Meeting of parliament, 27th Jan.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE death of the Princess Charlotte took place on the 6th of November, 1817; parliament was opened by commission on the 27th of January following. It was the sixth and probably the last session of the fifth parliament of the United Kingdom. The prospect of being speedily sent back to their constituents was not so generally alarming to members in those days as it has since become; still, in ordinary circumstances, a good many votes were apt to be affected by it, and the last session of the steadiest parliament, when it was certain or likely that a dissolution was at hand, was wont to be distinguished by some little refractoriness, showing itself both in a slight decline of the ministerial majorities and in the increasing number of popular motions, which were for the most part more favorably received than usual, as well as more pertinaciously urged.

Prince Re

The Prince Regent's speech, which was read by the Lord Chancellor, after noticing in the customary terms the gent's speech. continuance of His Majesty's indisposition, proceeded to advert, at somewhat greater length, but in a phraseology hardly less dry and formal, to the death of the Princess. His Royal Highness, it was declared, had been soothed and consoled by the assurances he had received from all classes, both of their just sense of the loss they had sustained, and of their sympathy with his parental sorrow; and, amidst his own sufferings, he had not been unmindful of the effect which the sad event might have on the interests and prospects of the kingdom. Little cordiality, it was well known, had for a long time subsisted between the father and daughter; the natural inclination which the latter had evinced to take part with her mother had estranged and alienated them; and, if the Princess had lived much longer, there would probably have been seen the worst example that had yet been exhibited of the dissension and mutual hatred that had uniformly divided the wearer of the crown and the heir apparent since the accession of the present family; and the internecine war between husband and wife that soon after broke out, would have been rendered still more deplorable and revolting, by their child being in all

CHAP. XIII.]

PRINCE REGENT'S SPEECH.

181

probability involved in it as an active combatant. The premature death of the Princess Charlotte at least saved herself and all parties that unhappiness. It could not fail, nevertheless, to be keenly felt by her father. Even if he had been a hardhearted man, which he was not, but only a luxurious and selfish one, he must have been stunned by such a blow. His pride and sense of personal importance, if nothing else, must have been severely wounded by it. His hope of being the father of a line of kings was gone; he was become the last of his race; his blood would flow in the veins of no future occupant of his throne; no successor in a distant age would look back upon him as a progenitor; his history would end with his own life. All this, however, more calmly viewed, would be found to resolve itself into his merely finding himself in a new position, different from, but not in reality perhaps worse than, the one he had lost. Accordingly, it does not appear that his grief long retained the bitterness and prostration with which it was at first accompanied. He was so ill for a short time that his life was considered to be in danger, and was only saved by copious bleeding; but in little more than three months he had so far recovered both his health and spirits, as to be able, at a dinner given by the Prussian ambassador, to entertain the company with a song.

to

The sequel of the speech was all congratulatory. It referred to the improvement which had taken place, in the course of the preceding year, in almost every branch of domestic historythe improved state of public credit to the progressive improvement of the revenue in its most important branches; mentioned the treaties that had been concluded with Spain and Portugal, with a view to the abolition of the slave-trade; and concluded by recommending to the attention of parliament the deficiency which had so long existed in the number of places of public worship belonging to the Established Church, when compared with the increased and increasing population of the country. The important change which had taken place in the economical condition of the country, it was observed, "could not fail to withdraw from the disaffected the principal means of which they had availed themselves for the purpose of fomenting a spirit of discontent, which unhappily led to acts of insurrection and treason; "and his royal highness," it was added, "entertains the most confident expectation, that the state of peace and tranquillity, to which the country is now restored, will be maintained, against all attempts to disturb it, by the persevering vigilance of the magistracy, and by the loyalty and good sense of the people." Thus did the government flatter itself that its troubles were over, and that the year 1817, in taking its departure, had carried its evil spirit along with it.

Perhaps, however, this apparent confidence may have been partly assumed by ministers, with a view to the defence of their own proceedings in coping with the late attempts of the disaffected. The best case they could make out for themselves would be to show that the measures they had adopted had been successful in putting down or keeping down disturbance, and that all the dangers against which the extraordinary powers intrusted to them had been intended to provide were now at an end. On the subject of these extraordinary powers, their cessation or their continuance, the speech said not a word. But as soon as it was read, and before the address in answer had been moved, the opposition in both Houses demanded the instant repeal of the act of last session suspending the Habeas Corpus Act. On this, ministers announced that it was their intention to present a bill for that purpose on the following day, and to propose the suspension of the standing orders, as had been done in the case of the act to be repealed, that it might pass without delay. The bill was accordingly passed through the Lords on the 28th, and through the Commons on the 29th.

No amendment was moved to the address; but it gave rise to some debate in both Houses. Lord Lansdowne denied The address. that the recent trials had furnished evidence of the existence of any such conspiracy, or general disposition to insurrection throughout the kingdom, as had been assumed by ministers. "In the trials at Derby, where it was the business and the particular object of the Attorney-General to prove that the discontented there had a correspondence with others in different quarters, he had completely failed. He could not prove that in any part of the country there had been the slightest connection with these conspirators. This terrible conspiracy, too, was suppressed without the slightest difficulty by eighteen dragoons." His lordship admitted that the Derby conspirators had been very properly brought to trial, and justly convicted; but this, he said, was the only thing ministers had to bring forward as an apology for their measures. Still, he contended, "it was not the suspension of the Habeas Corpus that put down the insurrection, or the conspiracy, whichever it might be called; it had been extinguished by the due administration of the law -- by apprehending and bringing the persons accused to trial; and the same law could have been applied with equal efficiency, though the Habeas Corpus Act had remained in force." He maintained further, that there was no proof that the conspiracy had been at all of a political character, or hostile to the institutions of the country. "The whole disturbance sprung from partial discontent, with which the great body of the population of the place where it broke out were untainted. Even in the very villages through

CHAP. XIII.]

DEBATES ON THE ADDRESS.

183

which the insurgents passed, the people ran away from them ; and in no part of the country was there any trace to be found of the existence of a conspiracy to alter the king's government.' In the Commons, Sir Samuel Romilly, as has been noticed in a previous page,1 went still further. There could be no doubt, he observed, that the persons who were convicted at Derby, whether guilty of treason or not, were guilty of a capital crime; "Brandreth had committed a murder, and those who aided and abetted it were in law equally guilty." But, he went on, "in his conscience he believed, from the information he had received, that the whole of that insurrection was the work of the persons sent by the government not indeed for the specific purpose of fomenting disaffection but as emissaries of sedition from clubs that had never existed." If these words be correctly reported, Sir Samuel, while acquitting ministers of designedly getting up or attempting to get up an insurrection, would appear to have charged them with being cognizant of the false pretences with which Oliver, and the other spies employed by them, are supposed to have deluded and ensnared their victims to have concerted with those dangerous agents the fable of the metropolitan clubs of which they gave themselves out as the emissaries. This, however, as we have already observed, is certainly not for a moment to be believed, nor probably is it now a notion entertained by anybody. The ministers were likely enough both to have taken an exaggerated view of the extent and object of whatever tendency to disturbance existed, and to be willing to make the case appear to be, or to have been, as bad as possible; but there are no facts or probabilities which entitle us to suppose that they resorted, or were capable of resorting, to positive trickery and falsehood, even in order to get at the secret counsels of parties whom they might believe to harbor guilty designs. Their indiscretion and culpability consisted in the recklessness with which they let loose such miscreants as Oliver among the people, without taking sufficient, or apparently any, precautions to protect either themselves or others from being deceived and misled by their arts and machinations.

Mr. Ward, writing to his friend Dr. Copleston, from Vienna, on the 14th of February, after mentioning that he had state of the just seen in the German papers some meagre extracts country. from the proceedings at the opening of parliament, comments as follows on the political condition and prospects of the country: “As fair a promise of an uninteresting session as a man desirous of staying abroad can wish. The exaggerated lamentation for the poor Princess could not but be, from its obvious purport, offensive to the other branches of the royal family; and in the 1 See ante, p. 125.

speech which the minister has composed for the Prince Regent, I think I distinguish somewhat of that feeling which it was calculated to excite. The mention of her is rather dry sulky, rather than sad. The country seems reviving. I have excellent accounts from Staffordshire. At one moment the iron trade was as brisk as ever, but since it has a little gone off; no distress, however." Afterwards, having noticed the recent decease of George Rose, and the appointment of Mr. F. Robinson (afterwards Earl of Ripon) "a most amiable, gentlemanlike man

as his successor in the office of Treasurer of the Navy, he adds: “But this is one of those rare periods of tranquillity and prosperity, when the efficient members of the government may indulge themselves in appointing whom they please to what they please. Time was when the odds were ten to one against them; luckily for the country, as well as for themselves, they have won the game, and they are now enjoying themselves in spending the stakes." And this was probably the general opinion. Mr. Wyndham Quin, the seconder of the address in the Commons, gave in his speech a picture of the national prosperity, which was almost without a shade. "The country," he said, "feels an increased circulation in every artery, in every channel of its commerce. Last year the fires were extinguished in most of the iron-works; now they are in full activity, and the price of iron has risen from eight or nine to about fourteen pounds a ton. The demand for linen, the staple of the north of Ireland, is unprecedented both as to quantity and price. The funds are now 80, last year about 63. Money is most abundant, and, when lent at mortgage on good security, lowering in rate of interest, and to be had at 4 per cent.; at the same time that sales of land are effected at better prices than last year." Gold, too, the orator declared, had reappeared; though, he added, the little request in which it was held seemed to evince that a belief in the stability of our financial system was universal. Wages had advanced; employment was plentiful; imports and exports had increased; the revenue had improved; and confidence, finally, had returned among all classes and descriptions of men.

The painter may have been rather profuse of his sunshine; but, with due allowance for the occasion, this was not perhaps a very extravagant representation of the outside aspect of things. Now let us look a little deeper, and endeavor to ascertain what was the real state of the case.

First, in regard to the economical condition of the country. A great fall had taken place in the price of grain. The Gazette average for wheat, at the end of June, 1817, had been 111s. 6d. ; by the end of September the price in Mark Lane had declined to 74s. 4d. Importation ceased in November. But prices very