The “Pope” of Holland House
Henry Hallam to John Whishaw, 2 June 1828
Munich, June 2, 1828.
My dear Whishaw,—I was not without hopes of
finding a letter here from you, but you have really been so very kind in writing
frequently and fully that I shall have felt almost ashamed of the trouble I caused
you.
I received one at Florence, and thank you for the information it
contained. English politics seem to be in a strange state, and this resignation of
Huskisson, of which the newspapers have
been so full, must totally unsettle the hopes of the Government. I
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expect to find a good deal of depression as
to the prospects of the country, which, in truth, are far from encouraging, though
our stockholders seem to act as if they thought the contrary; yet I cannot help
hoping that the Catholic question is in a more favourable wind than it has hitherto
been. It seems evidently impossible to form a Cabinet possessing general
confidence, or with any tolerable union among its Ministers, until this important
point is settled. Whatever might have been done by the established influence of
Lord Liverpool, no other man will hold
together a set of persons pledged to the most opposite opinions on a subject
perpetually varying, and a merely anti-Catholic Ministry could not probably exist
long. Except those already on the stage, there are no men of the least eminence to
take up that side. Meanwhile, the delay is so mischievous that, when at length the
concession is made, it will perhaps do far less good than its advocates
anticipated, and certainly will not prevent now, whatever it might have done at the
Union, a struggle against the preponderance of the Irish Church. I fear, indeed,
that the original wrong of that establishment against the wishes and wants of the
people, like West Indian slavery, cannot be atoned by any reparation that we know
how to make. Though in both instances, I am too timid a politician not to acquiesce
in the convenient maxim, Fieri non debuit, factum
valet. As to the repeal of the Test, it is only good
if it tends to the relief of the Catholics, as I think it must; for if the latter
perceive that they alone are prohibited as an odious class, while the abstract
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ascendancy is given up, it can
only exasperate them to fury, and turn the question still more into a theological
one than it has most absurdly been made at present.
Very truly yours,
Henry Hallam (1777-1859)
English historian and contributor to the
Edinburgh Review, author
of
Introduction to the Literature of Europe, 4 vols (1837-39) and
other works. He was the father of Tennyson's Arthur Hallam.
William Huskisson (1770-1830)
English politician and ally of George Canning; privately educated, he was a Tory MP for
Morpeth (1796-1802), Liskeard (1804-07), Harwich (1807-12), Chichester (1812-23), and
Liverpool (1823-30). He died in railway accident.
John Whishaw (1764 c.-1840)
Barrister, educated at Trinity College, Cambridge; he was Secretary to the African
Association and biographer of Mungo Park. His correspondence was published as
The “Pope” of Holland House in 1906.
