V.

1816.

Universal distress.

re-let; the incoming tenants mistaking the rise of prices, which was due to the first threatenings of dearth, for the rise of prices which had been created by the excessive demands of the war. Their hopes were speedily dashed. The rain it raineth every day' was the universal refrain in the summer of 1816. As for spring,' wrote Scott to Morritt, that is past praying for. In the month of November last people were skating in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh; and now, in the middle of May, the snow is lying white on Arthur's Seat and on the range of the Pentlands. It is really fearful, and the sheep are perishing by scores. Jam satis terræ nivis, &c., may still be taken up as the song of eighteen hundred and sixteen.' Rain and cold were not confined to this country. News arrived from every part of Europe excepting Russia of disastrous inundations; and the weather was, at least, as severe in this country as in any part of the Continent. Some idea of its exceptional nature may be inferred from the fact that a severe frost in September killed all the vegetables in the neighbourhood of Ely. The harvest everywhere failed. No single industry, except that of the fisherman, prospered; the price of wheat rapidly rose, till in December it averaged nearly double the sum at which it had been quoted in January. Even the turf in Ireland was spoiled by the heavy rains; and the Irish experienced not merely a want of food, but a want of fuel. Never during the whole of the war had Britain experienced such suffering as she felt, after the first conclusion of peace, from the combined influences of bad weather, superabundant labour, and dear bread.

The distress, in the higher classes of society, necessitated the most careful economies. Luxuries were disused; and works of art, which a few months before had been regarded as priceless treasures, were disposed of for less

1 Lockhart's Scott, p. 331.

* Ann. Reg., 1816, Chron., pp. 83, 94, 101, 102, 106, 114, 136.

6

V.

than a tenth of their value. Two Claudes, which had been СНАР. bought three years previously for a thousand guineas each, were sold by auction in April 1816 for seventy and eighty 1816. guineas respectively. It would, however, have been happy for the country if such effects as these had been the only results of the bad weather. Far more serious was the want among the poor. In Radnorshire and Herefordshire,' wrote Romilly, the prospect is extremely alarming. There must be a very great scarcity of wheat and barley. The potatoes, too, which form so large a part of the food of the poor, have greatly failed; and, to add to their distress, the long continuance of rain has prevented them from getting peat from the moors, and laying in their usual stock of winter fuel.' The distress in Yorkshire,' wrote Lord Darlington to Lord Sidmouth, 'was unprecedented; there was a total stagnation of the little trade they had; wheat was already more than a guinea a bushel, and no old corn in store; the potato crop had failed; the harvest (October 8) was only beginning, the corn in many parts being still green; and he feared a total defalcation of all grain that season from the deluge of rain, which had fallen for many weeks, and was still falling.' But the distress, which Romilly witnessed in a tour in Wales, and which Lord Darlington saw around him in his own neighbourhood, was universal. 'Our wheat is good for nothing,' wrote Lord Eldon from Dorsetshire; as a farmer I am ruined here and in Durham. So much for peace and plenty.' Distress rapidly led to disturbances. Riots were reported from every part of Riots. England. At Bideford the mob interfered to prevent the export of a cargo of potatoes; at Bridport the mob paraded the streets, broke into the bakers' shops, and proceeded to other acts of violence. Fires, kindled by incen

1 Ann. Reg., 1816, Chron., pp. 54. Liverpool, vol. ii. p. 280.

2 Romilly, vol. ii. p. 264. Sid

mouth, vol. iii. p. 150.
3 Ibid., p. 151.

V.

1816.

CHAP. diaries, broke out night after night in the Eastern counties. The pitmen of Newcastle declined to continue working at their existing wages; and a reduction in the rate of wages led to serious breaches of the peace in Lancashire. I look to the winter with fear and trembling,' wrote the Chancellor. Stout-hearted as Lord Eldon was, he had good cause for his apprehensions.1

The condition of the agricultural counties was, for the
moment, the most serious. It was incidentally stated in
the House of Commons that, in one parish of Dorsetshire,
419 out of 575 inhabitants were in the receipt of relief.
At Swanage six people out of every seven were paupers,
and the poor rate amounted to 1. 18. in the pound."
Every individual but one in a parish in Cambridgeshire
was either a bankrupt or a pauper. Strong able-bodied
men in Essex were often only able to earn 'but 6d. a day,'
and wheat was at from 4l. to 5l. a quarter. Riots, under
such circumstances, were almost inevitable; and, though
the conduct of the people was inexcusable and unwise,
the frenzy of despair may explain the outrages into which
they were driven. The mob concluded that the price of
bread was the result of a conspiracy among the farmers.
They revenged themselves on their supposed enemies by
burning agricultural produce. In the second week of May
a cattle shed at Hadleigh was set on fire; on the same
night a barn at Woodbridge was destroyed. The ex-
ample, which was thus set, was soon imitated in other
parts of the Eastern counties. Farm buildings, barns,
stacks, machinery, business premises, were set on fire;
and all agricultural property seemed insecure, and liable
to destruction by incendiaries. The newspapers during
the month of May recorded fires of this character at
Bungay, at Haverhill, at Wickham Brook, at Clare, at
Henham, and at many other places in Suffolk; and great

› Ann. Reg., 1816, Chron., pp. 60, 6846, 127. Sidmouth, vol. iii. p. 151.
Hansard, vol. xxxi i. p. 1082, and vol. xxxv. p. 907.

E

alarm was naturally created at their frequent recurrence. These outrages were, however, only indications of the disturbances which were to follow. In the middle of May a mob of 1,500 men assembled at Brandon, insisted that wheat should be sold for 2s. 6d. a bushel, and that the price of beef should be fixed at fourpence a pound. Annoyed at a refusal, they levelled a butcher's shop to the ground, and attacked the houses of other obnoxious tradesmen. Similar riotous proceedings occurred at Norwich, at Bury, at Cambridge, at Ely, at Littleport, and at other places in the Eastern counties. Nothing but the interposition of the military ended the tumult. The troops had to proceed to the extreme measure of firing upon the rioters before the disturbances were quelled.1

The ministry thought it necessary to mark their sense
of the importance of the riots by resorting to extraor-
dinary precautions. A special commission was sent down
to Ely for the trial of the rioters of Littleport and Ely.
Seventy-three of these unhappy individuals had been
arrested by the exertions of the troops. There was no
doubt whatever that the disturbances which they had
occasioned had been of a very alarming character. The
house of a Mr. Vachel, a clergyman and magistrate, had
been broken into and demolished; large sums of money
had been extorted from the inhabitants of Ely; one of
the soldiers sent to restore order had been severely
wounded; and for forty-eight hours the entire district
had been at the mercy of the mob. A severe example
was undoubtedly necessary; and men were in office who
were not likely to shrink from severe punishments. Thirty-
four of the prisoners were condemned to death; five
were actually executed. The disturbances were quelled
by these rigid measures.
The district sank into a torpor
of despair.2

1 Ann. Reg., 1816, Chron., pp. 61, 65, 67, 71, 73.
2 Ibid., pp. 79, 90.

СНАР.

V.

1816.

Trial of the

rioters.

СНАР.

V.

The distress of the agriculturists attracted the chief attention in the early part of 1816; yet other workmen suffered equal privations. The price of iron had fallen Distress in from 20l. to 81. a ton; and the most serious distress re

1816.

the coal

and iron

trades.

sulted in consequence, both in the iron trade itself and in the coal trade, which is dependent on the demand for iron. It was stated, at the end of August, that out of thirty-four furnaces in Shropshire, each employing on an average 300 men, twenty-four were out of blast. Orders had been given for the discontinuance of work at two out of the remaining ten. The works which were thus extinguished had ordinarily consumed 8,000 tons of coal a week; so that their stoppage involved not merely the forced idleness of 7,200 puddlers, but the non-employment of a corresponding number of colliers. The distress in the neighbouring county of Stafford was even more pitiful.

The manufacturing poor were reduced literally to starvation. Men were compelled to eat the cabbage-stalks in their cottage gardens to save themselves from starving; and the parochial authorities, over-burdened with the sudden load thrown upon them, were unable to provide either food or employment for the multitudes who required relief. 27,500 persons out of a population of 84,000 were in receipt of relief in Birmingham.1 In the middle of July the colliers devised a curious method for obtaining assistance. They harnessed themselves to loaded wagons of coal, and drew them through the country. The men of Bilston marched with three wagons by different roads on London. Wolverhampton sent a wagon through Chester to Liverpool, and other parties started with similar loads in other directions. The men do not seem to have been disorderly; they everywhere displayed the strongest anxiety to keep within the law; and the steadiness of their conduct increased the

1 Brougham, in the House of Commons, 13th March, 1817. Hansard, vol. xxxv. p. 1008. Ann. Reg., 1816, Chron., p. 131.