At the close of the Seven Years' War, England had driven the French out
of Canada,--her ships which had traversed the Pacific from one end to
the other, (Capt. Cook) had wherever they touched, claimed islands for
the Crown; she had projected into the heart of India English
institutions and civilization.
Mistress of North America, and of the Pacific Isles, and future
mistress of India, she had left in comparative insignificance those
European States whose power was bounded by a single Continent. And all
this,--in the reign of the puniest King who had ever sat upon her
throne! As if to show that England was great not through--but in spite
of, her Kings.
When in 1760, George III. came to the throne, thirteen prosperous
American Colonies were a source of handsome revenue to {144} the mother
country, by whom they were regarded as receptacles for surplus
population, and a good field for unsuccessful men and adventurers.
These children were frequently reminded that they owed England a great
debt of gratitude. They had cost her expensive Indian and French wars
for which she should expect them to reimburse her as their prosperity
grew. They were to make nothing themselves, not so much as a
horseshoe; but to send their raw material to English mills and
factories, and when it was returned to them in wares and manufactured
articles, they were to pay such taxes as were imposed, with grateful
hearts to the kind Government which was so good as to rule them.
If the Colonies had still needed the protection of England from the
French, they might never have questioned the propriety of their
treatment. They were at heart intensely loyal, and the thought of
severance from the Mother Country probably did not exist in a single
breast. But they had since the fall of Quebec a feeling of security
which was a good background for {145} independence, if their manhood
required its assertion. They were Anglo-Saxons, and perfectly
understood the long struggle for civil rights which lay behind them.
So when in 1765 they were told that they must bear their share of the
burden of National Debt which had been increased by wars in their
behalf, and to that end a "Stamp Act" had been passed, they very
carefully looked into the demand. This Act required that every legal
document drawn in the Colonies, will, deed, note, draft, receipt, etc.,
be written upon paper bearing an expensive Government stamp.
[Illustration: Nelson's Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, 1805. From
the painting by Stanfield in the National Gallery, London.]
The thirteen Colonies, utterly at variance upon most subjects, were
upon this agreed: _They would not submit to the tax_. They had read
the Magna Charta, they knew that the Stamp Act violated its most vital
principle. This tax had been framed to extort money from men who had
no representation in Parliament, hence without their consent.
Pitt vehemently declared that the Act was a tyranny, Burke and Fox
protested against it, the brain and the heart of England compelled the
repeal of the Act; Pitt {146} declaring that the spirit shown in
America was the same that in England had withstood the Stuarts, and
refused "Ship Money." There was rejoicing and ringing of bells over
the repeal, but before the echoes had died away another plan was
forming in the narrow recesses of the King's brain.
George III. had read English History. He remembered that if
Parliaments grow obstructive, the way is not to fight them but to pack
them with the right kind of material. Tampering with the boroughs, had
so filled the House of Commons with Tories that it had almost ceased to
be a representative body, and if Pitt would not bow to his wishes, he
would find a Minister who would. Another tax was devised.
Threepence a pound upon tea, shipped direct to America from India,
would save the impost to England, bring tea at a cheaper rate to the
Colonies (even with the added tax), and at the same time yield a
handsome revenue to the Government.
The Colonists were not at all moved by the idea of getting cheaper tea.
They had {147} taken their stand in this matter of taxation without
representation; they would never move from it one inch. When the cargo
of tea arrived in Boston harbor, it was thrown overboard by men
disguised as Indians.
George III. in a rage closed the port of Boston, cancelled the Charter
of Massachusetts, withdrew the right of electing its own council and
judges, investing the Governor with these rights, to whom he also gave
the power to send rebellious and seditious prisoners to England for
trial. Then to make all this sure of fulfilment, he sent troops to
enforce the order, in command of General Gage, whom he also appointed
Governor of Massachusetts.
Fox said, "How intolerable that it should be in the power of one
blockhead to do so much mischief!" The obstinacy of George III. cost
England her dearest and fairest possession. It is almost impossible to
picture what would be her power to-day if she had continued to be
mistress of North America!
All unconscious of his stupendous folly, the King was delighted at his
own firmness. {148} He rubbed his hands in high glee as he said,--"The
die is cast, the Colonies must submit or triumph," meaning of course
that "triumph" was a thing impossible. Pitt (now Earl Chatham), Burke,
Fox, even the Tory House of Lords, petitioned and implored in vain.
The confident, stubborn King stood alone, and upon him lies the whole
responsibility--Lord North simply acting as his compliant tool.
The colonies united as one, all local differences forgotten. As they
fought at Lexington and at Bunker Hill, the idea of something more than
_resistance_ was born--the idea of _independence_.
A letter from the Government addressed to the Commander-in-Chief as
"George Washington, Esq.," was sent back unopened. Battles were lost
and won, the courage and resources of the Americans holding out for
years as if by miracle, until when reinforced by France the end drew
near; and was reached with the defeat of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown.
It was a dreary morning in 1782 when a humiliated King stood before the
House of {149} Lords and acknowledged the independence of the United
States of America!
Thus ended a contest which the Earl of Chatham had said "was conceived
in injustice, and nurtured in folly."
It was during the American war that the Press rose to be a great
counterbalancing power. Popular sentiment no longer finding an outlet
in the House of Commons, sought another mode of expression. Public
opinion gathered in by the newspapers became a force before which
Government dared not stand. The "Chronicle," "Post," "Herald" and
"Times" came into existence, philosophers like Coleridge, and statesmen
like Canning using their columns and compelling reforms.
The impeachment of Warren Hastings, conducted by Burke, Sheridan, and
Fox, led to such an exposure of the cruelty and corruption of the East
India Company, that the gigantic monopoly was broken up. A "Board of
Control" was created for the administration of Indian affairs, thus
absorbing it into the general system of English Government (1784).
{150}
James Watt had introduced (in 1769) steam into the life of England,
with consequences dire at first, and fraught with such tremendous
results later, changing all the industrial conditions of England and of
the world.
In 1789 England witnessed that terrific outburst of human passions in
France, which culminated in the death of a King and a Queen. An
appalling sight which made Republicanism seem odious, even to so
exalted and just a soul as Burke, who denounced it with words of
thrilling eloquence. Then came Napoleon Bonaparte, and his swift
ascent to imperial power, followed by his audacious conquest almost of
Europe, until Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, led the allied
army at Waterloo, and Napoleon's sun went down.
In 1812 the United States for a second time declared war against
England. That country had claimed the right to search for British-born
seamen upon American ships, in order to impress them into her own
service and recruit her Navy. The "right of search" was denied, and
the British {151} forces landed in Maryland, burned the Capitol and
Congressional Library at Washington, but met their "Waterloo" at New
Orleans, where they were defeated by General Andrew Jackson, and the
"right of search" is heard of no more.
Long before this time George III. had been a prey to blindness,
deafness, and insanity, and in 1820 his death came as a welcome event.
Had he not been blind, deaf, and insane, in 1775, England might not
have lost her fairest possession.
The weight of the enormous debt incurred by the long wars fell most
heavily upon the poor. One-half of their earnings went to the Crown.
The poor man lived under a taxed roof, wore taxed clothing, ate taxed
food from taxed dishes, and looked at the light of day through taxed
window-glass. Nothing was free but the ocean.
[Illustration: The British Squares at Quattre-Bras, 1815. From the
painting by Elizabeth Southerden Thompson.]
But there must not be cheap bread, for that meant reduced rents. The
farmer was "protected" by having the price of corn kept artificially
above a certain point, and further "protected" by a prohibitory tax
upon foreign corn, all in order that the landlord {152} might collect
undiminished rentals from his farm lands. But, alas! there was no
"protection" from starvation. Is it strange that gaunt famine was a
frequent visitor in the land?--But men must starve in silence.--To beg
was a crime.
"Alas, that bread should be so dear,
And flesh and blood so cheap!"
Children six years old worked fourteen and fifteen hours daily in mines
and factories, beaten by overseers to keep them awake over their tasks;
while others five and six years old, driven by blows, crawled with
their brooms into narrow soot-clogged chimneys, and sometimes getting
wedged in narrow flues, were mercifully suffocated and translated to a
kinder world.
A ruinous craving was created for stimulants, which took the place of
insufficient food, and in these stunted, pallid, emaciated beings a
foundation was laid for an enfeebled and debased population, which
would sorely tax the wisdom of statesmanship in the future.
If such was the condition of the honest {153} working poor, what was
that of the criminal? It is difficult now to comprehend the ferocity
of laws which made _235 offenses--punishable with death_,--most of
which offenses we should now call misdemeanors. But perhaps death was
better than the prisons, which were the abode of vermin, disease and
filth unspeakable. Jailers asked for no pay, but depended upon the
money they could wring from the wretched beings in their charge for
food and small alleviations to their misery. In 1773 John Howard
commenced his work in the prisons, and the idea was first conceived
that the object of punishment should be not to degrade sin-sick
humanity, but to reform it.
Far above this deep dark undercurrent, there was a bright, shining
surface. Johnson had made his ponderous contribution to letters.
Frances Burney had surprised the world with "Evelina;" Horace Walpole,
(son of Sir Robert) was dropping witty epigrams from his pen; Sheridan,
Goldsmith, Cowper, Burns, Southey, Coleridge, Wordsworth, in tones both
grave and gay, were making sweet music; while Scott, {154} Byron,
Shelley added strains rich and melodious.
As all this was passing, George Stephenson was pondering over a daring
project. Fulton had completed his invention in 1807, and in 1819 the
first steamship had crossed the Atlantic. If engines could be made to
plough through the water, why might they not also be made to walk the
earth? It was thought an audacious experiment when he put this
fire-devouring iron monster on wheels, to draw loaded cars. Not until
1830 was his plan realized, when his new locomotive--"The Rocket"--drew
the first railway train from Liverpool to Manchester, the Duke of
Wellington venturing his life on the trial trip.
In the year 1782 Ireland was permitted to have its own Parliament; but
owing to conditions which are explained in a later chapter, she was
deprived of this legislative independence, and in 1801, after a
prolonged struggle, was reunited to Great Britain, and thenceforth sent
her representatives to the British Parliament.
The laws against Roman Catholics which {155} had been enacted as
measures of self-defence from the Stuarts, now that there was no longer
a necessity for them had become an oppression, which bore with special
weight upon Catholic Ireland. By the oath of "Supremacy," and by the
declarations against transubstantiation, intercession of Saints, etc.,
etc., the Catholics were shut out from all share in a Government which
they were taxed to support. Such an obvious injustice should not have
needed a powerful pleader; but it found one in Daniel O'Connell, who by
constant agitation and fiery eloquence created such a public sentiment,
that the Ministry, headed by the Duke of Wellington, aided by Sir
Robert Peel in the House, carried through a measure in 1828 which
opened Parliament to Catholics, and also gave them free access to all
places of trust, Civil or Military,--excepting that of Regent,--Lord
Chancellor--and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
There is nothing to record of George IV. except the irregularities of
his private life, over which we need not linger. He was a dissolute
spendthrift. His illegal marriage {156} with Mrs. Fitzherbert, and his
legal marriage with Caroline of Brunswick from whom he quickly freed
himself, are the chief events in his history.
His charming young daughter, the Princess Charlotte, had died in 1817,
soon after her marriage with Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. She had
been adored as the future Queen, but upon the death of George IV. in
1830, the Crown passed to his sailor brother William.
William IV. was sixty-five when he came to the throne. He was not a
courtier in his manners, nor much of a fine gentleman in his tastes.
But his plain, rough sincerity was not unacceptable, and his immediate
espousal of the Reform Act, then pending, won him popularity at once.
The efficiency and integrity of the House of Commons had long been
impaired by an effete system of representation, which had been
unchanged for 500 years. Boroughs were represented which had long
disappeared from the face of the earth. One had for years been covered
by the sea! Another existed as a fragment of a wall in a {157}
gentleman's park, while towns like Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, and
nineteen other large and prosperous places, had no representation
whatever. These "rotten boroughs" as they were called, were usually in
the hands of wealthy landowners; one great Peer literally carrying
eleven boroughs in his pocket, so that eleven members went to the House
of Commons at his dictation.--It would seem that a reform so obviously
needed should have been easy to accomplish. But the House of Lords
clung to the old system as if the life of the Kingdom depended upon it.
And when the measure was finally carried the good old Duke of
Wellington said sadly, "We must hope for the best; but the most
sanguine cannot believe we shall ever again be as prosperous."
By this Act 56 boroughs were disfranchised, and 43 new ones, with 30
county constituencies, were created.
It was in the contest over this Reform Bill that the Tories took the
name of "Conservatives" and their opponents "Liberals." Its passage
marks a most important transition in England. The workingman was {158}
by it enfranchised, and the House of Commons, which had hitherto
represented _property_, thenceforth represented _manhood_.
Nor were political reforms the only ones. Human pity awoke from its
lethargy. The penalties for wrongdoing became less brutal, the prisons
less terrible. No longer did gaping crowds watch shivering wretches
brought out of the jails every Monday morning, in batches of twenty and
thirty, to be hung for pilfering or something even less. Little
children were lifted out of the mines and factories and chimneys and
placed in schools, which also began to be created for the poor.
Numberless ways were devised for making life less miserable for the
unfortunate, and for improving the social conditions of toiling men and
women.
While white slavery in the collieries and factories was thus mitigated,
Wilberforce removed the stain of negro slavery from England in securing
the passage of a Bill which, while compensating the owners (who
received L20,000,000), set 800,000 human beings free (1833).
{159}