1807.
Passing of the Slave Trade Bill—Downfall of the “Ministry of all the
Talents”—General Fast—Election for Westminster—Death of Cardinal
York—Arrival in England of Louis XVIII.—Copenhagen bombarded, and
the Danish Fleet captured—Napoleon again proclaimed England as
blockaded.
THE YEAR 1807 began, socially, with the Abolition of the Slave Trade,
the debate on which was opened, in the Lords, on January 2nd, and many
were the nights spent in its discussion. On February 10th, it was read
a third time in the Upper House, and sent down to the Commons, who, on
March 15th, read it a third time, and passed it without a division.
On the 18th, it was sent again to the Lords, with some amendments. It
was printed, and these amendments were taken into consideration on the
23rd, and the alterations agreed to on the same date; and exactly at
noon on March 25th, the bill received the Royal Assent by Commission,
and became LAW. This Act, be it remembered, did not abolish Slavery,
but only prohibited the Traffic in Slaves; so that no ship should clear
out from any port within the British dominions after May 1, 1807, with
slaves on board, and that no slave should be landed in the Colonies
after March 1, 1808.
This Act was somewhat hurried through, owing to the downfall of
the Coalition Ministry, which will ever be known in the political
history of England as the “Ministry of all the talents,” or the
“Broad-bottomed” Cabinet. While this Ministry was in existence, it
afforded the Caricaturists plenty of food for their pencils. One of
the last of them is by Gillray (April 18, 1807), and it is called “The
Pigs Possessed, or, The Broad-bottomed Litter rushing headlong in the
Sea of Perdition.” Though the subject is hackneyed, the treatment is
excellent. “Farmer George,” as the King was familiarly termed, has
knocked down a portion of his fence, which stands on the edge of a
cliff, and, with brandished dung-fork, and ready heel, he speeds the
swine to their destruction, thus apostrophizing them: “O, you cursed
ungrateful Grunters! what! after devouring more in a twelve month,
than the good old Litters did in twelve years, you turn round to
kick and bite your old Master? but, if the Devil or the Pope has got
possession of you all—pray get out of my Farm Yard! out with you all;
no hanger-behind! you’re all of a cursed bad breed; so out with you all
together!!!”
Of course there was the Annual Fast, which was fixed, for February
25th. This time “the shops were all shut, and the utmost solemnity
prevailed throughout the day.” Their repetition, evidently, was
educating the people as to their implied meaning.
Sir Francis Burdett wished to retrieve his former defeat, and we
consequently find him, at the General Election in this year, putting
up for Westminster. Paull, who had contested the seat with Sheridan,
was one candidate, Lord Cochrane, and Elliott the brewer, at Pimlico,
were the others. This election is chiefly remarkable in illustrating
the manners of the times, by a duel which took place between two of the
candidates, Paull and Burdett, the latter of whom had squabbled over
his name having been advertised as intending to appear at a meeting,
without his consent having been first obtained. They met at Combe Wood
near Wimbledon, and both were wounded. Sir Francis was successful,
and a short account of his “chairing”—a custom long since consigned
to _limbo_—may not be uninteresting. Originally, as the name implies,
the successful candidate was seated in a chair, and carried about on
the shoulders of his enthusiastic supporters, as the winner of the
Queen’s prize at Wimbledon is now honoured. But Sir Francis’s admirers
had improved upon this. The procession and triumphal car started from
Covent Garden, and worked its way to the baronet’s house in Piccadilly,
where he mounted the car. How he did so, the contemporary account does
not state, but it does say that “the car was as high as the one pair of
stairs windows,” and “the seat upon which the Baronet was placed, stood
upon a lofty Corinthian pillar.” On this uncomfortable elevation, he
rode from Piccadilly, down the Haymarket, up St. Martin’s Lane, and so
into Covent Garden, where a dinner was provided.
On the 31st of August died, at Rome, Henry Benedict Maria Clement
Stuart, Cardinal York—the last of the Stuarts. The feeble little
attempt he made to assert his right to the throne of England, would be
amusing if it had been serious; the coining of one medal, in which he
styled himself Henry IX., was his sole affectation of royalty. With
him died all hope, if any such existed, of disturbing the Hanoverian
Succession. Curiously enough, events made him a pensioner on George the
Third’s bounty, and the annuity was granted by the one, and received by
the other, not as an act of charity, but as of brotherly friendship;
and this annuity of £4,000 he duly received for seven years before he
died.
In this year, too, England gave shelter to another unfortunate scion of
royalty—Louis XVIII.—who came from Sweden in the Swedish Frigate the
_Freya_. He travelled under the name of the Comte de Lille, and landed
at Yarmouth. He rather ungraciously declined the Palace of Holyrood,
which was placed at his disposal, on the ground that he had not come
to England as an asylum, or for safety, but on political business as
King of France. Wisely, he was allowed to have his own way, and he
settled down at Hartwell, in Buckinghamshire, a seat of the Marquis
of Buckingham, and here he abode until the fall of Napoleon, when, of
course, he went to Paris.
The year ends stormily. After having bombarded Copenhagen and captured
all the Danish fleet, war was proclaimed against Denmark on the 4th of
November. On the 8th of the month, Portugal was compelled by Napoleon
to confiscate British property, and shut her ports against England.
Nor was he content with this. Probably he thought the effect of
his former proclamation of blockading England, was wearing out, so
he fulminated a fresh one on the 11th of November from Hamburgh,
and another from Milan on the 27th of December; in both of which
he reiterated his intention of prohibiting intercourse between all
subjects under his control, and contumacious England, and that this
should be properly carried out he appointed commercial residents, at
different ports, to attend strictly to the matter.
This, of course, was met promptly by an Order in Council, allowing
neutral Powers to trade with the enemies of Great Britain, provided
they touched at British ports, and paid custom dues to the British
Government.
Consols this year began at 61⅜, and left off 62⅞.
Wheat varied during the year, from 84s. to 73s., the highest price
being 90s.; and the quartern loaf varied in proportion from 1s. 1¼d. to
10¾d.
[Illustration]