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Lord John Russell and the Prelude to The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, 1846–51
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011
Extract
A political volte face is always likely to compel attention, especially when performed by a leading politician who thereby seems to reverse his lifelong attitude. So it was in the case of Lord John Russell's hostility to the restoration of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales and his adoption of legislation against it. His actions brought him no profit but rather helped to weaken his position. For the Ecclesiastical Titles bill, while it may have been intended as a hopeful introduction to a firmer political existence, appears instead as the culmination of a long decline. Russell never succeeded in recapturing the fulfilment of the years 1828–32, when he played a central part in carrying great constitutional changes which vindicated his principles of religious and civil liberty. After this he witnessed the great reforms being carried by others; as his latest biographer states, ‘Peel had run off with the credit for the free trade policy, Palmerston for the conduct of foreign affairs, Disraeli for the second Reform Act, and Gladstone for the policy of justice to Ireland…’. Moreover, he removed some of the glory of his liberal attainments by writing the Durham Letter and adopting the Ecclesiastical Titles bill—though Russell disagreed with such an opinion, since he denied that it was illiberal to resist ‘papal aggression’. Behaviour so intriguing as Russell's in 1850–1 has naturally been the subject of a good deal of inquiry and comment, but further examination may help to show the comparative importance of factors which contributed to the Prime Minister's motives.
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References
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page 284 note 1 See below, 295.
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page 284 note 7 ibid., xcv. 816, cxiv. 233.
page 284 note 8 Parl. Deb., cxiv. 259 (speech of Disraeli). It was held that, while Russell squarely blamed the Tractarians, he himself ‘has … been the most forward in abolishing all the old laws against the Roman Catholics … and … promoting the interests of the Roman Catholic Religion in ways which he has denied to the Church of England’: Gresley, J. M., The real occasion of the ‘papal aggression’, No. 1 of Plain Sermons on present events, London 1850. Cf. Wiseman Papers, Archbishop's House, Westminster, W3/28 (1850), 69.Google Scholar
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page 285 note 7 Palmerston to Russell, 19 December 1850: Russell Papers, 30/22 8G, fol. 63.
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page 286 note 6 Lady Elizabeth Elliot to Lady Mary Abercromby, n.d.: Minto Papers, 128A/3.
page 286 note 7 Lady Charlotte Elliot to Lady Mary Abercromby, 12 November 1847: ibid. Cf. Minto to Russell, 15 November 1847: Gooch, i. 316–17; Russell to Clarendon, 3, 18 and 23 December 1847: Clarendon Papers, Irish box 43.
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page 287 note 3 ibid., ci. 615–29; Palmerston to Minto, 10 August 1848: Minto Papers, 130/1.
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page 287 note 5 ibid., ii. 284–5.
page 287 note 6 W. Ward, Wiseman, i. 544–5.
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page 288 note 1 Bishop Ullathorne to Russell, 10 February 1851: Gooch, ii. 59–60.
page 288 note 2 Wiseman said this in a letter to Russell, 4 November 1850: see below, 292. Cf. O'Meara, K., Thomas Grant, First Bishop of Southwark, second ed., London 1886, 75Google Scholar; Fothergill, B., Nicholas Wiseman, London 1963, 146, 166–7.Google Scholar
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page 289 note 2 P. MacSuibhne, Paul Cullen and his Contemporaries, Naas, co. Kildare, 1961–5, ii. 57. Russell condemned the address as clerical interference with State concerns: Parl. Deb., cxiv. 189–92.
page 289 note 3 Palmerston to Clarendon, 25 August and 2 September 1849: Clarendon Papers, c 524.
page 289 note 4 B. Ward, Sequel, ii. 284–5.
page 289 note 5 Wiseman allegedly gathered from his interview with Russell that the Government would not oppose the hierarchy: W. Ward, Wiseman, i. 524–5, ii. 31.
page 289 note 6 Russell to Clarendon, 20 September 1850: Clarendon Papers, Irish box 26.
page 289 note 7 Russell to Clarendon, 1 October 1850: ibid., quoted Prest, op. cit., 320.
page 289 note 8 Minto to Palmerston, 7 October 1850: Minto Papers, 133/1.
page 289 note 9 Clarendon Papers, Irish box 26.
page 289 note 10 See above, 283.
page 290 note 1 Russell described this as an intolerable insult: speech in Commons, 7 February 1851, Parl. Deb., cxiv. 192–3.
page 290 note 2 Palmerston to Hon. W. Temple, 27 January 1851: Ashley, Palmerston, i. 246–7.
page 290 note 3 Ullathorne to Russell, 10 February 1851: Gooch, Later Correspondence, ii. 61.
page 290 note 4 Norman, Anti-Catholicism, 160.
page 290 note 5 ibid.
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page 291 note 2 ibid. The sermon produced Henry Drummond's ultra-Protestant reply, Remarks on Dr. Wiseman's sermon on the Gorham Case, London 1850.
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page 291 note 6 B. Ward., ii. 306.
page 292 note 1 ibid., ii. 287.
page 292 note 2 Norman, Anti-Catholicism, 159–60.
page 292 note 3 Dr. Whitty, Vicar-general of the London district, received the pastoral on 16 or 17 October. He at once perceived its unsuitability for non-Catholic eyes, and was in a dilemma whether to publish it before Wiseman's arrival. But the consideration that Catholics were expecting some word from their new archbishop led him to do so. See W. Ward, Wiseman, i. 540–2.
page 292 note 4 ibid., i. 532–4.
page 292 note 5 Gooch, Later Correspondence, ii. 49–50.
page 292 note 6 E.g., Greville to Clarendon, 20 November 1850: Clarendon Papers, c. 522.
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page 294 note 1 Clarendon to Lewis, 21 November 1850: ‘Ld John's [Durham] letter can only increase his own difficulties ’: Clarendon Papers, c. 532.
page 294 note 2 For examples of anti-catholic and anti-Tractarian opinion at this time see Earl Fortescue to Russell, 21 December 1850: Russell Papers, 30/22 8G, fols. 71–2; Protestant Magazine, XII (November 1850), 168, xiii (February 1851), 64; Chadwick, Victorian Church, i. 292–6; Norman, Anti-Catholicism, 64 ff.Google Scholar
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page 294 note 4 The three successive majorities in the Commons were 332, 343 and 217; the second reading in the Lords obtained a majority of 227 and the third passed without division: Parl. Deb., cxiv. 699–703, cxv. 618–21, cxviii. 240–2, 1301–2, 1672–3.
page 294 note 5 W. Ward, Wiseman, ii. 6–7; Lord John Manners to Disraeli, 23 December 1850 and 7 January 1851: Disraeli Papers, B/XX/M/69, 72; Parl. Deb., cxiv. 256–9 (speech of Disraeli), cxvi. 780–834 (David Urquhart's motion); Quarterly Review, LXXXVIII (1850–1851), 247 ff.Google Scholar
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