(1815—1837)
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."
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."
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."
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.
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."
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.
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."
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.
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.
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."
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."
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.
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.
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."
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.
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."
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."
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."
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.
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."
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.
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.
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."
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.
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."
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."
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."
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.)
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.
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."
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."
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.
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."
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.
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?"
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.
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.
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."
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.
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."
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."
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.
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.
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.
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."
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."
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."
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."
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.
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.
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."
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 |
| | | |
| Year. | Taxes
Imposed. | Taxes
Repealed. |
Average Price
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 |
| | | | | |
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