pile; a shout which, to the disgrace of English
literature, has since been re-echoed
1 Ann. Reg.
by some whose talents might have 1822, 180,
led them to a more generous appre- 182; Marti-
ciation of a political antagonist, and neau, i. 287;
their sex to a milder view of the most Hughes, vi.
fearful of human infirmities.1*

502.

155.

the guns of the Castle, and the ships in the roads, and Leith Fort, a royal salute was fired as the monarch touched the shore. The procession passed through an innumerable crowd of spectators, who loudly and enthusiastically cheered, up Leith Walk, and by York Place, St. Andrew Square, and Waterloo Place, to Holyrood House, where a levée and drawing- Chateaubriand has said, that while all other room were held a few days after. On the night contemporary reputations are declinfollowing, the city was illuminated, and the ing, that of Mr. Pitt is hourly on the His characguns of the Castle, firing at ten at night, real- increase. The same is equally true of ter. ized the sublimity without the terrors of actual Lord Londonderry; the same ever has, and warfare. At a magnificent banquet given to ever will be, true of the first and greatest of the Sovereign by the magistrates of Edinburgh the human race. Their fame with posterity is in the Parliament House, at which the Lord founded on the very circumstances which, with Provost acted as chairman, and Sir Walter the majority of their contemporaries, constituScott as vice-chairman, the former was made ted their unpopularity; they are revered, bea baronet, with that grace of manner and fe- cause they had wisdom to discern the ruinous licity of expression for which the King was tendency of the passions with which they were so justly celebrated. A review on Portobello surrounded, and courage to resist them. The Sands exhibited the gratifying spectacle of 3000 reputation of the demagogue is brilliant, but yeomanry cavalry, collected from all the south-fleeting, like the meteor which shoots athwart ern counties of Scotland, marching in proces- the troubled sky of a wintery night; that of the sion before their Sovereign. Finally, the King, undaunted statesman, at first obscured, but in who during his residence in Scotland had been the end lasting like the fixed stars, which, when magnificently entertained at Dalkeith Palace, the clouds roll away, shine forever the same the seat of the Duke of Buccleuch, embarked in the highest firmament. Intrepidity in the on the 27th at Hopetoun House, the beautiful rulers of men is the surest passport to immorresidence of the Earls of Hopetoun, where he tality, for it is the quality which most fasciconferred the honor of knighthood on Henry nates the minds of men. All admire, because Raeburn, the celebrated Scottish artist, and few can imitate it. arrived in safety in the Thames on the 30th, charmed with the reception he had met with, and having left on all an indelible impression of the mingled dignity and grace of his manners, and felicity of his expressions.1

1 An. Reg.

1822, 179, 180; Per

sonal observation.

His return was accelerated by a tragical

154.

event, which deprived England of Death of one of her greatest statesmen, and Lord Lon- the intelligence of which arrived donderry. amidst these scenes of festivity and Aug. 12. rejoicing. Lord Londonderry, upon whose shoulders, since the retirement of Lord Sidmouth, the principal weight of government, as well as the entire labor of the lead in the House of Commons, had fallen, had suffered severely from the fatigues of the preceding session, and shortly after exhibited symptoms of mental aberration. He was visited in consequence by his physician, Dr. Bankhead, at his mansion at North Cray in Kent, by whom he was cupped. Some relief was experienced from this, but he continued in bed, and the mental disorder was unabated. It was no wonder it was so: Romilly and Whitbread had, in like manner, fallen victims to similar pressure on the brain, arising from political effort. On the morning of the 12th August, Dr. Bankhead, who slept in the house, being summoned to attend his lordship in his dressing-room, entered just in time to save him from falling. He said, "Bankhead, let me fall on your arms-'tis all over," and instantly expired. He had cut his throat with a penknife. The coroner's inquest brought in a verdict of insanity. His remains were interred on the 20th in Westminster Abbey, between the graves of Pitt and Fox. The most decisive testimony to his merits was borne by some savage miscreants, who raised a horrid shout as the body was borne from the hearse to its last resting-place in the venerable

"Justum et tenacem propositi virum
Non civium ardor prava jubentium,
Non voltus instantis tyranni

Mente quatit solida neque Auster,
Dux inquieti turbidus Hadriæ,
Nec fulminantis magna manus Jovis:
Si fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinæ."

ness.

Never was there a human being to whom these noble lines were more applica- 156. ble than to Lord Londonderry. His Its indomitwhole life was a continual struggle able firmwith the majority in his own or foreign lands; he combated to subdue and to bless them. He began his career by strenuous efforts to effect the Irish Union, and rescue his native country from the incapable legislature by which its energies had so long been repressed. His mature strength was exerted in a long and desperate conflict with the despotism of revolutionary France, which his firmness, as much as the arm of Wellington, brought to a triumphant issue; his latter days in a ceaseless conflict with the revolutionary spirit in his own country, and an anxious effort to uphold the dignity of Great Britain, and the independence of lesser states abroad. The un

* "The news of Lord Londonderry's death struck the despots of Europe aghast upon their thrones-news which was hailed with clasped hands and glistening eyes by aliens in many a provincial town of England, and with imprudent shouts by conclaves of patriots abroad. There are some now, who in mature years can not remember without emotion what they saw and heard that day. They could not know how the calamity of one man-a man amiable, winning, and generous in the walk of daily life-could penetrate the recesses of a world but as a ray of hope in the midst of thickest darkness. This man was the screw by which England had riveted the chains of nations. The screw was drawn, and the immovable despotism might now be overthrown. There was abundant reason for the rejoicing which spread through the world on the death of Lord Londonderry, and the shout which rang through the Abbey when his coffin was taken

from the hearse was natural enough, though neither decent nor humane."-Miss MARTINEAU, i. 287, 288.

compromising antagonist of Radicalism at home, | system was abandoned, taxes to the amount of he was at the same time the resolute opponent of despotism abroad. If Poland retained, after the overthrow of Napoleon, any remnant of nationality, it was owing to his persevering and almost unaided efforts; and at the very time when the savage wretches who raised a shout at his funeral were rejoicing in his death, he had been preparing to assert at Verona, as he had done to the Congresses of Laybach and Troppau, the independent action of Great Britain, and her non-accordance in the policy of the Continental sovereigns against the efforts of human freedom.

157.

His policy in domestic affairs was marked by the same far-seeing wisdom, the His policy same intrepid resistance to the blindin domestic ness of present clamor. He made affairs. the most strenuous efforts to uphold the Sinking Fund, that noble monument of Mr. Pitt's patriotic foresight: had those efforts been successful, the whole national debt would have been paid off by the year 1845, and the nation forever have been freed from the payment of thirty millions a year for its interest. He resisted with a firm hand, and at the expense of present popularity with the multitude, the efforts of faction during the seven trying years which followed the close of the war, and be queathed the constitution, after a season of peculiar danger, unshaken to his successors. The firm friend of freedom, he was on that very account the resolute opponent of democracy, the insidious enemy which, under the guise of a friend, has in every age blasted its progress, and destroyed its substance. Discerning the principal cause of the distress which had occasioned these convulsions, his last act was one that bequeathed to his country a currency adequate to its necessities, and which he alone of his Cabinet had the honesty to admit was a departure from former error. Elegant and courteous in his manners, with a noble figure and finely-chiseled countenance, he was beloved in his family circle and by all his friends, not less than respected by the wide circle of sovereigns and statesmen with whom he had so worthily upheld the honor and the dignity of England.

Political

progress,

£3,500,000 had been repealed in a single year, and the doctrine openly promulgated by Government, which has since been so constantly acted upon, that the nation should instantly receive the full benefit of a surplus income in a reduction of taxation, instead of a maintenance of the Sinking Fund. The fierce demand for a reduction of expenditure, which made itself heard in an unmistakable manner even in the unreformed House of Commons, had rendered it indispensable to reduce the land and sea forces of the state to a degree inconsistent with the security of its vast colonial dependencies, and the maintenance of its position as an independent power.

159.

from the

same cause.

Changes still more important in their ultimate effects were already taking place in the social position and bal- Internal ance of parties in the state. The dis- changes, tress in Ireland-a purely agricul- arising tural state, upon which the fall of 50 per cent. in its produce fell with unmitigated severity-had become such that a change in the system of government in that country had become indispensable; and the altered system of Lord Wellesley presaged, at no distant period, the admission of the Roman Catholics into the legislature, and the attempt to form a harmonious legislature out of the united Celt and Saxon-the conscientious servant of Rome, and the sturdy friend of Protestant England. The wide-spread and deep distress of the manufacturing classes, and the inability of the legislature to afford them any relief, had rendered loud and threatening the demand for reform in those great hives of industry, while the still greater and more irremediable sufferings of the agriculturists had shaken the class hitherto the most firmly attached to existing institutions, and diffused a very general opinion that things could not be worse than they were, and that no alleviation of the evils under which the country labored could be hoped for till the representation of the people was put on a different footing. Lastly, the general necessity of cheapening every thing, to meet the reduced price of produce, had extended itself to freights, and several acts had already passed the legislature which foreshadowed the repeal of the Navigation Laws, and the abandonment of the system under which England had won the sceptre of the seas, and a colonial empire which encircled the earth. The dawn of the whole future of England is to be found in these three years.

was the last

Three years only had elapsed since the great 158. monetary change of 1819 had been carried into effect, and already it had changes in become evident that that was the from the turning-point of English history, and resumption that an entire alteration would ere of cash pay- long be induced in its external and ments. internal policy. Changes great, decisive, and irremediable, had already occurred. The Marquis of Londonderry was the last or were in progress. The cutting off of a hun- minister in Great Britain of the rul- 160. dred millions a year from the remuneration of ers who really governed the state; Lord Lonindustry, agricultural and manufacturing, while that is, of men who took counsel donderry the public and private debts remained the same, only of their own ideas, and im- of the real had changed the whole relations of society, al- printed them on the internal and rulers of Entered all the views of men. Reduction in ex- external policy of their country. gland. penditure, when so great a chasm had been Thenceforward statesmen were guided on both effected in income, was the universal cry. In sides of the Channel, not by what they deem1819, the House of Commons had solemnly re-ed right, but what they found practicable; the solved that the Sinking Fund should under no circumstances be reduced below £5,000,000 a year, and laid on £3,000,000 of indirect taxes to bring it up to that amount; but already the * Vide History of Europe, chap. xli. sect. 24, where this is demonstrated, and the calculation given.

ruling power was found elsewhere than either in the cabinet or the legislature. Querulous and desponding men, among whom Chateaubriand stands foremost, perceiving this, and comparing the past with the present, concluded that this was because the period of greatness

had passed, because the age of giants had been succeeded by that of pigmies; and that men were not directed, because no one able to lead them appeared. But this was a mistake: it was not that the age of great men had ceased, but the age of great causes had succeeded. Public opinion had become irresistible-the press ruled alike the cabinet and the legislature on important questions; where the people were strongly roused, their voice had become omnipotent; on all it gradually but incessantly acted, and in the end modified the opinions of government.

161. Increased

ers of

thought.

a revolutionary character, occurring so near each other in point of time, in so many different countries, demonstrates either a simultaneous agency of different bodies acting under one common central authority, or a com mon sense of the advent of a period in an especial manner favorable to the designs which they all had in contemplation. And when it is recollected that the Chambers of France had, by the operation of the coups d'état of 5th September, 1816, and March, 1819, been so thoroughly rendered democratical that the dethronement of the king and establishment of a republic, by vote of the legislature, was with confidence anticipated when the next fifth had been elected for the Chamber of Deputies, and that distress in Great Britain had become so general, by the operation of the monetary law of 1819, that insurrectionary movements were in preparation in all the great manufacturing towns, and had actually broken out in several-it must be confessed, that a more favorable time for such a general outbreak could hardly have been selected.

163.

The Vox Populi is not always, at the moment, the Vox Dei: it is so only when the period of action has passed, and ascendant that of reflection has arisen--when of the rul- the storms of passion are hushed, and the whisperings of interest no longer heard; but when the still small voice of experience speaks in persuasive tones to future generations of men, it will be shown whether the apparent government of the many is more beneficial in its effects than the real government of a few; but this much is certain, And yet, although these revolutionary movethat it is their apparent government only. Men ments were obviously made in purseek in vain to escape from the first of human suance of a common design, and for Different necessities the necessity of being governed by a common purpose, yet the agents in characters establishing democratic institutions. They do them, and the parties in each state volts in the not change the direction of the many by the to which their execution was intrust- different few: by the establishment of these they only ed, were widely different. In Great states change the few who direct. The oligarchy of Britain, they were entirely conducted by the intellect and eloquence comes instead of that very lowest classes of society; and although of property and influence; happy if it is in they met with apologists and defenders more reality more wise in its measures and far-see- frequently than might have been expected in ing in its policy than that which it has sup- the House of Commons, and from a portion of planted. But it is itself directed by the leaders the press, yet no person of respectability or of thought: the real rulers of men appear in good education was actually implicated in the those who direct general opinion; and the re- treasonable proceedings. The whole respectsponsibility of the philosopher or the orator be-able and influential classes were ranged on the comes overwhelming when he shares with it that of the statesman and the sovereign.

lutionary

of the re

other side. But the case was widely different on the Continent. The French revolutionists No doubt can remain, upon considering the embraced a large part of the talent, and by far 162. events in the memorable years 1819 the greater part of the education of the counSimultane- and 1820 in Europe, that they were try; and it was their concurrence, as the event ous outbreak the result of a concerted plan among afterward proved, which rendered any insurof the revo- the revolutionists in Spain, France, rectionary movement in that country so exspirit in dif- Italy, Germany, and England; and tremely formidable. In Spain and Portugal, ferent coun- that the general overthrow of gov- the principal merchants in the seaport towns, tries. ernments, which occurred in 1848, the most renowned generals, and almost the had been prepared, and was expected, in 1820. whole officers in the army, were engaged on The slightest attention to dates proves this in the revolutionary side, and their adhesion to the most decisive manner. The insurrection of its enemies in the last struggle left the throne Riego at Cadiz broke out on 1st January, 1820 without a defense. In Italy, the ardent and -that at Corunna on 24th February in the generous youth, and nearly the whole educated same year-the king was constrained to accept classes, were deeply imbued with Liberal ideas, the Constitution on 7th March; Kotzebue was and willing to run any hazard to secure their murdered in Germany on 21st March; the revo- establishment; and nearly the whole youth edulution of Naples took place on 7th March, that cated at the German universities had embraced of Piedmont on 7th June; the Duke de Berri the same sentiments, and longed for the period was assassinated on 13th March; émeutes in when the Fatherland was to take its place as Paris, which so nearly overturned the Govern- the first and greatest of representative government, broke out on 7th June, the military con-ments. Such is the difference between the spiracy on 19th August; the assassination of the English Cabinet was fixed for 19th February by the Cato Street conspirators; A3, the insurrection at Glasgow took place on 3d April. So many movements of

1820.

action of the revolutionary principle upon a constitutional and a despotic monarchy, and such the security which the long enjoyment of freedom affords for the continuance of that blessing to future times.

CHAPTER XI.

ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND SPAIN, FROM THE ACCESSION OF VILLELE IN 1819 TO THE CONGRESS OF VERONA IN 1822.

genius capable of inflaming, and destitute of the calmness requisite to allay, the ferment of their respective people.

3.

GEORGE CANNING, who was the Foreign Minister that was imposed upon the King of England, on Lord Londonderry's Character death, by the general voice of the of Mr. Cannation, rather than selected by his ning. choice, and who took the lead, on the British side, in the great debate with France which ensued regarding the affairs of the Peninsula,

FRANCE and England, since the peace of 1815, character of the men who were then placed, by 1.. had pursued separate paths, and the prevailing feeling in the two countries, at Divergence of their governments had never as yet the head of affairs. Spain and Portugal were France and been brought into collision with the theatre of Wellington's triumphs; they had England in regard to the each other. Severally occupied been liberated by the arms of England from the Spanish Rev- with domestic concerns, oppressed thraldom of Napoleon; they had witnessed the olution. with the burdens or striving to heal first reverses which led to the overthrow of his the wounds of war, their governments were empire. The French beheld with envy any amicable, if not cordially united, and nothing movement which threatened to increase an inhad as yet occurred which threatened to bring fluence from which they had already suffered them into a state of hostility with each other. so much; the English, with jealousy any atBut the Spanish revolution ere long had this tempt to interrupt it. In addition to this, the effect. It was viewed with very different eyes two Ministers of Foreign Affairs on the opposite on the opposite sides of the Channel. Justly sides of the Channel, when matters approached proud of their own constitution, and dating its a crisis, were of a character and temperament completion from the Revolution of 1688, which entirely in harmony with the ideas of the had expelled the Stuarts from the throne-for prevailing influential majority in their respectthe most part ignorant of the physical and po-ive countries, and both alike gifted with the litical circumstances of the Peninsula, which rendered a similar constitution inapplicable to its inhabitants, and deeply imbued with the prevailing delusion of the day, that forms of government were every thing, and differences of race nothing-the English had hailed the Spanish revolution with generous enthusiasm, and anticipated the entire resurrection of the Peninsula from the convulsion which seemed to have liberated them from their oppressors. These sentiments were entirely shared by the numerous and energetic party in France, which aimed at expelling the Bourbons, and restoring a republican form of government in that country. But for that very reason, opinions diametrically opposite were entertained by the supporters of the monarchy, and all who were desirous to save the country from a repetition of the horrors of the first Revolution. They were unanimously impressed with the belief that revolutionary governments could not be established in Spain and Italy without endangering to the last degree the existing institutions in France; that the contagion of democracy would speedily spread across the Alps and the Pyrenees; and that a numerous and powerful party set upon overturning the existing order of things, already with difficulty held in subjection, would, from the example of success in the neighboring states, speedily become irresistible. This divergence of opinion and feeling, coupled with the imminent danger to France from the convulsions in the causes adjoining kingdoms, and the comwhich aug parative exemption of Great Britain principal contributor. In 1788, in his eighteenth year, he mented this from it, in consequence of remoteness left Eton, already preceded by his literary reputation, and divergence. of situation, and difference of national industry and brilliant parts which he there exhibited gained was entered at Christ Church, Oxford. The continued temperament, must inevitably, under any cir- for him the highest honors, and, what proved of still more cumstances, have led to a difference in the pol-importance to him in after-life, the friendship of many iey of the two countries, and seriously endangered their amicable relations. But this danger was much increased in France and England at this period. in consequence of the recent events which had occurred in the Peninsula, and the

2.

Peculiar

was one of the most remarkable men that ever rose to the head of affairs in Great Britain. Of respectable but not noble birth, he owed nothing to aristocratic descent, and was indebted for his introduction to Parliament and political life to the friendships which he formed at college, where his brilliant talents, both in the subjects of study and in conversation, early procured for him distinction.* It is seldom that

George Canning was born in London on 11th April, 1770. He was descended from an ancient family, which, in the time of Edward III., had commenced with a mayor of the county of Warwick. His father, George Canning, of Bristol, and had since been one of the most respected

the third son of the family, was called to the bar, but

being a man of more literary than legal tastes, he never

got into practice, and died in 1771 in very needy circumstances, leaving Mrs. Canning, an Irish lady of great beauty and accomplishments, in such destitution that she was obliged for a short time to go on the stage for her subsistence. Young Canning was educated at Eton out of the proceeds of a small Irish estate bequeathed to him by his grandfather, and there his talents and assiduity soon procured for him distinction. He joined there several of his schoolfellows in getting up a literary work, which attained considerable classical eminence, entitled the Microcosm. Mr. Canning was its avowed editor, and

afterward become Earl of Liverpool. On leaving Oxford
he entered Lincoln's Inn, but rather with the design of
strengthening his mind by legal argument than following
the law as a profession. He there formed an acquaintance
that continued through life.
with Mr. Sheridan, which soon ripened into a friendship

men, among whom was Lord Hawkesbury, who

At the dissolution of Parliament, in the close of 1812, Mr. Canning stood for Liverpool, on which occasion he made the most brilliant and interesting speeches of his whole career; for they had less of the fencing common in Parliament, and more of real eloquence in them than his speeches in the House of Commons. In 1814 he was sent into a species of honorable banishment as embassador at the court of Lisbon, from whence he returned in 1816; and in the beginning of 1817 he was appointed President of the Board of Control on the death of the Earl of BuckIn spring 1803, Mr. Canning took a leading part in the inghamshire. In the spring of 1820 he sustained a severe series of resolutions condemnatory of the conduct of min- loss by the death of his eldest son George, who expired on isters, which led to the overthrow of Mr. Addington's ad- the 31st March. Overwhelmed with this calamity, and ministration, and on the return of Mr. Pitt to power was desirous to be absent during the discussions on the Queen, appointed Treasurer of the Navy, an office which he held he took but little part in public affairs during 1821 and till the death of that great man, in December, 1805. On 1822, during which years he resided chiefly in France and the accession of the Whigs to office he was of course dis- Italy; but the capacity he evinced as President of the placed, and became an active member of that small but Board of Control, coupled with a secret desire on the part indefatigable band of opposition which resisted Mr. Fox's of the Prince Regent to get him removed from the Cabinet, administration. Such was the celebrity which he thus pointed him out as a fit person to be appointed Governoracquired, that when the Tories returned to power, in April, general of India, which situation he had agreed to accept, 1807, he was appointed Secretary of State for the Foreign and even attended the farewell dinner of the East India Department, and for the first time became a Cabinet Min- directors on his appointment, when the unexpected death of Lord Londonderry, and the general voice of the public, on the 20th August, in a manner forced him upon the Government as Foreign Secretary.-Memoir of Mr. Canning, i. 29. Life and Speeches, vol. i.