CHAPTER I

THE LABOUCHERE FAMILY

Some forty miles south of Bayonne, on the right bank of the Gave, lies the little town of Orthez, the ancient capital of Béarn. Famous for the obstinacy of its resistance to the apostolic spirit of Louis XIV. and the excellence of its manufactured cloth, Orthez was further distinguished during the Wars of Religion by the possession of a Protestant university founded by Jeanne d'Albret in which Theodore Beza was professor. In 1664, the most Christian King sent his intendant Foucault to deal with the nest of heretics. Foucault did not waste time in theological subtleties, but gave the inhabitants twenty days in which to conform under penalty of a dragonnade. They did so unanimously, but there still remain more Protestants in Orthez than in any other town of Béarn.

Among the cloth merchants of Orthez none were more distinguished than the Labouchères. According to the Frères Haag, the compilers of _La France Protestante_, their name should be Barrier de Labouchère, the patronymic which they came to adopt being in reality the name of a property in the possession of the family. The earliest known ancestor of the Labouchères seems to have been a {2} certain Jean Guyon Barrier, who married in 1621 one Catherine de la Broue.

Pierre-César, the founder of the British branch of the family and the grandfather of the subject of this memoir, was born at The Hague in 1772. He was the second son of Matthieu Labouchère and Marie-Madeleine Molière. His father, who, in consequence of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, had been sent to England for his education, had subsequently settled in Holland. Pierre-César was sent at the age of thirteen to learn his uncle Pierre's business at Nantes,[1] where he remained until 1790, at which date he entered the house of Hope at Amsterdam as French clerk. In this humble position he laid the foundations of the great fortune and financial career which were to be his. The rise of the young French clerk was rapid. In six years he was a partner in the house of Hope and had married Dorothy, sister of Alexander Baring, who had become a partner in the Dutch firm at the same time as his French brother-in-law. The well-known story of the clever ruse by which Pierre-César won the hand of his bride and also his partnership in the house of Hope was told to the present writer some twenty years ago by the Rev. Alexander Baring[2] as follows:

Pierre-César was sent by Mr. John Hope to England to see Sir Francis Baring on some business, and fell in love with Sir Francis's third daughter Dorothy. Before leaving England he asked Sir Francis to permit him to become engaged to his daughter. Sir Francis refused. Pierre-César then said: "Would it make any difference to your decision if you knew that Mr. Hope was about to take me into partnership?" Sir Francis unhesitatingly admitted that {3} it would. Pierre-César then went back to Holland and suggested to Mr. Hope that he might be taken into partnership. On Mr. Hope discouraging the idea, he said: "Would it make any difference to your decision if you knew that I was engaged to the daughter of Sir Francis Baring?" Mr. Hope replied, "Certainly." Whereupon the wily clerk said: "Well, I am engaged to Miss Dorothy Baring." That very day he was able to write to Sir Francis announcing the news of his admission to partnership in the house of Hope, and in the same letter he claimed the hand of his bride.[3]

The following picture of Pierre-César by a contemporary is interesting. The writer was Vincent Nolte, for many years a clerk in the house of Hope at Amsterdam. "Mr. Labouchère was at that time but twenty-two, yet ere long assumed the highly respectable position of head of the firm, the first in the world, and studied the manners of a French courtier previous to the Revolution: these he soon made so thoroughly his own, that they seemed to be a part of his own nature. He made a point of distinguishing himself in everything he undertook by a certain perfection, and carried this feeling so far that, on account of the untractable lack of elasticity of his body and a want of ear for music which nature had denied him, he for eighteen years deemed it necessary to take dancing-lessons, because he saw that others surpassed him in the graceful accomplishment. It was almost painful to see him dance. The old school required, in the French quadrille, some _entrechats_ and one or two pirouettes, and the delay they occasioned him always threw him out of time. I have often seen the old gentleman, already more than fifty, return from a quadrille covered with perspiration. Properly speaking, he had no refined education, understood but very {4} little of the fine arts, and, notwithstanding his shrewdness and quickness of perception, possessed no natural powers of wit, and consequently was all the more eager to steal the humour of other people. He once repeated to myself as a witty remark of his own to one of his clerks, the celebrated answer of De Sartines, a former chief of the French police, to one of his subordinates who asked for an increase of pay in the following words: 'You do not give me enough--still I must live!' The reply he got was: 'I do not perceive the necessity of that!' Now, so hard-hearted a response was altogether foreign to Mr. Labouchère's disposition, as he was a man of most excellent and generous feeling. He had, assuredly, without intention, fallen into the singular habit of speaking his mother-tongue--the French--with an almost English intonation, and English with a strong French accent. But he was most of all remarkable for the chivalric idea of honour in mercantile transactions, which he constantly evinced, and which I never, during my whole life, met with elsewhere, in the same degree, however numerous may have been the high-minded and honourable merchants with whom I have been thrown in contact. He fully possessed what the French call _des idées chevaleresques_."[4]

In 1800 Pierre-César re-established himself for a time in England, whither Hope's had been temporarily transferred after the invasion of Holland by Pichegru. A few years later he became involved in an interesting and delicate political negotiation.

In April, 1810, Napoleon, whose marriage with Marie Louise had filled him with peaceful aspirations, surveyed the world that he had conquered and decided that, for the moment, he had conquered enough. To consolidate his empire and his dependencies, peace was necessary. The only obstacle to peace was England--England who had never bowed before his eagles and only grudgingly admitted his {5} existence. Negotiation with England was imperative, but how to negotiate, and by what means? What had he to offer Mr. Pitt? A substantial argument presented itself in the condition of Holland. Louis Buonaparte had disappointed his autocratic brother as an allied sovereign, and it was the Emperor's intention to remove him from the Dutch throne and unite the whole of the Netherlands to the Empire. This course could not fail to be disagreeable to the English, who would then be flanked by the French on two sides. So it occurred to Napoleon that, by leaving Holland her independence, he would be giving England a substantial _quid pro quo_ for the withdrawal of British troops from the Peninsula. Evidently, however, he could not himself directly open negotiations. Not only would such action lower his prestige, but it was doubtful whether those infernal islanders would consent to treat with him. The negotiations had to be opened by way of Holland. King Louis' Government must not appear in it. There were prudent men of affairs there who could be trusted with the delicate task. Louis was delighted with the idea. He would retain his estate as an independent sovereign, the commerce of Europe would once more circulate freely to the replenishment of his subjects' coffers, and his terrible brother's ambitions would be effectively circumscribed.

Fouché, who, unknown to the Emperor, had already sent a private agent to London to discuss with the British Cabinet possible conditions of peace, entered enthusiastically into the project and designated Pierre-César as in every way the most suitable person to be entrusted with the affair. His position in the world of business as a partner of Hope in Amsterdam and of Baring in London was of the highest, and his father-in-law, Sir Francis Baring, who had been one of the principal directors of "John Company," was an intimate friend of Wellesley, the English Foreign Secretary, with whom he had spent some time in India.

Labouchère was to present himself informally to Wellesley, {6} not as an envoy of the King of Holland and still less as the mouthpiece of Napoleon, but in the names of Roell, Van Der Heim, and Mollerus, three Dutch statesmen who professed to have been initiated by their King into all the secrets of the French Cabinet. He was to explain to the English Foreign Secretary that the marriage of Napoleon had altered his position and had caused him to desire the peace of Europe as a necessary condition of the consolidation of his Empire, and that, in order to induce the English Government to abandon hostilities, he was prepared to forego his intention of uniting Holland to his dominions. The Dutch Cabinet, aware of the Emperor's views, had hastened to open informal communications in order at one stroke to secure the peace of Europe and to retain the independence of their country. All having been arranged, Labouchère crossed from Brielle to Yarmouth and posted to London on his secret mission.

As a matter of fact the moment was not well chosen for its success. After the retirement, on the Catholic question, of Grenville and Grey, who had continued the Fox-Pitt coalition, the old Duke of Portland, who had been Home Secretary in Mr. Pitt's first Government, became Prime Minister. He maintained his power with difficulty: Canning and Castlereagh, respectively Home Secretary and Foreign Minister, quarrelled, left the Cabinet in order to fight a duel, and did not return to it. Lord Chatham did not survive the results of the expedition to Walcheren, and shortly afterwards Portland himself died. Mr. Perceval and Lord Wellesley were the most important persons left in the Cabinet. Perceval, who had been Portland's Chancellor of the Exchequer, kissed hands as Prime Minister on December 2, 1809, and Wellesley took the place of Bathurst as Foreign Secretary. Perceval was a clever lawyer and a bitter and prejudiced Tory; Wellesley's hereditary politics were qualified by suave manners, an enlightened spirit, and an unusual talent for clear and eloquent statement. Less passionate than Perceval, he had not the Prime Minister's influence {7} with the party, but he enjoyed an immense reputation in the country which was daily increased by the news of his brother's gallant deeds at the front. The position of the Government, in spite of their parliamentary majority, was not very strong. They held their power by that most uncertain tenure--success in arms.

The opposition, led by Grenville and Grey, rejoiced in the avowed favour of the Prince of Wales, whom an accident, such was the state of the King's health, might any day call to the regency, and even to the throne. The Prince had openly declared himself against the war, and the leaders of the opposition argued forcibly, in and out of season, against its continuance. The militarism of the country was not, however, to be checked in this way. The news of one victory outweighed much argument. But news was not always of victories. Forty thousand English troops had been forced to retire before Antwerp, with a loss of fifteen thousand from death and disease. This calamity more than balanced the victory of Talavera. Perceval stuck to his war policy with blind and furious determination. He no doubt felt that his one chance of retaining office was to do so. Wellesley, on the other hand, in spite of the glory won by his family through the war, was open to reason on the subject. He had already received politely Captain Fagan, a high officer in Condé's army, whom Fouché had sent over on his own responsibility to feel the way toward conditions of peace. He had received him politely, but had answered him evasively to the effect that the King's Government was by no means bent on continuing the war at _all_ costs, but would gladly entertain proposals of peace if they were advanced by responsible, fully accredited agents and were compatible with the honour of the two nations. Labouchère was unable to get anything more definite out of him. But Wellesley, reserved with the French agent, opened himself more fully to his old friend Sir Francis Baring. To him he explained that no member of the Cabinet believed in Napoleon's good {8} faith. He personally saw nothing in Labouchère's mission but a trap laid for English public opinion by the supreme adventurer, and judged that nothing was to be gained by playing into his hand. Moreover, the Government would never abandon Spain to Joseph or Sicily to Murat, and would in no circumstances consent to the loss of Malta. The fullest preliminary assurances on these points were the _sine qua non_ of any successful negotiation.

Sir Francis Baring, who was a sagacious man, communicated this conversation, together with his personal comments thereon, to Labouchère. It was evident, he said, that England had grown accustomed to the war, and would not abandon it except under the stress of a reverse impossible to predict, and that the nation would never lose all they had fought for in the Peninsula by yielding Spain to a Buonaparte prince. He suggested, without any official authority, an arrangement which, leaving Malta to England, would give Naples to Murat, Sicily to the Neapolitan Bourbons, and would restore Spain to Ferdinand, save for the provinces on the French side of the Ebro, which might be given to Napoleon as an indemnity for the expenses of the war. Convinced that nothing further was to be obtained in London, Labouchère returned to Holland and sent to King Louis at Paris the meagre results of his mission. Unfortunately, Napoleon was as well accustomed to war as England. As soon as he had received Labouchère's reply, he gave up the notion of using Holland as a weapon against England and determined to settle his affairs with his brother independently of the general situation. Nevertheless, he did not wish to entirely let fall the indirect relations on which Labouchère had entered with the English Cabinet, and sent him a reply to be transmitted through Sir Francis Baring to Lord Wellesley. The Emperor's reply was perhaps more statesmanlike than might have been expected. If England was accustomed to the war, the French were even more in their element on the battlefield. France was victorious, rich, prosperous, obliged, {9} no doubt, to pay a high price for sugar and coffee, but not reduced to the point of doing without those luxuries. She could support the situation for a long time yet. If, in these conditions, he thought of peace, it was because in the new position created by his marriage with an Austrian archduchess he was anxious to terminate the struggle between the old order and the new. As for the kingdoms he had created, it was not to be thought that he would sacrifice any of them. Never would he dethrone his brothers Joseph, Murat, Louis, and Jerome. But the destinies of Portugal and Sicily were still in suspense; these two countries, Hanover, the Hanseatic cities, and the Spanish colonies might still be dealt with. In any case, it might be possible to mitigate the horrors of war. He had been obliged to reply by the decrees of Berlin and Milan to the orders-in-council issued by the British Cabinet, and the sea had been converted into a stage for violence of every description. This state of things was perhaps more dangerous for England than for France, since an Anglo-American war might easily result. If the English Government agreed with these appreciations they had but to relax their laws of blockade. France would follow suit, Holland and the Hanseatic towns would retain their independence, the sea would be opened to neutrals, the war would lose some of its bitterness, and, possibly, in time a complete understanding between the two nations might be reached. Such was Napoleon's, on the whole, judicious reply, and on these terms, and on these terms only, was Labouchère authorised to make any further attempts at negotiation.

But Napoleon counted without Fouché. That brilliant and unscrupulous person, who had been recently raised to the important Ministry of Police with the title of Duc d'Otrante, was a peace fanatic. In every day that the war continued he saw danger to the Empire. The failure of the Labouchère mission, in which he no doubt felt his self-love wounded, since he had himself indicated the envoy, disappointed him profoundly. He determined to bring about {10} peace himself, and relied on his success to justify himself in the Emperor's eyes. It would have been a dangerous thing to do under any government: it was a piece of insanity under a master so absolute, so vigilant, as Napoleon. He accordingly sent one Ouvrard to Amsterdam to urge Labouchère to reopen negotiations with the British Cabinet on conditions much more favourable to England than the Emperor had made. Labouchère naturally thought that Fouché once more represented Napoleon, and recommenced negotiations on a basis much more satisfactory to English policy. The basis was different indeed. According to Ouvrard, the Emperor would modify his views on Sicily, Spain, the Spanish colonies, Portugal, and Holland; he was earnestly desirous of peace, and he shared the hostility of the British Cabinet to the Americans. In order to give Labouchère more credit with Wellesley, Fouché offered to give up to him a mysterious personage called Baron Kolli, an English police agent, who had been visiting Valencay to arrange the escape of Ferdinand. Kolli had been arrested by the French troops who had charge of the imprisoned King. The arrest had been considered an important event by the Cabinet of St. Cloud. To all this Ouvrard added a good deal of his own, and Labouchère could not do otherwise than believe what he was told. Accordingly he reopened negotiations by letter with Wellesley.[5]

In the following month, Napoleon, who was making one of his tours of personal inspection in the Netherlands, discussed the Labouchère negotiations with his brother Louis at Antwerp. By a curious chance he had caught sight on his journey of Ouvrard, who was on his way from Amsterdam to Paris. The Emperor's promptness of mind had at once suggested to him that Ouvrard, who enjoyed the favour of Fouché and had business relations with Labouchère, was probably mixing himself up in what did not concern him, {11} perhaps giving advice which was not wanted, or trying to float some speculation on the probabilities of peace. With the presentiment of his genius he at once forbade Labouchère to have any relations with Ouvrard and ordered him to send immediately all the correspondence that had been exchanged between Amsterdam and London to the King. Labouchère at once communicated all his own letters and those he had received from London.

The blow fell on June 2 at St. Cloud, where the Emperor, the day after his return from Holland, convoked a Council of Ministers to meet him. Fouché, in charge of the most important portfolio of the imperial Cabinet, was naturally present. Napoleon turned and rent him. What was Ouvrard doing in Holland? Had Fouché sent him there? Was he or was he not an accomplice of this preposterous intrigue? Fouché, surprised and upset by this sudden and unexpected attack, could find nothing better to say than that Ouvrard was a busybody who was always mixing himself up in other people's business and that it was wiser to pay no attention to anything he might say. The astute personage must indeed have been upset to attempt to "pay" Napoleon with such words. Ouvrard and his papers were at once seized, the mission being entrusted not to Fouché, who as Minister of the Police would naturally have received such an order, but to Sazary, an aide-de-camp whom the Emperor had made Duc de Rovigo and in whom he had complete confidence. Ouvrard's papers revealed at once the extent to which the intrigue had been pushed and of Fouché's complicity. The next day Fouché was dismissed from the Ministry of Police, where he was succeeded by Rovigo, and appointed Governor of Rome. When Napoleon had anything to do he did it quickly.

He did not rest there, however. He was determined to get to the _fin fond_ of these singular negotiations. Ouvrard, kept in prison, was constantly examined, and Labouchère was summoned to Paris and ordered to bring all the papers {12} still in his hands. It appeared, from a comparison of these with those already seized, that Labouchère had acted in perfectly good faith, and the whole responsibility rested with Fouché and Ouvrard. Fouché's disgrace was complete. As soon as the Emperor discovered the episode of the Fagan mission he turned once more on the luckless minister and demanded all the papers relative to that affair. Fouché replied that they were of no importance and that he had burned them. Napoleon, on hearing this, gave way to one of his appalling exhibitions of rage, took away from Fouché the governorship of Rome, and exiled him to Aix in Provence. So ended this curious affair in which Pierre-César Labouchère had served his country faithfully and intelligently to the extent which circumstances permitted. Some years later he was to serve his country perhaps more signally, and certainly more effectively.

When in 1817 France was beginning the task of reconstruction, the principal difficulty in the way of the ministers of Louis XVIII. was the very serious financial situation. By the treaty of November 20 of the preceding year, the country was pledged to pay to foreigners no less than seven hundred million francs in money in the course of five years, with an additional sum of a hundred and thirty million for the pay of the 150,000 foreign troops which occupied the country. There were also numerous debts, both at home and abroad, the payment of which had been guaranteed by the treaties of 1814 and 1815. The ordinary revenue was useless to meet such heavy charges, and extraordinary taxation, in the state of the country, would have spelt ruin. It was necessary to have recourse to credit. But how to obtain a loan? France was not in a state which could inspire financiers with much confidence. In these circumstances Messrs. Labouchère and Baring once more placed themselves at the service of the French Government. They purchased nearly twenty-seven million francs' worth of government five per cent. _rente_, and thus restored French {13} credit. Their action was, no doubt, not purely disinterested, as they bought the _rente_ at an average price of 56.50 and obtained an interest of nine per cent. on their money. Still, the difficulty of the moment was to find anybody to do it at any price.[6] A private journal of the period, kept by the husband of a niece of Sir Francis Baring, consequently a first cousin by marriage of Mme. Pierre-César Labouchère, gives the following account of the transaction:[7] "The 'Alliance Loan' of the Barings at Paris in 1816 probably doubled his (Pierre-César's) fortune, and he soon after quitted business, and settled altogether in England, living at Hylands, a property he bought in Essex, and in Hamilton Place, where his home was frequented by many distinguished people and diplomatists."

Two sons were born to Pierre-César and Dorothy Labouchère. The elder, Henry, was born in 1798, and made for himself a social and political career of decided distinction, as a Whig of the old school, a certain primness and conventionality of character enabling him to perform the part successfully in private as in public life. He took a first-class in classics at Oxford, and in 1832 found himself a Lord of the Admiralty. He became subsequently Vice-President of the Board of Trade, Under-Secretary to the Colonies, President of the Board of Trade, Chief Secretary of Ireland, Secretary of State for the Colonies, and was raised to the peerage in 1859, when he assumed the title of Baron Taunton, choosing the name of the borough he had represented in Parliament for thirty years. It was at Taunton in 1835 that he opposed and defeated Dizzy by a majority of a hundred and seventy, when, on his appointment as Master of the Mint under Lord Melbourne, he offered himself to his constituents for re-election. His primness and {14} conventionality found on this occasion an admirable foil in the manner and appearance of his opponent, who was "very showily attired in a bottle-green frock coat, a waistcoat of the most extravagant pattern, the front of which was almost covered with glittering chains, and in fancy pattern pantaloons." The judicious electors of Taunton preferred Mr. Labouchere's more solid qualities.

Lord Taunton died very suddenly on July 13, 1869. He was twice married, first to Frances, daughter of Sir Thomas Baring,[8] and secondly to Lady Mary Howard, a daughter of Lord Carlisle. He left no sons. Consequently the bulk of his fortune descended to his brother John Labouchere's eldest son Henry, the future member for Northampton and editor of _Truth_.

The younger Henry Labouchere's earliest recollections carried him back to his childish visits to his grandfather in Hamilton Place, where Prince Talleyrand, then Ambassador to the Court of St. James (1830-34), was a frequent visitor. "I have always taken a special interest in Talleyrand," he wrote when he was sixty, "because he gave me when a child a very gorgeous box of dominoes."[9]

The elder Henry Labouchere does not seem at first sight to have shared any traits with his nephew and namesake. The only point on which they may be said to have agreed was their love for America. Lord Taunton as a young man travelled much in the United States with Lord Derby, and he had important business interests there as well as in South America, arising out of the commercial enterprises of the {15} house of Hope. He acquired in the course of his travels a strong liking for American institutions and a genuine affection for the American people, a feeling which, as we shall see, was shared by his nephew.

Mr. John Labouchere predeceased Lord Taunton by six years, and it was often presumed by persons who knew the family but slightly that the younger Henry Labouchere was the son of Lord Taunton, which mistake gave the young wit the opportunity of making one of his best-known repartees. On one occasion a gentleman, to whom Henry was introduced for the first time, opened the conversation by remarking: "I have just heard your father make an admirable speech in the House of Lords." "The House of Lords!" replied Mr. Labouchere, assuming an air of intense interest, "well, I always _have_ wondered where my father went to when he died."

[1] Presumably Uncle Pierre had conformed and stuck to it.

[2] The portraits of Pierre-César Labouchère and Dorothy his wife, now in my possession, were then at Farnham Castle, and Mr. Baring was visiting my father, the then Bishop of Winchester, when he related to me this anecdote of my great-grandparents.

[3] The story is confirmed by the Hon. Francis Henry Baring. Mr. F. H. Baring was told it by the late Thomas Charles Baring, M.P., the son of the Bishop of Durham. Mr. T. C. Baring was for many years a partner in Baring Bros., where he probably heard the story. Sir Henry Lucy, in his _More Passages by the Way_, mentions that Mr. Labouchere himself believed the story to be true.

[4] Vincent Nolte, _Fifty Years in Both Hemispheres_. American translation, 1854.

[5] Thiers, _Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire_; Louis Madelin, _Fouché_. See also _Times_, March 16, 1811, for the English account.

[6] _Histoire de Mon Temps: Mémoires du Chancelier Pasquier_, publiées par le Duc d'Audriffet-Pasquier, 1789-1830.

[7] The journal was written by Mr. T. L. Mallet, who married Lucy, daughter of Charles Baring. I am indebted for the extract to Lord Northbrook.

[8] Yet another link between the Laboucheres and the Barings was forged by the marriage, in 1837, of Lady Taunton's sister, Emily Baring, to Mrs. John Labouchere's brother, the Rev. William Maxwell Du Pre. His sister, Caroline Du Pre, became the wife of the Rev. Spenser Thornton, who was a grandson of Godfrey Thornton by Jane his wife, a daughter of an influential director of the French hospital, Stephen Peter Godin, whose family note-book was published in the January number of the _Genealogist_ (_The Labouchère Pedigree_, by Henry Wagner, F.S.A., 1913).

[9] _Truth_, March 19, 1891.

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