The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, Vol. II

That document was presented by Sir Robert Preston to the Duke of Clarence, who promised to use every endeavour to obtain a reconsideration of Lord Cochrane's case. He was unsuccessful. "Dear Sir," he wrote to Sir Robert Preston on the 14th of June, "immediately on the receipt of the memorial you brought from Lord Cochrane, I sent it to the Duke of Wellington, with a request it might be considered by his Majesty's confidential servants, and last evening I had a communication from his Grace to state that the King's Cabinet cannot comply with the prayer of the memorial. I ever remain, dear Sir, yours sincerely, William."

The harsh news of this failure was sent to Paris, whither Lord Cochrane had gone in furtherance of his efforts for the assistance of Greece.

To Paris he returned, as we have seen, after his final departure from Greece, and there he resided with his family for about six months. He paid a brief visit to England in September, 1829; but, seeing no immediate prospect of gaining the restitution of his naval rank, and finding that idle life at home was especially irksome to him, he soon went back to the Continent. The serious illness of Lady Cochrane induced him to pass the winter in Italy, where by the same cause he was detained for several months. He was in England again in the autumn of 1830.

One motive for his return was the accession of the Duke of Clarence to the throne as King William IV. The new sovereign's often-expressed sympathy for him, induced him to hope that now he had a better chance of obtaining the justice that had been so long withheld. The change of sovereigns, however, was of small avail while the ministers who had summarily rejected his former memorial continued to have the direction of affairs. "To petition or memorialize the King whilst his present ministers remain in office," he said in a letter written on the 10th of September, "would be to debase myself in my own estimation, and, I think, in that of every man of sense and feeling." "I cannot petition again," he said in another letter; "though I am assured from high authority it would be attended to. Sir Robert Wilson and others have obtained favour; but I, who protested against the forging of charts and public waste of money, have had no mercy shown!" Lord Cochrane ascertained, about this time, that his memorial of 1828, though sent by the Duke of Clarence for the consideration of King George IV., had never reached his Majesty, the Cabinet having preferred to dismiss it at once. He therefore had good reason for abstaining from further action until a more friendly ministry should be in power.

He had not long to wait. On the 16th of November, the Duke of Wellington's Cabinet resigned. In the Administration which succeeded Earl Grey was Premier, and Mr. Brougham, raised to the peerage, was Lord Chancellor. Lord Cochrane then lost no time in completing a "Review" of his case, which he had prepared for publication, and in getting ready some early copies of the volume to be presented to the King and his ministers.

The King's copy was forwarded through Lord Melbourne, the Home Secretary, on the 10th of December, accompanied by a brief petition. "Assured that the memorial which I laid before your Majesty when Lord High Admiral," wrote Lord Cochrane, "was honoured with your earnest consideration, and that your Majesty was graciously pleased to make an effort in my behalf, with the desire of restoring me to my station in the navy; assured, too, that, had not the ministers of his late most gracious Majesty been opposed to the prayer of my memorial, I should then have been restored; and believing that no such obstacle to your Majesty's favour would be now interposed, I have every reason to hope that the auspicious moment is at length arrived when the redress which I have so long sought will be freely bestowed by my most gracious Sovereign. I beseech your Majesty to condescend to receive the accompanying review of my case, which, I trust, will prove to your Majesty that I am not unworthy of that act of your Majesty's favour which I humbly solicit. It is not because I have undergone a sentence heavier than the law pronounced, it is not because I have been deprived for sixteen years of the rank and honours which I acquired in the Royal Navy, nor is it because I am deserving of any consideration on account of services to my King and country, that I now presume to appeal to your Majesty, – though no one is more likely than your Majesty to feel for my sufferings, and no one more competent to appreciate my services, – but it is because I had no participation in, and no knowledge, not even the most indistinct or remote, of the crime under the imputation of which I have been so variously and so unceasingly punished. It is this alone which impels me to approach your Majesty, and this alone which enables me."

Other copies of the "Review" having been sent to the Cabinet Ministers, with letters urging its favourable consideration, Lord Cochrane, in nearly every case, received a friendly answer. "I need not say," wrote Earl Grey on the 12th of December, "that it would give me great satisfaction if it should be found possible to comply with the prayer of your petition. This opinion I expressed some years ago in a letter which, I believe, was communicated to you. To the sentiments expressed in that letter I refer, which, if I remember right, acquitted you of all blame, except such as might have been incurred by inadvertence and by having suffered yourself to be led by others into measures of the consequences of which you were not sufficiently aware."

More than a year was to be spent, however, in persevering effort before Lord Cochrane's claim for justice was acceded to. Objection was taken by some to the form in which his address to the King was worded. It was "a letter," they said, and not "a petition;" and Lord Cochrane was distressed at hearing, on the 18th, that the document had been given back by his Majesty to Lord Melbourne without any comment.

"If I have erred as to the form of my petition, which was in the shape of a most respectful and dutiful letter to his Majesty, or as to the channel through which it should have been forwarded," said Lord Cochrane in a letter to Earl Grey, written on the 23rd of December, "I have erred in judgment only; and it would be hard indeed should redress not be accorded by reason of an informality in the mode of my application. I have since been advised that my petition ought to have been forwarded through the First Lord of the Admiralty, whom I have therefore solicited to present another petition, the same in effect, but more brief, and in the regular form. When his Majesty was Lord High Admiral he received a memorial from me by the hands of Sir Robert Preston, and though it had not the effect, of procuring my restoration at that time, yet from the gracious manner in which, I am assured, it was received, I did flatter myself that his Majesty would have pleasure in the opportunity, which appeared to present itself when your lordship's Administration was formed, of originating a measure which all would consider gracious, and most, I hope, believe to be perfectly just. In reference to the letter, in answer to mine, with which your lordship honoured me on the 12th instant, which I cannot but perceive is written with a kindness of feeling which commands my best thanks, I beg only to state that any opinion of me in regard to the crime imputed to me that does not fully acquit me of all knowledge thereof whatever does not do me justice. That crime was contrived and completed so entirely without my knowledge that I had not the most distant idea of its having been meditated until I read of its commission in the public prints." In a brief reply to that letter Earl Grey stated that, the petition having been presented to the King and being now under consideration, no more formal address need be sent in lieu of it.

Thus Lord Cochrane had only to await the result of his application, and he waited for sixteen months. During that interval many friends interceded on his behalf, especially Lord Durham and Lord Auckland, and from time to time his hopes were quickened by information that the subject was still being considered by his Majesty's ministers, who were anxious that right should be done.

But he was often disappointed. "The King," he said, in a letter written on the 1st of April, "has invited all the Knights of the Bath to dine with him on the 12th, which is the anniversary of the affair of Basque Roads, as well as that of Grambier's installation. If nothing is done on that day I shall not obtain justice during the life of William IV. Indeed, I understand that every effort has been made to influence the King to my prejudice."

"I was at an evening party at the Marquess of Lansdowne's on Friday," wrote Lord Cochrane on the 25th of April, "and there I met the Lord Chancellor [Brougham] who was very civil indeed, and told me they had a battle to fight for me, and hoped they would succeed. Since then the electors of the borough of Southwark have sent a deputation to beg me to stand; but hearing that Brougham's brother was also to be a candidate, I have declined opposing him. I had a double motive for this line of conduct, for, had I been returned to Parliament, I could not conscientiously have accepted a favour at the hands of the ministers of the Crown."

Service in the House of Commons was, soon after that, made impossible to Lord Cochrane. His father, Archibald, ninth Earl of Dundonald, died on the 1st of July, 1831. Lord Cochrane then ceased to be a commoner, and became in succession, when he was nearly fifty-six years old, Earl of Dundonald.

As Earl of Dundonald, however, he found it no easier to obtain an answer to his demand for justice than as Lord Cochrane. In September he heard that his opponents were making use of some Admiralty correspondence respecting his conduct in Chili, nearly ten years before, to throw fresh difficulties in his way. He at once applied to Sir James Graham, the First Lord of the Admiralty, for extracts from this correspondence of any parts requiring explanation, in order that he might furnish the same. "I beg leave to state," wrote Sir James in reply, "that it is not usual for his Majesty's Government to produce, from the records of public offices, documents which do not appear to be required for any public purpose. I am therefore under the necessity of declining to comply with your lordship's request." "Is it not astonishing," said Lord Dundonald, in a letter to the Duke of Hamilton, "that Sir James Graham does not consider justice to an individual to be a public object?"

Tired out, at length, by the delays in the settlement of his case, Lord Dundonald wisely resolved to seek a personal interview with the King. With that object he went down to Brighton, and the interview was readily granted to him on Sunday, the 27th of November. He was graciously received, and the King listened attentively to his respectful claim for a fair investigation of the matter, and for permission to rebut any charges that might be brought against him respecting his conduct in connection with the Stock Exchange fraud, his Chilian service, or any other portion of his life that had been or could be complained of. His Majesty promised to see that the case was fairly looked into, and Lord Dundonald was not long in observing the good effects of his bold step.

"Lady Dundonald has seen Lord Grey, and he has expressed his readiness to do all he can," he wrote from London on the 17th of December. "But I understand there is something in the way. Burdett assures me that he will bring the whole affair before Parliament if they do not do me justice."

Sir Francis Burdett, who, never flagging in his friendship, had rendered valuable assistance during these weary months, continued in the same course to the end; but it was not necessary for him to appeal to Parliament in this case. Yet its settlement was further delayed. "I am unwilling to trespass on your lordship's most valuable time," wrote Lord Dundonald to Earl Grey, on the 28th of January, 1832; "but as it is now two months since I had the honour of an audience of the King, and of presenting to his Majesty my humble memorial setting forth my claims to be heard in my defence in refutation of the accusations existing against me in the Admiralty, and praying that I might be furnished with copies of the accusatory documents, I can no longer refrain from entreating your lordship to relieve my mind from its present state of most painful suspense by making me acquainted with the decision of the Government. From my knowledge of your lordship's considerate feelings towards me, and of your desire, should it be found practicable and just, to restore me to my place in his Majesty's service, and from that consciousness of my own integrity which has maintained me during so many years of adversity, I cannot but be sanguine, notwithstanding the delay, of an ultimately favourable result. But the period of suspense is not only one of great mental anxiety, but in other respects most injurious. It places me in a position worse than that which I was in under the former Administration, which at once decided to dismiss my complaint without consideration, and spared me that uncertainty which 'makes the heart sick.' While those ministers were in power my character sustained no injury from their refusal to do me justice. But under the Administration of your lordship, the public opinion must be that my case has received every consideration, and that the ascertained justice of the verdict against me is the bar to my restoration. This opinion already operates so much to my disadvantage and annoyance as to paralyze all my pursuits, and will shortly compel me, unless your lordship spares me that sacrifice, to quit a country of which I have never, by any act of my life, rendered myself unworthy, and in the bosom of which, unless called out again in her service, I would fain spend the remainder of my life in tranquillity."

That letter was delivered by the Countess of Dundonald, who at this time, as at all others, laboured with rare energy and tact to lighten her husband's heavy load of suffering and to augment his scanty store of joy. "Lady Dundonald," he wrote on the 6th of February, "has had a long talk with Lord Grey on the subject of my affair, and it clearly appears that there are two individuals in the Cabinet who will not give in. It is now, however, determined that Lady Dundonald – I being out of town – shall go to the King with a very proper memorial on her part, praying that the stain on the family may be wiped away by a free pardon. It is supposed that this will succeed; because in that case the King can exercise his prerogative without other counsel than that of his Prime Minister, who is favourable."

That term "free pardon" was galling to Lord Dundonald. He knew that he had done nothing which needed forgiveness. It was justice, not pardon, that he sought. He had suffered so much, however, from official formalities, and his honest resentment of them, that he now reluctantly consented to accept the virtual acquittal which was the great object of his hopes and toils, though it might be couched in a phrase none the less distasteful to him because it was the phrase that from time immemorial had been used as a cloak for the withdrawal of official wrong.

His concession was successful. "The King," he was able to write on the 4th of March, "has at last promised to do that which the late Administration refused, and the present ministry had not the power or courage to accomplish. For this I am indebted to the zealous exertions of Lady Dundonald, who has been at Brighton, and has left Lord Grey and others no rest until her object was accomplished. Thus, you see, perseverance has done more than reason, right, and justice. The fact is that great folks neither read nor trouble themselves with judging from facts on subjects which do not immediately concern themselves. I have no doubt that the 'Review' has never been looked into by one of the ministers."

The "free pardon" was promised on the 28th of February, but it was not formally granted till five weeks afterwards. Lord Dundonald ascertained that one cause of the long delay in considering his case was the heat of party fight occasioned by the Reform Bill. The Government feared to show any kindness to a man whom the Tories had so long and so persistently reviled, lest thereby they should lose in the House of Commons a few wavering votes that were important. The Reform Bill passed the Lower House, for the second time, at the end of March.¹⁴ Its final adoption being expected with less difficulty than arose, it was now easier to do justice to Lord Dundonald. "I was happy to hear your memorial to the King read in Council and referred to the Admiralty," the Earl of Durham wrote to him on the 16th of April. "I trust we may eventually have the means of doing an act of private as well as of public justice, and that I shall see you restored to that service of which you are the highest ornament. But you well know that you have had not only my best wishes, but my warmest exertions, for the attainment of that object."

The object was at last attained. At a Privy Council held on the 2nd of May, a "free pardon" was granted to the Earl of Dundonald. He was restored to his position in the Royal Navy, and, on the 8th, gazetted as a Rear-Admiral of the Fleet.

In that capacity he was presented to King William IV. at the levée held on the 9th of May; and congratulations poured in from all quarters as soon as the good news was published. But he could not, even in the first moments of rejoicing, forget that the cause of congratulation was only a pardon for an offence which he had never committed, and for which he had been enduring heavy punishment during sixteen years of his life.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE INTENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES OF LORD DUNDONALD'S FATHER. – HIS OWN MECHANICAL CONTRIVANCES. – HIS LAMPS. – HIS ROTARY STEAM-ENGINE, HIS SCREW-PROPELLER, HIS CONDENSING-BOILER, AND HIS LINES OF SHIP-BUILDING. – THEIR TARDY DEVELOPMENT. – HIS CORRESPONDENCE UPON STEAM-SHIPPING WITH SIR JAMES GRAHAM, THE EARL OF MINTO, THE EARL OF HADDINGTON, AND THE EARL OF AUCKLAND. – THE PROGRESS OF HIS INVENTIONS. – THE "JANUS." – THE BENEFICIAL RESULTS OF HIS EXPERIMENTS.

[1833-1847.]

Lord Dundonald's father, the ninth earl, had devoted the chief energies of his long life to scientific pursuits, which won for him, not profit, but well-earned fame, and which proved of immense benefit to his own and succeeding generations. By him was discovered the art of extracting tar from coal, and out of that discovery was developed, partly by him and partly by others, the manufacture of gas, first used for lighting his tar-works. The important chemical process of making alkali and crystals of soda was also introduced by him, whereby a great impetus was given to the manufacture of glass and to many other important branches of industry. He discovered the present method of preparing alum, or sulphate of vitriol, and suggested its substitution for gum senegal, which has proved hardly less advantageous to the mechanical arts. In 1795, he published a treatise, the result of numerous and costly experiments, on the connection between agriculture and chemistry, which was almost the parent of all the later researches that have issued in beneficial plans for improving the soil and invigorating the growth of crops, and in various and important developments of scientific farming.

The tenth Earl of Dundonald inherited his father's mechanical and scientific genius. The lamp invented by him in 1814, which introduced the principle upon which all later lamps for burning oil, naphtha, and other combustibles have been constructed, has been already referred to. Many other inventions and discoveries occupied his leisure during the years in which he was allowed to follow his profession both in British and in foreign service;¹⁵ and the fuller leisure forced upon him during the years following his return from Greece was chiefly devoted to further exercise of his inventive faculties.

To the wonderful invention known as his "secret war-plan" allusion will presently be made. His other most important mechanical pursuits had for their principal object the improvement of steam-engines and other appliances for steam-shipping. Almost his first reminiscence was of a visit in which, when he was seven or eight years old, he accompanied his father to Birmingham, there to meet with James Watt, and hear something of his memorable discovery. Apprehending in his youth the value of that discovery, he never wearied in his efforts to extend its usefulness. The Rising Star, built in 1818 under his directions, and those of his brother, Major Cochrane, for service in Chili, was the first steam-vessel that crossed the Atlantic, and it was an additional disappointment to him, amid all the misfortunes incident to his efforts to give adequate assistance to the Greeks in their war of independence, that the ill-fated steamers which were to be his chief instruments therein, failed through the indolence and incompetence of those to whom their construction was assigned.

It is not necessary here to detail the studies and experiments by which he afterwards sought to introduce a better steam-engine, for locomotive purposes, than was then, or is even now, in general use. His plan – not a new one, though it had never before been made available in practice – was to substitute for the ordinary reciprocating engine a machine which should at once produce a circular motion. "Of the many rotary engines heretofore offered to the notice of the world," he wrote, in 1833, "none have stood the test of practical use and experience. The cause of this uniform failure has been the great difficulty of obtaining, within the machine, a base of resistance on which the steam might act in propelling the moveable piston." He did not quite overcome this difficulty, but he succeeded in producing what the foremost critic in this department of manufacture describes – after a lapse of thirty years unrivalled for their development of ingenuity – as "the most perfect engine of the class that has yet been projected."

"In this engine," says the same authority, "an eccentric is made to revolve on an axis in the manner of a piston, and two doors, forming part of the side of the cylinder, press upon the eccentric. The points of these doors are armed with swivelling brasses, which apply themselves to the eccentric and make the point of contact tight in all positions."¹⁶

"This revolving engine," said Lord Dundonald, "does not require any valve or slide; consequently, there is no waste of steam thereby; neither is there any loss, as in the space left at the top and bottom of the cylinders of reciprocating engines. There is much less friction than arises from the sum of all the bearings required to convert the rectilineal force of the common engine to circular motion. There are no beams, cranks, side-rods, connecting-rods, parallel motions, levers, slide-valves, or eccentrics, with their nicely-adjusted joints and bearings; and thus the revolving engine is not liable, even in one-tenth degree, to the accidents and hindrances of other engines. As its moving parts pursue their course in perfect circles, without stop or hindrance, it is capable of progressive acceleration, until the work performed equals the pressure of steam on the vacuum – an advantage which the reciprocating engine does not possess. The diminished bulk and weight, and the absence of tremor, add to the capacity, buoyancy, velocity, and durability of vessels in which it is placed." The rotary engine did not satisfy all Lord Dundonald's expectations, but it took precedence of all others of the same sort, and was of great service at any rate in directing attention to what he rightly considered to be the great want in war-shipping, namely, vessels of the least possible bulk and of the greatest possible strength, speed, and fighting power.

Years were spent by him in attempting to bring it into notice. At his own cost he fitted out a little steamboat, which navigated the Thames; but to perfect the invention were required more funds than he had at his command, and he sought in vain for adequate assistance from others.

In January, 1834, he wrote to Sir James Graham, then First Lord of the Admiralty, thanking him for his share in the restitution of his naval rank that had occurred nearly two years before, and urging the co-operation of the Government in perfecting an invention that promised to be of so much importance to the naval power of England. "You are not obliged to me for anything," answered Sir James on the 15th; "I only am fortunate in being the member of a Government which has regained for our country the benefit of your distinguished valour and services, which, if again required in war, will, I am persuaded, be so exerted as to win the gratitude of the nation, and to demonstrate the justice of the decision to which you allude. It is impossible to over-estimate the paramount importance of steam in future naval operations; and it is fortunate that you have directed so much of your attention to the subject. The Board has complied with your request, and two engineers, in whom we place reliance, will be ordered to attend you." It does not appear, how-ever, that the engineers did attend. At any rate, nothing was done by the Admiralty in aid of the invention either then or for many years after.

Yet its ingenuity was acknowledged by all who investigated it, and by naval authorities among the number. The Earl of Minto, when First Lord of the Admiralty, sought to introduce it into the national ship-building; but official hindrances, too great even for him to overcome, stood in his way. All he could do was to have it referred to competent judges and to receive their report in its favour. "I am commanded to acquaint your lordship," wrote Sir John Barrow, the Secretary to the Admiralty, to the Earl of Dundonald, on the 20th of December, 1839, "that the opinions received of your revolving engine are favourable to the principle, and that it has not been stated that there are any insurmountable obstacles to its practical execution." The insurmountable obstacles were in the stolid resistance of subordinates to any novelty designed to lessen labour and promote economy.

Lord Minto, when out of office, was able to speak of the engine in more approving terms than he could adopt in his official capacity. "I need hardly say," he wrote on the 6th of September, 1842, "that the report of continued success in your rotatory engine gives me great pleasure, not only upon your own account, but as promising a valuable addition to our naval power in its application to ships of war. As a high-pressure engine, the complete success of your plan has, I believe, been recognised by all who have attended to it, and it is in this form that I had contemplated its application in the first instance as an auxiliary and occasional power in some ships of war."

At length, though not with all the energy that he desired, Lord Dundonald's engine was put to the test by the Admiralty during the Earl of Haddington's tenure of office in that department. In May, 1842, he was invited by the new First Lord, who, in common with all the world, was aware of the zeal and intelligence with which he had devoted himself to the consideration of every branch of naval science, to communicate his opinions thereupon. The first result of this invitation was a letter showing remarkable discernment of evils then existing, and curiously anticipating some later efforts to correct them.

"The slow progress," wrote Lord Dundonald, on the 7th of June, "which the naval service has made towards its present ameliorated state – yet far from perfection – has not permitted any one Board of Admiralty in my time to stand pre-eminently distinguished for decisive improvements. These have rather been effected by the gradual changes which time occasions, or by following the example of America, or even of France, than by encouraging efforts of native genius. This has arisen from causes easily remedied; one of which is, that the rejection or adoption of proffered improvements has depended on the decision of several authorities, who consequently feel little individual responsibility, and imagine themselves liable to censure only for a change of system. Thus, my lord, a still heavier responsibility has, in fact, been incurred by continuing, long after the most superficial observation demanded a change, to construct small ships of the line, and little frigates, which the great practical skill and bravery of our countrymen were taxed to defend against the powerful eighty-gun ships of France and the large frigates of America. This timidity as to change caused many years to elapse, after the commercial use of steam-vessels, before the naval department possessed even a tug-boat. Hence the mischievous economy manifested by the purchase of worthless merchant steamers; hence the subsequent parsimonious project of building small steam-vessels fitted with engines immersed beyond their bearing, and deficient in every requisite for purposes of war. I am not one of those, my lord, who deem it advantageous to act on the belief that one Englishman can beat two Frenchmen. I am inclined to doubt whether a practical demonstration of that saying might not be attended with disastrous consequences. Long habitude reared experienced British officers, who are now replaced by others who possess less nautical skill, and are nearer on a par with those of France, in regard to whose education every pains has been taken by its Government. I do not presume to advise that your lordship should adopt changes precipitately, nor without consulting those who may be most competent to judge; no, nor even then that the best measures should be prematurely disclosed, so as to give intimation to other nations of the vast increase of power which may suddenly be rendered available. But I venture to suggest that you may quietly prepare the means of effecting purposes which neither the ordinary ships of war nor the present steam-ships in the navy can accomplish. Permanent blockades, my lord, are now quite out of the question; and so, in my opinion, are all our ordinary naval tactics. A couple of heavy line-of-battle ships, suddenly fitted, on the outbreak of war, with adequate steam-power, would decide the successful result of a general action; and I am assured that I could show your lordship how to fit a steam-ship which, in scouring the Channel or ranging the coast, could take or destroy every steam-ship belonging to France that came within view."