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Charles Philip Yorke, Fourth Earl of Hardwicke, Vice Admiral R.N.

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The liberty which was now firmly rooted in Piedmont gave umbrage to the
other states of Italy, especially in Naples, where Ferdinand II
established a tyranny. It was at this time that Mr. Gladstone, after
having visited Naples, published his famous letters to Lord Aberdeen
summing up the position as 'The negation of God created into a system of
government.' Under the influence of Cavour, Piedmont became the centre
of the movement for Italian unity and Garibaldi took for his watchword,
'Italy and Victor Emmanuel.'

Every endeavour was made by the leaders of the Italian movement to
interest Europe in their cause. Much had been done in this direction at
the Paris Congress of 1856. Piedmont had taken part in the Crimean War
by contributing 15,000 men to the allied army. Napoleon was known to be
sympathetic to the Italian cause, and in 1859, on Austria calling on
Piedmont to disarm, war was declared.

The successes of Magenta and Solferino, as far as Northern Italy was
concerned, gave Lombardy to Piedmont, but left Austria in the possession
of Venice. Napoleon, who was by no means a whole-hearted supporter of
Italian Unity, had designs of his own, and therefore did not press the
campaign to its ultimate conclusion which, as Cavour had hoped, should
have been the total exclusion of Austria from Italian territory. A great
step, however, had been gained, and Victor Emmanuel showed his
accustomed wisdom in accepting the position for what it was worth and
waiting on events. This course was soon to be justified. Cavour did not
live to see the success of his policy. He died in 1861, five years
before the war between Germany and Austria, in which Italy took a part
against her ancient foe, gave the opportunity of freeing the Peninsula
from Austrian rule. On the outbreak of the war attempts were made
through the mediation of Napoleon to sever Italy from her alliance with
Germany, Austria offering to voluntarily cede Venice. Victor Emmanuel,
however, wisely stood firm to his alliance, and the war ended in the
complete discomfiture of Austria, and Sadowa must rank with Magenta and
Solferino as one of the decisive battles in the Liberation of Italy. By
the Peace of Prague Venetia was ceded through Napoleon to Italy, and on
November 7, 1866, Victor Emmanuel made his entry into the city as King.

Rome was still a difficulty; there the Pope, supported by French
bayonets, held out for his temporal powers against free Italy which
wanted Rome for its capital, and Garibaldi's expedition of 1867 was a
failure. 'In the name of the French Government, we declare that Italy
shall never take possession of Rome,' were the brave words of the
President of the French Ministry on the eve of the Franco-Prussian War.

In 1870, after his first defeat, Napoleon failed to secure the help of
Italy, and Rome being denuded of foreign troops fell an easy prey to the
army of the King. Thus it was through the agency of Prussia that Italy
secured Liberty. The statecraft of Cavour and the patience and self-
control of Victor Emmanuel gained what the impetuous bravery of
Garibaldi and the revolutionary efforts of Mazzini could never have
realised. Each, however, had done his part. The spirit of a people to
accomplish great things must be aroused to create the energy which the
master-hand must hold in check.

The force must be there, ready to propel the State when times are ripe.
The discontent which showed itself at Genoa after the battle of Novara,
the ideals which animated the thousand who sailed with Garibaldi to free
Sicily, were both of them valuable assets to the nation.

That there were men who for their own ends took advantage of the
situation cannot be doubted, and the revolutionaries in Genoa were of
this kind. The ruin they might have brought on the city of Genoa and the
difficulties they would have put in the way of Victor Emmanuel had they
been successful are easily imagined.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VIII

In view of the reflections made upon Lord Hardwicke's conduct at Genoa
which I have considered in the preceding chapter, I have thought it well
to print, without further comment, copies of certain documents which
were found among his papers. These, I think, leave no doubt as to the
light in which that conduct appeared to those best able to judge of it.

A letter from General La Marmora: dated 'La Lanterna,' 9 April, '49.
Three o'clock.

STATO MAGGIORE, QUARTIER GENERALE,
della 6° Divisione, addi 1849.
OGGETTO.

'MILORD,

'J'aurai des dépêches très importantes à vous communiquer. Si ce n'est
pas une indiscretion je vous priérai de passer un moment ici d'autant
plus que j'espère le Sindic de la ville voudra y venir aussi ainsi que
je l'ai invité.

'Votre très humble serviteur,

'ALPHONSE LA MARMORA.'

* * * * *

Letter from the Syndic of Genoa to Lord Hardwicke.

'MILORD,

'Le Syndic de la Ville de Gênes s'empresse à votre demande de vous
envoyer les copies des projets de capitulation entre les représentants
de la Ville sousdite et le Général La Marmora contr[e]-signées par vous
à l'original, et cela d'une manière toute confidentielle et sans aucun
caractère d'autenticité, le Municipe ne pouvant pas, (dès que tout est
rentré dans l'ordre,) se mêler d'aucune chose qui directement ou
indirectement puisse avoir trait à la politique.

'Agréez, Milord, les sentimens de haute estime et de reconnaissance que
nous et la Ville entière vous devons par la part généreuse que vous avez
pris pour la conciliation de nos différences.

'De V Sè Milord,

'Très-humble et très obéissant serviteur

'le Syndic

'A. ROFUMOTTI.'

GÊNES: 12 Avril, 1849.

A MILORD HARDWICK,

Commandant le Vaisseau

de S. M. Britannique,

_La Vengeance_.

* * * * *

Letter from General de Launay, Minister for Foreign Affairs to Victor
Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia, conferring the Cross of the Order of St.
Maurice and St. Lazarus upon Lord Hardwicke.

SECRÉTAIRERIE D'ETAT POUR LES AFFAIRES ÉTRANGÈRES.

TURIN: le 22 Avril, 1849.

'MILORD,

'J'ai eu l'honneur de faire connaître au Roi, mon auguste Souverain, les
importans services que vous avez rendus à Son Gouvernement pendant les
graves évènemens qui ont affligé la ville de Gênes et l'empressement
efficace avec lequel vous avez puissamment secondé Mr le Général de La
Marmora pour y ramener l'ordre. Sa Majesté, prenant en bienveillante
considération l'activité que vous avez déployée pour empêcher toutes
nouvelles bandes de factieux de pénétrer dans la place et de se joindre
aux rebelles, ainsi que les mesures promptes et énergiques que vous avez
adoptées pour prévenir la mise en liberté des forçats, détenus dans le
bagne, que les révoltés voulaient armer, a pris la détermination de vous
donner, Milord, un témoignage éclatant de Sa satisfaction Royale, en
vous conférant la croix de Commandeur de Son Ordre religieux et
militaire des Saints Maurice et Lazare.

'Persuadé que vous trouverez, Milord, dans cette marque flatteuse de la
bienveillance du Roi, une preuve du prix que Sa Majesté attache au
service important que, suivant les intentions toujours si amicales de
l'Angleterre, Son ancienne et fidèle alliée, vous avez rendu à Son
Gouvernement dans les circonstances pénibles ou il s'est trouvé, je
m'empresse de vous envoyer ci-joint la décoration qui vous est destinée.

'En me réservant de vous transmettre votre diplôme aussitôt que la
Grande Maîtrise de l'Ordre de St Maurice me l'aura fait parvenir, je
vous prie d'agréer, Milord, les assurances de ma considération très
distinguée.

'G. DE LAUNAY.'

A LORD HARDWICKE,

Commandant le Vaisseau

Anglais '_Vengeance_,' &c. &c.

* * * * *

Despatch from Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker, commanding the
Mediterranean Fleet, to Lord Hardwicke.

'CALEDONIA' AT MALTA:

26 April, 1849.

'MY LORD,

'I have this morning received your Lordship's letters Nos. 11 and 12, of
the 18th and 20th insts. detailing your proceedings with reference to
the late events of Genoa, reported in your despatches of the 2nd, 7th
and 10th April.

'I am satisfied that your Lordship's energies and personal exertions
have been anxiously exercised for the preservation of order, and the
humane object of preventing destruction, pillage and other atrocities in
the City, and I fully appreciate the advantages which the Community has
derived by their deliverance from a state of anarchy and the lawless
acts of an unprincipled rabble.

'I therefore freely approve the arrangements made by your Lordship at
the request of the Municipality, to protect the town as well as Her
Majesty's subjects from brigandage. And also your commendable
intercession with the Sardinian General on behalf of the individuals
compromised for political acts, trusting that there has not been any
actual infraction of the neutral position of Her Majesty's ship, or
undue interference in the political contention of the opponents.

'I am, My Lord,

'Your very humble servant,

'W. PARKER, _Vice-Admiral_.'

* * * * *

Letters from Viscount Palmerston, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to the
Lords of the Admiralty, enclosing copy despatch from the Marquis of
Normanby, Her Majesty's Ambassador in Paris.

FOREIGN OFFICE: April 24, 1849.

'SIR,

'I am directed by Viscount Palmerston to transmit to you for the
information of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty a copy of a
despatch from H.M. Ambassador at Paris, stating that the French Minister
for Foreign Affairs has expressed his conviction that during the late
insurrection at Genoa, that City was in a great measure saved from
pillage and destruction by the energetic attitude assumed by H.M.S.
_Vengeance._

'I am, Sir, &c.

'(Signed) H. A. ADDINGTON.'

H. G. WARD, ESQ.

* * * * *

FOREIGN OFFICE: April 30, 1849.

'Sir,

'I am directed by Viscount Palmerston to request that you will acquaint
the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that his Lordship has received
from H.M. Minister at Turin, a copy of a despatch addressed by the Earl
of Hardwicke to Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker, dated the 18th inst.,
giving an account of the measures which he took to promote the surrender
of Genoa to the Forces of the King of Sardinia, and I am to state to you
at the same time for the information of their lordships, that Lord
Hardwicke's conduct on this occasion seems to Lord Palmerston to have
been highly praiseworthy, and Lord Palmerston is of opinion that the
Earl of Hardwicke, by his promptitude, energy and decision saved the
City of Genoa from the calamities of further bombardment, and prevented
a great effusion of blood and much destruction of property and life.

'I am, &c.,

'(Signed) H. A. ADDINGTON.'

H. G. WARD, ESQ.

* * * * *

PARIS: April 19, 1849.

LORD,

'Monsieur Drouyn De Lhuys has more than once expressed to me his
conviction that during the late troubles at Genoa that City was in great
part saved from pillage and destruction by the energetic attitude
assumed by the British Naval Force in that port. The Minister read to me
extracts both from Monsieur Bois le Conte and from Monsieur Léon Favre
the French Consul at Genoa, stating that there were moments when the
lives and properties of the peaceable inhabitants would have been in
great danger but for the dread inspired by the position taken up by
H.M.S. _Vengeance_ and the efficient support given by Lord
Hardwicke to the Consular Authorities. Monsieur Drouyn De Lhuys said
there had been no distinction whatever between the two Commanders of the
two nations except inasmuch as the British Naval Force at that time in
the Port of Genoa was of so much more commanding a character.

'I am, &c.,

'(Signed) NORMANBY.'

* * * * *

Extracts from 'An Episode of Italian Unification' by General Alfonso la
Marmora.

'Lord Hardwicke conducted himself to me like the honourable man that he
is, expert in dealing with men and circumstances. He did not propose
unacceptable conditions to me; indeed, he charged himself with the task
of persuading the Municipality to submit to the conditions which I might
impose, for the welfare of Genoa itself, and the permanent re-
establishment of order.

'On the 9th another complication developed. I have said that the English
Captain placed his ship opposite the docks to prevent the liberation of
the convicts. Avezzana allowed two days to pass without protesting
against this menace: then he addressed to the aforesaid commander a
letter of truly radical insolence, ordering him to vacate the harbour
before 6 P.M. and declaring that _if by that hour he were not gone he
should be sunk by the batteries of the people, and so teach the Queen of
Great Britain that it did not suffice to entrust her men-of-war to men
of high lineage unless they were also men of judgment._

'Lord Hardwicke, like a man of sense and good feeling, contented himself
with acknowledging the receipt of the insulting letter, being determined
not to stir a finger to leave his drawn position.

'He submitted copies of the correspondence to me and to all the
representatives of the friendly powers.'




CHAPTER IX

POLITICS AND LAST YEARS. 1850-1873


Having resumed the profession to which he had always been devoted, it
was the ambition of Lord Hardwicke's life to continue his naval career,
and to complete a period of active service afloat which would have
entitled him to promotion to flag rank. He was encouraged in this desire
by all his friends, even by those who, like John Wilson Croker, had
opposed his return to active service. In a letter written by that
gentleman to Lady Hardwicke in 1849, he said: 'I never was very
favourable to his going to sea, but I am now decidedly against his not
going through with it, and I cannot but believe that his services are
appreciated, if not at their full value at least with respect, on the
part of the Whigs. But however that may be, and however glad I shall be
to see you all again at Wimpole, I earnestly advise him to play his hand
out.'

Unhappily, Lord Hardwicke was prevented from carrying out his intention
by the very serious illness of Lady Hardwicke, which caused him the
gravest anxiety, shortly after the termination of his arduous
responsibilities at Genoa. Lady Hardwicke was brought to death's door by
an attack of fever at Naples, and he immediately resigned his command of
the _Vengeance_, and hurried to her bedside. She happily recovered,
and after her convalescence the whole family returned to England.

Apart, however, from this urgent private trouble, it is doubtful whether
Lord Hardwicke would have continued his service in the Mediterranean. He
felt, indeed, that the approval of his conduct at Genoa by the Whig
Government was less hearty than Mr. Croker believed was the case,
confined as it was to the barest official acknowledgment of services
which to everyone else appeared not only creditable to Lord Hardwicke as
a captain of a British ship of war, but of the highest value to Italy,
to the cause of good order, and, by the havoc and bloodshed his tact and
firmness had certainly prevented, to humanity itself. As the documents
set out in the appendix to the last chapter fully show, all this was
highly appreciated abroad. King Victor hastened to confer on Lord
Hardwicke the order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus for what were
described by General de Launay, his foreign secretary, as 'les importans
services que vous avez rendus à Son Gouvernement pendant les graves
évènemens qui ont affligé la ville de Gênes et l'empressement efficace
avec lequel vous avez puissamment secondé M. le Général de La Marmora
pour y ramener l'ordre'; Lord Normanby, the British Ambassador at Paris,
reported to his government that the French Minister at Turin had more
than once expressed his conviction 'that during the late troubles at
Genoa that city was in great part saved from pillage and destruction by
the energetic attitude assumed by the British naval force in that port,
and that the French consuls had stated to him that there were moments
when the lives and properties of the peaceable inhabitants would have
been in great danger, but for the dread inspired by the position taken
up by H.M.S. _Vengeance_, and the effective support given by Lord
Hardwicke to the consular authorities.' There was less value perhaps in
the thanks given by 'the Count and Colonel, Director of the Bagni
Maritim,' whose gratitude was mingled with a sense of favours to come,
in the possible exertion of Lord Hardwicke's good offices with King
Victor Emmanuel for clemency for the convicts under the Count's charge,
whose conduct had added so much to the dangers of the situation. But of
the foreign testimony to Lord Hardwicke's service at Genoa perhaps the
most eloquent was that of Mazzini, who admitted to Lord Malmesbury that
his career in Italy had been spoiled 'by one English sailor at Genoa
called Hardvick.'

This universal approbation of the part played by Lord Hardwicke was of
course perfectly well known to the Government; it was also more or less
known to the public from the letters written by the _Times_
correspondent at Genoa. 'But for the decision and judgment Lord
Hardwicke manifested,' he wrote, 'Genoa would, in all probability, have
been at this moment a ruined and pillaged city. The very worst vagabonds
were hired to mount guard and man the walls, since the National Guards
had retired for the most part to their own dwellings. It was indeed a
reign of terror, and it was most fortunate for Genoa that the
_Vengeance_ was in the port to prevent its being a reign of blood.'

Under these circumstances Lord John Russell's government could scarcely
withhold official recognition of Lord Hardwicke's success in having
virtually saved a great and historic city from destruction. His conduct,
moreover, was such as would certainly appeal to Lord Palmerston, the
Foreign Secretary, who took the occasion to inform the Admiralty 'that
Lord Hardwicke's conduct seemed to him highly praiseworthy, and that he
was of opinion that the Earl of Hardwicke by his promptitude, energy and
decision saved the city of Genoa from the calamities of further
bombardment, and prevented a great effusion of blood and much
destruction of property and life.'

This official approval, as we have seen, was conveyed to Lord Hardwicke
by his admiral, Sir William Parker, who had already indicated his own
rather tepid approval accompanied, however, by the hope that there had
been 'no actual infraction of the neutral position of Her Majesty's
ship, or undue interference in the political contention of the
opponents.'

But it seems clear that both political and professional influences were
already at work against Lord Hardwicke. On the happy conclusion of the
trouble at Genoa by what he truly described in a letter to Lady
Hardwicke as 'the only English interference that has been successful in
Europe since the affair began,' he had already detected a certain
faintness in the praise he received from Admiral Parker: 'The good
admiral gives me negative praise,' he writes, 'but I leave it all to him
to judge my acts. I have no fear of results; I have a good reason for
all I did.' But from a memorandum written by Lady Hardwicke after his
death, it appears that he felt very acutely the grudging spirit in which
his services had been received by a section, at least, of the Cabinet.
Upon reporting himself at the Admiralty on his arrival in London he was
greeted by Sir Francis Baring, the First Lord, with these words: 'Well,
Lord Hardwicke, you certainly did do well at Genoa, and it was lucky
that you succeeded, for if you had failed you certainly would have been
broke.' He made no complaint, however, but returned to Wimpole, resumed
his life of a country gentleman, and renewed all his interest in the
affairs of his estate and his county.

He was called at length from this retirement by the return of his own
party to power. In March of 1851 Lord John Russell had announced the
resignation of the Government owing to their defeat on the franchise
question; Lord Stanley was sent for by Queen Victoria, but found himself
unable to form a ministry, and upon the advice of the Duke of Wellington
the Queen had requested her ministers to resume office. But this
arrangement lasted less than a year. On the 27th of February following
Lord Stanley, by that time Earl of Derby, became prime minister in the
new Government with Mr. Disraeli, Mr. Spencer Walpole, Lord Malmesbury
and Sir John Packington, among his colleagues, and in this cabinet Lord
Hardwicke sat as Postmaster-General. It was a short term of office,
which lasted less than a year, during which time, however, Lord
Hardwicke's energy and powers of organisation were much appreciated in
his department, where he came to be known as 'Lord Hardwork'; but his
official life came to an end with that of the Government upon the return
to power, in December 1852, of the Aberdeen administration, which
included Lord John Russell as Foreign Secretary and Sir James Graham as
First Lord of the Admiralty.

A characteristic souvenir of the immortal Duke of Wellington occurs to
me in connection with this first administration of Lord Derby, well
known as the 'Derby D'Israeli Ministry,' which may find a place here. A
great many new men necessarily composed it, and when they were all
mustered before being 'sworn in' the Duke began chaffing them 'as
somewhat _raw recruits_,' and then taking his stick he put them
into line and said, 'You will require a little drilling' and he
flourished his stick about, imitating a sergeant, and amused them all
very much. Such was the great man's way of putting a _home truth_.

The fall of Lord Derby's government was the occasion for a letter to my
father from Mr. Croker, in which that gentleman appears to admiration in
the characteristic role of candid friend. I print this, not only as a
typical effort of that critical spirit, but because it contains a very
just appreciation of my mother's great qualities, to which her husband
and her children owe so much.

* * * * *

Dec. 31, 1852.

'... As for the party, I cannot but feel with you, that a party without
a spokesman in the House of Commons is as nothing, but with such a
spokesman as Disraeli, it is worse than nothing. In Opposition, his
talents of debate would be most valuable, if there was any security for
his principles or his judgment. I have no faith in either.

'But after all, nobody is so much to blame as Derby; why did he not take
higher and surer ground. Why are you all turned out on--neither you nor
anyone else can say what? You had not even hoisted a flag to rally
round. You have been like some poor people I have read of in the late
storm, buried under the ruins of your own edifice, but whether you were
stifled or crushed, killed by a rafter or a brick, nobody can tell. You
have died a death so ignoble that it has no name, and the Coroner's
verdict is "Found Dead."

'Why did you not die in the Protestant cause; on something that some
party could take an interest in? Why did you spare Cardinal Wiseman? Why
butter Louis Buonaparte thicker than his own French cooks? Why did you
lay the ground of the confiscation of landed property by a differential
income tax and by hinting at taxing property by inheritance? "You have
left undone the things you ought to have done, and you have done those
things which you ought not to have done, and there is no help for you."

'My own grief is this, that Disraeli's vanity, or as he would say, his
character, was committed by his electioneering speeches and addresses,
and that you all, half generosity and half prudence, resolved to stand
by him rather than break up the Government, which his resignation would
have done. That's my solution of the greatest political riddle I ever
encountered.

'I know not what to say about your going to sea, I fear observations on
your resigning the ship abroad and taking one at home for the mere
purpose of making up a little time. Pray think well of it. I daresay you
would receive a civil answer, perhaps get a ship, but _cui bono_.
What is your flag to you? [Footnote: He was promoted to the rank of
Vice-Admiral in November 1858.] I wish you were on the Admiral's list
for the sake of the country if we are to have a war, but I see no
advantage in it if there is no prospect of distinguished service.

'Give my best love to all the dear people round you and, above all, to
the dearest of all, whose solid good sense and natural sagacity, quite
equal to her more charming qualities, will be your best guide in the
topic last treated. Indeed, if I knew her opinion on any of those
topics, it would have a prime chance of becoming my own.

'Ever most affectionately hers and yours,

'J. W. CROKER'

* * * * *

The Aberdeen Government will always be remembered as that of the period
of the Crimean War, and it was in connection with that great struggle
and his wish to serve his country afloat that Lord Hardwicke found just
reason to complain of more than the mere belittling of his services at
Genoa which had been his sole reward upon his return to England in 1849.

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