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a private opinion, is the fact, that Croker's respect for the marquess arose from a more real regard for his ability and good-nature, than Rigby' would have been capable of feeling, and this was not weakened after the death of Hertford, even when it was discovered that the massive fortune that was supposed to be settled on Croker was not forthcoming. 'Lord Monmouth, who detested popular tumults as much as he despised public opinion,' writes Disraeli,' had remained during the agitated year of 1831 in his luxurious retirement in Italy, contenting himself with opposing the Reform Bill by proxy. But when his correspondent, Mr. Rigby, had informed him, in the early part of the spring of 1832, of the probability of a change in the tactics of the Tory party. his Lordship, who was never wanting in energy when his own interests were concerned, immediately crossed the Alps and travelled to England . . . the Peers were in a fright. "Twas a pity; there is scarcely a less dignified entity than a patrician in a panic.' Turning to the correspondence between Lord Hertford and Mr. Croker in 1831 and 1832, we find Lord Hertford writing to Mr. Croker from Naples in the spring of 1831: 'With regard to reform I agree with you . . . that if it could be resisted entirely it would be the preferable course; but is it . . . not well to give up a part to save some part? My idea in reform is to save as much as maybe, and even if I were in London, and saw an evident desire on the part of Lord G[rey] to throw over his Radicals, I should try to be to him as quinine, to strengthen him to throw off his impurities.' He strongly advised a formation of Government under the Duke of Wellington, and not under Sir Robert Peel, the worst Tory Government possible would be one under Sir Robert Peel.' 1 'All I wish,' he concludes, is to pre

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1 Yet in 1828, Hertford (then Lord Yarmouth) had seen that Peel must be minister. 'Croker,' he said, . . . 'we must have Peel minister. Everybody wishes for him, everybody would support him . . . I like him personally. I have no other motives than personal liking, and

serve to the king his crown, to myself my coronet and estate,' even though it might be 'burthened with a large property tax, which I should swallow as easily as any of Hawkins's black doses.' A little later, he was writing of the proposed Income Tax: I have always liked in the general sense of public advantage, and disliked in the sense of personal disadvantage, the Income Tax. . . . A property tax, valuing what you possess, like the Legacy Tax, is a detestable mode of raising money and purely revolutionary, for the collector could walk into Sir R. Peel's house, and ask him to pay a percentage on the pictures with which he has adorned the country, and into Lord Londonderry's, and ask for one of the diamonds with which he has enriched it.' By the early part of May 1831 it was clear the revolutionary torrent, carrying along with it the Reform Bill, could not be stemmed. 'I regretted the D's [Duke of Wellington's] denial of all change,' wrote Hertford to Croker, 'not as bad in itself, but as unwise and unnecessary. I am glad Alborough and Oxford1 die quietly in their beds, and with their old bedfellows, and am grateful for the trouble you have taken about them.'

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In 1832, Hertford himself came to London on the news of the probably successful passage of the Reform Bill, but though he and the Duke of Wellington brought pressure to bear on the Waverers,' 2 whom the duke himself declared to be an object of detestation and public respect, and I should be glad on every account to see him at the head of affairs.' The experiment had proved a failure.

1 These were pocket boroughs, belonging to Lord Hertford, and were to be disfranchised. Mr. Creevy described Alborough as 'the

rottenest of the rotten.'

2 Lord Harrowby was one of the leaders of the party in the House known as the 'Waverers.' They voted against the second reading of the bill, as originally introduced, and for its second reading in its amended state, while they objected entirely to the principle of the measure, and by their indecision did much to help on the passage of the bill.

jealousy to our friends and supporters,' they could prevail nothing. England was lost for ever,' 'Rigby' constantly informed 'Coningsby' (Lord Monmouth's grandson), but the assembled guests still contrived to do justice to his grandfather's excellent dinners; nor did the impending ruin that awaited them prevent the Princess Colonna (Lady Strachan) from going to the opera, whither she very good-naturedly took 'Coningsby.' Having done what he could to prevent this ruin,' Lord Hertford once more retired to Italy, being unable to remain in this Radical-ridden country.' Before the close of 1834, the popular Reform ministry of 1832 was overturned, the Reform Parliament dissolved, and Peel became first minister. The year 1836 found Hertford, 'who,' as Disraeli says of Lord Monmouth, was never greater than in adversity, and whose favourite excitement was to aim at the impossible,' once more in England, and ready to 'feast the country, patronise the borough, and diffuse that confidence in the Tory party which his presence never failed to do.' Moreover, notwithstanding the Reform Bill, with its Schedule A disfranchising so many boroughs, the prestige of his power had not sensibly diminished, for his essential resources were vast, and his intellect always made the most of his influence.' The Conservatives are feasting and spouting in all parts of the country, and rallying their forces,' wrote Greville. Meanwhile, there was a split in the Opposition, but it was probable they would reconcile their differences before Parliament met, and be ready to baffle the common enemy. However, the accession of the young Queen Victoria, in whose name both Whig and Tory blazoned their election posters, and shouted their election cries, brought a balance slightly in favour of the Tories, and Tory language was put into the queen's mouth when she delivered her speech, for it was obvious that this alone was palatable to the nation. The Tory majority

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secured, Lord Hertford retired once more to Paris. This was practically the last time he took any active interest in politics.

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Meanwhile, the Strachan family, a mother and three daughters, had succeeded in drawing Lord Hertford into their clutches, playing upon the well-known fire of his desires to secure codicils to his will in their favour. First the mother, Lady Strachan, figured as his favourite. To her he at one time decided to bequeath his whole fortune, but altered his mind, partly because he objected to a cynical reference to her as his successor,' partly because he grew tired of her society and preferred that of her daughter Charlotte, afterwards Countess Zichy. Sir Richard Strachan had left his three daughters to the care of Lord Hertford, and they lived in Lord Hertford's house until they were married. Charlotte Strachan had been his favourite as early as October 1834. Thus one of the numerous codicils to his will was written when he was abroad with her at that date. It is dated at 'Munich, the Inn of the Golden Hirsch,' 13th October 1834. It directs that in case of his death while abroad with Charlotte L. Strachan . . . all the transferable securities for money, cash, diamonds, and banker's travelling notes be given to the said Charlotte.

I advise Charlotte to entrust these securities if I die abroad, with the nearest respectable banker. . . . I warn her to beware of her mother's new connection, and as soon as she can to marry some respectable English gentleman. Charlotte to open my secrets in carriages and boxes. She knows how and where, and take her legacies. Charlotte to take great care of Belle and Bezuies (two dogs) for love of me.' In two or three years Charlotte became Countess Zichy, and she and her husband lived with Lord Hertford for some years. The other sisters also married, after they had secured codicils from Hertford, one becoming Countess Berchtholdt, the other Princess Ruffo.

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As the years went on, even the Countess Zichy and

her husband were too respectable company for the man who, with his increasing feebleness of mind and consuming passion for orgies and excitement, was being made the dupe of a still more unscrupulous adventurer than any of the members of the Strachan family-his valet, Nicholas Suisse, 'my head valet, an excellent man.' Willing to be employed in any work that his master might desire, Suisse, 'a showily dressed man, with features bearing a striking resemblance to those of a fox,' made himself indispensable to Lord Hertford, and introduced to him the company he liked to have sometimes to dine with him.' With these, the parasites that lived and throve upon a diseased mind,' his last days were spent. They ruled his movements, and kept him from his friends. He wrote a piteous note to Croker, I believe we are going to change, because they say so, but I do not know.' 'They' were determined to get rid of the Count and Countess Zichy, who had come over from Paris with Lord Hertford in 1841, and resided with him at Dorchester House, Park Lane, and imbued Hertford with that idea. At first when he was at all well he dined out at Richmond or Greenwich to be quit of the society of the Zichys, and enjoy that of his parasites, but finally determined that the Zichys should go. Hence he resolved to lie in bed as long as they remained, and 'this and some other broad hints induced them to go.' Then he got up, and by a strange inconsequence did that which he might have just as well have done if they had stayed '—went to dine with his usual company at Richmond. The drive to Richmond on a damp February night, the cold, unaired rooms of the hotel, and the late return at night, brought on a severe chill from which he never recovered. In less than a week Mr. Croker found him dangerously ill, but obstinate in his refusal to see a physician, 'being satisfied with Mr. Copeland, his old surgeon, and Mr. Fuller, his old apothecary.' When the physician was at last called

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