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[1816 A.D.]

-the education of the people made small legislative progress for twenty years. Perhaps the old fable of the sun and the wind experimenting upon the removal of the traveller's cloak may afford us some solution of this problem. But the reports of the education committee were of the highest value in showing us the extent of instruction at the time of its labours. There were 18,500 schools, educating 644,000 children; of this number 166,000 were educated at endowed schools, and 478,000 at unendowed schools, during six days of the week. This number was independent of Sunday-schools, of which there were 5,100, attended by 452,000 children; but, of course, many of these Sunday scholars were included in the returns of other schools.

In the plan of Poor-law reform brought forward by Mr. Whitbread in 1807, he earnestly advocated the consideration of a mode by which the savings of the poor might be safely and profitably invested. Three or four years previous Mr. Malthus, in his Essay on Population, had argued that "it might be extremely useful to have county banks, where the smallest sums would be received and a fair interest granted for them." Mr. George Rose had, as early as 1793, legislated for the encouragement of friendly societies. In 1798 a bank for the earnings of poor children was established at Tottenham; and this was found so successful that a bank for the safe deposit of the savings of servants, labourers, and others was opened at the same place in 1804. Interest was here allowed to the depositors. A similar institution was founded at Bath in 1808. But the greatest experiment upon the possibility of the labouring poor making considerable savings was tried in Scotland. "The Parish Bank Friendly Society of Ruthwell" was established by the Rev. Henry Duncan in 1810. The first London savings-bank did not commence its operations till January, 1816. In the parliamentary session of 1816 Mr. Rose brought in a bill for the regulation of savings-banks, which was subsequently withdrawn for revision. Of the possible benefits of these institutions there could be no doubt in the minds of all men who were anxious to improve the condition of the people. "What a bubble!" wrote Cobbett.

In the session of 1816 one step was made towards some improvement of that code which Blackstone termed "a bastard slip of the old forest laws; both productive of the same tyranny to the commons, but with this difference, that the forest laws established only one mighty hunter throughout the land; the game laws have raised a little Nimrod in every manor." The attention of the house of commons was called to this subject in consequence of the murder of Colonel Berkeley's gamekeeper by a gang of armed poachers; and a committee was appointed "to take into consideration the laws relating to game." They came to the resolution "that it is the opinion of this committee, that all game should be the property of the person upon whose lands such game should be found." They contemplated the removal of the qualification to kill game-that law which had its beginning in the reign of Richard II, and which, perfected by the aristocratic legislators of the time of Charles II, required “fifty times the property to enable a man to kill a partridge as to vote for a knight of the shire." The committee of 1816 evidently pointed to the necessity of "removing the restraints upon the sale of game." It was not till after fifteen years of controversy that the statute of William IV dispensed with the qualification for killing game, and legalised its sale. The statute of the 9th of George IV, and that of William IV, rendered the law more stringent and effective against poaching, especially by night. The number of convictions under the acts for the preservation of game furnish no uncertain test, not only of the state of morals amongst the agricultural labourers, but of the presence or absence of those qualities which make the landed proprietor a

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blessing or a curse to his humble neighbours. In the more daring and depraved of the population of the rural districts, the severe administration of the game laws produced a spirit such as was displayed in January, 1816, by the Berkeley poachers, who cried out, "Glory! glory!" when they had killed one gamekeeper and wounded six others.

THE WRITINGS OF COBBETT

The call for parliamentary reform seems to have made itself very feebly heard in the lower house in the session of 1816. With the exception of some four or five petitions that produced very slight discussion it would scarcely be thought, from an inspection of the parliamentary debates, that such a question agitated any part of the nation at all. On one occasion, in June, some members spoke very briefly upon the subject. One complained of the apathy with which the question was regarded in England; another (Mr. Brougham) mentioned the cause as "opposed by some, deserted by others, and espoused by persons whose conduct excited no small degree of disgust out of doors." But from this time the name of parliamentary reform became, for the most part, a name of terror to the government-to the elevated by rank and wealth -to the most influential of the middle classes. It became fearful from the causes which would have made it contemptible in ordinary times. It was "espoused by persons whose conduct excited no small degree of disgust out of doors." It passed away from the patronage of a few aristocratic lovers of popularity, to be advocated by writers of "twopenny trash," and to be discussed and organised by "Hampden clubs" of hungering philanthropists and unemployed "weaver boys." Samuel Bamford says, "At this time the writings of William Cobbett suddenly became of great authority; they were read on nearly every cottage hearth in the manufacturing districts. Their influence was speedily visible.'

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Cobbett advocated parliamentary reform as the corrective of whatever miseries the lower classes suffered. A new order of politicians was called into action. "The Sunday-schools of the preceding thirty years" (says Bamford) had produced many working-men of sufficient talent to become readers, writers, and speakers in the village meetings for parliamentary reform; some also were found to possess a rude poetic talent, which rendered their effusions popular, and bestowed an additional charm on their assemblages; and by such various means, anxious listeners at first, and then zealous proselytes, were drawn from the cottages of quiet nooks and dingles, to the weekly readings and discussions of the Hampden clubs." But let it be remembered, that though the Sunday-schools of the preceding thirty years had made some working-men readers, writers, and speakers, the mass of the labouring population were in the lowest state of ignorance, and were consequently ready to accept the crude and violent opinions of a few of their own class as the only true maxims of political action. The speakers at the village meetings echoed the strong words of Cobbett, without the qualifying prudence which generally kept that master of our language pretty safe in argument and phraseology. He was not the man to tempt a prosecution by a rash sentence that could have been construed into sedition.

Up to the 2nd of November, 1816, Cobbett's Weekly Political Register was a publication not addressed to the "cottage hearth," but to persons who could afford to pay a shilling and a halfpenny weekly for a single octavo stamped sheet, printed in open type. His writings, singularly clear and argumentative, strong in personalities, earnest, bold, never halting between

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two opinions, powerful beyond all anonymous writing from their rare individuality, would have commanded an extensive influence under any form of publication. But at the beginning of November, he announced his intention. to print The Twopenny Register. We see, therefore, why, at the end of 1816, "the writings of William Cobbett suddenly became of great authority, and were read on nearly every cottage hearth in the manufacturing districts." Never before had any single writer in England wielded such a power. That his cheap Registers gave the discontent of the labouring classes a new direction cannot be doubted; that they did much to repress riot and outrage may fairly be conceded. But that they were scattering the seeds of a greater danger than the outrage and plunder of infuriated mobs cannot be denied. Their object was suddenly to raise up the great masses of labourers and mechanics into active politicians; to render the most impatient and uncontrollable materials of our social system the most preponderating. The danger was evident; the means of repression were not so clear. The effect of Cobbett's writings may be estimated by the violence of his opponents, as well as by the admiration of his disciples. From the date of his twopenny Registers he was stigmatised as a "firebrand"-"a convicted incendiary." Why is it that this convicted incendiary, and others of the same stamp, are permitted, week after week, to sow the seeds of rebellion, insulting the government, and defying the laws of the country? We have laws to prevent the exposure of unwholesome meat in our markets, and the mixture of deleterious drugs in beer. We have laws also against poisoning the minds of the people, by exciting discontent and disaffection; why are not these laws rendered effectual, and enforced as well as the former?" The answer is very obvious. The laws, as they stood at the end of 1816, when this was written, could not touch William Cobbett. He knew well how to manage his strength. He risked no libels. He dealt with general subjects. He called upon the people to assemble and to petition. He exhorted the people against the use of force. He sowed the dragons' teeth, it is true, but they did not rise up as armed men. They rose up in the far more dangerous apparition of the masses, without property, without education, without leaders of any weight or responsibility, demanding the supreme legislative power-the power of universal suffrage. The idea ceased to be a theory-it became a tremendous reality.

HAMPDEN CLUBS; THE SPENCEANS

In a report of a secret committee of the house of commons, presented on the 19th of February, 1817, the Hampden clubs are described as "associated professedly for the purpose of parliamentary reform, upon the most extended principle of universal suffrage and annual parliaments"; but that "in far the greater number of them, and particularly in those which are established in the great manufacturing districts of Lancashire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire, and which are composed of the lower order of artisans, nothing short of a revolution is the object expected and avowed." The testimony of Samuel Bamford shows that, in this early period of their history, the Hampden clubs limited their object to the attainment of parliamentary reform-a sweeping reform, indeed, but not what is understood by the term "revolution." They contended for the right of every male above eighteen years of age, and who paid taxes, to vote for the election of members of parliament; and that parliaments should be elected annually. These demands Bamford describes as "the moderate views and

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wishes of the reformers of those days." He adds: "It was not until we became infested by spies, incendiaries, and their dupes-distracting, misleading, and betraying-that physical force was mentioned amongst us. After that our moral power waned; and what we gained by the accession of demagogues, we lost by their criminal violence and the estrangement of real friends." It would appear, however, that in Scotland, at a very early stage of the proceedings of reform clubs, that is in December, 1816, the mode in which large masses of men ordinarily look for the accomplishment of political changes was not so cautiously kept out of view.

Of the Hampden club of London, Sir Francis Burdett was the chairman. Vanity, as well as misery, "makes a man acquainted with strange bed-fellows." Bamford, at the beginning of 1817, came to London as a delegate from the Middleton club, to attend a great meeting of delegates to be assembled in London. The Crown and Anchor tavern was the scene of these deliberations. There was Major Cartwright in the chair-a placid enthusiast, sincere in his belief that unmingled good would be the result of the great experiment which he had so long advocated. The chief supporters were Cobbett, with his shrewd self-possession and "bantering jollity"; and Hunt-"orator Hunt," as he was called-the incarnation of an empty, blustering, restless, ignorant, and selfish demagogue. The great baronet was absent, and his absence provoked no little comment. But he was accessible in his own mansion. Samuel Bamford was awe-struck by the passionate bellowing of Hunt, frozen by the proud condescension of Sir Francis Burdett, but charmed by the unaffected cordiality of Lord Cochrane. These were the chief actors in the procession scenes of the popular drama that was then under rehearsal. Other and more important parts were filled quite as appropriately.

The Middleton delegate was introduced, amidst the reeking tobaccofog of a low tavern, to the leading members of a society called the "Spencean Philanthropists." They derived their name from that of a Mr. Spence, a schoolmaster in Yorkshire, who had conceived a plan for making the nation happy, by causing all the lands of the country to become the property of the state, which state should divide all the produce for the support of the people. Socialism, in its extremist principles, is not a new doctrine. The schoolmaster was an honest enthusiast, who fearlessly submitted his plan to the consideration of all lovers of their species, and had the misfortune to be prosecuted for its promulgation in 1800. In 1816 "Spence's plan" was revived, and the Society of Spencean Philanthropists was instituted, who held "sectional meetings," and discussed "subjects calculated to enlighten the human understanding." This great school of philosophy had its separate academies, as London was duly informed by various announcements, at "the Cock, in Grafton Street, Soho," and "the Mulberry Tree, Moorfields," and "the Nag's Head, Carnaby Market," and "No. 8, Lumber street, Borough. At these temples of benevolence, where "every individual is admitted, free of expense, who will conduct himself with decorum," it is not unlikely that some esoteric doctrines were canvassed, such as that "it was an easy matter to upset government, if handled in a proper manner." The committee of the Spenceans openly meddled with sundry grave questions besides that of a community in land; and, amongst other notable projects, petitioned parliament to do away with machinery. Amongst these fanatics some dangerous men had established themselves, such as Thistlewood, who subsequently paid the penalty of five years of maniacal plotting; and some, also, who were clearly in communication with the police, and hounded on the weak disciples of the Cock in Grafton street and the Mulberry Tree in Moorfields, to acts

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of more real danger to themselves than to the public safety. If we are to believe the chief evidence in these transactions, John Castle, a man of the most disreputable character, who became a witness against the leading Spencean philanthropists, they had murderous designs of sharp machines for destroying cavalry, and plans for suffocating quiet soldiers in their barracks, destroying them as boys burn wasps' nests; and schemes for taking the Tower, and barricading London bridge, to prevent the artillery coming from Woolwich. And there were to be five commanders to effect all these great movements of strategy-Mr. Thistlewood, Mr. Watson the elder, and Mr. Watson the younger, Mr. Castle, and Mr. Preston, who came the last in dignity "because he was lame." And then there was to be a committee of public safety, who were to be called together after the soldiers were subdued -twenty-four good and true men. And then they calculated at what amount of public expense they could buy the soldiers, by giving them each a hundred guineas; and, upon an accurate computation, it was found that the purchase money would be somewhere about two millions, which would be nothing in comparison with the national debt, which would be wiped off. With this preparation, if we may believe the very questionable evidence of Mr. Castle, a meeting was held in Spa fields on the 15th of November.

THE SPA-FIELDS RIOT (1816 A.D.)

The district known as Spa fields, now covered with dwellings of industry and comfortable residences of the middle class, was, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and for some years afterwards, a large unenclosed space, utterly neglected and useless. A public house was there, called by the mysterious name of Merlin's Cave; and thither Mr. Hunt came in a chariot with the Watsons and harangued a mob from the chariot roof, attended with a flag and cockades, and "everything handsome." After adjourning the meeting for a fortnight, Mr. Hunt and the chariot went away, drawn by the mob; and the mob running the chariot against a wall, they all got out and walked. So innocently passed the first Spa-fields meeting-innocently, save that at a dinner at Mr. Hunt's hotel in Bouverie street, where, as he represented the matter, the philanthropists having thrust themselves upon him very much against his will, the betrayer, Castle, gave a toast, which is too infamous to be repeated here, and was threatened to be turned out of the room, but quietly remained, and went into what was described as "a fox-sleep." But the 2nd of December, the day to which the first meeting was adjourned, closed not so peaceably. Mr. Hunt came to town from Essex in his tandem, and, as he passed along Cheapside, at "twenty minutes to one o'clock," he was stopped by Mr. Castle, who was moving along with a considerable crowd; and the worthy man told him that the meeting had been broken up two hours, and that they were going to the Tower, which had been in their possession for an hour. The country squire, to whom "the boisterous hallooing of multitudes was more pleasing than the chinkling of the plough-traces, the bleating of lambs, or the song of the nightingale" (in these terms Cobbett defended his friend for his aspirations after mob popularity), was not weak enough to believe the tempter; and his tandem went on to Spa fields, where the greatest number of people were collected together that he had ever beheld. But more active reformers were in Spa fields before Mr. Hunt. The Spencean philanthropists had provided a wagon for their own operations, and arrived on the ground considerably before the appointed hour of meeting, with banners and inscriptions, one of which was, "The brave soldiers are our

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