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Title: Peace and Reform - 1815-1837
Author: Various
Language: English
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BELL'S ENGLISH HISTORY SOURCE BOOKS
_General Editors_: S. E. WINBOLT, M.A., AND KENNETH BELL, M.A.
PEACE AND REFORM
BELL'S ENGLISH HISTORY SOURCE BOOKS.
_Volumes now Ready._ 1_s. net each._
=1307-1399. War and Misrule= (special period for the School
Certificate Examination, July and December, 1913). Edited by A.
A. LOCKE.
=1154-1216. The Angevins and the Charter.= Edited by S. M.
TOYNE, M.A., Headmaster of St. Peter's School, York, late
Assistant Master at Haileybury College.
=1485-1547. The Reformation and the Renaissance.= Edited by F.
W. BEWSHER, Assistant Master at St. Paul's School.
=1547-1603. The Age of Elizabeth.= Edited by ARUNDELL ESDAILE,
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=1603-1660. Puritanism and Liberty.= Edited by KENNETH BELL,
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=1660-1714. A Constitution in Making.= Edited by G. B. PERRETT,
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=1714-1760. Walpole and Chatham.= Edited by K. A. ESDAILE.
=1760-1801. American Independence and the French Revolution.=
Edited by S. E. WINBOLT, M.A.
=1801-1815. England and Napoleon.= Edited by S. E. WINBOLT, M.A.
=1815-1837. Peace and Reform.= Edited by A. C. W. EDWARDS,
Assistant Master at Christ's Hospital.
=1876-1887. Imperialism and Mr. Gladstone.= Edited by R. H.
GRETTON.
=1535-Present-day. Canada.= Edited by H. F. MUNRO, M.A.
_Other volumes, covering the whole range of English History
from Roman Britain to 1887, are in active preparation, and will
be issued at short intervals._
LONDON: G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.
PEACE AND REFORM
(1815--1837)
COMPILED BY
A. C. W. EDWARDS
ASSISTANT MASTER AT CHRIST'S HOSPITAL
[Illustration: (Publisher's colophon)]
LONDON
G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.
1913
INTRODUCTION
This series of English History Source Books is intended for use
with any ordinary textbook of English History. Experience has
conclusively shown that such apparatus is a valuable--nay, an
indispensable--adjunct to the history lesson. It is capable of
two main uses: either by way of lively illustration at the close
of a lesson, or by way of inference-drawing, before the textbook
is read, at the beginning of the lesson. The kind of problems
and exercises that may be based on the documents are legion, and
are admirably illustrated in a _History of England for Schools_,
Part I., by Keatinge and Frazer, pp. 377-381. However, we have no
wish to prescribe for the teacher the manner in which he shall
exercise his craft, but simply to provide him and his pupils with
materials hitherto not readily accessible for school purposes. The
very moderate price of the books in this series should bring them
within the reach of every secondary school. Source books enable
the pupil to take a more active part than hitherto in the history
lesson. Here is the apparatus, the raw material: its use we leave
to teacher and taught.
Our belief is that the books may profitably be used by all grades
of historical students between the standards of fourth-form boys
in secondary schools and undergraduates at Universities. What
differentiates students at one extreme from those at the other is
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they can read into or extract from it.
In regard to choice of subject-matter, while trying to satisfy the
natural demand for certain "stock" documents of vital importance,
we hope to introduce much fresh and novel matter. It is our
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and poems, diaries, debates, and newspaper accounts. Economics,
London, municipal, and social life generally, and local history,
are represented in these pages.
The order of the extracts is strictly chronological, each being
numbered, titled, and dated, and its authority given. The text
is modernised, where necessary, to the extent of leaving no
difficulties in reading.
We shall be most grateful to teachers and students who may send us
suggestions for improvement.
S. E. WINBOLT.
KENNETH BELL.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
1816. THE DEBT _Cobbett's "Rural Rides"_ 1
THE BARBARY PIRATES _Lord Sidmouth's "Life
and Correspondence"_ 2
THE HOLY ALLIANCE "_Annual Register_" 2
THE STATE OF IRELAND _Doubleday's "Life of
Sir Robert Peel"_ 5
1818. THE STATE OF ENGLAND _Lord Sidmouth's "Life
and Correspondence"_ 8
PARISH REGISTERS "_The London Medical
Repository_" 11
1819. PETERLOO _Lord Sidmouth's "Life
and Correspondence"_ 14
THE STATE OF ENGLAND _Shelley's "Poems"_ 20
THE CATO STREET CONSPIRACY "_Annual Register_" 20
1820. THE DEATH OF GEORGE III. _Lord Colchester's "Diary
and Correspondence_" 24
THE KING'S SPEECH "_Annual Register_" 25
THE CHARACTER OF JOHN BULL _Washington Irving's
"Sketch Book"_ 27
1821. THE DEATH OF NAPOLEON "_The Gentleman's
Magazine_" 29
NAPOLEON _Shelley's "Poems"_ 31
NAPOLEON AND ENGLAND _Lord Tennyson's "Early
Sonnets"_ 32
1823. THE MONROE DOCTRINE "_Annual Register_" 33
SLAVERY _Stapleton's "Life of
Canning"_ 34
THE STATE OF IRELAND _Lord Colchester's "Diary
and Correspondence"_ 35
TRANSPORTATION "_The Edinburgh Review_" 38
1824. THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON AND _GLEIG'S "LIFE OF THE
HIS SONS Duke of Wellington"_ 39
1825. FREE TRADE _Cobbett's "Rural Rides"_ 41
FINANCIAL CRISIS _Doubleday's "Life of Sir
Robert Peel"_ 44
1826. THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF _MARTINEAU'S "HISTORY
SPAIN of the Peace"_ 47
THE REMOVAL OF TRADE _Stapleton's "Life of
RESTRICTIONS Canning"_ 49
PORTUGUESE APPEAL FOR AID _STAPLETON'S "LIFE OF
AGAINST SPAIN Canning"_ 53
MR. CANNING AND THE PORTUGUESE _STAPLETON'S "LIFE OF
APPEAL Canning"_ 54
1827. LIFE OF CONVICT-SERVANTS IN "_THE LONDON MAGAZINE_" 56
AUSTRALIA
INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE IV. _Lord Colchester's "Diary
and Correspondence"_ 58
THE TREATY OF LONDON _Stapleton's "Life of
Canning"_ 60
THE BATTLE OF NAVARINO "_The Gentleman's
Magazine_" 62
1828. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION _Stanhope and Cardwell's
"Memoirs of Peel"_ 66
IRISH UNREST _Stanhope and Cardwell's
"Memoirs of Peel"_ 69
1829. CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION "_Annual Register_" 70
1830. DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S SUPPOSED _GLEIG'S "LIFE OF THE
DESIGNS ON THE CROWN Duke of Wellington"_ 72
HEAVY TAXATION _Cobbett's "Rural Rides"_ 73
RAILWAY CARRIAGES "_The Gentleman's
Magazine_" 75
DEATH OF HUSKISSON "_The Gentleman's
Magazine_" 77
THE USE OF CLOSE BOROUGHS _Gleig's "Life of the
Duke of Wellington"_ 79
1831. LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S SPEECH _MOLESWORTH'S "HISTORY
ON REFORM BILL of the Reform Bill"_ 82
THE PASSING OF THE REFORM _MACAULAY'S "LIFE AND
BILL Letters"_ 87
PROROGATION OF ANTI-REFORM _MOLESWORTH'S "HISTORY
PARLIAMENT of the Reform Bill"_ 89
PARLIAMENTARY REFORM _Lord Macaulay's
"Speeches"_ 94
1832. BATTLE SONG _Ebenezer Elliott's
"Poems"_ 95
1833. REPEAL OF THE UNION _Lord Macaulay's
"Speeches"_ 96
JEWISH DISABILITIES _Lord Macaulay's
"Speeches"_ 98
1834. STRIKES _Duke of Buckingham's
"Memoirs"_ 101
1835. O'CONNELL AND THE HOUSE OF _MARTINEAU'S "HISTORY
LORDS of the Peace"_ 102
1836. THE FACTORY SYSTEM _Fielden's "Curse of the
Factory System"_ 103
THE EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN _Fielden's "Curse of the
Factory System"_ 107
THE POLICE _Mullin's "Magistracy
of England"_ 110
THE KING AND THE CANADIAN "_THE EDINBURGH REVIEW_" 113
QUESTION
STATISTICS OF GREAT BRITAIN _Porter's "Party Tables"_ 116
AND IRELAND
PEACE AND REFORM
(1815--1837)
THE DEBT (1816).
=Source.=--William Cobbett's _Rural Rides_, ed. by Mr. Pitt
Cobbett, 1885.
_Letter to Mr. Jabet of the "Birmingham Register," Nov., 1816._
The reformers have yet many and powerful foes; we have to contend
against a host, such as never existed before in the world.
Nine-tenths of the Press, all the channels of speedy communication
of sentiment; all the pulpits; all the associations of rich people;
all the taxing people; all the military and naval establishments;
all the yeomanry cavalry tribes. Your allies are endless in number
and mighty in influence. But we have _one ally_ worth the whole
of them put together, namely the DEBT! This is an ally whom no
honours or rewards can seduce from us. She is a steady, unrelaxing,
persevering, incorruptible ally. An ally that is proof against
all blandishments, all intrigues, all temptations, and all open
attacks. She sets at defiance all '_military_,' all '_yeomanry
cavalry_.' They may as well fire at a ghost. She cares no more for
the sabres of the yeomanry or the life guards than Milton's angels
did for the swords of Satan's myrmidons. This ally cares not a
straw about _spies_ and _informers_. She laughs at the employment
of _secret-service money_. She is always erect, day and night,
and is always firmly moving on in our cause, in spite of all the
terrors of gaols, dungeons, halters and axes. Therefore, Mr.
Jabet, be not so pert. The combat is not so unequal as you seem
to imagine; and, confident and insolent as you are now, the day of
your humiliation may not be far distant."
THE BARBARY PIRATES (1816).
=Source.=--_Life and Correspondence of Lord Sidmouth_, by Dean
Pellew. Vol. III. p. 142. London, 1847.
_Letter from Viscount Exmouth on defeat of Barbary Pirates._
"Queen Charlotte,
Algier's Bay, August 30th, 1816.
"My dear Lord Sidmouth,
"I perfectly remember, in your office, pledging myself to you for
the destruction of the Algerine navy. I am happy to inform you
I have redeemed my pledge, and am in whole bones, as is also my
opponent the Dey. His chastisement, however, has humbled him to the
dust; and he would receive me, if I chose it, on the Mole, upon his
knees.
"You will readily believe how much I regret the sad loss we have
sustained: 883 out of 6500 is a large proportion; but we were
exposed to almost a complete circle of fire. I can only enclose
you the copy of my memorandum to-day to the fleet, and beg you to
believe that I consider this the happiest event of my fortunate
life. One thousand liberated slaves, just arrived from the country
whither the Dey had driven them, are now cheering on the Mole. The
consul has been cruelly treated, and the Dey been compelled to beg
his pardon, before his full court, by the dictation of my captain.
"God bless you, my dear Lord. I hope to reach England before
October, and am ever your most faithful friend and servant,
"EXMOUTH."
THE HOLY ALLIANCE (1816).
=Source.=--_Annual Register, 1816._
The hon. member rose to move for the production of a copy of the
treaty concluded at Paris on September 26th between Austria,
Russia, and Prussia. By the tenor of this treaty, expressed in the
most devout and solemn language, the three potentates, members of
three different Christian churches, declared in the face of the
world their resolution both in the administration of their own
states, and in their political relations with other Governments,
to take for their sole guide the precepts of the holy religion
taught by our Saviour. In consequence, they signed an agreement
to three articles, the first of which bound them to a fraternity
of mutual friendship and assistance, and the common protection of
religion, peace and justice, which in the second was explained in
a kind of mystical strain, to notify that they regarded themselves
as delegated by Providence to govern three branches of one and the
same Christian nation, of which the Divine Being under his three
characters was the sole real sovereign; and the third declared a
readiness to receive into this holy alliance all the powers who
should solemnly avow the sacred principles which had dictated it.
Politicians were much at a loss to conceive the occasion and
purpose of a treaty, at the same time so serious and so indefinite,
which appeared to bind the subscribers to nothing more than to
act upon those general principles which, as Christian princes,
they had always held forth as the rule of their conduct. It was
understood that its immediate cause was an impression made upon the
mind of the emperor Alexander, whose peculiar zeal in the project
was displayed by a manifesto issued on Christmas day, and signed
by his own hand, in which he made public the engagement which the
three powers had entered into, and which he interpreted to be a
reciprocal league of peace and amity upon Christian principles for
the general good.
_Mr. Brougham_ prefaced his motion with reasons why he thought it
material that inquiry should be made respecting the above treaty,
instancing the circumstances of its having been contracted by
three powers, our allies, without our participation; of its having
received the signatures of the sovereigns themselves, whereas all
other treaties had been ratified by the medium of diplomatic
agents; of being apparently uncalled for, since the attachment
of the contracting parties to the Christian religion had never
been questioned. He adverted to the union of the same powers for
the partition of Poland, on which occasion the empress Catherine
had employed in the proclamations language similar to that of the
treaty.
He concluded by moving an address to the Prince Regent, that he
would be pleased to give directions that a copy of the treaty would
be laid before the House.
_Lord Castlereagh_ who had previously admitted to the authenticity
of the document moved for, after adducing, from the result of the
preceding union of these sovereigns, arguments against regarding
them with suspicion, informed the hon. gentlemen, that instead
of any secrecy in their proceedings on the present occasion, the
emperor of Russia had communicated to him a draft of the proposed
treaty, he believed, before it had been communicated to the other
sovereigns; and that after its signature a joint-letter had been
addressed by them to the Prince Regent, stating the grounds on
which it had been concluded, and anxiously desiring his accession
to it: that his Royal Highness in reply had expressed his
satisfaction at the nature of the treaty, and his assurance that
the British Government would not be the one least disposed to act
up to its principles. His lordship then went into a panegyric of
the emperor of Russia, and finally characterised the motion as
wholly unnecessary and of dangerous tendency if the confederacy
could be shaken by attempts to degrade the sovereigns of Europe by
unfounded imputations.
On a division of the House, the motion was rejected by a majority
of 104 to 30.
The public opinion concerning this extraordinary treaty seems to
have corresponded with that expressed by the hon. _Mr. Bennet_ in
his speech: "that the only motive which the noble lord could have
for refusing its production was, that he was ashamed of it and of
our allies."
THE STATE OF IRELAND (1816).
=Source.=--_The Political Life of Sir Robert Peel_, by Thomas
Doubleday. London, 1856. Vol. I. pp. 169-172.
In the course of a debate on the army estimates in February, 1816,
the Irish Secretary entered into the following extraordinary
details on the employment of the soldiery in Ireland in the
suppression of illicit distillation, as well as of insurrectionary
movements in the wilder districts of Ireland:
"It must not be forgotten (said Mr. Peel) that the employment
of a military force in Ireland, under existing circumstances,
is calculated to save the government of that country from the
necessity of recurring to those measures of civil rigour which
parliament had sanctioned with its approbation. In some districts,
where the military was not employed, they had been compelled to
suspend trial by jury, under the operation of the Insurrection Act;
but every one would allow that it was better to deter from the
commission of crime than to transport for it. If they could succeed
in deterring these, there was not the necessity to proclaim certain
districts. What he asserted was no visionary speculation. Events,
such as he now described, were passing at that moment. The Act to
which he alluded had been applied to several baronies in Tipperary,
upon the unanimous application of forty of the magistrates. He
believed he was right in saying the unanimous application. In some
cases, indeed, it had been refused; but he knew as a fact, that
not less than seventy-six magistrates of that county, united for
the paramount object of maintaining the public peace, had applied
to government for the application of that bill. A similar course
had been pursued in the county of Westmeath. It was proposed
in some counties to remove the soldiers; but the answer was by
the magistrates, 'If you remove the troops you must give us the
Insurrection Act, as it will be impossible to do without it.' Even
on constitutional grounds, therefore, and as calculated to prevent
a recurrence to these really severe measures, he would venture to
appeal to the House for its approbation of the alternative of
employing the military to aid the civil power. With respect to
its employment in another way, by doing the duty of custom-house
officers, he wished to observe that this system had prevailed
in Ireland at least as far back as in 1799. At that period, a
regulation for the employment of a military force in that service
was adopted. It was stated to be imperatively necessary for the
suppression of illicit distillation; and it was further ordered,
that any officer hesitating to employ his men on that service
should be brought to a court-martial for disobedience of orders.
He stated that, to prove the propriety of a remark made at the
commencement of his address, that even if it should be thought that
the introduction of a military force was a vicious practice, it
was at all events unavoidable without the accomplishment of other
essential reforms.
"He should now state the extent to which the military arm had been
so employed, and in order also to show that it had not been the
policy of one single government merely, he should mention that, in
1806, under the government of the honourable gentlemen opposite,
448 military parties were employed in detecting and frustrating the
practice of illicit distillation; in 1807 there were 598 military
parties; in 1808 there were 431; in later periods still more; and
in the half-year ending the 31st December, 1815, there were 1889.
No one, he presumed, would deny that the morals and habits of the
lower classes were not only corrupted by the dreadful extent to
which that illicit distillation was carried, but that the laws
of the country were violated, and that the revenue was greatly
diminished by it. In order that the House might be enabled to judge
of the character of those who carried on those practices, as well
as of the danger attending their detection or apprehension, he
would mention one circumstance that came within his own knowledge.
In a district in the north-west of Ireland well known to the
gentlemen of that country as one where illicit distillation is
carried on to an enormous excess, frequent seizures were made by
parties of twenty to forty men, who generally had to risk an actual
engagement with the offenders. In one instance he recollected the
soldiers were fired at, and no less than two hundred rounds of
musketry were discharged in their own defence. They succeeded in
their seizures, however, but on their return were again attacked,
their seizures taken from them, and they themselves obliged to seek
shelter in a house on the road, where they maintained a contest
with the assailants till they were relieved by two hundred men who
were marched to their assistance. Such occurrences sufficiently
showed the necessity of employing a military force, but he would
again guard against its being supposed that he considered these
temporary remedies as at all calculated to afford any permanent
relief. He was as fully convinced of their inadequacy in that
respect as any honourable member could be; but whilst that
disposition to turbulence existed, would it be contended that the
crimes connected with it ought to go unpunished? Would it be said
that desperate bands that roamed about the country at night ought
to remain unmolested?
"Perhaps it would be said that the course of policy hitherto
pursued in Ireland was a bad one. Let that be granted, then, for
the sake of argument; still, was it possible to remove the evils of
that bad and imperfect policy in an hour--or by the 25th of April?
Would it be possible, even to gentlemen opposite, to change on a
sudden the whole habits and manners of so large a class of the
community, and to introduce, as by magic, a radical and effectual
reform? It was utterly impossible. He was perfectly satisfied of
the inefficiency of these temporary remedies, but meanwhile the
hand of the robber must be arrested, or else the whole frame of
civilized society must be now dissolved, and a residence in Ireland
be rendered absolutely impracticable. He was of opinion that good
might be done in that country by a reformation of the police, and
he should prefer an army of police if he might so call it, to a
military army. He deeply regretted the very imperfect character
of the police in Ireland. Since he had the honour of filling
the station he occupied, he had turned much of his attention
to the subject of police, and proposed alterations which the
House had sanctioned. Real, substantial, and permanent reform,
however, amongst the lower classes, could be looked for only from
the general diffusion of knowledge, and from enlightening their
minds. From such sources of reform he anticipated the grandest
and the noblest results. (Hear, hear, hear.) He could state it as
a fact within his own knowledge, that the greatest eagerness for
instruction prevailed amongst the lower classes. It was the duty
of every one, even in these times of economy, not to obstruct the
progress or the limits of education, which ought to be as widely as
possible diffused. It would be infinitely better for Ireland and
for this country to have a well instructed and enlightened Catholic
population than an ignorant and a bigoted one!"
Hansard's _Debates_, Vol. XXXII. pp. 926, 1816.
THE STATE OF ENGLAND (1818).
=Source.=--_Life and Correspondence of Lord Sidmouth_, by Dean
Pellew. Vol. III. p. 242. London, 1847.
_Letter from Earl of Sheffield to Lord Sidmouth._
"Sheffield Place, Dec. 13th, 1818.
"My dear Lord,
"Although I doubt not your Lordship has ample information, I
cannot resist the pleasure of communicating the very satisfactory
accounts I have received from different parts, of the state of
trade and manufactures, and particularly from the neighbourhood
of Birmingham, Warwickshire, and Staffordshire. Both trade and
manufactures are in a flourishing condition, and likely to improve
still further. There appears to be little speculation beyond the
regular demands of the different markets, men without adequate
capital finding it almost impossible to procure credit; so that
there is now no disposition to force a trade, and no injurious
competition among the merchants to procure the execution of orders,
and, consequently, wages are fair and reasonable. I conceive that
things cannot be in a much better train either for the merchant or
manufacturer, not so for the constitution or agriculture of the
country: the first, I fear, is _en décadence_; the case, however,
of the latter is somewhat better than it was, though far short of
that of the trading part of the community. The demand for land is
considerably increased, but in many instances at reduced rents.
Agriculture, the most essential of all concerns, is so extremely
depressed by the great increase of tithes and of parochial rates,
that I cannot refrain from being its strenuous advocate: and so
strongly am I impressed with the evil consequences of the excessive
load of such taxation on the landed interests, and particularly
on the occupiers in the southern and midland parts of England,
that it is wonderful to me that agriculture has not been in those
districts annihilated; and there is nothing of which I am more
thoroughly convinced than the necessity of affording it every
relief and encouragement possible. I do not conceive that the
subject of the corn laws can be renewed at present with advantage.
The ignorance and supineness of the landowners generally is so
excessive; the violence of the middling and lower classes so
overbearing; the use made of it by the popularity hunters of all
descriptions so pernicious and vile; the fears of government so
great, and at the same time so natural, that, upon the whole, I do
not entertain a hope of any beneficial results from any efforts
that are now making, or may be made, for a considerable time. It
is greatly to be regretted, however, that in the last correction
of the corn laws, foreign grain, under any circumstances, should
be admitted duty free; it would have been sufficient to have
lowered the import duties, as to wheat, when the price in our
market was 5l. per quarter; but I by no means wish ministers so
soon to be embroiled again on that subject, nor do I think, earnest
as I am on this head, that this is the proper time to renew the
discussion, or to attempt a change with respect to the duties.
I would not, however, wish to damp the ardour of those who urge
the principle, that every thing arising from the soil, and every
manufacture of the country, should be protected by adequate import
duties; as that principle is generally observed with regard to
every article except wool, and must be in a country so heavily
tithed, and necessarily burdened with such an extraordinary degree
of taxation. Previously to the year 1793, no direct or assessed
tax, affecting agriculture, was tolerated, and surely it is now
expedient, whenever possible, to relinquish those taxes which
particularly affect that most essential interest of the country,
and to adopt such other measures as will enable it to support
the heavy imposts which fall upon it. The legislature might now
show attention to the grievances of the occupiers of land, by
relinquishing all the direct taxes imposed on agriculture during
the late war; and it will only be common justice to protect the
wool of the country from being debased in value, by the import
of wool from every part of the world free of duty, and it is not
difficult to demonstrate that a moderate duty on the import of
foreign wool would not affect, even in a slight degree, the great
mass of our woollen manufacture.... The levity of the public on
the most interesting and important subjects is often not only very
extraordinary, but even ridiculous. The well-founded alarm on
the ruinous and impolitic management of the poor, which appeared
to make a deep and general impression, seems now to be forgotten
except by the oppressed occupiers of lands, who so severely feel
the effects of it. The public mind is not yet ripe for such a great
measure as might prove an effectual remedy; but in the meantime I
think something might be done. Is your Lordship disposed to repeal
all the laws relating to the poor (heterogeneous, discordant,
impracticable, unintelligible, and absurd as they are), to the 43d
of Elizabeth, and to re-enact all those parts of them which the
circumstances of the times may require (defining the powers of the
magistrates, the parish officers, and the claims of the poor), and
form them into a regular intelligible code? for I verily believe
there is not one magistrate, nor any clerk (who governs him) who
is acquainted with them all. I believe I am one of the oldest
magistrates in the kingdom, being in my fiftieth year, and yet I
have never met with any man who seemed fully acquainted with them.
If an intelligent select committee, having a practical knowledge
of the subject (without which the ablest men are not competent to
it), could be induced to undertake this work, I have no doubt but
that a law could be so framed as to lead to a great amelioration
of our present vile system, if not gradually to a complete remedy.
But I must not impose more of my notions on your Lordship. You
must be now quite tired of me. If you think there is any thing in
this letter worthy of Lord Liverpool's attention, I wish it to
be communicated to him; but as I inflicted on his Lordship some
time ago a large dose respecting the poor, I refrain from a direct
communication. I am, seemingly, as well as ever I was; but I must
not risk myself in town before the end of March, except for two
nights on the meeting of parliament, in order to take my seat and
enable me to leave a proxy. I have the honour to be, with very
sincere regard, my dear Lord, most truly your Lordship's faithful
servant,
"SHEFFIELD."
PARISH REGISTERS (1818).
=Source.=--_The London Medical Repository_, Vol. X. p. 267.
_George Man Burrows on Parish Registers._
But I must reiterate, that it will be a work of supererogation
to offer either remarks or proposals for establishing improved
registers of marriages, births, baptisms, burials, diseases, &c. or
for attaining any of the other objects upon which I have dilated,
unless all denominations of religion in the whole of the united
kingdom be included.
On recapitulation, it appears that the principal defects in the
present system are:
1. Registers of marriages, births, baptisms, and burials, or bills
of mortality are not kept in every place of religious worship; nor
in hospitals and infirmaries having private burying-grounds.
2. Children who die unbaptized are not entered in any register or
bill of mortality.
3. Registers of baptism do not set forth the place and date of
birth.
4. Registers of burial do not specify where a person died, as well
as where he lived, nor his condition, whether single, married, or
widowed.
5. There is no certificate provided, showing in what parish a
person died, with other necessary particulars, as to age, the
disease, &c.
6. A corpse may be removed from a parish within the bills of
mortality of London to one without, and the burial be omitted in
the returns.
7. There is no medical authority for ascertaining and certifying
the nature of the disease of which a person died, &c.
8. The names of diseases in the bills of mortality are either
unintelligible, or so arranged as to confound diseases very
distinct in their characters.
9. In respect to ages, the periods are injudiciously divided; so
that many of the purposes to which the bills are applicable in
medical and political science are defeated.
10. The law enforcing the keeping of Registers is defective; and
does not adequately regard political, civil, or medical information.
11. All parishes and places of worship within that circle
denominated the bills of mortality of London, are not included in
the weekly or general annual returns; nor is there any existing
authority to enforce their being made, and regularly entered.
* * * * *
Among some of the advantages in medical, political, and moral
science, which would result, were proper parochial registers and
bills of mortality established and kept throughout the united
kingdom, the following present:
I. MEDICALLY.--They point out:
1. The causes of many diseases, and their affinity to one another.
2. The rise, situation, increase, decrease, and cessation of
epidemic and contagious diseases.
3. The means of guarding against their extension and effects.
4. The comparative healthiness of different countries and places,
climates and seasons.
5. The influence of particular trades and manufactures on the human
constitution.
6. They elucidate many important and dubious medical points
essential to the perfection of the preventive and curative arts.
II. POLITICALLY.--They are a means:
1. Of ascertaining the increment or decrement of the population in
every place, and at any period.
2. Of accurately ascertaining the population of the country, and at
any period.
3. Of diminishing, if not nearly superseding, the immense expense
incurred by a census.
4. Of obviating the difficulties, great expense, and frequent
disappointment in proving marriages, births, baptisms, and burials,
to which persons who are desirous of establishing legal proof of
their identity, descent, consanguinity, &c. are still exposed.
5. The present extensive and beneficial system of assurance on
lives, reversionary payments, annuities, and legacy duties on the
latter species of testamentary property, is founded on calculations
deduced from numerous bills of mortality.
6. The prosperity or decay of commerce, manufactures, or trade of
any place, is shown by comparing bills of mortality of different
dates.
III. MORALLY.--They mark:
1. The prevalence of moral or licentious habits.
2. The diseases of which the inhabitants of a place die; and,
consequently, those arising from luxury or intemperance.
3. The effects of the passions on human actions.
4. By knowing where they are most required, the means of correcting
such effects may be the more effectually applied.
PETERLOO (1819).
=Source.=--_Life and Correspondence of Lord Sidmouth_, by Dean
Pellew. Vol. III. p. 253. London, 1847.
_Letter of Sir Wm. Jolliffe to Thos. G. B. Estcourt._
"9 St. James's Place, April 11th, 1845.
"My dear Sir,
"Twenty-five years have passed since the collision unfortunately
occurred between the population of Manchester and its
neighbourhood, and the military stationed in that town, on the 16th
of August, 1819.
"I was at that time a lieutenant in the 15th King's Hussars,
which regiment had been quartered in Manchester cavalry barracks
about six weeks. This was my first acquaintance with a large
manufacturing population. I had little knowledge of the condition
of that population; whether or no a great degree of distress was
then prevalent, or whether or no the distrust and bad feeling,
which appeared to exist between the employers and employed, was
wholly or in part caused by the agitation of political questions.
I will not, therefore, enter into any speculations upon these
points; but I will endeavour to narrate the facts which fell under
my own observation, although acting, as of course I was, under the
command of others, and in a subordinate situation. The military
force stationed in Manchester consisted of six troops of the 15th
Hussars, under the command of Colonel Dalrymple; one troop of horse
artillery, with two guns, under Major Dyneley; nearly the whole
of the 31st regiment, under Colonel Guy L'Estrange (who commanded
the whole force as senior officer). Some companies of the 88th
regiment, and the Cheshire yeomanry, had also been brought into
the town, in anticipation of disturbances which might result from
the expected meeting; and these latter had only arrived on the
morning of the 16th, or a few hours previously; and, lastly, there
was a troop of Manchester yeomanry cavalry, consisting of about
forty members, who, from the manner in which they were made use of
(to say the least), greatly aggravated the disasters of the day.
Their ranks were filled chiefly by wealthy master manufacturers;
and, without the knowledge which would have been possessed by a
(strictly speaking) military body, they were placed, most unwisely,
as it appeared, under the immediate command and orders of the civil
authorities.
"Our regiment paraded in field-exercise order at about half-past
eight, or, it might be, nine o'clock a.m. Two squadrons of it were
marched into the town about ten o'clock. They were formed up and
dismounted in a wide street, the name of which I forget, to the
north of St. Peter's Field (the place appointed for the meeting),
and at the distance of nearly a quarter of a mile from it. The
Cheshire yeomanry were formed, on our left, in the same street. One
troop of our regiment was attached to the artillery, which took up
a position between the cavalry barracks and the town; and one troop
remained in charge of the barracks.
"The two squadrons with which I was stationed must have remained
dismounted nearly two hours. During the greater portion of that
period, a solid mass of people continued moving along a street
about a hundred yards to our front, on their way to the place of
meeting. Other officers, as well as myself, occasionally rode to
the front (to the end of a street) to see them pass. They marched,
at a brisk pace, in ranks well closed up, five or six bands of
music being interspersed; and there appeared to be but few women
with them. Mr. Hunt, with two or three other men, and, I think, two
women dressed in light blue and white, were in an open carriage,
drawn by the people. This carriage was adorned with blue and white
flags; and the day was fine and hot. As soon as the great bulk
of the procession had passed, we were ordered to stand to our
horses. In a very short time afterwards the four troops of the
15th mounted, and at once moved off by the right, at a trot which
was increased to a canter. Some one who had been sent from the
place of meeting to bring us up led the way, through a number of
narrow streets and by a circuitous route, to (what I will call)
the south-west corner of St. Peter's Field. We advanced along the
south side of this space of ground, without a halt or pause even:
the words 'Front!' and 'Forward!' were given, and the trumpet
sounded the charge at the very moment the threes wheeled up. When
fronted, our line extended quite across the ground, which, in all
parts, was so filled with people that their hats seemed to touch.
"It was then, for the first time, that I saw the Manchester troop
of yeomanry: they were scattered singly, or in small groups, over
the greater part of the field, literally hemmed up, and hedged into
the mob, so that they were powerless either to make an impression
or to escape; in fact, they were in the power of those whom they
were designed to overawe; and it required only a glance to discover
their helpless position, and the necessity of our being brought
to their rescue. As I was, at the time, informed, this hopeless
state of things happened thus: A platform had been erected near the
centre of the field, from which Mr. Hunt and others were to address
the multitude; and the magistrates, having ordered a strong body of
constables to be in readiness to arrest the speakers, unfortunately
imagined that they should support the peace officers by bringing up
this troop of yeomanry _at a walk_. The result of this movement,
instead of that which the magistrates desired, was unexpectedly
to place this small body of horsemen (so introduced into a dense
mob) entirely at the mercy of the people by whom they were, on all
sides, pressed upon and surrounded.
"The charge of the hussars, to which I have just alluded, swept
this mingled mass of human beings before it: people, yeoman and
constables, in their confused attempts to escape, ran one over the
other; so that by the time we had arrived at the end of the field,
the fugitives were literally piled up to a considerable elevation
above the level of the ground. (I may here, by the way, state that
this field, as it is called, was merely an open space of ground,
surrounded by buildings and itself, I rather think, in course of
being built upon.) The hussars drove the people forward with the
flats of their swords; but sometimes, as is almost inevitably the
case when men are placed in such situations, the edge was used,
both by the hussars, and, as I have heard, by the yeomen also; but
of this latter fact, however, I was not cognisant; and believing
though I do, that nine out of ten of the sabre wounds were caused
by the hussars, I must still consider that it redounds highly to
the humane forbearance of the men of the 15th that more wounds were
not received, when the vast numbers are taken into consideration
with whom they were brought into hostile collision; beyond all
doubt, however, the far greater amount of injuries arose from the
pressure of the routed multitude. The hussars on the left, pursued
down the various streets which led from the place; those on the
right met with something more of resistance. The mob had taken
possession of various buildings on that side, particularly of a
Quaker's chapel and burial-ground enclosed with a wall. This they
occupied for some little time; and, in attempting to displace them,
some of the men and horses were struck with stones and brick-bats.
I was on the left; and as soon as I had passed completely over
the ground, and found myself in the street on the other side, I
turned back, and then, seeing a sort of fight still going on on
the right, I went in that direction. At the very moment I reached
the Quaker's meeting-house, I saw a farrier of the 15th ride at a
small door in the outer wall, and, to my surprise, his horse struck
it with such force that it flew open: two or three hussars then
rode in, and the place was immediately in their possession. I then
turned towards the elevated platform, which still remained in the
centre of the field with persons upon it: a few struggling hussars
and yeomen, together with a number of men having the appearance
of peace officers, were congregating upon it. On my way thither
I met the commanding officer of my regiment, who directed me to
find a trumpeter, in order that he might sound the 'rally' or
'retreat.' This sent me again down the street I had first been in
(after the pursuing men of my troop); but I had not ridden above
a hundred yards before I found a trumpeter, and returned with him
to the Colonel. The field and the adjacent streets now presented
an extraordinary sight: the ground was quite covered with hats,
shoes, sticks, musical instruments, and other things. Here and
there lay the unfortunates who were too much injured to move away;
and this sight was rendered the more distressing by observing some
women among the sufferers.
"Standing near the corner of the street where I had been sent in
search of a trumpeter, a brother officer called my attention to
a pistol being fired from a window. I saw it fired twice; and I
believe it had been fired once before I observed it.
"Some of the 31st regiment, just now arriving on the ground, were
ordered to take possession of this house; but I do not know if it
was carried into effect.
"I next went towards a private of the regiment, whose horse had
fallen over a piece of timber nearly in the middle of the square,
and who was most seriously injured. There were many of these
pieces of timber (or timber trees) lying upon the ground; and as
these could not be distinguished when the mob covered them, they
had caused bad falls to one officer's horse and to many of the
troopers'.
"While I was attending to the removal of the wounded soldier, the
artillery troop, with the troop of hussars attached to it, arrived
on the ground from the same direction by which we had entered the
field: these were quickly followed by the Cheshire yeomanry. The
31st regiment came in another direction; and the whole remained
formed up until our squadrons had fallen in again.
"Carriages were brought to convey the wounded to the Manchester
Infirmary; and the troop of hussars, which came up with the guns,
was marched off to escort to the gaol a number of persons who had
been arrested, and among these Mr. Hunt. For some time the town was
patrolled by the troops, the streets being nearly empty, and the
shops, for the most part, closed. We then returned to the barracks.
I should not omit to mention, that, before the men were dismissed,
the arms were minutely examined; and that no carbine or pistol
was found to have been fired, and only one pistol to have been
loaded. About eight o'clock p.m., one squadron of the 15th Hussars
(two troops) was ordered on duty to form part of a strong night
picket, the other part of which consisted of two companies of the
88th regiment. This picket was stationed at a place called the New
Cross, at the end of Oldham Street. As soon as it had taken up its
position a mob assembled about it, which increased as the darkness
came on: stones were thrown at the soldiers; the hussars many times
cleared the ground by driving the mob up the streets leading from
the New Cross. But these attempts to get rid of the annoyance were
only successful for the moment; for the people got through the
houses or narrow passages from one street into another, and the
troops were again attacked, and many men and horses struck with
stones. This lasted nearly an hour and a half; and the soldiers
being more and more pressed upon, a town magistrate, who was with
the picket, read the Riot Act, and the officer in command ordered
the 88th to fire (which they did by platoon firing) down three of
the streets. The firing lasted only a few minutes: perhaps not
more than thirty shots were fired; but these had a magical effect:
the mob ran away, and dispersed forthwith, leaving three or four
persons on the ground with gun-shot wounds.
"At four o'clock in the morning the picket squadron was relieved
by another squadron of the regiment. With this latter squadron I
was on duty; and after we had patrolled the town for two hours, the
officer in command sent me to the magistrates (who had remained
assembled during the night), to report to them that the town was
perfectly quiet, and to request their sanction to the return of the
military to their quarters.
"On the afternoon of the 17th I visited, in company with some
military medical officers, the infirmary. I saw there from twelve
to twenty cases of sabre wounds; several persons that were severely
crushed, and, among these, two women, who appeared not likely to
recover. One man was in a dying state from a gun-shot wound in the
head; another had had his leg amputated: both these casualties
arose from the fire of the 88th the night before. Two or three were
reputed dead; one of them, a constable, killed in St. Peter's
Field; but I saw none of the bodies.
"As shortly as I could, I have now related what fell under my own
observation during these twenty-four hours.... I trust that I have,
at least in some degree, complied with your wishes; and I beg you
will believe me, my dear Sir, yours most truly,
"WILLM. J. HYLTON JOLLIFFE."
"To Thomas Grimston Bucknall Estcourt,
"Esq., M.P."
STATE OF ENGLAND (1819).
=Source.=--Works of P. B. Shelley.
An old, mad, blind, despised and dying king,--
Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn,--mud from a muddy spring,--
Rulers who neither feel nor see nor know,
But leech-like to their fainting country cling,
Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow,--
A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field,--
An army, which liberticide and prey
Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield,--
Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;
Religion, Christless, Godless--a book sealed;
A Senate--Time's worst statute unrepealed,--
Are graves, from which a glorious phantom may
Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day.
THE CATO STREET CONSPIRACY (1820).
=Source.=--_Annual Register_, 1820, pp. 30-32.
At last, on Saturday, the 19th of February, it was resolved at one
of their meetings, that poverty did not allow them to delay their
purposes any longer, and that, therefore, on the next Wednesday,
the ministers should be murdered separately, each in his own
house. On Sunday they arranged their plans. Forty or fifty men were
to be set apart for the work of murder; and whoever failed through
any fault of his own, in performing the task assigned to him, was
to atone for his failure with his life. Two separate detachments
were at the same time to seize two pieces of cannon stationed in
Gray's-Inn-lane, and six in the artillery ground. The Mansion-house
was to be proclaimed the palace of the provisional government; the
Bank was to be attacked forthwith; and London was to be set fire to
in different quarters.
Meetings were again held on Monday and Tuesday; and on the latter
day, a conspirator, named Edwards, informed Thistlewood, that there
was to be a cabinet dinner on the morrow. Thistlewood, doubting
the information, sent for a newspaper, and finding it announced
that a cabinet dinner was to be given at lord Harrowby's house
in Grosvenor-square on Wednesday evening; "As there has not been
a dinner so long," said he, "there will no doubt be fourteen or
sixteen there, and it will be a rare haul to murder them all
together." According to the fresh arrangements now determined
on, one of their number was to go with a note addressed to
lord Harrowby; when the door was opened to him, a band of the
conspirators were to rush in; and while some seized the servants,
and prevented any one from escaping from the house, others, forcing
their way into the room where the ministers were assembled, were
to murder them without mercy. It was particularly specified, that
the heads of lords Sidmouth and Castlereagh were to be brought
away in a bag. From lord Harrowby's house two of their number were
to proceed to throw fire-balls into the straw-shed of the cavalry
barracks in King-street, while the rest were to co-operate in the
execution of the subsequent parts of the scheme.
In the meantime spies were dispatched to watch lord Harrowby's
house, and to ascertain that no police officers or soldiers were
concealed within it, or close to it. The next day was spent in
preparations. Their weapons and ammunition were put into a state of
readiness, and proclamations were written, which it was intended
to fix to the houses that were to be set on fire. In the course of
the day several of the infatuated wretches met, from time to time,
at the old place of rendezvous; and, towards six in the evening,
they assembled in a stable, situated in an obscure street, called
Cato-street, in the neighbourhood of the Edgware-road. Besides
the stable in the lower part, the building contained two rooms
above, accessible only by a ladder, in the larger of which, a
sentinel having been stationed below, the conspirators mustered,
to the number of twenty-four or twenty-five, all busy in adjusting
their accoutrements by the scanty light of one or two candles, and
exulting in the near approach of the bloody catastrophe.
All their machinations, however, were known to the very men, whom
they hoped within an hour to see lying butchered at their feet. One
of the conspirators, Edwards, had, for some time, been in the pay
of government, to whom he communicated every step that was taken.
A man, too, of the name of Hidon, who had been solicited to enter
into the plot, warned lord Harrowby of it, the day before that
which was fixed for carrying it into execution. The ministers took
no steps which might deter or alarm the ruffians; for it would have
been the height of madness to have stopped them in their career
of guilt. Interruption would have saved them from punishment,
by rendering it impossible to procure evidence of the atrocious
nature of the plot; so that they would have been let loose upon
society, ready to enter into some new scheme of murder, which, by
being intrusted to a smaller, or more select number, or by being
attempted with less delay, might be followed by success. The
preparations for the dinner went on at lord Harrowby's house till
eight in the evening, though, in fact, no dinner was to be given.
In the meantime, a strong party of Bow-street constables, under
the direction of Mr. Birnie, proceeded to Cato-street, where they
were to be met and supported by a detachment of the Coldstream
Guards. The police officers reached the spot about 8 o'clock. They
immediately entered the stable, and, mounting the ladder, found
the conspirators in the loft, on the point of proceeding to the
execution of their scheme. The principal officer called upon them
to surrender. Smithers, one of the constables, pressing forward
to seize Thistlewood, was pierced, by him, through the body, and
immediately fell. The lights in the loft were now extinguished;
some of the conspirators rushed down the ladder, and the officers
along with them; others forced their way out by a window in the
back part of the premises. At this moment, the detachment of the
military arrived, somewhat later than the precise time fixed. Two
of the conspirators, who were in the act of escaping, were seized:
by the joint exertions of the police and soldiers nine in all were
taken that evening, and conveyed to Bow-street. Thistlewood was
among those who had escaped, but he was arrested next morning, in
bed, in a house near Finsbury-square. Some others of them were
seized in the course of the next two days.
On the 27th of March, true bills of indictment for high treason
were found against eleven of the prisoners; and, on the 17th of
April, Thistlewood was put upon his trial. The principal witness
was a conspirator, of the name of Adams, who, having escaped from
Cato-street, had been taken on the following Friday, and had
remained in custody up to the time when he was produced in court to
give evidence. After a trial which lasted three days, the accused
was found guilty on those counts of indictment which charged
him with having conspired to levy, and with having levied war
against the King. Ings, Brunt, Tidd, and Davidson, were afterwards
severally tried and convicted. The remaining six, permission to
withdraw their former plea having been given, pleaded guilty. One
of them, who appeared to have joined the meeting in Cato-street
without being aware of its true purpose, received a pardon; the
other five had their sentence commuted into transportation for
life. Thistlewood, with the four whom we have named, suffered the
sentence of the law, rather glorying in what they had attempted,
and regretting their failure, than repenting of their atrocious
guilt.
THE DEATH OF GEORGE III. (1820).
=Source.=--_The Diary and Correspondence of Charles Abbott, Lord
Colchester._ London, 1861. Vol. III. p. 112.
_Letter from Mr. B. Wilbraham._
"Portland Place, February 7th, 1820.
"My dear Lord,
"I am not aware that I can communicate much more information than
the newspapers, if so much, but as a letter from London at a moment
like the present is supposed to be interesting, I write a few lines.
"The death of the poor King was not expected by the public in
general, but those who were about him saw a rapid change taking
place, and a loathing of nourishment and other symptoms; and when I
was at Windsor three weeks ago, the Duke of York, who had not seen
him for five or six days, was much affected at the change.
"He died without any pain, spoke a short time before his death, and
had no gleam of returning reason, which Dr. Willis then told me
he would not have. Since his death we have been in some danger of
losing the present King, who has been very ill of an inflammation
of the chest, which was cured by his losing 130 ounces of blood.
This loss would have killed you or me, but he is so accustomed
to being bled, that the day after the operation was performed
his pulse was at 84. He is now recovering, but I expect that his
constitution will not be the better for this violent, though
necessary discipline.
"He held a Privy Council two days after the King's death, and was
forced to exert himself, which I believe was rather against him;
but he has not done anything of the sort since, and I hope he will
soon recover his strength.
"No political change has taken place under the circumstances of
the country, but we look forward to a dissolution of Parliament;
and whether it will be early or late, before the ensuing session
of Parliament or after it, it is the question about which we are
very anxious; though I am not of the number, it being a matter of
indifference to me when I visit my Dover[1] friends.
"Brougham, it is said, has sent the Queen a detailed account of
her patronage, which, as you know, is considerable, and a blank
patent for the office of her Attorney-General; when this returns
filled up, he will form a third party in the House of Commons, and
probably will be very troublesome to both the others; though the
Whigs will contrive to agree with him as often as they can.
"You will be glad to hear that we are as peaceable and quiet as
lambs in Lancashire; that seditious printers, drillers at night,
and others were found guilty by the juries at the Manchester
Sessions, and were sentenced to various punishments without a
single murmur being heard in Court. I understand that this implicit
obedience to the laws has produced a sensation of considerable
surprise on the Continent, where people imagined us on the eve of
a revolution. I confess that I imagined we should not have been so
quiet in the North as we are. Hunt and Co., you know, are to be
tried at the Spring Lancashire Assizes....
"The Bank resumed bullion payments on the 1st February, in ingots
(to the amount of £300), commonly called Ricardos; and I understand
that in the first three days only three were applied for. One for
Lord Thanet, one for a country banker, from curiosity, and the
other I know not for whom. The price of gold is from two to three
shillings below the Mint price, which accounts for this little
demand.
"Yours very truly,
"E. B. WILBRAHAM."
THE KING'S SPEECH (1820).
=Source.=--_Annual Register, 1820._ Appendix to Chronicle, p. 749.
_The King's Speech to the New Parliament_ (_Thursday, April 27_).
"My Lords and Gentlemen;
"I have taken the earliest occasion of assembling you here, after
having referred to the sense of my people.
"In meeting you personally, for the first time since the death of
my beloved father, I am anxious to assure you, that I shall always
continue to imitate his great example, in unceasing attention to
the public interests, and in paternal solicitude for the welfare
and happiness of all classes of my subjects.
"I have received from foreign powers renewed assurances of their
friendly disposition, and of their earnest desire to cultivate with
me the relations of peace and amity.
"Gentlemen of the House of Commons;
"The estimates for the present year will be laid before you.
"They have been framed upon principles of strict economy; but it is
to me matter of the deepest regret that the state of the country
has not allowed me to dispense with those additions to our military
force which I announced at the commencement of the last session of
parliament.
"The first object to which your attention will be directed is the
provision to be made for the support of the civil government, and
of the honour and dignity of the crown.
"I leave entirely at your disposal my interest in the hereditary
revenues; and I cannot deny myself the gratification of declaring,
that so far from desiring any arrangement which might lead to
the imposition of new burthens upon my people, or even might
diminish, on my account, the amount of the reductions incident to
my accession to the throne, I can have no wish, under circumstances
like the present, that any addition whatever should be made to the
settlement adopted by parliament in the year 1816.
"My Lords and Gentlemen;
"Deeply as I regret that the machinations and designs of the
disaffected should have led in some parts of the country to
acts of open violence and insurrection, I cannot but express my
satisfaction at the promptitude with which those attempts have been
suppressed by the vigilance and activity of the magistrates, and
by the zealous co-operation of all those of my subjects, whose
exertions have been called forth to support the authority of the
laws.
"The wisdom and firmness manifested by the late parliament, and
the due execution of the laws, have greatly contributed to restore
confidence throughout the kingdom, and to discountenance those
principles of sedition and irreligion which had been disseminated
with such malignant perseverance, and had poisoned the minds of the
ignorant and unwary.
"I rely upon the continued support of parliament in my
determination to maintain, by all the means intrusted to my hands,
the public safety and tranquillity.
"Deploring, as we all must, the distress which still unhappily
prevails among many of the labouring classes of the community,
and anxiously looking forward to its removal or mitigation, it is
in the meantime our common duty effectually to protect the loyal,
the peaceable, and the industrious, against those practices of
turbulence and intimidation by which the period of relief can only
be deferred, and by which the pressure of the distress has been
incalculably aggravated.
"I trust, that an awakened sense of the dangers which they have
incurred, and of the arts which have been employed to seduce
them, will bring back by far the greater part of those who have
been unhappily led astray, and will revive in them that spirit
of loyalty, that due submission to the laws, and that attachment
to the constitution, which subsist unabated in the hearts of the
great body of the people, and which, under the blessing of Divine
Providence, have secured to the British nation the enjoyment of a
larger share of practical freedom, as well as of prosperity and
happiness, than have fallen to the lot of any nation in the world."
THE CHARACTER OF "JOHN BULL" (1820).
=Source.=--Washington Irving's _Sketch Book_. Pp. 237-239. Bohn's
Libraries. G. Bell & Sons, London.
What is worst of all, is the effect which these pecuniary
embarrassments and domestic feuds have had on the poor man
himself. Instead of that jolly round corporation, and snug rosy
face, which he used to present, he has of late become as shrivelled
and shrunk as a frost-bitten apple. His scarlet gold-laced
waistcoat, which bellied out so bravely in those prosperous days
when he sailed before the wind, now hangs loosely about him like
a mainsail in a calm. His leather breeches are all in folds and
wrinkles, and apparently have much ado to hold up the boots that
yawn on both sides of his once sturdy legs.
Instead of strutting about as formerly, with his three-cornered
hat on one side; flourishing his cudgel, and bringing it down
every moment with a hearty thump upon the ground; looking every
one sturdily in the face, and trolling out a stave of a catch or a
drinking song; he now goes about whistling thoughtfully to himself,
with his head drooping down, his cudgel tucked under his arm, and
his hands thrust to the bottom of his breeches pockets, which are
evidently empty.
Such is the plight of honest John Bull at present; yet for all
this, the old fellow's spirit is as tall and as gallant as ever. If
you drop the least expression of sympathy or concern, he takes fire
in an instant; swears that he is the richest and stoutest fellow in
the country; talks of laying out large sums to adorn his house or
buy another estate; and with a valiant swagger and grasping of his
cudgel, longs exceedingly to have another bout at quarter-staff.
Though there may be something rather whimsical in all this, yet I
confess I cannot look upon John's situation without strong feelings
of interest. With all his odd humours and obstinate prejudices,
he is a sterling-hearted old blade. He may not be so wonderfully
fine a fellow as he thinks himself, but he is at least twice as
good as his neighbours represent him. His virtues are all his own;
all plain, home bred and unaffected. His very faults smack of the
raciness of his good qualities. His extravagance savours of his
generosity; his quarrelsomeness, of his courage; his credulity, of
his open faith; his vanity, of his pride; and his bluntness, of his
sincerity. They are all the redundancies of a rich and liberal
character. He is like his old oak, rough without, but sound and
solid within, whose bark abounds with excrescences in proportion
to the growth and grandeur of the timber; and whose branches make
a fearful groaning and murmuring in the least storm, from their
very magnitude and luxuriance. There is something, too, in the
appearance of his old family mansion that is extremely poetical
and picturesque; and, as long as it can be rendered comfortably
habitable, I should almost tremble to see it meddled with, during
the present conflict of tastes and opinions. Some of his advisers
are no doubt good architects, that might be of service; but many, I
fear, are mere levellers, who, when they had once got to work with
their mattocks on this venerable edifice, would never stop until
they had brought it to the ground, and perhaps buried themselves
among the ruins. All that I wish is that John's present troubles
may teach him more prudence in the future. That he may cease to
distress his mind about other people's affairs; that he may give
up the fruitless attempt to promote the good of his neighbours,
and the peace and happiness of the world, by dint of the cudgel;
that he may remain quietly at home; gradually get his house into
repair; cultivate his rich estate according to his fancy; husband
his income--if he thinks proper; bring his unruly children into
order--if he can; renew the jovial scenes of ancient prosperity;
and long enjoy, on his paternal lands, a green, an honourable and a
merry old age.
THE DEATH OF NAPOLEON (1821).
=Source.=--_The Gentleman's Magazine, 1821._ Vol. 91, p. 86.
May 5. At St. Helena, of a lingering illness, which had confined
him to his bed for upwards of forty days, Napoleon Buonaparte.
He desired that after his death his body should be opened, as he
suspected he was dying of the same disease which had killed his
father--a cancer in the stomach.
He lay in state three days, at the particular wish of the French
people, who behaved to all visitors with much affability, amounting
to condescension. The body was opened; the stomach was the entire
seat of the disease--a cancer, or a schirrous state of that organ.
The disease must have caused great pain, and appeared to have been
of considerable standing. It was remarked before his death, that
for more than nine days he had refused all nourishment, which was
supposed to proceed from resignation or obstinacy; but the diseased
state of the stomach fully accounts for it.
The body was laid out on a bed in a room of the middling size,
hung with black, and well lighted up. He was dressed in full
Field-Marshal's uniform; that said to have been worn by him at the
battle of Marengo. His person seemed small, and rather diminutive
(exact height five feet seven inches); but the fineness of the
countenance much exceeded expectation. The face appeared to be
large, compared with the body; the features pleasing and extremely
regular, still retaining a half-formed smile; and must have been
truly imposing, when enlivened by a penetrating pair of eyes. His
skin was perfectly sallow, which seemed to be its natural colour.
The garden was laid out in the most fanciful manner; an astonishing
variety being contained in a very small space.
Buonaparte died on Saturday, and the funeral took place the
following Wednesday at 12 o'clock. A grand procession was formed
of the officers, soldiers, and marines; which, altogether, made a
very striking exhibition. The troops were drawn up two men deep on
the road side, out of Longwood gates; each man resting the point
of his musket on his foot, with the left hand on its butt; and the
left cheek leaning on his hand in a mournful position; the band
stationed at the head of each corps playing a dead march.
He was buried at the head of Rupert's Valley, about half-way
between James' Town and Longwood, under the shade of a large
willow-tree, near a small spring well, the water in which is both
good and pleasant. For some years past he had water carried to him
daily from this well, in two silver tankards which he brought from
Moscow. Some years since, when visiting this well, in company with
Madame Bertrand, he said, if the British Government buried him on
St. Helena, he wished this to be the spot. It is certainly a very
retired pretty situation, surrounded by high hills in the form of
an amphitheatre, the public road to Longwood leading along the top
of the ridge.
After letting the coffin into the grave, three vollies from 11
field pieces were fired, and the flag-ship also fired 25 minute
guns. The Catholic priest performed the ceremony after the rites of
the Romish Church.
The grave was 10 feet long, 10 deep, and five wide; the bottom
happened to be solid rock, in which a space was cut to receive the
coffin; the sides and ends of the grave were each walled in with
one large Portland flag, and three large flags were put immediately
over the coffin, and fastened down with iron bars and lead, beside
Roman cement. The top of the grave is elevated about eight inches
above the surface of the ground, and covered over with three rough
slates.
NAPOLEON (1821).
=Source.=--P. B. Shelley's _Poems_.
What! alive and so bold, O Earth?
Art thou not over bold?
What! leapest thou forth as of old
In the light of thy morning mirth,
The last of the flock of the starry fold?
Ha! leapest thou forth as of old?
Are not the limbs still when the ghost is fled
And can'st thou move, Napoleon being dead?
How! is not thy quick heart cold?
What spark is alive on thy hearth?
How! is not _his_ death-knell knolled?
And livest _thou_ still, Mother Earth?
Thou wert warming thy fingers old
O'er the embers covered and cold
Of that most fiery spirit, when it fled--
What, Mother, do you laugh now he is dead?
"Who has known me of old," replied Earth,
"Or who has my story told?
It is thou who art over bold!"
And the lightning of scorn laughed forth
As she sung, "To my bosom I fold
All my sons when their knell is knolled,
And so with living motion all are fed,
And the quick spring like weeds out of the dead.
"Still alive and still bold," shouted Earth,
"I grow bolder and still more bold.
The dead fill me ten thousand fold
Fuller of speed, and splendour, and mirth.
I was cloudy, and sullen, and cold,
Like a frozen chaos uprolled,
Till by the spirit of the mighty dead
My heart grew warm. I feed on whom I fed.
"Ay, alive and bold," muttered Earth,
"Napoleon's fierce spirit rolled,
In terror and blood and gold,
A torrent of ruin to death from his birth.
Leave the millions who follow to mould
The metal before it be cold;
And weave into his shame, which like the dead
Shrouds me, the hopes that from his glory fled."
NAPOLEON AND ENGLAND (1821).
=Source.=--Lord Tennyson's _Early Sonnets_, V. 1832.
BUONAPARTE.
He thought to quell the stubborn hearts of oak,
Madman!--to chain with chains, and bind with bands
That island queen that sways the floods and lands
From Ind to Ind, but in fair daylight woke,
When from her wooden walls, lit by sure hands,
With thunders, and with lightnings and with smoke,
Peal after peal, the British battle broke,
Lulling the brine against the Coptic sands.
We taught him lowlier moods, when Elsinore
Heard the war moan along the distant sea,
Rocking with shattered spars, with sudden fires
Flamed over: at Trafalgar yet once more
We taught him: late he learned humility
Perforce, like those whom Gideon school'd with briers.
MONROE DOCTRINE (1823).
=Source.=--_Annual Register_, 1823 (Public Documents).
_President Monroe's Message to Congress, Dec. 2, 1823._
"In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to
themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with
our policy to do so. It is only when our rights are invaded or
seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make preparation for
our defence. With the movements in this hemisphere we are, of
necessity, more immediately connected, and by causes which must be
obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The political
system of the allied powers is essentially different in this
respect from that of America. This difference proceeds from that
which exists in their respective governments. And to the defence
of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood
and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of our most enlightened
citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity,
this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor, and
to the amicable relations existing between the United States and
those powers, to declare that we should consider any attempt on
their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere
as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies
or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered, and
shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared
their independence, and maintained it, and whose independence we
have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged,
we could not view any interposition, for the purpose of oppressing
them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any
European power, in any other light than as the manifestation of an
unfriendly disposition towards the United States."
SLAVERY (1823).
=Source.=--_The Political Life of George Canning_, by A. G.
Stapleton. 1831. Vol. III. p. 90.
He concluded with moving as a resolution, "that the state
of Slavery was repugnant to the principles of the British
Constitution, and of the Christian Religion, and that it ought
to be abolished throughout the British Colonies with as much
expedition as might be found consistent with a due regard to the
well-being of the parties concerned."
Mr. Canning rose immediately after Mr. Buxton had concluded, in the
hope that by at once making known the opinions of the Government
he might restrain the warmth of debate on so "fearful" a question,
on which he said the use of "one rash word," perhaps even of one
too "ardent an expression, might raise a flame not easily to be
extinguished."
After pointing out the impropriety, not to say unfairness, of
Mr. Buxton, in having recourse to the by-gone question of the
Slave Trade as a topick of declamation, and remarking that the
course pursued by that gentleman of addressing himself not to the
judgment, but to the feelings of the House, was the one the least
likely to lead to a satisfactory result, Mr. Canning entreated the
members to look at the then "situation of the West Indies not as
a population accumulated by a succession of crimes, but simply as
it then existed." We might deplore the crimes and condemn those
who had encouraged their commission; but committed they had been
with the sanction of the British Parliament, whose duty it then
was to look at the subject not with reference to the crimes alone,
but to the nature of that state of society which had grown up in
consequence of their perpetration.
"Looking at the West Indies," said Mr. Canning, "I find there a
numerous black population with a comparatively small proportion
of whites. The question, therefore, to be decided is, how
civil rights, moral improvement, and general happiness, can
be communicated to this overpowering multitude of slaves with
safety to their lives, and security to the interests of the White
Population? For the attainment of so great a good as raising these
unfortunate creatures in the scale of being, sacrifices ought
undoubtedly to be made; but would I therefore strike at the root
of the system--a system the growth of ages--and unhesitatingly
and rashly level it at a blow? Are we not all aware that there
are knots which cannot be suddenly disentangled and must not be
cut--difficulties which, if solved at all, must be solved by
patient consideration and impartial attention, in order that we may
not do the most flagrant injustice by aiming at justice itself."
THE STATE OF IRELAND (1823).
=Source.=--_The Diary and Correspondence of Charles Abbot, Lord
Colchester_, Vol. III. p. 302.
_From Lord Redesdale._
"Batsford, October 30th.
"My Dear Lord,
"I think the state of Ireland at this time most perilous.
"The government of a dictator, firm and well judging, assisted
by a great armed force ready to execute his will, is now become
necessary to the peace of Ireland. A Cromwell, at the head of such
an army as he had, not subject to the control of a Cabinet in
England--where is to be found such a man? Where is to be found such
an army? And how is the government of such a man, if found, to be
rendered independent of a Cabinet here?
"He ought also to have so fully the confidence of Parliament, and
the spirit of the measures adopted by him ought to have been so
fully previously adopted in Parliament, that there should remain no
hope of obtaining countenance here for any complaint against him.
The people of Ireland must be fully persuaded that his orders must
be obliged. His government must bear some resemblance to that of
the French in Italy, but it must be uncorrupt, just, and humane,
and so far different from the French Government in Italy.
"In this conceit I have imagined what is not possible; but if we
mean to save Ireland from great misery, we must approach as nearly
to what I have imagined as possible.
"The first thing to be done must be to put an end to all the hopes
of the Roman Catholics obtaining the overthrow of the Protestant
establishment. This can only be done by a firm union of all
Protestants in both islands. Can we hope for this? The two Houses
of Parliament might pass strong resolutions on this subject. But
can we hope for unanimity in such resolutions? Can we hope to carry
such resolutions without strong opposition? May we not rather fear
that such propositions would be rejected, or so modified as to be
more mischievous than beneficial? I despair, therefore, of bringing
Ireland to a state of quiet. The system now pursued, I think, must
lead to increased agitation, and finally to insurrection, and
perhaps open war is better than the secret war now carried on.
"I consider the late Tithe Bill as an experiment, which I
apprehended would, if it produced no other effect, show the
unreasonableness of the Irish landholders on the subject of tithes.
Tithes are undoubtedly a great oppression to agriculture. They are
a tax upon the most important manufacture, the production of food.
If the woollen manufacturers, for instance, were obliged to pay the
tenth yard of cloth manufactured for the maintenance of the clergy,
what would be the effect? Just the same as the payment of the tenth
of agricultural produce. The price must be raised in proportion
to the charge, or the profit of the manufacturer would be wholly
absorbed. A profit of 10 per cent. is esteemed a fair mercantile
profit; but the tithe of the manufactured cloth would be more than
10 per cent. on the price for which cloth now sells. Importation
would keep down the price, but it would ruin the manufacturer if
the article could be imported at a cheaper rate. If, therefore,
tithes could be transferred from the occupier to the landowner, it
would be beneficial to cultivation, though it would fall heavy on
the proprietors of land. On this ground also, I have approved of
the commutation of tithes in enclosures.
"We give two-ninths of arable, and one-eighth of green land to the
tithe-owner. So far as tithes belong to the clergy, they put so
much land in mortmain. But land in mortmain is not so injurious to
agriculture as tithes taken in hand. And I thought the Bill might
lead to some permanent commutation, or at least to a settled rent,
putting all the occupiers of land on an equal footing with respect
to cultivation.
"The French agriculturists have gained a great advantage by
throwing the maintenance of their clergy on the nation at large,
instead of tithes which pressed wholly on agriculture. Formerly
land was almost the only property productive of income; and,
therefore, many charges were imposed on land which ought, in the
present circumstances, to be a charge on property generally, if
that could be effected. It seems to me that the present state of
the European world is so changed that other changes must follow.
Moneyed property, the profits of trade and manufacturers, are
now a vast proportion of the income of the inhabitants of this
country, and the persons deriving income from these sources bear
that proportion only of the public burdens which are taxes on
expenditure; while the income derived from land maintains the
Church, the poor, the roads, the administration of justice, etc.,
etc., to a vast amount, and pays at the same time all taxes
on expenditure; and the direct burdens on land increase with
the riches produced by trade and manufactures, and the moneyed
property. This I take to be a great cause of distress amongst the
agriculturists and their landlords.
"Truly yours,
"REDESDALE."
TRANSPORTATION (1823).
=Source.=--In the _Edinburgh Review_, 1823, by the Rev. Sydney
Smith.
Men are governed by words, and under the infamous term convict,
are comprehended crimes of the most different degrees and species
of guilt. One man is transported for stealing three hams and a pot
of sausages; and in the next berth to him on board the transport
is a young surgeon, who has been engaged in the mutiny at the
Nore; the third man is for extorting money; the fourth was in a
respectable situation of life at the time of the Irish Rebellion,
and was so ill-read in History as to imagine that Ireland had been
ill-treated by England, and so bad a reasoner as to suppose, that
nine Catholics ought not to pay tithes to one Protestant. Then
comes a man who set his house on fire, to cheat the Phœnix Office;
and, lastly, that most glaring of all human villains, a poacher,
driven from Europe, wife and child, by thirty lords of manors, at
the Quarter Sessions, for killing a partridge. Now, all these are
crimes no doubt--particularly the last; but they are surely crimes
of very different degrees of intensity, to which different degrees
of contempt and horror are attached--and from which those who have
committed them may, by subsequent morality, emancipate themselves,
with different degrees of difficulty, and with more or less of
success. A warrant granted by a reformed bacon-stealer would be
absurd; but there is hardly any reason why a foolish hot-brained
young blockhead, who chose to favour the mutineers at the Nore when
he was sixteen years of age, may not make a very loyal subject,
when he is forty years of age, and has cast his Jacobine teeth,
and fallen into the practical jobbing and loyal baseness which so
commonly developes itself about that period of life.
It is to be believed that a governor, placed over a land of
convicts, and capable of guarding his limbs from any sudden
collision with odometrous stones, or vertical posts of direction,
should make no distinction between the simple convict and the
double and treble convict--the man of three juries, who has three
times appeared at the Bailey, _trilarcenous_--three times driven
over the seas.
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON AND HIS SONS (1824).
=Source.=--_The Life of the Duke of Wellington_, by G. R. Gleig.
_Letter from the Duke of Wellington to the Rev. H. M. Wagner._
"Hatfield, 10th October, 1824.
"My dear Sir,
"I have received your letter of the 7th, to which I proceed to give
an answer; and I request you to communicate it to my sons, which
will save both me and them trouble.
"After all inquiries which I have made, I believe that the
allowance which they ought to have, and which would go nearest to
provide for their education at Oxford, excluding a private tutor,
but including everything else, would be for Douro, who will be
entered as a nobleman, £800 per annum, including his half-pay; and
for Charles, who will be entered as a gentleman commoner, £500 per
annum, besides his half-pay. I therefore, by this post, direct
Messrs. Coutts to pay Douro £200, and Charles £125, on the 1st
October, 1st January, 1st April, and 1st July, each year, beginning
with the 1st inst.
"I beg that Charles will observe that I make him this allowance, at
present, in order that he may defray the expenses of his education.
He must recollect, however, that he is only a younger brother, and
that it is not at all clear that he will ever have so much again,
unless he should make it by his own industry and talent; and I beg
you will tell them both that when I entered the world I had just
the sum for the whole year which I now give Charles every quarter.
"I intend that these allowances shall cover all expenses of every
description; and I have reason to believe them so ample that I
expect they will not run in debt; particularly as I begin by paying
them in advance, and as I will take upon myself the following
expenses:
"The entrance fees at the college and university for both.
"The expenses of the nobleman's and gentleman-commoner's gowns.
"They must pay for the furniture of their rooms themselves, but if
you should think the expense too heavy upon them immediately, I
would advance the money, and they can repay me hereafter.
"I give them the horses which they now have with them, of which
they may dispose as they may think proper; and they may take any
servants they please out of my house or stables, they, of course,
paying their wages, and also their expenses, from the time of their
leaving me.
"Accordingly, if you let me know what the entrance-money is, and
the expense of the gowns, I will send you the money.
"I beg you to impress upon them that there is but one certain and
infallible way of avoiding debt, that is, first, to determine
to incur no expense, to defray which the money is not in their
pockets; secondly, to pay the money immediately for everything they
get, and for every expense they incur. They will then be certain
that everything they have is their own, and they will know at all
times what they can and what they cannot do. There is nothing so
easy, provided they begin in time; and I give them these ample
allowances, and pay them beforehand, purposely that they may at
once pay for everything the moment they get it.
"They should, in adopting this system, advert to the expenses
of the college, which they have to defray themselves, their
servants' wages and clothes, the keep of their horses, and lay
by a sufficiency to defray their expenses till the 1st January.
The remainder will be their own, and they will lay it out as they
please; observing always, that if this remainder is laid out
uselessly or idly, and they act up rigidly to the system of paying
for everything at the time they get it, they may want clothes or
other necessaries, or reasonable gratifications, before the quarter
will expire.
"I think it best to remind them of all this, because I hope that
they and I will have no further discussion upon these subjects.
In respect of their studies, I am very anxious about their
mathematics, as essential to those who serve in the army. If you
will let me know what the course is in the university, I will give
you my opinion upon other matters. They should likewise have a
perfect knowledge of modern geography and history, of course, but I
shall hear further from you on these points. I will go and see them
shortly after they shall have gone to Oxford, where they ought to
be on the 14th. They had better probably go to Strathfieldsaye to
make their arrangements for their departure, as soon as you will
receive this letter.
"I wish you would let each of them keep a copy of this letter, and
send me one."
FREE TRADE (1825).
=Source.=--William Cobbett's _Rural Rides_, ed. by Mr. Pitt
Cobbett, 1885.
One newspaper says that Mr. Huskisson is gone to Paris, and thinks
it likely that he will endeavour to "inculcate in the mind of the
Bourbons wise principles of _free trade_!" What next! Persuade
them, I suppose, that it is for _their good_ that English goods
should be admitted into France and into St. Domingo with little or
no duty? Persuade them to make a treaty of commerce with him; and
in short persuade them to make _France help to pay the interest
of our debt and dead-weight_, lest our system of paper should
go to pieces, and lest that should be followed by a _radical
reform_, which reform would be injurious to "the monarchical
principle!" This newspaper politician does, however, _think_ that
the Bourbons will be "too dull" to comprehend these "_enlightened_
and _liberal_" notions; and I think so too. I think the Bourbons,
or, rather, those who will speak for them, will say: "No thank
you. You contracted your debt without our participation; you made
your _dead-weight_ for your own purposes: the seizure of our
museums and the loss of our frontier towns followed your victory
of Waterloo, though we were 'your Allies' at the time; you made us
pay an enormous tribute after that battle, and kept possession of
part of France till we had paid it; you _wished_, the other day,
to keep us out of Spain, and you, Mr. Huskisson, in a speech at
Liverpool, called our deliverance of the King of Spain an _unjust
and unprincipled act of aggression_, while Mr. Canning prayed
to God that we might not succeed. No thank you, Mr. Huskisson,
no. No coaxing, sir: we saw, then, too clearly the _advantage we
derived from your having a debt and a dead-weight_, to wish to
assist in relieving you of either. 'Monarchical principle' here or
'monarchical principle' there, we know that your mill-stone debt
is our best security. We like to have your wishes, your prayers,
and your abuses against us, rather than your _subsidies_ and your
_fleets_; and so, farewell, Mr. Huskisson; if you like, the English
may drink French wine; but whether they do or not, the French shall
not wear your rotten cottons. And, as a last word, how did you
maintain the 'monarchical principle,' the 'paternal principle,'
or as Castlereagh called it, the 'social system,' when you called
that an unjust and unprincipled aggression which put an end to the
bargain by which the convents and other Church property of Spain
were to be transferred to the Jews and jobbers of London? Bon
jour, Monsieur Huskisson, ci-devant membre et orateur du club de
quatre-vingt-neuf!"
If they do not actually say this to him, this is what they will
think; and that is, as to the effect, precisely the same thing. It
is childishness to suppose that any nation will act from a desire
of _serving all other nations_, or _any one other nation_, as _well
as itself_. It will make, unless compelled, no compact by which it
does not think itself _a gainer_; and amongst its gains, it must,
and always does, reckon the injury to its rivals. It is a stupid
idea that _all nations are to gain_ by anything. Whatever is the
gain of one, must, in some way or other, be a loss to another. So
that this new project of "free trade" and "mutual gain" is a pure
humbug as that which the newspapers carried on during the "glorious
days" of loans, when they told us, at every loan, that the bargain
was "equally advantageous to the contractors and to the public!"
The fact is the "free trade" project is clearly the effect of a
_consciousness of our weakness_. As long as we felt _strong_,
we felt _bold_, we had no thought of conciliating the world; we
upheld a system of _exclusion_, which long experience proved to
be founded in _sound policy_. But we now find that our debts and
our loads of various sorts cripple us. We feel our incapacity for
the _carrying of trade sword in hand_: and so we have given up all
our old maxims, and are endeavouring to persuade the world that
we are anxious to enjoy no advantages that are not enjoyed also
by our neighbours. Alas! the world sees very clearly the cause of
all this; and the world _laughs at us_ for our imaginary cunning.
My old doggrel, that used to make me and my friends laugh in Long
Island, is precisely put to this case.
When his man was stuffed with paper,
How John Bull did prance and caper!
How he foam'd and how he roared:
How his neighbours all he gored.
How he scrap'd the ground and hurled
Dirt and filth on all the world!
But John Bull of paper empty,
Though in midst of peace and plenty,
Is modest grown as worn-out sinner,
As Scottish laird that wants a dinner;
As Wilberforce, become content
A rotten borough to represent;
As Blue and Buff, when, after hunting
On Yankee coasts their "bits of bunting,"
Came softly back across the seas,
And silent were as mice in cheese.
Yes, the whole world, and particularly the French and the Yankees,
see very clearly the _course_ of this fit of modesty and of
liberality into which we have so recently fallen. They know well
that a _war_ would play the very devil with our national faith.
They know, in short, that no ministers in their senses will think
of supporting the paper system through another war. They know
well that no ministers now exist, or are likely to exist, will
venture to endanger the paper-system; and therefore they know that
(for England) they may now do just what they please. When the
French were about to invade Spain, Mr. Canning said that his last
despatch on the subject was to be understood as a _protest_, on the
part of England, against permanent occupation of any part of Spain
by France. There the French are, however; and at the end of two
years and a half he says that he knows nothing about any intention
that they have to quit Spain, or any part of it.
THE FINANCIAL CRISIS OF 1824 AND 1825.
=Source.=--_The Political Life of Sir Robert Peel_, by Thomas
Doubleday. London, 1856. Vol. I. pp. 329-331.
The most trustworthy account of the almost insane operations
of 1824 and 1825 is perhaps that of Mr. Tooke, the well-known
author of the treatise on "High and Low Prices," who in his
"Considerations on the State of the Currency," published in 1826,
immediately after the panic, thus describes the steps that led to
it.[2] Speaking of the latter months of 1824 and the first six
months of 1825, Mr. Tooke thus proceeds:
"Never did the public exhibit so great a degree of infatuation,
so complete an abandonment of all the most ordinary rules of
mercantile reasoning, since the celebrated bubble year of 1720,
as it did in the latter part of 1824 and the first three or four
months of 1825.
"The speculative anticipation of an advance was no longer confined
to articles which presented a plausible ground for some rise,
however small. It extended itself to articles which were not
only deficient in quantity, but actually in excess. Thus coffee,
of which the stock was increased compared with the average of
former years, advanced from 70 to 80 per cent.; spices rose in
some instances from 100 to 200 per cent., without any reason
whatever, and with a total ignorance on the part of the operators
of everything connected with the relation of the supply to the
consumption.
"In short, there was hardly an article of merchandise which did
not participate in the rise; for it had become the business of
the speculators, or of the brokers, who were interested in the
raising and keeping up prices, to look minutely through the general
prices-current, with a view to discover any article which had not
advanced, in order to make it the subject of anticipated demand.
If a person, not under the influence of the prevalent delusion,
ventured to inquire for what reason any particular article had
risen, the common answer was, 'Everything else has risen, and
_therefore_ this ought to rise.'
"Whilst such were the transactions in the markets for goods,
and whilst there was an extension of the system of loans to the
transatlantic states, some of them affording little or no security,
but almost all coming out at a premium, an enlarged field was
presented for the spirit of gambling to enter upon. New mining,
insurance, and other schemes, were set on foot, on the principle of
joint-stock companies, in immense number.
"The earliest South American mining speculations or associations
formed in this country had been entered into with considerable
circumspection, the parties with whom they originated having, by
local information and connexion, secured comparatively beneficial
contracts, and priority of the working of mines known to be most
productive. These apparent advantages being made known, attracted
numerous persons to buy shares from the original subscribers at
a progressively increasing premium. The great gains--or rather
premiums in anticipation of gains--thus obtained by one or two of
these associations, held out an inducement to the formation of new
ones.
"It is well known how numerously mining and other joint-stock
companies sprung up, and how successful they were for some time
in catching and turning to account the disposition for hazardous
adventure which now pervaded the nation. The operators on the
share market made the new schemes the basis for an enormous extent
of gambling. Many persons, quite removed from all connexion with
business--retired officers, widows, and single women of small
fortune--risked their incomes or their savings in every species of
desperate enterprize. The competition and scramble for premiums
in concerns which ought never to have been but at a discount,
were perfectly astounding to those who took no part in such
transactions. These operations in shares had an effect like that
of speculations in goods, in adding to the mass of the circulation
of paper and of credit; and this, be it still kept in mind,
concurrently with the addition which had been made to the Bank of
England issues.
"It is not possible to compute, with even any approach to accuracy,
the amount of the addition to the total of the circulating medium
by these united causes; but if I were called upon to hazard
an estimate, I should conjecture that the whole amount of the
circulating medium, including the transactions on credit without
the intervention of paper, must have been, on the average of the
four months ending April, 1825, _little if at all short of fifty
per cent. above what it had been in the corresponding period of
1823_. The approximation of this estimate to the truth is rendered
probable by the consideration that, upon the principles which
determine money prices and nominal values, such a general rise of
prices, amounting in some instances to above 100 per cent., without
even the allegation of any general scarcity, could not have taken
place without an immense expansion of the circulating medium."
Tooke's _Considerations of the State of the Currency_, 1826, p. 47.
THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF SPAIN (1826).
=Source.=--Martineau's _History of the Peace_, Vol. I. pp. 406-408.
Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
It having been objected that the balance of dignity and honour
among nations had been affected by the French occupation of Spain,
which was thought to have exalted France and lowered England, Mr.
Canning replied: "I must beg leave to say that I dissent from that
averment. The House knows--the country knows--that when the French
army was on the point of entering Spain, his Majesty's Government
did all in their power to prevent it; that we resisted it by all
means short of war. I have just now stated some of the reasons why
we did not think the entry of that army into Spain a sufficient
ground for war; but there was, in addition to those which I have
stated, this peculiar reason, that whatever effect a war commenced
upon the mere ground of the entry of a French army into Spain,
might have, it probably would not have had the effect of getting
that army out of Spain. In a war against France at that time as
at any other, you might perhaps have acquired military glory;
you might, perhaps, have extended your colonial possessions; you
might even have achieved, at a great cost of blood and treasure,
an honourable peace; but as to getting the French out of Spain,
that would have been the one object which you almost certainly
would not have accomplished. How seldom, in the whole history of
the wars of Europe, has any war between two great powers ended in
the obtaining of the exact, the identical object for which the war
was begun! Besides, sir, I confess I think that the effects of the
French occupation of Spain have been infinitely exaggerated. I do
not blame those exaggerations, because I am aware that they are to
be attributed to the recollections of some of the best times of our
history; that they are the echoes of sentiments which, in the days
of William and Anne, animated the debates and dictated the votes
of the British Parliament. No peace was in those days thought safe
for this country while the crown of Spain continued on the head
of Bourbon; but were not the apprehensions of those days greatly
overstated? Has the power of Spain swallowed up the power of
maritime England? Or does England still remain, after the lapse of
more than a century, during which the crown of Spain has been worn
by a Bourbon, niched in the nook of that same Spain--Gibraltar?...
Again, sir, is the Spain of the present day the Spain ... whose
puissance was expected to shake England from her sphere? No, sir,
it was quite another Spain; it was the Spain within the limits of
whose empire the sun never set; it was Spain "with the Indies"
that excited the jealousies, and alarmed the imaginations of our
ancestors. But then, sir, the balance of power! The entry of the
French army into Spain disturbed that balance, and we ought to
have gone to war to restore it! I have already said that when the
French army entered Spain, we might, if we chose, have resisted or
resented that measure by war. But were there no other means than
war for restoring the balance of power? Is the balance of power a
fixed and unalterable standard? or is it not a standard perpetually
varying, as civilisation advances, and as new nations spring up,
and take their place among established political communities? The
balance of power, a century and a half ago, was to be adjusted
between France and Spain, the Netherlands, Austria and England.
Some years afterwards, Russia assumed her high station in European
politics. Some years after that again, Prussia became, not only a
substantive, but a preponderating monarchy. Thus, while the balance
of power continued in principle the same, the means of adjusting it
became more varied and enlarged. They became enlarged in proportion
to the increased number of considerable states--in proportion,
I may say, to the number of weights which might be shifted into
the one or the other scale. To look to the policy of Europe, in
the time of William and Anne, for the purpose of regulating the
balance of power in Europe at the present day, is to disregard the
progress of events, and to confuse dates and facts which throw a
reciprocal light upon each other. It would be disingenuous, indeed,
not to admit, that the entry of the French army into Spain was,
in a certain sense, a disparagement--an affront to the pride--a
blow to the feelings of England; and it can hardly be supposed
that the government did not sympathise, on that occasion, with the
feelings of the people. But I deny that, questionable or censurable
as the act might be, it was one which necessarily called for our
direct and hostile opposition. Was nothing then to be done? Was
there no other mode of resistance than by a direct attack upon
France; or by a war to be undertaken on the soil of Spain? What
if the possession of Spain might be rendered harmless in rival
hands--harmless as regarded us--and valueless to the possessors?
Might not compensation for disparagement be obtained and the policy
of our ancestors vindicated, by means better adapted to the present
time? If France occupied Spain, was it necessary, in order to avoid
the consequences of that occupation, that we should blockade Cadiz?
No. I looked another way. I sought materials of compensation in
another hemisphere. Contemplating Spain, such as our ancestors had
known her, I resolved that if France had Spain, it should not be
Spain 'with the Indies.' I called the New World into existence, to
redress the balance of the Old."
THE REMOVAL OF TRADE RESTRICTIONS
=Source.=--_The Political Life of George Canning_, by A. G.
Stapleton. London, 1831. Vol. III. pp. 16-22.
Mr. Huskisson felt therefore, when he came to the Board of Trade,
that although much had been done, yet more remained to do, and he
proceeded fearlessly, yet at the same time most cautiously, in
relaxing those restrictions on our commerce, which if preserved
were calculated to render almost nugatory the concessions already
made.
Accordingly during the sessions of 1823, 1824, and 1825, different
Acts were introduced by Mr. Huskisson for doing away with the
discriminating duties; but in order that foreign nations might not
impose new, or increase old discriminating duties, at the very
moment when we were abandoning ours, a power was reserved to the
King in Council to enforce the payment of additional duties upon
the ships of all foreign countries, in the event of the treatment
which British ships should meet with in their ports, not being
reciprocal to that, which their ships were to meet with, in the
ports of the United Kingdom.
In 1826 a new rule of navigation, exclusively applicable to the
Mediterranean, was established. Goods, the productions of Asia and
Africa, which should find their way to ports in Europe within that
sea by internal routes, and not by the Atlantick Ocean, were made
importable from those ports in British ships: thus erecting the
Mediterranean and its surrounding shores, as it were, into a fifth
quarter of the globe.
Mr. Huskisson also revised and altered the list of "enumerated
articles." When that list was first constructed it was intended
to consist of commodities of extensive importation; in process of
time some of the articles contained in the list had nearly ceased
to be imported, while their places were supplied by other articles
which were omitted. The list was therefore reconstructed upon the
principle of its original intention.
In 1825 the general consolidation of the Laws of the Customs
was effected by Mr. Hume,[3] under the favouring auspices of
the Board of Trade and Treasury. The difficulty and vastness of
this undertaking was only surpassed by its importance. From the
reign of the first Edward up to the present times, these laws had
accumulated to the enormous number of fifteen hundred--frequently
contradictory, and made without reference to each other, they were
only understood by the initiated few, and required the devotion
of a whole life to their study, at once to comprehend, and to
obey them. They were unintelligible to the merchants, while they
perplexed and harassed all their proceedings. This chaos of
Legislation was compressed by Mr. Hume into Eleven Acts (a sort
of Code Napoleon), with an order, a clearness, and a precision
whereby even the least talented of our mercantile men are now
enabled to consult the laws of the Customs with facility, and to
take them with safety for their guide. These effects, upon which
for their advantages to commerce Mr. Huskisson several times
expatiated with exultation, would alone make this consolidation a
most important era in our fiscal policy; but advantage was likewise
taken of the opportunity to introduce into the Laws themselves
some memorable changes, in conformity with the spirit of those
principles of commercial intercourse, on which the Government had
determined to act. Not only were duties of importance considerably
reduced, but those on numerous minor articles were lowered. During
the war the rates of the Tariff had been so increased, for the
single purpose of revenue, that they had become for the most part
inapplicable to a state of peace, and required general revision.
This revision was regulated by the following principles: First,
those duties were reduced, the heaviness of which tended to lessen,
rather than to increase their total product. Secondly, the duties
on raw materials, and on various articles useful in manufactures,
were lowered to little more than nominal sums. Thirdly, protecting
duties of extravagant amount were reduced to that point, at which
the consumer was fairly entitled to relief, either by the increased
industry of the home manufacture, or by access to other sources of
supply. And, lastly, the comforts and the tastes of the publick,
and the advantage of their retail suppliers, were consulted by
the removal of duties which prevented the introduction, or most
unnecessarily abridged, the use of many articles without benefit to
any party whatever.
By the system founded on these principles, there has not only
been distributed amongst a numerous population a great increase
of employment, but its diffusion has been greater in proportion,
than its increase. It is also very remarkable, that those trades
which have been prominent in complaining of foreign competition
have neither suffered more in diminution of profits, nor increased
less in extent of business, than those which have been able to hold
foreign competition at defiance.
Besides this consolidation of the Customs' Laws which took place
in 1825, an Act was passed in the session of that year, whereby
many commercial advantages were conferred on the Colonies, beyond
those contained in Mr. Robinson's two acts of 1822; Mr. Huskisson
laying down as the fundamental principle on which his alterations
were founded--a principle deduced from past experience with respect
both to _Ireland and to our Colonies_--that "so far as the Colonies
themselves were concerned, their prosperity was cramped and impeded
by a system of exclusion and monopoly; and that whatever tended
to increase the prosperity of the Colonies could not fail, in the
long run, to advance, in an equal degree, the general interests
of the parent state." By these Acts, not only articles of first
necessity, but goods of all descriptions, with very few exceptions,
were allowed to be imported from all countries, either in British
ships, or in ships of the country of their production; and the
goods of the Colonies were allowed to be exported in any ships to
any foreign country whatever. The only part of the Colonial system
which was persevered in, was that which excludes foreign ships
from carrying goods from one British place to another; "so that by
this arrangement was preserved the foundation of our Navigation
Laws--all intercourse between the mother-country and the Colonies,
whether direct or circuitous, and all intercourse of the Colonies
with each other, being considered as a coasting trade to be
reserved entirely and absolutely for ourselves."
The admission of foreign ships, however, was not unconditional:
it was made to depend upon reciprocal or equivalent liberality
towards our trade and navigation on the part of the countries
profiting by the advantages of it; but a power was given to the
King in Council to relax the rigour of the Law, if occasion should,
in any particular cases, seem to require it. By the same act, the
privileges of warehousing were extended to the chief trading ports
of the Colonies; a measure, which was well adapted to promote the
creation of _entrepôts_ in those places, for the general barter
trade of that quarter of the globe.
Independently of all these measures of internal legislation,
Treaties of Commerce, founded on the principles of reciprocity,
were negotiated with Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, the Hanse Towns,
three of the new States of Spanish America, and lastly with France.
In the case of Prussia, the power with whom the first of these
Treaties was made, it may be said that, it was fairly forced upon
this country. It certainly was not the wish of our Government
unnecessarily to stir the question. But "the Prussian ship-owners
were all going to ruin," and the Prussian Government very wisely
resolved not to give to British ships privileges which the British
Government denied to Prussian ships. When once foreign powers
began to adopt that course, against which we could not justly
remonstrate, it has been already shewn that the only safe and wise
way was to meet it with concession. Prussia having therefore thus
attained her object, to have manifested any unwillingness to treat
other powers on the same footing, would have been inconsistent
with the principle of our navigation law, which, acting upon
the principle "divide et impera," was more anxious for an equal
distribution of foreign shipping, than for its diminution.
PORTUGUESE APPEAL FOR AID AGAINST SPAIN (1826).
=Source.=--_The Political Life of George Canning_, by A. G.
Stapleton. London, 1831. Vol. III. p. 219.
_The King's Message._
"George R.--His Majesty acquaints the House of Commons that His
Majesty has received an earnest application from the Princess
Regent of Portugal, claiming, in virtue of the ancient obligations
of alliance and amity between His Majesty, and the Crown of
Portugal, His Majesty's aid against an hostile aggression from
Spain.
"His Majesty has exerted himself for some time past, in conjunction
with His Majesty's Ally, the King of France, to prevent such an
aggression, and repeated assurances have been given by the Court of
Madrid of the determination of his Catholick Majesty, neither to
commit, nor to allow to be committed, from his Catholick Majesty's
territory, any aggression against Portugal; but His Majesty had
learned, with deep concern, that notwithstanding these assurances,
hostile inroads into the territory of Portugal have been concerted
in Spain, and have been executed under the eyes of Spanish
Authorities, by Portuguese Regiments, which had deserted into
Spain, and which the Spanish Government had repeatedly and solemnly
engaged to disarm, and to disperse.
"His Majesty leaves no effort unexhausted to awaken the Spanish
Government to the dangerous consequences of this apparent
connivance.
"His Majesty makes this communication to the House of Commons with
the full and entire confidence, that his faithful Commons will
afford to His Majesty their cordial concurrence and support in
maintaining the faith of treaties, and in securing against foreign
hostility the safety and independence of the kingdom of Portugal,
the oldest ally of Great Britain.
"G. R."
MR. CANNING AND THE PORTUGUESE APPEAL (1826).
=Source.=--_The Political Life of George Canning_, by A. G.
Stapleton. London, 1831. Vol. III. p. 222.
"Some years ago," said Mr. Canning, "in the discussion of the
negotiations respecting the French war against Spain, I took
the liberty of adverting to this topick. I then stated that the
position of this country in the present state of the world, was one
of neutrality, not only between contending nations, but between
conflicting principles; and that it was by neutrality alone that we
could maintain that balance, the preservation of which I believed
to be essential to the welfare of mankind. I then said that I
feared that the next war which should be kindled in Europe, would
be a war not so much of armies, as of opinions. Not four years
have elapsed, and behold my apprehension realised! It is, to be
sure, within narrow limits that this war of opinion is at present
confined: but it is a war of opinion, that Spain (whether as
Government, or as nation), is now waging against Portugal; it is
a war which has commenced in hatred of the new institutions of
Portugal. How long is it reasonable to expect that Portugal will
abstain from retaliation? If into that war this country shall be
compelled to enter, we shall enter into it, with a sincere and
anxious desire to mitigate, rather than exasperate--and to mingle
only in the conflict of arms, not in the more fatal conflict of
opinions. But I much fear that this country (however earnestly
she may endeavour to avoid it), could not, in such case, avoid
seeing ranked under her banners, all the restless and dissatisfied
of any nation with which she might come in conflict. It is the
contemplation of this new _power_ in any future war, which excites
my most anxious apprehension. It is one thing to have a giant's
strength, but it would be another to use it like a giant. The
consciousness of such strength is, undoubtedly, a source of
confidence and security; but in the situation in which this country
stands, our business is not to seek opportunities of displaying it,
but to content ourselves with letting the professors of violent
and exaggerated doctrines on both sides feel that it is not their
interest to convert an umpire, into an adversary. The situation of
England, amidst the struggle of political opinions, which agitates
more or less sensibly different countries of the world, may be
compared to that of the Ruler of the Winds, as described by the
poet:
"'Celsâ sedet Aeolus arce,
Sceptra tenens; mollitque animos et temperat iras;
Ni faciat, maria ac terras caelumque profundum
Quippe ferant rapidi secum, verrantque per auras.'
"The consequence of letting loose the passions at present chained
and confined, would be to produce a scene of desolation, which no
man can contemplate without horror: and I should not sleep easy on
my couch, if I were conscious that I had contributed to precipitate
it by a single moment.
"This, then, is the reason--a reason very different from fear--the
reverse of a consciousness of disability,--why I dread the
recurrence of hostilities in any part of Europe: why I would bear
much, and would forbear long; why I would (as I have said) put up
with almost anything that did not touch national faith and national
honour;--rather than let slip the furies of war, the leash of which
we hold in our hands,--not knowing whom they may reach, or how far
their ravages may be carried. Such is the love of peace which the
British Government acknowledges, and such the necessity of peace
which the circumstances of the world inculcate.
"Let us fly," said Mr. Canning, in conclusion, "to the aid of
Portugal by whomsoever attacked; because it is our duty to do
so: and let us cease our interference where that duty ends. We
go to Portugal not to rule, not to dictate, not to prescribe
Constitutions, but to defend and to preserve the independence of
an ally. We go to plant the standard of England on the well-known
heights of Lisbon. Where that standard is planted foreign dominion
shall not come."
THE LIFE OF CONVICT-SERVANTS IN AUSTRALIA (1827).
=Source.=--_The London Magazine_, 1827. Vol. VIII. p. 518.
_Extract from "Two Years in New South Wales," by P. Cunningham,
Surgeon, R.N._
"The convict-servants are accommodated upon the farms in huts
walled round and roofed with bark, or built of split wood and
plaster, with thatched roofs. About four of them generally sleep
and mess in each hut, drawing their provisions every Saturday, and
being generally allowed the afternoon of that day, whereupon to
wash their clothes and grind their wheat. Their usual allowance I
have already stated to be a peck of wheat; seven pounds of beef,
or four and a half of pork; two ounces of tea, two ounces of
tobacco, and a pound of sugar, weekly; the majority of settlers
permitting them to raise vegetables in little gardens allotted for
their use, or supplying them occasionally from their own gardens.
Wages are only allowed at the option of the master; but you are
obliged to supply them with two full suits of clothes annually;
and you also furnish a bed-tick (to be stuffed with grass), and a
blanket, to each person, besides a tin-pot and knife; as also an
iron-pot and frying-pan to each mess. The tea, sugar, and tobacco,
are considered _bonuses_ for good conduct, and withheld in default
thereof.
"To get work done, you must feed well; and when the rations are
ultimately raised upon your own farm, you never give their expense
a moment's consideration. The farm-men usually bake their flour
into flat cakes, which they call _dampers_, and cook these in the
ashes, cutting their salted meats into thin slices, and boiling
them in the iron-pot or frying-pan, by which means the salt is, in
a great measure, extracted. If tea and sugar are not supplied, milk
is allowed as a substitute, tea _or_ milk forming the beverage to
every meal. Though not living so comfortably as when everything
is cooked and put down before them, yet it is more after their
own mind, while the operations of preparing their meals amuse
their leisure hours and give a greater zest to the enjoyment of
those repasts. When the labour of the day is over, with enlivening
chit-chat, singing, and smoking, they chase away _ennui_, and make
the evening hours jog merrily by. Indeed, without the aid of that
magic care-killer, the pipe, I believe the greater portion of our
'pressed men' would 'take the bush' in a week after their arrival
in our solitudes, before time had attuned their minds to rural
prospects and industrious pursuits.
"Convicts, when first assigned, if long habituated to a life
of idleness and dissipation, commonly soon become restless and
dissatisfied; and if failing to provoke you to return them into the
government employ, wherein they may again be enabled to idle away
their time in the joyous companionship of their old associates,
will run off for head-quarters, regardless of the flogging that
awaits them on being taken or on giving themselves up--the idle
ramble they have had fully compensating them for the twenty-five or
fifty lashes they may receive, in case they should not be admitted
among the list at head-quarters. Many, too, start off for want of
something for their fingers to pick at,--the leader of one batch
of runaways from a friend of mine, exclaiming to those he left
behind, on bidding them adieu, 'Why, I may as well be dead and
buried in earnest, as buried alive in this here place, where a
fellow has not even a _chance_!' The chance here wished for, not
being the _chance_ of bettering his condition by good conduct,
but by emptying the full pocket of some luckless wight! If they
can be coaxed or compelled to stop, however, for a _twelvemonth_
or so, the greater portion, even of the worst, generally turn
out very fair and often very good servants; cockneys becoming
able ploughmen, and weavers, barbers, and such like soft-fingered
gentry, being metamorphosed into good fencers, herdsmen and
shepherds; a little urging and encouragement on the part of the
master, and perseverance in enforcing his authority, generally
sufficing.
"The convict-servants commence labour at sunrise, and leave off
at sunset, being allowed an hour for breakfast, and an hour or
more for dinner. It is long before you can accustom the greater
portion to steady labour, the best of them usually working by fits
and starts, then lying down for an hour or two, and up and at it
again. To get your work readily and quietly done, the best method
is certainly to task them, and allow them to get through it as
they please; but as it is an object to accustom them to _regular_
industry, it will eventually serve your purpose better, and benefit
them more, to keep them at constant work. Even some of the free-men
who have served their time are perpetually skipping about, seldom
remaining long in one situation."
AN INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE IV. (1827).
=Source.=--_The Diary and Correspondence of Charles Abbot, Lord
Colchester._ London, 1861. Vol. III. p. 472.
March 27th. Heard from the Duke of Newcastle a fuller account of
his interview with the King, at Windsor, on Saturday last. (The
former account I had received from Lord Falmouth.)
He arrived at Windsor at two, and requested an audience. At the
end of two hours, when he was exhausted and almost asleep, the door
of his apartment was opened, and the King was announced.
The King received him very graciously; believed he understood
the subject of his visit; entered at great length into the whole
history of the Roman Catholics, from the reign of James II. down
to the present time. Professed himself a "Protestant, heart and
soul." Declared he never would give his assent to any measures for
Roman Catholic Emancipation. And, when pressed by the Duke as to
the new form of his administration, he assured the Duke "that the
First Minister should be for the Protestant side of the question,"
and, as to Ireland, that the Chancellor there should be Protestant
also. He added that the present audience would be necessarily known
to everybody; but "he must keep faith with his Ministers." He said,
"the courage of his family had never been questioned." When assured
that, in choosing Protestants for his Ministers, his choice would
be supported by a large and powerful body of Peers, and pressed
for an assurance that his choice would be made accordingly, he
said, again and again, "Do you doubt me? But it is not I who fail
in my duty. It is you in Parliament. Why do you suffer the d----d
Association in Dublin?"
The Duke of Newcastle clearly saw that the Chancellor had lost
his former influence with the King. It was evident that the King
knew the Duke of Rutland's opinions upon the present subject. The
King's sentiments were strongly expressed, but there was reason to
apprehend that considerations of ease and repose might outweigh his
principles.
The Duke told the King plainly that the support or opposition
of himself, and of those for whom he was acting, would depend
on the choice that the King should finally make in forming his
Administration.
In parting, the King very graciously told him "he never need ask an
audience _in form_, he was always welcome," and hoped he would come
and fish there in the summer.
(_N.B._--The King did not finish the audience without talking to
the Duke about his _tailor_.)
THE TREATY OF LONDON (1827).
=Source.=--_The Political Life of George Canning_, by A. G.
Stapleton. London, 1831. Vol. III. p. 286.
The treaty was signed on the 6th of July, 1827, by Prince Lieven,
Lord Dudley, and Prince Polignac.
In execution of this treaty instructions were sent in common
to the Representatives of the three Powers at Constantinople,
directing them to present a joint declaration to the Divan;
stating that their respective Governments had for six years been
exerting themselves to induce the Porte to restore tranquillity
to Greece; that these efforts had been useless, and that a war of
extermination had been prolonged, of which the results were on the
one hand shocking to humanity, while on the other they inflicted
intolerable injuries on the commerce of all nations. That on
these accounts it was no longer possible to admit that the fate
of Greece, concerned exclusively the Ottoman Porte, and that the
Courts of London, of Paris, and St. Petersburgh, therefore, felt
it to be their duty to regulate by a special treaty the line of
conduct which they had resolved to follow. That they offered their
mediation between the Sublime Porte and the Greeks to put an end to
the war, and to settle by an amicable negotiation the relations,
which ought for the future to exist between them.
That for the purpose of facilitating the success of the mediation,
they proposed to the Sublime Porte to suspend by an armistice
all acts of hostility towards the Greeks, to whom a similar and
simultaneous proposition was to be addressed.
Lastly, that before the end of a month, the Ottoman Porte must make
known its definite determination.
That it was hoped that that determination would be in conformity
with the wishes of the allied courts; but if the Porte refused to
comply with the request, or returned an evasive and insufficient
answer, or even maintained a complete silence, the allied courts
would be compelled to have recourse to the measures which they
should think most likely to be efficacious to put an end to a
state of things, incompatible with the true interests of the Porte,
with the security of the commerce, and the assured tranquillity of
Europe.
In the event of no answer, an evasive answer, or a refusal on
the part of the Porte, before a month had elapsed, the Divan was
to be informed that the Allied Courts would interfere themselves
to establish an armistice; but that, in the execution of this
resolution, they were far from wishing to put an end to their
friendly relations with the Porte.
The result of these representations was forthwith to be reported to
the Admirals, commanding the several fleets of the Allies, who were
instructed to make a similar requisition for an armistice, to the
Greek Government; and in the event of either that Government, or
the Porte refusing, or delaying, to consent to the establishment of
an armistice, coercive measures were to be taken to enforce it.
If the Porte should be the refusing party (for after the
propositions made by the Greeks there was little chance of their
not consenting to the armistice), the Allied Squadrons were to
unite, and the Admirals were to enter into friendly relations with
the Greeks on the one hand, and on the other, to intercept all
ships, freighted with men and arms, destined to act against the
Greeks, whether coming from Turkey, or from the coast of Africa.
But whatever measures they might adopt towards the Ottoman navy,
the three Admirals were especially instructed to take extreme care
(_soin extrême_) that they should not degenerate into hostilities.
The fixed intention of the three Powers was to interpose as
conciliators (_conciliatrices_), and any hostile step would be
contrary to the pacifick character, which they were desirous of
assuming.
The settlement of this treaty, and of these instructions to the
representatives of the three Courts, at Constantinople, and to the
commanders of the Allied Squadron, were Mr. Canning's last acts on
the subject of Greek affairs.
THE BATTLE OF NAVARINO (1827).
=Source.=--_The Gentleman's Magazine_, Vol. 97, 1827, p. 453.
TURKEY AND GREECE.
In our last number (p. 360), we stated that the combined squadrons
of England and France (to which that of Russia, under Count
Heyden, has been since added) had compelled Ibrahim Pacha to
assent to an armistice, until the result of the negociations at
Constantinople should be known; when he promised that "his fleet
should not move from Navarino, until he received full instructions
from Constantinople." It appears, however, that Ibrahim, whether
in obedience to, or in opposition to the Ottoman Government,
treacherously broke the conditions of the armistice. In the first
place he attempted to make sail from Navarino to Patras, and on
being ordered back by Adm. Codrington, landed his troops, and
wreaked his barbarous vengeance on the miserable Greek inhabitants
of the Morea. In short, it was discovered that the Turkish
soldiers were desolating the country with fire and sword, and
even butchering the women and children. Capt. Hamilton, of the
Cambrian, communicated the circumstances to Adm. Codrington, in a
letter dated Kitries, October 18. He says: "I have the honour of
informing you that I arrived here yesterday morning, in company
with the Russian frigate Constantine, the captain of which ship had
placed himself under my orders. On entering the Gulf, we observed
by clouds of fire and smoke that the work of devastation was still
going on. The ships were anchored off the pass off Ancyro, and a
joint letter from myself and the Russian captain was despatched
to the Turkish commander. The Russian and English officers, the
bearers of it, were not allowed to proceed to head-quarters, nor
have we yet received any answer. In the afternoon, we, the two
captains, went on shore to the Greek quarters, and were received
with the greatest enthusiasm. The distress of the inhabitants
driven from the plain is shocking! women and children dying every
moment of absolute starvation, and hardly any having better
food than boiled grass! I have promised to send a small quantity
of bread to the caves in the mountains, where these unfortunate
wretches have taken refuge. It is supposed that if Ibrahim remained
in Greece, more than a third of its inhabitants will die of
absolute starvation."
Under these circumstances the commanders of the allied forces
signed an agreement on the 18th of October to enter and take
a position in the port of Navarino, as a commodious means of
"renewing to Ibrahim Pacha propositions, which, entering into the
spirit of the treaty, were evidently to the advantage of the Porte
itself." After the first part of this arrangement had been executed
on the 20th by their anchoring close to the Turkish line of battle,
the allied flags of truce were fired upon, and many British lives
destroyed, in the very act of peaceable remonstrance with the
Infidels. The necessary retaliation for this outrage brought on
a general action, and the total destruction of a fleet which was
armed with 1,800 pieces of ordinance.
The particulars of this brilliant victory are admirably detailed
in the official despatches addressed to J. W. Croker, Esq., by
Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, dated Navarino, October 21.
They appeared in a _Gazette Extraordinary_ of the 10th of November,
of which the following is a copy:
"H.M.'s Ship _Asia_,
"Port of Navarino, October 21.
"Sir,
"I have the honour of informing his Royal Highness the Lord High
Admiral, that, my colleagues Count Heyden and the Chevalier de
Rigny having agreed with me that we should come into this port,
in order to induce Ibrahim Pacha to discontinue the brutal war of
extermination which he has been carrying on since his return here
from his failure in the Gulf of Patras, the combined squadrons
passed the batteries, in order to take up their anchorage, at about
two o'clock yesterday afternoon. The Turkish ships were moored in
the form of a crescent, with springs on their cables, the larger
ones presenting their broadsides towards the centre, the smaller
ones in succession within them, filling up the intervals. The
combined fleet was formed in the order of sailing in two columns,
the British and French forming the weather or starboard line, and
the Russian the lee line.
"The _Asia_ led in, followed by the _Genoa_ and _Albion_, and
anchored close alongside a ship of the line bearing the flag of
the Capitana Bey, another ship of the line, and a large double
banked frigate, each thus having their proper opponent in the front
line of the Turkish fleet. The four ships to windward, part of the
Egyptian squadron, were allotted to the squadron of Rear-Adm. de
Rigny; and those to leeward, in the bight of the crescent, were
to mark the stations of the whole Russian squadron; the ships of
their line closing those of the English line, and being followed
up by their own frigates. The French frigate _Armide_ was directed
to place herself alongside the outermost frigate, on the left
hand entering the harbour; and the _Cambrian_, _Glasgow_, and
_Talbot_ next to her, and abreast of the _Asia_, _Genoa_, and
_Albion_; the _Dartmouth_ and the _Musquito_, the _Rose_, the
_Brisk_, and the _Philomel_ were to look after six fire vessels at
the entrance of the harbour. I gave orders that no gun should be
fired, unless guns were first fired by the Turks; and those orders
were strictly observed. The three English ships were accordingly
permitted to pass the batteries and to moor, as they did with great
rapidity, without any act of open hostility, although there was
evident preparation for it in all the Turkish ships; but upon the
_Dartmouth_ sending a boat to one of the fire vessels, Lieut. G.
W. H. Fitzroy, and several of her crew, were shot with musketry.
This produced a defensive fire of musketry from the _Dartmouth_,
and _La Syrene_, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral de Rigny; that
was succeeded by cannon-shot at the Rear-Admiral from one of the
Egyptian ships, which, of course, brought on a return, and thus
very shortly afterwards the battle became general. The _Asia_,
although placed alongside the ship of the Capitana Bey, was even
nearer to that of Moharem Bey, the commander of the Egyptian
ships; and since his ships did not fire at the _Asia_, although
the action was begun to windward, neither did the _Asia_ fire at
her. The latter, indeed, sent a message, "that he would not fire
at all," and therefore no hostility took place betwixt our two
ships for some time after the _Asia_ had returned the fire of the
Capitana Bey.
"In the meantime, however, our excellent pilot, Mr. Peter Mitchell,
who went to interpret to Moharem my desire to avoid bloodshed, was
killed by his people in our boat alongside.
"Whether with or without his orders I know not; but his ship soon
afterwards fired into the _Asia_, and was consequently effectually
destroyed by the _Asia's_ fire, sharing the same fate as his
brother Admiral on the starboard side, and falling to leeward a
mere wreck. These ships being out of the way, the _Asia_ became
exposed to a raking fire from vessels in the second and third
line, which carried away her mizen-mast by the board, disabled
some of her guns, and killed and wounded several of her crew.
This narration of the proceedings of the _Asia_ would probably be
equally applicable to most of the other ships of the fleet. The
manner in which the _Genoa_ and _Albion_ took their stations was
beautiful; and the conduct of my brother Admirals, Count Heyden
and the Chevalier de Rigny, throughout was admirable and highly
exemplary.
"Captain Fellowes executed the part allotted to him perfectly,
and with the able assistance of his little but brave detachment,
saved the _Syrene_ from being burnt by the fire vessels. And the
_Cambrian_, _Glasgow_ and _Talbot_, following the fine example of
Capitaine Hugon, of the _Armide_, who was opposed to the leading
frigate of that line, effectually destroyed their opponents, and
also silenced the batteries. This bloody and destructive battle was
continued with unabated fury for four hours, and the scene of wreck
and devastation which presented itself at its termination was such
as has seldom been witnessed. As each ship of our opponents became
effectually disabled, such of her crew as could escape from her
endeavoured to set her on fire; and it is wonderful how we avoided
the effects of their successive and awful explosions.
"I contemplate, as I do with extreme sorrow, the extent of our
loss, I console myself with the reflection that the measure which
produced the battle was absolutely necessary for obtaining the
results contemplated by the treaty, and that it was brought on
entirely by our opponents.
"When I found the boasted Ottoman's word of honour made a sacrifice
to wanton savage devastation, and that a base advantage was taken
of our reliance upon Ibrahim's good faith, I own I felt a desire to
punish the offenders. But it was my duty to refrain, and refrain I
did; and I can assure his Royal Highness, that I would still have
avoided this disastrous extremity if other means had been open to
me.
"Total killed, 75; total wounded, 197.
"_Killed and wounded on board the French ships_: Killed, 43; 79
severely wounded; 65 wounded.
"Accounts have been received from Constantinople of a date
subsequent to the arrival of the above news at that city. The Divan
appeared to be in a state of consternation; and the Ambassadors
of the three allied powers were urgently pressing the subject of
their intended negociations. The haughty tone of the Porte seems to
be in some measure subdued; and, contrary to general expectation,
there has been no popular commotion excited against the resident
Christians."
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION (1828).
=Source.=--_Memoirs of Sir Robert Peel_, by Stanhope and Cardwell.
London, 1856. Pt. I. p. 35.
_Extracts from Lord Anglesey's Letter to Lord Francis Leveson
Gower._
"I will give you my opinion upon the state of things and upon the
great question.
"I begin by premising that I hold in abhorrence the Association,
the agitators, the priests, and their religion; and I believe
that not many, _but that some_ of the Bishops, are mild, moderate
and anxious to come to a fair and liberal compromise for the
adjustment of the points at issue. I think that these latter have
very little, if any, influence with the lower clergy and the
population.
"Such is the extraordinary power of the Association, or rather of
the agitators, of whom there are many of high ability, of ardent
mind, of great daring (and, if there was no Association, these
men are now too well known not to maintain their power under the
existing order of exclusion), that I am quite certain they could
lead on the people to open rebellion at a moment's notice; and
their organization is such, that, in the hands of desperate and
intelligent leaders, they would be extremely formidable. The hope,
and indeed the probability of present tranquillity, rests upon the
forbearance and the not very determined courage of O'Connell, and
on his belief, as well as that of the principal men amongst them,
that they will carry their cause by unceasing agitation, and by
intimidation, without coming to blows. I believe their success
inevitable--that no power under heaven can arrest its progress.
There may be rebellion, you may put to death thousands, you may
suppress it, but it will only be to put off the day of compromise;
and in the meantime the country is still more impoverished, and the
minds of the people are, if possible, still more alienated, and
ruinous expense is entailed upon the empire.
"But supposing that the whole evil was concentrated in the
Association, and that if that was suppressed all would go smoothly;
where is the man who can tell me how to suppress it? Many, many
cry out that the nuisance must be abated; that the Government is
supine; that the insolence of the demagogues is intolerable; but I
have not yet found one person capable of pointing out a remedy. All
are mute when you ask them to define their proposition. All that
even the most determined opposers to emancipation say is that it
is better to leave things as they are than to risk any change. But
will things remain as they are? Certainly not. They are bad; they
must get worse; and I see no possible means of improving them but
by depriving the demagogues of the power of directing the people;
and by taking Messrs. O'Connell, Sheil, and the rest of them from
the Association, and placing them in the House of Commons, this
desirable object would be at once accomplished.
"July 3rd. The present order of things must not, cannot last. There
are three modes of proceeding:
"1st. That of trying to go on as we have done.
"2nd. To adjust the question by concession, and such guards as may
be deemed indispensable.
"3rd. To put down the Association, and to crush the power of the
priests.
"The first I hold to be impossible.
"The second is practicable and advisable.
"The third is only possible by supposing that you can reconstruct
the House of Commons; and to suppose that is to suppose that you
can totally alter the feelings of those who send them there.
"I believe nothing short of the suspension of the Habeas Corpus
Act, and Martial Law will effect the third proposition. This
would effect it during their operation, and perhaps for a short
time after they had ceased, and then every evil would return with
accumulated weight.
"But no House of Commons would consent to these measures until
there is open rebellion, and therefore until that occurs it is
useless to think of them. The second mode of proceeding is then,
I conceive, the only practicable one, but the present is not a
propitious time to effect even this.
"I abhor the idea of truckling to the overbearing Catholic
demagogues. To make any movement towards conciliation under the
present excitement and system of terror would revolt me; but I do
most conscientiously, and after the most earnest consideration
of the subject, give it as my conviction that the first moment
of composure and tranquillity should be seized to signify the
intention of adjusting the question, lest another period of calm
should not present itself."
IRISH UNREST (1828).
=Source.=--_Memoirs of Sir Robert Peel_, by Stanhope and Cardwell.
London, 1856. Pt. I. p. 35.
_Irish Police Reports, January and February, 1828._
_Sligo._--Generally quiet; 1 murder; 7 outrages.
_Mayo._--Perfectly quiet; 1 murder; 1 outrage.
_Roscommon._--Rockites rather busy; apprehensive of their
extending their operations; 2 murders; 11 outrages.
_Clare._--Quiet; apprehensive of Ribbon spirit extending; 9
outrages.
_Leitrim._--Much disturbed; the sway of the Rockites
formidable; magistrates supposed to be deficient in energy; 36
outrages.
_Galway._--Perfectly quiet; 1 murder; 6 outrages.
_Antrim._--Disturbed; robberies of fire-arms; not
insurrectionary; 3 murders; 7 outrages.
_Armagh._--Quiet; 1 outrage.
_Cavan._--Strong political feeling ready to develop itself; 9
outrages.
_Donegal._--Not tranquil; 2 murders; 4 outrages.
_Down._--Quiet; 2 outrages.
_Fermanagh._--Tranquil; 6 outrages.
_Londonderry._--Generally quiet; 1 murder; 4 outrages.
_Monaghan._--Disturbed; party violence runs high; 1 murder; 6
outrages.
_Ulster_ may be considered tolerably tranquil, with the
exception of some baronies in the counties of Donegal and
Monaghan.
_Tipperary._--Whiteboy system prevails very generally; no
organized insurrectionary system founded upon political
feeling; 4 murders; 75 outrages.
_Cork._--Generally quiet; 1 murder; 4 outrages.
_Waterford._--Quiet; 3 outrages.
_Kerry._--Quiet; 3 outrages.
_Roscrea._--Dissatisfied spirit excited by inflammatory
speeches.
_Limerick._--Satisfactory state; 9 outrages.
_Wicklow._--Western division disturbed; considered necessary
to increase the constabulary force by ordering three men
to Dunlavin, and three more to another disturbed point;
Talbotstown the most disturbed; 3 outrages.
_Kildare._--Nothing to notice.
CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION (1829).
=Source.=--_Annual Register for 1829_, p. 94.
_Duke of Wellington's Speech._
[The attitude of the Ministry was set forth in a brief speech by
the Duke of Wellington at the close of the debate. While there
is little in the utterance beyond a personal explanation of the
secrecy maintained, it is inserted as being the final word on the
great question which had for so many years troubled the heart of
England.]
The debate was closed by a brief reply from the Duke of Wellington.
The apprehended danger to the Irish Church from the admission of a
few Catholics into Parliament, he treated as futile, considering
that the throne would be filled by a Protestant. Moreover, a
fundamental article of the Union between the two countries was the
union of the two Churches; and it was impossible that any mischief
could happen to the Irish branch of this united Church, without
destroying the union of the two countries. "A different topic,"
said his grace, "to which I wish to advert is a charge brought
against several of my colleagues, and also against myself, by the
noble earl on the cross-bench, of a want of consistency in our
conduct. My lords, I admit that many of my colleagues, as well
as myself, did on former occasions vote against a measure of a
similar description with this; and, my lords, I must say, that my
colleagues and myself felt, when we adopted this measure, that we
should be sacrificing ourselves and our popularity to that which
we felt to be our duty to our sovereign and our country. We knew
very well, that if we put ourselves at the head of the Protestant
cry of 'No Popery,' we should be much more popular even than those
who had excited against us that very cry. But we felt that in so
doing we should have left on the interests of the country a burthen
which must end in bearing them down, and further that we should
have deserved the hate and execration of our countrymen. Then I am
accused, and by a noble and learned friend of mine, of having acted
with great secrecy respecting this measure. Now I beg to tell him,
that he has done that to me in the course of this discussion which
he complains of others having done to him--in other words, he has,
in the language of a right hon. friend of his and mine, thrown a
large paving-stone, instead of throwing a small pebble. I say, that
if he accuses me of acting with secrecy on this question, he does
not deal with me altogether fairly. He knows as well as I do how
the Cabinet was constructed on this question; and I ask him, had
I any right to say a single word to any man whatsoever upon this
measure, until the person most interested in the kingdom upon it
had given his consent to my speaking out? Before he accused me of
secrecy, and of improper secrecy too, he ought to have known the
precise day upon which I received the permission of the highest
personage in the country, and had leave to open my mouth upon this
measure. There is another point also on which a noble earl accused
me of misconduct; and that is, that I did not at once dissolve the
Parliament. Now I must say that I think noble lords are mistaken
in the notion of the benefits which they think that they would
derive from a dissolution of Parliament at this crisis. I believe
that many of them are not aware of the consequences and of the
inconveniences of a dissolution of Parliament at any time. But when
I know, as I did know, and as I do know, the state of the elective
franchise in Ireland--when I recollected the number of men it took
to watch one election which took place in Ireland in the course
of last summer--when I knew the consequences which a dissolution
would produce on the return to the House of Commons, to say nothing
of the risks which must have been incurred at each election--of
collisions that might have lead to something little short of a
civil war--I say, that, knowing all these things, I should have
been wanting in duty to my sovereign and to my country, if I had
advised his Majesty to dissolve his Parliament."
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S SUPPOSED DESIGNS ON THE CROWN (1830).
=Source.=--_The Life of the Duke of Wellington_, by J. R. Gleig.
_Letter from Col. Fairman to the Editor of the "Morning Herald,"
April 6, 1830._
"Dear Sir,
"From those who may be supposed to have opportunities of knowing
'the secrets of the castle,' the King is stated to be by no manner
in so alarming a state as many folks would have it imagined. His
Majesty is likewise said to dictate the bulletins of his own
state of health. Some whisperings have also gone abroad, that
in the event of a demise of the crown, a regency would probably
be established, for reasons which occasioned the removal of the
next in the succession from the office of high-admiral. That a
maritime government might not prove consonant to the views of a
military chieftain of the most unbounded ambition, may admit of
easy belief; and as the second heir-presumptive is not alone a
female, but a minor, in addition to the argument which might be
applied to the present, that in the ordinary course of nature it
was not to be expected that his reign could be of long duration, in
these disjointed times it is by no means unlikely a vicarious form
of government may be attempted. The effort would be a bold one,
but after the measures we have seen, what new violations should
surprise us? Besides, the popular plea of economy and expedience
might be urged as the pretext, while aggrandisement and usurpation
might be the latent sole motive. It would only be necessary to
make out a plausible case, which, from the facts on record, there
could be no difficulty in doing, to the satisfaction of a pliable
and obsequious set of ministers, as also to the success of such an
experiment.
"Most truly yours,
"W. B. F."
NOTE.--_Colonel Fairman was an Orangeman. After the Emancipation
Bill became law, the Orangemen gave vent to their wrath upon the
Duke of Wellington._
HEAVY TAXATION OF THE WORKING CLASSES (1830).
=Source.=--William Cobbett's _Rural Rides_, ed. by Mr. Pitt
Cobbett, 1885.
"Leicester, 26th April, 1830.
"At the famous city of Lincoln, I had crowded audiences,
principally consisting of farmers, on the 21st and 22nd;
exceedingly well-behaved audiences, and great impression produced.
One of the evenings, in pointing out to them the wisdom of
explaining to their labourers the cause of their distress, in order
to ward off the effects of the resentment which labourers now feel
everywhere against the farmers, I related to them what my labourers
at Barn-Elm had been doing since I left home; and I repeated to
them the complaints that my labourers made, stating to them, from
memory, the following parts of that spirited petition:
"That your petitioners have recently observed that many great sums
of money, part of which we pay, have been voted to be given to
persons who render no services to the country; some of which sums
we will mention here; that the sum of £94,000 has been voted to
disbanded _foreign_ officers, their _widows_ and _children_; that
your petitioners know that ever since the peace this charge has
been annually made; that it has been on the average, £110,000 a
year, and that, of course, this band of foreigners have actually
taken away out of England, since the peace, one million and seven
thousand pounds; partly taken from the fruit of our labour; and if
our dinners were actually taken from our table and carried over to
Hanover, the process could not be more visible to our eyes than
it now is; and we are astonished that those who fear that we, who
make the land bring forth crops, and who make the clothing and the
houses, shall swallow up the rental, appear to think nothing at all
of the swallowings of these Hanoverian men, women, and children,
who may continue thus to swallow for half a century to come.
* * * * *
"That your petitioners know that more than one half of their wages
is taken from them by the taxes; that these taxes go chiefly into
the hands of idlers; that your petitioners are the bees, and that
the tax receivers are the drones; but that your petitioners hope to
see the day when the checking of the increase of the drones, and
not of the bees, will be the object of an English parliament.
"That, in consequence of taxes, your petitioners pay sixpence for
a pot of worse beer than they could make for one penny; that they
pay ten shillings for a pair of shoes that they could have for five
shillings; that they pay sevenpence for a pound of soap or candles
that they could have for threepence; that they pay sevenpence for
a pound of sugar that they could have for threepence; that they
pay six shillings for a pound of tea which they could have for two
shillings; that they pay double for their bread and meat, of what
they would have to pay if there were no idlers to be kept out of
the taxes; that, therefore, it is the taxes that make their wages
insufficient for their support, and that compel them to apply
for aid to the poor-rates; that, knowing these things they feel
indignant at hearing themselves described as _paupers_, while
so many thousands of idlers, for whose support they pay taxes,
are called _noble Lords_ and _Ladies_, _honourable Gentlemen_,
_Masters_, and _Misses_; that they feel indignant at hearing
themselves described as a nuisance to be got rid of, while the
idlers who live upon their earnings are upheld, caressed, and
cherished, as if they were the sole support of the country."
Having repeated to them these passages, I proceeded: "My workmen
were induced thus to petition, in consequence of the information,
which I, their master, had communicated to them; and, gentlemen,
why should not your labourers petition in the same strain? Why
should you suffer them to remain in a state of ignorance, relative
to the cause of their misery? The eyes sweep over in this country
more riches in one moment than are contained in the whole county
in which I was born, and in which the petitioners live. Between
Holbeach and Boston, even at a public house, neither bread nor meat
was to be found; and while the landlord was telling me that the
people were become so poor that the butchers killed no meat in the
neighbourhood, I counted more than two thousand fat sheep lying
about in the pastures in that richest spot in the whole world.
Starvation in the midst of plenty; the land covered with food, and
the working people without victuals: everything taken away by the
tax-eaters of various descriptions: and yet you take no measures
for redress; and your miserable labourers seem to be doomed to
expire with hunger, without an effort to obtain relief. What!
cannot you point out to them the real cause of their sufferings;
cannot you take a piece of paper and write out a petition for
them; cannot your labourers petition as well as mine, are God's
blessings bestowed on you without any spirit to preserve them;
is the fatness of the land, is the earth teeming with food for
the body and raiment for the back, to be an apology for the waste
of that courage for which your fathers were so famous; is the
abundance which God has put into your hands to be the excuse for
your resigning yourselves to starvation? My God! is there no spirit
left in England except in the miserable sandhills of Surrey?"
RAILWAY CARRIAGES (1830).
=Source.=--_The Gentleman's Magazine_, Vol. 100, p. 552.
_Railway Carriages--June 14._
The directors of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway made their
first public exhibition upon the line, and the experiment proved
most successful. The Arrow steam engine drew a carriage with
twelve inside passengers, another with thirty outside, and seven
carriages loaded with thirty-four tons of rough stone. The journey
from Liverpool to Manchester (rather more than thirty miles) was
performed in two hours 23½ minutes, including stoppages for
water, which occupied 13½ minutes. They left Manchester again for
Liverpool about half-past four o'clock, at the rate of about 25
miles the hour, drawing two very large carriages with upwards of
fifty passengers, and performed the whole distance in one hour 46½
minutes, including 12 minutes watering and to set down a passenger.
The introduction of Railways is likely to be as beneficial
in improving the accommodation afforded to travellers, as in
increasing the expedition with which they will be conveyed. Some
of the carriages which have been made at the manufactory of the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company, for the public conveyance
of passengers on the Railway, give quite a new idea of the ease
and luxury with which persons may in future travel. Most of the
carriages to be used as public coaches consist, like the French
diligences, of two or three bodies joined together. Some are
intended to accommodate four persons in each body, and others six.
Between the sittings is a rest for the arms, and each passenger has
a cushion to himself; the backs are padded and covered with fine
cloth, like a private carriage.
There are at present exhibiting in Edinburgh three large models,
accompanied with drawings of railways and their carriages, invented
by Mr. Dick, who has a patent. These railways are of a different
nature from those hitherto in use, inasmuch as they are not laid
along the surface of the ground, but elevated to such a height
as when necessary to pass over the tops of houses and trees. The
principal supports are of stone, and, being placed at considerable
distances, have cast iron pillars between them. The carriages are
to be dragged along with a velocity hitherto unparalleled, by means
of a rope drawn by a steam-engine, or other prime mover--a series
being placed at intervals along the railway. From the construction
of the railway and carriages the friction is very small.
DEATH OF HUSKISSON (1830).
=Source.=--_The Gentleman's Magazine_, Vol. 100, p. 264.
_September 15._
The interesting ceremony of opening the Manchester and Liverpool
Railway took place this day. It was rendered more splendid and
imposing by the presence of the Duke of Wellington and many
distinguished individuals, whom the Directors had invited. The
concourse of spectators at each end of the line was immense. The
procession left Liverpool twenty minutes before eleven o'clock
drawn by eight locomotive engines, the first of which was the
Northumbrian, with the Directors and numerous distinguished
visitors, including the Duke of Wellington. The other engines were
the Phœnix, North Star, Rocket, Dart, Comet, Arrow, and Meteor. The
carriage in which the Duke of Wellington and his friends travelled,
was truly magnificent. The floor was 32 feet long by 8 wide, and
was supported by eight large iron wheels. A grand canopy, 24 feet
long, was placed aloft upon gilded pillars, contrived so as to be
lowered in passing through the tunnel. The Northumbrian drew three
carriages, the first containing the band, the second the Duke
of Wellington and the distinguished visitors, and the third the
Directors. The Phœnix, and the North Star drew five carriages each;
the Rocket drew three; and the Dart, Comet, Arrow, and Meteor, each
four. The total number of persons conveyed was 772. On issuing
from the smaller tunnel at Liverpool, the first engine, that is,
the Northumbrian, took the south, or right-hand line of railway,
while the other seven engines proceeded along the north line. The
procession did not proceed at a particularly rapid pace--not more
than 15 or 16 miles an hour. In the course of the journey, the
Northumbrian accelerated or retarded its speed occasionally, to
give the Duke of Wellington an opportunity of inspecting the most
remarkable parts of the work. On the arrival of the procession at
Parkside (a little on this side of Newton) the carriages stopped
to take in a supply of water. Before starting from Liverpool, the
company were particularly requested not to leave the carriages, and
the same caution was repeated in the printed directions describing
the order of procession. Notwithstanding this regulation, however,
Mr. Huskisson, Mr. Wm. Holmes, M.P., and other gentlemen, alighted
from the carriage of the Duke of Wellington, when the Northumbrian
stopped at Parkside. At the moment they descended into the road,
three of the engines on the other line--the Phœnix, the North Star,
and the Rocket, were rapidly approaching. Mr. Huskisson and Mr.
Holmes were standing in the road between the two lines of railway,
which are about four feet distant from each other. Unluckily, Mr.
Huskisson imagining that there was not room for a person to stand
between the lines while the other engines were passing, made an
attempt to get again into the carriage of the Duke before the Dart
came up. He laid hold of the door of the carriage, and pulled
it open with so much force that he lost his balance, and fell
backwards across the rails of the other line, the moment before
the passing of the Dart. The conductor of that engine immediately
stopped it, but before that could be effected, both wheels of the
engine passed over the leg of the unfortunate gentleman, which was
placed over the rail, his head and body being under the engine.
The right leg was frightfully shattered, the muscles being torn to
pieces. The Earl of Wilton, Mr. Holmes, and Mr. Parkes, solicitor,
of Birmingham, raised Mr. Huskisson from the ground. The only
words he uttered were: "I have met my death--God forgive me!" A
tourniquet was immediately applied by the Earl of Wilton; and Dr.
Brandreth was quickly in attendance. He was then removed to a car,
and carried to Eccles, a village within four miles of Manchester;
and after his arrival there, was removed to the house of the Rev.
Mr. Blackburn, the rector of that place, where the Right Hon.
Gentleman expired between nine and ten o'clock the same evening.
After the above melancholy accident a question arose as to what
ought to be done with regard to the further progress of the
business of the day. The Duke of Wellington refused to proceed
further. Some of the proprietors and directors insisted that they
had a public duty to perform in carrying the day's proceedings to
an end, and that the success of the project, on which they had
expended so much capital, might depend on their being regularly
finished. They contended, moreover, that the procession _must
go on_ to Manchester, if they wished to avoid a breach of the
public tranquillity. The Duke's scruples ultimately gave way, and
the order was issued to move on to Manchester. On its return the
Duke of Wellington quitted the rail-road about three miles before
the cortege reached Liverpool, and posted off to the Marquis of
Salisbury's seat at Childwell. The splendid corporation dinner
which had been prepared at Liverpool was suspended; and nothing
was heard spoken of but the above melancholy event. Mr. Huskisson
was interred on the 24th at the public cemetery at Liverpool. The
funeral was a public one.
ON THE USE OF CLOSE BOROUGHS (1831).
=Source.=--_The Life of the Duke of Wellington_, by J. R. Gleig.
_Letter from the Duke of Wellington to J. R. Gleig, Esq._
"London, 11th April, 1831.
"I have received your letters of the 8th and 9th. It is curious
enough that I, who have been the greatest reformer on earth, should
be held up as an enemy to all reform. This assertion is neither
more or less than one of the lying cries of the day.
"If by reform is meant parliamentary reform, or a change in the
mode or system of representation, what I have said is, that I have
never heard of a plan that was safe and practicable that would
give satisfaction, and that while I was in office I should oppose
myself to reform in parliament. This was in answer to Lord Grey
on the first day of the session. I am still of the same opinion.
I think that parliament has done its duty: that constituted as
parliament is, having in it as a member every man noted in the
country for his fortune, his talents, his science, his industry, or
his influence; the first men of all professions, in all branches of
trade and manufacture, connected with our colonies and settlements
abroad, and representing, as it does, all the states of the United
Kingdom, the government of the country is still a task almost more
than human. To conduct the government would be impossible, if by
reform the House of Commons should be brought to a greater degree
under popular influence. Yet let those who wish for reform reflect
for a moment where we should all stand if we were to lose for a day
the protection of government.
"That is the ground upon which I stand with respect to the question
of reform in general. I have more experience in the government
of this country than any man now alive, as well as in foreign
countries. I have no borough influence to lose, and I hate the
whole concern too much to think of endeavouring to gain any. Ask
the gentlemen of the Cinque Ports whether I have ever troubled any
of them.
"On the other hand, I know that I should be the idol of the country
if I could pretend to alter my opinion and alter my course. And
I know that I exclude myself from political power by persevering
in the course which I have taken. But nothing shall induce me to
utter a word, either in public or in private, that I don't believe
to be true. If it is God's will that this great country should be
destroyed, and that mankind should be deprived of this last asylum
of peace and happiness, be it so; but, as long as I can raise my
voice, I will do so against the infatuated madness of the day.
"In respect to details, it has always appeared to me that the
first step upon this subject was the most important. We talk of
unrepresented great towns! These are towns which have all the
benefit of being governed by the system of the British Constitution
without the evil of elections. Look at Scotland. Does Scotland
suffer because it has not the benefit of riotous elections? I
think that reform in Scotland would be, and I am certain would be
thought, a grievance by many in that country. I can answer for
there being many respectable men in Manchester, and I believe
there are some in Birmingham and Leeds, who are adverse to change.
"But how is this change to be made? Either by adding to the number
of representatives in parliament from England, or by disfranchising
what are called the rotten boroughs! The first cannot be done
without a departure from the basis and a breach of the Acts of
Union. And, mind, a serious departure and breach of these acts,
inasmuch as the limits of the extension could not be less than
from fifteen to twenty towns. The last would be, in my opinion,
a violation of the first and most important principle of the
constitution, for no valid reason, and upon no ground whatever
excepting a popular cry, and an apprehension of the consequences
of resisting it. But this is not all. I confess that I see in
thirty members for rotten boroughs thirty men, I don't care of what
party, who would preserve the state of property as it is; who would
maintain by their votes the Church of England, its possessions,
its churches and universities, all our great institutions and
corporations, the union with Scotland and Ireland, the connection
of the country with its foreign colonies and possessions, the
national honour abroad and its good faith with the king's subjects
at home. I see men at the back of the government to enable it to
protect individuals and their property against the injustice of
the times, which would sacrifice all rights and all property to a
description of plunder called general convenience and utility. I
think it is the presence of this description of men in parliament
with the country gentlemen, and the great merchants, bankers, and
manufacturers, which constitute the great difference between the
House of Commons and those assemblies abroad called 'Chambers of
Deputies.' It is by means of the representatives of the close
corporations that the great proprietors of the country participate
in political power. I don't think that we could spare thirty or
forty of these representatives, or change them with advantage for
thirty or forty members elected for the great towns by any new
system. I am certain that the country would be injured by depriving
men of great property of political power, besides the injury done
to it by exposing the House of Commons to a greater degree of
popular influence.
"You will observe that I have now considered only the smallest of
all reforms--a reform which would satisfy nobody. Yet it cannot be
adopted without a serious departure from principle (principle in
the maintenance of which the smallest as well as the greatest of us
is interested), and by running all the risks of those misfortunes
which all wish to avoid.
"I tell you that we must not risk our great institutions and large
properties, personal as well as real. If we do, there is not a man
of this generation, so young, so old, so rich, so poor, so bold, so
timid, as that he will not feel the consequences of this rashness.
This opinion is founded not on reasoning only, but on experience,
and I shall never cease to declare it."
LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S SPEECH ON THE FIRST REFORM BILL (1831).[4]
=Source.=--Molesworthy's _History of the Reform Bill_, London,
1866, p. 103.
The object of ministers has been to produce a measure with which
every reasonable man in the country will be satisfied--we wish to
take our stand between the two hostile parties, neither agreeing
with the bigotry of those who would reject all Reform, nor with the
fanaticism of those who contend that only one plan of Reform would
be wholesome or satisfactory, but placing ourselves between both,
and between the abuses we intend to amend and the convulsion we
hope to avert.
The ancient constitution of our country declares that no man should
be taxed for the support of the State, who has not consented, by
himself or his representative, to the imposition of these taxes.
The well-known statute, _de tallagio non concedendo_, repeats the
same language; and, although some historical doubts have been
thrown upon it, its legal meaning has never been disputed. It
included "all the freemen of the land," and provided that each
county should send to the Commons of the realm, two knights, each
city two burgesses, and each borough two members. Thus about a
hundred places sent representatives, and some thirty or forty
others occasionally enjoyed the privilege, but it was discontinued
or revived as they rose or fell in the scale of wealth and
importance. Thus, no doubt, at that early period, the House of
Commons did represent the people of England; there is no doubt
likewise, that the House of Commons, as it now subsists, does not
represent the people of England. Therefore, if we look at the
question of right, the reformers have right in their favour. Then,
if we consider what is reasonable, we shall arrive at a similar
result.
A stranger, who was told that this country is unparalleled in
wealth and industry, and more civilized, and more enlightened
than any country was before it; that it is a country that prides
itself on its freedom, and that once in every seven years it elects
representatives from its population, to act as the guardians and
preservers of that freedom,--would be anxious and curious to see
how that representation is formed, and how the people chose those
representatives, to whose faith and guardianship they entrust
their free and liberal institutions. Such a person would be very
much astonished if he were taken to a ruined mound, and told that
that mound sent two representatives to Parliament--if he were
taken to a stone wall, and told that three niches in it sent
two representatives to Parliament--if he were taken to a park,
where no houses were to be seen, and told that that park sent two
representatives to Parliament; but if he were told all this, and
were astonished at hearing it, he would be still more astonished
if he were to see large and opulent towns full of enterprise and
industry, and intelligence, containing vast magazines of every
species of manufactures, and were then told that these towns sent
no representatives to Parliament.
Such a person would be still more astonished, if he were taken to
Liverpool, where there is a large constituency, and told, here you
will have a fine specimen of a popular election.
He would see bribery employed to the greatest extent, and in the
most unblushing manner; he would see every voter receiving a number
of guineas in a box, as the price of his corruption; and after such
a spectacle, he would no doubt be much astonished that a nation
whose representatives are thus chosen, could perform the functions
of legislation at all, or enjoy respect in any degree. I say, then,
that if the question before the House is a question of reason, the
present state of representation is against reason.
The confidence of the country in the construction and constitution
of the House of Commons is gone. It would be easier to transfer
the flourishing manufactures of Leeds and Manchester to Gatton and
Old Sarum, than re-establish confidence and sympathy between this
House and those whom it calls its constituents. If, therefore, the
question is one of right, right is in favour of Reform; if it be
a question of reason, reason is in favour of Reform; if it be a
question of policy and expediency, policy and expediency are in
favour of Reform.
I come now to the explanation of the measure which, representing
the ministers of the King, I am about to propose to the House.
Those ministers have thought, and in my opinion justly thought,
that no half measures would be sufficient; that no trifling or
paltering with Reform could give stability to the Crown, strength
to Parliament, or satisfaction to the country. The chief grievances
of which the people complain are these. First, the nomination of
members by individuals; second, the election by close corporations;
third, the expense of elections. With regard to the first, it may
be exercised in two ways, either over a place containing scarcely
any inhabitants, and with a very extensive right of election; or
over a place of wide extent and numerous population, but where the
franchise is confined to very few persons. Gatton is an example
of the first, and Bath of the second. At Gatton, where the right
of voting is by scot and lot, all householders have a vote, but
there are only five persons to exercise the right. At Bath the
inhabitants are numerous, but very few of them have any concern in
the election. In the former case, we propose to deprive the borough
of the franchise altogether. In doing so, we have taken for our
guide the population returns of 1821; and we propose that every
borough which in that year had less than 2,000 inhabitants, should
altogether lose the right of sending members to Parliament, the
effect of which will be to disfranchise sixty-two boroughs. But we
do not stop here. As the honourable member for Boroughbridge [Sir
C. Wetherell] would say, we go _plus ultra_; we find that there
are forty-seven boroughs of only 4,000 inhabitants, and these we
shall deprive of the right of sending more than one member to
Parliament. We likewise intend that Weymouth, which at present
sends four members to Parliament, should in the future send only
two. The total reduction thus effected in the number of the members
of this House will be 168. This is the whole extent to which we are
prepared to go in the way of disfranchisement.
We do not, however, mean to allow that the remaining boroughs
should be in the hands of a small number of persons to the
exclusion of the great body of the inhabitants who have property
and interest in the place. It is a point of great difficulty to
decide to whom the franchise should be extended. Though it is a
point much disputed, I believe it will be found that in ancient
times every inhabitant householder resident in a borough was
competent to vote for members of Parliament. As, however, this
arrangement excluded villeins and strangers, the franchise always
belonged to a particular body in every town;--that the voters
were persons of property is obvious, from the fact that they are
called upon to pay subsidies and taxes. Two different courses
seem to prevail in different places. In some, every person having
a house, and being free, was admitted to a general participation
in the privileges formerly possessed by burgesses; in others, the
burgesses became a select body, and were converted into a kind of
corporation, more or less exclusive. These differences, the House
will be aware, lead to the most difficult, and at the same time the
most useless questions that men can be called upon to decide. I
contend that it is proper to get rid of these complicated rights,
of these vexatious questions, and to give the real property and
real respectability of the different cities and towns, the right of
voting for members of Parliament. Finding that a qualification of
a house rated at £20 a year, would confine the elective franchise,
instead of enlarging it, we propose that the right of voting
should be given to the householders paying rates for houses of the
yearly value of £10 and upwards, upon certain conditions hereafter
to be stated. At the same time it is not intended to deprive the
present electors of their privilege of voting, provided they are
resident. With regard to non-residence, we are of opinion that it
produces much expense, is the cause of a great deal of bribery,
and occasions such manifest and manifold evils, that electors who
do not live in a place ought not to be permitted to retain their
votes. With regard to resident voters, we propose that they should
retain their right during life, but that no vote should be allowed
hereafter, except to £10 householders.
I shall now proceed to the manner in which we propose to extend
the franchise in counties. The bill I wish to introduce will give
all copyholders to the value of £10 a year, qualified to serve on
juries, under the right hon. gentlemen's [Sir R. Peel] bill, a
right to vote for the return of knights of the shire; also, that
leaseholders, for not less than twenty-one years, whose annual rent
is not less than £50, and whose leases have not been renewed within
two years, shall enjoy the same privilege.
THE PASSING OF THE REFORM BILL, MARCH 30TH, 1831.
=Source.=--_Macaulay's Life and Letters_, by the Right Hon. Sir
George Otto Trevelyan, 1876.
_Lord Macaulay's Description of the Scene._
Such a scene as the division of last Tuesday I never saw, and never
expect to see again. If I should live fifty years the impression of
it will be as fresh and sharp in my mind as if it had just taken
place. It was like seeing Caesar stabbed in the Senate House, or
seeing Oliver taking the mace from the table; a sight to be seen
only once, and never to be forgotten. The crowd overflowed the
House in every part. When the strangers were cleared out, and the
doors locked, we had six hundred and eight members present--more
by fifty-five than ever were in a division before. The Ayes and
the Noes were like two volleys of cannon from opposite sides of
a field of battle. When the opposition went out into the lobby,
an operation which took up twenty minutes or more, we spread
ourselves over the benches on both sides of the House; for there
were many of us who had not been able to find a seat during the
evening. When the doors were shut we began to speculate on our
numbers. Everybody was desponding. "We have lost it. We are only
two hundred and eighty at the most. I do not think we are two
hundred and fifty. They are three hundred. Alderman Thompson has
counted them. He says they are two hundred and ninety-nine." This
was the talk on our benches. I wonder that men who have been long
in Parliament do not acquire a better _coup d'œil_ for numbers.
The House, when only the Ayes were in it, looked to me a very
fair House--much fuller than it generally is even on debates of
considerable interest. I had no hope, however, of three hundred. As
the tellers passed along our lowest row on the left hand side the
interest was insupportable--two hundred and ninety-one--two hundred
and ninety-two--we were all standing up and stretching forward
telling with the tellers. At three hundred there was a short cry
of joy--at three hundred and two another--suppressed, however, in
a moment; for we did not yet know what the hostile force might be.
We knew, however, that we could not be severely beaten. The doors
were thrown open, and in they came. Each of them, as he entered,
brought some different report of their numbers. It must have been
impossible, as you may conceive, in the lobby crowded as they were,
to form any exact estimate. First, we heard that they were three
hundred and three; then that number rose to three hundred and ten;
then went down to three hundred and seven, Alexander Barry told me
that he had counted, and that they were three hundred and four. We
were all breathless with anxiety, when Charles Wood, who stood near
the door, jumped on a bench and cried out, "They are only three
hundred and one." We set up a shout that you might have heard to
Charing Cross, waving our hats, stamping against the floor, and
clapping our hands. The tellers scarcely got through the crowd;
for the House was thronged up to the table, and all the floor was
fluctuating with heads like the pit of a theatre. But you might
have heard a pin drop as Duncannon read the numbers. Then again
the shouts broke out, and many of us shed tears. I could scarcely
refrain. And the jaw of Peel fell; and the face of Twiss was as
the face of a damned soul; and Herries looked like Judas taking
his necktie off for the last operation. We shook hands and clapped
each other on the back, and went out laughing, crying, and huzzaing
into the lobby. And no sooner were the outer doors opened than
another shout answered that within the House. All the passages,
and the stairs into the waiting-rooms, were thronged by people who
had waited till four in the morning to know the issue. We passed
through a narrow lane between two thick masses of them; and all
the way down they were shouting and waving their hats, till we got
into the open air. I called a cabriolet, and the first thing the
driver asked was, "Is the Bill carried?" "Yes, by one." "Thank God
for it, sir." And away I rode to Gray's Inn--and so ended a scene
which will probably never be equalled till the reformed Parliament
wants reforming; and that I hope will not be till the days of our
grandchildren, till that truly orthodox and apostolical person, Dr.
Francis Ellis, is an archbishop of eighty."
THE PROROGATION OF THE ANTI-REFORM PARLIAMENT (1831).[5]
=Source.=--Molesworthy's _History of the Reform Bill_, London,
1866, p. 185.
Under these circumstances, ministers acted with promptitude and
decision. Their defeat had occurred on the morning of the 22nd of
April; on the same day summonses were issued, calling a Cabinet
Council at St. James's Palace. So short was the notice, that
the ministers were unable to attend, as was customary on such
occasions, in their court dresses.
At this council it was unanimously resolved that Parliament should
be prorogued the same day, with a view to its speedy dissolution,
and the royal speech, which had been prepared for the occasion,
was considered and adopted. All necessary arrangements having been
made, in order to take away from the King all pretext for delay,
Earl Grey and Lord Brougham were deputed to wait on the King, and
communicate to him the advice of the Cabinet. From what has been
already said, the reader will be prepared to anticipate that this
advice was far from palatable. The unusual haste with which it
was proposed to carry out that measure, naturally increased the
King's known objections to the proposed step, and furnished him
with a good excuse for refusing his assent to it. Earl Grey, the
pink and pattern of loyalty and chivalrous courtesy, shrunk from
the disagreeable errand, and requested his bolder and less courtly
colleague to introduce the subject, begging him at the same time to
manage the susceptibility of the King as much as possible.
The Chancellor accordingly approached the subject very carefully,
prefacing the disagreeable message with which he was charged, with
a compliment on the King's desire to promote the welfare of his
people. He then proceeded to communicate the advice of the Cabinet,
adding, that they were unanimous in offering it.
"What!" exclaimed the King, "would you have me dismiss in this
summary manner a Parliament which has granted me so splendid a
civil list, and given my Queen so liberal an annuity in case she
survives me?"
"No doubt, sire," Lord Brougham replied, "in these respects they
have acted wisely and honourably, but your Majesty's advisers are
all of opinion, that in the present state of affairs, every hour
that this Parliament continues to sit is pregnant with danger to
the peace and security of your kingdom, and they humbly beseech
your Majesty to go down this very day and prorogue it. If you do
not, they cannot be answerable for the consequences."
The King was greatly embarrassed; he evidently entertained the
strongest objection to the proposed measure, but he also felt the
danger which would result from the resignation of his ministers at
the present crisis. He therefore shifted his ground, and asked:
"Who is to carry the sword of state and the cap of maintenance?"
"Sire, knowing the urgency of the crisis and the imminent peril in
which the country at this moment stands, we have ventured to tell
those whose duty it is to perform these and other similar offices,
to hold themselves in readiness."
"But the troops, the life guards, I have given no orders for them
to be called out, and now it is too late."
This was indeed a serious objection, for to call out the guards was
the special prerogative of the monarch himself, and no minister
had any right to order their attendance without his express command.
"Sire," replied the Chancellor, with some hesitation, "we must
throw ourselves on your indulgence. Deeply feeling the gravity of
the crisis, and knowing your love for your people, we have taken
a liberty which nothing but the most imperious necessity could
warrant; we have ordered out the troops, and we humbly throw
ourselves on your Majesty's indulgence."
The King's eye flashed and his cheeks became crimson. He was
evidently on the point of dismissing the ministry in an explosion
of anger. "Why, my lords," he exclaimed, "this is treason! _high_
treason, and you, my Lord Chancellor, ought to know that it is."
"Yes, sire, I do know it, and nothing but the strongest conviction
that your Majesty's crown and the interests of the nation are at
stake, could have induced us to take such a step, or to tender the
advice we are now giving."
This submissive reply had the desired effect, the King cooled,
his prudence and better genius prevailed, and having once made
up his mind to yield with a good grace, he accepted, without any
objection, the speech which had been prepared for him, and which
the two ministers had brought with them, he gave orders respecting
the details of the approaching ceremonial, and having completely
recovered his habitual serenity and good humour, he dismissed the
two lords with a jocose threat of impeachment.
At half-past two o'clock the King entered his state carriage. It
was remarked that the guards on this occasion rode wide of it,
as if they attended as a matter of state and ceremony, and not
as being needed for the King's protection. Persons wishing to
make a more open demonstration of their feelings, were allowed
to pass between the soldiers and approach the royal carriage.
One of these, a rough sailor-like person, pulled off his hat,
and waving it around his head, shouted lustily, "Turn out the
rogues, your Majesty." Notwithstanding the suddenness with which
the resolution to dissolve had been taken, the news had already
spread through the metropolis, an immense crowd was assembled, and
the King was greeted throughout his whole progress with the most
enthusiastic shouts. He was exceedingly fond of popularity, and
these acclamations helped to reconcile him to the step he had been
compelled to take, and to efface the unpleasant impression which
the scene which had so recently occurred could not fail to leave
behind it.
Meanwhile, another scene of a far more violent kind was taking
place in the House of Lords. The Chancellor on leaving the King
went down to the House to hear appeals. Having gone through the
cause list he retired, in the hope that he should thereby prevent
Lord Wharncliffe from bringing forward his motion. But the
opposition lords had mustered in great force, and the House was
full in all parts. It is usual on the occasion of a prorogation
by the sovereign, for the peers to appear in their robes, and
most of those present wore theirs, but owing to the precipitation
with which the dissolution had been decided on, several peers,
especially on the opposition side of the House, were without them.
A large number of peeresses in full dress, and of members of the
House of Commons were also present. And now a struggle commenced
between the two parties into which the House was divided. The
object of the opposition was to press Lord Wharncliffe's motion
before the King's arrival; the supporters of the ministry wished to
prevent it from being passed. The firing of the park guns announced
that the King was already on his way down to the House, and told
the opposition they had no time to lose. On the motion of Lord
Mansfield, the Earl of Shaftesbury presided, in the absence of the
Lord Chancellor.
The Duke of Richmond, in order to baffle the opposition, moved
that the standing order which required their lordships to take
their places should be enforced. The opposition saw at once
that this motion was made for the sake of delay, and angrily
protested against it; whereupon the duke threatened to call for
the enforcement of two other standing orders which prohibited the
use of intemperate and threatening language in the House. Lord
Londonderry, furious with indignation, broke out into a vehement
tirade against the conduct of the ministry, and thus effectually
played the game of his opponents. So violent was the excitement
which prevailed at this time in the House, that the ladies present
were terrified, thinking that the peers would actually come to
blows. At length Lord Londonderry was persuaded to sit down, and
Lord Wharncliffe obtained a hearing. But it was too late to press
his motion, and he contented himself with reading it, in order that
it might be entered on the journals of the House.
At this conjuncture, the Lord Chancellor returned, and the moment
the reading of the address was concluded, he exclaimed in a
vehement and emphatic tone:
"My lords, I have never yet heard it doubted that the King
possessed the prerogative of dissolving Parliament at pleasure,
still less have I ever known a doubt to exist on the subject at
a moment when the lower House have thought fit to refuse the
supplies." Scarcely had he uttered these words when he was summoned
to meet the King, who had just arrived and was in the robing room;
he at once quitted the House which resounded on all sides with
cries of "hear" and "the King."
The tumult having in some degree subsided, Lord Mansfield addressed
the House, regretting the scene which had just occurred, and
condemning the dissolution, which he qualified as an act by which
the ministers were making the sovereign the instrument of his own
destruction.
He was interrupted by another storm of violence and confusion,
which was at length appeased by the announcement that the King was
at hand. When he entered, the assembly had recovered its usual calm
and decorous tranquillity. The members of the House of Commons
having been summoned to the bar, the King, in a loud and firm
voice, pronounced his speech, which commenced with the following
words:
"My lords and gentlemen,
"I have come to meet you for the purpose of proroguing this
Parliament, with a view to its immediate dissolution.
"I have been induced to resort to this measure for the purpose
of ascertaining the sense of my people, in the way in which it
can be most constitutionally and authentically expressed, on
the expediency of making such changes in the representation as
circumstances may appear to require, and which, founded on the
acknowledged principles of the constitution, may tend at once to
uphold the just rights and prerogatives of the crown, and to give
security to the liberties of the people."
PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, SEPT. 20TH (1831).
=Source.=--_Lord Macaulay's Speeches_, 1854.
Sir, the public feeling concerning reform is of no such recent
origin, and springs from no such frivolous causes. Its first faint
commencement may be traced far, very far, back in our history.
During seventy years that feeling has had a great influence on the
public mind. Through the first thirty years of the reign of George
the Third, it was gradually increasing. The great leaders of the
two parties in the state were favourable to reform. Plans of reform
were supported by large and most respectable minorities in the
House of Commons. The French Revolution, filling the higher and
middle classes with an extreme dread of change, and the war calling
away the public attention from internal to external politics, threw
the question back; but the people never lost sight of it. Peace
came, and they were at leisure to think of domestic improvements.
Distress came, and they suspected, as was natural, that their
distress was the effect of unfaithful stewardship and unskilful
legislation. An opinion favourable to parliamentary reform grew
up rapidly, and became strong among the middle classes. But one
tie, one strong tie, still bound those classes to the Tory party.
I mean the Catholic question. It is impossible to deny that, on
that subject, a large proportion, a majority, I fear, of the middle
class of Englishmen, conscientiously held opinions opposed to those
which I have always entertained, and were disposed to sacrifice
every other consideration to what they regarded as a religious
duty. Thus the Catholic question hid, so to speak, the question of
parliamentary reform. The feeling in favour of parliamentary reform
grew, but it grew in the shade. Every man, I think, must have
observed the progress of that feeling in his own social circle.
But few reform meetings were held, and few petitions in favour of
reform presented. At length the Catholics were emancipated; the
solitary link of sympathy which attached the people to the Tories
was broken; the cry of "No popery" could no longer be opposed to
the cry of "Reform." That which, in the opinion of the two great
parties in parliament, and of a vast portion of the community, had
been the first question, suddenly disappeared; and the question of
parliamentary reform took the first place. Then was put forth all
the strength which had been growing in silence and obscurity. Then
it appeared that reform had on its side a coalition of interests
and opinions unprecedented in our history, all the liberality and
intelligence which had supported the Catholic claims, and all the
clamour which had opposed them.
BATTLE SONG (1832).
=Source.=--Ebenezer Elliott's _Poems_, 1832.
Day, like our souls, is fiercely dark,
What then? 'Tis day!
We sleep no more; the cock crows--hark!
To arms! away!
They come! they come! the knell is rung
Of us or them;
Wide o'er their march the pomp is flung
Of gold and gem.
What collar'd hound of lawless sway
To famine dear--
What pensioned slave of Attila,
Leads in the rear?
Come they from Scythian lands afar,
Our blood to spill?
Wear they the livery of the Czar?
They do his will.
Nor tassell'd silk, nor epaulet,
Nor plume, nor torse--
No splendour gilds, all sternly met,
Our foot and horse.
But, dark and still, we only glow,
Condensed in ire!
Strike, tawdry slaves and ye shall know
Our gloom is fire.
In vain your pomp, ye evil powers,
Insults the land;
Wrongs, vengeance, and the Cause are ours,
And God's right hand!
Madmen! they trample into snakes
The wormy clod!
Like fire, beneath their feet awakes
The sword of God!
Behind, before, above, below,
They rouse the brave;
Where'er they go, they make a foe,
Or find a grave.
REPEAL OF THE UNION (1833).
=Source.=--_Lord Macaulay's Speeches_, 1854.
_Speech of Lord Macaulay. Delivered in House of Commons, Feb. 6,
1833._
Ireland has undoubtedly just causes of complaint. We heard those
causes recapitulated last night by the honourable and learned
member,[6] who tells us that he represents not Dublin alone, but
Ireland, and that he stands between his country and civil war. I
do not deny that most of the grievances which he recounted exist,
that they are serious, and that they ought to be remedied as far
as it is in the power of legislation to remedy them. What I do
deny is that they were caused by the union, and that the repeal
of the union would remove them. I listened attentively while
the honourable and learned gentleman went through that long and
melancholy list: and I am confident that he did not mention a
single evil which was not a subject of bitter complaint while
Ireland had a domestic parliament. Is it fair, is it reasonable
in the honourable gentleman to impute to the union evils which,
as he knows better than any other man in this House, existed long
before the union? _Post hoc: ergo, propter hoc_ is not always sound
reasoning. But _ante hoc: ergo, non propter hoc_ is unanswerable.
The old rustic who told Sir Thomas More that Tenterden steeple was
the cause of Godwin sands reasoned much better than the honourable
and learned gentleman. For it was not till after Tenterden steeple
was built that the frightful wrecks on the Godwin sands were heard
of. But the honourable and learned gentleman would make Godwin
sands the cause of Tenterden steeple. Some of the Irish grievances
which he ascribes to the union are not only older than the union,
but are not peculiarly Irish. They are common to England, Scotland,
and Ireland; and it was in order to get rid of them that we, for
the common benefit of England, Scotland, and Ireland, passed the
Reform Bill last year. Other grievances which the honourable and
learned gentleman mentioned are doubtless local; but is there to
be a local legislature wherever there is a local grievance? Wales
has had local grievances. We all remembered the complaints which
were made a few years ago about the Welsh judicial system; but
did anybody therefore propose that Wales should have a distinct
parliament? Cornwall has some local grievances; but does anybody
propose that Cornwall shall have its own House of Lords and its own
House of Commons? Leeds has local grievances. The majority of my
constituents distrust and dislike the municipal government to which
they are subject; they therefore call loudly on us for corporation
reform: but they do not ask us for a separate legislature. Of this
I am quite sure, that every argument which has been urged for the
purpose of showing that Great Britain and Ireland ought to have
two distinct parliaments may be urged with far greater force for
the purpose of showing that the north of Ireland and the south
of Ireland ought to have two distinct parliaments. The House of
Commons of the United Kingdom, it has been said, is chiefly elected
by Protestants, and therefore cannot be trusted to legislate
for Catholic Ireland. If this be so, how can an Irish House of
Commons, chiefly elected by Catholics, be trusted to legislate
for Protestant Ulster? It is perfectly notorious that theological
antipathies are stronger in Ireland than here. I appeal to the
honourable and learned gentleman himself. He has often declared
that it is impossible for a Roman Catholic, whether prosecutor or
culprit, to obtain justice from a jury of Orangemen. It is indeed
certain that, in blood, religion, language, habits, character, the
population of some of the northern counties of Ireland has much
more in common with the population of England and Scotland than
with the population of Munster and Connaught. I defy the honourable
and learned member, therefore, to find a reason for having a
parliament at Dublin which will not be just as good a reason for
having another parliament at Londonderry.
JEWISH DISABILITIES (1833).
=Source.=--_Lord Macaulay's Speeches._ London, 1854.
_Macaulay's Speech on Jewish Disabilities in a Committee of the
whole House, April 17, 1833._
"But where," says the member for the University of Oxford, "are you
to stop, if once you admit into the House of Commons people who
deny the authority of the Gospels? Will you let in a Mussulman?
Will you let in a Parsee? Will you let in a Hindoo, who worships
a lump of stone with seven heads? I will answer my honourable
friend's question by another. Where does he mean to stop? Is he
ready to roast unbelievers at slow fires? If not, let him tell
us why: and I will engage to prove that his reason is just as
decisive against the intolerance which he thinks a duty, as against
the intolerance which he thinks a crime. Once admit that we are
bound to inflict pain on a man because he is not of our religion;
and where are you to stop? Why stop at the point fixed by my
honourable friend rather than at the point fixed by the honourable
member for Oldham,[7] who would make the Jews incapable of holding
land? And why stop at the point fixed by the honourable member
for Oldham rather than at the point which would have been fixed
by a Spanish Inquisitor of the sixteenth century? When once you
enter on a course of persecution, I defy you to find any reason
for making a halt till you have reached the extreme point. When my
honourable friend tells us that he will allow the Jews to possess
property to any amount, but that he will not allow them to possess
the smallest political power, he holds contradictory language.
Property is power. The honourable member for Oldham reasons better
than my honourable friend. The honourable member for Oldham sees
very clearly that it is impossible to deprive a man of political
power if you suffer him to be the proprietor of half a county,
and therefore very consistently proposes to confiscate the landed
estates of the Jews. But even the honourable member for Oldham
does not go far enough. He has not proposed to confiscate the
personal property of the Jews. Yet it is perfectly certain that
any Jew who has a million may easily make himself very important
in the state. By such steps we pass from official power to landed
property, and from landed property to personal property, and from
property to liberty, and from liberty to life. In truth, those
persecutors who use the rack and the stake have much to say for
themselves. They are convinced that their end is good; and it
must be admitted that they employ means which are not unlikely to
attain the end. Religious dissent has repeatedly been put down by
sanguinary persecution. In that way the Albigenses were put down.
In that way Protestantism was suppressed in Spain and Italy, so
that it has never since reared its head. But I defy anybody to
produce an instance in which disabilities such as we are now
considering have produced any other effect than that of making the
sufferers angry and obstinate. My honourable friend should either
persecute to some purpose, or not persecute at all. He dislikes
the word persecution I know. He will not admit that the Jews are
persecuted. And yet I am confident that he would rather be sent to
the King's Bench Prison for three months, or be fined a hundred
pounds, than be subject to the disabilities under which the Jews
lie. How can he then say that to impose such disabilities is not
persecution, and that to fine and imprison is persecution? All
his reasoning consists in drawing arbitrary lines. What he does
not wish to inflict he calls persecution. What he does wish to
inflict he will not call persecution. What he takes from the Jews
he calls political power. What he is too good-natured to take from
the Jews he will not call political power. The Jew must not sit
in parliament: but he may be the proprietor of all the ten pound
houses in a borough. He may have more fifty pound tenants than
any peer in the kingdom. He may give the voters treats to please
their palates, and hire bands of gipsies to break their heads, as
if he were a Christian and a marquess. All the rest of this system
is of a piece. The Jew may be a juryman, but not a judge. He may
decide issues of fact, but not issues of law. He may give a hundred
thousand pounds damages; but he may not in the most trivial case
grant a new trial. He may rule the money market: he may influence
the exchanges: he may be summoned to congresses of emperors and
kings. Great potentates, instead of negotiating a loan with him by
tying him in a chair and pulling out his grinders, may treat with
him as with a great potentate, and may postpone the declaring of
war or the signing of a treaty till they have conferred with him.
All this is as it should be: but he must not be a Privy Councillor.
He must not be called Right Honourable, for that is political
power. And who is it that we are trying to cheat in this way? Even
Omniscience. Yes, Sir; we have been gravely told that the Jews are
under the divine displeasure, and that if we give them political
power God will visit us in judgment. Do we then think that God
cannot distinguish between substance and form? Does not he know
that, while we withhold from the Jews the semblance and name of
political power, we suffer them to possess the substance? The plain
truth is that my honourable friend is drawn in one direction by his
opinions, and in a directly opposite direction by his excellent
heart. He halts between two opinions. He tries to make a compromise
between principles which admit of no compromise. He goes a certain
way in intolerance. Then he stops, without being able to give a
reason for stopping. But I know the reason. It is his humanity.
Those who formerly dragged the Jew at a horse's tail, and singed
his beard with blazing furzebushes, were much worse men than my
honourable friend; but they were more consistent than he."
STRIKES (1834).
=Source.=--Duke of Buckingham's _Memoirs of the Courts of William
IV. and Victoria_, Vol. II. p. 84. London, 1861.
On the 28th, [April] there was a strike of the London journeymen
tailors, numbering thirteen thousand. Their masters came to a
determination not to employ men belonging to trades unions, and
after a few weeks, the journeymen were content to return to their
work on those terms.
These trades unions and their strikes were becoming an insufferable
nuisance; nevertheless, no proper effort was made to put them down.
The mischief they created was well known to the Government,[8]
their interference with trade, their atrocious oaths, impious
ceremonies, desperate tyranny, and secret assassinations, had been
brought under their observation; but Ministers could not be stirred
to any exhibition of energy for the protection either of the
manufacturer, the workman, or the public.
Even the following powerful appeal was addressed to them without
effect:
"Those whose lives and property have been endangered by these
illegal associations have a right to call on Government to employ
some additional means for their suppression. Those who wish for the
prosperity of our trade, and what is of far more importance, the
prosperity and happiness of the working-classes, should equally
desire their extinction. Those who hate oppression should give
their suffrages for the putting down these most capricious and
irresponsible of all despotism. They are alike hurtful to the
workmen who form them, to the capitalists who are the objects of
their hostility, and to the public who more remotely feel their
effects. Were we asked to give a definition of a trades union, we
should say that it is a society whose constitution is the worst of
democracies, whose power is based on outrage, whose practice is
tyranny, and whose end is self-destruction."
AGITATION FOR REFORM OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS (1835).
=Source.=--Martineau's _History of the Peace_, Vol. III. pp. 254-5.
Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
_Speech by Mr. O'Connell at Edinburgh, 1835._
"We achieved but one good measure this last session; but that was
not our fault; for the 170 tyrants of the country prevented us
from achieving more. Ancient Athens was degraded for submitting
to thirty tyrants; modern Athens will never allow 170 tyrants to
rule over her.... It was stated in one of the clubs, that at one
time a dog had bitten the bishop, whereupon a noble lord, who was
present, said, 'I will lay any wager that the bishop began the
quarrel.' Now, really the House of Lords began the quarrel with
me. They may treat me as a mad dog if they please; I won't fight
them; but I will treat them as the Quaker treated the dog which had
attacked him. 'Heaven forbid,' said he, 'that I should do thee the
slightest injury, I am a man of peace, and I will not hurt thee';
but when the dog went away, he cried out, 'Mad dog! mad dog!' and
all the people set upon him. Now, that is my remedy with the House
of Lords. I am more honest than the Quaker was; for the dog that
attacked me is really mad. Bills were rejected in the House of
Lords simply because Daniel O'Connell supported them; and I do say,
that if I had any twelve men on a jury on a question of lunacy, I
would put it to such jury to say if such men were not confirmed
madmen. So you perceive the dog is really mad--and accordingly
I have started on this mission to rouse the public mind to the
necessity of reforming the House of Lords; and I have had 50,000
cheering me at Manchester, and 100,000 cheering me in Newcastle;
and I heard one simultaneous cry, 'Down with the mad dogs, and up
with common sense!' The same cry has resounded through Auld Reekie.
The Calton Hill and Arthur's Seat re-echoed with the sound; and
all Scotland has expressed the same determination to use every
legitimate effort to remove the House of Lords. Though the Commons
are with us, yet the House of Lords are against us; and they have
determined that they will not concede a portion of freedom which
they can possibly keep back. Sir Robert Peel, the greatest humbug
that ever lived, and as full of political and religious cant as any
man that ever canted in this canting world--feeling himself quite
safe on his own dunghill, says that we want but one chamber--one
House of radical reformers. He knew that in saying this he was
saying what was not true. We know too well the advantage of double
deliberation not to support two Houses; but they must be subject to
popular control; they must be the servants, not the masters, of the
people."
THE FACTORY SYSTEM (1836).
=Source.=--_The Curse of the Factory System_, by John Fielden, M.P.
London, 1836.
"Oldham, 25th February, 1836.
"Sir,
"I am instructed by the Master Spinners and Manufacturers in this
Township to forward you the inclosed copy of a Memorial, the
original of which has this day been forwarded to John Frederick
Lees, Esq., one of the Members for this Borough, for presentation
to the Lords of His Majesty's Privy Council for Trade, and to
solicit your assistance and influence in obtaining an alteration of
the present Factory Regulation Act.
"I am, Sir,
"Your obedient Servant,
"KAY CLEGG.
"John Fielden, Esq., M.P.
"House of Commons, London."
"_To the Right Honourable the Lords of His Majesty's Privy Council
for Trade, etc., etc._
"The Memorial of the Undersigned Mill-owners, Occupiers of Mills,
Master-Spinners, and Manufacturers of the Township of Oldham, in
the County of Lancaster.
"Showeth,
"That an Act of Parliament was made and passed in the third and
fourth years of the reign of his present Majesty, entitled 'An Act
to regulate the labour of children and young persons in the Mills
and Factories of the United Kingdom.'
"That the eighth section of the said Act enacts 'That after the
expiration of thirty months from the passing of such Act it shall
not be lawful for any person whatsoever to employ, keep, or
allow to remain, in any factory or mill for a longer period than
forty-eight hours in any one week, any child who shall not have
completed his or her thirteenth year of age.'
"That the said Act has prohibited the employment of children under
twelve years of age for more than nine hours in any one day since
the first day of March one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five,
and such prohibition has tended greatly to injure the interests
both of your Memorialists and the parents of such children,
without any advantage resulting to the children themselves.
"That your Memorialists are looking forward with great anxiety
and alarm to the situation in which they will be placed on the
first day of March next, by the working of children under thirteen
years of age being restricted to forty-eight hours in one week,
for that such restriction will have the effect of throwing all
children under thirteen years of age wholly out of employment,
and will render it impossible for your Memorialists to work their
respective mills with advantage, in proof whereof your Memorialists
confidently appeal to the Factory Inspectors of this district for
the truth of their assertion.
"That your Memorialists are far from wishing a total repeal of the
provisions of the said Factory Act, but humbly submit that it is
absolutely necessary to the carrying on of the cotton trade with
advantage, to allow the employment of children of eleven years of
age for sixty-nine hours a week.
"That your Memorialists approve of the principle of appointing
responsible superintendents over the mills and factories of
the United Kingdom, and are favourable to a restriction of the
employment of young persons under twenty-one years of age to
sixty-nine hours in the week.
"Your Memorialists, therefore, pray that a Bill may be
forthwith introduced by his Majesty's Government, which shall
prevent the latter part of the above-mentioned section from
coming into operation on the first of March next, and which
shall permit children of eleven years of age to be employed for
sixty-nine hours per week in the mills and factories of the
United Kingdom."
This memorial is signed by seventy-two mill-owners, but I do not
think it necessary to publish their names. The following is the
answer that I returned to Mr. Clegg:
"London, February 29, 1836.
"Sir,
"I have received your letter of the 27th, and a copy of the
memorial sent to Mr. Lees.
"The prayer of the Memorialists, that young children between eleven
and thirteen years of age should be allowed to work in factories
sixty-nine hours in the week instead of forty-eight hours a week,
which the law now prescribes, is so revolting to my feelings, and
so opposed to my views of the protection such children are entitled
to, that I must decline supporting the prayer of the Memorialists.
"The work-people have long petitioned that the maximum of time for
those under twenty-one should be fifty-eight hours per week. This I
should be glad to see adopted, as an experiment, and would support
such a proposition by my vote; but I do not think the restriction
is sufficient.
"I am embarked in the same business with the Memorialists. I have
had long experience in it. I have paid great attention to this
question; and, after mature consideration of it, I am convinced
that eight hours work per day, in factories, is as long as ought
to be exacted from either children or adults, and I am of opinion,
too, that such a regulation, combined with a daily system of
training and instruction, would be more advantageous both to
masters and servants, than the regulation now in practice. But the
subject is so important, and is likely to be brought under the
consideration of Parliament so soon, that I propose to publish my
opinions, and the reasons for those opinions, and the conclusions I
have come to on this question, in reply to the Memorialists.
"I am, Sir,
"Your obedient Servant,
"JOHN FIELDEN.
"Klay Clegg, Esq., Oldham."
THE EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN.
=Source.=--_The Curse of the Factory System_, by John Fielden, M.P.
London, 1836.
The Commissioners have given a short summary in pp. 26 to 28 of
their report, of the "Effects of Factory Labour on Children," from
which I make the extracts following. It is taken, it appears, from
the mouths of the children themselves, their parents, and their
overlookers.
The account of the child, when questioned, is:
"Sick-tired, especially in the winter nights; so tired she can do
nothing; feels so tired she throws herself down when she gangs
home, no caring what she does; often much tired, and feels sore,
standing so long on her legs; often so tired she could not eat her
supper; night and morning very tired; has two sisters in the mill;
has heard them complain to her mother, and she says they must work;
whiles I do not know what to do with myself; as tired every morning
as I can be."
Another speaks in this way:
"Many a time has been so fatigued that she could hardly take off
her clothes at night, or put them on in the morning; her mother
would be raging at her, because when she sat down she could not get
up again through the house; thinks they are in bondage; no much
better than the Israelites in Egypt, and life no pleasure to them;
so tired that she can't eat her supper, nor wake of herself."
The Commissioners say the evidence of parents is generally this:
"Her children come home so tired and worn out they can hardly eat
their supper; has often seen her daughter come home so fatigued
that she would go to bed supperless; has seen young workers
absolutely oppressed, and unable to sit down or rise up."
They say that the evidence of the overlooker is:
"Children are very often tired and stiff-like; have known children
hide themselves in the stove among the wool, so that they should
not go home when the work is over; have seen six or eight fetched
out of the stove and beat home; beat out of the mill, however; they
hide because too tired to go home."
Again, an overlooker says:
"Many a one I have had to rouse, when the work is very slack, from
fatigue; the children very much jaded when worked late at night;
the children bore the long hours very ill indeed; after working
eight or nine or ten hours, they were nearly ready to faint;
some were asleep; some were only kept awake by being spoke to,
or by a little chastisement, to make them jump up. I was obliged
to chastise them when they were almost fainting, and it hurt my
feelings; then they would spring up and work pretty well for
another hour; but the last two or three hours was my hardest work,
for they then got so exhausted."
Another child says:
"She often falls asleep while sitting, sometimes standing; her
little sister falls asleep, and they wake her by a cry; was up at
four this morning, which made her fall asleep at one, when the
Factory Commissioners came to inspect the mill."
A spinner says:
"I find it difficult to keep my piecers awake the last hours of a
winter's evening; have seen them fall asleep, and go on performing
their work with their hands while they were asleep, after the
billey had stopped, when their work was over; I have stopped and
looked at them for two minutes, going through the motions of
piecening when they were fast asleep, when there was no work to
do, and they were doing nothing; children at night are so fatigued
that they are asleep often as soon as they sit down, so that it is
impossible to wake them to sense enough to wash themselves, or
even to eat a bit of supper, being so stupid in sleep."
In alluding to the cruelty of parents, who suffer their children to
be overworked in factories for their own gain, as spoken of in the
Report of the Board of Health in Manchester, and above-quoted, the
Commissioners say that
"It is not wholly unknown in the West Riding of Yorkshire for
parents to carry their children to the mills in the morning on
their backs, and to carry them back again at night."
And, further, that
"It appears in evidence that sometimes the sole consideration by
which parents are influenced in making choice of a person under
whom to place their children, is the amount of wages, not the mode
of treatment, to be secured to them."
If this is not enough to show that there were grounds for the
further protection, I will now refer to the same Report of the
Commissioners, to show, that from Scotland the details are full
as affecting, and even more disgusting. At page 18 (Report) the
Commissioners open with these words:
"Had the fact not been established by indubitable evidence,
everyone must have been slow to credit, that in this age and
country the proprietors of extensive factories could have been
indifferent to the well-being of their work-people to such a degree
as is implied in the following statements":
In page 41 an half-overseer gives this evidence:
"Does not like the long hours; he is very tired and hoarse at
night; and that some of the young female workers in his, the
spinning flat, have so swelled legs, one in particular, from
standing so long, about seventeen years old, that she can hardly
walk; that various of them have their feet bent in and their legs
crooked from the same cause."
In short, so universal is this complaint of "sair tired," and of
swelled legs, ankles, feet, hands, and arms, that it almost seems
as if one voice spoke the facts; for if we find them varied, it is
only here and there by touches like the above, so true to nature,
that one would think they must pierce even the most callous and
avaricious man to the very core. In one page we find a little child
of eight years old complaining that she is "sair tired" every
night, and has no time _for going to play_.
"That, at the age when children suffer these injuries from the
labour they undergo, they are not _free agents_, but are _let out
to hire_, the wages they earn being received and appropriated by
their parents and guardians, and therefore they think that a case
is made out for the interference of the legislature in behalf of
the children employed in factories"--p. 32.
THE POLICE (1836).
=Source.=--_Treatise on the Magistracy of England_, by Edward
Mullins. London, 1836.
_Commissioners' Report on Police._
"The constable is most commonly an uneducated person, from the
class of petty tradesmen or mechanics, and in practice is usually
nominated by his predecessor on going out of office. No inquiry
takes place into his qualification or fitness for the office, and
indeed he is said to be often the person in the parish the most
likely to break the peace. So common is it for the constable to
be unable to write or read, that an improper fee is often charged
upon that ground by the Magistrate's clerk, 'for making out the
constable's bill for conveyance to gaol.'
"'The manner of appointing constables, in my opinion,' says a
correspondent, 'might be advantageously altered, for the court
leet jury and steward being irresponsible parties, and the jurymen
(vulgarly called Tom-fool's men) not liking the burthen themselves,
often appoint persons of _bad character_, and sometimes for the
purpose of keeping them off the parish.' If respectable persons are
sometimes chosen at the Leet, they 'find substitutes for a _small
sum_, and these deputies blunder through the year, and when they
are most wanted are never to be found.' What integrity or propriety
of conduct can there be expected from one whose necessity renders
every shilling that is offered him an irresistible temptation?
"Entirely ignorant of his duties when first appointed, the parish
constable is often displaced at the end of the year, when his
acquaintance with them is, perhaps, beginning to improve. Even
when suited in other respects to the employment, his efficiency
is always in a great measure impaired by the nature of his
position with regard to those among whom he is called upon to
act. Belonging entirely to their class, and brought into constant
contact with them by his ordinary occupations, he is embarrassed
in the discharge of his duty by considerations of personal safety,
interest or feeling, and by an anxiety to retain the good will
of his neighbours. When all these circumstances are considered,
it would, indeed, be surprising if the constables were found to
render satisfactory service. In point of fact they are deficient in
zeal and activity to a degree which it is difficult to exaggerate,
and it may be said, without undue severity, that they are in all
respects utterly unfit for the duties to which they are appointed.
"The accuracy of this statement, we believe (continue the
Commissioners) will be generally admitted by those who have
opportunities of becoming acquainted with the subject by personal
observation. 'No person can be aware,' says the treasurer of
the West Riding of Yorkshire, 'of the reluctance shewn by the
parish constables in apprehending felons, particularly since the
disposition shewn by the lower orders to retaliate by committing
destruction on their property.' 'There is not a single constable,'
he afterwards adds, 'who dares move, nor has he any encouragement
to move, and if he does move, he is quite incompetent.'
"'We cannot go on in the country,' says another witness, 'with
our present police; when there is the least danger we are obliged
immediately to call out the special constables.' 'The present
system of parochial police,' says another, 'is unsound; it consists
of a constable in each parish, who has very often to make his
election between violating his duty as a constable, and forfeiting
the regard and affection of his neighbours.' '_The great end of
police is to prevent crime_,' is the remark of another gentleman of
great experience on this subject, 'and who ever heard of this being
the object of the present force? They are worse than useless.'
"The frauds, extortion, embezzlement and pillage practised by these
officers are the natural consequence of their situation. They
charge for assistants when they are accompanied only by their wives
or by poor labourers, to whom they pay the common farmers' day
wages, receiving the county allowance and retaining the difference.
"They charge for carriages when they compel prisoners to walk to
gaol; they receive the full mileage for all the witnesses attending
a prosecution, and contract with coaches to carry them at half
price.
"They receive their allowance for time and trouble, and often keep
back a part; they pass stolen goods from hand to hand, so as to
make as many of themselves as possible necessary witnesses at the
trial; and what is matter of most serious charge against them, they
withhold, and it is said, in many instances appropriate, the money
and other valuable property found upon persons apprehended.
"'We have at Thirsk (observes a Yorkshire magistrate) an
association for the prosecution of felons, but it does little good,
as we have _no police_, and the _constables are extremely bad_--so
bad as to call forth many severe expressions on their inefficiency
by Baron Alderson, a short time ago at York, in the case of two
violent attempts at murder committed near Thirsk.'"
The Commissioners further report that, "It is the deliberate
opinion of a very valuable correspondent, that our constabulary
system has _greatly promoted_ the _increase_ of crime; that
no useful improvement can be introduced into the present
_miserable_ system of attempting to exercise police through parish
constables annually elected. 'Our constabulary system,' says this
correspondent, 'is so _absurd_ and _unjust_, that I really do not
think it fair or equitable to blame or deride the unfortunate
conscripts who are compelled to be tithingmen; if I did, I could
compose a _farce_ with the anecdotes to be collected of petty
occurrences in the warfare with offences in this neighbourhood;
neglect of duty, forgetfulness, ignorance, blunders, cowardice
without excuse, supineness,'" etc.
The current of evidence as to the decayed and worn-out state of the
parish constabulary system is irresistibly strong; and its defects
are the more striking when viewed in contrast with the improved
system of an organized and permanent police as established in many
parts of the kingdom.
THE KING AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION (1836).
=Source.=--_The Edinburgh Review._ Vol. 133, pp. 319-321.
_From the 'Recollections' of Lord Broughton de Gyfford._
"I heard from all quarters that H.M. was in a state of great
excitement. This was not all we knew of the Royal disinclination to
us; for, on Saturday, July 11, in Downing Street, Lord Melbourne
addressed us as follows:
"'Gentlemen, you may as well know how you stand;' and, pulling
a paper from his pocket, he read a memorandum of a conversation
between the King and Lord Gosford, after the review, the day
before. The King said to Lord Gosford, 'Mind what you are about
in Canada. By G----d! I will never consent to alienate the Crown
lands, nor to make the Council elective. Mind me, my Lord, the
Cabinet is not my Cabinet, they had better take care, or, by
G----d! I will have them impeached. You are a gentleman, I believe.
I have no fear of you; but take care what you do.'
"We all stared at each other. Melbourne said, 'It is better not to
quarrel with him. He is evidently in a state of great excitement.'
And yet the King gave Dedel, the Dutch Ambassador, the same day, on
taking leave, very sensible advice, and told him 'to let the King
of Holland know that he was ignorant of his true position, and that
Belgium was lost irrecoverably.' H.M. had also given his assent in
writing to the second reading of our Irish Church Reform Bill,
which showed that these outbursts were more physical than signs
of any settled design; although there were some of us who thought
it was intended to drive us by incivilities to resign our places,
and thus make us the apparent authors of our own retirement. Lord
Frederick Fitzclarence told me that his father had much to bear,
being beset by the Duke of Cumberland and Duchess of Gloucester by
day, and by the Queen at night. As to ourselves, it was clear to
me that, if we continued in the Government, it would be entirely
owing to the good sense and good manners of our chief, who knew
how to deal with his master, as well as with his colleagues, and
never, that I saw, made a mistake in regard to either; and I must
add that, when a stand was to be made on anything considered to be
a vital principle of his Government, he was as firm as a rock.
"We foresaw that the instructions, which we had agreed upon as
the basis of Lord Gosford's administration in Canada, would meet
with much disfavour in the Royal closet; and Lord Glenelg told me
that when he read these instructions to the King, H.M. broke out
violently against the use of certain words, saying, 'No, my Lord,
I will not have that word; strike out "_conciliatory_"--strike out
"_liberal_"'; and then he added, 'you cannot wonder at my making
these difficulties with a Ministry that has been forced upon
me.' However, as Glenelg went on reading, H.M. got more calm. He
approved of what was said about the Legislative Council and the
territorial revenues. In short, he approved of the instructions
generally on that day, and also on the following Monday; but, when
Glenelg went into the closet this day (Wednesday, 15th July), he
was very sulky, and, indeed, rude; and objected to some things
to which he had previously consented. Lord Melbourne was told by
Glenelg how he had been treated, and, when he (Lord M.) went into
the closet, the King said he hoped he had not been uncivil to Lord
Glenelg, on which Lord Melbourne made only a stiff bow. The King
took the reproof most becomingly; for when Glenelg went in a second
time, H.M. was exceedingly kind to him, and said, 'He approved of
every word of the instructions'; and he then remarked 'that he was
not like William III. who often signed what he did not approve. He
would not do that. He was not disposed to infringe on the liberty
of any of his subjects; but he must preserve his own prerogative.'
"H.M. retained his good humour at the Council, which he held
afterwards to hear the Recorder's Report. Chief Justice Denman was
detained at Guildhall, and kept His Majesty waiting a long time.
When he came the King took his apologies very kindly. He asked the
Chief Justice when he should leave London for the holidays, and
where he lived; and invited him to Windsor, and said he should be
glad to see him, adding, 'I hope you won't hang me, my Lord.' Such
was this kind good man, generally most just and generous, but, when
irritated, scarcely himself. He was more sincere than suited his
Royal office, and could not conceal his likings and dislikings from
those who were most affected by them."
STATISTICS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND FOR THE YEARS 1816-1837.
=Source.=--Alison's _History of Europe_, London, 1848; compiled
from Porter's _Party Tables_, Marshall's Edition, and other sources.
-------+--------------+--------------+-------------
YEAR. | EXPORTS. | IMPORTS. | POPULATION.
-------+--------------+--------------+-------------
| | |
1816 | £49,197,851 | £26,374,921 | 13,640,000
| | |
1817 | 50,404,111 | 29,910,502 | 13,860,000
| | |
1818 | 53,560,338 | 35,845,340 | 14,000,000
| | |
1819 | 42,438,989 | 29,681,640 | 14,200,000
| | |
1820 | 48,965,537 | 31,515,222 | 14,300,000
| | |
1821 | 51,461,423 | 29,769,122 | 14,391,631
| | |
1822 | 53,464,122 | 29,432,376 | 14,600,000
| | |
1823 | 52,408,276 | 34,591,260 | 14,800,000
| | |
1824 | 58,940,336 | 36,056,551 | 15,000,000
| | |
1825 | 56,335,514 | 42,660,954 | 15,200,000
| | |
1826 | 51,042,071 | 36,174,350 | 15,400,000
| | |
1827 | 62,050,008 | 43,489,346 | 15,600,000
| | |
1828 | 62,744,002 | 43,536,187 | 15,850,000
| | |
1829 | 66,835,443 | 42,311,609 | 16,140,000
| | |
1830 | 69,691,301 | 46,245,241 | 16,240,000
| | |
1831 | 71,429,004 | 49,713,889 | 16,539,318
| | |
1832 | 76,971,571 | 44,586,741 | 16,800,000
| | |
1833 | 79,773,142 | 45,952,551 | 17,050,000
| | |
1834 | 85,393,686 | 49,362,811 | 17,270,000
| | |
1835 | 91,074,455 | 48,911,542 | 17,480,000
| | |
1836 | 97,621,548 | 57,023,867 | 17,690,000
| | |
1837 | 85,781,669 | 54,737,301 | 17,800,000
-------+--------------+--------------+-------------
-------+------------+-------------+---------------
| TAXES | TAXES | AVERAGE PRICE
YEAR. | IMPOSED. | REPEALED. | OF WHEAT.
| | | WINCH. QR.
-------+------------+-------------+---------------
| | | _s._ _d._
| | |
1816 | £320,058 | £17,547,565 | 82 0
| | |
1817 | 7,991 | 36,495 | 116 0
| | |
1818 | 1,336 | 9,564 | 98 0
| | |
1819 | 3,094,902 | 705,846 | 78 0
| | |
1820 | 119,602 | 4,000 | 76 0
| | |
1821 | 42,642 | 471,309 | 71 0
| | |
1822 | ---- | 2,139,101 | 53 0
| | |
1823 | 18,596 | 4,050,250 | 57 0
| | |
1824 | 45,605 | 1,704,724 | 72 0
| | |
1825 | 43,000 | 3,639,551 | 84 0
| | |
1826 | 188,000 | 1,973,812 | 73 0
| | |
1827 | 21,402 | 4,038 | 50 0
| | |
1828 | 1,966 | 51,998 | 71 0
| | |
1829 | ---- | 126,406 | 55 4
| | |
1830 | 696,004 | 4,093,955 | 64 10
| | |
1831 | 627,586 | 1,598,536 | 58 3
| | |
1832 | 44,526 | 747,264 | 52 6
| | |
1833 | ---- | 1,526,914 | 47 10
| | |
1834 | 198,394 | 2,091,516 | 39 8
| | |
1835 | 75 | 165,817 | 35 3
| | |
1836 | ---- | 986,786 | 57 7
| | |
1837 | 3,991 | 234 | 51 3
-------+------------+-------------+---------------
GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT M ACLEHOSE AND
CO. LTD.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Mr. Wilbraham was M.P. for Dover.
[2] The depression in the rate of interest created by this monetary
plethora is thus exhibited by Mr. Tooke:
---------------+------------+-----------------
| 3 Per Cent.| Premium on
Dates. | Consols. | Exchequer Bills.
---------------+------------+-----------------
April 3, 1823, | 73½ | 10 to 12
July 1, 1823, | 80¾ | 21 to 24
Oct. 3, 1823, | 82½ | 37 to 40
Jan. 1, 1824, | 86 | 51 to 53
Apr. 2, 1824, | 94¼ | 56 to 58
---------------+------------+-----------------
_Tooke on the State of the Currency_, 1826, p. 41.
[3] James Deacon Hume, Esq., then of the Customs, now (1830) of the
Board of Trade.
[4] The speech of Lord John Russell, when on March 1, 1831, he
introduced the first Reform Bill, opened a debate which practically
lasted until June 5, 1832. The Whig ministry knew that the fate
of their party depended upon that of the Bill, and they came to
realize that the fate of the dynasty itself might depend upon
the same thing. The Opposition were no less desirous of victory,
seeing in the Bill a measure which threatened the prosperity of
the people and the very existence of the State. "The country was
divided into two hostile camps, regarding each other with feelings
of increased exasperation. On the one hand, the anti-reformers
though, comparatively few, were immensely strong in position and
prestige.... On the other hand, the reformers could count upon the
support of the great mass of the people."
[5] The First Reform Bill had passed two readings when the
ministry, concluded after an adverse vote upon a motion, introduced
by General Gascoyne, in opposition to their policy, that it was
useless to continue the struggle in Parliament. Confident of the
support of the electors, they resolved to appeal to the country.
To do this a dissolution of Parliament was necessary, and against
this the anti-reformers were firmly arrayed. The ministry appealed
to the King. In the selection which follows, this appeal is vividly
described, and the action of the King in dissolving Parliament is
clearly portrayed.
[6] Mr. O'Connell
[7] Mr. Cobbett.
[8] _Character, Object, and Effects of Trades Unions_, etc., 8vo,
1834. See also an able article in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for
June, 1834.
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