第98章 CHAPTER XXXIX(1)

IN February, 1855, Roebuck moved for a select committee to inquire into the condition of the Army before Sebastopol.

Lord John Russell, who was leader of the House, treated this as a vote of censure, and resigned. Lord Palmerston resisted Roebuck's motion, and generously defended the Government he was otherwise opposed to. But the motion was carried by a majority of 157, and Lord Aberdeen was turned out of office.

The Queen sent for Lord Derby, but without Lord Palmerston he was unable to form a Ministry. Lord John was then appealed to, with like results; and the premiership was practically forced upon Palmerston, in spite of his unpopularity at Court. Mr. Horsman was made Chief Secretary for Ireland; and through Mr. Ellice I became his private secretary.

Before I went to the Irish Office I was all but a stranger to my chief. I had met him occasionally in the tennis court; but the net was always between us. He was a man with a great deal of manner, but with very little of what the French call 'conviction.' Nothing keeps people at a distance more effectually than simulated sincerity; Horsman was a master of the art. I was profoundly ignorant of my duties. But though this was a great inconvenience to me at first, it led to a friendship which I greatly prized until its tragic end. For all information as to the writers of letters, as to Irish Members who applied for places for themselves, or for others, I had to consult the principal clerk. He was himself an Irishman of great ability; and though young, was either personally or officially acquainted, so it seemed to me, with every Irishman in the House of Commons, or out of it. His name is too well known - it was Thomas Bourke, afterwards Under Secretary, and one of the victims of the Fenian assassins in the Phoenix Park. His patience and amiability were boundless; and under his guidance I soon learnt the tricks of my trade.

During the session we remained in London; and for some time it was of great interest to listen to the debates. When Irish business was before the House, I had often to be in attendance on my chief in the reporters' gallery. Sometimes I had to wait there for an hour or two before our questions came on, and thus had many opportunities of hearing Bright, Gladstone, Disraeli, and all the leading speakers. After a time the pleasure, when compulsory, began to pall; and I used to wonder what on earth could induce the ruck to waste their time in following, sheeplike, their bell-wethers, or waste their money in paying for that honour. When Parliament was up we moved to Dublin. I lived with Horsman in the Chief Secretary's lodge. And as I had often stayed at Castle Howard before Lord Carlisle became Viceroy, between the two lodges I saw a great deal of pleasant society.

Amongst those who came to stay with Horsman was Sidney Herbert, then Colonial Secretary, a man of singular nobility of nature. Another celebrity for the day, but of a very different character, was Lord Cardigan. He had just returned from the Crimea, and was now in command of the forces in Ireland. This was about six months after the Balaklava charge. Horsman asked him one evening to give a description of it, with a plan of the battle. His Lordship did so; no words could be more suited to the deed. If this was 'pell-mell, havock, and confusion,' the account of it was proportionately confounded. The noble leader scrawled and inked and blotted all the phases of the battle upon the same scrap of paper, till the batteries were at the starting-point of the charge, the Light Brigade on the far side of the guns, and all the points of the compass, attack and defence, had changed their original places; in fact, the gallant Earl brandished his pen as valiantly as he had his sword. When quite bewildered, like everybody else, I ventured mildly to ask, 'But where were you, Lord Cardigan, and where were our men when it came to this?'

'Where? Where? God bless my soul! How should I know where anybody was?' And this, no doubt, described the situation to a nicety.