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and faction leaders. He promised Irish laws, while corrupting the people out of any capacity for obedience to law at all. He promised the exclusion of British commerce, while without British commerce the Irish could not live. He promised everything he could not perform, and that no sane and shrewd man-and O'Connell was sane and shrewd-would have performed if he could; and everything which could most effectually draw off the vast multitudes of the Catholic peasantry of Ireland from the remedy of their social hardships, from the duty to their own households, and their welfare in the state. Whether he gained any objects by threatening and annoying the governments of his day, we may see hereafter. Whether he and his companions in the legislature might not have gained more by honest political endeavours-gained more even in definite achievements, as well as in personal and national character, and in British sympathy for Ireland-there can be no question. Thus early, however, in the summer and autumn of 1830, O'Connell exhibited the programme of his political course. One of the troubles of the Wellington ministry during this October was the state of Ireland, where the magistrates of Tipperary were obliged to apply for military force, to put down outrage; where one repeal association after another was prohibited by the viceroy, the people believing their liberties assailed in each case; and where O'Connell-on all other occasions the partisan of the Bourbons-bade the people look to the revolutions of France and Belgium for examples what to do, and counselled a run on the banks throughout Ireland, in order to shew government the danger of resisting their demands.

Nearer home, too, a strange new trouble was arising, which it was extremely difficult to cope with. A year or two before this time, English gentry had been holding up hands and eyes at the atrocious barbarism of the peasantry in the north of France, who burned corn-ricks in the night. People observed to one another on the awful state of stupidity and malice in which any society must be sunk where such a crime could spread; a crime so foolish, so suicidal, as well as malicious! What could induce a peasantry to destroy their own food? What a set of idiots they must be! But, as soon as the dark long nights of October and November came on, the same thing was happening in our agricultural counties, and particularly in Kent. The mystery appears never to have been completely explained. Here and there, perhaps, was seen some skulker-some shabby stranger, wandering about in copses, and behind enclosures, or hiding in sheds, or dropping into the public-house, all ear and no tongue, or patting farm boys and girls on the back, and having confidences with them. Such people were seen here and there; and there were several instances in which young persons on trial for incendiarism accused the principal witness of having enticed them to do the act, and then got the reward by informing against them. But, if these things were true, they do not account for the origin of the practice. There was considerable distress; but not nearly so pressing or threatening as during two or three preceding years.

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There was, as there always is among an ignorant population, some discontent with machinery; but it did not appear that the farmers who used machinery were more pursued by the incendiary than others. It was probably from all these causes in turn, from some imported knowledge of what had been done in France, and from that never-failing propensity in human nature, by which extraordinary crimescrimes which produce vast effect by a rapid and easy act, gratifying the relish for power in an untrained mind-spread like a fashion of a season; but, however it was, that autumn was a memorable time to all who lived in the southern agricultural counties of England. The farmers and their families had no comfort in their lives. All day they looked with unavoidable suspicion upon the most ill-conditioned of their neighbours, and on every stranger who came into the parish. All night, they were wakeful; either acting as patrols, or looking out towards the stackyards, or listening for the rumble of the fire-engine. Those who were fully insured did not like the idea of fire close to the dwellinghouse; and there were some serious doubts about the stability of some of the insurance offices, under a pressure for which no prudence could have provided. The farmers who were not insured need not think of it; for no offices would do new business, on any terms that farmers could offer, during the rick-burning period. If a man, weary with patrolling for three or four nights, hoped for a night's sleep, and went, the last thing, to his rickyard, and explored every corner, and visited every shed on his premises, he might find his chamber illuminated by his burning ricks, by the time he could get upstairs. If the patrol, after a similar search, looked round as they shut the gate, some one of them asked what that blue speck in the air was; and before he could be answered, a blue flame would run, rocket-like, along the ridge of a stack, and down its sides, and in one minute, the farmhouse windows would be glittering, and the sheds would seem to come out into the yellow light, and the pond would be burnished, and all darkness would be suddenly annihilated, except in the shadows cast by the mounting and spreading flames. How it was done was never learned. Some believed that a particular stack in a yard was previously wetted with some liquid that would blaze up with a spark; and so few persons were apprehended in the very act, or under very strong suspicion, that it was a widely spread belief that some kindling substance was directed upon the prepared stack from a distance. Several persons declared, and were more or less believed, that they saw the blue spark traverse the air, and descend; and now and then, a long slender wire was said to be found among the ashes. A considerable number of persons saw the fire begin before their very eyes, without being able to discover traces of trespassers. This was naturally a time for malicious or encroaching persons to send threatening letters; and for foolish jesters to play off practical jokes; and for timid persons to take needless alarms; and for all the discontented to make the most of their grievances; and a dreary season of apprehension indeed it was. It is memorable even to those who lived in towns, and conducted no business, and had

no enemies, and feared no evil for themselves. It was a great shock to such to find themselves living in a state of society where such things could be. In Kent, there were gibbets erected on Penenden Heath, and bodies swung there in the December winds-bodies of 'boys about eighteen or nineteen years old, but looking much younger;' brothers, who had said to each other, on arriving at the spot and seeing the gallows: 'That looks an awful thing.' And from Kent, the deadly fashion spread into Hampshire, Wiltshire, Buckinghamshire, Sussex, and Surrey. The military were harassed with fruitless marches, their nightly path lighted by fires from behind, whichever way they turned. Large rewards were offered-£500 for a single conviction; and these rewards were believed to have been now and then obtained by the instigators, while the poor tools were given over to destruction. A special commission was ordered to proceed into the shires where this kind of outrage abounded; and the subject was one of several unwelcome topics in the king's speech in November.

The opening of this parliament was awaited throughout the country with anxious expectation. In September, when tidings of new continental revolutions were arriving, almost day by day, the funds fell; and what Lord Eldon and the ministers called 'London—that is, the aristocracy with whom they had intercourse, and who remained clustered together in the metropolis in a very unusual manner-was in gloomy apprehension of the fall of the monarchy; not because there were any threatenings of the monarchy, public or private, but because other monarchies were falling. The aristocracy shook their heads over the free-and-easy sayings and doings of the new sailor-king. 'I hear,' wrote Lord Eldon, 'that the condescensions of the king are beginning to make him unpopular. In that station, such familiarity must produce the destruction of respect. If the people don't continue to think a king somewhat more than a man, they will soon find out that he is not an object of that high respect which is absolutely necessary to the utility of his character.' It may be doubted whether anybody in England was at that time saying anything more injurious to monarchy than this. Lord Eldon, however, did what he could towards preserving the monarchy, by rebuking the king for improper condescension. The anecdote is an interesting one, as presenting both these old men-so perfectly unlike each other-in a favourable light. Lord Eldon went up with the Bishop of Bristol to present an address. As Lord Eldon was retiring, the king stopped him, and said: 'My lord, political parties and feelings have run very high, and I am afraid I have made observations upon your lordship which now Here Lord Eldon interrupted him, and said: 'I entreat your majesty's pardon-a subject must not hear the language of apology from the lips of his sovereign;' and then the dutiful subject passed out from the presence of his rebuked king. If the Tories were right in supposing the existence of the monarchy to depend in any considerable degree on the personal reserve and dignity of the sovereign, it was assuredly very unsafe under the open-hearted sailor-king.

This same 'London' believed in October that in consequence of the removal of Mr Huskisson, negotiations were going on between the ministry and 'Palmerston and Co.,' the survivors of the 'Canningites,' but on a footing which yielded far too much to the requisitions of this remnant of a party; on the footing of pledges for some kind of parliamentary reform-which could hardly have been true-some measure about tithes, and some close dealing with the civil list. Whether these reports had any foundation or not, they are of importance to us now, as shewing that the great Tory world of London was prepared for some assertion of the necessity of these measures, and would not have been surprised if they had been brought forward by the duke himself. When night closed in on the 1st of November, nobody knew, except those who were seated round the tables of the ministers, what the disclosures of the speech were to be next day. For five days the swearing in of members of parliament had been going on; but the session was not opened till the 2d of November.

When the speech was promulgated, it was found to be the most offensive that had been uttered by any British monarch since the Revolution. Now, indeed, unless it could presently be shewn that the king had been made a tool of by his ministers, there might soon be some ground for the Tory apprehensions about the unpopularity of the sovereign. Except a surrender of the civil list to the consideration of parliament, and a recommendation to provide a regency in case of his death, there was no topic which gratified the expectation of the people. There was much regret at the disturbed state of Europe; determination to uphold the treaties by which the political system of Europe had been established; indignation, contempt, and horror, about disturbances in England and Ireland; a pledge to use all the powers of law and constitution to put down and punish such disturbance; and a lecture on the supreme happiness of those who live under British institutions. While men were gathering together in streets and public buildings to discuss this speech, the turbulent in exasperation at its insolence, and the thoughtful in regret at its hardness, the primeminister settled everything-the fate of his government, and the course of public affairs for years to come-by a few sentences in the opening debate, which made some people ask whether he had lost his senses, while they revived the Tory party with hopes that some hidden resources of power existed to justify the apparent rashness. In the debate on the address, the Duke of Wellington uttered that celebrated declaration against reform in parliament, which immediately overthrew his power at home, and his reputation as a statesman throughout the world. His personal friends have since accounted for the apparent madness of uttering those words at that moment, by saying that it was a mistake owing to his deafness; and this is quoted as his own plea. A deafness had been long growing upon him which had now become considerable; and it was declared on his behalf that if he had heard what had been said by men of his own party, and what was passing on the benches behind him, he would not have made

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present moment, which could in any degree satisfy his mind that the state of the representation could be improved, or be rendered more satisfactory to the country at large than at the present moment. He would not, however, at such an unseasonable time enter upon the subject, or excite discussion, but he should not hesitate to declare unequivocally what were his sentiments upon it. He was fully convinced that the country possessed at the present moment a legislature which answered all the good purposes of legislation, and this to a greater degree than any legislature ever had answered in any country whatever. He would go further and say, that the legislature and the system of representation possessed the full and entire confidence of the country-deservedly possessed that confidence; and the discussions in the legislature had a very great

influence over the opinions of the country. He would go still further and say, that if at the present moment he had imposed upon him the duty of forming a legislature for any country, and particularly for a country like this, in possession of great property of various descriptions, he did not mean to assert that he could form such a legislature as they possessed now, for the nature of man was incapable of reaching such excellence at once; but his great endeavour would be to form some description of legislature which would produce the same results. The representation of the people at present contained a large body of the property of the country, and in which the landed interests had a preponderating influence. Under these circumstances, he was not prepared to bring forward any measure of the description alluded to by the noble lord. He was

not only not prepared to bring forward any measure of this nature, but he would at once declare that, as far as he was concerned, as long as he held any station in the government of the country, he should always feel it his duty to resist such measures when proposed by others.'

On that same night, Mr Brougham gave notice in the Commons of his intention to bring forward, in a fortnight, the question of parliamentary reform. The next day, the unrepresented men of Birmingham were telling each other in the streets that the primeminister of the country had declared that the representation could not be improved; and perhaps some traveller, on his way from Marlborough to Salisbury, gazing as he passed on the little mounds of Old Sarum, enclosing its few bare acres, where no living creature dwelt, would think of the two members sitting in the Commons, to represent this patch of ground, and would say to himself, with some amusement, that the prime-minister of the country had declared that the representation could not be improved. There were thousands of inhabitants of Leeds and Manchester, sustaining hundreds of thousands of labourers-five to one of rural labourerswho conferred ominously on the minister's satisfaction at the preponderance of the landed interests in the legislature. While the ferment was spreading and rising in the country, the liberal party in both Houses of Parliament were looking in a spirit of calm and confident expectation upon the struggles and difficulties of the rash and helpless administration. Some members of the cabinet took pains to intimate, the next night after the duke's declaration, that he spoke for himself alone; Sir George Murray owned himself in favour of some moderate reform; Sir Robert Peel would not declare any opinion on a subject as yet wholly indefinite. In the Commons, Mr Tennyson conjured the country to await in quiet the downfall of the duke, which was now sure to happen, and by no means to let the duke's opinion on reform go for more than any one man's opinion was worth; and in the Lords, the Earl of Winchilsea proposed to lay before the king the opinion of parliament in regard to the incapacity of his ministers. It was as yet only the 4th of November; but this was a season when hours told for days. In forty-eight hours the duke was in the embarrassment of another scrape, in which there was so much of the ludicrous mixed up with what might have been very serious, that the subject was ever a most exasperating one to the great soldier.

In justice to him, it must be remembered how his mind had been wrought upon for some months past, in sympathy with his friend Polignac, in apprehension for that distribution of power in Europe which he had been concerned in establishing; and by the daily increasing disturbances in our rural districts, which exactly resembled those that preceded the revolution in France. It must be remembered how little he really knew the people of England; and how, to a mind like his, the mere name of revolution suggests images of regicide, and of everything horrible; images which were, no doubt, in his mind when he turned away, as he was seen to do, from the spectacle of the tricolor floating in the Thames.

These things mark him as unfit to be the primeminister of England in 1830; but they soften the shame of the thought that the high courage of the great soldier sank under a senseless alarm given by an alderman of London. This Alderman Key had been elected to serve the office of lord mayor for the coming year; and the king and queen and the ministers were to dine with him at Guildhall on the 9th of November. On the 6th, the alderman addressed a letter to the prime-minister, the tone and wording of which should have shewn to any man of sense that it was not a communication to be acted upon, without large confirmation of its statements. This letter warned the duke that a certain number of desperate characters intended to make an attack upon him near the hall; and it plainly desired that, as the civil force would not be enough for the duke's protection, he would not come without a strong military guard. The next night, Saturday, Sir Robert Peel sent a letter to the lord mayor, to state that their majesties declined visiting the city on the 9th. The ministers pleaded that they had received other letters, besides that from Alderman Key; and, but for this, the case would have been much simplified; for the poor man expressed, again and again, the deepest contrition for his folly in writing as he had done, when he saw how serious were the consequences of the act. In the course of Sunday, a deputation from the committee of the feast waited three times on the ministers; and the duke's declaration was that either the banquet must be postponed, or a large military force must be put in possession of the city. The banquet was postponed.

In the morning, the consternation in the city was extreme. No one knew what was the matter; but that there must be something terrible, there could be no doubt. Some said that there was to be a 5th of November on the 9th; some, that while their majesties were dining, the gas-pipes were to be cut, Temple Bar blockaded, the royal personages made prisoners, and London sacked. There was no nonsense that could not find belief on that fearful Monday, though everybody agreed that no sovereign had ever been more popular than William IV., who had not done an ungracious thing, nor spoken an ungracious word, except that speech a few days before, which everybody knew to be solely the work of his ministers. On that Monday morning, consols fell three per cent. in an hour and a half; careful citizens renewed the bolts and bars of their doors, lined their shutters with iron plates, and laid in arms and ammunition, in expectation of the sacking of London. Before the end of the week, the most alarmed were laughing at the panic; but not only was the mysterious panic a fearful thing at the moment, but the natural effects were very vexatious. There was a good deal of desultory and unmeaning rioting, by such disorderly citizens as thought that if they had the discredit, they might as well have the fun. And, worse than this, an unfounded impression went abroad through all the world, that it was not safe for the King of England to pass through the streets of his own capital, to dine with its chiefmagistrate.

CHAP. II.]

CHANGE OF MINISTRY-THE GREY MINISTRY.

Day by day now, it became only a question of weeks about when the administration would go out; whether before the Christmas recess or after. Before a single week from the panic, they were out. On the 15th, Sir Henry Parnell made his promised motion for a select committee to examine the accounts connected with the civil list. The debate was not long, the ministers declaring that simplification and retrenchment had been carried as far as was possible; and the opposition desiring to have it proved whether the matter was so. On the division, the government were left in a minority of twentynine, in a House of 437 members. Mr Hobhouse asked Sir Robert Peel whether the ministers would retain their seats after such a division; but he received no answer. He was about to press the question, when Mr Brougham proposed to wait till the next day for the answer and the appointment of the committee just decided upon. The committee, however, was appointed at once; the reply was waited for. The ministers afterwards declared that they might not have considered this division on the civil list reason enough for their resignation, by itself; but that they considered with it the probable result of Mr Brougham's motion for parliamentary reform, which was to be debated on the night after the civil list question.

On that evening, the 16th, the Duke of Wellington came down to announce to the Lords that his resignation of office had been presented and accepted, and that he continued in his position only till his successor should have been appointed. In the other House, Sir Robert Peel made the same declaration on behalf of himself and all the other members of the administration.

Lord Althorp immediately requested Mr Brougham to defer his motion on parliamentary reform, which was too important to be debated while the govern. ment of the country was in an unsettled state. Mr Brougham expressed great reluctance, and threw the responsibility upon the House of delaying the matter till the 25th; declaring that he would then bring it forward, whatever might be the condition of circumstances, and whoever might be his majesty's ministers. No one had any doubt about who, in the main, would be his majesty's ministers. It was well understood that the great day was at hand when the British polity was to renew its youth and replenish its life. Some who walked homewards from their parliamentary halls to their own firesides, through the darkness of that November night, told each other that a brighter sun than that of midsummer was to arise to-morrow, encumbered and dimmed at first, probably, by clouds and vapours, but destined to send down its vital warmth and light through long vistas of remote generations.

V

CHAPTER II.

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HERE was no doubt in any quarter as to who would be the new premier, or what would be the general composition of the ministry. The anti-Catholic party was broken up and humbled. The demand of the people for a liberal government was strong; and there was no one to say that it should not be obeyed. The king requested Lord Grey to form a government; and he agreed to do so, on condition that reform of parliament should be made a cabinet question; a condition immediately granted. As the news spread through the land, it excited a stronger sensation than men of a future time could perhaps be easily made to understand. The interest felt for Lord Grey was strong. Men remembered his advocacy of reform of parliament in the last century; his patient and dignified assertion of the principle and ultimate necessity of the case during a long course of years, obscure and unprosperous for him; and the deep melancholy of his unhappy speech against Canning, three years before, when he spoke of his own political career as over, and his political loneliness as complete. Now, with more years upon his honoured head, he stood at the summit of affairs, empowered to achieve with his own hand the great object of his life and time, and surrounded by comrades of his own choice and appointment. This trait of the time interested the hearts of hundreds of thousands; but to the millions there was something far more exciting still. The year which was closing was called the year One of the people's cause.

It was now fifteen years since the peace. Of these fifteen years, the first seven had been dark and troubled under a discouraging and exasperating Tory rule, during which, however, by virtue of the peace, good things were preparing for a coming time. During the last eight years, there had been vicissitudes of fortune-some exultation and prosperity-more depression and distress, as regarded the material condition of the people; but the country had been incomparably better governed. It was under this better government that the people had learned striking and virtuous lessons about their own power-lessons which had prepared them to require wisely, and conduct magnanimously, the greatest revolution in the history of their country.

It was in the leisure of the new peace that a multitude of minds had received the idea, and made it their own, that the shortest and only safe way of procuring all reforms and all good government was by making the representation as true as it could be made. This became the vital principle of the political life of Great Britain, as soon as the excitements of the war died away; and it must long continue to be so. Among the many reasons which make us now and for ever deprecate war, the chief is, and should ever be, that we would not have the national mid and will called off from this great truth and aim that the first duty, and most unremitting

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