X.

convict of the lowest offence, scandalous if brought for- CHAP. ward to support the highest charge which the law knows, monstrous to stain the honour and blast the name of an

1820.

English queen. What shall I say, then, if this is the proof by which an act of judicial legislation, a parliamentary sentence, an ex post facto law, is sought to be passed against this defenceless woman? My Lords, I pray you to pause; I do earnestly beseech you to take heed. You are standing on the brink of a precipice-then beware! It will go forth as your judgment, if sentence shall go against the Queen. But it will be the only judgment you ever pronounced, which, instead of reaching its object, will return, and bound back upon those who gave it. Save the country, my Lords, from the horrors of this catastrophe-save yourselves from this peril. Rescue that country of which you are the ornaments, but in which you can flourish no longer, when severed from the people, than the blossom when cut off from the roots and the stem of the tree. Save that country that you may continue to adorn it-save the Crown, which is in jeopardy-the aristocracy, which is shaken the altar, which must totter with the blow which rends its kindred throne! You have said, my Lords-you have willed-the Church and the King have willed—that the Queen should be deprived of its solemn service. She has, instead of that solemnity, the heartfelt prayers of the people. She wants no prayers of mine; but I do here pour forth my humble 1 Speech supplications at the throne of mercy, that that mercy may of Mr be poured down upon the people, in a larger measure i. 227, 228; than the merits of its rulers may deserve, and that your iii. 210. hearts may be turned to justice."1

Brougham,

Parl. Deb.

fence, and

Such was the effect of this splendid speech, and such 87. the apprehensions felt in a large part of the House of Queen's dePeers of the hourly-increasing agitation out of doors, that failure of it is generally thought, by those best acquainted with the the bill. feelings of that assembly, that if the vote had been taken at that moment the Queen would have been entirely

VOL. II.

2 G

CHAP. acquitted. Mr Brougham himself intended to have done X. this, after having merely presented her maid Mariette

1820.

1 Life of George IV., 447.

Bron for examination. But she was not to be found : and the case went on with most able arguments by Mr Denman and Mr Williams, followed by evidence led at great length for her Majesty, and powerful replies by the Attorney and Solicitor General. The speech of the first (Sir Robert Gifford) was in an especial manner effective— so much so, that the Radical leaders gave up the case for lost, and Cobbett threw off 100,000 copies of an answer to it.1 It was not the evidence for the prosecution which had this effect, for it was of so suspicious a kind that little reliance could be placed on it, but what was elicited, on cross-examination, from the English officers on board the vessel which conveyed her Majesty to the Levant, men of integrity and honour, of whose testimony there was not a shadow of suspicion. Without asserting that any of them proved actual guilt against her Majesty, it cannot be disputed that they established against her an amount of levity of manner and laxity of habits, which rendered her unfit to be at the head of English society, and amply justified the measures taken to exclude her from it. The result was, that on the 6th November the second reading of the bill was carried by a majority of 28, the numbers being 123 to 95, which was equivalent to a finding of guilty. In committee, when the divorce clause came forward, it was sustained by a majority of 129 to 62, the Opposition having nearly all voted for the clause, with the view of defeating the bill in its last stage. This proved successful; for on the third reading, on 10th November, the majority sunk to NINE, the 2 Parl. Deb. numbers being 108 to 99. Upon this, Lord Liverpool 1743; Ann. rose and said, that with so slender a majority he could not think of pressing the measure farther, and withdrew the bill.2

iii. 1726,

Reg. 1820, 184, 190.

No words can convey an adequate idea of the general transports which prevailed through the British Islands

CHAP.

X.

1820.

88.

transports

ple.

when the intelligence of the withdrawal of the bill was received. London was spontaneously, though partially, illuminated for three successive nights-those who did not concur in the general joy, and they were many, joining General in the festivity from a dread of the sovereign mob, and of the peoof the instant penalty of having their windows broken, which in general followed any resistance to its mandates. Edinburgh, Dublin, Manchester, Liverpool, and all the great towns, followed the example. For several days the populace in all the cities of the empire seemed to be delirious with joy; nothing had been seen like it before since the battle of Waterloo; nothing approaching to it after, till the Reform Bill was passed. Addresses were voted to the Queen, from the Common Council of London, and all the popular constituencies in the kingdom; and her residence in London was surrounded from day- 1 Ann. Reg. break to night by an immense crowd, testifying in their 1820, 192, usual noisy way the satisfaction they felt at her victory. bett's Life Yet, amidst all these congratulations, the position of her 447, 449; Majesty was sensibly deteriorated even by the complete- 447. ness of her triumph.1

193; Cob

of Geo. IV.

Hughes, vi.

action of

Being now secure of her position, and independent of 89. the support of the populace, she ceased to court them, Rapid reand this speedily cooled their ardour in her cause. They public opicomplained that she was now always encircled by a coterie nion. of Whig ladies, and no longer accessible to their deputations. When the struggle was over and the victory gained, the King and his Ministers defeated, and the Queen secured in her rank and fortune, they began to reflect on what they had done, and the qualities of the exalted personage of whom they had proved themselves such doughty champions. They called to mind the evidence in the case, which they had little considered while the contest lasted, and they observed, not without secret misgivings, the effect it produced on the different classes of society. They saw that the experienced hesitated at it, the serious shunned it, the licentious gloated over it. The reaction so usual

X.

1820.

CHAP. in such cases, when the struggle is over, ensued; and, satisfied with having won the victory, they began to regret that it had not been gained in a less questionable cause. 1 Hughes, vi. 447; Ann. As has often been the case in English history, old feelings 193; Mar- revived when recent ones were satiated; and, strange to 260; Twiss's say, the most popular years of the reign of George IV. don, ii. 412. were those which immediately followed the greatest defeat his Government had experienced.1*

Reg, 1820,

tineau, i.

Life of El

90.

tion of the

to remain at

The Ministers, however, who were not aware of the Consterna- commencement of this reactionary feeling, and looked Ministry, only at their public position as the King's Government, who resolve felt most acutely the defeat they had undergone. It all their posts. but overturned the Administration; with men of less nerve and resolution at its head, it unquestionably would have done so. But Lord Liverpool, Lord Castlereagh, and Lord Sidmouth, resolved to remain at their posts, conscious that to desert their Sovereign at this crisis would be nothing less than for his generals to abandon him in the day of battle. They were well aware that they were at the moment the most unpopular men in the British dominions; they were never seen in the street without being reviled by the mob; and anonymous letters Sidmouth, every day threatened them with death, if the proceedings Twiss's Life against her Majesty were not abandoned. They paid of Eldon, no regard to these threats, and walked or drove to the House every day as if nothing had occurred; and the people, admiring their courage, abstained from actual

2 Life of

iii. 332,340;

ii. 398, 404, 405.

"The Whig faction flocked round the Queen directly after the abandonment of the bill; and her lawyers, who now called themselves her constitu tional advisers, belonged to that faction who thought to get possession of power by her instrumentality, she having the people at her back. But the people, who hated this faction more than the other, the moment they saw it about her, troubled her with no more addresses. They suffered her to remain very tranquil at Brandenburg House; the faction agitated questions concern. ing her in Parliament, concerning which the people cared not a straw; what she was doing soon became as indifferent to them as what any other person of the royal family was doing: the people began to occupy themselves with the business of obtaining a Parliamentary reform; and her way of life, and her final fate, soon became objects of curiosity, much more than interest, with the people."-COBBETT's Life of George IV., 454.

violence.* Division, as might naturally have been expected, ensued in the Cabinet, and more than one resignation was tendered to his Majesty ; but one only-that of Mr Canning, as President of the Board of Controlwas accepted, who was succeeded by Mr Bragge Bathurst, and the Government, as a body, ventured to weather the

storm.

CHAP.

X.

1821.

91.

popularity

ment, and

The result showed that they were right, and had not miscalculated the effect of just and courageous conduct Return of on the English mind. Though liable to occasional fits of Governof fervour, which for the time have often looked like na- causes of it. tional insanity, the English mind, when allowed time for reflection, and not precluded from thinking by the pressure of suffering, quickly in general regains its equilibrium, and never so much so as after a decisive victory. In the present instance, the change in the public feeling was so rapid and remarkable, that it attracted the notice of the King himself, and his Ministers felt no difficulty in meeting Parliament. Nor is it surprising that this was so; for reflection soon taught the nation that their zeal, how generous and honest soever, had been exerted on an unworthy object; that the Queen was by no means the immaculate character they supposed; and that

"Matters here are in a very critical state. Fear and faction are actively, and not unsuccessfully, at work; and it is possible we may be in a minority and the fate of the Government determined in a very few days."-Lord SIDMOUTH to Mr BATHURST, 27th October 1820. "I cannot describe to you how grievously I suffer, and have suffered, on account of the dangerous and deplorable situation in which our country, the King's Government, and indeed all of us, have been placed—a situation from which I profess to see no satisfactory or safe deliverance."-Ditto to ditto, 28th October 1820. "One day, at this time, when Lords Castlereagh and Sidmouth were walking through Parliament Street, they were violently hooted at by the mob. Here we go,' said Lord Sidmouth, the two most popular men in England.' 'Yes,' replied Lord Castlereagh,' through a grateful and admiring multitude.” ”—Life of Sidmouth iii. 330, 333.

"It is clear beyond dispute, from the improvement of the public mind, and the loyalty which the country is now everywhere displaying, if properly cultivated and turned to the best advantage by Ministers, that the Govern ment will thereby be enabled to repair to the country and to me those evils, of the magnitude of which there can be but one opinion."-GEORGE IV. to Lord ELDON, Jan. 9, 1821; Twiss's Life of Eldon, ii. 413.