Some Delay Took Place Before We Could See Mr. Gladstone.
But we finally
accomplished the interview with him at his fine house in Carlton House
Terrace, on the 23rd November.
After waiting some while, following, as
we did, about a dozen previous waiters on the Chancellor, we were shown
into Mr. Gladstone's working room, or den. The room was very untidy.
Placards, papers, letters, newspapers, magazines, and blue boots on the
table, chairs, bookshelves, and the floor. It looked, altogether, as if
the window had been left open, and the contents of a miscellaneous
newspaper, book, and parliamentary paper shop had been blown into the
apartment. Mr. Gladstone, himself, looked bored and worried. Though
perfectly civil, he had the expression of a man on his guard against a
canvasser or a dun. He might be thinking of the "Trent" affair. We
stated our errand, and as I had, as arranged, to say something, I used
the argument of probable saving in the Atlantic mail subsidies, by the
creation of land routes, &c. He brushed that aside by the sharp remark,
"Those subsidies are unsound, and they will not be renewed." He then
spoke of the objectionable features of all these "helps to other people
who might help themselves." He did not seem to mind the argument, that
assuming this work to be of Imperial as well as of Provincial
importance, unless aid, - costless to England, or, at the highest, a
very remote risk, and not in any sense a subsidy, - were given, the work
could not proceed at all. He struck me to be a man who thought spending
money, or taking risks, however slight, a kind of crime. That, in fact,
it was better to trust to Providence in important questions, and keep
the national pocket tightly buttoned. We got little out of him, save an
insight into the difficulty to be overcome. And yet he had been a party
to the Crimean War. On the final discussion, in the House, on the vote
for the Intercolonial guarantee, on the 28th March, 1867, Mr. Gladstone
concluded his speech by declaring, "I believe the present guarantee
does depend upon motives of policy belonging to a very high order, and
intimately and inseparably associated with most just, most enlightened
views of the true interests of the Empire." Thus we had sown the seed
not in vain, and the counsel of the Duke was not forgotten.
Mr. Van Koughnet arrived on the 26th November. On the 27th I took him
to see the Duke, and we had a long conference.
Finally, it was decided to send in a memorial to the Duke to lay before
the Cabinet. Howe prepared it. It was most ably drawn, like all the
State papers of that distinguished man, and it was sent in to the
Colonial Office on the 2nd December, 1861. Thus, all had been done that
could then be done by the delegation. We had to rely upon the Duke. Our
difficulty was with Mr. Gladstone.
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