iMMMMMBIMiMiWMlW sssfcmss" wKln m i 'M iii ufX^ t .' i ^ tW .'W '-*>wrtM.VI»" ■5-**>1rf« !t*y^esp5r'»™Rr'Hc •«" ■'■*■■ ,_,n'iM>m'y*f'r'i't'ms)'*WimM'>'fr*\>'''^'-*'--''^'f'^'''^^ rtfffrH ^jj^^j.j_.i^^p.^.p.^^^. i y..p,-.,,,„^, i ii^,nTr i i Mi nni l io ii i i i i ii i Tliir i iTTii i iiiil'V i 'Y"""""'''''' infihuimrrr "-— "• im CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 091 761 258 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924091761258 NEW EDITION, CONTINUED TO i8go. GLADSTO N E AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. SIXTY YEARS OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PROGRESS, FROM 1830 TO 1890. BY THOMAS ARCHER, f.r.Hist.Soc, AUTHOR OF '^THE WAR IN EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN;" "PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS;" "OUR SOVEREIGN LADY QUEEN VICTORIA;" ETC. WITH NUMEROUS AUTHENTIC PORTRAITS. Recent national and political events intimately associated with the condition of Ireland, the change in the relative position of parties in the House of Commons, and the questions involved in an intelligible interpretation of what is to be understood as " Home Rule," challenge the attention of every thoughtful reader who desires to become acquainted with the history of the time in which we live. But that we may comprehend the bearing of such social and political changes, it is necessary that we should be familiar with the interesting story of the national life during the past sixty years. That story is clearly and pleasantly told in the present work, the early issues of which were received with such general approbation both by the public and by the reviewers, that it seemed desirable to continue the narrative to the present time, and, by extending the last volume, to complete the six decades of what may be called the later history of the country. For that reason, though it was deemed not only admissible but appropriate to associate with it the name of William Ewart Gladstone, a statesman who has filled a larger space in that history than has been occupied by any other now living, the present work is not a mere biography of a great political leader. It deals with the political and social achievements and characteristics of his con- temporaries in various relations, as well as with those by which he is distinguished. It is the story of social and political progress from the year before the passing of the first Reform Bill to the present time, and a wonderful story it is, for it includes among its chief events the early triumphs of Parliamentary Reform, the Abolition of Slavery in the West Indies, the Repeal of the Corn Laws, the amelioration of the Criminal Code, the Chartist Agitation, the terrible Famine in Ireland, the great tide of Emigration, the Discovery of the Gold-fields, the Crimean War, the removal of Religious Disabilities, the Indian Mutiny, the Great International Exhibitions, the Extension of the Franchise, the establish- ment of Vote by Ballot, passing of the Irish Land Act, the Development of Steam Transit and of the Postal and Telegraph systems, and later still the Inter- vention in Egypt, the War in the Soudan, the New Franchise and Redistribution Bills, the controversy on '' Home Rule " in Ireland, the Local Government Acts in England and Scotland, the changes in Parliament, in political parties, and in the aspects and developments of social life. These subjects yield scenes and episodes of fascinating interest, an extensive gallery of attractive pictures, a chronicle full of absorbing topics and recollections. In the pages of this history there may be said to appear a succession of the most illustrious, famous, or notorious persons in the present century. They are presented to the reader " in their habit as they lived." Even those names which bear immediately on the main current of events form a grand muster-roll of statesmen, legislators, judges, soldiers, orators, philosophers, philanthropists, and men of society, literature, and science, prominent among them appearing Gladstone, Disraeli, Earl Grey, Wellington, Lansdowne, Brougham, Melbourne, O'Connell, Russell, Aberdeen, Derby, Ashley, Cobden, Bright, Palmerston, Peel, Fowell Buxton, Sydney Herbert, Forster, Spencer, Harcourt, Morley, Denman, Lyndhurst, the Napiers, Raglan, Clyde, Havelock, Lawrence, Wolseley, Gordon, Rosebery, Graham, Stuart, Macaulay, John Stuart Mill, Wheatstone, Faraday, Newman, Chalmers, Maurice, Rowland Hill, and a host of others. The value of this publication as a record of the modern history of our country has already been amply attested by the number of those who have subscribed to the former edition, and by the commendations of the public press. The present edition will be found even more useful than its predecessor, as the narrative now includes those recent manifestations of great social and political movements which are unquestionably fraught with such wide possibilities for the future of Great Britain and Ireland. The writer has been careful to display no party bias; and his work has been pronounced to be true, earnest, and sympathetic in tone — a book appealing to citizens in all ranks and of all classes. The Work will be completed in four volumes, super-royal 8vo, price $3.0D each, illustrated by a series of thirty-six authentic portraits of the leading men of the last sixty years. The volumes will be bound in cloth, in a substantial and elegant style, with burnished olivine edges, fitting them either for continuous present use or a place on the library shelf BLACKIE & SON, Limited, LONDON, GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK. WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE FROM A PHOIOGBiPH B7 ELLrOTT * FRY blA':k.il k son, lowdoh glas'^uw, edinbiir';h s. Dublin. GLAD STONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES: SIXTY YEARS OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PROGRESS. BY THOMAS ARCHER, F.R.H.S., AUTHOR OF "THE WAK IN EGYPT AND THE SODDAN;" "PICTURES AND KOTAL PORTEAITS ; "OUR SOVEREiaN LADY QUEEN VICTORIA;" &c. FROM 1830 TO THE END OF THE PARLIAMENTARY SESSION OF 1889, AND TO THE YEAR 1890. Vol. I. 1830 TO 184.5- BLACKIE & SON, Limited, LONDON, GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK. PEEFACE. In the present work it has been the intention of the writer to recount earnestly, oruthfully, and without political bias, the wonderful story of the last sixty years ; to present a graphic view of a period which, perhaps, beyond any other in the history of the country, has been marked by great events, intense inquiry, and striking incidents; to comprise in the narrative such characteristic sketches of those who have been conspicuous in the arena of public life, as will vividly indicate those personal associations which are inseparable from great social or political advances. Though Mr. Gladstone's name forms the main title of the book, readers need hardly be reminded that the story of our time is too full and varied to be bounded by even the most illustrious life, or to be told in a single biography. The design, accordingly, has been to depict with some colour and effect all the chief men who have aided in the making of history during six decades, — history, that is to say, not only in a political or legislative meaning, but in the wider sense, which includes the striking events, occurrences, errors, achievements, struggles, failures, and successes that have been the stories of our national lives from year to year. It was not contemplated to make this book adhere slavishly to strict chrono- logical sequence. A reference calendar is not history, nor can the great drama of a country be even so much as indicated in a narrative broken by undue sub- servience to the succession of dates. The major and minor events, the serious, romantic, and humorous episodes, overlap and bear constant reference to each other, independently of the particular time at which they occur. In other words, the narrative of "Sixty Years of Social and Political Progress," consists of a number of concurrent stories in which the plots sometimes intermingle; the situations have certain points of contact, the characters meet and separate, without special regard to dates, except when here and there a turning-point or a crisis may arrest attention. It will be found, however, that due regard has been shown for chronological order, and that dates have been recorded in such a manner, that while the reader will not be harassed by a continual sense of broken sequences, the student will not be at a disadvantage for want of suflBcient information. IV PKEFACE. It is sincerely hoped that to young men and women seeking to learn what has been the history of the last sixty years, the book will be found none the less useful because some endeavour has been made to give life and colour to the scenes and people described. It is believed that the record is accurate, that the characters of the personages have not been misrepresented, that the reflections and observations are the results of impartial and often indeed of anxious thought. If there is one lesson more than another to be learnt from these pages it is, that an intelligent understanding of the events, the legislative achievements, and the moral, intellectual, and commercial developments which together are the measure of the social and political progress of the country, — is no longer confined to the higher or to any class of the community. Men and women of every station, though they may neither desire nor attain the reputation of "politicians,"' are taking a deep and earnest interest in the course of public events, in the method and meaning of the proceedings in parliament, and the principles on which the government of the country is conducted. That this interest is increasing with the spread of education is one of the most hopeful signs of our time, and any one who may be able to help in soberly and righteously assisting it has reason to rejoice. In this new edition the narrative has been continued up to, and includes, the early parliamentary session of 1890. THOMAS ARCHER. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. Portrait — William Ewaet Gladstone — From a photograph by Elliott & Fry .frontupiece. „ The Duke of Wellington — From the daguerreotype by Claudet, to face 66 „ Eabl Geet — From the portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.E. A., „ 80 „ LoBD Mblbouene — From the portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.E.A., „ 98 „ Daniel O'CoNNELL — ^From the miniature by T. Carriok, 136 „ Sib KoBEKT Peel — From the portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.E. A , li4 „ Queen Viotobia — From the portrait by Winterhalter, 210 „ Benjamin DiSEAELi, Eabl OP Beaoonsfield — From a photograph, „ 320 CHAPTER 1. Condition of the Coontet, 1821-1830. PAGE Parliamentary Reform advocated by Chatham and Pitt, 1 Reform Petitions — The " Friends of the People," 1 " Protection " of British Agriculture, . . 2 Popular Excitement — Project of the "Blank- eteers,'' 2 Sir Francis Burdett's Motion for Reform, . 2 Orator Hunt — The Peterloo Massacre, . . 3 The infamous "Six Acts" passed, ... 6 Accession of George IV. — His Character — Queen Caroline, 6 George Canning — His early Career, . . 7 The Gladstone Family — Mr. John Gladstone of Liverpool, 8 William Ewart Gladstone at Eton, . .10 State of the School — ^Fagging and Flogging, . 11 Gladstone's School Companions — His Tributes to Selwyn and Canning — The Eton Maga- zines, ....... 13 Lord John Russell — His early Life — His Mo- tion on Reform 17 Amelioration of the Penal Code — Sir Samuel RomiUy and Sir James Mackintosh, . 17 Readjustment of the National Currency, . 17 State of Ireland — Coercion Acts passed by Lord Castlereagh — Lord WeUesley ap- pointed Lord-lieutenant, . . . .18 Mr. Peel made Home Secretary — His early History, 18 Mr. Canning opposes Reform but supports Catholic Emancipation — Becomes Foreign Secretary, 19 Suicide of Lord Castlereagh, . . . .19 Congress of Great Powers at Verona — The "Holy Alliance" — Canning's Speeches on Non-intervention, 20 Our Eastern Wars, 22 Proposed Abolition of Negro Slavery — With- drawal of Commercial Bounties — Mr. Hus- kisson proposes Reduction of certain Duties, 22 The Corn-law Agitation — Ebenezer EUiott — Specimens of his "Rhymes,"' . . 23 Mr. Robert Owen — The New Lanark MUls— His Community of "New Harmony," . 24 Demands of the Roman Catholics — The "Catholic Association" in Ireland, . . 25 Daniel O'Connell, 26 Mr. Canning becomes Premier — His Death in 1827 27 Benjamin Disraeli — His first Appearance, . 29 The Duke of Wellington Prime Minister, . 30 Daniel O'Connell on British Connection with Ireland, 31 CathoUo Emancipation Bill introduced and finally carried, 33 Wellington's Appeal to the Lords in favour of Emancipation, . . . . .35 First Roman Catholic Members returned to Parliament, 36 Distress among the Labouring Classes, . . 37 Death of George IV. and Accession of William rV. — Queen Caroline, . . . .38 Press Prosecutions — Mr. Brougham's Defence of Ambrose Williams — The Duke of Wel- lington and Sir James Scarlett, . . 40 John WUson Croker— Disraeli's "Study " of him, ....... 41 Mr. Gladstone enters Christohurch, Oxford — His College Life — Becomes prominent in the "Union" Debating Society — High Church Toryism at Oxford, . . .42 CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. FAQB Revival in the Church of England, . . 45 Bishop Blomfield and John Kehle, . . 47 Foundation of the London University and of the Society for the Diffusion of Use- ful Knowledge by Thomas Campbell, Brougham, and others, . . . .49 Foundation of Mechanics' Institutes — Dr. Birkbeck 50 William Godwin, author of Political Justice, 61 Rev. Thomas Robert Malthua, . . .52 Jeremy Bentham — James Mill, . . .62 Establishment of Metropolitan Police Force, 53 General Use of Gas — Discovery of the Lime- light — Beginning of the Railway System, 61 Dr. Thomas Young and Sir Humphry Davy, 54 Progress of Social Improvement, . . .55 CHAPTER IL The Bboinning of a New Era. Character of the "Sailor King" and of Queen Adelaide, 57 Affairs in France in 1830 — Prince Polignao — Insurrection in Paris — Charles X. exiled — Louis Philippe becomesKingof theFrench, 58 Coronation of William IV. — The New Par- liament — Return of Mr. Brougham for Yorkshire — His Character and Career, . 60 The Duke of Wellington on Reform — Unpopu- larity of his Administration — Its Fall, . 65 Sketch of the "Iron Duke" and of Sir Robert Peel, 66 Earl Grey's Ministry — Brougham made Lord- chanoeUor — A Reform Measure prepared by the Cabinet, 69 Distress prevalent in the Country — "Captain Swing,'' 70 Lord John Russell introduces the Reform Bill — Its Provisions — Scotland and Ireland included — Opposition to the Bill and Dis- solution of Parliament, . . . .71 Sketch of Lord John RusseU, . . .79 Earl Grey — Lord AJthorp — Harriet Mar- tineau — Joseph Hume 80 The New Parliament — Lord John Russell again introduces the Reform Bill — It is thrown out by the House of Lords — Riots in London, Nottingham, and Bristol, . 83 The Reform Bill re-introduced into the House of Lords and finally passed, . . .89 Affairs on the Continent — France and Louis Philippe — Belgium — Greece — Germany — Poland overcome by Russia — Revolution- ary Outbreaks in Switzerland and Italy — Egypt and Turkey — Portugal and Spain, . 90 Characteristics of the Men of Reform Period, 94 Rev. Sydney Smith 95 Lord Cochrane (Earl of Dundonald), . • 98 Sir Francis Burdett— Caricatures of the Time, 97 White Conduit House 98 Sketch of Lord Melbourne, . . • -99 Prosecution of William Cobbett— Outline of his History — His Writings, . . .99 Thomas Babington Maoaulay, . ■ . 104 Sir Walter Scott 106 Noticeable Radicals in Parliament of 1832: Sir William Molesworth, George Grote, and John Arthur Roebuck, . . . 107 The Westminster Eemew — Its Contributors — Its Services to extreme Liberalism, . . 108 The Cholera Visitation of 1832, . . .109 Beginning of the Traotarian Movement — Dr. J. H. Newman 110 First Church Disestablishment Meeting held. 111 Progress of Cheap Literature — The Penny Magazine, Chambers' JEdinhurgh Journal, 112 Sketch of Lord Lyndhurst, .... 112 Mr. Gladstone contests Newark and is retumeS to the first Reformed Parliament — His Address to the Electors 114 CHAPTER IIL The Men and Mbasueeb off Refobm. Hard Work in the New Parliament — Sir Ed- ward Baines' Diary — The Duke of Wel- lington's Tactics 118 Disturbances and Crime in Ireland — A Coer- cion Bill passed 120 Irish Church Debates — Mr. Ward's Motion, . 122 Dismissal of the Whig Ministry, . . . 124 Brougham's Quarrel with Lord Durham, . 125 William IV. and Lord Melbourne, . . 126 First Conservative Government formed — The Tam worth Manifesto — Sir Robert Peel's Difficulties in the House, . . . .129 The Marquis of Londonderry, . . . 133 Report of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners — Irish Tithe Commutation Bill introduced — Lord John Russell's Motions — O'ConneU's Opposition to the Ministry — Haydon's Portrait of the Agitator — Speech of Sir James Graham — Mr. Gladstone's share in the Debate — Defeat and Resignation of the Ministry, 134 The Melbourne Administration — Lord Glenelg, 145 Negro Emancipation — Evidence taken before Parliamentary Committee — Mr. Glad - stone's Maiden Speech in the House — Ho defends the Management of his Father's Estates in Demerara — The Apprenticeship Clauses — Miss Martineau'a Story Deme- mm — The Abolition Act passed, . .140 CONTENTS OF VOLUME 1. PAOE Thomas Carlyle on the "Nigger Question," . 154 Sketch of William Wilberiorce, . . .165 Debates on the Slave Trade — Mr. Gladstone defends the Planters — Negro Apprentice- ship abolished 156 The Houses of Parliament burned, . .159 New Poor-law BiU — Mr. Chadwiok's Scheme, 160 Revival of Trades-unions— The "Dorchester Labourers," 161 Popular Dislike of the New Poor-law, . . 163 Report on Municipal Corporations — Lord John Russell introduces Bill for their Re- form — Amendments proposed in the Com- mons — Opposition and Alterations in the Lords — The Bill finally passed — Mr. Roe- buck's Denunciation of the Lords, . . 164 The Corporation of Loudon, .... 176 The Anatomy Act of 1832 176 iFurther Amelioration of Criminal Code, . 177 Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, 177 Proposed Legislation on Church Lands, . 180 Death of WiUiam IV., 181 The Princess Victoria — Her Upbringing, . 181 The Duke of Cumberland — Alleged "Orange" Plot 182 Death of Hannah More — Her Character, . 183 Lord Herbert of Lea, ..... 184 Appearance of Halley's Comet in 1835, . 185 Writers of the Period: George Crabbe — Coleridge — Dr. Southwood Smith — Mrs. Hemans — L. E. Landon, &c., . . . 186 Newspaper Stamp and Paper Duties reduced, 188 Lord Palmerston — His early Career, . . 189 Continental Affairs — The Spanish Legion — Belgium becomes an Independent King- dom — Poland and France — Disturbances in Paris — French Revolutionary Societies — Revolt in Lyons — Attempted Assassina- tion of Louis Philippe by Fiesohi, . . 190 Charles Louis Napoleon — His early History — His Proceedings at Strasburg— la exiled, 195 Prejudice against Reform, . . . .198 Changes in Political Opinions: Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Gladstone, . . . .200 Mr. Gladstone's Essay on Church and State, 202 CHAPTER IV. The Eablt Part of que Queen's Reign. The Princess Victoria — Is informed of her Accession to the Throne — Her Admirable Conduct — She is proclaimed Queen — Inci- dents of her Domestic Life, . . . 208 Feebleness of the Melbourne Ministry — De- mands of the Scottish Church — Supposed Whig Influence over the Queen, . . 212 Louise Lehzen and Baron Stockmar, . ._215 A New General Election — Addresses of Sir Robert Peel and Lord John Russell, . 218 The New Parliament opened by the Queen — Debate on the Address — Lord Brougham's Opposition to Lord Melbourne, . . 220 Revolt in Canada — American Sympathizers — Proceedings of Major Head — Measures of the Home Government, .... 221 Sketch of Lord Durham — He is appointed Governor-general of Canada — The Quebec Ordinances — Brougham's Indemnity Bill — His Denunciations of Lord Durham — John Stuart Mill on Lord Durham's Policy and Subsequent Treatment, . . 225 Coronation of Her Majesty, .... 230 The Melbourne Ministry resign — The Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel sum- moned — Sir Robert and the Ladies of the Bed-chamber — Case of Lady Flora Hast- ings — Lord Melbourne resumes Office, . 231 Social Improvements of the Period — Railways, 233 Question of Cheaper Postage — The Old Postal System and Mail Coaches — Early Life of Rowland Hill— His Pamphlet proposing Penny Postage — ^The New Plan adopted — Its Modem Development — The Money- order and Telegraph Systems, . . . 234 Sketch of Lord Eldon, 242 The Queen's First Visit to the City, . . 246 Burning of the Royal Exchange, . . . 246 Farmer Thom, "Sir WiUiam Courtenay, Knight of Malta '' — He incites the Peasantry to Riot, 247 Sketch of Thomas Slingsby Duncombe, . 248 Robert Owen presented to the Queen, . . 250 Mr. Disraeli on the "Conservative Cause," . 250 Carlyle's Work on Chartism, . . .251 The Rev. J. R. Stephens, . . . .253 Father Mathew — "Temperance Crusade," . 255 The Chartist Agitation — The Six Points of the People's Charter — Feargus O'Connor — The " National Convention " and the "National Petition" — Mr. Attwood's Mo- tion in the House — Trial of Frost, Wil- liams, and Jones 258 Disraeli founds the "Young England" Party — His charming Description of a Strike, . 263 Early Factory Legislation, . . . 265 Grants for National Education — Those to Roman Catholic Schools opposed — Mr. Shell's Speech, 267 Amendment of the Criminal Law, . . 268 Mr. Stockdale and the Parliamentary Printers, 269 Evils of the Transportation System, . . 270 Ocean Steam Navigation — Invention of Na- smyth's Steam-hammer — The Daguerreo- type — The Railway System, . . . 271 CONTENTS OP VOLUME I. PAOB Attempts on the Queen's Life, . . . 272 Lady Hester Stanhope, 273 Lord Brougham on our Marriage Laws, . 273 Origin of the Anti-Oom-law League — Its first Meetings — Interference of the Char- tists — Stoppage of Work in Mills — Another "National Petition," . . . 274 Church and Dissent — Lady Hewley's Charity — Mr. Grladstone's Speech on Chapel Bill, 28is The Traotarian Movement, .... 28i Death of Thomas Campbell, .... 286 Rise of the Bast India Company — Troubles in Afghanistan — Mr. Macaulay's Speech, 286 British Relations with China — The "Opium War," 289 Mehemet Ali, Viceroy of Egypt — Sir John Bowring's Reception by him, . . . 290 Prince Albert first visits England — King Leopold and Baron Stockmar's Views about his Marriage with Queen Victoria — Their Cautious Procedure — Albert's Edu- cation and early Training — ARoyal "Love- making," 292 Arrangements for the Queen's Marriage — O'Connell's exuberant Loyalty — Discus- sions on Albert's Religion — His Annuity — Question of his Precedence — The Royal Marriage, ; . .298 Character of the Prince Consort, . . . 304 Conservative Attacks on the Melbourne Min- istry — Disturbed Condition of Society — Murder of Lord Norbury and of Lord William Russell — Mr. Charles Phillips' Defence of Courvoisier, .... 305 The Budget of 1841— The Com and Sugar Duties — ^William Greg's Pamphlet — Sir Robert Peel's Speech — The Ministry de- feated — Parliament is dissolved, . . 308 rAon Policy of the "Philosophical Radicals," • 811 The New Parliament of 1841— The Melbourne Ministry turned out — Sir Robert Peel's Declaration, 812 Melbourne's Parting with the Queen — His Private Character — Lady Melbourne and Lord Byron — Melbourne's later Days, . 814 The Peel Ministry formed— Mr. Gladstone Vice-president of the Board of Trade and Master of the Mint — His share in the Debates — Is nominated for Manchester — His Marriage, ... . . 318 Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield — Fa- mily History — His Pather Isaac Disraeli — Benjamin's School-days and early Training — His Appearance in Society — Travels in the East — Vivian Qrey and the Ikvolutionwry Epich — His Political Ambi- tion — Unsuccessfully contests High Wy- combe and Taunton — His Quarrel with O'Connell — Melbourne's Advice to Disraeli — He is returned for Maidstone — His first Speech in the House — Becomes Member for Shrewesbury — His growing Reputation, 820 Fire in the Tower, London, .... 880 Birth of Prince of Wales 380 Opening of Parliament in 1842 — The Queen's Speech — Poverty and Distress prevalent — The Income-tax imposed — Condition of the Labouring Classes — Sir James Graham's Factory Bill 880 Sketch 6f Lord George Bentinck, . . . 332 The Duke of Newcastle and Lord Carlisle, . 338 General Progress of the Country — Railways — The Railway Mania of 1845 — Influence of the Prince Consort on Art-culture, . . 384 Joseph Mazzini and the Brothers Bandiera — Opening of Letters in Post-office, . . 385 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. CHAPTER I. CONDITION OF THE COUNTEY, 1821-1830. A retrospective glance — Condition of the Country in 1821 — Demands for Parliamentary Reform — Treasury nominations — GoTemment majorities — Effects of the French ReTolution — Consequences of the War — The Corn-laws — Distress of the People — The Manchester " Blanketeers " — Sir Francis Bui-dett — Popular excitement — Women's clubs — Meetings of Reformers — Orator Hunt — The Peterloo Massacre — Imprisonment of Hunt — The " Six Acts " — Paisley, Huddersfield, and Glasgow — Armed assembhes — Death of Greorge III. — Embarrassments of George IV. — ^Trial and divorce of Queen Caroline — George Canning — His pohtical views — Member for Liverpool — Resignation of Office — Mr. John Gladstone — Canning's visit — The ancestral Gladstones — William Ewart Gladstone at Eton — ^The school life of that day — Literary proclivities — Public speaking — Oxford course of study — College contemporaries — In- fluence of Canning on Mr. Gladstone — Early views — Cathohc Emancipation — Wellington — Peel — O'Connell — Preparations for Reform. It would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to estimate the progress of the last half century, without giving some atten- tion to the political events which characterized the previous ten years, and the condition of the country before the passing of the Reform BiU. In the latter part of the year 1821 many significant changes were being made in the political and social life of this country, — changes which to sagacious observers be- tokened the approach of that new era on which ten years afterwards the nation entered with a swift unmeasured stride. Fifty years earlier the great Earl of Chatham had advocated a scheme of parliamentary re- form which he did not live to bring before the government, and the attempt had been re- newed by his illustrious son William Pitt in 1782, and again in 1785, but without success. The French revolution alike animated the advocates and stimulated the opponents of popular representation. It had the effect of changing Pitt himself not only into an enemy to the opinions which he had formerly advocated, but into a persecutor of those who, VOL. I. by expressing those opinions in language scarcely more violent than that which he had himself used, brought themselves within the prosecution of the law. On the other hand, petitions signed by thousands of persons were presented to parliament from the large towns, from Sheffield, from Birmingham, and from Edinburgh — the latter containing so many names that it extended over the whole length of the floor of the house. Among these peti- tions the most important was one from " the friends of the people," presented by Mr. Grey, which was so ably and temperately drawn, that it may be said to have been the true pre- cursor of most of the representations in the cause of parliamentary reform which have since been recognized. In one portion of it the petitioners ofiered to prove that upwards of 97 members were actually nominated, and 70 more indirectly appointed by peers and the treasury, and that 91 commonei-s procured the election of 139, so that 306 members, or an absolute majority of the House of Com- mons, were returned by 160 persons. "I assert," said Mr. Grey, " that this is the con- dition of England: if you say it is not, do jus- 1 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. tice on yourselves by calling on us for the proof, and expose your calumniators to re- proach; but if it be the condition of England, chall it not be redressed 1" It was not re- dressed. The horrors of the French revolu- tion had so affected the minds of the legisla- ture, that though a long debate followed, and the petition was supported by Fox, Sheridan, Erskine, and Francis; the house, by an over- whelming majority, led by Pitt, refused the challenge to examine the truth of Mr. Grey's assertions and deferred reform for thirty-nine years. For the war with France followed, and the distress and want which accompanied that long struggle was but little diminished when at last peace was proclaimed. The country seemed for the moment exhausted, the landed interests alone having profited — because of the high prices of agricultural produce and the consequent increase of rentals. The " protec- tion'' of British agriculture — which we can now see was the compensation of these interests against the fall of the former war prices — was effected by an import duty placed upon foreign corn, and as we have long ago discovered was the protection of a comparatively diminishing, — at the expense of an increasing — portion of the community. The measure which marked the close of the war revived the cry for reformed representation in parliament. The corn-laws could never be repealed while those who were supposed to profit by them could secure a large government majority. In 1817 the colliers of Bilston conceived the idea of walking up to London in a body, and appealing to the Prince Regent to aid them in their distress. The Manchester operatives were fired with the simplicity of this notion, and a large number of them determined to make the journey to the metropolis on foot to beg the government to consider their needs, and to give them the political reform which alone was wanting to restore them to a better condition. The plan was that of honest, simple men, and so little did they regard their own probable vicissi- tudes on the journey that it was a part of their plan for each man to carry with him a share of such food as might be required, and a hlanhet, that he might sleep in any shelter that could be found. This project of the "blanketeers,"as they were afterwards called, aroused alarm among the authorities, who were still liable to a panic at any movement which, however inconsistently, reminded them of the French revolution. The Habeas Corpus Act was already suspended, and the leaders of the Manchester workmen were arrested. The larger number of their followers abandoned the at- tempt, and the few who endeavoured to carry out their intention were stopped by troops stationed along the roads, and after being searched were either driven back or impri- soned. No weapons were found upon them; but it appears to have been necessary to say something to excuse these proceedings, and so it is recorded that among the number of men who had agreed to tramp to London to lay their grievances before parliament " two unusually long knives" had been discovered. But an event soon after happened, which still more forcibly affected the imagination of the people, and which also tended to add the dangerous element of popular resentment to the demands for political representation. In 1819 the question of Reform had been once more brought before parliament by Sir Francis Burdett, member for Westminster, the for- midable opponent of Sidmouth and Percival, the man who had been committed to the Tower for a breach of privilege and afterwards re- leased — the friend of Home Tooke — the out- spoken generous old English gentleman who was then in the van of the reform movement. He brought forward no specific measure, but asserting the principle of the old maxim of common law, that "the people of England have a property in their own goods which are not to be taken from them without their con- sent," applied it to the argument that every person paying taxes was entitled to a voice in the election of a representative in the House of Commons. He moved "that the house should take the subject of the representation into its consideration early in the next session.'' The motion was rejected by a very consider- able majority, and its proposer very shortly afterwards found himself sentenced to a fine of £1000 and three months' imprisonment in the King's Bench for addressing to his con- stituents a letter on the subject of what was POPULAR EXCITEMENT— ORATOR HUNT. popularly known as the "Peterloo Mas- sacre." For the growing excitement of the people, sustained by leaders who urged them to de- mand Parliamentary Reform and the repeal of the taxes on com, had now assumed pro- portions which were more alarming. Numer- ous societies were formed in various industrial centres, and especially in the manufacturing districts, and doubtless much inflammatory and even seditious language was used at some of the meetings. Women as well as men were formed into associations. The wives and daughters of workmen promoted "sister socie- ties" for co-operating with the men for secur- ing political reform, and instilling into the minds of the rising generation a "deep-rooted hatred of our tyrannical rulers." Assemblies of small, and sometimes of large bodies of people were regularly held by night as weU as by day — not very surprising, perhaps, when we consider that the working day then con- sisted of most of the daylight hours. An en- deavour was made to organize communications between the societies of various districts to enable them to unite in their common effort. It was averred that companies of workmen met, unarmed it is true — but still to practise marching and drill — and this was held to be evidence of preparing for an insurrection, dur- ing which they might possess themselves of weapons. In all these charges, however, it is to be noted that the authorities who professed to preserve order, were themselves the first to proceed to actual violence. Amidst wide- spread and increasing discontent nothing was conceded — no honest inquiry was made into the causes of disaffection — no attempt was made to adopt such measures as would alleviate the distress which lay at the bottom of dis- loyalty. With what seems almost like unrea- soning fear, repressive measures — and what was worse, weakly vindictive measures — were adopted. The government became the aggressor, and if some of the leaders of the people, and even a large number of the people themselves, had not been wiser, calmer, and even morally stronger than their rulers — that which was but a detached series of riots might have become a general insurrection. One of those leaders was Henry Hunt — - known then and ever since as "Orator Hunt" — an opulent Wiltshire farmer, and lord of the manor of Glastonbury, who had begun life as an ardent and loyal patriot. When it was thought that the country was in danger of invasion he offered his whole stock (worth £20,000), if needed, for the use of the govern- ment, and also engaged to enter, with three of his servants, all mounted and equipped, at his own cost, as volunteers, into any regiment of horse that might be chosen to make the first charge on the enemy. He afterwards joined the Marlborough troop of cavalry, but had a dispute with Lord Bruce, whom he challenged, and was in consequence indicted in the Court of King's Bench, fined .£100, and imprisoned for six weeks. This may have had some effect in determining him to become a "radical re- former," but, at any rate, he soon took the position of a trusted and unflinching champion of the popular cause, and as he was lord of the manor, and won the good opinion of his neighbours by his equitable judgments at the "court leet," as well as by his gift of speech, he was at the head of the reform movement in that district. The alarm of the government at the reports which were received of the organization of the reformers resulted in the issue of a circular letter by the secretary of the home department, instructing the lord- lieutenants of the "disturbed counties" to take immediate and effectual measures for preserv- ing the peace, to excite the magistrates to activity, and to give directions to the yeomanry to hold themselves in readiness in case of their services being required. These orders, while they increased the exasperation of the popu- lace, seem to have been regarded without much dismay, for in less than a week afterwards a great meeting was— held at Birmingham, at which about 15,000 persons were present. The object of the meeting was not riotous, though it was obviously illegal. The people assembled without turbulence, and dispersed without serious disorder, but the resolutions were in the nature of a defiant protest. It was agreed that the meeting should elect "two legislatorial attorneys and representatives of Birmingham," and the two gentlemen chosen 4 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. were Major Cartwright, a -well-known reformer, and Sir Charles Wolseley, neither of whom were present. Th e latter accepted the decision, and declared that he would claim a seat in the House of Commons, the result being that he was arrested at his own house and carried to Knutsford, to answer for something he had said at another meeting at Stockport. A pro- clamation was issued against " seditious and treasonable speeches, delivered at meetings held to petition for reform, where attempts had been made to bring into hatred and con- tempt the government and constitution, and particularly the Commons House of Parlia- ment," and it declared that "many wicked and seditious writings had been printed, published, and laboriously circulated." All persons in authority were urged to assist in repressing the disorders complained of, and in bringing the perpetrators to justice. Neither the pro- clamation nor the previous arrests were suf- ficient to deter the leaders of the reformers. in Manchester from summoning a, meeting to follow the example of Birmingham by choosing a representative; but Hunt interposed and succeeded in persuading them to abandon this design, as it had been declared to be a breach of the law. It was, however, decided that a meeting should be held for the strictly legal purpose of petitioning for a reform in Parlia- mentary representation, and on this condition Hunt consented to be present and to address the assembly. The objects and probable consequences of a meeting which it was known would num- ber many thousands of persons, were at once exaggerated, and were probably misrepresented to the government. The local authorities were in just such a panic as would be likely to lead them to wild and indiscriminate ag- gression, and this result was rendered more probable by the duty of repression being in- trusted to the yeomanry, of which the officers, and even the troopers, to a great extent, con- sisted of a number of hot-headed young men, the scions of those parvenu families which had a professedly aristocratic contempt for the mill hands and other operatives who formed the main body of the reformers' league. The meeting was fixed for the 16th of August, and it soon became evident that the' assembly would be an imposing demonstration, while an enormous number of persons were also drawn to the spot from motives of curi- osity. The various clubs and associations from surrounding towns and villages came in orderly array, many of them marching with bands of music and with banners, on which were in- scribed various mottoes such as "No Com Laws," "Annual Parliaments," "Universal Suffrage," "Vote by Ballot," &c., while one large standard bore the motto of William Wallace, "God armeth the patriot." Among the clubs were two composed of women, one of which num- bered 150 members, and many other women accompanied their friends to the spot chosen for the meeting — a large field near St. Peter's Church, and known as St. Peter's Field, or Peter Loo — on the site of which the Prefr Trade Hall now appropriately stands. The first body of reformers began to arrive a little beforenoon, and the multitude increased until, as it was computed, about 80,000 persons were present, a number certainly sufficient to have overborne any force likely to be brought against them had the designs of their meeting been such as were imputed to them. A body of special constables had taken up a position on the field before the arrival of Mr. Hunt,, who was to speak from a wagon converted into a platform. No resistance was offered by the crowd, which parted on both sides to make way for them. The orator made his appear- ance amidst enthusiastic applause. The con- stables so disposed themselves as to form a line of communication between the platform and the house where the magistrates were sit- ting. Mr. Hunt calmly commenced hisaddress, but had not proceeded far before a body of yeomanry cavalry advanced upon the multi- tude at a brisk trot, causing an outcry and panic among the people nearest to them.. After riding into the inclosure they drew up,, unmolested by the people, and formed their ranks, which had fallen into disorder by this display of their prowess. They then drew their swords, and brandished them in a threat- ening manner. This failed to terrify the mul- titude, who, responding to the call of their leaders, gave three cheers. While Mr. Hunt, THE 'PETEELOO MASSACRE.' sesuming his speech, assured his hearers that the conduct of the yeomanry was but a trick intended to disturb the meeting, the assailants dashed into the immense crowd (which made way on all sides, many persons being injured by the struggle and pressure), and rode up to the platform, whei-e the ofl&cer, still flourishing his sword, called on Hunt to surrender as his prisoner. After calling on the people to con- duct themselves peaceably, and to offer no xesistance. Hunt rephed that he was willing to submit to any civil officer who would pro- duce a warrant for his apprehension, upon which Xodin, the principal constable, came forward, showed the warrant, and quietly took him into custody, a few other persons against whom warrants were issued being also appre- hended. It was afterwards declared that the Eiot Act had been read before the onslaught of the ill-disciplined troop, and this may have been the case — ^but there was no riot, the reading took place where nobody could hear it, and the multitude were not called upon to disperse. That they would have dispersed quietly, even after the arrest of some of their leaders, there can be little doubt — but such a ter- mination of what had been represented as a dangerous duty was too inglorious for the armed and mounted heroes, who, raising the cry of ''Have at their flags '." spurred again into the thick of the crowd, cutting right and left with their swords, and trampling down men and women under their horses' hoofs. The people could not at first escape — ^the ma^ behind them was too dense. A number of men and women were sabred — several were killed, among them a woman and an of&cer of the peace, and when the dense assembly at last broke and fled the mounted lawbreakers pursued them. Not until this had there been resistance on the part of the vast crowd, and even then a few who remained on the field did no more than fling some stones and bricks after the aggressors, who sustained no serious injury, wMle between three and four hundred of the people present were more or less badly maimed or wounded. Meanwhile Hunt was conveyed to prison by his captors, who, as he CTave no outcry and his supporters showed no disposition to rescue him, made a turbulent display of force, and not only mocked and in- sulted their prisoner but threatened him with personal violence, by which his life was for a time in danger. In less than ten minutes from the first charge of the yeomanry this peaceable as- sembly, numerous enough to have overwhelmed the whole armed force if they had been of the same lawless temper as their assailants, had entii-ely left the field, which was filled with horse and foot soldiers of the regular troops, who, if they had been appointed to disperse the crowd in the first instance, would pro- bably have done so with some dignity and without bloodshed. Hunt was taken before the magistrates, who committed him on a charge of high treason to a solitary cell, other prisoners being similarly treated. He was afterwards tried and condemned to three years' imprisonment in Hchester jail, a sen- tence which was regarded even by moderate people as a great overstraining of the law. The effect of the "masacre" was immediate, and the memory of it was lasting. Of course an exaggerated and partial account of it quickly reached the government^ and thanks were returned to the magistrates and to all the military employed for their prompt and efficient conduct. The Seformers, on the other hand, were fired with indignation. A meeting was held in Palace Tard, where Sir Francis Burdett and Mr. John Cam Hob- house, the members for Westminster, were the principal speakers. Peterloo became the political martyrs field of the time, and the assault which had been made was denounced as a foul attempt to destroy the liberties of Englishmen. An address, founded on resolu- tions of this nature, was sent to the Prince Regent; but the supporters of the govern- ment, and those who regarded reform as only another name for revolution, also held meet- ings, presented counter addresses, and offered to raise more yeomanry corps. The charge of high treason against the prisoners was abandoned, and terms of imprisonment were substituted for the capital punishment which the terrorists would have inflicted; but the government was for a time upheld in an GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. unconstitutional policy, and the famous or infamous "Six Acts" were proposed in the Lords by Viscount Sidraouth and in the Com- mons by Lord Caatlereagh. These acts were to take away the right of traversing in cases of misdemeanour ; to punish any person found guilty on a second conviction of libel, by fine, imprisonment, and banishment for life; for preventing seditious meetings by demanding the names of seven householders to any re- quisition convening a meeting for the discus- sion of subjects connected with Church or State; to prohibit military training except under the authority of a magistrate or lord- lieutenant; to subject cheap political periodi- cals to a duty similar to that on newspapers, and to authorize magistrates to enter houses by night or by day to search for arms believed to be collected for unlawful purposes. "With the exception of the bill preventing unauthor- ized military training all these acts met with considerable opposition, but they were all passed by large majorities and were to con- tinue in force for five years. These were the gloomy and disturbing in- fluences under which the nation was sufi'ering at a time when pseans celebrating the suc- cesses of the British arms were still resounding in Europe. All over the country numbers of people were in a condition of disaffection and discontent. Trade languished ; industry was suffering under the weight of political restric- tions and the reaction following a war which had been for years exhausting our true re- sources. In spite of the attempted suppression of all popular demonstrations, meetings were held in the chief centres of labour, and the efi'ect of the Six Acts almost seemed to have been to suggest the illicit acquisition of arms ; while, of course, the fact that armed assemblies were discovered was interpreted to justify addi- tional rigour on the part of the government. There was nothing that really betokened an organized rebellion. In the West Riding of Yorkshire, where midnight drill and the col- lection and manufacture of pikes and muskets had occupied the winter, there was talk of a general rising, but only about 200 or 300 mal- contents assembled at Huddersfield, and these retreated in disorder before a body of cavalry, leaving arms and flag upon the field. At Pais- ley and at Glasgow the walls were placarded with proclamationssupposed to emanate from a committee about to form a provisional govern- ment, and commanding mill-owners and manu- facturers to stop working till further orders; but the result was only to cause the operatives to spread in idle knots about the streets. Still a feeling of dogged opposition was mani- fest throughout the country, and armed con- flicts between the people who persisted in meeting and the troops sent to disperse them occurred in several places. In England and Scotland the Reformers were waiting for a change, and were ready to go to extremities to obtain parliamentary representation, and, as a result, a popular government ; but there was no serious symptoms of such a revolution as had taken place in France, and was dreaded by the antagonists of the people in England. The year 1820 opened drearily enough. The death of an aged king who had long been obscured as an imbecile was followed by the ceremonial accession of a Prince Regent who had long been notorious as a profligate. George the Fourth had in effect been king for ten years. He was already past the prime of life, and was lying sick nearly unto death. He was embarrassed in fortune, embarrassed by political difficulties, and at the moment that he was called to the throne was still more embarrassed because of his having contracted marriage with the Princess Caro- line, whom he had discarded, — from whom he desired to be legally separated, and who was to be prevented from sharing with him the coronation that would have given her the title of Queen. There would be no advantage in reviewing that long trial, which sickened and disgusted all decent people, and caused the fathers of families to banish newspapers from their houses lest they should contain the revolting evidence by which the king sought to obtain a legal separation. There is no need to recount the sad scene of the weak, and (as some still think) the wanton woman whose demands for what she deemed to be justice were supported by men destined to hold a famous place in the national history. GEOKGE CANNING. For a whole year that history was defamed. The coronation was preceded by a suit for divorce by a king who had to hurry a proro- gation of Parliament that he might secure a verdict, and narrowly escape the danger of a recrimination on the part of her whom he accused. Over the very grave of Caroline of Bruns- wick popular feeling, aided, perhaps, by popular discontent, found expression in riot and disorder; and in the following month (August, 1821) the king visited Ireland with- out permanently conciliating its people, and then extended his journey to his Hanoverian dominions, where he enjoyed a second coro- nation, unalloyed perhaps by the terrors and anxieties which had accompanied the first. With all the events of which the foregoing pages are intended to be an introductory stun- mary, one great man — one eminent statesman, accomplished scholar, brilliant and convincing orator, and true gentleman— was associated in his relation to parliament and to the gov- ernment of the country. " George Canning," says an able biographer, " so thoroughly Hved in the conduct of public afiiairs, that the loftiest part of the character of the man is most clearly revealed in the policy of the statesman and his highest life culminated in a European policy." This is a pregnant and significant sentence — one perhaps worth remembering when we come to deal with the social and political relations of the equally eminent statesman whose name in the following pages is more particularly associated with the social and political progress of our time. Canning, without the advantages of high family or expected fortune, was educated at Eton, where he started the Microcosm and made other Hterary efforts which were no un- worthy preparations for the famous wit and fancy displayed in the Anti-Jacohin, of which he was editor and contributor ten years after he had left Oxford. His marriage in 1798 with Miss Jane Scott, one of the daughters of General Scott, improved both his social and political position, though he had been five years in parliament, and in 1796 had been made under-secretary of state, in which office he had from time to time defended the policy of Pitt. In 1801 he went out of ofiice with his patron, returned with him in 1804, and again left the government on Pitt's death in 1806. He became minister of foreign affairs in 1807, but withdrew in consequence of a duel with Castlereagh, who was minister of war. In 1812 he had refused to join the cabinet of Lord Liverpool because of the re- fusal of the premier to consider the claims of the Eoman Catholics, and in the same year was elected as the representative of Liverpool. In almost all respects, except in relation to the reformers of England, Canning was of large and liberal views; but like many others who probably were influenced beyond consist- ency because of the crimes and horrors of the French revolution, he was the undeviating op- ponent of the demands of those Eeformers who soon acquired the name of Radicals. The people of Liverpool, however, gave him their confidence, and he sat for that borough until in 1814 he went as ambassador to Lisbon, returning in 1816 to become president of the Board of Control, the CathoUc question being left open, so that his opinions on the subject of emancipation were not outraged. On the accession of George the Fourth, however, his chivalric nature revolted against the expectation that he would side with the king in any endeavour to obtain a divorce from Caroline of Brunswick. In the warm debate which took place in the House of Commons, when Brougham presented the mes- sage in which she declared that she had come, to claim her rights and maintain her innocence, that she protested against a secret tribunal appointed byheraccusers,and that she appealed to the justice of the house. Lord Castlereagh affirmed that ministers were neither persecu- tors nor prosecutors in the matter, and that there would be an open inquiry. Canning, however, solemnly vowed that he would never place himself in the situation of her accuser, and that he would take no further share in the deliberations. The cabinet determined to proceed with the case, and he resigned his office. It was then that he retired for a time to Liverpool, where among many firm political adherents he had also several attached friends. GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. one of the staunchest and most intimate of wliom was Mr. John Gladstone, a merchant of considerable wealth and active political influence. Mr. Gladstone had been one of the most energetic supporters of Mi-. Canning, and in 1812 had presided at the meeting held for the purpose of inviting him to represent the borough, and had addressed an assembly held in the open air in Castle Street — reviewing the commercial position of the country and spealdng of Canning's character and ability in terms of enthusiastic praise. Mr. Gladstone was not of the high Tory school, and his Liberal tendencies led him to desire to sup- port Brougham as the colleague of Canning as against General Gascoyne (a candidate whose family held large property near Liver- pool), and a Mr. Creevy, a thorough-going " Eadiciil." An alliance was concluded, how- ever, between Brougham and Creevy, and Mr. Gladstone therefore became decidedly Conser- vative and supported Canning and Gascoyne, who were successfully returned, duly " chaired," and carried in procession through the town to Mr. Gladstone's house in Eodney Street, where Canning addressed the crowd from the balcony. It was at this house that Mr. Canning found rest and welcome when he visited Liverpool, and the deep and lasting friendship which grew up between the eminent states- man and orator and the man who had so loyally supported and encouraged him, gave a charm to the society of the merchant's family which doubtless exercised a considerable in- fluence on that youthful member of it who was himself to attain to a position in the state superior even to that achieved by Can- ning himself. For those who attach decided importance to ancient birth and noble lineage it may be satisfactory to learn that the Gladstones could date back to the times of Border warfare when, perhaps, like the rest of the aristocracy of that day, they maintained "The simple plan That they should take who have the power, And they should keep who can." At all events, the curious in such matters like to trace the ancestry of the Liverpool family to the time when the Qled's stane (the Hawk's rook) gave its name alike to the liigh moor- land in Lanarkshire, near the Biggar Burn and Bell Craig, and to the owners of the tower which once dominated the surrounding farmhouses and cotters' huts. They will go back to the Eagman Eoll of 1296, in which ap- pears the name of Herbert de Gledestane, who swore fealty to Edward I.; and will show us in the list of the Scottish Commissioners who negotiated after the capture of David II. the names of Patrick and William of Gledstanes, the son of the former coming into the royal grant of Woodgrenynton, in Tweeddale, and, better still, acquiring by his marriage with Margaret, daughter of John Trumble of Hun- dleshope, near Peebles, lands in the town of Selkirk, land by the Borthwick Water, near "Branksome's tower and town," and the estates of Hummelknowes, Orchard, and Or- mistou, near Hawick, held by feudal tenure from the Douglas family. Then Hotspur and his father, the Earl of Northumberland, come on the scene and besiege John Gledstanes, son of William and Margaret, in his tower of Coklaw in Ormiston; and later still, in 1564, John Gledstanes appears as a supporter of Buccleugh, and Walter Gledstanes of White- law is one of the score or so of gentlemen who keep Branksome Tower. In 1575 we hear nearly the last of the Border raids with which the family were connected, when The Douglas came down with " Cranstone, Gledstone, good at need;" and a few years later they had ceased to harry on Cademuir, and had parted with then- posses- sions in Lanarkshire and Hundleshope, retir- ing to the small estate of Arthurshiel, near their ancient holding by the Hawk's-rock. A century later this also was sold by John Gled- stanes, whose son WiUiam, having happily none of the old Border fury to maintain, retired to the old town of Biggar and respect- ably went into business as a maltster. This William Gledstanes may be said to be the real founder of the family, in spite of all the genealogical researches which take us back to the old days of fight and foray ; and, to judge HIS ANCESTRY. from hia own houest and manly words, the present representative of the race — himself the noblest of the line — is of that opinion, for in an address at the "Liverpool Collegiate Institute " in 1872 Mr. Gladstone said :— " I know not why commerce in England should not have its old families rejoicing to be con- nected with commerce from generation to generation. It has been so in other countries. I trust it will be so in this country. I think it is a subject of soitow, and almost of scan- dal, when those families who have either acquired or recovered station and wealth through commerce, turn their backs upon it and seem to be ashamed of it." William Gledstanes was in one respect, how- ever, the latest representative of the territorial associations of the old Border family. He died in 1728, and was buried with his fore- fathers in the ancient churchyard of Liberton ; but his eldest son, John Gladstanes, who died in 1756, had a grave in Biggar, of which town he was a burgess. His fourth son, Thomas Gladstone (the first who seems to have adopted the present form of the family name), left Biggar for Leith, where he commenced business as a corn-merchant, marrying the daughter of Mr. Walter Neilson of Spring- field, who bore him sixteen children, of whom the eldest was John Gladstone, the father of the present eminent statesman and the friend of Canning. The Gladstones began to prosper as soon as they entered into commercial pursuits, for Thomas Gladstone, having shared in the patri- mony left by his father, was able to make some provision for his numerous family. But it was the removal of his son John to Liverpool, which was the tui-ning-point of their subsequent suc- cess. As a young man John Gladstone had occasion to go to Liverpool for the purpose of selling a cargo of grain which had arrived there, and his business tact and engaging manners so strongly recommended him to Mr. Corrie, one of the principal corn-merchants, that he was invited to become a chief assistant in the firm of Corrie & Co., and so completely vindicated the judgment of the principal partner by his enterprise and activity that the house not very long afterwards changed its style and title to " Corrie, Gladstone, and Bradshaw." For sixteen years this connection continued and the business of the firm in- creased, until when the partnership was dis- solved and Mr. Gladstone alone remained in the business, the operations included large transactions in Russia, and an extensive in- terest in the trade of the West Indies and the importation of sugar. John Gladstone then took his brother Robert into partnership, and the five other brothers also settled in Liverpool. In 1814, when the East India Company ceased to monopolize the trade with China and the East Indies, the firm of John Gladstone & Co. were among the first to profit by the change, and at once sent a ship to Calcutta. During the commercial depression caused by the blockade decrees of Napoleon and the counter decrees of the British government the head of the firm took a prominent part in demanding the abolition of the orders in council which from 1806 to 1812 had seriously crippled the trade of the great seaport of the kingdom. Not only in all important matters affecting the in- terests of Liverpool but in great social and political movements John Gladstone took a prominent pai't. At a meeting called to re- commend the revision and amendment of the Criminal Law in reference to an enormous increase in the crime of forging Bank of England notes, notwithstanding the heavy punishments inflicted for the offence; at an assembly called to discuss the best means of assisting the Greeks in their struggle for in- dependence, and on numerous other occasions, he was among the foremost speakers and sup- porters. He was also instrumental in obtain- ing the introduction of a clause into the Steamboat Act demanding that every vessel should be provided with boats sufficient to carry the number of passengers for which it was licensed, a decision which probably saved a great number of lives, and the need of which had been terribly emphasized by the loss of above a hundred passengers from a sloop wrecked on the Welsh coast, and by the dan- gers of the passage between Liverpool and Dublin, where the public packetrboat was only provided with one small shallop of about twelve feet in length. 10 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES. The same energy which had distinguished him in business was apparent in his public re- lations, and it is not surprising that in 1819, some time before the two last-mentioned occurrences, he had been elected as the re- presentative of Lancaster in Parliament, aided doubtless by the warm interest of Mr. Can- ning, to whom he had been an indefatigable ally. In 1821, however, he was returned for Woodstock, for which town he was member till 1826, after which (in 1827) he was elected for Berwick. He would of course never have attempted to contest Liverpool during the life of Canning, and he retired from Parliament when that great man died ; but his fellow-townsmen had not failed to re- cognize his public spirit, his philanthropic efforts, and the constant loyalty with which he had maintained the interests of the port and its commerce. On the 18th of October, 1824, he was presented with a handsome and valuable service of plate, the gift of his "fel- low-townsmen and friends, to mark their high sense of his successful exertions for the pro- motion of Trade and Commerce, and in ac- knowledgment of his most important services rendered to the town of Liverpool." John Gladstone, as an eminently successful merchant, acquired considerable wealth, and owned an estate in Fasque, from which he sub- sequently took his title when he was knighted by Sir Eobert Peel in 1845. He acquired not only a large property in Liverpool, but the principal part of Seaforth, now incorporated with the town, but at that time a separate dis- trict, in which was situated his country-house, where Canning was a frequent visitor. Mr. John Gladstone was twice married, but there were no children of the first union. Mrs. Glad- stone, whose influence was doubtless a potent element in the character and subsequent career of her most famous son, was a daughter of Mr. Andrew Robertson of Stornoway, sometime Provost of Dingwall; and she has been de- scribed as "a lady of very great accomplish- ments, of fascinating nannera, of commanding presence and high intellect, one to gi-ace any home and endear any heart." Of the four sons and two daughters of this most estimable lady, the second and third sons — Captain John Neilson Gladstone, once the member for Portarliugton, and Mr. Robertson Gladstone, who remained in business in Liver- pool—died respectively in 1863 and 1875, and both daughters died unmarried. Miss Helen Jane Gladstone having long outlived her sis- ter. The eldest son— Sir Thomas Gladstone of Easque, Kincardineshire — and the fourth son — William Ewart Gladstone — now repre- sent the family which in the earlier part of the time of which we have been speaking lived chiefly in the substantial red brick man- sion in Eodney Street, Liverpool, from the window of which Canning addressed the crowd after his election, and where the present pre- mier was born. It was here that John Glad- stone, who doubtless saw in the boy some evidences of the remarkable ability which he afterwards manifested, gravely talked to his son of such political subjects as he could bring within the comprehension of a lad of less than twelve years old. These conversations were probably only occasional small disquisitions, explanatory of such topics as may have formed the subjects of discussion during the visits of Mr. Canning, and alternating with the lessons that he learned at the school kept by the Eev. Mr. (afterwards Archdeacon) Jones, or from Mr. Eawson, the first vicar of Seaforth, who held the living for above half a century, and numbered some eminent men among his pupils. It is said, by the by, that Archdeacon Jones found in later years a perpetual theme for merriment in the reflection that the great financier and Chancellor of the Exchequer was hopelessly incompetent to master the early rules of arithmetic ; a story which, if there be any truth in it, would doubtless tell rather severely against the reverend preceptor's me- thod of instruction. But comparatively little attention was paid to the arithmetic of gentle- men's sons in those days; and if Master Glad- stone failed to acquire "the third E" under the direction of his early tutor, he was as little likely to get beyond the rudiments at Eton, where there was no mathematical teaching whatever before the year 1836. For we must return a little on the course of this narrative, to the early part of the month HE ENTERS ETON SCHOOL. 11 of September, 1821, when the name of William Ewart Gladstone, setat 12, was first inscribed upon the roll at that school where so many boys who had afterwards risen to great dis- tinction in the senate, on the bench, at the bar, in the army, or in the world of letters, had received an education which had in it little that would now be called useful instruction. It would probably have represented a weari- some and deadening, rather than an inspiriting curriculum, but for the fact that there was so very little of it, and that in spite of fagging, flogging, and much that was evil and demoral- izing in the circumstances amidst which the boys were placed, there was a certain senti- ment of rank, or reputation, causing some of the nobler and more aspiring lads to form associations capable of resisting the coarser conditions of their daily experience. It is not always easy to estimate the en- thusiasm with which the old school life is regarded by men who look back to it after the lapse of many years; and to those who have never been members of a great public school it is stUl less easy to understand the attachment which many distinguished scholars — divines, poets, soldiers, and statesmen — ap- pear to have retained for a school such as Eton was in the early part of the present century. The discipline, in many respects harsh and even brutal, was relaxed by the admission of a certain wild freedom approach- ing to lawlessness, which may have had a peculiar fascination for some temperaments; but the chief influence of those associations which had such a permanent efiect on the scholars in after-life may probably be traced to the strong sentiment of mutual loyalty which characterized the various sections of the school, and led the boys to form communities, each of which was governed by rules and traditions maintained with rigorous determination, and respected even by the masters. This strong bond of union was the more efiectual because the majority of the lads were the scions of families of some social distinction, and often carried with them a prestige which they were expected to sustain — not so much by a devo- tion to learning, nor by submission to judicious restrictions, but by a determination to endure and even to uphold a system by which each boy in turn was subject to tyrannous punish- ments, until he reached a position that entitled him to inflict the same cruelties upon others. This is the bare statement of what the custom of making the juniors "fag" for the upper forms theoretically involved, but the results were controlled by the personal characteristics of the boys themselves, and by the peculiar loyalty which was made necessary in a school where a breach of certain regulations was severely punished, and yet where amazing opportunities were given for evading penal- ties if the boys were united and constant in their efforts to outwit the authorities. So far as actual instruction was concerned, it is difficult now to conceive that the men who left Eton to distinguish themselves in the world could have made any figure in arts or letters but for subsequent study either at the Universities or by sedulous effort to make use of the method of learning which they had ac- quired. For there was certainly very little time devoted to regular study in school in the days when Mr. Gladstone was at Eton. No mathe- matics were taught there, and the system of teaching classics was narrow and unsatisfac- tory. Even in later days the work in school was limited to construing and repeating pass- ages learned by heart from Greek and Latin poets. Including the time spent in showing up compositions previously corrected by the tutor, a boy was in school about two and a half hours in a whole school-day, or eleven hours a week. A lesson usually occupied from thirty-five to fifty minutes. The passages to be construed were from "selections" from nearly all the great authors of Greece and Rome, but there was no regular course of reading in any one author; and we have it on the authority of Mr. John Delaware Lewis, that a young man might go up to the University from the upper fifth form at Eton ignorant almost of the very names of the authors at ex- tracts from whose works he had been grinding for several years. The school was divided into Collegers or resident scholars on the foundation, and Oppidans, or scholars who were paid for and lived in the town with one or other of the tutors. There was a great deal of 12 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. difference in the mode of living, though it cost a good round sum in fees, fee, even for the College boys. There appears, however, to have been no marked social distinctions between them in that day, and the fifth and sixth forms, composed of the elder boys, consisted equally of Collegers and Oppidans. To these "were given powers for maintaining order in the lower school, and punishing offences either by impositions or by personal chastisement, which often resulted in gross brutality, ef- jjecially when the custom of fagging was in unrestricted operation. The power to "fag" was usually confined to the fifth and sixth form, and the liability to be "fagged" to boys below the fifth form — every lower boy in ■each house being assigned as a special fag to some sixth or fifth form boy in that house, and every lower boy in College to one of the first eleven in College. There were, of course, great differences in the exactions imposed on the "fag," dependent, however, on the disposition and character of the boy to whom he was attached, but the possibilities of tyranny and injustice were constant and inevitable. At one time the whole government of the school appears to have consisted chiefly of fagging and flogging, and it is scarcely too much to say that only boys of a robust moral temperament ■could have came out of the ordeal without ■ serious injury to temper or to character. For ithough the punishments were by imposition, the birch was frequently active, and John Keate, who was head-master in Gladstone's time, was not the least famous for his severity, though he was such a little man that it was a ifavourite prank of one or other of the boys to personate him by dressing up in cocked hat and gown. One of these impersonations was so suc- • cessful that when the head-master got up one morning and foiind his street door painted red, he inquired in a fury of a policeman. Who had dared to pass such an insult upon him? and received for reply that he had been seen to paint the door himself. It requii-ed some spirit to rule boys, who had probably learned defiance and daring as antidotes to the bruta- lity which must either crush them or find them .sturdy to resist and to retaliate. It was in Keate's day that the rebellion of the whole school broke out, when old boys, guardsmen and others, went down to Eton to encourage the malcontents, and when the first question of William the Fourth every morning was, " How is the Eton rebellion getting on ? " There were above a hundred boys implicated, but Keate was equal to the occasion. He could not flog them all at once without bringing on an open fight between boys and masters, so he formed a strong guard, and one night sent quietly to each house in succession, and had the boys brought into his presence in batches to be flogged by the light of a lantern. The next morning, on comparing notes, they found they had all received punishment, and as it was over, they submitted, and the rebellion was at an end. There is a story to the effect that on one occasion a dozen boys were flogged who avowed their entire innocence of any offence, and on inquiry it was discovei-ed that a tutor had sent to the head-master two lists, one of boys to be flogged, and another of boys who had been prepared for confirmation. Keate's readiness to grasp the rod had caused him to make some slight confusion between them, and he flogged the wrong batch. As thrashing was the order of the day, it became an institution. New boys were put through questions by the upper form which en- tailed some kind of physical torment whatever answer might be given, and the "fags" were constantly exposed to the bullying or thorough castigation of their masters of the upper school, many of whom had been brutalized by the treatment which they themselves had received. It is not without a kind of admiring wonder that we can now look at the list of eminent men who must have gone through this " dis- cipline" (?), and who yet have been remarkable for high culture, and frequently for gentleness and humanity. Eton seems to have been the nursery for English statesmen — Sir Robert Walpole, Bolingbroke, Pitt, Fox, Lord North, Lord Granville, the Marquis of Wellesley, Earl Grey, George Canning, Lord Melbourne, Wellington, Earl Derby, Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Sir James Mansfield, Lord Denman, and some others of only little less note ; while in poetry, literature, and learning there are HIS ETON^ COMPANIONS. 13 Gray, Person, Christoplier Anstey, Shelley, Praed, Chauney Hare Townsend, John Hook- ham Prere, John Moultrie, and, to name a special coUaborateur of Mr. Gladstone, G. A. Selwyn, afterwards so widely known and loved as the gifted bishop who gave the sweetness of a lovely life to missionary work, and met his death in the desire to undo the mischief that had been wrought by unchristian de- spoilers of "the savage." Comparatively a short time ago, in recalling the memory of his friend Selwyn, Mr. Gladstone said, "Con- nected as tutor with families of rank and influence, universally popular from his frank, manly, and engaging character, and scarcely less so from his extraordinary vigour as an athlete, he was attached to Eton, where he resided, with a love surpassing the love of Etonians. In himself he formed a large part of the life of Eton, and Eton formed a large part of his life. To him is due no small share of the movement in the direction of religious earnestness which marked the Eton of forty years back, and which was not, in my opinion, sensibly affected by any influence extraneous to the place itself. At a moment's notice, upon the call of duty, he tore up the singu- larly deep roots which his life had struck into the soil of England." Another of the friends and companions of Mr. Gladstone at Eton was Arthur Hallam, son of the historian — whose scholarship and exquisite culture was as marked as that sweet- ness of disposition which so endeared him to the Poet-laureate, that his early death was the occasion of the composition of "In Memoriam" — the masterpiece of Alfred Tennyson, if not of the poetry of the last half-century. To return for a moment to Mr. Gladstone's tribute to his college friend Selwyn, one can scarcely avoid marking in it something of reticence with regard to Eton itself, except in reference to that earnest religious movement which was afterwards to make a strong im- pression on Mr. Gladstone's sympathies, and was to a large extent due to Selwyn's in- fluence. There are few indications, so far as we are aware, of Mr. Gladstone's own Eton experiences except those (to which we shall presently refer) outside the actual school work and the school organization. Nor can we re- frain from surmising that the memories of the early school days at Eton recalled many in- cidents that to a mental constitution like his must have been peculiarly painful. It would perhaps be impracticable to form any true estimate of the precise influence which life at Eton and Oxford in his early days may have had upon his character; but it may surely be questioned whether he is an example of the well-known declaration of an eminent teacher who said, " Give me the first seven years of a man's life, and I do not care who has the rest; for change as he may, he wiU return to his first earth." Though he was educated at the most aristocratic of public schools and the most aristocratic college of (may we call it?) the most aristocratic of universities, we shall in the course of this history find Mr. Gladstone at a comparatively advanced age the teacher of British liberalism, and on the whole one of the most open-minded men in Europe. It would not be too much to say that, going be- yond the first seven years, we may find in his early history the germs of his whole develop- ment. Of course he has not been independent of circumstances more than any other man. Eesentment is a natural spring of action, and it has often proved the commencement of great changes both in private character and public history. An insult, a blow, an unfair withdrawal of confidence, much more a public outrage, might set any one upon a course of speculation favourable to change. It is there- fore open alike to friend and enemy to inquire what might have been the result if Oxford had not at a certain crisis rejected Mr. Glad- stone, as we shall find she did. There is nothing more striking in the same order of facts than the hold which the great schools, and still more the Universities, acquire over those who have once been admitted to their bosoms. It may even be doubted whether this is quite wholesome; whether the ties which exist in after-life between (say) two Oxford men or two Cambridge men are not often abused. But one thing is certain,— there was both at Eton and Oxford in Mr. Gladstone's time so much to call forth the strongest dis- like and even disgust (as to Eton one might well 14 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. say horror), that some of the strongest of his faculties or feelings, or both, must have been pretty much driven in. He -would need all the reverence for the past that a temperament like his contains to reconcile him to much that he saw and had to endure himself. Hence, there probably arose a considerable amount of self-illusion in his earlier years. The historic associations of Eton and Oxford would at that time count for more than was natural in a mind like his, and a quasi poetic Conservatism would do uneasy battle in his mind with suggestions derived from his connection with commerce and other sources. As for Canning, he had in him the making of a good Liberal, and if he were alive now he would be by Mr. Gladstone's side. But undoubtedly Mr. Gladstone's early Conservatism was largely a kind of mere ar- chaism. And the archaism is still there, with Eton and Oxford in the back-ground as picture and poem; but it is no longer mere archaism. When we have said all that can reasonably be urged in disfavour of the Eton of Mr. Glad- stone's time (and it was not till many years afterwards that substantial improvements, founded on deiinite regulations, were made) it cannot be denied that the college was distin- guished not only by a number of students who achieved considerable scholarship and after- wards made a reputation at the universities, but by a certain development of literary taste and of authorship which was frequently far above the average efforts of youths of seven- teen or eighteen. Among the institutions which had grown into importance before Mr. Gladstone joined the school were the periodi- cals written and published by the boys them- selves; and the most brilliant of these was the Microcosm, which was started in 1786 and chiefly owed its establishment and its con- tinued success to the admirable contributions of Mr. Canning and Mr. Hookham Erere, though others also wrote for it, including Capel Lofft, Mr. Mellish, and Lord Heniy Spencer. Canning's remarkable burlesque essay on the "Queen of Hearts'' appeared in its pages, and was alone sufficient to secure for it a reputation which has seldom or never been achieved by any other school magazine. Canning, however, was in most renpeots ex- ceptional, and his early literary ability was a part of the brilliant career which he after- wards attained against obstacles and disabili- ties that would have daunted a man of less high and chivalrous nature, and which at last broke his heart. His early contributions to the Eton Microcosm were a foretaste of the keen wit, the polished irony, and incisive power that made the Anti-Jacobin so famous in its day; but Canning was eminent alike as wit, statesman, and orator — and that at a time when he had to hew out a path for an ambition which, he well knew, was scarcely tolerated except in the members of those aristocratic families so completely represented at the school where he was a conspicuous student. The productions of Frere, his fellow-editor of the Microcosm, were not then remarkable; but when Canning left Oxford and Erere had completed his studies at Cambridge the two collaborateurs met in a still closer friendship of political sympathy, and Frere's humour and scholarship had both so developed that the keenest satires which appeared in the Anti- Jacohin were from his pen, which was also employed on the Quwrterly Review and other leading periodicals. Different, indeed, were the closing scenes of the lives of these two men. Canning, worn, fretted, and racked by the shafts which rankled in his sensitive nature, died at the time when, had he been harder and less siwceptible, he might have reached the topmost round of his ambition, Frere, attracted by the climate of Malta, re- tired thither and spent his days in studious leisure — translating the classic poets and quietly dispensing unostentatious charities to those about him till the end of a long life. But to return to the Eton magazines — they each seemed to dwindle when those who started and supported them had left the school, and it therefore became necessary to make new be- ginnings. Thus at the time of the youthful Gladstone's entrance to Eton the Apis Matina was the school organ — a manuscript journal that had been commenced in 1820 by W, Mackworth Praed, and was succeeded by The Etonian, a magazine which even now is remembered with admiration and contained some of the most attractive of Praed's produc- THE "ETON MISCELLANY.' 15 tions as well as other excellent contributions by H. N. Coleridge, Chauncey Hare Towns- hend, Walter Blunt, and John Moultrie. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that Mr. Gladstone, who had not only been an assiduous student but had cultivated a natural literary faculty, became the chief promoter and supporter of a magazine only a few mouths before he left the school in 1827; nor can we wonder that in its turn the Eton Mis- cellany became representative of the mode of thought and expression which succeeded the bright satirical humour of Canning and the quaint intensity of the editor of The Etonixxn. It is worth noting, too, that in Mr. Glad- stone's contributions may be traced something of the voluminous style which belongs to his later writings, and that with many felicities of illustration and an abundant command of language there is perhaps too little attention to that concentration of verbal force which is characteristic of the work of many of his contemporaries and of most of the eminent contributors to modern magazine and journal- istic literature. The variety of the subjects on which he wrote and the industry with which he supported the magazine were, how- ever, illustrative alike of his energy and of the range of his, studies. In the correspon- dence columns of the Miscellany — which were entitled "The Postman"— both he and Selwyn were indefatigable in addressing the supposed editor, who professed to be named Bartho- lomew Bouverie; while Arthur Henry Hallam, Doyle, Francis (afterwards Sir Francis) Hast- ings, Jelf, and Shadwell also appeared in the various departments of burlesque and serious poetry, parody, and essay. It is probable that the magazine and the Eton debating society afibrded the chief recreations of the future statesman, and that he took only an occasional and not a very prominent part in the school sports. Of course criticism of these youthful literary efforts would be entirely out of place even in regarding them as evi- dences of a characteristic tendency, but it may be mentioned that they often display a certain humorous faculty, but are not sugges- tive of any considerable play of fancy. If Mr. Gladstone ever possessed qualifications for the keen but light and glancing satire which was to be found in the humorists who preceded him, or the quick invention and vivid illustration of some of the romantic poets of his day, he persistently held these qualities in subjection — but that even in his earlier effusions there are occasional evidences of the peculiar power of language and the felicity of expression which have been mani- fested in some of his later writings can scarcely be denied. It may perhaps be permissible to say, however, that then as now the most ad- mirable of his writings appear to be those that are primarily in the nature of addresses or orations. The spoken rather than the written word is with him the fuUer, the more impres- sive, and even the more delicately distinctive. It might well be said that his most thought- ful, definite, and suggestive essays, and those which are at once most concentrated and elegant in their expression, have been his addresses to University students. There is no need, however, to dwell specially on his early contributions to the Eton Magazine, though in more than one instance they show an almost unsuspected power of burlesque which has in it a peculiar grim humour, as when, in an "Ode to the Shade of Wat Tyler," we find the mock heroic lines : — " I hymn the gallant and the good From Tyler down to Thistlewood ; My muse the trophies gi-ateful sings The deeds of MiUer and of Ings ; She sings of all who soon or late Have burst subjection's iron chain, Have sealed the bloody despot's fate Or cleft a peer or priest in twain." In an article entitled a " View of Lethe," in which is described the destruction of those things which belong to the temporal world, there are quaint and iuteresting passages — one of which, referring to the fate of books, is illustrative. " I was surprised even to see some works with the names of Shakespeare and Milton on them sharing the common destiny; but on examination I found that those of the latter were some political rhapsodies which richly deserved their fate, and that the former con- sisted of some editions of his works which had been burdened with notes and mangled 16 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. with emendations by his merciless commen- tators. In other places I perceived authors worked up into frenzy by seeing their own compositions descending like the rest. Often did the infuriated scribes extend their hands and make a plunge to save their beloved off- spring, but in vain. I pitied the anguish of their disappointment, but with feelings of the same commiseration as that which one feels for a malefactor on beholding his death, being at the same time fully conscious how well he has deserved it." The influence of Mr. Canning in relation to the Gladstone family has already been referred to, and doubtless that influence had a con- siderable effect on the early career of the youth who had learned to regard him with equal admiration and esteem. "We may there- fore expect to find that one of the latest of the contributions to the pages of the ^tomJ/isceKaiiJ/ — "Ancient and Modern Genius Compared" — written a very short time before the author left school previous to his preparation for Ox- ford, contains a warm and able eulogium upon the genius and character of the departed statesman — for Canning had died on the 8th of August, 1827, and at the end of the term young Gladstone, his friend and prot6g6, was to conclude his studies at the school. It was fitting, therefore, that grief and admiration should find expression in words which are not without a certain touching solemnity : — " It is for those who revered him in the plenitude of his meridian glory to mourn over him in the darkness of his premature ex- tinction; to mourn over the hopes that are buried in his grave, and the evils that arise from his withdrawing from the scene of life. Surely if eloquence never excelled and sel- dom equalled — if an expanded mind and judg- ment whose vigour was paralleled only by its soundness — if brilliant wit — if a glowing imagination — if a warm heart and an unbend- ing firmness, could have strengthened the frail tenure and prolonged the momentary duration of man's existence, that man had been im- mortal ! But nature could endure no longer. Thus has Providence ordained that inasmuch as the intellect is more brilliant, it shall be more short-lived: as its sphere is more ex- panded, more swiftly is it summoned away. Lest we should give to man the honour due to God— lest we should exalt the object of our admiration into a divinity for our worship — he who calls the weary and the mourner to eternal rest hath been pleased to remove him from our eyes." But this eulogium reminds us that we have yet to trace the course of the public events which had happened during Mr. Gladstone's scholarship at Eton, and for the two years in which he was in preparation for Oxford as a private pupil of Dr. Turner, who afterwards became Bishop of Calcutta. The country was at that time also passing through a prepara- tory course by which it was to enter into a new and energetic career. Had Canning lived it is probable that he would have had a hand on the helm of affairs; but whether his hos- tility to reform — as reform was then under- stood — would have retarded the progress of the nation, or whether he would himself have initiated the new era, abandoning his former doctrines, it is perhaps futile to inquire. What is certain is that the coming statesman who had left Eton and would presently appear as a distinguished member of the famous debat- ing society called " The Oxford Union," had been deeply impressed with Canning's views, and, as an opponent of most of the Liberal measures then proposed, shared the distrust and apprehension which were expressed by those who denounced the demand for popular representation. Notwithstanding the strong opposition to reform manifested by the government, and in spite of the passing of "The Six Acts" by such large majorities in the house, the affair of Peterloo still rankled in the minds of the people; and what was of more real importance, the cause of Parliamentary Eeform claimed a wider interest among thoughtful and peace- able men who had no sympathy with the riotous demonstrations which agitated the country. It was evident too that the new parliament which had been elected after the death of George III. contained a larger num- ber of members who were opposed to the high- handed procedure of the former ministry. AMELIOEATION OF THE CEIMINAL LAWS. 17 This was emphatically indicated by the re- ception of Lord John Eussell's motion to bring the subject of Eeform again before parlia- ment, and by the fact that his proposed re- solutions were withdrawn only because of the intimation of Lord Castlereagh that the govern- ment itself was then disposed to take up the question. The determination of the house was stiU feeble, however, for when, as a tentative instalment of reform, Lord John moved a bill for the. disfranchisement of the borough of Grampound, where corrupt practices had been proved, the Whigs failed to support him on the third reading, and the measure was ultimately shelved. Lord John Eussell was at that time only twenty-seven years of age, but he had been in parliament since 1813, when he entered the house as the representative of Tavistock, and his conscientious honesty of purpose and his remarkable talents, no less than his high position as the youngest son of the Duke of Bedford, even then gave him an influence which was soon to make him the acknowledged leader of the Whig party. He had been educated first at Westminster School and after- wards at the University of Edinburgh, where Dugald Stewart, the celebrated professor of moral philosophy, was one of his teachers. He had from the first hour of his parlia- mentary career identified himself with those demands for electoral reform to which he afterwards gave such moderate but masterly and triumphant expression. He failed, how- ever, to move the weak enthusiasm of his party for session after session, and there were many causes which contributed to this in- difi'erence to the demands of the Eadicals. Probably one of these causes may be found in the fact that there were already evidences of a desire to amend some of the harsh laws by which comparatively small offences were pun- ished with death or transportation. Previous to the year 1819 the gallows was seldom empty, and such a monstrous mania for hang- ing had prevailed that even petty larceny was made a capital offence. The records of crim- inal trials during the reign of George the Third are appalling evidences of the effect which barbarous laws and the undiscriminat- Voi. I. ing infliction of severe punishments will have even on humane and high-minded men, who come to regard them only as the inevitable results of judicial sentences prescribed bylaws which, it is believed, can only be deterrent in proportion to their inhumanity. The burglar, the footpad, the highway -robber, and even the murderer were in little greater danger than the starving wretch who, to allay the pangs of hunger, pilfered some article of food from a tradesman's stall, — the woman who was detected in passing counterfeit coin, — or the lad who, without other means of support, had been taught to pick pockets or to filch from an open shop window. There were nearly three hundred crimes punishable by death. Sir Samuel Eomilly, who was the grandson of a French Protestant refugee, and became solicitor-general, had, during the latter years of his life, devoted his great talents and his impressive eloquence to the earnest work of ameliorating the Criminal Code, which had long been a reproach to this country among foreign nations. His death, at the close of the year 1818, left the cause for which he had pleaded to be taken up by Sir James Mackin- tosh, an equally eminent lawyer, who suc- ceeded in obtaining a committee of inquiry, of which he was appointed chairman. The result was that no fewer than 150 offences were expunged from the catalogue of "hanging matters." Another important measure had been the readjustment of the national currency. The sudden diversion of capital caused by the return of peace after the country had been impoverished by above twenty years of war, had affected the entire community, and during the prevalent distress it was more and more difiBcult to obtain money accommodations. The Bank of England having in view the probable demand which would be made upon it to meet its notes by payments in gold, had necessarily reduced its issues of paper; and country bankers were compelled to limit their issues in the same manner until the mode in which the Bank of England should resume cash pay- ments was decided. After innumerable de- bates and discussions the government scheme 18 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. was adopted; certain measures were appointed for the gradual repayment to the bank of ^10,000,000 which it had advanced for the public service, and it was decided that from February, 1820, to May, 1821, the bank should periodically give in exchange for its notes certain quantities of gold of a certain diminish- ing value per ounce, and that from the 1st of May, 1823, it should pay its notes on demand in the legal coin of the realm. This measure, however, for a time increased instead of reducing the general distress, and in 1822 it was discovered that the value of nioney had been augmented by the rapid return to cash payments, while the prices of agricultural produce had seriously diminished. For a time even the question of Parliamentary Reform seemed to fall into abeyance before the immediate necessity for relief to the pre- valent agricultural distress. But the demand for a political reformation was not silenced, nor were its supporters without influence. The government was liable to frequent de- feats and to the necessity for making sudden changes. The immediate needs of the landed interest engrossed their attention, and large county meetings and petitions for aid to the agriculturists for a time seemed to supersede in the public regard the assemblies and appeals of those who accepted the name of Radicals as a distinctive mark of their de- termination to persist in a thorough change in the mode of parliamentary nomination, and a wide extension of the franchise. At the same time Ireland was not far from a state of i-e- bellion, and constantly recurring acts of riot and outrage gave the government serious uneasiness. Lord Castlereagh, who had suc- ceeded his father in the title of Marquis of Londonderry, was still the able and spirited leader of the House of Commons. Lord Wellesley, whose prompt action and great administrative talents had saved our Indian possessions, and who held decidedly Liberal principles, was appointed Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and by the retirement of Lord Sid- mouth the ministry was able to offer the Home department to Mr. Peel, who had already been under-secretary of the Home-office and seci-e- tary for Ireland, and who, by his talent for finance and his untiring industry, soon effected an immense improvement. The accession of Mr. Peel to office was an event which was destined to have a remarkable effect on the subsequent social and political history of the country. Peel had entered par- liament in 1809 (the year in which he attained his majority), as member for Cashel in Tipper- ary, and began political life as a supporter of Mr. Perceval. He had already attained dis- tinction, however, for he had taken his Oxford degree with double honours, being first both in classics and mathematics. At Harrow he seems to have shown no great pi-ecocity, but he had the faculty of application, and what he learned he acquired thoroughly. Lord Byron, who was his school - fellow, said of him, "Peel the orator and statesman (that was, or is, or is to be) was my form-fellow, and we were both at the top of our remove. We were on good terms, but his brother was my intimate friend. There were always great hopes of Peel amongst us all — masters and scholars — and he has not disappointed them. As a scholar he was greatly my superior ; as a declaimer and actor, I was reckoned at least his equal. As a schoolboy, out of school I was always in sd'apes, and he never; and in school, he always knew his lessons, and I rarely ; but when I knew it, I knew it nearly as well." There was in Peel a calm power and yet an almost unsuspected intensity of feeling which gave great impressiveness to his character, and were perhaps associated with that kind of solid determination which in a man of sensi- tive conscientiousness and immovable honesty of purpose will often seem like obstinacy of opinion. It was not until Peel had, during his great career, yielded to changed condi- tions and to honest convictions, those opinions which had been regarded as stubborn pre- judices, that either his supporters or his op- ponents could truly estimate his singleness of character and his simply noble disinterested- ness. The Irish agitation was met by prompt measures. The Marquis of Londonderry (Lord Castlereagh) introduced two bills for the restoration of the Insurrection Act and the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act in SUICIDE OF LOED CASTLEEEAGH. 19 Ireland, and these having been passed with little opposition Lord Wellesley was able to deal with the difficulties of the situation, and by his address and judicious administration succeeded in putting an end to the outrages which had so long terrorized the country. But political agitation was followed by wide- spread distress and misery. The failure of the harvest, and especially of the potato crop, on which the Irish peasantry chiefly depended, reduced a large part of the population to a condition of famine. In the southern and western counties — Munster and Connaught — the suffering was so extreme that the govern- ment at once placed .£500,000 at the disposal of Lord "Wellesley to be spent in relief and for providing employment for the people on public works. Subscriptions to an Irish relief fund were also made throughout the country, and wherever an English colony was to be found money was contributed to alleviate the urgent need. With regard to the impover- ished agricultural interest in England, the gov- ernment — rejecting the proposition of Mr. Brougham that the landed interest should be, relieved by a large reduction of their taxation — appointed an agricultural committee, and in accordance with their recommendation effected a repeal of the Malt Tax, and issued .£1,000,000 in exchequer bUls as a loan upon the security of stocks of com in warehouse. It was during the progress of this ministry that Canning was again chosen to take office as the successor of Lord Hastings in the government of India. He had prepared to quit England, and was already at Liverpool on a farewell visit, but he had previously taken leave of the House of Commons in a manner characteristic of his magnificent tal- ents and his steadfast adhesion to the cause of religious liberty. Although an immovable opponent of the demand for Eeform, Canning was an ardent supporter of Catholic Emancipation; and with aU his peculiar fire and energy, which gave fresh force and dignity to the appeal, he moved for leave to bring in a bill which should restore to Eoman Catholic peers their right of sitting and voting in the House of Lords. He was strongly opposed by Mr. Peel, who declared that he was unable to dis- cover any valid reason for exempting Eoman Catholic peers from restrictions to which a whole community professing the same religion were subject by law. It was also argued, and not without truth, that partial concessions were unwise, and that if the bill were passed Catholic commoners would soon be expected to be admitted to parliament without restric- tions in the following year. The bill did pass the House of Commons, though it was thrown out by the Lords. But the question was gather- ing strength, and the period was approach- ing when it was to be forced through both houses with a vehemence which at one time would threaten another and more dangerous insurrection in Ireland. On the 6th of August, 1822, George the Fourth prorogued parliament, and four days afterwards went to Greenwich, where he em- barked on a journey to Scotland. On his voyage he received tidings which had already startled and horrified the members of the government and those of the nobility who were acquainted with the news. The ses- sion had been a trying one — a large class of people, and especially of the Irish, had as- sociated many of the evils from which they suffered with the policy of the prime min- ister, to whom they applied execrations and terms of reproach. Lord Londonderry (still spoken of as " Castlereagh ") was a high- spirited — perhaps an arrogant man — but he was also a high-minded man, and in private life his character was amiable and generous. On the prorogation of parliament, and after the departure of the king, he retired in a state of great agitation to his villa retreat at North Cray in Kent. A day or two before he had bought a sixpenny penknife — and with this he committed suicide by cutting the carotid artery. He was but fifty-four years old — an accomplished and elegant gen- tleman, a fearless, and (whatever" may have been his faults of policy), an honest minister; but he seems to have broken down under the anxieties with which he had been oppressed in those times of sore need and bitter conflict. As his coffin was removed from the hearse to Westminster Abbey a rabble of self-styled 20 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAHlES. Eadicals of fhe lower order howled and yelled; but these were not representatives either of Reformers or of Englishmen. The sudden death of the leader of the House of Commons made it necessary to re- construct the ministry, and who was to take the foremost place? In spite of the king's dislike, it was impossible to offer the position to any other than George Canning, and the great commoner was suddenly apprised that he had been nominated to a high position at the moment that he was about to under- take the duties of his splendid Indian appoint- ment. There was no time for hesitation, and he at once consented to accept the office of secretary for foreign affairs, and so to become leader of the House. That congress of the three great powers, which, when other sovereigns joined it, was afterwards called " The Holy Alliance," (be- cause it affected to found itself on religious sentiment) had reportioned Europe even be- fore the issue of the battle of Waterloo had guaranteed its ability to reduce France to her ancient and natural limits, to restore the dominions of Prussia and Austria in accord- ance with imperial demands, and to dis- member and absorb Poland. The congress, as had been truly said, "bartered provinces as if they were cattle pastures and computed men by the square league. A million of Saxons were ordered to forget their country and become Prussians, the Genoese were ordered to become Savoyards ; the Milanese, Austrians;" and though England, under Lord Castlereagh, had demanded that the rights of the Kingdom of Poland should be respected, and the demand had been seconded by Prance, the claim was of no avail. The Prince Regent had necessarily declined to join this combina- tion of sovereigns, by which, for years, the suppression of popular liberties was effected. When Mr. Canning entered upon the office of foreign secretary, Greece, Spain, and Portugal were all aflame against the proceedings of their crowned masters, and for a time the tumults which had raged in England in favour of reform seemed to abate as some of the more fiery spirits took up the cause of these oppressed nationalities. Two of the friends of Mr. Canning entered into office with him — Mr. Frederick Robinson, who was made chan- cellor of the exchequer in place of Mr. Van- sittart, and Mr. Huskisson, who became pre- sident of the Board of Trade, and was a man of sterling integrity. Both these gentlemen brought an accession of strength to the government, and supported the foreign secretary in his determination not to be precipitated into a European war by the protests and the denunciations of the sympathizers with the Spanish insurrection. Mr. Canning, like the Duke of Wellington, had no sympathy with the proceedings of the' crowned congress at Verona, which had then been joined by the French king, and on the question of interference in the affairs of Spain Canning wrote to the duke, " If there be a determined project to interfere by force or by menace in the present struggle in Spain, sO' convinced are his majesty's government of the uselessness and danger of any such interference, so objectionable does it appear to them in principle as well as utterly impracticable in execution, that when the necessity arises, or (I would rather say) when the opportunity offers, I am to instruct your grace at once, frankly and peremptorily, to declare that to any such interference, come what may, his majesty will not be a party.'' This was noble language, but it expressed the policy of non- intervention which Canning justly believed was alone possible under the circumstances,, unless England would consent either to enter upon another exhausting series of conflicts or be reduced to the position of a braggart who would continually threaten and protest but constantly stop short of action. Indeed, some of the finest efforts of Canning's oratory were directed to the maintenance of non-interven- tion, but of a dignified refusal to participate in the interference which the allied sovereigns were exercising against smaller nations. Earl Russell has declared in his Recollec- tions that, in his opinion, the most splendid times for Parliamentary oratory were those between 1820 and 1829, or thereabouts. Canning and Plunket were his greatest ad- miration, and it may safely be said that Canning has never yet been equalled. In a CANNING'S OEATOEY. 21 rspeech of his, delivered at Plymouth, there is a passage which -we quote with a purpose. With the exception of one or two passages in Mr. Bright's speeches it has never been even approached ; — "The resources created by peace are means of war. In cherishing these resources we but accumulate those means. Our present repose is no more a proof of inability to act than the .state of ineitness and inactivity in which I have seen those mighty masses that float in the waters above your town is a proof they are devoid of strength and incapable of being fitted for action. You well know, gentlemen, how soon one of these stupendous masses, now reposing on their shadows in perfect .stillness — how soon, upon any call of patriot- ism or of necessity, it would assume the like- ness of an animated being, instinct with life And motion ; how soon it would ruffle, as it were, its swelling plumage; how quickly it would put forth aU its beauty and its bravery, ■collect its scattered elements of strength, and awaken its dormant thunder. Such as is one ■of these magnificent machines, when springing from inaction into a display of its might, such is England herself; while apparently passive and motionless she silently concentrates the power to be put forth on an adequate occa- sion." This is interesting in more ways than one. "England," said Henry Brougham about this time, "stands bound over to keep the peace in sureties of £800,000,000." And in Canning's speeches the recent policy of non- intervention stands clearly foreshadowed, though with some hesitation and inconsis- tency in outline. This saying of Mr. Broug- ham had perhaps a different effect to that which he had anticipated. It was so pro- foundly true that it became an argument in favour of non-intervention instead of a satire against it, and events also seemed to show how futile it would have been to have em- broiled the country in foreign complications. The French army had without opposition marched through Spain, where the king was restored amidst popular plaudits. The revolu- tion was at an end, the constitutionalists and the royalists having been so equally matched ihat the balance was turned by the appear- ance of the French troops. A similar result followed in Portugal, and it was not till the French made preparations to force the Spanish South American colonies back to Spain that the English minister spoke out to real purpose. " We will not interfere with Spain," said he, " in any attempt which she may make to reconquer what were once her colonies, but we will not permit any third power to attack or reconquer them for her." This firm protest was followed by a recognition of the independence of the colonies, English consuls being sent to their ports — an example which was soon followed by the government of the United States. But Canning could go still further than this when occasion came for swift decision and vivid indignation. When, in 1826, the Portuguese ambassador in London claimed the aid of England, on the faith of ancient treaties, for the protection of his country from an armed insurrection against the reigning house — pro- moted by French bribery and Spanish in- trigue, the House of Commons was moved to an almost overwhelming enthusiasm by his thrilling eloquence. Of the results of an insurrection fomented by foreign agency he exclaimed, "The consequences of letting loose the passions at present chained and confined would be to produce a scene of desolation which no man can contemplate without hor- ror; and I should not sleep easy on my couch if I were conscious that I had contributed to precipitate it by a single moment. This is the reason — a reason very different from fear — the reverse of a consciousness of disability — why I dread the recurrence of hostilities in any part of Europe ; why I would bear much and forbear long ; why I would put up with almost anything that did not touch national faith and national honour rather than let slip the furies of war, the leash of which we hold in our hand, not knowing whom they may reach or how far their ravages may be carried. Such is the love of peace which the British government acknowledges, and such the ne- cessity for peace which the circumstances of the world inculcate. Let us flee to the aid of Portugal, by whomsoever attacked, because it is our duty to do so; and let us cease our interference where that duty ends. We go to GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES. Portugal, not to rule, not to dictate, not to prescribe constitutions, but to defend and to preserve the independence of an ally. We go to plant the standard of England on the well- known heights of Lisbon. Where that stan- dard is planted foreign dominion shall not come." The eifect of this outburst was electric. Brougham was fired by it with generous en- thusiasm, and rising to support the motion said, " The burdens of the country, however oppressive, will be borne cheerfully through the impending struggle if war should be the result, for now we are governed by wise, liberal, and truly English principles." The resolution passed both houses with such speed that three days afterwiirds 5000 troops were on their way under the command of Sir William Clinton. Li less than a fortnight they were in the Tagus. Ferdinand, " the well- beloved" of Spain, and Charles X. of France, abandoned their joint scheme of intrigue, and the cause of political liberty wsis encouraged all over Europe. The Greeks, however, could receive no such aid, though they appealed to England — for there we were treaty bound, and all that could be given to the people who were being trodden under the Turkish foot could secure only the sympathies of English- men, many of whom, like Lord Byron, had espoused their cause with enthusiasm, and borne arms in their struggles, which after all resulted only in an interminable series of skirmishes, producing little beneficial effect. But during this period of " the peace " we were not without wars on hand — war in India, war with the Ashantees, war in Burmah, all of which were costly ; and aflFairs at home were fuU of disquietude; and yet there was a conspicuous development of those symptoms which denote the approach of a momentous national crisis, where political, social, and in- tellectual forces seem to converge towards a common centre. The humane changes in our penal code were still proceeding, and four bills brought in by Mr. Peel had exchanged the sentence of death for that of penal servi- tude in many ofi^nces which had previously been met by capital punishment. The pro- posed abolition of negro slavery, too, had been brought once more before parliament by Thomas Fowell Buxton, who had moved that the sfeite of slavery was repugnant to the prin- ciples of the British constitution and of the Christian religion, and that it ought to be abolished gradually throughout the British colonies, with as much expedition as may be found consistent with a due regard to the well-being of the parties concerned." With these propositions ISIr. Canning in the main agreed, and in fact these were the views of the moderate abolitionists of that time, as they were a little later of Mr. Gladstone ; but even this prospective instalment of freedom for the negroes was resented by the planters, some of whom proceeded to emphasize their opposition by acts of violence and cruelty, which pi'obably hastened the clianges that they denounced as being contrary to their interests. In the following session (18i24) the offence of engaging in the slave-trade was declared to be piracy, and punishable with death. Nor was some advance in the direction of free- trade altogether wanting during the period of Mr. Canning's influence. Some of the bounties which had been commercially injuri- ous were removed, the absolute prohibition of the importation of foreign silks was aban- doned, and commercial treaties were concluded with Prussia, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Mr. Huskisson was not satisfied with tliis, however, and by 1825 he had shown how those industries which had been most closely protected by excessive duties had been gradu- ally diminishing. He proposed to reduce such duties to an amount which would only just counterbalance those placed on the raw material of manufacture. Trade with our colonies was encouraged, the large fees at colonial ports were reduced, the duties on sugar from the Mauritius was assimilated to that charged on sugar from the West Indies. The reduction of duties I'eferred to the cotton, woollen, and linen trades, metals, raw mate- rials of manufactures and foreign-imported glass, books, paper, and wool, and it included the removal of quarantine d\jties and the abolition of various fees. The measure also comprehended the reduction of taxes on many articles of food and general consumption, It EBENEZEK ELLIOTT. 23 was, ia fact, a significant movement in the direction of free-trade, and when it is added that corn was to be allowed to be imported from Canada for two years on payment of a mode- rate duty, we may also regard the proposal as the initiatory measure for the repeal of the corn-laws. For by ai'dent reformei-s the corn- laws were regarded as the most odions enact- ment of all those which it was believed a thorough change in the system of parliamen- tary election would sweep away; — the denun- ciation of them was fierce and bitter ; and the Corn Bill passed in the session of 1828, by which a sliding-scale with a medium or pivot duty of between 64s. and 65s. was introduced as an expedient, was not sufficient to pacify the popular demand. The Corn-laws — it is a phrase that will not be kept out of these pages for a good while yet. There was not a form of ruin to farm- ers, to merchants, to manufacturer, to shop- keepers, to peasants, to working men, to throne and axmy, church and state, that was not prophesied, decade after decade, wherever a voice was raised for the repeal of the corn- laws. Many able men uttered such prophesies, but not one of them has come true. Among the causes which contributed towards what some would call the "ripening of the ques- tion " must be reckoned the influence of Eben- ezer Elliott, a Sheffield iron-dealer, who was best known during his lifetime and for some years afterwards as the Corn-law Ehymer. The work he did between 1823 and 1830, as a pioneer of the agitation which led to the repeal of the " Bread-tax," as he called it, lies clearly in our path. His "Corn-law Rhymes" and many others of his verses are not reprinted in the latest edition of his works, and some of them are so bitter, not to say coarse, that fastidious modern readers will not ask to have them reprinted. But powerful many of them were, and all of them characteristic of the times. Though Mr. Elliott did very well in business on the whole, and retired at last with a good income, to live on an estate bought out of his gains, he had, like the great man in Messina, "losses,to go to!" These,withagreat many other evils, personal and public, he attributed to the corn-laws, which he did not spare in his verses. He wrote other poetry, which was honoured with praise from Wilson (Christopher North) in5?arfwoo(i, and Southey in the Quarterly Review; but of course rhymes such as we will now quote as illustrations were not admired by men like these, nor by Bulwer- Lytton, who also had a kind word for the poet pure and simple. Here is a portion of one of the corn-law poems : — " Child, is thy father dead? Father is gone ! Why did they tax his h^ead ? God's will be done ! Mother has sold her bed ; Better to die than wed ! Where shall she lay her head ? Home we have none ! ^^ Father clamm'd thi'ice a week — God's will be done ! Long for work did he seek, Work he found none. Tears on his hollow cheek Told what no tongue could speak : Why did his master break ? God's will be done !" It may well be supposed that when once rhymes like these found a public, they told, for there is real power in them. It is almost a wonder that some of the " rhymes" escaped the notice of the attorney-general : — " Ye coop us up, and tax our bread, And wonder why we pine ; And ye are fat, and round, and red, And filled with tax-bought wine. * * * * " Haste ! Savoc*s torch begins to glow — The ending is begun ; Make haste ! Destruction thinks ye slow; Make haste to be undone ! Why are ye called ' my lord ' and ' squire,' While fed by mine and me, And wringing food, and clothes, and fire From bread-taxed misery?" Public speakers, if not public writers, have been sent to prison or transported for lan- guage less virulent than this— Thomas Cooper, Henry Vincent, and the Eev. J. E. Stephens are names in point, and they all suffered at a much later date, when a Liberal government was in power. In the "Blucherloo" rhymes, from which we extract a verse or two, the bitterness is extreme. " Famineton " for Wellington, as a 24 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES. friend of the corn-laws, might pass ; but the double sinister meaning in Blucherloo is very unpleasant. The covert suggestion is that Blucher was the real winner of the battle of Waterloo, and there is a secondary reference to the Peterloo massacre : — "Who is praised by dolt and sinner? Who serves masters more than one ? Bkicherloo, the bread-tax-wiimer ; Bread-tax-winning Famineton. " BUioherloo, the bread -tax-winner ! Whom enriched thy battles won ? Whom does Dirt-grub ask to dinner? — Bread-tax-winning Famineton. " Prussia fattens — we get thinner ! Bread-tax barters all for none : Bravo ! Arthur, bread-tax- winner ! Shallow, halt-brained Famineton ! " This is almost unpardonably brutal and spiteful, and we have been sparing in our extracts. We will venture on one more quota- tion, for the power there is in the last six lines : — " Make haste, slow rogues ! prohibit trade. Prohibit honest gain ; Turn all the good that God hath made To fear, and hate, and pain ; Till beggars all, assassins all. All cannibals we be. And death shall have no funeral From shipless sea to sea." These strange, savage verses will help to give the reader of to-day some notion of the fierce hatred with which not only the corn- laws, but those who defended them, were looked upon sixty years ago. But the shocking ferocity which seems to characterize some of Elliott's invectives, though they are significant of the intense political animosity of the time, should not be taken as illustrative of the whole body of Reformers. The Corn Laws still represented the crushing , eifeots of the protective system upon the poor, and as that system was upheld by the Tories, these violent denunciations were directed against those members of the government who defended the bread-tax. Very different indeed was the attitude taken by some of the most pronounced advocates of principles which even the majority of the Liberals regarded as dangerous and revolutionary. Among the most remarkable of these preachers of a new departure for humanity was Robert Owen. The chief idea which lay at the bottom of the political activity that manifested such numerous and powerful signs in the period which we are briefly reviewing, was no doubt that by the removal of certain restrictions, and the more equal distribution of power, the ex- ternal conditions of life would be made much easier; above all, that poverty and crime would be diminished. But there was another idea rising into importance, and it was the dominant, whatever appeared upon the sur- face. This was the idea of what science, education, and co-operation in gathering and applying useful knowledge can do for us all, with no direct reference to politics. At the present day it may be said that the two currents have met and joined each other ; but at first they were distinct. The story of the French revolution had taught even the most sanguine of "peoples' politicians" that mankind cannot be made happy by changing the machinery of the state ; and popular hopes, in this country at least, took a new departure. " Let us have railways ; let us have all that science can do and teach; let us have music; let us co-oper- ate ; let us do all we can for each other. Let us have schools, universities, singing-classes, mechanics' institutes, and cheap literature." All this is little enough, considered merely as a hint of what we all know did actually occur; ■ but considered as the first wave of a social inundation which eventually made a junction with the great political current, it is to the last degree significant. To this sphere of thought and experiment belongs Robert Owen, the founder of infant schools, and one of the most harmless, simple- hearted, benevolent fanatics that ever lived. It is well within the memory of middle-aged men and women what names of terror "Social- ism " and Robert Owen once were. But this was at a later date, and was not altogether un- reasonable, though Mr. Owen remained all his life the same strictly moral, temperate, kind- hearted enthusiast. Owen, so far as his ulti- mate theories are concerned, might perhaps be called a pocket Fourier — though all such THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION. 25 names are open to dispute. Fourier, at all events, was a man who wanted to see every- body happy; who thought happiness could be attained by co-operation ; and who was totally destitute of poetic sensibility. How he proposed to deal with certain " supersti- tions of the heart" we shall not say here; but it is safe to mention that he thought it would conduce to human happiness if the bed of the ocean were made useful in the shape of an Immense reservoir of lemonade, pro homo pub- lico. Owen had just as little poetry in him, and just as little humour. It may be men- tioned that towards the close of his long life he became a spiritist and a firm believer in a future state. Londoners and perhaps others will remember his placards announcing the near approach of the millennium, and inviting all the world to go and inspect an invention of his which was to facilitate it. This was a new instrument of war bearing the veiy mil- lennial name of "The Devastator" — an engine of such power that fighting must cease because nothing could resist it. That was the man. But what Mr. Eobert Owen did at the New Lanai-k Mills in that early portion of his career which comes within our present immediate scope ought never to be forgotten. A factory or mill district man- aged on similar principleSj with vice and vio- lence banished, and evei-y civilizing agency provided for the workers — from infant schools upwards — is nothing new now. But then it was what the Grermans call an " epoch-mak- ing" experiment. Crowned heads, our own royal dukes, men like Brougham, and men better than Brougham, went to take lessons from what was to be seen at New Lanark — and the lessons have not been forgotten. Those who at once shrink with horror from his religious opinions and laugh at his socialistic experiments, may well remember with grati- tude the immense influence he exercised by hammering away as he did nearly all his life at " the influences of circumstances," and the importance of early tr ainin g. In the year 1827 Mr. Owen had already exhausted his first experiments. It is true that amono- other visitors to his socialistic factory and infant schools at New Lanark was the emperor Nicholas of Bussia, who, in a two hours' conversation before his departure, said, "As your coxmtry is overpeopled, I will take you and two millions of population with you, all in similar manufacturing commimi- ties." Mr. Owen declined this proposal, as his hands were neaily full enough already, and not long afterwards he went to North America, purchased a large tract of land in Indiana, and founded a community called " New Harmony," which was such a failure that in ahout fom- years (in 1S27) he was again in London and beginning afresh to organize a society on socialistic principles at Ormiston, another at Tytherley in Hamp- shire, and a labour exchange in London. But several important events occurred to give, for a time, a new direction to political activity. Another element in the great com- bination of forces that were to change the whole coui-se of English history had already begun to work towards that end. On the 5th of January the Duke of York died. He had been the uncompromising opponent of the claims of Roman Catholics to political eman- cipation; — a man who, in spite of many faults, a cei-tain reckless extravagance and a remai'k- able degree of obstinacy, was greatly hked by those who knew him well, and, as commander- in-chief of the British forces, was a favourite with the army, in which he had introduced many reforms and a high degree of efficiency. By his death the Duke of Clarence became heir-presumptive to the crown, and the posi- tion of commander-in-chief could only be conferred on one man — the Duke of "Wel- lington. On the reassembling of parhament it was felt that the demands of the Eoman Catholics must again be heard, and they were at once revived by Sir Francis Burdett, who presented a petition from Ireland. No incident could more certainly have excited the opposition of the anti-Catholic pai-ty in the house and in the country. Already there had been a Catholic Association in Ireland, the proceedings of which had led to its being included among the societies whose seditious or dangerous demonstrations had led to their suppression; but six months afterwards it had been reconstituted, while its funds were 26 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. supplied by free gifts which were collected or demanded from the disaffected Irish people under the name of "rent," and were (among other purposes) spent in influencing the elec- tions of members of parliament. The Catholic Association was certainly one of the most for- midable agitations that had ever been carried on in any country, and it had a leader who was eminently capable of governing it and of bringing it to a successful issue, since he had the extraordinary art of exciting his followers to a pitch which nearly approached treason and insurrection, and yet of so restraining them at the critical moment that he could afterwards refute any definite charge of hav- ing fomented either sedition or revolution. When it had been attempted to obtain a con- viction against him the bills had been ignored by the jury, nor could the charge be sus- tained. The Association, however, was to be suppressed by parliamentary interference, on which O'Connell said, "Well, should they be displeased at the formation of this room, or our meeting in it, why, we can build another: if they object to the denomination which we have given ourselves, why, we can change it with that of board, or committee, or even directory. If they prohibit our meeting, surely they cannot prevent our assembling to dine together. This Association is the crea- ture of the Penal Code, and as long as Catholic disabilities exist so long must some organ have its being through which to convey our complaints, to proclaim our grievances, and to demand their redress." All this, it will be seen, though strong, and with a certain covert significance peeping through its bon- homie, was said in a kind of genial, rollicking manner which at times could rise to an expres- sive and even vehement earnestness, and when it is remembered that the Orange societies frequently committed unprovoked attacks and insults on the Eoman Catholics, and even interfered with them while they were on their way to their chapels, it is easy to understand not only that there were frequent scenes of violent retaliation, but that political feeling was at its highest pitch. It needed a rare man to control such an organi- zation as the Catholic Association became, and Daniel O'Connell was that man — and by no means merely the rather vulgar and blusterous demagogue which he is now some- times represented to have been. Agitators are, as a rule, soon forgotten, and not even he, perhaps the ablest that ever lived, has left as vivid an impression upon the popular mind as might have been expected. He was a man of immense force of character, a wit and humourist, an exceed- ingly eloquent speaker, and a truly genial friend. He produced an immense effect upon his time, when he first appeared decisively upon the scene of English politics in the year 1828, about a year after he had reconstituted the Association, and when the Catholic Emanci- pation Bill was about to be passed. He was then about forty-three years of age. He had been and still was a very successful pr.acti- tioner at the Irish bar. He was a good lawyer, and an advocate of the first class, always sinking himself in the cause of his client. In those days counsel were not allowed to address the juiy for the prisoner, but they could cross-examine witnesses. O'Connell had an unexampled and usually triumphant trick of making up for the want of a speech by putting to the witnesses questions which he knew would be challenged, and then argu- ing the point with the judge in a way which was practically an appeal to the jury. The stories of his adroitness are innumerable. There is one which is too good to be omitted. He once defended a man named Hogan who was charged with murder. A hat, believed to be the prisoner's, was found close to the body of the murdered man, and this was the principal ground for suspecting Hogan. The crown counsel made a strong point of the hat, which was produced in court. O'Connell cross-examined the neighbour of the prisoner, who identified it. " It is not different from other hats," said O'Connell. " Well, seemingly not, but I know the hat." " Are you perfectly sure that this was the hat found near the body?" " Sartin sure." O'Connell proceeded to inspect the caubeen, and turned up the lining as he peered into the interior. " Was the prisoner's name, Pat Hogan" (he gave out each letter slowly), "in it at the time you CANNING'S ADMINISTEATION. 27 found it?" " 'Twas, of coorse." " You could not be mistaken'!" " No, sir." " And all you have sworn is as true as that?" "Quite." "Then go off the table this minute!" cried O'Connell, triumphantly, and, addressing the judge, he said, "My lord, there can be no conviction here. There is no name on the hat!" The prisoner was at once acquitted. O'ConneU's gifts both of abuse and " blar- ney" were both supposed to be unrivalled, and these were, of course, powerful weapons in a career of agitation, especially among a people like the Irish. Add to all this the handsome presence, the air of rollicking care- lessness, beneath which lay the subtlest cau- tion, not to say cunning, the daring, the warmth of heart, the singleness of purpose, and the immense gregariousness of nature; and O'ConneU's power over his countrymen becomes intelligible, though at first sight some of the acts by which he proved that power seem well-nigh incredible. In the stormy times which occurred while the cause of Catholic emancipation was yet undecided — the storms being mainly of his own lashing up — he is said, by his mere word, to have turned back upon their march a body of 50,000 men. With consummate skill he long continued to maintain an organization which was a con- stant menace to the government, and enabled him to bully the administration and the coun- try, and yet to hold himself and his supporters on the legally safe side of riot and insurrection. Had Canning lived Catholic emancipation might have been achieved with more dignity and with greater credit to the government than afterwards attended the measure; for the great minister had now reached to the high position which he was so well able to sustain. The health of Lord Liverpool had long been weak, and in February, 1827, his condition was hopeless. On the 25th of March Canning was commanded by the king to con- sider how a cabinet should be formed, with some one at the head of it who would hold the same opinions as Lord Liverpool. Can- ning at once replied that if an opinion opposed to the Roman Catholic claims was a condition of the premiership, he would not be the per- son who would represent the policy of coer- cion, but that his majesty had better form an Anti-Catholic administration. But the king knew the importance of retaining the brilliant and able minister, and was disinclined to re- linquish his services for those of a cabinet with "Wellington and Peel at its head, and the whole influence of the Catholics and the sup- porters of religious liberty opposed to it. Can- ning, too, was eminently popular, although he never yielded to the demands for parliamen- tary reform. The result was that on the 10th of April he was commissioned to form a ministry — a task of no small difficulty, since it was preceded by the resignation of the Duke of Wellington, Mr. Peel, Lord -chan- cellor Eldon, Lord Westmoreland, Lord Bath- urst, and Lord Melville. These noblemen expected by their sudden defection to give the king a lesson and to intimidate the new prime minister. But the House of Commons wel- comed Canning with genuine ardour. One excellent stroke of policy followed the resig- nation of Lord Melville, who had been first lord of the admiralty — namely, the appoint- ment of the Duke of Clarence (afterwards William IV., " the sailor king ") as lord high admiral — an office which had long been in abeyance. The prince was highly gratified by becoming the head of the navy, and his taking office under the great commoner, whose unendowed birth and untitled fame had been made into obstacles to his achieving a position among the aristocracy of the realm, had the effect at once of securing a working ministry to which the Whigs, and even the Radicals following Sir Francis Burdett, could give their support. But the opposition was constant and vehe- ment. Canning, with all his great talents, his brilliant vivacity of wit, and his knowledge of debate, was at the head of a "scratch" cabinet, and was opposed to a strong phalanx accustomed to parliamentary obstruction, and carrying the influence of official prestige, wealth, and great social position in the coun- try. It is true that several of the peers took office in the new ministry, and that some of the former government returned, but the opposition was of a double character. The 28 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. Tories represented that Canning had aban- doned his old party convictions and had be- come an anomalous politician; the Whigs were not satisfied with his adhesion to only one great Liberal measure — Catholic emanci- pation; and the Eadicals gave him of course only a temporary support, especially when he declared his determination to oppose parlia- mentary reform and the repeal of the Test Act. In the latter case he perhaps thought the Test Act would, if passed, delay the larger measure of Catholic emancipation, to which he was ardently committed. But this cause, of which he had proclaimed himself the supporter, was not yet to be won, nor was he to witness its success. The opposition succeeded in theirtactics of delay, irritation, and perpetual interposition. An attempt to pass a corn bill, which had been sanctioned by Lord Livei^jool, was frustrated in the House of Lords; and, to provide against actual scarcity during the parliamentary recess, Canning was obliged to frame a bill for the release of foreign com from bond, which was rapidly passed through both houses. Was there not some excuse for Ebenezer Elliott's ferocious verses, after all? Antagonism to the ministry, and especially to its chief, grew into a vehement and unscrupu- lous party war, and though the Whigs had ceased to urge any other than a very gradual parliamentary reform, the subject was forced upon parliament because of the corrupt prac- tices in various boroughs. Lord Althoqj ob- tained a committee of inqtiiry iuto the mode of taking the poll at coxinty elections, with a view to get rid of the enormous expenses. These expenses were illustrated by the return of the cost of the Yorkshire election, which amounted to ^120,000, even though it had never come to a poll, while if the poll had lasted fifteen days, it would have cost half a million of money. A bill was also brought in for the better prevention of corrupt practices at elec- tions, and was designed to put a stop to the creation of small offices as brilaes to electors employed by candidates, who were claswed as plumpjers and acted as banner-bearers, musi- cians, niriiiers, &c. Tlie bill was passed, the officials employed by an elector were forbidden to vote, and a penalty was attached to the distribution of cockades, ribbons, or decora- tions as marks of distinction. This was comparatively little, but it was something as an instalment, or rather as a slight forecast of the great enfranchisement which could not much longer be delayed. More unsuccessful was the attemjjt to miti- gate the severity of the game laws, under which about 4500 persons had been imprisoned during the previous three years— the only amendment effected being by a bill forbidding the setting of spring-guns and other engines of destruction to life or limb, for the pre- servation of game. It was during this session, however, that Mr. Peel, at such times as he was not engaged in harassing the ministry, completed his inestimable improvements in the criminal law, by means of the five acts which constituted the law of offences against property, diminished the number of capital crimes, and instituted summary procedure in trying small offences. This was all sigjiificant and worthy work, and Mr. Canning, who was chancellor of the exchequer as well as premier — an examjjle which has been followed by Mr, Gladstone in late years — expressed his determination to re- duce the national expenditure to the lowest possible amount. But, alas ! he was already suffering not only from great mental anxiety and the effects of his arduous position, but from such physical prostration that only his high courage and remarkable intellectual vigour could have enabled him to maintain the fight against his opponents. On the 29th of ,June, 1827, he had spoken in the house, on the 2d of -July parliament was prorogued; on the 6th, one earrjest desire of the great man's heart was fulfilled by the sigriing in London of a treaty between Erjgland, France, and Piussia, for the protection of Greece from the barbarous oppression of Turkey, under the sultan, who had employed the crafty and cruel Mehemet Ali, and his barbarous prot6g6 lhr■d^dm Pacha, as the instruments of his tyranny. After mucli loss of life, repeated misrepresentations and deceptions on the part of the Turkish and Egyptian governments, and continual skirmishes with Greek pirates, who attacked friend and foe with impiutial neu- BENJAMIN DISEAELI. 29 trality, the united fleets of the triple alliance came to close quarters in the Bay of Navarino, where, while terms were being demanded, some accident or mistake caused the discharge of a volley of small arms from the Turkish batteries, and this in turn led to the tremendous engage- ment by which the independence of Greece was virtually secured. This achievement, his cherished purpose, might have been turned to complete account by Canning, had he lived to confirm it, but he died some weeks before the battle. The signing of the treaty was his last public act, and he was greatly elated by it, for from the time when as an Eton school- boy he had written a poem of lamentation on " the slavery of Greece," he had been at one with most of the classical scholars and poets of the time in desiring the freedom of the Greeks from the Mussulman yoke. When the treaty was signed he went to Chiswick, to the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, there to rest and to recruit his health, which had been further impaired by a chill caught by attending the funeral of his great political opponent, the Duke of York. But his disease (internal in- flammation) increased with alarming rapidity, and on the 8th of August he died in the very room in which Fox, his great predecessor, had breathed his last. He was buried in West- minster Abbey, and his widow was raised to the peerage with a pension of ^3000 a year, to be continued to her eldest boy (for Canning had no fortune to leave); but the eldest son, who was in the navy, was drowned five months afterwards, while bathing at Madeira. The death of the great minister caused a profound sensation in the country, and amidst a wide circle of sorrowing admirers, but pro- bably he had few more sincere and earnest mourners than his friends in Liverpool, and especially the family of Mr. Gladstone. Of the efiect which the loss of their eminent friend had upon the young student who had then left Eton and was preparing to enter at Ox- ford, it is nobody's province to speak. The eulogium to which we have already referred was written shortly afterwards, and that is itself an indication that the sentiment was deep; but we must remember that William Ewart Gladstone was little more than a child when he was in the frequent habit of seeing Canning at his father's house, and that while he was at Eton these opportunities could not have been very frequent, though he doubtless followed the details of the brilliant career of his admired patron with all the enthusiasm of a schoolboy. During the period from the time of his leaving Eton, from 1827 to 1829, Mr. Glad- stone has no biography which concerns the reader who seeks to associate him with the political and social history of his time. He was then engaged on a course of private study which afterwards largely contributed to his academical successes, and perhaps also to the eminent position which he took in the Oxford Union, the principal college debating society of the time, and the school in which many famous orators had first fledged their rhetorical wings. As early as the year 1827 we find another remarkable man preparing himself and the world for the appearance of a most striking flgure upon the stage of British politics. This was Benjamin Disraeli, now the Earl of Beaconsfield. His father lived to see him famous, but it would be out of place here tO' trace the family history any further than the facts are significant. Benjamin Disraeli, the grandfather, was a member of a Hebrew family, which, as is pretty well known, had a story both in Spain and Italy. He came to England, however, in 1748, and made a for- tune in London. Isaac Disraeli, his son, was a remarkable man. He is familiar to all reading men in his gossiping book The Curi- osities of Literature, and some other books of similar quality ; but he took much interest in political history, and wrote Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles I. ; and another work relating to the same era, EZiot, Ramp- den, and Pym. His eldest son, Benjamin,, whose name wiU from this date be frequently before us, was carefully educated in private under the superintendence of his father, and was subsequently articled to a solicitor. But he was very soon contributing to Mr. Murray's newspaper. The Representative — a Tory jour- nal in which old Mr. Murray was accustomed dolefully to say ^40,000 had been sunk — ia 30 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. vain, for the newspaper had a short life and an unremimerative one. When Mr. Disraeli was not quite twenty-two years of age, namely, in 1826, he published Vivia7i Grey, a novel of the most extraordinary cynical brilliancy, and showing signs of an amazing know- ledge of the world. In the same year, 1827, was written the political jeu-d'esprit of Popa- nilla. From neither of these books is it pos- sible to extract any clue to the author's first principles. They are from end to end written in that spirit of persiflage which has seemed to sit so well upon him at a hundred points in his career. Here is a passage from JPopanilla, which perhaps lets us a little way into the author's mind. A Utilitarian orator having told his audience that all "he said must be true because it consisted entirely of first prin- ciples," the author appends this footnote: — " First principles are the ingredients of posi- tive truth. They are immutable, as may be seen by comparing the first principles of the eighteenth century with the first principles of the nineteenth.'' Mr. Disraeli went abroad, visiting Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Syria, and afterwards made good use of the knowledge he acquired by travel. On his return to England, though he had not long before been actively engaged on a Tory paper, he stood on Eadical prin- ciples for Wycombe — Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Joseph Hume recommending him to the ultra- Liberals. He was defeated by Colonel Grey, but the then premier. Earl Grey, put the ques- tion, " Who is he?" and Mr. Disraeli made this the title of a pamphlet, copies of which are now extremely rare. But other references to the early life of Mr. Gladstone's great opponent will occur in the course of this history. All we are now concerned to do is to introduce the young Disraeli to our readers as he stood preparing for the great spring, and to point out the serious mistake which is made by writers who describe him as having been " a penniless adventurer.'' One publicist has ac- tually gone so far as to use the words, "ragged bedevilment" as a description of the position of the author of Popanilla when he wrote it. There is a portrait by Maclise of the young Disraeli when he was very young and a con- stant visitor at the " receptions " of the Countess of Blessington at Gore House. He is dressed in what may be called the extreme of fashion. He wears frills at his wrists and rings on his fingers; his hair is in exquisite as well as luxuriant curl; his attire is the climax of ■what might have been in those days the fashionable D'Orsay style. He figures as what Mr. Carlyle would term " a dandiacal body." He is leaning against a pillar in an attitude of dignified semi-melancholy, and certainly looks a remarkable man, who will, as the French say, " go farther." After the death of Canning there was so much difficulty in forming a strong govern- ment that in seven months three administra- tions had unsuccessfully attempted to carry on the affairs of the country. The latest of these was that of Lord Goderich, under whom Mr. Huskisson undertook the war secretary- ship and the colonial department — the Duke of Wellington resuming the command in chief of the army. But on the 8th of January, 1828, after the battle of Navarino, Lord Goderich resigned, and the king sent for the duke and instructed him to form a new ministry. With characteristic honesty Wellington had on a previous occasion declared his unfitness for the premiership, and it was now with the utmost reluctance that he consented to occupy that position. His sense of the duty of obey- ing the royal command, and the emergency of the case, overcame his scruples, however, and he addressed himself to the difficult task of consti-ucting a cabinet which was eventually composed of those friends of Mr. Canning who were already in ofiice, and of the Tories who were ready to return to it. The ministry mainly consisted of the men who had resisted both parliamentary reform and the Catholic claims; but among those who took office were many whose names will again appear in the forefront of the history of the country, and in the narrative of its progress. Mr. Peel became secretary for the home department, Lord Dudley and Ward secretary for foreign affairs. Lord Lyndhurst retained the lord chancellorship, Mr. Goulburn was made chan- O'CONNELL'S DECLARATION. 31 cellor of the exchequer, the Earl of Aberdeen was chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster, and Lord Palmerston continued as secretary for war. The Marquis of Anglesey was ap- pointed Lord-lieutenant of Ireland ; and Mr. Huskisson, who was taunted for remaining in office and accused of having deserted his former principles, was still colonial secretary. Before the end of the session, however, Mr. Huskisson, who had voted against his govern- ment on the question of transferring to Man- chester the elective franchise which had been forfeited by East Eetford, wrote to the Duke of Wellington that he considered it to be his duty to afford him an opportunity of placing the office of colonial secretary in other hands. Mr. Huskisson afterwards declared that he did not intend this as a resignation, but the duke insisted on regarding it as such, and there was therefore a rupture in the cabinet, which led to the retirement of Lord Palmer- ston, Lord Dudley and Ward, and Mr. Grant, who was the head of the Board of Trade — their places being filled by the Earl of Aber- deen, Sir Henry Hardinge, and Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald, the member for Clare, who was an advocate of Catholic emancipation. Ca- tholic emancipation was to be achieved under a ministry, the members of which had mostly been its avowed and inveterate antagon- ists. The time had arrived when it could no longer be refused or deferred, but the harangues of Shell and the enormous influence of O'Connell were met by such violent hostile demonstrations on the part of the Orange societies of Ireland, that the country appeared to be on the brink of civil war. At the same time it was impossible to suppress the or- ganized agitation which had been resumed on the revival of the Catholic Association, nor could the charge of treason or sedition be maintained against its leader. When proceed- ings had been taken against him in 1825, he had addressed his supporters as follows: — " I deny that sedition could be fairly imputed to the words that I spoke on the occasion which gave birth to this prosecution. I never denied those principles of a parliamentary reform which I hold in common with you, sir (the chairman); but I am also firmly attached to British connection as useful to Ireland. I am a friend to the British constitution, under such an arrangement as will secure equal laws and equal rights, and a full participation of the British constitution and of natural liberty, by which the one shall not be the mistress nation, and the other that of slaves, — by which we shall be brother freemen of a free state; and have been always ready to support that con- nection, to ensure its solidity, and to wipe from off it the mildews and rust of oppres- sion. For this my blood is ready to flow to the last drop. I am firmly and conscientiously attached to an hereditary government, because I know that the fixity of the succession is the security for individual property — that the stability of government is thereby ensured, and consequently the plan and security of society; and to the august personage who now fills the throne I am dutifully attached, because I saw his eye glisten with joy when confiding his person, unarmed and unguarded, to the loyalty, gratitude, and aifection of his Irish people. I am attached to him from my admiration of that genuine liberality which induced a king to proclaim that the differences of the Christian religious communities cannot lead to any difference in the enjoyments of civil and political rights in the countries com- posing the Germanic confederation. (I wish the German privileges were extended to Ire- land.) What name is attached to that pro- clamation 1 It is that of George the Fourth of England, the name of the first English king that came on the mission of peace to Ireland — a king that, by his Hanoverian proclama- tion, has proved that if his inclinations were not overruled by the malignant influence of that barbarous policy which has so long en- slaved Irishmen — that if left to the exercise of his genuine sentiments, he would long since have smitten the foul demon of intolerance that has so long stalked abroad, scattering in its course disunion and dismay, death and poverty. He has declared it a principle that the man is a tyrant who interferes between the consciences of his brother-man and his God. And that it is an insult to reason, and invasion of natural liberty, to say to any man he is merely tolerated in worshipping his God 32 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTBMPOEAEIES. as he shall think fit. Of the peerage and the wisdom of that institution I am a supporter, from a conviction of its advantages to society. The peerage is allied to that legitimate ambition which animates the soldier, the sailor, the scholar, and the man of science, and in no profession is it more predominant than in my own. It is that legitimate ambi- tion which burns the midnight lamp, and con- sumes the day ere the sun has risen. The peerage is the oiFspring of that ambition which is useful to country and kind, making liberty valuable, and giving security to the throne and the people. The next object of my devotion is that institution which gives the people a voice in appointing their portion of their legislature ; but not that system which deludes with words and immoral privileges, and gives nothing substantial to the possessors. But this feeling on the subject of reform I defy my maligners to say I have ever suffered to interfere with or influence my conduct in the management of Catholic afiairs, or the business of this association. Yet I would not be thought to be indifferent to parliamentary reform; but while sectarian intolerance is suffered to rear its hydra head, so long will parliamentary abuses continue ; and my first object, and that nearest my heart, is that the sectarian differences of Irishmen may be dis- solved into an union of national sentiment, giving peace and security to the entire country, and strength to the united empire. I would ask, Can my ambition be mistaken? Have I not, as my talented friend Mr. Shell has said, given seven hostages to the state as security for my fidelity? and have I not a profession, the most abundant in its return for my labours? and had I not that profession, I have a pro- perty sufficient to support me in a style of independence suitable to my station as the descendant of one of the most ancient families of the land. Then should I not be the most doating driveller in existence to imagine that at my age, and under my circumstances, I could be a gainer, or that my country would be benefited by an armed organization of barefooted, turbulent, undisciplined peasantry against the marshalled troops of Europe? No, I should rather submit to the consequences of our present degradation than that a single tear should make any portion of the cup of doubtful happiness to be obtained by a na- tional commotion. With these feelings, and under this impression, we have associated for the attainment of Catholic emancipation, and while we remain shackled we shall never cease to struggle to free ourselves from our fetters while we remain unredressed." This speech sufficiently indicates the posi- tion assumed by the "great agitator," who could declare not only his patriotism, but his loyalty, and at the same time had at his entire command so large a body pf men that he was able at any moment to menace the government. The ministry, however, was elsewhere as- sailed by those who professed to see in the pre- miership of the Duke of Wellington an attempt to establish a military despotism ; an utterly unfounded assumption, but one which for a time answered the purpose of a party cry. Brougham, who in a long and eloquent speech had unsuccessfully urged a wide measure of parliamentary reform, was partly responsible for this insinuation, and it was during his attack on the government that he had uttered the famous phrase, "the school- master is abroad;" but in addition to the denunciations of their opponents, the ministry had now to endure the reproaches of their own party, who charged them with pusilla- nimity for neglecting to take stronger measures for putting an end to the Catholic Association, to suppress which they had more than three years before demanded and obtained extra- ordinary powers from pai-liament, and which had now grown to "a giant's stature and a tyrant's strength.'' The solicitor-general for Ireland was obliged to represent that any attempt at a prosecution against an individual member of the association was futile, that it was impossible to draw up a bill of indict- ment against seven millions of people, and that the Act of 1825 was intended only to precede measures of concession towards the Irish Catholics. This was in fact to be the order of pro- cedure of the government. A measure of repression was first to be proposed for the PEEL'S DEFENCE OF CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 3S abolition of the Catholie Association, and it was to be immediately followed by an act wMch should, at least for a time, satisfy the Catholic party in Ireland and so ensure the security of the Irish Protestant Church, which was already in danger. But it was soon felt that no half measures would be effectual, and the Act of Suppression once passed it became necessary at once to carry a measure of Catholic emancipation. Mr. Peel was the first to yield, and, with his usual integrity, he appealed at once to the Duke of Welling- ton, at the same time expressing his earnest desire, for the sake of consistency, to resign his oifice, and to give the government an independent support. On the same grounds he afterwards tendered the resignation of his seat as the representative of Oxford — and the resignation was accepted. His friends put him again in nomination, but he was defeated by Sir Eobert Harry Inglis, a thorough anti-emancipationist — and was im- mediately returned for the borough of West- bury. The Duke of Wellington, however, had already seen the necessity for averting an in- surrection, saving the government, and pre- venting a great national calamity, by satisfying the demands of the Irish Eoman Catholics. The great difliculty was to persuade the king to accept the proposal — for though George the Fourth had once been on the side of the Whigs he was now the most uncompromising op- ponent both of parliamentary reform and of Catholic emancipation. The duke himself would wiUingly have resigned office rather than have appeared as the promoter of a mea- sure to which he had always given unhesitat- ing opposition; but he could not break up the only strong government which had been formed since the death of Canning, and he was re- luctant to let in the Whigs, who would have carried measures stUl more discordant to the king. On the 11th of December, after he had joined Mr. Peel and Lord Lyndhurst in examining the question, the duke wrote to the Eoman Catholic primate of Ireland — intimating that on some distant day the Ca- tholic claims might be safely granted. Mr. Peel drew up a document stating his reasons for the prompt concession of emancipation, and Vol. I. the securities which he believed might be suf- ficient to prevent the dangers to be appre- hended from it. With this -the duke waited on the king, and after considerable difficulty prevailed on him to consent with an ill grace and an almost childish temper to what had by that time become inevitable. In the month of March the Catholic Emancipation Bill was introduced to the House of Commons — with two other measures, one for the disfranchise- ment of the forty-shilling freeholders, and the other for suppressing the Catholic Associa- tion. Both of these latter bills passed readily enough; but the opposition to the former was tremendous. The Orange Tory party was furious. They declared, not without some show of truth, that they had been betrayed by their leaders, and demanded a dissolution of parliament, which might have enabled them to frustrate the proposed measure. On the other hand, the majority of the Dissentei-s were equally antagonistic, and joined the clergy in their efforts against the ministry. Even in the ranks of the government itself there was vehement opposition to a measure which had so long been regarded as a kind of test of consistency, and the attorney-general. Sir C. Wetherell, made a violent and abusive speech against his superiors in office, declaring that he " had no speech to eat up — no apostasy disgrace- fully to explain — no paltry subterfuge to re- sort to" — that "they might have turned him out of office; but he would not be made such a dirty tool as to draw that bUl." Of coui-se they did turn him out of office, and thereby increased their difficulties; but Mr. Peel was now com- mitted to the measure, which his colleagues felt must be introduced by him who had framed and could best defend it. He did defend it with an ability and patience which successfully commended it to the Whigs, who gave to it a support that compensated for the defection of the Tory friends of the govern- ment: — he also defended himself against the repeated charge of inconsistency and the abandonment of his former political principles. "The rejection of this measure,'' said he, "will be productive of danger to a degree which can scarcely be credited. It will destroy the re- concilement which had been already effected: 3 34 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. it will elevate the lower classes of partisans on one side, and depress them on the other, and will thus widen, to a most lamentable extent, the breach which is almost healed be- tween the two parties. That is a considera- tion to which I am sure every member of the house will give its due weight, no matter what objection he may have to the abstract policy of these measures. He may think that we are in the wrong; — he may condemn us for acting as we have done ; but it will be per- fectly consistent in him to argue, that, having once brought such measures forward, we can- not avert the evils which are inseparable from their rejection. On these grounds I entreat the house, and every member who has in- fluence in the house, to pause before they come to a judgment this night. I am willing to submit my conduct to public revision ; but I must at the same time contend, that if any member thinks that the consequence of re- jecting these measures wiU produce a state of things very different from that on which he previously proposed to himself to give his vote, he will be more consistent in giving his vote conformably to the new state of things than in adhering to his former vote in a state of things which is completely altered. I trust that the time is now fast approaching when we shall for ever have done with the con- sideration of this question. If we were en- abled to extricate ourselves from the innu- merable mazes and ramifications of it — if we were enabled to say that our time shall no longer be wasted by receiving petitions either in favour of or in opposition to the Catholic claims — if we were enabled to disencumber ourselves of this endless Catholic question, and to turn to other objects the thirty or forty days which, for sessions past, we have dedi- cated to it — even thus far we shall be con- ferring a great benefit on the country. The discussions have at all times been most painful to me; but I beg, notwithstanding the im- putations of inconsistency to which it may subject me, to claim for myself the privilege, and not merely to claim the privilege, but to assert the bounden duty of every man who contracts such an obligation as I have con- tracted to the king, to give his majesty advice. not with reference to speeches which I may formerly have delivered in this house, but with reference to the state of affairs in which the country may at any time be placed. And then, however doubtful it may be whether I shall entitle myself by my conduct to the gratitude of posterity — however painful it may prove to me to dissever party connec- tions — and I have this night received a formal menace that all such connections shall be dissevered — still those are consequences which ought not to weigh with one who has under- taken the responsibility to the crown and to the country, Different circumstances compel different courses of action. The minister of the crown is placed in a different situation from the ordinary member of parliament ; he is bound to weigh circumstances which others may overlook, and whatever may be the im- putations to which he exposes himseH, he is bound to give the best advice which it is in his power to give. My hon. friend, the member for Liverpool, has told me that I shall find great lukewarmness hereafter among those whose good opinion I have hitherto been proud of securing. I know my hon. friends too well to suppose that they have been influenced either by private or by per- sonal considerations in the support which they have given me formerly, and I am sure that they will steer their future course in such a manner as will tend to the promotion of the public interests — not to the annoyance of a particular minister. I cannot purchase their support by promising to adhere at all times and at all hazards, as minister of the crown, to arguments and opinions which I may have heretofore propounded in this house. I reserve to myself distinctly and unequivocally the right of adapting my conduct to the exigency of the moment and to the wants of the coun- try. The hon. member for Dover has told me that I must cling to this opinion, and that it is necessary that I should screw myseK up to the other opinion at all hazards; but the hon. member has not assigned a single reason for the advice which he has given me. I will tell the hon. member to use the metaphor of the gallant admiral near him, that it does not always follow that the pilot is bound to steer WELLINGTON'S APPEAL TO THE LORDS. 35 the same course to guard the ship from danger; and that when different winds are blowing it is absolutely incumbent to take a different course to save the ship from those dangers, which, if they were incurred, must lead to the inevitable loss, not only of the ship, but also of her crew. My defence is the same with that of all others under similar circumstances, and I shall conclude by expressing it in words more beautiful than any which I myself could use, I mean the words of Cicero: — "Hsec didici, hsec vidi, hsec scripta legi; hsec de sapientissimis et clarissimis viris, et in hftc republic^ et in aliis civitatibus, monumenta nobis literse prodiderunt ; non semper easdem sententias ab iisdem sed quascumque reipub- licse status, inclinatio temporum, ratio concor- dise postularet, esse defendendas.'' Keaders of these pages will scarcely be able to realize the fact that at the close of the debate Sir J. Yorke called out — "Mr. Speaker, I hope I may conclude the discussion on this bill with a parliamentary toast — 'May the sister kingdoms be united, and may they live hereafter together like two brothers.' " There was something peculiarly Irish about this. The BLU was carried by a majority of 178 in a house of 462, and was accordingly read a third time. After the third reading of the bill Colonel Trench offered the following clause: — " That no Christian pastor do prohibit the use of the Holy Scriptures under pain of mis- demeanour." The motion was negatived. Colonel Sibthorp then proposed that no Roman Catholic member of a corporation should vote in the disposal of funds for charitable pur- poses; but Mr. Peel observed that the amend- ment was unnecessary, as all the parties who were objects of such schools or foundation must be Protestants. Thus the great measure of Catholic eman- cipation passed into law, and no remarkable opposition was offered to the disfranchisement of the forty-shilling freeholders, though it was principally by their means that one of the most significant demonstrations of the power of the association was manifested on behalf of O'ConneU. Three days after the Catholic Emancipation Bin passed the third reading it received the royal assent. The passing of the measure had been greatly due to the energy and decision of the Duke of Wellington, and it was his in- fluence which obtained the reluctant endorse- ment of the king. There can be no doubt that this influence was honestly and conscien- tiously exercised, and that Wellington was then completely convinced of the necessity for relieving the Irish Roman Catholics from their social and political disabihties. On moving the second reading in the House of Lords he declared emphatically that the course he had adopted on the question had been with the fullest conviction that it was a sound and just one. He reviewed the condition of Ire- land, and dwelt on the extreme consequences which were likely to result if bigotry and hereditary hatred were left to work their way; he spoke with a certain pathetic emphasis when he said, " It has been my fortune, my lords, to have seen much of war — more than most men. I was constantly engaged in the active duties of the military profession from boyhood until I grew gray. My life has been passed in familiarity with scenes of death and human suffering. Unfortunately I have been chiefly engaged in countries where the war was internal — where a civil war was main- tained by conflicting factions. I must say that at any sacrifice I would avoid every approach to the horrors of civil war. My lords, I would do all I could — I would run any risk — I would sacrifice my life to avoid such a catastrophe! Nothing could be so disastrous to the country, nothing so destructive of its prosperity as civil war; nothing could take place that tended so completely to demoralize and degrade as such a confiict, in which the hand of neighbour is raised against neighbour — that of the father against the son, and the son against the father — of the brother against the brother — of the servant against the master — a conflict which must end in confusion and destruction. If civil war be so bad when occasioned by re- sistance to government — if such a collision is to be avoided by all means possible — how much more necessary is it to avoid a civil war, in which, in order to put down one portion, it would be necessary to arm and excite the other ! I am quite sure there is no man that 36 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. now hears me who would not shudder were such a proposition made to him; yet such must have been the result had we attempted to .terminate the state of things to which I have referred otherwise than by a measure of con- ciliation." One can imagine after what a struggle of intellectual and moral conviction against his former honest opinions and prejudices the duke made this appeal— and it is not difficult to appreciate the strong restraint that the simple-minded, loyal and obedient soldiermust have placed on himself while listening to the weak and selfish complaints of the sovereign who would stiU have resisted had he possessed the " courage of his convictions." It might have been thought that the passing of the Eelief BiU would have had an imme- diate effect in restoring peace and order to Ireland; but this was far from being the case. O'Connell had already played a bold game. Mr. Fitzgerald, the member for Clare, had been admitted into the ministry (as treasurer of the navy), and he was not only a man of much local influence but an avowed supporter of the Catholic claims. His introduction into the ministry necessarily threw the seat open, iDut the idea of his not being as a matter of course re-elected had never entered any one's head even in England. It, however, had en- tered the head of O'Connell that he would get himself elected for Clare, and he speedily put the same idea into the heads of his friends. He assured them as a lawyer, being sustained in this by Mr. Butler, a distinguished barrister in England, that there was nothing to prevent his being returned, and that if sent to Parlia- ment he would certainly take his seat and vote. He was elected, after scenes of the wildest excitement, in which Mr. Shell said that " every altar was a tribune." Elections used then to extend over a great many days, but on the second day in Clare Mr. Fitzgerald resigned, seeing the utter hopelessness of his ease. The first Eoman Catholic member returned for the House of Commons after the passing of the Eelief Act was Lord Surrey, son of the Duke of Norfolk, who was returned for Hors- ham during the Easter recess of the year 1829. Mr. O'Connell did not make his appearance- until the 15th of May. He then presented himself at the table as the member for Clare,, and the clerk tendered him the usual oath. This he declined to take, maintaining that in consequence of the change in the law it was no longer necessary that it should be adopted by Catholic representatives. The Speaker^ Manners Sutton, pronounced against him, and he was directed to withdraw. Henry Brougham then moved that Mr. O'Connell should be heard in support of his claim to sit and vote without taking the old oath; and it was resolved, after much discussion (the de- bate being only concluded after an adjourn- ment), that O'Connell should speak from the bar of the house, and not as member for Clare. He did address the house from the bar, and with a surprising degree of modera- tion. The house, however, resolved by a majority of 86, that though he had been re- turned for Clare, he could not be allowed to sit without taking the " oath of supremacy " in the usual terms. In order to make the whole transaction formal and complete he asked to see the oath, which of course he knew by heart. After pretendiug to study it he said, "I see in this oath one assertion as to a matter of fact which I Jcnow is not true > and I see in it another assertion as to a matter of opinion which I believe is not true. I there- fore refuse to take the oath." O'Connell being thus sent back, it was pro- posed to pass a special act for his relief; but this idea was rejected, and a new writ was issued for County Clare. Of course O'Connell was once more returned, and triumphantly, without even an opposition. All that he could now do as an agitator to avenge himself and his friends he did. He revived the Catholic Association with a change of scheme, and started with vehemence the cry for a repeal of the union. The " rent " was raised just as it had been before; five thousand pounds were set apart for promoting the return of O'Connell and other politicians of his school to parliament; secret societies were formed in every direction. It seemed only too probable that Ireland would shortly be in a blaze; in Tipperary the soldiers had to be called out. PREVATT.TXG DISTRESS IX THE COUXTEY. and parliaDient -was not sitting. It was abundaatly plain that a time of general in- surgence had arriTed; the -vraters were out, and it did not seem easy to guide them; the revolution in France, -which led to the flight of Charles S., stirred up to extreme actirii y the already roused sympathies of English Radicals ; Henry Brougham -was returned in triumph for Yorkshire; political unions of various kinds, including those of the trades, sprang into renewed life all over the country; and, in short, tiie battle of reform in parlia- ment -was soon to be fought to the death. In alnufit every way O'Connell was bom for a leader of men. Crabb Robinson (him- self a barrister), in his voluminous omnium gatherum diary, relates how he made the great agitator's acquaintance in Cork, and was received by him with more than exuber- ant hospitality. CCounell's influence over his tenantry was strikingly disclosed during one of his journeys, which was like a royal progiess. ""At several places," wrote Mr.Crabb Robinson, ^'parties of men were standing in lanes. Some of these parties joined us, and accompanied us several miles. I was surprised by remark- ing that some of the men ran by the side of CCounell's horse, and were vehement in their gesticulations, and loud in their talk. ... I learned from him that all these men were his tenants^ and th.it one of the conditions of their holding under him was, that they shoidd never go to law, but submit all their disputes to him. In fact he was trying cases all the morning.'' "What were (yConneU's snbsese from the traditions of his early n-aining, and, i chaiaoterisiietiUy, the irst j^ioint on which he did so was a financial one. But he very early pleased Sj:>eiieer PeiceTal, who gave him a place in the cabinet almost immedi- ately. The part he took in relation to the Test and Corporation Acts and the Catliolio Emancipauou Act lies far behind this portion of the narnttiTe, as his final course of action in i-egard to the corn-laws lis fer before us. But all his political conduct illustrates the central point in his character. He had extreme tenacity of couTiction, scrupulous conseientionsne^ greiU openne^ to any ap- , peal from the side of humanity, and an almost irritable sense of honour. The dimculcy of ''making him out," or following his reasons, was keenly felt from time to time by eren i his friends, and at the time of the Eeform ; Bill agitation it was thought humorous to call him Sii- Eoliert Eel — of course, in aUusioa to the dimculty of getting "a hold" on him. But a man of great tenacity of opinion, and, , at the same time, of conscientious willingnes ; to be con'rinced, is pecviliarly liable to mis- [ constructions- Peel suffered severely from them on the Catholic question among others, i We now find him steadily opposing reform in j Parliament, and pretty well hated by the j:iec>- ple in con^quence ; but we must remember, in explanation of s^^me portions of his con- duct, liiat he was a somewhat combatiT-e i man, and that to attaei him for his opinions was like endearouring to extract a nail by ttitxinc it hard on the head. However, the , people of England were never long without "a sneaking regard' for Sir Eobert, — so great j was the confidence inspired by the steadfast- < nes and solidity of his character. The popularity and the known mcdeiation \ of Earl Grey secured for him the support of [ the nation, but one difficvdty beset him directly . he b^an to form a ministry. \\ hat was to be done with Brougham? The premier had only accepted ofBce on condition that parliamentary I reform should be made a cabinet measure, and f here was this restless, tempestuous, indiscreet, I able orator, not only the recognized leader of the Whigs in the House of Commons, but with a Bef orm Bill of his own half ready and wholly promised. Added to this, he had gloried in accepting the representation of Yorkshire on public grounds alone, and not for the sake of odice. He had enormous en- gagements, a largely increasing professional income, which he must sacrifice if he took any ordinary cabinet appointment. The office of attorney-gcuerai was oriered him and distinctly refused ; it was then suggested that he should be made master of the rolls and snll retain his seat for Yorkshire, but to this the king could not agree, as for such a man to be in the ministry, to represent such a constituency, and to be the proposer vf tiie Keform BUL would makehim too strong forthe government. Earl Grey then asked his majesty what else could be done; and the king, with perhaps un- usual sigacity said, "Let him be lord-chan- cellor."' It was a splendid offer of course, and any man might have been excused for being elated at it; but Brougham was in no hurry to accept it. He had the imcertainties of office to consider, and should the ministry gc> out he would have to retire on i'^O'.O a year, after having relinquished not only a lucrative prac- tice but his independent pusition as leader of the party. Lord Althorp at last persuaded him to accept the appointment. "Bemember,'' he said, "that our pari^ has been out of office for twenty-five years, and that your refusal to join us will in all probability prevetit thef orma- tion of a ministry, and keep us in opposition for another quarter of a century." Brougham vielded, and the ministry was at once formed with his name as lord-chancellor and the ac- companying title of Lord Brougham and Yaux. Lord Althorp was chancellor of the exchequer. Lord ilelbonme in the home office, the iTar- quis of Lanadowne president of the council, Yiscount Palmerston foreign secretary, Sii- J, Graham first lord of the admiralty. Lord John Bn^ell took office (not in the cabinet' as pay- master of the f orcesjand the Hon, E, G, SiarJey, afterwards to become i;i!iic-.is as the Eail of Derby — "the Bupert of debate^ — was ap- pointed chief secretary for Ireland, but was the only member c j the government who failed to 70 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. be re-elected, having been defeated at Preston by his opponent, the famous, or by that time notorious, radical, "Orator" Hunt, who was elected because Mr. Stanley refused to pledge himself to support the ballot. To a committee composed of Lord Durham, Lord Duncannou, Sir James Graham, and Lord John Russell was assigned the task of framing the government measure of reform, and it was the scheme of Loi'd John Russell which was the foundation of the bill. He proposed that fifty of the smallest boroughs should be disfranchised, that fifty more should return only one instead of two members, and that the seats thus gained should be given to counties and large towns; that the qualification for a vote should be the payment of a certain amount of rental, which was afterwards fixed at iilO. Instead of fifty towns being selected for disfranchisement, however, it was deter- mined, against Lord Russell's advice, that all towns which by the census of 1821 had fewer than 2000 inhabitants should be disfran- chised entirely, and all towns having between 2000 and 4000 should be disfranchised par- tially. The amount of disfranchisement would, it was found, be about the same, and Lord John yielded; but he deemed the man- ner of effecting the change objectionable, and subsequent events proved that he was not far wrong. The proposed bill was warmly accepted by the cabinet and no time was lost in bringing it forward, for the country was already in a very disturbed condition, not only because of the political crisis and the excitement occa- sioned by long-delayed reHef, but in con- sequence of the terrible distress which pre- vailed in many of the counties and among the industrial population of large manufacturing towns. The agricultural labourers in some districts were starving, and their wages could not support them. In the county of Dorset then, as much later, the part of the country where farm labourers were brought lowest, the amount of parochial reHef — the alternative of actual starvation — was for a labouring man 2s. Id. a week; for a woman, boy, or girl above 14 years old, 2s. ; for a boy or girl of 12 to 14, Is. Td. ; for a boy or girl from 9 to 11, Is. 4d. ; and for children under 9 years old. Is. 3d. The abatement of rent and of tithes could do little to mitigate poverty which sought such relief as this, and the labourei-s in various quartera demonstrated their wrongs by break- ing the agricultural machinerj', which they fancied had been the cause of their sufferings; and to make the situation more terrible, ricks were fired, and the food that was so scarce, blazed high, while those who went always hungry stood grimly by and not only refused to quench the flames but prevented others from extinguishing them. Neither the soldier nor the schoolmaster was abroad, but a mys- terious agitator and desperado, who sent threatening letters and called himself "Captain Swing,'' was supposed to be the chief incen- diary, though no individual was discovered, or probably existed, who led any organized plan of depredation. Labourers in the rural dis- tricts were wrought to a pitch of dogged misery for which some violent acts were the only outcome, and they had never been taught to reason. In some of the large towns there was a smouldering fury which the introduction of a libei'al measure alone prevented from breaking forth into fiery insurrection, and which, when that measure was afterwai'da thwarted and delayed, found sudden vent in riot and monstrous outrage. In Ireland mat- ters were, if possible, still worse. The potato crop had failed, the western counties were in a state of actual famine, assassination was rife, and lawless meetings were held continually. Such was the state of the country, affected doubtless by the recent revolution in France, when it was announced that on the 1st of Mai-ch Lord John Russell would introduce the bill that was to give political liberty to the nation. As the hom- drew near, every avenue to St. Stephen's was crowded, every landing, lobby, and passage was filled, every seat in the benches of the house itself was either taken or labelled by members who in- tended to be present during the debate. There was such a struggle to obtain admission to the public gallery that the speaker threat- ened to clear the building of strangers if the disorder continued. As the clock struck six, a little active figure — a calm, pale, determined THE FIRST EEFOEM BILL. 71 face — appeared at the door. There was a momentary hush, and then followed a tremen- dous cheer. The fact that the financial mea- sures promised by the government had failed or were too weak to be of any real importance was forgotten, the unreduced pension list, the increased military and naval forces, the queen's conditional annuity of ^100,000 in case she should survive her husband were for the pre- sent condoned, now that reform was to be begun in earnest. Amidst a profound silence — without which the low tones in which he commenced could scarcely have been heard — Lord John commenced. The very foundation of the bill, according to Lord John, was that the ancient constitution of our country declared that no man should be taxed for the support of the state who had not consented, by himself or his representative, to the imposition of these taxes. The well-known statute de tallagio non comedendo repeated the same language ; and although some historical doubts had been thrown upon it, its legal meaning had never been disputed. It included "aU the freemen of the land," and provided that each county should send to the Commons of the realm two knights, each city two bur- gesses, and each borough two members. Thus about a hundred places sent representatives, and some thirty or forty others occasionally enjoyed the privilege ; but it was discontinued or revived as they rose or fell in the scale of wealth and importance. "Thus," said the noble lord, "no doubt, at that early period, the House of Commons did represent the peo- ple of England ; there is no doubt likewise that the House of Commons, as it now sub- sists, does ?ioi represent the people of England. Therefore if we look at the question of right, the reformers have right in their favour. If we consider what is reasonable, we shall arrive at a similar result. A stranger who was told that this country is unparalleled in wealth and industry, and more civilized and more en- lightened than any country was before it — that it is a country that prides itself on its freedom, and that once in every seven years it elects representatives from its population to act as the guardians and preservers of that freedom — would be anxious and curious to see how that representation is formed, and how the people choose their representatives, to whose faith and guardianship they intrust their free and liberal institutions. Such a per- son would be very astonished if he were taken to a ruined mound, and told that that mound sent two representatives to parliament; if he were taken to a stone wall and told that three niches in it sent two representatives to parha- ment; if he were taken to a park where no houses were to be seen, and told that that park sent two representatives to parliament ; — but if he were told all this, and were as- tonished at hearing it, he would be still more astonished if he were to see large and opulent towns, full of enterprise and industry and in- telligence, containing vast magazines of every species of manufactures, and were then told that these towns sent no representatives to parliament. Such a person would be still more astonished if he were taken to Liverpool, where there is a large constituency, and told, 'Here you will have a fine specimen of a popular election.' He would see bribery em- ployed to the greatest extent and in the most unblushing manner ; he would see every voter receiving a number of guineas in a box, as the price of his corruption ; and after such a spec- tacle he would no doubt be much astonished that a nation whose representatives are thus chosen could perform the functions of legis- lation at all, or enjoy respect in any degree. I say, then, that if the question before the house is a question of reason, the present state of representation is against reason. The confidence of the country in the construction and constitution of the House of Commons is gone. It would be easier to transfer the flour- ishing manufactures of Leeds and Manchester to Gatton and Old Sarum than to re-establish confidence and sympathy between this house and those whom it calls its constituents. If therefore the question is one of right, right is in favour of reform ; if it be a question of reason, reason is in favour of reform ; if it be a ques- tion of policy and expediency, policy and ex- pediency are in favour of reform." Then came the explanation of the measure which was to be proposed. No half-measures would be sufficient, no trifling or paltering GLADSTONE A^T) HIS COXTEMPORAMEs -with reform could give stability to the ero\ni, sti-engtli to parliament, or satisfaction to the counriy. The chief grievancei of which the people complained yrere the nomination of members by individuals, the election by close corporations, and the expense of elections, "^ith regard to the first it might be exercised in two Tvays, either over a place containing scarcely any inhabitants and with a veiy ex- tensive right of election, or over a place of •wide extent and numerous population, but where the franchise -was confined to a very few persons. Gatton was an example of the fii-st, and Bath of the second. At Gatton, where the right of voting was by scot and lot, all householders had a vote; but there were only five persons to exercise the right At Bath the inhabitants were numerous, but very few of them had any concern in the election. In the former it was proposed to deprive the borough of the franchise altogether. In doing so ministers took for their guide the population returns of 1521, and proposed that every borough which in that year had less than 2000 inhabitants should altogether lose the rio'ht of sending members to parliament; the effect of which would be to disenfran- chise sixty boroughs. But they did not stop here. There were forty-seven boroughs of only 4000 inhabitants, and these were to be deprived of the right of sending more than one member to parliament. Weymouth, which sent four members to parliament, would in future send only two. The total reduction thus effected in the number of the members of the house would be 165. This was the whole ex- tent to which they were prepared to go in the way of disfranchisement. '■We do not, however," said Lord John EusseU, "mean to allow that the remaining boroughs should be in the hands of a small num- ber of persons, to the exclusion of the great body of the inhabitants who have property and interest in the place. It is a point of great difficulty to decide to whom the fran- chise should be extended. Though it is a point much disputed, I beheve it will be found that in ancient times every inhabitant householder resident in a, borough was competent to vote for members of parliament. As, however. this arrangement excludes viUeins and stran- gers, the franchise always belonged to a par- ticular body in every town. That the voters were persons of property is obvious from the fact that they were called upon to pay sub- si.lies and taxes. Two different courses seem to prevail in different places. In some, every person having a house and being free was ad- mitted to a general participation in the privi- leges formerly possessed by burgeses; in others, the burgesses became a select body, and were converted into a corporation more or less exdnsive. These differences, the house will be aware, lead to the most difficult, and at the same time most useless, questions that men can be called upon to decide. I contend that it is proper to get rid of these compUcated rights, of these vexatious questions, and to oive the real property and real respectability of the different cities and towns the right of voting for members of parliament. Finding that a qualification of a house rated at £-20 a vear would confine the elective franchise instead of enlarging it, we propose that the right of voting should be given to householders paying rates for houses of the yearly value of JIO and upwards upon certain conditions hereafter to be stated. At the same time, it is not intended to deprive the present electors of their privilege of voting, provided they are resident. With regard to non-residence, we are of opinion that it produces much expense, is the cause of a great deal of bribery, and occasions such manifest and manifold evils, that electors who do not live in a place ought not to be permitted to retain their votes. With regard to resident voters, we propose that they should retain their right during life, but that no vote should be allowed hereafter except to ilO householders." In order to extend the franchise in coun- ties the bill would give all copyholders to the value of £10 a yera-, qualified to serve on jmies, under Sii' E. Peel's biU, a right to vote for the return of knights of the shire; and leaseholders for not les.s than twenty - one years, whose annnal rent was not less than £5(1, and whose leases had not been renewed within two years, were to enjoy the same privilege. REFORM IN POLLING AT ELECTIONS. 73 When speaking of the numbers disfran- chised, Lord Russell had said that 168 vacan- cies would be created ; but it was believed that it would not be wise or expedient to fill up the whole number of these vacancies. After mature delibei-ation ministers had ar- rived at the conclusion that the number of members in the house was inconveniently lai-ge. " When this house is reformed, as I trust it will be," said Lord John, " there wiU not be such a number of members who spend their moneys in foreign counti-ies and never attend the house at all. We propose, therefore, to fill up a certain number of vacancies, but not the whole of them. We intend that seven lai'ge towns should send two membei-s each, and that twenty other towns should send one member each." The seven towns which were to send two members each were as follows : — Manchester and SaJford; Birmingham and Aston; Leeds; Greenwich, Deptford, and WooIt wich; Wolverhampton, BUston, and Sedgley; Sheffield; Sunderland and the Weai-mouths. The following were the towns which it was proposed should send one member each to pai-liament: — Brighton, Blackburn, Wolver- hampton, South Shields and Westoe, Wai- rington, Huddei'sfield, Halifax, Gateshead, Bolton, Stockport, Dudley, Kendal, Tyne- mouth and North Shields, Cheltenham, Brad- ford, Frorae, Whitehaven, Workington and Harrington, Wakefield, Kidderminster-. It was well known that a great portion of the metropolis and its neighbourhood, amount- ing in population to 800,000 or 900,000, was scai-cely represented at all; and eight mem- bers were to be given to those who were thus um-epresented, by dividing them into districts, viz. : Tower Hamlets, population 283,000 ; Holborn, 218,000; Finsbury, 162,000; Lam- beth, 128,000. It was next proposed to add to the membei-s of the larger counties — a species of reform always recommended, and which Loi-d Chatham was almost the fii-st to advocate. Tlie bill was to give two members to each of the three ridings into which Yorkshire was divided — the east, west, and north— and two additional members to each of the fol- lowing twenty-six counties, of which the in- habitants exceeded 150,000 :— Chester, Derbj-, Durham, Gloucester, Lancaster, Norfolk, Som- erset, Suffolk, Wilts, Cumberland, Warwick, Northampton, Cornwall, Devon, Essex, Kent, Lincoln, Salop, Stafford, Sussex, Nottingham, Surrey, Northumberland, Leicester, South- ampton, Worcester. Lord Russell having made these statements, said: — "I now beg leave to direct the atten- tion of the house to that part of the plan which relates to the expense of the long-pro- tracted polls, and which, while it removes that evil, also greatly facilitates the collection of the sense of the elective body. We propose that all electors in counties, cities, towns, or boroughs shall be registered, and for this pur- pose machinery will be put in motion similar to that of the Jury Act — that is to say, at a certain period of the year- (I now speak of boroughs) the parish officers and church- wardens ai-e to make a list of pei-sons who occupy houses of the yearly value of £10. This list of names will be placed on the churcli-doors, we will suppose in September ; and in October the returning officer will hold a sort of ti-ial of votes, where claims made and objections stated will be considered and de- cided. On the 1st of December tlie list will be published ; every person who chooses may obtain a copy of it ; and it will be the rule to govern elector's and elections for the ensuing year. The means of ascertaining who ai-e the electors being thus easy, there is no reason wny the poll should be kept open for eight days, or, as in some places, for a longer period; and it is proposed that, nearly according to the present law, booths shall be erected in the difierent parishes, so that the whole poll may be taken in two days. For my own pait, I may say that I expect the time will come when the machinery will be found so simple that every vote may be given in a single day; but in iuti-oducing a new measure, it is neces- sary to allow for possible defects. Attempts might be made to obstruct the polling; and I therefore recommend two days, in order that no voter may be deprived of the opportunity of ofiering his suffi-age." In counties the matter was thought to be more difficult, and it was proposed that the churchwai-dens should make out a list of all 74 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOE ABIES. persons claiming the right to vote in the several parishes, and that these lists should he affixed to the church doors. A person to he appointed (say a barrister of a certain stand- ing) by the judge of assize was to go an annual circuit within a certain time after the lists were published, to hear all claims to votes and objections to voters. Having decided who were entitled to exercise the privilege, he would sign his name at the bottom of the list and transmit it to the clerk of the peace, and it would then be enrolled , as the list of the freeholders of the county for the ensuing year. Lord Eussell next noticed the enormous expense to which candidates were put in bringing voters to the poll. In Yorkshire, without a contest, it cost nearly £150,000; and in Devonshire the electors were obliged to travel forty miles, over hard cross-roads, which occupied one day, the next being con- sumed in polling, and the third in returning home. The whole was a source of vast ex- pense and most inconvenient delay. It was proposed, therefore, that the poll should be taken in separate districts — those districts to be arranged according to circumstances by the magistrates in quarter-sessions, and not changed for two years. The sheriffs were to hold the election on a certain day ; if a poll was demanded they would adjourn the elec- tion to the next day but one, and the poll was to be kept open for two days. On the third day the poll was to be closed, and on the sixth day an account of the number of votes to be published. It was so arranged that no voter should have to travel more than fifteen miles to give his vote. The number of polling places in each county were not to exceed fifteen, as the multiplication of places for receiving votes would give rise to great inconvenience. Each county was to be divided into two districts, returning each two members to parliament. There would be some difficulty in adjust- ing the districts; but it was proposed that his majesty should nominate a committee of the privy-council to determine their extent and direction. In some of the boroughs to which the right of representation was to be continued the number of electors was exceed- ingly small ; a clause was therefore to be in- serted giving power to the commissioners nominated under the bill to enable the in- habitants of the adjoining parishes and chapel- ries to take part in the elections when the number of electors in such a borough were below 300. That these were extensive powers the ministers did not attempt to deny; but Lord John Eussell declared that if any gentle- man in the house would suggest a better, safer, and more constitutional mode of effect- ing the object, his majesty's ministers would have no hesitation in adopting that mode and waiving their own. In conclusion Lord John said — " I have only one thing more to say with regard to the representation of England. In all these new towns to which we propose to give the right of sending members to parlia- ment, all persons who are entitled by their property to vote shall be excluded from the right to vote for the representatives of the county ; but it is not intended to interfere with the franchise of those freeholders who are at present entitled to vote. With respect to the right of the forty-shilling freeholders, I do not think that there should be any alteration." In compliance with the loudly-expressed wish of the house, Lord J. Eussell then read, amidst frequent laughter and cheering, the list of boroughs which the bill proposed to disfran- chise, as having fewer than 2000 inhabitants according to the population returns of 1821 ; as well as that of the boroughs to be semi- disfranchised, as having a population under 4000 according to the same census. He then continued by saying : — " Scotland needs reform even more than England, as in that country no such thing as popular representation is known. There we intend to give the suffrage to every copyholder to the annual value of £10, and to holders of leases for ten years, not renewed within two years previous to the election, and paying £50 a year rent. The counties are to be settled as follows: — Peebles and Selkirk to be joined and elect one member together; Dumbarton and Bute, Elgin and Nairn, Eoss and Crom- arty, Orkney and Shetland, Clackmannan and LOED BUSSELL'S APPEAL TO THE HOUSE. 75 Kinross, with certain additions, to do the same. The remaining twenty-two counties are each singly to return one member. The burghs are to be asfollows: — Edinburgh to have twomem- bers; Glasgow to have two; Aberdeen, Paisley, Dundee, Greenock, and Leith (with the addi- tion of Portobello, Musselburgh, and Eisher- row), each singly to return one member. Thirteen districts of burghs to return one member. By the proposed alterations there will be an addition of five new members to the representation of Scotland, making the total number of fifty instead of forty-five as at present. "In Ireland we propose to give the right of voting to all holders of houses or land to the value of £10 a year. There are some places in that country which have not their due share in the representation. Of these the principal are Belfast, Limerick, and "Water- ford, to which we propose to give representa- tives so as to add three to the whole number of members for Ireland. The arrangement which I now propose will be eminently favourable both to Ireland and Scotland, but to Ireland particularly so; for as the number of the present members in the house repre- senting places in England is to be reduced, and their places are not to be supplied, the Irish members will become of great relative importance.'' The result of all the measures compre- hended in the bill as aflfecting the number of members in the house would be a decrease of 62. The number of representatives of con- stituencies would be diminished from 658 to 596, as the 168 seats which were to be abol- ished by disfranchisement of boroughs would not be compensated by the additions efl'ected by the re -distribution or the accession of representation in other places. Sir Charles Wetherell afterwards compared this to "the system of reform introduced by the regicides when they established a commonwealth in England." The number of persons who would be entitled to the suffrage under the bill, not previously possessing that right, was supposed to be, in the counties, 110,000; in the towns, 50,000; in London, 95,000; in Scotland, 50,000; in Ireland about 40,000 ; and it was believed that the measure would add to the constitu- ency of the Commons House of Parliament about half-a-million of persons, all connected with the property of the country, having a, valuable stake in it, and deeply interested in its institutions. " They are persons," said the noble lord, " on whom we may depend in any future struggle in which the nation may be engaged, and who will maintain and support parliament and the throne in carrying that struggle to a successful termination. I think this measure will further benefit the people by inciting them to industry and good con- duct. For when a man finds that by indus- try and attention to his business he will entitle himself to a place in the list of voters, he will have an additional motive to improve his circumstances and preserve his character. I think, therefore, that in thns adding to the constituency we are providing for the moral as well as for the political improvement of the country. "Language has been held as if I had said that the institutions of the country could, by their own indirect strength, defend every attempt at sedition if no reform were adopted. In my opinion the question has little to do with sedition or rebellion. The question is whether, without some large measure of re- form, the government, or any government, can carry on the affairs of the country with the confidence and support of the nation. If this cannot be done, then it may become a question whether reform can be resisted ; but there can be no question that in such a case the British constitution must perish. The House of Commons, in its unreformed state, has nothing to look to but public confidence and the sympathy of the nation for its support. It appears to me that if reform is refused all such sympathy and confidence will soon be withheld. I ask whether, when the ministers of the crown consider that reform is necessary, when the sovereign has permitted them to lay before the house their proposition, and when they come with that proposition to declare in the most unequivocal manner that they consider reform to be indispensable, and when the people out of doors, by multitudes of petitions and millions of voices, are calling 76 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES. for the same thing, is it for the House of Commons to say, 'We are the judges of our own purity. We equally despise the minis- ters of the crown and the voice of the people. We will keep our j)Ower against all remon- strances and all petitions ; and we will take our chance of the dreadful consequences?' " I appeal to the gentry and aristocracy of England. In my opinion they were never found wanting in any great crisis of the coun- try. When war was carrying on against the national enemy, tliey were always the fore- most to assert the national honour; and when great sacrifices were to be made and great burdens to be supported they were as ready to bear their proportion as the rest of their fellow-subjects. I ask them now — now that a great sacrifice is to be made for the public safety and the general good — will they not show their generosity, will they not evince their public spirit, and identify them- selves in future with the people ? I ask them to come forward under these circumstances and give stability, political strength, and peace to the country. Whatever may be the result of the proposition I have made to the house I must say that his majesty's ministers will feel that they have thoroughly done their duty in bringing the measure forward ; neither seek- ing for the support of particular classes nor the applause of the multitude. When they have felt it their duty to resist popular feel- ings they have not hesitated to encounter and withstand them by a firm and vigorous enforcement of the law, by which many dis- turbances have been prevented or suppressed, I trust permanently. By their vigorous enforcement of laws passed before they entered office, agitation has been made to subside, and peace has been re-established. In no case could it be said that ministers have wavered in their duty by bending to popular clamour, or by seeking to ingratiate themselves in popular and transient favour. I have a right to say that, in submitting the present proposition to the house they have evinced an interest in the future welfare of the coun- try. They think that what they projiose is the only thing calculated to give permanence to the constitution which has so long been the admiration of foreign nations on account of its free and popular spirit, but which can- not exist much longer except by an infusion of new popular spirit. By these means the house will show the world that it is deter- mined no longer to be an assembly of the representatives of small classes and particular interests, but that it is resolved to form a body of men who represent the people, who sjjring from the people, who have sympathies with the people, and who can fairly call upon the people to support their burdens in the future struggles and difficulties of the country on the ground that they who ask them for that support are joining liand and heart with them, and, like themselves, are seeking only the glory and welfare of England." Lord J. Russell then sat down amidst loud and prolonged cheering from all sides. We have given the greater part of the remarkable address by which the Reform Bill was first introduced because it was one of the most important ever delivered in parliament, and may be interesting to a large number of readers, showing what were the particulars of the measure which was the foundation of that change in parliamentary representation, which was to introduce an entirely new era in poli- tical relations. For similar reasons we append the list which was read by Lord John, and we have ventured to include the number of the constituents and the prevailing influence in certain boroughs from the table in Mr. William Nassau Molesworth's excellent ac- count of the proceedings, as it is not alto- gether easy for the reader of to-day to realize the corruption which then existed. ni T, ... , ., No. of Con. riace. Prevailing Influence. atituoncy, Aldborough, Duke of Newcastle, . 60 Aldeburgh, Marquis ol HertJord, ... 80 Appleby, . . Earl of Thanetand Earl Lonsdale, 100 Bedwin, . , Marquis of Aylesbury, , . 80 Beeralston, . Earl of Beverley, . . . .100 Bishop's Castle, Earl Powis, . ao Bletohingley, . Mr. W, Eussell, . 80 Boroughbridge, Duke of Newcastle, . 50 Bosslney, . , Lord Wharneoliffe and Mr. Turmo, 36 Brackley, . R. H. and J. Bradshaw, . 88 Bramber, . Lord Calthorpe& Duke of Rutland, 20 Buckingham, . Duke of Buckingham, . . 13 Callington, . Mr. A. Baring, ... 00 Camelford, . Marquis of Cleveland, . . 26 Castle Rising, Marquis of Cholmondeley and Hon. F. G. Howard, . . 60 THE DEBATE ON THE BILL. 77 Place. Prevailing Influence. Corfe Castle, . Mr. H. Bankea Dunwich, lord Huntingfleld and Mr. Barne, East Looe, . Mr. Hope, Eye, . . Sir E. Kerrison, . rowey, . Mr. Austin and Mr. Livey, Qatton, Lord Monson, Haslemere, Earl of Lonsdale, Hedon, . Money, . Heytesbuiy, Lord Heytesbury, Higham Ferrers, Lord Fitzwilliam, Hindon, Ilchester . Lostwithiel, Ludgershall, Malmesbury, Maw's, St., Michael, St., Midhurst, . No. of Con- stituency. . 60 18 60 100 70 6 60 830 60 146 240 Lord Grosvenor & Lord Calthorpe, Disputed between Lord Cleve- land and Lord Huntingtower, 70 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, . 94 Sir G. Graham and Mr. Everett, 70 Mr. Pitt, . ... 13 Duke of Buckingham, ... 20 Lord Falmouth & Mr. J. H. Hawkins, 32 Mr. John Smith, ... 18 Milborne Port, Marquis of Anglesea, . . 90 Minehead, . Mr. LuttreU, . . .10 Newport (Cornwall), Duke of Northumberland, . 62 Newton (Lancashire), Mr. Legh, .... 60 Newton (Isle i Lord Yarborough and Sir F. of Wight), . J Barrington, ... 40 Okeharapton, . Money, . 250 OldSarum, . . * — Orford, . Marquis of Hertford, 20 Petersfleld, . Colonel Joliffe, . . . .140 Plympton, Mr. Trehy & Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, 210 Queenborough, Money versus Ordnance, . 270 Uomney, New, Sir E. Dering, 160 Ryegate, . Earl of Hardwicke & Lord Somers, 200 Saltash, . . Mr. Buller, . . .36 Seaford, . . Lord Seaford & Mr. J. Fitzgerald, — Steyning, . Duke of Norfolk, . . 110 Stockbridge, Lord Grosvenor, . 106 Tregony, . Mr. J. A. Gordon, 180 Wareham, . . Kight Hon. J. Calcraft, . 20 Wendover, Lord Cai-rington, . . . .140 "Weobly, Marquis of Bath, ... 90 West Looe, Mr. Buller, . . . . 66 Whitchurch, . Lord Sidney and Sir S. Scott, 70 Winchelsea, Marquis of Cleveland, . . 40 Woodstock, Duke of Marlborough, . 400 Wootton Bassett, Earl of Clarendon and Mr. Pitt, 100 Yarmouth, The Holmes Family, . . 60 The following was the list of boroughs which would return one member of parlia- ment each : — Nt . of Con Place. Prevailing Influence. Btituency. Amersham, . Mr. W. Drake, . 126 Arundel, . Money, ... 460 Ashburton, . Lord Clinton and Sir L. V. Palk, 170 Eewdley, . . Lord Littleton, . 13 Bodmin, Marquis of Hertford & Mr. D. G. Gilbert, 36 Bridport, Money, . .... 340 Chippenham, . Mr. Neald 135 Cli there e, . Earls Howe and Brownlow, 45 Cockermouth, Earl of Lonsdale, 180 Dorchester, . Eai-1 of Shaftesbury and Mr. R. Williams, 200 Downton, . Earl of Radnor, 60 Droitwich, Lord Foley, . 12 Evesham, Bribery, 600 Grimsby, Money, . 300 Place. East Grinstead, Guildford, . . Helston, . . Honiton, Huntingdon, . Hythe, . . . Launceston, Leominster, . Liskeard, , . Lyme Regis, . Lymington, Maldon, Marlborough, Marlow, Morpeth, . . Northallerton, Penryn, . Richmond, Rye, . St. Germains, St. Ives, Sanwich, Shaftesbury, . Sudbury, Tamworth, Thetford, . Thirsk, . . . Totnes, . , . Truro, . . . Wallingford, . Westbury, Wilton, . . . Wycombe, . . No. of Con- stituency. 250 Prevailing Influence. Earl de la Warr, . Lord Grantley, Duke of Leeds, . Money, . .... 360 Earl of Sandwich, . 240 Corporation and Patronage, 160 Duke of Northumberland, . 15 Money, . . 700 Earl St. Germains, . . . 106 Earl of Westmoreland, . 30 Sir H. B. Neale, . 70 . 2000 Marquis of Aylesbury, . 21 Mr. 0. Williams, . . 286 Earl of Carlyle and Mr. W. Ord, 200 Earl of Harewood, . . 200 Money, . . . .400 Lord Dundas, . 270 Dr. Lamb, . . 25 Earl St. Germains, . 70 Mr. Wellesley, . 200 Money, . . . 956 Lord Grosvenor, . 300 Money, .... .800 Lord Townshend and Sir R. Peel, 30O Duke of Grafton & Mr. A. Baring, 31 Sir F. Frankland, . . 60 Corporation, . . 58 Earl of Falmouth, . . 26 Money, . ... 180 Sir E. A. Lopez, . . 70 Earl of Pembroke, ... 20 Corporation and Sir J. D. King, 65 " In most of these boroughs," says Mr. Moles- worth, "the seats were sold by proprietors. Sometimes they themselves, or some of their relatives or dependants, were nominated to represent them. Bribery was also practised with little or no reserve or concealment where it was necessary ; but in many instances the constituency was so dependent on the pro- prietor that no expenditure of this kind was requisite." Sir J. Sebright rose and briefly seconded the motion for bringing in the bill. It would be tedious and not altogether profitable to record the course of the long debate which followed, though the account would be illustrative of the temper of the house and the great variety of opinion, both in the Lords and the Com- mons, which served to impede the progress of the measure for fifteen months, during which not only the ministry but parliament itself underwent repeated vicissitudes, while the country was constantly alarmed by repeated riots and deeds of violence. Among the most determined opponents of the measure were V8 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOKAEIES. Sir C. Wetherell, the Tory grotesque of the house, who endeavoured to support the policy of the opposition by speaking against time; while, on the other side. Lord Palmerston, who still professed to represent the policy of his former chief, Mr. Canning, declared that that great statesman, had he lived to that time, would at once have apprehended the necessity on which the opinions of the govern- ment were founded, and that if limited plans of parliamentary reform had been adopted at an earlier date the extensive measure then before the house would not have been de- manded. Sir Eobert Peel defended the preservation of the close boroughs because they facilitated the entrance to parliament of men of ability ; and if by any accident, such as caprice or want of money, any such man were deprived of larger seats the close boroughs received them and secured their invaluable labours to the party. To this Mr. Stanley, among other telling remarks, replied that whatever might be the talents of the members thus admitted they would not be regarded by the people as their representatives. On the 8th of March Mr. O'Connell, who was then advocating the repeal of the union between England and Ireland, delivered a speech, which, by its extraordinary oratorical ability, almost bewitched the house, and moved even that assembly with passing gusts of emotion. He gave his hearty sup- port to the measure, but believed that it with- held from Ireland the redress of those wrongs of representation which had been inflicted upon it by the union. He also earnestly ad- vocated universal sufirage and vote by ballot. Mr. Hume, the member for Middlesex, and the leader of the moderate Radicals, frankly declared that, radical reformer as he was, the proposed plan much exceeded his expectations. Seventy-one members spoke on the ques- tion, and it was after midnight on the 9th of March when Lord John Eussell rose to reply. The motion to bring in the bill was agreed to without a division, and on the 14th it was read for the first time unopposed. But it had yet to be fought for, and the country itself was divided. The majority of the clergy were opposed to it, remembering the hostility to the church which had characterized the revolution in France, and dreading a proposal for disendowment. The greater part of the moneyed as well as the landed interests also used their efforts to overthrow it, and steady- going representatives of commerce shook their heads and helped to support the antagonists of the measure. On the other hand, the rising class of manufacturers, the large body of shopkeepers and traders, and the great mass of mechanics and labourers supported it vehemently, for though the main part of them were not included in the proposed franchise, they were intimately associated with the class to be benefited, and would therefore share in some of the advantages of an enlarged repre- sentation. The second reading of the bill was moved on the 21st of March, and carried by one vote only — the vote, too, of Sir John Cal- craft, who was a member of the opposition. The result was received with uproarious cheers from both sides — for the opposition felt that when the bill went into committee it would be at their mercy. The house adjourned for the Easter recess, and reassembled on the 12th of April, when modifications of some details were made, after which General Gascoyne moved that an instruction should be given to the committee on the bill — "That it is the opinion of this house that the total number of knights, citizens, and burgesses returned to parliament for that part of the United King- dom called England and Wales ought not to be diminished." Lord Althorp said this motion was the first of a series by which it was intended to interfere with the progress of the committee. In fact, it would have the effect of giving still more seats for enfran- chisement than they wanted — but it was a measure of obstruction, and after an acri- monious discussion it was passed by a major- ity of eight. The countercheck was the dissolution of parliament, but it was known that the king was averse to this alternative, and the op- position fancied they had effectually "mated" if not checkmated the government. In the House of Lords it waa proposed by Lord WhamclifFe to move an address to his majesty not to dissolve parliament. No time was to RUSSELL— GEEY—ALTHOEP. 79 be lost. The king must be seen at once, and Earl Grey shrank from the task. Perhaps no man but Brougham would have had the bold- ness to execute it, and he for once showed not only courage but extraordinary tact. Every- thing had been provided — even to the speech; and the king was at first angry, especially as the lord-chancellor was obliged to confess that he had ordered the lifeguards to be in readi- ness to escort his majesty. This enraged the monarch, who declared it to be high treason — and indeed it was a serious infringement of the royal prerogative. But Brougham was so submissive in his representations that only a serious crisis, which might endanger the counti'y and the throne itself, had induced ministers to take this step or to proffer the advice they offered, that his majesty was ap- peased, and, it is said, transferred his anger to the lords, who were preparing to petition him against exercising his royal authority. It was declared that he hurried on his robes to go down to the house, calling out, " Bring me a hackney-coach ! " — as though he would not wait for the state carriage. At all events, he reached the lords in semi -state — the life- guards riding wide as an escort, the people huzzaing and making a demonstration, which convinced him of his popularity and atoned for the pressure to which he had been sub- jected by Earl Grey and the lord-chancellor, from whom he had parted in a jocular humour, threatening them with impeachment. When he reached the House of Lords it was in a tumult, which was barely hushed as he said, in a firm voice, that he had come to prorogue parliament prior to a dissolution, that he might ascertain the sense of his people on the expediency of making such change in the representation as circumstances might appear to require. In the House of Commons the discussion was. as loud and as bitter, and when the king arrived the calm Sir Eobert Peel was speak- ing in a violent passion. All was excitement, and the nerves of the assembly seemed to be wrought to the highest pitch. Parliament was dissolved the next day. We may now return for a moment to some of the principal actors in the exciting scenes to which we have referred. Lord John Eussell has already been intro- duced to the readers of this history. Perhaps • he was on the whole, among all the parliamen- tary heroes of the Eeform Bill, the most liked by the people generally. There were many reasons for this. He bore an honoured his- toric name, and in the general imagination some vague reminiscence of his illustrious but unfortunate ancestor clung to him. Then he was a religious man, and a domestic man — all which went well with hazy half-tints of recol- lection about the heroic Lady Eussell of two centuries before. Besides all this. Lord John had been a consistent Liberal, and the Dissenters, to a man, remembered with gratitude that he had carried the repeal of the hated Test and Corporations Acts in the teeth of the Duke of Wellington and his government. And it was no secret that his lordship was prepared to go farther on the road toward complete religious freedom. No man was more liked as a chairman at popular religious meetings, such as those of the British and Foreign School Society, the Bible Society, and so forth. In addition, it must be borne in mind that he was a plain-looking Englishman, with no brilliant qualities. Short, almost dwarfish in person, he had a large head and "plucky" appearance. When he spoke he did not dazzle like Brougham, or even inspire the immediate feeling of respect that Earl Grey did. When he sat in the House of Commons with his hat — which was always very large — slouched down quite over his forehead, you could see little of his face but the firm lips, which had very frequently an expression of dry humour in them, though, indeed, Lord John was no joker. Nor was he what could be called a good speaker. There was nothing brilliant about him. He had written verse {Don Carlos, a tragedy), history, and bio- graphy, and had, by the general, nearly unanimous voice, failed in all. His gesture has been described as "oat-like," a sort of pawing over the table, or whatever was before him, and he often hesitated for the right word. This was, in some respects, in his favour. The cleverness of Brougham made him dis- 80 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. trusted and feared. So of Eoetuck, perhaps, and a few others. They never hesitated, or took you into their confidence by a tacit admis- sion of inability to go on fast. Eussell did, and as he was a good man, a family man, a man who sympathized with "religious" diffi- culties, a very intelligent man, with a party following, and always true to his colours, the people liked him. They usually spoke of him as "Lord John," and sometimes even as "little Johnny." On the whole, we repeat, he was the most heartily and simply lilced by the people, though the central figure of the show was Brougham, whose speeches on the side of "the bill, the whole bUl, and nothing but the bOl" drove people wild with admiration. While Lord John Eussell was thought of with a sort of familiar liking, mingled with respect, and strong confidence that he would do more for the people some day, the "veteran reformer," Earl Grey, now sixty-six years old, inspired feelings of serious homage such as it is not often given to political heroes to receive. Though an aristocrat and an earl — having sat in the upper house, indeed, since the death of his father in 1807 — Grey had been athoroughly consistent Liberal. He could make himself sufficiently formidable as a debater or par- liamentary critic, and though he was a, man of much ability as a politician, it may per- haps be said that the most effective part of the general impression he made was the moral. A more dignified, yet kindly presence than his it is difficult to conceive. His name ex- cited the greatest enthusiasm at the time of the struggle, and not less when the victory was won. The mass of the people were proud of having an earl to fight their battles, and when Grey retired into private life, after his ministry broke up in 1834 upon the question of coercion in Ireland, he carried with him the deeply-seated respect of the nation. In the cabinet of Earl Grey, in 1830, Lord Althorp was not a very able chancellor of the exchequer; but he did good service in the ques- tion of reform. His political life was short and peculiar, and he was an intensely English Englishman — English in a sense very different from that in which it was customary to apply the word to Lord Palmerston. He may yet be seen as a boy of five years old on Eeynolds's canvas — looking just a prophecy of what he afterwards proved to be both at Harrow and the university. He was not the boy for these times, in which, as Lord Kimberley put it, everybody either wants to examine or to be examined; but, with great sweetness and straightforwardness of character, had a some- what blufi' and awkward look, and was much more fond of football, rackets, boxing, and hunting than of books. "Without any natural love of study he was ready to go through any mental labour in his power, as a matter of honour, duty, or love. At Cambridge, in compliance with the prayers of his mother, the Countess Spencer, he made himself the first man of his year. Although he was a good mathematician and a very strict accountant, he was personally extravagant in one direction — sport; and what with hounds, stock-breeding, and the turf, was too frequently in debt. His sim- plicity of nature may be judged of by the boyish and totally irrelevant remark he made after going to Deville, the phrenologist. "Deville knows nothing about it," said he, "for he has not found out my ruling passion, which is to see sporting dogs hunt." He was a daring rider, and one of his shoulders continued in a chronic state of dislocation. After he had given up hunting, he said he never dared to steal a glance at the hounds when out, for he knew if he did he should begin all over again. As soon as ever the earldom devolved upon him, he quitted poli- tical life, and spent the whole remainder of his existence on his estates. A friend who went to him with a view of winning him back, found him, like the honest Arcadian he was, sitting at an open window, watching the sheep and lambs in his fields. And he never again left the country life in which he de- lighted. Lord Althorp— for by that name we must know him — entered Parliament early in the century, and was by some people called a pupil of Mr. Whitbread and Sir Francis Bur- dett. He was by instinct and culture a CHARLES_ SECOND EARL GREY, Ft e m 1 « I 1 ;-; 5 11 _ 1 q g ^y PROM THE PORTRAIT BY SIR TH03 lATOENCE, P R,A, BLACKIE »= SOIT, lO^DC,;,, GLASGOW, EDIire,IRUR .^.DUBHN, HAEEIET MAETINEATJ— JOSEPH HUME. 81 Liberal, and in financial matters a disciple of Mr. Huskisson. He was only two years short of fifty, -when, in 1830, he became the elected leader of the Whig party in the House of Commons, greatly to the surprise of Sir Eobert Peel and the Tories. It is another example of Althorp's simplicity of character that he himself wished to see Brougham chosen for that post! And perhaps it is another that he consulted Harriet Martineau about one or more of his budgets. No names are so closely connected with the passing of the Eeform Bill as those of Earl Grey and Lord John Eussell ; but much was due to Lord Althorp's fine temper, his steady industry, and the influence which his con- spicuous and beautiful love of truth, along with his essentially "aristocratic" character as a country gentleman, commanded in the house. On one occasion, rising to reply to an effective speech of Croker's, he said he had mislaid some calculations of his own, which would entirely demolish Croker's, but perhaps the house would take his word for that, and throw out the amendment in support of which Croker spoke! The house did. In 1834 Althorp's father died, he himself be- came Earl Spencer, and, of course, ceased to be chancellor of the excheqxier, and that was the signal for the break-up of the Eeform Whig ministry. There are those who main- tain that Althorp was the essential "fly- wheel," or steadying power, in the whole Whig machine, and that after his absence it never went well. It is almost impossible to write of Lord Althorp without being reminded of Harriet Martineau. When she published her very in- genious and extraordinarily successful tales in illustration of Political Economy it was sup- posed by a large public that in that "science" the new gospel was found. The excitement occasioned by her stories was something scarcely intelligible to more recent readers. Sydney Smith admired her, waited upon her, and flattered her in so loud a voice (knowing she was deaf) that she dropped her ear- trum- pet, and started to the other end of the sofa, out of the way of — Vol. I. "The very powerful parson, Peter Pith, The loudest wit I e'er was deafened with,' as Byron called him. Brougham would have patronized her, and he made large promises of employing her pen, but the promises came to nothing, and she quarrelled with him, and with the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Know- ledge, for holding back the directly political " knowledge " which she held it to be their duty to place at the service of the people. Still, her services to the Whigs, and to Liberal prin- ciples generally, were great, and the party would have "taken her up" to almost any extent, if she had let them. Great was the flutter among the Tadpoles and Tapers when it was known that the born aristocrat. Lord Althorp, had sent Mr. Drummond, who used (she says) "some pomp and preface," to consult "the deaf girl from Norwich" about certain points in his budget. The excitement had some very ludicrous points. Moore, the poet, was ruthlessly snubbed by her, but that did not prevent his going about in society telling people that "the other evening he was singing to Miss Martineau." In her case the Whigs were not ungrateful, for they offered her a pension when she was laid by with illness. This she declined. Later in life Mr. Glad- stone made her a similar offer, which she also declined, on the ground that having a modest competency she had no excuse for coming upon the public pm'se. The short correspond- ence which took place upon the subject was in the highest degree honourable to both parties. In referring to this we have anticipated in point of date, but Harriet Martineau may be said to disappear from the stage of general history at about the Eeform era, and is not likely again to appear in these pages. In the parliament of 1831 Joseph Hume, who, though not a new member (indeed he had almost then earned his title of "vete- ran reformer"), was a new power, may be said to have begun a new career. It is no disrespect either to Weymouth or Montrose, for both of which he had sat, to say that Joseph Hume, member for Middlesex and leader of the Eadicals, had effected a triumph a.nd taken a place which were entirely new. 6 82 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES. This was one of tlie oases in which the result of the elections surprised the Tories and put new strength into the reformers outside the house. Joseph Hume did not receive during his lifetime anything near the honour to which he was entitled. He was a very canny, quiet, unassuming, determined Scot, who kept a watchful eye on the public expenditure. He formed one of the most characteristic figures in the caricatures of IB., which by their significance sometimes did the work of many leading articles and speeches. There he stood scanning through his eye-glass the estimates, gravely quoting with suppressed severity "the sum tottle of the whole." But the artist, by instinct or intention, or both, contrived to express in the head and face the imperturb- able conscientiousness of the man. Joseph Hume did much more than give his mind to " the sum tottle of the whole." He began life as a surgeon, and served in the Mahratta war at the very time when Wel- lington was fighting at Assaye. He did his native country great and unobtrusive senrice while in India, and at the same time made a fortune. This enabled him to increase his culture by travel on the Continent. It was a great mistake to suppose that Mr. Hume was a narrow-minded and ignorant man. Both in parliament and out, he devoted much labour to the cause of education, including the pro- motion of scholastic institutions for adults; and it was to his untiring efforts that the public owed the complete opening of Hamp- ton Court, the British Museum, and other places of intelligent relaxation or refresh- ment. At an early date in his career the Greeks had found out his value, and he was patted on the back by the Edinhurgh Review. Unfortu- nately men as influential as Huskisson thought it becoming to oppose his efforts to reduce the public expenditure, and Ca.stle- reagh with his usual stupidity compared him to harlequin and clown. The time came, however, when Mr. Hume was treated with more consideration. During that portion of the struggle for reform in the parliamentary representation with which we are concerned his labours were unexampled. He spared neither time, money, nor strength, and risked something of his good name, for the Tories accused him of packing off Liberal candidates for the constituencies, properly labelled, in ways which were "unconstitu- tional." The sum of the matter was that in those trying days the influence of Mr. Hume was everywhere felt, and the more moderate Liberals began decisively to feel that he really was a person of some importance. Ofiice he refused, and he poured out his time and money like water in behalf of the people. It would not be easy, if it were even possible, to find a more disinterested public man. His quietness (to which reference has already been made) was so great as to make him a natural subject for a joke of a certain kind. Sir Robert Peel at one time challenged Dr. Lush- ington, and immediately afterwards Mr. Hume, for some totally inoffensive words. General Sir De Lacy Evans, the member for Westminster, was anything but a humorist, but he made Sir Robert's challenge to Hume the text of a short rebuke which is worth quoting : — "The right honourable gentleman," said Evans, " is a regular fire-eater. First he sends a hostile message to an ecclesiastical judge, and then he challenges that entirely peaceful and prudent gentleman Mr. Hume ; and I sincerely advise the pacific member for Durham (this was Mr. Pease the Quaker) to be careful of his words, or as sure as fate he will be the next person called out by the war- like minister." Mr. Hume did so much for the people that it is desirable to make him as near a living figure as possible, and perhaps this sketch may help his name, when it recurs in these pages, to some of the homage to which it is entitled, but which it has too frequently missed. The dissolution of parliament was greeted with popular rejoicing, and in London the pub- Kc excitement reached to a pitch that may well have alarmed the anti-reformers in parlia,ment, and especially the opposing members of the House of Lords. The city was illuminated, and the lord-mayor being unable to prevent this sign of political triumph, acted with com- THE ELECTION OBSTRUCTIONISTS. 83 mendable common sense and promoted it by giving it his authority. But the rows of can- dles or coloured lamps in the windows were no conclusive evidence of the political opinions of the householders, since it was pretty well known that unlighted casements wovild be de- molished. In the city, however, all went tolerably well ; but at the west end, where known anti-reformers abstained on principle from illuminating, the windows were ruth- lessly smashed by the surging crowd which filled the streets. Mr. Baring's dwelling was subjected to a storm of missiles, and at Aps- ley House the Duke of Wellington had to en- dure not only the destruction of nearly every pane of glass which looked upon the streets, but the howls and execrations of a formidable mob. HappUy there was no serious, or at any rate no general, riot, for the election, it was hoped, would secure the passing of the bill. During that election, for which both parties had to prepare, the condition of the country was far more alarming. In the fourteen days during which the poU was kept open enormous sums of money were spent in bribery and treating, and the candidates were returned amidst scenes of the utmost riot, drunkenness, and disorder. Crowds filled the streets, processions marched hither and thither with bands and banners, and the whole populations of the towns seemed to be wrought to a fever, which was increased by the umisual sultriness of the weather. There were, however, some notable instances of a determination on the part of reformers to abolish the corrupt pi-ac- tices which prevailed. One instance was that of a body of East Kentish men who had arranged to march to Maidstone to the poU and to sleep in a barn on the road rather than put their candidate to any expense. There could be no doubt about the temper of the country, for the number of reformers returned gave the ministry a large majority. On the 14th of June parliament was opened by com- mission. Mr. Manners Sutton, though himself an anti-reformer, was unanimously elected speaker. On the 21st his majesty formally inaugurated the session, and as he returned to St. James's was greeted with enthusiastic applause as "the patriot king." No time was then lost. On the 24th Lord John EusseU again appeared in the house with a bearing confident and determined, "for the purpose of proposLUg in the name of the government a measure of reform which in their opinion is calculated to maintain unimpaired the pre- rogative of the crown, the authority of both houses of parliament, and the rights and liber- ties of the people." In referring to the nature of the opposition which had formerly been shown to the biU he said: "Neither the taunts nor the jeers which marked the first reception of the measure; nor the misrepresen- tations and the libels by which it had been sought to disfigure it; nor the firm, and able, and manly opposition which men of talent and honour had thought it their duty to give it; nor those more dangerous weapons — those un- warrantable and slanderous imputations that the sovereign had an opinion on it diffei-ent from his constitutional advisers — none of these obstacles have prevented the sovereign, the ministers, and the people from steadily purau- ing an object which they considered ought to be dear at once to all those who loved the an- cient ways of the constitution, and to all those who are sincerely attached to the liberties of the people.'' After some modifications of details had been announced, the biU was read a first time without opposition. As the day for the second reading (the 4th of July) drew near, the excitement was tremendous. The house and all its approaches were filled with expec- tant members and an expectant crowd. The discussion lasted three nights, tiU five o'clock on the morning of the 7th. The second read- ing was carried by a majority of 136. But when the biU went into committee the opposition used every possible artifice of ob- struction. Sir Robert Peel was the leader, but his antagonism was less factious than that of his followers, and though he more than exhausted all the arguments that could be brought for the purpose of delay, his repre- sentations were not mere talking against time. Between the 12th and the 27th of July, Sugden had spoken 18 times, Praed 22 times, Pelham 28 times, and WethereU, the able but blatant obstructionist, 58 times. It was an organized system, and the work of wearisome opposition 84 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. for the purpose of tiring out the ministry lasted till the , 13th of September, the sit- tings on the Eeform Bill alone occupying eight hours each evening. The debates on the report and some slight alterations were made to occupy another week, but on the evening of the 19th the third reading was to come on, and a call was made for every member to be in his seat. A large number of the anti-reformers, expecting a long discussion, lagged behind. Sir J. Scarlett attempted to speak against time to allow the rest an opportunity of reaching their places, but he sat down amidst great shouts of divide, and the division was at once taken. There were but 171 members present, and the bill was read a third time by a majority of 55 — the anti-reformers who rushed in when it was too late being received with peals of derisive laughter. On the morning of the 22d the bill passed (this time with a fuU house) by 345 against 239. The question then was, "What will the lords do? and it was soon answered. Solemnly Lord Althorp and Lord Eussell, fol- lowed by a hundred reformers, carried the biU to the bar of the upper house ; solemnly it was received, but the anti-reforming peers had al- ready made up their minds. Lord Eldon had said with well-marked meaning that he would do his duty, and his age and long term of office gave his assertion weight and influence. On the 3d of October Earl Grey, calm, and with a noble dignity, stood up to speak, but for a moment was overcome by agitation, for the fate of the country seemed to be in the balance. He appealed to the bishops speciaUyand earnestly, but, as they conceived, with a scarcely-con- cealed menace, when he said, "I especially beg the spiritual portion of your lordships to pause and reflect. The prelates of the empire have not a more firm friend than I. But if this biU should be thrown out by a narrow majority, and the scale should be turned by their votes, what would be their situation? Let them set their houses in order." The last words, if they were an intentional quotation from Scripture, were either menacing or un- fortunate, for the conclusion of the passage is, " for thou must die and not live." Probably, and especially judging from his manner after- wards, he used the woi-ds as a proverbial say- ing without thinking of the context; but the bishops knew so well what followed, that the phrase was afterwards made the subject of acri- monious and angry reference. Lord Wham- cliffe, a moderate opponent, replied, and at once moved the rejection of the bill. Lord Melbourne gave it a rather languid support,, for, as he acknowledged, he had opposed reform as much as kny man. The Duke of 'Welling- ton was of course immovable. The next day Brougham delivered a speech, a masterpiece of earnest eloquence, which drew expressions of admiration from Lyndhurst, who, however, spoke strongly against "the revolutionary vio- lence of the measure." On the 8th of October Earl Grey rose to reply, and his address was applauded even by his foes for its evident honesty and sincerity of purpose, but at past six o'clock the next morning the lords threw out the bill. The news went through the country like flame; and but for the wise reticence of the ministry, and the belief of the people that the government would never yield, there would have been a revolution, and the throne itself would have paid for the opposition of the anti-reforming peers. Happily not one leader of the reform party raised an insurrectionary cry. The shops were closed in London and other large towns, the church - bells were muffled. In one district at least it was de- cided to keep a fast day. A large number of the reformers in the house held a meeting to express their resolution to stand by the minis- try. The common council of the city did the same. All over the country great assembbes were called and violent speeches were made. The French had just set about abolishing the hereditary peerage, and it was boldly hinted that their example might well be followed in England. There was a sudden and alarming run upon the bank for gold. Even while the debate was going on in the House of Lords there had been enormous meetings of the political unions in the midland counties. The number that attended at one of these meetings was estimated at not less than 100,000, and several radical members of parliament were amongst the speakers. A resolution was passed to pay no more taxes till the bill became law. RIOTS AT XOTTIXGHAJI. Totes of homage and thanks to Lord John I Bnssell and Lord Althorp were passed, and a resolution to address the king praying him to create new peers, if necessarv, in order to pass ihe bilL It was no sooner known that the lords, with twentv-one bishops in the majority, had thrown oat the bill than pubhcmeetin^seemed to spring up out of the ground nnsummoned nearly all over England. Xot only did the common coancU of the city of London hold an assembly at Guildhall in favour of the measxu*, but there was another meeting of the leading merchants and bankers at the Mansion Hovise. The address which the corporation voted to the king was carried up by au assemblage of 50.000 people. The " viler sort" in the mob .as^ulted Apsley House, tmhorsed the Duke of Cumberland, and committed other acts of violence. These and similar matters led to such angry discussions in both houses that on the 20th of October the king again came down and prorogued parliament. In the royal speech the following passage ■occurred: — "The anxiety which has been so generally manifested by my people for the accomplishment of a constitutional reform in the Commons House of Parliament will, I trust, be regulated by a due sense of the necessity of order and moderation in their proceedings. To the consideration of this important question the attention of parlia- ment must necessarily again be called at the opening of the ensuing session : and you may be assured of my unaltered desire to promote its settlement by such improvements in the representation as may be found necessary for the securing to my people the fall enjoyment of their rights, which, in combination with those of the other orders of the state, are essential to the support of our free constitu- tion.'' The violence of the political assemblies having somewhat abated, the anti-reformers professed to believe that a reaction was setting in — ^but, in truth, a more formidable organi- zation was being completed, and pohtical unions were formed all over the kingdom. At the end of October Sir Francis Burdett presided over a great assembly of the inhabi- tant-householders of London who met for the parpose of combining in a national political association. Xot only the king but the ministry felt considerable uneasiness at the proceedings of these societies, and on the 2d of November a proclamation was issued declaring them to be illegaL There was sufficient reason for dis- quietude, for in various parts of the country alarming disturbances had continued, and wro terrible events served to show that the whole framework of society was menaced by the opportunity afforded to ruffianly mobs, who, in the name of pohtical agitation, were ready to defy the law and to introduce a reign of terror. The first of these was a riot at Not- tingham, where the ancient castle, — sacred to the memory of Colonel and Lnqy Hutchison, who had, as we all remember, held it for "the Houses and the Lord'' in the time of Crom- well, — was fired by a mob. Ministers of re- ligion and other inflnential persons did their best to control the ruffianly portion of the excited populace, and while daylight lasted they were largely successful, but when the autumnal darkness had descended in the city the castle was furiously attacked. A hving writer and painter has described the scene in a few telling sentences : — " Towards ni^t," writes 3Ir. Josiah Gilbert, whose parents lived on the spot, "the evil element in tiie mob predominated, and as darknes fell the rush of thousands filled the streets leading to the castle, which, as the pi-operty of the Duke of Newcastle, a Tory of Tories, was a tempting object for popular vengeance. The ancient lodge gates were broken in, the lofty terrace was speedily thronged, and to the watchers on the roof of the Castlegate House, well placed for commanding the scene, the dark ma^ of the great building was speedily Ut up with lurid flashes. Lights gleamed from window after window, and, presently, tongues of fire leaped out amidst shouts and yells piercing the air as the flames did the dark- ness. Then followed cra£h after crash, molten lead begau to pour from the roof, and the odour of burning cedar-wood penetrated every- where, lasting, indeed, many days. It was a ] grievous sight" GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. The Duke of Newcastle had the satisfaction of receiving £21,000 from the country for the destruction of "his own.'' But far more terrible were the outrages committed in the still notorious riots at Bristol, ■when, on the 29th of October, the uncom- promising and eccentric Sir Charles Wetherell went thither to open the assizes as recorder of that city, where the mob was perhaps the fiercest and most turbulent in England. The majority of the vast crowd who thronged the streets knew little, and probably cared little, about the Eeform BUI. They consisted of the lowest and most dangerous part of the popu- lation, and their objects were robbery, the destruction of property, and the subversion of aU order. From every sordid street and alley, from every pothouse and infamous den, the worst characters came trooping forth in hot haste, ready for any mischief. Two troops of the 14th Dragoons were marched into the cattle-market, one troop of the 3d Dragoons into the court-yard of the jail, while a body of special constables assembled in the area of the Exchange. At Totterdown Sir Charles, as he entered the sheriff's carriage, was greeted with yells, groans, and hisses. He was sur- rounded by constables, but the carriage was pelted with dirt and stones all the way to the city. While he sat at the Guildhall the pro- ceedings were interrupted by clamour, and he had afterwards to make his way in the mayor's carriage to the Mansion-house through streets filled by a sullen and threatening concourse of rioters. He had no sooner entered the building than missiles were flung at the windows, and on one man being arrested there was a cry, " To the Back !" " To the Back !" the Back being a quay where piles of faggots were stacked. Six hundred men returned armed with blud- geons, with which they attacked and severely beat the constables. Towards evening the mayor, appearing at one of the windows and threatening to read the riot act and send for the troops, was assailed with large stones; and when he afterwards returned with other magis- trates and read the act he was pelted stUl more furiously; the constables were driven in, and the building itseK was furiously attacked amidst yells and shouts of " Give us the re- corder, and we'll murder him!" The house was broken into, its principal rooms sacked, the furniture broken, and the floors covered with the stones flung at the constables, who, however, kept the mob at bay by fighting from behind mattresses and piles of chairs and tables. The street was barricaded with stones, and the iron railings torn from the front of the building. Sir Charles Wetherell contrived to escape by the roof, whence he reached the stable-yard and exchanging clothes with a friend passed through the crowd un- detected, and the same night obtained a post- chaise which carried him to Newport. By this time, however, the whole city seemed to be at the mercy of the infuriate mob. Colonel Brereton, in command of the 14th, led his troops through Queen's Square, after receiving the orders of the mayor to clear the streets; but he was himself a "reformer," and with ci-iminal feebleness refrained from using vigor- ous measures, contenting himself with direct- ing his men to " ride through" the rioters and walk them away. This monstrous farce was ineffectual except to impress the rioters with an opinion that the soldiers were inclined to be on their side. Captain Gage of the 14th was less inclined to deal gently with them, and charged with a line of swordsmen along the principal streets. The mob was scattered, and for a time this seemed to have a good effect. The next day was Sunday. Some of the rioters had been arrested and placed in the jail. Colonel Brereton removed the pickets from the Mansion-house, and it was reported that he had shaken hands with some of the ringleaders, and was favourable to their cause. The riot became an insurrection. The Mansion-house was re-entered; the valuable glass, china, mir- rors, and furniture were destroyed ; the wine- cellars plundered, and the wine was handed about till numbers of men were in a drunken frenzy. The mayor, a little nervous man, put on a woman's dress, scrambled over the roofs of the houses, and went to summon the citizens, who formed themselves into a body of con- stables. From churches and chapels orderly householders were summoned to aid in pre- venting the destruction of the city; but Colonel Brereton still refused to fire on the now frantic THE BRISTOL EIOTS. cio\nl,iuid restrained liis saldiers from offermg any effeorual check to the ontrages -which thev committed. At a little after mid-daj thej- had seized on the contents of a smith's shop — had stormed the Bridewell, released the prisoners. and set the prison itself on fire. Ther then went on to the jail, forced the doois \rith sledges and tools taken from a lai-ge \rare- honse, and released a hundred and seTenty prisoners. By this time several well-dresed ringleaders had taken the direction of some so^tions of the insurgents ; the tread-mill \ras burned irith tmeses of stra-w. and the benches of the prison chapel were saturated ■with some inflammable liquid and set on fire ; the flames seized the Trhole building, and were so fierce that even the stonework was calcined. The toll-house by Cumberland Basin was burned down. Another prison at I^wford's Gate was fired. The -vice-president of the politiial union, who had endeaTOured lo dispeise the rioters, recommended that the bridges should be swung so that a large portion of the mob might be left on an island where they would be helpless; bat all was dismay and demoral- ization. The citizens were too few to stem the fury of the populace^ and still Brereton refused to recaQ hfe troop which he had ordered to withdraw. A spirit store was plundered, and Hien in a fresh acce^ of fury a crowd surged to the bishop's palace, and broke their -wav- in almost immediatdj. The fire from the kitchen ciate was heaped on the furmture and thrust into the feather-beds, which were ripped open : the rooms were plundered ; the servants, who attempted some resisiance. were driven out, and the building was quickly in flames, but the old Saion chapter-house ad- joining wotild not bum, ihou^ valuable books and records were destroyed. The mob was now not only furious but mad drunk. The mansion-house was fired from below, and rioteis carousing in the upper rooms had all ^cape cut off by the burning staircases, and perfehed before they could find a way out. The whole city seemed to be threatened with destruction. A short notice only was given for people known to be Tories to remove their &milies, and Aen armed gangs entered, and after seizing on such valuable as could be carried away made huge bonfire of furni- ture and woodwork, and accelerated the pro- gress of the flames with trains of turpen- tine poured upon floors and staircases, or by smearing the walls with some jgnitible paste brought for the ptirpose. A whole side of Queen's Square was ablaze. The custom-house, the excise-office, and the adjacent back streets were burning. By midnight of that dreadful Sunday the thimder of falling houses, the Ituid glare of the flames, the red pall of smoke overhanging the city, the roars and cmses of the crowd, the yells of the plunderers who dambered from parapet to roof, or only stayed on Uieir mad course to hold a wild carouse, and so fell in the red ruin which they had made amidst the crash of beams and ceilings, formed a scene that lived in the memory of the spectators for many a long year. The members of famili^ thrust from their homes and beggared by the w^anton destruction of their property, looked in vain for aid. In the centre of the square taUes dragged from the dining-rooms of the houses were loaded with rare wines, spirits, and rich food, and the vilest part of the poptilation sat there on cosily chairs and couch^ drinking, scream- ing, and shouting imprecations and obscene jests. Costly articles of plate and valuable pieces of furniture were sold to any bidder for a few shillings, or were wantonly de- stroyed. Colonel Brereton had gone to b-ed at the house of a friend, but at last reluctanTly let the dragoons return. Directly a really detei^ mined charge was made the mol^ in the streets gave way. though they stiU fancied the soldiers were with them, and shouted as they had shouted throughout this hideous camiv;d for "the king and reform." But with early morning arrived the 14th from Keynsham, commanded by Major Beckwich, a very diSferent kind of officer. The soldiers keep no scabbards on their swords now, and as they swooped down upon a band of plnnderers outside the ruin of tie bishop's house their sabr^ slash deep. Another minute or two and tiiey are in the sijuare cutting down a dozen ruf- fians who snrrotmd the statue of Villiam 1 1 1. The mob is pursued along the ■"Back,"" and t^e GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. troops -wheel swiftly through the square and along the "Grove." A man at the end of a court makes a snatch at a dragoon's bridle and his head is.severed from his body; another, urging the mob to stand firm and pelt the troops, shares the same awful fate. The citi- zens rally. Five thousand men with staves and with strips of white linen on their arms to distinguish them, come to support the sol- diers. The crews of vessels are mustered, the pensioners are enrolled; the mob, which has broken into separate crowds, is separately dis- persed, fresh troops and companies of yeo- manry pour in, the men encamp in the streets. By Monday the riot is at an end, and parties are formed to search for the plundered pro- perty, and for the killed and maimed lying amidst the ruins. No fewer than five hundred wretched rioters perished, and hundreds were seriously wounded or otherwise injmred. Of a hundred and two prisoners tried on the 2nd of January, 1832, eighty-two were convicted, five hung, a large number transported, and others imprisoned with hard labour. Colonel Brereton, during his trial by court-martial, went home and shot himself through the heart. The city of Bristol never, it is said, really re- covered the blow, and the loss of a great por- tion of its West Indian trade by the sub- sequent abolition of slavery considerably reduced its commercial position. But people would inquire whether these calamities might not have been averted but for the obstinate antagonism of the Tory lords to the popular demand for a reformed parlia- ment, and the cry was no longer, " What will the House of Lords do?"— but, "What shall be done with the House of Lords?" They still held out, and in the great commercial and industrial centres the assemblies of reformers again met in large numbers. On the 7th of May, 1832, the day on which parliament reassembled after the Easter rece,ss, the very day on which the lords again threw out the bill, the great Midland meeting was held at Birmingham. There were present 150,000 men, with two hundred bands of music and seven hundred flags. The position selected for this meeting was on or below the slope of a hiU. When a trumpet had blown for silence this enormous multitude united in singing the so-caUed national hymn ; — "Lo! we answer! see, we come, Quick at freedom's holy call. We come! we come! we come! we come! To do the glorious work of all : And hark! we raise from sea to sea The sacred watchword Liberty! "God is our guide! from field, from wave, From plough, from anvil, and from loom We come, our country's rights to save, And speak a tyrant faction's doom. And- hark! we raise from sea to sea The sacred watchword Liberty I "God is our guide! no swords we draw, We kindle not war's battle fires ; By union, justice, reason, law. We claim the birthright of our sires. We raise the watchword Liberty ! We will, we will, we will be free ! " It was part of the proceedings that these men recited the following vow, the fugleman, so to speak, being a Mr. Salt : — "With unbro- ken faith, through every peril and privation, we here devote ourselves and our children to our country's cause." With uncovered heads these men pronounced the vow. Many a man, truly patriotic too, might hesitate at "devoting" his "children" as well as himself (and of course his wife) to the object of attaining, say the ten millionth part of a voice in the legislature, and even that uttered at second-hand; but these men were nidely in earnest. In some places they recommended a refusal to pay taxes till the Eeform Bill was passed. In London the political union under the pre- sidency of Josej)h Hume pretty strongly hinted that the ultimate consequences of a continued disregard of the popular demand might be "the utter extinction of the privi- leged classes." There was but one course for the ministry beside resignation, and they were pledged to the country not to resign while there was any other course open to them. It was determined to ask the king to exercise his royal prerogative and to create as many new peers as would suffice to give a majority in favour of the bill in the upper house. It was an extreme measure, for the number of new- peers would be considerable; and his majesty hesitated, was afraid, and after deliberating, declined. The ministry resigned the next day, XATIOXAL EXCITEiEEXT— THE EEFOE3I BILL PASSED. S9 and there ■was another politiail hurricane. If a Tory government could be formed it ■would be in opposition to the majority of the House of Commons, and ■where ■n-ere the sup- plies to come from ? The political associations enrolled hundreds of ne^w members; Lord Lyndhurst \vt»s commissioned by his majesty to endeavour to form a ministry, but no one, not even the Duke of "Wellington, could ven- ture to accept the responsibility, and Sir Robert Peel declined to occupy a position ■vrhich ■would have been less consistent and more dangerous than that -which he consented to fill at the time of the passing of Catholic emancipation. It \ras evident that the king must consent to create a number of new peers, or that the House of Lords must give ■way. After some decent shoTv of resistance, dur- ing which Lord "WTiamcliife and a few peers who followed him became known as " waverers "' or ■' trimmers," and were of great importance, the bill ■was again introduced and brought forward for second reading, some of the lords announcing that they would vote for it on the understanding that certain alterations would be made in committee; others, Ute the Bishop of London, agreeing to go with the re- formers for "the biU, the whole biU, and no- fbing but the bill;" and a third party, like the Duke of Wellington, though they were bound to carry the measure, denoimcing it as revolutionary. Thus the second reading was carried by only a majority of 9, many of thelords voting by proxy. Lord Lyndhurst and Lord Ellenborough endeavoured to move amend- ments which the ministry r^arded as fatal to the true character of the scheme for reform; and again there were attempts at delay which would have renewed the excitement of the country and drove ministers again to resort to the proposal of increasing the number of the lords. Again the king refused, for he now re- garded the amendments of the lords as mere matters of detail, and considered that he had already sacrificed enough for a measure of re- form to which he began to entertain a positive dislike because of the trouble it had caused him, the difficulties which seemed to be main- tained by the obduracy of ministers, and above all the predictions of revolution which he had heard from statesmen with a great reputa- tion for political wisdom. The "reforming monarch" having thus de- clined to create new peers (a measure to which the Whigs were nearly as little inclined as he w;s withdrawn, and the matter was left to ministers entirely. Jtist at this unlucky crisis a poor man named Goodman was condemned to death for arson, and it ^ said that a clergyman whom Cobbett had offended drew from this ignorant man the confession which follows. At aQ events, here is the confession : — "I Thomas Gk>odman once heard of one Mr. Cobbit going About gaving out lactures at length he came to Battel and gave one their and their was a gret number of peof>el came to hear birn and I went he had verrey long conversation concerning the state of the cotm- try and tilling them that they wns verry much impose upon and he said he would show them the way to gain their rights and liberals (liber- ties) and he said it would be verry Pro].er for every man to keep gtin in his house espesdy younir men that they might prepare themselves in readine^ to so with him when Le called on them and he would show them whidi way to iro on and he said xhat peopel might expect nrs their as well as other places. Tliis is the truth and nothing But the truth of A deving man.' With the help of this confesion and sc^me otter matters the srovemment at last felt as 103 GLADSTOXE AXD HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. if they could venture on .1 prosecution. And on the 7th of July, 1831. Oobbett stood on his tiial in the Court of King's Bench, Brougham and other ministere being present in fi-ont of him, as we have stated, and his friend Lord Eadnor being at his side to encourage him, and if necessary give evidence in his favour. Cobbett conducted his own case. The very number of the Tiropenni/ Trash on which the indictment-was founded contained the following words : " I am for a government of King, Lords, and Commons, but, let what else will come, I am for the fi-eedom, the hap- piness and gi-eatness of England, and above all things, for the good feeding and clothing of those who raise all the food and make all the clothing.'' And in a speech several houi-s long, Cobbett pointed out, among other things, that Goodman had disappeared, and that the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, of which Brougham and Denman were both membera, the former being president, had re- cently asked his leave to reprint his letter to the Luddites condemning theu- practices, machine- breaking and violence of other kind. Cobbett, then seventy years old, attacked the Whigs venomously throughout the whole of his speech. This was bad policy; but after being locked up all night the jury were discharged, being unable to agree to a verdict. Perhaps a sketch of Mr. Cobbetf s appear- ance and his manner as a public speaker at this time — a sketch from a contemporai-y pen — may be welcome in this place. " Mr. Cobbett," says this publicist, "is still of stately stature, and must in youth have been tall. He must then, in physiognomy, pei-son, and bearing, have been a fine specimen of the true Saxon breed, — " 'The eyes of azure, and the looks of brown. And the blunt speech, that burets without a pause, And free-bom thought, which league the soldier with the laws.' "His thin, white haii-s and high forehead, the humour lurking in the eye and playing about the lips, betokened something more than the squire in his gala suit; still, the al- together was of this respectable and resjion- sible kind. His voice is low-toned, clear, and fle.xible, and so skilfullv modulated that not an aspiration w;^s lost of his nervous, fluent, unhesitating, aud perfectly correct discourse. There was no embarrassment, no flutter, no picking of words, nor was the speaker once at fault, or in the smallest degree disturbed by those petty accidents and annoyances which must have moved almost any other man. . . . He is indeed a first-rate comic actor, possessed of that flexible, penetrative power of imitation which extends to mind and ehai-acter as well as to their outward signs. His genius is, be- sides, essentially dramatic. We have often read his lively chai-acteristic dialogues with pleasure and amusement; but to see him act them, and personate Lord Althorp, pommelled and posed by the future member for Oldham, was a degree beyond this. He was in nothing vehement or obstreperous, though everybody had anticipated something of this kind, and his subdued tone and excellent discretion gave double point to his best hits. . . . The humour of his solemn ii-ony, his blistering sarcasm, but especially his sly hits and unexpected or ran- dom strokes and pokes on the sore or weak sides of the Whigs, told with full efiect. To oratory, in the highest sense of the term, Mr. Cobbett never once rises, but he is ever a wUy, deal', and most effective sjjeaker." Of course an attorney-general must do his duty, and Denman was not the man to sym- pathize with Cobbetfs ^nrulence. But it is i-ather melancholy to see him prosecuting this veteran, who evidently loved his country, and would not really hurt a hair of any man's head. Denman had himself known what it was to be on tlie dangerous side of the hedge, and, though not violent himself, had been asso- ciated with violent people. He was a kind- hearted man, and had introduced touches of manly, homely feeling into his defence of Queen Caroline, which had sent a thrill through the heart of the nation. Memoi-able as a stroke of simple, affecting eloquence w.is his remark — emphasized by his warm sincerity of manner — that though the queen's name had been by order omitted from the liturgy the people would remember her in the prayer for such as were "desolate and oppressed.'' When, in the coui-se of the trial, Denman went to Clieltenham for a little peace, the CX)BBETT m PAELIAMENT— HIS DEATH. 103 mhabitants ran to the clergyman to ask him to have the church-bells rung in honour of her majesty's sohcitor-general ' The dergyman declined, upon which the people tore the horses out of Denman's carriage, drew it to his house, and compelled him to make a speech to them from a window or balcony. They then made a rush for the house of the poor dergyman, smashed his windows, broke open the church, and rang the bells until late at night. It is not to be dreamed of that Denman approved of all this, for he was a wise, good, moderate man; but when KiTig William had made him attorney-general it left an awkward impression on most people's minds to find a mail who had gone through so many turbulent scenes himself, and fought so unflinchingly and honourably on the turbulent side, con- ducting a press prosecution against a man like Cobbett The story of Cobbetf s pubhc life does not end with his trial in 1831 for a, seditious libeL In the autumn of that year it had be- come plain that the refoi-m wave wouJd speedily carry all before it, and the return of Cobbett to parliament became a moral cer- tainty. He published — the BegiMer going on all this time — ^an address to the electors of Manch^«r, in which he presented the world in general and the Whigs in particular with his political programme. This included all the old items and a few new ones. Tithes were, of course, to be abolished, sinecures were to be swept away, and all pensions withdrawn for which a dear case of justification could not be made out. Besides this, the national debt was to be wiped out by the sale of ecclesiastical property, certain portions of the corporation properties, and the crown lands altogether! The currency was to be set in order, the standing army reduced, and taxa^ tion cut down and rearranged as to its inci- dence till it should be no longer an unjust burden upon the industry of the country. Cobbetfs old friend. Lord Badnor, supported him on this occasion by an open letter, which was extensively circulated, and from which a brief excerpt may well be given. "With re- spect," said Lord Eadnor, "to the measures which ought to be adopted, I have no hesi- tation in saying that my decided opinion is, that, for the safety of the state, the intemai peace of the country, the well-being of the people, the preservation of property, and the maintenance of anything like liberty, measures must be adopted to the full extent of any that have ever, as far as I recollect, been proposed by Mr. Cobbett. I am persuaded that he has aU these objects sincerely at heart. I whoUy acquit him of any personal ambition, except probably that anxious desire for fame, and that wish to live in the grateful recollection of his countrymen, which are the signs of an exalted and of a noble spirit. Sordid views of interest he certainly has none — ^no petty ambition. The good of the people is what he seeks; his fame — ^the mere fact of his being thought of to represent Manchester — ^is the as- surance that he has the means of promoting it." Under the new Eeform Bill Oldham was to have two members. Cobbett had been re- ceived with great enthusiasm in Scotland, and Manchester had put him in nomination, but Oldham was the place for which he was to sit, along with Mr. Kelden, the factory reformer. When Brougham saw the returns for the first reformed parliament he said, "We shall be too strong!" Thta was true in one respect, but not in the main, so far as the country was concerned. Xor did the Badical members efilect much. Mr. Cobbett, who surprised everybody by the quietness of his manner, was not always wise, and he made one serious blunder. Speaking on the currency question, and treating Sir Eobert Peel as the "head and front" of all the "oflfending" in this matter, he had the gross bad manners (to say no more) to move that Peel's want of success in settling the currency question proved such ignorance that he ought to be dismissed from the privy council. Of course he was laughed down, and of course he did his own cause harm. It is pleasant to turn from these hectoring follies, to Cobbett pleading the cause of the factory children — "three hundred thousand of the most helpless creatures in the world holding up their hands for mercy." It was not until the 19th of June, 1835, that Cobbett died, but the event may as well be mentioned at once, as the preceding para- 104 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIBS. Walter Savage Landor (the Boythorn of Dickens, in Bleak House)— a. point which is too obvious to need expansion, even if this were the place for it. The suggestion alone may help to explain much. graphs close his parliamentary career. He boasted that "he had been the great enlight- ener of the people of England," and the boast had much truth in it, if confined to a certain class of topics, and if Cobbett's principles are admitted to be "light" such as the people wanted. It cannot be said that Cobbett wrote with "sweetness" as well as light; but when you have allowed for his abusiveness you find remaining a good deal of practical moderation. He was no revolutionist. He was a great farmer, a considerable experimentalist in farm- ing matters, and passionately fond of flowers and birds. "I began life," said he, "by driv- ing the rooks and magpies from my father's pea-fields and my mother's chicken-yard, and I shall end it by endeavouring to drive the tithe and tax devourers from the fruits of the labour of my industrious countrymen." Un- fortunately this energetic man made the mis- take of thinking that he had a parliamentary vocation; and the pressure of London life, late hours, and the necessary irritations of the new career helped to cut his life short at a date when he could ride "across country" with the boldest. He was fond of hunting, fishing, single-stick, boxing, and old English sports. There was a strong conservative fibre in his nature. His greatest pride and joy, apart from politics, was in his fruits, flowers, dogs, horses, home-made bread, and pleasant farm- house home. Miss Mitford declares that she never saw a finer garden than his, and that his Indian corn and water-melons were nearly up to the New York standard. He had re- tained something of the soldier about him to the last, and the lady opines that his "eternal red waistcoat" helped the "military" impres- sion which he made on some of his visitors. Cobbett began his career in the House of Commons by the conciliatory speech, "Since I have been sitting here I have heard a great deal of vain and unprofitable conversation." He was totally destitute of mental or moral height, and had not a thread of poetry in the whole web of his nature. If he had been bom a gentleman, if he had had a gentleman's gen- eral culture, if he had had poetry and height in him, he would have much resembled in many particulars a widely different man — Inl830 Thomas Babington Macaulay entered parliament for the pocket-borough of Calne. From the very first his presence stamped the debates with a new character, and though a scholar and a man of the " academic'' order — admittedly no statesman — he took high place in his very first speech, and his figure will frequently appear in these pages. He was, as is well known, the son of Zachary Macaulay, the " Claphamite " and anti-slavery advocate, or rather worker, and his first public speech of any moment, was made, with triumphant success, at an anti-slavery meeting in 1824. His university career had been brilliant, and he was already celebrated as an Edinburgh Reviewer when he entered parliament. He had studied for the bar, but never practised —though, as we shall see, his studies were not useless to him. Although he proved a good debater and extempore sjseaker, he was in the habit of getting his speeches by heart, like Ward, of whom Rogers wrote — " They say Ward has uo heart, but I deny it; He Am a heart, and gets his speeches by it." His air and manner when he entered the house prepared for one of his magnificent orations was so peculiarly abstracted that any one could see what was coming. He always spoke before dinner, and invariably kept the refreshment - rooms empty tiU he had done. When he came stumbling into his seat people would say, " Macaulay will give us a Hjjeech to-night;" and the words would pass from man to man far outside the house, till mem- bers came hurrying in groups from the club- houses in Pall Mall and elsewhere. To see him in the Strand or the Temple, absorbed and awkward, was sometimes a sufficient pro- phecy of what was coming. "Do you see that stout man talking to himself? That's Macaulay— he will speak in the house to- night." As we have mentioned his awkward- ness, and as small traits are interesting with MACAULAY— HIS OPINIONS. 105 regard to so remarkable a man, we may men- tion that his want of manual dexterity was so great that he could never shave himself with- out severely cutting his chin. Also, though he was a poet of a certain order, his general taste was not good, and he had an extraordi- narily extensive assortment of gorgeous waist- coats. Of course waistcoats did not influence his politics, though those were the days when "Whigs were apt to dress alike; but much smaller circumstances than these are cherished in the memory when men so distinguished are in question. Among all the advocates of reform in par- liament none had a deai-er head or a more practical view of the question than Macaulay. He entertained no sanguine hopes of what might follow an improved system of represen- tation; he felt strongly that human nature was the same in aU ages; he had maintained that even under the Tudors, especially under Elizabeth, the English had been a free people, of whom the monarch stood in wholesome fear; and that previously to the Eevolution the question of parliamentary reform was of very little importance. "The English," says Mr. Macaulay, "were in the sixteenth centm-y a free people, beyond aU doubt. They had not, indeed, the outward show of freedom, but they had the reality." It was not, he ad- mits, a constitutional freedom. " They had not as good a constitution as we have, but they had that without which the best constitution is as useless as the king's proclamation against vice and immorality, that which, without any con- stitution, keeps rulers in awe — force, and the spirit to use it. . . . Parliaments, it is true, were rarely held, and were not veryrespectfuUy treated. The Great Charter was often violated. But the people had a security against gross and systematic misgovemment far stronger than all the parchment that was ever marked with the sign manual, and than all the wax that was ever pressed by the great seal. "A modern Englishman can hardly under- stand how the people can have had any real security for good government under kings who levied benevolences, and chid the House of Commons as they would have chid a pack of dogs. People do not sufficiently consider that, though the legal checks were feeble, the natural checks were strong. . . . There was one gi-eat and efiectual limitation on the royal authority — the knowledge that, if the patience of the nation were severely tried, the nation would put forth its strength, and that its strength would be found irresistible. If a large body of Englishmen became thoroughly discontented, instead of presenting requisi- tions, holding large meetings, passing resolu- tions, signing petitions, forming associations and unions, they rose up, they took their halberds and their bows; and if the sovereign was not sufficiently popular to find among his subjects other halberds and other bows, no- thing remained for him but a repetition of the horrible scenes of Berkely and Pomfret. This, of course, is not constitutional freedom: it is primitive, it may even be called barbar- ous in all but form and colour ; and of course it is not consistent with a state of things in which free- trade and universal education form part of the general scheme. In fact it may be summed up in the formula, 'Treat us properly or we win cut your throat.' To which it may be added that the sovereign was in older days an actually fighting person — really, not nomi- nally, the captain of the nation; and the voice of the nation said, 'Conquer for us wherever we come into collision with the foreigner, or "we will depose you.' But now, if the sovereign were to go out and fight in person to-morrow, it would be impossible to restore the state of national feeling which prevailed even at the time when George II. went to the battle of Dettingen." During the lustrum which preceded the passing of the Reform Bill the friends of a reform in the representation of the people had lost no opportunity of setting the question forward. Macaulay, then only twenty-eight years old, was not yet in parliament, but he had allied himseK with the Whig party, had formed decided opinions on most political questions, and in the great Whig organ, the Edinburgh Review, made use of a notice of Hal- lam's Constitutional History of England as a stalking-horse behind which to fight the great cause of his party. He draws an amusing pic- ture of the difference between the relations of 106 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. the people and the parliament before the EeTO- lution and their relations since that event, and he lays on his colours with much moderation. Perhaps no man did more to influence "reason- able" anti-reformers than Macaulay. The re- ticence of certain passages in his argument is almost diplomatic in its character. "A large part of the nation,'' says he, "is certainly desirous of reform in the representative system. How large that part may be, and how strong its desii'es on the subject may be, it is difficult to say. It is only at intervals that the clamour on the subject is loud and vehement. But it seems to us during the remissions, the feeling gathei-s strength, and that every successive burst is more violent than that which preceded it. The public attention may be for a time diverted to the Catholic claims or the mer- cantile code, but it is probable that at no very distant period, perhaps in the lifetime of the present generation, all other questions wiU merge in that which is, in a certain degree, connected with them all." It will be observed that we have, up to that date, 1828, got no farther than the pro- bability of a i-eform in parliament. In 1830 he entered parliament as member for the Whig Marquis of Lansdowne's "pocket bor- ough" of Calne, and made a very modest but successful speech in favour of the removal of the disabilities of the Jews. On the 2nd of March, 1831, we find him making a powerful speech in favour of Lord John Russell's motion for leave to bring in a biU. to amend the representation of the people. One or two of the passages of that speech wUl brighten the page, and recall topics forgotten now, but of great weight then. "If, sir," said Macaulay, "I wished to make such a foreigner clearly understand what I consider as the great de- fects of our system, I would conduct him through that great city which lies to the north of Great Russell Street and Oxford Street, a city superior in size and in population to the capitals of many mighty kingdoms, and probably superior in opulence, intelligence, and general respectability to any city in the world — I would conduct him through that in- terminable succession of streets and squares, all consisting of well-built and well-fiirnished houses. I would make him observe the bril- liancy of the shops, and the crowd of well-ap- pointed equipages. I would lead him round that magnificent circle of palaces which sur- rounds the Regent's Park. I would tell him that the rental of this district was far greater than that of the whole kingdom of Scotland at the time of the Union. And then I would tell him that this was an unrepresented dis- trict ! It is needless to give any more instances. It is needless to speak of Manchester, BLr- mingham, Leeds, Sheffield, with no represen- tation, or of Edinburgh and Glasgow with a mock representation." To Macaulays powerful and persuasive ad- vocacy of reform in parliament it wUl be necessary again to refer. On the 21st of September, 1832, died Sir Walter Scott. He was a man who used openly to say he did not heed or understand politics, and yet his story has some curiously interest- ing links with the politics of his time. That he was a red-hot Tory to the last is well known, but his Toryism was a sort of senti- ment, and had no intellectual root worth speaking of. He used very greatly to admire Canning, — which an able man could hardly help doing, — but as Canning advanced farther and farther upon Liberal lines of thought and action, Scott fell off from him. The great novelist's attachment to George IV. was very little to his credit, except so far as it sprang from gratitude. Scott was the fii-st baronet whom Greorge IV. made, and when the latter visited Edinburgh in 1822 it was Scott who "did the honours'' of the reception. He went on board the royal yacht upon the very day when his dearest friend (William Erskine) died, and when the king drank his health in Highland whisky, humbly entreated to be allowed to retain the glass which his majesty had used. To this humble petition the king most graciously acceded. Unfortunately when Scott got back home, he found Crabbe there, and smashed the royal gift by sitting down upon it. Crabbe was himself something of a trickster, but would scarcely have admii-ed the whisky transaction, and perhaps the very sight of him inspired Scott with a little shame. MOLESWORTH—GEOTE— ROEBUCK. 107 It was in the midst of the reform agitation during the year 1831 that Scott was stricken with paralysis. In a speech at Jedburgh, made in March of that year, he so enraged the mob by his opposition that at last they hissed and hooted him. In the midst of it all he turned passionately round upon them, shouting, "I care no more for your gabble than for the quacking of the geese on the green." Some notion of the weakness of which a great man may be capable is to be gathered from a sentence or two of Scott's almost foolish speech. "We in this district," said he, "are proud, and with reason, that the first chain-bridge was the work of a Scotch- man. It still hangs where he erected it a pretty long time ago. The French heard of our invention, and determined to introduce it, but with great improvements and embel- lishments. A friend of my own saw the thing tried. It was on the Seine at Marly. The French chain-bridge looked lighter and airier than the prototype. Every Englishman present was disposed to confess that we had been beaten at our own trade. But by-and- by the gates were opened, and the multitude were to pass over. It began to swing rather formidably beneath the pressure of the good company, and by the time the architect, who led the procession in great pomp and glory, reached the middle, the whole gave way, and he — worthy, patriotic artist — was the first that got a ducking. They had forgot the middle bolt, — or rather, this ingenious person had conceived that to be a clumsy-looking feature which might safely be dispensed with, while he put some invisible gimcrack of his own to supply its place." Arguments like this might very well enrage an audience much slower to see through a fallacy than a Scotch one — unless they laughed at it. Unfortunately, these were angry times, and it is grievous to have to add that when in May of 1831, Scott, sorely ill with stroke after stroke of his malady, attended the Rox- burghshire election held at Jedburgh, he was chased and hooted in the streets, and insulted with brutal cries of "Bnrk Sir Walter !" All this sank deep into his heart, and in his last delirium he kept murmuring, "Burk Sir Walter!" It has been maintained that Sir Walter Scott's novels have had considerable political influence as popular conduoting-rods of Tory sentiment, but that question is hardly worth discussing. The political excitement of the time had, among many ordinary and natural effects which lie on the surface of the narrative, that of " drawing out " men of ability who had a turn for affairs, and enlisting their powers in what they held to be the service of the na- tion. Three remarkable men, of one school of thought, and with much less personal ambition than zeal for principles, were "drawn out" of the crowd in 1831, and soon attracted notice in the parliament of 1832. It was not likely that the school of Bentham and James Mill should be found to have trained no pupils for political action. The greatest of them all, Mr. John Stuart MiU, was to remain in his study and at the India House for the present; but three of his fellow- pupils in the Utilitarian academy at Queen Square, all young, and two very young indeed, now came to the front. These three were Sir William Molesworth, Mr. George Grote, and Mr. John Arthur Roebuck, who in the parlia- ment of 1832 represented East Cornwall, the City of London, and Bath, respectively. These gentlemen were the leadei-s of Philosophical Radicalism (as it was and still is called) in parliament — Sir William Molesworth being the recognized chief, though his general powers and accomplishments were certainly not greater than those of Mr. Grote. The return of young Mr. Grote as one of the members for the city was a triumph. He was the son of a banker, and was already occupied with his studies for the great History of Greece, by which he is chiefly known in literature. He found time, however, for much political pamphleteering and speech-making, and in particular for the persistent advocacy of the ballot — the political topic with wliich his name is particularly associated. It is not irrelevant to notice that he had a remarkably fine presence, and though very quiet, always exercised much personal influence; being re- turned for the city, election after election, by 108 GLABSTONE A^'D HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. vaiying majorities, till he Yoluntai'ily retired from public life ia 1S41. Mr. Eoebuck -was the great debater of the school to which he belonged, and one of the most effective of what might be called the Light Brigade of Parliamentai-y Eeformers. Of course he had not the fiery energy of Brougham, before whom all ihe rest sank into insignificance; nor did he even caiTV the moral weight of men Hke EusseU and Althorp; but he was a dangerous and unsparing foe to cross swords with. How he changed sides in his later years is familiar to us aU; but up to the time of the Crimean war, when he carried his motion for an inquiry into the management of the army before Sebastopol and turned out the Aberdeen ministry, he was a general favourite among Liberals and a real power in political affairs. Sir TViUiam Molesworth, the youngest man of the three, was more of a statesman than either, and had real administrative power as well as speculative ability. We shall see, as we proceed, how deep was the mark which he made on our colonial policy. But there is one topic which belongs rather to a general esti- mate of him and his labom-s than to any par- ticular point on which the annalist could fix. He was a great admirer and student of the philosopher Hobbes, and expended a fortune in reviving and circulating that writer's works. With the majority of reading people at that time Hobbes had the reputation not only of atheism but of absolutism. Of couree what Molesworth admired in Hobbes was what Bentham and James Mill admired in him — his mastery of inductive methods in philosophy, and his singularly nervous style of thought and writing. But people were easily scared in those days, and political tactics were unscru- pulous; nobody reflected that EadicaHsm, the ballot, auJ all the rest of the progi-amme of the school, could not dwell in the same brain- pan with absolutism; and Sii- William Moles- worth never, to his dying day, was able to emerge from the cloud of dislike under which he was placed for editing "the Philosopher of Malmesbury." In our own days such a fact would not alarm the merest infant in the nursery of thought. Hobbes has now been admitted after much debate to his fair and proper place in the philosophical and political literature of his age; but when Molesworth stood for South wark men were stationed along "the borough" to hand the enhghtened elec- tors culled extracts from the Leviathan, with the terrible injunction added : — "Electors of Southwark I unless you wish these principles to prevail, do not vote for Molesworth !" Of course it was of little use to attempt to explain to a mob, whose rehgious and political fervour was exploding all round in rotten eggs and dead cats, that the system of Molesworth's master, Bentham, included not only what is usually known as universal suffrage, but votes for even criminals and lunatics. These three able poKticians of the Eadical Left were associated, along with some others, in wiiting, or managing, or helping to manage, the Westminster Review, which had always fought powerfully on the side of reform in Church and State. Roebuck was one of its most esteemed contributors, but Bentham used to tell ln'm that his temper would do him more harm than his talents would do him good. Associated with him, James Mill, Bowring, and othei-s, were some exceedingly able men of whom the outer world knows but little. Colonel Perronet Thompson, author of The Corn-law Catechism, which did so much to prepare the vray for a more general interest in a great question, is, or was, very weU known, and so is Albany Eonblanque. But few have heai-d much of William Ellis, an exceedingly effective writer, and one of the greatest of educational philanthropists. StiU less known are the two Austins, John and Charles, who were said to be absolutely the ablest men of the whole set. John, by his gi-eat work on jurisprudence made an imper- ishable mark on the history of social progress, not only in England but abroad. Of Mr. W. J. Fox, afterwards M.P. for Oldham, we shall hear again in the course of tliis naiTative in connection with the education question and the corn-laws. But the iu-st and most sti-iking services rendered through the medium of the TTestmiitsicr Review to what would even now be called extreme Liberalism range over the POPULAE SENSATION— OAiaCATUEES—IiAMPOOXS. 109 years in which the reform question was seeth- ing in the public mind. The Westminster Bemew had had more than one name, but its spirit y/as always the same. It had been started expressly to represent Badicalism (as the EdMrnrgh to represent Whiggism, and the Quarterly to advocate Toryism); but when Mr. Blackwood saw the gathering of the forc^ into this side-camp, and noted the immense amount of talent which they stood for, he is said to have thrown up his cap, and said that this division of the Liberal troops was a happy omen ! Eventually Sir WiUiam Molesworth and Mr. J. S. M^ll became pro- prietors of this Review, but with that we are not concerned. Only we must bear in mind that the activities of the hustings and the House of Commons do not by any means represent all the social and political forces which were at work to precipitate political, social, and especially educational reform in the decade with which we opened the present volume, or in the years immediately succeed- ing. Perhapi not one of aU this band of thinkers and workers did more for his genera- tion than the modest "WiUiam Ellis Many know his name as that of the founder of the Birkbeck schools, but of his other labours in the cause of education little is heard or sus- pected by the general public. Of the two Austins it was said by "wags who were yet more and better than wags that they had be- tween them the two most powerful intellects in the world. Perhaps some who do not care much for social and political progress may be inclined to think there was something in this on hearing that the income of C!harles Austin, made chiefly by practice at the parliamentary bar, was estimated at £30,000 a year. The Eeform BiQ being now safe, the gen- eral narrative may pause to gather together a few collateral incidents. Just as TTilliam IV. was vindicating the royal prerogative by ordering "a hackney-coach'' to take him to the House of Lords, the cholera was at our doors. The panic created by the proclamation upon the subject and the reports of the first cases was terrible. True, England found her- self well and hearty enough to illuminate for mere joy at this sudden dissolution, and the "cartload of inferences" obviously to be drawn from it, but the pestilence was dreadful for all that. These were not times of cheap news- papers, in which (we mean no satire) wild rumours could be checked oiF one against another, or at least scrutinized with delibera- tion. "The common people" were largely dependent for their news upon chance read- ings at coffee-houses and other public-houses, and "street patterers" made sudden little for- tunes by crying bad news — often quite false, of course — on both sides of the way, with slips of print prof^sing to tell the whole story authentically. The cholera was fine capital for these men; but, in truth, the plain facts were dreadful enough. A ghastly thing it was to see the stricken poor borne along to the hospitals in covered "stretchers,'' aU the passers-by hurrying out of the way, for the disease was supposed to be infectious. There was scarcely a nook in London in which some death by cholera did not take place, and the symptoms were so terrible, the collapse in the fatal cases so rapid, the bewilderment of the doctors so complete, and the rise in the death- rate so great, that the commonplace, "a gloom was cast over the whole of society" was strictly applicable and fully true. It was curious to see a group of men assembled at the comer of a street to hear the news read out, — the last thing about Brougham, or Lord Durham, or the latest joke about the queen, poor dame, — suddenly break up at the approach of one of those dreaded stretchers. The first instruction (emphasized by severe penalti^) to children and mirsemaids, was not to go near them. Booksellers' shop windows exhibited pictures, rudely coloured, of the victim to cholera in the stage of collapse, and of course the blue skin, the bloodshot sunken eye, the baked lip, and the weeping relatives were made the most of. Everybody wore camphor, and hardly any one went to bed without some prophy- lactic, or attempt at a prophylactic, in the house. Last, not least, there was a decidedly perceptible increase in the attendance at churches and chapels, the result of increased seriousness, more or less deep, bom of the alarm caused by the pestilence. It was in the course of these agitating 110 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. reform days that the mob assaulted the Duke of Wellington and broke the windows of Apsley House. The duke went in danger of his life, and the bishops who had voted against the bill were hissed and groaned at in the streets. Prom this time the question of dis- pensing with their presence in the House of Lords never slumbered : it was discussed with heat and hate in every club-room, at every free-and-easy. The duke, Lord Lyndhurst (who had done the Tories the ingenious ser- vice of uniting the "waverers"), and the bishops were commonly exhibited in carica- tures and in transparencies, dangling from gibbets. On the other hand, when the bill had passed some enthusiasts commented upon the Apocalypse by showing transparencies of " Satan cast into the bottomless pit for a thou- sand years," — the key (in the angel's hand) which was to lock up his writhing snakeship being inscribed Reform ! Since those excited times we have grown more moderate in our expectations of results from political move- ments. Another reform bill has been passed within the last twelve years, but if it looked up evil the lock must have been very easy to pick. The neighbourhood of Hyde Park Corner was, at the highest of the excitement, the resort of angry crowds. But thousands of people went on jiurpose to see the iron win- dows which the duke had put up in Apsley House to make it shot-proof — windows cele- brated in many a street-song of the day, as thus : — "He is mucli disrespected wherever he goes, With his cast-iron windows and Waterloo nose ; He has often trod hard on poor Johnny Bull's toes, Dumblo dum deary, &o." "Dumble dum deary" was an old popular song or chorus. For a long while there was also sung about the streets, and indeed else- where, a parody on "Off, off! said the stranger. Off, off and away ! a parody intended to bid the bishops be "off" from the House of Lords. It was an unfortunate thing that there was so little opportunity in the parliamentary debates on the reform bill for ridicule of a certain kind. Jokes there were, of course, and then dull men also made speeches. But a Castlereagh would have been invaluable in those bitter days. Earl EusseU has told us in his Recollections that he once heard him speak for nearly an hour, without his hearers being able to understand a sentence he uttered, and that he then — ^grave and self-satisfied as usual — closed "that branch of the subject" by saying, "Such, Mr. Speaker, is the law of nations." When the house was sitting any member who happened to come in to a dinner party from the house was sure to be asked what was "the last" from Castlereagh. In the reform struggle there was no such general butt, — he would have been invaluable, for laughter is a great check upon wrath. The interval from 1830 to 1834 was one of great ecclesiastical and religious activity. The least historically important of the events of these years was the foundation by Edward Irving of the institution to which he and his adherents gave the name of the Catholic and Apostolic Church. In 1831 the Congregational Union of England and Wales was founded. During all this time dissent in England was full of life, as was shown by the formation or by the energetic action of various societies for missionary or educational purposes. It is now that Exeter Hall begins to be recognized as "a great fact" — if we may use an exjDression which is a little faded. In 1834 the Wesleyan Methodist Association was founded. In 1833 the Whigs abolished ten bishoprics of the Established Church ; and while this was in the air the movement known as the Trao- tarian movement began, or rather took practi- cal working shape at Oxford. As nobody of any shade of political or religious opinion will dispute Dr. J. H. Newman's account of his share in the matter, we shall gladly adopt, with great abbreviations, his own words. "When [in 1833] I got back from abroad I found that already a movement had com- menced in opposition to the specific danger which at that time was threatening the re- ligion of the nation and its church. Several zealous and able men had united their counsels and were in correspondence with each other. THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH AND DISSENTERS. Ill The principal of them were Mr. Keble, HurreU Eroude, who had reached home long before me, Mr. William Palmer of DnbHn and Worcester College (not Mr. William Palmer of Magdalen, who is now a Catholic), Mr. Arthur Perceval, and Mr. Hugh Rose. "Out of my own head I began the Tracts for the Times. ... I had the consciousness that I was employed in that work which I had been dreaming about, and which I felt to be so momentous and inspiring. . . . No time was to be lost, for the Whigs had come to do their worst, and the rescue might come too late. Bishoprics were already in course of sup- pression, church property was in course of confiscation, sees would soon be receiving un- suitable occupants. ... I felt as on board a vessel, which first gets under weigh, and then the deck is cleared out, and luggage and live stock stowed away into their proper re- ceptacles. . . . Nor was it only that I had confidence in our cause, both in itself and in its polemical force, but also, on the other hand, I despised every rival system of doctrine, and its arguments too. As to the High Church and the Low Church, I thought that the one had no more a logical basis than the other; while I had a thorough contempt for the con- troversial position of the latter, I had a real respect for the character of many of the advocates of each party, but that did not give cogency to their arguments. . . . My first principle was the principle of dogma; my battle was with Liberalism; by Liberalism I meant the anti-dogmatic principle and its de- velopment. This was the first point on which I was certain." The significance of all this will be made fully apparent to the reader by the following refer- ence to Dr. Hampden. "During the first year of the Tracts the at- tack (of the Liberals) upon the university began. In November, 1834, was sent to me, by Dr. Hampden, the second edition of his pamphlet, entitled, Observations on Religious Dissent, with particula,r reference to the use of theological tests in the university. ... It was under these circumstances that Dr. Pusey joined us. I had known him well since 1827-8, and had felt for him an enthusiastic admira- tion. His great learning, his immense dili- gence, his scholar-like mind, his simple de- votion to the cause of religion, overcame me, and great of course was my joy, when, in the last days of 1833, he showed a disposition to make common cause with us. . . . He at once gave to us a position and a name. Without him we should have had little chance, especially at the early date of 1834, of making any serious resistance to the Liberal aggression.'' Now the story of Dr. Hampden connects itself with Lord John Russell's often-quoted 'praemunire letter, and with much of Mr. Glad- stone's activity ; matters which are yet ahead of us, but which would be unintelligible in their place without this introduction. If Lord John Russell or anybody else sup- posed that the Dissentera would "rest and be thankful" after the repealing of the Test and Corporation Acts it was a great mistake, but the simplicity of Earl Grey in these matters was both startling and entertaining. En- couraged by the general success of the cause of freedom, the Dissenters woke up very wide, and in the year 1834 the first public meeting ever held in England to consider (not only Dissenting grievances but) the total abolition of the church Establishment, or as it is now phrased, the "total liberation of religion from state control,'' was held at Nottingham. A deputation to Earl Grey was decided upon, and the late Mr. WUliam Howitt, then a Quaker, took a prominent part in the pro- ceedings of the body of gentlemen that waited on the premier. It soon appeared that even so staunch a friend of liberty as Earl Grey had never conceived the idea which Cavour described when he used the phrase, "A free church in a free state." "This petition, I presume," said Earl Grey, is to the same purport as the other petitions from Dissenters that have been presented?" "Of that," said Mr. Howitt, "your lordship win be a better judge than I am when you have read it. I can only say that the Notting- ham Dissenters did not look about to see what other Dissenters were doing, but thought and acted for themselves." After some further discussion. Earl Grey, quite bewildered, ex- claimed, "What is it you really do wish? Do 112 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES. you want entirely to do away with all estab- lishments of religion?" "Precisely," was the prompt reply. Earl Grey said he was very sorry for it; the suggestion of such sweeping changes would alarm parliament and staxtle the country, and he considered it the sacred duty of every government to maintain an es- tablishment of religion. "People are not so easily frightened at changes nowadays," re- plied Mr. Howitt; and he proceeded to argue that "to establish one sect in preference to another was to establish a party and not a religion." A few months afterwards four hundred Dissenting deputies met in London to consider the propriety of agitating for disestablishment, but the subject was so new that old-fashioned people outside of Dissenting circles did not un- derstand it. It is little short of comic to find Mrs. GUbert (formerly Ann Taylor) ^irging her husband, Mr. Gilbert, a Nonconformist minister, to be very explicit in what he said to Lord Althorp: "Be sure," says the lady, "to make him really understand what you want." On the 31st of March, 1832, appeared the first number of the ever-to-be-remembered Penny Magazine. Those were days in which there was no fear of throwing really good literature straight at the heads of the people, and in some respects the Penny Magazine was superior to any of its rivals or successors. There was occasionally an attempt at writing down, and there were excellent papers of the " knowledge-made-easy " class. But there is not a cheap periodical now in existence that would not consider a full third of that writing over the heads of the modern buyer of minor magazines. Any one who wiE refresh his memory by turning to such articles as those on music, or Hogarth's pictures, or EafFaelle's cartoons, or to the biographical sketches, will at once recognize the truth of this remark. To this may be added the fact that the Penny Magazine contained, from time to time, fear- less long quotations from poets and humorists of the first class — especially Wordsworth, Lamb, and Coleridge. Almost at the same hour appeared the first number of Chambers' Edinburgh Journal. Soon these were followed by the Saturday Journal, which was issued by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, and a crowd of publications, mostly inferior. It would be easy to record their names and peculiarities, but the task is not worth while. A word, however, is due to The Mirror of Mr. John Timbs. As Dr. Kitto ("the deaf traveller") was allowed by Charles Knight to say in the columns of the Penny Magazine itself, that The Mirror was "the parent of this class of periodicals, and had gone on improving from year to year," we may pre- sume to place it first on the list in point of date. The decline in the quality of so much of our cheap periodical literature is chiefly to be attributed to the cupidity of publishers, who find their account in aiming straight at the lowest and most numerous classes of readers. This enables them to get just that enormous circulation which yields all but incredible returns, and of course the prices paid for the literary labour required in such work are small. Not long before the date at which our first chapter opens, WiUiam Godwin was freely offered .£1000 for his Political Justice (being then an unknown writer), and he re- ceived a large sum in advance before he had written a line. For his small book on Chaucer, written later, he received £300 for the first in- stalment and .£300 for the second, — being also paid money in advance. This £600 he calls "extremely penurious." There is something very pathetic in Charles Knight's farewell address to the readers of the Penny Magazine, for it contains a scarcely suppressed forecast of the times to come in matters of literature. Of one other prominent figure of that time a word needs to be said here. The first act of practical defiance shown by the Americans to the government of George III. was the throw- ing of a cargo of tea into the sea at Boston, in order to prevent the paying of duty on it. This was done secretly by some of the citizens at night, and of course it was done in oppo- sition to the will of the governor of the city, who was acting in the British or royalist in- terest, and equally of course it was in oppo- SIR JOHN COPLEY (LOED LYNDHUEST). 113 sition to the wishes of the merchant to whom the cargo of tea had been consigned. This consignee was one Eichard Clarke, the ma- ternal grandfather of the distinguished lawyer who occupied the woolsack at the time Wil- liam IV. ascended the throne, and of whom we shall hear again. Mr. Clarke was a stern royalist, and actually returned to England on the declaration of American independence. His daughter married Mr. Copley, the painter, and when she and her husband also came to England, John Singleton Copley was a little boy. At an early age he distinguished him- self as a lawyer, and when he visited Boston to transact some law business for his father the Boston men found out his talents, praised his tact and manners, and predicted his be- coming "a great man." Although he began his parliamentary career as a Eadical, and first made himself felt by attacking Liverpool, Castlereagh, and Sid- mouth, Mr. Copley was not long in dropping into his proper place on the Tory side. In the short-lived ministry of Canning he appeared as a Canningite, was made lord-chancellor, and was one of the three peers whose very presence in the cabinet was cited as a proof that Canning could not possibly propose Ca- tholic emancipation. He had some claims to notice and even to honour as a law reformer, and initiated beneficial changes (as yet admit- tedly insufficient, but real) in the legal treat- ment of lunatics. He retained his seat on the woolsack until he had to resign it to Brougham in 1830, upon the formation of the ministry of Earl Grey. He held the ofiice of attorney- general for two years, and it should be re- membered to his honour that during his term of ofBce he instituted not a single press pro- secution. There was undoubtedly a great deal that was politically liberal in the mind of Lyndhurst. He was a Tory of the school which begins its creed by thinking that the only safe constitution of society is that in which the masses are strictly governed by a few, who are by the theory superior to the rest, and which goes on to hold that even if the theory does not happen to be realized in the facts, the best course is to assume the con- trary for the sake of the general order. Tories VOi. I. of this school, if they have the mental, and, we may add, the moral characteristics of Lord Lyndhurst, are usually ready to allow a good deal of freedom to " the people,'' who by the theory, are not to be trusted with any. In general ability, power of work, and moral courage of a certain order Lord Lynd- hurst has rarely been excelled. We shall shortly find that it is of importance to our story to remember that he was a tactician and debater of the first class. As the conductor of the king's case against Caroline of Bruns- wick, when he was Sir John Copley and attor- ney-general, he had exhibited an acuteness and a steady "grip" of intellect which have never, perhaps, been surpassed. It was while he was chief baron in 1831 that Lord Lyndhurst gave the most remark- able example of his great ability as a judge, when he had to try an involved and difficult case of such enormous dimensions that it occupied twenty-one days in the Court of Exchequer. He did not deliver his judgment for nearly a year, and when the question was taken before the House of Lords it lasted forty-six days, and the mass of papers printed and written was so enormous in bulk that Lord Brougham remarked that he had been furnished with copies of the arguments used in the House of Lords alone, amounting to about 10,000 brief-sheets. "Through this tangled mass of disputed facts and of repre- sentations the purport of which was in issue, of minute and intricate details of transactions and accounts,'' says a writer of that day, "Lord Lyndhurst on each occasion proceeded with apparent ease, diflfusing light and bring- ing into order the chaos he encountered." The lords decided against him by the vote of Lord Devon, but general admiration was elicited by the serene composure with which he submitted to the reversal of his decree, although he steadily adhered to his original opinion. Stories are told of the mutual admiration which subsisted between Lyndhurst (when Sir John Copley) and Canning. One of them is amusing, though it has in it some of the spice of opposition. When Copley in 1827 was delivering his famous speech against Catholic IK- GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. emancipation, Canning justly expressed his surprise at the attack coming from such a quarter. Meanwhile somebody looking over Copley's shoulder had seen that he held in his hand a pamphlet against emancipation by Dr. Philpotts, afterwards Bishop of Exeter. Can- ning immediately received a hint of this, and added to his remarks, that the observations of the learned gentleman were not original. "I have met them in print," said he. " 'Dear Tom, ttis brown jug which now foams with mild ale Was once Toby Philpotts.'" The stoiy may or may not be absolutely authentic, but there is certainly a flavour of Canning about it. At all events Canning a few weeks afterwards, on the death of Lord Liverpool, the breaking up of the cabinet, and the resignation of Lord Eldon, offered Copley the chancellorship, with the intimation "non obstante Philpotto." They were days of broader wit and also of rougher manners than our own, and the famous judge then and later was somewhat open to references to his former Whig or rather Radical opinions. When he asked Musgrave (afterwards Arch- bishop of York) to vote for him as member for Cambridge, the reply was, "/am a Whig still, sir," and pointing to a. favourite dog which was lying under the candidate's chair, " Take care of that dog; he's a terrible fellow for vermin ! " More pleasant is it to turn to the generous traits by which Ljrndhurst himself was eminently distinguished. That violent Radi- cal, Gale Jones, who was for years- launching abuse and invective against him, wrote to him asking for charitable help, when he was old, and sick, and poor. Lord Lyndhurst handed the letter to his secretary, telling him to make out a cheque for five pounds for that poor man. "My lord, are you aware who this man is?" inquired the secretary. "No," replied Lyndhurst, "I do not recollect having before seen the name." "Wliy this is the notorious Gale Jones, who has been for so many years so grossly and virulently abusing your lordship.'' The letter was glanced at again, and then handed back with the reply, "Oh, never mind what he has been in the habit of saying about me; the poor man seems to be in a very dis- tressed condition : get the cheque ready and send him the money." There was much cour- tesy and good-humour in the great exchequer judge; and among other instances it is recorded of him that when a newsvendor named Cleave was on his ti-ial on a governnient information, and conducted his own defence, commencing with the observation that he was afraid before he sat down he should give some awkward examples of the truth of the adage that " he who acts as his own counsel has a fool for his client," — his lordship pleasantly replied, "Ah, Mr. Cleave, don't you mind that adage, it was framed by the lawyers/" and throughout the trial treated the defendant with much indul- gence. The social and political conditions which have been indicated in the foregoing brief re- view of the influence maintained by some of the leaders of thought and action during the periods immediately following and succeeding the passing of the Reform Bill, were, as we have seen, undergoing great and rapid changes. The representation of the country in parlia- ment was not greatly altered with regard to the return of new men in place of those who had previously taken the direction of political parties, but there were several striking addi- tions to the legislative assembly returned by the elections under the new bill. Among these new members William Ewart Gladstone was soon destined to hold a place of distinction, for though he was one of the youngest members of the house, he made a considerable impression directly he began to address the electors of Newark. During the passing of the Reform Bill Mr. Gladstone was travelling in Italy, and it was in consequence of an intimation from the Duke of Newcastle, with whose son he was on terms of close in- timacy, that he was called upon to place him- self in nomination for the borough — a borough, by the by, which had always been represen- tative of the system of "nomination" by which many eminent members had gained their seats. Sir Francis Burdett entered parliament by purchase of a seat from the trustees of the GLADSTVXE CANDIDATE FOR XEWABK. 115 Duke ot Xewcasde. ■who was then a minor. It is periiape scanvly to be wcmdered at there- ftjie that the duke should have grown up to regani the borougli earance, ■with ."5 foil face, phimp features, hige dark eyes and eyebrows, an attiactine bearing, rind a bright thoughtful look. He was of course pretty extensively aj^Koted by the friends of the duke : the members of the "Bed Qub" all gsne him their votes, amount- ici: to above 600. and he had numerous other piamisis of suj^XHt, bat he had to go through a rather searching ordeal from several electors, one of whom demanded whether he ■was not the Duke of XewcastJe's nominee. To this Mr. Gladstone inquired ■what ■was his interrogator's definition of the word "ntaninee," and on being informed that it meant "^a person sent by the Duke of New- castle to be pushed down the electors" throats whether they ■would or not," — of course de- dared thai according to that definition he ■was not a nominee, that he came to Xewark by the invitation of the Bed Club, that the dub sent to the Duke of Xewc:i5tle to know if he could recommend a candidate to them, and in consequence he was appealed to and accepted the invitation of the dub. Another dector asked what the candidate thought of the p;is5age in the IGtfa verse of the 2^d chapter of Exodus, whidi sajs, "He that ste;'Jetli a man and seUeth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall snrdy be put to death;' and whether his (Mr, Gladstone's) fether was not a dealer in human flesh? Of course the latter part of the question needed and received no answer, as it ■was obviously intended only as an insult : but some other inquiries by the same interlocutor ■were aiBWffled, and there follo^wed another long addres from a third dec-tor. and a sub- sequent discu^on on the question o£ inr^ro slavery — Mr. Gladstone dedaiing that he de- sired the emancipation of slaves upon such terms as ■would preserve them and the odoiies bom destructio!:;. and that the slaves ought Erst to be fnliy prqiared for emandpation: opinioiis whidi ■were afterwards hdd (and Eot ■without stmie seeming iustii cation fr ; m recent experience) by some of the advocates of "aboHtion" during the strxggie in America. The subject of negro emancipation had formed no inconsidetaUe part of the address issued by the young candidate to the elect crs at Newark, and ;^s that addre^ iHnstn-iTes the o^nions ■which he hdd at that time it may b-e int^esting to quote it at some length. It beiT-ns by saying. "I have not leqr.esied your favour on the ground of adherence to the opinions of any man or party, further than snch adherence can be fairly understood from the convidian I ha^ve not hesitated to 116 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES. avow, that we must watch and resist that uninquiring and indisoriminating desire for change amongst us, which threatens to pro- duce, along with partial good, a melancholy preponderance of mischief; which, I am per- suaded, would aggravate beyond computation the deep-seated evils of our social state, and the heavy burdens of our industrial classes ; which, by disturbing our peace, destroys con- fidence and strikes at the root of prosperity. Thus it has done already, and thus, we must therefore believe, it will do. 'Tor the mitigation of those evils we must, I think, look not only to particular measures, but to the restoration of sounder general principles. I mean especially that principle on which alone the incorporation of religion with the state in our constitution can be defended; that the duties of governors are strictly and peculiarly religious; and that legislatures, like individuals, are bound to carry throughout their acts the spirit of the high truths they have acknowledged. Prin- ciples are now arrayed against our institu- tions; and not by truckling nor by tem- porizing — not by oppression nor corruption — but by principles they must be met. "Among their first results should be a sedulous and special attention to the interests of the poor, founded upon the rule that those who are the least able to take care of them- selves should be moat regarded by others. Particularly it is a duty to endeavour, by every means, that labour may receive adequate remuneration; which, unhappily, among several classes of our fellow-countrymen is not now the case. Whatever measures, therefore — whether by correction of the poor-laws, allot- ment of cottage grounds, or otherwise — tend to promote this object, I deem entitled to the warmest support, with all such as are calcu- lated to secure sound moral conduct in any class of society. "I proceed to the momentous question of Slavery, which I have found entertained among you in that candid and temperate spirit which alone befits its nature, or promises to remove its difficulties. If I have not recog- nized the right of an irresponsible society to interpose between me and the electors, it has not been from any disrespect to its members, nor from unwillingness to answer theirs or any other questions on which the electors may desire to know my views. To the esteemed secretary of the society I submitted my rea- sons for silence ; and I made a point of stating these views to him, in his character of a voter. "As regards the abstract lawfulness of Slavery, I acknowledge it simply as import- ing the right of one man to the labour of another; and I rest it upon the fact that Scripture, the paramount authority upon such a point, gives directions to persons standing in the relation of master to slave, for their conduct in that relation; whereas, were the matter absolutely and necessarily sinful, it would not regulate the manner. Assuming sin as the cause of degradation, it strives, and strives most effectually, to cure the latter by extirpating the former. We are agreed, that both the physical and the moral bondage of the slave are to be abolished. The question is as to the order, and the order only; now Scripture attacks the moral evU before the temporal one, and the temporal through the moral one, and I am content with the order which Scripture has established. " To this end, I desire to see immediately set on foot, by impartial and sovereign autho- rity, an universal and efficient system of Christian instruction, not intended to resist designs of individual piety and wisdom for the religious improvement of the negroes, but to do thoroughly what they can only do par- tially. " As regards immediate emancipation, whether with or without compensation, there are several minor reasons against it ; but that which weighs with me is, that it would, I much fear, exchange the evils now affecting the negro for others which are weightier — for a relapse into deeper debasement, if not for bloodshed and internal war. Let fitness be made a condition for emancipation; and let us strive to bring him to that fitness by the shortest possible course. Let him enjoy the means of earning his freedom through honest and industrious habits ; thus the same instru- ments which attain his liberty shall likewise GLADSTONE'S TORYISM. iir render him competent to use it ; and thus, I earnestly trust, without risk of blood, without violation of property, with unimpah-ed benefit to the negro, and with the utmost speed which prudence will admit, we shall arrive at that exceedingly desirable consummation, the utter extinction of slavery.'' It wUl be seen by this address that Mr. Gladstone touched with emphasis, and with skilled emphasis too, upon those topics which were presently to stir the national heart and to demand the earnest consideration of the legislature. He had no opportunity at the nomination either to repeat or to enforce these views; for Serjeant Wilde being the first speaker, led off with an oration of such inordi- nate length that there was neither time nor patience left for those who had to follow. So few hands were held up for Mr. Gladstone that a poll was demanded on his behalf, and he was ultimately returned by a good majority, the numbers being — Gladstone, 882; Handley, 793 ; and WUde, 719 — a success which it was declared by some of his opponents had been achieved by the ducal influence and the coer- cion of voters, and was therefore another argument in favour of " the ballot." Of course such statements made in a time of electioneering excitement must be regarded as the national expression of party antagon- ism, and — though the new member had on another occasion delivered a speech full of "sound constitutional sentiments," in course of which he stated that he could not support the abolition of the newspaper stamp duty, on the ground that these taxes not only increased the revenue, but tended to check too great a circulation of bad matter — it was not long before Newark had occasion to be proud of its representative. None could then foresee that he would shake off the early surroundings which bound him to the Tory party, for he had shown few signs of becoming a great Liberal statesman, whose views would be in some re- spects more "advanced" than those of several prominent Eadicals of his own early days. CHAPTEE III. THE MEN AND MEASUEES OF EEFOEM. Hard Work of the Reformed Parliament— Wellington's Tactics — Irish Disaffection — Opposition to the Tithe — The Irish Church — O'ConneU and Repeal— Dismissal of the Whig Ministry — Melbourne and Brougham — William IV. and the Irish Prelates — Russell and the Peel Ministry — Gladstone on the Irish Church — Abolition of Slavery — Gladstone on Negro Emancipation — Apprenticeship — Atrocities of the West India Planters — The Jamaica Assembly — Complete Emancipation — Buxton — Wilberforce — Free Negro Labour — Burning of the Houses of Parliament — The new Poor-law — Orange Lodges — Chartism' — Trades-unions — The Factories' Act — Church and Dissent — The Anatomy Act — Hannah More — Coleridge — Death of William IV. — Palmerston — General condition of Parties and of the Country — Gladstone in 1838 — Corporation Reform — France and Spain — Louis Philippe — Charles Louis Napoleon in London — At Strasburg — Social Influences in England. In the storm of agitation which had carried the Eef orm Bill through parliament, or rather driven it through, all the ■winds of political controversy were naturally set free. The new men found plenty of inevitable work cut out for them, and they had pledges to redeem. On every hand there were " burning " ques- tions demanding the answer of the hour ; but in addition to all this there were other ques- tions — real, indeed, and sure to find an answer some day, but not needing just then to be hotly pressed — and these were eagerly thrust up to the front by partisans who would not wait. It is perhaps only by a crowding and jostling process of this kind that vigorous movement in politics can be kept up under a constitution like ours ; but it has its inconveniences even for the party of movement. It is with the name of Lord John EusseU, and with a much later date than the one immediately before us, that the word " finality " as applied to reform connects itself most vividly in people's memo- ries, but the thing itseU was really of earlier date. The " rush " of the demands for change made upon the first reformed parliament frightened some of the Whigs, and a few of the more timid took refuge from this new pressure in the doctrine that the Eeform Bill was a final measure. This, however, is a very grave matter. A subject which looks much less so, but which really had consequences, was the new pressure of sheer hard work which members found was inevitable. There was no dawdling now. Macaulay writes to Lord Mahon in 1832: — "We are now strictly on duty. No furloughs even for a dinner engagement, or a sight of Taglioni's legs, can be obtained. It is very hard to keep forty members in the house. Telthorpe and Leader are on the spot to count us out, and from six to ten we never venture farther than the smoking-room without appre- hension." Power of work, indeed, involving immense physical energy, was what the times now began to demand in any man who took a leading part, whether in trade, politics, or otherwise. The days were gone by when a man of the stamp of Canning could hold the reins of an empire. It was far from just of Sydney Smith to taunt that great man, year after year, with being a mere joker ; but after all, the times were changed. Speeches still counted for much in the House of Commons and out of it; but business is the modern watchword, and it requires a strong back, a clear head, and immense staying power. In the old days Pitt or Sheridan might get up half -tipsy to make an oration ; but where would be the command of detail which now began to be required in parliament, with ten thousand critical eyes out of doors on the THE HAED VTOKK OF PAELIAMEXT. look-out for an error? It was -well said thirty years ago by the keenest of parliamentary observers, that after the passing of the Eef orm Bill politicians fell suddenly upon "days in which a glass of sherry taken at the wrong moment might change the whole aspect of affairs — might lose a bill, or in some other way precipitate a feulure." That is true. The men who succeed in public life are, as a rule, men of great physical force and greater self- command. Even more amusing than Mac- aulay's letter to Lord Mahon is an entry in the diary of Mr. (now Sir) Edward Baines of Leeds, who seems to have been much startled by the work he found cut out for hiTn in the reformed parliament : — ''Monday. — Eose at six, much refreshed by two successive good nights' rest. Eead parlia- mentary papers and reports till eight. From the hour of post till half-past eleven corre- sponded with constituents. At twelve at- tended the house to present petitions; but standing low on the ballot had not been called when the house adjourned at three. At- tended committee till four. House resumed at five; debate continued till nearly midnight; real business then began; continued till three in the morning, when the house adjourned. Walked home by morning twilight Tuesday. — Eose at seven. Eead over papers to be printed that day. Eesumed correspondence after the arrival of the post with ten letters. Attended the house at half-past eleven. In luck; name drawn out of the jar early; got in petitions afterwards. Attended committee till three. House resumed at five; sat till two o'clock next morning. Wednesday. — ^Eose at seven. Attended to correspondence till twelve. Walked tUl two. Applied at the Board of Trade for information respecting the repeal of duties, and at the War Office for a soldier's discharge. Attended the house at five; sat till half -past eleven. Thursday. — Eose at half- past six. Eesumed perusal of poor-law reports. Quite ovenchelming ! A Bill should he intro- duced to enable members to think and read by steam-power. Attended the morning sitting; from thence to two committees. The house sat again at five ; sat till half -past one o'clock in the morning. Friday. — Eesumed perusal 119 of documents at eight. Attended committee from twelve till four. The house sat at five ; continued the sitting till three next morning. A great deal of business done after midnight.'' In one passage of this diaiy Mr. Baines mentions ten letters by the mornings post, as if it were a considerable number. But fom- hundred letters a day is not an unusual num- ber for a cabinet minister of the third rank. The Duke of Wellington, though tiie steady opponent of reform in parliament up to the hour at which he saw it became inevitable, made himself useful in helping — in his own way — to pass it, when the time came. He "managed " his feUow-peers, or some of them, and thvis served his king and his country in his characteristic way. With all his genius for military command, he was essentially a great servant, not an originator. He worked not only all the better for having a task set him,— there is no proof that he could have even made a mark on the world by working except under orders in some sense. There is indeed every presumption against the suppo- sition that he could. To say that he was aware of his own limitations would probably be wide of the mark; for, first of aU, he had no imagination, and, secondly, he never showed any of that fretful ambition which so often marks the man who is aware that he cannot do all he would like to do, or all he is expected to do. Though not a conceited man, he always exhibited an amount of quiet self- satisfaction, or satisfaction with his work, which was remarkable. His cue all through life, whether as soldier or politician, was either to win his own game or that of his mas- ters, or else to retreat in good order. On the question of Catholic emancipation he had re- treated in order. On the question of the Ee- form Bill he resisted up to the last moment, even to the very verge of revolution, — he re- sisted sword in hand, with guns loaded to the muzzle, — and then, when he saw resistance was useless, retreated in good order. Later in life this remarkable man avowed, in a letter to Lord Derby, the principle on which he had always acted. "For many years," he said, "T have endeavoured to manage the House of Lords upon the principle on which I conceive 120 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. that the institution exists in the constitution of the country — that of conservatism. I have in- variably objected to all violent and extreme measures. I have invariably supported the government in parliament upon important oc- casions, and have always exercised my personal influence to prevent the mischief of anything like a difference or division between the two houses." The candour of this would be amus- ing if the question itself were not so serious. In continuing to address the peer upon whom he flung his mantle his grace was even more communicative. "My opinion,'' he said, "is that the great object of all is that you should assume the station and exercise the influence which I have so long exercised in the House of Lords. The question is. How is that object to be attained? By guiding their opinion and decision, or by following it? You wiU see that I have endeavoured to guide their opinion, and have succeeded on some most remarkable occasions. But it has been by a good deal of management." Here we have the philosophy of beating an orderly retreat in politics put in very small compass, and we shall soon see once more how ready the retired soldier was to help to carry on the king's government at any cost of indi- vidual responsibility. The most fiercely "burning" question at the moment when parliament met on the 29th of January, 1833, was still the disturbances in Ireland. The royal speech, commencing with a recommendation carefully to consider the renewal of the charters of the Bank of Eng- land and the East India Company, touched on the necessity for correcting some abuses in the Church — a more equitable distribution of her revenues, and a just commutation of the tithes levied in Ireland ; but the main part of the king's attention was directed to a proposed conference for the purpose of repressing Irish disturbances, and to a request that both Houses of Parliament would confer on the government additional powers for pun- ishing the disturbers of the public peace, and for preserving that legislative union between the two countries, which he was determined to maintain by all the measures in his power. as " indissolubly connected with the peace, security, and welfare of his people." It may surprise some modern readers of reports of parliamentary proceedings to hear that in the debate on the address O'Connell denounced the endorsement of the royal mes- sage as a "bloody, brutal, and unconstitu- tional " document — "a declaration of civU war." . . . "The Irish people were and ever had been innocent and blameless. True it was that deeds of violence and crime had increased in that beautiful country ; but why had they increased? The mover of the address had ascribed the increase to agitation; but he and the other friends of ministers seemed to have forgotten that it was only last year they themselves had been reproached as agi- tators, exciting the people to support changes and innovations which the people did not originally desire or care for !" The latter was an acute and ingenious touch, and was fol- lowed by the bold declaration that when he and his friends "had most agitated Ireland for emancipation, tranquillity had most prevailed. The Whigs had been riding rough-shod over Ireland ; increase of crime had followed, and always would follow, increase of force and violence. . . . An unreformed parliament had passed two acts relative to Ireland which even an Algerian government would not have sanctioned. A reformed parliament, it ap- peared, was now about to pass another to put an end to agitation ; but he would tell them that it would be many and many a day before they could frame an act capable of effecting their object." Of course these subtle and clever twists and turns, illustrative of, but superior to, a great deal of oratory on Irish affairs which has been heard since, could not mislead those who listened to them from the facts of the case. When O'Connell and his adherents chose to withhold the checks they exercised on the agitators, outrage invariably followed, and could be used either for the purpose of menacing or of taunting the government. It is probable, too, that O'Connell himself could not control all the secret societies which had been formed either for treasonable or for nefarious purposes, or both. There were THE IRISH COERCION BILL. 121 Whitefeet, so named, it is beKeved, because the members drew ■white stockings over their shoes ; and these gave rise to the Blackf eet ; there were Whiteboys, and it is quite probable that there were Blackboys — who disguised themselves or concealed their faces. Under various names gangs of ruffians set the law at defiance. There was no protection for life and property. Those who refused to submit to the dictates of these lawless bands or their emis- saries were murdered in open day and before witnesses, who would not or dared not appear against the criminals. Jurymen were intimi- dated ; witnesses were either molested — some- times were slain — or were obliged to leave the country; and even magistrates were in con- stant peril of paying with their lives for honestly performing their duty. During the year 1832 there had been above 9000 crimes committed in relation to these political dis- turbances. Of these 242 were homicides ; 328 were shooting at people with intent to kill ; 568 were setting fire to houses or property; 723 attacks on houses; 290 maiming cattle; 796 injuries to property; 401 burglaries; 1179 robberies; 161 serious assaults; 353 illegal reviews; 427 illegal meetings; 2094 illegal notices; 163 administering illegal oaths; 117 robberies of arms; 20 turning up of land; 8 resistances to legal processes ; 2 taking forcible possession ; and 20 resistances to tithes. The total number of crimes committed in the months of July, August, and September was 1297, but they had increased to 1646 com- mitted in the last three months of the year. There could be littie doubt that some stringent measures were necessary for the deliverance of the peaceable members of the community from a reign of terror. Even some of the fol- lowers of CConneU admitted that a coercion bill would alone be efficacious for the protec- tion- of life and property; and Mr. Davenport Hm, the member for Hull, had disclosed that the admission had been made by one of the principal opponents of the bUl itself. He was challenged by half the followers of the great agitator after he had repeated this declara- tion, but Lord Althorp came to the rescue and manfully stood by him. Just as the previous coercion bill had been immediately followed by one of rehef — by the extension of the franchise, the measure now proposed in the House of Lords by Eai-1 Grey was to be accompanied by some remedial adjustments; but the repression came fii-st. Any disturbed districts which were proclaimed by the lord-lieutenant were to be under courts- martial — which were,however, prohibited from trying offences to which the penalty of death was attached without special authorization from the lord -lieutenant, while in no case could they inflict the capital punishment, their powers being limited to a sentence of trans- portation. A king's counsel or serjeant-at-law was to attend each of these courts as judge- advocate, and all persons apprehended were to be brought to trial within the space of three calendar months, or were to be dis- charged. But on the other hand, aU persons absent from their houses between sunset and sunrise were punishable ; warrants were issued for searching houses for arms and ammuni- tion, and the refusal to give them up was a criminal offence. The distribution of sedi- tious papers was also punishable. The habeas corpus act was practically suspended in the proclaimed districts, and this will of course account for the limits placed on the period within which prisoners were to be brought to trial or set at liberty. Of course CConnell and " his tail "—as his followers were called — used every means for obstructing the progress of the biU; and it was delayed until the 25th of March, when with a few alterations it passed the House of Commons by a very large majority (345 to 80), and went up to the lords, where strong objections were taken to one of the most sig- nificant of the concessions — namely, that re- sistance to the payment of tithes should not be made a reason for proclaiming a disturbed district. The clause was retained, however, the biU passed, and had no sooner been put in force (in the county of Kilkenny) than the number of crimes considerably diminished, although it had not become necessai-y to hold a court-martial — an alternative which had been avoided by the passing of another bill, empowering the Court of Queen's Bench to try causes in an adjoining county or in Dublin 122 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. whenever there was reason to suspect that prosecutors, jurors, or witnesses would be sub- ject to intimidation in the county where the offence had been committed. But the question of the Protestant Church in Ireland and the payment of tithes and cess followed immediately on the passing of the coercion biU. These taxes had long been resisted by the Irish Eoman Catholics, who complained bitterly of being compelled even by force to support a Church the presence of which in the country they regarded as a token of their subjection. Nothing would satisfy them but the repeal of all tithes and cess for maintaining an establishment which absorbed its own revenues, and in which they had no interest; but the ministry had no intention of disestablishing the Protestant Church in Ire- land. They were wiUiug, and even anxious, to reform it, and even to some extent to dis- endow it, if by such means they could decrease the burden which it imposed on the Irish people — and so could enable it to assume a less hostile attitude. But the means by which it was proposed to effect these objects failed to satisfy the Eepealers, and axoused violent opposition, not only from the Tory party, but from many of the supporters of the ministry, who regarded the measure as one of confisca- tion and the destruction of the Protestant Church in Ireland. On the revenues of the Church, amounting to about £800,000 a year, a tax was to be imposed, varying from five to fifteen per cent, according to the value of the several bishoprics, and on livings with above £200 per annum. These taxes were to be in place of the payment of " first-fruits," to which the holders of the benefices had previously been subject, and were to be applied by eccle- siastical commissioners to the abolition of chui-ch "cess," to the augmentation of poor livings, the building of glebe-houses and churches, and other improvements. The num- ber of bishops was to be reduced from twenty- two to twelve, the number of archbishops from four to two ; the large revenues of the primate and the Bishop of Derry were to be decreased to the respective amounts of £10,000 and £8000 a year. It was even intended to institute an improved method of dealing with the lands held by the bishops, so that, without diminishing the income they then enjoyed, a considerable sum might be saved and devoted to secular purposes. Of course this proposi- tion received the approval of the Dissenters and the Eadicals, as well as the Eepealers, since it seemed to foreshadow a similar appli- cation of ecclesiastical property in England; but it was regarded with intense dislike even by members of the cabinet, and Lord Althorp was unable to maintain his position against the vehement antagonism of Mr. Stan- ley, the opposition of Sir James Graham and the Earl of Eipon, and the objections of the premier himself. It was certain, too, that such a clause would never be accepted by the House of Lords without a revival of the struggle which had so long deferred the pass- ing of the reform bill. The "despoiling" clause was therefore abandoned, much to the disgust of the party who had regarded it as the most important part of the measure. Even then the hostility with which the biU was met in the upper house, where Lord Eldon declared that he would oppose it to the end of his life and the utmost of his power, seemed likely to delay it to another session, but the cabinet began to talk of resigning, and, remem- bering the crisis of 1832, the lords made some alterations, which were agreed to on the 2d of August, and the bill passed, O'Connell con- temptuously observing that their lordships had not made it much woi'se than they found it, and declaring that it could only be regarded as a trifling instalment of the enormous debt due to Ireland. It appeared, indeed, as though the concession was quite beside the true ques- tion of the hour, which was the collection of the tithes. For a long time past the resist- ance to this tax had been so violent that the clergy who attempted to enforce it were in constant dread of assassination ; and the tithe- proctor was even far more detested than the exciseman, and was almost placed outside the pale of humanity. An attempt to extort the payment of the ecclesiastical impost frequently terminated in a fatal affray, and as the sum recovered was often no more, and was some- times even less, than the cost of collection, the clergy who depended on it were in constant "JOHNNY HAS UPSET THE COACH." 123 distress, and were frequently in a state of starvation. No expedient suflSced to put an end to these disastrous conditions. A million sterling had been advanced to the clergy as a loan. An attempt had been made to convert the tithe to a land-tax, and to leave the collec- tion to government officers, but the opposition was unabated, for no disguise sufficed to change the nature of the demand, or to deprive it of the intolerable character of a tax for the sup- port of a Church which it was declared should have no place in the country — at aU events unless it could be sustained at the cost of those who belonged to its communion. The course of these repeated debates on the Irish Church and the condition of Ireland, bear so remarkable a likeness to those with which we are at this moment familiar, and the proposals are so suggestive of the legis- lation which has only recently been accom- plished, that we may be pardoned for dwell- ing at some length on this early proceeding of the reformed parliament, even though, as we all know, and as Lord John BusseR has told us, the Established Church in Ireland was discussed in 1835, inquired into in 1836, but not disestablished and disendowed tiU 1869. But the discussion in 1835 was pre- ceded by a statement made in the session of 1834 by Mr. Ward, the member for St. Albans, which had the effect of giving con- sistency to the demands made by the Whigs that the revenues of the Established Church in Ireland should be readjusted, and a portion of them appropriated to secular uses. Only about a fourteenth part of the Irish popula- tion belonged to the Protestant communion. The collection of the tithe had been the cause of prolonged and fierce opposition, and the country was in such a condition that an army equal to that required for India was main- tained there — the military force varying from 19,000 to 23,000 men. In 1833 this army had cost the country above a million of money, and the police force above half a miUion. Nearly 18,000 tithe cases had been tried, and it had cost J26,000 to collect £12,000 from persons the majority of whom were Roman Catholics, and who therefore resisted an im- post for the exclusive benefit of Protestant institutions. The revenues of the Irish Pro- testant Church were stated to be a miUion; but the money was so ill distributed that whUe the rector of a parish containing only ten or twelve Protestants, including the mem- bers of his own family, might receive £800 or £1000 a year — and a large number of the clergy were non-resident — the hard-working curates had to subsist on sums the average of which was £70, while some of them were as low as £18 a year. Lord John EusseU had already grown so warm on the subject that on a previous even- ing, when Lord Stanley had stated that he adhered to his former opinions. Lord John rose, and, under the impression that his col- league had intended to refer to his support of the permanence of the Irish Church, at once gave an explanation of his own views. His speech was received with immense cheering; but Stanley scribbled a note to Sir James Graham containing the memorable words, " Johnny has upset the coach ! " Mr. Ward's motion was moderate enough — "That the Protestant Episcopal Establish- ment in Ireland exceeds the spiritual wants of the Protestant population; and that it being the right of the state to regulate the distribution of church property in such man- ner as parliament may determine, it is the opinion of this house that the temporal posses- sions of the Church of Ireland, as now estab- lished by law, ought to be reduced." Grote seconded the proposal, saying that when the advocates for the repeal of the union put for- ward the evils arising from the Irish Church Establishment, no man replied to them. The discussion would probably have been a lively one, for the ministry itseK was di- vided on the question ; but after Grote had spoken Lord Althorp rose to say that circum- stances which had come to his knowledge since he entered the house, induced him to move the adjournment of the debate. The circumstances were the resignation of four members of the cabinet — the Earl of Eipon, Lord Stanley, Sir James Graham, and the Duke of Richmond. Their places were filled, but the new, or rather the patched ministry, was little nearer to agree- ment than before. The motion was got rid of 12i GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. by the appointment of a commission of in- quiry, and paxliament gave its attention to a new bill first for changing the tithe into a rent charge, and for commuting the amount of tithe received by the clergy in consequence of its being collected for them. It was during the discussion on the modifications of this measure that the fiery Stanley — afterwards, when Lord Derby, known as "the Rupert of debate" — turned furiously on his former colleagues, whom he compared to thimble- riggers at a country fair. He denounced one part of the plan as " petty larceny, for it had not the redeeming quality of bold and open robbery ; " and his address was so violent that he afterwards apologized to Eaxl Grey for the disrespectful language he had used. But the noble earl was soon to be subjected to an attack so scandalous that the mere heated words of debate might weU have been forgotten. It was proposed to renew the coercion act, which had already been so effec- tual in diminishing crime and outrage in Ire- land; but whUe Earl Grey and some other members of the cabinet desired to maintain the clauses forbidding public meetings, others, including Lord Althorp, were in favour of re- linquishing them. O'Connell had already organized a deter- mined opposition to the clauses which so materially affected his influence as an agitator, and reduced the tribute or the " rent " which he received from his followers. So skilful were his plans that he was able to obtain the return of a "Repealer" to represent Wexford, where there was a vacancy, even against the influence of the Whigs. But he also prepared an address to the reformers of England and Ireland, denouncing the government, and especially Earl Grey, in terms which are amazing. " Is it just," he asked, " that Ire- land should be insulted and trampled on merely because the insanity of the wretched old man who is at the head of the ministry develops itself in childish hatred and maniac contempt of the people of Ireland?" No minister, he declared, " ever had one-twen- tieth, perhaps not one-fiftieth part of the number of relations receiving public pay, nor so few deserving such payment." The ministry had not "one single friend nor even one nomi- nal friend in Ireland." The head of the ad- ministration was "an insane dotard." We have heard or read some violent expressions in Irish addresses since that time ; but even Irish professed agitators, if they have a seat in parliament, would now hesitate to use lan- guage such as this even under extreme provo- cation. The worst of it was that at this juncture Lord WeUesley, the Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, who had first supported the obnoxious clauses, wrote a half-intimation that he was inclined to abandon them with a view to passing the bill more readily through the house. Lord Althorp, in a manner quite inconsistent with his usual guarded conduct as leader of the house, allowed Mr. Littleton, the chief secre- tary for Ireland, to hint to O'Connell that the coercion act would not be renewed in its for- mer rigour. It may be imagined what was his dismay when he discovered that the clauses were to be retained, and what an explosion took place when he had to undeceive the agi- tator — who at once charged him with inten- tional treacheiy, brought the matter before the house, and called on him to resign. "The pig's killed," said Lord Althorp to Lord John Russell after O'Connell's denunciation ; and he at once sent in his resignation, which Lord Grey laid before the king accompanied with his own. "At a meeting of the cabinet in the even- ing," says Lord Russell in his RecoUectiom, " Lord Grey placed before us the letters con- taining his own resignation and that of Lord Althorp, which he had sent early in the morn- ing to the king. He likewise laid before us the king's gracious acceptance of his resigna- tion, and he gave to Lord Melbourne a sealed letter from his majesty. Lord Melbourne, upon opening this letter, found in it an invi- tation to him to undertake to form a govern- ment. Seeing that nothing was to be done that night, I left the cabinet and went to the opera." The king was in a hurry to accept the resig- nation of the Whig minister and the chancellor of the exchequer, and the reason soon became apparent. He thought he could induce Mel- LORD BEOUGHAM'S QUARREL WITH LORD DURHAM. 125 bourne to try to form a coalition government, with the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel in the administration; but Melbourne was far too sagacious to make such an attempt. The other members of the ministry were not eager to resign, and the only difficulty was to induce Lord Althorp to take office again.. In any other man such a step might have ap- peared as though his previous resignation had been for the purpose of changing chiefs ; but as Lord Stanley said, Lord Althorp might have intrigued to. get out of office, but it was quite incredible that he would have intrigued to remain in it. This was true, for Althorp hated political life. He used to say, " Nature intended me to be a grazier, but men will insist on making me a statesman." He told Lord John Russell that every morning when he woke, while he was in office, he wished himself dead. By the end of the year (1834) he was able to obtain liberty. But it is necessary to turn aside for a moment to catch the true light of the situa- tion. To the year 1834 belongs a "personal" episode in the history of Brougham and Lord Durham which had more than personal con- sequences. At the grand banquet to Earl Grey given on the Calton Hill — an event to which reference has been already made, — Lord Brougham distinguished himseK in his most perverse manner. His lordship had, as we shall see by-and-by, already made himself an object of popular dislike by the part he had taken in the New Poor-law discussions, and still more by defending the unwise and unjust treatment of the Dorchester labourers ; but the sentence on those poor men had al- ready been reversed, and if he could have held his tongue only a very little, repressed his gladiatorial habits, and let Lord Durham alone, he might have recovered some of his popularity and the Whigs might have kept office. But none of these things were to hap- pen. Lord Durham, son-in-law to Earl Grey, was at this banquet. He was well known as an advanced reformer; while Brougham had been showing from time to time that he had aristocratic tastes which he could not govern, and had in fact allied himself with those Whigs who professed to treat the Reform Bill as a final measure. In the speech he delivered at the banquet he made, as was his wont to the last, gratuitous and mischievous remarks. Having boasted — for his language was not very bashful — of the part he had taken in public affairs, and proclaimed that he had not deserted the cause of the people, he took an opportunity of aiming a side-blow at rash politicians who wanted to force on the hands of the dial. Then came a scene. The Earl of Durham, in his speech, said with great energy and with a clear allusion to Lord Brougham's words, that for his part he re- gretted every hour which passed over without some attempt to remedy admitted abuses. This sally was received, as the speaker in- tended it should be, with loud cheers; and many an eye was turned, more or less fur- tively, more or less keenly, on Lord Brougham, who sat looking very hot, angry, and uncom- fortable. It was well known that there was a half-suppressed quarrel between the two, and the political and other friends treated the case as if it were that of two game-cocks pitted against each other, and did their best to " work up " both the combatants. In a speech made at Salisbury, Lord Brougham soon after- wards had the bad taste to deliver himself of a pretty plain challenge to Lord Durham to meet him in the House of Lords and fight out the quarrel on the question. This was not allowed to drop, and at a banquet given at Glasgow in honour of Lord Durham, that noble lord openly took up the glove which had been thrown down to him. Indeed the words seem almost unnecessarily plain: — "He has been pleased to challenge me to meet him in the House of Lords. I know well the meaning of the taunt. He is aware of his great superiority over me in one respect; he is a practised orator and powerful debater. I am not. I speak but seldom in parhament, and always with reluctance in an assembly where I meet with no sympathy from an unwilling majority. He knows full well the advantage he has over me; and he knows, too, that in any attack which he may make on me in the House of Lords he wUl be warmly and cordially supported by them. 126 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES. With all these advantages I fear him not, and I will meet him there if it be unfortu- nately necessary to repeat what he has been pleased to call my criticisms." But if this language sounds nowadays rather strong, it must be remembered that Brougham had actually charged Durham (in an article in the Edinburgh Review) with betraying cabinet secrets — a subject on which Brougham was very sore. So then the battle was to come off on the meeting of parliament. But it never did. And what occurred to pre- vent the fight was not of a nature to displease the Earl of Durham. The duel in the House of Lords never came off, because the king dismissed his ministers. In the spring of 1834 there had been signs of a downfall for the Whigs. The government were receiving defeat after defeat. Earl Grey was getting weary. Althorp never rose in the morning without dreading the day that was before him. What with the Irish Church question, and what with resignations in con- sequence of differences in the cabinet on that question and other questions, it was impos- sible that things could go on as they were. Lord Eldon professed himself scandalized by the manner in which the Whigs stuck to place without power, and wrote that it was some- thing quite new in English politics. The old Tories looked calmly on, certain that a change could not be far off; the Duke of Well- ington and Peel not concealing, or hardly con- cealing, their pleasure at the way in which things were drifting. At last came the resignation of Lord Al- thorp, and then Earl Grey resigned. After this, however, the cabinet was put together again in a fashion which did not promise much, Lord Althorp returning to place as chancellor of the exchequer, while the facile and not too anxious Melbourne became jjremier. Meanwhile the Tories could very well see what was in the air, and the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel were quietly laying their heads together. In August the king prorogued parliament, and there was a general sense of deadness in political matters. There had been something uneasy in the at- mosphere, and there still was ; but there was so little expectation of a crash that Sir Robert Peel had taken himself off for a tour upon the Continent, and other greater and smaller centres of political force had dispersed them- selves in various ways, not supposing they would be wanted. King William IV., influenced partly by his wife and partly by himself (so to speak), was getting old and uneasy, and wanted quiet days. He sent for Lord Melbourne, and pro- posed to him the formation of a hybrid govern- ment which should be strong enough to carry on the affairs of the country without further concession either to the Radicals in the house or the people outside of it. The Duke of Wel- lington, Sir Robert Peel, and Mr. Stanley (a distinguished debater, who was never at heart a Liberal) were the chief persons upon whom his majesty had cast his eye, and to whom he determined, if possible, to throw the handkerchief. Lord Melbourne, informed of the king's wishes, addressed to him a wise and temperate expostulation. But death, the great power which compels so many changes, was soon to do something which should supersede discussion, or at all events which should be made the pretext for cutting dis- cussion short. On the 10th of November in this year Earl Spencer died, and Lord Althorp succeeded to his place in the upper house. Almost immediately afterwards Lord Melbourne went to the pavilion at Brighton — how strangely the words read now ! — to see the king about the appointment of a new chancellor of the exchequer. But Melbourne was as uneasy as any one, and had no love of power. He would have been glad enough to retire if the king had wanted to make the new Earl Spencer premier in his place; and he frankly asked his sovereign, the " reform- ing monarch," if he would like to make any change beyond that of appointing a new chan- cellor of the exchequer, although he (Lord Melbourne) was as willing to attempt to "carry on the king's government" as the duke himself could be. But the reforming monarch, though not a clever man, had his notions, and was bent on getting rid of the Whigs, and doing something to stop the course of political change. He felt LOED MELBOURNE'S CHAEACTEEISTICS. 127 his way with an ingenuity that did him credit. He inquired of Melbourne, among other things, who was to be intrusted with the leadership of the House of Commons, now Althorp was withdrawn. Melbourne sug- gested Lord John EusseU, assuring the king that the Liberals would gladly accept him as lieutenant. At this, however, the monarch shook his head, maintaining that poor Lord John had neither the abilities nor the in- fluence which would qualify him for the post. He even indulged himself in the criti- cism that he would make a poor figure as a speaker in opposition to Peel and Stanley. By this time Lord Melbourne's task was becoming a very uneasy one. Lord Brougham had already made no secret of his feeling that the debating power of the cabinet in the House of Commons was weak, or at all events that the government suffered much in con- sequence of not using the power they had. Brougham's language is so characteristic of the man that it is well worth quoting in part at least. " It is quite in vain," said his lord- ship, "to conceal from ourselves that the government is seriously damaged, both in the eyes of the cotintry, and even of the House of Commons itself. This is in part unavoidable, because it had been extravagantly popular — because absurd expectations, impossible to be realized, had been formed — and because all governments, after being a little while in office, have to contend with the selfishness of disappointed individuals and the fickleness of an unreasonable public ; and all this we should long ago have felt (indeed were beginning to feel three months after we came in), but for the excitement of the Eeform question. But a great part, I firmly believe the greater part, of our unpopularity is owing to ourselves; and to come at once to the point, the cabinet ministers in the House of Commons either despise their adversaries or fear them; I should rather say they despise some and fear others — and the error is equally great, and wiU soon be equally fatal in both oases. Grant and Graham sit as if they had not the gift of one tongue apiece (I speak on Whit- suntide). Palmerston I pass: it would be most unjust to expect anything from him, worked and worn to death as he has been; but Grant and Graham are whoUy without excuse. Eobert Grant is as loquacious as his brother to the f uU, but he is not in the cabinet. I speak now of cabinet ministers. How can men in the back rows get up and take part in debate when the government itself abandons its case? Althorp is admirable and invalu- able, but he is also quite indifferent, and cares not how much either himseK or any one else is attacked. What with his indifference, Grant's indolence, and Graham's alarms, we are left entirely to Stanley and Spring Eice. The former is a host in himseK ; the latter is, next to him, by far our best man for debat- ing. Lord John, too, is invaluable, and shows a spirit and debates with an effect which are admirable. And in former times that force would have been quite enough, when there was but one debate in a week, and two or three speeches only were attended to. But now things are mightily changed. The debate ranges from Monday to Saturday, and twenty speeches are made in a night, most of which are much attended to in the country, and some of them in the house." Now it is well known that the king disliked Brougham. The Times went out of its way to say that he would as soon see a mad dog in the palace as the excitable lord chancellor. But it is quite possible the not overbright monarch had got hold of this topic in some way through Brougham, and thought it a good card to play with Lord Melbourne. Melbourne, as has been hinted, was an ex- ceedingly pleasant man, of course a gentle- man, and also a very good tactician. He was accustomed to take cheerful views of things. There is a well-known and admirable story illustrative of his willingness to make the best of everything; but many anecdotes of this nobleman cannot be thoroughly enjoyed (and this is one of them) without bearing in mind that he was given to a practice which is now much less common than it used to be. " Now then, Melbourne," said Sydney Smith one day, when his lordship had just entered the room where a party was assem- bled, " Now then, Melbourne, we will suppose everything and everybody to be d d, and 128 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES. then you can tell us the news." The little story referred to above is not this. One even- ing Lord Melbourne and some others, includ- ing a man less willing to be pleased, drove to the Victoria Theatre, then called the Eoyal Coburg, in order to have a good look at " the people " and their amusements. He was after- wards told that the other gentleman had de- clared that he had found the evening dull. In reply to this ilelboume recalled the shops in the New Cut, and said, '' D him ! couldn't he be pleased with the gas shining on the lobsters' backs in the fishmongers' shops?" Of his wonderful gift of saying unpleasant things in a manner which the listener could not resent, an instance occurred in the answer he once gave to a political bore who had been pressing hard to be placed on a certain com- mission. " Why," said he to the bore, " I did mention your name to the king, and to the others, but you see the fellows wouldn't sit with you, d them." This is a digression; but the point is that Melbourne could use no such weapons with William IT., and it is amusing to think how helpless he must have felt while the king was muddling and blun- dering on with the talk, showing plainly that he was anxious to hark back in political mat- ters, and giving inconclusive reasons for de- clining to consider the reconstitution of the Whig cabinet upon the basis proposed by Melbourne. The latter appears to have argued his case with more simplicity of heart than is usual with political tacticians, and to have been almost " sold " by the king, if so vulgar an idiom may be allowed to intrude into the page. He explained in the most deferential manner that, in order to possess power in the House of Commons it was not essential to be a good speaker, and quoted the influence exer- cised by Althorp before his removal to the upper house — Althorp being by no means an orator, or even a good debater. After more fencing the king made some admissions, and began really to show what was in his mind. He had taken alai-m on the Irish Church question. He viewed with particular dislike the "advanced" views of Lord John EusseU in that matter, and could not consent to the formation of a cabinet with which he would be sure to have dissensions on so grave a ques- tion. The sailor king then let out that he knew or believed there were differences of opinion among the then ministers, and that he had a comforting belief that Lord Lans- downe and Mr . Spring Eice would secede "rather than acquiesce in the appropriation of any portion of church property in Ireland for general purposes of education," — Lord Lansdowne had indeed told him as much. We may well conceive that the air was now getting rather hot for Lord Melbourne, but he appears to have been more bewildered than anything else, and yet to have kept his head, for he carefully avoided anything like an admission that there was any lack of unanimity in the cabinet over which he presided. This, how- ever, did not satisfy the "reforming monarch," who had, in truth, only partly shown his hand, though he had fully made up his mind. He endeavoured to persuade the premier that the government could not possibly hold to- gether, when what he really meant was that he was determined it should be broken up. But he had not the moral courage to commu- nicate his intention face to face, and broke up- a tiresome and puzzling discussion by saying,, "Now let us go to dinner." But on the fol- lowing day the king, choosing to write rather than speak (like a clumsy and bashful lover), handed the astonished minister a letter in which he informed him that, as the govern- ment were in an actual minority in the upper house, and would soon be in a similar condi- tion in the lower (the removal of Althorp being alleged as the reason for this), he, the king, had made up his mind that the govern- ment of the country ought at once to be placed in other hands. The "reforming monarch" tried to soften down this blow by ofi'ering Melbourne an earldom and the order of the Garter ; but this the mortified, though uncon- querably urbane, viscount refused. The king had the questionable taste to harp again upon the details of the discussion, upon which Lord Melbourne, fond of making things pleasant, suggested that all his majesty had said about Lord John EusseU and Lord Brougham should be kept in the back -ground, and that it should not be made pubhc that the king was THE DTJKE OF WELLEN'GTO^'S PLUEALITY OF OFFICE. 129 opposed to church reform in Ireland or else- where. Lord Melbourne then learned that his majesty -vraa about to send for the Duke of WeUington, and there was so little delicacy shown about it that the polite Melbourne was actually asked to take charge of the first letter by which the royal intentions were to be made public. On the 15th November, 1834, the Times contained this announcement: — "The king has taken the opportunity of Lord Spencer's death to turn out the ministry, and there is every reason to believe that the Duke of Wellington has been sent for. The queen has done it aU." It was beUeved that this eommuniqu$ was from Lord Brougham himself. Hjs lordship was allowed to remain on the woolsack for a little while in order to finish some causes in Chancery which were undecided, but his turn soon came. He was summoned in the usual form to deliver up the great seal to his sove- reign, and did so. He had to bear the brunt of the blame of the Whig defeat, and great was his disgust. The Earl of Durham was despatched to St. Petersburg as ambassador for this country in order to stave off for a time that threatened duel in the House of Lords which would undoubtedly have led to the letting out of more strife than any that existed between hiin and the ex-chancellor, and the disclosure, perhaps, of a few secrets. Thus were the Whigs kicked out. In the words of Palmerston, "the government had not resigned but were dismissed, and this not in consequence of having proposed any measure of which the king disapproved and which they would not give up, but because it was thought they were not strong enough in the Commons to carry on the business of the country; and their places were to be filled up by men who were notoriously weak and unpopular in the lower house." What was the king to do? There was the duke — ^the iron duke, the ever-willing and " practical" servant of the sovereign. He was sent for, and was as ready as ever to do his possible. Of Sir Robert Peel, who was abroad, so little was known at the moment that his servants could not even teU where a TOL. L letter would be sure to reach him; and yet he was eventually the man of the hour. The duke, with all his self-confidence and all his energy, could not be himself the cabinet, and yet he could not, as a matter of good taste, go about forming a new one in Sir Eobert's ab- sence. So a messenger (Mr. Hudson, after- wards known in another capacity) was packed off to the Continent on a Sunday night to hunt up Peel, and the duke, to use an actor's phrase- ology, " doubled parts" until the great Conser- vative should return. " I submitted," writes Wellington, " to his majesty that I was ready to do anything for his service; that it was unreasonable to expect that Sir Eobert Peel would undertake to conduct the measures of an administration of which the arrangements should have been formed by another person, and that such a course would be equally in- jurious to Sir Eobert and to his majesty's ser- vice; that under these circumstances I re- marked to his majesty that he should appoint me iirst lord of the treasury and secretary of state for the home department, which offices I would hold till Sir Eobert Peel should return home, when he might submit to his majesty such arrangements as he might think proper; that Lord Lyndhuist might hold the great seal temporarily, by commission or otherwise, as might be expedient; and that no other arrangements should be made not ab- solutely necessary for the conduct of the public service." There was so much muddle in the whole story, such recklessness on one side, and so much haste on the king's, that !Mj. Hudson had some difficulty in findingthe money for his jotu- ney ! But after nine days' pursuit he found the great commoner in Eome, only he was just then at a ball ! Xot to dwell upon these details, we may add, that it was not until December that Sir Eobert was in London, and engaged in the task of forming a new adminis- tration. But in the meanwhile Lord Lynd- hurst had been gazetted as lord -chancellor. He was a much better lawyer than Brougham, and especially a much better Chancen/ lawyer; but the latter endeavoured to get back to his old place upon the woolsack by offering to per- form the duties of the office without a salary. 9 130 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. On the 10th of December the first Conserva- tive government was constituted. Sir Robert Peel was premier and chancellor of the ex- chequer. The Duke of Wellington was foreign secretary; Mr. Goulbum home secretary; and the Earl of Aberdeen colonial secretary. Mr. Gladstone, the yo\mg member for Newark, was made one of the commissioners of the treasury. On the 18th of December Sir Eobert Peel issued that celebrated address to the electors of Tamworth which has since been known as the Tamworth Manifesto. Long before the repeal of the corn-laws Mr. Disraeli had maintained that the Tory party — we emphasise the word — had just claims to be the popular political confederation of the country. It wiU be necessary, in order to the clear understanding of the difficulties, or some of the difficulties, encountered by Sir Eobert Peel, to glance at that view of the poli- tical situation which was taken by the Tories at the time. This view it was which may be said to have governed the movements of the party which we now call Conservative (a word which Mr. Disraeli carefully put aside) during many years. Mr. Disraeli maintained that the Tamworth manifesto of 1834 was "an attempt to con- struct a party without principles;" that "its basis was, necessarily, political latitudinari- anism, and its inevitable consequence political infidelity." He maintained that " Conservatism — as distinguished from Toryism — was an attempt to carry on affairs by substituting the fulfilment of the duties of office for the per- formance of the functions of government, and to maintain this negative system by the mere influence of property, reputable private con- duct, and what are called good connections." This distinguished political critic — ^who was himself to have so large a share in the political history of the next forty-five years — went on to declare that at no period during the move- ment of 1834-5 did Sir Eobert Peel ever be- lieve in the success of his administration, and he sketches the gossip of society about that time, and in the period before the "Tam- worth Manifesto " was written. Before the dismis.sal of the Whigs the king Had received a deputation of the Irish pre- lates with their primate at their head, who brought him an address from the Irish clergy deprecating changes in the doctrine and dis- cipline of the Church, which persons widely differing from themselves were xmderstood to have in contemplation, and his majesty, in- stead of replying by a written answer and after consultation with his ministers, had made them a speech, with the tears running down his cheeks — declaring that he remembered they had a right to require of him to be resolute in defence of the Church ; — a speech which seems to have been almost hysterical, but which was evidently sincere, and of course was received with delight, not only by the Irish, but by some of the English clergy, who perhaps saw in it a determination to repress the demands of Dissenters. There was nothing for it but that he should dismiss the ministry as soon as he thought he could do so without repeating the mistake of the Eeform BiU days, and being compelled to ask them to take office again. The result proved that he had once more miscalculated the feeling of the country. It may be said indeed that the new minis- try came into office almost despondently. The whole tone of Sir Eobert Peel's letter to the electors of Tamworth is that of a deprecatory appeal addressed to the nation, and assert- ing the belief that the people "will so far maintain the prerogatives of the king as to give the ministers of his choice, not an impli- cit confidence, but a fair trial." That the country might formally pronounce on this manifesto, parliament was dissolved within a few weeks of the time appointed for its re- assembling. It was believed that many of the .extreme reformers were ready to support Sir Eobert Peel, who was likely to pass some important liberal measures that a feeble Whig ministry would lose; but the returns of the polling-booths showed, that whUe the Con- servatives gained in the counties the Liberals were more successful in the small boroughs, — a sign, as some politicians declared, that the influence of landlords on one side was counter- balanced by money-spending on the other. History is of no political creed ; the conduct of every political leader, unless it violates PEEL'S DIFFICULTIES. 131 obvious principles of public morality, must be judged from hia own point of view. This being assumed, it is easy and natural, as well as true, to remark that since the passing of the Reform Bill the policy of Sir Eobert Peel and the behaviour of his sworn friend the Duke of Wellington had been, from their own point of view, very well adapted to ends and purposes. Sir Eobert, who always had much of the confidence of politicians of all shades of opinion, had gone about to remodel the old Tory party. By degrees the name of Con- servative had slipped in; and the new party had over and over again stated that they were not less desirous than the Whigs to attack proved abuses, and lead the country onward from strength to strength, only it must be in a "Conservative" manner. The great duke was too sagacious a man not to "cave in" along with Sir Eobert. All the old soldiers of the Tory camp had endeavoured to keep him among them, but he slipped through their fingers and stayed by the side of Peel. His opinion of Peel may be gathered from the fact that he filled altogether five offices in his own person during the interregnum while the trusted chief of the party was abroad. When Sir Eobert came home (England, Scotland, and Ireland having got on pretty well without him for about a month) he endeavoured to induce Sir James Graham and Mr. Stanley to join him in the cabinet. They were deserters from the ranks of the Whig ministry, and he felt that their presence would give his government an appearance of liber- ality which it might otherwise miss. These gentlemen declined to join him, so that he was compelled to fill up his list with the names of men of a very difi'erent stamp. It did not promise very favourably. The House of Commons that Peel had to meet was exacting and hostile. Naturally enough, a, Conservative government being in power, the Whigs being disgusted with their recent ignominious dismissal, and the Eadicals enraged with the sudden turn of the scale by the " reforming monarch," there was a strong and watchful opposition. Sir Eobert Peel then thought it necessary to dissolve parlia- ment, and to issue his manifesto, which was addressed to the electors of Tamworth, for which he sat, but was in reality a declaration of policy for the eyes of the whole of the people of Great Britain. In this document Sir Eobert Peel had of course something to say about the Eeform Bill, which was not yet a shelved topic, the waves of popular feeling surging and heaving a little after the storm. In fact, the "Letter to the Electors of Tam- worth" distinctly contained the lines of the Conservative policy. In proof of his desire to remedy "proved abuses" Sir Eobert referred to his own conduct in dealing with the cur- rency, the criminal law, and the grievances of the Eoman Catholics. The Eeform Act was, from his point of view, a final measure — "a final and irrevocable settlement — a settlement which no friend to the peace ' and welfare of the country would attempt to dis- turb." He went over the political questions which had occupied the attention of the reformed parliament, and endeavoured to im- press the electors of Tamworth, that is to say, everybody who was to read the manifesto, with the idea that he was on many points abreast with the party of reform. But Sir Eobert Peel was far too sagacious a man not to feel that his position was uncer- tain, and not very hopeful. Since it is true that "hope springs eternal in the human breast," it would be too bold to say that an experienced and able politician in the prime of his energies had no hopes of being able to carry on the government with success even in the face of the opposition he knew he had to encounter; but certainly the closing pas- sages of this letter were not very cheerful. " I enter upon the arduous duties assigned to me with the deepest sense of the responsibility they involve, with great distrust of my own qualifications for their adequate discharge, but, at the same time, with a resolution to persevere which nothing could inspire but the strong impulse of public duty, the conscious- ness of upright motives, and the firm belief that the people of this country will so far maintain the prerogatives of the king as to give to the ministers of his choice, not an implicit confidence, but a fair trial." 132 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. This did not exactly mean that he was conscious he held office only on sufferance, but he must have known his was a very doubtful game to play. He declared in the letter that he would support the inquiry into the state of the corporation, an inquiry with which the Whigs were identified. He was also desirous, he said, to satisfy Dissenters upon the subject of church-rates, and to relieve them from the injuries their conscientious scruples suffered in the matter of the marriage laws. These, no doubt, were great things to say, and it was plain that what is called "Liberalism" had made its mark. But un- fortunately the new premier had to go on to say, in his well-known character of " Candid Peel" (an old joke of those days and of days much earlier), that upon the Irish Church ques- tion his mind was unchanged. He added that he would not admit Dissenters to the universities, or grant them university degrees, or consent to the appropriation of any portion of the church revenues to secular purposes; while, at the same time, he said his mind was not made up on the question whether any changes were desirable in the mere organi- zation of the Church Establishment. This was, indeed, a hybrid programme, not without some of that peculiar subtlety, called by enemies inconsistency. Sir Eobert must have felt this, and he dissolved parliament within a few weeks of the time appointed for its next meeting. In the new elections all differences were practically submerged, except the great broad ones between the two main parties in the state. There were indeed not a few reformers who had formed the idea which was destined aftei-wards to become general, that Sir Eobert Peel had the knack of carrying his measures, and that his peculiar position as a moderate and cautious man might give him the control of working power in parliament from various sides,aworking power which more "advanced" politicians could not always command, in the face of the opposition of the Conservatives. But the electors who took this view could not, on their consciences, push it so far as to vote for Sir Eobert, with that cabinet at his back, or even if a few of them did so, their voices did not count in the general rush. Consistent- reformers, in high resentment at having been "snubbed" by the " patriot king," walked up to the polling-booths in a fury of zeal, and the result was held to prove that the Liberals would have a majority of a hundred or a hundred and twenty-five over the minis- terialists. With this majority at their command the Whigs and Eadicals now joined together in achieving a small but easy victory. On the 19th of February the House of Commons pro- ceeded to choose a speaker, and Mr. Aber- crombie was elected by a majority of ten over Sir C. Manners Sutton, who was sent to the Upper House as Lord Canterbury. The king's speech was pretty much what might have been expected. It was pathetic over the sufferings of the agricultural interest as compared with other interests, and recom- mended a reduction of the burdens on land. The church and municipal corporations' com- missions were appointed. Ecclesiastical ques- tions in England, Scotland, and Ireland were- recommended to the attention of parliament. Then, of course, followed the debates on the address in reply to the speech. In the House of Lords this was carried without a division, but it was not to be supposed that the Whigs would let it pass unchallenged. Each in his own way. Lord Melbourne and Lord Brougham put the same natural ques- tion, namely, why the late ministry had been dismissed, if the royal speech put the condition of the country in a right light. There was another question which was also put forward. Why had the ubiquitous Duke of Wellington seated himself in so many bureaux at once— "How gat he there?" as Mrs. Siddons asked when, misunderstanding the word bureau, she had been told a certain French minister had been found in one. In fact, to pass from jest to earnest, why had the duke, who might at any moment, in spite of his rival. Lord Brougham's schoolmaster, have made himself military dictator of England— why had the duke constituted himself a provisional govern- ment. The Duke of Wellington quoted pre- cedent, and maintained that nothing had been done in this regard but what was fairly within THE MAEQTJIS OF LONDONDEREY. 133 the limits of the royal prerogative ; while those -who were on his side exploded in "sacred rage" at the misbehaviour of Lord Brougham in sending word to the Times, upon the king's dismissing his ministers, that " the queen had done it all." All this did not come to much, nor could it. Neither did Lord Morpeth and his party take much in the House of Commons by moving an amendment deprecating the last previous dissolution of parliament. It is true this amendment was carried by a majority of seven, 326 to 319, and that Sir Eo- bert was called upon at once to resign. But Sir Robert, to use an expressive quasi-vulgarism which has come into extensive use since his time (it is a good old English idiom), "did not see it." Upon this Lord John Russell asked whether it was true that Sir Robert was liherishing a secret intention to dissolve par- liament again. Nay more, Lord John actually wanted to know, on behalf of the opposition, whether, in case the Mutiny BiU had notpassed, it was then designed to continue the army on an unconstitutional footing ! All this does not look very wise, but we have had our own disputes and suspicious both before and aft^ the death of the late Prince Consort, and ours, too, have not been of the most generous, hope- ful, or helpful order. The conflict was not, however, to be a long one, and the premier must have had an uneasy time of it. The Marquis of Chandos — memor- able for a certain wet-blanket clause in the Reform Bill — amoved for the repeal of the malt duty. This was opposed by the front men on both sides of the house, and his motion was negatived by a majority of 158. The next important discussion that ensued was of the class called "damaging." The Marquis of Londonderry was one of those professed adherents of the Tory party on whom the public had an eye. This military nobleman was brother to the unfortunate Castlereagh, and had most of that nobleman's unpopular qualities, with one or two of them that were popular. For instance he had the same splendid calm courage — a quality in which Castlereagh was probably never excelled by any statesman — and there was the same kindness of manner. This kind- ness was largely a result of imperturbable self-esteem. After Lord Castlereagh had cut his throat his valet was asked at the inquest whether he had noticed anything particular in his master's manner lately. "Yes," said the man, "he once spoke cross to me.'' This slowness to get angry was really a part of the man's self-esteeming placidity; though when the latter, helped only by a slow brain, re ceived too rude a shock, he lost his reason. This might have happened with the brother, Charles Stewart Yane, who is now before us, only he had not the trials of the statesman to contend with. Charles Stewart Vane had proved himself a fine soldier in the Peninsular campaign, and had been a valuable public servant in the Franco-Grerman wars. As he was, like his brother, a splendid horseman, and as the masses of the people do not think much the less of a man for confused thinking and very un- grammatical talk (in which Charles Stewart Yane succeeded to his brother's mantle) he would have been pretty well liked if he had not lived in times of popular excitement, and been very frankly stupid. But in politics he expressed himself as much astonished as the old Duke of Newcastle when he found he could not always do as he would with his own, and he wrote a book of travels in which he described the Czar Nicholas as the gentlest and sweetest of men, especially in his behaviour towards the Poles. His own love of the black sheep of Spanish and Portuguese politics, such as Dom Miguel and Don Carlos, was no secret. Through his own importunate foUy it had became pubKdy known that he had pressed hard for a pension for services never performed except in his imagination, and that even Lord Liverpool had endorsed one of his letters, "This is too bad." When it was now resolved to appoint this seH-complaceut hero ambassador at St. Petersburg, of all places in the world, the appointment was hotly at- tacked by the opposition in the House of Commons; and though the condemnatory motion was withdrawn it had the efifect of in- ducing the marquis to withdraw his claim. Unluckily for his growing popularity Sir Robert Peel took the side of the marquis. He 134 GLADSTOJSTE AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES. mamtained, and truly, that Camung had ex- pressed his regret at this brave soldiei-'s re- tirement from the Austrian embassy; but Sir Robert forgot "the heavy change" which had passed over the whole spirit of pubKc affairs since then, and the multitude scored up his defence of this new appointment against him. It was, however, on a very different ques- tion that the actual defeat of the Peel-Wel- lington ministry occurred. Lord John Rus- sell, of whose capacity as a debater and party leader the king had spoken so slightingly to Lord Melbourne, was the man who dealt the blow which proved fatal, and it may be more than tolerable to introduce the point in his own account, in the "Recollections'' which he gave to the world late in life. "As leader of the Liberal party in the House of Commons," says his lordship, "I had no smooth path be- fore me. To turn the majority into a minority by a direct vote of want of confidence would have been easy. But my object was to keep the majority together, and in the whole twenty years during which I led the Liberal party in the House of Commons I never had so difficult a task. The plain and obvious plan of voting the supplies for three months being given up, the question naturally occurred, In what man- ner could Sir Robert Peel obtain that fair trial which his own partisans and many in- dependent Whigs called for on his behalf? There appeared no question so weU fitted for an experimentum crucis as the question of the Irish Church. The proposal for a commission made by Lord Grey's government had been considered by four of the leading members of the cabinet as a test of principle, and the Liberal members of the first reformed House of Commons had accepted the question of the integrity and perpetual endowment of the Irish Church as marking the frontier line between Liberal and Tory principles. I therefore pro- posed to bring forward a resolution which, on the one hand, would be supported by Lord Howick, and was, on the other, the basis of an alliance with O'ConneU and the Irish mem- bers. Compact there was none, but an alliance on honourable terms of mutual co-operation undoubtedly existed. The Whigs remained. as before, the firm defenders of the union; O'ConneU remained, as before, the ardent ad- vocate of repeal; but upon intermediate mea- sures on which the two parties could agree consistently with their principles there was no want of cordiality. Nor did I ever see cause to complain of O'Connell's conduct. He con- fined his opposition fairly to Irish measures. He never countenanced the Canadian Catholics in their disaffection, nor promoted a recurrence to physical force, nor used trades'-unions as a means of discord and separation among classes." This is Lord John's account, written, or at all events published, in his old age, and it is f ar from discreditable to him either as a tactician and public servant or as the rival of Peel. What precisely happened we shall shortly see. It was not tUl the middle of March that the lord-chanceUor (Lyndhurst) brought up the report of the ecclesiastical commissioners. This commission had consisted of the Arch- bishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of London, Lincoln, and Gloucester, the Right Honourable Sir Robert Peel, H. Goulboum, C. W. W. Wynne, H. Hobhouse, and Sir Herbert Jenner. In the London Gazette an- nouncing their appointment they had been described as "commissioners for considering the state of the several dioceses in England and Wales with reference to the amount of their revenues, to the more equal distribu- tion of episcopal duties, and to the prevention of the necessity of attaching by commendam to bishoprics benefices with the cure of souls ; for considering the state of the several cathe- dral and coUegiate churches within the same, with a view to the suggestion of measures for rendering them most conducive to the efficacy of the Established Church; also for devis- ing the best mode of providing for the cure of souls, with special reference to the residence of the clergy on their respective benefices." The attorney-general, Sir Frederick Pollock, gave notice of two bills for amending church discipline, and Sii- Henry Hardinge of an Irish tithe measure. Sir Robert Peel gave notice of two bills, one for the commutation of tithes in England ; the other for the civil re- gistration of births, deaths, and marriages O'CONNELL'S PORTRAIT. 135 among Dissenters-^a name to be read in the widest possible sense for this occasion. On the question of the charter for the London University he was defeated. Admission to Cambridge and Oxford being refused to Nonconformists, the now strongly banded and determined friends of education moved for the presentation of an address to the king praying him to empower the London Univer- sity to grant degrees, leaving out, however, medicine and divinity. Sir Robert met the motion with an obstructive amendment, and was defeated by 246 to 136, a majority of 90 on the side of liberal education. It was not, however, on these questions that the de- cisive wager of battle was given, but, as we have seen in the words of Lord John, upon the Irish Tithe BiU. As to the main principle of the biU, the Liberal majority did not quarrel with it, and Mr. O'Connell went so far as to say that it was better in some re- spects than the measure of the late Whig ministry, inasmuch as that proposed to give the landlords one two-fifths of the tithes, se- curing to the clergy seventy-seven and a half per cent of their legal income, and charging seventeen and a half per cent of the whole on the consolidated fund, while this measure would give the landlords only one-fourth of the amount, secure the clergy only seventy-five per cent, and devolve no charge on the im- perial exchequer. On the 30th of March the Liberal leader brought forward his motion — the result of which was intended to be decisive — that this house resolve itself into a commit- tee to consider the temporalities of the Church of Ireland. After a debate of four nights' duration this motion was carried by a majority of 33. On the night of the same day the house went into committee, and Lord John Russell now moved, "That it is the opinion of this committee that any surplus which may remain after fully providing for the spiritual instruction of the members of the Established Church in Ireland ought to be applied to the general education of all classes of Chris- tians.'' Not untU the 6th of April was the debate ended, when the resolution of Lord John Russell was declared carried by a niajority of 25 votes, 262 against 237. This victory Lora John Kussell followed up by a third resolution, to the effect that " no measure on the subject of tithes in Ireland can lead to a satisfactory and final adjustment which does not embody the principle contained in the foregoing reso- lution." This was carried, after a long debate, by a majority of 285 to 258 — 27 votes. In all three of these cases the Liberal majority came from the Irish members. For O'Connell was there to organize an opposition which had for its avowed ob- ject the repeal of the union. He candidly declared that all mixed measures were only regarded by him as instalments, and it was a serious difficulty that his following was strong enough to embarrass any government to which it opposed its policy of obstruc- tion and delay or a temporary coalition with the other side. If the Liberal cause itself did not suffer from the necessities of such a tem- porary coalition, the statesmen who formed the Whig opposition or the succeeding Whig administration were undoubtedly injured in the national estimation by the terms which they appeared to be obliged to keep with the great agitator. Yet O'Connell himself was consistent. Lord John RusseU distinctly states that he could not complain of him, be- cause he only acted in accordance with the intentions which he had declared to be his sole aim in parliament. But politically he was as compromising as a friend as he was unsparing and unscrupulous as an enemy. One can almost imagine how O'Connell must have looked when he was badgering an oppon- ent — for Haydon the painter has left a portrait of him — not a painting only, but a word por- trait — in his diary. '' At twelve I went to O'Connell's, and cer- tainly his appearance was very different from what it is in the House of Commons. It was on the whole hilarious and good-natured. But there was a cunning look. He has an eye like a weasel. Light seemed hanging at the bottom, and he looked out with a searching ken, like Brougham something, but not with his depth of insight. I was first shown into his private room. A shirt hanging by the fire, a hand-glass tied to the window-bolt. 136 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. papers, hats, brushes, wet towels, and dirty shoes, gave intimation of ' Dear Ireland.' After a few moments O'Connell roUed in, in a morning-gown, a loose black handkerchief tied round his neck, a wig, and a foraging-cap bordered with gold-lace. As a specimen of character, he began, ' Mr. Haydon, you and I must understand each other about this pic- ture. They say I must pay for this likeness?' 'Not at all, sir!' This," says Haydon "is the only thing of the sort that has happened to me." On another visit Haydon told him it was somewhat ungrateful after getting emancipa- tion to turn round and demand repeal. " Not in me," he replied, " I always said repeal would be the consequence of emancipation, and I always avowed such to be my object." One can almost fancy the arch smile and the "light" in the eye of that quaint, good-hum- oured face when he said to the painter, "I got a scolding from Peel last night. I told him I spared him this once — but the next time ." Probably O'Connell had a greater respect for Peel than for any other of his opponents, or for most of his friends for that matter; for Peel was too honourable and truthful to escape the admiration of so keen, subtle, and unscrupulous a foe. To have had the life-long loyalty of a man like the Duke of WeUington, himself a judge of character, is proof enough of what Peel's high disposition must have been; though it was not till after the death of Sir Robert that his friend, seeking to express an estimate of his worth, said, " He was the truest man I have ever known. I was long connected with him in public life. We were both in the counsels of our sovereign together, and I had long the honour to enjoy his private friend- ship. In all the course of my acquaintance with Sir Robert Peel I never knew a man in whose truth and justice I had a more lively confidence, or in whom I saw a more invari- able desire to promote the public service. In the whole course of my communication with him I never knew an instance in which he did not show the strongest attachment to truth ; and I never saw, in the whole coui-se of my life, the smallest reason for suspecting that he stated anything which he did not firmly believe to be the fact." This was the man, and it may readily be beUeved that he was an exceedingly difficult man to displace from the premiership, since his high personal reputation, both in the house and in the country, joined to his re- markable power of debate and his great financial ability, made him a minister under whom any cabinet might serve with distinc- tion. But he could not maintain a ministry which had been forced on the country. He introduced an Irish Tithe Commutation BiU, which the leaders of the opposition declared he had borrowed from them ; and they deter- mined to join issue with the government" on the vexed question of the appropriation of the surplus revenues of the Irish Church to non- ecclesiastical purposes. A commission had been appointed, but the question could be revived as a. party motion, to test the strength of a ministry which had already clung to office notwithstanding numer- ous defeats. Lord John contended that the authority of a church establishment is founded on its utility, and that whenever, upon this prin- ciple, we deliberate concerning the form, pro- priety, or comparative excellence of different establishments, the single view under which we ought to consider them is that of a scheme of instruction; the single end we ought to propose by them is the preservation and com- munication of religious knowledge. Every other idea and every other end which have been mixed up with this, as the making the church the instrument and ally of the state, converting it into the means of strengthening or diffusing influence, or regarding it as a support of regal, in opposition to popular forms of government, have served only to de- base the institution, and to introduce into it numerous corruptions and abuses. "This" (said Lord John) "being wha,t an established church ought to be, the question is, whether these great objects have been advanced by the way in which the church revenues have been appropriated in Ireland, and whether it has furthered the religious DANIEL OGONNELL £0X. LC'ITDCIK. 3LA5 3':''-- ZX.. OPPOSITION TO THE TITHE IN IRELAND. 137 instruction -whicli that church ought to be the means of bestowing. In the earlier part of the last century the revenues of the Irish Church did not exceed £160,000 per annum; they now amount to no less than £791,726, in round nnmbei-s £800,000. While this enor- mous increase has taken place has there been a corresponding increase in the number of conversions to the Protestant faith, or has the activity, zeal, and success of the clergy been such as to wari-ant the continuance of this revenue?" In too many instances the conduct of the clergy had been the reverse of what it ought to have been. Not very long before, it was con- sidered an advantage to a clergyman to have few Protestants in his parish, because he thus had a fair excuse for neglecting his duty. Even up to a late period many of the established clergy considered themselves rather as mem- bers of a great political body than as set apart for the purpose of communicating religions instruction. What had been the consequence? In the county of Kilkenny in 1731 there were 1055 Protestants, in 1834 there were only 945 ; in Armagh at the same period the Pro- testants were to the Catholics as three to one, in 1834 they were only as one to three. In the county of Kerry the proportion of Catholics to Protestants was much greater. Lord John had come to the conclusion that the whole Protestant population of Ireland did not ex- ceed 750,000, and of those 400,000 were within the ecclesiastical province of Armagh. In nine dioceses the proportions were: — Mem- bers of the Established Church 166,492, Roman Catholics 1,732,452, Presbyterians 162,184, other Protestant Dissenters 6430, out of a total of 2,067,558. It was clear from statistics, that while in some parts of Ireland the members of the Estab- lished Chm-ch were sufficiently numerous to require a considerable number of beneficed clergymen, in other parts they foi-med so small a proportion that it could not be either neces- sary or right to maintain as large an estab- lishment as in other pai-ts of the country. Nothing could set this in a clearer light than the following example, taken from the diocese of Ferns : — Parishes. Value. Bstab- Ushed Chiirch. Koman CathoUc Ta^hmon, Ballycormick,... Ballynitty, Dunleer, Drumcar, Monachebone, . . Moyleary, Cappog, Rutbdrmnuim,. . CaiTickbogget, . . Port UUard, Glaig Ossory, BaJroon £446— Glebe, £60 95 82 163-Glebe, 6 53 107 173— Glebe, 80 120 82- Glebe, 20 57 142— Glebe, 6 280— Glebe, 46 440 62 69 133 10 21 159 120 9 13 1 7 6 50 63 4 7 2920 601 390 1460 1628 737 1148 630 662 332 800 2213 4999 107 313 Numerous instances of the same kind could have been adduced, showing that of the £800,000 which formed the revenue of the Irish Church, a large portion was given to a very small portion of the people, while all the rest derived from it no benefit what- ever. "It is true," said Loi-d John, "that within the last twenty years greater attention has been paid to the spiritual wants of the members of the church in this respect. I believe the Church of Ireland now stands high. But it is not enough to buOd churches and glebe-houses in order to convert men from one persuasion to another. The occurrences of late years have very much diminished the probability of such conversions. In defiance of aU history and experience it was thought fit some years ago to call public meetings, ui order to make Protestants out of Catholics by controversy and dispute. The Catholic clergy, being thus provoked, advised actual resistance to payment to the clergy of the opposing church. I am far from deeming that resist- ance justifiable, and far less the encourage- ment that was given to it; but it did take place, and its very existence presented an additional obstacle to the gaining over of any great class of the Irish to the Church of Eng- land. That resistance has prevailed for several years ; it has become so inveterate that all the exertions of the clergy and of the government to enforce the collection of tithe has become unavailing. Thus the Establishment has not merely failed to diffuse spiritual and religious doctrine among the gi-eat mass of the populace, it has produced a system which continually brings the clergy into collision with the people — which has led to scenes of civil strife and 138 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. bloodshed, has brought about a state of things utterly irreconcilable with the true ends of all church establishment, and has now made it plain that those great and paramount objects will never be aided by limiting the spiritual instruction of the people of Ireland as it hitherto has been, and by applying the re- venues of the Irish Church to maintaining the doctrines of the Establishment, and to no other purpose whatever." " This being the case, there must be reform, and that reform should consist in adapting the Establishment to the wants of those who belong to it, and making no unnecessary additions. If the house adopts this principle it cannot do otherwise than greatly reduce the ecclesiastical establishment of Ireland. Whatever may remain after that reduction ought to be applied to some object by which the moral and religious instruction of the people of Ireland might be advanced. The use to which I propose to apply the surplus is general education, according to the system adopted by the National Board in Ireland, and according to which individuals of all persuasions can receive religious and moral instruction, and be brought up in harmony to- gether. No measure would tend so much to produce peace in Ireland. . . It has been the wish of parliament to improve that country by education. This was the object of the statute that introduced diocesan schools. Afterwards it was considered desirable to have a system of education which would not interfere with any man's religious faith. Since the establishment of the National Board of Education in Dublin, which was introduced by Lord Stanley, a better kind of education has been enjoyed, and moi-al and religious instruction has been conveyed generally to the people without interfering with the opinion or shocking the feelings of any sects. If, then, I can show that public advantage requires that some portion of the revenues of the Establishment should be applied to religious education and charity, how can my opponents maintain that they hold church property more sacred than I do? To say that it should be partly distributed and partly kept secret, partly interfered with for public objects and partly considered as private property, does seem to me to couple in one proposition the utmost absurdity with the utmost inefficiency. It is said that the land which pays the tithe belongs to the Protestants in the proportion of fifteen to one. I could understand that argument if an established church existed only for the rich ; but as it is intended for all classes of society, and especially for the benefit, instruction, and consolation of the poor, it is not enough to tell me that those who originally contributed to the revenue were Protestants, for I am bound to look on its effects on the whole of Ireland. Besides, whoever they may be on whom the charge of maintaining that church ultimately falls, it is notorious that it is now levied on Catholics, who derive no benefit from the Establishment. " I am charged with inconsistency in refer- ence to this question, because last year I objected to pass such a motion as this without inquiry. But it must be remembered that Sir E. Peel, without waiting for the report of the commissioners, has declared that he would in no case consent to the application of church property to any but ecclesiastical purposes. He has declared that the commission may go on, but that he shall care for its reports only as far as they may enable him to make a better distribution of church property among its members. If that is the case it is quite necessary that the house should come to some distinct resolution on the subject, and that it should not be going on night after night and week after week without knowing whether the ministers of the crown do or do not enjoy the confidence of the House of Commons on this great and important question." The debate was continued on the evenings of the 31st of March and the 1st and 2d of April, and one of the most important speeches was that of Sir James Graham, who said : — " Why is it that some members are so anxious to get at the small sum which may arise out of the proposed appropriation of the revenues of the Irish Church, and which will not, I believe, amount to more than £100,000 per annum? I believe it is the wish of many of those who support the present resolution to take these revenues, not because the state is SIE JAMES GRAHAM ON THE lEISH CHURCH. 139 poor, but because the church is rich ; not that the state may gain, but that the church may lose them. I believe in my conscience that if the appropriation is once allowed, in a very short time the Protestant religion will cease to be the established religion in Ireland, and ultimately England too. It was to avoid this very danger that the Irish legislature had stipulated, in the treaty of the Union, for the safety of the Irish Church. They made it an essential and fundamental article of the Union that the united Church of England and Ire- land should for ever be maintained. Such being the case, shall the Commons of England now, even before many of the parties to that compact have passed away, ungenerously with- draw from it that main and moving consi- deration which induced an independent legis- lature to enter into it? " Is this a course likely to add to the peace of Ireland? No. If peace is the object of this measure, its success is indeed hopeless. Peace has indeed been the promise which Ireland has made for important changes and concessions, but that promise has always been broken. Expectations and assurances of tran- quillity were held out to induce Britain to give way; while the real design, and the design now openly declared, was to proceed step by step till the Protestant church is annihilated. Mr. Shell, in his examination before the select committee of the House of Commons in 1824-25, said, ' I am convinced that it will not be in the power of any — no matter how great his influence might be, no matter how perverse his ambition might be — to draw large convocations of men together in Ireland ; nothing but the sense of individual injury produces these great and systematic gatherings, through the medium of which so much passion and so much inflammatory matter is conveyed through the country. ... I am perfectly convinced that neither upon tithes, nor the union, nor any other question could the people of Ireland be powerfully and permanently united.' Dr. Doyle declared, before the same committee, '1 conceive that the removal of the disqualifications under which Roman Catholics labour "would lessen considerably those feelings of opposition which they may at present entertain with regard to the Establishment; chiefly for this reason, — that whilst we labour under the disabiHties which now weigh on us, we find that the clergy of the Establishment, being very numerous and very opulent, employ their influence and opulence in various ways to oppose the pro- gress of our claims; and I do think that, if these claims were once adjusted, and the con- cessions that we desire granted, the country would settle down into a habit of quiet, and that we should no longer feel the jealousy against the clergy that we now feel, because that jealousy which we do feel arises chiefly from the unrelaxed efforts which they have almost universally made to oppose our claims; we should view them then, if these claims were granted, as brethren labouring in the same vineyard as ourselves.' Every one of these hopes has been falsified, every one of these promises has been forgotten, and in their place has come triumphant exultation over the approaching downfall of the Protes- tant Church. What better witness can there be to the designs of the Catholics than Mr. O'Connell, of whom Lord J. RusseU is now the accredited agent? No further back than October, 1834, Mr. O'Connell spoke out in a published letter addressed to Mr. Crawford, and discussing the proceedings regarding tithes in the last session of parliament. He there said, 'It is quite true that I demanded for the present but a partial reduction — it was three-flfths — of the tithes. Why did I ask for no more? Why did I not demand the abolition of the entire? Because I had no chance in the first instance of getting the entire abolished. And you perceive that I was refused the extent that I asked, being three-fifths, and only got from the House of Commons two-fifths. I had therefore not the least prospect or probability of destroying the entire ; and because I am one of those who are and have been always ready to accept any instalment, however small, of the debt of justice due to the people — the real national debt — I have been and am ready to accept any instalment of that debt, determined to go on and look for the remainder as soon a.s the first instalment shall be completely realized. 140 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. It is totally untrue that I acquiesced in the perpetual continuance of the remaining three- fifths of the tithes.' Nor did he leave them in the dark as to the appropriation of church property ; for in another letter, in September, 1834, he says: — 'My plan is to apply that fund to the various counties of Ireland, to relieve the occupiers of land from the grand- jury cess. , . . My plan is to defray all the expenses of dispensaries, infirmaries, hospitals, and asylums, and to multiply the number of those institutions until they become quite sufficient for the wants of the sick' — that is to say, that church property is to be granted to the landlords of Ireland to enable them to do that which, without confiscation, they are bound to do by the law of humanity, if not by the law of the land — namely, to provide for the relief of their poorer brethren. " I press on all those who lay claim to the name of sincere and genuine Whigs, to oppose this mischievous and disastrous resolution. Whig principles consist not in death's-heads- and - crossbones denunciations of those who venture to exercise their religious principles according to their consciences, nor in prayers for mercy limited to them in heaven, but not to extend to them on this side of the grave. Whig principles consist not more in love of civil liberty than in jealousy of the Catholic religion as an engine of political power, when it arrogates to itself a right to ascendency and claims to put other religions under its feet; above all, I consider genuine Whig principles to consist in a warm attach- ment to the Protestant religion as by law established. I have on this question a strong religious feeling. It is a vital question, on which no further compromise can be made. I have carried compromise on it as far as principle wiU allow; but further I cannot go. The property which was set apart by our ancestors to maintain and propagate the Pro- testant religion is sacred, and ought to be applied to sacred uses. They who minister at the altar ought to live of the altar. That principle is high as heaven, and you cannot reach it; strong as the Almighty, and you cannot overturn it ; fixed as the Eternal, and you cannot unfix it. It is binding on yoii as a legislature of Christian men acting on Chris- tian principles, and no consideration on earth will induce me to compromise or destroy it." Interesting, or at all events illustrative, as these leading speeches may be, they have by this time ceased to have such real significance as that delivered by the young statesman who had been promoted by Sir Eobert Peel to the office of under-secretary to the colonies. Mr. Gladstone's fervid opposition to the motion of Lord John Eussell is important indeed when read by the light of comparatively recent events. Nor is the part which he has taken in the disendowment of the Established Church in Ireland less significant when the details of the scheme are compared with the demands of O'Connell and the more advanced reformers in 1835. We shall have occasion hereafter to refer to Mr. Gladstone's own explanations of the complete change of view which he found it necessary to avow under the altered con- ditions of later years, and we shall then see that he had not spoken without deep feeling nor without serious consideration when he stood up to defend, as he believed, " the exist- ence of church establishments." And it must be remembered that the young member for Newark had already made a high reputation not only as an orator and a debater, but as a thoughtful and able writer on political sub- jects of wide and immediate interest. Southey had two years before wrote of the great ex- pectations which were entertained of " young Gladstone, the member for Newark, said to be the ablest person that Oxford has sent forth for many years, since Peel or Canning,'' and had expressed a hope "that the young man might not disappoint his friends." That those expectations were not for a long time disappointed in the sense intended by Southey is pretty certain, for the "young man" quickly rose to an eminent position, and was able to strengthen the hands of his gov- ernment in several debates in which he took a part. To his earlier eflforts on the question of the condition of the slaves in the West Indies we shall have immediately to refer; but in the sessions between that time and the discussion on the Irish tithe he had repeatedly spoken GLADSTONE ON IRISH CHURCH PROPERTY. 141 in the house and had been sedulous in his at- tendance. On the question of the inquiry into alleged bribery and corruption in the Liver- pool elections, while admitting the probability of some corrupt dealings, he had appealed to the house not "to immolate on insufficient pretexts the rights of the freemen" nor "to offer so poor a morsel to appease the hunger of reform;" and on the inquiry issuing in a bill disfranchising a section of the electors he had again addressed the house. He had also opposed Mr. Hume's Universities' Admission Bill, which abolished the demand upon stu- dents entering the University of Oxford to subscribe to the thirty-nine articles; and he had taken part in the debate on the Irish Church Temporalities Bill of 1833. Through- out this period he was entirely consistent in his support of the party to which he professed allegiance, and there must have been an ele- ment of well-recognized force in " this young man of unblemished character and of distin- guished parliamentary talents," or Lord Macau- lay would scarcely have spoken of him with so much emphasis, and perhaps bitterness, as "the rising hope of those stern and un- bending Tories who follow reluctantly and mutinously a leader whose experience and eloquence are indispensable to them, but whose cautious temper and moderate opinion they abhor." The great Whig essayist wrote this in 1839, d propos of Mr. Gladstone's pamphlet. The State in its Relations with the Church, in which the author sought to estab- lish that government ought expressly to pro- vide for the teaching of the true religion, and which he dedicated to that "fountain of blessings, spiritual, social, and intellectual," the University of Oxford ; but it was no fair representation of Mr. Gladstone's relation to his leader, as subsequent events seem to have shown pretty clearly. The occasion on which Macaulay made use of this kind of criticism we shall, as we have said, allude to in its place ; for the present the whole reference will be better understood by returning to the debate from which we have wandered, and noting the chief points of what the member for Newark had to say on the subject of Lord Russell's proposal : — "The noble lord and those who have spoken on the same side of the question have proceeded on totally unproved assump- tions — they have gone on the gratuitous and unsustained supposition that there exists a surplus revenue over and above what is necessary for the due maintenance of the church in Ireland. I think church property as sacred as private property; but I should say, that the former was sacred in persons and the latter to purposes. At the time of the Reformation the legislature, composed of the representatives of the country, having changed the established religion, changed to the same extent the appropriation of church property. If Protestants should ever again be in a minority in this house, I, for one, avow my conviction that a return to the ancient appropriation would be the fair and legitimate consequence ; but until that is the case I shall raise my humble voice as a Pro- testant against the principle involved in the motion before the house. The great griev- ance complained of in Ireland is, that the Protestant Establishment there is paid for by the Roman Catholic inhabitants. Now is such in reality the case? Are tithes paid for that purpose? or are not tithes rather a part of the surplus proiit of the land which goes not to the cultivator of the land but to its owner? Tithe is paid by the landlord, and the grievance complained of exists rather in theory than in reality. But if there are evils arising out of this question of tithes, is not the present government prepared to re- dress them ? Has not the government a Tithe BiU before the house, the object of which is to place the payment of tithes where it ought to be, on the landlords? The prin- cipal argument of Lord J. Russell is, that the Irish Church property is not duly applied, and does not answer the purposes for which it was originally intended. WeU, admitting that, and granting also that there are general abuses and neglects in the administration of the Church of Ireland, I may fairly ask, has not the same general vice prevailed also, and to a like extent, in its political govern- ment? The present motion opens a boundless road ; it will lead to measure after measUS-e, 142 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOBAEIBS. to expedient after expedient, till we come to the recognition of the Roman Catholic religion as the nutional one. In principle you propose to give up the Protestant Establishment ; if so, why not abandon the political government of Ireland, and concede the repeal of the legis- lative union? I come next to the question of a surplus church revenue in Ireland. When the supposition of the existence of a surplus causes a convulsion in this house and throughout the country, the noble lord ought to have waited till he could prove by official documents the existence of such a surplus. The number of benefices in Ireland is 1450 ; and according to the returns, the average in- come of each is ^275. Is that too much? The noble lord who brought forward this motion calculated the number of persons be- longing to the Established Church in Ireland at 750,000, I believe that they amount to upwards of a million, or at least to a million. If I am wrong in my calculation the fault rests with the noble lord, who has brought the subject under discussion before we have re- ceived fuU information on it. Allowing that there are a million of Protestants in Ireland, each of its 1450 rectors would have a flock of 700 souls in a country where the population is scattered over a wide extent. Is that num- ber too small to occupy the attention of a clergyman? If the people of Ireland were all Protestants, the present Establishment in that country would be totally and ludicrously dis- proportionate to their wants. I submit that there is no surplus, as far as the House of Commons can be aware, of the available revenues of the Church of Ireland. Mr. Senior, a gentleman intimately connected with some of those who are are most favour- able to the Irish Church commission, has declared in a pamphlet on this very important subject, that there is reason to believe that the report of the commissioners will show that there is a considerable Protestant popu- lation in most parts of Ireland, and that if the church is to be suppressed only in those districts where it is now needless, the propor- tion of parishes in which it is got rid ofi' will not be large. The proposition, therefore, to which the house is invited to assent is alike impracticable and unjustifiable; impractic- able, because the moral means of maintaining the state of things it proposes to create will be lost; unjustifiable, because there is no principle on which the Protestant Church can be permanently upheld, but that it is the church that teaches the truth. The system we are now called on to agree to, involves the existence of church establishments. I hope I shall never live to see the day when such a system shall be adopted in this country ; for the consequences of it to public men will be lamentable beyond all description. If those individuals who are called on to fill the high functions of administering public aflfairs should be compelled to exclude from their considera- tion the elements of true religion, and to view various strange and conflicting doctrines in the same light, instead of administering those noble functions, they will become helots and Lord Stanley followed with a speech which justified the former remarks of Lord John Eussell, when it was said of him, "Johnny has upset the coach.'' He said: — "When the House is called on to adopt the present position as the only means of pacifying Ireland, it behoves them to remember what has been the result of the concessions al- ready made, and to consider how far tjjis additional concession is likely to produce unanimity and cordiality. Mr. Littleton has candidly admitted that he cares little for the resolution; that he looks to the great and vital disease, which, according to him, can only be removed by cutting out the afi^cted part. Is the house prepared to admit the principle involved in that argument, and to expose themselves to all the successive assaults which they will have to sustain from the well- marshalled phalanx which I see arrayed on the opposite benches? I congratulate the member for Dublin (O'Connell) on the posi- tion he now occupies as compared with that which he filled last year. Oh, how proud is the triumph enjoyed by one of the parties at the opposite side of the house, and how bitter the submission of the other ! In my opinion it matters little whether the amount of the revenue of the Irish Church is .£400,000 or SIR EOBEET PEEL'S PEOTEST. 14o ^800,000; thongli I firmly believe that on inquiry it wiLL be found not to exceed ^00,000. The whole sum available for the parochial clergy would not, I am assured, if fairly divided amongst them, exceed an average of £200 per annum to each. And yet, with no prospect of a higher revenue to the members of the clerical body in Ireland, the House of Commons is gravely called on to appropriate the amount that may be left." Sir Eobert Peel spoke with a kind of sad dignity. He probably saw that the result of the motion would be the necessary re- signation of the ministry. "If the house," said he, " is clearly of opinion that the pub- lic interest requires the abandonment of a national compact, the violation of a long prescription, and the abrogation of the laws affecting property, I am not disposed to deny the abstract absolute right of the legislature to do aU these things; but I maintain that before doing so, it musx be convinced by arguments approaching to de- monstration of the absolute necessity of the case. Three measures have expressly con- firmed the property of the church. The Act of Union dififered from any ordinary law in this : that it was a national compact, and contained the conditions on which alone the Protestant parliament of Ireland resigned itself and its church to us, inserting as part of the compact, of equal force with the com- pact itself, that ' the continuance and preser- vation of the Established Church in Ireland shall be deemed and taken to be an essential and fundamental part of the union.' The Emancipation Act of 1829 likewise partook of the nature of a compact. If it is irrevoc- able as regards the privileges it conferred on the Catholics, it is equally so, unless some urgent necessity should arise to compel a change, with respect to the assurances that it gave to Protestants. They were led to believe that no privilege which it conferred on the Catholics would be exercised to disturb or weaken the Protestant religion or govern- ment ; that the removal of the civil disabilities would give new securities to the Church of Ireland ; but they little thought that within five years from the passing of that act the power which it conferred would be exercised to subvert the church establishment as far as regarded the property of the church. Two years ago we passed the Temporalities Act, by which ten bishoprics were abolished ; and measures were adopted, in my opinion wisely, to cut oflf a certain number of superfluous livings, and to apply their revenues to the improvement of small livings. Some of those who devised that act contended that according to one of its clauses part of the fund obtained might be applied to secular purposes ; but the subsequent abandonment of that clause, and the whole tenor of the act, showed that the principle of reserving ecclesiastical property for strictly ecclesiastical purposes was rigidly adhered to. Two years only have elapsed since the date of that act; and now, notwith- standing the Act of Union — notwithstanding the removal of civU disabilities of the Catholics — notwithstanding the reform of the Irish Church and the extinction of ten bishoprics — we are told that this resolution must be adopted as the indication of a new system, and as the commencement of a new era. " The mover of this resolution says that the whole annual revenue of the Irish Church is £791,000. I assert as positively that it has not £450,000. Now I ask the House of Commons whether it is just or wise to come to a decision with regard to the disposal of a surplus when so great a difference of opinion prevails as to the sum itself. You have a right to insist on the noble lord's producing a practical plan; that is the only way to prevent the exciting of extravagant hopes and sub- sequent disappointment. The noble lord's proposition will not give satisfaction to any party — not to the people of this country, not to the Protestants of Ireland, not to the Eoman Catholics. " It has been argued that the Irish Church has failed to efiect the ends for which it is established — that there are not more than 1,000,000 Protestants to 7,000,000 Catholics, and that Protestantism is not on the increase. I maintain that hitherto causes have been in operation to impede the growth of Protestant- ism: civil disabilities which enlisted men's pride on the side of Catholicism, abuses in 144 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. the church, superfluous wealth which created a prejudice against the Irish Church. Those causes, which formerly prevented the spread of Protestantism, have been removed; what right, then, have we to legislate on the as- sumption of a proposed surplus? "The best proof that the resolution points at no determinable or practical course is its own vagueness, and the consequent diversity of principles among those whom it has been framed to enfold; some professing at least that they must still maintain the church; others that the church is an atrocity ; others that it is a nuisance, because all establish- ments are bad; others that the Catholic clergy should be maintained by the state as well as the Protestant. Yet you call this a final settlement of the question. This resolution may have the advantage of enabling you to act together to-night, but you act on difierent principles and with different views. You are all aware that this is no final settlement; that it is only an instalment of that whole amount which is held in contemplation ; that it is only an indication of the course you intend to pursue. -Because you yourselves have taken a position that is untenable, you wish me to take it in common with you ; but I will not consent to appropriate this property, which is ecclesiastical and connected with the Protestant Establishment, to other purposes than those of the Establishment. I will not assent to your resolution for the sake of Ire- land, because I know that it will excite in that unhappy and susceptible country false hopes — hopes which you cannot realize, and yet hopes that you will shrink from dis- appointing. I tell you beforehand I will not act on your resolution. I shall oppose the motion for going into committee; in committee I shall oppose the resolution; and lastly, I shall oppose with all my strength the com- munication of that resolution to his majesty. I wiU do so because it wears all the appear- ance of a, purpose to pass by the House of Lords. Why have not the movers of this resolution brought in a bill? Are they un- certain of their plan? Are they ashamed of presenting in the ordinary course the result of their calm, solemn, and mature delibera- tion ? Do you consider it right to ask for a resolution of this nature under the unfair and dishonest pretence of making a communica- tion to the crown, which might have been done in a modest manner without any parade or the excitement of the least commotion ] If you think it right that a bill should be brought in on the subject I will afford every facility. You may succeed in forcing your resolution upon us. It may enable you to embarrass the future progress of the administration. But I tell you, notwithstanding your vaunted majorities here, you do not control public opinion. We may be weak here ; but this I tell you, that there is a public opinion alto- gether independent of majorities, and which is not controlled by votes, but which must always hereafter be an essential element in every executive government. I was never more confident of anything than that the people will not sanction a motion to embarrass the government. They would sanction you in attempting a vote of want of confidence; that would be a usual course of proceeding. Why have you not the manliness to propose it? Why do you not say at once that you want to turn out the government by the in- troduction of this measure? Why, then, do you not displace us, and then carry on the measure triumphantly? I feel that I cannot undertake to force your resolution, I shall adhere to the principles of my own measure. I feel that such is the necessity for the settle- ment of the tithe question that it will admit of no further delay. I shall press it forward ; and if your determination to throw unusual impediments in the way of the government be plainly indicated, if you determine to obstruct it in principle and detail, I shall then see that it is not possible for me, con- sistently with my sense of duty, to remain in the situation that I have at present the honour to hold." The debate concluded with a brief reply from Lord John Eussell, and on a division the votes were : — For the resolution, 322 Against, 289 Majority in favour of the resolution, 3S LOED GLENELG. 145 This division took place at three o'clock on the morning of the 3d of April, and Sir R Peel then proposed that the resolution should be considered in committee on the Monday following; but the victorious opposition re- fused even this concession, and the debate was renewed the same evening, with a num- ber of resolutions and discussions which ultimately compelled Sir Eobert at once to resign office, his colleagues of course doing the same. The position was critical and difficult, and his speech on this occasion was a remarkable one. He said that he with- drew with reluctance because he felt that, with the confidence of the sovereign and a considerable and morally and intellectually powerful section of the people, he had it in his power to settle certain serious questions which were now once more left to float with the stream. After giving his reasons for holding on when first challenged to resign, and his reasons for withdrawing now, he con- cluded in these words, "The whole of my political life has been spent in the House of Commons — the remainder of it will be spent in the House of Commons, and whatever may be the conflicts of parties, I for one shall always wish, whether in a majority or in a minority, to stand well with the House of Commons. Under no circumstances what- ever, under the pressure of no difficulties, under the influence of no temptation, wUl I ever advise the crown to resign that great source of moral strength which consists in a strict adherence to the practice, to the prin- ciples, to the spirit, to the letter, of the con- stitution. I am confident that in that adher- ence wiU be found the surest safeguard against any impending or eventual danger, and it is because I entertain that conviction that I, in conformity with the opinions of my colleagues, consider that a government ought not to per- sist in carrying on public afiairs after the sense of the house has been fully and deliberately expressed, in opposition to the opinion of a majority of the House of Commons. It is because I have that conviction deeply rooted in my mind, and regretting, as I most deeply do regret, the necessity which has compelled me to abandon his majesty's service at the VOL. I. present moment, that, upon the balance of public considerations I feel that the course which I have now taken is more likely to sus- tain the character of public men, and to pro- mote the permanent interests of the country, than if I had longer persevered in what I believe would have proved a fruitless attempt to conduct, as a minister, the king's service in defiance of that opposition which has hitherto obstructed the satisfactory progress of public business.'' The king was now once more in a difficulty. He endeavom-ed to induce Earl Grey to return to public life ; but the veteran reformer knew a better thing, and advised his majesty to recall Melbourne. This he was in fact com- pelled to do. Only one condition he imposed, that Lord Brougham should not again take the great seal. It was an unpleasant thing to anger Brougham, and he was likely to prove a dangerous enemy ; but his former colleagues preferred any risk to that of having him among them. And now occurred a striking instance of the force of brains. Lord Lyndhurst of course would not do, being a high Tory. But who was there that could be named in the same day with Brougham — Lyndhurst being supposed out of the way? Not a lawyer in the kingdom; so the great seal was put in commission, the holders of the commission being Sir Charles Pepys, Sir Lancelot Shad- well, and Mr. Justice Bosanquet. Of course, however, all these three good lawyers together did not make up for Brougham or Lyndhurst — so transcendent a thing is power of brain when it reaches exaltation point. We might, in passing, push this a step farther, by reflect- ing how mean a figure Brougham, Lyndhurst, and Campbell together would make as a wool- sack commission vice Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam. In the new ministry the places were, in other respects, filled up pretty much as before Lord Dm-ham was sent to Russia as ambas- sador. Earl Mulgrave, now Marquis of Nor- mandy, was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with Lord Morpeth for secretary. Mr. Charles Grant, the colonial secretary, was sent to the upper house as Lord Glenelg. In passing we may mention two very incongruous things 10 146 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEABIES. about this nobleman. His impassivity and indolence was a frequent subject for tbe pencil of IB, who would represent him lying asleep on a sofa, one tickling his nose, another pinch- ing his legs, another shouting in his ear, and so forth ; but no one being able to wake him. The other fact is that he is the author of the beautiful hymn — " When gathering clouds around I view," which is known all over the world, and ap- pears in nearly every selection of sacred pieces. The Irish Church Bill was not destined to succeed though the Whigs had returned to power, for it was so persistently opposed by the House of Lords that it had to be aban- doned by the Melbourne ministry. But if the affairs of Ireland were still to be left unameliorated, and the factious opposition of Eepealers on the one hand and supporters of ecclesiastical domination on the other, were potent to delay any measure adequate to re- dress wrongs or to suppress outrages in that unfortunate country, there was another great question which had already been dealt with more successfully. For years the advocates of negro emancipation had been waiting for the legislature to take another step in the abolition of slavery. For though the British slave trade had been abolished mainly through the strenu- ous advocacy of Clarkson, Wilberforce, Zach- ary Macaulay, Stephens, and Eomilly, slavery stUl existed in the British colonies, and in many places remained under conditions of such horrible inhumanity that the hearts of good men were fired with a determination never to let the matter rest till this foul blot had been erased from the national escutcheon. In 1831 the number of human beings held in slavery by powers calling themselves Chris- tian nations was estimated to be 5,225,000 — namely, 2,000,000 in Brazil, 1,650,000 in the United States, 500,000 in Cuba and Porto- Eioo, 200,000 in the French colonies, 75,000 in other foreign colonies, and 800,000 in British colonies, principally represented by the West Indies, where the negroes were engaged on the sugar and coffee plantations. Sir Thomas FoweU Buxton, a partner of the great brewing firm and member for Wey- mouth, had succeeded Wilberforce as the advocate of emancipation, and in 1823 had moved in the House of Commons that slavery was repugnant to the principles of the British constitution and to Christianity. He was a Dissenter, and a man of known piety and strong determination, while his tall figure and handsome presence gave him a distinction which was recognized at every meeting which he attended. The time had come when his constant earnestness on behalf of negro eman- cipation was to be crowned with success ; but the people themselves had already demanded that the government should deal with the question, and among the banners of the Liberal candidates at the elections the most conspicuous if not the most numerous were those on which appeared the figure of a man- acled negro, beneath which was inscribed, "Am I not a man and a brother?" Doubtless the treatment of the West Indian negroes differed very considerably on various plantations, and there were planters and slave- owners who had a humane regard for their human "chattels," and neither ill-used them nor subjected them to barbarous punish- ments ; but on the other hand it could not be denied that the old system of slavery survived in frequent cruelties and in unremitting toil. At anyrate the conditions of slavery gave the sufferers no redress. The negro had no rights, nor was he permitted to have property. He was forbidden to accumulate more than ^25, and he could exercise none of the privileges which are claimed by humanity except by the consent of his owner. The possibilities of extreme severity were often made certainties, and in the case of the hands on sugar planta- tions much of the evidence taken before the committee of the House of Commons was of a kind which justly aroused both the pity and the indignation of the advocates of freedom. The following may not have represented any- thing like the majority of cases, but they were obviously not improbable nor highly exagger- ated statements of the conditions of the un- fortunate men and women on some of the estates in Jamaica. The first is from the examination of Mr. William Taylor, who was SUf FEEINGS OF THE JAMAICA NEGROES. 147 for thirteen years a resident in Jamaica in a commercial capacity, and as a manager of estates: — " Q. Do you think that an essential improve- ment is consistent with a state of slavery? "A. I think no essential amelioration can consist with slavery. "Q. WUl you describe what you mean by amelioration? "A. For instance, the absence of the whip. I do not see that they can uphold slavery without physical coercion — without corporeal punishment; some motive must be brought to bear on men's minds; where there is no motive you must apply the whip; if you with- draw that an instant, relaxation takes place of the whole system, and I do not think that, under any ameliorated slavery, they can be kept together. I think a certain degree of it may be called cruel punishment. Corporeal punishment is necessary to keeping them to- gether, and to keep them in active operation. I do not think that the work of the estate can be carried on without flogging, and flogging considerably sometimes.'' The following is from the examination of Mr. James Beckford Wildman, a planter and proprietor of 640 slaves : — " Q. Did you work the boiling-house in one or two spells on your estate? "A. The system on one of my estates when I went was a very dreadful one, as I con- sidered, and of which my attorney, although he had been in the island all his life, was ignorant; for when I told him the negroes worked what is called the long spell — that is, in fact, four-and-twenty hours — ^he denied it, and said it was not so ; and it was not until I called up the people, and asked them the question, that he acknowledged it. "Q. Explain to the committee what the long spell is. "A. In the long spell the negro goes on at twelve o'clock in the day ; he then continues the whole four-and-twenty hours in work ; he is then relieved, at shell-blow, for two hours, and he works again from that time till dark, so that it is thirty hours' labour with the intermission of two hours; then at daylight he turns out again. The way in which they meet that is — they say, 'Oh, but where twelve people are wanted, we put on twenty-four, so that twelve are always at rest;' and that is the fact in one way, because those women who are attending the miU are squirted all over with the cane-juice, and are wet through. "Q. You are speaking of what yourself knew? "A. Yes, and what I saw day after day, and night after night. " Q. If any witness should have stated that those who fed the mill are not wetted with the juice of the sugar-cane that spurts out, that is not correct? "A. No, it is not; I defy any one to feed the miU without being squirted all over with juice. I have done it myself ; I have grown canes as thick as my arm ; that cane is put in between two large rollers of sixteen to eighteen inches diameter; the roUer is so close you scarcely can see through it; the cane is, with a little impetus, thrust between the roUer, and that catches hold of it and draws it in; and when the cane is rank and in good order it is so full of juice there is almost a little fountain playing on the people; they are perfectly wet through, they have nothing on but their little Osnaburgh frock, and their lower clothes; then if they lie down in that state on the miU bed, which at low ground is raised very high, of course they are before a small fire, exposed to so piercing a draught of cold, that although I myself was clothed warmly as Europeans are, and had a Scotch plaid, which I bound round my face, I could not stand it. "Q. The crop time is generally in the coldest part of the year in that country? "A. The miU is generally put about in Feb- ruary, and from February it varies, according to the climate, for three, four, or six months; on some estates it is crop time nearly the year round. " Q. Those who feed the mill through Feb- ruary and March are subject to suffer ex- tremely from cold ? "A. I consider that as one great reason of the destruction of life. The negro comes out of the field, after working aU day under a tropical sun, and comes in to take the night spell, gets wet through in feeding the mO, 148 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. and lies down on the mill floor to sleep two or three hours under the cutting wind: I con- sider that to be one great reason for the de- struction of life on sugar estates. " Q. Did the long spell exist on your estate 1 "A. On one out of the three. " Q. What may be gained in produce, is in your opinion lost in the life of the slave 1 "A. Over and over again. "Q. What are the punishments in use in the island of Jamaica now ? "A. They are very cruel ones. "Q. Will you state what they are? "A. The general system of flogging is to give them a certain number of stripes with a long whip, which inflicts a dreadful laceration, or a dreadful contusion; and then they follow up that by a very severe flogging with ebony switches, the ebony being a very strong wiry plant, with small leaves like a myrtle leaf, and under every leaf a sharp tough thorn: and then after that they rub them with brine." Of course it may be now, as it was then, ar- gued that such punishments were only inflicted for very serious oflfences, and it is not necessary to regard the rubbing with brine as an inten- tional addition to the sufferings of the unfor- tunate wretches who had to endure it, but as a barbarous means of preventing dreadful and probably fatal results from wounds or abrasions in such a climate; but the whole ad- mission is sickening, and the excuse even for quoting it may be that it wiU serve to show not only the evils of the slavery which was suffered to exist even after the abolition of the trade in negroes, but also the vast space over which the progress of the last half-century has carried us, when we consider that human beings could be so tortured for comparatively small faults, and that the punishments were inflicted without a trial before any legal tribunal and without the right of appeal to any constituted authority. The Quakers, who were among the most pronounced advocates of freedom for the negro, had long recognized the incompatibility of slavery with Christianity and had emancipated their slaves as early as 1787, after which it was declared that there was not a single slave in the possession of any member of the Society of Friends, who were, however, subject to per- secution for their endeavours to instruct their black labourers. "It is curious," says the- Morning Chronicle of that time, "that the Quakers, so far from seeking compensation for the loss of their slaves, actually gave compen- sation to the slaves for the injury which had been done them by holding them in slavery. They calculated what would have been due to- the slaves as wages, over and above food and clothing, from the commencement of their slavery, and paid the debt, thus clearing their conscience, as far aa they could, of this deep- offence." The Quakers were therefore naturally advo- cates of the immediate and entire "abolition," demanded by Buxton and other earnest advo- cates who represented perhaps the wider pop- ular feeling. But the government was not prepared to recommend such a sudden emanci- pation. The opinions of Mr. Gladstone were to a great extent shared by his older contempor- aries, and many of those members of the Whig government who were disposed to grant com- plete freedom to the slave, hesitated to restore- him to absolute liberty until he had been in a measure prepared for it by an interval which h e would pass in a transitional "apprenticeship." They feared, and not unreasonably, that the- sudden emancipation of a large number of un- educated slaves would lead to excesses which it might be exceedingly difiicult, if not impos- sible to control, without worse consequences- than could ensue from the exercise of certain restraints which would not press hardly, but would interpose for a time between actual slavery and free labour. Among the noblest achievements of the first. reform ministry must surely be reckoned the abolition of West Indian slavery ; for, so far as- form goes, the abolition was complete. From time to time, under the pressure of opinion in and out of parliament, orders in council had been passed having for their object the mitiga- tion of the evils of slavery as a system and the personal sufferings of the slaves. These, how- ever well intended, had all the usual conse- quences of half-measures. The slave's master was irritated, and took such vengeance as he could; the slave himself, awakened to the idea ANTI-SLAVEEY MEETINGS. 149 that he had rights which were withheld from him in the gross, objected to receiving them bit by bit in this way. Not that they under- stood the difference between an amelioration of their lot by order in council in England and an amelioration by act of parliament in England ; but that they laid the blame upon the West Indian authorities when they did not get all they wanted. In fact, the discon- tent was general. The planters muttered, and more than muttered, some ugly things about withholding the payment of taxes to the im- perial government; the negroes of Jamaica rose in insurrection. This was in the latter part of the year 1831. At home, of course, the West Indian interest had powerful repre- sentatives, and these demanded compensation from the government for the losses they had sustained. On the other hand, the friends of emancipation took this opportunity of calling in louder tones than ever for the total aboli- tion of slavery. The religious public in Great Britain were very much excited upon this question; other Nonconforming bodies besides the Quakers being especially active in their labours. Lord Brougham presented a petition signed by about 140,000 of the inhabitants of London; the signatures being as a rule not only bond fide, but of a very diflferent charac- ter in other respects from those too often at- tached to petitions for merely political objects. The petitioners in this case asked nothing for themselves ; they were moved by compassion, indignation, and the sense of what was due to the divine law. Mr. Thomas Fowell Buxton, taking his share of the work in the Lower House, moved for the appointment of a select committee to consider the best and most ex- peditious means of fulfilling the prayer of the petition, which was of course the abolition of West Indian slavery. This was opposed by Lord Althorp, and the motion was lost by a large majority; but victory was now certain, and was not long delayed. Of course Lord Brougham could not (and indeed he did not) neglect his shax'e of the labour, for he had been largely indebted to abolitionist votes for his return for Yorkshire. The movement which, after a long struggle, resulted in the abolition of slavery in the Bri- tish colonies, was in its later stages entirely religious. Other than religious men had joined in it, for example, Pitt and Fox, and many religious men had opposed its progress; but at last the influence of the Quakers and " the Clapham sect," as the whole Macaulay group were called, stamped it with an essentially religious character, which it never lost tiU the goal was reached. Sir George Stephen, son of George Stephen and brother of the abler and more celebrated Sir James (of the colonial office), maintained that till the enemies of slavery had succeeded in stamping upon the movement the idea that it was above all things an effi)rt to get the will of God done, it never assumed the form and dimensions which assured its speedy triumph. Those were the days in which the great missionary and edu- cational societies began to "loom large'' in the public eye. Exeter Hall and Freemasons' Hall were the great resorts of such associa- tions, and "the May meetings'' were most imposing. The number of hours to which a missionary or anti-slavery meeting would ex- tend its sittings would, in our own busier and more impatient day be voted appalling; but it was a regular thing then for respectable people, bound for such assemblies, to take refreshments with them; partly because a meeting convened for eleven o'clock might go on till three, partly because it was often im- possible to get out for a time, the place was so crowded. How much needle-work and fancy work was done by enthusiastic ladies in those five or six hours' meetings will never be known; but to look down from the gallery upon the busy fingers at work below was dazzling to the eye. Of the enthusiasm that sometimes woke up suddenly at such places it would be difficult to give an idea ; but per- haps a few sentences from an account given by Sir George Stephen of a meeting at which Wilberforce and Buxton in vain endeavoured to impose "moderate views" upon the excited assembly may be not unwelcome. No man knew more the inner and outer life of the movement than Sir George Stephen, and as a contemporary record his account has much value, besides being graphic and straight- forward. An important impulse had been 150 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOKAEIES. given to the anti-slavery agitation by a great meeting held in Freemasons' Hall. It was a magnificent spectacle," writes Sir George Stephen. "Well do I remember saying to those around me, what I then sincerely felt, 'To-day the slave is free !' And all appeared to share the same feeling ; but, alas, the very demon of procrastination seemed to have pos- sessed our leaders ! A string of resolutions was proposed by Buxton, admirably worded, admirably indignant, but admirably prudent. They wound up with an unalterable deter- mination to leave no proper and practicable means unattempted for eflfecting at the earliest period the entire abolition of slavery through- out the British dominions. They were carried, and others to the like effect; but it was too much for the patience of young anti-slavery England. Mr. PownaU, a member of the Anti-slavery Committee, was in the side gal- lery. Careless of the prudish decorum that had hitherto marked all our meetings, and in defiance of frowns and remonstrances and cries of order, Mr. PownaU would be heard, and was heard. He moved an amendment in a few pithy words, deprecating indecision and delay. 'That from and after the first of January, 1830, every slave born within the king's dominions shall be free.' It was a spark to the mine. The shouts, the tumult of applause, were such as I never heard before, and never shall hear again. Cheers innumer- able thundered from every bench, hats and handkerchiefs were waved in every hand. Buxton deprecated. Brougham interposed, WUberforce waved his hand for silence, but all was pantomime and dumb-show. I did my best in a little knot of some half-dozen yoxing men to resist all attempt at suppres- sion. We would allow no silence and no ap- peals. At the first subsidence of the tempest we began again, resei-ving our lungs till others were tired. We soon became the fuglemen of the mighty host ; nor did we rest or allow others to rest till Wilberforce rose to put the amendment, which was carried with a burst of exulting triumph that would have made the Falls of Niagara inaudible at equal dis- tance." To this interesting account of a kind of scene which in those "high and palmy days" of religious and philanthropic meetings was not at all singular, it need hardly be added that the "resolution" did not carry all before it, for it was not till four years after- wards that the slave was formally declared free. It was during the debate on the ministerial proposition for emancipation of the slaves in the West India Islands, which was brought forward on the 14th of May, 1833, that Lord Howick, ex-under-secretary for the colonies, for the purpose of showing that a great de- struction of human life had taken place in the West Indies, owing to the manner in which the slaves are worked, referred in illustration to an estate in Demerara of which the elder Mr. Gladstone was the owner. This reference, which was little short of an accusation, gave the rising young statesman an opportunity for an eloquent refutation, and furnished him with real motive power for what was in effect his maiden speech in parliament. This occurred on the 17th of May, on the occasion of the presentation of a petition from Portar- lington for the abolition of slavery. He chal- lenged the noble lord's statement respecting the decrease of seventy-one slaves upon the estate of Vreeden Hoop, which had been attributed to the increased cultivation of sugar. The real cause of the decrease lay in the very large proportion of Africans upon the estate. When it came into his father's posses- sion it was so weak, owing to the great num- ber of Africans upon it, that he was obliged to add two hundred people to the gang. It was notorious that Africans were imported into Demerara and Trinidad up to a. later period than into any other colony; and he should, when the proper time arrived, be able to prove that the decrease on Vreeden Hoop was among the old Africans, and that there was an increase going on in the Creole population, which would be a sufficient answer to the statement of the noble lord. The quantity of sugar produced was small in proportion to that produced on many other estates. The cultivation of cotton in Demerara had been abandoned, and that of coffee much diminished, and the people employed in these sources of production had been transferred to the culti- MR. GLADSTONE ON EMANCIPATION. 151 vation of sugar. Demerara, too, was peculiarly circumstanced, and the labour of the same number of negroes distributed over the year would produce in that colony a greater quantity of sugar with less injury to the people than negroes could produce in other colonies work- ing only at the stated periods of crop. He was ready to admit that this cultivation was of a more severe character than others; and he would ask. Were there not certain employments in this and other countries more destructive to Hfe than others? He would only instance those of painting and working in lead -mines, both of which were well known to have that tendency. The noble lord attempted to impugn the character of the gentleman acting as manager of his father's estates; and in making this selection he had certainly been most unfor- tunate, for there was not an individual in the colony more proverbial for humanity and the kind treatment of his slaves than this manager. Mr. Gladstone said he held in his hand two letters from the agent, in which that gentleman spoke in the kindest terms of the people under his charge; described their state of happiness, content, and healthiness, their good conduct, and the infrequency of severe punishment; and recommended certain addi- tional comforts which he said the slaves well deserved. On the 3rd of June, the debate on the abolition of slavery was resumed, and Mr. Gladstone again addressed the house, enter- ing much more fully into the charges which Lord Howick had brought against the manage- ment of his father's estates in Demerara, and showed their groundlessness. Although he confessed with shame and pain that cases of wanton cruelty had occurred in the colonies, he added that they would always exist, par- ticularly under the system of slavery, and this was unquestionably a substantial reason why the British legislature and public should set themselves in good earnest to provide for its extinction; but he maintained that these in- stances of cruelty could easily be explained by the West Indians who represented them as rare and isolated cases, and who maintained that the ordinaiy relation of master and slave was one of kindness and not of hostility. He deprecated cruelty, and he deprecated slavery, both of which were abhorrent to the nature of Englishmen; but, conceding these things, he asked, "Were not Englishmen to retain a right to their own honestly and legally ac- quired property?" The cruelty, he said, did not exist, and he saw no reason for the attack which had recently been made upon the West India interest. He hoped the house would make a point to adopt the principle of com- pensation, and to stimulate the slave to genu- ine and spontaneous industry. If this were not done, and moral instruction were not imparted to the slaves, liberty would prove a curse instead of a blessing to them. Eef erring to the property question, and the proposed plans for emancipation, Mr. Gladstone said that the house might consume its time and exert its wisdom in devising these plans, but without the concurrence of the colonial legis- latures success would be hopeless. He thought there was excessive wickedness in any violent interference under the present circumstances. They were still in the midst of unconcluded inquiries, and to pursue the measure then under discussion at that moment, was to commit an act of great and unnecessary hos- tility towards the island of Jamaica. It was the duty of the house to place as broad a dis- tinction as possible between the idle and the industrious slaves, and nothing could be too strong to secure the freedom of the latter ; but with respect to the idle slaves, no period of emancipation could hasten their improvement. If the labours of the house should be con- ducted to a satisfactory issue, it would redound to the honour of the nation and to the reputa- tion of his majesty's ministers, whilst it would be delightful to the West India planters them- selves — for they must feel that to hold in bondage their fellow-men must always involve the greatest responsibility. But let not any man think of carrying this measure by force. England rested her power not upon physical force, but upon her principles, her intellect, and virtue; and if this great measure were not placed on a fair basis, or were conducted by violence, he would lament it as a signal 152 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. for the ruin of the colonies and the downfall of the empire. The attitude of Mr. Gladstone, as borne out bj the tenor of his speech, was not one of hos- tility to emancipation, though he was un- doubtedly unfavourable to an immediate and an indiscriminate enfranchisement. He de- manded, moreover, that the interests of the planters should be duly regarded. The apprenticeship clause was, however, a part of the government scheme of abolition which was explained to a committee of the whole house by Lord Stanley, who had ex- changed the office of Irish secretary for that of secretary for the colonies. Immediate and effectual measures were to be taken for the entire abolition of slavery throughout the colonies, under such provisions for regulating the condition of the negroes as might combine their welfare with the interests of the pro- prietors. It was considered expedient that all child- ren bom after the passing of any act, or who should be under the age of six years at the time of passing any act of parliament for that purpose, should be declared free, subject, nevertheless, to such temporary restrictions as might be deemed necessary for their sup- port and maintenance. All persons then slaves were to be entitled to be registered as apprentice labourers, and to ac- quire thereby all the rights and privileges of freemen, subject to the restriction of labour- ing under conditions, and for a time to be fixed by parliament, for their present owners. To provide against the risk of loss which proprietors in his majesty's colonial posses- sions might sustain by the abolition of slavery, his majesty was to be enabled to advance, by way of loan to be raised from time to time, a sum not exceeding ^15,000,000, to be repaid in such manner and at such a rate of interest as should be prescribed by parliament. His majesty was to be enabled to defray any such expense as he might incur in estab- lishing an efficient stipendiary magistracy in the colonies, and in aiding the local legisla- tures in providing for the religious and moral education of the negro population to be eman- cipated. On the 30th of May these resolutions were brought forward for consideration, and the first general proposition to abolish slavery passed without a division, the debate turning chiefly on the means of inducing the West India planters to accept the measure in good faith and with cordial co-operation, a desire which was not fully accomplished, even though an enormous sum was paid as compensation, since five years afterwards it was found that under cover of the apprenticeship clause the Jamaica owners continued many of their worst tyrannies, and that in numerous instances there had been no real manumission. This, however, is anticipating the story. The second resolution as to the freedom of children was also adopted, though Mr. Hume endeavoured to obtain the nomination of a committee to inquire into the probable efiOiciency of free labour. Such a commission, had it been granted, would probably have had a considerable effect on the third clause of the measure, which embodied the system of apprenticeship — and it was on this third proposition that the debate was fought most earnestly. Of course the foremost advocates of emancipation were op- posed to it, and Mr. Buxton declared that it was founded on a fallacy, for it was framed on a supposition that the emancipated slaves could not be induced to work for wages. He cited numerous facts which he contended would show that as free labourers they would not only work readily for wages, but that their labour was far more profitable to their employers when they looked forward to a pecu- niary reward. These were the views of the original ad- vocates of emancipation, who if they had ever considered the question of an inter- mediate "apprenticeship," would have re- garded it with distrust, not only because of its falling short of complete abolition of slavery, but also because they regarded it as a fallacy in political economy. It may be known to only a few of our readers that in 1832 Harriet Martineau, in one of her Illustrations of Political Economy, presented the free negro labour question under the guise of "a tale" entitled "Demerara." It consisted of twelve chapters, the titles of THE APPRENTICESHIP CLAUSES. 153 ■which were — 1. Sunrise brings sorrow in Demerara. 2. Law endangers property in Demerara. 3. Prosperity impoverishes in Demerara. 4. Childhood is wintry in Deme- rara. 5. No haste to the wedding in Deme- rara. 6. Man worth less than beast in Deme- rara. 7. Christianity difficult in Demerara. 8. The proud covet pauperism in Demerara. 9. Calamity welcome in Demerara. 10. Pro- tection is oppression in Demerara. 11. Beasts hunt men in Demerara. 12. No master knows his man in Demerara. The tale is in the form of a dialogue, and the principal personages are Mr. Bruce, a planter, and his son Alfred, lately arrived from England. The following extract exhibits the manner in which the subject was dealt with. " ' Well, but, Alfred, give me the items. Tell me the value of a healthy slave at twenty- one?' '"I believe his labour will be found at least 25 per cent dearer than free labour. From birth to fifteen years of age, including food, clothing, life-insurance, and medicine, he will be an expense; will not he?' " ' Yes. The work he does wOl scarcely pay his insurance, medicine, and attendance, leav- ing out his food and clothing ; but, from fifteen to twenty-one, his labour may just defray his expenses.' " ' Very well ; then food and clothing for fifteen years remain to be paid ; the average cost of which, per annum, being at the least £6, he has cost .£90 over and above his earn- ings at twenty-one years. Then, if we con- sider that the best work of the best field-hand is worth barely two-thirds of the average field-labour of whites — if we consider the chances of his being sick or lame, or running away, or dying — and that, if none of these things happen, he must be maintained in old age, we must feel that property of this kind ought to bring in at least 10 per cent per annum interest on the capital laid out upon him. Whether the labour of a black, amount- ing to barely two-thirds of that of a white labourer, defrays his own subsistence, his share of the expense of an overseer and a driver, and 10 per cent interest on ^90, I leave you to say.' '"Certainly not, son, even if we forget that we have taken the average of free labour, and the prime of slave labour. We have said nothing of the women, whose cost is full as much, while their earnings are less than the men's. But you overlook one grand con- sideration; that whites cannot work in the summer time in this climate and on this soU.' " ' It is only saying free black instead of white. The tenure of the labour is the ques- tion, not the colour of the labourers, as long as there is a plentiful supply of whichever is wanted. Only let us look at what is pass- ing before our eyes, and we shall see whether negroes working for wages, or even under tribute, are not as good labourers as whites.' " The "under tribute" certainly seems to point to the suggestion of some transitional period ; but Mr. Buxton and his followers be- lieved that the apprenticeship scheme would prove altogether unworkable, and both Mr. Halcomb and Lord Howick, who had resigned the secretaryship of the colonies because of his objection to this part of the ministerial plan, absolutely condemned it. He argued that it had not been shown in what manner the proposed system of apprenticeship would improve the character of the negroes so as to render them more fit to enjoy complete liberty at the end of twelve years, and he believed that they would be in a worse condition at the termination of the experiment than they were at its commencement. The government, however, would not abandon that clause, and they were supported by Macaulay, who, no less because of his own ability than from the fact of his being the son of the companion of Wilberforce and Clarkson in the first demands for negro emancipation, added greatly to the strength of the ministry. The period of ap- prenticeship, it was contended, was an interval of transmission by which the rights of pro- perty would be recognized — while freedom from corporal punishment would be ensured, respect for the domestic ties of the negro would be secured— and the labourer would receive a considerable share of the produce of his in- dustry. It was also argued that the advocates of immediate emancipation could not show 154 GLADSTONE AND HIS that the same amount would be produced in the West Indies by a system of free labour as ■was obtained by compulsion. Mr. Buxton gave way on being assured that the duration of the period of apprenticeship should be left an open question, and he also agreed to forego another amendment that would have secured to the negro wages in exchange for his labour. O'Connell, who had seconded this proposition, insisted on carrying it to a division, but it was rejected by a large majority. The West Indian influence was strong in the house, and it was known that the negroes in Jamaica were frequently attempting to re- volt — endeavours, however, which had only had the effect of bringing upon them barbarous reprisals on the part of the slave-owners, who often treated them with the utmost violence. The party which supported the claims of the planters made a determined stand when the proposal of a loan of ^15,000,000 came to be discussed ; and ministers, equally determined to pass the bill, and fearing that they might be defeated, eventually consented to pay — not as a loan, but as an actual gift in com- pensation — the enormous sum of £20,000,000. The bill then passed with no further altera- tion, except the important reduction of the term of apprenticeship from twelve to seven years, and the abolition of slavery in the British dominions was achieved — a glorious result of years of earnest appeal, attained only by a vast expenditure, and at a time when the government was being urged to the retrench- ment which had been promised as a conse- quence of reform. The country, too, was in a depressed and even a suffering condition; but it was almost universally felt that the emanci- pation of the slave was no more than a fitting expression of the aspirations of a nation which had begun a new era in social progress and political freedom. In spite of the drawback that the emanci- pation after all was to be gradual, passing through the system of " apprenticeship " (which after four years' trial was abandoned), the joy of the negroes was boundless, and yet well restrained by religious considerations. In the island of Jamaica " the 1st of August, 1834, came on a Friday, and a release was pro- CONTEMPOBARIES. claimed from all work until the next Monday. The day was chiefly spent by the great mass of the negroes in the churches and chapels. The clergy and missionaries throughout the island were actively engaged, seizing the op- portunity to enlighten the people on all the duties and responsibilities of their new rela- tion, and urging them to the attainment of that higher liberty with which Christ maketh his children free. In every quarter, it is said, the day was kept like a Sabbath. Work had ceased. The hum of business was still: tranquillity pervaded the towns and country. The planters, or some of them, went to the chapels where their own people were as- sembled, greeted them, shook hands with them, and exchanged the most hearty good wishes. At Grace Hill there were at least a thousand persons around the Moravian chapel who could not get in. For once the house of God suffered violence, and the violent took it by force. At Grace Bay the people, all dressed in white, formed a procession, and walked arm in ai'm into the chapel. It is on record that the dress of the negroes on that occasion was uncommonly simple and modest. There was not the least disposition to gaiety. Throughout the island there was not a single dance known of, either by day or night, nor so much as a fiddle played." The whole question of the position of "the lower races," as it is now the fashion to say, has within the last fifty years been dragged through so many jungles of controversy, that the impression of all ttiis has a good deal faded. The point of view from which the question was fifty years ago regarded in Eng- land has ceased to be universally acceptable, and the writings of Mr. Carlyle have helped to make "poor Quashee," as that gentleman caUa him, ridiculous. His "Occasional Discourse on the Nigger Question" is not so well remembered that a passage or two from it may not be useful and interesting as an index of the rapid changes that "public opinion" is liable to. There is now a large and strong "public opinion" among the "scientific" classes that the black man is the natural servant of the white, and that the triumph of the north over the south in America will be found to have WILBEEFOECE AND HIS FEIENDS. 155 evil results of the most serious kind. At all events it was not so many years after the triumph of religious philanthropy in the great anti-slavery question that Mr. Carlyle could write like this. "West Indian affairs, as we all know, and as some of us know to our cost, are in a rather troublous condition this good while. In regard to West Indian affairs, how- ever. Lord John EusseU is able to comfort us with one fact, indisputable where so many are dubious. That the Negroes are all very happy and doing well. A fact very comfortable in- deed. West Indian Whites, it is admitted, are far enough from happy; West Indian Colonies not unlike sinking wholly into ruin. But, thank Heaven, our interesting Black popula- tion, equalling almost in number of heads one of the Eidings of Yorkshire, and iu worth (in quantity of intellect, faculty, docility, energy, and available human valour and value) per- haps one of the streets of Seven Dials, are all doing remarkably well, 'Sweet blighted liHes,' as the American epitaph on the Nigger child has it, — sweet blighted lilies, they are holding up their heads again ! "Exeter Hall, my philanthropic friends, has had its way in this matter. The twenty mil- lions, a mere trifle despatched with a single dash of the pen, are paid; and far over the sea, we have a few black persons rendered ex- tremely 'free' indeed. Sitting yonder with their beautiful muzzles up to the ears in pumpkins, imbibing sweet pulps and juices; the grinder and incisor teeth ready for ever new work, and the pumpkins cheap as grass in those rich climates; while the sugar-crops rot round them uncut, because labour cannot be hired, so cheap are the pumpkins ; and at home we are but required to rasp from the breakfast loaves of our own English labourers some slight 'differential sugar duties,' and send a poor half -million or a few poor millions now and then, to keep that beautiful state of matters going on." Of course it is not possible to mention the subject of the abolition of slavery without being reminded of the death of William Wilberforce, who passed away in July, 1833, aged 74. Wilberforce had every advantage of wealth and education, and had no diflB.culty in taking the place in life which was natural to him. While he was yet a schoolboy he wrote a letter to a York newspaper denounc- ing the slave-trade, so that he was one of that not too numerous band who, in the language of Wordsworth, have "wrought" all their lives " upon the plan that pleased their child- ish thought." He came, upon his majority, into a large fortune, and entered parliament as member for Hull at twenty -six yeara of age. It may be mentioned here as a curious illus- tration of the uncertainty of the law even in points as to which it might well be supposed certain, that his son WiUiam lost his seat for Hull upon a technical point arising under his father's wiU. The question was whether the "estate" he "took" under the terms of the will was such as to entitle him to a seat. Upon this point the two greatest living pro- fessors of conveyancing law gave precisely contrary opinions. There was not a moment's doubt as to the intention of the will, but the decision was ultimately against the second Mr. W. Wilberforce, and he was unseated. WiUiam Wilberforce the elder — the Wilber- force — was a genial and accomplished man, of " the school " of Hannah More, if such an ex- pression may be used. In fact he very much resembled her in piety, general pleasantness, and willingness to mix with the world. His friendships with Pitt — under whom he declined to take office — the Eev. Eiohard Cecil, Zachary Macaulay, Clarkson,Eomilly, and Powell Bux- ton are familiar topics. His piety rendered him a subject of much ridicule. He was well laughed at in Byron's Don Juan in the same couplet with " EomiUy " — the rhyme being " homily." His " Society for the Suppression of Vice" pursued a policy which brought down Sydney Smith upon it in one of his most amusing and caustic papers. One night Sheri- dan was found drunk in the street — it is said in the gutter. When the watchman picked him up and asked his name, he answered, "William Wilberforce." The malicious humour of this speaks for itself. So much of London as heard of this was pretty well scandalized at the news that William Wilberforce had been found tipsy in the street by a night watchman. 156 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. It was mainly to the public labours of William Wilberforce that the abolition both of the slave-trade (1807) and slavery (1833) was due. Heaven alone can determine whether the most meritorious portion of the whole work was due to Clarkson, Zachary Macaulay, George Stephen the elder, or to labourers who are nameless, but as a public labourer in the cause Wilberforce must rank first. Being in very weak health, he retired from parlia- ment ia 1825. Sir Thomas Powell Buxton then carried on the agitation as its recognized public leader, and as the public grew more and more impatient every year it was plain to Wilberforce and those of his old coadjutors that the triumph of the cause they had at heart could not be long delayed. When he was on his death-bed news was brought to him that the bill for the abolition of slavery in the British dominions had passed the second reading, and he expressed devout thankfulness that he had lived to see his countrymen willing to spend twenty millions for such a purpose. He was buried in West- minster Abbey. It was with more purposes than one that we turned for a moment to Mr. Carlyle's imaginary report of a speech delivered at Exeter HaU denouncing what he conceived to be the excesses of the philanthropic spirit. " Here," says the report, " various persons in an agitated manner, with an air of indigna- tion, left the room, especially one very tall gentleman in white trousers, whose boots creaked much. The president, in a resolved voice, with a, look of official rigour, whatever his own private feelings might be, enjoined 'Silence, silence!' The meeting again sat motionless." The very tall person, in white trousers, whose boots creaked, was intended for Sir Thomas Powell Buxton, as we have said, a man of much ability, but as unlike WU- berforce as could well be conceived. He had, however, every necessary qualification for his task as Wilberforce's successor, except the latter's eloquence, fine voice, and winning ways. In its proper place we shall have to refer to the peculiarly party character which dis- tinguished the subsequent measures by which negro emancipation was actually completed ; but it wiU be convenient here to continue some account of the settlement of the question when, after changes of government, a Whig ministry, with Lord Melbourne at its head, was again in power, and when our present sovereign had succeeded to the throne. It was only in 1839 that her majesty was able to announce that throughout our West Indian possessions the period of apprenticeship had been dimin- ished, and complete emancipation of the slaves had been accomplished by the acts of the colonial legislatures, and that the transition from apprenticeship to entire freedom had been effected without any disturbance of the public peace. This was exceedingly satisfac- tory so fax, but there were two questions which had to be seriously considered in rela- tion to it. One was that the traffic in slaves was still carried on in Africa in spite of all our efforts to put a stop to it. It was declared, indeed, that the alacrity of the cruisers sent out by our government to seize slave-ships actu- ally increased the horrors of the abominable trade in human beings — the wretched negroes who had been bought or stolen on the coast were chained and even riveted together, and packed in the fcstid holds of the vessels which were to convey them away. If a British cruiser was known to be gaining on the ship, a portion of the living cargo was thrown over- board to lighten the vessel and give her a better chance of escaping. Horrible stories reached England of the atrocities practised by the desperate dealers in human beings, who found themselves in danger from the guns of a fast-sailing "chaser;" and it was said that on one occasion five hundred negroes had been flung into the sea ! This was the foreign aspect of the slavery question ; but as we have already hinted, there were reports of mons- trous evasions, or, more strictly speaking, de- fiances of the law, in some of our own West Indian possessions, where many of the planters made the apprenticeship clause a pretext for keeping the negroes in actual slavery, accom- panied by cruel punishments and tortures, while there were not a few cases where life was taken without either trial or inquiry. Lord Brougham brought the matter before MR. GLADSTONE'S AEGUMENTS FOR "APPEENTICESHIP." 157 the House of Lords -with fervid emphasis. He proposed improvements in the method for suppressing the African slave-trade, and de- nounced the system of apprenticeship, of which he had been one of the supporters, if not one of the original proposers, and by insisting on which he had caused Lord Hawick's resigna- tion from the ministry. These efforts were unavailing, however, as the labour of the slaves during the period of apprenticeship was regarded by the house as a part of the compensation made to the planters in addition to the twenty millions which had been paid to them. On the 29th of March, 1838, Sir George Strickland made a similarly unsuccessful at- tempt in the House of Commons ; and it was on that occasion that Mr. Gladstone spoke at great length and with consummate ability on the subject, defending the planters against reports which he regarded as being for the most part unsupported cJumnies. He began by saying that when the Abolition Act of 1833 was brought forward, those who were connected with West Indian property joined in the passing of that measure: ""We pro- fessed a belief that the state of slavery was an evil and a demoralizing state, and desired to be relieved from it ; we accepted a price in composition for the loss which was expected to accrue; and if, after these professions and that acceptance, we have endeavoured to prolong its existence and its abuses under another appellation, no language can ade- quately characterize our baseness, and either everlasting ignominy must be upon us, or you are not justified in carrying this motion." But he utterly and confidently denied the charge as it affected the mass of the planters, and as it affected the mass of the apprentices. By the facts to be adduced he would stand or feilL "With what depth of desire," said he, " have I longed for this day ! Sore, and wearied, and irritated, perhaps, with the grossly exaggerated misrepresentations, and with the utter calumnies that have been in circulation without the means of reply, how do I rejoice to meet them in free discussion before the face of the British Parliament ! and I earnestly wish that I may be enabled to avoid all language and sentiments similar to those I have reprobated in others." He then emphatically argued that the char- acter of the planters was at stake. They were attacked both on moral and pecuniary grounds. The apprenticeship — as Lord Stanley dis- tinctly stated when he introduced the measure — ^was a part of the compensation. Negro labour had a marketable value, and it would be unjust to those who had the right in it to deprive them of it. Besides, the house had assented to this right as far as the year 1840, and was morally bound to fulfil its compax:t. The committee presided over by Mr. Buxton had reported against the necessity for this change. Mr. Gla ter of form, and on the 30th of July the hearing 172 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOBAEIES. of counsel began. This was continued on the two following days, and the two legal gentle- men appearing on behalf of the corporations — one of whom was Sir Charles Wetherell— maintained that it was tyrannical, and con- trary to the spirit of English law, to inflict, without legal inquiry and conviction, such dis- abilities as were imposed by the measure of the government. They attacked the report of the commissioners as being based upon evi- dence which was characterized by ignorance and partiality, and they charged the bill with injustice on the ground that it did away with vested rights, manv of which had existed for centuries. The holders of those rights were, indeed, to receive compensation, but only such as the lords of the treasury, without any appeal, were prepared to give. The corpora- tions, said Sir Charles Wetherell, were en- titled to know of what delinquency they had been guilty — what they had done to forfeit their franchises and patrimonial rights. The preamble of the bill alleged that "abuse and neglect" had existed; but if this statement •was not true, the penalties of the bill ought not to be inflicted. Forfeiture without delin- quency was tyranny, and the corporations denied that they had committed the faults of which the commissioners adjudged them to be guilty. Sir Charles, according to his usual temper, imported a good deal of passion into what should have been nothing more than a cold legal argument, and spoke of "the garru- lous trash and ribaldry, the gypsy jargon'' of the report. He accused the commissioners of being the mere instruments of the govern- ment, and of having returned reports distin- guished by untruthful statements, and by the most glaring and indefensible bias towards the political party of their masters. This was certainly not the proper spirit in which to approach a question of fact and law. Sir Charles Wetherell was guilty of the very sin with which he taxed the commissioners. His speech was an outbreak of party rage, provoked by the prospect of a new accession of popular power, such as would, in all proba- bility, turn to the disadvantage of the party with which he was associated. The corpora- tions had had the opportunity of presenting their own case before the commissioners; they had had their advocates in the House of Com- mons, and they possessed many more in the House of Lords. It was therefore asking too much that they should be allowed to reopen the whole question of fact on the motion for the second reading of the bill in the Upper Chamber. When the arguments of counsel were concluded on the 1st of August, Lord Melbourne gave notice that he would oppose any motion for allowing evidence to be ad- duced in defence of the corporations. Obvi- ously the intention of the opposition was to delay the progress of the measure, in the hope that in this way it might escape being passed that session. The government not unnatur- ally resisted such a design, and on the 3rd of August Lord Melbourne moved that the house should go into committee on the bill. The Earl of Carnarvon then moved that evi- dence should be taken at the bar of the house in support of the allegations contained in the several petitions. After a prolonged and rather heated debate the house determined, by a majority of 124 to D4, to hear evidence. The government was thus left in a minority of 70 on this particular question, and in ac- cordance with the desire of the majority, evi- dence was taken on the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th of August. Witnesses were examjned in relation to about thirty boroughs. They were of course witnesses in favour of the corporations, and the general effect of their statements was to discredit, as false and dishonest, much of the testimony given before the commissioners. It was alleged that there had also been num- erous supi sessions of facts deposed to during the inquiry — facts which, as they tended to invalidate foregone conclusions, were passed over in silence. On the termination of the evidence of these witnesses the house went into committee with the bill. This was on the 12th of August, when the first alteration was proposed by Lord Lyndhurst, who moved a clause preserving to all freemen, to every per- son who might have been a freeman but for this measure, and to their widows and chil- dren, or the husbands of their daughters or widows, the same rights in the property of the ALTERATIONS OF THE BILL BY THE LORDS. 173 borough as would have belonged to them by its law and custom if the act had not been passed. The object of this amendment was to perpetuate what the authors of the bill justly considered the undue privileges of cer- tain persons. Lord Melbourne accordingly opposed the amendment as going too far. He said he should not be disinclined to consider a proposal for extending the period during which these rights should be preserved beyond the point at which it was fixed by the biU ; but he would not consent to preserve in per- petuity rights which he believed to be pre- judicial both to the freemen themselves and to the whole community. The opponents of the measure spoke of the proposed change as sheer spoliation. The freemen had been for many ages in possession of certain property, of which it was now proposed to deprive them, and this was regarded as a most dangerous precedent. But it was contended by Lord Brougham, the Marquis of Lansdowne, and others, that the property belonged to the free- men in their character of corporators, and that, if that function might be the subject of legislative regulation, so might the privileges which attached to it. These rights, it was urged, had been vested in a particular class of persons, simply because those pei-sons had been made the depositaries of political privi- leges : they were granted for the benefit of the public, to be enjoyed until the political privi- leges to which they were annexed should cease. These arguments were irrefragable, but they failed to convince the majority of the House of Lords, for, on a division, minis- ters were left in a minority of 93. Lord Lyndhurst then moved another amend- ment, which had previously been rejected in the House of Commons. This was designed to preserve to the freemen their parliamentary franchise, as secured by the Reform BOl. Lord Melbourne expressed great dishke to the proposed amendment, but, perceiving that there was no hope of success, he did not call for a division, and the amendment was adopted. On the 14th of August Lord Lyndhurst pro- posed an amendment requiring a certain quali- fication in the town-counciUors. He con- ceived that the best mode of fixing the quali- fication — a mode applicable to aU places — would be to take the council from the highest ratepayers io each borough. A determined opposition was ottered by the government to the proposed change. Qualifications, where they existed, had never been found to give any security ; where they did not exist, as in the parliamentary representation of Scotland, their absence had not led to the selection of improper or disreputable persons. Lord Mel- bourne averred that the amendment, if adopted, would prove fatal to the ultimate suc- cess of the bill, but it was nevertheless carried by 120 votes to 39. At a subsequent stage of the proceedings the further qualification was- added of the possession of £1000 in real or personal estate in towns divided into four or more wards, and of i;500 in towns divided into fewer than four wards, or forming only one ward. The next alteration in the biU was one by which it was provided that a fixed proportion of the town-council — namely, one-fourth of the whole body — should hold ofiice for life. The ostensible object of this amendment was to prevent fluctuation and caprice in the charac- ter and composition of the town-councils ; the real object was undoubtedly to create a species of oligarchy in all boroughs aifected by the act, and in this way to place a drag upon the democratical influences which it was the in- tention of the measure to call into existence. It was indeed admitted by some friends of the bill that the proposals of the government would be fatal to the principle of aristocracy, and this was a consideration which necessarily carried with it great weight in an assembly of territorial and hereditary legislators. The amendment was accordingly sanctioned by 126 to 39 votes, leaving ministers in a minority of 87. Other amendments were cairied, con- firming their existing jurisdiction to those per- sons who were justices of the peace under borough charters; giving to the revising bar- risters the power of dividing boroughs into wards, and fixing the number of councillors which each ward should return; restoring to the county magistrates the function of grant- ing licenses, which had been abolished in the original draft of the bill; limiting to those 174 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES. members who might belong to the Church of England the ecclesiastical patronage of the town-councils; and efl'ecting some other altera- tions of less importance. These mattei-s were agreed to without any division ; but a struggle took place over an amendment previously re- jected by the House of Commons, which de- clared that the town-clerks should hold their offices during good behaviour. This was car- ried in the Lords by a majority of 104 to 36. It was originally proposed by ministers, and sanctioned by the Commons, that the king in council should determine the boundaries of the borough territory to be governed by the new councils, but the peers decided that this power should remain in the hands of parlia- ment. The bill thus modified was passed by the House of Lords on the 28th of August, and the amendments were bi'ought before the Commons by Lord John Russell on the 31st of the same month. The home secretary re- ferred in terms of grave rebuke to the dis- paraging tone adopted in the Upper Chamber with reference to the House of Commons, and strongly condemned the fierce invectives of Sir Charles "Wetherell when pleading at the bar on behalf of the corporations. Neverthe- less, the question for the House of Commons to decide was whether the bill, even as altered by the Lords, might not be moulded into an efficient instrument of good municipal govern- ment. It had at one time seemed not impro- bable that ministers would give up the bill altogether, in consequence of the changes effected by the peers; but upon reconsidera- tion they had determined that this would be an objectionable course, and they accordingly set themselves to discover some middle path, by which the views of the two houses might be reconciled, though of course not without a de- gree of self-sacrifice on the part of both. The home secretary exhibited much self-control and adroitness in the management of this difficult business, and eventually a. series of compro- mises was adopted. A qualification for town- councillors was agreed to, but it was to consist not in the fact of the candidate being neces- sarily one of the highest ratepayers of the borough, as determined by the Lords, but in his possession of a certain amount of real or personal estate. The aldermen created by the House of Lords were to be elected for six years instead of for life, and the exclusive eHgibility of existing aldermen was not in- sisted on. Much difficulty was encountered in dealing with the exercise of ecclesiastical patronage by the town-councillors. Lord John Bussell de- sired to reject the amendment of the Lords, by which that patronage was to be confined to members of the Church of England ; and he proposed that the Commons should return to the original provision of the bill, leaving the patronage in the hands of all alike. Sir Robert Peel, who, as the Conservative leader, showed a good deal of conciliation, was never- theless strongly in favour of the Lords' amendment, which it was contended had been based on principles of equity and reason. The home secretary himself admitted that in the abstract Nonconformists were not the fittest persons to present to vacant benefices in the Establishment from which they dissented ; yet he supported the original proposition with a determination which was declared to proceed more from party feeling than from a sense of justice. Ultimately Mr. Spring Rice proposed to insert a clause directing the ecclesiastical pa- tronage belonging to boroughs to be sold, and the price to be invested for the public good of the boroughs; which suggestion was accepted. The Commons did not attempt to restore the clause which gave to the town-councils the power of granting licenses. Some of the amendments, however, were thrown out, while others were accepted; and the disagreements between the two branches of the legislature were finally arranged in a series of conferences between a committee of the House of Commons and managers on the part of the House of Lords. On points which they considered of compara- tively slight importance the peers gave way. They retained, however, their original amend- ments, providing that justices should be named directly by the crown and not selected from lists sent up by the town-councils ; and that the division into wards should begin with boroughs containing a population- of 6000 instead of 9000. On the 7th of September, three days MR. ROEBTJCK'S DENUNCIATION OF THE LORDS. 175 before the prorogation of parliament, Lord Jolin Russell recouunended that, for the sake of peace, and as the tiU, though deprived of much of its original excellence, was still an effective measure, the house should agree to it as it then stood, reserving the right of in- troducing -whatever improvement in the work- ing might afterwards appear to be necessary. The Commons thereupon agreed to the bill as it had been once more returned to them from the Lords, and it received the royal assent on the 9th of September, 1835. The disagreement between the two houses had at one time threatened to attain the pro- portions of a very serious coUision. Excited meetings were held in various parts of the country, at which the action of the House of Lords was severely condemned, and the House of Commons was required to reject altogether the amendments which had been introduced by the body of hereditary legislators. This feeling found an echo within the Lower House itself. The Liberal party in those days, as in these, was divided into two sections: one which still dung to the old appellation of "Whigs, and which in many respects answered to the present " Mo- derate " Liberals; another known then, as now, by the name of Radicals. The latter section condemned the action of the House of Lords in no measured language. These views foundan eloquent mouthpiece in Mr. Roebuck, the mem- ber for Bath ; the same Mr. Roebuck who in later days sat for Sheffield, and who towards the dose of his long career exhibited something more than a tendency towards a peculiarly qualified Conservatism. In speaking on the Lords' amendments to the Munidpal Reform Bill heasked why the real representatives of the people should bear the insults of so weak a body as the House of Lords, when they had it in their power to crush that institution. The upper chamber, he said, had thrown out all the im- portant measures which the representatives of the people had passed : how much longer would they be required to go on with conces- sions? The House of Commons had reformed itself ; but, asked Mr. Roebuck, was there no other body that required excision by the knife ? He confessed himself an advocate for extreme democracy, and believed that the sooner they brought matters to an understanding the better. The interest of the Lords was simply to maintain the supremacy of irresponsible power, and that was wholly incompatible with the interests of the people. '■ T\'hy," demanded the member for Bath, " should such a body, with circumstances, interests, and feelings en- tirely opposed to popular desires, any longer have the power of controlling the decisions of that house 1 It was childish and imbecile to talk of conciliation and concession in such a case. He was one of those who fdt it neces- sary to stir up the people upon this subject to something approaching a i-evolution,'' This was rather the language of passion than of statesmanship; but the belligerent spirit of Mr. Roebuck on the one side was met with an equally warlike tendency on the other. Some of the Conservatives maintained that the amendments of the Lords should be enforced in all their integrity; and in the passage of the bill through the House of Lords the more ex- treme members of the Tory party had adopted a, tone towards the House of Commons and the people which was ceiiainly deserving of the severest censure. Old Lord Eldon, then within three years of his death, exhibited bitter hostility towards the measm-e — ^not in- deed in the House of Lords itself, for his in- firmities pi-evented him fixim going there, but in private conversations with influential per- sons. The lord-chancellor of earlier days had always been one of the stanchest supporters of unbending Toryism ever known in Eng- land, and he adhered to his political predi- lections to the last. Fortunately, however, these extreme views evaporated in a good deal of excited speech-making, and the more prac- tical members of the two parties decided, as we have seen, upon a compromise which may have satisfied neither, but which at any rate conferred upon the country a measure of no small value, amending some of the worst abuses in the former condition of English boroughs, and opening the door to any farther alteratioiis which might be found necessai-y in the progress of time, and which have in fact been introduced by the Municipal Corpora- tions Act of 1859, and some others. A distinguished writer on constitutional 176 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. history has remarked that by these reforms local self-government has been effectually re- stored. "Elected rulers," he observes, ''have since generally secured the confidence of their constituents ; municipal office has become an object of honourable ambition to public- spirited townsmen ; and local administration, if not free from abuses, has been exercised under responsibility and popular control; and, further, the enjoyment of municipal franchises has encouraged and kept alive a spirit of poli- tical freedom in the inhabitants of towns. One ancient institution alone was omitted from this general measure of reform, — the corpora- tion of the city of London. It was a muni- cipal principality of great antiquity, of wide jurisdiction, of ample property and revenues, and of composite organization. Distinguished for its public spirit, its independent influence had often been the bulwark of popular rights. Its magistrates had braved the resentment of kings and parliaments ; its citizens had been foremost in the cause of civil and religious liberty. Its traditions were associated with the history and glories of England. Its civic potentates had entertained with princely splendour kings, conquerors, ambassadors, and statesmen. Its wealth and stateliness, its noble old Guildhall and antique pageantry, were famous throughout Europe. It united, like an ancient monarchy, the memories of a past age with the pride and power of a living institution. Such a corporation as this could not be lightly touched." The legislators of 1836 and of subsequent years halve in truth been afraid to attack the government of the city of London. Eeforms have frequently been considered, but nothing has yet been effected, and yet the question is one which often appears to be rising in the near future. That it must some day be taken in hand, nobody doubts ; but few have the courage to approach a problem bristling with difficulties at every point, and involving, to him who shall handle it, an enormous amount of labour. If Mr. Gladstone were ten years younger than he is it might not improbably happen that this would be one of the measures associated with his name. His power of dealing with complicated questions, depending on an im- mense array of facts and figures, has rarely been equalled, and it is an ability of this nature which wUl be especially requii-ed when the reform of the City corporation is brought forward in parliament. The Anatomy Act of 1832 was not a Whig measme or a Tory measure, but it was a very useful one ; and the act itself, with the story of which it was the sequel, deserves a word of notice. Speaking in its favour, Mr. Macaulay ridiculed with great success the argument of its opponents — for, strange to say, it had opponents — that it was a measure conceived in favour of the rich rather than the poor. It was, he insisted (and the contention was obvi- ously true), the poor who suffered most from lack of good surgery. The rich were always sure to get the best that could be had, and one of the most serious drawbacks that surgi- cal science had had to put up with was thfr want of "subjects" for dissection. The word " burk " or " bui-ke " yet remains for us, and though a slang word, it is found in dictionaries and is in creditable use both by writera and speakers. But what the word. " burking " stood for at the time when Mac- aulay had to defend the Anatomy Bill in the House of Commons has almost faded from popular memory and passed into the catalogue- of historical curiosities. Until the Anatomy Bill had become law many timid people were afraid to go out alone after dark lest they should be- " burked," and actual burkings did take place long after Burke was hanged. The demand for " subjects " in the anatomy schools was so- great, and the prices paid so high, that there was something like a premium upon murder. Murders did accordingly occur, two wretches named Bishop and Williams following in England in the steps of Burke and Hare in Scotland. Burke is said to have " burked " at least sixteen '' subjects." The process was to smother the victim ; and this ruffian told the world that the idea had first struck him on reading or hearing read the murder of Ben- hadad of Syria (2 Kings viii. 15) by the placing of a wet cloth over his mouth and nose. Sometimes a, pitch - plaster seems to have been employed. At all events "burk. DISSE^«"TEES' MARRIAGES. ing" was a terror; snd after the mmxier of "the Italian boy bv Bishop and WDUane," in London, tliere \ras a general panic on ibe subject. That ihe passing of such a bill should meet with the slightest opposition does indeed seem incredible, when we only glance at the preamble, and know that those who opp<£ed it were well awaie that it recited no more th,ui the plain truth. "Whereas," the aot opens, " a knowledge of the causes and natm* of sundry diseases which affect the TxhIt, and of the best methods of treating and curing such diseases, and of healing and repairing divers wounds and injuries to which the human frame is liable, cannot be acquired without the aid of anatomical esaunination; and whereas the legal supply of human bodies for such anatomical examination is insufficient fully to proTide the means of such knowledge ; and whereas, in order fully to supply human bodies for such purposes, divers great and grierons crimes have been committed, and, lately, murder, for the single object of selling for such purposes the bodi« of the persons so muniered ; and whereas, therefore, it is highly expedient to give protection, xmder certain regulations, to the study and practice of anatomy, and to prevent, as fer as may be, such great and grievous crimes and murder as aforesaid, be it enacted."' and so forth. The only clause which it is necessary to quote in explanation of the defective state of the law previously to the passing of the act is the seventh. By the seventh clause it is enacted that ~ it shall be lawful for any executor or other party having lawful pt^session of the body of ;iny deceased person, and not being an undertaker or other party intrusted with tiie body, for the purpxjse only of interment, to permit the body of such deceased person to undergo iinatomical examination, unless, to the knowledge of such executor or other par^, such person shall hare expressed his d^ire, either in writing, at any time during his life, or verbally, in the presence of rwo or more witnesses, during the illn^ whereof he died. that his body, after death, might not undei^ such examination; or unl^s the surviving huslxuad or wife, or any known relative of the deceased person, shall require the body to be VOL. L interred without such examination." Xo dead body is to be removed for anatomical exami- nation until fortyneight hours after death; and a medical certificate of the catise of death is to accompany it in every case. The demands of the medical profession for subjects are large; but it is believed that the number of abso- lutely friendless persons dying in hospitals and poorhouses, wh(»e dead bodies are made available under this act, are sufficient for the puiptees of science. Among the most sncce^fnl and important measures which were passed without violent opposition should also be mentioned the series of bills introduced by Lord John Sussell in the early part of the session of 1S3T. for the farther amelioration of the Criminal Code. By th^e humane enactments the number of crimes punishable by death wias reduced to seven, and a longer interval was to ehqise between the sentence and the execution of a criminal — ^the sheriff having been previously under an obli- gation to carry out the capital sentence within three days. It can scarcely be bebeved by the reader not acquainted with the fact, that up to this time no prisoner tried for felony was per- mitted to be defended by counseL although in some of the colonies persons accused of similar crimes were allowed l^al aid, A bill was passed to remedy tins glaring injustice ; and it the more readily found assent in the House of Lords because of the support which it obtained from Lord Lyndhurst, who candidly admitted that he had entirely changed his opinions, and, from having once been an opponent of a similar proposal, was now its earnest advocate. Among the grievances of the Disenters, those attending on the state of thr Marri.ige I^ws were perhaps as keenly felt as those relating to church-rates. The pocket of a man is a tender organ, but so is a woman's heart ; and it was tihe women who. when the hardship was felt at all, got the woi-st of the effects of the marriage law as it stood. It would be impo^Ue to go fully into the history of that Liw. though it would be very interesting, and is almost necessary for the full undeistanding of the subject. The ri"«ir 13 178 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES. of Wakefield gives us some light upon the matter, and that is a story which everybody knows. In fact the marriage law of England, previously to the passing of Lord Hardwicke's Act in 1797, was not so unlike that of Scot- land as might be supposed. The Quakers, opposed to "steeple-houses" and "priests," and all forms of state religion, had made a bold stand in behalf of indepen- dence in the matter of the marriage contract. Nobody doubted their sincerity or their general honesty, whatever was thought of their rejection of "ceremonies,'' and their horror of "steeple-houses." CromweU, it is well known, was in favour of a much wider scheme of religious "toleration" than any one except perhaps his secretary Milton, who ended his days as a Quietist, and the great churchman Jeremy Taylor, had yet conceived or made public in any such way as carried authority with it. But it was left for an English judge in the reign of Charles II. (Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Chief -justice of the Court of Queen's Bench under Cromwell), to lay down formally the principle that what the English law really looked to was the same as the Scotch law looked to — namely, the sincere intention of the parties. The story is given so quaintly by Bishop Burnet that it is worth quoting ; — " He was a true son of the Church of England, but moderate towards Dissenters, and just even to those from whom he differed most, which appeared signally in the care he took of preserving the Quakers from that mis- chief that was like to fall on them by declar- ing their marriages void, and so bastarding their children ; but he considered marriage and succession as a right of nature from which none should be barred, what mistake soever they might be under in the points of revealed religion. And therefore in a trial that was before him, when a Quaker was sued for some debts owing by his wife before he married her, and the Quaker's counsel pretended that it was no marriage that had passed between them, since it was not solemnized according to the rules of the Church of England, he declared that he was not willing on his own opinion to make children bastards, and gave directions to the jury to find it special. It was a reflection on the whole party that one of them, to avoid an inconvenience he had fallen in, thought to have preserved himself by a defence, that if it had been allowed by law must have made their whole issue bas- tards and incapable of succession ; and for all their pretended friendship to one another, if this judge had not been more their friend than one of those they so called, their pos- terity had been little beholding them. But he governed himself indeed by the law of the gospel, of doing to others what he would have others do to him ; and, therefore, because he would have thought it a hardship, not with- out cruelty, if amongst Papists all marriages were nulled which had not been made with aU the ceremonies in the Eoman ritual, so he, applying this to the case of the sectaries, he thought all marriages made according to the several persuasions of men ought to have their effects in law." This act of good seiise and plain justice on the part of Hale may be set off against his superstitious folly or worse in the matter of witches. Indeed, it was a very long while before any one could bring himself to take the same view of the marriage question as Hale did. One of the most conspicuous failures of the Whigs related to this topic, and melancholy was the mistake made by Lord John Russell. Lord Althorp had blun- dered on the church-rate question, — proposing simply to alter the mode of collection in favour of Nonconformists, while maintaining that the Church of England had a right to the tithes. Of this scheme the Dissenters abominated the principle, while the landowners and the clergy opposed the details, so it fell through. Lord John RusseU made as gross a muddle of his marriage bill, under which he proposed that if the banns were published in the parish church, marriages in Dissenting places of worship should be made legal. But apart from their principles, the ordinary Noncon- formists had by this time got to remember habitually what the Quakers had gained by standing out for it, and they threw cold water, the very coldest, upon Lord John's bill. It is not generally known that one of the acutest and most pungent writers on the side of the EEGISTEATIOX OF BERTHS, DEATHS, AXD MABBIAGES. 179 Dissenting view of this qnestion -was the gentle humorist Charl^ Lamb, whose Qnaker intimacies and ••procliTities^ had no doubt woke up his mind upon this important social question. Sir Eobert Peel, during his brief tenn of office in lS3o. hiid brought forwaixi another biU, which, though it was too imperfect to be acceptable, was liked better than the measure that had been proposed bv the Whigs in the previous vear, and maj be said to have sug- gested some of the provisions which were inclusively adopted in the rear following. Marriages were to be celebrated in the usual way, it people chose to have the ceremony performed at church, but others who objected were to attend before a magistrate of the hun- dred in which they resided, at least seven days before their marriage, and make oath that they were of the age of twenty-one, or, if under that age, that they had obtained the consent of their parents and guardians, and knew of no lawful impediment to their union. A copy of this affirmation was to be forwarded to the clergyman of the parish, who for a fee of five shillings was to enter it in the parish roister, and the contracting partis were after- wards to be at liberty to celebrate their mar- riage by any religious ceremony which suited tiieir opinions. This bill was, however, scarcefy a less feeble expedient than these that had preceded it. The whole question of registra- tion was now before the public, and as the only legal registers of deaths and marriages were these kept in the churches, while there was no r^istry of biriks at alL but only of baptisms, not only were a large dass of the community left out of the record, but such regfetration as had been effected in the churches in bygone years had been found to be so scandalously imperfect and inaccurate that in many instances serious difficulties were encountered in endeavouring to prove a title by succession to important properties. The old leaves of the parchment registry books had sometimes been taken out by the parish clerks or even by the clergy, to be used for various domestic purposes, such as Hxe lining of a pin- cushion, the foundation of a kettle-holder, the preservation of artificial flies for fishing. or the mending of the back of a book, — and instances had been known of permittiiig jer- sons to obtain possession of the registers, and even of mutilating them at the request of some influential or intimate friend who wanted a particular autographl Strangely enough, at the period referred to the meet correct of the registers were those kept by the French Pro- testant refugees who had settled in England. and still attended the places of worship pro- vided by their community. The English Dis- senting and Nonconformist bodies were, to say the least of it, entirely n^lected except they made special arrangements of their own, or temporarily abated their principles by some act of conformity, to which they not unfre- quently submitted with ill-concealed resent- ment. That a great deal of inaccuracy, omis- sion, and carelessness still existed in the entries in the regisny books was undoubted, and it was equally certain that the disabilities of Dissenters were but little relieved. It had therefore become necessary that some general and uniform system should be established by which T^istration should not only be complete, but should be efiected by a public officer through his subordinates, and that copies of the registers should be preserved for refer- ence at a central office. Two bills, one of which provided a general system of registra- tion of births and deaths, and the other of marriages, effected a change by whidi those who chose to celebrate f anerals, baptisms, or weddings in the churches could still do so — while Disenters were reheved from the vex- ations under which they had so long com- plained. But the secular advantages of the meastire were soon seen to be far greater than had been supposed, since to the registrar-gen- eral and his officers was confided the impor- tant duty of collecting and reconling an enor- mous number of facts and data which have been of increasing value in est ima tin g and accderatLDg the pitigress of society, and in promo tin iT the adoption of the readiest and most effective means of maintaining the pubUc health, and removing many of the causes of misery and distress. There was no serious opposition to these biUs, for Sir Eobert Peel in the House of Commons, and the Duke of 180 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES. Wellington in the Lords, gave them such hearty support that both the government and the opposition may be credited with their adoption. Though the Registration Bills had removed the religious disabilities of Dissenters, so far as the recognition of their claim to celebrate baptismal, marriage, or funeral ceremonies, according to their own consciences, without thereby forfeiting the right to have the events placed on the public record — they were still compelled to pay the rates for the mainten- ance of the Church of England as by law established. Little difficulty had been ex- perienced in passing a bill for the commutation of tithes in England; but the House of Lords, the majority of the clergy, and the opposition were as steadfastly opposed to the abolition of church-rates here, as they were to the re- mission of the tithe in Ireland. The ecclesiastical commission which had been appointed under the ministry of Sir Robert Peel had set itself to reform glaring abuses, and the successors of those who first occupied a place at its deliberations were diligent to reduce the inequalities of the in- comes of the bishops and deans, to suppress many sinecures, and to provide for a reduction in the number of canons and minor canons. The amendment of many equally glaring in- equalities among the clergy below these ec- clesiastical ranks, was rendered almost hope- less because of the enormous amount of lay patronage, and the private right to sell and transfer livings — so the commissioners could only deal with benefices in public patronage ; but as these were mostly in the more popu- lous and increasing districts, much was ex- pected even from the partial operation of the scheme. The whole of the recommendations of the committee were not sufi'ered to pass the legislature, however. The Bishops' Bill was the only one which could be accomplished in that session, because of the opposition of the Radical and Dissenting members on the min- isterial side of the house, who were urging the settlement of the question of church-rates before the passing of any further measures, which would serve to establish the Church in its possessions and its demands by the very act of modifying ecclesiastical incomes. The result was that the clergy had time to combine in petitioning against the proposed changes — that the wit, ingenuity, and brilliant argu- ment of Sidney Smith were exerted against the measure — and that out of the bills which were intended together to introduce a system of church reform, only those were adopted which to some extent equalized and reduced the incomes of future bishops, abolished the holding of ecclesiastical dignities or benefices in commendam, and restricted the renewal of ecclesiastical leases. The Whig government was already weak, and the leading Radicsils now held meetings in which the feeble conduct of the ministry, in yielding to the repeated domination of the Lords, was warmly discussed. Unless they took a firmer stand in the next session they would receive from the more advanced re- formers but little support. If the Radical members with the whole body of Dissenters went into opposition the position of the ministry would be serious, and the govern- ment was willing enough to introduce a mea- sure for the abolition of church-rates if they could hope to carry it. The only scheme of which such a hope could be entertained was one which would leave the Church com- paratively uninjured. Mr. Spring Rice, the chancellor of the exchequer, was inti-usted with a proposition to place the landed pro- perty of the Church xmder secular manage- ment, by which it was supposed an additional amount might be realized sufiicient to meet the charges to defray which church-rates were levied, while u. further balance would be left to pay the expenses of the ecclesiastical com- mission. The prelates took alarm. The Arch- bishop of Canterbury aud the bishops sent forth a manifesto claiming for the Church whatever the property belonging to it might be made to yield. This interference on the part of those who were members of the House of Lords with a measure still under the con- sideration of the Commons was vehemently denounced by ministers ; but the result proved that the bill could not be safely adopted, for on a division the government had only a THE PRINCESS YICTOEIA. 181 majority of five, and the measure was conse- quently abandoned — Lord John Eussell suc- ceeding, however, in obtaining a majority of 86 in favour of a commission of inquiry into the management of church lands. The weakness — some of their former ad- herents as well as their opponents called it the pusillanimity — of the government was apparent notwithstanding the important and beneficial measures which had been passed. A number of bills had to be dropped because of the small majorities by which they were supported, and because of the determined opposition of the Lords. The majorities were stiU diminishing, and it was out of the ques- tion to seek to balance the House of Lords by the expedient of creating new peers. The resignation of the ministry seemed to be inevitable. Sir Robert Peel had publicly in the House of Commons announced his readi- ness to take ofiice, when on Tuesday, the 20th of June (1837), the bells of the London churches were heard tolling a muffled peal. King Wil- liam IV. was dead. He had reached his seventy- eecond year, and had been for some time in feeble health, which was made worse by an attack of hay-fever — a complaint from which he had frequently suff'ered before his accession, but which, with some other ailments, signs of a weak constitution, had disappeared after he came to the throne. He had continued to transact business, but on the 15th of June his death had been expected, and every one was surprised to hear that a favourable change had taken place, and that his physicians had left him and returned to London. On Sunday the 18th his end was approaching; the Arch- bishop of Canterbury was sent for, and found the king in a calm and resigned frame of mind. On Tuesday morning the throne was vacant, and the country was exhibiting signs of genuine grief, — for William, though not a brilliant, nor a strong-minded, nor a cultured man, was honest and well-meaning. He was obstinate and opiniated, but he earnestly de- sired to do his duty and to act with justice and fairness. People had ceased to call him the patriot king and the reforming monarch, but he was still called the sailor king; and the title was believed in some way to express his blufl' good humour and honesty of purpose. He was familiar in his associations, fond of gossiping, and by no means majestic in his bearing ; but he had a good share of common sense, and was altogether a very good and useful monarch. At all events, the men who had the best opportunities for judging of his character spoke words not of eulogy but of honest respect for his memory when parlia- ment met after his death. Lord Melbourne, who perhaps had least reason for thinking highly of him, not only commended his assi- duity and industry, but declared that he was " as fair and just and conscientious a man as ever existed — always willing to listen to any argument, even though opposed to his own previous feeling." Earl Grey said of him that "a man more sincerely devoted to the inter- ests of his country — that a man who had a better understanding of what was necessary to the furtherance of those interests — that a man who was more patient in considering all the circumstances connected with those interests — that a man who was more attentive to his duty on every occasion — never did exist." And the Duke of Wellington spoke earnestly of his "firmness, candour, justice, and true spirit of conciliation." There is something character- istic of each speaker in the terms used ; but it cannot be said that on the whole they were undeserved, or that the words themselves were either insincere or exaggerated. Since the accession of William IV. a person- age, then very young and for a long time after- wards strange to any of the foregrounds of history, had been increasingly the subject of public consideration and half-reticent dis- cussion among those who lived in the midst of political life. We mean the young lady who is now the first lady in this country, and who was then known as the Princess Victoria. Princesses cannot claim the im- munity which ladies of lower rank are sup- posed to be entitled to, and it stands pub- licly recorded that the Princess Victoria was born upon the 24th of May, 1819. Indeed we hear every year how old this exalted person- age is, so that it is a very simple matter of 182 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIBS. arithmetic to fix the year of her birth. That birth "was an event of great interest to the English people, for it seemed to make the suc- cession to the crown secure; and the Duke of Kent was always much liked, to say nothing of a general feeling that he had been some- what "sat down upon" by George III. Prin- cess Charlotte had not long been dead, and it was the widower, Prince Leopold, who had the honour of opening his doors at Claremont to the Duke and Duchess of Kent after their marriage at Leiningen — the Princess Maria Louisa Vic- toria, the bride, being Leopold's own sister. Lord Eldon had given it as his opinion that it was not necessary that any of the royal chil- dren should be born in England; but the Duke and Duchess, who, after their visit to Clare- mont, had retired to Leiningen again, were anxious that the expected infant should be a native of this country. It befell, then, that the little Victoria was born at Kensington Palace; and though the year of her birth was a very troubled one to the nation, the event was a pleasant drop in the cup of bitters. How the Duke of Kent met his death is well known, and was long a topic of familiar talk at British firesides. Having got his boots wet on a long walk, he was so occupied in playing with the baby on his return home that he neglected re- peated urgencies about changing them; caught cold, and died within eleven days. His will appointed the duchess sole guardian of the Princess Alexandrina Victorire (sic in will) "to all intents and for all purposes whatsoever." Every eye was now turned upon this exalted lady and her infant daughter, whom, indeed, she held in her arms while receiving the de- putation which was sent by vote of both houses of parliament to read addresses of condolence. It was now plain that unless something very extraordinary intervened, the next sovereign would be a woman, and the manner in which the widowed duchess performed her task as guardian was sure to be severely watched. The Princess Victoria was eleven years old when King William ascended the throne, and at the date when the king was dis- missing the Whig ministers she was of course in her early teens. Not much had been made known about the manner in which the princess was brought up, but enough was dis- covered to please the people of England. The education of this young lady, upon whom so much depended now it was clear that there would never be a direct heir to the throne, was evidently as simple and homely as it could well be. She was seen dressed simply, prac- tising habits which were favourable for her health. She was out in all weathers, making herself happy with her young girl friends just like any other English damsel. This was not extraordinary, but it was pleasant. The bring- ing up of the Princess Charlotte, whose death caused so much excitement, had been most unfortunate, as was natural, from the state of affairs between her father and mother. She was known to be wilful, lavish, and not without coarseness. Now it very early tran- spired that the Princess Victoria had been brought up in notions and habits of strict economy in money matters. After the nation's experience of some of the royal dukes this was a comfort. Gossip soon got hold of a thousand stories of the young lady's good manners, truthfulness, and caution in spending money. Once while she was staying at Tun- bridge Wells, she had been buying presents for her young relatives and friends, and had spent her last coin in her purchases. Sud- denly she remembered one more friend for whom she would like to purchase something, and she fixed upon a certain box, price half-a- crown. The woman who kept the counter of the bazaar was about to let the box go, though unpaid for, with the rest of the pretty things; but the princess's governess interposed, saying, "As the princess has not got the money, she cannot buy the box." So the box was put aside. The princess would be penniless until quarter-day. Punctually on that day, at about seven o'clock a.m., the royal damsel came trotting up on her pretty donkey to pay for the box. There had always been a little uneasiness in the popular mind about the Duke of Cumber- land. It turned out afterwards that this un- easiness was not ill founded. The nation dis- liked him, knew he was a fierce and unscrupu- lous "Orangeman," and politically of a, most headstrong type; and there was a general PLOT OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND. 183 feeling that the princess would not be safe for the succession, unless a regency were appointed until she should come of age. A bill had in fact been passed, by which it was provided that in case of the king's dying before the queen and without issue, the queen should be regent ; but that in any other contingency the Duchess of Kent should fill that office until the princess came of age. In 1S35 came disclosures which startled even those who had apprehended the worst, — with the exception, of coui-se, of the very few who were absolutely behind the scenes. Con- sidering the humdrum ways into which we have now fallen, it reads like romance, though it is true history, that at this time there was a deliberately concocted and powerfully sup- ported scheme on foot for setting aside the succession to the crown. Several of the Liberal members of the House of Commons, including Mr. Shiel, the great orator, and especially Mr. Hume, pressed Sir Eobert Peel with questions relating to the reception of ad- dresses to the crown from certain treasonable associations known as Orange dubs. Nothing particular came of these questions, until Mr. Groulburn was "put up'' to give the formal answer that some such addresses had been re- ceived, and there the matter for the moment dropped ; but the bare announcement was re- ceived with such an outbreak of cheering that it was apparent something unusual lay behind. Before the end of the session Mr. Hume moved for and obtained a committee to investigate this matter of the Orange lodges and their designs, and the evidence was certainly rather alarming. The name of Colonel Fairman, said to have been the confidential agent of the leaders in this treasonable movement, will pro- bably be remembei-ed by many readers of these pages who have hardly remembered the story. In the evidence given before Mr. Hume's com- mittee what was generally held to be proved was the existence of a tremendous confedera- tion of Orange dubs, having for its object to set aside the Princess Victoria as next in suc- cession and place the Duke of Cumberland upon the thi-one. The chiefs of the Orange movement had conceived the hopeful idea that the Duke of Wellington intended to seize the crown — an idea for which, perhaps, they were indebted to the Corsican prisoner ; and they proposed to declare King William TV. insane, shelve the princess as a woman and a minor, and place the Duke of Cumberland upon the throne. At all events there was evi- dence of the existence of a vast Orange con- federation, having that "galloping, dreary duke "for its grand -master and the Bishop of Salisbury for grand -chaplain, while many of the Tory peers were among the leaders. In England there were 145,000 members, in Ireland 175,000, and thei'e wei-e branches in nearly every regiment of the army at home and abroad. Naturally enough the Duke of Cumberland and Lord Kenyon, who was im- phcated along with him, denied having any guilty knowledge of their proceedings, and in particular declaimed that they did not know of the existence of Orange dubs in the army. All the committee could do was to report that they could not reconcile this conti-adiction with the rest of the evidence, and Lord John EusseU managed to induce the House of Com- mons to suspend judgment in the matter. This was in order to give the Duke of Cum- berland time to withdraw from the Association, but as his royal highness did not seem inclined to do this, he was given up to his pursuers, and censured by vote. During the vacation of 1836 the BadicaJs determined to indict the Duke of Cumberland, the Bishop of Salisbury, and Lord Kenyon, under the act which had been employed to en- trap theDorchester labourers. The indictment: were di-awn, and counsel were instructed, when the thing came to a stand on account of the death of an important witness ; but when the House of Commons again met, Mr. Humt^ proposed an address to the crown upon the subject. This, with some modifications, was carried, and the hated duke then proceeded to break up the confederation. In 1833 died a woman whose general powers and acquirements would not entitle her to a place in history, but who may well be noticed in a sketch of progress, because an unusual number of the questions which we are apt to consider entirely modern connect themselves 184 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOBAEIES. with her name. There was much in the career of Hannah More which we may now- adays naturally smile at; but she was not an ordinary woman, and she was in some respects much in advance of her time. That, indeed, is a vague phrase when used of any one who lived so long; but the truth is that she was much in advance of the epoch at which she passed away — not in all respects, but in some very important ones. Miss Hannah More — or, as she was called by brevet rank, Mrs. Hannah More — heard of Olive's victories in India when she was a child, and she lived to see the Eeform Bill, the Liverpool and Manchester Eailway, and the " Penny Maga- zine." She lived through all those years of popular ferment in England which, following upon the French revolution, and reaching down from Orator Hunt and his set to the trades - unionism of the new era, kept the clergy and the more conservative portion of society in constant alarm. Nor was this the whole of her connection with such mat- ters. She had a real and effective gift of addressing " the poor " so as to gain their ear and turn them to moderation. She was ap- plied to by bishops and statesmen to vmte politico-moral tracts, in order, as the phrase was, to ''stem the torrent of sedition and unbelief;" and she did it. These tracts had an enormous run. One of them, which is definitely religious in purport and is entitled Parley the Porter, is still in circulation; and another. The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, has a large sale. This tract is a narrative with the same kind of purpose as Paley's tract for the poor. Reasons for Contentment. The object is to induce "poor people" to be con- tented with a little, to touch their hats to their " betters," and keep quiet. Some of the smaller tracts, sold at a halfpenny each, are still to be seen in the museums of the curious, and they supply curious illustrations of by- gone manners. The general tone is that of the verses to Hogarth's Idle and Industrious Apprentices, and not even the gallows is ex- cluded from the illustrations. The print, the paper, and the woodcuts would now exclude them from Seven Dials, But for all this, Hannah More must be reckoned among the pioneers of popular education and cheap litera- ture. The story of her efforts to establish schools for the poor is too long to be told here, but the opposition she met with from people who ought to have known better was tragic. She lived to see the dawn of a better day, and her aged heart must have leaped at Brougham's words, "The schoolmaster is abroad." Hannah More, who had been the close friend of Johnson, Garrick, Mrs. Montagu (the friend of the climbing boys), and most of the wits of that day, including Burke, would have had many excuses for taking an old- fashioned view of certain new questions. Yet she was one of the very very few who wel- comed those Lyrical Ballads of Wordsworth and Coleridge which nearly everybody else set down as siUy aberrations. Though a deeply religious woman of what is called the evan- gelical school, she wrote plays (two of which were acted); and she was one of the earli- est and most strenuous advocates of ?jetter education for women. She especially con- tended that they should be thoroughly edu- cated for household work, and in this respect, among others, was far in advance of her time. She looked with some timidity upon the turn things were taking in the country shortly before her death, but on the whole she was a friend to whatever is truly "Liberal," and well deserves a small corner to herself in a record of progress such as this is. In the year 1834 the House of Commons listened to the first speech of a young Con- servative of high rank and very remarkable ancestry. This was Sidney Herbert, then only twenty-four years of age, but afterwards Lord Herbert of Lea. He had entered par- liament as Tory member for South 'Wats in 1832, and now made his first speech by op- posing the admission of Dissenters to the universities. He was looked upon as a very bright and amiable young man, and one not unwilling to "take a position ;" and his aristo- cratic appearance and peculiar ancestry made him the subject of much curiosity. The fact is, Sidney Herbert was the second son of the Earl of Pembroke and Lady Pem- HALLEY'S COMET OF 1835. 185 broke his wife, who was the daughter of Count Woronzoff. And who was Count Wor- onzoff ? He had been sent to England as Rus- sian ambassador by no less a person than the celebrated Catherine of Russia, though he had not been Russian ambassador all his life, and had for fifty years lived in England in a style which made his career undistinguishable from that of any English gentleman of his time. StiU it must be noted that it was Sidney Herbert's uncle, his mother's brother, who was appointed Governor of Bessarabia and New Russia, and who really did much to im- prove the country in its own resources as well as to open it up as a grain-market for other nations. But there is more to come. Who does not remember Schamyl and the struggle in the Caucasus 1 It was this same uncle of the young Sidney Herbert who was commissioned by the Russian emperor to "put down" Schamyl. Schamyl was not so easily to be put down. But it is not easy to imagine a more curiously provoking state of things than that which we shall find occurring some years hence, when Sidney Herbert will be secre- tary-at-war in England, and the English are ravaging, or have it in their plans to ravage, his uncle's estates ! Meanwhile it is sufficient to note that Sidney Herbert, who had been first to Harrow and then to Oxford, was, con- currently with Mr. Gladstone, one of the "rising young men" of the Conservative or Tory party, though he was at this time a somewhat hesitating speaker. Subsequently, however, we shall find him developing that peculiar fluency of utterance which, remark- ably enough, proved to be one of the badges of the Peelite party. In the latter part of the year 1835 appeared in the heavens one of the most remarkable of the cometary bodies. For many reasons it caused great excitement, and in many ways the circumstances surrounding its advent might be taken as data from which to mea- sure the progress of popular enlightenment. If Halley's comet were to appear now — which it is sure not to do — or rather if it were about to appear, the best information concerning the time would approach the public mind by ten thousand avenues. It was different in 1835, and there were scores of catch-penny tracts about the wonderful visitor, though there were already in existence some good periodi- cals, and the amount of knowledge that was in easy current circulation about the stranger was great. We have much to learn respecting comets even now : the vulgar have not ceased to be afraid of them; there are still vague fears that this poor planet may get caught and scorched up or suffocated in the tail of one of them ; and there are still superstitious terrors. But the general supposition among educated people is that the earth might pass thx-ough the tail of a comet without knowing it, though wine-growers have maintained that "comet" vintages are always good. Halley's comet, appearing in 1835, might very well cause some excitement, for it had a story. It was supposed to be the same as the comet which appeared in the year 52 b.c, and it was certain that it had appeared in 1456. This was soon after the Turks, having become masters of Constantinople, had excited a panic all over the West, and "good Chris- tians" were bidden to add to their ave-marias the petition, " Save us from the Turk and the comet." This comet had also appeared in 1759, and the period of its arrival at the peri- helion point had been the subject of some exciting discussion. Long before its actual appearance Laland, Clairaut, and Madame Lepante had announced (November, 1758) that Halley's comet would be found on this occasion to have suffered a retardation, and that it would reach its perihelion 618 days later than it had done in 1682. The period foretold was the middle of April, 1759, but Clairaut had announced that under pressure of time he had omitted in his calculations certain small elements, which might make a difference of about a month. Now the comet passed its perihelion on the 12th of March in that year. In 1835 there were several calculations of the perihelion-period of Halley's comet, the best known being those of M. Damoiseau and M. de Pont^coulant. The 4th, the 7th, and the 13th of November were the dates respec- tively foretold, but the actual period proved to be the 16th of that month, — the largest 186 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAKIES. range of difference being twelve days, the smallest only four. During the years we have just now been surveying great influences, other than poli- tical, were at work in helping to shape the characteristics and fortunes of "the new age," as certain popular writers began now to call it. Some of those must be briefly glanced at. Our list shall end with the publication of the Pickwick Papers, which was both a striking sign of the times and a powerful factor of change. For the moment, however, it will be convenient to turn to the deaths of one or two illustrious writers who are now more or less spent forces, but whose character and works have had distinct results for all of us. George Crabbe, clergyman, botanist, and poet, belongs so much to the past and present at once that it is difficult to know what place exactly to assign to him; but he cannot be omitted. He belonged to the old school in one respect, was patronized (in the Msecenas sense) by Burke, and thought the praise of Dr. Johnson and Mr. Fox the brightest feathers in his cap. What Burke did for him must be sought in his biography, but it should never be forgotten. The chief point to notice is that Crabbe was evidently all his life quite unaware of the work he was doing by poems such as The Village and The Parish Register. The truth is, he was the pioneer of general interest in the lot of the poor. While politicians were spouting, and demagogues quarrelling (all of them doing some good in their way), the solemnly truthful poetry of Crabbe fell like a saturating, pervading rain all over the land, and prepared the hearts and minds of tens of thousands for "new views" in sanitary, educational, and other matters. At about the time of his death changes were in progress, if not partly achieved, which were to make some of his writing inapplicable, but his awfully sombre description of a country workhouse could never be forgotten by any who had once read it :— "There, where the putrid vapours flagging play, And the dull wheel hums doleful through the day;*' nor could the story of Phoebe Dawson. Crabbe was a man of extreme gentleness and meekness, who never quite got out of the "dropping-down-dead" ways of his poverty- stricken life at Aldborough, and at first in London. When they were going to dinner at a lord's Moore would say, "For heaven's sake, Crabbe, hold up your head a bit." The death of Coleridge in 1834 was an event of more mark. His peculiar views of church-and-state questions had, as is well known, a great effect upon the mind of Mr. Gladstone among others, and this history has already noted, however briefly, their con- nection with the Oxford or High Church movement, which ended in the secession of Dr. J. H. Newman, and with Young Bng- landism. This is by no means the whole of a subject which is far too large for discussion here, but it may be safely and profitably noted that Coleridge, next to Burke, had the great- est influence in turning the minds of politi- cians of the higher order to what may be called comprehensive and truly imperial ways of treating public questions. Besides this, he also was one of the foremost of those who made literature and politics more human and com- passionate,andwas a real pioneerof good things to the poor and oppressed. In politics he would rather have been classed as a Conservative than a Liberal, and he hated demagogues; but for all that his heart, like every great heart, was with the fainting, struggling many. The most amusing and appropriate light in which we can regard Coleridge for a moment before passing on is as one of the great talkers who were so striking a feature of the age that we are going away from. Things are not now settled by "tongue," or even much influenced by "tongue,'' as they were then: we mean, of course, not by the tongue of the salon, for there is tongue enough in other ways. Johnson and Burke were gone, but there were four omnipotent talkers in London, whom people came from the ends of the earth to learn wisdom from. These were Coleridge, Macaulay, Sydney Smith, and Hallam. In- experienced hosts, bent on making a sensation, would sometimes blunder by inviting Macau- lay, Hallam, and Smith to the same dinner- table — though of course things were better ADVANCE IN GENEKAl CULTUEJE— SCHREILOUS FEINTS. 187 managed at Holland House, Bowood, and otliei- great centres of social influence. The effect of having them all there in the same room wtis that neither talked at all beyond passing the time of day, or putting some such question as the brilliant TaIle.\Tand did to the dumbfoundered Jefirey, ■when he spoke no ■woiil all the evening beyond putting a ques- tion to "Monsieur Jefeey' as to the pi-oper way of "preparing your national cock-ar-leekie." When Maoaulay returned, sick and -worn, from India, Sydney Smith said, "Macaulay is greatly improved of late — yes, very much. I have noticed in him flashes of sflence." Hallam ■was a man who would hardly eat for talking — he ■was once described as "Hallam with his mouth fuU of cabbage and contradiction.'' But not all these, not even the astounding Macau- lay, ■with whom, when he once got the steam up, conversation was a •wOd impossibility, could compare ■with Coleridge. He declared tliat he never in his life had a headache — never ■was conscious of hain'ng a head — and one consequence of this was that his over- whelming, dOuvial store of knowledge was always at his command. No man, perhaps, ever had a larger .and more reverent "school" of listenei^s. and his opinions on the class of questions which have largely occupied the mind of men of Mr. Gladstone's ordei- were, through the medium of his "golden tongue," impressed upon the minds of the inquiring listeners who gathered about him wherevei- he ■was. It may almost be said that he could not live icithoui a listener — one at least. There ■was another ■writer, a schoolfellow and friend of Colei'idge's, who died about the same time, and who also was one of the humanitarians, and he has told some droll stories, half-tme, half-ftilse, of his friend's "gift of the gab." Scarcely one of them can be called a carica- ture. For instance. Lamb says that starting one morning from London to Enfield he met Coleridge, who seized him by the button and began discussing as usuaL After putting up with him to the last possible moment he cut oif the button, and left it in the hand of Cole- ridge, who still went on talking. On his re- turn from Enfield in the evening he declares that he found Coleridge, button in hand, hold- ing forth as before. This is of com-se not quite exact, but it cannot be far fiwm the ti-uth. Many of the authenticated stories nearly ap- proach it, and during his later yeai-s at High- gate the school children, who used to call him "Old Coley," would run away from him in teri-or lest he should impound them as lis- teners. The great merit of Coleridge, for the piur- poses of this history, is that his mode of treat- ing the higher politics, especially in relation to religion, formed a kind of bridge between the two centuries. His work was done many years before his death. Ei-^m the time of the cholera ■visitation a gi-eat change may be noticed in the freedom, frequency, and thorouglmess ■with which sani- tai-y questions were discussed. The disiip- pointment caused by the immediate effects of the Eeform Bill had at least this good effect. that it made "the people" for the time less in- clined to listen to demagogues, .and more i-«ady to think of improving their own condition by the means that science could place in then- power. There ■was no law which made it in- cumbent on any one, peasant or artisan, to be dirty, or drunken, or to sleep in iU-aii-ed i-ooms. Ti-ue, for the present the window- tax still existed, but it was doomed, and the ■value of "hygiene,'' as some people call it, began to be better and better understood. Dr. Southwood Smith w.as one of the foremost in the new movement, and his ■wiitings aj-e still valuable. Although Lord Brougham, disappointed in many things, and not finding the " diffusion of useful knowledge'' as smooth a task as was anticipated, declared one day that he was per- suaded, after all, that the people of England did not ■want to be educated ; yet, for all that, his schoolmaster was " abroad," and could not be recalled. The slow progress of general culture, and tiie fact that the question of national education not only stood still but seemed as if it must stand still for ever, caused some ■wags to endow the celebnited saying (intended to "dish" theduke)^with a newmean- ing, and it was thought comic to say that the schoolmaster icas "abroad" and nobody could tell when he would be back again. Still, the 188 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES. increase in books aud periodicals was very great. Too much of the magazine literature ■was of a kind which would now be prosecuted instantly, yet decent booksellers felt, so it would seem, no shame in selling it. You might see cheap magazines with unquotable jokes spread open side by side with religious tracts. The Christian's Penny Magazine, and TheMonthy Visitor. Not the slightest attempt was made in those days to relate scandalous stories with discretion, and there were news- papers which made their chief profit by more or less direct "terrorizing'' of the vilest kind. One of these filled so large a space in the public eye for years that its name should scarcely be omitted — ^the infamous Satirist, edited by Barnard Gregory. The fact that the religious classes in gen- eral, and especially the clergy of the Estab- lished Church (they being in direct contact with the state), were usually to be found on the side of " social order" had one unfortunate result. It helped in leading the extreme low Eadicals to mix up irreligion and politics in a way which led to some prosecutions and very much hindered their cause. In that unpleasant, sometimes utterly obscene kind of propagandism were mixed up many men who were good at heart and sound in head. These eventually found their way out, and made for themselves names of honour. With the progress of " sanitation," slight as it was, and generally with the descent of great physicians into the arena of popular instruc- tion and " hygiene," another result begins to appear at about this time. England was, it is true, no longer the old three-bottle England of the d/iys of Mr. Dickens' Ba/rnahy Rudge, nor would a man like Gabriel Varden, the locksmith, breakfast on beef and ale in 1835, but strong drinks had it far too much their own way; though medical men were now begin- ning to speak out, and the consumption of tea, coffee, and cocoa increased enormously. Those were days when it was fortunate if you got a fairly good tea for common use at 5s. a lb.; coffee was 2s. a lb., the very lowest price being Is. 4cZ.; while moist sugai' at dd. a lb. was very coarse. The Pickwick Papers of Dickens, which commenced in 1837, belong in their higher relations to the groat humanitarian movement, and did a splendid work in helping to bind men together, and uniting the springs of hope and compassion in society at large, but they remain an imperishable illustration of the im- portance attached in those days to "the drink." There is scarcely a page from which the odour of rum punch is absent. The literature for ladies in this decade was for the most part very bad. That alone would supply an important index of culture. In our own days we have seen an Elizabeth Barrett Browning, a Mrs. Gaskell, a Mrs. Somer- ville, a George Eliot, but the high-water mark then was represented by names such as those of Mrs. Hemans and Letitia Elizabeth Landon. To these we have done justice when we have said there was in both, to use Mr. Carlyle's expression concerning the first, " a thin vein of poetry.'' At this time the "Albums" were in their glory. They were sometimes called " Annuals," and they had a long reign. Very good writers contributed to some of thorn, e.g. John Wilson and Wordsworth, besides the ladies, and they did something for literature and a little for art. The gradual improve- ment in the tastes of the middle-classes tended to make this somewhat namby-pamby kind of literature ridiculous, and the progress of wood- engraving had its influence too. When it became possible to buy a hundred wood- engravings with five hundred pages of good and varied literature, ornamentally bound, for ten shillings, the Booh of Beauty or the Court Album, with about a hundred pages of wide print and twenty portraits of simpering ladies, made haate to hide their dimiiiiHliod heads. The prices paid to good and well-known con- tributors to these albums were sometimes large. An album was a common present to a lady at Christmas or on a birth-day. To this class of topics belongs assuredly one more which may be classed iiinong the most im- portant achievements of the Whig government, and one which has had incalculable eff'ects on the social, as well as the political, progress of our time. It was with reference to the financial performances of Mr. Spring Rice tliat Sydney Smith wrote, " Great would be the joy of the LORD PALMEESTON. 189 three per cents if Spring Eice -would go into holy orders." But in 1836 Mr. Spring Eice took a step in the right direction, by reducing the stamp-duty on newspapers. The excite- (nent of the Eef orm Bill period had produced a large crop of periodical writings of a more or less political character, which endeavoured to evade, and in a great many cases did evade, the stamp-duty. Papers were started on pur- pose to try the question of the liability to the stamp, and indeed this was done, with more or less intermission, until the stamp was wholly removed. Many of the enthusiasts of a free press submitted to fine, confiscation, and imprisonment rather than surrender their point, and now and then a legal victory was won upon the question whether such and such periodicals were newspapers within the mean- ing of the law. One of those who were ear- nest in parliament in favour of the repeal of the stamp-duty was Mr. Lytton Bulwer, (afterwards Lord Lytton and a Conservative), and eventually Mr. Spring Eice reduced the tax from fourpence to a penny. At the same time the duties on paper were reduced to three-haKpence a pound. Lord Brougham was eloquent in maintaining that the reduc- tion of the stamp-duty would prove only a temporary measure, and that the tax would ultimately have to be given up, and of course he was right. A veiy strenuous efibrt had been made to reduce the duty on soap instead of that upon newspapers, but the constant difficulty of realising the latter impost, and the breach of the law to which it so frequently led, had made it a diminishing source of revenue, while as a "tax on knowledge" it was already odious to a large body of the more intelligent portion of the population. Therefore cheap newspapers gained the day over cheap soap by a majority of 33; but there were still some burdensome restrictions which imposed an additional stamp-duty of a halfpenny on newspapers exceeding 1530 square inches of the printed part of the sheet, and a penny if they exceeded 2295 square inches or had a supplement. Every newspaper was also obliged to use a distinctive stamped die, and proprietors, editors, and publishers were compelled to be registered. In running the eye, or the mind, over the ptory of our relations with foreign countries during nearly the whole of the reign of William IV., we may as well recall the fact that from 1830 onwards until 1841 Lord Pal- merston was at the head of the foreign oifice. It is from about 1830 that we must date the career in which he was chiefly interesting to his countrymen. Henry John Temple, by courtesy Viscount Palmerston, was at the accession of the new monarch about forty-five years of age. He had begun political life early, and had served, under Percival among others, but his Toryism gradually gave way, and he became a good Canningist. Indeed it was in the school of Canning that he may be Said to have learned the principles, or rather habits of mind, which he carried into his foreign policy afterwards. Of course, how- ever, it must be remembered that he was much Canning's inferior in ability, and that principles and methods are very different things in diiFerent minds. Humility and bashfulness are about the last ideas that we are accustomed to associate with the name of Palmerston, but it is said that he was a diffi- dent gay man, at all events in regard to choice or acceptance of office. Under the Portland administration he was ofl'ered his choice of the post of chancellor of the ex- chequer or secretary at war, and consulted a friend as to the wisdom of his accepting either oflice, having doubts both of his administra- tive ability and his capacity, in point of tact and courage, to represent a great department in the house — he really thought or pro- fessed to think that it would be better for him to take a seat at the treasury board and learn a little more of his business. However, being patted on the back by his friends as a " very fine young man," he ventured on the post of secretary at war, and filled it success- fully from 1809 until 1828, when he went out with the other Canningists upon the occa- sion of the Duke of Wellington's quarrel with Mr. Huskisson. Erom this time Palmerston began to be known definitely as a politician of Liberal tendencies. He supported Catholic Emanci- pation, and his speech in favour of the Eelief 190 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. Bill was pronounced at the time a very fine one. "When in the year 1831 he came for- ward as a Reformer and supported Lord John Russell's Bill, he was vindictively turned out of his seat for Cambridge as Peel had previously been dismissed from Oxford for supporting Catholic Emancipation. In 1830, as we have seen, he took his seat at the For- eign Office, and began to make himself feared, or at all events attended to, all over Europe. When Earl Grey offered him the post, a high political authority, knowing the disturbed state of Europe, was pleased to remark that if an archangel from heaven were foreign minister in England, he could not keep the country out of war for three months. This prediction was signally disappointed, and Lord Palmerston became a very powerful foreign minister. What he was thought of as a debater will be gathered from the value Brougham put upon his services in that capa- city. In order to estimate our foreign relations at the time which we have been surveying, we must remember that to the latter years of the reign of William IV. belong certain con- tinental events which did not immediately, though they did more or less remotely, affect progress in this country. Louis Philippe — whom we shall meet hereafter as a refugee in England — had, in the language of M. Thiers, shown his " resolve to rule as well as to reign," and made himself a thousand enemies, of whom men like Barb6s and Blanqui were per- haps not the worst. The somewhat lugubrious affair of the Spanish legion falls within those years. We had formed a treaty with France, Portu- gal, and Spain, to support the cause of free- dom in the laa1>named country, which was practically a treaty in favour of the Queen of Spain against Don Carlos. The Foreign En- listment Act being suspended on purpose, au army was raised in England, and under Gen- eral Sir de Lacy Evans was sent off to Spain, while a naval squadron supported this move- ment. The "Legion" was not very successful, and was the subject of many caricatures; but in the end Don Carlos was driven out, and Espartero set up as regent. The "Legion" would stand some chance of being forgotten now, if it were not that the Carlist struggle has been revived within the last ' few years, but without success. There were other troubles on the Continent, and the Emperors of Russia, Prussia, and Aus- tria did their possible to "stem the tide of democracy," and there was even some perse- cution—the Zillerthal Protestants being the victims. The German Zollverein, or commer- cial union, was completed. The independence of Cracow, which had formed an article in the Treaty of Vienna, was violently put an end to by Russia, with the connivance of other powers; and in consequence of a treaty with Turkey, the Russians claiming Circassia, the conflict in that mountainous region began, of which so much has been written and so little remembered. But as the changeful aspect of affairs in France, and the peculiar relations which that country had assumed towards England, are of the most importance in respect to our social and political position at the period of which we speak, it may be worth while to consider at greater length what was the political attitude of the French people towards their elected king. In 1832 the small cloud presaging revolution had again appeared in Paris, where serious tumults took place. One of the immediate causes of popular dissatisfaction was the atti- tude of the French government with regard to Belgium, where a revolution had already arisen because of the annexation of that coun- try to Holland by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. This movement was doubtless caused by the success of the events which had placed Louis Philippe on the throne of France ; for it did not commence till August, 1830, when the passions of the people were aroused by the appearance in Brussels of the Prince of Orange, son of the Dutch king, who desired by his presence to pacificate his discontented subjects. On his arrival the streets were barricaded, the citizens under arms, the Belgian tricoloi everywhere conspicuous, and the air resound- ing with " Vive la liberty !" and cries for the deposition of Van Maanen, the Dutch minis- POLAJSTD AJfD TEANCE. 191 ter. The prince at once retreated from the city, and in a few days about ten thousand Dutch troops marched upon Brussels, which they entered late in the evening of the iSd of September. The Belgian citizens were prepared for them. The tocsins were clanging from every steeple, and volleys of musketry were poured fi-om the windows of the houses and from the shelter of barricades. The troops hesitated, and at last retired in a body and intrenched themselves in the park, where they defended themselves for three days against the attacks of the Belgians, whose ranks were constantly increased by the arrival of volunteers from the neighbouring towns. The Dutch commenced a cannonade on the city with their artillery, and reduced it almost to ruins, in which numbers of women, children, and helpless persons were buried. At length, however, the military reti-eated before the insurgents, taking away their dead, and leav- ing behind them a fearful scene of carnage and destruction. It was useless to prolong the struggle. The annexation was a mistake of European diplomacy, and by diplomacy it was considered necessary to provide against further bloodshed. A conference of the five great powers was held in London. Lord Aberdeen represented England; Count Mas- tasewickz, Russia ; Count Bulow, Prussia ; and M. de Talleyrand, Prance. The news received by these plenipotentiaries during their sitting informed them that the Belgians were driving out the Dutch in every direction, and it was determined to restore the former country to a separate and independent kingdom. There were two candidates for the throne — the Duke of Leuchtenberg, and the Due de N6moui-s, son of Louis Philippe. The Due de X&nours was elected by a majority of one vote : but in the meantime it had been decided by the conference in London that no French prince should be permitted to accept the crown, a resolution which was endorsed by Louis PhOippe, who refused it on behalf of his son. The Belgians therefore conferred it on Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. It was evident that the fire of revolution smouldered, instesid of having been extin- guished. France had learned a little from her reverses, but the revolutionary spirit was work- ing elsewhere. An insurrection broke out in Poland against the oppression of Eussia, and was maintained against fearful difficulties ; the patriots, who had seized upon Wai-saw, defeat- ing their opponents in several engagements, though the superior numbers and discipline of the Eussian troops made the chance a desperate one. It seemed as though the French were determined to rush to the assistance of the brave people who stood alone against one of the greatest powers of Europe. There was an opportunity also of avenging the disasters which had befallen the army of Moscow. The ministry opposed this inordinate desire of " aid to Poland," and pointed out the diffi- culty of embarking in a struggle with one, or perhaps two, strong powers, while the afiairs of the nation were in such a disorganized con- dition. In return, they were accused of want of patriotism, of treachery to the cause of liberty, and of a desire to hand France over to another tyranny — the tyi'anny of the bour- geoisie. M. PSrier was at that time at the head of the government. He had succeeded Lafitte in 1831, and his policy agi-eed with that of Louis Phihppe himself. He had been instrumental in obtaining a settlement of the Belgian ques- tion ; and, as a concession to the popular feel- ing, had succeeded in passing a bill for abol- ishing hereditary peerage ; still he was disliked and suspected by the Eepublicans on account of his foreign policy. They spoke of the posi- tion of France under Napoleon, when the world had to listen to French dictatorship; and the refugees, who assembled at Paris fi-om other countries, assisted to fan the flame against 11. Purler's foreign policy, because his ministry would not sanction the formation of an army to march across Grermany to the relief of Poland; or to violate the neutrality of Switzerland or Piedmont, in order to assist the insurgents in the Papal States. In March, 1S32, M. Plrier defended his policy in an able and courageous speech; in the following May he died of cholera. A few days afterwards General Lamarque, one of the leaders of the opposition, also died, and his funeral was the signal for a public dis- 192 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. turbance, originating for the most part with a number of young men, many of them students in the Polytechnic School. The funeral of the general was attended by a great procession, consisting of people of all classes and some thousands of national guards. The rioters interrupted the funeral proces- sion, and with cries of "Liberty or death!" and "Vive la Eepublique !" accompanied by the hoisting of red flags, and poles surmounted by red caps, attempted to drag the hearse towards the PanthSon. This was prevented by the municipal guard, and at length the body of the general was permitted to be taken to the cemetery. Meantime another company of armed rioters had seized General Lafayette from among the mourners, and placing him in a hired carriage, endeavoured to di'ive him home, at the same time honouring him with complimentary shouts. On their way they were met by a number of dragoons, upon whom they fired. The soldiers at once re- turned their fire, upon which the mob dis- persed, shrieking out that they were massacred, and calling, " To arms ! to arms !" This was a signal for the tumult to become more gen- eral. It soon spread in all quarters of the city, and conflicts between the populace and the soldiers, assisted by the National Guard, took place in several localities. On the 5th and 6th of June the insurrection had reached its height. In the eastern faubourgs enor- mous barricades had been erected, which were so desperately defended by the rioters that the troops at last brought cannon against them, and took them by storm. By the evening of the 6th the engagement was at an end, and the insurrection suppressed. Of the troops there were 55 killed and 240 wounded; the National Guards had 18 killed and 104 wounded; and the insurgents were supposed to have lost 100 killed, and to have had 300 wounded, while from 1200 to 1500 were taken prisoners. Prosecutions instituted against the press, as well as against some noted Eepublican agi- tators, members of revolutionary societies, continued to exasperate the people ; but the occurrence of a foreign war was, as usual, suflScieut for a time to abate the animosity of parties, and the short campaign in Bel- gium effected some diversion from domestic troubles. This campaign was undertaken by France at the request of the other powers of the con- vention, which had decreed the independence of Belgium. The King of Holland had first protested againt this decision, and had after- wards refused to be bound by it, so that it became necessary to compel him to relinquish the Belgian territory. On the 29th of November Marshal Gerard arrived before Antwerp with fifty thousand men. The Duke of Orleans was serving under him. He summoned the Dutch general, Chass6, to sun-ender the citadel, but without effect, and it was not till the 14th of December that the besieging force could complete their batteries, and open fire upon the fortress. There were altogether 104 guns, half of which threw shells, and in a few days a breach was made in the outer wall, which was afterwards carried with the bayonet. The citadel, where the Dutch general lay Ul, was not taken ; the batteries had reduced it almost to a ruin, and the shattered buildings threatened to fall upon the wounded in the hospital. A mine was. sprung, and the general capitulated. After this the rest of the fortresses were taken, and the Dutch finally evacuated the Belgian terri- tory. The combined fieets of France and England had sailed up the Scheldt to assist in the reduction of Antwerp ; and the capitula- tion of that city, which took place on the 23d of January, 1833, may be said to have ended the war, or at least to have established Leo- pold on the throne of Belgium.^ In the early days of 1833 the attention of the French foreign oifice was constantly claimed by the quarrels between the Sultan of Turkey and Mehemet Ali, disputes which were at length satisfactorily concluded. Of still greater importance to the world was the arrangement of the treaty between France and England, which was signed on the 22d of March, for the purpose of suppressing the slave-trade, by means of a combined fleet on the coast of Africa. Attention was soon 1 De Bonnechoae. History of France, Appendix, FRENCH EEVOLTJTIONAEY SOCIETIES. 193 recalled from foreign policy, however, by the recurrences of those popular tumults which so long threatened, and at last overthrew the monarchy. These disorders had been assum- ing more alarming proportions in consequence of the hostility of the Paris journals and the political societies to the government. Insur- rection was openly advocated by these news- papers, some of which were under the direc- tion of members of the chamber. Thus, when press prosecutions were under discussion in the assembly the debates grew more and more violent, and the invective of the speaker often assumed a tone that was regarded as being personally insulting. A law was pro- posed to the chamber for the suppression of all associations which had not received government sanction. Of course the intention of such a measure was to extinguish the poli- tical combinations known as the SooUU des Droits de I'Homme and the SooUU Amis du Peuple, two associations which exercised most influence as being both social and de- mocratic. Neither of these societies was a mere club for discussion of public questions, nor for peaceable demonstrations for the pur- pose of obtaining a repeal of obnoxious mea- sures. Both of them regarded insurrection as the legitimate result of their organization. Their members were expected to arm them- selves with muskets, and to be prepared with a supply of ball-cartridges, ready to use on the first emergency. The extent of these societies was consider- able, their organization was complete, and the various sections through all the departments of the country kept up a regular correspon- dence. Partly, perhaps, from a feeling that it was not strong enough to do more than con- ciliate, but also because of the disinclination of Louis Philippe to resort to violent measures, the government had permitted these societies to attain a completeness and influence which enabled them to defy it. Unfortunately, the law, intended to extinguish such political associations, still went to the other extreme, and seemed to be aimed at the rights of con- stitutional freedom. The bill proscribed every association of more than twenty persons without the express permission of the government, and Vol. I. all ofiences against this law were to be tried at the "Correctional Tribunals," or police courts, instead of by a jury. The crisis began to be serious. The political associations already referred to, felt that they must either submit or assert themselves at aU hazards; and their position was strengthened by the fact that ministers themselves had previously been members of associations which would now be declared illegal. M. de Broglie had received the SociHS des Amis de la Presse at his house, where they continued to meet; M. Guizot had belonged to the SociltS Aide-toi le del t'aidera. For aU this, the measure was passed. That it was considered necessax-y for the im- mediate safety of the country may be inferred from the fact that Alphonse de Lamartine was one of its supporters, though he had but just begun to take a part in public affairs. Some disputes with regard to finance led to the resignation of M. de Broglie from the ministry, and M. Eigny became minister of foreign affairs. M. Thiers, already virtually the leader of the cabinet, was made minister of the interior. The determination of the societies to assert their liberty of action continued, and the lead- ers of the more moderate associations, though they deprecated an appeal to arms, began to organize their branches more thoroughly, and to prepare for defence. It was once more in Lyons that the desperate confiict commenced. It was there that the Society of the Rights of Man had spread its doctrines most widely, and there the Republican journals had been among the first to suffer from government prosecu- tions, the editors having been fined or impri- soned, and treated only as the common con- victs, with whom they were put to associate. Added to this, the poverty and misery of the weavers, still suffering from low wages, made them ready for revolt, in the belief that no change that could happen to them could easily be for the worse. A strike for wages had already taken place; the town was filled with troops, measures of repression had been commenced, the National Guard was under arms. It was on the 10th of March that the Re- publicans, having held council till daybreak, 13 194 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES. bade each other farewell, rushed into the streets, and shouted "To arms!" beginning at the same time to erect barricades. The town was soon a scene of dreadful carnage, amidst which the people, fighting desperately, were defeated on all sides with fearful loss of life and of pro- perty. In spite of this, when the inteUigenoe reached Paris the members of the society there felt that they ought to maintain the rights of their order by the same means. The revolt in Lyons had been caused by adhei-ence to the association, and its claims should be vin- dicated. Many of the leaders had already been arrested; there was a force of 40,000 men in Paris ready to suppress any attempt at insur- rection, and they were supported by artillery; and yet, on the morning of the 13th of March, barricades were erected, and the conflict began. The struggle lasted only for a few hours. The insurgents gave way at every point, and the troops seemed determined to punish them severely. Houses where the insurgents had fired from the windows were demolished and the inmates slain. The prisons were filled with those who were taken alive, papers were seized, and an almost indiscriminate slaughter was followed by an equally indiscriminate arrest. Many persons of importance were dis- covered to have been concerned in the move- ment, and among them the brave old General Lafayette, who had resigned the command of the National Guard, and added to his dislike of the government of Louis Philippe bitter disappointment at the neglect which he had suflfered in return for his long services to the country. On the 28th of July, 1835, the anniversary of the revolution, the king, whose personal courage was unquestioned, adhered to his determination to ride through the city at the head of his stafi' in a state procession. At ten o'clock in the morning he left the Tuileries accompanied by three of his sons (the Due d'Orlians, the Due de JoinviUe, and the Due de N6mours), a number of generals, the ministry, and several noblemen and gen- tlemen of the court. The streets through which the procession was to pass were pro- tected by troops of the line and National Guards. His majesty and those immediately following him had reached the end of the Jardin Turc, on the Boulevard du Temple, when a sudden volley of musketry seemed to be poured from one of the houses, succeeded by the shrieks of the crowd. Several persons fell to the ground, wounded or dying. General Mortier and General Lachasse de Verigny, who were near the king, were each struck in the head and fell from their horses ; Captain Villate of the artillery was killed on the spot ; and two colonels and four privates of the National Guards, as well as an old man and a young girl among the spectators, shared the same fate. None of the royal family were injured, but the horses of the Due d'0rl6ans and the Due de Joinville had both been struck by musket-balls, and the king's horse reared so violently that his majesty was in consider- able danger. Almost before the smoke had cleared away a man, half -naked and bleeding, was seen on the roof of the house endeavour- ing to escape. The National Guards shouted to him to surrender or they would fire ; but amidst a hail of bullets he contrived to reach the court-yard, where he was at once seized by the gendarmes. The name of the miscreant who made this attempt, and that of the machine with which he expected to achieve his diabolical inten- tion, have both become historical, and are perhaps better remembered than many of those associated with deeds of heroism. For many years the "infernal machine" was re- membered with a shudder, and " Eieschi," its inventor, spoken of with execration. He had once been a soldier, but afterwards became a forger and a thief. On his discharge from prison, at the expiration of the punishment to which he was sentenced for his crimes, he was employed by the police as a common agent or spy. Afterwards he fell lower still, if that be possible, and, growing desperate, determined to commit some crime that should bring him into notice, and might also place him in a position to profit by the blow that would be inflicted on the government. Assisted by two scoundrels who were his companions, Pepin and Morey, he constructed an engine which, rude and ill-contrived as it was, was a fearful instrument of murder. It CHAELES LOUIS NAPOLEON. 195 consisted of a stout frame of timber standing on four legs, like a table without a top, upon which twenty -five musket - barrels were so fixed that the barrels pointed downwards, and were directed in such a way as to seem to diverge like spokes from a common centre. The touch-holes being in a line, were lighted by a train of gunpowder, and the barrels were crammed with four times the usual charge of powder. This was probably the cause of four of them bursting and wounding the miserable assassin. Two other barrels missed fire. By the failure of these six barrels the king and his sons may have escaped. This horrible attempt produced a temporary reaction in the minds of the people. Public indignation was directed against the assassin ; the king was enthusiastically cheered as he went on after the fearful occurrence. Insur- rection, and even deposition of the sovereign, dared not ally themselves to so base a crime as that of Fieschi, and there were few who did not rejoice at the safety of the royal family. These sentiments of sympathy on one side and abhorrence on the other were rendered still more intense on the day ap- pointed for the funeral of the victims who had fallen. The first of the funeral cars contained the remains of Mortier, a marshal of France, who had fought in the battles of the empire; in the last was the corpse of a poor girl, little more than a child, who was killed by one of the bullets as she looked at the glittering show that had attracted her to stand amidst the front rank of the crowd to see the king goby. Keschi and his wretched companions were not executed till the following January, so tardy were the proceedings of their trial, dur- ing which inquiries were set on foot to im- plicate others; but the results of the attempted regicide were to be seen in the action of the ministry during the month of September, 1835. The laws of September were in fact a series of repressive measures, including restraints on the press which had the efiect of changing the constitutional monarchy to little short of an absolute rule; and not only was the public discontent proportionally manifested, but the members of the legislature began to fret under the probability of restrictions for which they were not prepared. The result was that they became antagonistic to the ministry, which was soon dissolved, and M. Thiers gained fresh infiuence by being literally as well as nomi- nally the head of the government. The desire of Louis Philippe to strengthen his position as an elected monarch by a family alliance with one of the great European states led him to seek a marriage between the Due d'0rl6ans and the Princess Theresa, daughter of the Archduke Charles of Austria; but the Austrian count was alarmed, and in spite of the personal advantages of the suitor the opposition to an alliance of the house of Hapsburg with "the monarchy of the barri- cades" was too violent to be disregarded. Negotiations were broken oif, and the Due d'0rl6ans returned to Prance, where the Kfe of the king had again been attempted on the road to NeuiUy by an assassin named Alibaud, who fired a shot into the carriage from a walking-stick gun. The successes of the French arms in Algeria for a time directed public attention from the repressive laws which had excited so much animosity. The war in Spain between the followers of Don Carlos and those of the queen seemed to offer an opportunity of forming a definite alli- ance with England. M. Thiers proposed to co-operate with the force which had left Eng- land for Spain, imder Sir De Lacy Evans, by sending out 12,000 men, under the command of General Bugeaud, but the king was utterly opposed to the suggestion, and in fact the English "contingent" was but coldly regarded even by the British government, and was little more than a band of adventurers, who ultimately effected so little, that their general returned, disgusted and disappointed. In vain Thiers reminded the king that he was bound by the terms of the "triple alliance" to join England in settling the Spanish diflS- culties. He refused to interfere, and Thiers retired from office, a new ministry being appointed, with M. Mol6 as president and minister of foreign affairs. It was during this ministry that an actor appeared on the scene, who was to take a 196 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. great place in the future history of Europe, and therefore to exercise considerable influ- ence on events by which English policy was affected. Neither the attempt which brought this person forward, nor the man himself, seemed to be important at the time, and for long afterwards both were frequently spoken of with ridicule ; but for more than a quarter of a century the history of that man became the history of France. The death, in 1832, of the feeble youth who was known as the Duke of Reichstadt, but was also called Napoleon the Second by the Imperialists, had left a question to be settled among the family of the Bonapartes — namely, who was the legitimate representative of the first Napoleon and the political head of the family. The "heir to the Empire" — who was entitled King of Rome in his infancy — had been placed under the protection of his grand- father (the father of Maria Louisa), and strange dreadful stories were abroad, that the old man had compassed his death by encouraging him in habits of dissipation. It may be hoped that such rumours had no real foundation, nor is it easy to see what could have been the object of the old Austrian, since, when his grandson died, the disputed succession may be said to have given some stimulus to the Bonaparte faction. The senatus consultum of Napoleon I. limited the succession (in case of failure of direct heirs) to the emperor's brothers, Joseph and Louis and their heirs male. Lucien the second brother had been left out of the pro- vision, Joseph the elder brother was old and had no sons, and the maintenance of the family dignity therefore devolved on Louis. He had married Hortense Beauharnais, the daughter of the Empress Josephine by her former hus- band, but the union was an unhappy one, and in 1810, four years after he had become King of Holland, they separated. His eldest son Charles, who had been a favourite with the emperor, had died in 1807, and his two other sons were Napoleon Louis and Charles Louis Napoleon, the latter born in 1808, just after the death of the eldest brother. Their father retired to Rome in 1814, and afterwards to Florence, where, long before his death in 1846, he had retired from the public gaze and lived in comparative seclusion; but after the fall of the empire Hortense took her two sons into exile with her, and lived in Geneva, in Savoy, in the Duchy of Baden, and in Bavaria, settling at last in the Chateau d'Ai-enenberg, on Lake Constance. The younger of the two boys had the reputation of a close student, under the tuition of the Abb6 Bertrand and another master, and he attended the school at Augs- burg, from which he went to Thun to learn military science and engineering. Of his elder brother's studies less seems to have been said, but they appear to have clung together, and both asked permission to return to France after the accession of Louis Philippe, a re- quest the refusal of which left them to seek a career elsewhere. "With rather precipi- tate energy, in March, 1831, they joined the revolution of the Carbonari in the Pontifical States, fighting as common soldiers for the " party of liberty," and sharing the defeat of the insurgents by the Papal troops. With no- little difficulty they escaped to Forli, where the elder, who had taken a fever, died in the arms of the younger brother, and Charles Louis became the representative head of the Bonaparte famUy and assumed the title of Prince Louis Napoleon. Making his escape from Foi-li in the dis- guise of a footman, and suffering from the- disease which had proved fatal to his brother, the future successor to the Napoleonic title reached Cannes, where the ex-queen, his mother, had already arrived with the desire to remain within French territory, that she and her son might enter Paris and there re- main during the recovery of the latter from his illness; but this was forbidden, as might have been expected of so astute a government as that of Louis Philippe, and they set out for London, whence, after a short stay, they re- turned to Switzerland. There they remained until 1836. Louis Napoleon (as he was now called), pursuing his military studies, writing treatises on artillery,— one of which, along with an essay on the Swiss Confederation, gained for him the honorary citizenship of the canton of Thurgau,— and generally biding his time, but always prpfessing to regard himself as the THE STEASBURG FIASCO. 197 representative of the Napoleoa dynasty, and intimating that he had no inconsiderable ex- pectations that his star would one day be in the ascendant, and that he would restore the family prestige in Fi-ance. Among his beliefs, or his fanci^ was that of the effect which the name and the presence of aBonapai-te, the heir to the empire, would have upon the IVench soldiery; and as he had secm-ed a few followers, who, if they were themselves politi- cal adventurers, and therefore were willing to embark in a wild enterprise, appear to have been impressed wdth his claims and his expec- tations, he determined to make the experiment. He had already published among his treatises a kind of political scheme, dreamy, but not ■without a certain subtle adaptation to the changed conditions of things in relation to his own pretensions. It was called Riveries Politiques, and united Republican views with the advocacy of an Imperial organ- ization. Substituting the word empire for monarchy its scheme was much the same as that which Lafayette and other politicians had expected to be established by the election of Louis Philippe — '"a monai-chy surrounded by republican institutions.'' But the "monarchy of the barricades" had already approached to the confines of absolutism: Lafayette and others of his way of thinking had been di-iven to the opposition, and possibly the condition of France seemed to indicate that the attempt to re-establish a constitutional empire on the ruins of a limited monarchy might be success- fuL At all events, Louis Xapoleon and his friends determined that the experiment should be made, and though its egregious failure and the ridicule that it excited might have pi-e- vented most men from making further preten- sions — and it was afterwards repeated with no more success and no less ridicule — the hero of that apparently amazing absurdity was soon to vindicate before the world his claims not only to rule France, but to carry on the government of the country for many years with extraordinary success. People cannot even now help wondering how a man who made the wild attempt of 1836 should afterwards have developed so remarkable an ability as he displayed on many occasions during his long conti-ol of the political movements of France ; but one is at the same time impressed by the fact that there was always something theatrical about Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, even when he sat moody and somewhat apart at the assemblies to which he was invited in London, whither he came soon after the failure of his first pro- ject for reviving the Napoleonic idea in France. In October, 1836, he presented himself before the ofBcers of the garrison at Sti-asburg, fol- lowed by some of his adherents, and di-essed in the fashion of the first Napoleon. Strangely enough his calculations seemed at first likely to be realized, for the artillery officers, who probably already knew him by reputation, were inclined to favour his pretensions though the infantry remained loyal. At five o'clock on the following morning he and his fiiends entered the artillery barracks unopposed. The officer in command ordered the reveille to be sounded and the men to be assembled on parade, where Lovds Napoleon addressed them in a speech which was an imitation of those of his uncle, and was actually followed by cries of "Vive I'Empereur!" The men pre- pared to follow him and he led them to the infantry quarters, but there they were received with levelled muskets, and while the colonel (Talandier) went forward and tore the epaulets from the shoulders of the officer of artOlery the corps was surrounded and compelled to surrender, Louis Napoleon and his friends being arrested. Louis Philippe with some dignity refrained from a regular prosecution. It is perhaps un- necessary to inquire whether his clemency proceeded from a certain disdain for what was generally regai-ded as a preposterous en- terprise, or from a suspicion that a trial might have the effect of arousing fresh interest in the Bonapartists and the professed successor to the imperial claims. The course adopted was to exclude Louis Napoleon from France for ten years. A frigate was provided to con- vey him to America, and he accepted the pro- posal ; but he was only a short time in exile, for hearing that bis mother was dangerously ill, he perhaps thought the inteUigence was sufficient to excuse his breach of parole, and 198 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. in the autumn of 1838 he was in Arenen- berg, where she died on the 3d of October, 1837, only two months after his arrival. The Swiss diet refused the demand of the French ministry for his extradition, as he had been made a citizen of one of their cantons, and a serious complication was imminent, for if the threat to use force had been carried out a declaration of war would have ensued. To prevent a result which would have been so disastrous to his protectors, the returned exile came to England and took up his abode in London, where he was well known in society, frequently associated with the aristocracy, and at the same time was in communication with the friends of the Napoleonic dynasty. He must, however, have had much difficulty from want of pecuniary resources, and he probably underwent frequent privations. One obstacle to his expectations (people called them dreams) of one day ruling over France was removed by the death of Charles X. at Goritz in Styria, an event which excited very little attention, as the cause of the Legitimatists had already fallen to a very low ebb indeed — so low that there was no longer any necessity for detain- ing the former minister Polignac and his companions in prison. They were, therefore, liberated, some of them on condition of their quitting the kingdom, while others were per- mitted to choose a particular district of France to which they were to be confined. The re- newed successes of the army in Algeria again diverted the attention of the people from political disturbance. By the beginning of the year 1838 a hundred native tribes had submitted. In April of the same year a road had been cleared twenty-two leagues in length from Constantine to the sea, and the coast of the bay at Stora became a French colony. In the autumn a new city called Philippeville had been founded, and by the 1st of January, 1839, the war was temporarily at an end. In our review of the successive events which had marked the progress of the nation for seventeen years, from 1820 to 1837, we have had frequent occasion to speak of the violent antagonism of the two extreme sections of politicians, — and it may be well to mention that while we have characterized several poli- ticians by using terms, which were at the time and have since been accepted as describing accurately their attitude in relation to the country, we have not in any instance assumed that these men truly represented either of the great parties of which they professed to be the adherents— and of which they were assuredly not the really intelligent supporters. At the time when our present sovereign came to the throne a remarkable, and to many persons a surprising, change had taken place in many of the " views " which had formerly distinguished the Eaidicals on the one hand and the Tories on the other, a change which was perhaps first distinctly expressed by the adoption of the title of " Conservative" by the latter — a term which was afterwards to find an antithesis in the word " Liberal " as denot- ing the opposite party in the legislature. This remark will in some measure illustrate the kind of progress which had already been made during the five yeai-s after the passing of the Eeform Bill. But it is necessary for the gen- eral reader to reflect that a change little less in proportion has been going on during the last forty years. The turbulent proceedings of those who then, while they called themselves Eadicals, too frequently countenanced, if they did not actually promote, insurrection for the sake of achieving political triumphs, would now neither be acknowledged nor tolerated even by extreme members of the Liberal party; nor would any intelligent ultra-Con- servative of the present day regard with com- placency that obstinate antagonism to the abolition of slavery, the reform of the poor- laws, the relief from certain religious dis- abilities, and other measures, which was dis- played by the threats and denunciations of some of the so-called Tories of the calibre which Macaulay designated as "stern and unbending." It is in fact almost impossible for ordinary people of the present time who have been witnesses of the further political reforms carried out if not inaugurated under a Con- servative government to realize the preju- dices which had to be overcome by the moderate and far-seeing members of both PEEJUDICE AGATS'ST REFORM. 199 parties in the state, before national progress either in political or in social relations could be achieved. But the first step was the most difficult, for it ■was less a step than a mighty stnde, and there were men on both sides who regarded it as a leap in the dark. Xot the exti-eme section only — those who by their Timlence or their obduracy brought discredit or embarrassment to the party to which they claimed to belong, but even the more moder- ate — the " Conservatives'' of that day — showed a reluctance which can only be intelligible to a Tory of our own time by considering for how long a period the country had been com- mitted to a system the disturbance of which was to root up all kinds of strong interests and to bring to the surface nobody knew what shifting and untried elements. The character and proceedings of the first parliament returned after the Reform Bill was passed were watched with keen attention by all, by ansious apprehension in the case of a few. Anything more extravagant thxn the feais of timid Whigs and Tories of the old school can hardly be imagined. We have, it is true, seen something like it in our own day. The late Mr. Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall) was a lawyer and a man of the world as well as a poet. In the latter capacity he mig ht be exctised for having some notion that a general turning upside down would follow Mr. Disraeli's reform bfll in 1869. At all events, he was in a great fright for his property and his pictures. But at the time when the first Reform Bill was new men of business, who were anything but poets, were, out of mere terror of change, investing their money in American or Scandinavian securities! Tet when Lord Sidmouth re- proached Earl Grey (in the lobby of the House of Lords) with having conspired to ruin and revolutionize England, Grey replied, "MM-k my words, in a few years we shall be accused of having introduced the most aris- tocratic measure that has been known for generations." Lord Sidmouth had actually quoted and applied a well-known speech of the dying Queen Elizabeth to a traitre^ — "God may forgive, I cannot.'' The utter futility of all the terror was soon shown by the sequeL Almost before the ashes of Grattan and Old Sarum were cold, England again saw a Conservative ministry in power. But it is worth while to turn back for a moment to one of the episodes of the debates in which it was in vain attempted to arrest the progress of the measm-e. Sir Robert Harry Inglis, member for Oxford University, was a model Tory, a noble, cultivated, gener- ous specimen of the schooL "I firmly be- lieve," said he, "that a representative system so entirely popular as that which the noble lord [Russell] wishes to introduce, has never yet been found to co-exist with a free press on the one hand and a monarchy on the other. Xo in- stance, sir, I am sure, can be pointed to where a popular representation aided by a free press on the one hand, can be found in juxtaposition with a monarchy. On the very day when the House of Commons murdered their king they voted the House of Lords useless. I think the one thing will follow the other as natur- ally as effect must follow cause. I say that in proportion as you increase the influence of the popular will in the House of Commons you risk the existence of the sovereign and the House of Peers. The thing may not happen to-day or to-morrow, but I am firmly convinced that if the proposed plan be agreed to, in the course of ten years the shock must be decisive. I have no doubt that the inten- tions of the noble lords were not to disturb the peers in their house; but whatever their intentions may be, I for one am quite sure that if thig measure be carried, it wiU sweep the House of Lords dean in the course of ten years.'' Here we have a plain prophecy on the part of an able and amiable man that in ten years the sovereign would be murdered and the second chamber abolished, — ^by the pressure of the people. Yet we have seen that it was not the people, but a few Tory lords, with a royal duke at their head, who wanted to de- throne the king. For the rest, let us hear a few words from Macaulay" s answer. '•What facts does my honourable friend produce in support of his opinion ? One fact only — and that a fact which has absolutely nothing to do with the question. The efiSect 200 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEABIBS. of this reform, he tells us, -would be to make the House of Commons all-powerful. It was all-powerful once before — in the beginning of 1649. Then it cut oflf the head of the king and abolished the House of Peers. Therefore, if this reform should take place it will act in the same manner. Now, sir, it was not the House of Commons that cut off the head of Charles I., nor was the House of Commons then all-powerful. It had been greatly re- duced in numbers by successive expulsions. It was under the absolute dominion of the army. A majority of the house was willing to take the terms offered by the king. The soldiers turned out the majority, and the minority, not a sixth part of the whole house, passed those votes of which my honourable friend speaks — votes of which the middle class disapproved then, and of which they disapprove still." There is no need to dwell at any length upon the reasons by which the antagonists to the first Eeform BUI justified much of their opposition, but it wiU at least be intelligible to readers of to-day that it was an unfortunate thing for the Liberal or Eadical party during all those years that they found themselves of necessity in more or less close alliance with O'Connell, and his " many-jointed taU," as it was the fashion to call his followers. Of course the changes which took place in the "views" of many able men both in and out of parliament after the passing of the Eeform Bill, and for many succeeding years of progress and of political activity, met with the usual amount of censure and of reproach from those who stood up for what they called con- sistency; and doubtless prominent statesmen on the Tory side delayed yielding to the in- evitable impulse which afterwards pressed them forward, until they were convinced that the condition of the country and the resistless march of public opinion made it not only consistent but absolutely necessary that they should acknowledge their responsibilities, and accept a leadership by which they might, as they thought, regulate, and to some extent con- trol, the pace to which the people were being urged by continued political excitement. There could have been no more significant recognition of the necessity for an alteration of standpoint on the part of the leader of the Tory party than was afforded by the banquet given to Sir Eobert Peel by the Conservative members of the House of Commons in 1838. The invitation was signed by no fewer than 313 members of the lower house, and 300 were present at the assembly, which was designed to afford to the leader of the opposition an oppor- tunity of explaining and defending his policy, not only to those supporters who proposed to give him honour but to the whole nation. Even the remarkable tact and calm self-control of Peel could not suffice to protect him from the charges of inconsistency which were brought against him by those who refused to believe that any changes were required. They had for some time previously regarded him with suspicion if not with dislike, and now only supported him because there was no other alternative but for them to join the Whigs. They wei-e too few of themselves to form a separate party, and had too little influence to ensure them the choice of a leader. At this large and important meeting therefore Sir Eobert was able to declare that he had created a "Conservative" party; that in the first dis- solution in 1835, when he was at the head of the government of the country, the Conserva- tive members had suddenly increased from 150 to above 300; and that when a dissolution took place in 1837, with every circumstance calculated to be favourable to those in power, the result of the general election showed their numbers undiminished. This Conservative party was in fact composed of two sections: those who, like Peel himself, admitted and were not unwilling to grant the demand for moderate reform, and were to a great extent in sympathy with the less extreme party of the reformers; and those who, while they were prepared to make some concessions to public opinion, deprecated any decided and distinct advances in the direction of popular claims. These gentlemen supported Sir Eobert because they believed that he was a safe and cautious statesman, who would judiciously yield only as much as would be warrantable, or would in their opinion be consistent with safety. At the same time many changes, or rather ME. GLADSTONE ON CHAJv'GES OF POLITICAL OPINION. 201 advances of opinion, had already become obvious, and the curious result in some in- stances seems to have been, that the men who were apparently representatives of rather hard- and-fast lines of Tory opinion, but who had neither expressed these opinions in violent denunciations nor professed to be for ever imalterable in their predilections, were left to occupy a position which led to their being ranked with those "stem unbending'' poli- ticians who were referred to by Macaulay, and with whom he associated Mr. Gladstone, then in the early days of his political career. But the young member for Newark (he was only twenty-nine at about the time of the Conservative banquet) has been perhaps the most striking example among modem states- men of that change of standpoint which is justified, and as he himself says, is alone to be justified, by the responsibility which is en- tailed upon a representative of the country to be in prompt and efiectual sympathy with, the great movements of the public mind. Mr. Gladstone has often enough been contin- ually charged with inconsistency; and for some time he saw the effects of those acctisations when he, who had been so earnest a supporter of the Irish Church Establishment in 1838, became instrumental in causing its demohtion thirty years afterwards. "So far as my ob- servation has gone," he wrote in 1868, "the Liberal party of this country have stood fire unflinchingly under the heavy voUeys which have been fired into its camp with ammuni- tion that has been drawn from depositories full only of matter personal to myself. And, with the confidence they entertain in the jus- tice and wisdom of the policy they recommend, it would have been weak and childish to act otherwise. StiU I should be glad to give them the means of knowing that the case may not after all be so scandalous as they are told. In the year 1827, if I remember right, when Mr. Canning had just become prime minister, an effort was made to support him in the town of Liverpool, where the light and music of his eloquence had not yet died away, by an address to the crown. The proposal was sup- ported by an able and cultivated Unitarian minister, Mr. Shepherd, who had been one of Mr. Canning's opponents at former periods in the Liverpool elections. Vindicating the con- sistency of his course, he said he was ready to support the devil himself if it had been necessary in doing good. This was a succinct and rough manner of disposing of the question in the last resort. I hope, however, that those who sustain the Liberal policy respecting the Established Church of Ireland will not be driven to so dire an extremity. ... In theory at least, and for others, I am myself a purist with respect to what touches the con- sistency of statesmen. Change of opinion, in those to whose judgment the public looks more or less to assist its own, is an evil to the country, although a much smaller evU than their persistence in a course which they know to be wrong. It is not always to be blamed. But it is always to be watched with vigilance, always to be challenged and put on its trial. It can hardly escape even cursory observation," continues Mr. Gladstone, "that the present century has seen a great increase in the in- stances of what ia called political inconsistency. It is needless, and it would be invidious to refer to names. Among the living, however, who have occupied leading positions, and among the dead of the last twenty years, numerous instances will at once occur to the mind, of men who have been constrained to abandon in middle, and mature, or even in advanced hfe, convictions which they had cherished through long years of conflict and vicissitude; and of men, too, who have not been so fortunate as to close or continue their career in the same poHtical connection as that in which they commenced it. If we go a little farther back, to the day of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox, or even to the day of Mr. Canning, Lord Londonderry, or Lord Liver- pool, we must be struck with the difference. A great political and social revulsion like the French revolution of necessity deranged the ranks of party, yet not even then, did any man of great name, or of a high order of mind, permanently change his side." Mr. Gladstone contends that if we have witnessed in the last forty years, beginning with the epoch of Catholic emancipation, a great increase in the changes of party, or of 202 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. opinion, among prominent men, we are not at once to leap to the conclusion, that public character as a rule has been either less upright or even less vigorous. The explanation, he says, is to be found in the fact that the movement of the public mind has been of a nature entirely transcending former experience; and that it has likewise been more promptly and more effectively represented than at any earlier period in the action of the government and the legislature. "The gradual transfer of political power from groups and limited classes to the community, and the constant seething of the public mind in fermentation upon a vast mass of moral and social, as well as merely political interests, offer conditions of action in which it is evident that the statesman, in order to preserve the same amount of consistency as his antecessors in other times, must be gifted with a far larger range of foresight ; but nature has endowed him with no such superiority. It may be true that Sir Eobert Peel showed this relative deficiency in foresight with re- ference to Eoman Catholic emancipation, to reform, and to the corn -law. It does not fol- low with respect to many who have escaped the reproach that they could have stood the trial. For them the barometer was less un- steady, the future less exacting in its de- mands." This is Mr. Gladstone's explanations of those changes in the political situation of statesmen, many of which commenced at the period when the principles of the Conservative party began to be distinguished from the tenets of the older Toryism ; but Mr. Gladstone him- self had to explain more than this. He had to account for an entire alteration of opinions and a subversion of the main declaration by which he held that the Irish Church Estab- lishment should be supported. Nor does he shrink from the duty or the responsibility. It still remains true that the actual opinions and professions of men in office, and men in authority without office, are among the main landmarks on which the public has to rely, and he admits that, in vindicating an appa- rent liberty of change, we may seem to de- stroy the principal guarantees of integrity which are available for the nation at large. and with these all its confidence in the per- sons who are to manage its affairs. This, he asserts, would be " a consequence so fatal that it might drive us back upon the hopeless attempt to stereotype the minds of men, and fasten on their manhood the swaddling-clothes of their infancy." But this is not the alter- native. We cannot forbid the changes, but we may regulate them by subjecting them to the test of public scrutiny, and by directing that scrutiny to the enforcement of the laws of moral obligation. "There are abundant signs by which to distinguish between those changes which prove nothing worse than the fallibility of the individual mind, and man- oeuvres which destroy confidence and entail merited dishonour." In the latter portion of his defence, or rather his explanations, Mr. Gladstone says — " Changes which are sudden and precipitate — changes accompanied with a light and contemptuous repudiation of the former self — changes which are systematically timed and tuned to the interest of personal advancement — changes which are hooded and slurred over or denied — for these changes, and such as these, I have not one word to say; and if they can be justly charged upon me, I can no longer desire that any portion, how- ever small, of the concerns or interests of my countrymen should be lodged in my hands." Coming to the immediate reason for these declarations Mr. Gladstone refers to the com- plete change which his views have undergone with respect to the Irish Church. " Let me now endeavour," he says, "to state the offence of which I am guilty. Ille ego qui quondam: I, the person who have now accepted a fore- most share of the responsibility of endeavour- ing to put an end to the existence of the Irish Church as an establishment, am also the per- son who of all men in official, perhaps in public life, did, until the year 1841, recommend upon the highest and most imperious grounds its resolute maintenance." We have already referred to the part Mr. Gladstone took in the debates on the Irish Tithe and the Church Estates in Ireland, and we may now, even though we go a little be- yond the date at which our next chapter will commence, refer to the particular circum- MACAULAY AND GLADSTONE. 203 stances to which he alludes in his compara- tively recent explanations. During the au- tumn of 1838 he was suffering from a disorder of the eyes, and as the Peel administration was not in power he made a tour in the south of Europe, and no doubt noted many things which were emphasized when he afterwards took up the cause of Italian prisoners. Pre- vious to this journey, however, he had written his work on The State in its Relations with the Church, and it was printed while he was away. The distinctive principle of this book was intended to be, that the state had a con- science — or, more strictly speaking, a con- science which should take cognizance of reli- gious truth and error; and the question which was involved was, whether the state of the United Kingdom was under an obligation to give an active and exclusive support to the "established religion" of the country. The essay attempted to survey the actual relations between the state and the church, to show from history the ground which had been defined for the national church at the Eefor- mation, and to inquire and determine whether the existing state of things should be pre- served and defended against encroachment, from whatever quarter it might be appre- hended. This question it decided emphati- cally in the affirmative. Summarizing his chief reasons for the main- tenance of the church establishment, Mr. Glad- stone says : — " Because the government stands with us in a paternal relation to the people, and is bound in all things to consider not merely their existing tastes, but the capabili- ties and ways of their improvement ; because it has both an intrinsic competency and exter- nal means to amend and assist their choice ; because to be in accordance with God's mind and will it must have a religion, and because to be in accordance with its conscience that religion must be the truth, as held by it under the most solemn and accumulated responsibi- lities; because this is the only sanctifying and preserving principle of society, as well as of the individual, — ^that particular benefit with- out which all others are worse than valueless ; we must disregard the din of political conten- tion, and the pressure of worldly and momen- tary motives, and in behalf of our regard to man, as well as of bur allegiance to God, main- tain among ourselves, where happUy it still exists, the union between church and state." Macaulay came down upon this book in perhaps less than his usual forcible style, inasmuch as he paid to the author a deserved compliment. "That a young politician," he says, "should, in the intervals afforded by his parliamen- tary avocations, have constructed and pro- pounded, with much study and mental toil, an original theory on a great problem in poli- tics, is a circumstance which, abstracted from all consideration of the soundness or unsound- ness of his opinions, must be considered as highly creditable to him. . . . Mr. Gladstone seems to be in many respects exceedingly well qualified for philosophical observation. His mind is of large grasp ; nor is he deficient in dialectical skill. But he does not give his intellect fair play. There is no want of light, but a great want of what Bacon would have called dry light." But he adds — " Whatever Mr. Gladstone sees is refracted and distorted by a false medium of passions and prejudices. His style bears a remarkable analogy to his mode of thinking, and indeed exercises great influence on his mode of thinking. His rhe- toric, though often good of its kind, darkens and perplexes the logic which it should illus- trate. Half his acuteness and diligence, with a barren imagination and a scanty vocabulary, would have saved him from almost all his mistakes. He has one gift most dangerous to a speculator — a vast command of a kind of language, grave and majestic, but of vague and uncertain import ; of a kind of language which affects us much in the same way in which the lofty diction of the chorus of ' Clouds ' affected the simple-hearted Athenian." In this criticism there is something to re- mind one of the lines — "It was all very well to dissemble your love, But why did you kick me down stairs?" but apart from "the amenities," Macaulay's judgment on the work was sound, and was afterwards admitted to be sound by the author himself. 204 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. Macaulay maintained that Mr. Gladstone's ■whole theory in this work rested upon one great fundamental proposition, viz. that the propagation of religious truth is one of the chief ends of government cw government; and he proceeded to combat this theory. Admit- ting that government was designed to protect our persons and our property, the critic de- clined to receive the doctrine of paternal gov- ernment until some such government should be shown, as loved its subjects as a father loves his child, and was as superior in intelli- gence to its subjects as a father was to his child. Macaulay then demonstrated, by happy illustrations, the fallacy of the doctrine that every association of human beings which exercises any power whatever is bound, as such an association, to profess a religion. There could, he said, be unity of ■ action in large bodies without unity of religious views. Persecutions would naturally follow, or be justifiable, in a society where Mr. Gladstone's views were paramount. No circumstance could be conceived in which it would be pro- per to establish, as the one exclusive religion of the state, the religion of the minority. The religious instruction which the ruler ought, in his public capacity, to patronize is the instruction from which he in his conscience believes that the people will learn the most good with the smallest mixture of evil. It is not necessarily his own religion that he will select. He may prefer the doctrines of the Church of England to those of the Church of Scotland, but he would not force the former upon the inhabitants of Scotland. Of course the Dissenters were strongly op- posed to the declarations contained in the book, and a commentator in the Quarterly Review regarded it from yet another stand- point, representing that as a necessary conse- quence of a profounder philosophy than that of Coleridge and thinkers of his school, Mr. Gladstone had taken far higher grounds in his argument than had been occupied by the defenders of the Church for many years. "He has seen through the weakness and fallacy of the line of argument pursued by Warburton and Paley. And he has most wisely aban- doned the argument from expediency, which offers little more than an easy weapon to fence with while no real danger is apprehended; and has insisted chiefly on the claims of duty and truth— the only consideration which can animate and support men in a real struggle against false principles." The writer of this review, however, contended emphatically that a popular government cannot long maintain a religion which is opposed to the feelings of the nation. If the people of this country combined to attack the Church, the king, lords, and commons would be compelled to abandon it. This, in effect, was the conclusion at which Mr. Gladstone himself afterwards arrived. It is pleasant to recal the fact that directly he received an early copy of the review Mr. Gladstone wrote to Macaulay, and that in his letter, and in the reply that was sent to it, there are none of those asperities which might have been expected. The following was the letter to Macaulay : — " 6 Carlton Gardens, April 10, 18S9. " Dear Sir, — I have been favoured with a forthcoming number of the Edinburgh Review, and I perhaps too much presume upon the bare acquaintance with you of which alone I can boast, in thus unceremoniously assuming you to be the author of the article entitled " Cliurch and State," and in offering you my very warm and cordial thanks for the manner in which you have treated both the work and the author on whom you deigned to bestow your attention. In whatever you write, you can hardly hope for the privilege of most anonymous productions, a real con- cealment ; but if it had been possible not to recognize you, I should have questioned your authorship in this particular case, because the candour and singlemindedness which it ex- hibits are, in one who has long been connected in the most distinguished manner with politi- cal party, so rare as to be almost incredible. " I hope to derive material benefit, at some more tranquil season, from a consideration of your argument throughout. I am painfully sensible, whenever I have occasion to reopen the book, of its shortcomings, not only of the subject, but even of my own conceptions ; and I am led to suspect that, under the influence ME. GLADSTONE'S VIEWS IN 1838. 205 of most kindly feelings, you have omitted to criticise many things besides the argument, which might fairly have come within your animadversion. In the meantime I hope you will allow me to apprise you that on one material point especially I am not so far removed from you as you suppose. I am not conscious that I have said either that the ' Test Act' 1 should be repealed, or that it should not have been passed: and though on such subjects language has many bearings which escape the view of the writer at the moment when his pen is in his hand, yet I think that I can hardly have put forth either of these propositions, because I have never en- tertained the corresponding sentiments. Un- doubtedly I should speak of the pure abstract idea of church and state as implying that they are coextensive : and I should regard the pre- sent composition of the state of the United Kingdom as a deviation from that pure idea, but only in the same sense as all differences of religious opinion in the church are a deviation from its pure idea, while I not only allow that they are permitted, but believe that (within limits) they were intended to be per- mitted. There are some of these deflections from abstract theory which appear to me allowable ; and that of the admission of persons not holding the national creed into civil office is one which, in my view, must be determined by times and circumstances. At the same time I do not recede from any protest which I have made against the principle, that reli- gious differences are irrelevant to the question of competency for civil office: but I could take my stand between the opposite extremes, the one that no such differenced are to be taken into view, the other that aU such differ- ences are to constitute disqualification. " I need hardly say the question I raise is not whether you have misrepresented me, for, were I disposed to anything so weak, the whole internal evidence and clear intention of your article would confute me: indeed, I feel I ought to apologize for even supposing that you may have been mistaken in the ap- 1 Mr. Gladstone here refers to the Act for repealing the Test. prehension of my meaning, and I freely admit on the other hand the possibility that, totally without my own knowledge, my language may have led to such an interpretation. In these lacerating times one clings to anything of personal kindness in the past, to husband it for the future, and if you will allow me I shall earnestly desire to carry with me such a recollection of your mode of dealing with the subject ; inasmuch as the attainment of truth, we shall agree, so materially depends upon the temper in which the search for it is insti- tuted and conducted. " I did not mean to have troubled you at so much length, and I have only to add that I am, with much respect, dear Sir, very truly yours, " "W. E. Gladstone. "To T. B. Macaulay, Esq." The reply soon followed. " 3 Clarges Street, April 11, 1839. "My dear Sir, — I have very seldom been more gratified than by the very kind note which I have just received from you. Your book itself, and everything that I heard about you, though almost aU. my information came — to the honour, I must say, of our troubled times — from people very strongly opposed to you in politics, led me to regard you with respect and good-will, and I am truly glad that I have succeeded in marking those feel- ings. I was half afraid when I read myself over again in print, that the button, as is too common in controversial fencing, even be- tween friends, had once or twice come off the foU. " I am very glad to find that we do not differ so widely as I had apprehended about the 'Test Act.' I can easily explain the way in which I was misled. Your general principle is that religious nonconformity ought to be a disqua- lification for civil office. In page 238 you say that the true and authentic mode of ascertain- ing conformity is the act of communion. I thought, therefore, that your theory pointed directly to a renewal of the ' Test Act.' And I do not recollect that you have ever used any expression importing that your theory ought in practice to be modified by any con- siderations of civil prudence. All the excep- 206 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOBAEIES. tions that you mention are, as far as I remem- ber, founded on positive contract — not one on expediency, even in cases where the expe- diency is so strong and so obvious that most statesmen would call it necessity. If I had understood that you meant your rules to be followed out in practice only so far as might be consistent with the peace and good govern- ment of society, I should certainly have ex- pressed myself very differently in several parts of my article. "Accept my warm thanks for your kind- ness, and believe me, with every good wish, my dear Sir, very truly yours, " T. B. Macaulat. "W. B. Gladstone, Esq., M.P." In one important point, however, Mr. Glad- stone admits the book was inconsistent with itself; it contained a full admission that a state might, by its nature and circumstances, be incapacitated from upholding and propa- gating a definite form of religion. " There may be a state of things in the United States of America, perhaps in some British colonies there does actually exist a state of things, in which religious communions are so equally divided, or so variously subdi- vided, that the government is itself similarly chequered in its religious complexion, and thus internally incapacitated by disunion from acting in matters of religion-; or, again, there may be a state in which the members of the government may be of one faith or persuasion, the mass of the subjects of another, and hence there may be an external incapacity to act in matters of religion." The book goes on to describe that incapacity, however produced, as a social defect or calam- ity. But the latter part of the work, instead of acknowledging such incapacity as a suf- ficient and indeed commanding plea for ab- stention, went beyond the bounds of modera- tion and treated it as if it must in all cases be a sin, as though any association of men in civil government or otherwise could be responsible for acting beyond the line of the capabilities determined for it by its constitution or com- position. "My meaning," says Mr. Gladstone, "I believe was to describe only cases in which there might be a deliberate renunciation of such duties as there was the power to fulfil. But the line is left too obscurely drawn be- tween this wilful and wanton rejection of opportunities for good, and the cases in which the state of religious convictions, together with the recognized principles of government, dis- able the civil power from including within its work the business of either directly or indi- rectly inculcating religion, and mark out for it a different line of action." But at all events the claim is that the theory of the work was simple enough. As Macaulay at once discovered "Mr. Gladstone's whole theory rests on this great fundamental pro- position, that the propagation of religious truth is one of the principal ends of govern- ment as government. If Mr. Gladstone has not proved this proposition his system vanishes at once." Mr. Gladstone accepts this conclusion as en- tirely just. He did not advocate the main- tenance of the Irish Church in order to avoid disturbing the settlement of property, or lest the government should be driven to repeal the union, or should offend and exasperate the Protestants, or because of the statement that the Irish Church had an indefeasible title to its preperty. He did not urge its support for the spiritual benefit of a small minority, and least of all did he say " maintain it, but estab- lish religious equality by setting up at the public charge other establishments along with it, or by distributing a sop here and a sop there to coax Roman Catholics and Presby- terians into a sort of acquiescence in its being maintained." His contention was that the Church of Ireland must be maintained for the benefit of the whole people of Ireland, and must be maintained as the truth or it could not be maintained at all. Of course it was not, and could not be maintained; and though he held to what were his convictions at the time till he discovered that they were founded on a mis- apprehension of the actual function of the state in relation to religious opinion, though he consistently with his alleged principle op- posed the Maynooth grant on every ground but that of a covenanted obligation, he wa£ at length unable to retain a hold upon the ME. GLADSTONE'S POLITICAL PEOGEESS. 207 theories by which his opinions had been sup- ported. He tells us that scarcely had his book issued from the press when he became aware that there was no party, no section of a party, no individual person probably in the House of Commons, who was prepared to act upon it. He found himself the last man in the sinking ship. He was bound to defend the Irish Church so long as it could be defended on the ground of its truth; but when that ground was definitely abandoned by the government, and a policy was adopted by parliament such as to destroy that plea, he felt that he was equally bound to adopt no other. Exclusive support to the Establishment, with a limited and local excep- tion for Scotland under the treaty of union, had been up to that time the actual rule of poKcy, the instances to the contrary being of equivocal construction and of infinitesimal amount. "The attempt to give this rule a vitality other than that of sufferance," says Mr. Gladstone, "was an anachronism in time and place. When I bid it live it was just about to die. It was really a quickened and not a deadened conscience in the country which insisted on enlarging the circle of state support, even while it tended to restrain the range of political interference in religion. The condition of our poor, of our criminals, of our military and naval services, and the back- ward state of popular education, forced on us a group of questions before the moral pressure of which the old rules properly gave way. At and about the same period new attempts to obtain grants of pubhc money for the buUding of churches in England and Scotland, I am thankful to say, failed. The powerful govern- ment of 1843 also faUed to carry a measure of factory education, because of the preference it was thought to give to the Established Church. I believe the very first opinion which I ever w£is called upon to give in cabinet, was an opinion in favour of the withdrawal of that measure." With this very remarkable instance of the changes which were being wrought in the opinions of some of the leaders of thought and of political action at the period at which this record has now arrived, we close this chapter. The whole subject may well be illustrated by the reference we have made to the special opinions held at that time by a statesman destined soon to hold a prominent place in the councils of the young queen, whose accession was the one great subject of congratulation and rejoicing throughout the nation. CHAPTEE IV. THE BAHLY PART OF OUE QUEEN'S EEIGN. Accession of the Princess Victoria — Admiration of the Young Queen's conduct and character — Proclamation — Coronation — Popular Rejoicing — Parliament — Her Majesty's Advisers — Stockmar — Canada — Re- signation of the "Whigs— Return of Peel— The Ladies of the Bedchamber— Lady Flora Hastings- Restoration of Melbourne Ministry — Popular Expectations and Social and Political Conditions — Mr. Disraeli member for Maidstone — The New Postal System— Grants for Education— Mr. Gladstone in the Opposition — The Eoyal Betrothal — Prince Albert — Marriage of the Queen — Sugar Duties— Com Duties — Sliding Scales— Alarming Condition of the Country — Want and Misery— General Election of 1841— Mr. Gladstone in Office— Income Tax — Demand for Free Trade— The Corn-law League— Cobden — Bright — Meetings in Manchester and London — Chartism — Riots — Mr. Disraeli's Declarations — Peargus O'Connor — Monster Demonstrations and Petitions — Factories Bill — Louis Napoleon's Attempt at Boulogne — Contemporary Men and Events. The Princess Victoria — our little May-flower, as the old Duchess Augusta of Coburg used to call her — had received both the physical and moral training which we are accustomed to persuade ourselves are peculiarly English. Fre- quent robust exercise in the open air — with- out much fear of ordinarily inclement weather — riding, walking, and even yachting excur- sions, to join in which her mother overcame her own repugnance to the sea — simple and becoming attire which allowed unrestrained movement and activity — were all elements in an education which was at the same time truly intellectual. In the accomplishments that belong to a young lady of high rank, no less than in some more solid acquirements, the princess excelled most of the daughters of the aristocracy of that time, and in music and drawing she showed a very special aptitude, which continued to be developed even when affairs of state and her own maternal cares claimed a large part of her attention. The frank and unaffected character of the princess was manifested by the manner in which she received the intelligence that called her to the throne, and by her demeanour at the meeting of the council which took place immediately afterwards. It was two o'clock on the morning of the king's death that the Archbishop of Canter- bury and the Marquis of Conyngham (the lord-chamberlain) left Windsor for Kensing- ton Palace to inform her royal highness of the event, which had been so little anticipated in that quiet household, that when they arrived at about five o'clock they found nobody stir- ring, and had considerable difiiculty in making their presence known. According to the account afterwards received, they knocked, thumped, and rang for a long time before they could rouse the porter at the gate : they were again kept waiting in the courtyard, then turned into one of the lower rooms, where they seemed forgotten by everybody. They rang the bell, and desired that the attendant of the Princess Victoria might be sent to inform her royal highness that they requested an audience on business of importance. After another delay, and another ringing to inquire the cause,, the attendant was summoned, and with an apparently complete inability to understand that anything could be of more importance than her own special charge, stated that the princess was in such a sweet sleep she could not venture to disturb her. The archbishop and the lord-chamberlain must have been lost in admiration at such an example of single regard to immediate and specific duty, but they had to explain that they had come to the queen on business of state, and that even her ADMIEABLE CONDUCT OP THE YOUNG QUEEN. 209 sleep must give way to that. The word "queen," perhaps, impressed the attendant with a sense that she might venture to wake her young mistress, who was so concerned at the probable news, and at her two visitors having been kept waiting on such an occasion, that without causing a further delay of more than a few minutes, she came into the room attired in a shawl over a loose white night- gown, "her night-cap thrown off, and her hair falling upon her shoulders, her feet in slippers, tears in her eyes, but perfectly collected and dignified." Lord Melbourne having been sent for, the privy council was summoned to attend at Kensington at eleven o'clock, and at that hour the youthful queen, with the Duchess of Kent, entered the council chamber. Probably the best and most authentic account of the scene, and of the effect produced on the as- sembly by the appearance and conduct of the young princess thus suddenly placed in such an exalted situation, is that of a diarist who, even though his official position may be sup- posed to have influenced him in speaking of the occasion, his recently published journals show to have been an unsparing, if not a cynical and bitter, recorder of the scenes and events of which he was for so many years a witness. Greville, the clerk of the council, in his journal says : — " Never was anything like the first impression she produced, or the chorus of praise and admiration which is raised about her manner and behaviour, and certainly not without justice. It was very extraordinary, and something far beyond what was looked for. Her extreme youth and inexperience, and the ignorance of the world concerning her, naturally excited intense curiosity to see how she would act on this trying occasion; and there was a considerable assemblage at the palace notwithstanding the short notice which was given. The first thing to be done was to teach her her lesson, which, for this purpose, Melbourne had himself to learn. I gave him the council papers, and explained all that was to be done, and he went and explained all this to her. He asked her if she would enter the room accompanied by the great officers of state, but she said she would come in alone. When the lords were vol. I. assembled the lord-president informed them of the king's death, and suggested, as they were so numerous, that a few of them should repair to the presence of the queen and inform her of the event, and that their lordships were assembled in consequence; and accordingly the two royal dukes (Cumberland and Sussex, the Duke of Cambridge being at Hanover), the two archbishops, the chancellor, and Melbourne went with him. The queen received them in. the adjoining room alone. As soon as they had returned the proclamation was read and the usual order passed, when the doors were thrown open and the queen entered accom- panied by her two uncles, who advanced to meet her. She bowed to the lords, took her seat, and then read the speech in a clear, dis- tinct, and audible voice, and without any ap- pearance of fear or embarrassment. She was quite plainly dressed, and in mourning. After she had read her speech and taken and signed the oath for the security of the Church of Scot- land, the privy-councillors were sworn, the two dukes first by themselves, and as these two old men, her uncles, knelt before her, swearing allegiance and kissing her hand, I saw her blush up to the eyes, as if she felt the contrast between their civil and natural rela- tions, and this was the only sign of emotion which she evinced. Her manner to them was very graceful and engaging : she kissed them both, and rose from her chair and moved towards the Duke of Sussex, who was farthest from her and too infirm to reach her. She seemed rather bewildered by the multitude of men who were sworn, and who came one after another to kiss her hand; but she did not speak to anybody, nor did she make the slightest difference in her manner, or show any in her countenance, to any individual of any rank, station, or party. I particularly watched her when Melbourne and the minis- ters, and the Duke of Wellington and Peel approached her. She went through the whole ceremony, occasionally looking at Melbourne for instruction when she had any doubt what to do, which hardly ever occurred, and with perfect calmness and self-possession, but at the same time with a graceful modesty and propriety particularly interesting and ingrati- 14 210 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTBMPOEAEIES. ating. Peel afterwards said how amazed he was at her manner and behaviour, at her ap- parent deep sense of her situation, her modesty, and, at the same time, her firmness. The declaration signed by all present was in eflfect the proclamation which was to be made on the following day, the 21at of June. Her majesty on her part said: — 'The severe and afflicting loss which the nation has sustained by the death of his majesty, my beloved uncle, has devolved upon me the duty of administer- ing the government of this empire. This awful responsibility is imposed upon me so suddenly, and at so early a period of my life, that I should feel myself utterly oppressed by the burden were I not sustained by the hope that Divine Providence, which has called me to this work, will give me strength for the per- formance of it, and that I shall find in the purity of my intentions, and in my zeal for the public welfare, that support and those re- sources which usually belong to a more mature age and to longer experience. I place my firm reliance upon the wisdom of parliament and upon the loyalty and affection of my people. I esteem it also a peculiar advantage that I succeed a sovereign whose constant regard for the rights and liberties of his subjects, and whose desire to promote the amelioration of the laws and institutions of the country have rendered his name the object of general attach- ment and veneration. Educated in England under the tender and enlightened care of a most affectionate mother, I have learned from my infancy to respect and love the constitution of my native country. It will be my unceas- ing study to maintain the reformed religion as by law established, securing at the same time to all the full enjoyment of religious lib- erty; and I shall steadily protect the rights, and promote to the utmost of my power the happiness and welfare of all classes of my subjects.'" On the following day the young queen, plainly dressed in deep mourning, went to St. James' Palace, where she was to be pro- claimed, and was there met by members of the royal family, cabinet ministers, and offi- cers of the household. It must indeed have been a trying occasion, and one likely to flut- ter a young heart, so that there is little to wonder at in finding it recorded that when Lord Melbourne and Lord Lansdowne led her to the window of the presence-chamber over- looking the courtyard, which was filled with heralds, pursuivants, robed officials, and "civic dignitaries," she looked fatigued and pale. But the proclamation was read by garter- king-at-arms, the band played the national anthem, the guns in the park boomed out a sulphurous chorus which was echoed by the guns at the Tower, and the city dignitaries marched off to repeat the proclamation at various places within their "liberties." There was but one sentiment throughout the country with regard to the personal ad- miration and affection with which the young queen was welcomed, and her abandonment of the name Alexandrina for her second name Victoria in assuming the royal title met with general approval, though it necessitated a change in the rolls documents of the House of Lords and in the printed form of the oath to be presented to the members of the House of Commons. It is true that apprehensions, which were not altogether without reason, existed among the older members of the Tory party. The Melbourne ministry was not likely to be subjected to such vicissitudes as it had suffered from the disaffection of the late sovereign, and as the queen had, it was believed, been taught to look upon the Whigs as her friends and had even been educated in Whig principles, the opposition could scarcely look forward to a return to power. Indeed the Duke of Welling- ton is reported to have regarded the accession of the young queen as a distinct disablement of himself and his colleagues, and he is repre- sented as saying, "I have no small talk, and Peel has no manners," — a remark which we can only infer, from the gallantry of the speaker and his admiration for Peel, was made in a half jesting or satirical manner. But W el- lington, like the rest of the world, looked with interested admiration on the girl sovereign, to whom he afterwards became a trusted friend; and at the coronation, which did not take place till the 28th of June, the "Iron Duke" was greeted with unbounded applause, for he had again become the most popular rOEMEE SECLUDED LIFE OP THE QUEEN. 211 man in England. His known fidelity to the crown and to the country had no small share in enabling the people to forget much in which he had been obstinately mistaken, that they might remember those achievements in which his determination and unyielding courage no less than his great military genius had made him repeatedly successful as the vindicator of English prowess and honour. While we are on the subject of loyalty and good faith, it may be remarked that the suc- cession of a female to the throne severed the connection between the kingdoms of Eng- land and Hanover, which had been maintained ever since George I. reigned over both coun- tries. Probably nobody in Great Britain was sorry for the separation, for Hanover was of little advantage to us, and yet entailed con- siderable expenses, which had been paid out of English taxation. If any sentimental re- gret yet lingered in the minds of any, it may have been dispersed by the reflection that by the death of William IV., it was the Duke of Cumberland who became king of Hanover, and that this countty would be well rid of the man who had been accused, and not acquitted, of having conspired to set aside the succession of a queen, to the oath of allegiance to whom he was now the first to attach his signature. On the 22d of June a royal message was laid on the table of both houses of parliament, stating that in the judgment of her majesty it was inexpedient that any new measures should be recommended for adoption beyond such as might be requisite for carrying on the public service from the close of the session to the meeting of the new parliament on the 15th of November; and the address was unanimously agreed to. Sir Eobert Peel, in a speech of great eloquence, expressed the general sentiments of all parties when he said: " I win venture to say that there is no man who was present when her majesty, at the age of eighteen years, first stepped from the privacy of domestic life to the discharge of the high functions which on Tuesday last she was called on to perform, without entertaining a confident expectation that she who could so demean herseK was destined to a reign of happiness for her people and glory for herself. There is something which art cannot imitate and lessons cannot teach; and there was some- thing in that demeanour which could only have been suggested by a high and generous nature. There was an expression of deep re- gret at the domestic calamity with which she had been visited, and of a deep and awful sense of the duties she was called upon to fulfil — there was a becoming and dignified modesty in all her actions, which could, as I have already observed, only have been dictated by a high and generous nature, brought up, no doubt, under the guidance of one to whose afiection, care, and solicitude she is, and ought to be, deeply grateful. I trust I have said enough to convince the house that all persons, without reference to party distinctions, and in the obUvion, on this day, of all party differ- ences, join in the expression of cordial con- dolence with her majesty on the loss which she and the country have sustained, and in the most heartfelt wish that we are now at the commencement of a long, a nrosperous, and a happy reign." The privacy of the domestic life to which Sir Eobert referred was doubtless one reason of the charm which attracted so much regard to the young queen. Mr. GreviUe — to whose journal we have referred — went so far as to say that she had been kept in seclusion and in the constant society of her mother and of the Baroness Lehzen,who stood in the relation of governess under the title of lady companion; but probably these restrictions did not exclude some young companions chosen as occasional associates, and themselves under the influence of that quiet and unostentatious household. At any rate, the "seclusion" of a young girl from the manners and, one might say, the con- taminations to be found about a court in which there were all the traditions, and not a few of the evU distinctions, that had characterized it in the reign of George the Fourth, was a dis- tinct advantage. To the men who had so long been familiar with these characteristics there was something peculiarly charming in the pre- sence of this young and innocent girl — some- thing perhaps almost bewildering in the notion that with her an entirely new relation would be estabHahed between the ministry and the 212 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES. crown. '• If she had been my own daughter I could not have desired to see her perform her part better," said the Duke of WeUington bluntly — and probably forgetting in his pa- ternal admiration his rather bitter impression that neither he nor Peel would be among her counsellors. Even Greville himself, the un- sparing critic and recorder of the doings of his contemporaries, was under the same influence, for he says, " She held a council, at which she presided with as much ease as if she had been doing nothing else all her life; and though Lord Lansdowne and my colleague had con- trived between them to make some confusion with the council papers^ she was not put out by it. She looked very well ; and though so small in stature, and without much pretensions to beauty, the gracefulness of her manner and the good expression of her countenance gave her on the whole a very agreeable appearance, and with her youth inspire an excessive inter- est in all who approach her, and which I can't help feeling myself." Perhaps the chronicler, whose words were only published to the world long afterwards, felt even while he was writing that he had underrated the personal charm of Victoria, for he adds — in what seems (for him) a sudden burst of enthusiasm — " in short, she appears to act with every sort of good taste and good feeling, as weU as good sense; and so far as it has gone, nothing can be more favourable than the impression she has made, and nothing can promise better than her man- ner and conduct do." These expressions of the sentiments with which the queen was regarded are dwelt on at some length here, because they mark the distinction which was afterwards emphatically observed between a continued affection for and loyalty to the sovereign, and bitter oppo- sition to those by whom she was believed to have been influenced during her political education. That the conflict of parties was likely to be a close one soon became evident; but the Whig ministry, great as its advantages were 1 It has since been stated that Greville himself was the canse of the confnsion, as he had omitted to prepare a paper which he thought was superfluous. supposed to be in regard to the confidence of the queen, had given numerous signs of weak- ness, if not of vacillation. Their intentions and professions were perhaps aU that could be expected or desired at that time, but there was a lack of energy which had already begun to tell upon public opinion. The feeling that they had been gradually losing the con- fidence of the people, who expected a more decided advance in the road to the reform of fiscal as weU as social legislation, increased their perplexity and encouraged the aggression of the opposition, under the powerful leader- ship of Sir Robert Peel, and the attacks of Lyndhurst and Brougham. On the day after the reception of the queen's message Lynd- hurst pronounced a censure upon ministers for their carelessness and incapacity. Only two acts of distinct and special legislation had, he said, been passed in a session of nearly five months' duration, and there were seventy-five public bills depending in the House of Lords; while the foreign policy of the minister* "eUcited the pity of their friends and the scorn and derision of their enemies.'' Lord Melbourne endeavoured to combat these charges, but they could not be contradicted by the recital of measures that had been passed. There was no refuting that which was not un- truly called " the bitter and vehement attack of the learned ex-chancellor." In the House of Commons Lord John Russell had little more definite to say; and one thing that he did say was twisted into an awkward nick- name for himself. Speaking of the Reform Act, he declared, "Her majesty's ministers, while they consider it a final measure, do not intend that it should remain a barren act ujjon the statute-book, but that it should be fol- lowed up in such a manner as will ennoble, invigorate, and enlarge the institutions of the country." Of course it was extremely injudi- cious to speak of " a final measure" in any direc- tion, or to act as though any particular degree of progress would be the limit of legislation (as Sir Robert Peel had to find out not very long afterwards); but it is very doubtful whether Lord John really meant anything more than that the Reform Bill had settled the mode of parliamentary representation for THE SCOTTISH CHURCH— DEMAND FOE EXTENSION. 213 a period beyond which there was then no necessity to look. At any rate his meaning was not such as led the "lower order" of Radicals to dub him " Finality Jack," but by that name he was called for a long time after- ward, and in 1849 he protested that he had "never used the word 'finality' with which his name had somehow become associated." The ministry had no political " cry"' with which to go to the country. They already showed signs not only of feebleness but of in- competency. Had they possessed the courage to risk place and power by announcing that their policy would be the repeal of the corn- laws, or the reduction of the impost on grain to a small fixed duty, they might have secured a triumphant return, instead of being depend- ent on a precarious majority which left them almost at the mercy of the opposition, and was only just sufficient to enable them to cling to ofiice. Brougham was to become practically their most foi-midable opponent. Lyndhurst was their avowed foe. iPeel — calm, cold, stately, some of his enemies said pompous — and with a certain exhibition of suppressed strength — was more than a match for any de- bater on the other side; and his earnestness contrasted with the usual ease of manner and the half-cynical flashes of humour and of sa- tire, which were erroneously supposed to prove Melbourne's studied unconcern for serious business. The only topic on which an appeal to the country could be founded was the opposi- tion of the ministry to the application of the General Assembly for a grant in aid of the extension of the Established Church in Scot- land. The Scottish Church, it was alleged by its representatives in the General As- sembly, found the means of religious instruc- tion in many places so far below the needs of the population, that a grant of no very great amount was required in order to provide more churches and to increase the number of the clergy. The Scottish Church, although it had lost a number of its former members by seces- sions, still included above eleven hundred congregations in various parts of the country, and it was perhaps considered reasonable that it should be dealt with in a difi'erent fashion than that which had partly disendowed, in- stead of re-endowing, the Established Church in Ireland. At first it appeared that the ap- plication of the delegates would be favourably entertained ; but the expectations of the As- sembly were disappointed when a commission of inquiry was appointed, consisting mostly of men who not only were without any par- ticular knowledge of the needs and the con- stitution of the church in Scotland, but who were decidedly averse to making a marked distinction between that church and the church in Ireland. The General Assembly passed a nearly unanimous resolution in the shape of a remonstrance against the constitution of this commission, complaining that some members of it were actually opposed to the connection between church and state, while few of them were realty interested in the church or had such experience as qualified them to take part in such an inquiry. This representation had no efiect in obtaining a change in the commis- sion; and at a second meeting of the Assembly, where eighty-five clergymen and seventy lay elders were present, another resolution was passed, regretting that their former represen- tations were unheeded, and objecting to the conclusion at which the commission had ar- rived — .that where religious instruction and pastoral superintendence were afi'orded by any sect or denomination whatever, there the ser- vices of the Established Church were not re- quired, and might be dispensed with. This, they contended, was at variance with the prin- ciples and policy of the Estabhshed Church, and was calculated to weaken and overthrow it. The General Assembly, therefore, publicly and solemnly protested against such a princi- ple, and declared that they considered it to be the sacred duty of the legislature to support and to protect the national church, and to secure accommodation and religious instruction to the people of Scotland. They approved of members of the church furnishing to the com- mission accurate information on aU statistical matters, and of church courts allowing inspec- tion of, or giving access to, their records of aU entries relating to such matters; but held that it was not competent to the commission- ers to put to individual members any questions 214 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. relating to the doctrine, worship, government, or discipline of the church. This latter demand would appear to place ecclesiastical authority on such a footing with regard to the state from which it sought secu- lar support, that we cease to wonder at the opposition which it created, not only amongst Dissenters and Seceders, but on the part of a ministry which had but just emerged from the heat of discussion on the Irish Church question. The result was that the Dissenting bodies all over the country were aroused; that from Glasgow an anti-state-church peti- tion was signed by 14,000 persons; and that when the report of the commissioners denied the alleged necessity for providing more churches and increasing the number of the clergy by a grant of public money, numbers of Dissenters both in England and Scotland were ready to support the government. This support, however, was not such as to afford a secure majority in a general election, and the effects of the events which had called it forth had considerably diminished. In the absence of any strong claim on the grounds of prospective legislation the friends of the ad- ministration relied chiefly on the representa- tion that the queen was anxious to retain her present advisers, in whom she had complete confidence. Electors were exhorted to sup- port the friends of their young and popular sovereign, and not to return a government to which she would have an aversion at the very commencement of her reign. These representations were not only ill- advised, but were ill-timed. They were made not by the ministers, but by those par- tisans of the ministry who were eager to ob- tain a, majority; and O'Connell and the Irish party were among the hottest advocates of the return of the Whigs, on the ground of the an- tipathy which the queen must necessarily feel to the Tories, who were represented to be her inveterate enemies. The language used by the agitators on both sides was so violent, so exaggerated, that it now appears to be almost incredible that men should have given utter- ance to such fierce invective, such unscrupu- lous denunciation. The whole country was in a state of intense excitement, and many of those politicians who had a reputation for moderate views and guarded statements were carried away in the vortex of party conflict. There can be no doubt that the queen had found her first, and therefore her most trusted, adviser in Lord Melbourne. But whatever may have been his lack of true energy or true statemanship as prime minister, there were few men more capable of explaining to her the duties of her station, and explaining the political constitution of the country. At the same time he was one of the men least likely to make such a duty subservient to his own advantage, or even to the promotion of the party of which he was the chief. Apart from his elegant manners, extensive reading, and agreeable temper, he was one of the kindliest advisers living, and possessed a singularly generous nature. That he was always ready to conciliate may have been a weakness ; but he had that sort of sagacity which in times of only moderate trial will often succeed in "keeping things pleasant," and he had remark- able tact, which added greatly to his social qualities, and was consistent with an un- selfish disposition. For the young queen he entertained a sincere regard, and his admira- tion for her character made him earnestly en- deavour to make her life a happy one, and to instruct her in the duties of state without ex- acting too much from her youth and station. It was no wonder that Victoria should have felt a grateful affection to one who occupied so con- fidential a position, nor that she should have learned to look upon him less as the minister than as the trusted guardian, and herself no more the sovereign than the pupil. When Melbourne's real character was acknowledged after the dust of party strife had cleared away, and he lay dead, it was admitted that though he had neither the political ability nor the intellectual force necessary for the head of a government, at a time when contending in- terests were gathering for a trial of strength, he was not the indolent lounger or the easy cynic which people had half believed him to be, because of his peculiar affectation of levity and indifference to troublesome questions. He was a man with a remarkable capacity for hard work, and with an anxious desire to deal THE QUEEN'S GOVERNESS. 215 justly and fairly with his opponents, which could not have left him at ease, even though he had an extraordinary faculty for looking at the bright side of life — a faculty which could perhaps alone have sustained his true amiabi- lity and gentleness of heart under the peculiar trials of his own domestic life. It is a settled matter now that so far from unfairly using his influence to promote his own interests or to increase his importance, or even to make his party the monopolists of political power, he advised the queen to "hold out the oUve branch a little" to the Tories. He had not contrived the circumstances by which she was impressed that a Tory govem- meat would be less in accordance with her opinions and her desires than the ministry then in power, and he did not endeavour to perpetuate them. He had the reputation of an indifferent lounger, whose manner to earnest deputations and to serious violent politicians appeared to be trivial when com- pared with the sedate and even solemn de- meanour of Peel and the volcanic energy and encyclopaedic attainments of Brougham. Pro- bably it was because of a half humorous sa- tirical sense of the difference between these strenuous statesmen and himself that he ex- aggerated his assumption of careless in- dolence; but the satire was missed, and the affectation was taken for the reality except by a few hke Sydney Smith and Lord Lans- downe, who really knew him. If there was one thing about which his indifference was sincere, it was his own exaltation. He had little of the pride of place or power, and simply laughed away the queen's proposal to bestow upon him the blue ribbon as a mark of her grateful obligations — saying, "A garter may attach to us somebody of consequence whom nothing else wUl reach; but what would be the use of my taking it? I cannot bribe my- self!" But there were reasons, one might almost say a peculiar complication of circumstances, which accounted for the suspicions that the queen was controlled by the Whigs — suspicions which were soon developed into emphatic charges of political intrigue and violent de- nvmciations of the minister for endeavour- ing to surround the throne with his own par- tisans, and to make himself an irremovable minister of state. Of course these invectives must be regarded as having far less meaning at that time of strong utterances and reckless declamation than they would have in our own day, and it must be remembered that the course pursued by the ministerialists in can- vassing votes for the "friends of the young and innocent queen" had much to do with the widely-spread opinion that the crown was en- tirely vmder Whig influence. Another cause of adverse feeling was the position supposed to be held in the royal household by Baron Stockmar. Louise Lehzen, the former governess of the queen, was the daughter of a Hanoverian clergyman, and had first come to England in 1818 as governess to the Princess Feodora of Leinengen, a daughter by the first marriage of the Duchess of Kent. In 1824 she entered upon the same duties for the Princess Victoria; but as she was a foreigner, the title of sub- governess was abandoned for that of "lady in attendance." In 1827 George IV. had raised her to the rank of a Hanoverian ba- roness, and as the Baroness Lehzen she con- tinued her instructions, while from 1831 until the accession of the princess to the throne she acted as sub-governess under the Duchess of Northumberland, who had been appointed governess. After the accession of her royal pupU she remained for some time as lady in attendance and companion to the queen. The baroness may be said to have been private secretary to her majesty as regarded personal matters and non-poUtical correspondence; but it was necessary that there should be some one to attend not only to these personal affairs but to those that had reference to state topics — a private secretary in fact, who should hold a confidential relation between the ministry and the crown. There were, however, some difficulties in the way of appointing such a person. George III. had laboriously done his own secretarial work until he became blind, and he then appointed Colonel Herbert Taylor as his private secretary, and paid his salary out of the funds at the disposal of the crown. This arrangement was very seriously 216 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. objected to, and the appointment of a private secretary at all was regarded with disfavour. When the prince regent appointed Colonel MacMahon as his secretary, and wished to have his salary paid out of the public funds, the appointment was attacked in parliament as being unconstitutional. The opponents declared that secrets of state should not be allowed to a third party beside the king and the ministers, and argued that a private secre- tary would be as it were a court of revision above the cabinet. This was denied by the ministry, who represented that a secretary was necessary to assist the regent in his private correspondence, and to get through the mass of mechanical labour which devolved upon the sovereign in the transaction of pubhc business, that the private secretary had no political responsibihty, that his office in no way interfered with the duties of any minister, and that the ministers of the crown remained the legal and constitutional instruments by whom all public business had to be transacted. The regent therefore kept his secretary, but was obliged to pay him out of the privy purse in- stead of from public money. William IV. had reinstated his father's former secretary, Sir Herbert Taylor, and though no opposi- tion was manifested to this appointment, it may have been the impression that a person possessing so much knowledge relating both to private and state affairs, and holding so confidential a position in relation to the sove- reign, was able to exert very considerable poli- tical influence. All this made it seem unde- sirable to appoint any one to the situation of private secretary to the young queen. It would seem to be obvious enough, how- ever, that some of these considerations were against the performance of the secretarial duties by the prime minister, or, indeed by any minister, and although by not naming any one to the post the possible intrigues which would have arisen in order to secure so influential an appointment were avoided, it was at the expense of lea?ying the ministry open to the charge of having endeavoured to take advantage of the existing inclination of the queen towards a Whig government, and to make it appear that the Tories were so inimical to her interests that her only hope of happiness, if not of personal security, would depend upon the retention of the existing government. It has already been mentioned that Lord Melbourne emphatically denied these accusa- tions, 30 far as he was personally concerned, and it seems pretty certain that neither he nor Earl Eussell used what would have been considered undue influence. Indeed the queen, though she has in quite recent times acknowledged (in those admirable memoirs which have been published to the world) that she then " indulged strong feelings of political partisanship," was even in those early days no mere puppet of state to be exhibited for the advantage of a ministry, but had a judgment capable of forming definite and fairly accurate conclusions — as was afterwards shown by the confidence which she placed in Sir Robert Peel, and the relation which she continued to sustain to both parties. But we have already referred to Melbourne's personal claims on the queen's regard, to his devotion to her happi- ness, and to the easy and kindly manner in which he instructed her in public afiairs. It was impossible but that he should have strong influence, and it was almost as impossible that the opponents of the ministry should refrain from representing him as a crafty time-server, who endeavoured to make himself indispen- sable and surrounded the sovereign with his friends and subordinates that he might be ruler of the state. The very fact that Mel- bourne was then in his fifty-eighth year, a moderate Liberal, careless of power, and with a confirmed habit of that kind of heedlessness which consists in a desire to avoid strife and to let troublesome questions alone, gave occa- sion to hispolitical enemies. He was too careless to avoid yielding to his friends and supporters advantages which he would never have taken for himself ; and thus from good nature and the kind of easy scepticism that saw "nothing worth making a fuss about," where more ear- nest politicians thought they detected the abandonment of a principle, he aroused sus- picions, which damaged and ultimately helped to ruin his party, and to exclude him from power. BAEON STOCKMAE. 217 Nor was the general suspicion of undue in- fluence diminislied by the presence in the royal household of Baron Stockmar, who, though he was a man of known integrity and of singular sensitiveness to any imputation of interference in political matters, occupied both then and afterwards a very pecuHar relation to the queen and to her social interests. Christian Friedrich Stockmai- had formerly been the confidential secretary, the physician, the trusted friend and adviser of Leopold. It was he who alone could break to the prince the distressing news of the death of the Princess Charlotte in 1817; it was to him that the bereaved hus- band first spoke after kneeling by the bedside and kissing the cold hands of the wife whom he had loved. "He pressed me to him," wrote Stockmar, "and said, 'I am now quite deso- late; promise me always to stay with me.'" He did stay, and gave a lifelong service. "My health is tolerable," he wrote in the same letter which has just been quoted, "for though I am uncommonly shaken and shall be yet more so by the sorrow of the prince, stiU I feel strong enough, even stronger than I used to be. I only leave the prince when obliged by pressing business. I dine alone with him and sleep in his room. Directly he wakes in the night I get up, and sit talking by his bedside till he falls asleep again. T feel increasingly that un- looked-for trials are my portion in life, and that there will be many more of them before life is over. I seem to be here to care more for others than for myself, and I am well con- tent with this destiny." This was the man — and an acute, patient, faithful, far-seeing man he was — an accom- plished physician who diagnosed the minds of those amongst whom he lived, and judged of their intentions and characters with remark- able sagacity; especially in reference to the efiects of their actions in public events and political affairs, in which he took no immediate part. It may seem to illustrate Stockmar's sense of what was becoming, or at all events of the conduct which should be carefully ob- served by one in his position — a foreigner in a confidential situation at the British court — that he had resolutely declined to attend the Princess Charlotte in his capacity as a phy- sician, and even though he had serious doubts of the treatment of the case by the English physicians previous to her accouchement, he could only be prevailed on to offer advice when they distinctly requested him to visit her about two hours before her death. This may seem almost a blamable reticence tni we remember what would have been the state of public feeling if the princess had died after the English physicians had been super- seded by a foreigner, and when we recall the fact that the chief medical attendant. Sir Eichard Croft, never afterwards regained the balance of his mind, which had been unhinged by the calamity, and that he eventually shot himself with a pistol which he found in the room of a house where he was staying to attend a lady whose protracted confinement had revived the unbearable memory of the former fatal event. Leopold, then King of the Belgians, and respected all over Europe for his integrity and sagacity, may be said to have become the natural guardian of the Princess Victoria after the death of her father. On her accession he believed he could do her no greater service than to send his own trusted adviser to give her friendly aid and counsel in his name, and especially to give watchful care to the then not remote probability of her receiving the addresses of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. Though Lord Melbourne himself fulfilled many of the duties of a private secretary in affairs of state, and by reason of his personal regard for the queen held an almost paternal relation to her at that time, there was stiU a necessity for some person to act as a medium of com- munication in many matters between the queen and the prime minister or other mem- bers of the cabinet. For fifteen months Stock- mar filled this undefined but yet useful office as a trusted adviser who could be consulted upon the higher personal interests of the sov- ereign and matters of importance connected with the court. It was his duty to observe attentively everything which could affect the well-being of the king's niece, but his clear insight made him carefully avoid every inter- ference with English affairs of state, so that he never excited the suspicion or jealousy of 218 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIBS. the ministry. The queen herself has told us that Melbourne had the greatest regard and affection for, and the most unbounded confi- dence in him. In a letter to her majesty he said: "Stockmar is not only an excellent man, but also one of the most sensible I have ever met with." Palmerston, who, it is said, disliked Stockmar, yet spoke of him as an ex- ample of complete disinterestedness; and Lord Aberdeen held him in very high estimation. "Baron Stockmar," says Max MUller, "was neither a statesman nor a diplomatist in the ordinary sense of the word; and though mov- ing all his life in that inner circle where de- cisions are taken which iniiuence the course of history; nay, though forming occasionally the very centre of that narrow circle, he never claimed credit for himself, but was content to remain through life the unknown friend and benefactor of the sovereigns whom he served. The real secret of his success was his entire truthfulness in his dealings with friends and opponents, and the rare art which he possessed of telling the truth, even to kings, without giving offence." It is not beside the intention of the present history to dwell thus upon the characteristics of this man who occupied so delicate and yet so undefined a position towards the royal household, for when in the summer of 1838 he left England, it was to transfer iirst his keen observation and afterwards his confiden- tial advice and companionship to the young prince who afterwards became the consort of the queen. Though Stockmar possessed the confidence of the ministry and even of the leaders of the opposition, his presence at the court in a confidential capacity was made the subject of bitter comment by those who accused the Whigs of an endeavour to subordinate the queen. Mr. Abercromby, the speaker of the House of Commons, once declared to Lord Melbourne, that he felt it would be his duty to call attention in parhament to the uncon- stitutional position of that foreigner Stock- mar. The premier replied that Stockmar was a person who fulfilled duties in which circumstances had made it necessary that somebody should be employed, and that he was there with his (Melbourne's) knowledge and approval. On Stockmar hearing of it he said, " Tell Abercromby to bring forward his motion against me in parliament ; I shall know how to defend myself." Nothing came of the threat or the retort, but there can be no doubt of the increased injury to the min- istry by the supposition that Stockmar repre- sented a foreign influence to which the government was amenable. "King Leopold and Stockmar are very good and intelligent people," said Melbourne, " but I dislike very much to hear it said by my friends that I am influenced by them. We know it is not true, but stiU I dislike to hear it said." These were the elements of that bitter con- test which was to result in a majority to the Whigs — but only such a majority as repre- sented the diminishing influence of their government, and the increased distrust with which it was regarded by the country. Nor was their position strengthened by the avowal of any future policy which would secure the adhesion of those who desired to see further measures of reform. The addresses of the par- liamentary leaders were party speeches and little more. Sir Robert Peel wrote to the electors of Tam worth: "In cordial concurrence with that powerful Conservative party with which I am proud to boast of my connection, looking rather to the defence of great principles than to the mere temporary interests of party, I have given a zealous support to a weak and inefficient government, whenever it has offered any opposition, however lukewarm and hesi- tating, to projects of further change in the system of representation or in the balance of the constituted authorities of the state." On the other hand. Lord John Eussell told the electors of Stroud—" I have endeavoured to strengthen our institutions by reforming them; to obtain complete and full liberty for every religious opinion; to give to Ireland the franchises of Great Britain; but in so doing I have been cautious not so to innovate as to admit any principle by which our ancient institutions might themselves be endangered ; not so to define religious liberty as to weaken the Established Church; not so to provide for POLITICAL rN'VECTITE. 219 the ■vrants and wishes of the people of Ireland as to break or disturb the unity of the empire. In this spirit I must al'vrays oppose any pro- poeitiou for tibe adoption of an elective House of Ixttds, or of the voluntary principle in religion.'' It would perhaps be difficult to imagine an address more calculLvted to inctease the growing distrust of the Dissenters and the ardent reformers. Indeed at this time the Earl of Durham, who was regarded as an advanced reformer, was spoken of as the possible head of a new ministry, which, ac- cording to his avowed policy woidd have been very much like what is now spoken of as "Liberal-Conservative.'' He had been con- sulted by the dectois of his own countv on the political situation, and several candidates for parliament had endorsed his views; but he was to be otherwise and far less fortunately employed, as we shall presently see. To show the manner in which &nulv influ- ence was even then tised to secure the return of a candidate, it may be mentioned that the Marquis and Marchione^ of Londonderry sent the following agreeable manifesto to their Duitam tenantry through their can- didate. •■ We assure aU those who answer to the solemn appeal that we mate to them — who step forward with heart and soul in the Conservative cause to rescue the country from Badical domination — that the sense of the obligation to us personally will be for ever roistered in our memories; and that the grarimde of ourselves and our family to those ■who live around us and on our property, will be in proportion to this important demand we make upon them to prove their fidelity and their attachment to otir sentiments and confidence in our opinions. We send these our recommendations to our esteemed friend, the Honourable Henry liddeU, to make every use of he shall think fit : and we have b^ged bim especially to report to us those who answer zealously to our call, and those who are unmindful of our earnest wishes.'' There is something unpleasantly significant in these va^e promises of contingent advantage to the docile, and in the implied menace to the disobedient elector. There could be no more emphatic argument than such an address, — { to show how inoperative the Beform EDI coold be made in certain constituencies unless the legislatiue also protected voters in the j exercise of their privileges. In constituencies like Tamworth, however, the election would have to be conducted on a difiierent ground. The boroughs and large I towns might be scenes of bribery and corrup- ( tion on both sides, but only constitutional j principles were acknowledged, and it was perceived by the sagacious opponents of the j government that the battle would be very efFectually fought by careful registration. Sir Bobert Peel, indeed, told his friends at Tam- j worth that it might be disagreeable, and in- deed inconvenient, to them to attend to the r^istration of voters which ammallv took ! place liirough the country. •■ AM this," said he, "maybe revolting to you; but you mav depend upon it, that it is better you should take this trouble than that you should allow 1 the constitution to become the victim of false I friends, or that you should be trampled under the hoof of a mthles democracy. The advice which has been given to some per- sons is 'Agitate, agitate, agitate !' The advice which I should give to you wotild be this: 'Krister, roister, register I"" Of coxu-se the "' trampling under the hoof of a ruthless democraqr" on the one side and other much stronger modes of expression on both sides, were only ordinary oratorical flourishes. Then as now strongly illustrative words were used by speakers in and out of parliament, but they mtist not be taken to mean all that they literally imply. '• A butcher," says a witty writer of that day — '• may say that his heart bleeds for his coun- try, and yet feel very comfortable all the time." It would indeed be impossible to take all the " flowers of rhetoric " of that period at anything like the equivalent at which they would now be placed. The language of in- vective and the constant use of expletives to be noted in the speeches of the time is amaz- ing to a modem reader with a refined taste, and so we shall be obliged to see when we presently refer to the taimts and recrimina- tions which enlivened parliament in the next session. The language then employed in poli- 220 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. tical controversy was often such as could scarcely have been tolerated except for the accepted retaliation of a barbarous reference to a duel for the purpose of bringing violence to a climax, and so vindicating the right to abuse an antagonist by the reflection that he might claim the privilege of giving the ag- gressor a chance to murder him, or to be mur- dered. But after all the strong language, and the strenuous contest during the elections, there was very little change in the relative position of parties up to the end of July. By the 19th of August, however, the number of Liberals replaced by Conservatives and Tories amounted to 66, and the replacements on the other side to only 53. Instead of the Liberal majority being 356 to 302 as in the last parliament, the present majority was only 336 to 322. That the queen had expressed a wish to retain their services had been the chief claim of Lord Melbourne's ministry to a return to power. Several of the principal constituencies had openly become Conservative. Mr. Hume was rejected by the electors of Middlesex, and accepted the representation of Kilkenny through the influence of O'Connell. Mr. Roebuck was unseated at Bath. Liverpool and Hull both gave up their Eadical mem- bers. On the 13th of November the queen opened parliament in person, her progress through the streets being greeted by the enthusiastic plaudits of a vast concourse of people. The address in reply to the royal speech was unani- mously accepted in the upper house and in the House of Commons, Sir Robert Peel — concur- ring in the seconding of the address, but re- serving his opinion on every measure to which it made allusion — gave the qiieen's appeal the most unqualified acquiescence in tendering to her majesty an assurance of loyalty and of his desire to afford the co-operation which she asked when she said, "In meeting this parlia- ment, the first that has been elected under my authority, I am anxious to declare my confi- dence in your loyalty and wisdom. The early age at which I am called to the sovereignty of this kingdom renders it a more imperative duty, that under Divine Providence I should place my reliance upon your cordial co-opera- tion and upon the love and afi'ection of my people." The address was not to pass unchal- lenged however. Three amendments intended to raise the question of further political en- franchisement and to set forth the views of the Radicals were moved by Mr. Wakley and seconded by Sir William Molesworth, but the first of them being rejected by an enormous majority the two others were abandoned. On a portion of the queen's speech which said, "I place unreservedly at your disposal those hereditary revenues which were transferred to the public by my immediate predecessor; and I have commanded that such papers as may be necessary for the full examination of this subject shall be prepared and laid before you," Mr. Harvey brought forward amend- ments for the purpose of placing the heredi- tary revenues of the crown more directly under the control of parliament, and to pro- cure a revision of the pension list. These proposals were also defeated at the time, though afterwards the government brought in a mo- tion appointing a committee of inquiry into the subject. The amendment proposed by Mr. Wakley elicited from Lord John Russell a declaration of entire dissent from the views of the Radicals. He emphatically declared that so soon again to enter into the question of the construction of the representation would destroy the stability of our institutions. The settlement of the monetary affairs in relation to the crown and the income of J30,000 to be granted to the Duchess of Kent occupied the remainder of the session, and parliament was to have adjourned tiU February (1838), but serious news from Canada made it necessary to order its reassembly on the 16th of January. It may be noticed here as illustrating the position of parties, that among bitter oppon- ents of Melbourne, Brougham had become the bitterest. His antagonism was of a kind which passed beyond the confines of parlia- mentary differences and became personal. His excitable temper, exasperated by a deep and incurable wound to his ambition and his vanity, led him to display an almost ferocious disposition to assail the premier and to taunt the ministry on every occasion. He had ex- REVOLT IN LOWEE CANADA. 221 pected to be restored to office on the recon- struction of the Whig ministry in 1835, and it perhaps .never seriously occurred to him (or if it did, the suspicion does not appear to have mitigated his resentment) that this very infirmity of temper, his indiscretion, and his ungovernable eccentricity had rendered it im- possible even for an easy-going statesman like Melbourne to endure him as a colleague. In 1838 Brougham made ready for a strenuous opposition, instead of maintaining an armed neutrality as he had done in 1837. Mean- while Lyndhurst and he had been reconciled, and remained ever after on friendly and even intimate terms. Towards many of his old allies he continued to profess unaltered senti- ments of regard ; but to Melbourne there was nothing due but condign punishment for what he called his treachery; one aggravation of offence not to be forgiven lay, as he loved to tell, in the premier's having written to him about the Imprisonment for Debt Bill, and other measures, in his accustomed free-and- easy tone, without dropping the least hint of the judicial affront in contemplation. Had he been treated confidentially, and told that the whole blame lay with the king, he would have pitied the infirmity of friendship, but would not have felt himself outwitted. But on the demise of the crown and the accession of Melbourne to the hitherto untasted power which the fuU confidence of royalty confers, the last shade of doubtful extenuation van- ished, and the unhappy egotist was forced to see plainly that he had been laid aside by his party rather than by royalty. Thenceforth his thoughts were devoted to the vindication of his rejected claims and vengeance on his chief adversary. The public were never told directly at the time what were the reasons that he was not a second time made keeper of the seal; and other causes which appeared to be too obvious were never authentically denied. He was held up as a victim to the enmity and resentment of the court, and sometimes as the hated and envied rival whom the Whigs of inferior talent feared to admit once more within the pale of power. But on the fall of Sir Robert Peel's short administration the court was absolutely helpless, while the new cabinet stood in the utmost need of some one able to cope with Lord Lyndhurst; yet for several months there was no one whom they ventured to name as a fit occupant for the woolsack. Now they could no longer deceive themselves into hoping for any quarter from the eloquent and exasperated subject of official ostracism. Eurious at the conspicuous slight put upon him. Brougham lost no more time in reminding them what manner of spirit he was of. Day after day he poured forth upon them the unfailing vials of his wrath. Ireland, Canada, and the West Indies fur- nished him in succession with themes of in- vective against what he stigmatized as their maladministration; while, for popularity in England, he was ready to outbid them easily on education, free-trade, and law reform. Had the objections to hisreadmission to the cabinet rested on the antipathy of the king, they would have been removed by his demise in 1837; had they been entertained only by the premier, they must evidently have been over- borne by the more placable views of his col- leagues as time wore on, and the ministerial majority, small enough at first, grew less and less. The truth is, however, that what their chief had the courage and candour to declare at starting, they were, or soon came to be, con- vinced of with regard to this most eccentric though most eloquent of men.'- To one of his memorable onslaughts Melbourne thus com- menced his reply: — I appeal to the candour of every one who has hstened to the marvellous display of in- genuity in argument and versatility of illus- tration with which we have been favoured by the noble and learned lord, whether the rea- sons must not have been perfectly insuperable which compelled us to forego the advantage of including him in the administration. The information which caused the earlier reassembling of parliament was that, from a state of discontent and of perpetual bickering between the colonial assembly and the legis- lative council appointed by the crown, the Canadians in Lower Canada had broken into open revolt, and that many of the people of 1 Memoirs of Lord Melbourne. W. M. Torrens, M.P. 222 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. Upper Canada were also disafifected. Lower Canada was at that time, even more than it is now, distinguished from Upper Canada both by nationality and by social observances. Lower or Eastern Canada was still Ei-ench, and the usages of the people were in some respects those of the old French regime before the revolution. This peculiarity is still so marked in many parts of the colony that a visitor is immediately struck with what ap- pears to him to be an anachronism, when he passes from the pushing and modern activity of the upper province to the quiet, old-fashioned townships and villages of the descendants of the French colonists. The two provinces naturally had many more marked differences forty years ago, and of course greater differences still when by the constitution of 1791 they were divided into separate governments, each with its governor, its executive council appointed by the crown, its legislative council, also appointed by the crown, and its representative assembly, the members of which were elected for four years. It was at first intended that these provinces should remain separate, one community being virtually French in feeling and education, and Eoman Catholic in religion ; the other chiefly British, and of the Protestant faith. Of course it was found to be impossible to separate the two provinces in any artificial way; there were no natural geographical divi- sions, and the real division was the distinction of race, of customs, and of those laws which were under the control of the popular assem- bly. The result was that the attempt to bring each province under the same kind of govern- ment failed utterly. It exasperated the Lower Canadians that a British party in the legisla- tive councU nominated by the crown should be able to dominate the country and to over- throw the resolutions of the representative assembly elected by the people, and by people who were French, and desired to retain French laws and observances. Ou the other hand, the inhabitants of Upper Canada demanded local self-government, and resented the authority of the crown, which could nullify the votes of the people as represented by their elected mem- bers. In Lower Canada the mixed population of French and English settlers were equally dissatisfied with thegovernment, for the British colonists fretted under the operation of many French laws which were allowed to remain, such as those regarding the tenure of land. On one side the civil law was hampered with French prescription, and on the other the criminal law was impeded because it was instituted solely on British procedure. The mutual jealousies of the people made the task of government difficult, but the arbitrary- manner of governing caused constant complaint and disloyalty. There could be no jury chosen with any probability of its giving a proper verdict, the composition of the legislative council was declared to be unbearable, and a demand was made for that council to be made elective. The church question was as promi- nent here as in Ireland, and the property set apart for ecclesiastical purposes was required for secular uses. In both provinces the ap- peal was made year after year against the combination of the legislative and the judicial functions, the irresponsibility of the executive and oflacials, the monopoly of the application of the revenues by a government nominated by the crown, and the retention of church endowments. The struggle to obtain these changes had been maintained by the popular assemblies for several years. In 1833 the assembly of Lower Canada had separated with- out voting supplies, three years afterwards the assembly of the Upper Province had done the same, and still the government here was obdurate, and the reply sent to the people who had acted loyally during the American war of independence was such as to provoke the threat of an appeal to force for the pur- pose of securing independence. When the representative assembly stopped the supplies chiefly because the legislative council persisted in retaining in their service officials whose conduct had been condemned by the popular body, the government simply claimed the right to appropriate the payment of these officers' salaries from any public money that happened to be on hand. In spite of public meetings and constant representations that the legislative council should be chosen CANADIAN EEBELLION— AMEEICAN " STMPATHIZEES." 223 by the votes of the people and not be allowed thns to dispose of the funds of the colony at their pleasure, the government authorized the appropriation of the treasury for the mainten- ance of the executive system without the con- sent of the colonial assembly. This was equiv- alent to placing the French Canadians under arbitrary rule of British officials nominated by the English government. Thus discontent was working in both provinces. In Lower Canada commenced the movement which led to rebellion. The representative of Mon- treal in the Representative Assembly was M. Louis Joseph Fapineau. He was a man of ability and influence, and became speaker of the house. He was the recognized leader of the opponents of the government policy, and presided at several meetings where inflamma- tory allusions were made to the successful re- sistance which had led to the independence of the United States. He was an oflicer of militia, and several of his brother officers had attended the meetings. It was understood that Papi- neau had organized a great convention for dis- cussing the grievances of the colony. The governor, Lord Gosford, began by dismissing some of the militia officers who had attended meetings and taken part in the demonstrations. He then issued warrants for the apprehension of several members of the assembly on the charge of high treason. Some of these fled from the country. Othersremained; the attempt to arrest them was resisted by their friends, and political opposition became open rebellion. The mihtary forces were not prepared for so sudden an outbreak. The commander-in-chief of the troops sent Colonel Grore with a strong force to one of the two villages, at the entrance of which 1500 of the rebels had taken up their quarters in a stone house which they had strongly fortified. The troops attacked, but were repulsed with the loss of sixteen men in killed and wounded, and the only field-piece which they had taken with them. They were forced to retire. Two days afterwards Lieu- tenant-colonel Wetherell attacked the other village, seven mUes distant, burned it to the ground, and routed its defenders. This alarmed the more successful body of insurgents, who abandoned their position and joined their de- feated compatriots in their flight across the border and into the United States territory. Sir John Colbome was then able to march his whole force to the north of Ottawa, where the rebellion had commenced and was still main- tained. The insurgents occupied a fortified village on the bank of the river; but on his approach most of them fled, and only about 400 held the church and the adjoining build- ings, which they bad so fortified as to keep them against the whole British force imtil both church and village were set on fire, when they were compelled to retreat, leaving behind them above half of their number in kOled, wounded, and prisoners. The rebellious people of that district, who probably comprised nearly all the inhabitants except the British residents, upon whose property some injuries had of course been inflicted, then surrendered uncon- ditionally, and were allowed to go unpunished. Four of the leaders of these outbreaks had been killed, nine had escaped, including M. Papinean, who repaired to New York, and eight were taken prisoners, one of them being a brave Tnan named Wolfred Xelson, In New York Papineau and his companions found "sympathizers," who raised numerous recruits among the Americans, and above seven hundred of them under a leader named Van Eensselear took possession of a small wooded island named Xavy Island in the Niagara river, three miles above the falls, and in Canadian territory. They commenced firing upon the Canadian shore, which was only 600 yards distant, and kept up commimications with the mainland by means of a small steamer, which was captured by a party of militia who attacked it in boats, set it on fire, and sent it, in flames, down the river to be extinguished in the falls. Kavy Island was afterwards invested, and the gar- rison quickly and silently departed without further fighting. This was on the 14th of January, 1838, and for some time afterwards the " sympathizers " kept up a kind of border warfare, making raids and incursions across the frontier in what seems to have been a kind of reckless plajring at warfare; for the American government had interdicted it, and the sympathizers were therefore unattached 224 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. supporters of the rebellion by a kind of bri- gandage by which they obtained no advan- tage, since they were repeatedly defeated. Still more remarkable had been the state of affairs in Upper Canada, to which the rebellion had spread, but where it never really attained any very decided footing. There were numerous malcontents there, and their dissatisfaction was to some extent justified, but the very manner in which their leaders called them together shows perhaps that there was no energetic desire for an appeal to arms. A manifesto was issued, couched in a kind of exaggerated imitation of the old Puritan language. The governor of the province was the brave and rather eccentric Major Head (afterwards Sir Francis Head), so well known as a traveller. He had fought at Waterloo, and while acting as assistant poor-law com- missioner for the county of Kent had sud- denly been sent for to go out to govern Upper Canada. When the rebellion broke out he did little or nothing. What he did afterwards was either so risky and fanciful that it de- served the censure and the adverse comment which it received, or it was so sagacious that it was entitled to the reward which followed his resignation. There have always been sup- porters of both views; but as his plan was successful, his admirers invariably seemed to have the better argument. He resolved to show that the rebellion in Upper Canada was of so little real importance that he could treat it, if not with contempt, at least with comparative indifference. He sent every soldier out of the province to help the troops in Lower Canada; he permitted the rebels to make all kinds of preparations — he even allowed them to invest Toronto, where they appeared to the number of 3000 under the leadership of Mr. Mackenzie, the editor of a Republican newspaper, one Eg- mont, a former Bonapartist oflRoer, and others. Then Major Head summoned the militia and the loyal inhabitants of the city, who fortified the town -hall, and attacked the insurgent force with such sudden spirit and success that it was utterly routed and dispersed and the rebellion was suppressed. It was a very bril- liant, but, as many people thought, a very imprudent way of dealing with an insurrec- tion in a province where many of the inhabit- ants of the neighbouring territory were in revolt, and American marauders were making repeated attacks on the frontier. He claimed to have vindicated Canadian loyalty, and there is no doubt that he increased it by his courage and address; but the fact remained that Lower Canada was still in a condition of ferment, and it was contended that the result, might have been less fortunate. Some further discussions arose between the major and the home authorities, which led to his sending in his. resignation, and (much to the regret of the colonists) to his return to England, where his effectual services (the wisdom of which had been called in question) were rewarded with a baronetcy. The revolted colonists were not without sympathizers in this country, who, although they condemned the rebellion, also condemned the action, or rather the inaction, of the govern- ment, that had permitted the grievances of which the Canadians complained. Public meetings were held and resolutions were passed blaming the government for refusing to listen to the representations of those who> had appealed for redress of abuses. Mr. Hume was one of the warmest advocates of the colonial cause. But whatever might afterwards be done tO' remedy those grievances and to relieve the people of Canada, it was necessary first to bring both provinces to orderly relations with the government. Lord John Eussell, on the part of the ministry, introduced a bill to sus- pend the constitution of Lower Canada; to send out a governor-general and high com- missioner, with extraordinary powers to re- model the constitution of both provinces. The- measure was not passed without considerable opposition, the most remarkable being that of John Arthur Roebuck, who, though he was not at that time a member of the House of Commons— having lost his seat for Bath be- cause of his violent opposition to the govern- ment—was yet deemed a proper person to- come before the bar of each house as the agent and representative of the province of Lower Canada. Mr. Roebuck was born at. LORD DURHAM. 225 Madras, but was brought to England -while still an infant of five years old. Soon after- wards his mother, on a second marriage, settled in Canada, and there he passed most of his boyhood. In 1824 he had returned to England to study law ; had been called to the bar in 1832, when he became a candidate for Bath, and repi-esented it as a Radical ref ormei- untU, on the death of WiUiam IV., he lost his seat at the general election. Mr. Roebuck was thirty-seven when he addressed both houses as the advocate for Canada, but his appearance ■was so singulaiiy youthful that his cleaa- and for- cible representations seemed to gather greater effect from that circumstance. It was ihis habit to attack everybody with so much asperity that he often set his heai-ei-s against him; and he was not wanting in his usual quality on this oc- casion, but his arguments were acknowledged to have considerable weight when he opposed the bill on the ground that it wo\ild unjustly suspend the constitution of a province in con- sequence of disturbances provoked by the intolerable oppression of the home govern- ment. But it was useless to spend time in discussing the acte of the government in face of a continuance of disturbances which de- manded a prompt remedy, and of grievances which it was admitted required timely redress. The question was, who should be intrusted with the necessary powers, first to suppress the rebellion and to pacificate the province, and then to remodel the constitution with a view to abolish the causes of jealousy and disafifection? The name of Lord Durham was mentioned by Lord John Russell, and at once met with cordial appi-ovaL He was a well-known Liberal, a man of noble disposition and of high attainments — a man of strong, and, as it would seem, occasionally of arrogant temper, but of geneixjus instincts immediately follow- ing his gusts of passion — on the whole, a fair, just, proud man, with the power to rule and the ability to organize broadly and with pro- Tiaions for free working. John Gi«orge Lambton, Earl of Durham, vras the son of WiUiam Henry Lambton, the representative of one of the oldest families in England — wealthy from the produce of the TOL I. coal-mines of which they were the owners — and of the heirs to which, it was said, there had been an unbroken succession for six centuries. It was only in comparatively recent times that the property had been so considerable; but the Lambtons had represented Durham in pai-lia- ment from 1727 till the death of Lord Dui-- ham's father in 1797. John George was born at Lambton Castle in April, 1792, and while still a youth of not twenty yeai-s ran away with a lady to whom he was married at Gretna Green. She died three years after- wards, and in another twelvemonth, after having served for a short time in a regiment of hussars, he was returned to parliament for the county of Durham, and his proposal for the hand of the eldest daughter of Earl Grey was accepted. He was then only twenty-four years of age, but his address and his remarkable talents already gave him unusual distinction, while his energetic advocacy of reform made him even then a stiiking figure in parliamen- tary debates. In 1828 he was raised to the peer- age as Bai-on Durham ; in 1830 he became lord privy-seal in the then newly formed ministry of Earl Grey, over whom it was rumoui-ed that he exercised very great control, not only be- cause of his abilities and his engaging disposi- tion, but in consequence of an impetuous and impassioned temper which bore all before it and would scarcely brook opposition or criticism. Be this as it may, he was after- wards known to be a man capable of carrying out an able organization, and this was suffi- cient reason for his being chosen to set matters right in the Canadian provinces, in spite of the opposition of a few men who were either his political or his personal enemies. Brougham was both a personal and a political anta- gonist. We have already seen that there was a " very pretty quarrel " between them, and that the supposed attack made by Brougham upon too zealous reformers — at the dinner given to Lord Grey at Edinburgh in 1834 — and the outbreak of invective with which Durham replied to it, as a personal reference to himself, was not likely to be forgotten by the ex-chanceUor. But the almost universal opinion was in favour of the appointment of Lord Durham, 15 226 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. and he -went out to Canada with high hopes and great expectations, taking with him Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield and Mr. Charles BuUer, the latter the pupil of Mr. Thomas Carlyle, and a young man whose ability was already recognized. It was felt that Lord Dur- ham, the man who was looked upon by many consistent Eadioals as the future premier, who would introduce vote by ballot, shorter terms of parliament, the extension of the franchise, and other measures which they regarded as necessary ordinances in reform, would begin by establishing order, and would then inquire into and remove those causes of discontent which were believed to have produced the rebellion. The question remained how the re-establishment of authority was to be effected. On his arrival at Quebec on the 29th of May the governor, who was neces- sarily intended to be almost a dictator, was received with gratifying demonstrations of friendly feeling. But it would seem that the government was as weak at the colonial office as it was in some other departments, and the instructions which he received from Lord Glenelg were vague if not contradictory. The powers with which he and all the world imagined he was sent out, were not confirmed by the bOl which was intended to endorse the first representations made to him, and he acted in a way which appeared to evade one of its first intentions. It provided that he should be advised by a council, and that every ordi- nance he issued should be countersigned by at least five of its members. It was expected that he would form a council similar to that already in existence, which had been selected by his predecessor, Sir John Colbome, and represented the various sections of the inha- bitants in the colony. Instead of this, and perhaps with some reason because of the neces- sity for immediate action, that he might in- troduce the contemplated reforms, he replaced this body by one which, as it was composed of his two secretaries, two military secretaries, and the commissary-general, was regarded as an instrument for giving mere formal legality to his acts, instead of securing coun- sellors or advisers with the right of discussion and with some independent action. At the same time it is evident that such powers as could have been exercised by such a council as that referred to in the act of administra- tion would have been incompatible with the high authority with which he and everybody else supposed that he was commissioned. At any rate he was not slow to act on the respon- sibility with which he was supposed to have been invested, and to exceed it. The appoint- ment of such a council was an error in pru- dence, his subsequent proceedings were errors in judgment even if they were not an arbi- trary disregard of the rules to which all delegated authority must be subject. A large number of prisoners who had been arrested for offences during the rebellion were wait- ing their sentences. Lord Durham issued an ordinance by which, while a general amnesty was proclaimed, some of these prisoners were excepted. Papineau and the leaders of the rebellion, beside others who had been induced to plead guilty of high treason, or who had voluntarily confessed it, were ordered to be transported to Bermuda, there to remain under such restraints as might be thought fit — during her majesty's pleasure. If any of these persons should be found at large within the province, without permission, they would be deemed guilty of high treason, and were to suffer the penalty of death; but the ordinance also empowered the governor for the time being to grant, when he should think fit, permission for any of them to retiim to the province. This would appear on the face of it to be intended to be a deterrent punish- ment which, at a time of greater security, might be revoked, and with the exception of some who were concerned in the murder of two persons, all the other rebels were in- cluded in the act of amnesty, and could return to their homes on giving proper security for their good behaviour. "We are authorized to state," said the Gazette in which the ordinances were published, "that his excellency the governor-general is actively engaged in the preparation of measures which will, as soon as it may be possible, be embodied in ordinances of the govemorand special council, relative to a jury law, a bankrupt law, muni- cipal institutions for the whole province, gen- BEOUGHAM'S DENUNCIATIONS. 227 eral education, the establishment of registry offices, and the equitable commutation of feudal tenures." There can now be little doubt that in spite of what were undoubtedly illegal methods of procedure in the preliminary stage. Lord Dur- ham had devised a bold and comprehensive plan for the deliverance and ultimate well- being of the colony — after events proved that his plan was well considered and, in important respects, effectual — for it was in its principal clauses, adopted by his successors after he had returned to England in an access of indigna- tion, and had died without seeing the results of that system of colonial government which he may be said to have founded, and which is stUl (with some modifications) in force. But he had acted illegally — had exceeded his powers. He had gone out as a dictator to reconstruct a system which had produced a rebellion; and his reply to the charge of having gone beyond the law was, "What are the con- stitutional principles remaining in force where the whole constitution is suspended? "What principle of the British constitution holds good in a country where the people's money is taken from them without the people's consent; where representative government is annihilated ; where martial law has been the law of the land; and where trial by jury exists only to defeat the ends of justice, and to provoke the righteous scorn and indignation of the com- munity ?" The high-handed policy which he thus de- fended — and not altogether unreasonably de- fended — on the ground that it was only pre- liminary to reconstruction of the policy of a colony that had fallen into a state of anarchy — was (also not unreasonably) assailed at home. One strong point against him was that he could not claim to act as governor of Bermuda, and had no right to transport prisoners to that island. Indeed Sir Stephen Chapman, who was the governor, was so convinced that there was no legal authority for his detaining the prisoners, that he at first hesitated even to allow them to be landed. When he at last permitted them to come on shore, he only exacted from them their parole d'honneur that while they remained they should not re- move from the limits to which the authorities might from time to time confine them, and he wrote at once to Lord Durham imploring him to remove them as soon as possible and not to send any more. The Quebec ordinances were seized on with remarkable avidity in the House of Lords, where Durham was denounced as though he had been a traitor, or rather a usurper, who arrogated to himself powers that would enable him to hang men without trial or any of the forms of justice. This was Lord Brougham's way of looking at it, and he claimed to be consistent, for he had, he said, opposed Canadian coercion from the beginning, and he still opposed illegal attempts to deal with that country. But it is doubtful whether Brougham would have exhibited so much fury of denun- ciation, or used such strong expressions of op- position, if he had not been actuated by an animosity to Lord Durham which was scarcely inferior to that which he manifested to Lord Melbourne and his government. Brougham and Lyndhurst were leagued to- gether against the ministry, and the Quebec ordinances gave them an opportunity to raise astormin theHouseof Lords, which Melbourne was not strong enough to meet, though he once endeavoured to grapple with his antago- nist, who screamed defiance, and challenged him to point out any indication in any one part of his political conduct that had for an instant been affected in any manner by feel- ings of a private or personal nature. Brougham triumphed. After bringing the subject twice before the house he introduced an Indemnity Bill which would have reversed the policy of Lord Durham. To prevent this biU being finally carried, the ministry aban- doned the ordinances which they had previ- ously accepted, and announced the decision to the house. Their humiliation was complete. Lord Durham hearing indirectly of the deser- tion of the government before the official letter reached him acted with his usual impetuosity, and indignantly sent a letter announcing his determination at once to give up his position and return to England. This declaration was despatched while the official communication to him was on its way. It was thought by Lord Melbourne, and even by Lord Lansdowne 228 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES. — a calmer and closer politician — that he might yet be induced to stay if, for instance, the people of Canada themselves solicited him to remain and complete the -work by accepting the decision of the ministry; but he had al- ready issued a proclamation calling attention to the action of the government, and virtually appealing against it to popular appreciation. His enemies bitterly attacked him, and his friends could not easily defend what was re- presented to be an appeal against the advisers of the sovereign, to the judgment of the people of a rebellious colony. There was no keeping him in Canada after that, and indeed he had no thought of remain- ing. Among the insinuations were those carping at the expense which he incurred on behalf of the government for the stately manner in which he visited the colony; but it was not mentioned that though he may have lived with a certain magnificence, which was a part of his way of procedure, he received no emolument from his official position, but un- dertook it without government salary or any other payment. Lord Durham returned al- most precipitately to England, full of natural indignation, and with the wearing anxiety felt by a proud and noble nature that believes itself to have been betrayed. He was a man whose ambition had been ruined, and it may be feared that his heart was broken. There had been talk of impeachment or of public rebuke, but all that was done was to omit to fire the usual salute in honour of a returning governor when he landed at Ply- mouth; the want of it was supplied by the acclamations of the people, who received him with unbounded favour, and in so doing repre- sented public opinion, which has always a lean- ing towards men of an open, generous, and one might even say of a somewhat headstrong, nature. Lord Durham at once removed his wife from the queen's household and retired into private life, or more sadly it might be said, retired to die. His report was acknow- ledged on all hands to be a masterly exposition of the policy by which a colony may be success- fully governed and its prosperity promoted. After explaining the causes of discontent, it recommended that the government of the colony should be placed as much as possible in the hands of the colonists themselves, and that the interference of the imperial govern- ment should not go beyond matters affecting the relations of the colony with the mother country, such as the constitution of govern- ment, the foreign relations of the colony, and its trade, and the disposal of public lands. Other recommendations which he had been prepared to carry into execution have already been referred to; but among them were a sys- tem to secure the independence of judges, to make all officers except the governor and his secretary responsible to the colonial legislature,. and to repeal all former legislation on the sub- ject of lands reserved for the clergy. The re- port ended with a proposal to unite the two- provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, and recommended that any of the other North American colonies might, if application was made by their legislatures and with the con- sent of that of Canada, be received into the Canadian Union. It was a great and admir- ably practical scheme, as was proved by its- being, by not very slow degrees, adopted by parliament in the government of Canada. When Lord Normanby succeeded Lord Glen- elg at the colonial office, and was succeeded by Lord John Eiissell, one of the most ear- nest and industrious of colonial secretaries, a bill was introduced for reuniting Upper and Lower Canada on the basis of Lord Durham's report, which has in effect been the foundatioa of our present system of colonial government. The act was passed only a few days before the death of the noble author of the scheme on which it was settled, who expired at Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, on the 28th of July, 1840. He was but forty-eight years of age, but his health had been failing for some time, and it can scarcely be doubted that his end was hastened by the bitter disappointment and implied disgrace to which he was com- mitted by the government who had aban- doned his ordinances but had not hesitated to adopt the policy which in his belief those or- dinances would have been effectual in securing. The subject of Lord Durham's policy and his subsequent treatment can scarcely pass from under our view without a reference to PACIFICATION OF CANADA 229 Mr. John Stuart MiH, and to the testimony which he afterwards bore to a man from whom he differed so remarkably in disposition and temper, and yet to whom he professed to stand (with regard to colonial policy) in the position of a friend and adviser. In his autobiography Mr. ilill says : — " Lord Durham was bitterly attacked on all sides, inveighed against by enemies, given up by timid friends, whUe those who would willingly have defended him did not know what to say. He appeared to be returning a defeated and discredited man. I had followed the Canadian events from the beginning. I had been one of the prompters of his prompters, his pohcy was almost exactly what mine would have been, and I was in a position to defend it. I wrote and published a manifesto in the Review^ in which I took the very highest ground in his behalf, claiming for him not mere acquittal, but praise and honour. Instantly a number of other writers took up the tone. I believe there was a por- tion of truth in what Lord Durham soon after, with polite exaggeration, said to me, that to this article might be ascribed the almost tri- umphant reception which he met with on his arrival in England. I beheve it to have been the word in season which at a critical moment ■does much to decide the result; the touch which determines whether a stone set in mo- tion at the top of an eminence shall roU down on one side or on the other. All hopes con- nected with Lord Durham as a poHtician soon vanished; but with regard to Canadian, and generally to colonial, policy the cause was gained. Lord Durham's report, written by Charles Baker, partly under the inspiration of Wakefield, began a new era; its recommenda- tions, extending to complete internal seH-gov- emment, were in full operation in Canada within two or three years, and have been since extended to nearly aU the other colonies of European race which have any claim to the character of important communities." The immediate successor to Lord Durham was his intimate friend and disciple, Mr. Poulett Thompson (afterwards Lord Sydenham), the Free Trade member for Manchester, who 1 Mr. \rin refers to the Westminster Heview. carried out Durham's policy with the cordial support of Earl BusseU. He succeeded in uniting the two provinces, but died in the following year- Immediately after the resignation of the Earl of Durham Lord Glenelg — amiable, quiet, and studious, but remarkably sleepy — was felt not to have sufficient grasp successfully to administer the colonial department; and Sir Wilh'am Molesworth, who had devoted some attention to colonial affairs, and had come to conclusions entirely different from those of Lord Glenelg, actually proposed a vote of cen- sure against him. The ministry represented that such a vote would be a condemnation of themselves and would cause their resignation, upon which Lord Sandon moved an amend- ment, attributing the condition of Canada to the want of foresight and energy on the part of the government, and to the ambiguous and irresolute course of her majesty's ministers. This amendment was accepted by Sir W. Molesworth, but was rejected by a majority of twenty-nine. Lord Glenelg, however, retired from office soon afterwards. With reference to the easy-going somnolency of Lord Glenelg, we may recall Lord Brougham's remarks in the House of Lords when Lord John Eussell brought in his bUl providing for the governor of Lower Canada previous to Lord Durham's departure. " If," said Brougham, " you will have plantations in every clime, if you wiU have subjects by millions on opposite sides of the globe, if you will undertake to manage the affairs of an empire extending over both hemispheres, over an empire on which the sun never sets, whether such a determination on your part be prudent or impohtic, whether its effects be heneficial or detrimental to our highest interests, I will not now stop to in- quire; but if you make up your minds to this, at all events it imposes on you the absolute necessity that you shall be aJive, and awake, and vigilant, that you shall not sleep and slumber, that you shall not, like the slug- gard, let your hands sleep before you as if you were administering the affairs of a parish, or even of a kingdom near at home, to which and from which the post goes and arrives every day in the week." This is a moderate 230 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES. example of Brougham's milder style. The allusion to the slumbering habit of Lord Glen- elg caused some laughter among the lords. But let us return to the period beyond which we have just passed. The 28th of June had been appointed for the coronation of the queen, and the event was hailed with an almost extravagant enthusiasm, which for a short time diverted public attention from the pre- carious condition of the government and from topics of immediate political excitement. For the first time since the accession of Charles II. a public royal procession, which may be called a pageant, was arranged to pass through some of the principal streets of the metropolis, and the whole of these streets were closely packed by an enormous multitude who lined the roadways, sat at open windows, filled plat- forms and balconies, and even clustered on the house-tops. The young queen had said when she went to open her first parliament, and sat in an open carriage, " Let my people see me; '' and she still delighted in looking face to face at the great assembly of those who came out in thousands to greet her. Beside the London population, 400,000 persons had come up from the provinces and from places abroad to witness the spectacle and take part in the rejoicings of the day. The usual banquet to the sovereign at Westminster Hall was omit- ted, that this mutual recognition of sovereign and subjects might be effected. There were some who grumbled at this suppression of a grand ceremonial which was en j oy ed only by the privileged few, for the sake of gratifying the unprivileged many, and the Marquis of Lon- donderry gave expression to the complaints of the malcontents, but nobody cared much for their grumbling. The queen, and those who re- presented both the queen and the country, were willing to sacrifice the pomp and state of a grand dinner, for the sake of the grander cele- bration that was to be found in a fervent and unbroken display of loyalty. The banquet would have been far more costly than this public procession; and the coronation, though it was less expense by £173,000 than that of George the Magnificent, would still cost £20,000 more than that of William the Unpretentious. Good sense and good-will marked the whole of the proceedings, and as it has been already hinted, after the overwhelming greetings that were given to the Queen herself, the most hearty acclamations were for the Duke of Wellington, and for his former brave and able antagonist in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, old Marshal Soult, Duke of Dalmatia. The white-haired old warrior had been sent a» ambassador extraordinary to represent France at the coronation, and appeared in a splendidly decorated carriage. Whenever his war-worn face appeared he was greeted with cheers that touched his heart, and this reception probably did more to unite France and England in amity and to erase the lingering recollections of former hostilities than any other occurrence of the time. Long afterwards Soult gave ex- pression to his feelings on the subject when he supported Guizot in his supposed desire for an English alliance. " I fought the English down to Toulouse, when I fired the last cannon in defence of the national independence; since that time I have been in London, and France knows the reception that I had there. The English themselves cried, 'Vive Soult!' they cried, ' Soult for ever !' I had learned to es- timate the English on the field of battle, I have learned to estimate them in peace; and I re- peat that I am a warm supporter of the Eng- lish alliance.'' This was a characteristic re- sponse to the hearty welcome he had received,, by which the great assembly of the people in London had expressed their desire to maintain cordial relations with France. The ceremony in Westminster Abbey was very solemn and imposing. It was twelve o'clock when the grand procession passed up the nave into the choir amidst the singing of an anthem and a chant of Vivat Victoria Regina. After private prayer the queen was publicly presented by the Archbishop of Canterbury to receive the homage of those present. The prescribed prayers, litany, and communion service were said by the archbishop, and a short sermon was preached by the Bishop of London. After the oath the ceremony of anointing and crowning the sovereign was performed, and the admin- istration of the sacrament having followed the presentation of the Bible, the benediction THE LADIES OE THE BED-CHAMBEE. 231 and the homage, her majesty was invested with the royal robes by the lord-chamberlain, and left the Abbey by the west door, wearing the crown and holding in her right hand the sceptre and in her left hand the orb. It was nearly four o'clock when the procession left the building in the same order in which it had entered, the queen wearing her crown and the noble personages their coronets. With the blare of trumpets, the beating of drums, and the firing of salutes from the guns in the parks and at the Tower, the young queen went out again amidst the people. In the evening there was a state dinner at Buckingham Palace, where the royal party witnessed the display of fire-works in the Green Park. The Duke of Wellington gave a magnificent ball at Apsley House, and many in the crowd on the street must have recalled with something like wonder the time when that house was barricaded against an angry mob who had caught up the savage verses of Ebenezer EUiot, the " Corn- law Rhymer." But the country had gone be- yond that, even though the corn-laws were not repealed. The old soldier was so naturally re- garded as the loyal and faithful protector of the young queen, and he had himself given so many proofs that after all, his opposition to reform had arisen from no antagonistic feeling to the people, or to what he thought were their just claims, that he almost naturally shared the triumphs of the day. The rejoicings at the coronation had only temporarily mitigated the asperities of party spirit, and though we shall presently refer to some measures of great importance in their relation to the social progress of the coun- try which were passed during the session, it became more and more evident that the government could not long stand against the increasing influence of the opposition, even though some changes were made in the ministry by "shuffling the cards'' and making a different distribution of the offices in accoi-d- ance with the qualifications of members of the government. Peel had already laid down the plan by which he desired the opposition to be con- ducted. He was in no hurry to overturn the government till the country was so sick of it that he could count on a Conservative triumph, and leave very little hope of the return of the Liberal ministry to power. The policy which he recommended and pursued was to prevent the government from passing such bills as were strongly opposed to the Conservative professions, and to occasionally aid them in escaping from temporary embar- rassment arising from the demands of the Radicals, until the time came to challenge their policy and to go to the country in the confidence that a strong Conservative majority would be returned. This was the policy, but events delayed, and even for a time rather signally frustrated its adoption. In tracing the course of legislation on the subject of negro emancipation, and its result in the complete freedom of the slaves even from the temporary burden of apprenticeship, we have already referred to the fact that Lord Melbourne's government were in a minority on the question of temporarily suspending the constitution of the Jamaica government be- cause of the excesses and the lawlessness of the planters. The Radicals opposed this measure because of its supposed violation of Liberal principles; and this disaffection, added to Conservative opposition, left the gov- ernment in a minority of five on the second reading of the bUl. As it would have been impossible to carry it through its further stages — to say nothing of a similar piece of legislation which was required for Canada — the ministers decided to resign; and Lord Melbourne advised her majesty to send for the Duke of Wellington, who of course re- ferred her to Sir Robert Peel, to whom she applied, at the same time expressing her regret at being obliged to part with her late ministers. It may be doubted whether Peel thought the worse of the queen for these out- spoken expressions of favour to his opponents, but he appears to have been a little too ready to demand some kind of security against pri- vate influence at court. Perhaps with too little of his usual caution he took the course which, beyond all others, would be likely to prevent, or at all events to delay, him from acquiring the confldence of a youthful sove- 232 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. reign. On undertaking to form a ministry he forwarded to her majesty a list of those who ■would be invited to become his colleagues, but at the same time required that some of the ladies of the royal household should be dismissed because of their relationship to members of the late cabinet. It is perhaps necessary, for a proper understanding of the situation, to remember that, as Peel said afterwards, his chief difficulty was Ireland. "Ireland was my chief difficulty. My diffi- culties were not Canada, my difficulties were not Jamaica, but my difficulties were Ireland." This was doubtless true enough, for Ireland had been the constant difficulty of the Whigs also ; and it was only by a series of half com- promises — by a kind of hoUow alliance with O'Connell, of whom Melbourne said he was only less dangerous as a friend than as an enemy — that the Whigs had held a majority at all. Of course the oifer to O'Connell of the office of master of the rolls, and his " graceful refusal" of the position, is a pretty well known incident. But Peel and the Conservative party could make no such terms, and Ireland would have been the chief difficulty. This, however, was scarcely sufficient reason for demanding, without careful explanation, the dismissal of the ladies of the bed-chamber — by which the queen probably understood that she was to be separated from all those ladies, members of her household, with whom she was on the most confidential terms. That the wife of Lord Normauby, who had been Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and the sister of Lord Morpeth, who had been Irish secretary under the Whig government, were in close attendance and companionship, doubtless excited some ap- prehension in Peel's mind. " Would it," he afterwards asked in the house, " would it be considered by the public that a minister had the confidence of the crown when the relatives of his immediate political opponents held the highest offices about the person of the sove- reign? . . . Who were my political oppo- nents? Why, of the two I have named, one, the Marquis of Normanby,was publicly stated to be a candidate for the very same office which it was proposed I should fill, namely, the office of prime minister. The other noble lord has been designated as the leader of this house ; and I know not why his talents might not justify his appointment in case of the retirement of his predecessor. . . . Is it fitting that one man shall be the minister responsible for the most arduous charge that can faU to the lot of man, and that the wife of the other — that other his most formidable political enemy — shall with his express con- sent hold office in immediate attendance on the sovereign?" Probably if Sir Eobert's demand had been explicitly confined to these two ladies the queen would have been less unwilling to re- fuse ; but as it was she declined, saying that having considered the proposal made by Sir Robert Peel to remove the ladies of her bed- chamber, she could not consent to adopt a course which she conceived to be contrary to usage, and which was repugnant to her feel- ings. The whole question was an exceedingly unfortunate one, not only for Peel and the Conservative party, but in some respects for the Whigs, for while Melbourne was sus- pected of having influenced the queen's reply and of concerning himself with a palace in- trigue, the case of the unhappy Lady Flora Hastings was still fresh in the public me- mory, and the Whigs were unjustly associated with that aad story. We need not now re- capitulate aU the details. It is enough to say that early in the year, Lord Melbourne had informed Sir James Clark, the court phy- sician, that a communication had been made by Lady Tavistock, one of the ladies of the Duchess of Kent's household, that the appear- ance of Lady Flora Hastings had given rise to a suspicion in the palace that she might have been privately married. Of course this was an exceedingly painful imputation, and was rendered all the more painful because there undoubtedly was an appearance which would to some extent justify the suspicion, and this appearance was observed by the physician. The Duchess of Kent expressed her entire disbelief in the conclusion to which it had led, but still some further inquiry was deemed necessary; and after firmly and indig- nantly denying that there were any grounds for the suspicion, an examination was sub- LADY FLORA HASTINGS. 233 mitted to which proved that the peculiarities referred to proceeded from some disorder of the health, and were not attributable to the causes suggested. The Marchioness of Hast- ings, naturally indignant at the proceedings — which were defendal by Lady Tavistock as being for the honour of her majesty and the character of the household, that the suspicions entertained should not be permitted to con- tinue and to spread — demanded further in- quiry into the origin of the suspicions against her daughter, and the dismissal of Sir James Clark as a physician to her majesty — a de- mand that was not compUed with, as it was regarded as imreasonable. In writing an ac- count of what was called " The Palace Con- spiracy," to her uncle at Brussels, the unfortu- nate Lady Flora mentions the tendemes of the Duchess of Kent, of whom she says that a mother could not have been kinder to her; while the queen endeavoured to show her r^;ret by her civility to her, and "expressed it handsomely with tears in her eyes." " The afi&ir has made me ill," said the poor lady; but she hoped soon to be better. Whether the anxiety and agitation of so dreadful an imputation increased the disease from which she was suffering is not known, but she died four months afterwards at the palace, of en- largement of the Uver — her age being only thirty-three. It is recorded that the queen had an interview with her shortly before her death, which had not taken place at the time of the dispute between Sir Eobert Peel and the late ministry on the subject of the ladies-in- attendance. With reference to that subject Lord llelboxime declared most earnestly that he had had no personal interest to serve in advising her majesty, on her asking his opinion, that she was not called upon to dis- miss those ladies. By the consent of both houses of parliament the Whig ministry re- sumed power — not without a scarifying pro- test from Lord Brougham. Melbourne said — "I frankly declare that I resume oflBce un- equivocally and solely for this reason, that I shall not abandon my sovereign in a situation of difficulty and distress, and especially when a demand is made upon her majesty with which, I think, she ought not to comply — a, demand inconsistent with her personal honour, and which, if acquiesced in, would render her reign liable to aU the changes and variations I of political parties, and make her domestic lite one constant scene of unhappiness and discomfort." At any rate this dispute, which, uidmportant as it may seem, returned the I Melbourne administration for another two years, had some very decided effects on the country, and gave CConneU, Grattan, and I others of the Irish party, a text on which I they amply denounced the Tories. Among the important events which marked or illustrated the social and political progress of the period preceding the passing of the Ee- form Bin, there are some so far outside mere I party contention that they may be regarded as national landmarks, showing the advance of both material and moral improvement. Of the marvellous development of the railway I system, and its effects in the promotion of a common sympathy and the maintenance of a common interest, we shall now have to speak ; but even before the country had been completely intersected with those iron roads which enabled people to interchange visits, and once more brought friends and families who had been long separated into personal communion, the revision of the whole postal system had wrought a remarkable change iu the social relations of people living far apart from their relatives, who, from having been obliged to content themselves with two or three letters a year, could keep up a constant correspondence without either impoverishing themselves, or humbly begging for franki from those privileged persons who were entitled to forward letters at the expense of the public service. In 1838 the London and Birmingham Eail- way was completed. In the same year the Liverpool and Preston line was opened, and the line between Liverpool and Birmini'ham had already been at work for a year. Amongst the wonders of the time was the discovery that a locomotive had made a journey at the rate of 37 miles an hour. A writer giving an account of the railways in 18.37 says, "The prospect of travelling from the metropolis to Liverpool, a distance of 210 miles, in 10 hours. 234 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. calls forcibly to mind the tales of fairies and genii by which we were amused in our youth, and contrasts forcibly with the fact, attested on the personal experience of the writer of this notice, that about the commencement of the present century this same journey occupied a space of 60 hours.'' At that time experi- ments were about to be made with "ships of an enormous size, furnished with steam power, equal to the force of 400 horses and upwards, to make the voyage across the Atlantic." But up to this time, and indeed till the latter part of 1839, the charges made by the post-office for carrying letters were not only so various as to seem almost arbitrary, but were so high as to be nearly prohibitive in the case of the humbler classes of correspondents. "There were few families," says Miss Martineau, "in the wide middle class who did not feel the cost of postage a heavy item in their expendi- ture, and if the young people sent letters home only once a fortnight, the amount at the year's end was a rather serious matter. But it was the vast multitude of the lower orders who suffered, like the crusading families of old and the geographical discoverers of all time. When once their families parted off from home it was a separation almost like that of death. The hundreds of thousands of apprentices, of shopmen, of governesses, of domestic servants, were cut off from family relations as if seas or deserts lay between them and home. If the shilling for each letter could be saved by the economy of weeks or months at first, the rarity of the correspondence went to increase the rarity; new interests hastened the dying out of old ones, and the ancient domestic affections were but too apt to wither away, till the wish for intercourse was gone. The young girl could not ease her heart by pouring out her cares and difficulties to her mother before she slept, as she can now, when the penny and the sheet of paper are the only condition of the correspondence. The young lad felt that a letter home was a somewhat serious and formal matter, when it must cost his parents more than any indulgence they ever thought of for themselves; and the old fun and light-hearted- ness were dropped from such domestic inter- course as there was. The effect upon morals of this kind of restraint is proved beyond a doubt by the evidence afforded in the army. It was a weU-known fact that in regiments where the commanding officer was kind and courteousaboutfrankinglettersfortheprivates, and encouraged them to wi-ite as often as they pleased, the soldiers were more sober and manly, more virtuous and domestic in their affections, than where difficulty was made by the indolence or stiffness of the franking officer.'' The rates of postage differed not only accord- ing to the distance for which letters had to be carried, but with respect to the weight, size, and shape of the letter; while if more than one sheet of paper were used a higher charge was invariably made, a condition which fre- quently led to tampering with letters by post- office officials, for the purpose of seeing whether they were liable to the higher scale. The postage of a letter from London to BeKast was one-and-fourpence, from London to Brighton eightpence, and the average charge from London to aU places throughout the kingdom exceeded sixpence. Then not only could any member of the government frank his own and other people's letters by writing his name on the outside, but all members of parliament were permitted to send a certain number of letters free by the same process. The absurd system of course led to the illegal transmission of letters by private carriers, or by coaches and wagons, who conveyed them at a lower rate than that charged by the post- office, while all kinds of evasions were prac- tised for the purpose of saving the heavy im- post. Coleridge, when a young man, was walk- ing through the Lake District when he one day saw the postman deliver a letter to a woman at a cottage door. The woman turned it over and examined it, and then returned it, saying that she could not pay the postage, which was a ShiDing. Hearing that the letter was from her brother, Coleridge paid the postage, in spite of the manifest unwillingness of the woman. As soon as the postman was out of sight she showed Coleridge how his money had been wasted as far as she was con- cerned. The sheet was blank. There was an agreement between her brother and herself. THE OLD POSTAL SYSTEM. 235 that as long as all went well with him he should send a blank sheet in this way once a quarter; and she thus had tidings of him without the expense of postage. This was only one of many devices resorted to to avoid the exorbitant demands of the post-office. There was curious dotting in newspapers by which messages might be spelt out by means of a "key" in the possession of both correspond- ents. Men of business wrote letters so that several might go on one sheet, which was to be cut up and distributed. The idea of a penny post was not altogether new, since one had been established in London in 1683, and was after- wards absorbed by the government, which would never permit competition; and Dr. Johnson refers to the penny post in 1738. But whenever an attempt was niade to cheapen the carriage of letters it was always opposed by the authorities, who represented that it would diminish the revenue. Mr. Charles Knight, in the work on London of which he was editor, gave some interesting particulars of the post-office system as it was for- merly conducted: before 1784; from that year to 1839; and after the new bill had been passed. In the first period the mails were conveyed on horseback or in light carts, and the robbery of the mail was one of the most common of the higher class of offences. The service was very inefficiently performed, and the rate of travel- ling did not often exceed four miles an hour. A time-bill for the year 1717 has been pre- served, addressed " to the several postmasters betwixt London and East Grinstead." It is headed " Haste, haste, post haste!" from which it might be inferred that extraordinary expe- dition was not only enforced, but would be accomplished. The mails, conveyed either on horseback or in a cart, departed "from the letter-office in London, July 7th, 1717, at half an hour past two in the morning," and reached East Grinstead, distant forty-six miles, at half an hour after three in the after- noon. There were stoppages of half-an-hour each at Epsom, Dorking, and Eeigate, and of a quarter of an hour at Leatherhead, so that the rate of travelling, exclusive of stoppages, was a fraction above four miles an hour. But even nearly fifty years afterwards, and on the great roads, five miles an hour was considered as quite " going-a-head." "Letters are con- veyed in so short a time, by night as well as by day, that every twenty-four hours the post goes one hundred and twenty miles, and in five or six days an answer to a letter may be had from a place three hundred miles from London." Letters were despatched from Lon- don to all parts of England and Scotland three times a week, and to Wales twice a week; but " the post goes every day to those places where the court resides, as also to the several stations and rendezvous of his majesty's fleet, as the Downs and Spithead ; and to Tunbridge during the season for drinking the waters." The mails were not all despatched at the same hour, but were sent off at various inter- vals between one and three in the morning, and letters were delivered in London at differ- ent times of the day as each post arrived. This careless and lazy state of things existed until 1784, when the attention of Mr. Palmer was drawn to the singular discrepancy which existed between the speed of the post and of the coaches. Letters which left Bath on Monday night were not delivered in London until two or three o'clock in the afternoon of Wednesday, and were sometimes even later ; but the coach which left Bath on Monday afternoon arrived in London sufficiently early for the delivery of parcels by ten o'clock the next morning ; and though the postage from Bath to London was at that time only three- pence, yet despatch was in many cases of such importance that the tradesmen of Bath will- ingly paid two shillings to send their letters to London in the form of a coach parcel, be- sides requesting their correspondents to give a gratuity to the porter for the early delivery of the packet, this promise of additional pay- ment forming part of the direction. The slow rate of travelling of the Bath post was not an exception. The post which left London on Monday night, or rather on Tues- day, from one to three in the morning, did not reach Norwich, Worcester, or Birming- ham until Wednesday morning; and the Exeter post not untO. Thursday morning; while letters were five days in passing from London to Glasgow. 236 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. Mr. Palmer proposed that the mails should no longer be transported on horseback or in light carts, but that coaches should be em- ployed ; and as the robbery of the mail was so frequent an occurrence, a man with fire- arms was to travel with each coach. The coaches with the mails were all to start from London at the same hour, and their departure from the country was to be so regulated as to ensure, as far as possible, their simultaneous arrival in town at an early hour in the morn- ing. The first mail-coach upon Mr. Palmer's plan left London for Bristol on the evening of the 24th of August, 1784. The improve- ments suggested by Mr. Palmer met with a good deal of opposition from some of the post- oiSce authorities, but the ministers resolved that the scheme should be carried out in all its most essential features. The results were that by 1797 the greater part of the mails were conveyed in one-half the previous time, in many cases in one-third ; and in some of the cross posts in one-fourth of the previous time. Daily posts were established to above five hundred places which before had only received them thrice a week. The great com- mercial towns were thought to be as much entitled to this advantage as the water- drinkers at Tunbridge Wells thirty years before. The revenue of the post-office in- creased beyond anticipation ; but Mr. Palmer, who had stipulated for a per centage on the surplus net revenue beyond £240,000, received instead an annuity of J3000. The era of mail-coaches embraces about half a century. Their origin, maturity, and perfection, and gradual displacement by the railways, all took place within that short period. In 1836 there were fifty-four four- horse mails in England, thirty in Ireland, and ten in Scotland. The number of pair- horse mails in England was forty-nine. Their average speed in England was nine miles an hour, including stoppages. Starting from London at eight o'clock in the evening, the mail reached Exeter, 170 miles, in sixteen hours thirty -four minutes; Holyhead, 261 miles, in twenty-seven hours; Glasgow, 396 miles, in forty-two hours; Edinburgh, 399 mUes, in forty-two and a half hours. The number of miles travelled by the mails in England and Scotland in 1838 was above seven millions, equal to a circuit round the globe every day in the year. The English mail-coach was strongly characteristic of the national energy and spirit, and also of the national taste. The daily departure of the mail-coaches from the post-office was always a favourite sight. In 1837 the number which left London every night was twenty-seven, travelling in the aggregate above 5500 miles before they reached their respective destina- tions. A short time before the hour of start- ing they arrived in the yard round the post- office from their respective inns, with the passengers already in their places. Through the iron railing, by the light of innumerable gas-lamps, the public could see the process of packing the mail-bags. It was really a fine sight to see twenty of these vehicles drawn up, each occupying the same station night after night, the horses fine and spirited animals, the harness exceptionally neat, and the coachman and guards wearing the king's livery. The travellers for such various and distant parts of the kingdom seemed as if they felt the difierence between travelling by the mail and by the stage-coach. As the clock struck eight the post-office porters dragged out huge bags, of which the guards of the different mails took charge. In a few minutes each coach, one by one, passed out of the yard, and the sound of the guard's horn became lost in the noise of the streets. About six of the mail-coaches on the south- western, western, and north-western roads did not take up their bags at the post-office, but started from the western end of Piccadilly — the bags for those mails being conveyed in light carts in the care of mail-guards. The starting of these mails was a sight for the West End. About twenty minutes past eight the mail-carts drove up at great speed, the guards' horns warning passengers of the necessity of getting out of the way. The bags were transferred to the mail-coaches, and each successively took its departure. The annual procession of the mail-coaches on the king's birth-day was also an exhilarating and pleasing sight which will never again be SIE EOWLAKD HILL. 237 mtnessed. "The gala turn-out of our maU- coaches on the king's birth-day," says Sir Francis Head, "I always think must strike foreigners more than anything else in our country with the sterling, solid integrity of the English character ;'' and a foreign visitor, Von Baumer, in his England in 1835, says : — " Such a splendid display of carriages-and-four as these mail-coaches could not be found or got together in all Berlin, It was a real pleasure to see them in all the pride and strength which, in an hour or two later, was to send them in every direction, with incred- ible rapidity, to every comer in England." The procession proceeded from the city to the West End and through Hyde Park; and usually passed before the residence of the postmaster-general for the time being. But a remarkable change was still to be made in the system of the post-office, and it was to originate from a young man who, as an ardent social reformer, had made a consider- able impression on those with whom he had been associated in useful and practicable schemes for the public benefit. Eowland HiU was bom at Kidderminster on December 3d, 1795, in a house that had be- longed to his forefathers for some generations. But the war with France had caused the ruin of the business in which his father was en- gaged, and the family was reduced to great straits. From his earliest years, Eowland was brought up in the stem school of poverty, and, like Gtarrick, "was bred in a family whose study was to make 4d. do as much as others made 4^. do." His father was a man of great intelligence, of varied, but not deep, knowledge, and of an eager, inquiring mind. He was as upright and as bold as he was simple-hearted. He was given to speculation, and never weary of forming theories. Many of his theories his son came in time to distrust, and yet he had been heard to say that in poUtic^ matters his fether was always right. As far back as his sons could remem- ber, he had lifted his voice against slavery and the slave-trade, and against the cruel se- verity of our criminal code. As a member of Dr. Priestley's congregation, he was of course in favour of full religious liberty. He was, in those early days, a thoroughgoing freetrader. AU these subjects, and many others, he de- lighted in discussing with his children, even from their earliest childhood. His eldest son, the late Mr. M. D. Hill, the recorder of Bir- mingham, in a short memoir that he hixs left, says, " Perhaps, after aU, the greatest obliga- tion that we owe our fether is this : that from infancy he would reason with us — argue with us, would perhaps be a better expression, as denoting that it was a match of mind against mind, in which all the rules of fair- play were duly observed, and we put forth our little strength without fear. Arguments were taken at their just weight, the sword of authority was not thrown into the scale." Bowland has been heard to say that as a child he read and read again Miss Edgeworth's stories for the young. They deeply impressed him. He resolved, when a mere boy, to fol- low in the path she traced, and before he died to do something that should be for the signal advantage of mankind. How he was to bene- fit his fellowmen he did not of course know; but that he should benefit them, and benefit them in some large way, was his fixed resolu- tion and conviction almost from cluldbood. As the family day by day gathered for its meals — ^meals of the most frugal kind, where nothing stronger than water was ever drunk — there was a constant discussion among the members on the best means of reforming the world. There was little timidity in those days among any of them, and little fear of pushing any principle to its extreme consequences. In their later days they came to smile at the wildness of many of their theories; but they had always the satisfaction of knowing that their aims, if often visionary, had always been high and noble, and that in their earnest de- sire to improve mankind, they had first set about improving themselves. Much as Eow- land Hill owed to his father, he owed scarcely less to his mother. She, though the inferior of her husband in quick intelligence and originality, was his superior in shrewd com- mon sense and in firmness of purpose. She, unlike her husband, was of an anxiotw and ambitions temperament, and toiled night and day to keep her little family from sinking 238 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. through poverty out of the class into which they had been born. In her desire to secure her children an education, she persuaded her husband to give up trade, for which he was very little fitted, and to establish a school. The charges for pupils were very low, and prices were very high. When Eowland was a mere child, his mother used to talk over with him her difficulties, almost as if he were a man. From his childhood he had, as he said, seen the terrible inconvenience of being poor. He had known his mother dread the visit of the postman, as there was not money in the house to pay the postage. Each child was brought up to consider the good of the family rather than his own special good. All the brothers held closely together. No one took any decision of great importance without first calling a kind of family council and having the matter thoroughly discussed. Eow- land was quite a youth when he and his brother Matthew began to discover the de- ficiencies in their father's school, and to set about to reform them. His first task, how- ever, was to free his father from the load of debt which, through his unbusinesslike habits, in spite of his simple way of living, had come to press very heavily on him. At an age when boys are now leaving school, he had taken upon himself the entire management of the accounts, and before long had the satisfaction of paying off all his father's creditors in full. Matthew chiefly concerned himself with im- proving the instruction, while Eowland dealt with the discipline and organization. " Organ- ization," he used often to say in after life, "is my forte.'' And this is how he organized : "Con- vinced that numerous and important advan- tages would be derived from engaging their pupils in the consideration and in the practice of rules for their own government, from plac- ing restrictions to the powers of the teachers, and from giving to the regulations of the school a permanent form, the proprietors, early in the year 1817, proposed to the school a certain division of powers, together with re- gulations for their exercise, which, having received the joint assent of the teachers and pupils, became the constitutional laws of the the powers placed in the hands of the pupils would never be employed but for the welfare of the school, the proprietors pledged them- selves not to alter these laws, without the consent of a majority of the pl-oprietors and regular teachers meeting in conference on one hand, and of a majority of pupils on the other. With such joint consent, occasional alterations have been made in the constitutional laws, tending chiefly, if not entirely, to throw more and more power into the hands of the pupils." An almost perfect democracy was established. Each boy had even the right of being tried by a jury of his school-fellows whenever a charge was brought against him by one of the mas- ters. In the Essays of a Birmingham Manu- facturer an interesting account is given of the school. "By juries and committees," says Mr. W. L. Sargant, the author, "by marks, and by appeals to a sense of honour, discipline was maintained. But this was done, I think, at too great a sacrifice ; the thoughtlessness, the spring, the elation of childhood were taken from us ; we were premature men." This sys- tem, whatever may have been its merits and its faults, was invented by Eowland Hill at an age when most young men have scarcely left college. It was greatly modified in after years, both by himself and his younger brothers; for, as the "Birmingham Manufac- turer," perhaps with some exaggeration, says, "the Hazelwood constitution, discipline, in- struction, were in a perpetual flux ; the right to-day was wrong to-morrow." In a volume entitled Public Education, written chiefly by his brother Matthew, Eowland's new system was made known to the world. The book at once excited public attention. An article on it appeared in the Edinburgh Review, and another in the London Magazine written by De Quiucey. Jeremy Bentham took the warmest interest in the school, and declared that after reading the book he had thrown aside aU he had himself written on education. Wilberforoe, Brougham, Grote, Joseph Hume, Miss Edgeworth, and many others, either visited Hazelwood or made inquiries about it. Eowland was as convinced as any young enthusiast could be of the soundness of school ; and in the confident expectation that his plans, and longed to extend them. He re^ PENNY POSTAGE PEOPOSED. 239 quired, he said, at least five hundred boys before he could organize his school as it ought to be. He looked forward to seeing great col- leges on the same system spring up in all parts of the country, to the advantage of his fellow- men. He was afterwards heard to confess, that having after long years looked into his code of laws he thought it far too complex. He added, with a smile, that he greatly doubted whether he should send his own son to a school conducted on such a complicated system. It can scarcely be doubted, however, that to his bold and novel experiment may be traced not a little of the vast improvement that in the last fifty years has been effected in education. He used to boast that at one time he had the largest school in Warwickshire, for Rugby in those days had sunk very low, and some years before Arnold's name was heard he had shown that boys could be made almost to govern themselves, through a high sense of duty, and not through brutal fear. After living at Birmingham till he was more than thirty, he removed to the neigh- bourhood of London, where, with the aid of one of his brothers, he established a branch school at Bruce Castle, Tottenham. But by this time his health, which had always been delicate, began to give way, and at last broke down. It was only the extreme temperance and regularity of his life which had kept him alive. Moreover, his work as a schoolmaster had become distasteful to him, and he longed for a change. As soon as his health was re- established by a long period of rest, he began to cast about for a new employment. He had long been known to many leading men among the advanced Liberal party, not only by his work as a schoolmaster, but also as an eager advocate of political and social reform. He and his family had been in the front ranks among the men of Birmingham in the great Eeform Bill agitation. He had assisted in founding the Society for the Diffusion of Use- ful Knowledge. He had published a plan for the gradual extinction of pauperism and for the diminution of crime. Shortly after his re- tirement from the school, an association was formed for the colonization of South Australia on the plan of Mr. E. G. Wakefield. In this association Rowland Hill took an active part, and when the act was carried through parlia- ment, and the commission was appointed, he was named secretary. He held this post for four years, and discharged the duties with conspicuous success.* In the early part of 1837 he had published a pamphlet which discussed the postal question closely and convincingly. He showed that the actual cost of conveyance for letters must be very small, and that it increased only in a very trifling proportion to the distance of the place to which they had to be carried. His argument, supported by indisputable facts, was that the substitution, in the United King- dom, of one uniform rate of postage would be of inestimable benefit to the community, and that it would increase rather than dimin- ish the revenue. The rate of postage which he desired to establish was a penny for the half-ounce, without reference to the destina- tion of the letter, .within the postal limits of Great Britain and Ireland. Mr. Hill ascer- tained that the cost of mere transit incurred by conveying a letter 400 miles, from London to Edinburgh, was no more than one thirty- sixth part of a penny, and yet the income of the post-ofiice was exceedingly small, and had been diminishing. The actual cost of trans- mission to any part of the kingdom reached by the mail was less than a farthing, so that the penny rate would pay 400 per cent, and means might be taken to secure payment beforehand by means of a stamp affixed to the letter itself, a notion for which Mr. Hill was indebted to Mr. Charles Knight, the eminent writer, who had already done so much to promote educa- tion and social progress in the publications which bore his name. Of course the post-office officials were strongly opposed to such a scheme. They had always gone on the principle of main- taining an expensive monopoly, and in their efforts to increase the revenue of the depart- ment by charging far more than would re- munerate private enterprise, had diminished the correspondence of the entire community, had encouraged a kind of smuggling which 1 TmKS, August 28th, 1879. 240 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. nobody could be found to regard as a crime, and had in a very definite sense injured society by preventing those domestic and friendly communications which are among the chief safeguards of aifection and morality. It hap- pened fortunately enough, that a commission was engaged in inquiring into the manage- ment of the post-office at the very time that Mr. Hill's pamphlet appeared, and though the private offer of his plan to the govenment had produced no immediate result, his public appeal at once made a stir in commercial circles and compelled some notice. The com- mission were engaged in investigating the operation of the twopenny post when the pamphlet appeared. Mr. Wallace moved in the House of Commons for a select committee to report upon the plan devised by the author, but without any result, as the government de- clared that the matter was under consideration. Petitions, however, began to be presented from the corporation of London, from cham- bers of commerce in the large seaport and manufacturing towns, and from literary and other societies. The ministry were at first for temporizing and trying some smaller schemes which it was supposed might not be dangerous to the revenue, and the promoter of this great public benefit was compelled to undergo much of the disappointment and heart-burning which are too frequently the lot of true benefactors to mankind. Happily he was a man who had the courage of his con- victions, and he has but recently passed away from us after forty years of undoubted success for a scheme which has been developed to a marvellous organization, and may be said fitly to represent the enormous strides made not only in commerce, but in science and in educa- tion, during the present reign. A committee of the house was at length granted to investigate the proposed scheme, and they were convinced not only that it was practicable, but that public opinion demanded its adoption whether the revenue would sufiFer loss or not. That it would sufifer a loss was an opinion expressed by nearly everybody con- cerned, and even the sagacious Sydney Smith stigmatized the plan as the " nonsensical penny postage scheme." On financial grounds Sir Eobert Peel and Mr. Goulbourn were opposed to it. In the House of Lords the Duke of Wellington, who entertained strong objections to the scheme, yet entreated the house to pass the measure because it was one anxiously ex- pected by the country. The measure was passed with some modi- fications. For a few weeks fourpence was charged as the uniform rate, in order to pre- vent an overwhelming number of penny let- ters being sent before the officials had time to become accustomed to the change. Prepay- ment was to be by stamps, and the privilege of franking, or sending letters free through the post, was to be abolished except in the case of official letters on government business. On the 10th of January, 1840, the new scheme was to be tried. A penny was to be charged for every prepaid letter not exceeding half an ounce in weight, and twopence for every such letter if not paid in advance. Double the- rates were charged for packets over half an ounce and under an ounce, and so on with double charges if left to be paid on delivery. At first an official envelope was issued con- taining a design by Mulready consisting of a number of emblematical figures of commerce, industry, &c., and groups representing the sentiments with which letters from friends and relatives are received; but this was after all unsuited for business purposes, and became a little tiresome in its continued and therefore stale presentation of emotions which might be entirely incongruous when regarded in re- ference to the contents of the envelope. The queen's-head stamp, first on the envelopes, and afterwards in their present form, therefore- soon took its place. The results of the new plan were not at first favourable to the revenue, because the govern- ment would not adopt it in its entirety. The actual net revenue was .£465,000, a falling off of nearly three-fourths from the former net revenue, but it was expected that there would for some time be a considerable diminution, and the enormous advantage to the country, both among the commercial classes and the poor, whose families were so often separated, was well worth the temporary cost. Had the plan been fairly tried it is probable that in DEVELOPMENT OF OUB POSTAL SYSTEM. 241 five years the gross revenue of the post-office would tiave been restored, especially as rail- ways and means of rapid locomotion and eco- nomical conveyance were increasing with great rapidity; but official opposition and the neglect both of the existing and of the succeeding governments prevented Mr. HiU from succeed- ing. At first he was engaged to work his own scheme, but he was compelled to abandon about half of it, and those portions of the organization which would have made it re- munerative were left out of the system. When the Peel government came into power he was dismissed, and the system again fell under the hostile management of the "authorities." For three years the reduction of the cost of postage and the prepayment by stamps were adopted, but little was done towards simplifying the arrangements with a view to economy, or in- creasing the facilities for conveying and de- livering letters. Yet at that time, when every industry and every interest was depressed and complaining, and every other branch of the revenue had declined, the proceeds of the post-office had increased and had reached to two-thirds of its old amount. It was evident at last, however, that to secure the full ad- vantage, the projector of the scheme should be in authority to work his own plan, and he was solicited to return to the superintendence of the post-office. What that department has become, and the vast, active, and far-reaching organization which it represents, has long ago been recognized. The name of Sir Eowland Hill was one which, during the life of him who bore it, was everywhere mentioned with genuine respect, and had he been a man who aspired to a title higher than the simple knight- hood which was conferred upon him he might doubtless have obtained the distinction. His best title to our regard, however, is that he lived and died a faithful public servant, who, having seen how by one great reform the hap- piness and the prosperity of his fellows could be enhanced, gave himself heartily to the work of which he lived to see the achievement. The postal system introduced by Sir Eowland Hill has been adopted by almost every civilized country in the world, and its amazing progress here is best evidenced by the account of the VOL. I • increase of the work of the post-office even iii the decade from 1870 to 1880. In the former year there were 704,000,000 letters delivered in England and Wales, 79,000,000 in Scotland, and 64,000,000 in Ireland. In 1880 these numbers had increased to 950,000,000 for Eng- land and Wales, 102,000,000 for Scotland, and 76,000,000 for Ireland. In the year 1879-80 there were 97,000,000 post-cards delivered in England and Wales, 12,000,000 in Scotland, and 6,000,000 in Ireland. The number of newspaper and book-packets delivered during the same period was 281,000,000 in England and Wales, 37,000,000 in Scotland, and 27,000,000 in Ireland. Equally remarkable has been the progress of the admirable provision adopted early in the scheme as worked by Sir Eowland (then Mr.) HiU as a portion of the system, that of sending money-orders through the post. The value of the money -orders issued by the post-office in the official year 1879-80 was £25,032,261, being at the rate of 51-1 orders to every 100 of the population. The increase in the number of telegraphic messages since the lines were taken over by the state in 1870 is very remarkable. The first year the lines were under government control and made part of the postal system, there were 8,606,732 mes- sages sent in the United Kingdom; and in 1879 these figures had risen to 23,385,416, exclusive of press and service messages, the net revenue from this number of telegrams being £257,601. The initiation of the electric telegraph as a practical thing dates from the first year of the reign of Victoria. It is well known that Pro- fessor Morse of America claims to have invented this telegraph in 1832, while on his way from Havre to New York. There was an alphabet, dots and strokes, in Morse's invention, and it was successfully applied in experiments extending over a circuit of ten miles. Meanwhile Baron Schilling and Messrs. Gauss and Weber, on the Continent, were making immense strides in the more strictly scientific, as distinguished from the merely mechanical and ingeuioiis portions of the new agency. It was, however, in 1837 that Stein- heil of Munich made the great discovery that 16 242 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. two wires were not necessary, because the earth itself would complete the circuit; and in the same year our own Professor Wheat- stone took out his first patent. It must be understood that no expression of opinion is here given as to who was really the originator of the electric telegraph, but the first experi- ment of a practical nature in London was made on the 25th of July, 1837, between Euston Square and Camden Town stations, on the North- Western Railway, immediately after Messrs. Wheatstone and Cook had taken out their patents. Mr. Robert Stephenson and Mr. Fox were present to witness the operation. Within six months after the accession of her present majesty, a striking figure was removed by death from the public eye. He began life by running away to Gretna with a beautiful girl, whom, while still without any profession, he married. This couple went through much hardship, but continued all their lives romantically fond of each other. The man was "mixed up" with a romance much wilder than his own, and will be remembered by that when all the rest of his story is little cared for. He was a handsome fellow, and a handsome drinker when he dined out; not at home, for he was very penurious ; he would drink, as he said of his brother, " any given quantity of wine." He had some wit, and great power of personal fascination. At eighty years of age we find him writing some rather "free'' verses about some girls whom he had caught playing at see-saw. This "curious figure" is no other than John Scott — Lord Eldon. We have called him a figure, but he almost strikes one as a sort of figure-head, so long had he maintained one fixed attitude. A high authority. Dr. Surtees, writes that the old regi- men " was buried in his grave." Not that he was a Tory, though he was : but that he was an obstructive and obscurantist. He was the ''everlasting No" — except when there was something to gain. Not even the candour of enemies — which is often more to be trusted than the zeal of friends — has pretended to hold him quite clear of greed and time-serving. He died worth more than half-a-million, one of the loneliest men in England. Dr. Surtees has recorded a Christmas day, long long before his death (he lived to eighty-seven years of age), upon which he did not receive one single gift or other remembrance (one turkey was despatched to him, but was stolen on the way) ! He had held the great seal time after time, year after year, and had wielded much power direct and indirect; yet scarcely one poor reform, even in his own department, is to be traced to his zeal; while it will never be forgotten, so long as he is remembered, that he opposed, with Sidmouth, the abolition of the slave-trade, and actually voted against Lord Howick's measure when it may be said that all the heart of England, of every politi- cal creed, was set upon that great change. Nobody has attempted to deny that in private Lord Eldon was wilful and unforgiving — to everybody but his wife. Unfortunately he had a knack of crying, which won him no favour with the rude British public. "By G , she's guilty " — this not very judicial remark, accompanied by a. tear or two, at Queen Caroline's trial, was long remembered against him, and he was christened " crocodile Eldon " by those who knew what his relations with that misguided, if not guilty, woman, had previously been. It will certainly not be forgotten until Shelley's Masque of Anarchy is out of print; — " Next came Fraud, and he had on, Like Lord E , an ermine gown ; His big tears, for he wept well, Turned to millstones as they fell ; And the little children, who Round his feet played to and fro, Thinking every tear a gem, Had their brains knocked out by them. " The allusion — admittedly one of the most telling and significant in all literature — is to Eldon's judgment in the case of Westbrook v. Shelley, when the question was who was to have the custody of the poet's two little ones. But here we must do an act of justice. It was not to be expected that the bereaved father, who was passionately fond of children, should see clear, but the truth is that Lord Eldon's judgment is singularly moderate in tone; turns not upon the poet's theological opin- ions, but on his moral creed: and is stiU up- LOED ELDON. 243 held as good law. It was rather hard for Shelley to be compelled to pay .£200 a year for the education of his own children by the nominee of an avowed and open enemy ; but Lord Eldon seems to have been blameless in the matter. His decisions in the Court of Chancery have very seldom been impugned, either as to their law or their fairness. It used to be said that the length of time he took in making up his mind did suitors more harm than wrong decisions would have done ; and there are a thousand squibs current in literature about his see-sawing judgments. He was very tedious, and wrote and spoke vile English. On the trial of Home Tooke and Hardy he spoke eight hours (for the crown, of course) without seeming fatigued. Tooke, who was a scholar, said, when acquitted, that he would rather be hanged out of hand next time than listen to one of Sir John Scotf s speeches. Eldon, in fact, was a man of one groove. He had no notion of poKtical or social first principles, no knowledge of history, no love of literature, art, or science. His one idea was to be a successful lawyer, and great was his disappointment when he found, late in life, that neither Wellington nor Peel would let him return to his old perch on the wool- sack. But he had become a sort of fossil, and the times would not permit the "everlasting no." There was once a churchwarden who would not hear of an able and learned preacher. " We won't have learning and eloquence here, sir; I always opposed that d intellect, and always wOl." That precise speech was never put into Eldon's mouth by the carica- turists of the day, but a score of speeches like it were. The title "crocodile Eldon'' was well won. Dr. Surtees has positively told the world that Eldon declared in private that when he prosecuted Home Tooke, Hardy, Hol- croft, &c.,for (constructive) treason, he thought the two sides of the case so nicely balanced, that if he had been on the jury he would not have known which way to divide. Yet at the end of his speech against the prisoners he burst into tears, and, among other appeals, pledged himself to the jury as lawyer and as citizen, and implored them not to disgrace him, and his by rejecting his view of the case. When we remember who the men were whom he was doing his best to get hanged or trans- ported, and what Dr. Surtees has related, we must admit that Sir John Scott pushed the privileges of advocacy as far as they could go. John Scott was born in 1751 at Newcastle- on-Tyne. Like his brother William (the great Lord Stowell, also an obscurantist) he was a twin — each having been bom with a sister. Scott, the father, was a man of very humble origin, who had made money first as a coal- fitter or broker, and then as a publican and insurance broker. The Sandgate, where John was bom, and from which he eloped with the beautiful Bessy Surtees, is classic ground, if a well-known song can make it so : — "As I came thro' Sandgate, thro' Sandgate, thro' Sandgate, .As T came thro' Sandgate, I heard a lassie sing, Weel may the keel row, the keel row, the keel row, Weel may the keel row, that my laddie's in.'' Here John Scott, afterwards one of the greatest lawyers that ever flourished, was living when, an Oxford student, he fell in love with the girl who was to be his fate. He had a narrow escape of being a coal-fitter or a grocer, but he was destined for a lord-chancellor, and a lord-chancellor he was, and not only so, he was a lord-chancellor with a romance in his life. George III. once asked him whether he thought there was another king in all English history who had had a chancellor and a pri- mate at the same time who had each run away with his wife. Eldon, with his usual ready wit, passed the question on to the archbishop. It was in the ancient Gothic Church of Sedgefield, Durham, that young John Scott first saw Miss Elizabeth Surtees, daughter of a Newcastle banker, and a girl of striking beauty. The coal-fitter's son soon got ac- quainted with her, and, with his handsome figure and attractive manners, distanced the young " squires" who were his rivals. The relations of Bessy frowned and sent her to London. But the connection was not to be broken off, and the efforts to separate the pair led to an elopement, for an account of which we will be indebted to a descendant of the family. Dr. W. H. Surtees. 244 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. The house in which Mr. Surtees lived was a very large old-fashioned building, in a row of houses called Sandhill, which fronted to- wards the town-haU, the exchange, and the river. The ground-floor was occupied by the shop and warehouse of a Mr. Snow Clayton, an extensive clothier, but between the shop and the rest of the house there was no com- munication, each having a separate entrance. John Scott had an early friend of the name of Wilkinson ; and to him he confided a plan for an elopement. Wilkinson, who was a yoimg man of some small independence, which he contemplated investing in trade, had ap- prenticed himself to Clayton the clothier, and as Clayton's shop was under Mr. Surtees' resi- dence, his apprentice must have possessed pe- culiar means of facilitating the escape. The night of Wednesday the 18tb of No- vember, 1772, was selected for the elopement. At that time the garrison within the house at Sandhill was weakened by the absence of Mr. Surtees' eldest son William, who was on a visit of a few days' duration to Some friends. WUkinson was faithful to Scott in aiding and abetting the enterprise, and assisted him by concealing a ladder in the premises of Mr. Clayton below. This ladder was placed against the most westerly window on the first floor j and down it Bessy Surtees, "with an unthrift love," descended into the arms of John Scott. That night they were "over the Border and away," and the next morning were married at Blaokshields, in Scotland. In a few days the young couple returned to Newcastle, but found sad or averted faces. Mrs. Surtees had been so affected with the flight of her daughter that she had kept her bed for several days, and the mind of the dis- appointed mother fluctuated between sorrow and anger. Mr. Scott, however, received his son and newly-acquired daughter kindly; and a few days later Mr. Surtees was induced, by the intercession of his eldest son William, to ex- tend to the delinquents an ostensible forgive- ness, though his displeasure appears not to have been entirely obliterated for the next two years and a half. This does not seem a very hopeful beginning for a young man, barely twenty-one, with his way to make in the world, but so far as human eyes can judge nothing but good came of it. Many odd stories have been told of the early struggles of young Scott and his lovely wife. For instance, that while he was reading law with a wet towel round his head, Bessy might have been seen in Carey Street, Chancery Lane, with a pint of porter in one hand and a plate of sprats (bought in Clare Market) in the other — ^these delicacies (and there is much worse food) being for the happy young couple's supper. This gossip we will set down as fic- tion, but it is said to have originated Thack- eray's delicious sketch of Raymond Gray and his wife and their "little dinner" to the nabob in the Snoh Papers. Lord Eldon himself, however, has told a story which goes very well with such small anecdotes. " When I was- called to the bar," says he, "Bessy and I thought all our troubles were over : business was to- pour in, and we were to be almost rich im- mediately. So I made a bargain with her that during the following year all the money I should receive in the first eleven months^ should be mine, and whatever I should get in the twelfth month should be hers. What a stingy dog I must have been to make such a bargain ! I would not have done so after- wards. But, however, so it was; that was our agreement; and how do you think it turned out? In the twelfth month I received halt-a- guinea; eighteen -pence went for fees, and Bessy got nine shillings ; in the other eleven months I got not one shilling." This story Mr. Surtees, who quotes it, says can only be true as applied to John Scott's first year of London business. By the year 1774 Scott was doing pretty well, was on good terms- with the Duke of Sussex, and was a welcome guest at Carlton House. Not much later he writes to his brother Henry an amusing account of ins experiences in his visits to a Mr. Bowes, who kept up the traditions of the time in the matter of strong waters. " I see your friend Bowes," he writes, "very often, but I dare not dine with him above once in three months, as there is no getting away before midnight; and indeed one is sure to be in a condition in which no man would LORD ELDON. 245 ■wish to be ia the streets at auy other season." Mr. Bowes delighted in making his guests intoxicated : the device which he adopted to reduce them to this state is thus related by one of his biographers : — " Bowes had a prac- tice which he applied whenever he could, if he wanted to make any part of hi.s company drunk; and as far as I have seen he was generally successful. I have known very gnive people over whom he has succeeded. He would appear to be very candid, and to tell his guests they should help themselves to the spirits which were upon the table, whilst he officiously poured the water to fill up the glasses out of the tea-kettle. All this ap- peared very fair, but he had instructed his servant to bring in the kettle with half-and- half of water and spirits, so that the more his guests were desirous of being sober, the drunker they became." Perhaps we may take the opportunity of remarking that this is not an unfair specimen of Lord Eldon's English. It is worth con- trasting, as shown in his judgments in chan- cery, with one or two of his brother's (Lord Stowell), which are classical. There is an authentic story which throws a delightful colour upon the fondness of the young couple for each other. They were tra- velling in the Lake district, when Bessy fell ill. The only accessible doctor being called in, he gently sent Mr. Scott out of the room, and proceeded to suggest to the lady that she had some mental trouble ! "Are you quite happy with your husband?" was his sagacious way of putting it. Now young Mrs. Scott was not only adored by John, she was an irascible lady, and we are told that she im- mediately dismissed the sage. " Went into heroics," is the phrase of the biographer in hinting at the way in which she sent him about his business. The conduct of this medi- cal man reminds one of a bon mot of Lord Stowell's. Like his brother John, this great judge was "close," and one day asked Sir Henry Halford, at dinner, a question which, in the ordinary course of things, would carry a fee. Sir Henry saw the trick, and simply replied, "A man's health is generally in his own keeping : you know the old saying, that at forty every man is either a fool or a physi- cian." "Why not both?" said the lawyer. In this connection it may be mentioned that Stowell's favourite dish was steak and oyster- pie, of which he would eat with acha/rnement, taking two bottles of port with it; while Lord Eldon was passionately fond of liver and bacon, and during the busiest years of his life drank every night a great goblet of ale on getting into bed ! John Scott, after taking silk and spending a few years in Parliament, was made first solicitor-general and then attorney-general by Pitt. In 1799 he became lord chief -justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and in 1801 he was made lord-chancellor. It is not necessary to repeat all the stories which are told of his so- called " intrigues," but he occupied the wool- sack for nearly twenty-six years. In 1834 he had given up public speaking, but he still clung to the hope of being again lord-chancel- lor. This suggests both great energy and great tenacity, but also great dulness as a politician. Indeed, to a man like Eldon the word is misapplied. Whig, Tory, or Radical, he had no grasp of principles, and could not read the signs of the times. He must, how- ever, have credit for consistency on the ques- tion of the Roman Catholic Relief BiU, and perhaps his own words, written with reference to a proposal to erect a monument in honour of his unbroken opposition to the scheme, should be quoted here. "All that I wish," says the aged peer, "of my country is that they would do me the justice to believe that I have meant, and shall continue to at least mean well, whilst I live, able with any exer- cise of judgment to form a meaning. " As to national monument, my dear friend, that honour must be paid only to those who are more deserving of it. As to any other monument, the kindness of that Being who has given me leisure and a respite from labour between the business of life and the close of it, that I might not go hence too well known to others, too little known to myself" [this turn is not of Eldon's invention], "I trust will postpone for some time longer the occa- sion upon which it may be considered whether I should have a monument to my memory or 246 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. be quietly suffered, which perhaps is best for me, to be forgotten. " I own that I am not in any great hurry to iake possession of that little spot of land which, when possessed, must be occupied by me till time shall be no more." Lady Eldon had died in 1831, and the old age of his lordship was very lonely. He is said to have spent much of his time, after his retirement and during vacations previ- ouslr, with inferior people, reading nothing but newspapers, and indulging in mean gos- sip. But he was very playful, and often showed much tender-heartedness. Dr. Surtees declares that no one who knew him could ever call him a liberal man, and vet that he often gave away large sums of money, not being able to bear the sight or even thought of distress. A man who had accumulated more than half a million of money could cer- tainly afford to give. Dr. Surtees records that his friendships were not formed among men of ability and culture, and gives examples of overbearing severity in his relations with his family. But his love for Bessy was strong to the last, and he always opposed second marriages. In this his wife seconded him. He died in January, 1838, and with his de- parture Englishmen of every shade of political opinion felt that "the old dispensation" of politics was closed. It was high time that it should be. The youngqueen was scarcely seated on her throne before it became manifest in various ways (some of which we will now endeavour to suggest) that the great evils of popular ignorance and popular discontent re- quired fresh and far-seeing treatment. The visit of the queen to the city on the 9th of November, 1S37— the first "Lord- mayors Day" after her accession in June — was an event of great public interest, and by no means without its influence upon the sen- timents of the people, who thus had an oppor- tunity of seeing amongst them the youno- sovereign for whom they entertained a very loyal affection. The royal state procession from Buckingham Palace was imposing, since it consisted of above two hundred carriages extending for nearly a mile and a half, and the royal family, foreign ambassadors, cabinet ministers, and the larger part of the nobility of England took part in the celebration of what was in the nature of a royal progress. AJl London made holiday, and an enormous num- ber of persons crowded the streets in spite of rather inclement weather. It was a day of enthusiastic acclamation, and the banquet at GuUdhaU, where the lord-mayor (Sir John Cowan) of course was the host, was a scene of great magnificence, amidst which the queen, seated on the throne, or rather chair of state, at the east end of the hall, maintained her self-possession and responded for the toast in which his lordship proposed her health with a simple dignity which was infinitely becoming. Her majesty in return proposed the lord-mayor and prosperity to the city of London. Banquets were held at an earlier hour in those days than they ai-e at present, for her majesty reached Guildhall at half -past three, and after rising and bowing to her relatives when the health of the royal family was pi-o- posed (there were but these three toasts on the occasion), left the Guildhall for Bucking- ham Palace at half-past eight, amidst the illuminations which already blazed or twinkled in the streets of the city. The burning of the Eoyal Exchange on the 10th of January, was a more striking occur- rence in the following year. This was the second Exchange built on the same site — the first, founded by Sir Thomas Gresham in 1566, and opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1570-1, was, of course, destroyed in the great fire of 1666, but the statue of Sir Thomas Gresham re- mained uninjured, and was placed in the second building — a quadrangular structure with a timber clock-tower looking towards CornhUl. a series of staUs or open shops on the upper corridor for the sale of mercery and fancy goods, and a number of statues of the sovereigns from Edward I. to George IT. The total destruc- tion of this budding was partly owing to a severe frost which prevented the firemen from obtaining an immediate supply of water. The flames were first seen issuing from Lloyd's Coffee-room, and the fire at once spread with 'SIR WILLIAM COUETENAY, KNIGHT OF MALTA." 247 such rapidity that in two hours the large range of offices belonging to Lloyd's and to the Exchange Insurance Company were in flames. From half-past ten at night, when the fire broke out, until noon the following day the conflagration continued. When it reached the tower, the bells, which had been chiming at the regular intervals during the progress of destruction, fell one after another, carrying along with them the roof, the stone- work, and the arch of the main entrance. The lord-mayor and several of the aldermen were present during the fire, and the police were assisted by a party of soldiers from the Tower and by the guard which is stationed every night within the Bank of England. Strange things happen in the shape of triumphs for gross and ignorant superstition. It is said that Joanna Southcott has yet "fol- lowers" in this country; the delusions of "Brothers, the prophet," are not so very old ; and to come down much later, the whole story of Mormonism, with fat Joe Smith, "the gol- den plates of the Book," the false miracles, and the polygamy, has been enacted under living eyes in an age of newspapers, lectures, science, and electric telegraphs. There is perhaps no reason to doubt that if the occasion were again to arise we should find obscure districts in England, not impossibly districts far from obscure, in which scenes like those which now fall to be mentioned might occur among either peasantry or townspeople. So obstinate is hu- man ignorance, so regularly do dulness and cre- dulity reproduce themselves, generation after generation. A few years before the accession of Queen Victoria there was a man named Thom, who was a farmer and maltster living in Corn- wall. He was not poor, and, taking a craze into his head, left Cornwall, set up for himself a new home in Kent, as he had a perfect right to do, and assumed the name and title of Sir William Courtenay, knight of Malta. This also he had a right to do, that is to say the law of England had nothing to say against such folly. Thom devised to wear oriental clothing, such as to his mind behoved a knight of Malta, and as he was a fine-looking man, lived rather handsomely, and made generally a stylish appearance, it was not long before he found himself very popular among the peasan- try of Boughton (famous in Chaucer's Canter- bury Tales), Heme Hill (near by), and other neighbouring parts. But it was not only the clodhoppers who admired "Sir William Cour- tenay, knight of Malta," for people who ought to have seen through him failed to do so, and in the election of 1833 he had actually polled between 300 and 400 votes for Canterbury in the Conservative interest. Before very long he got into the county jail under a convic- tion for perjury; but it soon became clear that he was insane, and Lord John Eussell, who was then home secretary, gave orders that he should be set free. Early in the year 1838, he again turned up, almost under the very towers of Canterbury Cathedral, and this time in the character of a miraculously commissioned friend of the farmer and the peasant. The excitement caused by the new poor-law was yet quick and strong, and the farmers had the usual grievances of their class. To the latter he made vehement speeches, in which he pro- mised that, under his auspices, they should have land rent-free. To the poor peasantry he denounced the "Union Bastilles" (as they were called), and prophesied abundant wages or better than wages. Much better indeed were the things he promised, for he announced at last that he was to be the saviour of all who trusted him, followed him, and fought with him; that he would shortly set up his kingdom, and would reward his adherents in untold ways. As he was, by his own account, incapable of being injured, guns and swords would not matter, and he proposed immediate action. This proposal was received with acclama- tion. On the morning of the 28th of May, 1838, an incoherent mob of men and women went forth from Boughton at the heels of this madman, whose train was about a hundred in number, and rushed wildly about the district preaching the new "kingdom" according to Thom, and dragging or enticing farm-labourers from their work. This straggling, excited army kept up their unbeneficent labours till the 31st of that month. On that day a farmer 248 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. who did not believe in Thom's kingdom, and who wanted his work done as usual, got a con- stable to go in search of one of his truant labourers who was in the madman's train. The valiant knight of Malta shot the constable with his pistol, stabbed him with his dagger, and then flung the body into a ditch. This was going too far, and the magistrates sent off in hot haste for the soldiers, who soon made their appearance under the command of Lieutenant Bennett. Thorn and his followers had withdrawn in mass to Bossenden Wood. As soon as ever Bennett moved forward with his men Thorn again raised his pistol and shot him dead. Upon this the soldiers fired, and it was now Thom's turn to fall. Although it was thus made plain that he was not invul- nerable, his followers were not disabused of their faith in him, and made such a resistance that ten of them were killed and many wounded before they gave in. It seems that Thom had assured his friends that if he fell they might revive him with water, and a poor woman who had followed bim for miles with a pailful spent much pains in trying to put life into his corpse. Others of the poor ignorant creatures maintained that he would rise from the dead in three days and be taken up to heaven in a cloud ! In spite of this steadfast faith, however, these rioters were brought to trial : six were sent to prison for twelve months, and three were transported. In the teeth of all this there were numbei-s of those who had followed poor Thom, or "Sir William Courtenay, knight of Malta," who continued to believe in him, and year after year expect his resurrection from the dead. So much for one striking illustration of popular ignorance among the peasantry of England in 1838. What they were capable of being worked up to expect, we see. In the towns, where there was more intelligence, the Chartist movement assumed by degrees a threatening shape. Townspeople also were capable of forming large expectations, and these found mouthpieces in parliament. The most popular of these political advocates, and the most unflinching, shall now be introduced. In what may be called the lower politics it is seldom difficult to make a position and a name, but reputations fade as rapidly as they are acquired. It cannot be said that the name of Thomas Slingsby Duncombe is for- gotten yet, nor perhaps that it deserves to be; but in the high sense Mr. Duncombe was not a politician, and he had not the good fortune or the " luck " (to use a meaner word) of men like Wilkes and Burdett; he did not happen to come into open conflict with any sort of constituted authority, or have any prolonged quarrel with even "the public," or any con- siderable section of it. His was not the stuff of which martyrs are made, and there was a sort of general understanding (kept within polite bounds) that he was not to be taken completely au grand serieux. Mr. Duncombe was a nephew of the first Lord Feversham, and was member for Hertford when the first Eeform BiU was carried, — carried not without his assistance, when he was not very far short of forty years of age. He deserves the credit of being all his life a consistent Radical, and an unflinching one. He somehow gave the impression of being a mere " free lance," and yet he was always as true to his colours as Mr. Hume, and he was much more ready to take up a popular cry without inquiry. He was always "the gentleman," indeed a little of a dandy, and this was in his favour so far as "the masses" were concerned. Nor did it hurt him that he was, without concealment, a man of a free life. Those were days in which clever dandies with plenty of money did pretty much as they pleased, without feeling under any particular obligation to keep their amuse- ments to themselves, and Mr. Duncombe's name was as freely associated with that of the beautiful Madame Vestris as Antony's with Cleopatra. Nor was this the mere scandal of the streets; it was at the bottom of a thousand jokes in newspapers and other periodicals, and within the last twenty years the late Mr. Yan- denhoff, the actor, did not scruple to allude to it in a volume of recollections of stage hfe. Of course, Mr. Duncombe — "Tommy Dun- combe," as he was called — was no favourite with the more serious classes, and there were many religious Radicals who refused to vote for him, even under strong pressure, simply :sm. THOMAS S. DTINX'OilBE. 249 because they had heard he was " free " in his life. This was especially the case when he stood for Finsbury, in 183-t, and afterwards. Finsbtiry was an intensely Badical borongh, but Islington, which forms part of it, was, and still is, a sort of centre of evangelicalism. Here then, though he was triumphantly re- turned, with his colleague Wakley, of the Lancet, from time to time he had to encounter a good deal of opposition. This, however, he surmounted, and continued for many years to be the " pet " Badical of a very large public. He could nearly always be depended upon, or at least he was usually expected to do the daahing work in the way of attack, to put the awkward question, and to expose the griev- ances of British and foreign patriotism. It is not necessary to inquire too solicitously into his fidelity, principles, or even into the question whether he understood principles at alL But he represented very well a bygone phase of Badicalism, and we shall have more than one occasion to note certain results of his vivacity. Speaking generally, it may be said that his Liberalism was of the kind that is typified in the liveliest political passages of Byron, and that something of the spirit of the time of the regency clung to hJTn to the last. He had much tavoir /aire, and knew by intuition when he was safe, i. e. when he was sure not to be called upon to go too far. Between natural dash, "good fellowship " ways, and a gift of saying smart things, which, if they fell short of wit or humour, produced a laugh, Mr. Duncombe made way, and made his mark. We are now regarding him as the mouth- piece of extreme Badicals, especially of those who cherished large expectations of change upon the accession of the queen. His connec- tion with Chartism will appear in due time. Passing for a moment from the merely po- litical Badical, we alight upon another type, the radical reformer, who invoked the assist- ance of the law for the purpose of clearing his way and making changes in the more obviously alterable framework of things as they were, but whose reliance was not mainly upon re- form biUs and kindred measures, but upon social co-operation. One of the most competent authorities in the world upon such a question, because one of the best informed, has declared that in India the best-governed provinces have been those which were vmder the sway of women. To this it has been answered that that is only because women have a peculiar discernment in choosing their ministers and other ofBcers. ilr. Mill's reply has always been, for substance, "And do you call that nothing! What better quality can a ruler have?" In this country, however, whatever the rights of the sovereign may be, it can scarcely be said that he or she exercises an active or uncontrolled choice in the selection of the ministers who are to rule in her name. According to the old formula the sovereign reigns but does not govern. Ex- pressing no opinions whatever upon the work- ing of this constitutional fiction, we may cer- tainly notice that if the yotmg queen who had now ascended the throne had governed as well as reigned, and had possessed the self- will of Elizabeth or Catherine II. (who was not very felicitous in choosing her ministers), too much was expected upon her accession. What happened was, indeed, a surprising instance of the power of sex upon the imagi- nation, and of the amount of romance that lies dormant in the human mind. The genuine rational enthusiasm did not exceed by an atom what was right and natural, and it was a delightful thing to see staid elderly men, statesmen, philosophers, bishops, judges, and merchants going into raptures of constitutional gallantry over the coronation of a girl of eighteen. Of course everybody heard enough of that empire on which the sun never sets; and if anybody had added, with Charles Dickens, " and in which the tax-gatherer never goes to bed," he would have had his hat knocked over his eyes. There was a vague feeling that all grievances were going to be removed, and a romantic delight in the use of the change of style. To pay queen's taxes was felt to be a privilege, and even to be sent to the Queen's Bench had a flavour of novelty in it. "God save the Queen" was simg ten times where "God save the King" had been sung once, and writers vied with each other in com- posing fresh variations on the old air, and 250 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. "additional vei-ses" to the hymn. Clergymen preached special sermons, and sent them, very much perfumed, to the palace. Everything was dedicated to the queen, with or without permission. Of course her majesty's style of dressing her hair became instantly the fashion, and the coal-scuttle bonnet underwent consid- erable modification. These are small matters, and pleasant enough to remember. But there was, not unnaturally, a hazy feel- ing abroad that evei-ybody who had anything new to propose stood some chance of a hear- ing from a cultivated good -hearted young lady. If all the wild applications from social and other schemers (to say nothing of pro- posals of marriage) that reached the secreta- ries at Buckingham Palace, and went no fur- ther, could be published, the old cry, " a mad world, my masters,'' would receive some very powerful illustrations. What the Irish ex- pected it would be hard even to guess at. But all the world, or nearly all the world, was startled when it was found that Lord Mel- bourne, who was understood to be a favourite with the young queen, had presented Eobert Owen to her. True, Sir Eobert Peel and Mr. Eicardo had encouraged him, and the govern- ment had once even assisted him in one of his experiments ; but that was long ago ; and now, when most people would have said, if asked, that he was in a madhouse, he turned up at court to "present" co-operation before the sovereign, with the elegant Melbourne stand- ing by. Now there was a little humour in this, but there was more and better. In 1716, when Caroline of Anspach was Princess of Wales, some amusing things befell. The Bishop of London went to the palace to expound to her the principles of his faith, and she dismissed him, remarking that she understood them very well already. And we read that Sir Isaac Newton, then aged seventy- four, accompanied by Dr. Samuel Clarke, one day waited on the princess to explain to her the Newtonian philosophy. But just conceive the Eobert Owen of the day, if there had been such a person, admitted within the sacred precincts to expound socialism. The topic is not an idle one— far from it. The ''condition of the people " was a question which had not then been dreamt of, and it was now, though not as new as the reign of the new queen, entering upon phases which had much nov- elty in them. Of these none was more new to political practice in this country than the phase of co-operation. To the New Lanark scheme and some kindred matters reference has already been made, and the name of Eobert Owen has long stood registered among those of the benefactors of civilized society. But there was something characteristic of the simple-hearted innovator in his going to com-t; and though it was a thing of no consequence in itself, and we may conceive Lord Melbourne laughing in his sleeve, it elated hundreds of the friends of " the principle of co-operation," and scandalized a good many thousands to whom the mere name of Eobert Owen stood for atheism, republicanism, universal pillage, and the abolition of marriage. Nothing came of this presentation of the arch-apostle of socialism to the queen, and those who are surprised at it must remember that he had been admired and publicly praised by men as diverse as Prince Metteruich and Southey, and that his " record " (as we have mentioned in a previous page) included friendships with emperors abroad and royal dukes at home. But another topic awaits us. A distinguished mau, whom we shall shortly find leaping to the front of political activity — a man who has already been introduced in this sketch of recent progress, and whom it will in future be impossible to keep out of the page for long together — has drawn an amusing and characteristic picture of the im- mediate results among certain classes of the death of William IV. and the accession of Queen Victoria. Up to within a fortnight of his Majesty's death, eminent persons had de- cided that his illness was only h.ay- fever. But it proved to be an illness that was fatal, and the consequence was that " the Couserva- tive cause"— a phrase which had already be- come fashionable— was now to " suff'cr " in an unexpected manner by a genei-.il election which was to come otiF before the impending regis- tration had taken place. This catistrophe " darkened the brow of Tadpole, quailed the heart of Taper, crushed all the rising hopes "A GM50D CONSEEVATIVE GET." 251 of those numerous statesmen who believe the country must be saved if they receive twelve hundred a year." It is a peculiar class, Mr. Disraeli went on to say. " Tp receive £1200 a year is government; to try to receive £1200 a year is op^position; to wish to receive £1200 a year is ambition ; " in fact, "£1200 a year, paid quarterly, is their idea of political science and human nature." Thus it happened that " the twelve hundred a year-ers were in despair about the king's death." What could the Conservatives do against the Whigs when they had " the young queen" for a cry ? Some- thing must be done. A dissolution without a cry would in the eyes of Tadpole and Taper be a world without a sun. Church and corn- laws and malt-tax together would not do. Church was "sulky" about the Commission, and everybody knew that the malt-tax waa not going to be repealed. Day and night did Tadpole and Taper rack their brains for a good Conservative cry to go to the country with. One morning Taper presents Tadpole with a slip of paper, on which is written — " Our young queen and our old institutions." So far Taper and Tadpole. But this great political humorist now takes ns to another scene, in which we discern the germ of Toung Englandism. There is an election for Cam- bridge, and the Conservative candidate, who is an old Etonian, is victorious. Among the young Etonians who are at Cambridge there is naturally great throwing up of caps, and yet young Buckhurst, who has done much of the work, arid is rejoicing at the triumph of "the Conservative cause," as he calls it, goes on to say, that if "any fellow" were to ask him what the Conservative cause was, he should not know what to say. Henry Sydney (who is intended for Lord John Manners) takes part in the ironical discussion which fol- lows, and the general conclusion reached is that the Conservative government of that day was nothing particularly worth having. It must be remembered that we are quoting Mr. Disraeli sketching the state of things which existed at the king's death, and that he distinctly, speaking in his own person, claimed that "the Tory party was the natural popular this must be borne in mind if we would intel- ligently foUow the subsequent career of Mr. Dis- raeli, Sir Robert Peel, and Mr. Gladstone, and the manner in which "the condition-of-the- people question" has kept itself uppermost for nearly two generations. What, then, did Mr. Disraeh at this time enumerate as the "notes" of the Conservative party ? In his own words, "a crown robbed of its prerogatives" — this should be remembered — "a church controlled by a Commission, and an aristocracy that does not lead." This last clause also demands special notice. "Under whose genial influence," says Henry Sydney, "the order of the peasantry, a country's pride, has vanished from the face of the land, and is succeeded by a race of serfs, who are called labourers and who bum ricks." Another of those young heroes of debate pro- ceeds to say that the "Conservative cause" means, for one thing, that "the people are drudges. It yields everything to agitation ; it does not enunciate a single principle, and it has estabhshed political infidelity throughout the land." AU this we are bound to record as matter of history, and especially on account of its connection with a noticeable movement, partly political, partly social, of which we may discern a hint in the part played by Henry Sydney (who, as has been explained, stands for Lord John Manners) in the discussion among those undergraduates nearly fresh from Eton. But Mr. Disraeli was not the first man to discuss the "condition-of-the-people" question from the point of view that the English "aris- tocracy did not lead." Whether this was or is true or false, or what it should lead to if true, it is not the business of this outline of recent history to inquire ; but we are for the present engaged in gathering up certain strands of influence or opinion with especial reference to the earliest years of a new reign, in which there was much vague and half-sentimental expectation of great and rapid change for the better, and much unloosing of tongues. A new voice was to be heard now; that, namely, of Mr. Carlyle, whose work entitled Chartism, published at this time, may be said to have flung bomb-shells into every camp of opinion, political confederation of the country.'' AU I and to have spoken the watchword of a great 252 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES. movement, universally admitted to have been benetioial, namely, the emigration movement. It is not as a literary matter that this account of recent progress has any immediate concern with Mr. Carlyle's book on Chartism, or any other of his writings, though as an influential man of letters he must find his place. But he was the organ outside of parliament (and in- deed outside of all political action proper) of certain reactionary tendencies in public feel- ing, and no one has expressed them with half his force and singleness of purpose. This is admitted. In what is now to be said the point to be noted is, that the reactionary ten- dencies were facts, and that they have been smouldering on ever since at a slow rate of combustion, except when now and then they have broken out into flame. Mr. Pitt and the Duke of Bichmond, as is well known, attended, in no hostile spirit, meetings in favour of household suffrage and annual parliaments. These things do not, of themselves, belong either to a Tory, a Con- servative, a Whig, or a Eadical programme — a point which will have to be remembered in estimating the political history of Mr. Disraeli from the time when he sat for Shrewsbury to the time when he introduced a reform bill which gave the right of voting to a much larger public than Earl Eussell's biU had pro- posed to do. It is true that annual parlia- ments and universal suffrage became part of that Chartist demand to which we are now coming ; but the point at bottom was nothing so mechanical-looking as any question of the duration of a parliament. The creed of the Tory or Conservative has always involved this, that it is the duty of the aristocracy, re- presented by the government, to guide and care for "the people.'' In its extreme form it meant, in the words of a certain nobleman, "the people have nothing to do with the laws but to obey them." This is dead and gone; by universal consent it was buried in the graves of the Sidmouths and Eldons. But it will be seen that it was the direct opposite of what may be called the Whig-Eadical programme which had now been in vogue for so many years, and was soon to be partially obscured in a Conservative reaction. The Chartist wanted more power in order that "govern- ment" might take more care of "the people." The Whig-Eadical principle was laisser-faire, or let alone; that is to say, every man for him- self ; freedom of control not only between rich and rich, and poor and poor, but between rich and poor and all round. Labour shall have whatever wages it can get in an open market, and capital whatever interest it can get in an open market. To prevent utter anarchy (said this scheme) there must be some sort of poor- law provision ; but it is (said the Whig-Radi- cal) only a compromise which we unwillingly come to, and we must pare down that pro- vision to the very closest rind of help, stick- ing close to the labour test, and refusing, as a rule, out-door relief. Now it is well known that this was not what "the people" wanted, and that they turned angrily on their Whig-Eadical friends when they found that this wa^ the programme. The "philosophical Eadicals" vexed them even more than the mild old-fashioned Whigs, for they were ever so much more thorough-going in the application of the principle that every man is the proper guardian of his own in- terests ; that for anybody else to attempt the care of them can lead to nothing but mischief; that government should do nothing for the citizen that the citizen can do for himself; that if he is poor, it is his own affair exclu- sively, and that if he has a larger family than he can help it is so much the worse for him, but no concern of any other human being. As to this last point, however, there was sometimes an exception made. A few of the "philosophical Eadicals" held — though the thing was pretty well kept under hatches — that to have a large family was an offence against the common interest, and ought to be punished as a crime, like bankruptcy. Now we have already referred to the hatred called forth by the new poor-law in the mass of the people, but it is not easy at this distance of time to make it real to the imagination. The mass of agricultural labourers and artisans had not of themselves the requisite knowledge for following up things of this kind to first principles, but they had instructors both in THE EEV. J. E. STEPHENS. 253 the press and otherwise. Speeches were made at public meetings and pamphlets i3ublished, as to which it was next to impossible to say whether the proposals were serious or not. Dean Swift's ironical scheme for killing the majority of the babies born in Ireland and using them as food/ was painfully suggested by these proceedings. Horrible as Swift's proposal seems, it was after aU only a shock- ing jest ; but now, at the very time when the young queen came to the throne, there were publicly made in print and at meetings seri- ous proposals which, though they escaped the cannibalism, had no other superiority over Dean Swift's. AU was to be done in due course of law. There was to be a public ex- termination of infants, or at all events a pub- lic registrar of exterminations; and there were to be public cemeteries, " adorned with trees and flowers," in which parents, particularly mothers, might take their walks abroad, and indulge a pleasing melancholy amid the me- morials of the exterminated. To readers of the new generation this will perhaps appear hke a bad joke, to which not even the quota- tions given by Mr. Carlyle in his Chartism will lend an air of gravity ; but to readers of middle age it will be sufficient, if they have forgotten, to recall certain pamphlets publicly sold under such author-names as Marcus and Anti-Marcus. The effect of all this — and much more — upon the ordinary hard-headed unedu- cated poor man, who thought of little more than his victuals, and was always ready to use unquotable language about all government whatever, was bad enough in one way. But 1 It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin -doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms. . . I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of children is, in the present deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional grievance ; and therefore whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these chil- dren sound, easy members of the commonwealth, would deserve so well of the public, as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation. I shall now, therefore, humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection. I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a yoimg healthy child, well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious, nourish- ing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked. it had effects of a different kind upon men like the Eev. J. E. Stephens, a Wesleyan minister of the day. Mr. Stephens (who is only recently dead) was a man of genius and very beautiful character. As a speaker he was one of the most eloquent men that ever lived, and overcharged with most contagious fire. His violence of speech got him into the hands of the government, and this was per- haps a good thing both for him and the nation. For he was a man of the John Brown type, only more capable of making himself gener- ally loved; and when a man of that stamp preached revolt, or something like it, in the name of God and Christ, it was time for the authorities to look about them. Under the influence of his eloquence strong men sobbed and shook, women fainted, and too often there would run through the assembly that awful sound, the hum or growl of execration. This is partly anticipating, but it is as well to show what "a dainty dish" was "set before the queen " on her accession or soon after it. It was not the fault of the baser (or sometimes the merely simpler and more earnest) class of agitators and enthusiasts, if the royal lady was not kept well posted up in the new ideas and schemes; for the current fancy in the heads of this sort of people was that every- thing should be sent " to the palace " in order that "the queen" might "know." How much was really sent nobody can tell, or how much was kept back by secretaries. It was, as has been hinted, Mr. Carlyle who boldly laid bare some of the most unwelcome and startling facts of the " condition of Eng- or boiled ; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasse or a ragout. I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration, that of the hundred and twenty thousand children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one-fourth part be males ; that the remain- ing hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in sale to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom ; always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone the fore or hind quarter will make a reason- able dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in win- ter. — From A Modest Proposal for preventing the Children of the Poiyr People in Ireland from becoming a Burden on their Parents or Country, and for making them beneficial to the Public. 254 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. land " question, and gave, for the first time, a responsible and thoughtful utterance to the popular discontent. Great was the effect pro- duced, not in parliament or in political organi- zations outside of it, but in touching the springs of social and political thought and feeling everywhere. It was he who boldly and even savagely challenged the Badical economists to fight out their battle to the death upon the basis of what he called the Dismal Science (political economy); and what- ever opinions a man might hold nobody could resist the force of the humour or pathos of the passages in Chartism and Past and Pre- sent, in which he gathered up facts well known to newspaper readers and annalists, and strung them together on a fresh thread of connection. Not many illustrations of the same order have been so frequently reproduced as the case of the poor woman who, being unable to get help, went and had typhus fever, and "proved her sisterhood" and her claim by infecting seven people. Again, his ridicule of the attempts made to prove that the distress of the people arose from over-production. " Ye miscellaneous, ignoble manufacturing individ- uals, ye have produced too much ! "We accuse you of making above two hundred thousand shirts for the bare backs of mankind. Your trousers too, which you have made, of fustian, of cassimere, or Scotch-plaid, of jane, nankeen and woollen broadcloth, are they not manifold ] Of hats for the human head, of shoes for the human foot, of stools to sit on, spoons to eat with — Nay, what say we, hats or shoes? You produce gold-watches, jewelleries, silver-forks and epergnes, commodes, chiffoniers, stuffed sofas — Heavens, the Commercial Bazaar and multitudinous Howel-and-Jameses cannot con- tain you. You have produced, produced; — he that seeks your indictment, let him look around. Millions of shirts and empty pairs of breeches hang there in judgment against you. We accuse you of over-producing; you are criminally guilty of producing shirts, breeches, hats, shoes, and commodities in a frightful over-abundance. And now there is a glut, and your operatives cannot be fed !" What j\Ir. Joseph Hume, or Sir William Molesworth, or Sir Robert Peel would have said to this in the House of Commons is not to the point, for we are not offering opinions, but listening to an exposition from a given side. But it is certain that the most intelli- gent men in parliament were on the side of "national education." The question was stated over and over again as part of the new pro- gramme of reform. "Captain Swing and Chartism having arisen, is there no official person who will stand up for the Alphabet, — who wiU say, 'A vaunt, ye gainsayers! Bs- concile yourselves to the alphabet, or depart elsewhere.'" This was instantly caught up as a cry, and yet it took us more than thirty years to reconcile ourselves to the alphabet. In every direction there were now to be seen in England signs of a reversion to the old-world view of what is caUed "paternal government;" everywhere the masses of the people were showing that they wanted things done for them which the predominant politi- cal creed held they ought to do for themselves. It is not necessary here to do more than refer in passing to the long struggle that was now beginning, and that went on for many years, between those who were in favour of govern- ment interference with labour in factories and mines and those who were not. This is only one illustration of the ideas that really lay underneath what was called Chartism. In the parliamentary debates the illustrations were abundant. It must not for a moment be sup- posed that the Chartist movement was mere EadicaHsm. To make this mistake would be utterly to misapprehend the course of events which it win fall to our lot to trace out more or less from this turning-point. Two subjects now began to assume, as was natural, new colours and greater prominence, and upon these Mr. Carlyle was the first de- cided and unflinching speaker. One was what we call the organization of industry, and the imperative call upon manufacturers and capi- talists of other kinds to become " captains of industry;" the other was the expediency of emigration upon a large scale under the guid- ance of " captains of emigration." One of the most striking passages in Chartism upon this subject became the key-note of much philan- thropic effort, which, in connection with FATHER MATHEW. 255 Mrs. Chisholm and others, will fall to be noticed in due time: — "In a world where Canadian Forests stand unfelled, boundless Plains and Prairies unbroken with the plough; on the west and on the east green desert spaces never yet made white with corn, and to the overcrowded little western nook of Europe, our Terrestrial Planet, nine-tenths of it yet vacant or tenanted by nomades is stiU crying. Come and till me, come and reap me ! And in an England with wealth, and means for moving such as no nation ever before had. With ships; with war-ships rotting idle, which, but bidden move and not rot, might bridge all oceans. With trained men educated to pen and practise, to administer and act; brief- less Barristers, chargeless Clergy, taskless Scholars languishing in aU court-houses, hid- den in obscure garrets, besieging all ante-cham- bers, in passionate want of simply one thing. Work; — with as many Half -pay Officers of both Services, wearing themselves down in wretched tedium, as might lead an Emigrant host larger than Xerxes'. . . . Meanwhile, what portion of this inconsiderable Terraque- ous Globe have ye actually tilled and delved till it will grow no more ? How thick stands your population in the Pampas and Savannas of America; round ancient Carthage, and in the interior of Africa on both slopes of the Altaic chain, in the central Platform of Asia; in Spain, Greece, Turkey, Crim Tartary, the Curragh of Kildare? One man in one year, as I have understood it, if you lend him earth, will feed himself and nine others. Alas! where now are the Hengsts and Alarics of our still-growing stUl-expanding Europe; who, when their home is grown too narrow, will enlist and, like fire-pillars, guide onwards those superfluous masses of indomitable living valour; equipped, not now with the battle- axe and war-chariot, but with the steam- engine and ploughshare? Where are they? Preserving their game !" It is a fact that this appeal had an effect, which no one now denies, in awaking the aristocracy of England to a sense of threatening perils for the nation. On the other hand, the working-classes were not spared, and they also have seriously modi- fied their policy during the last thirty years. "My difficulty,'' said Sir Robert Peel, as we have already seen, "was not Canada," was not this, that, or the other; "my difficulty was Ireland." For a moment it looked as if the national enthusiasm of the Irish people when a girl of eighteen ascended the throne of these kingdoms would make Ireland less of a diffi- culty; and the sudden appearance upon the scene of Father Mathew, the great apostle of temperance, did much to aid the illusion. The life of the Eev. Theobald Mathew, to say nothing of his work in his native land, will bear a little dwelling on. The details of such a life do not concern us here except so far as they throw light on his character and performances. That he was a Roman Catholic priest is a fact which itself speaks volumes. Left early an orphan, he was sent by a relative to the Catholic College at Kil- kenny, but he became eventually a candidate for the priesthood, and studied at Maynooth. Afterwards he became a Capuchin, and ministered at Cork, where his kindness, simple eloquence, and amiable manners made him universally popular, and what is better, gener- ally beloved and "looked up to." Negative kindness, inoffensiveness, even generosity, is not so very uncommon; but "the enthusiasm of humanity," that remarkable product of Chris- tian ethics, is rare in aU churches and out of them. Perhaps he was always somewhat reck- less in his acts of charity. He introduced the Brotherhood of St. Vincent de Paul, founded schools, and in a hundred ways showed the depth of his religious and moral convictions, the goodness of his heart, and his untiring in- dustry where the welfare of his feUow-crea- tures was concerned, and the object in view was at all within the scope of his mind. This reservation is necessary, for there was nothing large about his views, and nothing scientific in the habits of his mind; nor had he any quick sense of human rights; or perhaps any capacity of strict constructions in regard to some of the virtues that Englishmen dearly love. Business capacity he had none; but when evidence was laid before him that about four-fifths of the crime and three-fourths of the beggary in his native country were due directly or indirectly to "the drink," his heart 256 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. •was stirred within him, and he began to move rapidly and vigorously in the direction which had been suggested to him by some American friends of "total abstinence,'' and by four citizens of Cork — a Protestant clergyman, a slater, a Quaker, and a tailor. By this time Mathew was a superior in the Capuchin order of friars, and his zeal and activity in the cause were unbounded, and his influence great. He went about in Cork, Limerick, and Kerry, ad- ministering the pledge, and very soon 150,000 Irishmen were registered, and one may say, considering the terms in which the pledge was administered by this pious priest, sworn tee- totallers. Before long he had extended his labours to Dublin and other parts of Ireland; and then he went to Glasgow, Manchester, and London, administering the pledge to hundreds of thousands. The good results were un- deniable, though it could be no pleasure to him to find that his own brother, a distiller, was ruined by the falling off in his trade! He is said to have "pledged" as many as 50,000 persons in one day. Those were not days in which photographs could be sold for a penny, and the daguerreotype was a new thing; but lithographic portraits of Father Mathew in the attitude of benediction, with the words of the pledge recorded underneath, were so com- mon that at last the surplus stock came to be extensively used as waste paper by shop- keepers. In England, however, where a Catholic priest carries no such prestige as he does in Ireland, his success was not unalloyed; he was a good deal " used " for political pur- poses, and more than a little laughed at. Some exceedingly interesting episodes in the life of Father Mathew have been published, and an amusing biography of the '' apostle of temperance" was written by the late Mr. Maguire, M.P. It would appear that while the temperance cause was prospering it was impossible for the man who had organized it and carried it on to keep out of debt. His chief pleasure in life was to be giving, and at the very time when he was making the most prodigious exertions in the cause the black horseman. Care, was ever riding behind him, filling his mind with anxiety, and depriving him of rest at night, and all for the public | good. "My heart is eaten up by care and solicitude of every kind," he once exclaimed at a festive meeting at Cork, and the hour of his deepest bitterness was not far off, for while publicly administering the pledge in Dublin he was arrested for the balance of an account due to a medal manufacturer, the bailiff to whom the duty was intrusted kneeling down among the crowd, asking his blessing, and then quietly showing him the writ. The moment the fact became known steps were taken to relieve him of his difficulties, and to a certain extent this was done, but he was never thoroughly free of debt. His house in Cove Street, where the great temperance movement commenced, was the resort of thousands of converts, and the place smelt of whisky more than any tap-room in Cork, for "the boys" would often come in from a drinking bout. His old servant John, who liked whisky, hated the pledge, and objected stiU more to the house being invaded by peo- ple for whom the pantry had often to be ran- sacked that they might be fed after a long journey, was one of the good priest's trials. So great was the tyranny of this retainer that it was only checked when his master, more exasperated than usual, exclaimed, "John, if you go on in this way, I must certainly leave this house." This dreadful John scandalized his master when friends were partaking of his hospitality. On one occasion there was a frightful smack of whisky pervading the pure element that graced the board, which he ac- counted for by saying he had placed the spirits with which he " cleaned his tins" in the jug by mistake; but from the manner in which John retired for the night to his bed, it was thought that the whisky was more often used for in- ward than for outward application. Of the homage paid to Father Mathew by the people a very quaint account is given in Mr. Maguire's book. The missionary of temperance had ar- rived in the dusk of the evening at the house of a parish priest in a remote part of the county Galway, where he was to preach in aid of the funds of a school, convent, or chapel, and afterwards administer the pledge. The best room in the house was prepared for the honoured guest, who was conducted to it by SUCCESS OF THE "TEMPERANCE CRUSADE." 257 liis host. The room was on the ground-floor, and was lighted by a large bay-window, which was without blind or curtain of any kind. Father Mathew, turning his face to the wall and his back to the window, soon fell into a deep slumber. Awaking, as was usual with him, at an early hour in the morning, he opened his eyes and moved towards the win- dow, when he beheld a crowd of people — men, women, and chUdren^in front of the blindless and curtainless bay-window, and at least a score of noses flattened against the glass^ the better to enable their respective proprietors to obtain a peep at his reverence. A more modest man did not exist, and he looked about for a bell-pull, or for a bell, but such a luxury in the house of a parish priest in a mountain parish of Galway was not to be thought of, and though there was something that looked like a bell-pull at one side of the fireplace right across the room, it might as well have been twenty miles away. The crowd outside was increasing, and various dialogues were heard between those who were anxiously awaiting his waking movements, but who were careful not to speak too loud in case of waking him. For three hours he had to endure this tiresome imprisonment till his considerate host, who would not "disturb'' his guest too early, entered the apartment, and then becoming aware of the presence of the admiring crowd, took measures for dispersing them. In Ireland the "temperance crusade'' of Father Mathew had an important poHtical bearing. O'ConneU was not the man to miss a good opportunity, and he did his best to " work in" his own agitation for "repale'' with the labours of the excellent Capuchin, who was said to have worked miracles, and even to have raised a. dead man to life. He de- clined to lend his aid to the uprooting of the superstitious ideas which had got mixed up with the cause, alleging that he was afraid of rooting up the wheat along with the tares. In the ignorant masses of the Irish people there were at this time all manner of wild beliefs. It was supposed that a grand conflict was impending, and that O'ConneU was to be king of Ireland. The temperance medals, sold at a shUling each, were cherished as sacred vol. I. talismans; and great was the gratification with which O'ConneU looked upon Father Mathew's two millions of abstaining enthusiasts, as likely instruments for political purposes. There was not necessarily anything sinister about this. Unpleasant questions have been asked as to where the money coUected by Mathew went to, and nobody dreamed of his having done any- thing seliish or unfair ; but neither need we suspect others. All large movements among masses of people are expensive, and it was nothing to the discredit of any political agita- tion to look upon two miUions of sober Irish- men, ready organized, as much better thaJi crowds of stragglers without organi2ation and apt to be fuU of whisky. It is not necessary for our purpose to foUow the personal history of Father Mathew to its end; he died with no stain upon his fame but that of improvidence I and too lavish generosity. After his return I from a temperance mission to America, and ! the loss of much of his influence, he drooped. Repeated attacks of paralysis brought him to i his end. For many years he had been in I receipt of a pension of £300 granted by the 1 queen from the civil list ; but this was prac- tically forestalled during the progress of his labours, for he had appropriated the money j to the payment of premiums on the assurances that he had made on his life, that he might not leave behind him the heavy debts he had incurred chiefly for the cause of temper- ance. It cannot be said, and has not been seriously maintained, that the work of Father Mathew was one of far-reaching success; but the actual sight of what could be done with Irishmen was an impressive lesson, and was not thrown away upon English observers. It was one more striking instance of " organization" among the masses of the people, and the social and political students who were watching the movements of the Chartists and the immense growth among the working classes of Great Britain of the habit of associating in numbers, who were not so sober as the two miUions of the Capuchin Friar — hardly knew whether to be pleased or alarmed. "We have now passed in review, however briefly and imperfectly, some of the incidents 17 258 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. and characteristics of the first year or so of the young queen's reign. With the departure of the Duke of Cumberland to Hanover, there to take his place as sovereign, the people at large got rid of a sad bugbear, and though men turned eighty are apt to die, it was a somewhat striking coincidence that the last thoroughgoing representative of political fos- silism should have been removed in the course of nature at about the same time. Poor Leti- tia Landon and others addressed her majesty in verses which began with the beauty of the dawn or early morning, and went on to fore- tell a millennium for England — the reign of peace and joy to begin at once. But as we have seen there was a good deal of work to do yet, and swords were not at present to be beaten into ploughshares, nor white gloves presented to the judges aU round. Bad har- vests and depression of trade, overproduction and faUing wages, could not be prevented by queen, kaiser, or council. It now became plain, or at all events it was felt by the poor to be plain, that the middle classes, having used the lower as instruments for obtaining an extension of the franchise up to a certain point, were not disposed to push that question any farther. There is no doubt a great mistake when one "class" attributes concerted and conscious design to another class, where both are so very numerous as was the case here; but that did not help. The middle classes had had enough of it for a time, and, besides, ques- tions of national finance were uppermost in their minds, as well they might be. Avowedly or not, the thoughts of thousands of Liberals turned hankeringly to Sir Robert Peel, the great financier in whose school Mr. Gladstone was partly trained, and though nobody yet dreamed that he would be " the man" to repeal the corn-laws when "the hour" arrived, there was a strong conviction among the foremost men of all political creeds that that repeal must come before long. We say among all politicians in the front rank, not by any means intending to convey that there was anything like general consent upon the subject, on the Tory or Conservative side. Even then, however, there was " a feeling " that it mmt come. There was a strong impression among the working-classes and their political guides that the only remedy required for their sufierings was more class power in parliament. Six members of parliament on the Radical side concurred, or thought they concurred, with them in this, and in association with six re- presentatives of "the people," themselves " working men," they drew up a formal state- ment of the celebrated Six Points, which were to be embodied, if the fates were favourable, in what was called the People's Charter. The points, as has been already pointed out, were not new, and, with increased light and experi- ence, we living at a Liter day, find something arid and mechanical in the very sound of these Six Points: — 1. The extension of the right of voting to every (male) native of the United Kingdom, and every naturalized foreigner re- sident in the kingciom for more than two years, who should be twenty-one years of age, of sound mind, and unconvicted of crime. 2. Equal electoral districts. 3. Vote by ballot. 4. Annual parliaments. 5. No property quali- fication for members: and 6. Payment of members of parliament for their services. Arid and mechanical or not, such were the " terms'' which very large masses of the people set themselves to demand of the government, and from this time forward we hear more and more of Chartism, a word which was, however, used with considerable vagueness, and some- times thrown at the heads of comparatively moderate reformers, of course on the old prin- ciple, give a dog an ill name and hang him. Some very amusing scenes at public meetings, and discussions in the press, were the result of this vagueness. On the 6th of August, 1838, there was a veiy large meeting at HoUoway Head, Bir- mingham, a meeting held, like others of the same order, in the open air, and not without more reasons than one, for the numbers who attended have been estimated at from 150,000 to 200,000. There may be exaggeration even in the lower of these two figures, but there is no doubt that there was in the minds of the majority even of the more sober-minded Chartists a feeling, more or less latent, that it would not be a bad thing for political "pro- FEAEGUS O'CONNOE. 259 gress" if the people showed their "physical force," whatever they did with it. This was a principle which we find openly avowed much later on by no less moderate a person than Mr. John Stuart Mill, who, at about the time of the Hyde Park riots, made the remark that the countries in which the people were allowed to show their power were precisely the countries in which they were never called upon to use it. We shall see, however, that "physi- cal force Chartism'' was an actual thing at this time, and that a very small mistake on the part of the government might have had con- sequences beside which the Peterloo story would have sunk into shadow. Here emerges a name of which we shall hear more in the course of this narrative of the doings of the last fifty years, that of Feargus O'Connor, an Irish barrister. There is some doubt whether he was ever strictly speaking sane, and eventually, as wiU ap- pear, he lost his reason, though he retained his cunning. He was hardly a favourable specimen of a "people's man," though he was of great height and possessed enormous strength, but he was one of the speakers at this gathering. Mr. Attwood, one of the members for Birmingham, was in the chair, and his colleague, Mr. Scholefield, was among the speakers. These were both familiar names in those days. The meeting was con- ducted with great orderliness, and was even opened with prayer or invocation. French esQes wanted to know why the English did nothing at such a meeting as this ; they could not understand the absence of insurrection and bloodshed: but a petition in favour of the People's Charter was agreed upon, and passed with great enthusiasm. Shortly after this another large meeting was held at Manchester, also in the open air, and in this case Mr. Fielden, the member for Oldham, was in the chair. Mr. Stephens, the "Wesleyan minister of whom mention has already been made, was the chief orator, and he spoke to some purpose. He was a very ex- citable man, and his oratory was a striking illustration of the truth of a fine observation of Mr. Gladstone's, to the effect that what the orator receives from his audience in vapour he pours back upon them in flood. As Mr. Ste- phens (who, by the by, belonged, we believe, not to the main Wesleyan body, but one of the off- shoots) got so far off his balance as to put, in a significant tone of voice, the question, " Why have you left your arms at home? Is it because you are afraid i" it is very possible that this good and eloquent, but over-excitable man, was going on to say, " No, but because you were too wise and good to bring them out with you." But when uneducated men get together in tens of thousands, and grow excited under appeals to their lower impulses, they do not stand upon niceties, and the question of the orator, "Is it because you are afraid?" was answered with shouts of "No !" and growls of defiance. Perhaps it was a good thing for Mr. Stephens himself that his career as a poli- tical agitator was brought to an early close, for he was the kind of man who might very well have lost his reason if too frequently excited. In London and elsewhere the Chartists were not idle. There was at least one meeting held in Westminster, close to the houses of parliament, in the middle of the day, and in the northern and southern suburbs there were open-air meetings at night. There is nothing particularly dreadful in a torch, or in a meet- ing by torchlight; but when, as the days shortened, the meetings came to be held by torchlight, it somehow seemed as if a new element of alarm had entered into them. The secretary of state for the home department, Lord John Eiissell, issued orders to magis- trates in the counties, calling upon them to declare these meetings illegal, and to keep the people well advised and well warned. This was in November, and in December a royal proclamation was issued, warning well-dis- posed and peaceable subjects not to attend such meetings. The Chartists said, naturally enough, that there were no halls large enough for such immense assemblages of people, and that, even if there were, they could not get the use of them. As for the torches, they could only meet after working -hours, and what else could they do for light? This was all reasonable enough, and has been said a great many times since; but, unluckily, 260 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES. Stephens forgot himself so far as to utter words which looked like a suggestion to the populace of Ashton-under-Lyne, that there was a magistrate in the district (who had dis- pleased the Chartist pai-ty) whom it would not be a bad thing to punish by bringing the torches into too close proximity to his house. This was madness and worse, and now that it had come to questions of " burning out" re- spectable citizens who did not agree with Mr. Stephens about the new poor-law, it was time to put on the drag. Stephens was arrested, and a great sensation his arrest made all over the country, for there was much about him and even his wildest addresses that everybody liked. He was, however, released on bail, and meanwhile went on just as he had done before his ai-rest, or perhaps rather worse. His sermons on the duty of the rich to the poor, and the wrath of Heaven de- nounced in the Bible against the oppressors of the defenceless, took the audiences on the weak side, and awoke storms of emotion. He had a fine head, with a face capable of ex- pressing great tenderness, and his portraits had nearly as large a sale as his sermons. It would be wrong to compare Stephens to Mr. Spurgeon, for the latter has much shrewd- ness and is altogether of the steady order of mind, while the former had much more poetry in him. He had neither the robustness nor the general power of Chalmers, and it is not easy to name any pulpit orator whom he much resembled. Richard Lalor Shell, if he had been a preacher, would have been some- what like him. When parliament assembled in 1839 the young queen was called upon to refer in her speech to the alarming and unlawful procedure of the less prudent Chartists ; and it was not a very pleasant topic for her or her ministers. It was bad enough that the winds of discord, not to say sedition, had been let loose so early in the reign which promised so well (and which has fulfilled its promise), but worse was to come. Mr. Dunoombe moved by way of amendment in the debate on the royal address, that her majesty should be advised that the Reform Bill had caused the greatest disap- pointment to her people, and that the Com- mons were of opinion that the suffrage should now be largely extended, aa the only means of securing something like a b.ilanoe of politi- cal power in the nation, and giving the poor a chance of obtaining some of their rights. Now the Reform Act had only been in opera- tion about six years, and yet so strongly was the dissatisfaction of "the masses" represented in the House of Commons, that out of 426 members present, 86 voted for Mr. Dun- combe's amendment. This is only a sixth of 512, but it was a number large enough to pro- duce a strong impression, and at once to en- rage and stimulate the Chartist party outside the walls of the house. Some of the missionary advocates of Chart- ism were men of high character and intelli- gence. It will not be understood as reflect- ing upon any of the others if Henry Vincent, (not long ago deceased, and universally re- spected) and William Lovett are selected for special mention. They were men of a very different stamp, but both of them sincere,, honourable, and able. Unfortunately the " party of order" had its " roughs " as well as the Chartist party, and untimely collisions with some of these "roughs" produced the worst possible effect. In the spring of this year Mr. Vincent and some other men who formed a deputation from the London Chart- ists to the Radicals of Devizes were assaulted by a mob in that town, and in other parts there were not wanting signs that there was- such a thing as physical-force awii-Chartism, and that collisions were imminent. Of cours© the name of the queen was freely used on both sides. The authorities thought it was now time to go beyond proclamations and warnings, and Mr. Vincent found himself in jail, on a charge of having uttered seditious language at Newport. It is a curious reflection that much more " seditious language " than most of that for which men like Vincent and Lovett were imprisoned would now excite no particular attention. The imprisonment of Vincent was a source of deep regret in circles where "physical-force Chartism," as it was called, was held in the deepest abhorrence. In May a body called the National Convention, composed of work- THE "NATIONAL CONVENTION." 261 ing-men delegates, or delegates appointed by working-men, from every part of tlie countrj', met in London, and held continuous sittings, in which the Charter and the condition-of-the- people question were freely discussed. Of •course the men and their doings were open to a good deal of criticism : there was plenty that was rough and crude, and outsiders had much to say about " demagogues." But this conven- tion brought forward what was called the "National Petition," in favour of the Five Points, and it was presented, after a fashion, on the 14th of June. It was a more comic than serious circumstance that this National petition, which was said to have been endorsed by 1,200,000 signatures, was so large that it had to be propelled into the House of Com- mons like a roll of carpet. Six earnest and athletic Radical members performed the feat of thus introducing the document ; and there was not much laughter. On the contrary, it was treated with respect, some of which was no doubt a httle forced. That tried and imcompromising Badical, Mr. Attwood, was heard at length on the prayer of the petition, the house having been polite enough to sus- pend a standing order for the purpose. In all this it must be borne in mind that down to a quite late period the very word Chartist was a name of terror. Mr. Attwood moved on the 12th of July that the whole house should resolve itself into committee to con- sider the Five Points; and out of 424 mem- bers 189 voted for the proposal, but of course the majority of 235 against it was not only ■decisive, as a much smaller majority would have been, but was taken out of doors to be contemptuous. Some of the minority of 189 who voted for Mr. Attwood's motion were moved by motives of conciliation, not unmingled with apprehen- sion. For since the presentation of the great roUy-polly petition there had been a disturb- ance at Birmingham (for which town Mr. Attwood sat). The government with doubt- ful wisdom despatched a body of sixty Lon- don policemen armed to Birmingham. This intrusion of an alien force was displeasing even to the authorities at Birmingham, and the Radicals were enraged by it. The " National Convention " sitting in London (at the National Hall, now or lately a music- hall) forwarded to their brethren, "sitting" in conclave at Birmingham, a vote of con- demnation applying to this step on the part of the government. Mr. Lovett and Mr. CoUins, the secretaries of the convention, were now apprehended, which was what we should certainly now condemn as an arbitrary mea- sure. Although the town-council condemned the action of the government in sending Lon- don police, armed or otherwise, to Birming- ham, they would not, or at all events did not, allow the Chartists the use of the Town Hall for one of their meetings, and so these determined persons assembled in the Bull Ring, which was a place of somewhat inelegant repute, a sort of extensive hollow towards which many streets converged, and which had formerly been used for bull-baiting. This made the meeting and its objects neither worse nor better; but when the police endeavoured to break up the meet- ing and disperse the crowd, they failed at first, and the military were called out. The refusal of the House of Commons to agree to Mr. Attwood's motion caused great excite- ment, and the day after it was known in Birmingham there was a good deal of rioting, with some house-burning. A still more ugly symptom was that in some of the northern towns, and in the midlands too, troops of men went about "begging," that is to say, demanding food and money of shopkeepers and others. The National Convention now recommended not only a run on the savings- banks for gold, and entire abstinence from the use of all excisable articles, but also the observance of a " sacred month," during which all labour should be suspended. To this was added a recommendation to procure arms. The great idea, however, of the more moderate of the Chartist multitudes was to show them- selves as much as possible, and one of the plans devised and acted upon for this purpose was to visit the churches in great numbers. Nothing particular came of this, but perhaps that was not wholly the fault of the people. There was real trouble among the poor, and if all had been well or nearly well in the body politic, save their immediate sufferings, their 262 GLADSTONE AND HIS presence in churches and cathedrals would have had results better than sentimental. However, towards the latter part of this year the Chartist leadei's were brought to trial. Tincont was sentenced to one year's imprisonment, and so were Lovett and Collins. Stephens was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment; some of the Birmingham rioters were sentenced to death, and a great number of minor offenders to impiisonment. Mr. Vincent and his two fellow-prisoners made a very favourable impression, particularly Mr. Vincent, — and he, and Lovett, and Collins were complimented by the crown counsel on the good taste as well as the skill with which they had conducted their own defence. After- wards Sergeant Talfourd, from his place in parliament, endeavoured to obtain some miti- gation of the rigours of the treatment to which Vincent was subjected, and he was successful in that endeavour. The treatment was very severe. After these measures on the part of the government there was much debate on the part of the Chartists, in convention and else- where, as to what was to be done, but in September the convention was dissolved. The debates had been hot, and it was only by the casting-vote of the chairman that the measure wa.s carried. It was a misfortune that this gathering of Chartists received a name so unluckily suggestive of the French revolution. Shortly after it had ceased to sit Mr. Fear- gus O'Connor (of whom more will have to be said presently) was arrested; and Sir John Campbell, attorney-general for the time, as- sured the country in the uame of the Liberal ministry that Chartism had been put down. There is something very instructive about this. " Plain John " was a shrewd man, and there were shrewd men in the cabinet. Yet so blinding are class prejudices, or rather so much ai'e even able and acute men shut up within the circle of class impressions and official ideas, that these men had none of them seen how deeply rooted were the causes of popular discontent, or how much harm had been done (inevitable though it was) by re- moving good men like Vincent from a posi- tion in which their goodness did exercise some CONTEMPOEAEIES. little control over the wilder of their adher- ents. Out of the circle of legal pedantry and official self-coutidenoe a very different view was entertained. " We are aware,'' wrote Mr. Carlyle, "that according to the newspapei-s, Chai-tism is extinct ; that a Reform Ministi-y has ' put down the chimera of Chartism ' in the most felicitous effectuid manner. So say the newspapers, — and yet, alas! most readei-s of newspapers know withal, that it is indeed the 'chimera' of Chartism, not the reality, which has been put down. The matter of Chartism is weighty, deep-rooted, far-extend- ing; did not begin yesterday; will by no means cease this day or to-morrow. Reform ministry, constabulary rural police, new le-s'y of soldiers, grants of money to Birmingham ; all this is well, or is not well; all this will put down only the embodiment or ' chimera ' of Chartism. The essence continuing, new and ever new embodiments, chimeras madder or less mad, have to continue. The melancholy fact remains, that this thing known at present by the uame of Chartism does exist; has existed, and, either ' put down ' into secret treason, with rusty pistols, vitriol-bottle, and match-box, or openly brandishing pike and toi'ch (one knows not in which case more fatal-looking), is like to exist till quite other methods have been tried with it. " To say that it is mad, incendiary, nefari- ous, is no answer. To say all this, in never so many dialects, is saying little. ' Glasgow Thuggery,' 'Glasgow Thugs,' it is a witty nickname ; the practice of ' Number 60' enter- ing his dark room, to contract for and settle the price of blood with operative assassins, in a Christian city, once distinguished by its rigorous Christianism, is doubtless a fact worthy of all horror; but what will horror do for it? What will execration, nay at bottom, what will condemnation and banish- ment to Botany Bay do for it? Glasgow Thuggery, Chartist torch-meetings, Birming- ham riots, Swing conflagrations, are so many symptoms on the surface; you abolish the symptom to no purpose if the disease is left untouched." In all this the great social critic was right, and he was also right in laying the main FROST, WILLIAMS, AND JONES. 263 stress for the moment (as to remedial mea- sures) upon the repealing of the corn-laws. That, however, was not to be yet. The names of " Frost, Williams, and Jones " are yet fresh in living memory, and Mr. Frost appears to have been something like a mad- man. He had been, some years before these troubles, appointed a magistrate of the bor- ough of Newport. He was now a Chartist. When Lord John Eussell, who, as has been said, was home secretary at the time, found that this gentleman had been elected a mem- ber of the National Convention, he called upon him to resign his commission. This Mr. Frost decidedly declined to do, and the home secre- tary did not forcibly displace him. The Con- vention, as Mr. Frost pointed out, was in itself a perfectly legal assembly; but he was not always so sane as when he took that ground. On the night of Sunday the 3d of November, 1838, Frost took the extraordinary course of marching four or five thousand armed men into Newport. The other magistrates of the borough were not wholly unprepared, and took up an attitude of defence with a band of foot soldiers, in the chief inn of Newport. Frost led the attack, and the first volley of shot wounded the mayor, Mr. Thomas Phillips, and some others. The soldiers then fired, and the wretched "army" of Frost was frightened and scattered, while he himself was taken prisoner. His coadjutors, Williams and Jones, then disbanded the detachments of armed mob under their command, but they also were taken into custody. All three were tried for high treason, found guilty, and sen- tenced to death. But the marriage of the young queen was not far ofi', and there was a general feeling that it would be as well, if possible, to avoid extreme measures, and the madmen were only transported for life. Here, for the present, ends what Mr. Car- lyle distinguished as "the chimera of Char- tism.'' But of course these were not likely to pass away without leaving various impressions on the minds of those who watched the signs of the times. Mr. Disraeli was, of course, one of these, and did not keep to himself the discovery that the young queen had really come to the throne to rule over "two nations. the rich and the poor." Scarcely in Crabbe shall we find more powerful or more minute descriptions of the misery of the poor in the agricultural districts in those times of rick- burning, and perhaps no pen has so faithfully described the degradation and misery which were to be found in certain parts of the manu- facturing towns. Mr. Disraeli's views of the situation led to the formation of the Young England party. It was the doctrine of this party, as of its founder, that the governing opinion or influence in politics was always that of the elder people in the nation, and that this was destined to pass away before the more hopeful energy and keener eyesight of the young. What, then, was the task which " Young England " set itself 1 To restore the prerogative of the crown, and the influence and activity of the church and the aristocracy The starting-point was not that of the philo- sopher of " Chartism," but, leaving out " the church," the outcome appeared to be the same, or rather not very dissimilar. There was, however, a very great diflference. Why was not the England of 1838 or 1839 the same land as it had been in the days of his light-hearted youth ? This is the question which Disraeli puts into the mouth, or the meditations, of the high-born Egreraont. Why these hard times for the poor 1 Had " the millions of toil," on whose unconscious energies during centuries of change the nation had reposed, had a fair share of the results of the national progress 1 The rick-burning in the agricultural districts was bad enough, but more horrible still the condition of the manufactur- ing towns ; for density of population tends to isolate men, while it sharpens their intelli- gence in certain particulars. "Christianity teaches us to love our neighbour; modern society acknowledges no neighbour." Twelve hours' labour at the rate of a penny an hour. "The capitalist has found a slave that has supplanted the labour and ingenuity of man. Once he was an artisan; at the best he now- only watches machines ; and even that occu- pation slips from his grasp to the woman and the child. The capitalist flourishes, he amasses immense wealth ; we sink lower and lower, lower than the beasts of burden, for they 264 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. are fed better than we are, cared for more.'' The speaker, who is a woman, asks, " Why am I and six hundred thousand subjects of the queen, honest, loyal, and industrious, — why are we, after struggling for years, each year sinking lower in the scale, — why are we driven from our innocent and happy homes, our country cottages that we loved, into squalid cellars in close towns?" Much is made in working politics of what is called " tergiversation," and changing sides. But it is not at all an unnatural thing. Mr. Disraeli, who is, at the date of which we are writing, preparing to occupy a prominent and influential place in English politics, began his career under a Radical classification, and so did Bulwer, afterwards Lord Lytton. But it is not surprising when we find men like these soon afterwards classified differently. Bulwer- Lytton is not the personage whose prin- ciples it is now essential to emphasize, but he has openly justified himself on theoretical grounds for changing his name, maintaining that he had made no effective change in his political first principles. Indeed it is difficult to foresee what classification might not be reconciled with the principle entertained and expressed by Mr. Disraeli at this time : — "The future principle of English politics will not be a levelling principle, not a principle adverse to privileges, but favourable to their extension. It will seek to ensure equality, not by level- ling the few, but by elevating the many." Of course, however, the word "privileges" must here be road with a reserve, for privilege imjilies something exceptional. But, in any case, the Young England move- ment had begun while Chartism was yet in- surgent, and the party was gradually though slowly takiug shape. It undoubtedly did good. The general English public smiled, whatever their politics were, when they were told that "King Charles I. was indeed a mar- tyr, for he was the holocaust of direct taxa- tion;" but the miseries of the manufacturing and agricultural districts were real and patent, and there was something beautiful in the idea of the church and the nobles resuming for- gotten functions or assuming new ones, and standing between the living and the dead. A dream of "merry England" passed over the land; a good deal up in thin air it is true, but there it was. The "tine old English gentle- man " that had a fine estate and helped the poor, and lived at a bountiful old rate with my Lady Bountiful, helped by the clergyman at her side, passed across the stage of this vision. There, too, was the magnificent lord of the soil, rilling to hounds, broaching pipes of malvoisie, issuing pasties of the doe to all and sundry, and leading the ladies forth on hawking excursions. All the cottages on tlds landlord's estate were to be smothered in roses, all the "peasants" (labourera was a for- bidden word with Young England) were to be ruddy, reverent, industrious, seldom at the ale-house, and regular at church. T'ruo, there was to be no want of good cheer for the poor, no, they were to have ripe October and "firsts" cider, with, except in extreme cases, no rheu- matism. By every possible means the country was to be encouraged to march upon the towns, as the towns had marched upon tho country; and the may-pole was to bo the standard or flag of advance. Pei-haps it may be said that this fashion of thinking and feeling came to a climax in the E,ij;linton tournamenl, which was called by the more vulgar periodicals the Eglinton tomfoolerymeiit. It had at least one use, but the point has been so often re- ferred to that one is almost ashamed to men- tion it again — when old-fashioned armour was gathered together for this piece of acting it was found that the majority of the men were too big for the armour. This undoubtedly tended to cast some oblique ridicule upon the general idea that the "days of old" were better than the present.' > 'I'lio tournament at EgUnton (Castle was a rare event for the Batlrista of the day, us an attempt to revive tho raedicoval show of feats of arms hy noble knights and doughty warriors. The King of the Tournament was our old friend, the Marquis of Londonderry; the Queen of Heiiuty was Lady Seymour. The knights with their suites hull each their separate tents. There was jousting in the tlHiiiK-ground, broadsword play— in which, by the by, I'rijicu Louis Napoleon took apart— and other sports, which wi^ni marred by the inclemency of the wealher. The first (lay it was compnlud that 100,000 speetutjirs were present. Some ridicule was thrown on the affair by tho subHoiiuent sale of the armour and "properties" of the tournament to several of the nmnagors of minor London theatres, and by a eorreHiioiidonce (published In tho newspaperH^ between Lady Seymour and Lady Shuckliurgh, who seems to hove CHAEMING STOEY OF A STKIKE. 265 It would hardly be fair, after what has been related of certain "Chartist" doings, to omit what Mr. Disraeli gave the public in his own -words as an eye-witness of the whole scene. He says that during a strike "the people had never plundered, except a few provision shops chiefly rifled by boys, and their acts of violence had been confined to those with whom they were engaged in what, on the whole, might be described as a fair contest. They solicited sustenance often in great numbers, but even then their language was mild and respectful, and they were easily satisfied and always grateful. A body of two thousand persons, for example, quitted one morning a manufac- turing town in Lancashire, when the strike had continued for some time and began to be severely felt, and made a visit to a neighbour- ing squire of high degree. They entered his park in order — men, women, and children — and then, seating themselves in the immediate vicinity of the mansion, they sent a deputation to announce that they were starving, and to entreat relief. In the instance in question the lord of the domain was absent in the ful- filment of those public duties which the dis- turbed state of the country devolved on him. His wife, who had a spirit equal to the occa- sion, notwithstanding the presence of her young children, who might well have aggra- vated feminine fears, received the deputation herself ; told them that of course she was un- prepared to feed so many, but that, if they promised to maintain order and conduct them- selves with decorum, she would take measures been exceedingly jealous of "the Queen of Beauty" Lady Seymour had written to know the character of a servant named Stedman who had applied for a situation, and particularly whether she was a " good plain cook." Lady Shuckburgh replied that, having a professed cook and housekeeper, she knew nothing about the under- servants. Lady Seymour explained that she understood Stedman had been accustomed to cook for the little Shuckborghs. The Shuckburgh housemaid was instructed to answer this note, which she did as follows :— "Stedman informs me that your ladyship does not keep either a cook or housekeeper, and that you only require a girl who can cook a mutton-chop: if so, Stedman or any other scullion will be found fully equal to cook for or manage the establishment of the Queen of Beauty." There is something about this note so enormously sug- gestive of small spite, expressed in the meanest style of insolent vulgarity, that it is almost worth preserving on that account. to satisfy their need. They gave their pledge, and remained tranquilly encamped while pre- parations were making to satisfy them. Carts were sent to a neighbouring town for provi- sions ; the keepers killed what they could, and in a few hours the multitude were fed without the slightest disturbance, or the least breach of their self-organized discipline. When all was over the deputation waited again on the lady to express to her their gratitude, and, the gardens of this house being of celebrity in the neighbourhood, they requested permission that the people might be allowed to walk through them, pledging themselves that no flower should be plucked and no fruit touched. The permission was granted : the multitude, in order, each file under a chief, and each commander of the files obedient to a superior officer, then made a progress through the beautiful gardens of their beautiful hostess. They even passed through the forcing-houses and vineries. Not a border was trampled on, not a grape plucked; and, when they quitted the domain, they gave three cheers for the fair castellan." It is a very charming story, and if we add to it some such picture as that of "young Lord Vieuxbois, among high art and painted glass, spade farms, model smell-traps, rubrical- ities, and sanitary reforms,'' not omitting the maypoles, and carefully giving his lordship the white waistcoat of the school, with a flower in his button-hole, we have some idea of what the greater part of the Young Eng- land party were aiming at. The aim was, at least, a kindly and picturesque one ; it called attention in an emphatic way to the war of the "two nations" over whichj Mr. ^.'israeli declared, the queen was reigning; it pointed the way to much real improvement ; and if it could have succeeded in checking that mon- strous growth of cities which, it is now ad- mitted on all hands, is one of the worst evils of the century, it would indeed have done wonders. The time of the poor agricultural labourer or "peasant" was not yet. His time was to come. But factory legislation had for many years been a seriously-fought question, and 266 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. was, parliament after parliament, more and more earnestly discussed. Ministry after min- istry fought shy of it, or tried to do so, and at the last nobody in power would even look at Mr. Richard Oastler's Ten Hours Bill, because the manufacturers declared with one voice that if the hours of labour were restricted, or freedom of contract touched, the commerce of the country would be ruined. In the early history of the factory system, before steam-power came into use, mills used to be erected on streams at points which were usually, for natural reasons, at a consid- erable distance from towns. Round these mills new populations sprang up in time, but, at first, there was a system of apprenticeship under which young hands were secured for fixed periods. A powerful passage about the gradual en- croachment of the miU and factory system upon once sweet and clean rural districts, and the unwholesome moral bondage under which thousands of human beings, most of them young, and largely consisting of girls, were growing up to a stunted, uneducated, degraded maturity, will be found in the eighth book of Wordsworth's Excursion. It is too well known to bear quotation, and it has been the key- note of "ameliorative" legislation in regard to factory labour. But one of the first, if not the very first legislator to open the question to any purpose was an eccentric baronet, of whom the reader of these pages has already heard in connection with inconvertible one- pound notes and various currency heresies. This was no other than Sir Robert Peel, father of the late baronet, who introduced a bill to limit the hours of labour of the ''apprentices'' at mills. This was in 1802. But as soon as ever steam-power came to be generally made use of, it was found as easy and as cheap to have factory mills in towns or close to them, the "apprentice'' system dwindled, and the supply of labour to the mills became, from one point of view, only too cheap. There are things recorded as to the history of the em- ployment of young children in those mills which make the blood flow back upon the heart. Even before James Watt's great dis- covery had been made, Hutton of Birmingham has told us what he used to suffer when sent to work at a mill, though he was so young and so little that he had to stand on pattens to reach the machine. To the honour of the first Sir Robert Peel, himself a manufacturer employing many thousands of hands, he again brought the subject before parliament, and explaining the change of conditions, asked for fresh legislation. In doing this, or rather in moving for a committee to inquire into the subject, this good man warned the house that unless the children employed in factories were protected from the exhausting demands made upon their strength, and the debasements to which the associations of the labour exposed their minds, the great inventions which were considered the glory of the country would yet prove one of her most dreadful curses and shames. This was in 1816, and it is pleasing to find father and son, the elder and the younger Peel, in 1818, united in taking the part of the children. And in 1819 Sir Robert Peel, the elder, had the great happiness, not to say the glorious triumph, of passing an act for the protection of the unapprenticed children em- ployed in factories. The name of Sir John Hobhouse is connected with another act of a similar kind, passed in 1825. But all this legislation proved ineffective, the provisions of the acts being constantly evaded. It is not necessary, nor would it be in place here to give, even in a condensed form, the narra- tion of the struggles of argument and influence of one kind or other, inside of parliament and out of it ; but at last, in the hands of humani- tarians of all schools, including labourers at the oar as different from each other as Mr. Richard Oastler and Lord Ashley (now the Eai-l of Shaftesbury), factory legislation, dating from 1833 onwards, began to assume such shapes that it became plain to all the parties concerned, manufacturers and parents, that the law would have to be obeyed. But the work could not and did not stop here. The point in which the friends of re- strictive legislation of this order think them- selves entitled to rejoice, is that it recognized a principle which, they maintain, is of wide application. This principle, reluctantly ac- NATIONAL EDUCATION. 26V quiesced in by " the philosophers," so far as children (and now and then women) are con- cernedj hjis been since applied in various directions, and the greater the power of the working classes, the more various and decided have been other applications of that principle. Closely allied to limitations of the hours of labour for young persons are the means of national education. A grant of ^£20,000, voted for educational purposes in 1833, had been continued annu- ally, and was devoted to the National Society and the British and Foreign School Society, the amounts in aid of these institutions being proportioned to the size and cost of the school- buildings and the number of scholars in at- tendance. It is obvious that under this arrangement the larger part of the money went to the church, and this naturally occa- sioned much dissatisfaction. It was therefore proposed in 1839 to increase the amount of the grant to ^£30,000, and to transfer its dis- position to a committee composed of the presi- dent of the privy-council and not more than five of its members. The committee was to establish a normal school for the training of teachers, and to appoint inspectors to visit and report upon the schools receiving aid from the grant. One great improvement in the system was that instead of being obliged to proportion the aid to a school in any neigh- bourhood to the amount of local subscriptions for its support, the committee might establish schools in poor or populous neighbourhoods without making it an indispensable condition that they should be connected with either of the societies which were supposed to represent public education. Grants of assistance were also to be made to Roman Catholic schools, or at all events to schools where the Roman Catholic version of the Scriptures was read. In the light of recent events it is worth re- membering that this proposal met with the violent opposition of the Conservative party and of the church, who raised a general agita- tion against the application of public money to aid schools in which the Douay Bible was admitted, but above all, against the appoint- ment of inspectors who might, it was alleged, interfere with the management, and even with the religious instruction given to the pupils. The excitement against the grant, which was only "in aid" of subscriptions, was intense, and in the House of Commons there was such a close division of opinion that the conditions referred to were only carried by 275 votes against 273 ; while an address was sent to the queen from the House of Lords against the proposed appUcation of the public money. In this instance, however, the govern- ment prevailed after making some modifica- tions, the chief of which were the abandon- ment of the proposed normal school, and the concurrence of the bishops in the choice of an inspector; Lord Lansdowne finding an ad- mirable candidate for this ofiice in Dr. Kaye, afterwards Sir J. K. Shuttleworth. The com- mittee of council was constituted, and the education of the country was placed under its superintendence. In relation to the debate in the House of Commons on this question an eminent nar- rator says : — " Of all the long speeches that were delivered on this occasion there is only one that we think it desirable to rescue from oblivion, and that not so much on account of the spirit of eloquent earnestness it breathed as because of the beautiful plea for a just toleration which it put forth." This refers to the speech of Mr. Shell, the Irish orator, whose name has already been mentioned in these pages, and to whose marvellous elo- quence Mr. Gladstone very recently alluded. " Why," said he, addressing the Conserva- tive opposition, " are you for ever crying out in reference to Popery that your church is in danger, and giving way to the most fantastic fears 1 What in the world makes you so much afraid 1 Your church is incorporated with the state, supported by the interests of the higher orders, and by the faith of the humbler classes. It lifts its mitred head amidst courts and par- liaments ; it possesses vast revenues ; it rules over the two most famous universities of the world; it presides over the great patrician seminaries of the land ; it has retained all the pomp, pride, and glorious circumstance of the establishment, of which it is a perpetuation — archbishops, bishops, deans, cathedrals, golden OT.An>TONT. A^^) his yTE\JPOB aktfs. ST.-Ils. It is liUtminiiiiied bv a prelricv emi- nent f:r le^iinii:;. and a elergr diitiii^-wsce^l for energT. amvitv-j and ;va ^i-rkiiize'A spiriT of cv; rioieiTvOv. Such is tout esra jliiknieiit. Azd oin vou brier Toursilves to beKere litat 5.1 di a faliic,ba,sed on the national iKJiief and tow-erinz anionrst arisi -cmtie snstaiimient. can be prc~Tratcd on tie rock of xrwzk on which vo~. WlicTe it to be raisc-i. not bv i"ore:rii in- Tasion. cut bv intestine commotion; not by gre;-.t moral conciissia, bnt bv a discharge of Doiisy Testaments and popish missals from the hands of a set of siio-eless. shir tless popish pauf-^ri-s, gathered nnder the c^.-'mmand of tlie p : ivx-conneil from the lanes of Liverpool and the alleys of Manchester and Salford, or the ^e^^rpta?les of St. Giles- This azue of rippre- hensi>n i:'r tout chtirch ^ idle, and wonld be ridiculous but for the fatal results it produces an.t the constant inftistioe it works. I have heard much in the course of this discn^on of the dogmas of theology. I do not prv'iess to be oc'nversiiit with them ; but I s-ometitnes read my Bible, in every page of \rhich lessons of mercy are so admirably inculcated : and it strikes me that if there be a p>;.ss.i.ge in whl:h the character of onr S.Tionr is described in a pe:ali:nriy amiable liaht. it is that in which he is representel as desiring his disciples not to forbid little children to come to him. To not imitate the example of those by ■whom the children were rebaked. Svir'er them to approach him : let them hare ac- cess to the 5;v.r->es of pure morality, and of that truth which is common to all Christians. Do not close the avenues of that fcnowlci^e which leads t hapip mess when •tinie ^tball be no more:'" and. instead of engajini: in acri- monious contention abont e:;".es:aitio.\l pre- rc'gatives and pretensions, act on the precept contained in the divine injtmction, ■ SuliVr the little children to come unto me, and for- bil them not, for of such is the kinirdom of heaven. " The commission which had been appointed in lf:>3 to form a digest of the criminal law of the countrv had been pr-.^ee-iinj with its [ allowing pirisoners on trial in ci-iminal cases ' to have the assistance of eonnsel — an enor- mous ojncession. as it may have seemed at the time, but one which we should now regard onlv as a provision of ordinary justice. It was followed, however, by a stiU more impor- tant advance in the direction of diminishing the * number of offences for which the punishment of death was still inflicted. For years there I had been a stivng desire on the part of phi- lanthropists like Sir Samuel Bomilly to abolish capital punishment altoirether. in the belief tha,t severity of punishment had the effect of increasing rather than diminishing crime. There were many arguments ajmist the es- I treme penalty, and the objections were not — and are not now — without weight- The [ right to take away human life at all as a de- liberate punishment for an offence was plainly j denied by many of the advocates for aK^li- j tion. Others ;orr.iei against the dreadful • cruelty of sending suddenly out of the world a culprit L'.den witl: crime ; and an argument not devoid of force was derired from the numerous instances in which innocent persons had been condemntrd to death and eiecnted. Bnt the argument on inexpediency was still more broadly insisted on. It was allied as the professed restdt of experience that the average of ceixain crimes had been less ;tfter the remission of the extreme penalty, while the number of eo^nviotions had propcraonally increased. Both prosecutors and juries shrank from bringing a criminal to death for an offence against property, or for other offences short of murder. The execution of such a criminal was itself reg.u\ied as judicial mur- der, and so those concerned in the conviction refused to bring the offenders to jnstiee. It was very stcrngly held by many advooates of remission that the punishment of death should t>e ai:;gether aboUshe-.i. and thouirh the go^v- ernment. the criminal law commissioners, and . probably the offici:ils of criminal prise ns, were not prepared for such a change, there was a i very general desire that it should be effected, and its advrvai« were prepared with facts and statistics which lent considerable weight work, and one of the beneu'ent i-esvJ:s of i to their arguments, 3Ir. Ewart was one of these labours was the bill pvissed in ISSH for ! the most energetic and earnest advc«.^\tes of BEMISSIOX OF THE DEATH PEXALTT. the entire abolition of the death ■jpenalty, and there was such a general desire to do away with it altogether, or only to retain it in cases of mnrder, that the proposal would in all like- lihood have been carried but for two reasons. One, and perhaps the principal one, was the hesitation and fear of going too far which was characteristic of the ministry, and was too l often represented by Lord John Bn^elL The j other was the extreme difficulty at that period j of knowing what to do with any ntimber of desperate felons who might escape the halter. Our system of penal servitude had not then developed into the careful and, as some people think, the mischievonsly concentrative organi- zation with which we are now familiar, and at the same time '•'transportation'" was be- coming a mere memory of the past, since we had no right to force a criminal cla^ of the community on any of our colonies, and it was impossible, even if it had been less horrible, to provide penal settlements in remote and uninhabited places, where there would have been no safety for the officials but in a system of repression more revolting to htmianity than the punishment of death itself. Another course might then have been fotmd had this argument been brought forward, so that the advocates of the abolition of the penalty of death might have tm^dertaken the subject of secondary ptmishments for serious offences; but it is obvious on reflection that no govern- ment cotild avow that they must continue to hang men because they did not know what else to do with them- The result of these difficulties was a suspicion on the part of the commissioners that Lord .John wotdd think they were making too sudden and complete a change even when they recommended the remission of capital punishment in twenty- one out of thirty-one cases of offences for which the extreme penalty already existed. Lord John — delighted at the prospect of being able to remit the punishment, however undecided he may have been on the subject of the temper of the hotise and the cotmtry — brought in a bUl proposing to remit the death penalty in the twenty-one cases, and to restrict it considerably in some of the ten which remained; but ^Ir. Ewart and those who supported him regarded this as mere trifling with a subject on which thev felt deeply, and an amendment wai- moved to abolish the penalty of death for anv crime except that of deliberate murder. Xor did the advocates of this remission stop there: they let it be plainly nnder=tood — or at all events Lord John Eusell declared that in his opinion they did not disguise — that it was their intention to endeavour to obtain complete aboUtion as soon as po^ble. The noble lord was ex- tremely surprised that t hing s should have taken such a turn, there was an immediate flntter among the ministers and their sup- porters, and the whips were sent off in a hurry to fetch members to a division for which they were not at all prepared. After aU these exertions there was a ministerial majority of one; the bill passed, and after some debate went through the Lords, where Brougham declared that nothing but the presstire of time prevented his endeavouring to restore the amendment by making the remission of the death penalty extend to all crim^ except that of mxader, and he did not know that he should even have excepted that, for he was convinced that capital punishment tended to the increase of crime and the impairing of justice. A curious story, which began in 1S35-6, came to a climax (fortunately a rational one, though it was long delayed), in 1S40. In the year 1835 a law was passed for the inspection of prisons, and tinder this act the jail of Newgate was visited among others. The report in this case made by the inspectors, and laid before a committee of the House of Commons, stated that among other books in tise by the prisoners was one published by ilr. Stockdale of a very objectionable char- acter. On the 7th of November, 1836, Mr. Stockdale commenced an action against Messrs. Hansard, the parliamentary printers and publishers of the report, on the ground that this statement was a hbel; but the jury found it to be true, and agreed in a verdict for the defendants. In the following year, a second action was brotight, to which, in accordance with the instructions of the house, Messrs. Hansard pleaded that the publication 270 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTBMPOEARIES. was a privileged one. The plea was demurred to, and the court gave judgment against it. Damages were afterwards assessed, which the house directed Messrs. Hansai'd to pay. On the 26th of August, 1839, Mr. Stockdale commenced a third action founded upon a further and subsequent sale of the report. To this action Messrs. Hansai-d did not plead, but they served the plaintiif with a notice of resolutions passed by the house to the effect that the prosecution of any suit for the pur- pose of bringing its privileges into discussion before any court of law, was in itself a high breach of the privileges of the house, render- ing all persons concerned in it amenable to punishment. Judgment was nevertheless signed against Messrs. Hansai-d, and a writ of inquiry and damages executed before the sheriffs, when the damages were assessed at .£600. The sheriffs eventually entered into possession of Messrs. Hansard's establishment, and sold goods to a sufficient amount to satisfy tlie judgment. Before the sheriffs had paid the amount over to Mr. Stockdale, all parties were svim- moned to the bar of the house, and Mr. Stockdale committed to the custody of the sergeant-at-arms. A resolution was then passed directing the sheriffs to refund the money to Messrs. Hansard; and on their non-compliance, they were likewise committed to the custody of the sergeant-at-arms. Upon this, a writ of habeas corpus issued from the Court of Queen's Bench, commanding the sergeant-at-arms to bring up the bodies of the sheriffs. This was accordingly done, with a return to the effect that the sheriffs were in custody by order of the House of Commons, for a breach of the privileges of that house. The sheriffs were thereupon remanded back to the custody of the sergeant-at-arms, but were afterwards discharged on account of ill- health. In the meantime two new actions were commenced on the part of Mr. Stockdale, and the house ordered his solicitor (Mr. Howard) into custody, and committed hiiu forthwith to Newgate. After several de- bates upon the subject, a bill was brought in and passed, giving protection to persons em- plo3'ed in the publication of parliameut^iry papers, and StockdiUe and Howard were eventually dischwged from custody. The odd part of this story is, that Lord John Eussell's remedial measure, simple and moderate as it was — indeed it might well have gone much further— was opposed. Mr. Macaulay defended the bill with his usual sagacity, and it became law. The uneasiness of the general public about the poor sheriffs when in confinement — the disgust that there should be all this turmoil for so mean a cause — and the uneasiness naturally felt at seeing the makers of the law and the administrators of it at open war, — are still well remembered. Beginning from a dreary historical precedent (the case of Sir John Eliot), Mr. Macaulay stated his case with great dexterity. The ancestor of the then member for Corn- wall was kept in prison till his spirits, health, and strength gave way, and his imprisonment was continued even to the hour of his death. But in the present day it was impossible for the House of Commons to pursue so harsh a course. Their own good nature would not allow them to do so. The feelings of the people would not permit them to do so. The very moment that the health or spirits of a prisoner began to suffer, that moment the house began to relent; and either upon the instant, or shortly afterwards, the prisoner was set at liberty. So that, when the house pos- sessed itself of a prisoner of a robust and hardy constitution, it might have the power of completely vindicating its privileges by detaining him in prison till the question at issue was arranged ; but if it happened to have a prisoner of a bilious and apoplectic habit, in that case its privileges must be abandoned or only feebly asserted, because the health of a prisoner suffered from con- finement. Even if the health of Mr. Stock- dale himself should appear to be seriously affected by his imprisonment, it was certain that he would not long be detained in custody. However, the bill became law, and so a very stupid ignominious business came to a close. The practice of transporting criminals to the colonies received a heavy blow in the year ADVANCES OF SCIENCE. 271 1838. The influence of Bentham and his school, including of course his Eadical disciples, had been largely brought to bear upon the general question of our treatment of criminals, and in this year a Parliamentary Report ap- peared, which was a prophecy of the discon- tinuance of transportation. It was in the seventeenth century that we began to send our criminals to " the plantations," and great were the abuses which followed. When offenders were sold as slaves to the planters, and so got rid of, it is clear that the punish- ment could hardly be called in the minor sense "judicial." One planter might be a cmel and even murderous ruffian, another an easy-going master like the celebrated Due de Vendome, of whose laisser faire treatment of his servants such odd stories are told. One of them expressed a desire to leave his service because he could not bear to see so good a master robbed by his other servants. "Is that all?" said the great soldier; " can't you rob like the rest and stay 1 " Besides this, however, men, especially young men, were frequently kidnapped and sold to the planters, when it was an object to get them out of the way. The story of Annesley (Mr. Charles Eeade's Wandering Heir) is a well-known illustra- tion. The systematic and regulated transportation of criminals to Australia, which was con- demned in the Parliamentary Report of 1838, was, of course, another matter. But it had its obvious evil results, and some of these — inter Christianas non nominanda — had not been obvious, though they were proved to exist. In fact, the penal district was a hell upon earth. And, apart from that, the punishment of transportation fell very un- equally upon criminals of different classes. When young Gerald was condemned (Eldon being attorney-general at the time) Mr. Dun- das remarked that he did not see why the gentleman's friends should raise such a storm about it — he did not see much in being trans- ported — upon which Godwin appealed to Burke, who had a little more imagination. But, over and above all this and much more, it was found that transportation had been adopted under a mistaken idea. "True patriots we, for be it understood, We left our country for our country's good," wrote Barrington of himself and comrades. But it was found that sending criminals abroad did not lessen crime at home. The blanks were filled up as rapidly as they were made. In fine, for various economic reasons, and for the welfare of the colonies themselves, the system of transportation stood condemned from this time. There were not a few triumphs of science in the very early part of the new reign. The establishment of the electric telegraph has already been referred to. In 1838 the steamship Sirius and the steamship Great Western sailed, the first from Cork on the 4th of April, the second from Bristol on the 8th of April, and both reached New York on the 23d of the same month, within a few hours of each other. In the same year the first screw-steamer was made. In 1837 James Nasmyth first turned his mind to the produc- tion of a steam-hammer, and though it was long before his efforts or those of his coadjutor and partner, Mr. Robert Wilson, came to any- thing of much value for manufacturing pur- poses, the splendour of the subsequent success is familiar to us all. A hammer weighing several tons and capable of smashing almost anything, is so delicately adjusted and worked that it can be made to crack an egg as tenderly as a silver spoon in a lady's hand. As for steam navigation, it was nothing new; but these successful voyages across the Atlan- tic were noticeable, because it had been pre- dicted by men of science — the prediction being supported by the nicest calculations in physics — that the journey could never be successfully made. At about the same time Daguerre, in France, following up a previous suggestion by Niepce, succeeded in producing sun -pictures by the process which bears his name. It was not new in conception, even so far as Niepce was concerned — nearly every invention has a long history — but it was a triumph fraught with important results. The daguerreotype is out of fashion, but in some respects it is per- haps superior to any of its successors. The 272 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAHIES. social consequences of photograpliy have been incalculable. The description given by Mr. Bantam the artist (in Mr. Longfellow's prose idyll of Kavanagh) of the use of a portrait in "vivifying the affections of those we esteem and love," will be in the mind of every reader; and a living historian, who has made the social phenomena of his time a special study, declares that among the poor the sixpenny photograph that has made so much fun for the comic writer has been one of the most valuable of humanizing influences. We must not forget, however, that its use in bringing near those who were in one sense far apart, would not have counted for much without the penny post. During the years which are now under re- view, the "railway system," as it is now called, was becoming a fact, and towards the end of the period the railway mania showed itself not far off. That, however, is not the point. What is now indicated is the gradual gi-owth of activity in "gridironing" the country (to use an engineer's phrase), and the immense extension of the contract system. Englishmen were in demand to make foreign lines (for ex- ample the Paris and Eouen, commenced in 1840), and the work to be done was so vast and the versatility of energy demanded so peculiar, that the contractor, though not un- heard of previously in dock and canal works, became practically a new figure in English commerce. That he proved a very important personage in English and foreign commerce need not be stated. We are destined to hear of this gentleman again before the close of our fifty years. Meanwhile arose the system of excursion trains. One of the very earliest of these, an excursion train from Leicester to Nottingham, caused so much excitement that about 20,000 people turned out into the Nottingham mea- dows to welcome the strangers. The latter were in all about 1000, and they were received at the station by a company of Nottingham gentry, with flag-bearers and bands of music. Among the attentions which her majesty received in the early part of her reign, were some which were hardly to be expected. She was a good deal shot at ! This is, at least, an incidental proof of the floating excitement there was about her for a long time. The wretched young man, Oxford, who began this sort of pleasantry was undoubtedly insane, and, being tried for high treason, was acquitted on that ground. Afterwards, an act was hurried through parliament making the pre- sentation even of unloaded firearms, &c., at the sovereign an offence punishable with flogging. The object of the offenders in this- liue being notoriety, this act proved effectually deterring. The assault by Lieutenant Pate, who was also a monomaniac, was the effect of long brooding over fancied injuries. But the whole subject is worth notice, not only be- cause this flogging act undoubtedly served as- a suggestion of subsequent legislation of the same kind, but for another reason. It is a curious illustration of the heat, so to speak, that is evolved in the great publicity of modern hfe, that women in conspicuous posi- tions have been, within living memory, very much annoyed. It is now forgotten by the- majority, but it will be recollected by some, that the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, then Miss- Burdett-Coutts, was for years persecuted in a flagrant manner, — in one case by a man who persisted, year after year, in pretending that- he was in love with her. How many times this madman was bound over to keep the peace does not matter. Pleasanter homage than that of Oxford or any of his imitators was, of course, offered to- the queen, though some of it must have brought a heavy sense of responsibility with it. Of course, upon the first attempt on her life (June, 1840) the loyalty of the country broke out in a thousand enthusiastic ways, but, later on, during the years when the potato-famine was coming on, her majesty had to receive other than congratulatory addresses. The subject of the desired repeal of the corn-laws brought out the ladies on a, large scale, and they sent up petitions to the- throne, some of which were admirable. Events in the East as.sumed from about. this date so much importance, that we pro- 1 pose to deal with them all in their mutual con- LADY HESTEE STANHOPE. 273 nection at the close of this portion of the nar- rative. But we hardly like to pass on with- out a word or two concerning a very romantic figure, which had curiously interesting links with the past, and was, in minor ways, mixed up with some of our relations with Syria, if not with Egypt. This was Lady Hester Stanhope, who died in Syria in 1839. There was scarcely a per- son of celebrity in her time with whom this "Queen of Syria" (as she proposed to become) had not some sort of intimacy or quarrel, and she was not very agreeable to our consuls. She was the granddaughter of the great William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and a woman of great beauty and ability, not by any means without political influence in the days when she kept house for her uncle, William Pitt the younger. Upon his death the crown awarded her a pension of £1200 a year, which, but for her haughty refusal of the intervention of Fox, would have been much more. She was in love with Sir John Moore, the hero of Corunna, and with his last breath he sent her a message. Whether this turned her fine brain or not, she led, afterwards, one of the most picturesquely adventurous of lives. After some time spent in retirement in Wales she went abroad, and, after a year or two of rambling about the Mediterranean coasts, went and settled herself for life among the wild tribes of Lebanon. Here her beauty, force of character, and magnificently perfect assumption of the oriental type of character, manners, dress, and religion (for she was some- thing between Jewess and Mohammedan), gave her an almost incredible ascendency over the wild tribes by whom she was sur- rounded, whUe in her tent the stranger might reckon on a royal reception. It must be understood that she dressed like a man, and was by no means a person to be trifled with. Her strange expensive habits and her great liberality kept her in debt, but none of her creditors were ever able to touch her pension, — so dexterously did she contrive to receive it through French or other sources. When Sir John Bowring went out to St. Jean d'Acre, he sent to her ladyship soliciting an audience. But she sent a haughty message | Vol. I. in reply saying that she would receive no envoy from Cupid — which was her name for Lord Palmerston ! She had recently had a visit from Lamartine, and had informed our consul-general in Egypt that she did not intend to pay her debts — including one which he had been instructed to demand of her. When one of our other consuls paid her the compliment of asking her to name his new- born child, she replied, " Call him Humbug or Fiddlesticks." She had 120 armed men about her, and proposed to enter Jerusalem on an ass and reign as queen. She rode " across " like a man. When pressed for pay- ment of what she owed, she said, "I have divided my creditors into three categories. Those who have asked for their money, which 1 consider an insult, shall never be paid; and the second and third, who have never asked, I shall divide into two classes, some of whom I shall pay and some not." It is melancholy to have to add that this essentially noble, but more than eccentric lady, died in poverty, but queenly to the last. She was buried in her own garden. If she had lived in our days she might have been put under restraint perhaps; otherwise she would probably have been a centre of action in the East. It is amusing to remember that Lady Hester Stanhope declared that if Queen Victoria ordered her to pay her debts she would do so. An enactment of great importance in its immediate efiects, and probably of far greater importance in its relation to after legislation on behalf of the majority of the nation — the women and children — was brought forward in the session of 1839. It was a bill to enable women separated from their husbands for no misconduct of their own, to obtain access to their young children by petitioning the equity judges, who would have the power of direct- ing on what terms the application should be granted. Under the title of the Custody of Infants Bill this measure had passed the House of Commons in 1838, but had been rejected by the Lords,— Brougham opposing it not because its provisions were not obviously 18 274 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTBMPOEAEIES. needed for the protection of the wife from the cruelty and infidelity of a worthless hus- band, but because the proposed remedy touched only one of the numerous cases in which married women were left without re- dress under the most trying hardships, and because the means by which it was sought to Temedy the evil complained of was inappro- priate. By the law as it then stood a hus- band of the most profligate character could prevent his virtuous wife from seeing her children; but Lord Brougham contended thatj harsh and cruel as that law was, and though instances had been pointed out in which it might entail evil on the children, there were many evils which the biU did not profess to remedy. Could anything be more harsh and cruel than that the wife's goods and chattels should be at the mercy of the husband, and that she might work and labour and toil for an unkind father to support his family and children, while the husband repaid her with harshness and brutahty — he all the time rioting and revelling in extravagance and dissipation, and squandering in the company of guilty paramours the produce of her in- dustry ? He knew that there were anomalies and a thousand contradictions in the marriage law, but the existence of these anomalies and contradictions should operate as so many warnings against the introduction of new anomalies and changes in that marriage law. Instances were known in which, by collusion between the husband and a pretended para- mour, the character of the wife had been de- stroyed. All this could take place and yet the wife have no defence. She was excluded from Westminster Hall, and behind her back, by the principles of our jurisprudence, her character was tried between the husband and the man called her paramour. But when the man was the guilty party the wife had no remedy ; the husband might pursue his course, and even refuse to live with his wife unless she made a legal application at Doctors' Com- mons of a nature which every woman of deli- cacy would shrink from. Even in cases of gross infidelity a wife had the greatest trouble to procure a separation. There had only been two cases before the House of Lords in which such relief had been granted. Lord Brougham's opposition may have had the effect of throwing out the bill for the time, but his representations were potent to secure that, and far more than that measure of relief for women who were suffering op- pression and yet could find no remedy by an appeal to the law. The bill was rejected, but not without protest; and it was passed in the next session, but not without an opposi- tion in the Lords (especially on the part of Lord Wynford, who was the most active an- tagonist of the measure) which was in effect a declaration that a woman, whatever might be the circumstances under which she had separated from her husband, was not fit to have access to her child, lest she might not instil into that chUd any respect for the hus- band whom she might hate or despise. But Lord Denman, who, with Lyndhurst, was strongly in favour of the bill, had something to say on the other side. In a case which had been decided before himself and the rest of the judges of the Court of King's Bench in 1836, a father had been able to take his chil- dren from his young and blameless wife, and place them in the charge of a woman with whom he was then living. " The present law," said his lordship, "is cruel to the wife, de- basing to the husband, and dangerous and probably ruinous to the health and morals of the children, who could not have any such guarantee against corruption under the tutelage of a profligate father as the occasional care of a mother." In the case to which he had referred he did not believe there was one judge who had not felt ashamed of the state of the law. The biU passed without delay, and it was a fitting event that a measure for the relief of suffering wives and mothers should have been one of the first passed in the reign of a young queen who was herself about to contract mar- riage. It is desirable before we leave the earliest years of the queen's reign to refer to the sub- ject which was even then chiefly occupying the attention of many thoughtful and able men — men who, having once made sure that they were acting on a right principle and for GROWTH OF MANCHESTEE. 275 the public good, would never retreat from the position which they had taken up, but would hold it until they compelled the country and the government to listen to their representa- tions. These were the kind of men who, under the name of Free Traders — a name the full meaning of which was scarcely understood, and was certainly not widely recognized, by many of those who adopted it — commenced an organized agitation for the repeal of the corn- laws. These laws continued to exist, although seasons of great and general distress had fre- quently aggravated the detestation with which the duties on corn had been regarded, by those who looked upon this impost as a device for maintaining the agricultural interest at the expense of the great manufacturing com- munity. It is not surprising, therefore, that the organization known as the Anti-Com-law League should have had its real origin in Man- chester, nor that this great centre of the manu- facturing interest should also have been the centre of the agitation for repealing the tax on food. In a few years it had grown from a place of comparative insignificance to an important town — practically the metropolis of a great part of the northern and midland counties. It was only seventy -four years since the first spinning-jenny had been con- structed by Thomas Highs, a reed-maker at Leigh ; sixty-eight years since Eichai-d Ark- wright had taken out a patent for spinning by means of rollers ; only a little more than half a century since the Eev. Edward Cart- wright, by inventing the power-loom, had set free and given gigantic impetus to the cotton manufacture. In 1789 the first steam-engine for spinning cotton had been set up in Man- chester, and from that year the town became the capital of a great and increasing industry. It grew not only in extent but in intelli- gence, and by the adoption of the municipal institutions by which other towns were gov- erned. Sordid in appearance, bleak and cheerless in its aspect, lying beneath a dim atmosphere of smoke it remained; but it increased enormously, and many improve- ments were made in the streets and buildings even before the remarkable changes that have been completed in later years. We have already seen what were the kind of people who formed the majority of its pop\ilation in the days of the Blanketeers and of Peterloo, and they had not changed very much a quar- ter of a century later. Directly Manchester rose from obscurity to become the representa- tive of a vast industrial enterprise it also became a centre of political agitation, and this agitation was frequently carried on with a strenuous determination and even a ferocity which had earned for the town a reputation for violence all through the times of the Reform BiQ and much earlier, down to the day when the first notes of the anti-coru-law appeal first sounded in the theatre of the town in August, 1838, or when, two months afterwards, in October in the same year, when there appeared in the Manchester Times a list of thirty-eight gentlemen as provisional committee of the "Manchester Anti-Corn-law Association." In this list were included the names of John Bright of Rochdale and Richard Cobden of Mosley Street. Manchester had determined to cany out its character of a reforming town, not by electing Cobbett, who had first sought its sufirages, but by returning Mr. Charles Poulett Thompson, and Mr. Mark Phillips one of their own townsmen. Cobbett was withdrawn, because it was feared that to per- sist in his candidature would be to bring in Mr. Jones Lloyd the banker, a Tory candi- date. Mr. Charles Poulett Thompson was then the president of the Board of Trade, and the choice was felt to be a discreet and a happy one. The contest was hard enough, but the rugged Manchester voters were deter- mined and persistent. The decision was not to be for the session of 1832 only, but probably for a long series of years, and they determined that their new franchise should be marked bj' a triumph of reform. The temporary commercial prosperity of 1835 and the early part of 1836 had given rise to an enormous increase in speculation in Manchester as well as elsewhere, and a mania set in during which a number of bubble com- panies were started and in a short time col- lapsed, leaving a great deal of distress among some of that class of people who had formerly 276 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. represented the monied community. Then came pressure on the money market, bank failures, and a general financial panic, just at the time that depression was deepened and suffering increased by reason of the bad harvest of that year. It may be imagined that Manchester felt it keenly, for there were 63,623 persons employed in the mills in the town parish alone, and of these 35,283 were females. To- wards the close of the year an Anti-Corn-law Association had been formed in London, with a committee of twenty-two members, of whom some were members of parliament ; but there was no active organization, and it needed the pressure of a more energetic demand and a larger numerical representation to give efficacy to a movement in which these gentlemen afterwards did good service. If 1836 had been a year of loss and suffering, 1837 was worse, and the harvest was inferior to the one preceding it. Manufacturers and traders were hard put to it to keep their mills and warehouses open. At the meeting of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce in 1839 Mr. Cobden, speaking of the year 1837, said, "I have looked round this room, and have come to the conclusion that, when this meet- ing commenced, there were individuals in this room whose losses during the last two or three years would amount to £600,000 at the very least. I have no doubt that the losses sus- tained by the members of this chamber would be at least a million and a half since 1835, and I mention this after taking some little time to consider, and looking at the names of the parties." In 1837 the harvest had been worse than that of the previous year. That of 1838 was one-fourth less than that of 1834, " the most deficient crop of any since 1816." No wonder that the long deep note of dissatisfaction sounded in the manufacturing districts, where factories were working short time, running only four days a week, and where thousands of operatives had been discharged from em- ployment; no wonder that numbers of the Mauchester weavers who had been engaged in making the inferior kinds of cotton goods, and receiving even when fully at work only a very low rate of wages, v/ant through the town demanding food. No wouder that hatred ta the " bread-tax " grew more intense. It was in October, 1838, says Mr. Frederick Bastiat in his Cobden et la Ligiie, that "seven men united themselves at Manchester, and with that manly determination which charac- terizes the Anglo-Saxon race, resolved to over- turn every monopoly by legal means, and to accomplish without disturbance, without effu- sion of blood, with the power only of opinion, a revolution as profound as — perhaps more- profound than that which our fathers worked to effect in 1789." This refers to the first meeting of the Anti-Corn-law Association, and the seven men were Edward Baxter, W. A. Cunningham, Andrew Dalziel, James Howie,. James Leslie, Archibald Prentice, and Philip Thomson. The subscription to the association was to be only five shillings, in order that all classes might join it. Mr. "William Eawson afterwards became the treasurer, and thenames of Bright and Cobden were on the committee. At a subsequent meeting, when the numbers- had considerably augmented, Eichard Cobden and Eichard Ashworth of Bolton were among the speakers. In January, 1839, a meeting was held at the York Hotel, Manchester, to consider the pro- per mode of carrying out the objects of the- association, and £1800 was subscribed in the room. In the following month the subscrip- tions had amounted to £6136, 10«., and th& association invited to a public dinner a num- ber of members of parliament who had in the- previous session voted for Mr. Villiers' motion that evidence be heard at the bar on the operation of the corn-laws, a proposal which Lord John EusseU had advised the house to- reject as unprecedented and inconvenient; while asimilar motion made by Lord Brougham in the Lords was refused with contempt. An Anti-Com-lawConventionhad been established in London, but the delegates after this rejec- tion adjourned to Manchester and at once appealed to the people by addresses, lectures, and publications, the earliest of the latter being The Anti-Bread-tax Giroular. In the autumn of 1838 an old physician of Bolton, Dr. Birney, had announced his intention of delivering a lecture in the theatre of the to-wn. ANTI-COEN-LAW AGITATION. 277 on the subject of the corn-law and its efifeeta. ITie theatre was crowded in every part, with an audience of a rather rough stamp and of not very orderly manners. The lecturer was too nervous to proceed, and the meeting seemed likely to become riotous, when a gentleman who was present asked a young surgeon named Poultou to go on the stage and say something to the people present. Poulton was a ready and a fairly able speaker, and at once com- menced to say a few telling words on the sub- ject of the corn-laws, and the sufferings of which they were the cause. He carried the people with him, and the meeting was a de- cided success. Btiving been asked to repeat his speech shortly afterwards, he added to it many fresh facts and illustrations. Dr. Bow- ring, who was present when he delivered it, and who had at that time become one of the foremost leaders of the anti-com-law move- ment, induced the association to engage Poul- ton to deliver a lecture in the Com Exchange, and afterwards to retain him as a lecturer to go through the great manufacturing towns. Thus began a system by which information on the objects of the association was diffused; and opposition to the corn-laws maintained by lectures, publications, and other means, to an extent never previously heard of even in re- lation to any other important political subject. Thedinner to which we have just referred was held in the Com Exchange, and was attended by eight hundred persons, and the Manchester Anti-Com-law Association was immediately f uUy organized. Shortly afterwards the mem- bers met in the Com Exchange to receive the delegates who had been in London, and they then found that they had a new difficulty to contend with. A number of Chartists got into the building and by their riotous conduct prevented the meeting from proceeding. At the next meeting admission was by ticket, so that only those who had the right to be present should take part in it, and Mr. Cob- den then pointed out that the corn-law ques- tion was the question of the poor and called for the co-operation of the honest hard-working men of the town. At the same time he de- nounced the conduct by which the previous meeting had been interrupted. Resolutions were afterwards proposed recommending that the movement should be no longer sectional but national, and were imanimously carried. The interference of the Chartists with meetings of the association, or, as it was after- wards called, the Anti-Com-law League, con- tinued to be a serious obstacle, and advantage was sometimes taken by the upholders of the corn-laws to summon either real or pretended meetings for advocating the Charter, at the time and place where the anti- corn -law meetings were to be held, and so either pre- vented or interrupted the proceedings. Of course the Chartist leaders, who were not themselves always contented to seek the attainment of their objects by constitutional means, were desirous to effect some kind of coalition with the League, or to induce its in- fluential and consistent leaders to make com- mon cause with them, and this led to frequent misunderstandings, and to no little inconveni- ence, since the repeal of the corn-laws was a question standing apart from the political de- mands of the Charter. Some of the attendant circumstances of these attempts at amalgama- tion were at a later period made peculiarly painful because of the association of Chartism with the want and distress which the repeal of the corn-laws was also calculated to alleviate. The very fact that the expectations of the suffering people had been fixed upon the action of the League as much as upon the action of the Chartist leaders, may sometimes have made it appear that the two movements were in union. As an illustration of this we may refer to the events that arose at . a later period (in 1842), when the government then in power had refused the appeal of the Anti- Com-law Conference. The British Association for the Advance- ment of Science had just held its twelfth annual meeting in Manchester, where great preparations had been made for its reception. For several days afterwards the different sec- tions assembled for the discussion of numeroup scientific subjects, many of them of great social importance. But there were deeper questions agitating the public mind than the deliberate considerations of such topics could affect. The agitation for the cheap loaf and 278 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. for free corn was at its height, or rather it had nearly reached the point at which it changed from an appeal to a peremptory de- mand. For a time indeed it appeared as though, in Manchester at all events, there was imminent danger of an amalgamation of the leaguers with those who only regarded the repeal of the corn-laws as one of the measures which would be secured by the adoption of the people's Charter. The Anti-Corn-law Conference closed its sittings on Monday, the 1st of August; parlia- ment was prorogued eleven days afterwards. Up to this time peace was preserved through- out the manufacturing districts. While there was hope that parliament would do something in the way of giving cheap food to the people, the representations of evil-minded men that nothing could be obtained without violent measures were listened to with mistrust; but when parliament was about to be pro- rogued, after declaring that it would enter into no consideration of the means to relieve the acknowledged distress, that peace-preserv- ing hope was destroyed, people were willing to give attention to those who recommended violent proceedings with the view of bringing matters to a crisis. It was represented that a great commercial convulsion, which would compel employers to join the ranks of the employed, would render the demand for the Charter irresistible; and that the means of ob- taining that, through reform of the represen- tative system, would also be the means of gaining a great advance of wages. The plan was that every worker should cease to work ; one absurd and foolish enough at any time, but especially so when employers had so little work to give. It was not asked whence the advisers came, or by whom employed. In their wretchedness and hunger men did not reason much. Besides, thousands being con- vinced that some violent proceeding was ne- cessary, tens of thousands would be compelled to join them. Thus, the outbreak, the almost universal "turn-out," came at once; came, however, in a manner which proved the change which had taken place in the habits of the oeople; came not, as in bygone days, with at- tacks upon miUers, corn-dealers, and bread bakers, but with some reverence for law and regard to the rights of property. The design- ing vsdckedness of some, acting upon the despair of the multitude, originated a folly; but the foolish would only go to a- certain length with the wicked, and there was reason to believe that the few instances of pillage that occurred was mainly the work of thieves and vagabonds who had mingled in the crowd for that pur- pose. Another characteristic of the period was the patience and forbearance of those whose duty it was to preserve the public peace. Persuasion was preferred to the constable's staff and to the soldier's musket and sabre. A turn-out like that of August, 1842, occurring twenty years previously, would have occasioned a civO war. The movement, originating in Ashton-under- Lyne, Duckingfield, and Stalybridge, was al- most without violence and simultaneous. All the hands in the mills, 23;000 in number, turned out at once on the morning of Monday, August 8, and deputies from their body in- duced 9150 in Hyde and its neighbourhood to foUow the example. Oldham was visited in the afternoon by numerous turn-outs from Ashton, who, despite some resistance, succeeded in causing the work-people to leave most of the mills. On Tuesday a body of several thousands proceeded from Ashton to Man- chester, where, their arrival being anticipated, they were received by the military and police ; but on their declaration that they intended nothing illegal, they were allowed to pass, but were carefully watched in order to prevent violence. Their demand at various mills that the hands should turn out was instantly com- plied with; the masters generally giving their hands fuU liberty to do as they pleased. At Messrs. Birleys mill, the doors of which were thrown open at their approach to allow the workers to go out, the mob insisted on going in; and, on being resisted, a number of win- dows were broken, and stones thrown, which inflicted some severe hurts, and it was neces- sary that the streets should be cleared by the military and police, which was soon effected. At two or three other places similar damage was done, but no attempt was made to destroy machinery. CJHAETIST DISTUEBANCES THREATENED. 279 On Wednesday the business of turning out hands in the mills was continued, but it was effected with little violence, and where any was attempted the ringleaders were seized and sent to prison. Numbers of idle persons crowded the streets, mingled with whom were bauds of thieves; and, in some instances, con- tributions were levied upon the bread shops. The magistrates were constantly on the alert, and, with the military and police, succeeded in preventing the accumulation of any great number in one place. The mayor (Mr. Wil- ham Nield) issued a notice cautioning persons against joining promiscuous crowds in the streets; and a number of special constables were sworn in to assist in the preservation of the peace of the town. Much alarm was of course experienced; but it was not very intense. There was a belief that the turn-out was not voluntary on the part of the majority of the workers; that that majority was proof against the recommendation of violence; and that the authorities, while firm and determined, were equally cautious and forbearing, and anxious that the innocent and the deluded should not share in the punishment due to the guilty and deluding. On Thursday the appearance of things became more alarming. The disturbers were at work at an early hour in the morning; thousands being assembled in Granby Eow Fields at half-past five o'clock, when they were addressed by several of the Chartist leaders. Soon after six the proceedings were brought to a close by the interference of the civil and mUitary authorities. Sir Charles Shaw led on a very large body of police and special constables, and a strong body of the First Eoyal Dragoons and the 60th Eifles accompanied them. This force halted near the Carpenters' HaU, close to the meeting; and immediately afterwards Major-general Sir William Warre, commander of the north- em district, came up with a detachment of the Eoyal Artillery and two field-pieces. The mayor, Mr. D. Maude (police magistrate), and Mr. James Kershaw, a borough and county magistrate, who had accompanied this force, took a position in front on horseback, and the mayor read the Eiot Act. Previously, however, to his reading, the mayor, humanely desiring to avoid, as much as possible, any resort to force, rode up to the hustings, and stated that the authorities had come to the determination, after what had occun-ed, to allow no such meetings as that; that they were not averse to the liberties of the subject being enjoyed to the fullest extent compatible with the preservation of the peace ; but they thought meetings of that description were calculated to disturb the public mind. Enter- taining this opinion, they held such meetings to be Ulegal, and were determined to disperse them. This announcement was received with great displeasure by the meeting; but the Eiot Act was read, as a further warning, in the face of this expression of feeling ; and the magistrates withdrawing, and the two field- pieces having been pointed in a direction to command the centre of the field. Major-general Warre put himself at the head of the dragoons, and rode into the middle of the meeting. This had the effect of instantly dispersing it with- out further trouble, and without injury to any one. Effective as this step had been in dispersing the alarming assemblage, it was far from restoring the town to a state of quietude. The idle, the mischievous, and the dishonest were out, looking for opportunity of plunder. About nine o'clock, in the whole o£ the south-eastern part of the borough, includ- ing Brook Street, Oxford Street, and Green- heys, the shops were closed, and bands of from twenty to fifty youths parading from street to street, knocking at doors, demanding food, and seldom going away empty-handed ; changing their place of operations when any of the police appeared. It is due to the authorities to state that they were not idle, a body of 200 pensioners, and ninety other per- sons, were sworn in to act as special constables, making, with those sworn in on the previous day, and a number of respectable workmen who had been sworn in at different mills, aU anxious to preserve the property of their employers, a force of 1000 men. Strong bodies of these assistants were despatched, in company with parties of the regular police, to different parts of the town where it was thought there was the most pressing need for 280 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES. their presence. Things remained in much the same state during the Friday and Satur- day, violences being rather the exception than the rule, for the masters had generally closed their mills, with the determination to keep them closed until their work-people volun- tarily offered themselves, and the work-people, generally convinced that no good could be effected by the turn-out, waiting the period when they could resume their employment without the risk of obstruction from the fiercer portion of their number. At the close of the week 3000 special constables were enrolled, and the hope was entertained that, although in the surrounding towns the process of turning out had been successful, with more of violence than had occurred in Manchester, there would be no very serious disturbance of the public peace. In the commencement of the following week there were indications that the turn-out would not be of long continuance. Pears were entertained that Tuesday, the 16th, being the anniversary of the " Peterloo Massacre," would be the day chosen by the Chartists for a display of their power. A public procession was talked of, and the presence of Feargus O'Connor was expected; but if it was intended, he had caution and prudence enough to avoid the personal risk. The numerously attended meeting was, however, held in the Carpenters' Hall, of delegates from almost every trade in Manchester and the neighbouring towns, when the following resolutions were proposed: — "(1.) That this meeting pledges itself to dis- continue all illegal proceedings ; and, further, that they will endeavour to preserve the pub- lic peace. (2.) That we cannot exist with the present rate of wages, and that we are deter- mined not to go to work till we obtain the prices of 1839. (3.) That each master do pay the same for the same fabric of cloth through- out the whole of the manufacturing districts. (4.) That it is the opinion of this meeting that our political rights are imperatively ne- cessary for the preservation of our wages when we gain them; we therefore pledge ourselves to act with our other friends, and trades generally, in gaining the People's Charter, as the only means of securing the said rights." The result of the deliberation was that fifty- eight wore for the People's Charter, and would not return to work till it was gained, nineteen would wait the result of another meeting, and seven thought the movement should be solely for an advance of wages. There can be no doubt that this meeting tended greatly to les- sen the influence of the leaders of the move- ment. Tens of thousands saw instantly the foily and the impossibility of remaining out of work till the Charter was obtained, and earnestly desired to retire from the contest ; more especially as the congregated masters had issued a resolution — "that the miUs and other public works of Manchester and Salf ord be not opened for work untU the work-people therein employed signify their desire to resume work." The workers had been made to believe that the masters would be compelled, by the universal- ity of the movement, at once to yield; but this non-resisting policy, this willingness to stand still, and at a period when standing still was about as profitable as working, was a thing that was not anticipated. An address from Sir Benjamin Heywood to the working-men was not without its effect in opening their eyes to the folly of their conduct, for the time had come when the advice of respected men was not disregarded. In other places the movement was attended by less regard to life and property than was shown by the working-men of Manchester and its neighbourhood.^ Harriet Martineau says: — "The Chartists had got into the hands of Pro- tectionist guides or agents, had broke in upon free-trade meetings, and denounced free-trad© in corn, and stirred up precisely those among the working-classes who were suffering least — the pitmen of the coal districts and the Welsh miners. There were riots of nailers and miners at Dudley and Stourbridge, and tumult over the whole district, requiring the active services of the military. The rioters resisted a reduc- tion of wages, and hustled some of the masters, as did other rioters in Wales, when a gentle- man of property had a narrow escape with his Mfe. In the Potteries a force of six thousand malcontents, spread over an extent of seven ' Eeilly's Bistory o/ Wanchester. AXOTHEB "NATIONAL PETITION." 281 miles, and occasionally committing violence on recusant masters and men, kept Staflfordshire in alaim. Troops were encamped on the Pot- teries race-coui-se, and magistrates tried to conciliate and mediate, but with little effect. . . . The rioters sent bodies of men to the Yorkshire towns, and sometimes letters — laconic and significant — detailing progress, and one ending, ' We get plenty to eat ; the shops are open, they give us what we want.' Some disturbances ensued; but nothing formidable, as in Lancashire and the Potteries, where now the malcontents were gutting and burning dwelling-houses. In the midst of their vio- lence they gave a lame clergyman ten minutes law to walk' away, but refused the enti-eaties of a lady that they would spare the house, leaving her to be thankful for her present safety. Three men were shot dead by the soldiery in Burslem,and several were wounded. . . . In a very short time the Chartist strangers, dropping in from a distance, showed a depth of design and a rapacity which dis- gusted the Lancashire operatives." The dis- order subsided gradually through the last weeks of August and the beginning of Sep- tember. At the following Lent assizes fifty- nine prisoners, arrested in Manchester and Salford diu'ing the riots, were tried at Lancas- ter, when twenty-eight were acquitted, and the remainder sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. Chaitism, as a public working force, had al- ready in fact been for some little time in the background. The riots had frightened the classes who had anything to lose, and made them dread the very name of "Chartist," while even "physical force" revolutionists had been taught by the repressive action of the govern- ment in the case of men like Frost, Stephens, Vincent, Lovett, and CoUins, that the time for taking the political citadel by storm was not yet. Except as all propagandismpai-took of the improving spirit of the times, it is hardly true, perhaps, that the lower radical propagandism had improved since men like Vincent and Lovett were sent to Jail. But Vincent and Lovett had, fi-om jail, addressed the working- classes, recommending moderation, obedience to the law, and careful organization, and much sympathy had been felt for Vincent and some others. Vincent, a good man as has been al- ready stated, was treated with great severity in prison; and Mr. Sergeant Talfourd, who had held the brief for the prosecution, pleaded his cause, not without effect, before the House of Commons. The general result was that a number of the definitely "respectable'' classes, who had something to lose, and who were sure to oppose revolution, now took up the Chartist cause in another, but sufficiently courageous, spirit. Men like Joseph Sturge — ^the anti- slavery and "temperance" Quaker — and Mr. Sharman Crawford, himself in parliament, took the lead in a conference at Birmingham in April, 1842, the object of which was to unite the middle class and working-class Eadicals, and again press the six points upon the legis- lation. The result was the formation of a body called The National Complete Suffrage Union. But unfortunately the working-men of England, or at all events men like Feargus O'Connor, had fallen in love with the " red " name "National Convention," and another assembly under that style and title now met in London, O'Connor being its presiding spirit: and under the auspices of this body another national petition was got up. This was said to be twice as big as the one that had been rolled into the house on the former occasion, and when it reached that place on the 2d of May in this year, it was found that it would not go in at the doors, and it had to be ' broken up into five pieces. Eadical members, defying their own sense of the ridiculous, rolled these bits of petition up to the speaker's table, and Mi". Duncombe (who must have laughed in his sleeve all the time), having gravely informed the house that the petitions bore 3,500,000 signatures, and that 100,000 of the petitioners subscribed a penny a week each to Chartist associations, moved that the petitioners should be heard at the bar of the house in explanation of the objects of the pe- tition. These, however, were plainly set forth by Mr. Duncombe in a very moderate and in- genious speech, and they were in possession of all the members. Universal suffrage was of com-se one of the points, and to be relieved from the burden of paying interest on the 282 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. national debt was another. Mr. Eoebuck, then in the flower of his reputation as a Radi- cal, supported Mr. Duncombe's motion, but described the petition itself as a worthless, inflammatory aiFair, the work of a " cowardly demagogue for whom he had too much con- tempt even to name him" — this, of course, was Eeargus O'Connor, who is not yet going to pass off the stage. Mr. Macaulay, who, after his return from India, had been elected for Edinburgh on the strength of his conversion to the baUot, opposed Mr. Duncombe's motion. He did not object to short parliaments, or to the abolition of the property qualification, or to the baUot; but he did object to universal sufirage. He examined the petition clause by clause, and argued that it pointed to the con- fiscation of aU property, to deliberate national bankruptcy. Having suggested the probable, the morally certain, results which wotdd foUo w the granting of universal suffrage, he said, "Let us grant that education would remedy these things; shall we not wait until it has done so before we agree to such a motion as this ? Shall we, before such a change is wanted, give them the power and the means of ruining not only the rich but themselves? I have no more unkind feeling towards these petitioners than I have towards the sick man who calls for a, draught of cold water although he is satisfied that it would be death to him; nor than I have for the poor Indians whom I have seen collected round the granaries in India at a time of scarcity, praying that the doors might be thrown open and the grain distri- buted. But I would not in the one case give the draught of water, nor would I in the other give the key of the granary; because I know that by doing so I shall only make a scarcity a famine, and, by giving such relief, enormously increase the evU." To this he added a warning which has not yet become idle. "There has been a constant and systematic attempt for years to represent the government as being able to do, and as bound to attempt, that which no government ever attempted; and instead of the government being represented, as is the truth, as being supported by the people, it has been treated as if the government were to support the people, It has been treated as if the government possessed some mine of wealth, some extraordinary means of supplying the wants of the people; as if they could give them bread from the clouds, water from the rocks, or had power to increase the loaves and the fishes five thousand fold. Is it possible to be- lieve that the moment you give them absolute, supreme, irresistible power they will forget all thisi" The house thought it was not pos- sible, and rejected Mr. Duncombe's motion by 238 to 49. In all this the Malthusian argu- ment was kept in the background, and with great discretion; but it was quietly pressed in various ways, and there were "leaders of the masses" who had sense enough to see that in the end this sort of policy would come to a general scramble and free fight, each man taking his brother man by the throat and saying, "What do you do here? You are one too many.'' Mr. Duncombe was complimented by Mr. Macaulay on the ingenuity with which he had introduced the motion, but the house rejected it so decidedly. In the course of the summer followed large Chartist meetings in Lanca- shire and other counties, and disturbances which reached far north. There were a good many strikes, some Union Bastilles were at- tacked, and there were scenes such as are de- scribed with a masterly pen in Mr. Disraeli's Sybil. But once more the strong hand of the law was put forth, there were numerous im- prisonments and transportations, and Thomas Cooper, who as little deserved his fate as Henry Vincent, was sentenced to three years' im- prisonment. It was in prison that he composed The Purgatory of Suicides. These, however, are illustrative episodes a little in advance of the date at which our record has now arrived. Serious questions between the Church and Dissent were not the most prominent during the years which we have been considering; but they were not by any means laid aside, nor were they sleeping. Several considerable changes had been going on on both sides, as was afterwards illustrated with regard to dis- sent in a peculiar way. The question of Lady Hewley's Charity, as it was named, is yet fresh, and led to some LADY HEWLEYS CHAKITY. f!S3 iuuQsiiig incidents. Mr. Gladstone took the '■ Liberal '^ side, though his laugoage conipai-es oddly enough with that oi ilaixuilav, who, of course, did the sime, A lawsuit had been gv^iiif ou for fourteen years concerning a be- quest by Lady Hewley in the reign of C iiarles n. to a Presbyterian church. As is pretty wen known, many of the Presbyterian con- gregations of that Jay became by degrees Unitaiian — many Unitarian chapels being to this day recorded as " Presbyterian " both in Ireland and England. This case woke up the question of kindred endowments, in which the modern Unitarians, as well as others, were concerned, and a Disenters Chapel Bill was introduced with the object of con- firming congregarions in the pc^se^on of prv>i>eriy which could plead twenty years of prescriptiTe use. A great hue and cry was raised upon the whole subject, because it was maintained by the opponents of the measure ihat it had been brought in solely in the inieresi of the Unitarian body; btit the bill receiTed such powerful support from able men in parliament that ir passed by consider- able majorities; the bishops "protesting- by their absence upon the last division in the House of Lor^ ilr. Gladstone deliTered a singularly char- acteristic speech in support of the bill — a speech from which an attentive reader might prophesy much of the future action of his mind. The distinctions he drew will be seen at a glance. ■^ lady Hewley." said Mr. Glad- stone, "was a foundress; there can be no doubt of that. She devoted a large portion of her propertv in trust to be administered according to her will, and for certain piurp(»es. But are the parties who instituted the chapels to wliich this bill refers, founders at all? I ask that question, whether they are in the eve of the Liw entitled to be coreidered fotm- ders at alL I apprehend that they were parties not devoting their property for the benefit of others, but parties devoting it to their own purposes dtiring their lifetime, though tmdoubtedly after their death that property should descend to others. I beheve that tiie dufenence between the cases is broad and practical and that tiie ri^t which a founder has to have his intentions ascertained, protected, and preserved, is a right of a nature entirely different from that which may be posesed by any persons who associate to- gether to form a body who are to be the fii^t to enjoy the benefits resulting from that association, and which body is to be propa- gated by the successive entrance of new mem- bers in the natural course of mortality through the following generations. I mtist be per- mitted to say .also, that in the case of Lady Hewley it cannot be said, as I think, that there was no indication of the intentions of the fotmdress. Lady Hewley made reference to the Apostles' Creed, to the Ten Command- ments, and to the Lord's Prayer, and not only to these, but to the catechism of Mr. Bowles. a catechism of anti-Unitarian doctrines, and one going extensively into detail upon those doctrines. This at least apphes to the prin- ciple of one of tiie deeds which she executed, the deed of 1707 connected with the alms- houses. But, sir, it appears to me that this is not a qn^Jtion on which there is justly ;vny room for difference of opinion. . I cannot admit that it is subject to the smallest doubt whether these parties ought to be regarded or not, as qualified successors of tke early Presbyterians in dwpels. If you are satis- fies! to look at nothing but the mere external view of the case, and to say there were cer- tain persons who founded these chapels enter- taining one creed, and the present pose^ors of those chapels pc^sess another creed, I admit that soxmds startling. But if you take the pains to follow the course of events from year to year it is impossible to say that at anv given period the transition from one doc- trine to the other w~as made. It was a gra- dual and an imperceptible transition. There can be no pretence for saying that it was made otherwise than honestly. I at least do not hold myself entitled to s;iy so. The parties who eiieoted it made a different use of the prin- ciple of private judgment from those who preceded them: but they acted on a principle fundamentally the same, and though I may lament the result, I do not see how their title is vitiated because they used it to one efEsct and others to another. I do therefore hope. 284 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. not only that this bill will he passed by the house, but I hope also, and I cannot enter- tain much doubt, that the feeling which un- fortunately prevails against it out of doors will also be allayed. I think that it is our duty to set ourselves against this feeling, and to endeavour to bring about a mitigation of it, if we are convinced that it is unjust and ill-formed; and I do not believe that my honourable friend the member for Kent will be content to tell us, when the measure again comes before the house, that we are passing a bill for the encouragement of error. If my honourable friend were a judge, and there came before him two parties litigating for an estate, one of whom was an infidel and a profligate, and everything that was bad, and the other a most virtuous and benevolent man, would he be deterred from giving the estate to the infidel and profligate if justice lay on his side, because he encour- aged errors ; or would he be deterred — I well know he would not — by such a reproach from the resolute discharge of his duty? But I apprehend that the duty of a judge in such a case as that resembles the duty which my honourable friend is here called on to perform; for he is now called upon to remedy a defect in the law, and to adapt the law to the general and larger principles of justice. I feel no compunction or conflict between my religious belief and the vote I am now about to give. I am not called upon to do that which I could not do, to balance the weight and value of a great moral law against that of some high and vital doctrine of Christianity. Our religious belief should guide us in this as in other acts. But I contend that the best use you can make of your religious belief is to apply it to the decorous performance, without scruple or hesitation, of a great and import- ant act, which, whatever be the consequences, I have in some measure proved to be founded on the permanent principles of truth and justice.'' Macaulay, in a set speech of great point and vigour, said he now contended against the intolerance of the opponents of the bill in the spirit in which he should be prepared at any other time to contend for their rights against the intolerance of others. This, by the way, was the speech in which the unfor- tunate reporters made one of the blundei-s which so much irritated the speaker. In speaking of the universal recognition of the principle of prescription in i-eference to pro- perty, he said it was known all over the world, — among the pundits of Benares as well as the priests of the West. The reporters made the illustrious " book in breeches " (who talked at the rate of 180 words a minute) speak of the pandects of Benares. Criticism, from a theological or ecclesiastical point of view, of the Tractariau movement, is of course a long way out of the path of this sketch. But it is impossible to pass over the end (for so it may be called) of a movement as to which the author of Tract xo. himself has said with amusing truthfulness and sim- plicity that, " not to mention the excitement it caused in England, the movement and its party names were known to the police of Italy and to the backwoodsmen of America." To which Dr. Newman adds {Apologia, pp. 75-6), "And so it proceeded, getting stronger and stronger every year, till it came into col- lision with the nation and the church of the nation, which it began by professing espe- cially to serve." The subject, however, is one for which no large amount of space can be spared. Pusey- ism is still a well-remembered word, though the terror is gone out of it, another descriptive term having taken its place. But eai-ly in the reign of her present majesty the former term was a " word of fear, unpleasing to the ear " of the majority of the religious classes. " Sound Churchmen," as they were called, of the old school, and all Dissenters (except Roman Catholics) looked with terror upon the advance of the new way of looking at Church of England doctrines, services, and history, because it was held to be — as it proved to be in a large number of cases — the path to Eomanism. Dismissing the theolo- gical question, the historian has no difficulty in fixing the place of the movement as a movement. For a long time past there had been a great revival of the study of history, THE TEACTAEIAN MOVEMENT. 285 and a great newly-awakened interest in the middle ages, with their peculiar learning, taste, and mode or theory of life. A new spirit got into the air of thought among Churchmen ; an admiration of unquestioning submission to authority, of the deep unques- tioning seriousness of former centuries, of the writings of long-forgotten scholars, historians, and divines; and of ceremonies, splendid or gloomy (as the case might be), taken as repre- senting certain religious ideas. This was, it may be repeated, a natural part of the histori- cal revival. What was called " Gothic " had, as we all know, been the butt of educated men ; but from about the time of the publica- tio.n of Percy's Reliques or Warton's History of Poetry in England a new tide began to flow. Then came Wordsworth, and Coleridge, and Keble, and this new Eomanticism mingled very weR indeed with that which was a little older. The " Tracts for the Times " were part of a movement of which Dr. Pusey was the head, and T>x. J. H. Newman the great liter- ary protagonist. The object of the whole Oxford party was, by their own account, to find what they called a via media in church matters, and, falling back on the Prayer-book of the Established Church, they endeavoured to make out how much of what is generally called Roman Catholic the Thirty-nine Articles admitted or condemned. This endeavour was carried forward in church practice, in hymns, in sermons, essays, and in the "Tracts for the Times." At last Dr. Pusey and Mr. Newman were adjudged to have gone too far. Tract xc, written by the latter, avowedly with the object of inquiring how much of what was "Roman" or "Catholic," or both, could be got within the four corners of the Prayer- book, was condemned by the Bishop of Ox- ford, and the series stopped at that number ; while Dr. Pusey was sentenced to two years of silence. This was in 1843. In 1845 Mr. Newman openly seceded to Rome, and after- wards what was called Tractarianism began to seek other channels. With this we have here no concern beyond referring generally to the great change in the aspect which the Anglican Church of 1880 presents as compared with that of 1840. There is something so naif in Dr. Newman's account of his surprise at the unfavourable effect produced by his "Tract xc," that the reader may be glad to see a few sentences from his Apologia. " As to the sud- den storm of indignation with which the tract was received throughout the country on its appearance, I was quite unprepared for the outbreak, and was startled at its violence. I do not think I had any fear. Nay, I will add, I am not now sure that it was not, in one point of view, a relief to me. " I saw, indeed, clearly that my place in the movement was lost. Public confidence was at an end, my occupation was gone. It was simply an impossibility that I could say any- thing henceforth to good effect, when I had been posted up by the marshal on the buttery- hatch of every college of my university, after the manner of discommoned pastrycooks; and when, in every part of the country and every class of society, through every organ and opportunity of opinion, in newspapers, in periodicals, at meetings, in pulpits, at dinner- tables, in coffee-rooms, in railway-carriages, I was denounced as a traitor who had laid his train, and was detected in the very act of firing it against the time-honoured Establish- ment." Then came the final snapping of the old ties, and Newman leaves Trinity. "Trinity had never been unkind to me. There used to be much snap-dragon growing on the walls opposite my freshman's rooms there, and I had for years taken it as the emblem of my own perpetual residence even unto death in my university. ... I have never seen Oxford since, excepting its spires as they are seen from the railway." This was written about twenty years ago. Dr. Newman has since been honourably entertained at Oxford. It has already been remarked that, in the time which we are now considering, men were liable to be imprisoned or transported for saying or writing things such as are now written and said with utter impunity. It is all but startling to note that no longer ago than 1841 Mr. Moxon, the publisher of the works of Landor, Tennyson, Wordsworth, &c., was tried for blasphemy and found guilty. 286 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. his offence specifically being the publication of Shelley's poems, which are now sold openly by tens of thousands without the suppression of a word. As the death of Eldon may be taken to mark the close of an era in political and social progress, so the death of Thomas Campbell in 1844 may be noted as coincident with the passing away of a certain era in poetry and general literature. Generally, indeed, the public taste was undergoing a considerable change in the direction of robustness and freedom. While the larger diffusion of books and periodicals had the effect of lowering the standard of literature in some respects, that standard was greatly raised in others. But while ballads Kke Campbell's best (which it is not necessary to mention by name, since every reader knows them by heart) are imperishably powerful, his larger poems, such as "The Pleasures of Hope" and "Gertrude of Wy- oming," had already passed into the shade, and with them the whole class of poetry to which they belong. The days when verbal finish and rhetorical power would make a poet's success, if there were only the faintest tinge of imagination, were over and gone. There is much more than fashion in this ; the whole tide of life now began to roll fuller and stronger, and literature partook of the change. Campbell was, however, much more than a poet. Besides being the sagacious and earnest initiator of the London University, he was a zealous friend of political freedom — a fact of which there are luminous and frequent traces in his miscellaneous writings. He was, un- fortunately, too fond of his tumbler. When his statue was set up in Westminster Abbey, Rogers, his fellow-poet, said to a friend, "Ha ! the first time I ever saw Tom stand straight." It has already been hinted that certain of the political party known as the philosophical Radicals, or more briefly and with a touch of ridicule, "the philosophers," exercised a marked influence on our colonial policy; it might be added, on our foreign policy in general. To this, India was no exception, though it had been, to an extraordinary de- gree, neglected in parliament, and but for the labours of James Mill and John Stuart Mill would have been more neglected still. The value of their services to our Indian empire, and through them to the empire generally, is universally admitted. The name of Mr. M'CuUoch must be associated with theirs; but it is said that the elder Mill counted for so much in the management of Indian affairs, that after his retirement the Company would and did actually refrain from taking certain important steps for which they would have been glad to rely ujjon his wonderful know- ledge and administrative sagacity. There are extant dissertations by both the father and the son which are held to be unequalled in the whole history and range of such docu- ments. When some of the readers of these chapters were young they may have seen the gloomy old India House in Leadenhall Street, in which Charles Lamb said his real works were shelved, and in which so many distinguished men have found a position, not idle, but which yet left them free for other pursuits. But much more significant than the dull Grecian frontage of that building were the small placards to be seen pasted here and there about the streets. At the top of any of those you saw a dashing horse-soldier, airing his sabre, and underneath was an announcement beginning, "A good opportunity! Wanted, Smart Young Men for the service of the Honourable East India Company." Of coui-se all this is now gone, and from the year 1833, in which the trading monopoly of the Company was abolished, aU has been change. It seems at first sight scarcely credible that it is not quite a century since Cowper, in the fourth book of The Task, describing the arri- val of the post-boy with the newspapers, repre- sents the country gentleman as impatient to open the printed sheet in order to learn if India is " free." "Is India free? and does she wear her plumed And jewelled turban with a smile of peace, Or do we grind her still ? " But so it was. Of course, however, the story of the connection of this country with India goes much farther back than Clive or Warren Hastings. Without doing more than EAST INDIAN AFFAIRS. 267 just glance at the commencement of this long story, we -will go back to the year 1600, when Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to some English merchants, to be called "The Governor and Company of Merchants of Lon- don trading to the East Indies." The Dutch had for a century had settlements in India, but the English and Dutch were now appear- ing upon the scene. There were indeed two rival companies, one stationed at Amsterdam, one in London. The English found the trade with the natives pay, and resolved to make settlements on the coast for the convenience of trade. In the second decade of the century we had, by permission of the native powers, establishments at Surat and three or four other places. The charter being renewed as occasion arose, factories or agencies were set up by degrees not only in Boriieo, Java,&c., but on the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel. Between 1630 and 1670 the cities of Madras, Calcutta, and Bombay had arisen, and Charles II. had granted the Company (for a considera- tion) his royal permission to make war and peace at their pleasure. It is not necessary to describe the capital or constitution of the East India Company, or to go through any of its vicissitudes except those which fall within our chronological Hmits. In strictness the Company were for a long time nothing but merchants, but this was not Kkely to last, and it did not. By accident or design the agents of the Company got mixed up in native quarrels, and money being the sinews of war everywhere, the Company began to acquire something like actual territorial power in the peninsula. During the progress of their story there were many instances both of robbery and tyranny, traces of which abound in our literature {e.g. in Pope — "Asleep and naked as an Indian lay, An hxmest factor stole a gem away, &c. ). And enormous fortunes were made by British adventurers, of which also traces abound in our literature. The rich uncle coming home suddenly from India to enable a poor but loving pair to marry was, until lately, a very common figure in plays and novels. But to return for a moment to an earlier date, of course not to the early history of the peninsula, but simply so far as to mention that after the death of the celebrated " Great Mogul " Aurungzebe (the greatest of the Mo- guls), in the year 1707, the old empii-e of India began rapidly to fall to pieces. Bombay, which had been the dowry of Catherine, the Infanta of Portugal, when she married our Charles II., was in 1668 handed over to the East India Company. The Persian invasion of 1738, and other events, bring us up to the middle of the eighteenth century, or later, when feuds began to break out between the English and the French, who had also settlements in India. Of course war between England and France was the signal for war in India between the forces of the two nations there, though the interests of the native princes were often the pretext for hostilities. After the great vic- tories of Clive over the French, which it is not necessary to recall except in this general way, the path lay open to almost unreserved British supremacy. When a native prince appealed to the Company for support they drove a bargain with him, which was sure to lead to quarrels, and some kind of corruption was not far off. Before the close of his career Clive, though he did some wrong things, did much to make it easier to govern India well in future, and the first British governor- general, Warren Hastings, now appears upon the scene. This brings us down to compara- tively recent dates and comparatively famUiat names and events. Hyder Ali and the French, who had combined against the British, were defeated in 1781 by Sir Eyre Coote, and on the whole India did well under the governor- ship of Warren Hastings, the story of whose impeachment need not here be told. In 1784 Pitt established the Board of Con- trol. Soon afterwards we find Lord Com- wallis in the place of Warren Hastings, and he was both the civil and military master in India. Before long, Wellesley, whom we know better as the Iron Duke, is defeating Tippoo Saib and the French, and winning the memorable victory against " the myriads of Assaye; " and after this we meet the names of Lord CornwaUis, Lord Minto, and the Mar- quis of Hastings. The last-named nobleman 288 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. ■was Governor-general of India from 1813 to 1823, and it was under hia administration that the British power finally consolidated itself in India. We had been able to hold it only on condition of constant fighting and too fre- quent aggression, and the story of our relations with these dark races is from first to last stained with many errors and some crimes. The position of the Company had never been quite clear, and the military power which it gradually acquired (the army at last reached to about 300,000 men) had been taken up under pressure, in quarrels, or for self-defence. The soldiers were at first mere volunteers, some of them released or runaway criminals, and at first no natives were enlisted. "We find them eventually in the army in very large numbers, but they were never "enlisted" by force, and that subject will arise again when we approach the dreadful mutiny of 1857. It has been already stated that in 1833 the trading privileges of the Company were taken away, and this led to a curious state of things, one, in fact, which could not last. The Com- pany had to levy taxes to pay the dividends on East India stock, and it had no direct governing power. Under the unfortunate administration of the Earl of Auckland began the dreadful story of our trouble with Afghanistan. The independent and warlike character of the Afghan race is weU known, while a glance at the map shows that this mountain region may be considered as a grand natural barrier between India and the more western parts of Asia. Through the highlands of Afghanistan to the regions of the Indus there are only two passes, of which the Khyber Pass is one, and it has strong positions of natural fortification at Jellalabad and Peshawur. This pass is formed by the valley of the Cabul river. Cabul, Ghuznee, Candahar, and Herat are very important centres of communication. Between the north-western boundary of Bri- tish India and Persia there lies the plain of the Punjaub or Punjab, then the alpine region of Afghanistan, and then a desert. With the desert we have no concern, but it has to be noted that the Punjab was in the hands of the Sikhs, a very warlike people, who were then under the rule of Runjeet Singh (whose name is familiar to us all), called the Lion of Lahore. In Afghanistan there had for some time been more or less anarchy. One Shah Sujah, who had been trying for the ascendency, was defeated by Dost Moham- med (another familiar name), who now ruled in Cabul. Shah Sujah fied into the Sikh territory. Meanwhile the Sikhs had, in the recent confusion, helped themselves to im- portant positions in the north-west and the province of Peshawur. Of course Dost Mo- hammed of Cabul now made war upon Run- jeet Singh of the Sikhs, and the end of it, so far, is that we find Shah Sujah taking refuge with the British, while the Afghans are ap- plying to us for help against the over-active Lion of Lahore, Runjeet Singh. This is, in vulgar language, a pretty kettle of fish; but the worst is to come. Dost Mo- hammed, denied assistance by the British, applied to Persia, which was eager to help- him, having an eye to Herat. At this point British jealousy (just or unjust) of Russia begins to play a part in the story. Persia was on good terms with Russia, and the idea of Persian soldiers holding Herat was alarm- ing to the British mind, especially to that of Lord Auckland. Russia, too, was found ofi'er- ing to the Afghans the aid we had denied,, and it was held by the governor-general that we must be in command of Cabul. Herat^ which was then under an independent Afghan chieftain, was besieged by the Persians in vain, the defence being conducted by Lieu- tenant Pottinger. But Lord Auckland de- cided to make war on Dost Mohammed, with Shah Sujah for excuse, and ships were de- spatched to the Persian Gulf in order to divert the Persian forces from Herat. Naturally Runjeet Singh refused to allow the British troops to pass through Lahore, and they had to fight their way through the hostile territory of Scinde. In the end the British troops captured Ghuznee, drove out Dost Moham- med, and set up Shah Sujah in Cabul. This was no great achievement, and we had to maintain our position, nominally Shah Sujah's position, at the point of the sword by a large- army, at a cost of millions of money. CHINA— "THE OPir^I WAE." 2S9 At home the victory at Ghuznee was re- garded with satisfactiou, of course^ because no Englishman relishes the news of a defeat of the British arms; but of the wisdom of Lord Auckland's policy there were various opinions. Xevertheless the thanks of both houses of parliament were voted to the gover- nor-general, the commander-iu-chief, Major- general Elphinstone, and the armj in general. The Duke of "Wellington did not refuse his tribute to the bravery of the troops, and the energy with which the whole expedition had been carried out. ; but he did not fail to point out that we had entered upon a dangerous business, and that we were not unlikely to discover that our difficulties had only just begun. It is noticeable here that the duke himself, when commander-in-chief in India, had been recalled because his policy had been too aggressive ! Mr. Macaulay, not long re- turned from India, with all the doubtful honours of his code thick upon him, was now war secretary, and cordially supported the vote of thanks to the army of the Indus. The more sanguine portion of his remarks was curiously stultified by the event. Among many peculiarities of our Indian empire, Mr. Macaulay said, — there was none more re- markable than that the people whom we go- verned there were a people whose estimate of our power sometimes far exceeded the truth, and sometimes fell short of it. They knew nothing of our resources; they were ignorant of our geographical position; they knew nothing of the political condition or the relative power of any of the European states. They saw us come and go, but it was upon an element with which they were not acquainted, and which they held in horror. It was no exa^eration to state that not merely the common people, but the upper class — nay, even the ministers of the native provinces — were, almost without exception, so profoundly ignorant of European affairs that they could not teU whether the King of the French or the Duke of Modena was the greatest poten- tate. Further, Mr. Macaulay said he could tell the house, that when he was in India there was a restless imqmet feeling existing in the minds of our subjects, neighbours, and Vol L subsidiary allies — a disposition to look for- ward to some great change, to some approach- ing revolution — to think that the power of England was no longer what it had been proved to be in former times; in short, there had prevailed a feeling in the public mind in India, which, unchecked, might have led the way to great calamities. But this great event, this great triimiph at Ghuznee, enacted so signally by the British troops, had put down, with a rapidity hardly ever known in history, this restless and uneasy feeling; and there never was a period at which the opinion of our valour and skill, and what was of equal importance, the confidence in our 'star,' was higher than it then was in India. Mr. Macaulay held that there was reason to think that all the expense incurred by these thousands of camels and thousands of troops was sound and profitable economy. He had, he said, seen something of the brave men who defended our TndiaTi empire ; and it had been matter of great delight to him topee the warm attachment to their country and their countrymen which animated them in that distant land, and which added a tenfold force to the zeal and vigour with which they performed their arduous duties. There was a disposition in the service, oontinned Mr. Macaulay, to thinV that the Indian service was not so highly considered in England as other services less able, and performed with less jeopardy, in other countries. It was ex- traordinary to see the interest^ with what gratification, the smallest scrap, the merest line in an English newspaper, conferring any praise on this service, was received by them, and their delight would be extreme when they came to read the vote of thanks which had been conferred on them unanimously by the House of Lords, and which he trusted would be passed as unanimously by the House of Commons, the more especially accompanied as it was by the testimony to their merits borne by the greatest general that England ever produced. ^e may now leave India for a time, but we have to pass round to China and to take Borneo on om- way. About this time commenced the extraordinary and mnch- 19 290 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES. discussed career of Sir James Brooke, some- time Rajah of Sar&wak, of whicli a complete account scarcely belongs to this chapter, though it was in 1838 that he went out to Borneo and engaged in the service of the sultan, who afterwards made him rajah. He was a man of a type which is now pretty well extinct — so much is admitted on all hands — a high- handed adventurer, whose manner of dealing with " salvages " belonged rather to the six- teenth than the nineteenth century. But though some portions of his career were the subject of much discussion both in and out of parliament, his services to Borneo are not denied; and for the moment his story may stop here. In our relations with China we have a sub- ject of much greater magnitude and intricacy. Much of our procedure in that country has been severely condemned on grounds of jus- tice and humanity too; but the chief interest attaching to our quarrels with "the yeUow men " lies in the fact that they led to what is sometimes called "the opening up of the Chinese empire.'' Of the exclusiveness of the Chinese nothing new can well be said, and one of the most striking and pregnant incidents of the present reign was the breaking down of the barriers which shut out " barbarians " like ourselves from intercourse with (about) a third of the whole population of the globe. It has already been mentioned that the trading monopoly of the East India Company was in 1833 marked to cease. In 1834 it came to an end, and frequent quarrels arose between the Chinese mandarins and the officers ap- pointed by our government to protect our commerce. In 1838 the Chinese appear to have decided to stop the trade in opium, and the Bi-itish government sent out word to the East that if our merchants chose to carry on the trade as smugglers, it would not be the business of the Queen to protect them with ships or soldiers. In the meantime, however. Commissioner Lin — whose name was once very familiar in Great Britain — had blockaded our factories at Canton, and Captain Elliott, who had been forced to surrender 20,000 chests of opium, had written to Calcutta for ships and troops. In the latter part of 1839 Captain Elliott fired into some Celestial war- junks, and a treaty was drawn up ; but this was not confirmed in Downing Street, and Sir Hem-y Pottinger was sent out to China with f uU powers for peace or war. There ensued a " war" with the yellow men, some of the details of which are stiU remembered as having found their way even into street-baUads. The poor Celes- tials were not prepared for the military en- gines and methods of the bai-barians, and their arrows or small brass guns did not do much execution. Our cannons drove them fairly out of their senses, and even those who con- demned the opium war could not help laugh- ing at the stories of the bewilderment and terror of the "celestials" who had so long despised the "barbarians." Several places were captured by the British, including Nan- kin, and the island of Hong-Kong, which became ours. The treaty which Sir Henry Pottinger negotiated with the "Brother of the Sun and Moon," bound him to pay us 21 millions of dollars for the cost of the war, though he had already paid 6 millions of dollai-s for the value of the confiscated opium. The total sum was more than £5,500,000 ster- ling, and great was the ti-iumph of the idling Briton and street-sparrow when they saw the heavy wagons pass through our thoroughfares with the first instalments of the war-indemnity. A song which appeared in Punch, to a popular tune, has not yet passed out of memory: — " Out foes in China, Potts drubbed in all quarters ; They'd ne'ei- so fine a Whopping from the Tartars ; And, sir, they must, (How proud am I to say it) Down with the dust — and tax our tea to pay it." Syria and Egypt— the story which culmi- nated in the capture of St. Jean d'Acre by Commodore Napier — demand a few words of notice, partly for ordinary reasons, partly be- cause it was in this siege that steam war-ships were first employed, and partly because the whole afiair formed a striking episode in the history of our relations with Egypt and Turkey. Sir John Bowring had been sent out about this time by Lord Palmerston to inquire into the commercial relations of vari- EGYPT— MEHEMET ALL 291 ous countries, and his account of the celebrated Mehemet Ali (whom Lady Hester Stanhope called a bloody tyrant when he wanted to reduce the number of her men-at-arms, and who really was one), and what that very able man would probably have done in the British interest if he had been differently treated, is too interesting to be omitted. "I think,'' writes Sir John Bowring, "that a great politi- cal error was committed by the British govern- ment when they lent themselves to the views of the Ottoman Porte, and determined to coerce Mehemet Ali, the viceroy of Egypt, into subjection, instead of encouraging his desire for independence. His plan was to gather all the Arabio-speaking nations under Egyptian rule, a,nd to establish the founda- tions of a great Arab empire; and had we been a party to this arrangement there is no doubt that we might have exercised at Cairo an influence far more potent than we could ever expect to do at Constantinople, which is the very focus of intrigue, where all the great powers are constantly struggling for ascend- ency, and where our policy is often thwarted by the action of Eussia, France, or Austria. The geographical position of Egypt — standing midway between England and her Indian possessions — must have a political importance of the highest order. When the French first invaded Algiers they made to the pasha the most seductive offers to recognize his inde- pendence of the Porte, if he would co-operate with them in their intended African expe- dition. He communicated this information to the Duke of Wellington, who recommended him to repudiate the offer, stating that if he did so the service rendered to English interests would not be forgotten. Referring to this subject with some bitterness, he once told me that he would at any time have despatched ten thousand of his regular troops to assist in maintaining our authority in British India; and though their services might not have been of much value, the offer was evidence of the fi-iendly animus which inspired the viceroy." Mehemet Ali was of very low origin, and had not learned to read tiU he was forty-six years of age ! Though he was, as the Scinde brigands said of Napier, a " Devil's brother " and a true Turk, he was tolerant and a far-seeing politician. Sir John Bowring's narrative of his reception by this "bloody tyrant " is both amusing and instructive. "The Pasha," says Sir John, "received me in his palace at Shoubra, in the mouth of November, 1837. We were preceded by a janissary with his silver staff, on horseback, and were accompanied by a number of men who turned aside the camels, overturned the donkeys, beat the children, collared the men, and shoved away the women, it being as difficult to thread the streets of Cairo at sun- set as it is to force a passage through the Eoyal Exchange at mid-day. The pasha's secretary awaited us, and conducted us into the place of audience, in the centre of which were three huge silver candlesticks with lighted wax candles. In the corner stood Mehemet Ali, with his white beard, soft and fair hands, and fiery eye. He beckoned us to approach, and squatted himself in the corner of the divan, on a carpet of green and gold. Next to Colonel Campbell, the consul-general, I had the seat of honour, the interpreter standing before the pasha. Coffee was ordered in, and conversation began. He told us of the bad education he had received, said that he had never seen civilized nations, that he had been thrown among barbarians, of whom, when he came to Egypt, scarcely one could read, but that he was endeavouring to in- struct his people, and had ten thousand in dif- ferent schools. He added that though he had often been at war, it was against his wish and necessary for his protection, and that he wished to live ten years more in peace, in order to show what Egypt was capable of becoming. He told us that when the insurrection broke out in Syria the Russian and French consuls told him that he should study history in order to learn how to govern. 'My son wrote to me,* he said, 'for orders. I thought the best thing was to go myself; so I went, and settled every- thing in a week. That was practical govern- ment — better than I would have learned fi-om history.' The fact is that he went to Jaffa, seized and hanged the leaders of the revolt, and returned to Egypt in a month from the day he had left it. Colonel Campbell, who went 292 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMrORAEIES. with him, told me that he never saw such an example of energy. Nobody could fail to be struck with his suavity of manners, his natural ease, his smile, and his penetrating eye. Who, in that fine old man, stroking his long beard, white as snow, and wiping his lips with a fair and fine pocket-handkerchief, could imagine that he saw the slaughterer of the thousand Mamelukes, his guests and dependants, the con- queror of the Wahabees of the holy cities, the man whohad bearded the sultan and subjugated the half of Arabia, the hero of Syria and Can- dia? There he sat in the corner of the divan, his words bearing life and death. It was alto- gether a most interesting scene. This man, in his rude way, did wonders for Egypt, caused vast tracts of land to be redeemed from the desert, introduced the fine sea-island cotton, which has become so important an export from Alexandria, made canals, though at a fearful sacrifice of human life, introduced into the army the military organization of Europe, so that he overthrew again and again the forces of the sultan in Syria and Asia Minor, put his ships of war into good condition, and ap- pointed French officers to the supreme com- mands both in the army and the navy. He had applied to our government to obtain the services of British officers, but met with a re- fusal. The French government, however, will- ingly gi'anted his request, and in consequence French interests in Egypt have not unfre- quently circumvented British policy.'' We must now refer to an event, the in- fluence of which, on social progi-ess in this country, it would be difficult to estimate too highly. In May, 18.36, the Duke of Coburg, eldest brother of Leopold and of the Duchess of Kent, had been on a visit to England, accom- panied by his two young sons Ernest and Albert.' That visit was not without an object, although no mention of its real intention had been made to the persons most intimately con- cerned. Stockmar was one of the prime movers, and Stockmar had written "it must be made a sine quA non that the object of the ' Francis Charles Augustus Albert Emmanuel, known always as Prince Albert. visit bo kept strictly secret from the princess aa well as from the prince, so as to leave them completely .at their ease." Of course nearly every Englishman and every Englishwoman now understands that the hope and expecta- tion of the two amiable old matchmakers— the King of the Belgians and his faithful friend and secretary — was that Albert, the younger of the two princes, and Victoria, the English May-flower, should fall in love with each other in the most natural way possible, and that then diplomacy might come in with a set face and a gently warning finger to regu- late matters, and to see that they were quite serious before the betrothal should be even so much as whispered either in England or in Germany. By the blessing of Heaven this happy plot of the two amiable but astute old gentleman, — the uncle being indeed regarded as one of the most sagacious princes in Europe, — succeeded admirably, and resiilted in one of the happiest royal marriages ever recorded in the history of the world; and though it cannot be doubted that even nursery gossip in Coburg pointed to the intention to make the younger son of the ducal house an aspirant for the hand of the Princess Victoria long before it was probable that she would be queen, it was determined to keep from the princess herself any influence which would be stronger than the regard with which her future suitor might unconsciously inspire. Leopold, on whom had devolved the guar- dianship of his twice widowed sister, the Duchess of Kent, and her infant daughter,^ was deeply desirous of this alliance; and 2 Soon after the death of the Princess Chnrlotto, who was presuraijtivo hulroKa to the throne of England, the Duke of Kent, then In his flfty-flrst year, married Vlotolre Marin Louise, Princess Lelnlngen, the youngest sister of the Duko of Ootjurg and of the bereaved T.iiopold, She had married tho Prince Emlch Charles of Li^iTilnKon In 1808, when she was aoventeon, and his death In 181S left her a widow with a son, Charles Emlch, Prince lieiiiingeii, and a daughter, Anna Eeodora, afterwards by marriage. Princess of Hohonlohe-Langcnburg. On the 24th of May, 1819, the Princess Victoria was bom, and altliough tho marriage of the Duke of Claronco on tlio very same dny wltli himself, and tho probability of there being therefore an heir to the throne, left the succession doubtful, tho Duke of Kent was in the balill of showing Ills Infant diinghtor to his intimate friends, with tho words, "Look at her well, for she will bo Queen of Englanil," Prlrico Lelnlngen, the half-brother of her majesty, died In 1S69. EOYAL MATCH-MAKING. 293 though, like Stockmar, he carefully refrained from promoting it until the character of the prince had been observed and trained, and the mutual regard of the two young people themselves had been ascertained, it is to him that its complete success may be said to have been due. Although her father, the Duke of Kent (who died within eight months after her birth), used to regard his little daughter as the future sovereign of England, the succession was for many years uncertain, as two children were born to the Duke of Clarence, and though both of them died in infancy Adelaide was stiU young when her husband came to the throne. These were among the reasons for the comparative seclu- sion and simplicity in which the Princess Victoria was brought up. Not until she was twelve years old was she allowed to know that she was next in succession to the throne. The information was conveyed to her by her governess, the Baroness Lehzen, placing the genealogical table into the history book from which Mr. Davys (instructor to her royal highness, and afterwards Bishop of Peter- borough) gave a lesson. In a letter from the baroness to her majesty so late as the 2d of December, 1867, the whole incident is very fully described. " "When Mr. Davys was gone the Princess Victoria opened, as usual, the book again, and seeing the additional paper, said, ' I never saw that before.' ' It was not thought necessary you should, princess,' I answered. ' I see I am nearer the throne than I thought.' ' So it is, madam,' I said. After some moments the princess resumed, 'Now many a child would boast, but they don't know the difficulty. There is much splendour, but there is more Tesponsibility.' The princess having lifted up the forefinger of her right hand while she spoke, gave me that little hand, saying, 'I will he good ! I understand now why you urged me so much to learn even Latin. My aunts Augusta and Mary never did : but you told Tue Latin is the foundation of English grammar and of all the elegant expressions, and I learned it as you wished it; but I understand His son, Ernest, Prince Leiningen, entered the British navy, and commands the royal yacht. The Princess Bohenlohe died on the 23d of September, 1872. all better now,' and the princess gave me her hand, repeating, 'I will be good!' I then said, ' But your aunt Adelaide is still young, and may have children, and of course they would ascend the throne of their father, William IV., and not you, princess.' The princess answered, 'And if it was so, I should never feel disappointed, for I know by the love Aunt Adelaide bears me, how fond she is of children.' When Queen Adelaide lost her second princess she wrote to the Duchess of Kent, ' My children are dead, but yours lives, and she is mine too.'"'- There is something of quaint " old fash- ionedness" about this description, as there is about the conversation which it records ; but it shows very distinctly the meaning of that retirement to which allusion has more than once been made in referring to the training of the young princess. As time went on, however, the succession to the throne became more certain, and the marriage of the niece for whom he felt a parental afiection and a guardian's respon- sibility became of still graver moment to King Leopold; and though he shared the warm regard of all the Coburg family for the nephew who from babyhood had been a prime favour- ite because of his singularly engaging char- acter no less than for his personal beauty, he would take no step to promote an alliance until he was well assured that it would be for the mutual happiness of the yoimg people themselves. The serious question was whether Albert possessed, or would be able to acquire, those characteristics which would qualify him for the difiicult position of consort of a youns; constitutional sovereign in a country where there was always extreme jealousy of interposition, and where the suspicion of "foreign influence" woidd be ever vigilant and unrelenting. Added to this was the re- solution, probably born of the abiding tender memory of his own love and bereavement, that if this marriage were ever to take place it should be no merely prudential alliance, but 1 Life of the Prince Consort. On the subject ol the intimation of her probable succession, the queen says in a note, " I cried much on learning it, and ever deplored tliis contingency." 294 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. one of aflfection and esteem also. He could have had no more faithful, no more practical, and, be it added, no more subtle ally than Stockmar: subtle even by his very indepen- dence and unity of purpose. Leopold was of opinion that no other prince was so qualified to make his niece happy, or to fulfil worthily the difficult duties of the consort of an English queen. Stockmar as friend and counsellor thought it his duty to take care that this opinion was well founded. Since 1834 he had resided with his family at Coburg, but without any relations with the ducal house, where it was believed that he was no favourite. He had only casual opportunities of observing the young princes, and occupied with his studies, and in rather poor health, he had sufficient, and to him agreeable occupation in the retired life he led apart from courts and political questions. But Leopold had been his model prince, and was still his beloved master and friend. An appeal from him became a com- mand, especially when it had reference to the happiness of the little English princess of whom he had seen so much while he was in London. He soon sought opportimities of meeting the young princes, and his scrutinizing eye was as quickly fixed upon the younger. " Albert is a fine young fellow," he wrote in 1836; "well grown for his age, with agreeable and valuable qualities ; and who, if things go well, may in a few years turn out a strong, handsome man of a kindly, simple, yet dignified demeanour. Ex- ternally, therefore, he possesses all that pleases the sex, and at all times and in all countries must please. It may prove, too, a lucky cir- cumstance, that even now he has something of an English look." There is nothing very "gushing" in this reference, but Stockmar was always plainly, sometimes almost grimly, matter-of-fact. He committed himself to no opinion then, but only ventured to continue by saying, " He is said to be circumspect, dis- creet, and even now cautious. But all this is not enough. He ought to have not merely great ability, but a right ambition and great force of will as well. To pursue for a life- time a political career so arduous demands more than energy and inclination — it demands also that earnest frame of mind which is ready of its own accord to sacrifice mere pleasure to real usefulness. If he is not satisfied hereafter with the consciousness of having achieved one of the most influential positions in Europe, how often will he be tempted to repent what he has undertaken 1 If he does not from the very outset accept it as a vocation of grave responsibility, on the efficient fulfilment of which his honour and happiness depend, there is small likelihood of his succeeding.'' There is something deeply significant in these words when they are read now in the light of what Prince Albert became, and of the estimate in which he lived to be held by the English people; something very pathetically significant in them, when we remember that they are here quoted from a biography of the prince com- piled under the direction of our queen Jierself,' and published only six years ago — a biography in which she records, now that she is able to surround herself with her children's children, the tender and true and simple emotions of her own "love-making," and confesses with pride how her youthful heart was stirred with an affection that abides with her still, and the memory of which has never left her during the years of her widowhood. So the Duke of Coburg came to England in May, 1836, and stayed for four weeks. It was no more than a friendly visit. The prince had often in still earlier years heard his grand- mother, the Dowager Duchess of Gotha, say how she should like him to form an alliance with his cousin; but even if he had reason to suppose that this was more than a family wish casually though earnestly expressed, he was an exceedingly unlikely person to bring it to any practical issue without some more dis- tinctly personal motive. That such motive arose on both sides during this visit there seems to be little reason to doubt, and indeed directly after the visitors had departed King Leopold began to make his niece aware of his hopes and wishes. That it was done with kindly art there need be no question ; for it elicited an answer which must have been eminently satisfactory, since it concludes by saying, "I have only now to beg you, my ' 2^1! of the Prince Contort. PEINCE ALBERT. 295 dearest uncle, to take care of the health of one now so dear to me, and to take him under your special protection. I hope and trust that all win go on prosperously and well oil this subject, now of so much importance to me." She did not appeal in vain. From that moment not only Leopold but Stockmar were devoted to the welfare of the prince. The course of his education, his health, and his pursuits were assiduously watched, and to a great extent judiciously directed, but in such a manner that he was left fi-ee, or at all events with the freedom of one who is grateful for kindly and sympathetic aid and agreeable counsel. On leaving London the prince and his bro- ther went to Paris, where they made the acquaintance of the Orleans family; and thence to Brussels; for as Stockmar wisely con- sidered that as it would be desirable that the course of studies on which they were to enter should include a frank estimate of men, the restrictions of the society of Coburg, where they would occupy so conventional a position, would pi-event their forming acquaintances even though they might be receiving instruc- tion from eminent professors. The political attitude of Prussia made it an exceedingly bad school at which to gain any true know- ledge of public affaii-s and the relative position of European states, while the society at Berlin was either hopelessly formal or notoriously profligate. Vienna was equally objectionable for a German prince, and the universities were too narrowly scholastic for a young man who might have soon to take a practical part in the social if not in the political conditions of an important state. In Brussels Leopold him- self was engaged in organizing and establishing a constitutional government; and whether the younger of the two nephews married the young Queen of England or not, he would there be able to pursue studies which would fit him to take a distinguished place in the world. Baron Weichmann, a retired officer of the English- German legion, was their tutor in history and modem languages. With M. Quetelet, the eminent statist, they read the higher mathe- matics, and their application to social and natural phenomena — studies which always had such an attraction for Prince Albert that for several years he kept up an intimate cor- respondence with his distinguished tutor. In the spring of 1837 they went to Bonn, where they remained for eighteen months under the direct tuition of the able professors who were then attached to the university; and here Prince Albert was distinguished not only for the eager prosecution of his studies and his especial delight in questions of public law, metaphysics, and philosophy, but for his ami- able temper, and for that social attraction of which his remarkable talent for grotesque but genial mimicry and his keen sense of humour were considerable elements. As he was also an accomplished musician, an excellent hand with the foils even among the student experts, and had taken care to maintain the practice of those manly sports which enabled him to enjoy exercise in the country, it may be be- lieved that he justified the declaration of one of his close friends and companions. Prince William of Lbwenstein, that "he spared no exertion either of mind or body; on the con- trary, he rather sought difficulties in order to overcome them, the result being such an har- monious development of his powers and facul- ties as is very seldom arrived at." It was while the princes' were at Bonn that the Princess Victoria came to the thi'one, and Stockmar, as we have already seen, came to England as her confidential secretary and adviser. In a modest and sensible letter Prince Albert congratulated his " dearest cousin " on the high but difficult task, for which he prayed that she might receive heavenly strength, and find a reward for her efforts in the thankfulness and love of her subjects. Of course there were rumours of a contemplated marriage of the young queen with her cousin, but the prince himself had not been made aware of the real state of the case. He was not, so to speak, an officially-recognized lover. It is pleasant, however, to know that during the autumn vacation, when he and his brother were making a pedestrian tour — a delightful holiday of exploration in Switzerland and amidst the Italian lakes — he collected views, little memorials, a "Eose des Alpes" from the Eighi, to be forwarded to her on his return. GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOBAEIES. After another short period of assiduous study at Bonn it was thought desirable that he should be formally made acquainted with the projected marriage. Thus we see alter- nately the diplomatic and oflBcial and the natural or human sides of this royal court- ship. The queen had been consulted by her uncle, who thought that some decided arrange- ments should be made for the following year. The frank reply was such as might have been expected in a royal maiden trained as Victoria had been, and had in it something character- istic of the candid common sense for which the sovereign was even then distinguished. Both she and the prince were too young, and she being under age, her subjects might think her marriage premature. He spoke English but imperfectly, and it was important that this defect should be remedied ; besides this he needed more experience, more self-reliance, and greater opportunities and habits of obser- vation than he could possibly have acquired. We seem to be able to trace in these simple but practical objections the same sense of duty which caused the sudden impulsive declaration, " I wUl be good," to be made to the governess — the same desire to be worthy of her high calling which bent the little head over the puzzling Latin grammar. The prince, who was on a visit to Brussels, was informed by King Leopold of the family proposals, and of these which were accepted as necessary conditions. It was not unnatural that he should have been disappointed, but he took a high and honourable view of the situation. He was ready to submit to the proposed de- lay, but he should expect some assurance to go upon. If, after waiting perhaps for three years, he found that the queen no longer desired the marriage, he would be placed in a ridiculous position, and to a certain extent his future prospects would be ruined. It was certainly rather hard, especially as the queen had thought it her duty to cease corresponding with him after her accession. But Prince Albert had grown much more mature during the previous year, and the objections to his youthful appearance and even to the need for greater experience had already diminished. His uncle was more than ever satisfied with him. Stookmar, cool, calculating, and anxi- ously inquiring, had begun to form a high estimate of his character and abilities. These opinions were soon likely to be confirmed. On leaving Bonn it was arranged that the prince should make a tour in Italy, there to study not only books and politics, but men and manners. The queen, who had already con- fided to Stockmar her true wishes, requested him to accompany the prince. There was little difiiculty in this arrangement, and any surprise which he might have felt that the confidential physician, secretary, and friend of his uncle Leopold should be his companion was easily accounted for by Stockmar's know- ledge of Italian society and his undoubted attainments. It was a happy pleasant holi- day, tempered by daily hours of study and simple active habits. The iK;hess of Bedford, and the Marchioness of Normanby had resigned, and the Countess of Charlmont and Lady Putman remained. Of course the caricaturists as well as the newspapers had Ijeen busy enough over the coming fall of the ministry, and it was be- lieved that they contributed to it not a little. One of the mo^t telling squibs was by IB, because it made a witty use of an incident wliioh had already created a great deal of pofiular surprise and amusement. At the end of 1840 a youth named William Jones (there- after to be known as " the boy Jones") had contiived to gain access to Buckingham Palace, where he had concealed himself for several days. Mrs. Lilley, the nurse to the princess royal, had discovered him under the sofa, and he was of course immediately removed by the attendants. His accounts of the manner in wiiich he gained admission to the palace as well as the object of his visit varied con- siderably, and at first there was some uneasi- ness at the thought that an intruder had been able to hide himself in or near the royal nursery; but there was believed to be little cause for alarm, and the offender was sentenced to three months' imprisonment as a rogue and vagabond, but only to repeat his offence im- mediately after his discharge, as it appeared on hin own confession, when in endeavouring to gain admission a third time he was seized by a constable. The only thing that could be done with this incorrigible interloper was to send him away from the scene of his fascina- tion, and the police magistrate induced his parents to allow him to be placed on board one of her majesty's ships. All London, how- ever, was laughing at the incident when there appeared an a/lmirable and highly humorous sketch by IB, representing Melbourne in a careless attitude soliloquizing on the topic of the day: — "That boy Jones must be a very clever fellow I To make his way into the palace once or twice was not so extraordinary; I have done as much as that myself; but how he managed to get in the third time. I wish I knew the secret." Probably no one enjoyed this "skit" more than Melbourne himself, for there was no rancour or angry jealousy and vanity in his character. He had always tried to heal dissensions, to reconcile estranged friends, to bring people amicably together; and when he asked, " Can't we leave it alone 1 " the question meant more than laissez faire — it meant. Why call up conflicting elements 1 Let sleeping dogs lie ! Life is too short for quar- relling ; let us avoid the causes of contention if possible, and see where we can agree. Mel- bourne -was much more and much better than his enemies, and even some of his friends, gave him credit for. A highly cultured mind, a graceful and fascinating manner, and in some matters a deep reader, he was far more in- dustrious than half the people who blamed him for his idleness. He was well verged in books of divinity, and had a profound ait he had no religious part in the community, and eventually, in 1817, withdrew altogether from any connec- tion with Judaism. His eldest son, Benjamin Disraeli, was in the same year baptized at the parish church of St. Andrew, Holborn. In 1802 Isaac Disraeli had married a sister of George or Joshua Basevi the architect, also of Hebrew family, and their children were Sarah, Benjamin (afterwards Earl Beacons- field), Ralph, and James, the latter born in 1813, at which time they lived in the King's Road, near the British Museum, removing thence to the corner of Hart Street, Blooms- bury Square. For some time after this, as his means were much increased after the death of his father, Isaac Disraeli sought to find a convenient residence near some of his friends in Berkshire, and though no suitable resi- dence could be obtained in the precise spot, the family in 1825 took possession of Braden- liam Hoaae, in the parish of Bradenham, Buck- inghamshire. The purchase of this house gave rise to the association between Lord Beacons- field and the county of Buckinghamshire, which was so long continued ; and it was from EAELY DAYS OF BENJAMIN DISEAELI. 323 Bradenham House that the early works, and in- deed many of the later works, of "the younger Disraeli" were dated, until after his marriage with the Viscountess Beaconsfield, when he heoame the possessor of the adjacent mansion of Hughenden Manor. It was in the vault of the chancel of Bradenham Church that Isaac Disraeli and his wife were bui-ied, as the epitaph in the church tells us, and a few years ago a column was erected by Lady Beacons- field near Hughenden to the memory of her husband's father. In a previous chapter we have already referred to the early reputation achieved by the young Benjamin Disraeli, but there is very little known of his actual boy- hood. It is understood that he went to a private school at Walthamsto w for some little time, and that he afterwards received private tuition, but the probabilities are that a good deal of his education was in his father's library. In esti- mating his peculiar character — the reticence which he maintained about himself and his immediate affairs, and much that made in him a marked contrast from many of his con- temporaries in the world of public work and political ambition — the fact of his never hav- ing been at one of the great public schools or at either of the universities, should be taken into account. He had not formed close asso- ciations with any particular section of society by means of school intimacies, and he had no special prestige to maintain in relation to those strong traditions which have so largely affected men educated at Eton or Eugby, Ox- ford or Cambridge. When he first emerges from boy-life, and after a short period passed in the office of a solicitor, one of his father's friends, where it was thought he might " take a fancy" to the law, we find him returning from a Continental tour to be the talk of the town as the young author of Vivian Orey — ■ one of the attractions of the rather mixed circle of distinguished guests at Lady Bless- ington's assemblies, and, as we have seen, a good deal of a dandy, with a style, manner, and expression of his own. Outer waistcoats of cut velvet, or braided with gold; stocks like " cataracts of black satin,'' fastened with -two great pins united by a gold chain ; frilled .and fringed shirt fronts and wristbands ; coats lined with white satin; ringlets of jet black hair falling on the left cheek and parted smoothly away over the right temple ; flashing eyes ; effeminate lisping voice — all these have been catalogued — but it must be I'emembered that it was an age when dandyism had be- come to some a science, and when even Beau Brummel had no monopoly of the aff'ectations which many men who afterwards became wise in council and mighty in battle adopted as the usual passport to the recognition of good society. Two writers of very dissimilar type in describing him speak of his usual silence and reserve in general company, of his appear- ance of being always on the watch, and of the readiness of wit, command of language, power of sarcasm, and grasp of mind which he dis- played in conversation when once aroused and interested. " He is lividly pale, and but for the energy of his action and the strength of his lungs would seem a victim to consumption. His eye is black as Erebus, and has the most mocking and lying-in-wait sort of expression conceivable. His mouth is alive with a kind of working and impatient nervousness, and when he has burst forth, as he does constantly, with a particularly successful cataract of ex- pressions, it assumes a curl of triumphant scorn that would be worthy of a Mephisto- pheles." This was written by N. P. Willis, the American, who played the part of a kind of aristocratic " Paul Pry " on his visit to this country, and in consequence gave the world a very amusing but a rather coarse book, full of character sketches of English society. But people who were accustomed to the face of Mr. Disraeli may have seen in what Mr. Willis took for triumphant scorn a suppressed and rather contemptuous smile at Mr. Willis him- self or at the mission on which he was engaged. But before he had quite exhausted fashionable society, or it had exhausted him, the young novelist departed for a long journey in the East — leaving behind him a humorous satiri- cal sketch on the follies, fashion, and politics of the time, called The Voyage, of Captain Popanilla. He was accompanied by his sister Sarah Disraeli and Mr. Meredith, a gentleman to whom she was shortly to 324 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. be married, and the winter of 1829 was spent in Constantinople, whence they travelled to Albania, and in 1831 had gone to Syria. Then Mr. Disraeli went on alone, for his sister and Mr. Meredith had to return to England, where the latter died, leaving her who was to have been his bride to that widowhood which is none the less hard to bear because it has known no wedded happiness. She became her father's companion and amanuensis, and it was she who wrote for him when in 1841 he was afflicted with a disease of the optic nerve which terminated in loss of sight. The journey in the East was a great event in the life of the young aspirant for literary fame and for political honours, and it seems to have intensified that feeling which so often afterwards led him to speak with pride of the race from which he sprung, and to introduce into his books the sentiments and traditional modes of thought of the higher Jewish char- acter. The satire which he had left in Eng- land {Popanilla) may now be read with no little surprise, since it appears to be contra- dictory to the opinions which he soon after- wards represented ; but at this time, and for some three or four years afterwards, he seems to have had no settled intentions with regard to the political position he was afterwards to assume. It would have been strange indeed if he had been able to " make up his mind" at that time, for he was not only at an erratic age, but both his natural disposition and the circumstances of his birth and education were such as to leave him precocious and unsettled. He himself afterwards said, in speaking of Vivian Orey, that it was the product of that " youth which is a brief hour of principles un- settled, passions unrestrained, powers unde- veloped, and purposes unexecuted." At that time it might have been expected that he would become the scornful opponent of Pro- tection, impulsively taking up, not the popu- lar Radicalism, but a theoretical democracy. In the result we find him the representative of Protection and of a decided Conservatism, and stUl the advocate of a kind of Democracy resting contentedly on an aristocratic govern- ment centred in the crown. How much of his peculiar notions of the constitution may have been the result of the Judaic idea it is not for us to decide, but there are numerous traces of the influences of race, and though we may not go so far as to say, as he once did, that "everything is race," birth and descent certainly count for a great deal in early life, and even in abiding opinion. In those eastern rambles, which were the chief and perhaps the only important expedition he ever made out of England, Mr. Disraeli underwent some adventures which were doubtless sufficient to furnish him with numerous materials for re- flection. An attempt to enter the Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem nearly cost him his life, and there have been stories of a conflict in the streets of Constantinople when his know- ledge of the "noble art of self-defence," in which every young dandy was then supposed to have some proficiency, stood him in good stead. But he was hard at work in the in- tervals of travel, and sent home The Young- Duke, to say nothing of The Revolutionary Epicl; the notion of which was conceived "on the windy plains of Troy." The title of this fragment, for a fragment it remained, will scarcely indicate its meaning or intention, and subsequent criticism has not reversed the opinion which prevented its being continued and completed. It was one of those flights- which will always be attempted by young authors with vivid imagination, belief in their own powers, and a restless ambition to pro- duce some new and startling evidence of their genius. The author's first account of it not only reveals the mental conditions under which it was written, but may sufiice to show that neither what we may be pardoned for calling the romantic extravagance of his early productions, nor the peculiar character of some of his later literary work, should be taken into too close account in judging his real poli- tical career, nor in estimating the splendid qualifications which afterwards made him so illustrious a chief of the party by whom he was trusted. He became a leader who, if he fought with weapons always freshly sharpened for the conflict, gained the admiration of both friend and foe for his brilliant prowess, no less than for the confident knowledge, the ready apprehension, and the remarkable tact with DISEAELFS FIRST CANDIDATUEE. 325 which he could organize either attack or de- fence. " Wandering over the illustrious scene," he says in his original preface to the poem just referred to, " surrounded by the tombs of heroes, and by the confluence of poetic streams, my musing thoughts clustered round the memory of that immortal song to whioh all creeds and countries alike respond, which has vanquished chance and defies time. Deem- ing myself, perchance too rashly in that ex- cited hour, a poet, I cursed the destiny that placed me in an age that boasted of being an ti - poetical. And while my fancy thus struggled with my reason, it flashed across my mind like the lightning which was then play- ing over Ida, that in those great poems which rise, the pyramids of poetic art amid the fading splendour of less creations, the poet hath ever embodied' the spirit of his time." The spirit of his own time he took to be revolution, and hence he essayed to write a Revolutionary Epick. The apparent composure with which he accepted the failure of this work, on which he had expended much emotion, is illustrative of the same quality of what has been called " proud patience," which afterwards sustained him in numerous political defeats, and often kejot him silent under abuse and invective, to which no man living was more able to retort by a sarcasm which could find expression in words that burned and seared. Perhaps nothing could now be much better said of some portions of these early works than the author himself thirty years after- wards said of Vivian Orey — the book that was written by him in his teens : " Books written by boys which pretend to give a picture of manners, and to deal in knowledge of human nature, must necessarily be founded on aff'ec- tation. They can be, at the best, but the result of imagination, acting upon knowledge not acquired by experience. Of such circum- stances exaggeration is a necessary conse- quence, and false taste accompanies exagger- ation. When the writers of such books are not again heard of, the works, even if ever noticed, are soon forgotten, and so there is no great harm done. But when their authors subsequently become eminent, such works often obtain a peculiar interest and are sought for from causes irrespective of their merits. Such performances should be exempt from criticism, and should be looked upon as a kind of literary lusus." On his return from the eastern journey young Disraeli had already determined that he could only find fitting employment for his powers in a political career. It is difficult to imagine conditions less encouraging than those which attended his eflforts to obtain a seat in parliament. He was only six-and-twenty, without poli- tical influence, possessing only slender pecu- niary means, belonging to no party, to no special "set" representing any phase of public life; by birth and obviously by name the im- mediate descendant of a Jewish family at a time when the Jews were still under political disabilities, and had scarcely surmounted the kind of contemptuous toleration by which alone they were recognized. To these is to be added the supposed disqualification for the serious business of politics which is always attached to a writer of works of imagination. But in the spring of 1832, just after his return to England, the opportunity presented itself for him to make his first attempt, and he seized it. The Reform Bill was about to pass, but a vacancy had occurred in the representation of Wycombe, near his father's house at Braden- ham, and he became an independent candidate, singularly enough, and perhaps awkwai'dly enough, as it afterwards turned out, furnished with letters from O'Connell and Hume, which led to his being afterwards accused of having begun political life as a Radical, though he had, as it appears, professed no other politi- cal opinions than an inveterate dislike for the Whigs (of whom his opponent, the Hon. Charles Grey, was a very complete youthful specimen), and a refusal definitely to join the ranks of the Tories, who were then, he said, in a state of ignorant stupefaction. We have in an earlier page of this volume referred to the contest, and we would again remind our readers of the necessity for remembering those peculiar views which seem from the very out- set to have determined the political conduct and policy of Disraeli — that combination of Toryism and Democracy which, as we have seen, led to the pleasant but unpractical 326 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. theories of the Young England party, and to much else that will be more fully illustrated hereafter. He was unsuccessful in his efforts; but un- dauntedly renewed them on the dissolution of parliament after the passing of the Eeform Bill, when he again appeared as an indepen- dent candidate, though he says, "I have never availed myseK of that much-abused epithet to escape an explicit avowal of my opinions." He wished to see the work completed which the Eeform BiU had begun, and would supple- ment the enlarged franchise by the ballot; he would vote for triennial parliaments, " of which the Whigs originally deprived us." He was in favour of the abolition of taxes on knowledge and of the suppression of slavery. On the question of the corn-laws he was anxious to relieve the consumer, but could not consent to measures, the result of which must assuredly be the permanent injury of the agricultmal class. Eor the same kind of reasons he would vote for the commutation of tithes, as he desired to protect the clergy without injuring the farmei's. His address concluded by saying, "Englishmen, behold this unparalleled empire raised by the heroic energies of your fathers, rouse yourselves in this hour of doubt and danger, rid yourselves of all that political jargon and factious slang of Whig and Tory, two names with one mean- ing used only to delude you, and unite in forming a great national party, which can alone save the country from impending de- struction." Again he was defeated, and though he continued occasionally to speak in pubHc he had no opportunity till 1835 to renew the contest for High Wycombe, when he avowed himself to be in favour of protec- tion and the representative of the agricultural interests. The Tory supporters gave him a complimentaxy dinner when he spoke as a champion of the country party, but he did not renew his candidature of the borough, and three months afterwards went to contest Taunton against Mr. Labouchere, afterwards Lord Taunton. He had then, as it appeared, definitely alHed himself to the Tory party, and it may be remarked that that party was not then in power, as Sir Robert Peel had just been defeated, and Lord Melbourne was prime minister. It was then that the quarrel arose between Mr. Disraeli and O'Conuell. The implied compact between the Whig government and the agitator and his f oUowei^s had just been tacitly acknowledged, and the young candidate for Taunton in commenting upon it used some strong language, among other remai-ks saying, "I look upon the Whigs as a weak but ambitious party, who can only obtain power by linking themselves with a traitor. I ought to apologize to the admirers of Mr. O'ConneU, perhaps, for this hard lan- guage. I am myself his admirer so far as his talents and abilities are concerned, but I maintain him to be a traitor — and on what authority? On the authority of that very body (the Whigs) a distinguished member of whom is my honourable opponent."- Some of the party newspapers published an account of this speech with sundry changes, additions, and animadversions, and commented on the former display by Mr. Disraeli of letters from O'Con- neU and Hume supporting his candidature for Wycombe. O'ConneU was not slow to take the matter up personally, and in an abusive speech denounced the candidate for Taunton in terms of contempt. This might have passed, but the newspapers made this speech the subject of comment and of fresh accusations. The Glohe, then a Whig organ, took up the quarrel and it became a squabble. O'ConneU then in language which would, one would hope, be impossible even to an Irish agitator of our day, and with a display of wit which is in- sufficient to redeem the revolting character of the invective, again attacked Disraeli. The result was a retort which, though perhaps less coai-se, was in its way as personally vitupera- tive. This word-duel between two masters of the then not neglected art of violent and un- sparing imputation, ended with a challenge to fight, a termination to poKtical disputes which, as we have had occasion to remai-k, was not at that time unknown. O'ConneU, however, had long before "been out" in response to a "mes- sage" from a gentleman named D'Esterre, a councillor of Dublin, who called upon him to answer for saying in a speech to one of his crowded foUowings that the corporation of YOUNG DISEAELI AND MELB0T7ENE. 327 Dublin was "a beggarly corporation." CCon- nell tried to avoid the encounter, but he would not appeal to the law for protection, and he professed to believe that his antagonist, who was reputed an unerring marksman, had been set upon him by a political party. "They have reckoned without their host, I promise you," he said to one of his friends immediately before the dueL " I am one of the best shots in Ireland, at a mark, having as a public man considered it as a duty to prepare for my own protection against such unprovoked aggres- sion as the present. Now remember what I say to you. I may be struck myself, and then skill is out of the question ; but if I am not, my antagonist will have reason to regret his having forced me into this conflict." They fired almost both together at a given signal, and D'Esterre fell mortally wounded. O'Con- neU would never accept another challenge; but on one occasion his son, Morgan John (yConnell, had challenged Lord Alvanley for insulting words to his father, and to him therefore Mr. Disraeli addressed himself, but on the ground that to give satisfaction for an insult offered by (yConnell was a very dif- ferent thing to resenting an insult offered to him, Morgan John very reasonably declined to be his father's deputy. The matter ended with another letter to the agitator, concluding with " I expect to be a representative of the people before the Eepeal of the Union. We shall meet at Philippi, and rest assured that, confident in a good cause and in some ener- gies which have not been altogether vmim- proved, I shall seize the first opportunity of inflicting upon you a castigation which will make you at the same time remember and repent the insults you have lavished upon — Benjamin Disraeli." It was not tUl two years afterwards, how- ever — in 1837 — that they did meet at the Philippi of the House of Commons; and those two years were not idle ones, for during that time were published The Wondrous Tale of Alroy, A ViwJication of the British Con- stitution, the Rv/nnymede Letters in the Times, Henrietta Temple, and VeTietia. Literary work and the experience of former political defeats had brought perhaps more settled purpose, but it is worth noting that the eimbition of attaining to high station had animated him from the first. It was at Storey's Gate at the house of Mr. Norton, the magistrate whose name is now only remem- bered because of his gifted wife, the grand- daughter of Sheridan — that Melbourne, attending a family birth-day dinner-party, was introduced to the author of Vivian Grey. The young Disraeli had only just then re- turned from his travels in the East, and had not quite got over the disappointment of having been rejected as a candidate for Wycombe, where he said he had been de- feated by the want of support of the Whigs. After dinner Mrs. Norton presented him to Melbourne, who was then home secretaiy, and who could, she said, retrieve the young aspirant's disappointment if he chose. The frank and attractive manner of the older man was not without its efiect on Disraeli, who explained the causes of his failure at Wycombe, and dwelt on the treacherous con- duct of his opponents in language so striking and with manner so unusual that Melbourne was constrained to admire. In his usual sudden way, but with no hrusqiurie, he asked, "Well, now, tell me — what do you want to be?" — "I want to be prime minister," was the cahn reply, in a tone of perfect gravity. One can almost imagine Melbourne's long- di-awn breath, half sigh, haK signal of sur- prise. "No chance of that in our time," he rephed. "Ifs all arranged and settled. No- body but Lord 'Grey could, perhaps, have carried the Reform Bill; but he is an old man, and when he gives up he will certainly be succeeded by one who has every requisite for the position, in the prime of life and fame, of old blood, high rank, great fortune, and greater ability. Once in power, there is nothing to prevent him holding office as long as Sir Eobert Walpole. Nobody can compete with Stanley. I heard him the other night in the Commons, when the party were all divided and breaking away from their ranks, recall them by the mere force of superior will and eloquence: he rose hke a young eagle above them all, and kept hovering over their heads till they were reduced to abject sub- GLADSTONE A^^D HIS CONTEMPORAEIES. mission. There is notliiag like him. If you ai-e going into politics, and mean to stick to it, I dare say you will do very well, for you have ability and enterprise; and if you axe careful how you steer, no doubt you wiU get into some post at last. But you must put all these foolish notions out of your head : they won't do at all. Stajiley will be the nest prime minister, you will see." Of course the prophecy was wrong, for in a few months only Melbourne himself was prime minister, and in five-and-tliii-ty years his young inteilocutor attained to the same dignity — but, as all the world knows, he began to make his mark even before the Mel- bourne ministry had fallen. It was not tiU afterwards though, when Disi-aeH had com- menced his bitter invective against Peel, that the old premier, then a valetudinai'ian at Brocket, laughed at and enjoyed the biting sarcasms of the member for Shrewsbmy, especially that in which he accused the prime minister of having caught the "Whigs bathing and stolen their clothes. Eem embering the con- vei-sation at Storey's Gate Melbourne rubbed his hands and exclaimed, "By Jove ! I believe he'U do it after all." The Runnymede Letters, which so satirized Melboimie, and contained sharp and unrelent- ing attacks on the Whigs, had intervened. The witty ex-premier had no doubt appreci- ated them. The first parliament of Queen Victoria saw the success of Disi'aeli in gaining admission to parliament as representative of Maidstone and as the colleague of its senior member, jMr. Wyndham Lewis, who died in 1838, and whose widow was afterwards united to Mr. Disraeli and in his honour created Viscountess Beaconsfield. So much has been said at various times on the subject of Mr. Disraeli's first speech when he rose to address the house, that it might be thought his appeai-ance was marked by failure. Doubtless there was something foi-ced and peculiar in it, and he was evidently somewhat agitated, and no wonder, for he took the first opportunit}' to redeem his pledge of opposing O'Connell. It was on the 7 th of November, 1837, and there had already been some de- bating on the subject of petitions against certain Irish elections, the expenses for such petitions having been partially defrayed bj' a fund to which it was alleged some membei-s of pai'liament had subscribed. O'Connell had attacked the Tories, and Mr. Disraeli rose to reply. But the Irish faction was i-eady, and he had to speak amidst interruptions and at- tempts to silence and confuse him, which it would have required O'Connell himself to withstand. The speech therefore appeai-ed to consist only of disjointed sentences, and Mr. Disraeli is reported to have begun by saying that the subscribers to the Spottiswoode fund were anxious to work out the Reform Act by putting an end to the system of borough- mongering which in a different shape pi-e- vailed more extensively than ever. The mor- tified feelings of these individuals should be taken into considei-ation before the inquiry was instituted. (Here Mr. Disraeli expe- rienced much interruption, and repeatedly implored the house to grant him a hearing.) He had something to say in vindication of her majesty's government, and wished the house would give him five minutes : " I stand here to-night, sir, not formally, but in some degree virtually, the representative of a con- siderable number of members of parliament. (Here he was interi-upted by bursts of laugh- ter.) Now why smile? Why envy me? Wh)' should not I have a tale to unfold to-night? (Roars of laughter.) Do you forget that band of 158 membera — those ingenious and inexperienced youths to whose unsophis- ticated minds the chancellor of the exchequer in those tones of winning pathos — (Exces- sive laughter, and loud wies of ' Question.') Now a considerable misconception exists in the minds of man}' members on this side of the house as to the conduct of her majesty's government with respect to these elections, and I wisli to remove it. I will not twit the noble lord opposite with opinions which ai-e not ascribable to him, or to his more imme- diate supportei's, but which wei-e expressed by the more popular section of his pai-ty some few months back. About that time, sir, when the bell of our cathedral announced the death of the monai-ch (laughter), we all FIRE AT THE TOWEE OP LONDON. 329 read then, sir (Groans and cries of 'Oh!')— we all then read— (Laughter and great inter- iTiption.) I know nothing which to me is more delightful than to show courtesy to a new member, particularly if he happens to appeal to me from the party opposed to my- self. (Hear, hear.) At that time we read that it was the death-knell of Toryism ; that the doom of that party was sealed; that their funeral obsequies were about to be consum- mated. We were told that with the dissolution of that much-vilified parliament which the right honourable baronet had called together, the hopes and prospects of the Tories would be thrown for ever to the winds; and that affairs were again to be brought to what they were at the period when the hurried Mr. Hudson rushed into the chambers of the Vatican. (Great interruption.) If hon. gen- tlemen thought this fair he would submit. He would not do so to others, that was all. (Laughter.) Nothing was so easy as to laugh. He wished before he sat down to show the house clearly their position. When they remembered that in spite of the honourable and learned member for Dublin (O'Connell) and his well- disciplined band of patriots, there was a little shyness exhibited by former supporters of her majesty's government, when they recollected the 'new loves' and the 'old loves' in which so much of passion and recrimination was mixed up between the noble Tityrus of the treasury bench and the learned Daphne of Liskeard (Charles BuUer) (loud laughter); notwithstand- ing the amantium wee had resulted, as he always expected, in the amoris redintegratio (renewed laughter); notwithstanding that poli- tical duels had been fought, in which more than one shot was interchanged, but in which re- course was had to the secure arbitrament of blank cartridges (laughter); notwithstanding emancipated Ireland and enslaved England, the noble lord might wave in one hand the keys of St. Peter, and in the other — (the shouts that followed drowned the conclusion of the sentence). Let them see the philosophical prejudice of men, He would certainly gladly hear a cheer, though it came from the lips of a political opponent. He was not at all sur- prised at the reception which he had experi- enced. He had begun several times many things, and he had often succeeded at last. He would sit down now, but the time would come when they would hear him.'' This speech was suggestive enough, but it was unusual, and we see it in a mere disjointed form. It may be observed here, too, that Mr. Disraeli had an originality which was then unmodulated. He had received none of the training of the discussion societies of the uni- versities. There was nothing cut and dried or pre-arranged in the form of his orations. They were, so to speak, unmodified ex- amples of genuine intensity of expression, just as his after efforts were for a little while examples of unconcentrated power and un- formulated opinion. But it was not long before he was, as he had prophesied, listened to with eager attention. By the time that the new parliament of 1841 had assembled, and he had exchanged Maidstone for Shrewsbury, he had made his mark in the house, and had no need either to deprecate or to defy criticism. The new parliament met on the 16th of September, 1841. Sir Eobert Peel announced that he should adopt the estimates of the late government, that he should provisionally re- new the poor law and should make other necessary arrangements, but that the financial measures which he intended to bring forward would be deferred until the following session. Against this Lord John Russell and the op- position strongly protested. A plan which they alleged would have had the effect of restoring the revenue and making good the deficiency had been rejected without discus- sion, and now the country, while suffering fx'om widely spread distress, would have to wait five months before any definite plans of relief were proposed. The reply to this was that the state of the country was itself a rea- son for proceeding with caution, and that it would be encouraging a delusion if parliament were to profess to be able to bring forward measures by which the prevailing want could be immediately relieved. The measures of the next session were to be studied, and their application to be considered during the vaca- tion. 330 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES. A few days after the prorogation of parlia- ment an accident which was at the time of great public interest attracted half London to Tower Hill and its neighbourhood. On the night of the 31st of October the sentry of the Scots Fusilier Guards on the ramparts of the Tower of London saw a large cloud of smoke ascending from the central part of the building where the storehouse and small ar- moury wei-e situated. He discharged his musket as an alarm, and the garrison turned out, but no water could be obtained. The destruc- tion of the armoury soon appeared to be in- evitable, and an immense body of fire was then raging without any means being discovered for permanently arresting its progress. En- gines had arrived, and there were soldiers disciplined and ready both to work them and to perform other service, but for two hours no water was procured, and it was then thought that the jewel-house, the chapel, and the White Tower would be destroyed. The regalia were removed to the house of the governor without the loss of a single jewel. At two o'clock in the morning, when the flames had reached their fiercest height, an alarm spread that they would extend to the gun- powder magazine, but by that time the tide was up, and there was an adequate supply of water from the river and the moat. Into the latter 9000 tons of gunpowder was thrown, after it had been taken from the magazine, and the fire was soon afterwards so far extin- guished as to leave little cause for further alarm. An event of great national importance soon afterward diverted public attention from minor occurrences. On the 9th of November her majesty gave birth to a son — the Prince of Wales. Public rejoicing and general ex- pressions of good- will attested the loyalty of the people, and preparations for the royal christening occupied the period remaining before the opening of parliament. The King of Prussia, who was to act as sponsor, arrived at Greenwich, where he was received by Prince Albert, the Duke of Wellington, and other distinguished persons. It may be worth re- was in the suite of his majesty. The baptism of the infant prince, who was, as we all know, named Albert Edward, was a very splendid celebration, and was performed at the Chapel Eoyal, Windsor, on the 25th of January in the following year. On the 3rd of February the queen opened parliament, and the presence of the King of Prussia, Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, arid other distinguished visitors made the ceremony imposing, while the occasion was one of the most important which had occurred in the history of the country for many years. The period from 1842 to the end of 1846 was for this country a turning-point, and a critical one. The measures which, dur- ing that time, occupied the attention of the legislature, the strenuous character of the debates, the disturbed state of the country, the poverty and distress which were felt both among farm-labourers and the people of the manufacturing districts, the trouble and cost of the hostilities in which we were engaged in India and China, and the pressiire of taxation at a time when the cry against maintaining the duties on food coming from abroad arose with threatening distinctness, combined to make that a memorable period in the story of our national progress. These were the topics referred to in the royal speech by some general allusions which are the neces- sary substance of most royal utterances at the opening of parliament; these were the sub- jects which at once demanded and received the serious and earnest attention of the house immediately afterwards. It was in view of the absolute necessity of redeeming the finan- cial position of the country that one of the first propositions submitted to parliament by Sir Robert Peel was the imposition of an income-tax of not more than sevenpence in the pound on incomes over .£150 a year, whether derived from landed or funded pro- perty, and it was calculated that this would produce .£3,771,000; while in Ireland, where there were no means of collecting such a tax, it was proposed to raise the duty on spirits by one shilling a gallon, to equalize the stamp cording that the famous Baron Yon Humboldt duty with that of England, and to place a tax THE DISSENTERS AND NATIONAL EDUCATION. 331 on coal exported in British vessels from this country. The aggregate revenue from all these sources was estimated at i;4,380,000, and this would, it was declared, leave a surplus of revenue which might be applied to relaxing the tariff of duties on about 750 different articles, leav- ing about 450 on which the duties remained untouched. Thus, the income-tax was im- posed professedly as a temporary expedient during a time of serious depression and for a limited period, and the measure as proposed by Sir Robert Peel was, after considerable opposition, passed by a large majority. It is not easy to convey an adequate impres- sion of the condition to which the people in some of the manufacturing towns were re- duced at this time; and there can be no won- der that Mr. Cobden, as we shall see hereafter, was able to teU in parliament "a plain un- varnished tale" which was ultimately more effective in obtaining the repeal of the corn duties than any mere flight of oratorical invec- tive or of rhetorical appeal would have been. In Stockport, the town for which he had just been returned, more than half the master spin- ners had failed before the end of 1842. About 3000 dwelling-houses were shut up, and the occupiers of hundreds more were unable to pay rates. Five thousand persons walked the streets in compulsory idleness, and the Burn- ley guardians wrote to the secretary of state that the distress was far beyond their man- agement, so that a government commissioner and government funds had to be sent down. The first immediate measures of relief for some of the evils which were afflicting the mass of the lower portion of the labouring population were brought forward by Lord Ashley in his proposals to regulate the em- ployment and limit the hours of working of women and children in mines and collieries, and the facts that he brought forward, through a commission of inquiry, disclosed horrors amidst what might have been called the underground population, of which people in general had little conception. As Harriet Martineau says with significant emphasis: — " Women were employed as beasts of burden; children were stunted and diseased, beaten, overworked, oppressed in every way; both women and children made to crawl on all fours in the passages of the pits, dragging carts by a chain passing from the waist be- tween the legs; and all lived in an atmosphere of filth and profligacy which could hardly leave a thought or feeling untainted by vice." The proposed bill was passed rapidly because it was necessary to hurry it through the house to avoid tbe strong opposition which was seen to be inevitable. The result was that a num- ber of people were thrown out of employment and that they had to live upon the rates. All this was foreseen ; but even this, it was felt, was better than to leave them in the state of misery and degradation to which they had been so long subjected. Immediately following this act Lord Ash- ley (he is now Earl of Shaftesbury, and has been for the whole of a long life working in the same direction — ^the improvement of the condition of the labouring classes) moved to address the queen on the subject of religious education, and this elicited from Sir James Graham that a measure was about to be pro- posed by the government by which children in factories were not to work for more than six and a half hours a day, and should be com- pelled to attend schools provided for the pur- pose, the children of Churchmen, Roman Ca- tholics, and Dissenters receiving religious in- struction from their own pastors according to the creed of their parents, during certain hours each week. All pauper children in towns and all children whose parents would consent to their attending the schools were to be included in the plan, which might have been regarded as a wide attempt at national education, for it was apparently intended to enlarge the sys- tem so as to take in the children of the agricul- tural districts. The Dissenters, however, were up in arms. They saw, or thought that they saw, in the proposed scheme an endeavour to give to the Church the control of the education of the country. There were to be seven trustees to each school, four of whom were to be elec- tive while the other three were to be the clergyman of the district and two church- wardens. This would have given a pre- ponderance to the representatives of the 332 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. Church, aud it was better to have no education at all than to accept schools with the domina- tion of church trustees. The queen's reply was cordially favourable, Lord John Russell gave the main plan his hearty support, and Sir James Graham was ready to enlarge the num- ber of trustees and to effect such changes as would, it was believed, remove any reasonable objections by making clear the entire inde- pendence of the children of different sects in regard to religious instruction and worship; but the opposition was unrelaxed; the Dissent- ing bodies were determined not to make con- cessions on their part, and a flood of petitions were presented against the measure, one of them consigned to Lord John RusseU from the city of London containing 55,000 signa- tures. The educational portion of the biU had to be abandoned. It should be remembered, however, that the religious qtiestion as between Church and Dissent was always then in a con- dition of ferment, for there was not actual religious equality, and Dissent still involved a degree of disability in regard to public edu- cation and to public office, to say nothing of the question of rates for the support of the church as by law established. Again, it was known far and wide that Sir James Graham, perhaps with blamable inadvertence, perhaps with that calm and cutting manner which dis- tinguished his polished utterances, but at any rate with great indiscretion, had said that the Dissenters need not be under so much alarm, for the government bill did not contemplate the immediate destruction or supersession of their Sunday-schools and other educational agencies. The effect was such a storm of petition and public meeting as had never before been seen in England on any similar question. Seeing the bearing of the measure on Sunday-schools, others besides Dissenters joined in the outcry. On the evening upon which Sir James Graham was expected to make a final statement of his intentions there were thousands of meetings held in this ooun- trj' for prayer and remonstrance. A friend of the writer of these lines who was present at one such meeting says : — It was a beautiful evening, and the crowd extended far outside the doors of the hall in which the meeting was held. Within the doors the people, to a man and to a woman, were on their knees in silent prayer. Suddenly the sound of carriage wheels was heard outside. A messenger had driven hard from the House of Commons with the news that Sir James had withdrawn his bill. The cheers in the street conveyed the news to the people within, and without a sign or a moment's pause they rose in mass from their knees and sang the doxology. The Factory BiU had therefore to be deferred, and we shall find some account of it in a future page, but the other great measures for the re- lief of the country were urgently pressed for- ward. As these may be said to form a group which were more or less immediately associated with the greatest measure of all — the repeal of the corn-laws — we propose to speak of them in that connection and at some length in the next chapter. Meanwhile we will take a brief glance at some of the people and events illus- trating with some significance the situation of the country during the years to which we are now giving attention. From about 1834 onwards Lord George Bentinck — the name is stUl familiar — was a politician whose position became increasingly noticeable. He was the third son of the fourth Duke of Portland, and had served in the army, but at last turned his attention to politics, and became private secretary to Canning, who was his uncle. While he was member for Lyme-Regis he voted in favour of the Reform BiU (as a whole), and he had always been a friend of Catholic emancipation. When Sir Robert Peel was prime minister in 1834 Lord Stanley (afterwards Lord Derby), and Lord George Bentinck were the leaders of a kind of third party, though a small one, in the House of Commons; but when Sir Robert resigned Lord George Bentinck went over to him and the Conservative party, and in 1841 might have taken office under Peel, but declined, being at that time, as was said in the popular literature, "a man of stable mind," — a title which, we believe, he received from the pen of Thomas Hood. He was one of the greatest, if not the greatest of " turf" heroes, made large sums of money on the race- LOED MORPETH AND THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. 333 course, and did his utmost to make the "turf" a wholly clean and honourable affair. He was a man of a strikingly "English'' nature, and though a very bad speaker, always com- manded considerable influence in parliament. Being liable, or fancying he was liable to be- come slightly confused in the head after a meal, he had a mistaken way of going without food all day from breakfast time till the hour at which he was to make a speech. He had immense staying power, and his trick of keep- ing select committees sitting till night-time, nearly killed the short-hand writers, till the subject was taken up by the authorities. With a little deduction for a great writer's peculiarities of style, the sketch by Mr. Disraeli may be received as fair. "He was not a very frequent attendant of the house. He might be counted on for a party division, and when, towards the termination of the Melbourne ministry, the forces were very nearly balanced, and the struggle became very close, he might have been observed on more than one occasion entering the house at a late hour, clad in a white great-coat, which softened, but did not conceal, the scarlet hunting-coat. " Although he took no part in debate, and attended the house rather as a club than a senate, he possessed a great and peculiar in- fluence in it. He was viewed with interest, and often with extraordinary regard by every sporting man in the house. With almost all of these he was acquainted, some of them on either side were his intimate companions and confederates. "His eager and energetic disposition, his quick perception, clear judgment, and prompt decision ; the tenacity with which he clung to his opinions; his frankness and love of truth; his daring and speculative spirit; his lofty bearing, blended as it was with a simplicity of manner very remarkable; the ardour of his friendships, even the fierceness of his hates and prejudices ; all combined to form one of those strong characters who, whatever may be their pursuits, must always direct and lead." This picture is from the pencil of a friend, and the dispassionate student of that strange and sometimes amusing figure, Lord George Bentinck, with his curious habits and anoma- lous career, may well feel a little puzzled by it. But "Nature," continues the artist, " had clothed this vehement spirit with a material form which was in perfect harmony with its noble and commanding character. He was tall and remarkable for his presence ; his countenance, almost a model of manly beauty; the face oval, the complexion clear and mantling ; the fore- head lofty and white ; the nose aquiline and delicately moulded; the upper lip short. But it was in the dark brown eye that fiashed with piercing scrutiny that aJl the character of the man came forth, — a brilliant glance, not soft, but ardent, acute, imperious, incapable of de- ception, or of being deceived." This, according to his friend, and then lieutenant, was the man to lead the Protec- tionist party in parliament during the great corn-law struggle. The simple truth is that Lord George Bentinck was a good-looking ai-is- tocrat, of great tenacity of character, moderate intelligence, and little culture. This is a view which will now be accepted on all hands. "Heaven was made for those who have failed in this world," — this remark, which may or may not be verbatim, since it has been travelling about the world for half a century, was made by Lord Morpeth, better remem- bered as Lord Carhsle ; and it may serve as a text for introducing both his lordship and the somewhat unfortunate Duke of Newcastle, who, in many respects resembled his amiable contemporary. It can hardly be said, from a worldly point of view, that Lord Morpeth was a failure, though his success f eU short of his ambitions, or rather of those who had ambitions in his behalf. But of the Duke of Newcastle it must be admitted that, like Sid- ney Herbert his colleague, he did fail, though without blame of his own. It is a favourable opportunity for introduciug both these noble- men, whose beauty of character was of an order far from common. Henry Pelham Clinton was the son of that celebrated Duke of Newcastle who made him- self immortal by being so sure that he could do as he would with his own, though perhaps few of those who noted the words remem- bered their origin in a certain parable. The 334 GLADSTONE AND HIS CONTEMPOEAKIES. young nobleman passed honourably from Eton to Christchuroh, Oxford, but without having any " trailing clouds of glory " around his name, and his character and intelligence soon found him a place in Sir Eobert Peel's govern- ment iu 1834. He was then not four-and- twenty years of age. This Peel ministry was, we need not say, very short, and it was not until the return of Sir Eobert to power in 1841, that he again took office, when it was simply as first commissioner of inland revenue. To the general public he did not fulfil the €xpectations which they had formed of him ; but Peel knew his man, and in 1846, Lord Lincoln (which was his title by courtesy) was made chief secretary for Ireland. One of the best speeches he ever made was in 1847, while in opposition, under Peel — it was on Irish emigration as a means of relief to the distress in that country, and also in other lights. He was sitting at last for the Falkirk Burghs, his own father having, from purely political reasons, made Nottingham too hot for him. His domestic life was also very unhappy, and ended in his procuring a divorce from his wife, after many years of misery. With the remainder of his career we are not at this moment concerned ; but it will be seen that his story thus far is not cheerful or too well adapted to educate a man into a strong minister, fitted for times of "storm and stress." Lord Morpeth, or Lord Carlisle, was known •■as a man of exceedingly beautiful nature, and he was a man of more talent, at all events of more literary talent, than Lord Lincoln. That he was in 1830 elected along with Brougham rfor the West Eiding is a fact which lies be- hind us at this point. In Lord Melbourne's administration, between 1835 and 1841, he held the office of chief secretary for Ireland, and made himself much respected in that capacity. In 1841 there came a ''reaction," and the Liberals were dismayed at the results of some of the elections, startlingly unfavour- able as they were to the Whigs. Two of the rejections were almost incredible— O'Connell was voted out at Dublin and Lord Morpeth in Yorkshire. The amiable and mag-nanimous peer delivered, after his defeat, an address Tvhich for a long time was held to be the best ever uttered before or after an election, and it may still be read with delight and profit. At the Woods and Forests, first, and then as chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster, Lord Morpeth formed part of Lord John Eiis^eU's administration in 1846; and not long afterwards he took his seat in the House of Lords as the Earl of Carlisle. Here he was at first looked upon as a sort of incendiary who had no business in so high-polite a sphere. He had previously subscribed the sum of five pounds to the Anti-corn-law League. This was at first denied, as a public scandal, because it was not to be supposed that a peer and a Carlisle would do anything so "low;" when the fact was admitted, his lordship was ridiculed for the smallness of his subscription — only five pounds ! — which also was unworthy of a Carlisle. Lastly, it was confidently de- clared that the five pounds had been a pay- ment in the nature of an electioneering bribe. His lordship simply remarked that if he had bought any votes in that way he had got them in vulgar phrase " very reasonable.'' The word "progress," which occurs in the title of this work, is one to which the majority of readers attach a very positive, though not very definite, meaning. In that respect the term resembles another — civilization, but it is the subject of much more dispute. During the years which immediately preceded the passing of the Eeform Act and those on which we have now entered, the statist, or statisti- cian, became a very important person, and it was to him that people looked for the data from which to argue questions of progress. The increase or decrease of the population — the number of deaths from avoidable causes — the number of people who could sign their names or could not — the proportion of the criminal to the non-criminal population — the exports and imports— the prices of goods— the relations of pauperism, general industry, and capital, to each other, — these have been the kind of topics (and still are) as to which we look to the statistician for registered facts when we in- quire into what is called progress. It was of course not always so. The Hebrew, the Greek, and the Eoman, especially the Hebrew and LETTER-OPENING AT THE POST-OFEICE. 335 the Greek, made their mark upon history, without troubling themselves about some of these matters. We, however, capnot avoid them, and especially in our age of great cities, we have to inquire into sanitary conditions and the relations of capital and labour. From the first there was a kind of feeling that publicists like Mr. G. B. Porter and Mr. MapcuUoch, and reforming statisticians like Mr. Chad wick (to mention only a few names) were, to use a vulgarism, "dry sticks." It became known that one of them had devised a plan for lighting cities with gas made from corpses, a thing which looks like a jest, but which has been deliberately proposed. Other facts of the same order, which it might seem trivial to mention, tended to produce a re- actionary feeling in the mind of certain classes, however vague it might be. This feeling, which entered largely into the Young England movement, helped to push forward certain other movements, which looked rather to the amenities of life than to matters of which popular statists usually take account. The most remarkable features of commer- cial progress from the death of King William IV. onward to the years in which the first of her majesty's children were bom, relate to railways. Mr. Brassey — a name which may be said, like that of the Stephensons, to belong to history — was getting into full swing. In the year 1840 the total amount of capital in- vested in railways was estimated at sixty-nine millions sterling. The Great Northern was making rapid progress. The Great Western and the London and Brighton lines were opened in 1841, and other pieces of "gridiron- ing " were helping to transform the face of the country. About 1845 came the railway mania, as it was called. Parliamentary barristers, engaged in appearing before committees on private biUs, made fortunes in a year or two. At one time there were nearly fifteen hundred schemes afloat, and capital involved was not far short of seven hundred millions sterling. A new form of competition sprang up between the companies, who spent hundreds of thou- sands of pounds a session in fights over rival schemes. Immense numbers of projectors, agents, lawyers, and speculators in general, made fortunes out of all this, but a " crash " came at last, and dreadful and wide-spread ruin. All the while, however, the spirit of social "amenity," to which reference has been made, was spreading and working. Besides the changes that were apparent in general litera- ture and public buildings (especially in the revival of Gothic architecture) there was a strongly accelerated movement for musical and pictorial culture. To this the influence of the prince consort largely contributed. His ideas in these matters were not distinctively English, and his methods have been much criticised, but no one doubted that he really discerned a, great want in the English life, and set himself intelligently to do something towards supplying it. From this time we have more and more of Art, and what it does for a people. Some of the theories of art- culture were vague, as they stiU are, and it took the "masses" a long while to understand what pictures and sonatas wei-e meant to do for them ; but the current had fairly set in, and it has been swelling and hastening ever since. There was always a party in the House of Commons who looked coldly upon the question of art-culture, and some amusing things were said and done; for instance, Mr, Wakley, the colleague of Mr. Duncombe in the representation of Finsbury, publicly under- took (in the house) to write poetry like Words- worth's by the yard ; but these eccentricities were straws in the stream. Mr. Thomas Duncombe comes before us in a favourable light in the year 1844. It was through his persistent efforts that the practice of opening letters in the post-oflace in London for political reasons was dragged into light. This is not the place to discuss the question of the right of a government to break the seal of privacy in correspondence; but the fact that the opening of letters in this case led to the execution of the unhappy brothers Ban- diera gave great prominence to what had oc- curred, and caused immense excitement. Joseph Mazzini had long ago commenced his apoatolate, and " Young Italy " was struggling, and sometimes conspiring in every direction. As all Italy has conspired to do 336 GLADSTOXE AXD HIS COXTEMrOEAEIES. homage to the memory of IMazziui in company with her greatest men, we English can, with- out reference to our own opinions of his methods, agree to speak of him with honour, and none the less that his reasons for coming to England in 1837, and his account of the friendships he formed here, ai'e flattering to us as it nation. " Friendships once formed in England," he wrote, "ar-e firmly based, and sincerely proved in action i-ather than in words, even among those who differ upon this or that question or opinion. Many of my ideas appeai'ed then — some stUl appeaa- — un- realizable or even dangerous to many English minds; but the logical proof of the sincei-itj of my convictions afforded by my life sufficed to gain me the friendship of some of the best minds of the island. Nor shall I ever forget it while I live, nor ever utter without a throb of gratitude the name of the land wherein I now wi'ite, which became to me almost as a second country, and in which I found the lasting consolation of affection, in a life embit- tered by delusions and destitute of all joy." The stoi-y of the brothers B;\ndiera belongs to history, and made a profound impression all over Europe. Sii- James Graham never recovered the good opinion which he lost in the episode with which his name, like Lord Aberdeen's, was so painfully associated ; and perhaps no politician of the Gladstone era incurred so much odium as he did. Attilio and Emilio Bandiera were young Venetians of high birth, who had devoted themselves to the cause of Italian freedom, as Mazziui uudei-stood it. The days of conspiracies ai-e gone by in the minds of wise and good lovere of liberty, but this was in 1844, and they were Ifcilians. In 1S43 they committed themselves to a conspiracy, but were disappointed in the result, and fled to Corfu, where their sufferings were for some time extreme. It is believed tliat fjilse rumours of a rising in Naples wei-e conveyed to them by the Neapolitan police, iu order to tempt them to their doom. They fell into this horrible tiap, and the end of a most tragic story is that the two brothere were shot, witli seven of theii- comi-ades, iu July, 1S44, dying, "Viva Tltalia!" with their last breath. Mazzini himself, who risked his life as often as any one, and was not strange even to tlie battle-field, was at this time in London. His lettei-s had been opened in the post-oifice upon applications from the Austrian and Neapolitan governments; and Lord Aberdeen, who was then foreign minister, and Sir James Graham, seci-etai-y for the home department, were the ministers responsible for the opening, which was carried on over a space of four months. The letters of several members of parliament and other Englishmen whose sym- pathies were known were also opened. Mi-. Buncombe led that attack in the House of Commons, which ended in a complete exposure of tlie whole business, and repor-ts from com- mittees of both houses. Lord Abeixleen was never cleai-ed of the charge of deliberate public falsehood, while Sir James Graham committed himself to calumnies against Mazzini which he was compelled publicly to reti-act. Yet it is clear that in ordei-ing certain letters to be opened he had merely followed precedents with which were connected names as noble as that of Fox and Lord John Russell. — The rela- tions which we sustained to foreign countries will receive our attention in another chapter. END OF VOL. I. LONDON : BLACKIE AND SON ; DnBLIN, GLASGOW, ASP EDINBURGH. t »it jiw i w » i ' ftw* ' nmw i 1 ^' *Uk>uMMlMMcy iMMMM^UUttiiMiiUiUiMUttiUil ^^^^^Mi^