СНАР. been denounced as blackguards; they had been declared incapable of being called to the Bar; but all these measures had failed. Prosecution had made them popular the anxiety for news which the war had occasioned had increased the demand for newspapers which taxation might have checked; and the writers, who had been denounced as blackguards in the last ten years of the eighteenth century, were treated with deference in the third decade of the nineteenth century. Ability, as usual, had made its way, and won for itself a position from which it was impossible to degrade it. The development of periodical literature was perhaps even more fatal to the old system of government than any of the other changes which were gradually undermining it. So long as political discussion was confined to the few hundred representatives of the governing classes who happened to sit in Parliament, the ruling families were able to direct the thoughts of the country. The elaborate attacks, which were made upon their system by Adam Smith and Bentham, were read by comparatively few persons. But the periodical press reproduced the views of Smith and Bentham for the benefit of the entire community. Men turned from perusing one of Castlereagh's speeches to the criticisms of the Times' or the 'Chronicle' upon the speaker. The opinion of the 'blackguard newswriter,' who had the great advantage of having the last word, was accepted with at least as much authority as that of the statesman; and the public, no longer dependent for their opinions on the utterances of politicians, gradually adopted the views of the newspapers which they were in the habit of reading. Legislators, indeed, still assumed that the representatives of a few rich men and a few decayed villages accurately reflected the opinions of the nation. But the fallacy, which the presumption involved, was becoming daily more apparent through the operations of IV. the press. The right of Parliamentary representation CHAP. was denied to nine-tenths of the people. The right of meeting was about to be subjected to new restrictions. But the press supplied the nation with other means of making itself heard. Its voice resounded through the length and breadth of the land. CHAP. V. 1816. The return of peace. CHAPTER V. THE definite conclusion of peace in the summer of 1815 was hailed with the liveliest acclamations of gratitude by the people of this country. The war, with all its burdens, all its sorrows, was over; and a new era of unprecedented prosperity seemed to be beginning. The nation had undoubtedly increased in wealth during the continuance of the war; it seemed impossible to exaggerate the development which might be expected to occur in its resources when the burdens of the war were removed. The prospect of an almost boundless prosperity dazzled the eyes of the most sober observers. A little consideration, however, might have induced the calmer minds among the English nation to hesitate before accepting this conclusion. Economists had already taught them that the prosperity of nations depends on the laws of demand and supply; and that any over-production of the commodities which a country supplies, or any failure in the demand for them, must restrict the use of capital, reduce the employment of labour, and consequently impoverish the two most important classes Effects of in every community, the capitalist and the labourer. The the war on circumstances of the war had largely increased the de capital. mand for British manufactures. Britain was the only country in the old world which had escaped the dangers and distresses of a foreign invasion. The foreign manufacturer hesitated to build his factory on a site which might at any moment be devastated by hostile armies ; and the British manufacturer, relying from his immunity in the past on equal security in the future, and encouraged V. 1816. by the cessation of foreign competition, reared his factory CHAP. on every rivulet where there was water to turn his wheel, or by any colliery where there was coal to feed his engine. Britain, which had previously been little more than a pastoral country, and whose most important manufacture had depended on the excellence of the fleeces which her flocks produced, suddenly became the centre of every industry. Capital could be safely invested in Britain alone; and capital, as a necessary consequence, was invested in Britain. The safety from invasion, to which the country owed her new industry, was won for her by the brilliant victories of her sailors, which had swept her enemies from every sea. But the supremacy of the ocean which she had acquired gained for her manufacturers other advantages than mere immunity from invasion. The nation, whose flag waved supreme on every sea, extended its dominion and carried its trade to the remotest countries of the known world. The mistress of the seas obtained a monopoly of the carrying trade. Other nations could only obtain the produce of foreign countries through British shipowners, or on conditions determined by British statesmen. In one sentence, twenty years of war had concentrated the trade of the world in the British empire. War, indeed, in another sense had been injurious to On trade. trade. War is a state of things under which two or more communities endeavour to inflict the maximum of damage upon each other. It destroys life; it hampers production; it dissipates the accumulations of previous years; it impoverishes the nation which is afflicted by it. The great war must have restricted the purchasing capacity of the majority of individuals in every European country. But, though it decreased the purchasing capacity of populations, it did not decrease their purchases in British markets. They spent perhaps 1007. where they had previously spent 1,000l. But the 1,000l. had CHAP. V. 1816. On agriculture. been expended in the Netherlands, in Italy, in France, and in other countries; the 100l. was expended in Britain. War, too, though it decreased the purchasing capacity of populations, increased the necessities of governments. Every European nation suddenly launched into the most unprecedented expenditure. Every European nation found itself compelled, not merely to increase its existing revenues, but to mortgage the revenues of future years. The vast load of debt was accumulated for expenditure, which left Europe far poorer and feebler than it had been before. The inordinate outlay on maintaining armies and destroying armies hampered the industry of the existing generation, and seriously harassed the operations of their descendants. But even this unprofitable expenditure could not be carried on without stimulating the operations of the trader. Armies could not be fed, or clothed, or armed, or moved without appliances which trade alone could supply. The enormous operations of the war led, moreover, to a constant and deplorable waste of material. The waste had, in some way or other, to be made good; and the nation, which had become the great workshop and trading centre of the world, was indirectly benefited in consequence. Every operation of the great war tended, therefore, to concentrate the trade of the world in this country. A similar chain of circumstances had increased the demand for the produce of British agriculture. Agriculture on the Continent languished under a system where the men were driven from the fields to the camp, and the women, left alone to cultivate the ground, were in apprehension of the dissipation of their store from some hostile incursion. The British farmer, on the contrary, sowed his fields with a conscious sense of security. The vast warlike operations in which the British nation was engaged compelled its Government to become a large purchaser of agricultural produce. The increase of po |