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CHAPTER VII.

1837-1838.

POLITICS, LITERATURE, AND COURT LIFE.

VAUGHAN'S advice to keep political work as a second string to his bow was not disregarded by Murray, and circumstances soon arose which made it for a time the first. Here is a glimpse of what had been going on in the fussy, crowded world while he had been working off superfluous energy in the solemn backwoods and lonely prairies of the West:

Samuel Rogers to the Countess of Dunmore.

"HOLLAND HOUSE, December 6th, 1834.

"When I arrived I found the world in a hubbub! Six Ministers dined at Holland House on the Friday and dispersed, not knowing they were out of office. At night Lord Palmerston called at the Treasury and asked if Lord Melbourne was re

turned from Brighton. He was shown in, and he found Lord Melbourne just alighted and in his travelling-cap, sitting in a large room, his room of business, with two candles just lighted on the table. 'What news?' said Lord Palmerston. 'News!' said Lord Melbourne in his bluff manner; 'read that,' and he put into his hand a paper giving a summary of what had passed. A Cabinet was summoned to meet at twelve on Saturday, but till then few of them knew it but from the papers. And who sent it to the papers? It is believed to be H. B.,1 who had seen Lord Melbourne after Lord Palmerston had left him. If you only read the Globe,' you can know little of the vagaries of Brougham, which fill the Times and the 'Courier'-but perhaps you do best to trouble yourselves little about such matters.

"To return to politics-the long and short of the matter I believe to be this. The K. is very honest, but very —. The two persons he looks up to most are Lord Grey and the Duke, and not having one, he calls in the other-not that he dislikes Lord Melbourne. The Church reforms in prospect and the mountebank tricks of the Chancellor have certainly had something to do with it. B. had drawn him into a long correspondence through Sir H. Taylor; he thought he must answer his Chancellor, though heartily sick of it, and it wore him out but Peel will be here in a day or two, and we shall know more. If the fair Eliza comes to town, I hope she will acknowledge me in public places. But I thought she was to em

1 Lord Brougham.

bellish Paris. I am delighted to think that Charles is going on well. . . . I have been here for some days, and living with ex-Ministers, but they have now nothing to tell us. Some say there will be a dissolution immediately and some say not. Peel, I should think, will in the first instance try to make a mixed Ministry, and sound Stanleybut we shall soon know."

On returning from America in 1836, Murray found himself accused of having altered his political opinions, which gave rise to the following correspondence with Lord Stanley: 1

Hon. Charles Murray to Lord Stanley.

"DUNMORE, September 21st, 1836.

"MY DEAR LORD STANLEY,-Since my return to this part of the world I have been much plagued (as every one must expect to be who has ever been seen upon electioneering hustings) with reports respecting my proposed canvas of one or two seats for Parliament, and with other rumours regarding my opinion, &c., &c. Among these the most current is that I am turned Tory, and it is founded mainly upon a sentence in a letter of mine quoted by you in the House of Commons. It is desirable both for the preservation of my character for consistency, as well as in the event of my wishing hereafter to embark again in politics, that I should have the means of contradicting these absurd

1 The "Rupert of Debate,” afterwards fourteenth Earl of Derby.

reports, and I regret that I omitted to keep a copy of the said letter, which I would certainly have done had I suspected that it would rise up in judgment against me. However, it is possible that you may have preserved it: if you have done so, pray send me either it or a copy. As far as I can remember, I simply stated that I had gone out to America an opponent of universal suffrage and vote by ballot; that all which I had there observed had confirmed this opinion,-that I had gone out and remained still a good Whig, &c. This, as far as I can remember, was the substance of my letter, and if you will forgive me for troubling you on a matter which has probably almost escaped your recollection, I shall be obliged if you will confirm or correct as far as may be in your power my present impressions of what I then wrote."

Lord Stanley to the Hon. Charles Murray.

"BALLYHISTEEN, October 1st, 1836.

"MY DEAR MURRAY,-I am almost ashamed to see your handwriting again, never having written to thank you for your very long and interesting letter from America, which letter, I am sorry to find, has been the means of putting you to any inconvenience. I have a copy of it, but not here, nor can I get at it until I go up to town, as it is locked up among my papers there. I think, however, on reference to the Mirrors of Parliament you will find that in quoting your authority on the subject of the ballot, to which alone I referred, I quoted it, without naming you, as that of a per

tent.

son who had invariably entertained Liberal opinions (at least what used to be considered Liberal opinions at the time I was speaking), and I am quite certain I let fall nothing which could imply a suspicion of your having been in the smallest degree inconsisI doubt if I showed your letter to any one; but I recollect a remarkable expression in it, in speaking of the ballot and universal suffrage, 'that if you had come out a Radical, what you had seen might have made a Tory of you-having come out a Whig, you still remained one,' or something to that effect. When I return to town I will look out the letter and send you a copy, and I hope we are not the least likely to have any occasion for canvassing before that time."

Murray has left an account of his third and last disappointment in attempting to enter Parliament :

"On returning from America my first visit was to my uncle, the Duke of Hamilton. It was a short time before a general election-my uncle, Lord Archibald, had just died. He had repre

sented the county of Lanark for thirty years in the Whig interest-moreover, he had made me heir to his very small possessions; so when I reappeared at Hamilton, a number of the leading gentry met together, and after talking over the matter, came to me to say that they would gladly give me their votes if I would contest the election ; that I was a very suitable person, and with the