACKDEN. " Dear Sir, — It remains now to describe what the system of bondage is, and I regret that it has acquired that odious designation. I may engage a hind at the regular con- ditions. I may engage also his eldest son, living in his house, at 9s. or 10s. a week; his second, perhaps at Gs. ; and his youngest at 8d. a day, to work on all occasions when I have work to do which he is able to perform ; and this is respectably enough called a hiring ; but because I bargain with the hind for the work of a woman exactly in the same way, namely at such times as I require it, it is called bondage. The ' bondager,' however, is not always a woman, but sometimes a boy, if it suits the hind better to employ one. The work required of bondagers is, gathering stones from the land, clearing it of couch, hoeing turnii)s, raking hay, and reaping corn, besides attending a BONDAGERS. 1 1 7 threshing-machine to open the sheaves and hand them forward, put the grain through the sieves, tread doA\'Ti the straw, etc., all of which women can do generally better than men. The advantage of this sj'stem to the farmer is chiefly that it gives him the command of a certain number of hands at all times, on his premises, which is of great convenience, especially in situations remote from ]iopulous villages ; and its abolition would be attended with great inconvenience in many respects. For instance, the thresh- ing-machine is to go to work on the morrow ; eight or ten bondagers are wanted ; they have notice in the evening, have arranged their domestic concerns, and are ready at call, and very ill satisfied if by any accident a neighbour comes in to their turn ; but, abolish the system, and the farmer must go from house to house to solicit hands. One is baking, another washing, another vnsiting a friend, another take.s advantage of his situation and requires ex- travagant wages, — his machine must stand still, his com is not got to market, and his cattle have no straw. " With respect to the hardship to the hind of supplying a bondager : in the first place it is matter of bargain, and is considered in his wages ; and in the second place, to a man with a family, who has a grown-up daughter, it is no hanlship at all, for in most cases the assistance of one daughter is necessary to the family, and she can commonly manage to spare a few hours in the short days in winter to do the work of the bam, while she has the morning and evening at home, as well as to work in the fields in summer, taking the chance of rainy days, or days when she is not wanted, to give her help to the family, thus contrilniting to their comfort, and earning at the same time £G or £7 of wages. ... If you inquire into the condition and moral characU-r of the peasantry of this cminty under such a system as 1 have dt«crilKid, I will reft'r y near stood Riglit and Law, Both mutually forborne ! Law would not bruise, Nor Right deny ; and each in reverent awe Honoured the other." On the 2Gth of June 1830 the unhappy and obstruc- tive Kini,', George r\'., died, and the long gloom of Tory domination broke up, like ice-fields when winter is past. I must pass over briefly the two years of excitement which followed, when the country was enduring those mighty throes which brought forth the new era, the year one of the people's liberties. That crisis has had its historians, and can never be forgotten. I have only to record the far-distant echoes, so to speak, of the conflict, which sounded in Northumberland, the county of the great leader of the Eeform movement. A few months before the King's death and the entrance of the AMiigs into office, he had written a note to my father from his quiet home at llowick, asking, "Do you see any symptoms of the improvement of which the INIinis- ters and their supporters speak so confidently ?" A few weeks later he wrote to him from London, " Every other interest is at this moment absorbed in the state of the King's health. The case, as you will probably have concluded from the bulletins, is, I believe, altsolutely hopeless. Are there yet any movements in Northum- berland with a view to a])proachiiig cluction.s?" On the IGth of November tlie ])uk(! of Wfilington resignetL It is said no one had any doubt who would be the 126 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. new Ministers, and that some who walked home from the House to' their own firesides through the fog of that November night, said to each other that "a brighter sun than that of midsummer would arise to-morrow." The King sent for Earl Grey, who was then approaching seventy years of age, and was about to see the accom- plishment of that which he had advocated all his life, in the previous century, and before the French Eevolution, Lord Howick wrote to my father : — " Berkeley Square, Nov. 18, 1830. " I have no doubt you were as much pleased as we all were here at the result of the division on Monday night. I can tell you very little more than what you will see in the newspapers. My father is to be at the head of the new Administration. The King has been most kind to him. the other arrangements are not yet completed, but are, I hope, in the train of being so in a very satisfactory manner. The only thing I fear is, that the labour he will have to undergo will be too much for my father's health." Lord Althorp was appointed Chancellor of the Ex- chequer. He wrote to my father : — " Downing Street, Nov. 26, 1830. " My dear Grey, — We have undertaken to steer the ship in a rough sea, but we must do our best. I hope, however, it will be recollected by the people that we begin our administration with the whole south of England in a state bordering on insurrection. — Yours most truly, " Althorp." from the same. " Downing St., Dec. 25, 1830= " I see a good deal of Lord Grey now, and we both are working very hard. F. K. seems uncommonly well. I hope we are strong enough to carry Reform, and then we need fear nothing more. Till then, I am doubtful whether it is possible to carry on Government on our principles ; THE LEFOKM BILL. 1 2 7 but, happen -what may, we vuist he honest, and must not have anything to do -with corruption. I will not say, i\s Mr. Pitt did, that no honest man can be Minister without a Reform in Parliament, and afterwards proved his own words ; but I will say that no honest Minister can be safe without Ixeform. I thought so before I was in office, and I am sure of it now. — Yrs. most truly, Althorp." The exhortation to honesty is characteristic. The memorable day arrived — the 1st of March 1831 — on which the great Eeform measure was laid before the House. ]\Iost of the Tories regarded it at first as " an audacious jest," FROM LORD IIOWICK TO MY FATHER. " March 5, 183L " My dear Sir, — I hope you are pleased with our Pe- form Bill. I am in great spirits about it. The debate and the feeling of the country (as far as Ave yet know it) are so entirely in our favour that I am very sanguine as to the result. The struggle will, however, be severe, as we cannot expect that those who have an interest in existing abuses will resign it willingly. "We must, therefore, neglect no means to insure success ; and with this view it is most important that there should be an immediate expression of the opinion of the country, not in favour of Peform gener- ally, but of the particular measure projjosed. If it could be shown that this measure would satisfy the refonners generally, I am quite certain it would not only determine many undecided votes, but gain over some of our opj)on<'nts, Mea.sures have already Ik-cu taken for calling county meet- ings in Kent and Hertfordshire. This example should, I think, be followed in the north. There is no time to bo lost, for the fate of tin; Pill will b*; dccidccl on the second reading, which will probably l)e fixed in ten days or a fort- night." On the 22d of April the Pill was defeated. Ministers were left in a minority of twenty-two. 128 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. This was a critical moment. It has been said that " though other parts of that mighty struggle were more dangerous, more awful in the eyes of common ob- servers, the real crisis lay within the compass of this day. The Ministers themselves said so afterwards. When in a subsequent season the very ground shook with the tread of multitudes, and the broad heaven echoed with their shouts, and the Peers quaked in their House, and the world seemed to the timid to be turned upside down, the Ministers were calm and secure ; they knew the event to be determined, whereas now they were standing on the sharp edge of chance, with abysses of revolution on either side. The doubt, the critical doubt, was whether the King could be persuaded to dissolve Parliament."^ An appeal to the country would of course restore confidence to the Eeformers. It was not long before the doubt was solved. FROM LORD HOWICK TO MY FATHER. " April 21. " I am very curious to hear what has been the effect of our defeat the other evening in the country. For my own part, I am very glad it has happened, for it has been lat- terly quite clear that, in this Parliament, it would be im- possible to carry the Bill without greatly impairing it ; and I think it is infinitely better that it should be over at once, without giving us the trouble of many more long and tire- some debates for nothing. " Two o'clock. — I have just got leave to tell you Parlia- ment will be dissolved probably to-morrow ; therefore lose no time in seeing what you can do in Northumberland. All the Government have to trust to is the energy of the friends of Keform in all places where the constitution of the House of Commons enables them to act. 1 History of the Peace, p. 345. THE REFORM BILL. 129 " Perhaps you had better not say that I have told you there is to be a dissolution until you see it in the news- papers." I must not dwell too long on the story — made so familiar to us in our childhood by my father's recital of it — of how, early on the morning of the 2 2d, Lord Grey, Lords Durham and Brongliam, walked across the park to Buckingham Palace, taking different paths to avoid notice, and spoke with the King ; of how the King wavered a little, and then — his feelings being roused by certain members of the House having questioned somewhat sneeringly the possibility of his venturing to dissolve Parliament — in the heat of his impulse he told them to fetch him a hackney-coach, if the royal carriages could not be got ready, that he might dissolve Parliament at once ; of how Lord Durham made haste to Lord Albemarle's, the master of the horse, and ordered the carriages ; how Lord Albemarle, at his breakfast, with his mouth full of coffee and rolls, asked, " Bless me, is there a revolution ? " and Lord Durham answered, " No ; but there will be if you stay to finisli your breakfast." The scene which was meanwhile taking place in both Houses has been described by Mr, Molesworth and others. Lord ^lansfield was protesting (against Kefonn) in the House of Peers, and continued to protest until the King actually entered, and until several other Peers laid hands on him, and compcdknl him to be silent, while " his countenance was convulsed witli agitation." In the otlier House, Lord Althorp, Sir Itobert Peel, and Sir Francis liurdett, all with their mouths open, were " using tlie most vehement action of com- mand and supplication in dumb sliow, and their friends were labouring in vain to i)rocure a hearing for them," I 130 MEMOIR OF JOHN GKEY. in the midst of cheers, hisses, shouts of laughter, and the discharges of artillery and roar of the multitude outside, which accompanied the King's arrival. Sir Eobert Peel, usually calm and dignified, would not cease to speak, or consent to sit down, even when the King's arrival was announced, until a friend pulled him forcibly down by the coat-tails. A witness said of him, " I never saw a man in such a passion in my life." It must have been a moment of exciting expectation to Lord Durham, the " genius of the Eeform Bill," when he entered first in the procession, carrying the crown. The King, it is said, walked forward to the throne with a quick, light step, and bowed around with a frank, sailor-like, somewhat jaunty air. His face was slightly flushed, and his expression eager. The following letter, written many years after, may be interesting. It alludes to the interview with the King on the morning of the 22d:— FROM MY FATHER TO EARL GREY (HOWICK). "LipwooD, 3866. " Dear Lord Grey, — Lord Brougham has not left off his old tricks, the offspring of vanity and self-aggrandize- ment, which caused your excellent father so much annoy- ance in former years. " I bought Moles worth's book when it came out, and was much interested in the perusal, which recalled to memory the exciting times when I used to receive from your Lordship and your brothers letters regarding the pro- gress of ' the Bill.' " I marked particularly Molesworth's account of the interview with the King,^ wherein it is stated that Earl Grey deputed ' to his bolder and less courtly colleague ' the management of the conversation, etc., — a very improbable ^ Mr. Moleswortli had tlie account probably from Lord Brougham. THE REFORM BILL. 131 course of proceeding. One may allow for any amount of varnish or departure from truthful accuracy, who is, like myself, old enough to remembtr Brougham's secret corre- spondence with Lord Wellesley on tlie Irish affairs, and his familiar use of the King's name during the triumphal pro- cession to Edinburgh and Aberdeen, with all of which, I suppose, his Majesty was utterly disgusted ; for I remem- ber Lord Grey telling me, that on a subsequent occasion, when the King called upon him to form a Ministry, the only restriction accompanying it was, that * Brougliam was not to be Chancellor.' This is a circumstance which your Lordship will hardly have forgotten." I regret tliat I cannot recover any letters written by my father at this crisis. His feelings were deeply moved ; but in this lie was not singular. ISIen, women, and even children, caught the infection of the enthu- siasm of the time. At Milfield Hill, my mother, with her children, used to go down every day to the foot of the lane, where the mail-bags were thrown ofl", to get the first tidings when the London express was bringing each day news of the general election or the progress of the Bill. Good news was hailed with shouts of joy from the little people who were too young to know the meaning of it, and even tlie baby, who could scarcely speak, was so well instructed in loyalty to the cause, as, when asked her name, to add to it with great energy " good fif)." An aged reformer wrote to my father from Ix)ndon — " If we should fail, what a prospect for the country : our fair fields filled with the slain of our fel- low-countrj'men, shouts of relK'llion, and garments rolled in blood ! I have had fearful forebodings. . . . You must perceive the bitterness of my mind, amounting nearly to madne.s.s. God forgive me ! To you I can trust my ravings, knowing tluit they will be received at 132 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. least as sincere. I know not another to whom I could trust some of the expressions above." Most true was the saying of Grattan, " Self-legislation is life, and has been fought for as for being." King William expressed to Earl Grey a great interest in the result of this general election, and hoped that Mr. Bell would not stand again for Northumberland. One of my father's later letters refers to this period : — "LiPwooD, 1867. " Dear Lord Grey, — I am exceedingly obHged by your kind remembrance of me in sending me a copy of the cor- respondence between Welhngton and your father, which I have read with intense interest, and which, though it could not heighten my admiration for Earl Grey's character and talents, has tended greatly to raise the opinion I had wrongly, as it seems, formed of those of the King. Many vivid recollections have been recalled by the perusal of that book of the exciting events of that time, and whoever may become heir to my copy of it, will find a note interleaved at p. 254, vol. 1st, wherein the King expresses his pleasure at Mr. Bell's retirement from Northumberland, 'which had secured the county from a contest, and insured Lord Howick's return.' " The note relates to some part that I took in that move- ment, of which I enclose a copy. " The King remarks with pleasure on the retirement of Mr. BeU from the representation of Northumberland, an event which I well remember. " Lord Howick wrote me a hasty note from the House of Commons, saying that he had just got leave from his father to inform me that the ' dissolution ' would be de- clared next day, that I might lose no time in preparing for the election and getting ready the necessary machinery for a canvass. I at once mounted my horse, saw Mr. Culley of Coupland, ditto of Fowberry, and some other friends of the Liberal cause, got them to accomj)any me to Wooler, THE EEFOKM BILL. 133 V'liere in the evening, by use of the bell-nian, we collected an impromj^iu meeting in the street. I mounted the stairs outside the Black Bull Inn, and harangued them on the crisis of the country's fate, on the disappointment and dreatlful consequences which might ensue if the Reform Bill, so anxiously looked for, should be thrown out by the opposition of the Tory Lords, causing the resignation of Lord Grey's Ministry, etc., etc., calling upon them to sup- port that distinguished statesman, of whom our county had just reason to be proud, and to exert themselves in maintaining our ]>opular rights and just Government, by uniting in a declaration that ' we bound ourselves to vote for no candidate who Avould not pledge himself to use his best efforts in the cause of Parliamentary Reform.' All shouted and held up their hands, big and little. *' A resolution to that effect Avas drawn up by George Howey, then resident in AVooler, and solicitor for our cause in Glendale Ward, -which was signed by as many as were freeholders. I lost no time in despatching a copy of this to Newcastle, to be inserted in the new.si>ai)ers, and circu- lated from Lord Howick's Committee over the county. The idea was taken up, and similar resolutions adopted at meetings convened at North Shields and elsewhere, which were also made public. In a few days Mr. Bell announced his intention to retire, and the Reform candidates. Lord Howick and Mr. Beaumont, were elected ■without opposi- tion." The country was plunged once more into the excite- ment of a general election, scarcely five months after the last, Mr. Headlam wrote to my father : — " April 21. " The die is cast, and tho country is in a flame The frenzy of Londonderry, Mansfield, and Vivyan, shows their weakness and despair. We meet to-morrow to sign at our own cost a declaration for Howick and Beaumont. I understand the Heather Boys are turn<'d refonners. Let me hear what you are doing." 134 MEMOIR OF JOHN GEEY. The following words, spoken by my father at one of the election meetings, answers the question of what he was doing : — " My opinion of the magnificent measure submitted to Parliament by Lord John Russell, under the sanction of his Majesty's Ministers, may be expressed in a few words. I should designate it as being founded upon the principles of justice, wisdom, and good policy — as claiming the ap- probation, as it will obtain the su import, of all the lovers of good government. But however wise, just, and politic we may consider it, it still does not want violent, I may say virulent, opponents. If you ask where those are to be found, I answer, certainly not within these walls. Certainly not among the honest yeomanry of England. No ; they are only to be found in the ranks of the borough-mongers and the supporters of corruption. It would be amusing to see a petition from that class of persons, if they would prepare one, not cloaked in specious concealment, but speaking the undisguised truth. I imagine it to read in this way, ' We, your humble petitioners, who have long been accustomed to usurp the privileges of a large body of the people of England, and to send members into the House of Com- mons, by which means we have secured much wealth, and obtained places of power and emolument for ourselves and families, are now threatened by a base and ungrateful people with having that privilege wrested from us. We therefore humbly entreat your honourable House stead- fastly to resist all approaches to purity in the constitution of your honourable House, — that you will resist the mad clamour for Reform, which would give the representation to the ignorant multitude, and divest us, the privileged few, of the just rights with which the abuses of the Consti- tion have invested us,' etc. Such, I imagine, would be the petition of those who contend for things as they are on the ground of their antiquity, and who stigmatize the views of the reformers as having a revolutionary tendency, which would destroy the Constitution. But, gentlemen, I need THE REFOKM BILL. 135 not tell you that revolutions come not from a desire on the part of a Government to redress grievances and to correct abuses, but that they are brought about by the arbitrary spirit that would perpetuate abuses, and oppose the princi- ples of justice and liberty. The epithet revolutionary has been much emi)luyed by the opponents of Keform in the House, but they have not condescended to the proof The Constitution of the countiy consists of three estates — King, Lords, and Commons. Now, how would it revolutionize the King 1 Does it not leave him the arbiter of mercy, invested with all his privileges and prerogatives 1 Does it not leave him the army and navy, and all the appointments in both 1 And instead, as Sir H. Hardinge said, of pulling the crown frf)m his head, it will leave him more firmly seated upon the throne than ever, because he will be en- throned in the hearts of a grateful and loyal people. Then as to the Lords : how does it revolutionize them ] It leaves them their House, invested with all their judicial and legislative powers. It leaves them all that the Constitution awards them ; but it does not leave them the power of making two Houses of Lords ; it does not leave to sixteen Peers the power to nominate seventy-six members in the Commons ; but is there anything revolutionaiy in that 1 Then as to the House of Commons : it certainly will i»erform some revolution there ; for if revolution means to revolve, and to revolve means to turn about, I apprehend it will have the effect of turning many of its mendjers to the right about, and sending them about their business. But then, wliat right have those members there 1 or who sent them ? Not the people of England, for they are there against their will, and in opposition to their interest. No, gentlemen, there is nothing revolutionary in shutting the doors of tlu^ House of Commcms upon those who are not sent there by the people of England. But there is a revolution which some men have not the delicacy of pt;rception to discover. I mean that revolution which has Ix-en for many years silently but surely and progrekssively working its way in the minds of men ; a revolution of moral feeling and of intelligence 136 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. that pervades the whole community of England, and that will exert an influence upon the character of the laws, the institutions, and the Government of this country, — an influ- ence which it will be the part of a wise and enlightened Legislature to recognise and co-operate with, but which no future Government, however exalted in rank, however splendid in talents, if they attempt to rule by arbitrary or unjust or selfish principles, will ever hereafter be able to gainsay or resist." The new Parliament met. LORD HOWICK TO MY FATHER. " House of Commons, Sept. 5, 1831. " My dear Sir, — I begin at length to have some hopes of our labours coming to a termination ; but as the time for the Bill going to the House of Lords approaches, I cannot help getting a little nervous as to the result. The elections at Grimsby, Weymouth, and Dublin have cer- tainly had a bad eff'ect, and our opponents have talked about a reaction, till they begin to believe it is taking place. I cannot help thinking that some of the stupid and timid Peers will suff"er themselves to be persuaded that the eager- ness of the people in support of the Bill is abated, and that since its defects have (as they say) been exposed in the Committee, the general zeal in its favour, which was displayed at the general election, has given place to in- diff'erence. Under these circumstances, I think it is worth considering whether it might not be possible to get up petitions to the Lords to pass the Bill when sent up to them without delay. I am told that one of the plans of the Opposition is to move an adjournment, either for a couple of months, or until the Scotch and Irish biUs are sent up. Such a motion would be very likely to gain the votes of those who hate the Bill, but dread the consequence of rejecting it ; and if we could get petitions generally of the kind I have mentioned, I think they would have a great eff'ect. A county meeting, if the harvest does not render it too inconvenient, and if a good attendance could THE REFORM BILL. 137 be procured, would, I think, he of much use. Praj' consult the reformers of your neiglihuuvhooJ on the subject, and see what can be done. — Yours very truly, HowiCK." On the 21st of September 1831 the Eeform Bill passed the Commons by a majority of 109, and was carried up to the House of Lords the day after by Lord Althorp, accompanied by one hundred members of the Commons. Then the cry arose, and was echoed through the land, " \Miat will the Lords do ?" The question was answered ere long. On the 7th of October the Lords threw out the Bill, and rejoiced exceedingly. The Eeformers stood firm. The Tories expected the Administration would fall ; but the King prorogued Parliament in order that the whole matter might be gone over again. Then the indignation of the people outside Parliament began to be more distinctly expressed. The cry, " What will the Lords do?" was changed to, " "Wliat will the people do ?" The people did not wholly do well. There were riots and outrages here and there. I find some words of my father's, written then, " Let the people alone ; they won't tro far wrong ;" no ! not when there is a moderate hope of redress, in which case an aggrieved and suffer- ing people will endure much and quietly. Again large meetings were held. At one of them my father made the following speech : — " Gentlemen, — I assure you I deeply participate in tlic di.sappointment just now expressed by tlie meeting. Tiicro lia.s seldom })e<'n a period in the hist(»ry of our country involving deeper intt-rcsts, or exciting a more intense anxiety in the public mind, than the present. The Lords liave, as you all know, rejected the Bill by a majority of forty-on(% among whom arc, to !»<• found the wliolc Ix-ncli of P>ishops except two. Ah a fri<'n(l to the Churdi of lOngland, I greatly lament this circumstance; because it will have the 138 MEMOIR OF JOHN GRFX effect of alienating the people from the Church, by showing them that the heads of it entertain views and feelings and interests at variance with those of the nation at large. This decision in the House of Lords, it is to be feared, will go far to increase the feeling of suspicion and mistrust which already exists throughout the country respecting that branch of the Legislature ; for he must have been but an inattentive observer of the temper of the times, and the progress of public opinion, who has not seen that the con- tempt of popular rights and the resistance to the claims and remonstrances of the people, by those who have so long swayed the councils of these realms, have led to un- happy consequences on the state of society. The system to which the nation has, at length, opened its eyes, and now offers a determined resistance, has had the effect of continuing the government of the country, for a very long period, in the hands of persons who have been hurled from office by the indignant blast of public opinion — that opinion before which, when steadily expressed, every Government must bow, and upon which eventually every Government must depend. The hope of reform, and the prospect of im- provement arising from it, had contributed to quiet the public mind and to restore tranquillity to the land. All eyes were instantly fixed upon the proceedings of the Legislature, and the moment for the expected consummation of their wishes and hopes had arrived. But the rejection of the Bill by the House of Lords at once blasted their prospects. Dis- appointment and dismay appeared in every countenance, and every one asked of his neighbour, " What will become of the country 1" This then, brother-freeholders, is the crisis at which we are arrived, the position in which we now stand. And the object of our present meeting is to delibe-* rate upon the best means of promoting that cause in which our dearest interests, as individuals and as a nation, are involved. The cause of Reform cannot go back, it cannot stand still. The nomination to seats in the Commons by individuals in the House of Peers cannot be allowed longer to exist, having received the stamp of a nation's condemna- THE REFORM BILL. 139 tion. The question so often asked, ' What -will the Lords do V has been wofully answered, and the question now is, ' What will the people do V In stating what, in my humble opinion, the people ought to do, I need not remind you that there is only one justifiable course to pursue ; that acts of tumult and violence may injure but they can- not promote the cause of justice and good government. I need not caution you against any violation of the public peace, or opposition to the laws on which the Avelfare of society depends ; but I will join you in seeking the accom- plishment of this great object liy every constitutional means. You may be assured that if the voice of the people of Eng- land shall be fiimly but temjierately and simultaneously raised in favour of Reform, it will speak throughout the land in a language which senators must hoar and Avhich legislators must obey, and that the object of our wishes cannot be long witliheld. These, my friends, are the means by which we must seek to save our country from a fatal convulsion, and by which those very Peers themselves will be saved from the effects of their own infatuation — those Peers who are loudest in claiming to be considered the only legitimate guardians of the Constitution, and who, in the adoption of this measure, pretend to foretell its utter and everlasting destruction. But, gentlemen, like the boy in the fable, they have cried 'Wolf! Wolf!' so often that no one regards them. The same cry has been raised by Eldon and Wetherell, and echoed by their associates in both Houses of Parliament, whenever popular rights have been recognised or Liberal principles advocated. Tlie same cry was raised when that compendium of bigotry and intolerance, the ' Test and Cor- poration Act,' wa.s repealed. And happening to be in London at the time of passing the Catliolic Eman(ii)ation Bill, I he^rd many funeral orations ])runounct'd Ijy those gentlemen in Parliament over the Constitution, whoso o})8equie8 they have been accustomed to iicrfonii, with all the ' pomp and circumstance' of real woe. Still tlu; Con- stitution has Hicovercd from these sf'vcral attacks, and conu; out frehher and fairer than ever. This, liowever, is to be its 140 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. last struggle — this is a blow which it cannot survive. It cannot outlive the destruction of the rotten boroughs, and must inevitably die of grief for Gatton and Old Sarum. I would first ask those gentlemen who profess such a filial regard for the Constitution, and are so learned in the laAvs by which it is upheld, to quote to us any Statute authoriz- ing them as individuals to usurp the privileges of the people, by sending their nominees into the House of Commons, with power to vote upon questions of national law, and to dispose of the money extracted by taxation from the pockets of the people. Let us tell them, that while they weaken the noble structure of the Constitution, by protecting abuse, we seek, by equal laws and free re- presentation, to confirm the rights and privileges of all classes, and to render our country prosperous and happy at home, and respected, and, if need be, feared abroad." Then there arose the question of the creation of new Peers in order to get the Bill passed — an exercise of the Eoyal prerogative which was constitutional, though very undesirable. There was much gloom through- out that winter, much excitement, expectation, hope, and fear, long debates in Parliament, and monster meetincvs out of Parliament. Meanwhile the Peers began to waver. Many turned round, seeing that it would not do to oppose the will of the country. But the great cause was destined yet to pass through another crisis of peril. The mind of the King was unstable in the matter, and at a Cabinet Council held on the 8th of May 1832, the Ministers, believing they had now no prospect of success, tendered their resignation, which was accepted by the King. LORD HOWICK TO MY FATHER. " Colonial Office, ^fay 9, 1832. " My dear Sir. — You will no doubt hear that we are now all out; that we are merely remaining till our THE REFOKM BILL. 141 successors are appointed. I am verj' anxious to hear from you what is the impression made upon the public by these events. Is it understood that there was no alternative ; that ha^'ing been refused permission to create Peers, the resignation of my father and his colleagues was unavoid- able 1 The violent Tories talk of an immediate dissolution. I do not believe it ; but it is possible, and we should be ready. — Yours very faithfully, HowiCK." Then, it was said, there was such a mourning tbrougli- out England as had not been known for many years. Tlie bells of churches tolled or were muffled. People forsook their work and gathered in crowds everywhere. The Duke of Wellington talked of reliance on his soldiery, and of a way he knew of to quiet the people if there should be signs of rebellion, and w^as dis- appointed when he learned that the sympathies of the soldiers were greatly with the people, and that his best policy was to order them back to their barracks. LORD IIOWICK TO MY FATHER. " Colonial Office, May 14, 1S32. " My dear Sir, — I have received your letter, and I assure you that, in the midst of the present commotion in public affairs, I most sincerely feel for your domestic trials, and I cannot be in the least surprised at your feel- ing unequal to embarking in all the turmoil of political warfare. " The present aspect of affairs is, I confess, most alanning. I am not afraid of the re-cstablisliment of Tory domina- tion, but I dread that the leaders of that party may, in their ineffectual efforts to recover tlieir power, adopt measures which will lead to the overthrow of tlie existing institutions of the country. The Duko of WelHngton has indeed met with extreme difficulty in forming an Adminis- tration of any kind ; nor is it yet certain that lie will succeed in doing so, im Peel and Cloulburn have refused to 142 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY, become members of it ; and, with the exception of Baring and Harding, there seem to be no persons whose assist- ance he can command who are fit to act as Cabinet Ministers in the House of Commons. Still I fear he will, of some material or other, patch up a Government ; and, to prevent its immediate extinction, he wUl probably be driven to a dissolution, the result of which it is impossible to speculate upon without the greatest alarm. I cannot conceive how the peace of the country is to be preserved during the six weeks the elections will be going on, or how we can prevent a continental war from being kindled, while there is no power to control the Administration. " All that can be done is for the House of Commons, while allowed to sit, to show that it sympathizes with the people ; and for the people, if we are dissolved, to return another House, which will act on similar principles. " There was a meeting last night at Brooks's, at which it was originally proposed that Lord Ebrington should this evening move a resolution, declaring that the House could place no confidence in any Government with the Duke of Wellington at its head ; but, after some discussion, it was agreed that such a motion would be premature, and that it would be better to postpone taking such a step, until the formation of the Government shall be announced. It was, however, agreed to refuse any vote of money to the new Government, should it be formed, until Reform should actually be carried. If I hear anything positive before post-time I will write a line. — Yours very truly, " HowiCK." The Duke was unable to form a Government. The Whiss were recalled. Lord Howick wrote to my father : — " May 18, 1832. " I am happy to tell you that it has just been announced in both Houses that the present Government will remain in office, being satisfied that they have the means of carry- ing the Reform Bill." THE REFORM BILL. 143 On the 4th of June 1832, the Bill was read for the third time in the House of Lords (the Duke of Welling- ton and about one hundred Peers had absented them- selves). The Bill passed, and on the 7 th it received the King's assent by royal commission. The scene in the House of Lords on the previous 14th of April was de- scribed by Lord Jeffrey : — " Lord Grey spoke near an hour and a lialf, after five o'clock A.M., from the kindling dawn into full sunlight, and I think witli grout <'ffect. Tlie aspect of the House was very striking through the whole night, very full, and, on the whole, still and solemn (but for the row with Durham and Phillpots, which ended in the merited exposure of the latter). The whole throne and the space around it clustered over with 100 members of our House, and the space below the bar (which, since the galleries which are constructed over the grand entrance, is also left entirely for us) nearly filled with 200 more, ranged in a standing row of three deep along the bar, others sitting on the ground against the wall, and the space between covei-ed ■svith moving and sitting figures in all directions, with twenty or thirty clambering on the railings, and perched up by the doorways. Between four and five, when the day- light began to shed its blue beams across the red candle- light, the scene was very picturesque, from the singular grouping of forty or fifty of us sprawling on tlie flooi-, awake and a.sleep, in all imaginable attitudes, and with :ill 8ort.s of expressions and wrappings. ' Young Cadl)oll,' who chose to try how he could sleep standing, jannned in a corner, fell flat down over two pro.strate Irislnnmi on tlio floor, with a noise that made us all start, l)ut no mi.schief wa.s done. Tlie ciiudlcs had been reviewed before dawn, and blazed on after the sun came fairly in at tlu! high windows, and produced a strange but rather grand c^flect, on the T<-i\ draperies arul furniture and dusky tai)estry on the Willis." 144- MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. My father received the following letter, towards the close of the great struggle, from the venerable Premier : — " Downing Street, April 20, 1832. " My dear Sir, — I take advantage of the first mo- ment of breathing-time that I have had for the last three weeks to write to you. I cannot doubt that the suc- cess of the Reform Bill on the second reading will have afforded you great pleasure. I trust that I shall now stand clear of suspicions, from which I must say I had a right to expect to be exempt. I might have had credit for know- ing what I was about. I never concealed my opinion that a large creation of Peers, in itself an evil, would only have been justified by the most extreme necessity. " The event has justified me. We shall still have a severe battle to fight in Committee, and it is possible that some alterations may be carried by our opponents, and I should be glad to know from you how far you think the public opinion would be with us in any concessions of this nature, provided the great principles of the Bill are main- tained. In the meantime petitions, thanking the Lords in the second reading, and expressing a hope that the measure would ultimately pass in such a manner as to satisfy the just expectations of the public, might be useful. I am nearly Avorn out, and sigh for the quiet and retirement of Howick. — With great esteem, yours truly, Grey." A public dinner was given to Lord Howick in the autumn of that year, — a year in which the cholera was spreading terror through the country. My father's friend, Mr. Home of Berwick, wrote — " You must come to the dinner and bring a gallant cortege with you. Come in full force yourself, your speaking-tackle aboard, and all your wits about you. You know we are poor in oratory, and must depend on you to hide our defects. We have been almost disheartened from attempting any- thing by the alarm of the cholera. I fear it will prevent ANTI- SLAVERY MOVEM ENT. 145 many attending. On this, and on far higher accounts, I earnestly hope this scourge may be abated. It is as ■well perhaps that we politicians should not be allowed to forget, ' what shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue.' " At this meeting my father said, in reference to the past struggle : — " An attempt had been made to dictate to them a certain political creed, by those who seemed to forget that the days of feudal despotism and feudal ignorance had gone by. But it would not do in those days to address the people of England in the language used three hundred years ago, when Henry the Eighth could tell his subjects (his loving subjects of course) that ' they being but brutes and inexpert folk, were very ill judges of the laws by which they should be governed.' " . . . They would allow him to offer them one word of adWce : — " Let us," continued he, " use our victory with wisdom and discretion ; let us not triumph over fallen foes ; and let us bury, from this day forward, everything like asperity of temper and party spirit in the kindly intercourse of social life. If our opponents have been weak, if they have proved themselves ignorant, let us hope that they may derive instruction from the hard lesson we have taught them ; and in returning to our homes let it be our constant endeavour so to harmo- nize the discordant elements of which society is com- l)Osed, as to make them work together for the peace, the prosperity, and happiness of our beloved country. " In May 1832 the agitation for the abolition of Slavery was renewed. A petition was presented by 135,000 persons in I/mdon alone. There was still much hesita- tion in rarlianient, a recurrence to old objections, and renewed debates. Mr. ]'>u.\toii had a hard battle to fight. Many of the most liberal men failed to see the weak K 146 MEMOm OF JOHN GEEY. point in the famous resolutions of nine years before, namely, the idea oi gradual emancipation. Even Lord Althorp, so just-minded as he was, " would not pledge himself to any immediate abolition, because he thought the slaves were not prepared for it ;" but he thought " the Legislature might employ itself usefully in bringing the slaves to such a state of moral feeling as would suit the proposed alteration in their condition." My father's opinion, expressed at the same time, differed from that of his friend Lord Althorp. " Whilst I am perfectly willing," he said, " to give to his Majesty's Ministers all credit for sincerity in their endea- vours to ameliorate the condition of the slaves, and bring \ \ about at last the final extinction of slavery, yet I confess I have some objection to see the very frequent introduction of the word gradual into all their plans and measures. The planters seem to take special pains to make any progress to that desirable end gradual enough. And the cause has ad- vanced so very gradually for the last fifty years, and, I fear may continue to advance so very gradually for the next fifty years, that you and I, gentlemen, will never live to see the accomplishment of our wishes, and thus life to us will be cheated of one of its dearest anticipations. I take an ob- jection also to the principle that slaves are not to be put in possession of freedom until they have learned to use their liberty with perfect discretion, for then will that time never come. If any man conceives that these unfortunate beings can be fitted, whilst under the degrading and debasing yoke of slavery, to perform all the duties, and to act up to the moral responsibilities of free men, and that the restoration of rights of which they have been so long and cruelly de- prived will not in some instances be attended with abuse of them, then I would warn that man to prepare to be dis- appointed. But what would you think of the father who would insist that his boy should learn to swim, but that he should be quite perfect in the art before ever he should be allowed to set a foot into the water ] In my mind, the one ANTI- SLAVERY MOVEMENT. 1 i 7 case does not involve a more palpable absurdity than the other." In the folloAving ^lay, however, ^Ministers took a more decided position, and the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Stanley, proposed, on the part of the Government, that all chil- dren born after the passing of the Emancipation Act, and all under six years old at the time of its passing, should be declared free ; that all others then slaves should be registered as apprenticed labourers, and be obliged to work for their owners under conditions and for a period of time to be fixed by Parliament, and that a loan of fifteen millions should be ofiered to the planters. In this proposal there was still an adherence to the principle of gradualism, which, together with the compulsory apprenticeships, was opposed by j\Ir. Bux- ton. He found a strong supporter in Lord llowick, who had resigned office, as unable to countenance this principle. The Government yielded eventually to the arguments of these men, and of the others wlio held with them, and the term of apprenticeships was shortened. The field slaves were to have been appren- ticed for twelve years, the house slaves for seven ; these periods were now reduced to seven and five years, and shortly afterwards were remitted altogether, and the loan of fifteen millions was changed into a gift of twenty millions.^ • " On Ijoth Hhores of the Atlantic, expectation stood on tiptoe to watch the moment wliich Khould give fieedoin tu 8(10,000 of the enslaved race. Tlie Carolina jdanter locjked well to hiu negro ijuarter to see that his ' han« of Northunibria's freedom and her worth ; To help the oppress'd, to liberate the slave, To curb injustice, tyranny, and wrong, — Snoh were the tasks for which hi.s arm was strong, His pleading eloquent, his counsel brave. The woodman's toil, the labour of the mine. And busy husbandry confessed his care : Cottage and farm, and school and House of Prayer, Rose at his bidding on the banks of Tyne. So lent he lustre to a noble name. And true Northumbria shall guard his fame." In 1833 ray father was appointed to take charge of the Greenwich Hospital Estates. This property is situated in different parts of the county of Northumberland, and includes a large lead- mining district on Alston Moor in Cumberland. It originally belonged to the Earls of Derwcntwater. Tlie last Earl, James Piadcliffe, took part in the Stuart rebellion of 1715, and was beheaded. After the deatli of his only son, John, witliout heirs, the estates were, by Act of Parliament, granted to the Greenwicli Hospital, an institution nobly designed, into whose internal administration much corni])tion afterwards crept, as is commonly tlie case witli en(h)\vments. As there is apt to be some confusion in jicople's mind.s on tlie subject, it is as well to say at once tliat my father liad nothing whatever to do with the manag'-iiH'nt (jf the splendid llosjiital which stands 152 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY, on the banks of the Thames. He was much grieved when the Commission of 1859-60 showed that there had been an unwise administration of the funds, which by his able stewardship he had largely increased.^ He had the sole direction of the northern estates, 300 miles from the charity which benefited by them, and was wisely left by the Greenwich authorities unfettered in the exercise of his function ; and with the exception of the punctual weekly record of transactions forwarded by him to the Board, he was as free in action as if he had been an independent landlord. This freedom was not in- deed granted at first, but gradually, as his official chiefs saw what his character and abilities were. It was for the interest of the Hospital as well as for the tenantry under his control that he was left thus unfettered. For a corporate body to attempt to manage such a vast concern, from a distance of 300 miles, would have been futile or ruinous, especially when to the irresponsible character of a corporate body is added the fact that the individuals composing it were chiefly naval men, or persons cognisant only of the official business of cities, without the special training, and long experience of agriculture and kindred subjects which such a position requires, and lacking also probably a knowledge of the temper of Northumberland men, which differs consider- ' ably from that of the subdued and easily coerced " He spoke of it thus in a letter, date 1862 ; — " It is well to expose such glaring mismanagement and flagrant abuse of funds intended for a benevolent purpose. I wonder in whose hands the misapplication began ? I hope it may be thoroughly investigated and exposed, even if it should lead to a breaking np of the Hospital, as such, and a better and more economical distribution of the charity. Such inquiries may raise a clamour against the institution, and lead to the sale of the estates, and the conversion of the noble old 2)lace into a shipbuilding shed. Perhaps it would be as well." HIS WORK AT DILSTON. 153 tenantry of many English counties. " Whatever differ- ences of opinion," the newspapers said, " were expressed in the course of the inquiry made by the Commission of 1859, there was none as to tlie management of John Grey. On this point there was but one judgment." The Eoyal Commissioners said in tlie Eeport, " The great increase (of revenue) from tlie Northern Estates is due to the discovery of minerals, tlie outlay on the estates, the rise in the value of land, and the judicious and skilful management of the estates by the present Receiver." " It is impossible," said Sir James Graham — one of the witnesses examined — " to praise too highly the judicious application by Mr. Grey of capital to improvement." Such was his position ; one of great responsibility and extensive influence. In his relation to the tenantry he stood to all intents as their landlord. He was to them the final referee in all matters. But his influence extended far beyond the property he presided over. " That pro- perty," it was said, " has become known far and wide as a model of estate management, and a powerful stimulant to improvement, not only in that county but in other places also."^ Another contemporary remarked, " He is a man who has ever loved work — loved to see it rightly done — who finished his task for its own sake — and by whose side 'divine assessors' have walked day by day, delighting in his faculty and reporting it."^ In the Agricultural Gazette he was spoken of, after his death, as " a lea^ling name in pjiglisli agriculture, a le.-wling oxcinplar of the duties of land-owning, ;i leading teacher by example and precept, of good fanning in every department of it. ' Economist. * Mevica«Uc Chronicle. 154 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. He was the personal friend and adviser of, one may say, the population of a province. One of the largest estates in Great Britain has grown into full equipment under his guidance ; and hundreds of houses, homesteads, cottages of his erection, each contained a family Avho reckoned him their friend. Grey-headed in professional, benevolent, pubHc-spirited labours, he has gone, leaving a memory honoured and beloved by young and old of every class. , . . His wise advice will never be forgotten. The words of such a man are the reflex of his life ; and every class has been his debtor. A noble sphere of usefulness has been nobly filled. The list merely of material results is but a scanty picture of it. Ten thousand pounds a year added to the value, and therefore to the rent-roll of a single property — an increase in the food production equal to one-third and sometimes to one-half over a multitude of farms — a wide-spread improvement of the dwelling-houses, wages, and condition of the labourer : of all this the credit very generally is his. But it is the social influence of a good and wise and powerful man by which he is most effective, and we cannot doubt that this has been especially true of him, and that it will continue true, so that though dead his voice will yet be heard. . . ." But so numerous are the recorded testimonies to his work and character, not only in obituary notices, but at intervals during his long life, that I scarcely know how to choose from among them. The witnesses who " delighted in his faculty, and reported it " were not a few ; nevertheless he had sometimes to overcome pre- judice, to meet opposition, and endure obloquy, through- out which he held on in his even and honourable course. Previously to his taking the management of the estates, portions had been sold, not advantageously for the owners. Some beautiful property on the banks of Uerwentwater Lake was sold at a price below its HIS WOUK AT DILSTON. 155 value. At the time of his appointment tlie net annual income of the estates was £25,000. When he resigned his oflfice in 1863, after holding it for thirty years, the annual income was £40,000.^ He found agriculture much neglected on the property, and upwards of £100,000 were laid out by him in thorough draining and the erection of fixrm-buildings. Tiiere was a great decrease in the cost of management from the time he was appointed. Before, there had been two receivers, two, and sometimes three clerks, and seven bailifls; this staff of officers was now reduced to one receiver, one clerk, and one bailift": for this was one of the first of the economical arrangements which was efiected im- mediately after the Keform Bill, under the head of the third of the benefits promised by Earl Grey to the country — " Peace, Reforni, Retrenchment." Tliis reduction of workers implied an immense aug mentation of work for the conscientious sole superin- tendent. An old friend supplied lately the following reminiscences of my father : — " Sept. 1868. " My recollections would lead me to spoak of liis early and industrious habits, untiring energy, both public and private, and his kindliness to all, never considering it too much trouble to promote to the best of his ability the wishes anridge. I sent a man round M"ith my mare liy xsewbrough and the Fell Top — three miles round : all ditches and water-courses filled up, and the burns running do^vn wheat-fields, and making such gullies ; the lanes several feet deep of soil from the turnip-fields newly done up ! ! A workman was on the line near Allerwash bridge at our mill ; saw the wat^r coming like an avalanche, stepped back, and in a moment saw the railway-bridge over Allerwash burn carried bodily into the Tyne and swept away in fragments. A mile further west, the ruins of our Capon's Cleugh bridge, etc., came in a deluge of Avater and stones and trees against the railway. The culvert for the passing of the small burn was stopped ; the train came up ; the engine and tender got over, but the line broke under the carriages. The guard fell through the bottom of his van, was swept in the flood of the burn across the Tyne, and landed unhurt in our plantation on the south side ! How he escaped being crushed to death among the splinters and broken planks of the carriages I cannot conceive. It is a miraculous escape, and he can tell little about it, but that he thought he was to be drownt-d. It was the little red-faced man. No passengers were killed ; seven were rather hurt. I saw three carriages in fragments hanging uvi-r the chasm yesterday, and about 100 men, directors, and engineers besides, trying to get them out. I came back on the south side, and at Woodhall Mill and Ellington it was very mischievous; but did not extend to Ilcxiiain. How 1 am to get things i»ut right I know not. lienson bears up like a hero. George Langhorn came in from the devasta- tion of his crops and went to bed, and could not face me. Sucli is the difference of temperam<'nt." ' 1 Among my earlieat rccollcctiom at Dilaton i.s that of seeing sliceii oud 166 MEMOIE OF JOHN GREY. My father urged on the education of the people on the estates as much as possible, by establishing schools, by selecting the best masters and mistresses he could, in the days before there were Government grants and inspection, by getting the Hospital to subscribe to every school in the country which had any attendance from the estates, and obtaining grants of land free, or at nominal rents. He was very cautious in recommending people to situations. He never would recommend a man unless he was sure of his moral character as well as his skilL The proof of the wisdom of this caution, and also of his sound judgment of character, was seen in the innume- rable applications he received from great landed proprie- tors in every part of the United Kingdom, as well as from the Emperor of Austria, and the Manager of Public Works in Sardinia, for agents competent to deal with land and with agricultural populations. He sent forth many a stalwart Northumbrian in this way to dissemi- nate his advanced notions in different parts of the world, or to carry out the plans of enlightened noble- men on their estates. They have, I believe, almost cows and stocks of corn carried away, on several occasions, by the siidden rush of waters, and of eftbrts made to save little children who were some- times playing on the banks when the rivers rose, and washed down the stream. I also recollect that in going to church one Sunday, we had to plunge through water up to the girths of the horses. The workmen engaged about the weirs were generally very clever i'ellows ; foremost among them was one Tommy Harle, a great help to my father, through the real genius he displayed for engineering. He possessed that joyous anti- cipation of the future conquests of science which is so often allied with genius ! The Duke of Northumberland expressed to him one day his admiration of the river works which he had seen, executed by him. Tommy, forgetting the urbanity which he had been requested to observe in the presence of " the big Duke," shouted at him, with flashing eyes and eager face, " My word, but it's naethituj to what ye will see!" CORKESrONDENCE. 1 G 7 universally justified his recommendations, — at Altliorp, Wuburn, Ilulkliam, Cliatswoitli, "Windsor ; in Ireland, and many other places. Earl Spencer Avrote to him, — " AVlien I am in M\ant of assistance I am constantly applying to you ; I hope, however, not more frequently tlian you are -willing to give it. I should, at least, be very ungrateful if I did not say this has been the case liithcrto." He asks for a bailiff for Lord Leicester : — " The qualifications required are, first, thorough fidelity and real good moral conduct ; but I need not press this, for I know you never recommend any one whom you do not believe to possess these qualities." On another occasion he wanted a ploughman, — "not only a first- Tute ploughman, hut the sort of fellow you have in Northumhcrland, who can be trusted to overlook the other labourers." As letters written by my father and to him are the best illustration of the interests which occupied him and the affection which he inspired, I will introduce them freely and without comment in tlie remaining portion of this memoir. FROM HIS WIFE, DURING AN ABSENCE FRGSI HOME. " Alnwick, Scj^t. 1834, " I liopo, my beloved, you got on well, and tliat all our dear ones are well and liai)py ; tell them to be indii.strious and kind. I often think of you all, and think I see the little party round the oak table at tea when pajia's day's work is over, anout the liigiiity of " Aw order." A mechanic in the crowd Hhouted, " Wo will not touch a hair of his onler'H head, bless him !" and the sentiment was echoed from a thousand throats. 176 MEMOIR OF JOHN GEEY. hold together, and have power to ward off the struggle be- tween the now discordant elements of the two Houses of Parliament, remains to be seen. Lord Melbourne must display energies not yet discovered in his character, if he can do so. I hope there will be a strong expression of public feeling on your father's retirement, to cheer and gratify him. It is galling to think of the fickleness of public favour, and to see the victor of battles, however brilliant, but of transient importance, loaded with wealth and honours, while the man to whom we are the most in- debted for placing the national rights and liberties on a true, solid, and rational basis, is left unrewarded save by the conviction of having done what few men have ever the means of doing for the good of mankind." My father had several Canadian correspondents — enterprising farmers who had emigrated from Scotland ; among them was his friend the Hon. Adam Fergussou, a Perthshire man, a Presbyterian, and a Whig of the old school, who became a member of the Canadian House of Peers. It is to be regretted that none of my father's many letters to Canada, and comparatively few of his letters generally, except to his own family, are to be obtained. He outlived almost all the contemporaries of his youth, and letters seldom survive the persons to whom they are addressed. Every one is acquainted with that sad and humiliat- ing story of events succeeding the Canadian Eebellion, ending with the recall of Lord Durham from Canada. It is not needful to recount it here. Animosities be- tween rival races, contentions between a weak Execu- tive and the Legislature, together with indifference or mistakes on the part of the Imperial Government, — " these, I think, are the combustibles," wrote Mr. Fer- gusson in 1837, " which have burst like a tornado upon us. It is, however, the happiest event (the Eebellion) which CANADIAN COERESrONDENCE. 177 could have occurred ; and if severity and leniency are prudently tempered, it will secure rest and confidence to our land. Government has certainly been taken more by surprise than it ought to have been. Sir Francis Head is sufficiently well satisfied with himself, and rather elated by the high compliments from home. At an interview last week I ventured to express pretty freely the feelings which I share in common ^vith many, and I can't say that his explanation was very satisfiictory. I told him, however, what was truth — that by sending off all the military to the Lower Province, only a week or two before the rebels were •within an ace of taking Toronto, he had at once played the cards for Mackenzie, and had shown in the most triumphant manner what we could do for ourselves. " Had the rebellion been put down by the red-coats, the feeling would have been very different. We have been all in arms. My son Adam (the young lawyer) had the good luck to command a flank company in advance, in the affair near Toronto, and saw some sharp fighting. For ten minutes the fire was heavy. It is most remarkable that not a loyalist was hit, although the rebels had good rifles, and were all of them fellows who could bring down a squirrel ; but a bad cause unnen-ed them. Your old acquaintances David and John have been and continue carrj'ing muskets, and have behaved (as their captain assures me) steadily and well. " ^rXab sent me with a party of my Nichol men to guard a bridge on the Grand River at Gait, which it was expected the rebels Avould attempt. I brought down two rebel captains prisoners, but we saw no fighting. M'Kenzie managed to reach Buffalo, in New York State, and he has collected three or four hundred rabble, who took arms and some guns from the puljlic arsenal, and have entrenched themselves upon Navy Island, just above Niagara F'alls. It is Briti.sh soil, and 4000 fine fellows are now assembled upon the Canadian shore to welconK! them. Tlie position i.s, liowever, a very strong one, being so close upon the dreadful rapids that batteaux making an attack and missing the small island would inevitably go over the Falls. M 1 78 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. We have several experienced officers with our troops, and I rather suppose that a bombardment will be adopted. The American Government has shown a friendly disposi- tion, but it is much trammelled by public feeling, and cannot act promptly. " I have seen Captain Stewart and the beautiful bull he had from you. — I am always most truly yours, " Adam Fergusson." Such a crisis as this was an occasion, if ever there was one, on which it behoved politicians at home to lay aside all party prejudices and hostilities. But how injurious was the whole conduct of the Opposition, from the time of Lord Durham's leaving England to the time of his return ! In January of 1838 Lord John Eussell told the House of Commons who was the man chosen to be sent out as Governor-General and Lord High Com- missioner, with powers almost unlimited, to a task so critical, so arduous, and involving such grave conse- quences, that it was hard to find a man in all England with the needful qualities for dealing with it. Lord John Eussell said he must be one whose conduct and character should be beyond exception, — a person con- versant with matters of administration, with foreign affairs, and with the feelings of the people. He con- cluded : " I know not why I should refrain from adding that Her Majesty has been pleased to intrust the con- duct of this affair, and those high powers, to one whom her advisers think in every respect fitted for the charge, namely, the Earl of Durham." But it was in vain to choose and send out so able a Plenipotentiary, when the discontented in Canada could learn from the London newspapers that a branch of the home Legis- lature was seeking to arraign as a defendant the very LORD DURHAM AND CANADA. 179 man sent out to the colony as a judge ; that his every action was watched by malignant and jealous eyes; and that " in the least collision between the administrator and the violators of the law, the violators would be sheltered at the expense of the administrator." My father received a letter from Lord Durham, the date of which is a week after this announcement from Lord John Piussell. lie wrote : — "London, Jan. 27, 1838. " Dear Grey, — I tliank you very imicli for sending me the works on Canada. I shall read them with great interest. It is a fearful task which I have undertaken. I wish I could find another yourself to assist me. I will seek out Mr. Fergusson the first opportunity. — Yours very truly, " Durham." He had a high opinion of my father, and had written to him, on his entrance on his office at Dilston, as follows : — "SuDBROOK Park, Dec. 1832. " My DEAR Sir, — You must know too well my convic- tion of your capacity to fill any situation ; in fact, I think the present one infinitely beneath your talents. I have just read a letter of yours in tlie Durhaiii Chronicle. I know nothing of the controversy, but I am highly delighted with the manliness and talent evinced in your letter. — Yours truly, Durham." My father's friend and neighbour, Mr. Silvertop of Minsteracres, a Eoman Catholic gentleman, liighly cultivated and liberal, was a warm sym])athizer witli him in iiis views generally. He wrote to him : — "Thk Clarendon, Londo.n, Ftb. 2, 1838. "Mv DEAR Sir, — I will not allow a po.st to go off with- out thanking you most sincerely for youi kind letter. The Ministers cut a terribh; fi|,nire in the hist debates, and h;ul it not been for E. Kllice they would have been (piite left 180 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. in the lurch. A good deal of uneasiness is felt about the boundary lines between our Canadian territory and that of the United States, and some of our old diplomatists, I know, feel alarmed lest in the present moment it may not lead to unfortunate results. I sat next Lord Durham a few days ago at dinner. I must tell you that he said to me, ' I wish I could get such a man as our friend Mr. Grey of Dilston to go out with me to Canada.' He is looking remarkably well, and in good spirits. He is to have no fixed salary, but all his expenses are to be paid. Remember me most kindly to your wife. If I can do any- thing for her I hope she will command the services of, yours most faithfully, J. Silvertop." My father wrote to a friend, " I have had several intimations that he (Lord Durham) would like me to accompany him to Canada. I think, however, he would wish the offer to come from me." But my father could not afford to leave his post. There had been a great attraction on both sides between these two men, and a secret hope cherished of further intercourse and friendship at some future time. But this hope was blighted, together with many other fair hopes, by Lord Durham's premature and lamented death. The portrait of him, painted by Phillips, hung for many years in the dining-room at Dilston. After his death my father often stood before it, looking at it silently for several minutes together, and never failed to draw the attention of strangers to that noble face. FROM MR. FERGUSSON. " Toronto, Upper Canada, April 8, 1839. " My dear Sir, — Since I wrote last to you I have been launched into public life here, by a nomination from Her Majesty to a seat in the Legislative Council, and for three weeks past have been resident here attending duty in the CANADIAN CORRESPONDENCE. 181 House. It is a place of some expense and of no profit in pay, but I did not consider myself at liberty to decline, as there was a chance of doing some good. The Canadian House of Peers (i.e., the Legislative Council) has had in times past a very bad odour with the liberal party, and partakes of all the evil and little of the good to be found in the House of Lords. ... I am resolved to support Government on the Executive in all cases when I can con- scientiously do so, but shall not hesitate a moment in denouncing what appears to me to be wrong. My dt^lnit has been in opposition. A most engrossing subject here is the proposed union, or rather re-union, of Upper and Lower Canada. Lord Durham's report reached us a few days ago. I have not had an opportunity of perusing it, but it has created a great sensation. Thei old school here are quite furious, and declare that if his Lordship's ideas are followed out, Canada won't be held by England for a year." After Lord Durham's recall : — " WooDHiLL, Nelson, Upper Canada, October 5, ]839. " My de.\R Sir, — As I know you are anxious, both upon public and private grounds, to have some accounts of what we are doing here, I lose no time in offering you a slight sketch. I sincerely believe that no unhappy colony ever had worse luck than the unfortunate bhiw-ui) which forced Lord Durham home. Had he remained for a couple of years, confidence would have been restored in the minds of the great mass of the landholders, and the selfish mysti- fication which envelops the Executive would have been annihilated. As it is, the party (call them family compact, or what you will) who have the ear of the Governor have compl<-t«'ly succeeded in persuading liim, and nund>ers of timid old-country (:migrants, that rcfoi-m and rclK-llion are synonymous terms, and that the Diirliamites are in no degree Ixjtter than M'Kenzie, Duncombe, and Koljjh, having a republic in view, and a se[)aration from Britain of course. We have some dangerous men yet in the Province, who aim 182 MEMOIK OF JOHN GREY. at a junction with the States, but I am perfectly certain that their influence will be utterly insignificant, provided a con- stitutional character shall be given to our Executive, and the heads of departments be compelled to feel that they must conduct their matters in a way agreeable to the wishes of a majority of the representatives of the people. How such a responsibility is to be tantamount to a separation from our parent State, my intellects are unable to com- prehend. Such, however, we are told by the opponents of Lord Durham's views, is the inevitable consequence of the system which his report advocates, and which, you will recollect, confines all provincial interference to strictly provincial affairs. In the midst of all this turmoil, your friend has of course taken his stand, and he has done so honestly and conscientiously, and at considerable sacrifice of personal feeling, upon the side of Lord Durham's principles. I have been called disloyal, and a sycophant of the mob, with many an etc., but I know my motives to be pure, and I verily believe our views to be sound. Great exertions will be made at home to excite a feeling against us, and I sincerely and ardently trust that Lord Durham will watch over the cause with a parent's care. — Ever warmly yours, Adam Fergusson. " P.S. — Probably the most difficult point awaiting our new Governor is the Clergy Reserve question, which must be again resumed, as they decline meddling with it at home. Never on earth was there such an apple of discord thrown among people, and no sooner do you think that you have got a fair hold of it than it slips through your fingers. I am afraid the Church party here have con- trived to engage the Church at home, and their power is too well known not to occasion alarm. I know that it continues, and will continue to the last gasp, to be the determination of the high Tory party here to maintain the supremacy and dominancy of the Church of England in Canada." After Lord Durham's death : — CANADIAN COliRESrONDENCE. 183 " WOODHILL, WaTERDOWN, P.O. UPPER CANADA, 30^/i October 1840. " My dear Sir, — The death of Lord Durham was most sincerely lamented by all true Liberals here. I consider him as a victim of meddling politicians and lukewarm friends in the Cabinet. It is by no means clear that he had ever exceeded his jurisdiction in the Bermuda Ordi- nance, but seeing it was so palpably judicious, humane, and in the right spirit of the Act which sent him to Canada, I shall never forgive ^lelbourne and Glenelg for yielding an inch to Brougham. But alas ! such reflections are futile now. I have to thank you for many occasional newspapers, and, inter alia, for an account of the funeral. It either showed a kind heart or good taste, the part borne by Lord Londonderry, and I shall ever respect him for his conduct there. It has been a disappointment to many here that no public token of respect has hitherto emanated from the North American Provinces, to one to wliom they are so deeply indebted for his labours in their behalf. I trust it is only delayed, not forgotten. My immediate impulse Avas to have sent an address of condolence to Lady Durham, with thou.sands of signatures, and I made the suggestion in a quarter where the best and Avarmest feelings of respect unquestionably exist. It was however deemed inexj^edient, under our present peculiar circumstances, as being quite sure of receiving from the Tory press and party here the stigma of a mere electioneering mananivrc The reason hardly satisfied me, but I felt compelled to bow to the opinion of those from whom it Avas conveyed. You will be pleased to learn that Lord Sydenham goes on Avell, and Avhen the full consummation takes jjlaci-, and every public d<-jjartment shall conK; immediately under his own eye, matters will htill groAV better." " Toronto, U. Canada, Jan. 23, 1S40. " AVe have carried through the Union, and di.sjiosed of tliat unhai)py and vexatious (picstion — the Clergy KeserA'cs. The opposition, direct and indirect, to tin; la.st of these! lias been great, or perhaps I should b(! more correct in saying 184 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. little, for verily the Bishop and his party have adopted the most paltry shifts to thwart any healing and equitable partition. It was a great mistake to make Strachan Bishop, and if Ministers had known all they would have seen what a mess we must be brought into. " The Church party will use every effort to oppose the bill, and boast openly of their certainty of throwing it over- board in the House of Lords. I cannot believe this, and deem it unlikely that Canada will be sacrificed (and it amounts without doubt to that) for a grasping clergy, who have got the lion's share already, and upon a point which in no way affects the Church of England as a body. Should a dominant Church Establishment be recognised in this Province, it won't be long before we must be plunged in anarchy and blood. Surely the Peers, bigoted as many of them are, will never reduce us to this. The Governor- General has a very difficult game to play. — I am always, dear sir, yours most truly, Adam Fergusson." In 1838 the Eoyal Agricultural Society was formed. It was at a dinner of the Smithfield Club in December 1837, that Lord Spencer first proposed the formation of such a society, and in 1838 lie wrote to my father : — " The Yorkshire Society will not rival the Highland Society certainly, if it had succeeded, which it has not. The highest ambition of its projectors, of whom I was not one, was to imitate most humbly that great and useful institution. I am, however, endeavouring to form some- thing for all England, which ought to approach a little nearer to the Highland Society, but even this cannot be expected to anything like equal it. " Unless I get very powerful support I shall not persevere; but I hear I am likely to get great support, and then I think I may do great good. I agree with you that though we must have cattle-shows to keep up the interest of the public, the real objects of the greatest importance, and where improvement is most wanted, are the other branches of agriculture. LAST DAYS OF PROTECTION, 185 " I was very sorry for poor Curwen ; he and I were fi'llow-labourers in the commencement of my Parliamentary life, when our leaders thought we went too far. But everything we then aimed at has since been carried. — Yours most truly, Spencer." From the year 1838 the impulse towards improve- ment in agriculture began to act with great and increas- ing force. The Committee of Inquiry into the Causes of Agricultural Distress, which was called for in 1836, produced evidence which satisfied every thought- ful man that the days of protection to agriculture ■were numbered, and gave rise to the feeling through- out the agricultural world that self-reliance and self-help had become necessaiy. The questions there asked and answ^ered gave also a great stimulus to scientific inquiry, for they brought out distinctly the truth that (not necessarily fresh enclosures, but) the growth of increased produce on a given area was the only sure foundation for agricultural undertakings. The agricultural interest, however, remained in a deplorable state. !My father continued firndy to look forward to the total repeal of the Corn -Laws as the cure for this distress. lie did not approve the scheme of fluctuating duties. FROM LORD IIOWICK. " War Office, Dec. 1838. " Tlie markets are indeed getting much too high, and tlu' present price of l)re;ul i.s occasioning, 1 fear, much di.stre.ss, particularly in the south of Kuglaiid, where w;iges are always very low. Tlie result will be a severe stnigglo for an alteration of the Corn-Laws, whicli you know I have always con.sidered to be most injurious to tlu) landed interest as well aa to the consumer. I am anxious to have 186 MEMOIK OF JOHN GREY, the means of comparing the effects of the opposite policy with respect to protection, which has been pursued in regard to wool and to corn, for which purpose I want much to have a statement of what has been the selling price of wool of similar quality in each year from the Peace, or a year or two later, to this time. Do you think that, with- out much trouble, you could procure me this 1 " I believe you have always had a very fine flock. ..." ANSWER TO THE ABOVE. ■■" "DiLSTON, Dec. 29th, 1838. " Were I at Milfield Hill to obtain access to my farming accounts, I could without trouble or difficulty supply your Lordship with the price per stone of my wool, which has been very uniform in quality for the last thirty-five years ; but as I am not likely to be there very soon, I have just now written to Messrs. Boag, who are extensively engaged in the wool-trade in Wakefield, and purchase great quan- tities of the wool of our county, asking them to supply you with a table of the prices of Cheviot and Leicester wool of equal quality, from the period of the conclusion of the French war to the present time. Should they not do so, I can easily obtain such a document in another quarter, which will prove that the prediction of ruin to the home- growth of wool by the admission of foreign wools was not only falsified, but that the prices rose and have continued steadier ever since. I believe it will be impossible to maintain the present system of Corn-Laws under the exist- ing circumstances of the country ; and however desirable it may be to alter and modify them, it would have been much better that such alteration had taken place without having the appearance of being extorted by the clamour and violence of the manufacturing classes, from a reluctant landed aristocracy. It is an undeniable fact, that manu- factures conducted by British skill, capital, and enterprise, are rising up in various parts of the Continent to rival, and perhaps to under-sell our own. And, however much one may LAST DAYS OF PROTECTION. 1 S 7 lament the fact, one cannot wonder at such a result of our restrictive system. . . . " The weather in this part continues fine, and the winter, so fiir, is passing mildly away. God grant that it may so continue ; for a course of severe weather putting a stop to labour, in the present state of the markets for all sorts of provisions, would prove a dreadful calamity." Til 1841 the weak Administration of Lord Melbourne came to an end. Lord Spencer wrote to my father : — "ifai/26, 1841. " I do not know what to say about politics, but my impression is that the general election which must come will tell against us ; and if it does, of course the Ministers must go out, and we shall see whether a Eeformed Parlia- ment will improve the working of a Tory Government. I think it will. I am sorry to say the farmers and landed people with whom I am in communication are still as much wedded to wiiat they call ' Protection ' as ever. If they would once trust themselves to swim without corks, they would find they could do it very well. — Believe me, my dear sir, yours most truly, Spencer." There was no possibility now of a return to a Tory Administration of the old school. Sir Piobert Peel became head of the Government, which was soon to disgust a large number of its admirers in the country by the Repeal Act. "HoDSE OF Commons, March 21, 'I'J. " My dear Sir, — I hav(! had my time so constantly takf-n up by attending this House, not only in the evening, but alscMJii a Private Pill Connnittee in the morning, that I have not been able sooner to thank you for yi.iir litter of the 14th, and the copy of your agricultural jiapers which 1 received at the same lime, and was very mueli oldiged to you for. 1 am glad yuu ai)proved of my speech on the 188 MEMOIR OF JOHN GEE Y. Corn-Laws. I hope my friends among the farmers will, some of them at least, agree with you. " I quite agree with you as to the impolicy of our dividing against the second reading of the bill. I endea- voured to induce our friends to take a different course, but, having failed in doing so, I voted with them, as the only means I had of recording my opinion that the measure is unsatisfactory. I am very much disposed to leave the clauses respecting the averages as we find them. I am convinced the bill will not remain long in force, and the point is not worth disputing. " I shall be anxious to hear what you think of the financial plans of the Government, and of the course we have taken. If Peel had given us real Free-Trade, I would, for the sake of it, have swallowed the Income-Tax, objectionable as it is ; but his tariff is a complete delusion. " I left my nieces and young Lord Durham very well, and we have since had very good accounts of them. They are probably by this time at Malta, as they were to sail on the 14th from Leghorn in the Belvidera. — Yours very truly, HowiCK." Our home at Dilston was a very beautiful one. Its romantic historical associations, the wild informal beauty all round its doors, the bright large family circle, and the kind and hospitable character of its master and mistress, made it a very attractive place to many friends and guests. Among our pleasantest visitors there were Swedes, Eussians, and French, who came to England on missions of agricultural or other inquiry, and who sometimes spent weeks with us. It was a house the door of which stood wide open, as if to welcome all comers, through the livelong summer day. (AH the days seem like summer days when looking back.) It was a place where one could glide out of a iQw^r window, and be hidden in a moment, plunging FAMILY JOYS AND SORROWS. 189 straight among wild wood paths, and beds of ferns, or find one's-self (quickly in some cool concealment, beneath slender birch-trees, or by the dry bed of a mountain stream. It was a place where the sweet hushing sound of waterfalls, and clear streams murmuring over shallows, were heard all day and night, though winter storms turned those sweet sounds into an angry roar. jNIy father delighted in the beauty of the place, and in his family. There were indeed clouds, anxieties, sorrows, regrets — how could there but be such in so large a family, among so many hearts endowed with that strength of feeling which prepares for its possessors no easy or trancpiil path to walk in ? He led his six daughters, each in turn, on her wedding-day, up the aisle of the village church, as years went on, and one by one they quitted their father's home. In the memor}' of all of them the parting-day is fixed — the visit paid in the early morning to the bride's room, the long, tender, silent embrace, and the throbbing of his strong heart, which betrayed his emotion. " Father, you have other daughters left," it was sometimes remarked ; the only reply was " My child," and a moment's closer grasp to his heart. It was no selfish regret which moved him, for his thoughts were dwelling then, as those of our mother would dwell, on all that might be awaiting that child in the future. It is not easy for those who were so greatly loved by him to speak of the tenderness of his soul. Something of it may be guessed from his letters to his children. Tlie sadness there wa.s in the contemplation of the gradual dropping off of the large family circle which surrounded him, until after our motlier's death he was left alone, was com- pensated greatly by the enlargement and extension of his 190 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. interests and affections through that very scattering abroad. He admitted his sons-in-law and daughters-in- law to a place in his affections very close to that of his own children, and ever as he grew older he seemed to feel for and with his large scattered circle, more and more in all their sorrows and all their joys. Again and again he had to mourn with widowed sons and daughters, and with both as bereaved parents. Tew things affected him so deeply as the death of a little child, and he was often called to suffer that sore grief — which to some seems unreasonable, but which cannot be reasoned with — through the deaths of his grandchildren, the darlings whose greatest joy it was to spend the bright summer weeks in his country home, and who found in his great simplicity something akin to their own nature fresh from God's hand, which made him seem the appropriate companion of little children. Among compensations must be reckoned that which God's good providence ordained for him, in the return to his home of one of his children — the faithful daughter who was destined to be the companion of his declining years, and to continue to the last the womanly minis- trations which he always so tenderly valued. The following letter to that daughter records how he had once feared himself to be the witness of her death, who was the only witness in all his family of his own : — " DiLSTON, October 1860. " My dearest Fanny, — My heart sickens to think of poor Charles and Emily having lost dear Oswald, and watcliing over the sick, perhaps the dying bed of sweet little Hilda. I know the sad feelings and alternations of hope and despair, from paternal experience in former days, and on one occasion, Avhen you were the object of anxiety. LETTERS TO DAUGHTERS, 191 You were spared, aiul laistd almost from the grave, and restored to mamma and me, when she had retired from the scene, thinking all was over, and you still lay on poor Jane Cranston's knee, when, even against hope, I drew a feather dipped in brandy and water through your lips, and you heaved a sigh, and seemed to breathe again. I have often recalled that moment of resignation and revived hope, hardly to be believed real. Dear faitliful Jane ! She has followed her old mistress at a short interval, and is with her enjoy- ing, we hope, the fulness of joy and peace. She will be much missed in tiie village circle, in which she was a blessing to many."^ TO ONE OF HIS DAUGHTERS, WHO HAD BEEN A SHORT TIME MARRIED. "Xew-Year's-Day, 1843. " My darling Tully, — I wish you were here to join in the gratulations of the infant year, but as I cannot take you to my arms and press you to my heart in reality, I must be satisfied to wish you most emphatically every good, at a distance, and pray God to bless you in all your ways, and to preserve you in the peace and happiness wliich it makes me happy to liear that you are enjoying. Why should I ever feel sad in thinking of you'? fori am sure that I love you very much, and rejoice in the assurance I feel of your welfare and happiness, and yet in a time of momentary forgetfulness of your absence, a feeling of disappointment has come over me in being obliged to recall the recollection that your place in the circle is empty. Such, however, is a part of our mental constitution,— we are more given to rcpinr' at privations than to acknowledge and be thankful for our many blessings. Hereafter our feelings will be re- « Tliis faithful nurse well deserves to be named in a family liistory. Though a poorly educated woman, her Christian thoughtfulness and habit of hUKtained communion with God gave ht-r a wisdom wliicli made her the sought adviser of many besides our own f.imily. My father or mother would often visit her alone in the nursery at night after all the children were a«lcep, in order to conftc with her on matters of difliculty, or of the dccpcat couceni to the family. 192 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. fined, and our capacities of enjoyment enlarged and purified. . . . Some of the young folks are reading, and others chat- ting in the blaze of a Christmas fire in the drawing-room. I hear Charley's voice overhead in discourse with mamma. He looks the little man in tails less gracefully than the tall boy in a jacket. I very often bring you up to my mind's eye, at times in your hat and habit, looking stylish, and managing your curb with masterly hand ; at others gliding smoothly into the drawing-room with bright ring- lets and smiling face." TO THE SAME. "1843. "Dearest Tully, — You will see by the Newcastle paper, that our County Meeting, the local one like that last year, is to be at Hexham. It would be pleasant if you and Edgar could be present, but unluckily George cannot, as it is the same time with the Highland Society's meeting at Dundee, which he is to attend. I have asked Lord Howick to come to it and take up his quarters here, but unhappily Lord Grey's state of health renders his plans uncertain. I hope, however, by his account, that there is no ground for present apprehension of danger. Such an affection of the sight and general debility are more likely to arise from a disordered state of the stomach than anything else, which will, I hope, be repaired. Only, at eighty any attack is to be feared. I have a letter from himself, dated the 4th instant, when I suppose the illness must have been coming on, for he said that he could not write long without difficulty and pain from the state of his sight. Poor man ! he can- not last long now, yet I should much lament his death on private and public grounds. He has been a kind friend to me, and I have had much interesting intercourse with him. And dear, kind Lady Grey and his daughters would feel his loss deeply. His day of public life is over, and his position as a public man very melancholy, for he is the last of a galaxy of great politicians ; but it would be a great loss to have Howick removed from the Commons to assume the GRIEF AND HOPE. 193 quiet and inanimate state of the House of Lords. The House of Commons does not at this time contain a more able and honest man, — none with a clearer view of consti- tutional liberty, and who supports his views with more determined courage and disinterested integrity of purpose." The summer of 1844 was a very bright and busy one at Dilston. On a certain lovely evening in June, the children were looking througli a telescope at an eclipse of the moon, and wondering whether their sailor brother, John, was looking at it too, and where he might be. They knew not that the waters of the Pacific had many weeks before closed over his head. The next day news came to my father of John's death at sea, but it came indirectly, and there might be, it appeared, some mistake. He did not speak a word until the tidings should be confirmed or contradicted. For twenty- four hours he bore that load of suspense and sorrow on his heart, nor did the merry family party trace any shadow on his brow, so effectually did he conceal his trouble for the sake of others. Then he heard more, and " I remem- ber," says one of my sisters, " his coming with an open letter in his hand, and breaking the news gently to mamma." Our mother had WTitten to John when al)sent on a voyage, " We pray for you, my son ; we think of you among the beautiful Isles of Greece. Your rose-tree, which you planted, is covered with flowers. I hail it as a happy omen." His father wrote to him : — "Dir.STOx, Octohtr. " My VEitv DEAR John, — I am often thinking of you when tlie wind raves among our trees. Bui then I rcrol- lect that it may be calm in your hemisphere ; and, at any rate, that Ood is everywhere to protect and guide us. Bo watchful, my dear boy, of your thoughts and actions, make N 194 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. good use of your opportunities of observation, take especial care of your health, and come back cheerful and strong and instructive. — Ever your affectionate father, " John Grey." The message which came was abrupt and bald, from the captain of the ship, arrived in China : — " All well, except Mr. Grey, who died off the Cape." It was not for some months after that the mail brought a word more than this to satisfy the aching hearts at home. And that word, when it did come, was very brief. A letter, badly spelled and badly written, from a gentle sailor-boy, who acted as his servant : — " At midnight (giving the latitude and longitude exactly, in the sailor fashion) Mr. Grey sang out for his mother." ..." He talked much about his brother George, and thought he was coming to him." Many years after, and shortly before her death, my mother wrote down in a paper, which was not opened till after her death, more about this sore sorrow than she had ever spoken. The paper is a kind of apology for her own hopefulness. She was accounted " sanguine " in youth, but hope did not desert her in old age. She says in this paper, after giving her reasons for hope : — " After the experience of more than half a century, the thinker of these thoughts takes the liberty of thinking thus, and her life has not been one of unmixed joy ; she has known sorrow, but in the deepest sorrow hope has never been far off. When standing by the bedside of many sweet dying children, ' flesh of her flesh,' and feeling lier heart doubly pierced even through that of her child, — a mother — she has been cheered by hope. Even when she knew that 'the heavy-shotted hammock -shroud' of her poor sailor had sunk in ' his vast and wandering GRIEF AND HOPE. 195 grave,' and her heart in its deep agony was well-nigh broken, hope sprang up, like the returned dove to the ark, in tlie shape uf a letter from a youth who was with him on his deathbed, aud told how, when his poor eyes could no longer see, he asked often to have read to him the words of life, and said they comforted him. Through the mercy of God some healing balm is ever derived, not entirely from an abstract principle, but from these very sorrows themselves more immediately, as the anti- dote to the viper's sting sometimes lies in the plant among our feet from whence the venomous beast attacked us. In the sick-room of some dear one, close, dark, didl, and cheerless as it seems, I have often found real, even abounding joy, in the thought that I was God's prisoner, and sorrow and uneasiness and fear were often, strange as it may seem, lost in a positive sustain- ing pleasure. Even in tlie little worrying vexations of life, when we are like pilgrims walking with peas in our shoes, still there is the scent of flowers, the song of the birds, and the sweet light of heaven about our path." It was happy for my father that the partner of his life possessed this hopefulness of character. He himself, though full of the hope, which is sooner or later granted to tlie pure in heart, of the prevalence of good over evil, was constitutionally rather sad, retrospective, apt to dwell with a tender melancholy on joys past, and friends departed, rather tlian t(j look forward ; and withal somewhat diffident of his own powers. The secession of the Free Church in Scotland, which took place in 1843, was an event of great and even personal interest to my father. Foremost among those wlio went forth from tlie Established Cliurcli were his brotlier- in-law, Dr. Henry Duncan, aud his cousin and 196 MEMOIR OF JOHN GKEY. brother-in-law, Dr. Henry Grey, He wrote of the event to an absent daughter : — "i¥ay 1843. "My dear Tully, — I don't know whether you see anything of, or take any interest in, the very extraordinary convulsion of the Scotch Church. The crisis has arrived, and the band of faithful ministers have borne testimony to the integrity of their principles, which has been often tauntingly doubted, by abandoning their long-accustomed homes, to which they looked as their only earthly residence, the flocks which they taught and loved, the society that they had formed around them, and all the ordinary ties of local interest, domestic comfort, and easy competence, for a change to untried walks of life, and what, in common eyes, may seem a degraded condition. Whatever speci- ous arguments may be raised against the necessity of the act, and the correctness of their view of it, it proves a noble example of moral courage and consistency, one which gives to it the stamp of no ordinary event, and to the men the value and character of martyrs. The detail of the pro- ceedings on the meeting of the General Assembly, the protest given, and the secession of so many of the best men composing a nation's priesthood from the scenes which they had adorned by their taste, and sanctified by their piety, is one of the most deeply affecting that I ever experienced. The first names in the Protest are Drs. Welsh, Chalmers, Henry Grey, Gordon, etc. I think of the taste with which the amiable Dr. Duncan had ornamented and made really pretty the otherwise barren spot at Kuthwell, and the pleasure he had in contemplating the creation of his fertile mind and delicate fancy. " ' The house, the field, the shadowy grove,' are his no longer, all abandoned for a home he knows not where, but in obedience to the dictates of a strong moral obligation to do the right, and despise and reject the expedient. One cannot doubt that such sacrifices will be rewarded, if not in outward circumstances, in inward peace of mind and con- science, and long will it be ere such a band of men, dis- DR. DUNCAN. 197 tinguished by learning, devotedness, zeal, and high intellec- tual attainments, will be found to occupy their places in the National Church."^ FROM HIS SISTER MARGARETTA. " Edinburgh, 1843. " My dear Brother, — I was much obliged for Lord Howick's speech, which was very sensible. He reminded me of you by his details about north-country f:\rming, and the effect of the Corn-Law on those whose interests are supposed to be protected by it, while they suffer from it with the rest of the country. Did you read the Corn-Law Prize Essays by East-Lothian agriculturists ? I thought them extremely good and convincing. I dare say Sir Robert Peel is as well con\anced as any of the repealers ; * The following notice of Dr. Duncan, written many years later, may be interesting :— "LiPWooD House, Dec. 30, 1S63. "Dear Mrs. Latcock, — In a conversation with you lately, my late excellent brother-in-law, Dr. Duncan, was mentioned, who was the author of the system of ' Savings Banks,' the benefit of which is now extended over the civilized world, and whose active and benevolent mind was ever engaged in some good and useful work. Tliinkiiig that you may be in- terested in looking through a memoir of him, I shall take it to Newcastle for you. Dr. Duncan was educated in Scotland, at a time which was dis- tinguished for young men of talent and eminence. He was the friend and companion of Dugald Stewart, Plaj-fair, Brougham, etc. With the latter he maintained a friendly corre.-ipondence throughout life, and was mentioned by him, on his late public appearance in Edinburgh, as one of the estimable friends and comjianions of his early days. With his literary tastes and talents he might have attained distinction as an author, had he been so inclined, but his unselfish and benevolent disposition, joined with great practical ability, led him to employ his time, and sacrifice his worldly interests U> the g0(Kl of his fellow-creatures. Tlie love I had for him when living, and the respect I still have for his character and memory, must plea In the Ilutory of tlu Ptace, (p. 718) I read tlio a««ertion, Hint in the oixminK of the »«i«ion of ISiS, " tlif \Vhi„'H won- i.luin, i»erhap8, a little leaning to our views, but not supj^orling us when we i>roi«>seIan for establishing a fixeeen up to that time the I: mended by the l>est ]K)Iitical econoiniMts. Uicanlo (if I am ii . ■ liaving first suggested that, on the princii)los of Free trade, 206 MEMOIE OF JOHN GREY. climax when Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli came into office, partly on the strength of the belief of a majority of the country that they would restore Protection. The following are extracts from letters written about that time by my father to his eldest daughter, in China : — " March 1850. " My dearest Eliza, — . . . The session would have gone off pretty quietly, I think, especially as the finance accounts are favourable — and Charles Wood makes a good balance — had not that odd, though in some respects clever, man, Palmerston, put his foot into it, by an untoward movement about small debts due by Greece. In principle he is borne out, but it is too trifling an affair to risk the peace of Europe upon, or even to cause ill-will by ; and there is a feeling of sympathy for Greece from ancient associations and modern suff'erings which rouses a spirit of opposition to any actions which bear a mark of oppression towards her." and to avoid any artificial diversion of capital and industry from their natural channels, there ought to be a fixed duty on com, to an amount sufficient to compensate the producer for the peculiar burthens thrown upon agriculture, and a corresponding bounty on the export. This was certainly at one time the generally received doctrine, and was my own opinion, ixntil later in the discussion it was proved that the assumption that there were such peculiar burthens on agriculture was unfounded, especially after tithe had been commuted for a fixed rent-charge ; so long as it was a tenth of the gross produce of the land, it was a real check to increased production. " I left Lord Melbourne's Government in 1839, and in 1841, when the Administration was manifestly falling, it brought forward proposals for a qualified approach towards Free-trade by admitting corn at a fixed duty of 8s., and diminishing the protection to colonial sugar. These proposals were greatly damaged by the time and circumstances in which they were brought forward, but they did for the first time commit the Whigs as a party not to free, but to freer trade. Still, however, the real principle of Free-trade was utterly repudiated by both parties, and the fallacious prin- ciple of Protection was still generally received on both sides of the House, and in the country. So much was this the case, that Peel's famous Tariff Bill of 1842, as originally proposed, would have created a whole host of new protected interests in our colonies, by charging as a general rule one- half the rate of duty on all kinds of produce from our colonies, as com- FREE-TRADE. 207 " PiLSTON, June 15, 1850. " You will see by the Newcastle papers how we keep squabbling on : — Agricultural distress ; Protectionist meet- ings ; Ministers often in a minority, but no party strong enough in combined opinion to take their places." "We all remember how the hopes of the Protectionist party througliout the country were disappointed by the sudden enlightenment of some members of Lord Derby's Government on the unsoundness of the theories which they had until now supported. MY FATHER TO HIS DAUGHTER ELIZA. " Dii-STMN, May 12, 1852. "... What a wonderful somerset Dizzy has performed ! We change men now, but not measures. Instead of Imnt- ing poor Peel to the death, and opposing Wood at all points, he ought to have been the strenuous supporter of both. . . . An extraordinary faculty of speech, which be- wilders and enchants or enchains people, loses its influence on those who are used to it, and find by experience that it pared to these on the same articles imported from foreign countries, and this was strenuously defended by Gladstone, then Vice-President of the Board of Trade, by whom it had, I believe, been suggested. I moved a resolution in opposition to this, that it was unadvisable to create any new protecting duties. I argued that the whole system of protection was wrong, and that therefore, even though it were admitted that e.xisting protections could not be hastily abolished, it was obviously inexpedient to create new ones. I pointed out that on some articles, such as tobacco and tea, the effect of this would be to inflict a heavy loss on the revenue, entailing new burthens on the Briti.sh tax-payer, without conferring any real benefit on the colonies, where the proposed policy would only have the effect of causing the diversion of cajiital and industry into branches of production for which they had no natural advantage, and exposing them hereafter to heavy losaeg if our policy should be altered. This motion, which you will obaerve wm only insisting on the vcr}- elementary princijiles of Free-trade, wail not only strenuously rehisteart to the influx of gold and the success of manufactures, causing many to wish to invest the fortunes they have acquired in land. loth. The average price in 1854 was £3, 128. 4d. per quarter. 1855 „ £3, 14s. 8d. 185(; ,, £:i, 98. 2d. 1857 „ £2, IBs. 4d. I cannot tell the cjuantity imported at this moment, but it can be oljtained from the lijard of Trade, or other oflicial sources. > Tbia Biiawer refen cbiony to Nurthuiuberland and Scotland. 216 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. nth. What has been the average pro- duce of corn in North- umberland each year since the same date ? 12th. "What has been the influence of the new legislation (the repeal of the Corn Laws) on the con- sumption of bread and the consumption of meat? lltJi. I cannot answer that question with accuracy, but am satisfied that it has been much more per acre than in former periods, and that the total quantity of corn pro- duced in this county is greatly increased. 12th. The consumption has greatly in- creased in both corn and butcher meat. The price of corn has been moderate, and generally free from much fluctuation, while the wages of the working classes have been good and their employment has been steady, so that they have been able to procure meat as well as corn, although the former has generally ruled at a rather high price. It is an imdoubted fact that the lower classes in this country Hve now much better than they used to do, owing to the good wages they obtain and the general improvement of their condition. An obvious result of the abolition of restrictions on the importation of corn is, that excessive fluctuation and the misery of famine prices are likely to be avoided. The larger the area from which the national supply can be drawn, the less is the probability of extreme prices, because if crops should be deficient in one part of the world, they may be abundant in another. It may not be improper, in connexion with this subject, to remark, that although the progress of improvement has been the most rapid and important since the change was made in the Corn- Laws in 1846, it received a great impulse ten years earlier from the Act of Tithe Commutation, which encouraged the application of capital to land, by making tithe a fixed charge instead of an exaction of the tenth of its gross annual produce. John Grey. DiLSTON, Northumberland, Oct. 1858. The question which the French Consul was most anxious to have answered — i.e., as to effect of Free-trade on the landlord class — was an interesting one, in con- nexion especially with the strenuous opposition which THE FRENX'H GOVERNMENT AND FREE-TRADE. 2 1 7 Free-trade had met with from the majority of that class. In the year before the repeal of the Corii-I^aws, the rental of land assessed to the Property-tax in Great Britain amounted to £-40,718,399. In 1 857 it amounted to £-47,109,113, and this, in spite of the fact that the land rented for agricultural purposes was undergoing a constant diminution, owing to its application for rail- ways, roads, building purposes, and streets. Lands had been abstracted from purposes of cultivation for these uses to the annual value of £1,703,857, and notwith- standing this, the rental of the remainder in 1857 was £390,714 more than in 1848. That was equivalent to an increased rental during the period that had elapsed since the repeal of the Corn-Laws of more than two millions a year ! My father mentions in his answers the great improve- ment which had taken place in agricultural implements, and the advantage accruing, on which the Economist remarked : — " Now this is an advantage which the French cultivator cannot enjoy until he has free access to the cheapest market fur iron, and for iron imple- ments. The monoi^ohj of the ironmasters in France is more prejudicial to the agriculturists as a hod// than to any other class xcliatcver." The Act of Tithe Commutation in 183G, which is referred to in the end of these answers, was a very important reform, and one to which my father contri- buted as much as lay in his })ower, by continually exposing the evils attendant on the old system. His friend, Mr. Blamire, who was appointed Connjiissioncr to work at this reform, consulted him on every detail connected with it, and n-ad in the Huuse of Commons the statements with which my father had furnished 218 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. him, together with some practical suggestions on the Commutation. I insert a few quotations from letters dating from 1841 to 1851 :— TO LORD HOWICK, ON CORRUPTION AT ELECTIONS. " DiLSTON, 1841. " Many poor tenants, as I know, who wished to vote for you, and not heing allowed to do so, intended to stay away, were sent for and forced to the poll ; and others who had actually promised us one vote, when they reached the place were laid hold of and turned by some magic power to vote against us. You may have very cogent reasons for oppos- ing the ballot, but if that or some other scheme is not adopted for protecting the dependent elector, there is no use, unless in times of some extraordinary excitement, such as does not occur more than once in a lifetime, in doing anything in counties but calculating the amount of pro- perty, or the list of Tory and Whig tenantry, and leaving the representation in the hands of the party which num- bers the greatest extent of acres. Of this I am morally certain, that with the ballot we should now have had your [j Lordship as our representative." TO LORD GREY (hOWICK). "DiLSTON, March 10, 1845. ; " My dear Lord, — I see nothing to be objected to in the note, Avhich I now return, except perhaps the remark that ' a reduction on the price of seed-corn, etc., will go to make up the farmer's loss in the price of wheat.' If the corn for seed and horse-keep were an article Avhich he must of necessity purchase, the argument would hold good ; but taking it as a part of the produce of the farm, no advantage comes from it, and the price of what he has to sell only goes to the payment of rent and labour. The labourer would be better off than when prices are high with the same amount of wages, especially as clothing would likely be also cheaper ; but any argument seeming to involve a CORRESrONDENCE. 2 1 9 reduction of the labourer's gains would be unpopular. It might be fairly argued, I think, that there is too great a tendency to look to the production of com, and of wheat especially, as the only or chief source of profit from land in this country, originating and maintained probalily in some measure by the tallacious promises of protective duties ; whereas some lands, hitherto chiefly cultivated for corn, would make a larger return in a rotation including more of pasture and green crops, and consequently producing more of beef, mutton, and wool, which have been proved to bear a remunerative price, for a long time past, while the pro- tected article of com, and ])articularly wheat, has been quite the reverse. It is a well-known fact that the price of wool in this country advanced after the import duty was taken off. The same argument may not hold with regard to corn, because the one is an article which gives large em- ployment, and the other is only for consumption ; but yet the farmers were as much opposed to the removal of what they termed a protective duty on the one as on the other. I recollect being asked to prepare a petition against the removal of the tax on foreign wool, and being looked upon as most heterodox when I refused, saying that I wi.shed to see all the wool in the world brought to be manufactured in England, for then we should have all the profit to our- selves ! It may be fairly asserted too, that a considerable portion of the land which has hitherto only produced a poor crop of wheat for tvo years occujmlion, is found, under the operation of thorough draining and modern improve- ments, to be capable of a convertible system of husbandry, growing alternate green and com crops, by which the amount of ])roduce is increased far beyond the cost of iinpiovement. To effect this requires intelligence and capital in the hand of the tenants, together with security of teiuire, as the guarantee of a profitable return of their outlay, and fre- quently too the energetic and liberal co-operation of the landlord. But instead of this desirable and in every sense j)olitic progress of impnncnient, look at the larg»; portion of England occupied by tenants-at-will, receiving no aid from 220 MEMOIE OF JOHN GEEY. their landlords, and deprived hy their system of holding from the means of obtaining capital and the motives for acquiring knowledge, — a system which engenders a stupid and spiritless tenantry, and a stationary state of the country so occupied as regards its improvement. This evil prevails chiefly in the large and overgrown estates of men who are indifferent to the public benefits arising from a better system, and have no need of exertion to put them in pos- session of all they can want or wish for in the world. There may be excuse for the slow advance of poor men on small properties which they can only improve very gradually, or by means of their own industry ; but what can be said for such men as the Duke of Northumberland,^ whose estates, save in a few instances within sight of the castle, have undergone no improvement for the last century, notwith- standing the movement in that direction all around them ? And now when he proposes to give his tenants tiles for draining, they will not lead them to their farms. In fact, many of them cannot, so completely has the system im- poverished them, though paying, in most cases, low rents. And I believe it is a fact that they are now quite at a loss how to proceed, such is the accumulation of arrear on the estates. Look at the folly of that man. He buys land wherever he can, which returns him perhaps three per cent., and leaves his wide acres all over the county in poverty, to grow rushes and all but what they ought to grow. That same money, employed in improvements upon the land he originally had, instead of adding to the extent and disgrace of it, would have paid him double or treble that amount of interest, and therefore made him, in respect of that portion of his property, a much richer man, but, what is of in- finitely more consequence, would have added to the pro- duce of the country, and contributed vastly to the wellbeing of a large number of its inhabitants, by being circulated through various channels of industry and production. This abominable management does not, I fear, apply only to 1 The present and late Dukes of Northumberland have encouraged im- provements on their estates. CORRESPONDENCE. 221 narrow-minded Tory Dukos, for I fear that of the amiable Duke of Devonshire is little better. Had I a place in Parliament, I should not fail to show up this system, and to remind those magnates that ' property has its duties as well as its rights.' The League of ^larch 1st, which .some one sent me, had a paper, a review of lett(>rs from Mr. Hope of East Lothian and a Mr. Littlewood, on the advantage of leases, and the necessity of capital in promoting improve- ments, which contains many good remarks. Protective duties to those who will not u.se the means of making their land productive are a direct robbery of the coninuinity. " There is one thing of which, I think, farmers have a right to complain, and I find great fault with all of you, their representatives, for not bringing it more into notice, and that is, the arbitrary and oppressive operations of the Income-Tax as regards their occupations. It is open to all other classes to appeal, and to obtain redress on proof of being over-rated; but the Act presumes that if a man pays £500 in rent for a farm, he makes £250 profit, and upon that he must pay, although he might be able to prove that he made nothing at all, or even that he was considerably out of pocket. The dearer and less profitable a farm is, the greater sum the tenant must pay in tax, which is mo.st absurd. But it bears partially on landlords as well as tenants, for the tenants' burdens will in the end affect the landlord, and while nearly all the property in the north of England — in Leicestershire, Norfolk, and some other coun- ties, — is assessed to the tenants' tax, many large estates and whole districts let in small farms contribute ncjthing in that respect." TO THE SAME. " Dir-STON, 9lh March 1850. "The present depression is a natural result of good crops throughout Europe, and the uncertainty, keeping RI)eculation in check, which attends a transition stniggle. The meiuiure of Free trad<' was intended and e.xjK'cted to mak<: prices more regular, as well a« more moderate ; and 222 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. it was well for this country that we had abundance, and low prices, during the late convulsions. As to the com- parative state of depression between this and other seasons of agricultural distress, not having my farming account- books here to refer to, I cannot speak positively, but be- lieve that the price of live stock was lower in 1822 and 1826 than it is now, and that corn was fully as low in 1822 and 1834-5 as it is at present. By a table of prices given in the Economist of January 26, 1850, it appears that the annual average price of wheat in 1835 was 39s. 4d., and that of 1849 was 44s. 2d. I believe, however, that the produce has not turned out so well in this county last year as has been the case throughout England generally, so that the depression of price is more felt than it may be in other quarters." TO THE SAME. " DiLSTON, Ma7/ 5, 1851. " I had lately an opportunity of conversing with several of the principal merchants in Liverpool, and some exten- sive manufacturers in Lancashire, and was surprised to find them, though advocates of Free-trade principles, al- most universally in favour of a 5 s. duty on wheat, and looking to it as a thing to be accomplished ere long, con- ceiving that it would affect very lightly the consumers in this country, and that an equivalent reduction of taxation would be greatly beneficial. This would, no doubt, have been accepted as a boon a few years ago, if the Tory party would have allowed it, but whether it will now be sub- mitted to from any Ministry seems doubtful. Such, how- ever, I found to be an opinion very generally entertained, and the event looked to as the certain result of a general election." I must return to the year 1846, to notice briefly a few events of that and subsequent years, less closely connected with the Free-trade agitation. In July of that year one of the most important of the meetings of GREAT MEETING AT KEWCASTLE. 223 the Eoyal Agricultural Society was held. Perhaps the prominence which the agricultural interest had assumed in that summer session of Parliament, gave a stimulus to the proceedings of the Society. The meeting was held at Newcastle. One thousand three hundred per- sons sat down to the banquet, at which appeared an unusually large and imposing array of aristocratic guests, among whom were Lord Portman (the President of the Society), the Dukes of Cambridge, Cleveland, and Piichmond, the Earls of Egmont, Chicliester, and Sheffield, Lords ^lorpeth, Polwarth, Eivers, and others, besides many scientific men and foreigners of distinction. Among the noteworthy people who entered the room, none were greeted with such a burst of applause as our north -country genius, George Stephenson, whose snow- white hair, fine dark eyes, black eyebrows, and open brow, made him easily recognisable in a crowd. The public papers declared that the " speeches at this meet- ing were of a far higher character, and more truthful and earnest than anything which had before been uttered on similar occasions." They also spoke of the speeches as "very characteristic, and marking distinctly the tenor and temper of landlords and agriculturists." Lord Portman began by intimating tliat there must be no unlicensed .speaking. He said, " The paper I hold in my hand contains a list of the only toasts that can be permitted to be given, and the only speakers who can be permitted to speak." Whatever might have been the intention, the effect wa.s rather to suiijtrcss the opinions of tenant-farmers, but n«)t tliat of landowners. The Duke of Cleveland touclied on forbidden topics: his speech was a kind of Protectionist funeral oration. " Although," lie said, " in spite of all that had recently 224 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY, taken place" (repeal of the Corn-Laws) "he did not despair, nevertheless the farmers must now accept the fact they were thrown on their own resources, and that they must allow him to point out to them the fallacies there were in much that was said about self-reliance, and to warn them that ' there is a limit to progress in agriculture, a 'point beyond which you cannot go! " The Duke was an example of the truth, that in exact pro- portion as landlords clung to monopoly they were un- believers in the resources of husbandry. The Economist remarked in its report, at this point, "We shall see presently what a gentleman of far more practical knowledge than the Duke had to say on this subject." My father had been requested to propose the toast, " The Labouring Classes of England." It was rash to assign such a toast to such a man, if there were aristocratic ears present which might tingle at the sound of a few sober and painful truths. There had been accounts in the newspapers about this time of the misery endured by the agricultural populations of some parts of Eng- land ; records of meetings held at night on commons and moors, where bands of poorly clad labourers held forth to each other on their common wrongs, and on the possibility of obtaining something better than starvation wages, by migration, or by whatsoever law- ful means. They were poor unlettered men; yet some managed, by the light of a single tallow- candle, to read papers they had written ; one or two of the audience sitting on a few rickety broken chairs or stools, the rest standing, until, — but few conclusions having been arrived at, — they dispersed, each to his home, where his family, men and women, young and old, were huddled together in one wretched sleeping- AN IMPASSIONED ADVOCATE OF THE POOR LABOURERS. 225 room, and where the children scrambled with the pigs for food. Allowing for whatever exaggeration there might be in such pictures, undoubtedly to my father's mind and experienced eye there were abroad symptoms of a distress and a degixidation which might assuredly be alleviated and avoided, if there were found in all our great landowners that sense of responsibility, and that unll to do right, upon which the happiness of so many human beings depends.^ I can imagine that, looking round on that goodly array of landed proprietors before him, many of whom, no doubt, had every claim to respect, recalling scenes of squalor and misery among the labouring poor, and deeply impressed with the responsibility imposed by high privileges, his spirit was stirred within him, and he had no mind to prophesy smooth things nor to speak flattering words. I have been told by persons who were present, that he spoke with an energy and passion that drew the eyes of all upon him, and silenced the hum and movement which there had hitherto been in the hall, and with a rapidity that made it difficult for the reporters to follow him. Noble Lords leaned to- wards each other, and whispered, ""Who is he?" and even when they did not assent they caught something of the generous enthusiasm of others who cheered vehemently. He sjtoke of the powerful influence which the condition, bad or good, of that lange class, the laliourers, exercised on the whole moral atmosphere in » Mr. Jamui Fraiicr sayH, in tlie Rt-port of Octolier 18(58, in referi-nce to labourer*' cottages : " It is a liideouK iiicture," and " The jiiiture is drawn from the life," and that " It iB iinj)08silile to exaK'^'T'ite tl'« >" tfftxts of the prexent ittate of thingx in every aHjicct— phvKical, Kocial, economical, moral, intellectual."— /{f/>c»r< of the Counties of Xor/olk, Suffolk, Essex, Sussex and GlauceMUr, Bections 1&-36, 226 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. which we live. He advanced without hesitation to the statement that it was to others than the Labourers themselves that we must look for any real improve- ment in their condition, and proceeded to speak of the duties of landlords, and the wide effects of neglect or selfishness on their part. Turning to the Duke of Cleveland, he adverted to some statements made by his Grace, and said, amidst cheers and laughter, " We have been told by the noble Duke that there is a limit to improvement, a boundary beyond which we cannot pass. I am not at all nervous about it ; it will not he reached in our day ; it will not he reached while unimproved properties and annual tenures exist." He concluded his address by reminding them that we have by no means fulfilled our duties to the workinsr class when we have given them employment, adequate wages, and dwellings conducive to comfort and purity of life ; that they have still higher claims upon us, minds to culti- vate and souls to save. It may have seemed Utopian to some gentlemen present to speak of laying open to the labourers " fair fields of intellectual enjoyment from which they had been too generally excluded." He pointed to Scotland as an illustration of the possibility of such a thing — a country where, " by a widely diffused and easily accessible system of education for the lower classes many men have risen from the ranks, and become distinguished in literature and science, but the value of which is less to be estimated by the occasional develop- ment of extraordinary genius than by the general diffusion of knowledge among the peoj^le." Our aim must be, he said, " to teach the people to live and act under an abiding sense of the obligations which, as moral agents and accountable beings, are imposed upon EDUCATION OF AGRICULTURAL POPULATIONS. 22 7 them; and in order to tliis a better system of educa- tion must be provided for tliem, and that education must be blended with religious instruction." Two years previously to this my fatlier had under- gone a long and close examination on subjects con- nected with the enclosure of commons, before a Com- mittee of the House of Commons. His examiners were Lord "NVor.sley, Lord Granville Somerset, ^Mr. Pusey, and Mr. Talbot. ^Ir. Pusey, an old friend and con'cspond- ent, seems to have taken a pleasure in drawing him on to speak of the rapid improvement of enclosed conmion- land on the Northumberland hills, which within his memory had been growing only furze, and were now yielding wheat to the amount of twenty- eight bushels an acre. In the course of the examination my father had to bear testimony to the general condition of the labourer of the Borders. It was with evident earnest- ness and pride that he said : — " In contrasting the condition of the peasantry in the southern with that of the northern parts of the kingdom, it wo.uld be highly improper to pass over unnoticed the superior education of the latter, and the effect which is produced by it upon tlieir worldly circumstances, as well as upon their moral and religious character. No greater stigma can attach to parents than that of leaving their children without tlic means of ordinary education ; and every nerve is strained to jjrocure it. Even tlie young men who labour in the fields all the day, often spend a couple of hours in the evening in school, to advance them- si'lves in fit acquin nients. If occuiiation alone is a valu- able anti(lot4! against idle antl vicious lialiiLs, the actpiirc- ment of useful knowle(lg<; anhilosoph('rs and its poets ; but for them, if the bust trump should not call them to the presence of the Lamb of ( Jod in the wedding-garment, it wen; better that tlu-y had tillf(l the meanest grave of the humblest of his faithl'ul followers in the remotest comer of hLi vineyard." Hi.s delight in ])oetry hud led him to cultivate nn acquaintance, b(jth extensive and minute, with our Engli.sh poets, from Chaucer and Piers I'luwniun down 234 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. to the feebler groups of Thomson, Dyer, Gray, Beattie, Collins, etc. With the exception of some of the poems of Tennyson he never learned greatly to love the works of our living poets. He said he could not understand them, and maintained that clearness of thought needs not to be dissociated from strength of feeling, and that it is no enemy to beauty of diction or rhythm. Never- theless he would observe very humbly that he was " growing an old man," when he was compelled to close a book of Mr. Browning's and take up his old melodious favourite Campbell. " My dear Fannt, — I thank you for books, new and old, provided for me in your absence. " I have read every word of the ' Minstrel ' with much gratification, which I had not done for forty years at least, finding now and then a line of which I had forgot the authorship, but which had grown into a kind of aphorism in my mind, and here and there a stanza which had been hid in a misty corner of my memory from my boyish days, and which keep their place as favourites still, for then ' poor Edwin was no vulgar boy,' and had some discrimina- tion, though his taste has been thwarted and his judg- ment marred by years of toilsome application to worldly pursuits. If those did not press upon me still, the time is past to resolve with Sir Eustace Gray, in Crabbe's spirited poem — ' Yes ! We '11 redeem the wasted time, And to neglected studies flee, We '11 build again the lofty rhyme And dwell, Philosophy, with thee.' But I still find gratification in drawing upon memory for some of its small stores. I have looked over many of Collins' poems too, but, except the ode to the Passions, don't find much to admire, though these contain occasional beauties. His boasted ode to the memory of Thomson (author of the Seasons) is too wire-drawn, and becomes I PUBLIC TESTIMONIAL. 235 feeble, though pleasing. It comes, in my mind, into un- favourable competition with Thomson's fine and philoso- phical ode, ' An Address to Sir Isaac Newton,' which is far inferior to Brown's concise and spuited ode to Thomson's meraor}', beginning : — ' ^Mlile virgin Spring, by Eden's flood, Unfolds her tender mantle green. And jiranks the sod in frolic mood. Or tunes Eolian strains between.* I could write it all, and it would repay your reading, but my time is up and I must be off. The only apology I can make for troubling you with all this is, that I imagine you have a greater sympathy in this foolish yet pleasing taste of mine than all my other children. — I am with much affection yours, Joux Grey." In 1849 a great number of neighbours and friends assembled to present to my father a testimonial,^ not on the occasion of the conclusion of any term of office nor of any particular event, but because, as the chair- man (the Rev. C. Bird) of the large meeting held for that purpose observed, " his neighbours in the north could not so long have been witnesses of his exertions in promoting the moral and material change which had come about in Tyneside of late years — a work which they must all be conscious was mainly the creation of one master-mind, — and feel themselves justified in with- holding some such declaration of their opinion as was before them that day." Outward prosperity was not destined to continue un- brcjken. In the autumn of 1857 one of those great bank failures occurred, through the dishonounilde dealings of certain persons connected with the nuinagenient, which involves so many unsuspecting pe(jple in ruin. ' Variou* article* of liilvurjilatc, and an excellent portrait of liinmelf in oiU by Patten. 236 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. My father was a large shareholder in the Newcastle Bank. The loss he sustained was very great, of that which he had gathered to be a provision for those who held the first place in his affections. Few words need be said about the spirit and temper in which he bore this trial, the sorest part of which, to him, was the loss to his daughters, whose future he had had in view, and the necessity which his own sensitively honourable feelings, and nothing else, laid upon him to sell the much-loved old paternal estate on Tweedside. The following letters, selected from a great number written in the same tone, will show his estimate of the affliction : — " Dec. \llh, 1857. " Dear Lord Grey, — I cannot thank your Lordship too emphatically, or express too warmly the gratification and comfort that I experience in the kind sympathy and condolence which you offer in my present loss and distress. " Regrets and reflections are now equally vain. The only wise thing is to look steadily at the condition in which the unfortunate shareholders are placed, and to adopt such measures as may be best to secure the funds against waste, and an equal and just distribution of the loss. " I thank your Lordship very much for the advice you convey to me from Mr. Glynn, whose opinion on such a subject is deserving of the greatest consideration. " All these matters are very perplexing, and it is a sad state of turmoil and disappointment at the end of a life, not now very short and not very inactive ; but there is the will and permission of an all-wise Providence in all that befalls us, whose trials and afflictions are often sent in mercy, and to show to us the folly of giving too much thought to earthly treasures, where, as in this case, thieves could break through and steal. — Your Lordship's most truly, John Grey." LOSS OF FORTUNE. 237 ON CHRIST-MAS MORNING, TO ONE OF HIS DAUGHTERS. " 1857. " My very dear Josif., — On this blessed morning for the Christian world, which may draw our thoughts from its cares and trials, to contemjilate the blessings which are provided and promised through tlie medium of the great Sacrifice on the cross for us sinners, I must send my warm love and best wishes for yourself, your husband, and boys. My thoughts are often with you, though I do not often write them, for indeed the objects of my present cares and trials occupy much time and have little pleasure in them. " I have not yet disposed of Ord. You are right in thinking of my feelings in regard to it. I often find it presented to my mind's eye as formerly, in walking l)y the silvery Tweed, gliding along its shores, covered in j)arts by trees of my own planting — which I may never look upon again ; but I have made up my mind." TO MY FATHER FROM HIS FRIEND AND NEIGHBOUR, MR. ERRINGTON, WRITTEN SOME MONTHS LATEIi. " High Warden. " Dear Mr. Grey, — I don't think I could have written on this topic so unreservedly, if I did not also feel that I might as freely express my admiration of the way in which you have met this great disaster. I might possibly have supposed that religion and philosophy would enable one to bear such a change with composure, only that many in- stances in this county and in Scotland having come within my observation, I have seen how much less cnduraVile in our modern society is the loss of fortune, than many otlier afllictions which might have seemed more grievous. You only have taken a just mea-sure of what it really is, and being clear of stlf-reproach, have never lost your cliecrful- ness, nor KufTt-rccl it to be more than a slight troul)le on your happiness, wliich rests on better foundations. — Be- lieve me, my dear Mr. Grey, with true regard and esteem, yours very sincerely, .John Kuki.nctun." 238 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. My mother bore this trouble not less philosophically than my father did. She wrote : — " I have never borne very well to hear that affair called a misfortune, and have never called it one myself A trial it was intended to be ; but after all it is only an earthly sort of thing, and if we have less silver and gold to leave our children, God can give them gifts that are far better." One of the greatest social enjoyments my father had while his children were still young, was the yearly summer excursion to the old home on the Borders, when he used to take half-a-dozen or so of merry children in a large open carriage, traversing almost the length of Northumberland from south to north, in regions where no railways existed, and where there was a great variety of interest, for children at least. After a solitary journey in later years over the same familiar ground, he wrote to his wife : — " April 1858. " Dearest H., — We have driven thirty-four miles, and walked three hours over Hartburn farms. I must try to keep up my energy of body and mind, or these horrid bank-affairs will overcome my spirits. I have had a melancholy plea- sure in viewing scenes which I often passed in former years, and at times with noisy tongues and merry faces. ' The rabbity rocks ' are all the same, and rabbits dwell among and skip over them still. The little lake is more deeply embosomed in trees ; but oh ! the mirthful cargo which used to load the old carriage, and seek in turns to sit by me on the box — they are dispersed and gone. This day has been more like June than April. I hope you enjoy the contemplation of the sea where you are. " I think tbe lines expressive of a summer sea are Mrs. Barbauld's : — FAMILY TRIALS. 239 • Low on the santls the deep retiring tide In distant murmnrs hanJly seems to flow, And o'er the waste of waters far and wide The sighing summer wind forgets to blow.' " I liked those lines fifty years ago, and like them still. But I am an adherent to fond old attaclmients, and altogether a foolish old man who has lived too long. Good-night to alL Have I not lived too long ? — Ever, dearest, yours, " J. G." Between the years 1853 and 1858 many old friends and dear relatives dropped off. Bereavements followed each other quickly. "December I, 1853. "Dear Lord Grey, — Yesterday's post brought me letters from Hong-Kong, with the sad information that when the mail left on the 1 1 th October, a few hours, or at most days, must, to all human appearance, put an end to the life which had been so valuable to many, and the loss of which was exciting such deep sorrow and sympathy in the colony. But our affliction does not end there. Our dear daughter, who for seven weeks had waited, watched, and nursed her hus})and by day and night, with short intervals of rest, lea\dng little for Chinese servants to do, is at last pro- strated, though still clinging to his bed when not forced away by fainting. Theirs was no common attachment. His condition is hopeless, and hers at best precarious. She managed to send a few brief lines to her mother, .saying that she had had a haj)py life through many trials ; and expressed herself content to die if it pleased God to take her too, commending to Him and to our care her four chil- dren. We must now endure a painful state of suspense till another mail arrives. I do hope and pray that our dear daughter may yet be spared to bring her children home. " I>ut it is a fearful distance and journey to encounter in circum.stancea of such lieavy trial and sickness. "The loss of our dear P^liza would be dreadful to her poor children and to us all, for besides natural affection, she po.s.se88e» a BWeetnes-s of dispositi(jn and a superiority of 240 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. mental qualities which gain for her general love and admira- tion. — I remain, my dear Lord, yours faithfully, " John Grey." His eldest daughter returned to him a widow, and soon after his eldest son experienced a similar bereave- ment. TO HIS WIFE. " MiLFiELD Hill, 1856. " My dear H., — The inmates of this house of mourning have all retired, and I am writing answers to many in- quiries from sorrowing friends. . . . We carried dear departed Lizzy to her quiet resting-place yesterday, among many tears. She was much loved by every one, and respected for her amiable and kind disposition, and her unpretending and unselfish conduct. . . . Mr. M'Dowell came this afternoon and administered private baptism to the dear innocent baby. Her name is after my own dear mother, by Lizzy's desire — Mary. It is very affecting to see a sweet and strong infant, who will never know a mother's love and tender care, but as Lizzy said, ' God can provide.' It was very affecting in the church, Avhen the coffin was placed in the aisle, poor George knelt on the flags, with his head in his hands on the pall all the time. . . . Lizzy was at church this day fortnight, anxious to receive the sacrament. There chanced to be an open grave on that day near our ground, which made a strong impres- sion on her mind, and in her last illness she thought it was waiting for her. She mentioned to Miss Hunt the com- fort she had had in the words heard at church that day, — ' Come to me all ye that are heavy laden,* looking forward to rest. . . . She spoke of the happiness she had had in the connexion with lis, and of the affection I had shown her ; and indeed I loved her as a daughter. I asked Miss Hunt if I could see her, but no ; she had too much changed. So perishing is our human frame. All the fair hair was cut off and sent to Keid's to be cleansed from laudanum. Alas, the frail remains ! " DEATH OF FRIENDS. 241 His old Whig friend, :Mr. Ord of ^^^lit field, died about this time. TO GEORGE BUTLER. " The death of Mr. Ord is a public and private loss. We have too few such specimens of country gentlemen. To me it is a real grief ; we were drawn together by a strong congeniality of sentiment. We have acted together in all matters of local interest and public trust, and I believe on a principle of mutual confidence and esteem. " His sister wrote to me : ' You will be distressed to learn tliat your old and atUiched friend is dangerously, I fear I may say hopelessly, ill,' and so very few more days proved it to be. I shall not moralize on the feel- ings which are excited in the aged in seeing their friends and contemporaries drojtping off till few remain to them. It is well that the world should lose its attractions, and merciful that it should do so gradually." In 1858 his sister jNIargaretta died very suddenly. TO HIS DAUGHTER IN NAPLES. " My very DE.VR Hatty, — I little thought when I parted from my sisters in P^linburgli, who l>oth accomjianied me to the station, tliat the end of one of us was so near. Had it been tliat of tlie worthy Doctor it would have created no surprise, or even regret ; for to one whose life has been so devoted to his Ma.ster's service, and passed in such entire dependence on His will, waitinj; in daily ]>reparation for the summons to ' couie unto Him,' death is a happy event ; but tlie dispensation has been otherwise ordered, and he who seemed to be on the brink of the grave is left to linger for a sliort time, while his main stay ami support in life was Btrieken in a moment. She appeared to me in pretty good health ancl excellent spirits, excited perhaps a little by my viiiit. On Sumlay evening she liad the servants in to wor- Hhip, after wliicli she jtrayed witji her dear husband, and went to bed. He awoke at six, when to his consternation 242 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. he found her quite dead, her head resting on her hand, and in an undisturbed condition ! What a blessed end ! to fall asleep on earth, her last breath spent in prayer ; and to awake in heaven, free from the lingering pains and sorrows that afflict humanity in its end. Sorrowing friends, painful leave-taking, tearful apprehensions of the future, — all spared her. It was like a translation from earth to heaven without the terrors and suffering of the intermediate passage. . . ." The last letter which he received from that sister was carefully put by. He had written upon it the following words : — " The last letter from a dear sister who died unnoticed in bed on the 2 2d of the month in which it was written, in perfect peace ; falling gently asleep in this world, to awake a glorified spirit in the presence of her Saviour ! Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, for they rest from their labours ! " The letter itself contained the following words : — " I feel sad sometimes, alone, with nothing to rouse me, as if all the sunny spots were gone out of the landscape, and no cheer were left till just at the end. But after all it is well to have so many years over, with their comforts, labours, and sorrows, and so few to come with their tale of infir- mities and regret. ... I am stripped like a tree in winter, and have not the cheering meetings and happy times that each year brought with it, but have the happiest of all meetings to look forward to, with the dear lost ones to welcome me, and a rest of peace and joy without inter- ruption, spite of all in me that seems Ul-adapted and un- suitable." She had outlived most of her children. She had fretted against the evils of society ; and her ardent de- sire to oppose the wrong and to aid the right had made the discipline of patient waiting no easy one to her. THOUGHTS FROM HIS SISTERS DLVRY. 243 Those who love most are most ready to accuse them- selves of defect in love ; and to impassioned natures there come solemn moments when, looking back and around, all the errors of a lifetime, — all the evils of the whole universe, seem to resolve themselves into this one crime — lack of lore. The last pages of her private diary contain words of passionate sadness, not unmixed with hope, characteristic too in the mingling, in her thoughts, of public matters with the deepest personal and private interests. " Unhappy France ! " she writes, " how many more revo- lutionary struggles are to be undergone there 1 Lands under the yoke, when are your fetters to be broken ? When will God arise 1 So long this night has lasted, with stars shooting up here and there : the old Bible — the old ministry — the long-established way of making discourses on a text — no new inspiration — no prophet — no angel from heaven — no miracle ! "Why dost thou hide Thyself, God of Israel, the Saviour 1 Where is Thy right hand 1 Pluck it out of Thy bosom. . . . My soul cries out against me. I could take revenge on myself by any punishment, any humiliation. Yet I find His mercy large. I can em- brace forgiveness ; Ijut oh, the grief, when I think of others impeded in their way — helped by nie and then hindered — left to me, unedified, dwarfed in their Christianity, when they might have been cheered on with the sympathy of holy affection. Alas for the ine(,(A'erable ! My God, if cunsi-stent with Thy procedure, make \\\) to those in heaven who may have suffered loss by my want of fidelity to them on eartli ; permit me yet to explain and make my acknow- ledgments ; for it seems to ine that this existence must so carry its memories and interests into the next, as to admit of such winding up of unfinished intercourse. Permit me again to embrace my mother, my sons, my daughters, my servants, my brethren and accjuaintance, confess to them my errors and my sins against them, and declare to them tlie 244 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. love with which I love them, and the longing with which I long to serve them and to do them good." The following refers to the death, a year later, of her husband, the gentle and apostolic Dr. Henry Grey : — " DiLSTON, 8th February 1859. " My very dear Fanny, — You will have heard from other pens of the cause of my going to Edinburgh. The demonstration of affection and regard for Dr. Grey was great. Two rooms were filled with particular friends, many of them clergymen. In each room a portion of Scripture was read by one minister, and a prayer offered by another ; and to show the christian and catholic spirit of the departed, these offices were performed by ministers of the Establishment, of the Free Kirk, Baptists, and Inde- pendents. The service Avas conducted, in the room where I was, by Dr. John Hunter, an old acquaintaince. The street was filled with men of the congregation and others. Bodies of men waited to join by the way, and even reached the burying-place at the west end of Princes Street. The procession extended over a quarter of a mile at least ; so strong is the feeling for his long and faithful services. No show nor pomp of externals, but a deep exhibition of reverence and respect. — Always your loving father, John Grey." CHAPTER VIII. ' O furtunatos niinium, sua si bona norint, Agricolaa ! " Any memoir of my father would be imperfect wliich did not give some prominence to the pursuit — the science he justly called it — to which the greater part of his life was devoted. I wish that I may be able, by a brief and slight sketch of the subject, to enlist the attention for a few minutes of non- agricultural readers, in the hope of suggesting to them that agriculture is no narrow or isolated, nor necessarily dry and technical matter ; for I know how natural it is that certain readers should pass over these pages with the comment, " I know nothing of farming ; this will not interest me," and that even thoughtful people who ponder over theories of the existence of man — moral, social, and political — sometimes do not sufficiently remember that on the cultivation of the soil and tlie supply of the neces-saries of life depends the upholding or overturning of all their ideal fabrics. My father's writings and speeches on agi'icultural subjects were lately much read in I'rance, Germany, Holland, and Sweden. I have been told that philoso- phical men on the Continent valued his utterances, and those of other experienced men of late years on tlie same Bul)jcct, not so much f)n account of j)racti(ral instruction contuined in them, as because they exhibited tlie sue- 246 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. cessive steps of a great science or art still in its youth, and the efforts which private individuals and Govern- ment were forced to make in order to meet the problem of our enormously increasing populations. My father's speeches are too many and too long to admit of much quotation from them here. Taking them as a whole, I think that, apart from many local and practical details treated, they,^ generally, exhibit agriculture in its con- nexion with physical science on the one hand, and with political economy on the other. It w^as a question which pressed heavily on the minds of men during a long period before the repeal of the Corn-Laws, how the increasing millions of England were to be supplied with food. In continental countries, if there is too dense a population or a scarcity of food in one district, there is at least the possibility of migrating to less populous regions. With comparative ease, the over- flowings of one continental country can be received by another. But Britain has the sea all round it. It is the poorest who want to emigrate. They cannot cross the sea without money. Emigration has as yet only supplied a partial outlet for our surplus population, and some maintain that there need be no emigration from our country if the science of production, of the distri- bution and the rewards of labour, were better under- stood. Practically, enormous difficulties still surround this matter, and at present most English people stay at home ; and how our augmented numbers are to be provided for at home, was a question first anxiously asked some forty years ago. The progress of agricul- tural science has in some degree answered it. Men saw " that no society can hold long together in which industry fails, as it does with us, to obtain a sufficiency rniMITIVE STAGES OF AGRICULTURE. 247 of the comforts of life," and this conviction stimulated inquiry and experiment. In my father's account of Northumberland, he in- dicates the primitive style of husbandry common in the last century. Bits of laud were slowly reclaimed, and applied almost exclusively to the growing of wheat, which is a crop so exhausting to the soil that after a year or two that locality had to be left to rest for several years, and fresh portions of land subjected to the same exhausting treatment. It somewhat re- sembled the wasteful ways of the cotton-growing slave- owners of the Southern States, who were forced by the conditions of that unnatural engine, slave-labour, to be making ever fresh aggressions upon new lands, and to leave once-used lands a wilderness. In some parts of liussia, husbandmen still practise this primitive waste- fulness. In this stage of agriculture, manure is not thought of, except as inconvenient refuse, to be got rid of by any means. Thus, on the outskirts of the Eoman Campagna, not many years ago, might be seen whole hills of dung carted out to a distance from the city, rotting accumulations from stables and posting- houses, spreading pestilence around ; and on the shores of the Wolga there is a similar sight. Dung-heaps are brought down by the farmers along the shores, and carted on to the ice when the river is frozen over, and while the winter cold makes it safe to stir up the refuse. When spring comes, the thaw sweeps the whole yearly collec- tion down to the Caspian Sea. The same thing occurred, though on a smaller scale, in England, when the farmers used to make drains to carry d(jwn their refuse to some river, or to a pond.wliicli would stand reeking in the sun, and poisoning the neighbourhood. The sight of such 248 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. thriftless expedients always vexed my father, for he knew the worth of that which people were trying to get rid of. The next stage in agriculture was the introduction of the simplest form of rotation of crops (a custom, how- ever, as old as Virgil's time), and this sprang from the necessity of growing corn more frequently from the same soil. Farmers could not afford to let land be idle ; and if it could not be granted time to recover itself, means must be found by which it should be restored without delay. The soil must be renewed by giving to it some equivalent for what had been taken out of it. Thus as the wants of the soil, under the pressure of higher culti- vation, became greater and more complicated, chemistry came to the rescue. But of that by and by. At first it was found that a simple rotation did a good deal. My father said that " the introduction of green crops into Northumberland tillage was the beginning of a new era in the history of agriculture," and it was a very marked era, for with green crops came in the large increase of cattle as agricultural produce. Before this sheep and cows were very little cultivated in compari- son with wheat. They were generally poor lean beasts, left to wander at will on hill- sides and wastes; not used as agents in the system of rotation ; and of course butcher-meat was a scarce luxury among the labouring populations. But many benefits followed the introduc- tion of green crops. Cattle were kept in greater num- bers, and fed upon the root-crops instead of upon thin grass. These root-crops were quickly transformed into very profitable beef and mutton, which became cheaper ^ and more attainable by the poor, and this prevented so * Not actually cheaper, but relatively so, to the advanced rate of wages received for almost every kind of labour. SYSTEM OF ROTATION BECOMES MORE COMPLICATED. 249 great a drain upon corn, and so exclusive a subsistence on bread and pon-idge. But these animals also manured the land, and while feeding Tipon it enriched it to such a degree that more corn would grow upon the same extent of surface than before. The farmer now took not less but more grain to market than in the days when he cultivated wheat alone. This was profitable both to the producer and consumer. Sheep have been called " the animals with the golden hoofs," not only because of tlie value of their wool and mutton, but because they enrich the soil they are fed upon more than anything else does. ^luch poor dry land was thus brought, by means of alternate crops and eating off with sheep, to yield constant and good returns. Green crops produce much manure, but they also require much ; hence the manure of the towns came to be in great request, and this opened out more practically the connexion between agriculture and cliemistry. It began to be conceived that that which produces pesti- lence and fever, which shocks our senses and destroys life, might be used towards the very support of life, and that " our sanitary researches might provide an ample supply of the first requisite of increased produc- tion." And, indeed, not long after this was understood, and a hard-pressed agricultural community began to see that the development of the resources of the land was ])ecoming the grand economical feature of the day, — urged by great necessities into that rank, — we read that some kinds of manure reached " famine pri(!es," so eagerly were they .sought, and so hard was it for the supply to keep pace with the demand. Bones and other j)ortable manures became .so much in request that in Sweden it was complained that bones were not to be 250 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. had by the home-farmer, because of the high price given for them by English importers. But further wants began to be felt. The great diversity of soils has to be taken into account in the application of fertilizing substances, and independently of the geological structure, the physical geography of a district affects the actual cliemical composition of the soil, and consequently modifies the chemical treatment of it. A farmer can see with his own eyes that one side of a hill much exposed to rains which wash away part of its saline substances, or to prevailing winds, will yield a different crop from the side which is more sheltered ; but he needs science to teach him how to make each side equally develop to the utmost its own capabilities. Thus it was seen that the sciences of geology, miner- alogy, botany, and meteorology, were all needful hand- maids to agricultural progress. The higher the farming became, and the greater the surface of land reclaimed in elevated districts, the greater became the demand for ex- traneous and light portable manures, as it was difficult to cart up to high grounds the heavy farmyard refuse. All known manures were first eagerly sought. The refuse of the currier, the maltster, the tanner, the sugar-boiler, the glue-manufacturer, were all bought up, and every bone- mill had its staff of humble scavengers, who sought through all the towns and villages. When these were exhausted we turned to foreign countries. Dealers in foreign manures sprang up in all the seaports. The whole seaboard of Europe was put under requisition. Fleets of merchant-ships crossed the Atlantic and brought back their precious cargoes from Buenos Ayres and Monte Video. So great became the demand for these manures that they rose, as I have said, to " famine prices," and USELESS MATERIAL BECOMES USEFUL. 251 at one time it was only the farmers wlio lived nearest the sea- shore who could afford to buy them. Com- merce and agriculture worked together, and carried a good influence to distant countries, the inhabitants of which wondered how the refuse of their coasts, and the droppings of the sea-birds which whitened their rocks, should be held of such high value in P>ngland. This awakened their minds to new ideas, and stimulated them to an unwonted industry. In the United States this impulse was especially felt. There are consolatory reflections connected with this subject of manure, — not a very dainty subject, perhaps, but one which plays an important part in tlie world. The rubbish and debris which, when not used rightly, becomes a simple pest, every way disgusting, has asserted for itself its place and use in creation, and has come to be held in esteem ! There are regions in which waste, destruction, misuse, and the pestilence which follows, are infinitely more terrible than they are in the material world ; but God's whispered messages in the material world tell us that there may be, nay must be, a divine chemistry, through whose mysterious action we shall some day see a posi- tive good, a quiet beneficence in the place of a festering evil Each step in the advancement of agricultural science seemed to become more difficult, and perhaps it may continue to do so. My father was not one of those persons who believe tliat science, or rather man's power of applying it at every fresh emergency, will so keep ])aoe with the increasing necessities of the world a.s to afford a complete answer to our ever recurring social difficulties. He did not think, with certain modern philosophers, that man can perfect his own present exist- 252 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. ence, and drive away, by the aid of science, sickness, disease, poverty, crime, and every existing evil from the land. He availed himself, and continually urged others to avail themselves, of the aids which God has placed at our disposal, powers, known or hidden, in the natural world, for the diminution of evil and pain; but he be- lieved in no reign of peace short of the final destruction of the principle, deeply seated in the soul of man, which is the primary source of the perturbation of all bene- ficent social laws, nor of j)i'osperity short of the ad- vent of the " Desire of all nations." That trouble upon trouble will block our way, that every matter planted by us will, however careful we be, " grow up with the unseen seeds of its own decay within it," he was pre- pared to see. He was a man of a somewhat mournful cast of mind ; he was a man of progress nevertheless, sustained by a constant hope. Even the large importation of foreign manures not being sufficient for increasing needs, chemists began to work more closely at the subject. Professor Johnston of Durham was a great benefactor to the North of Eng- land. Manufactories of artificial manures sprang up. It was needful that theory and experiment should go hand in hand. On the side of the farmers there was at first some jealousy of the chemists and their theories, and "book-farming" was spoken of with contempt, while the " theorists " were too apt to look on the farmers as a thick-headed race, so long used to be guided by empirical rules that science might knock in vain at their door. But when it was found that a multitude of quacks sprang up, who imposed upon the farmers by their vaunted stuffs for doctoring soils, the farmers perceived that they must arm themselves against these by some PKOFESSOR LIEBIG AND THE CHEMISTS. 253 knowledge of their own, wliile the true chemists acknow- ledged the necessity of continually consulting the long- j)ractised farmer ; for, indeed, they knew they could not benefit agriculture by experiments in their own labora- tories only ; they must do their work witli tlie farmer, under sun and wind, rain and hail, thunder and lightning. AVhen Professor Liebig visited Dilston, he was in the habit of questioning my father, in the most keen and eager manner, of his experience, making notes of his answers at the time. "When my fjither's conclu- sions about any matter differed from the chemist's, they would go forth into the fields together, and there the solution of the difficulty would often be found in some- thing peculiar, perhaps, to Xorthumberland, its climate or soil, which Liebig had not taken into account. Liebig was a very pleasant guest. He took much to the cliildren of our family, and had that modesty and simplicity of manner which are so often found in true men of science. Thorough draining must be next noticed as a great means of advancing agriculture. It was in Scot- land that the thorough draining of clay lands was first made a national question. It was ^Ir. Smith of Dean- ston who first demonstrated its importance. The subsoil plough succeeded to thorough draining. I have before said that it became apparent, from the evidence given before the Connnittee of hupiiry into Agricultural Distress in 183G, that the only safe foundation for agricultural prosperity was in the growth of an increased produce on a given area. One great object of tillage then wa.s to create an increased avail- able surface within the soil, and the gain was great wlien, by drainage and subsoil pb^ughing, fields were 254 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. made wholesome to a double depth, and stores of nourishment were unlocked below, so that crops which before had to draw their sustenance from six or nine inches of soil, could descend for more than twenty, and find there fertilizing properties. I subjoin a letter on this subject, which may be interesting generally, while it treats of particular applications of this principle :— TO THE EDITOR OF THE " NEWCASTLE CHRONICLE." " DiLSTON, January 14, 1839. " Sir, — Such of your readers as are interested in the pursuits and improvements of agriculture may recollect that, at the meeting of the Northumberland Agricultural Society, held at Wooler in October last, a discussion took place, as was reported in your paper, upon the utility of subsoil-ploughing, on which subject opinions somewhat at variance were expressed by the Marquis of Tweeddale and myself. " There are few men to whose zeal and example the agriculture of the northern parts of the kingdom is more indebted than to those of the noble Marquis, — few to whose judgment and practical experience I am inclined to yield a more perfect confidence, and none whom I have been accustomed to meet on such occasions with greater pleasure and advantage. If, then, I ventured at the time referred to, to express opinions in opposition to his, it arose from a strong conviction that his Lordship was in error, not as regarded the subject of his own experiment, but in the application of a general principle without due consideration for difference of circumstances. " The object of subsoil-ploughing, as you must know, is to break up a hard and retentive stratum, often found at the depth of a few inches below the surface, but without mix- ing it with the sod, by which means it is rendered pervious to water, which being withdrawn from the surface, the land is left in a fit condition for the nourishment and growth of plants, which hitherto Avere apt to be injured by super- WHOLESOME AND PERNICIOUS SUBSOILS. 255 abundant moisture. This, however, is a very expensive jirocess, as tlie subsoil pknigh is an instrument of great strength, and requires four, or frequently six, horses to work it, while two more precede it, turning the surface furrow with a common })lough. Lord Twccddale did not deny the efficacy of the subsoil plough, but condemned its use as unnecessarily expensive, seeing that results equally beneficial might be produced by trench-i)loughing, which is merely following with a second plough in the furrows which the first has made, but at greater depth. I also have prac- tised trench-ploughing to a considerable extent, and in some cases with good effect ; but whether the result was beneficial or injurious depended upon the quality of the subsoil, which by this process is brought up and mixed with the surface soil. And my experience leads me to know that some descriptions of subsoil possess properties so pernicious to vegetation that the productive quality of the land with which it has been mixed has been materially injured for years afterwards, and that it caused diseases in young stock after being restored to grass. Thi.s, then, brings me to the point which, at the meeting in question, I endea- voured to enforce — that no general rule can be applicable to all situations and circumstances, and that we are Init working in the dark, and often misujipl} ing our means, and wasting our money, till the elements of science shall be brought to bear ui)on the practice <^f agriculture, and tlie qualities of our soils and manures be equally .subjected to the test of chemical analysis. " The sub.soil in wliidi Lord Tweeddahi's experiment of trench-i)loughing jiroved successful, was, I presume, devoid of anything injurious to vegetation, and therefore, after Ix-ing exposed to the atmospliere, and intennixed with the soil, to whicli it gave a greater Itody, it becanie useful, l)e- sides that the greater depth of i)loughing would render the land drier and more frialde. Li other districts the sub.soil may be not only hannless ])Ut beneficial, as in tlie neigh- bourhood of MorecaiiO) Hay in Lanea.sliire, wliere it ia mixed with so much siielly and calcareous matter as to 256 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. operate usefully as a manure, if applied in quantities suited to the character of the soil. But there is a description of subsoil very prevalent in this country, which is neither beneficial nor yet innocuous, but in a high degree pernici- ous, commonly called moorhand, a strong ferruginous con- cretion of gravel and clay, which it is difficult to break through, and, being j^erfectly impervious to water, holds all the wet on the surface in rainy seasons, which in drought, being soon exhausted, leaves the crops to languish from want of moisture. I had lately an opportunity of witnessing the operation of the subsoil plough, in the vale of the Till, upon land of this description. The surface soil was light and easily turned over by a common plough with two horses ; that was followed by a subsoil plough, and by the united strength of six strong horses the moorband was shivered to pieces, but without being brought up, or in any way mixed with the surface soil. The effect was extraordinary : it was a stubble field, in riding over which, before ploughing, the horses' hoofs were scarcely found to make any impression ; but on turning to the land that had undergone the operation — woe betide the luckless fox- hunter that encounters such a field ! he will find his horse sink to the depth of 18 or 20 inches at every stride, Avhich will soon ' take the go out of Jdm.' I have procured the analysis of tAvo diff'erent portions of this moorband, which is as follows : — "First — 120 parts afforded oxide of iron 34, silex 74, alumina or clay 6, water and loss 6 = 120. " Second — Oxide of iron 43, silex 64, alumina 8, water and loss 5 = 120. "It is unnecessary to observe that such a combination must be most injurious to vegetation, and therefore pernicious if brought to the surface ; and on this I rest my argument, that the practice which may be good in one case is bad in another ; and that to make the progress of agricultural im- provement at all commensurate Avith the rapid advance in manufactures, to which the application of science, in its various branches, has so greatly contributed, more is requi- or, 7 INGENUITY OF AGRICULTUR^NX IMPLEMENTS. 257 site than the knowledgo elicited, or the emulation excited, by our local agricultural associations. We must call to our aid the principles of science, under the guidance of educated and scientific men ; Ave must test by analysis, and prove by experiment, and endeavour, by the applica- tion of suitable manures, to stimulate the productive quali- ties of our soil, and to correct those that are crude and j)ernicious ; and so look for remuneration for its culture in the abundance of its produce, and not in restrictive regida- tions affecting its price. (Signed) John Grey."^ This brings ns to the era of improved agricultural implements, and to the extended application of mechanics to agriculture ; for mechanical science is as needful to agriculture as to any of the other arts of life, and, indeed, the application of ingenuity in the variety and usefulness of agricultural implements has been very beautiful. I recall the enjoyment which we sometimes had in going out — the whole family — to see a trial of some wonderful new machine, which appeared as if instinct with life, and busily and eagerly intent on fulfilling the special end of its creation ; and the interest we took in watching the operations of the clever clod- crushers, pressers, grubbers, drill- machines, turnip-slicers, straw-cutters, steam threshing-machines, steam-ploughs, reaping-machines, etc. The management of these com- plicated tools requires far more intelligence than the simple old method of " following the jilough," or handling the sickle and scythe. Mr. Holland, 'M.V., and Mr. Stratton, gave an account of their experience in steam -ploughing at an agricultural meeting at Ciren- cester in 1859, in which they said they found the « The Marquia of Twccddalo read lately (March 18C9) a i)aper on this tame lubject— the deepening ami thorough tillage of the land by steam and hone power— before the Highland Bocicty. R 258 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. intelligence of their workmen greatly increased by the work. My father was a constant advocate, as those well know who are familiar with his speeches, of long leases and large holdings. In the matter of large farms some people think he went too far ; he did, however, express on several occasions the following opinion : — " I am friendly to a few small farms in a district, not because I deem them profitable in a national point of view, but because they serve as steps in the ladder for men of small means and industrious habits to mount by." I cannot refrain from giving my father's views on this important subject in his own words. The extract I shall give from his speech on the relative duties of land- lord and tenant contains a brief but comprehensive sketch of the origin and rise of the custom of letting lands, and it also gives an idea of the state of society in parts of the country where long leases are common, a state of society which is quite surprising to many persons accustomed only to the semi-feudal condition of some of the southern and western agricultural estates of Eng- land. A Radical gentleman lately pointed out to me the state of country society in England : " Here," he said, " you have the great Duke, or Lord, or rich proprietor, on the one hand, and his wretched farmers and labourers, serfs in fact, on the other ; no middle class at all." A most undesirable state of things, and, unhappily, too correct a description of some parts of England, as the circumstances of the late elections have shown, by their humiliating revelations of ignorance and poverty and political coercion on certain great ducal properties. But it may be interesting to our Eadical friends to know that this middle class is found in Scotland and in parts THE CONDITION OF TEN.VNTS. 259 of the north of England, as well as in some isolated estates which have had the happiness to be the posses- sions of " lords of the soil " who act as responsible beings, and not on the principle that " a man may do what he wills with his own." The tenant-farmers in Northum- berland are very often, in education and in all that essen- tiallv constitutes a gentleman, not a whit inferior to the aristocratic landowners from whom they rent their land. They present a strong contrast to the farmers of certain parts of England, who in education and social habits are but little raised above the labourers who work for them. This middle class, whose existence is so favourable to the wellbeing of the classes on either side, can never arise on those estates where a man only holds his fann at the will of his landlord, and may be turned off at very short notice unless he votes the right way. AVhat man of any moral dignity, or with capital to invest in vigorous improvements, would ever offer himself as a candidate for a farm under a feudal lord, with neighbours around him out of whom all spirit of enterprise had been crushed, and who are afraid even to think except in the old worn-out conservative grooves ? It will be apparent to any who have read this memoir so far, how odious to my father Mas the sight of the sacrifice, for political power, of noble lands, of the true interests of society, and of the food of the people, which ought to be draMn from those lands. Few things made him more indignant than the knowledge of the prevalence of a system of yearly holdings, under preci.se and stringent regulations, framed with the ex- clusive view of what are conceived to he the landlord's interests, which is of all systems the most narrow upon whicli landed property can be managed. 260 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. Relative Duties of Landlord and Tenant. " When I come to speak of the duties of each, I can fancy that some may say, ' We know well what is expected of the tenant — obligations are laid on him by the landlord which he is required to fulfil ; but who can impose them on the landlord 1 " can he not do as he will with his own ]'" Be assured, gentlemen, there is much fallacy in that aphorism. Obligations as strong as laws arise on all sides to fetter his will, if it be capricious, and to control his conduct, — obligations connected with his family interests, with his social position, and with his character in public estimation — all tending to that result, which experience in a free community teaches, that he consults his own interest more surely and permanently who gives due consideration to that of others. Before entering particularly into the duties of each, as the connexion exists between them in our time, it may be allowed to look back, and shortly to trace the origin of their respective positions. " In early times, or in the settlement of unoccupied countries, men became owners of land by royal grant, by conquest from their weaker neighbours, or by clearance. In modern times it is obtained by inheritance or by pur- chase. In the early periods of our country's history, as in less civilized countries still, the chieftain held his lands by strong hands against innovators, and the inferior inhabi- tants were maintained as serfs, to serve for defence or aggression in war, and for hunting and field-labour in times of peace. Countries so circumstanced were neces- sarily thinly peopled. As civilisation advanced, the owners of large domains could not occupy and cultivate them under their own eyes and management, but resorted to the mode of letting them off in parcels to their retainers. The serf who had hitherto yielded his labour in peace and his life in war for the precarious support and protection which he derived from his chief, altered his condition, and took a portion of land to occupy ; first paying for it in the shape of produce in kind, and in personal service ; then, as money RELATIONS OF L.\2s'DL0RD AND TE^^V^'T. '2G1 came into use, rent resolved itself into a stipulated money payment, and the relations between landlord and tenant became recognised and defined. "Thus out of the feudal state by degrees rose the system of letting land on lease to tenants, and bringing to bear on the productive powei^s of the soil the industr}'', skill, and capital of a large body, most influential and im- portant, as on their exertions mainly depend the support and prosperity of the nation at large. A twofold applica- tion of capital is thus l)rought to bear on the all-important operations of agriculture. The original value of the soil is vested in the landlord, who also supplies, or ought to supply, the capital fixed on the land in buildings, fences, embankments, and all permanent improvements which do not alter with, or depiiul upon, the changes of tenancy ; while the tenant, again, employs what may be called the floating capital, working upon the other, and making it productive. Thus a system of reciprocal aid and obliga- tion is created and acted upon, so familiar to us now, that we are apt to lose sight of the fact that it is both artificial and conventional. The landlord looks to have his property maintained in value, and restored to him without de- terioration, though out of his ovm management, and the tenant requires security of possession for the outlay of his capital, and for the perfecting of his plans of improve- ment. " Other kinds of property there are which may be let on lease, and worked by .speculators, but they differ entirely in character frcjm land. For instance, a bed of coal or a vein of lead-ore is let to a company on certain conditions. A\Tien that bed or that vein is exhausted the jjmperty is extinct. Not so with land ; its value is perpetual. We return to it from year to year to claim its produce ; it is grateful to us, if we are kind to it, and remunerative in proportion as we treat it with lil)erality. It is this un- cea.sing value and perennial j productiveness of land which call for re«tricti«jns and regulations a.s to its management, sufficient to secure its owner against any unreasonable 262 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. drain of its fertility while out of his power ; and, on the other hand, require for the tenant such security of tenure and such liberal conditions as shall afford him all reason- able prospect of a suitable return for his capital, skill, and industry, as well as an inducement to use his best efforts to keep its productive powers in active and constant opera- tion. " The arrangements between landlords and tenants are still, in many parts of England, left to be settled by custom, or to what is called a 'good understanding' between them. Nothing can be more creditable to the characters of both parties than the very common existence of this good understanding and long-continued connexion between the owners and occupiers of the land ; but when we consider that land is in most hands a saleable commodity, and that the uncertainty of human life, in all cases, makes it doubtful how long the parties who now go on harmoniously may live to act together, there can be no doubt of the prudence on the part of the tenant, and the justice on that of the landlord, in having the rights and obligations of both defined and secured by a plain legal document, termed a lease. In districts which have long been enclosed and cultivated, and where no expensive improvements are re- quired, annual occupation is attended with less risk and inconvenience than in others; but it is unquestionable that where such custom prevails, agriculture is found to be in the most languid condition, and intelligence among farmers at the lowest ebb. It was remarked by that distinguished writer on agriculture — Arthur Young — many years ago, — ' Give a man a permanent interest in a bog, and he will make it fertile ; but give him a lease of a garden for a year and he will leave it a wilderness.' He is the best tenant who treats his farm as if it were his own property, and he is likely to do the most for his land who has the longest prospect of enjoying it. There are estates, and those of great extent, so bound up by mortgages, entails, or settle- ments, that the owners have it not within their power to act the part of liberal and improving landlords, because the BAD AND GOOD LEGISLATION IN THESE MATTERS. 263 money they ought to s]>encl uii tlu'ir property would hut increase the fortune ot" the lieir, to the privation of other members of the family. To remedy this evil, and lielp forward the good work of national improvement, the Legis- lature has wisely come forward to make advances of money for the execution of certain beneficial works, or to give a guarantee to public bodies who do so, on legalized terms of repayment, as preferable claims, resting on the property for a given number of years; thus lu-lping owners who cannot do so themselves to contribute to their own and the public benefit. For this act of the Legislature the country may be grateful ; and, indeed, some retri]»ution was justl}' due from the Legislature, for the evil which their acts at fonner j)eriods entailed upon it, by attemi)ts to regulate the price of produce, and set at defiance tliat un- erring law of demand and supply, which, when left to its natural operation, is as sure and steady in action as the law of gravitation, or any other law in the phenomena of nature which science has proved or developed. L^nfavour- able seasons will produce scarcity, and circumstances over which the Legislature can exercise no control will create high or liiw jjrices ; but if all attempts to regulate production and price were futile in former ages, much more vain and nugatory would they be now, since the facilities of inter- course throughout the world, and the spirit of enteq^rise which animates its merchants, give such ready means of conveying the surplus of one country to su])ply the wants of another. . . . There are several reasons for the i)resent preference for large fanns and long leases. A great portion of the land in this country is in the hands of the aristocracy, and other wealthy projjHetors, who can occupy only a small part of it themselves. This is the case to a greater extent in Great Britain than in any other country in Europe, save liubHia. . . . The prevalence of these large estates in few liauflH curtails the number of the middle class of land- owners which is found in many countries, who.se place, however, is well substituted (in this county at least) by the large occupiers to whom I am now adverting. Tiic capital 264 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. which would go but a short way in the purchase of land is sufficient to place an active man in a highly respectable and most useful position as the tenant of a large farm, and the taste or ambition, which elsewhere lead to the purchase of a small estate, tend here to the possession of an extensive occupation. It is reasonable to think that a man, planting himself and family down upon land on which he is to in- vest a large capital, and for which, by daily attention and habit, he is likely to conceive a strong local attachment, should like to cherish the idea of settling there for a long period of his life. But, besides those feelings of local in- terest and attachment which grow spontaneously in the human breast, the current of events and free state of society tend strongly to the concentration of large operations, on the ground of rural and political economy. We have a continual increase of population, which all the efforts of agriculture hitherto have failed to feed ; the rational desire of the statesman and the interest of the agriculturist are to do their utmost to supply its demand by an increase of produce, and by obtaining that produce at a diminished cost. The obvious means of attaining these desirable objects are to apply more skill and science to the cultivation of the land, and to effect greater economy in tillage, by a perfect division of labour and the employment of improved implements and machinery; these are only to be effected in large establishments." " The letting of land," said my father, " is a com- mercial transaction. In the contract between landlord and tenant there must be, as in all other commercial contracts, a strict exchange of equivalents, if both parties are to reap from the transaction all the advantages pro- perly incidental to both," and he constantly endeavoured to inculcate the true commercial principles in all matters connected with land. ' Agricultural Societies are a feature of the last fifty years. The venerable Highland Society took the lead. AGRICULTURAL SHOWS. 2G5 111 1839, the first meeting of the Eoyal English Agricul- tural Society, just foiiued, took place. It m'hs hailed with great joy. In these associations political subjects were proscribed, and men of all parties met in a friendly spiiit, though opposite opinions were sometimes ex- pressed in the speeclies there made, when such subjects as Protection and Free-trade were being agitated ; but " it was cheering to see at these meetings the Duke of Eichmond and Lord Spencer walking in to dinner together, and high Tory and deep Iladical chemists helping out one another's information about soils and manures and food for stock ; and the rush to the plough ing-matches, and the stock -yards, and the im- plement-sheds ; and even the road, resembling the route from London to Epsom on a race-day." Shall we not also mention the enormous bulls, walking veiy regally and slowly, with their great dewlaps swinging ; sheep of twenty-one stones weight ; and the poor pigs with prize medals tied with gay ribbons to their ears, whose life must have been somewhat of a burden to them, inasmuch as they could neither stand nor see for obesity ? I find very grave letters from Lord Ducie to my father, remonstrating on the over-fatness of the prize-stock, and begging him to use his intlucnce to put it down ! My father encouraged local agricultural societies, together with farmers' clubs, lending libraries, and meetings for discussion, with the view of exchang- ing and disseminating infurniation, and stiniulatiiig a desirci for knowledge. Tlie societies of tliis kind which lie hiujself created he managed to make most valuable u.se of as means of education. In spito of the good intention of agricultural meetings, there was a tendency to degenerate to purposes of eating, drinking, and 266 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. flattering after-dinner speeches. On one of these occa- sions my father said : " Now, it is not my habit to flatter ; for I have made it my constant rule through life, wherever I am, or with whomsoever T may be, never to be deterred from speaking the truth in all plainness and sincerity." This was a prelude to a rebuke to Lan- cashire men, whom he was addressing, for their too great respect for Nature in her wild disordered state ! At a similar meeting in Northumberland he said : " I am aware it is common on such occasions to make com- pliments rather than to speak the downright truth ; but I should not be your friend if I were to do so, and I am determined to say what I think, though it may not be pleasant to some who hear me. I feel compelled to observe that the character for superiority in agriculture which Northumberland had so justly acquired could not now with equal confidence be claimed by it. How dangerous it is to loiter in a race we know ; from too great confidence in the power to win, ground may be lost which cannot be recovered." He then spoke of the absence of landlords from such meetings, in stern words, not perhaps undeserved. On another occasion, that of the first grand cattle-show which took place in Ireland, he addressed a very large assembly of landlords on the poor state of the cottages of their labourers, reminding them that all progress must begin with themselves. A Cork newspaper observed, " It was honest of Mr. Grey to speak thus, standing in the immediate presence of a number of Irish landlords. The landlords, we learn, received Mr. Grey's suggestions in a spirit of candour ; while from the body of the hall, which contained up- wards of a thousand humbler agriculturists, he was frequently interrupted by loud cheers and cries of ' Hear IMPltO^T:MEXT OF L.\BOURERS' COTTAGES. 2G7 the honest Englishman.'" The eJitor of a well-known agricultural paper wrote to me lately that for nothing did he esteem my father more than for his persistent advocacy, by precept and example, of proper dwellings for the poor. Surely this is an item in the history of agricultural as of political progi'ess which should not be unnoticed here. The following letter, written to one of his daughtei^s, shows how strong my father's feelings were on the subject : — " DiLSTON, 1840. " ;My dear Tully, — The Committee of the English Agricultural Society have treated me cavalierly in using two articles which I sent them for the present number of their Juunud, as if they had come from the pen of a hired scribe, and might be curtailed and mutilated at pleasure. In one upon farm-buildings and cottage accommodation and architecture, they have taken what seemed useful to the South of England, and left out what I was most interested in, the comforts of the poor, — not stomaching, I fancy, the accompanying remarks on the grandees who lavish expense upon their castles and deer-parks, but disregard the dwell- ings of the cultivators of the land. However, neither the magnates alluded to, nor the chairman of the committee, shall escape the lash ; more especially as Sir Francis Doyle, in the last Poor-Law Report, quotes largely from informa- tion received at Dilston ; .speaks of the intelligence and industry of the northern peasantry ; but inveighs against the cottages on many estates. This paper, had they pub- li.shed the whole, along with the ])lans of cottages that Charlie drew, would have slnnvn tliat some attention is given to the subject, and who the magnates are that dis- regard the comforts of the poor, and lavish all luxury on their most noble selves. In the other paj)er, they have jtublished the dry detail of experiments that I had made or collected, but omitted :dl the; arguments and i)leas for an etitablibhrnent for a'Ticultural and clii-niical iiist ruction, and an exi>erimental farm, without which we shall not 268 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. make much or sure advancement in our object of scien- tific improvement." Whether enornious estates, such as the great ducal estates of England and Scotland, are for the good or harm of the community generally, is a matter about •which there is great diversity of opinion ; but un- doubtedly the circumstances which frequently attend the possession of very large estates are unfavourable to the general good, such as settlements, absenteeism, inequality between the amount of land possessed and available money for the improvement of it. Of the evils arising from these circumstances it may be said their name is legion. We may trace them in the miseries of London society, in the unhappy marriages for money of the daughters of the upper classes, who are impoverished for the enriching of an eldest son, as well as in the scenes which we encounter so often in travel- ling through our beautiful rural England, passing through properties which Nature has endowed richly, but where everything is in disorder ; where trees, sweating mois- ture, are crowded together, and timber rotting ; where rabbits, numerous as vermin, are undermining unpro- ductive fields with their interlacing network of burrows ; and where the blue dragon-fly poises himself over marshes which might be converted into drained and fertile land. For this the landowner is not always to blame. In some cases the burdens on the land are so heavy, and he himself so fettered, that improvement is impossible ; in other cases, London life, fashionable society, or a public career, offer more attractions than his country home. It is true, as my father said, that the evil of entails has been somewhat counteracted by recent Acts, which enable the owner to borrow money on en- ENTAILS AND NEGLECTED LANDS. 2G9 tailed estates for improvements, the interest being charge- able to the estates, whoever succeeds. But the ^vol•ds spoken some years ago by 'Mr. Hoskhis are but too true, that " the annual loss which this country, with all its boasted agricultural improvement, undergoes by the tied- up hand of ownership, etc., is a subject which must sooner or later find a tongue and a more efficient and constitutional remedy than Government grants, which struggle with the effect, but leave untouched the cause which they incidentally recognise." But these subjects, which occupied my father's mind much, and affected him deeply as momentous questions of the future, are too large to be entered on here.^ * The following extract from one of his speeches will give his views on the vexed question of game-presening : — " There Ls a subject connected with the occupation of land in this countrj', which, I am sorry to say, has led, and will continually lead, I fear, to very great dissatisfaction and disagreement. If it is essential that a farmer, when he has good oflices, should select the verj' best description of cattle— if it is essential for his profits that he sliould have that description of cattle which conies verj' early to maturity, ami which will return a fair amount of profit for the food that it has consumed, it surely must be contrary to every principle of justice that any part of his produce should be destroyed by animals over whiclj he has no control. Don't misunderstand me, and believe that I speak as an enemy of game under all circumstances. On the contrary, I believe that it is conducive, not only to the welfare of the country, and to the good understamling and feeling which it is so desirable should exist between the landlord and tenant, that there should be the means of gentlemen sporting, if they sport in a legitimate way. That description of sporting wliich is con- nected with a considerable amount of healthful exercise, anc acquired Ijy tin; Christian gentleman, and by a long life of honourable public-spiiited and useful employment." CHAPTEE IX. " Life is strong, and still Bears onward to new tasks and sorrows new, Whether we will or no. Life bears ns on, And yet not so but what there may survive Something to us ; sweet odours reach us yet. Brought sweetly from the fields long left behind Of holy joy, or sorrow holier still." The subject of Emigration was always an interesting one to my father. He received letters from settlers in our colonies, in which the writers sometimes complained of the clumsiness and absence of system with which emigration from our country was carried on. The following extracts from Mr. Fergusson's letters to him may be interesting : — "WooDHiLL, Canada West, 1847. "What a mass of misery and starvation weighs down poor Ireland! It is heartrending to hear of it, and to know, as we do here, how substantially it might have been alleviated, had such arrangements been made in regard to colonization as might have been made. Surely some serious move will be made now ; and how simple and easy is the process ! It is my solemn and well-digested conviction, that at no former period had a colonial Minister so noble a field for energy and talent, so good a chance of securing independence and comfort to starving millions, and so plain a field of action, as at the present hour. He needs not to augment the permanent burdens of Britain to the amount of one farthing. He has only to use her credit for a rea- sonable time, drawing a liberal percentage for such accom- modation, and to apply that advance to the opening up, by EMIGRATION TO CANADA. 281 railroads or other roads, through the millions of fertile acres belonging to the public, in healthy, well-watered, delightful parts of this western portion of Canada, lands which will re- main dead and waste for ever if not made accessible by roads; and the very wages expended upon the working of which, if economically managed, would enable the poor labourers to purchase the land, filling Canada with a truly grateful and loyal population. Lord Elgin says, ' that 's all very well, but when Governments undertake such things matters soon degenerate into some sort of job.' It is true sudi has been too often the case ; but I can see no moral necessity that it should remain so. Honest men and proper checks miglit surely be found and devised. At present the case is in every respect dangerous, mischievous, and disgraceful. The Ministry here still hold on, and declare that a majority of one is as good as a majority of twenty. A University Bill, which has been a great bone of contention for many years, has been suddenly and secretly concocted, and they say will be passed by some such majority. Its leading feature is to promote sectarian rancour in the whole country, — the very greatest curse which could be entailed upon it ; and if the bill becomes law, the Free Church of Scotland and many other numerous sects will be stigmatized, and cut off from all chance of improvement. This is rather a gloomy epistle on public affairs. My hopes for fair, lilieral, honest government, such as Durham, Sydenham, or Sir Charles Bagot would have given, — my hopes, I say, are very small. Nous vcrrons / Lord Elgin spoke much of you, and made me tell him what the question was which he had put regarding my politics. His face flushed ; and he said, ' that was of course without meaning,' Avhich you know was ' all my eye.' " "1848. "We suffer in all parts of Canada from the fever spread ])y the unfortunate emigrants. "What a mass of misery and starvation and woe h.is l)een created by the reckless con- duct of Irish landlords and their agents! It is a fact, though hardly credible, that Lord Palmerston's consign- 282 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. ments were assured of money and rations being ready for them here, when neither a shilling of money nor one ounce of food had been ordered or prepared. Alas ! alas ! " "September 1850. " It is impossible for me to convey in words my admira- tion of our Governor-General. He has gone through a severe ordeal, and has displayed a Christian forbearance, a degree of personal magnanimity, and of constitutional policy, which do him infinite honour, and which it gladdens my heart to see is understood and appreciated at home. The last despatch of Earl Grey, disposing of the annexa- tionists, has been hailed with almost universal joy in the province. The line adopted and rigidly followed out by Lord Elgin is precisely the one which he told me would be his course, at our first interview. I cannot, however, conceal from myself that we have breakers ahead in regard to the Clergy Eeserves ; and if the strenuous efforts of the bishops here are allowed to stir up the bench at home, who shall say what will follow "? I candidly admit that it has the appearance of some captious frivolity to ask the Im- perial Parliament so soon to undo what in 1840 we blessed them for doing. The real truth, however, is, that Lord Sydenham carried through his measures with rather too much energy and rapidity. It effected something, but the country here had no fair chance of expressing their sentiments. We will probably now request the Imperial Parliament to reinvest these funds in the Provincial Parlia- ment, who will then apply them to general educational and religious objects, but not as stipends to ministers of any denomination." " Quebec, 28ih October 1852. " Lord Elgin is in excellent health and spirits, and always actively engaged, body and mind. Never did a man more eff"ectually outlive foul calumny than he has done. If Lord Derby removes him it will be a great mistake. I paid my respects to Lady Elgin yesterday, it being her reception day, and we had a chat about Mr. Grey and Lord 's treatment of that gentleman. I found that I I i LETTERS FROM CANADA — LORD ELGIN. 283 had little to communicate, for she knew all about it. In mercy let me hear how things look after Parliament meets. This is a most romantic city, and the environs very fine. The mountains with their glens and torrents are quite refreshing to my Scotch eyes, and in many of its features Quebec strikingly reminds me of Auld Reekie. I pass up and down the Durham Terrace, and imagine myself upon the Castle Hill looking down upon the old Grassmarket and Cowgate. I have to thank you for the newspaper with details of the Carlisle and Tjiiesidc meetings. The speeches are capital." " April 1, 1853. "The British Parliament have taken up that wretched apple of discord, the Clergy Keserves, in a spirit highly palatable to the mass of the population here. I trust Earl Grey's enlightened policy will now be soon carried out. The representation of Canada has been long requiring amendment, and the rapid progress of the province has now forced it into motion. A bill to increase the number of members and to extinguish something like the old close boroughs is now in progress. . . . There has been a silly ambition in certain provincial quarters to treat and esti- mate the Council as a counterpart of the House of Lords, nay, even to the extent of making them titled and heredi- tar}-, — sufficiently absurd certainly on many grounds. The French Canadians, as politicians, are as yet supporting liberal measures very steadily, and deserv^^ credit and all the aid we can give them in return. Lord Elgin continues to steer a steady and most praiseworthy course, and his name will long be justly dear to Canada." " WooDmLL, Canada West, Srpt. 1853. " We have been lately travelling about. Our route lay for a great way througli the, "White Mountains of New Haiii])sliin', — a truly Alpint; scene, (jr rather I sliould say a (iranipian one ; many of the mountains, in form and general aspt.-ct, recall to my remembrance the scenes of bygone days. Tlie Hampshire mountains are however of 284 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. greater altitudes, some of them five or six thousand feet above the sea, and are covered with oak, maple, pine, etc., in place of my old brown heather. Our excellent Governor- General is gone home, and it is not impossible you may meet. He is almost too good for us, but still I fondly hope his visit to Britain will not prove more than a visit. Never did any man more nobly struggle against difficulties, or more triumphantly silence a host of disappointed wasps ! He has thoroughly secured the confidence and esteem of every honest man in Canada, and in her own department Lady Elgin has gained all hearts. " The No-Popery cry is made use of quite as much here as elsewhere, but I confess my alarm for the Pope is not overwhelming." ''Feby. 1854. " If it is no very great personal disappointment to Lord Elgin, I cannot but think his lot will be much happier and his future fame stand substantially higher, in seeing Canada put all to rights, than broiling for years in Oriental splendours. I hope you have met him since your last disappointment, as I am sure you would be interested by his accounts of our progress, and I am equally sure that you will be delighted with your old friend the Countess ^ and her charming boys." " October 1854. " I am afraid we must make up our minds to lose Lord Elgin. I fear we shall not see his place nearly so well filled. Meanwhile Sir Allan M'Nab is actually Premier, and vaunts of following poor Sir Eobert Peel's steps ; truly the daw in borrowed plumes ! Canada is at this date in very great beauty. The woods are one mass of crimson and gold, and the pastures of young wheat beautifully verdant. " By the bye, a respectable-looking man hailed me on entering the show-ground at London with ' I'm just returned from the old country, sir, and was charged by Mr. Grey of Dilston to give you his remembrance.' It 1 Daughter of Lord Durham. DEATH OF AN OLD FRIEND— CORRESPONDENCE. 285 would seem you had met at some public meeting, but we had no time for particulars. " Years slip away, and alas ! how little do we take note of them. God bless you, my dear friend, in time and eternity. — Ever most sincerely yours, Adam Fergusson." Soou after this date the letters of Mr. Fergusson cease, and on one of them I find written by my father's hand, " The last letter received from my old and valued friend Adam Fergusson, written a few weeks before his death." My father followed with very great interest and hope the history of events in Italy, of which he was continually kept in mind by his con-espondence with his daughter and son-in-law living in Italy, whose residence there was sometimes a cause of uneasiness to him, during the several crises through which that country has passed in the last fifteen years. He wrote to this daughter on her departure from England : — " DiLSTON, 1854, Sunday Afternoon. " My dearest Hatty, — I have just come from the thinly peopled church, and I am bracing my nerves to write to you, which I have often done without effect, since I had your kind and welcome letter on leaving the shores of England, which excited in my mind and heart thoughts and feelings more sad, as I hope, than your OAvn experi- enced. It made me feel that you were gone indeed, that a wide S])ace is between me and one who had been a dear companicju ami confidential friend. Feelings of regret and loneliness of heart will at times arise, as the branches of one's olive plants, that have been \o\oA and cberishod, are tved away. AVe love each other still, and ahvay.s will ; but it is not quite the .same : new ties and other interests interjKjse their influtuice, and share or aVjstract the confiding love of children to parents. All however is ordered aright." 286 MEMOIll OF JOHN GREY. Such little incidents as this recorded in the follow- ing letter, show the tenderness of his heart about everything which in any way concerned his daughters' pleasure or good. Two favourite horses were to be sent after my sister to her far-off home : — " Sept. 3, 1854. " My dearest Hatty, — A misfortune has happened which grieves me much. I left Low Byer at 7| on Friday to breakfast with Mr. Ord as I had promised, and having gained the top of the hill at a walk was trotting quietly down, when in a moment poor Una was on the ground among Baliol's feet. I pulled him back and she sprang up, but with a scratch on one knee and a cut through the skin on the other. Mark luckily had some twine, so that we got the broken parts of the harness fastened together. I dared not stop at Whitfield lest her leg should swell and grow stiff, but left a message and came to Haydonbridge, where Matt doctored it. I thought of coming by train and leaving her, but it did not swell, and as no ligaments were cut so as to make her lame, I drove slowly home, desiring the farrier to follow, which he did. He does not make much of it, but it may leave a mark, and may not be covered so as to be fit for you to ride her in Paris. I am much grieved on account of your disappointment, and yet I can hardly blame myself, for I was only using her as I had been constantly doing before. " I grudge sending a blemished animal — yet another would not be the same to you in recollection and associa- tion as Una. " Pray write, dearest Hatty, and instruct me what to do, for I am sore vexed. I should have cared nothing about it had it not been for your disappointment." It made him very happy to have the following cheery picture of the progress of the animals so far on their journey as Paris : — CORRESrONDKNTE WITH DAUGHTERS. 287 " Paris, Xovcniber 1S54. " Dearest Father, — "We vent to the station to meet the horses, and when their box was opened Dilston walked out as coolly as possible, but Una was in a starting, nei^ous frame of mind. She kicked the groom at Chenai for speaking French to her while putting flannel round her legs, and started at every sound, and would not settle to eat her corn. I stayed with her a long time, and explained what the groom said, and it was quite touching to see how good the poor thing grew. She knew my voice. The next morning we had a ride before breakfast, and I am sure Una thought we had set oflF to go back to Dilston again : she kept pricking her ears and dancing, and looking impatiently round every turn we came to. I told her she would never see Dilston, and the wooded banks and the old castle again, but she did not believe me. At Chenai, when I said my horse had come, a whole party of ladies, who were visiting there, came out to the stable to see her, with their fine bonnets and feathers and flounces. I loosed Una and brought her out, and they patted her with primrose and lavender kid gloves, and she slavered her nose over velvet mantles and Cashmere shawls, and looked quite pleased about it, and they condoled tenderly over her knees, and then swept back into the drawing- room with straws and hair sticking about their lace and fringes." To one of his daughters he wrote after a week's ill- ness : — " 3farch 1856. "I received and thank you for a kind and interesting letter. An illness brings out many affectionate feelings and expressions from others, and gives time and occasion for many thoughts in one's-self, looking back to the pa.st, and forward to the future. My life has been one of cct which deeply con- cerns the intere.st8 of Greenwich Hospital as well as my own. Although still possessed of strength and activity more than falls to the lot of most men at the age of seventy-seven, yet I cannot but feci a certain diminution of vigour and unfitness for encountering long rides in stormy weather, which used to give mo little concern, and which it is desirable at times to undertake. To put off tho 304 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. appointment of a successor till I might be suddenly stricken down and rendered incapable, would be to hazard the chance of an inadequate choice, or of an interregnum, such as occurred at the time of my assuming the office. " I sometimes feel a foolish jealousy lest my successor should not be a man of sufficient experience and energy to maintain the system which it has been my endeavour to establish, and to carry out plans of improvement not yet accomplished." "We all feared that this retirement had come too early for his own happiness — that the relinquishment of arduous and interesting duties performed so long, would leave him without a sufficient object in life, and that his active mind would prey upon itself in the years which might still be left to him ; for although his age was great, counting by years, he retained the vigour possessed by some men only in their prime. But we were mistaken. We afterwards saw that he had done wisely and well in giving himself a quiet breathing-time in the evening of his days ; and so far from suffering in happiness and tone of mind from the change, the increased sweetness and mellowness of his character in the years following were apparent to all. And he did not lack interest nor work, for many people came to him for advice. Speeches, papers, and corre- spondence were still claimed from him on subjects with which he had been long familiar, — for being a man of progress he was never left behind the day. He did not turn away from the hopes and plans, political or social, of younger people, as if they perchance had some doubtful elements in them, because they were not precisely what were entertained in his younger days. It was alwaj's felt that even if he could not approve, he would invariably listen with candour, and RETIREMENT TO LIPWOOD. 305 with a freshness of interest marvellous in a man of his years, to what any one who was in earnest had to say or to propose. And, moreover, the quiet and retired home which he chose for himself at Lipwood — on the banks of the Tpie, a little further west — continued to be to the last the favourite gathering-place for many of his scattered children in each succeeding summer. He had the satisfaction of seeing the management of the estates continued on principles which he approved, and his plans for still further improvement carried out, by his son Charles, who succeeded to his office. TO A GRANDDAUGHTER LIVING AT GENOA. " Lipwood House, Sept. 5, 1863. " My dear Edith, — You know of course all the changes which have taken place at Dilston, and have had a descrip- tion of this our new residence from Fanny, who has been indefatigable in arranging and settling all tilings with taste and judgment. Tlie pictures covering all tlie walls of the house bring Jiome thoughts and feelings, but I shall, I fear, never again regard any place on earth as my home. " This place is externally pleasant and internally com- fortable, but confined as to extent, and giving little occu- pation — an extreme contrast to my fonner charge." " Lipwood House, January 9, 1864. " DEARE.ST Hatty, — I have to thank Tell for an excel- lent and inti-resting letter, giving me an insight into the political state and jtrospects of your country, which are so far promising as the gloom and uncertainty which pervade European States and Governments at present allow. It is a good thing to have stayed the hand dF that bloody leader of brigands. I am wicked enough to wish that some others now in Home were also cold, even if canonized. " If Italy can get a gorwl share of cotton-growing by means of /ree labour, it will bring wealth and industry to u 306 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. the land ; let us liope, too, by increased intercourse with free nations, a more liberal tone, both to Government and people. . . . " This is a bright sunny day, and Fanny is busily engaged, with Robert helping her, in sowing flower-seeds in the various-shaped beds around the house, waited upon by the little girls, jumping from place to place, and sitting on the grass by turns, while I hear their chatter and laughter sitting in my little room with an open window. It is a sunny room." " LiFWOOD, M Feb. 1864. " My darling Tully, — I have been much interested in reading last night, in extenso, Bright's speech at Biraiingham on ' the bright side of England,' in which he goes through with praise the great measures to which good old Lord Grey devoted all his political life. He not only lauds, as great measures, the justice of Catholic Emancipation, the Aboli- tion of Tests, the Reform, but above all ' the courage and statesmanship which overturned the old Poor-Law,' which was demoralizing the whole of the lower orders, and taking from them every principle of independence and self-reliance, and established one on sound and rational ground. But he makes no reference to the party to whom all ihis is owing. I well remember a private conversation with old Lord Grey, after retiring from public life, in which, talking of those subjects, he said that he thought it likely that the change of the Poor-Law Avould reflect the greatest credit upon his Ministry hereafter of any of the measures which he had been instrumental in carrying. It had not been attended with the excitement of the Reform Bill, or the splendour of the Abolition of Slavery, but it had checked the downward progress of the spirit of independence and manly bearing of the population of the country." Sir David Baird once remarked to one of Lord Elcho's " whips" in the hunting- field, looking at a party of my brothers and sisters who were out, " Those young people ride well." The man replied, "They BOLDNESS AS A RIDER. 307 can't help it, sir ; it's in the blood." We were always proud — not very foolishly so, I hope — of the skill and even dash ^Yhich my father displayed on horseback at the advanced age of seventy to eighty. He shall be allowed to give a description of some of his own ex- ploits at the age of seventy-four, and at seventy -eight. " Mv VERY DEAR JosiE. — Ou ^Monday, at Milfield Hill, I rode with George over his o^\^l and the Ford estates. On Tuesday, we were all three mounted to follow the hounds, going to the meet at Paston. I liked to see the sweet Beaumont-side by Thornington, etc. etc. Lord AVemyss was unwell, and not out. I did not see him, nor nuuiy ac(iiiaintances, most being of a younger generation. Had a good deal of talk with a Mr. "Wells, son-in-law of Lord "NVemyss, who has property near Peterborough and in Esse.x, who gratified me by his praise of Glendale agri- culture, and of the impulse to agricultural improvement throughout the kingdom which had been given by its example. There were three generations of Greys in the field : George on Black Bess, leader of the field ; Johnny on a fine mare; and I on strong but headstrong Butcher, who at one time, during a rush, fairly ran off with me ; but it was good open ground, so I indulged his humour, and after push- ing by Lord Durham and some young fellows, and splashing through the Beaumont, rode him to a walk uj) the hill near Cro(jk House. One fox was lost in a covert on the top of Milfield Hill. They then went to seek others on the plain, and I rode discreetly home. On Thursday, came to Fallo- don. Sir George had written to me from I'alnioral that he hallu\v with my bosom bare, Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky.' " It is well that Edgar (Jih) has escaped, and been at liberty to win his hnirels in his new position. I rejoice in his success ; pray tell him so, witli my love ; but also Avarn him not to let the spirit of emulation lead him to over- exertion and anxiety. He has time and talents enough to make his way without undue or injurious application, which, I think, his ardent temperament may be in danger of giving way to. The Talisman would bring to your recollection the rambles on the moors of Gilsland. It is true that dells or raA"ines, such as the deep one at Gils- land, are called (jills in this part of Englaml, but I believe that district took its name from being the land or property of a border reiver of ancient fame called Giles, abbreviated into Gil's land. — Your loving grandfather, " John Grey." TO A DAUGHTER, ON THE SUDDEN DEATH OF ONE OF HER CHILDREN. " LiPWOOD, August 25, 1864. " My BELOVED Daughter, — What can I say to comfort you or to alleviate your distress ] I need not tell you that I love you in sorrow and in joy, nor how deeply I feel for you, and am with you in heart on this most sad occasion : I hope you will accompany us to Switzerland, if your health and spirits will allow (jf the undertaking. The change of scene and tlx- effctrt the journey would create might relieve your thoughts a little, though nothing can remove them from the recollection of the dear and loved one you have wj suddenly and so ])ainfully lost. If you can entertain this, dear, we will wait ycjur time, and measure our stages to suit your convenience. You have the consolation of knowing that your l)eloved child had a joyous existence here, and is now in the jiresencc of a loving Saviour, 316 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. escaped from all earthly trials, tempations, and sorrows. That little form is continually present with me, instinct with life, energy, and merriment, and I can hardly realize the truth of the change. I look at the little garden which she formed, and the plants which she cherished. I c?^' Tip to me, and remember how she caressed him. Ever^ thing in and around the house seems associated with her in these joyous weeks which she passed here. The vision presents itself to me of her flying past the window with her golden locks, luxuriating with bunches of flowers which she ahvays dutifully asked my permission to pull, being thoroughly impressed with the idea that I was lord of all hereabouts. No wonder, then, that the hearts of you, her parents, should be wrung with the deepest agony. But what can we sayl It is God's will, who does not afflict us willingly. To his mercy and support I commend you, my dearest Josie, and pray that you may in faith and love ever experience that comfort and peace which He only can bestow. With warm affection for you and all with you, think of me, my dearest Josie, as your own attached father, John Grey." In the autumn of 1864 he started for Switzerland, where he met liis daughter and her family from Naples ; lie enjoyed the excursions made among the moun- tains, the aspect of some of the Swiss Cantons, — which he spoke of as "marked by the absence of the extremes of wealth and poverty : the rich not ostentatious or luxurious, the poor industrious, frugal, and contented," — and the family gathering which he found around him in the pensions or hotels which they made their head-quarters. He wrote of it on his return home : — "Dear Lord Grey, — I have been an unwonted tra- veller since I had the pleasure of being at Howick. VISIT TO SWITZEIILAND. 317 "Mrs. Smyttan and I met at Geneva Mr. and Mrs. Meuricoffre, with their four fine children, and my grand- daugliter, Mrs. Lonpold from Genoa. " The ^leuricoffres have a property called Gordonne, on the Lake of Geneva, near the station called Kolle, where we were for a time. It is an excellent house, and beauti- fully situated, the ground extending to the margin of the lake, and commanding an extensive view of the mountains on the opposite side, with their monarch, ^Mont Blanc, towering over them, and displaying at sunset his snow- clad top in great luxuriance of colour. Thence w'e made excursions to Vevay, the Castle of Chillon, etc. etc. After- wards we visited Than, Grindelwald, Interlachen, Lucerne, Berne, Basle, exploring romantic valleys, climbing moun- tains, and scaling glaciers, all of which, I dare say, your Lordship is acquainted with. It seemed to be wild work for a man in his eightieth year ! but I enjoyed it much with such dear companions. "We parted at Basle, they for Genoa and Naples, we, by Mayenne, Cologne, Brussels, and Calais, to old England, which I am not likely ever to quit again. — Your attached and faithful " John Grey." ^ly sister, Mrs. Meuricoffre, records some reiuiui- scences of that pleasant time in Switzerland : — " The day after his arrival with Fanny wc spent a charming day at the Gordonne. In the morning we climbed the wooded ravine behind the house, crossing and re-crossing the stream by little wooden bridges. The after- noon we spent idly, sitting by the lake. Everything was steeped in sunshine, tlie mountains of Savoy oi)posito shining with gem-like tints, and noble Mont Blanc rear- ing his white head behind them. We spent three days in travelling {rctlurina) from Vfvay to Thun, stopping the first day io dine at Bullc The j)copl(! were holding a poi)ular festa. Papa's sense of the humorous was moved at the furious energy with which the stiilwart young men and maidens danced aner »phercH of occupation and a^lequato exercise of })ure waters, true to itself, without conscious in- tention. Tell delighted in the instruction he frequently gave him on subjects with which he, as a foreigner and a man of cities, was unfamiliar. There was so much more of the sympathizing wish to make you .share his interests, than of didactic teaching in his way of giving instniction, and he listened with a candid humility to be informed of things which had not come within the range of his experi- ence, which was touching in one so much older, and with so much knowledge. " We arrived, you know, from the exciting scenes in Milan and Paris in July 18GG, when the battle was fought which gave Prussia prestige in Europe, and decided the fate of Venice, which had for years been a subject of deep and romantic interest to us, and found ourselves in that quiet green valley where papa was living more retired than before, hearing less of the excited voices of the outer world, discussing, arguing, blaming, and praising. I was moved afn'.sh to wonder antl admiration by observing in him all that freshness of interest, the accurate information, the liberal as well as ripe judgment, the ^vide glance taking in all the difficulties and probable results of these far-away events; not judging tln-m — as Avould have been natural enough at his age, having left the burden and heat of the strife many years behind — in a wearied or timid way, but entering into them with a wonderful youthfulness of spirit combined with the moderation which experience, thoughtfulness, and removal from the actual strife im- parted ; as one who liad already got a good way up the 334 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. hill to the promised land, and stood free and removed, and yet tenderly interested in the fate of the battles fought in the plain below. He saw and heard all the more clearly for not being in the midst of the smoke and noise ; but he did not regard the younger soldiers with scorn ; he remembered his own youth, and its aspirations and expec- tations, and knew that the battles must be fought ; and though experience had taught him that the expectations of the combatants would never be fully realized, that this new desire accomplished Avould not be the saving of man- kind, yet he knew they would advance the cause, and that these beliefs were necessary to give courage to those who had to fight. One often forgot his age, his spirit was so youthful. It is difficult to dwell more on one quality than another in him. It is rather the oneness and well-pro- portioned simplicity of his whole character which strikes one — goodness, justice, benevolence, kind persuasive manners, which never degenerated into a search after popularity, but which often disarmed the opposition, and melted the proverbial obstinacy of that sturdy individual, the British farmer. With what pride and pleasure he spoke to me in Switzerland of the ability and promptness in action which his sons carry into their management. It was touching to hear him speak with admiration of all the new improvements which some old men would call innovations. He seemed to forget that the younger men found ready to their hands much which he, and such as he, had to struggle for. He removed the rocks and clods, and then admired the skill of his sons because they could drive their plough- shares smoothly and rapidly through the ground. I recall the time when I often sj^ent hours, from ten till five o'clock sometimes, on horseback, going over the farms with him, sometimes standing for an hour watching the drain- ing of some poor, bitter land, which next year we saw in turnips, the next, I think, in oats ; sometimes seeing trees felled and barked (I remember the aromatic smell of burn- ing pine branches in the frosty air) ; sometimes going in and out of the little gates about stack-yards and farm- INTERCOURSE WITH HIM. 335 steads, where young be;vsts wore stretching their necks liorizontally to prevent the slippery bits of sliced turnips from falling out of their soft wet mouths. I retain a strongly pleasant impression of his manners Avith the tenants, who would accompany us on foot about the places. I could feel that they had full confidence in all he adAnsed them to do, from a conWction of his justice and good^Wll, and immoveable sense of right ; and even if they were 'agin' doing so and so that he considered right, or Avishful to do something he thought unadvisable, they could not feel vexed. It was not his will which he wanted carried out. He made them feel that they and he must work together to do trhat teas right ; and there was so much kind- ness and consideration in his manner of telling them what should be done, recognising their difficulties, but always so firm and straightforward. I felt that the influence of his moral nature, the total absence of self-interest, self-will, temper, etc., in following out his duty, must and did make an impression on their characters, and raise them to a higher appreciation of what was honest, upright, noble, and good. The Old Testament term of the 'just man,' as meaning something wider and more comprehensive than the strict quality of justice, seems to me to ajjply to him. " I remember many of our rides home when the business part was done ; sometimes such merry wild gallops over high grass-fields in Hexhumshire, or above Aydon, bending our heads nearly to the horse's mane, to receive the sharp pelting hail on our hats, tlie horses laj'ing back their ears, and bounding at the stinging of the hail on their flanks, and coming in with heavy clinging skirt, and veil frozen into a ma.sk the shape of one's nose, revealing very rosy cheeks when it wa.s j>eeled ofl" ; and then those summer evenings when we paced gently home through the soft, rich valleys, and heard the thru.shes singing those notes that pierced one's heart through and tliioiigli with the jtrophecy of all the pain tliat future life would bring to it, while still youth and fair imagination shed over everything that strange sweet light that never was on sea or shore." 336 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. The same sister wrote from Italy on hearing of his death : — " My beloved Fanny, — I can hardly realize that it is true. My father ! he has gone to his rest, and his works do follow him. I lay awake all night with such sweet memories swarming through my mind ; all his tenderness to me when I was a girl, and not strong ; when he took me out riding, and got farmers' wives to make me a cup of tea when I was faint and starved. Dunce that I was, I could learn nothing out of books, but he taught me so much in conversation. . . . He was a man who lived for duty, and yet was not stern. He was like a woman in his tenderness ; like a girl in purity of mind and thought. My heart is full of you, dear. We have all lost the best of fathers, but to you the loss is the greatest of all. I commend you to the tender care of our Father in heaven. . . . The last time I saw him was when I was leaving the Mount. Ethel drove me away in the basket-carriage. He came to the porch and kissed me, and folded me in his arms with pale face and trembling lips, not daring to speak. I turned before we passed the gate, to burn a last look into my memory, think- ing at the time of his great age, and that probably it was the last time. Beautiful old father ! he stood framed in that ivy-covered Gothic porch at the Mount, with his noble bare head, and sad, loving, wistful gaze, — such a picture ! " His son-in-law, Tell Meuricoffre, wrote : — "Naples, 1868. " From the day that I came to Dilston to claim Hatty, I felt that he treated me like one of the family, and I felt sure of his affection as that of a father. You know the position of a foreigner in England is not always easy, but with the kind and hearty encouragement he gave me every feeling of uneasiness disappeared. . . . When he visited us in Switzerland he was seventy -nine years of age. Independently of his keen enjoyment of the scenery, he observed with the minutest attention all that related to the PURITY OF CHARACTER. 337 manners and habits of the peopk\ I do not reniemhor any occasion in which he showed impatience with our foreign ways. He visited with me the ' Pahiis Federal ' at Berne. It interested him very much to see the seat of Government of our little country. . . . He showed a real sympathy with the people. His liberal feelings made him happy to be among a free people ; indeed, he often expressed that feeling." My heart urges me, before I cease to speak of my father, to say a word in regard to the purity of his character. Tliere is much evil, it is said, in society, especially in our crowded and fashionable metropolis ; much impurity, self-indulgence, profligacy, open or covered ; and indeed, even to those happily far removed from it, this is very credible, for much of the daily lite- rature of the press brings into our quiet homes too snre a testimony to the deterioration of morals; and in writings of a more ambitious character, do we not find whispers of wild and godless schemes for regenerating society, — schemes founded on the assumption that purity and constancy are no longer possible for men and women ? Do we not trace the merging together of all the beauties of art and of poetry with a canial-mindedness which is death ? and have we not to blu.sh at the too common and shameful trick of coupling the sacred name of Christ with emotions and passions which have in them nothing of Christ ? There is on our book-shelves, together with much that is noble, enough also of " bound and lettered baseness ;" writers who, as it has been said, " carry their fool's garb into the assemblies of our legislators, and whet their weapons of su|)(,'rficial sarcasm on the door- ways of our tenijtlcs." Klfusions are i)r('ssed in at our doors, of writers who leave the mark of their own levity Y 338 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. and obscenity on everything they handle. Sickened by such a picture of society as is presented to them, even against their will, it is not to be wondered at that per- sons not gifted with great hopefulness, — and that women especially, — should turn away to seek some ark of re- fuge, either in their own spirits or in pure communities of self-denying workers, — convents, or whatever they maybe called, — declaring with the unwise haste of Elijah that no good men are left upon the earth. It grieves me to hear good women whispering to each other, and mothers of families mournfully telling the same to their daughters, that all men are corrupt, that we must expect nothing else, that we must judge them leniently, and resign ourselves to fellowship through life with persons about whose past and private life the less we know the better. It grieves me, because the reiterated utterance of such a belief, with the desponding acceptance of such a supposed state of things, is a link in the chain of cause and effect which materially helps to drag society down to the lowest level which it can reach. The majority of women will sink to an vmworthy level at a time when it is the fashion for men throughout the country to dwell continually upon, and to make literary merchan- dise of, the folly, the weakness, or the wickedness of the female sex, although a few will always, even through the strength of a noble scorn, rise high above what any of these men could possibly conceive of silent virtue. So also in a society where women, — yet reckoned among the salt of the earth in classes where domestic virtue still endures strongly, — habitually doubt the possibility of purity among men, the moral standard of the men around them is sure to fall. They are not likely to rise much above the level which those who are PURITY OF CHARACTER, 339 their purest judges, next to God himself, alone believe them to be capable of reaching. There are few among us who do not need the aid to virtue which a generous faith in us on the part of those we most respect supplies. But I am not desirous that any one should make a show of believing in a state of things which is not. Let the truth be known and confessed before all things. But is it true that all are become corrupt — that God has not left Himself witnesses abundantly, even among our brethren and acquaintance, that men of high moral purity still live among us ? The truth is, that few of us possess a vision wide enough, or a judgment discriminat- ing enough, to enable us to get beyond the influence of our own particular experience in announcing generaliza- tions on the state of society. There are few men who, having silly or unprincipled wives, are large-hearted enough to think well of other women ; few women who, having had a sorrowfid experience in their own male circle, can refrain from a bitter censure of all men. It therefore all the more behoves those who have had a happy experience to speak boldly, and to testify to the existence in our English homes, not among women only, but among men also, of purity of heart, of innocency of life, of constancy in love. It is not one man only that I have in my mind, but of one I am permitted to speak. . . , Such was the gentle purity of his nature, that when any one alluded in his presence to any particular example of the vileuess of the times, or of fashionable vice or villany, the pained and puzzled expression of his face would cause tlie speaker to hesitate, to cease; for it was evident that some allusions were not even understood by him, and that the approach to such subjects was painful only. 340 MEMOIR OF JOHN GREY. People who knew liim learned to pass by all such allusions in his presence. I can recollect, that if some little scandal occurred in the neighbourhood, our mother would say to her daughters, " Do not let it be mentioned in your father's presence," not liking to see that troubled look in his dear face. But let it not be supposed that, allied with this purity, there was a corresponding defect of a lack of ardour. Surely a warmer, tenderer heart never beat. He was a man capable of strong and passionate attachment. If Elijah had not been a man " of like passions " with others, where had been the virtue ? There are words among the private writings of his youth, such as those quoted in the early part of this memoir, — " to control an inclination, to guard the secret thoughts ; these, Christ, are the labours Thou delightest to reward ;" and there are injunctions in letters to his sons in early youth to be watcliful over the thoughts, to fill up the hours with active and worthy pursuits, and to repress inclinations to self-indulgence. These simple advices, if followed by the rising genera- tion, if heeded by young men, would probably avail more for the morality of the future and the stability of society than any of our subtle philosophers' " theories of life" or mighty plans for the manipulation of the community into a right shape. By some it seems to be deemed an enviable and somewhat honourable thing to know all the secrets of life and of human nature ; and the curious analysis of occult horrors is considered to be a pursuit worthy of the human mind. However this may be, there is to my mind no fairer sight than that of a man endowed with ardent affection and a powerful intellect, who declines even the knowledge of all that is base, and who retains to his closing days the sweet IIArrV IXFLUF.XCE OF SUCH A CIIAIiACTEK. 341 simplicity of a child about matters wliicli excite some meu to keen cui-iosity and eager speculation. Doubtless it is needful that some should look upon the ground, and examine the mud through which poor worms must crawl, but it is good for us that there are also men who habitually look straij^ht through the pure ether which reaches to heaven wliile it blesses the earth. I think the influence of one pure man is more powerful tlian that of a hundred impure, and that a whole Xineveh of corrupt persons might be in some measure redeemed from hopeless debasement by the presence of such a man as I have tried to describe. I am confident that I express the feelings of tens of thousands of women in our country, when I declare that, repudiating the assertion, which emanated from the " father of lies " himself, that women in their secret hearts are indulgent, even favourable, to men of questionable morals, we bless with gratitude and with reverence the very memory of a man of pui-e heart and life ; and if to any it seems that I have said too nmch in praise of this nian, I trust I shall be forgiven ; for he was my father. CHAPTER X. "Sure the last end Of the good man is peace ; how calm his exit ! Night dews fall not more gently to the ground, Nor weary worn-out winds expire so soft. Behold him in the evening-tide of life — A life well spent, whose early care it was His riper years should not upbraid his green ; By unperceived degrees he wears away. Yet, like the sun, seems larger at his setting." A FEW notes of domestic incidents connected with the last days of my father's life, put down in her diary by the daughter who was the companion of his soli- tude, were invested with a tender interest after he had left us. She notices his attendance with her at the com- munion on Christmas- day, — his last communion on earth, — and a few grave words spoken to her when they left the church together. His last public act was that of a peace-maker. Some difference of opinion had arisen at the Hexham Farmers' Club, which might have grown to a more serious breach. He used his influence successfully to heal the difference, with words of wisdom and calmness, persuading to a less extreme course than that which had been adopted on one side. The relation in which he stood to that Society, his eighty-two years of experience, and the affectionate regard in which he was held by all to whom his words LAST DAY OF HIS LIFE. 34 3 were addressed, acted as a clianu to dispel threatened dissension.^ The wonderful health with which he had been blessed all his life continued almost to the end. Only a day or two before his death he was on horseback as usual. He caught a slight cold, which settled on his chest. On the 21st of Januaiy my sister says, "He sat in his arm-chair most of the day, quietly reading, inclined to make light of his ailment, and thanking me with gentle words for little attentions offered." She tliought there was an unusual solemnity in his manner at prayers that night, and some of the words used, alluding to the un- certainty of life, remained impressed on her memory. The next morning she went to his bedroom, — for not being quite well he that day broke through his usual ' As the last words of his which appeared in any public journal may be interesting to those who knew him, and remember the occasion, I subjoin them here :— " To the Editor of tht Hexham Courant. " Sir, — Your correspondent 'Z,' in Saturday's Hexham Courant, seems to have fallen into a mistake whilst adverting to the resignation of the President of the Hexham Farmers' Club, in identifying me with that office (which I have not held for the last four years), whilst referring to my long standing in the agricultural world. I exceedingly regret that any cause of disunion should have taken place in a Club over which I had the honour to preside harmoniously for so many years, — to wliose usefulness I did all in my power to contribute, and in whose welfare I still feel a great interest ; but I cannot blame, as some do, the chairman for declining to continue to preside over a meeting which, whon the hour for the train api)voaches, in- sists tumultuousiy on a decision, and i)assus a resfdution totally irrelevant to the subject of discussion, without the opiwrtunity of explanation. The subject for discussion, as printed on the card, was 'The injuries tlint farmers sustain from the preservation of game and foxdniiitiiig,' l>ut the resolution proposed anerty which (iod and natun- ever bestowed up(jn them — the use of their own lindjs and the enjoyment of liberty." 352 APPENDIX. ON THE REFORM BILL. " MiLFiELD Hill, Bee. 5, 1831. "My Lord — I send Mr. Ferguson's small pamphlet by this post, and shall indeed be much obliged by your Lord- ship sending me a copy (or more, if not imiJosing too much upon your goodness) of your father's admirable and most statesmanlike speech on the introduction of the Reform Bill into the House of Lords. The country is in a state of feverish anxiety to know the character and fate of the new Bill. Another rejection of it, and we may go to Canada or somewhere else, for our houses and property will hardly remain in peaceful possession of ourselves. But I need not anticipate such a result. With a King and Ministry firm to each other, and with such an awful responsibility upon them, they must adopt means to secure the measure." ON EMIGRATION. " MiLFiELD Hill, 2ilh Dee. 1831. " My Lord, — I have to acknowledge my obligations to your Lordship for two copies of your father's very able and convincing speech ; at the same time that I must apologize for the liberty I took in asking it. I was not aware at the time I did so that they were published for sale, or I cer- tainly should not have encroached upon your goodness by making such a request. " My friend Mr. Ferguson has sent me a MS. note on the subject of Emigration, with permission to show it to your Lordship should I think fit ; and as the subject is an interesting one, and you may have a little more leisure during the recess than at other times, I venture to forward it. He does not go deeply into the subject, but probably his suggestions might be improved upon and extended Avith advantage. The princij^le of securing the emigrants on their arrival in Canada against the hardships which ignor- ance and mismanagement would be likely to bring upon them, is both humane and politic. And if, by the super- intendence of a Government agency, who would employ the emigrants in the improvement of lands for sale, in which their labour would be profitable, or by establishing them APPENDIX. 353 upon plots of their own, for ^vliicli they were required to pay by instahnents at distant periods, they could be made to work out the whole of the cost, except perliaps tliat of the actual voyage from this country, then probably such a thing as ' parochial emigration ' or * pauper emigration ' might be pretty generally resorted to, with mutual advan- tages to the parishes and their paupers. But even then, the operations of such a plan would be much impeded at home, by the difficulty Avhich would attend the internal regulations of each parish, unless it were accompanied with some legislative enactments, which it might be difficult to accomplish. If the law in England were the same as in Scotlauil, where the ' poor's-money ' is levied by a ' cess ' upon the proprietors, or heritors, as they are called, the diffi- culty would be greatly diminished, because each one having a permanent interest in the property would derive an equal advantage. " But where it is payable by the occupiers, the interest of each man varies according to the length of his lease or the security of his continuing in the parish. And though a man with an occupation of ten or twenty years in prospect might gladly or wisely purchase an exemption from an annual burthen by an immediate sacrifice, the case would be verj' different with him who had only two or three years of his lease to run, or who liad no lease, and therefore no per- manent interest in the parish at all. These difficulties in the internal arrangements of a parish rate, must, in most cases, oi)erate against tlie relief which the country might other- wise obtain from the jdan of * pauper emigi'ation,' unless accompanieil ])y some considerable change in the Poor Laws now in existence." ON SLAVERY. " MiLKiELD Hill, May 3, 1832. " My Lord, — The accompanying MS. and letter were sent to me a day or twf) ago, with the reijuest that I would forward them to your Lonhhip. 'J'li»! writer has had hmg experience of colonial matters, and, which is honom.ililr to him, unlike too many who have looked at slavery till they have become! callous to its evils and tiiormities, entertains z 354 APPENDIX. an ardent wish for the destruction of the abominable sys- tem. I apprehend that his plan may be liable to many objections, but the suggestions of practical and experienced men are generally deserving of attention. He seems fully impressed with the belief that delay for any length of time in settling the question, must inevitably lead to much bloodshed and destruction of property." ON THE REFORM BILL. "May 1832, Milfield Hill, Saturday Night. " My Lord, — Your letter received to-day has thrown a damp upon the exultation in which I had been indulging. I thought that Tory domination had been overthrown, never to rise again, and was glorying in the victory gained by Liberal principles, and was rejoicing with peculiar de- light at the thoughts of the reward which had at length attended your father's long-maintained and strenuous ex- ertions in the cause of liberty and justice ; and I cannot yet believe that all this happiness is a mere vision, which the intelligence of another day may change into despair. I cannot imagine that such infatuation can exist after the example that has been set, and the demonstration of public feeling that has been given, as to throw such impediments in the way of an arrangement with your father as to risk a second experiment on the disappointment of the people. The country was stunned by the intelligence of the first, and paused a while in silent astonishment ; but it is roused now to a feeling of extreme indignation, and a second insult of the kind would act with the speed of electricity. Let us hope, however, that the country may be preserved from so dreadful a calamity. ... I shall certainly attend to your Lordship's advice, and guard against any relaxation of our vigilance ; but as for the success, or even the attempts of an anti-Reform candidate, I do not think such an one would find a place for the sole of his foot among us ; nor that any one, though inclined to do so, durst incur the popular odium of voting for him. Reformers of every grade have abandoned their peculiar opinions to unite their voices in one cry for Lord Grey's Bill at Lord Grey's hands." AITENDLX. 355 "MiLFiELD Hill, May 12, 1832. " !My Lord, — The news of the decision in the Lords came upon us all like a clap of thunder, — so sudden and so unex- pected. Having got over the second reading, one thought that the Bill was safe in all its important provisions ; and the disappointment and anxiety that the event has produced, your Lordshii)'s letter received yesterday, and the late papers also, have relieved my mind from the most painful feeling connected with the subject, arising from an opinion, which seemed generally to prevail, that if the Bill were lost, it would be lost by the reluctance, not of the King, but of Lord Grey, to secure it by a creation of peers. However objectionable such an exercise of Eoyal prerogative may be on ordinary occasions, the public mind seemed impressed with the idea that the present crisis fully justified it ; and nothing was wanting to complete the separation in feeling and interest which late events have done so much to create between the aristocracy and the people, but the idea that those among the former whom the people have always looked to as their friends, and as being actuated by a common feeling and common interest with themselves, dis- l)layed any want of energy or any degree of lukewarmness in their cause. Now, however, your father stands justified before the country ; and, come what will of the infatuation of nolle Lords, who set themselves in opposition to the decided sentiments and determined claims of the people, his character is unsullied, and his name will be cherished by a grateful posterity. This reflection is highly gratifying to me ; l)ut still the anxious question remains unanswered, — What is to become of the country 1 Are we again to submit to Tcjry legislation ; to receive at the hands of the reluctant converts to Reform such a measure of it as they whf) hate it in their hearts may choose to dole out to us 1 Should any niovcincnt take ])lace to shake public credit, stop the operation of country l)anks, and dissolve the con- nexion between the manufacturcjrs and their workmen, none of whom have two days' provision in store in the densely peopled districts of Lancashire or Renfrew, they would spread over the country like a deluge, carrying desolation 356 APPENDIX. and misery in their course. And as to Ireland, they are ready for all mischief. Mr. Price, agent for Lord Lans- downe, and an active magistrate in Queen's County, gives me a deplorable view of the state of matters there : the higher ranks powerless ; the lowest becoming poorer and more careless and ferocious every day ; accustomed to ob- tain their ends by agitation and combination, and goaded on by miscreants to deeds of violence. He is of opinion that the arrears of tithes never can be collected under Mr. Stanley's Bill for the purposes intended. A Government possessing the confidence of the public would have to con- tend with difficulties almost insurmountable ; what are we to look for from one which must be unpopular ]" ON THE POOR-LAWS AND IRELAND. " MiLFiELD Hill, August 6, 1839. " My Lord, — I beg to thank your Lordship for your kindness in sending me the Report on the Poor-Laws and the circulars on Emigration. I must also express my obligation to Mr. Croker's speech, to which I am indebted for your Lordship's long letter upon a most important sub- ject. I am grieved to find you expressing such apprehen- sion about the condition of the peasantry in the southern counties. It will be truly alarming should the same spirit be found to exist, and to evince itself again in the Avork of destruction which disgraced the English character during the last winter. And it is still more deplorable to be obliged to believe that that spirit originated in a state of destitution and distress. Any attempt at giving relief in such circumstances, by a pecuniary grant, must be so jiartial in operation, and is so objectionable in principle, that nothing but the most imperious necessity can reconcile one to its adoption. Nor can I hope that relief will be ob- tained by this country by any plan of emigration that may be found practicable, so long as Ireland has its thousands of starving and unprovided wretches to pour in upon us to fill up the vacance. Parishes in England will hardly ad- vance money to send over seas their surplus population, knowing that hordes of Irish are always ready to undersell APPENDIX. 357 the native peasantn' of the country in every market that offers for tlie only commodity they have to dispose of — their hibour ; and this I do believe causes much of the poverty and want of employment complained of in England, and gives certainly a very undue advantage to the Irish over the English proprietor. It is quite notorious that whenever a work is set agoing, which would at once absorb the surplus labourers in one or two counties in England, it is immediately undertaken by the Irish, and the labourer is left to the heartless and demoralizing, because degrading, condition of seeking casual employment within the bounds of a parish which he Avill not quit, and upon Avhose funds he reckons as the permanent source of maintenance. " I was told by George Stephenson the engineer, that nearly the whole of the spade labour, such as reducing hills, filling up hollows, making embankments, etc., upon the Liverpool liailway, was done by Irishmen. Had this not been the case, an equal number of men might have been withdra\\Ta from a miserable existence on their parish rates, and money, of course, to the amount of their parish main- tenance, saved to this country. It would not be possible, if it were even just and politic, to prevent the transfer of the low Irish to this country ; but I cannot but think that anything that would lessen their numbers by giving them employment and support at home would afford the easiest and most effectual relief both to the payer and the receiver of poor's rates in this country. " I have not yet seen Sir J. "Walsh's pamphlet, but shall endeavour to procure it ; and should much like to have, if they are to be obtained without trouble to your Lordship, the Parliamentary Company's Cess Report, and evidence on the state of the poor in Ireland. The question of the pro- priety of introdufing ])Oor-laws into Ireland is a very critical one, and Ijeset with ilillicultics of no urdiiuuy mag- nitude. Many arguments may be advanced on both sides, but surely it would be but justice tr» England to relieve her in some measur*' from tlic aggravation which tin; conipul- sfjry Hujqjort of her own poor experiences, by the continual encroachment of the Irish. . . . 358 APPENDIX. " Were I to venture an opinion on the subject, though decidedly hostile to such poor-laws as those we have (which may be truly characterized as a bonus to the poor for idle- ness and improvidence, and a tax upon the other classes to act as a prohibition upon charity), I should certainly say that some compulsory measure for the relief of the starving poor was indispensable as a temporary expedient. The lower orders in Ireland are in what Dr. Chalmers calls a transition state, passing from the situation of a most ungoverned peo- ple into one in which more enlightened principles have begun to operate. " The first steps of such a change are always attended with great inconvenience ; this is particularly the case in Ireland. The subdivision system (from which, notwith- standing Lord Salisbury's notion of it, I trust this country will be defended) has reached its climax, and has accumu- lated on the cultivated lands an overwhelming population immersed in poverty and wretchedness. The landlords seem to have discovered their error, and to be endeavouring in many cases to hack out as best they may, without always, I fear, showing much sympathy for their starving tenants, or much consideration as to what is to become of them. The evil is often fearfully aggravated by the non-residence of proprietors. ... Is it to be said that in such circum- stances the Legislature is not to interfere 1 Are the evils of a misapplied poor-rate, great and palpable though they be, to cause them to stand aloof in circumstances essentially different, where the pressure of present calamity is so great, that almost any change must be for the better 1 " It does seem to me that the experience both of England and Scotland in the management of their poor, instead of deterring Parliament from proceeding to legislate for the relief of Ireland, may Avell embolden them to act with liberality and freedom. The mariner may sail fearlessly into the bay where soundings have already been made, and beacons erected. It seems to me that one of the best things to be done for the immediate and even the perma- nent relief of the Irish poor, would be the draining of bogs and the improvement of waste land in situations where the ArrENDix. 359 climate was considered favourable, and where markets could be found for the produce ; this, with the making of the necessary roads to render the new country accessible, while it would afford immediate employment to the poor, would in the result create districts for their permanent settlement. If such a plan could be judiciously carried into effect, and combined with a compulsory demand on the landowners, or if pro^^sion could be made to have the original outlay, if advanced by Government in the first instance, repaid by instalments from the rents, or liy the power to sell a certain portion of the reclaimed lands at some specified period, I should anticipate great benefits from it, more certain, at least less expensive, than those attending the removing of any number of helpless beings to Australia." ON THE CORN-LAW. " DiLSTON, Jan. 1839. " I presume you are now preparing for the * tug of war.* The Coru-Law question will be strongly pressed by the manufacturing interest, and I trust a change will be made. The landowners will not likely now get such terms, as to the amount of duty, supposing that a fixed duty is resorted to, as they would have done had the discussion taken place in a time of plenty and low prices. But they never learn. It is a pity to be sending sums of money to the Black Sea for com at the present prices, which would have procured twice the quantity at another time. Did you happen to Bee a letter of niin<; in the Neiccastle Chrmiirle of last week, referring to the subject of our discussion at the Wooler Show, and also to the establishment of an agricultural college and experinu'iital farm 1 AVe have examples of the utility of such institutions at Ilofl'wyl and other places on the Continent." LABOUKEUS' COTTAGE.S. " Dii-STON, (kt. 1843. " With regard to warming the additicmal ai)artments in cottages, you have hit exactly upon the plan which I de- 360 APPENDIX. scribed to Mr. Hobson when we looked at those at Howick. And if Mr. Pusey had not chosen to cut in two an article which I sent to him, as chairman of the Journal Committee, on 'Farm-buildings,' inserting that which related to the construction and arrangement of offices in the last number, and retaining that which gives j^lans and details of cottages for the ensuing one, you would have seen the matter referred to in the Agricultural Society's Journal. I think he should not have separated them, as they formed a part of the same subject. Cottagers have constantly one fire, and their great objection to use additional rooms is, that without a fire they are cold, and to keep more than that one is expensive; but a cast-iron box built into the wall behind the fire, in the common room, is of course filled with heated air, which is conveyed by a pij^e, with a grating at the end, into any other apartment, making the temperature at once warm and the air dry. I have an apparatus of this kind which conveys warm air from my office-fire here into the lobby, and am at present in corre- spondence with Mr. Guthrie of St. Helen's foundry, at Spittal, about some for cottages at Scremerston. I shall give you further information respecting them shortly. Mr. Pusey also cut short another article of mine in the last number of the Journal, which was a short one at any rate, by leaving out, after a detail of some experiments, some remarks on the benefit, as I thought, of instituting an ex- perimental farm in connexion with the Agricultural Society, and, as he says, because that is a controverted subject, and he did not wish any arguments to appear upon either side. I have, however, made a little addition to tlie experiments, and had it printed in a cheap form, of which you will oblige me by accepting a copy. EDINBURGH : T. CONSTABLE, PRINTER T<) THE QUEEN, AND TO THE UNIVERSITY. 88 Prixcks Street, Edinburgh. EDMONSTON & DOUGLAS' LIST OF WORKS oOo Essays and Tracts: The Culture and Discipline of the Mind, and other Essays. By JOHN ABER- CROMBIE, M.D., Late First Physician to the Queen for Scotland. New Edition. Fcap. SVG, cloth, 38. Od. "Wanderings of a Naturalist in India, The Western Himalayas, and Cashmere. By Dr. A. L. ADAMS of the 22d Regi- ment. 1 vol. 8vo, with illustrations, price 10s. tSd. The Malformations, Diseases, and Injuries of the Fingers and Toes, and their Surgical Treatment. By THOMAS ANXAXDALE, F.H.C.S., Assistant Surgeon, Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh. The Jacksonian Prize for the Year 1864. 1 vol. 8vo, with Illustrations, price lOs. 6d. Odal Rights and Feudal Wrongs. A Memorial for Orkney. By DAVID BALFOUR of Balfour and Trenaby. 8vo, price 68. Sermons by the late James Bannerman, D.D., Professor of Apologetics and Paiitonil Theology, New College, Edinburgh. Aulhorof " Jnsi)ir- aiion : The Infallible Truth and Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures." 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The scone is laid in the cultivated circles of German Society ; and we admire especially the profound knowledge of liuinnn iiat\ire and experience, the physiological discrimination ami unerring penetration with which Dingelstedt pourtrays men and situations, the artistic skill and tact with which the story is arranged and moulded, and the elegance and purity of his diction. It is a novel which we may read and re-read with undiminished pleasure." — Ueber Land und Mtrr." Memoir of Thomas Drummond, R.E., F.R.A.S., Under-Secre- Urj- to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, 1835 to 1S40. By JOHN F. M'LENNAN, Advocate. 1 vol. Svo, price 15s. "A clear, compact, and well-written memoir of the best friend England ever gave to Ireland." — Examiner. " Drummond's career proves how much may be achieved by a man of indefati- gable industry, honest and exact intellect, and high principle."— Saturdai/ Review. " An admirable memoir of a man whom Ireland loved, and of whom Scotland is proud. ... A chapter devoted to a sort of epitome of Iri.sh history is a ma-sterly piece of writing, showing a grasp of all the facts, a high power of discri- mination and appreciation, and that readiness and rightness of sympathy without whicli history is indeed, as Plunkett said, an old almanac." — Scotsman. " The volume appears most opportunely. The chapter on Drummond's ideas for remedying the disaffected condition of Ireland, no less than that of the Boundary Commission, deserves at the present moment special study." — Westminster Review. A Political Survey. By .MdLNT.STLAUT E. GRANT DUFF, Memberforthe Elgin District of Burghs ; Author of " Studies in European Politics," " A Glance over Europe," 4c. &c. In Svo, priceTs. 6d. " In following up his ' Studies on European Politics ' by the ' Political Survey ' here before us, Mr. Grant Duff has given strong evidence of the wisdom of the choice made by the Ministry in appointing him Under-Secretary for India. 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