THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
The Cholera--Laying of the Atlantic Cable--Previous Failures--The
_Great Eastern's_ first Attempt--Her second Voyage--The
Undertaking accomplished--Recovery of the broken Cable--Reform
Demonstrations--The Guildhall Meeting--Meetings at Manchester,
Leeds, and Elsewhere--Mr. Bright and the Queen--The Government
prepares a Bill--"Black Friday"--The Overend and Gurney
Failure--Limited Liability--Royal Marriages--Prize-Money--The
Loss of the _London_--A bad Harvest--The Fenian Trials--Lord
Wodehouse's Letter--Suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act--Rapid
Legislation--Wholesale Arrests--The Army purged--Renewal of the
Act--Lord Kimberley's Speech--Sweeny and Stephens--The Niagara
Raid--General Spear's Exploit--A peaceful Winter--Whewell and Keble.
The visitation of the cholera in England in 1866 was light in comparison
with what it was in some foreign cities, and with what it had been in
former years in London. The deaths did not materially affect the returns
of mortality for the year; they fell short of eight thousand. In Austria
it was computed that at least 100,000 persons were carried off by cholera
in this year, and there was hardly a week in which the deaths in London
were not exceeded by those in some Continental cities with scarcely a
tenth of its population. This result was certainly owing in great part
to the sanitary precautions and improvements carried out by the Cholera
Committee. The disease kept extending itself as the summer advanced, until
it reached its culminating point in the fortnight between the 21st of July
and the 4th of August; in the week ending on the last-named day 1,053
deaths from cholera were reported in London. Then all at once it began
to subside, and before the month of August had passed, the Lord Mayor
was enabled to suggest a large appropriation of the funds which had been
liberally subscribed by charitable persons (the Queen sent £500) for the
formation and support of cholera hospitals, to the assistance of those who
had been left orphans by the epidemic.
The enterprise of laying an insulated electric cable at the bottom of
the Atlantic in order to secure instantaneous telegraphic communication
between Europe and America--first attempted in 1857, crowned with a
fleeting and illusory success in 1858, and partially accomplished in
1865--was in the summer of this year completely realised, not only by
the successful laying of the cable of 1866, but by the recovery from the
bottom of the sea of the cable of 1865, which was then pieced on to a new
wire rope, and carried safely onward to the shore of Newfoundland. A brief
survey of the previous unsuccessful attempts will not be uninstructive.
In the first, that of 1857, the cable was of a clumsy and ponderous
description, if compared with the lighter and relatively stronger ropes
afterwards adopted. Two men-of-war, the _Agamemnon_ and the _Niagara_,
composed the expedition; the _Niagara_ paying out the cable. When 380
miles had been paid out, the cable broke and the ships returned to port.
In 1858 the same ships were employed and a new plan was tried. The ships
proceeded to the middle of the Atlantic, each with 1,500 miles of cable
on board; here they effected a splice of the two ends of their respective
cargoes and proceeded in different directions, the _Agamemnon_ to the
eastward, the _Niagara_ to the westward, paying out as they went. Even
to the uninitiated this plan would appear to expose the cable to a
needless amount of additional strain, and therefore to increase the risk
of fracture. Twice the cable broke after less than fifty miles had been
paid out; a third time the cable broke, when about 140 miles had been
submerged; a third time the vessels returned to the watery rendezvous,
but they now failed to meet, and each returned separately to Queenstown.
A fourth attempt, at the end of July, was more successful; though the
signalling was repeatedly interrupted during the paying-out process, the
cable did not actually break and the object was supposed to have been
accomplished. The _Niagara_ brought her end to Trinity Bay on the 5th of
August, and on the same day the _Agamemnon_ brought hers to Valentia.
Messages of congratulation were interchanged between the Queen and the
President of the United States (Mr. Buchanan), and for a short time there
was exultation. But a suspiciously great expenditure of electricity was
required on one side of the ocean in order to affect the instrument on
the other. The indications became feebler and feebler, and before any
commercial use had been made of the cable, they ceased entirely.
Much disappointment was felt in both continents and for some years no
fresh attempt was made. In 1864 a new company was formed, under the
auspices of which a new cable was manufactured on a simpler and better
plan, and in July, 1865, the _Great Eastern_, accompanied by the _Sphinx_
and the _Terrible_, men-of-war, commenced to lay it from Valentia. One
thousand two hundred miles of cable had been paid out, and a distance of
only 600 miles remained to be traversed, when, while engaged in hauling in
upon the cable, in order to discover and remove a "fault," the adventurers
had the mortification of seeing it suddenly part. All three ships then
began to fish for the cable with the greatest diligence; but although
repeatedly grappled, it always snapped before it could be raised to the
surface and, after losing an inconceivable amount of rope, the expedition
returned to England.
From the diary kept by the Secretary of the Anglo-American Telegraph
Construction Company on board the _Great Eastern_, we extract a few
interesting particulars with reference to her successful voyage in 1866.
She took her departure from Berehaven, Bantry Bay, on the 12th of July,
having the cable stowed away in large coils in two immense tanks, one
forward, the other aft. The ship was commanded by Captain Anderson;
the "cable crew" and everything connected with the laying of the cable
were under the superintendence of Mr. Canning. The plan was, that the
immense vessel, propelled both by paddles and screw, and, therefore, more
manageable than a vessel dependent on one source of motion, should steam
slowly ahead, paying out the cable as she went over the stern, through
machinery invented for the purpose in the preceding year by Messrs.
Canning and Clifford, which had been found to answer admirably. The shore
end of the cable, which had been laid at Foilhummerum Bay, in Valentia
Island, some days previously, was brought on board the _Great Eastern_ on
the 13th, and made fast to the cable; as soon as the splice was effected,
the paying-out process immediately commenced. For some days the weather
was everything that could be wished. Three men-of-war took part in the
expedition, ready to give immediate aid, if necessary--the _Terrible_,
the _Albany_, and the _Medway_. The insulation of the cable was perfect;
communication between the ship and Valentia was uninterruptedly
maintained, and the last news from Europe, received through the cable,
was printed each day on board, under the title of _The Great Eastern
Telegraph_. The chief check to the prosperous progress of the undertaking
occurred on the 18th of July, and it was a very alarming one. A "foul
flake," or tangle, took place in the after-tank, containing, originally,
more than 800 miles of cable, while the paying-out was tranquilly going
on, a short time after midnight, and was not cleared for an hour and a
half. From this time no incident of much moment marked the progress of
the expedition. As the _Great Eastern_ neared Newfoundland, the weather
became foggy, and the _Albany_ was sent on to Heart's Content, a harbour
in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, to clear the north-east side of the harbour
of shipping, and place a boat with a red flag for Captain Anderson to
steer to for anchorage. By dint of good management--the men-of-war forming
a line of communication between the shore and the _Great Eastern_, and
that one which was nearest to her guiding her through the fog by the
repeated firing of guns--she was piloted into Trinity Bay without accident
on the morning of the 27th of July. The shore end was quickly laid and
the electric union of Europe and America was at last complete. On the
28th Lord Carnarvon telegraphed to Lord Monck at Ottawa felicitations on
the happy result of an enterprise which could not fail to draw closer the
ties of amity and fellowship uniting Canada to England; and on the 30th
congratulatory messages were exchanged between the Queen and President
Johnson.
But this was not all. The task of fishing for the broken end of the cable
of 1865, which the loss of all her spare rope had, as we have seen,
compelled the _Great Eastern_ to abandon in the previous September,
was now resumed with all the eager hope and confidence engendered by
success. The cable had been lost at the depth of about 2,000 fathoms, and
experience had shown that to pick it up at one lift from that enormous
depth was impracticable, the mere weight of the cable, in its resistance
to the force employed by the picking up machinery, being sufficient to
snap it. It was arranged, therefore, that the _Great Eastern_ herself, and
the attendant men-of-war, tracing back the cable for the space of several
miles from the point of fracture, should grapple for it, and when found
raise it, not to the surface, but to various heights from the bottom, so
that several miles of cable should be raised to an altitude intermediate
between the bottom and the surface, and be secured there by buoys attached
to the grappling ropes; and thus the final lift, being only from this
intermediate altitude, might present reasonable chances of success. But
this plan of operations, simple though it be in the telling, involved
a great amount of anxious and exhausting labour, and mechanical and
practical difficulties of various kinds. Eventually it was recovered on
September 1st and was found to be perfectly sound.
The miscarriage of Mr. Gladstone's Reform Bill led to periodical
demonstrations during the summer and autumn in favour of the extension of
the franchise. An organised agitation provided that mass meetings should
be held in several of the largest cities in Great Britain at convenient
intervals of time. The riots in and near Hyde Park arose, as we have
seen, out of a Reform demonstration; and the irrepressible Mr. Beales,
whom Mr. Walpole's exquisite sensibility on the subject of broken heads
had probably rather emboldened than mollified, arranged, in concert with
the London Working Men's Association, a great Reform meeting in the
Guildhall on the 8th of August. The Lord Mayor took the chair and opened
the proceedings with the melodramatic declaration that "the man must have
a heart of stone who could witness this magnificent sight without the
deepest emotion." Mr. Beales, in moving the first resolution, feelingly
alluded to the perils which he had undergone in the cause of the people
on the 23rd of July, and concluded by saying, "The prohibition of the
League meeting on the 23rd July, and the exclusion of the public from
Hyde Park on that day, have done far more than a hundred such meetings
could have done to advance the cause of Reform, and unite the people in
its support.... No half-and-half measure of Reform will now be listened
to. The banner of the League, having inscribed on it, 'Residential and
Registered Manhood Suffrage, and the Ballot,' is now hailed in all
quarters." Mr. Odger, seconded the next resolution, which menaced the
existing Government with the withdrawal of all sympathy and support on the
part of the Reformers if they did not speedily introduce a Bill for the
amendment of the representation of the people. Mr. Coffey, also, and Mr.
Charles Bradlaugh spoke in the course of the evening.
About six weeks after this (September 24th) a meeting, supposed to
be larger than any that had been ever assembled in England, was held
at Manchester. Bodies of men from the numerous manufacturing towns
and villages in the neighbourhood were marching into Manchester all
the morning, carrying flags inscribed with the words "National Reform
Union," and proceeded to a large open space called Campfield, where six
platforms had been erected. Notwithstanding the torrents of rain that
continued throughout the day, the numbers assembled were estimated at
between 100,000 and 200,000 persons. In connection with each of the six
platforms three identical resolutions were moved and passed; the general
effect of these resolutions was to identify the people of Manchester, in
opinions and political action, with Mr. Beales and his fellow-agitators.
A high tribute was paid to some of the members of the late Government
and other friends of Reform, particularly Mr. Bright, and Mr. Mill. A
resolution passed in the evening at a great meeting in the Free Trade
Hall showed how deeply the eloquent and sarcastic invectives of Mr. Lowe
were felt and resented by their objects:--"This meeting, while recording
its indignation at the insults offered in Parliament and by the press
to the working classes and their advocates, calls on the people of this
country to allow themselves no longer to be trifled with by an oligarchic
few, and to rally round those men who have upheld their cause." On the
8th of October a great Reform meeting was held at Leeds. The dreary
open space above the town, called Woodhouse Moor, was the scene of the
gathering, at which it was estimated that not less than 200,000 persons
were collected. Resolutions of a similar character to those adopted at
Manchester were passed; several speakers fiercely attacked Mr. Lowe and
vindicated the character of the working men from the aspersions that
had been heaped upon it; nor was the usual vote of confidence in Mr.
Bright forgotten. A similar demonstration took place in Edinburgh in
November. An immense working man's meeting had been arranged for the 3rd
of December, to be held at Beaufort House, Kensington, but it proved to
be less imposing than the promoters had intended, not much more than an
eighth of the 200,000 working men whose presence had been reckoned upon,
actually making their appearance. The oratory was somewhat reckless, but
an antidote was speedily forthcoming. At a Reform meeting of the London
Trades in St. James's Hall (December 4th), Mr. Ayrton was understood to
censure the Queen for not recognising the people when they gathered in
such numbers in front of one of her palaces. In reply to these remarks,
Mr. Bright said:--"I am not accustomed to stand up in defence of those who
are possessors of crowns, but I could not sit and hear that observation
without a sensation of wonder and of pain. I think that there has been,
by many persons, a great injustice done to the Queen in reference to her
desolate and widowed position. And I venture to say this, that a woman--be
she the Queen of a great realm, or be she the wife of one of you labouring
men--who can keep alive in her heart a great sorrow for the lost object
of her life and affections, is not at all likely to be wanting in a great
and generous sympathy with you." Every sentence of this vindication
was greeted with cheers, and at its close there was loud and prolonged
cheering, amidst which the body of people in the hall arose and sang a
verse of "God save the Queen."
[Illustration: A COTTAGE BEDSIDE AT OSBORNE.
AFTER THE PAINTING BY GOURLAY STEELL, R.S.A.]
So persevering and wide-spread an agitation in pursuit of a political
object in a country constitutionally governed must have disposed the
Conservative Government, even if originally averse from mooting it, to
make the question of Parliamentary Reform the serious subject of their
counsels. But we have already seen, from the speech of Mr. Disraeli in
Buckinghamshire, that, although the Government regarded itself as wholly
unpledged, the question of Reform was one that had no terrors for the
versatile and experienced leader of the party in the House of Commons; and
in the course of the winter it became known that the Ministry were engaged
in framing a large and comprehensive measure, and would introduce it early
in the ensuing Session.
[Illustration: ARRIVAL OF THE "GREAT EASTERN" AT TRINITY BAY. (_See p._
407.)]
One of the severest commercial crises ever known in Great Britain will
make the months of May and June, 1866, memorable in the history of banking
and finance. The crash that caused so many goodly and solid-seeming
commercial and financial structures to topple over and collapse in
irretrievable ruin was the natural reaction after a period of feverish,
over-sanguine, and partly unsound speculation. The year 1865 had witnessed
the launch on the money market of a vast number of new undertakings,
carried on by companies offering the advantage of limited liability to
their shareholders, and professing to hold out to the fortunate investor
opportunities of enriching himself beyond the wildest dream of avarice.
As the spring of 1866 wore on, the solvency and utility of some of these
speculations came seriously into question, and a tendency to realise
manifested itself. There was one immense financing firm which in the
magnitude of its discounts had no equal in London. This was the Limited
Liability Company of Overend, Gurney, and Co., the shareholders of which
had, as a great privilege, purchased the goodwill of the business of
the well-known firm of Overend and Gurney the year before, for the sum
of £500,000. At the time they thus sold their business, the firm, as
the subsequent judicial investigation proved, was hopelessly insolvent
to the extent of many millions. The representatives of the new company
must have been either quixotically confiding, or culpably remiss, or
financially incompetent, not to have obtained some inkling, at the time
of the negotiations for the purchase, of the real state of affairs; it
seems certain, however, that their ignorance was as complete as that
of the world outside. In March or April it became known that certain
firms and companies, with which Overend, Gurney, and Co. had had large
transactions, were in difficulties or had suspended payment; a feeling of
uneasiness arose; the shares of the company, which had been quoted at a
good premium, fell below par; and some of the new shareholders, becoming
alarmed, commenced to sell out. An immediate further depreciation of
the shares was, of course, the consequence; this led to increased alarm
and to pressure from the company's creditors. The directors, perceiving
ruin to be imminent, sought assistance from the Bank of England; but the
authorities of that establishment, after investigating the affairs of the
company sufficiently to convince themselves that no slight or temporary
measures of relief would be of the least avail, declined to grant the
accommodation requested. Meanwhile, the run upon them was increasing, and
the price of the shares continually falling; and on the afternoon of May
10th the company had no choice but to close its doors and suspend payment.
The liabilities were stated at the enormous sum of £11,000,000; the
assets, it was feared, and with great reason as the events proved, would,
even if realised in the most favourable circumstances, leave an enormous
margin of indebtedness. Friday morning ushered in a day of universal
panic and consternation in London city, such as had not been seen since
the disastrous year of 1857. The multitude of buyers and sellers, bulls
and bears, knaves and dupes, brokers and investors, who swarm during the
business hours of the day in the streets surrounding the Royal Exchange,
consented together, as if by a tacit understanding, to call the day "Black
Friday." Every half-hour some well-known firm or company, which but the
day before had presented a smiling and prosperous front to the world,
was announced to have suspended payment. Crowds of despairing depositors
collected round the door of Overend, Gurney, and Co., in Lombard Street,
and discussed in tones of anger or despondency the prospects of the
bankruptcy. Upon all the private banks the run was intensely severe; the
managers of these sought assistance from the Bank of England, and, when
the securities were unexceptional, were in no instance refused. But the
consequence was that the Bank, whose reserves at the beginning of the
day were close upon £7,000,000, although it charged 9 per cent. all day
for accommodation, found itself, when the business of the day was over,
with the reserves reduced to little over £3,000,000. What measures the
Bank authorities were driven to in face of this alarming reduction will
presently be related. The crash of falling houses was resounding all day
in the financial ear. The English Joint-Stock Company was one of the first
to go, dragging down with it thirty-one provincial branches in its fall.
Failures for less than half a million were so comparatively unimportant
as to arouse little attention. The convulsion reached its climax towards
the close of the day, when the stoppage of the great firm of railway
contractors, Peto, Betts, and Co., with liabilities exceeding £4,000,000,
was announced. The authorities of the Bank of England communicated to
the Treasury, as in duty bound, the drain that menaced the exhaustion of
their reserves. The emergency was so serious that Lord Russell and Mr.
Gladstone, after conferring with a great number of bankers and directors
of finance companies, agreed to allow the credit of the country to be
employed, though the permission involved an infringement of the law. Late
on Friday night Mr. Gladstone announced in the House of Commons that an
authority would be sent next morning from the Treasury to the Bank, to
continue discounting good bills, even though their reserves should thereby
be reduced below the minimum required by law, provided that they made no
such discounts at a lower rate of interest than 10 per cent. The panic
in the City was greatly allayed when the decision of the Government was
made known; confidence began to revive; and eventually the Bank did not
find it necessary to infringe the law. Yet one more gigantic failure
occurred before the crisis passed. This was the stoppage of Agra and
Masterman's Bank, a house of old standing, and with a most extensive
Indian connection, the business of which, as in the case of Overend and
Gurney, had been lately transferred by its former proprietors to a limited
liability company. The run on this particular bank was so persistent that
in the four weeks which intervened between the beginning of the crisis
and their own stoppage, they paid away more than £3,000,000 over the
counter, yet were unable to avert the catastrophe.
In consequence of the disasters thus described, and many other minor
failures that we have not noticed, numbers of families found themselves
reduced from affluence to poverty; many had to descend to a lower position
in society, and an extensive contraction of expenditure took place,
the effects of which were felt through all the channels of trade, and
especially by those who minister to the amusements and luxuries of the
affluent. It was remarked that the principle of limited liability, which,
when first introduced, was held to confer so great a boon upon investors,
inasmuch as it sheltered the individual proprietors of any joint-stock
adventure from that awful responsibility for the whole debts of the
concern, which the law, as it formerly stood, imposed upon them--had
come to be so worked in practice as to make this immunity from risk, in
numberless cases, illusory. It had become customary to announce a new
company with a nominal share capital of large amount, but to state in
the prospectus that only one or two pounds would be called up on each
share, and skilfully to induce the belief, by glowing accounts tending to
impress the reader with a sense of the safe and lucrative character of
the speculation, that no further calls would require to be made. Suppose
there to be five new companies, each coming out with a share capital of
£200,000, in £20 shares, and calling up £1 per share, with an intimation
that it was not probable that any further call would be necessary, but
that in no possible circumstances, so certain was the prospect of speedy
and ample profits, could the calls exceed £3 per share. A man who had
saved £3,000 might think he was following a wise and safe course by
investing part of that sum in the shares of the five companies, buying,
let us say, two hundred shares in each, on which he would have to pay up
£1,000, and supposing that, if the worst came to the worst, he would not
be called upon for more than his £3,000. But a commercial crisis arrived;
the companies got into difficulties; they had, perhaps, launched out into
expense far exceeding the amount paid upon the shares, and every one who
had a claim upon them turned round and pressed for his money. In such
circumstances, whether the companies suspended payment or not, they were
obliged to make fresh calls upon the unpaid portion of the shares. Thus
our imaginary investor might find himself, in an extreme case, called
upon to furnish £20,000 upon his shares, instead of the £3,000 which he
had fondly fancied to be the utmost that would ever be demanded of him. It
was in this way that the shareholders of many limited liability companies
found themselves, unless persons of large capital, face to face with ruin,
because they had unthinkingly entangled themselves in a liability which,
limited as it was, yet, when pressed to its full extent, was more than
they could sustain.
A variety of minor incidents falling under the year 1866 may here be
briefly noticed. The House of Commons gave proof of its unabated loyal
attachment to the House of Hanover by voting to the Princess Helena,
on the occasion of the announcement of her intended marriage to Prince
Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, an annual
allowance of £6,000 a year, and a dowry of £30,000--a donation similar to
that which had been granted to the Princess Alice. The marriage took place
at Windsor Castle on the 5th of July. Another marriage, which excited
much popular interest--for the well-known geniality and good-nature of
the bride made her a universal favourite--was that of the Princess Mary
of Cambridge, at Kew, on the 12th of June, to the Duke of Teck. The great
Banda and Kirwee prize-money case was argued, and decided in this year.
From the magnitude of the booty which was the subject of litigation, and
the number and position of the claimants, the pleadings were followed
with interest. In the course of the campaign of 1858 in Central India,
which stamped out the last remains of the mutiny in that region, General
Whitlock had led a British force to Banda, driven out the Nawab, and
taken possession of a rich booty in gold and jewels collected there, the
value of which was estimated at not less than £800,000. The question
to be decided was--to whom did this booty of right belong? Ought it
to be awarded to General Whitlock's force exclusively, by which Banda
was taken--or were other divisions, even though serving at a distance,
entitled to their share, on the ground that it was by their co-operation
that the taking of Banda was rendered possible? The family of Lord
Clyde, who was Commander-in-Chief in India at the time, also appeared as
claimants. Dr. Lushington delivered judgment in the case on the 30th of
June. He included under the description of "General Whitlock's forces,"
to whom he awarded the sum in litigation, "any troops left by General
Whitlock on his march, but which at the time of the capture formed a
portion of his division, and were still under his command." Lord Clyde
and his staff were also declared entitled to share in the booty captured
at Banda and Kirwee; but the claim of Sir Hugh Rose and his army,
employed at the time in the important collateral operation of the siege
of Jhansi, but which had never effected an actual junction with General
Whitlock, and all other claims, were disallowed. The foundering of the
_London_, a large iron steamship, in the Bay of Biscay, in the January
of this year, with a loss of two hundred and twenty lives, including Dr.
Woolley, the principal of the new Sydney University, and the well-known
actor, Gustavus Brooke, was memorable for the calm courage displayed
by the captain, Captain Martin, who sent off his chief engineer in the
only boat that could be launched, saying that his own duty was to stay
by the ship. This boat, with nineteen persons on board, was picked up by
a passing vessel. The wonderful procession of meteors, radiating from a
point in the north-eastern sky, seen on the night of the 13th of November,
though not a proper subject for a political and social history, could
never be forgotten by any that witnessed it. A deficient harvest deepened
the painful impression which the monetary disasters of 1866 had left on
the minds of the people. In the critical months of August and September
the weather was unusually wet and stormy, and the wheat crop suffered
much in consequence. A great deal of corn was housed in bad condition
and no inconsiderable portion wasted or spoiled. The result was a yield
considerably below the average and the prices of grain were consequently
much enhanced. The prices of other necessaries were also raised; although
this was probably to a great extent due to a permanent cause, with which
the bad harvest had nothing to do-viz. that gradual rise in the price
of all articles of necessary consumption, which, commencing from the
discovery of the gold-fields of California, the continual influx of gold,
in quantities before unknown, into the markets of the world, slowly but
surely effected. These untoward circumstances, combined with a contraction
of the demand for labour, arising from commercial failures and discredit,
made the winter of 1866-67 a period of considerable suffering to the poor
in England.
The state of Ireland in 1866 was such as to excite grave and sorrowful
reflections. We have described in a former chapter the circumstances
in which Stephens, the chief head-centre, effected his escape from
confinement in 1865, and how a special commission was appointed, in order
to try Fenian prisoners. During January the Fenian trials were going on
in Dublin before Mr. Justice Keogh, and a number of the accused were
sentenced to terms of penal servitude, varying from ten to five years.
But the terrors of the law, and the grave and solemn tones of ermined
justice, reprobating the guilt and folly of the Fenian conspiracy, were
contumaciously set at naught by many of the prisoners. Patrick Hayburne,
of the "Emmet Guard," in the Fenian brotherhood, a young man, the only
support of his mother, on being found guilty, requested the judge to
sentence him to a term of penal servitude rather than to two years'
imprisonment. Mr. Justice Keogh expressed his pity for the misguided
youth, and passed the latter sentence, on which the prisoner exclaimed, "I
will have the same principles afterwards." In Dublin, and still more in
Limerick, the populace loudly cheered Fenian prisoners as they were being
taken to gaol. A number of strangers continued to arrive in Dublin, many
of them betraying by their military bearing that they had seen service
in the field, whom the police knew to be in communication with those
suspected of Fenianism, but who were careful to commit no overt act that
would bring them within the grasp of the law, and, on being questioned,
said that they were come to Ireland to see their friends. Arms of all
kinds were continually being seized; even three pieces of artillery
were discovered, just on the point of being despatched to Drogheda.
The attempts to seduce soldiers from their allegiance, in spite of the
severity of the Special Commission against this particular offence, were
found to increase in frequency. In addition to the former reward of £1,000
offered by the Government for the apprehension of Stephens, a further sum
of £1,000 was now offered for such private information as should lead to
his capture; but no informer came forward. All this was generally known
before the meeting of Parliament; but the despatch of the Lord-Lieutenant,
dated February 14th, proposing the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act,
proved that matters were more grave than the public had any idea of. Lord
Wodehouse wrote:--
[Illustration: THE MARRIAGE OF PRINCESS HELENA.
FROM THE PAINTING IN THE ROYAL COLLECTION, BY C. MAGNUSSEN.]
"The state of affairs is very serious. The conspirators, undeterred by
the punishment of so many of their leaders, are actively organising an
outbreak, with a view to destroy the Queen's authority. Sir Hugh Bose
details the various plans they have in contemplation, and he draws no
exaggerated picture. There are scattered over the country a number of
agents, who are swearing in members, and who are prepared to take the
command when the moment arrives. These men are of the most dangerous
class. They are Irishmen, imbued with American notions, thoroughly
reckless, and possessed of considerable military experience, acquired
in a field of warfare [the Civil War in America] admirably adapted to
train them for conducting an insurrection here. There are 340 such men
known to the police in the provinces, and those known in Dublin amount
to about 160, so that in round numbers there are 500. Of course, there
are many more who escape notice. This number is being augmented by fresh
men constantly arriving from America. In Dublin itself there are several
hundred men (perhaps about 300 or 400) who have come over from England
and Scotland, who receive 1s. 6d. a day, and are waiting for the time
of action. Any one may observe these men loitering about at the corners
of the streets. As to arms, we have found no less than three regular
manufactories of pikes, bullets, and cartridges in Dublin. The police
believe that several more exist. Of course, bullets are not made unless
there are rifles to put them in. The disaffection of the population
in some counties, such as Cork, Tipperary, Waterford, and Dublin, is
alarming; and it is day by day spreading more and more through every part
of the country. But the most dangerous feature of the present movement
is the attempt to seduce the troops. Are we to allow these agents to go
on instilling their poison into our armed force, upon which our security
mainly depends?" Lord Wodehouse concluded his despatch by declaring that
he could not be responsible for the safety of the country if power was not
forthwith given to Government to seize the leaders; on that condition he
hoped still to avert serious mischief.
[Illustration: ROBERT LOWE (AFTERWARDS LORD SHERBROOKE).
(_From a Photograph by Fradelle and Young, London._)]
On the receipt of this letter, Sir George Grey, then Home Secretary,
immediately requested Lord Russell to summon a meeting of the Cabinet and,
when it was convened, laid Lord Wodehouse's letter before them, and urged
that his application with regard to the suspension of the Habeas Corpus
Act should be acceded to. The Cabinet unanimously agreed that there was
no choice but to accede to the application, and it was determined that
a Bill for the purpose should be introduced into the House of Commons
on the next day (Saturday, February 17th), and carried through all its
stages, so as to receive the Royal Assent, and become law on the same
day, and be carried into execution by the Irish Government not later than
Monday. This was accordingly done. At twelve o'clock next day Sir George
Grey brought in a Bill to suspend for six months the Habeas Corpus Act
in Ireland. His arguments were chiefly derived from Lord Wodehouse's
letter, and they were of a nature that the governments of nations, in
the legislative no less than in the executive branches, usually find
irresistible. Yet it was a saddening thought, that sixty-five years after
the Union, and thirty-four years after the first Reform Bill, so little
progress had been made in attaching the masses of the Irish people to the
Constitution under which an Englishman thought it his happiness to live!
Mr. Bright gave impressive utterance to this feeling, when he spoke of
the shame and humiliation which he felt at being called on for the second
time, in a Parliamentary career of twenty-two years (the first occasion
was at the time of Smith O'Brien's rising in 1848), to suspend the Habeas
Corpus Act in Ireland. He asserted that Ireland was in a state of chronic
agitation, and that the numerical majority of the Irish people were in
favour of a complete separation. Although this was not the occasion for
entering upon the general question of the state of Ireland, and the
nature of the remedial measures that were required, he could not but
express his conviction that the institutions under which Irishmen were
required to live were not such as could command their affection or call
forth their loyalty; yet he believed there was a mode of making Ireland
loyal, and he threw the responsibility of discovering it on Government and
on the Imperial Parliament. Mr. Roebuck, alluding to the asserted fact
that the Catholic clergy in Ireland were opposed to the Fenians--who on
their side scouted the notion of submission to priestly authority, and
endeavoured to undermine the influence of the clergy over the people--said
that nevertheless he attributed much of the present discontent to the
Roman Catholic priesthood, who for years had taught the people to hate
English rule, but who, now that they found themselves threatened by
this conspiracy, had become wondrous loyal. He went on to ridicule the
sentiment of nationality, on the ground that every great empire in the
world's history had been made up of different nationalities. Leave was
given to introduce the Bill by a majority of 364 to 6 votes; it passed
through all its stages without further discussion and was then sent up to
the Lords, who disposed of it with equal celerity. But the Royal Assent
had to be given before the measure could become law; and the Queen was at
this time at Osborne. As soon as the Bill had passed the Lords, a telegram
announcing the result was sent to Earl Granville, who was in attendance
on her Majesty at Osborne, and who thereupon solicited and obtained the
Queen's signature to the usual formal document, authorising her assent
to be given to the Bill by Commission. The sittings of both Houses were
suspended till 11 p.m., by which time it was calculated that the special
train conveying the document might have arrived. But midnight came and
still the messenger did not appear; at half-past twelve, however, the
despatch box, bearing the important document, was brought to the Lord
Chancellor. Some time elapsed before it was properly filled up and then
the clerk entered, carrying the Royal Commission. The House of Commons was
sent for to hear the Royal Assent given to the Bill in question, and soon
the Speaker, accompanied by about fifty members, appeared at the bar of
the House. The Commissioners then stated that it was her Majesty's will
and pleasure to give her assent to the Bill and it became law. This was
about twenty minutes to one on the Sunday morning. Probably no statute
could ever pass with much more celerity than this, the first Act of the
new Parliament.
But rapid as were the operations of the legislature, the Dublin
executive considered the state of affairs so critical as to justify it
in anticipating the passing of the law. On Saturday morning, February
17th, the arrests of suspected persons commenced, and were continued
through the day, nearly 250 persons being in custody at nightfall. No
resistance was in any case offered to the police, nor were any captures
of arms effected on this day. Thirty-seven American citizens, of Irish
extraction, most, if not all, of whom had served in the Civil War, were
among the persons arrested. The suddenness of the blow appears to have
utterly disconcerted the conspirators. The suspicious-looking strangers,
who had for weeks past haunted the streets of Dublin, disappeared; the
steamers to Liverpool were crowded with passengers; and for several
days the steamboats sailing for America took away numbers of bellicose
gentlemen, who found that the Irish revolution was not to come off just
yet. The authorities, however, neglected no necessary precaution; the vans
conveying prisoners to Kilmainham or Richmond were guarded by troops; all
the soldiers of the garrison not on duty were confined to their quarters
all night, ready to turn out at a moment's notice; and no strangers were
admitted within the gates of the Pigeon-house Fort, which guards the mouth
of the Liffey, on any pretence. The most important arrest was believed
to be that of Patrick J. M'Donnell, said to have been at the head of the
movement since the escape of Stephens. In the provinces some noteworthy
incidents occurred. On the same night on which the arrests were effected
in Dublin, a body of Fenians were practising drill at a place called
Cullen in county Tipperary; a patrol of police came up and endeavoured to
disperse them; the Fenians then fired upon and wounded some of the police,
one man mortally. At Trim, in county Meath, several arrests were made,
among them that of Mr. Malone, one of the wealthiest and most respectable
merchants in the town; other persons moving in a respectable position
were also captured. At Queenstown, about a month later, two of the Town
Commissioners were arrested. These instances showed that the passage in
the Queen's Speech at the opening of the Session, speaking of the Fenian
movement as "a conspiracy adverse alike to authority, property, and
religion, and disapproved and condemned alike by all who are interested in
their maintenance," was unfortunately not quite exact.
In making a great display of force at the outset, the Irish executive
was probably pursuing the wisest and also the most humane course. Troops
kept pouring into Dublin; the 1st Battalion of the Coldstream Guards and
the 85th Regiment arrived there before the end of February, and were
followed by the 6th Dragoon Guards and a body of artillerymen, as well as
a detachment of the Military Train corps from Woolwich. The most stringent
measures were taken for stamping out any signs of disaffection that might
manifest themselves among the troops; nor was this severity without cause,
for not privates only, but several non-commissioned officers, were found
to have either taken the Fenian oath, or uttered treasonable language,
or been seen habitually in the company of notorious Fenians. Through the
greater part of March frequent arrests continued to be made; and by that
time the ranks of the disaffected were so depleted and discouraged, partly
by the arrest of the leaders, partly by the rush to America and England of
those who knew themselves to be most compromised among their followers,
that all fear of an outbreak was at an end.
The Act for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus was originally passed
for six months only, and would have expired on the 1st of September; but
as the new Ministry felt that to allow it to expire would endanger the
public peace, they sought and obtained from Parliament at the beginning of
August the enactment of a Bill renewing the former Act for an indefinite
period. Lord Naas, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, stated that from the
suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act up to the 23rd of July, 419 persons
who had been imprisoned had been discharged, generally on condition that
they should leave the country. From every authority he learned that it
would be dangerous to permit the sudden and simultaneous liberation of the
320 prisoners who remained in custody; yet such liberation was unavoidable
if the Act were allowed to expire. He spoke of the fact that, although
suppressed in Ireland, at any rate as to any public manifestations, the
Fenian conspiracy still existed in force in another country; that there
were still in Ireland newspapers advocating the Fenian cause, which
disseminated seditious and treasonable sentiments through the country;
and that secret drillings of the population had been lately renewed. Mr.
Maguire protested against the renewal of the Act, on the ground that there
was no disorder now in Ireland which the ordinary powers of the law were
not adequate to deal with. On the other hand, Mr. Gladstone--while stating
his opinion that the renewal of the Act burdened Government with a very
heavy responsibility, and made it incumbent on them to investigate with
renewed ardour, and to remove by wise legislation, whatever grievances and
inequalities, existing in the laws and institutions of Ireland, supplied
a necessary aliment to the disaffection of the Irish people--declared
that if the late Government had been still in power it would have been
their duty to have made the same application to Parliament as that which
was then being made by the existing Government. The Bill was passed by a
large majority in the Commons, and on being sent up to the House of Lords,
was supported in a remarkable speech by the Earl of Kimberley, formerly
Lord Wodehouse. The ex-Lord-Lieutenant declared that if he had remained in
office he should have recommended the adoption of this Bill by Parliament.
No one except those intimately acquainted with the facts could be aware
how formidable the Fenian conspiracy had been. Since 1798 there had not
existed so dangerous a condition of the public mind as in the past year.
The promoters of the scheme had not been found in the poorer and more
ignorant classes, but belonged to the class that was best described as
artisans and small tradesmen; whilst in the south-west of Ireland, if a
rebellion had broken out, there was no doubt the farmers also would have
been ready to take part in it. Adverting to the alleged grievances of
Ireland, the speaker observed that the question of land tenure was one
that must shortly occupy the earnest attention of Parliament, and that
the anomaly of the Irish Church must also be considered. The Bill soon
became law; and, although nothing like an open rising was attempted during
the remainder of the year, nor was a drop of blood shed, still it is
impossible to doubt but that the extraordinary powers placed in the hands
of the executive enabled them to act with far greater promptitude against
the first symptoms of insurrection, and with far less of friction and
popular irritation, than would have been possible in conjunction with the
somewhat cumbrous safeguards and formalities which in quiet times protect
the personal liberty of the subject.
Seditious and alarmist articles in Irish papers, rumours carefully
propagated of Fenian expeditions about to land on some point of the Irish
coast, and the certainty that arms were being continually manufactured
or imported, and distributed through the country, kept the Government
on the _qui vive_ all through the autumn; but the rumours were probably
malicious, and certainly false, and no actual outbreak occurred. In
America matters did not proceed quite so smoothly. Since the arrival
of Stephens in the United States, the Fenians in that country had been
distracted by a split that arose between their leaders. That the British
Empire should be destroyed was a political axiom admitted both by Sweeny
and Stephens: it was only upon the _modus operandi_ that these redoubtable
chiefs differed. Sweeny appears to have considered that it was necessary
to annex Canada first, and thence proceed to the conquest of Ireland;
Stephens, on the other hand, desired that all other plans should be made
subordinate to the preparation of a formidable Fenian expedition, which
should disembark at some point in the west of Ireland. Loud was the debate
and voluble the discussion. The Fenian "senate" and most of the American
Fenians adhered to Sweeny, while the Irish whose expatriation was of
recent date swore by Stephens. Sweeny denounced Stephens as a "British
spy," and doubtless Stephens was not at a loss for a fit epithet by which
to characterise Sweeny. The valiant Sweeny, as the year wore on, took
measures to test the soundness of his strategic plan for the invasion of
Ireland _viâ_ Canada. On the morning of the 1st of June, 1866, a body
of Fenians, numbering 1,000 men, under the command of a Colonel O'Neil,
crossed the Niagara River from Buffalo, where it enters Lake Erie, and
occupied the farm or hamlet called Fort Erie on the Canadian shore. The
news of this absurd raid, with which the Fenians of the United States
had been threatening Canada for months past, quickly reached Toronto;
and the authorities there at once despatched all the troops they could
collect to the scene of action. One thousand five hundred men, mostly
regulars, under the command of Colonel Peacocke, marched by way of the
Falls of Niagara and the village of Chippeway; while 500 militiamen, under
Colonel Dennis, were sent by rail to Port Colborne. The Fenians made no
forward movement that day, nor were they molested at Fort Erie; but by
some extraordinary accident Colonel Dennis and a few of his men allowed
themselves to be taken prisoners by them. The command of the militia then
devolved upon Colonel Booker, who, on the morning of June 2nd, led his
men forward from Port Colborne, along the margin of Lake Erie, to attack
the invaders. Colonel Peacocke, misled by a report that the Fenians were
marching upon Chippeway, led his forces to that place, and thus had no
share in the trifling action that ensued. Arrived at a village called
Ridgway, about half-way between Port Colborne and Fort Erie, Colonel
Booker fell in with the Fenian column, which was advancing along the lake.
A skirmish ensued, in which six militiamen were killed and forty wounded,
the Fenians suffering about equally. Finding himself outnumbered, Colonel
Booker retired towards Port Colborne. The Fenians did not pursue; probably
by this time they had heard of the proximity of Colonel Peacocke with
his regulars. Wisely deeming discretion the better part of valour, they
recrossed the Niagara on the night of the 2nd of July, leaving a few of
their wounded and some stragglers--in all about sixty men--in the hands of
the loyalists.
[Illustration: KILMAINHAM GAOL, DUBLIN.
(_From a Photograph by W. Lawrence, Dublin._)]
Another raid, still more foolish and reckless than the first, was
executed by the Fenians on the 7th of June, when, to the number of
2,000 or 3,000 men, led by a General Spear, they crossed the frontier
from the State of Vermont and occupied a little village called Pigeon
Hill, not far from Montreal. Some slight skirmishes between this force
and some bodies of yeomanry and militia that were hastily sent against
them took place; after which Spear led his warriors back again, and was
immediately arrested, along with Sweeny and another Fenian leader called
Roberts, by the United States authorities. Indeed, nothing could be more
honourable than the conduct of the American Government during the whole
affair. President Johnson issued a proclamation denouncing the act of the
Fenians in carrying war into the territories of a friendly nation as a
gross violation of the laws of the United States, and requiring all Union
officials to repress such illegal acts by every means in their power, and
to place under arrest any persons who should be found committing them. The
indignation of the Canadians at these outrages--as disgraceful as they
were absurd--was very great; and the funerals of the slain militiamen were
celebrated with extraordinary pomp, and attended by an immense concourse
of persons.
Fenianism had its victims in America; in Ireland, as has been seen, its
ebullitions were so far bloodless. The day before Christmas-day, which
rumour had assigned as the date of a rising, passed off in tranquillity;
and the threats and predictions of the national journals were found to be
mere waste of words. The conspirators must have been conscious that their
proceedings hitherto had been less formidable than ridiculous, and they
determined, if they could, to give the authorities some justification for
the additional precautions that had been taken.
One of the most strongly marked personalities of the day--that of William
Whewell, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge--was taken from English
society in the March of this year. Cambridge men all over the world
associated for many years their recollections of the University with
the well-known form of the Master of Trinity. His towering and stalwart
form, flashing eye, strong vibrating voice, the generally menacing and
formidable aspect of the man, were external characteristics that deeply
impressed every freshman on his arrival, and were never forgotten in
after life. Many works on various subjects attested the activity and
versatility of his intellect; but it is only those on mathematical and
physical problems that possess exceptional value. John Keble, who died at
Bournemouth on the 29th of March, in his seventy-fourth year, participated
but little in the public life of England. His was not the dignified and
conspicuous career of the ecclesiastical luminary of a great city; the
press did not circulate the masterpieces of his pulpit eloquence; nor was
he a frequenter of missionary or charitable platforms; yet it is probably
no exaggeration to say that for thirty years no one man so powerfully
influenced the inner life of the Church of England as the vicar of
Hursley. The readers of Cardinal Newman's "Apologia" will remember how
strikingly this point is brought out by him, how clearly he traces back to
the mind of John Keble, rather than to that of any other single man, the
germ of the great Tractarian movement, while the "Christian Year" appealed
to the devotional necessities of innumerable souls.