THE REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. (_concluded_).
Prorogation of Parliament--Agitation against the House of
Lords--O'Connell's Crusade--Inquiry into the Orange Lodges--Report
of the Committee--Mr. Hume's Motion--Renewed Attack in 1836--The
Lodges dissolved--Lord Mulgrave in Ireland--His Progresses--Wrath
of the Orangemen--Prosperity of the Country--Condition of Canada--A
Commission appointed--Violence of the King--Lord Gosford in
Canada--His Failure to pacify the Canadians--Upper Canada--Pepys
becomes Lord Chancellor--Opening of Parliament--The King's
Speech--O'Connell and Mr. Raphael--The Newspaper Duty--The Irish
Poor--Appointment of a Commission--Its numerous Reports--The Third
Report--Private Bills on the Subject--Mr. Nicholls' Report--Lord
John Russell's Bill--Abandonment of the Measure--Debate on
Agriculture--Finance--The Ecclesiastical Commission--Its first
Report--The Commission made permanent--The Tithe Commutation
Act--The Marriage Act--The Registration Act--Commercial
Panics--Foreign Affairs--Russian Aggression--Occupation of
Cracow--Disorder in Spain--Revolution in Portugal--Position of the
Ministry--A Speech of Sheil's--The Church Rates Bill--Death of the
King--His Treatment of the Ministry.
After a lengthened and toilsome Session Parliament was at length
prorogued by the king in person on the 10th of September. Several
important measures which had passed the Commons were rejected by
the Lords. Their resistance had caused great difficulty in carrying
through the imperatively demanded measures of Municipal Reform; and
they had deprived the Irish Church Temporalities Act of one of its
principal features. But their obstructive action was not confined to
great political measures of that kind. They rejected the Dublin Police
Bill, and other measures of practical reform. The consequence was that
the Liberal party began to ask seriously whether the absolute veto
which the Lords possessed, and which they sometimes used perversely
and even factiously, was compatible with the healthful action of
the legislature and the well-being of the country. It was roundly
asserted that the experience of the last two years had demonstrated the
necessity of reform in the House of Lords. The question was extensively
agitated, it was constantly discussed in the press, public meetings
were held throughout the country upon it, and numerous petitions were
presented to Parliament with the same object. On the 2nd of September
Mr. Roebuck, while presenting one of these petitions, announced his
intention of introducing early in the next Session a Bill to deprive
the House of Lords of its veto upon all measures of legislation, and
to substitute for it a suspense of power, so that if a Bill thrown
out by the Lords should pass the Commons a second time, and receive
the Royal Assent, it might become law without the concurrence of the
Peers. Mr. Ripon also gave notice of a motion to remove the bishops
from the House of Peers; while Mr. Hume indignantly denounced the
humiliating ceremonials observed in the intercourse between the Commons
and the Lords. Although the whole proceeding at a conference between
the two Houses consists of the exchange of two pieces of paper, oral
discussions not being permitted, the members of the House of Commons
are obliged to wait upon the Lords, standing with their hats off, the
members of the Upper House, as if they were masters, remaining seated
with their hats on. The state of feeling among the working classes on
this subject was expressed in the strongest language in an address
to Mr. O'Connell from the "non-franchised inhabitants of Glasgow."
They warmly deprecated the unmanly and submissive manner in which the
Ministers and the Commons had bowed bare-headed to the refractory
Lords. They demanded that responsibility should be established in every
department of the State; and they said, "As the House of Lords has
hitherto displayed a most astounding anomaly in this enlightened age by
retaining the right to legislate by birth or Court favour, and being
thereby rendered irresponsible, it follows it must be cut down as a
rotten encumbrance, or be so cured as to be made of some service to the
State, as well as amenable to the people."
Indeed, Mr. O'Connell's agitating tour in the North of England and
in Scotland was in effect a crusade against the Lords. In a speech
which he addressed to an immense assemblage of the working classes
of Manchester, he said, if there were only one House of Parliament,
a majority of that House, perhaps a faction, might become the rulers
of the entire nation. He was, therefore, for two Houses, but they
should be honest and competent. Why should a man be a legislator
because his father was one? It was as reasonable to expect that a man
would be a good tailor on the hereditary principle. The Lords had
proved themselves to be arrant botchers in the work of legislation.
Were they to have 170 masters of that class? He then proceeded in
this strain:--"Will you endure that any gang or banditti, I care not
by what name you call them, should treat you contemptuously? In one
word, I call them rogues. We must put down the House of Lords. Ye are
miserable minions of power. Ye have no choice for yourselves till that
House be thoroughly reformed. Let the king retain his prerogative of
raising men to that rank and station to which they may be eligible.
Let every 200,000 men in Great Britain and Ireland select one lord
from this list; that will give you 120 for the 24,000,000; let them
be re-eligible every five years, and you will have a steady Chamber."
Still, the outrageous attacks of Mr. O'Connell gave much offence, and
when, on his return to Dublin after his crusade, he was invited to
dinner by the Lord-Lieutenant, a violent storm was raised against the
Government, and the king was greatly indignant.
[Illustration: CONFERENCE BETWEEN THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, 1835. (_See
p._ 392.)]
The Tory party sustained serious damage in consequence of an inquiry
on the subject of Orange lodges in the army, which was granted in
May, on the motion of Mr. Finn, an Irish member. Very startling
disclosures were made by this committee during Sir Robert Peel's brief
Administration. Various addresses had been presented from Orange
societies, which led to pertinacious questioning of the Ministers. It
was asked whether the addresses in question purported to come from
Orange societies; whether the king ought to receive addresses from
illegal associations; and whether it was true, as the newspapers said,
that such addresses had been graciously received by his Majesty. There
was a peculiar significance given to these inquiries by an impression
that began to prevail that there had been on foot for some years
a conspiracy to prevent the Princess Victoria from ascending the
throne, and to secure the sovereignty for the eldest brother of the
king, the Duke of Cumberland, the avowed head of the Tory party, and
also the head of the Orange Society, through whose instrumentality
the revolution was to be effected, in furtherance of which Orange
lodges had been extensively organised in the army. The report of the
committee was presented in September, and from this report it appeared
that Orange lodges were first held in England under Irish warrants;
but that in 1808 a lodge was founded in Manchester, and warrants were
issued for the holding of lodges under English authority. On the death
of the Grand Master in that town, in 1821, the lodge was removed to
London, where the meetings were held in the house of Lord Kenyon,
Deputy Grand Master. The Duke of York had been prevented from assuming
the office of Grand Master, because the law officers of the Crown were
of opinion that the society was illegal. The Act against political
associations in Ireland having expired in 1828, the Orange lodges
started forth in vigorous and active existence, under the direction of
the Duke of Cumberland as Grand Master. The passing of the Emancipation
Act seems to have had the effect of driving the leaders of the society
into a conspiracy to counteract its operation, or to bring about a
counter-revolution by means of this treasonable organisation; though,
perhaps, they did not consider it treasonable, as their object was
to place upon the throne the brother of the king, whom they thought
to be alone capable of preserving the Constitution, and of excluding
from it a very young princess, who would be during her minority in the
hands of Whigs and Radicals, whom they believed to be leagued together
to destroy it. Considering the frenzy of party spirit at this time,
and the conditional loyalty openly professed by the men who annually
celebrated the battle of the Boyne and the glorious Revolution of 1688,
there is nothing very surprising in the course adopted by the Orange
societies, though the English public were astounded when they learnt
for the first time, in 1835, that there were 140,000 members of this
secret society in England, of whom 40,000 were in London; and that the
army was to a large extent tainted.
In 1828, when the Duke of Cumberland became Grand Master, he issued a
commission to his "trusty, well-beloved, and right worshipful brother,
Lieutenant-Colonel Fairman," whom he had chosen from a knowledge of
his experience and a confidence in his integrity. This commission was
signed as follows: "Given under my seal at St. James's, this 13th day
of August, 1828. Ernest G. M." In the fulfilment of his commission,
Colonel Fairman went to Dublin, in order to bring the Irish and English
lodges into one uniform system of secret signs and passwords. He also
made two extensive tours in England and Scotland, for the purpose of
extending the system through the large towns and populous districts.
From letters written by Colonel Fairman at various dates, we gather
that he hoped to strike the foe with awe by assuming an attitude of
boldness; that they had inculcated the doctrine of passive obedience
and non-resistance "too religiously by far;" that Lords Kenyon,
Londonderry, Longford, and Cole had written about their prospects in
the highest spirits; that Lord Wynford and other chiefs denounced the
Melbourne Administration to the Duke of Cumberland; that if the duke
would make a tour in the country, for which Fairman had prepared the
way, he would be idolised; that Lord Kenyon had in two years spent
nearer £20,000 than £10,000 on behalf of the good cause; that Lord
Roden wrote to him about "our cause;" that they wanted another "sound
paper" as well as the _Morning Post_ to advocate the cause--the cause,
as they professed, of all the friends of Christianity who devoutly
cherished the hope of the arrival of a day of reckoning, when certain
"hell-hounds would be called upon to pay the full penalty of their
cold-blooded tergiversations." It was found that of 381 lodges existing
in Great Britain, 30 were in the army, and--the inquiry having been
extended to the colonies on the motion of Mr. Hume--that lodges had
been established among the troops at Bermuda, Gibraltar, Malta, Corfu,
New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, and the North American colonies.
The Bishop of Salisbury was Lord Prelate and Grand Chaplain of the
order, and there were a number of clergymen of the Church chaplains.
No Dissenter in England belonged to the body, though it included many
Presbyterians in Ireland, where the members amounted to 175,000, who
were ready at any time to take the field.
Before the report of the committee was presented, Mr. Hume, on the 4th
of August, moved eleven resolutions declaring the facts connected with
Orangeism, proposing an Address to the king, and calling his Majesty's
attention to the Duke of Cumberland's share in those transactions. Lord
John Russell, evidently regarding the business as being of extreme
gravity, moved that the debate be adjourned to the 11th of August,
plainly to allow the Duke of Cumberland an opportunity of retiring
from so dangerous a connection; but instead of doing so, he published
a letter to the chairman of the committee, stating that he had signed
blank warrants, and did not know that they were intended for the army.
Lord John Russell expressed his disappointment at this illogical
course. If what he stated was true, that his confidence was abused by
the members of the society in such a flagrant manner, he should have
indignantly resigned his post of Grand Master, but he expressed no
intention of doing so. Mr. Hume's last resolution, proposing an Address
to the king, was adopted, and his answer, which was read to the House,
promised the utmost vigilance and vigour. On the 19th the House was
informed that Colonel Fairman had refused to produce to the committee
a letter-book in his possession, which was necessary to throw light on
the subject of their inquiry. He was called before the House, where he
repeated his refusal, though admonished by the Speaker. The next day an
order was given that he should be committed to Newgate for a breach of
privilege, but it was then found that he had absconded.
It was now proposed that as the Orange leaders had violated the law
as much as the Dorsetshire labourers, they should be dealt with in
the same manner, and that if evidence could be obtained, the Duke of
Cumberland, Lord Kenyon, the Bishop of Salisbury, Colonel Fairman, and
the rest should be prosecuted in the Central Criminal Court. There was
an Orangeman, named Heywood, who had betrayed his confederates, and
was about to be prosecuted by them for libel. The opponents of the
Orangemen, believing his allegations to be borne out by the evidence
given before the committee, resolved to have him defended by able
counsel, retaining for the purpose Serjeant Wilde, Mr. Charles Austen,
and Mr. Charles Buller. All the necessary preparations were made for
the trial, when Heywood suddenly died, having broken a blood-vessel
through agitation of mind, and alarm lest he should somehow become
the victim of an association so powerful, whose vengeance he had
excited by what they denounced as treachery and calumny. The criminal
proceedings, therefore, were abandoned. Almost immediately after the
opening of Parliament in February, 1836, Mr. Finn and Mr. Hume again
made a statement in the House of Commons of the whole case against the
Duke of Cumberland and the Orange Society, and proposed a resolution
which seemed but a just consequence of their terrible indictment. The
resolution declared the abhorrence of Parliament of all such secret
political associations, and proposed an Address to the king requesting
him to cause the dismissal of all Orangemen and members of any other
secret political association from all offices civil and military,
unless they ceased to be members of such societies within one month
after the issuing of a proclamation to that effect. Lord John Russell
proposed a middle course, and moved, as an amendment, an Address to the
king praying that his Majesty would take such measures as should be
effectual for the suppression of the societies in question. Mr. Hume
having withdrawn his resolution, the amendment was adopted unanimously.
The king expressed concurrence with the Commons; a copy of his reply
was sent to the Duke of Cumberland, as Grand Master, by the Home
Secretary. The duke immediately sent an intimation that before the
last debate in the Commons he had recommended the dissolution of the
Orange societies in Ireland, and that he would immediately proceed
to dissolve all such societies elsewhere. "In a few days," Harriet
Martineau remarked, "the thing was done, and Orangeism became a matter
of history."
But whatever may have been the prudence of the chiefs of the party in
Britain, however quietly the suppression may have been effected on
the English side of St. George's Channel, the society was very far
from dying quietly, or dying at all in Ireland, its native land. It
was stunned for the moment, but very soon recovered all its pristine
vigour and became as troublesome as ever. Lord Mulgrave went to that
country as Viceroy, determined to govern on the principle of strict
impartiality between sects and parties, but the Orangemen and the
Tories generally denounced him as the most partial and one-sided of
Viceroys. It was enough for them that O'Connell declared him to be
the best Englishman that ever came to Ireland. Eulogy from his lips
was the strongest possible censure in the estimation of the opposite
party. The violence of party feeling against the Government may be
inferred from the fact that the Recorder of Dublin, Mr. Shaw, one
of the ablest and most eloquent of the Protestant chiefs, denounced
the Melbourne Administration as infidels in religion. Lord Mulgrave,
imitating some of the Viceroys of old times, made a "progress" of
conciliation through the country, first visiting the south and then the
north. This progress was signalised by the pardon and liberation of a
large number of prisoners, which produced much excitement and clamour
against the Government. It subsequently appeared that he had during
his viceroyalty liberated 822 prisoners, of whom 388 were liberated
without advice, the number of memorials which he received being 1,631.
Although he evinced his impartiality by setting free all the Orangemen
who had been imprisoned in Ulster for taking part in processions on the
previous 12th of July, the members of that body were not conciliated.
The Dublin Grand Committee published a manifesto, declaring that
the mere will of the king was not law, and that their watchword
should still be "No Surrender." Sir Harcourt Lees, who had been long
famous as an Orange agitator, issuing counter-blasts to O'Connell's
letters and speeches, concluded one of his appeals on this occasion
thus:--"Orangemen, increase and multiply; be tranquil, be vigilant.
Put your trust in God, still revere your king, and keep your powder
dry." In Ulster the organs of the Orange party called upon its members
to resist the law against processions, since the provisions of the
Emancipation Act against the Jesuits and other religious orders, who
treated the law with defiance, were allowed to remain a dead letter.
The _Londonderry Sentinel_ warned off the Liberal Viceroy from that
citadel of Protestant ascendency, and said, "If he should come among
us, he shall see such a display of Orange banners as will put him into
the horrors." The irritation was kept up by various incidents, such
as setting aside the election of a mayor of Cork, because he was an
Orangeman, setting aside two sheriffs, and the dismissal of constables
for the same reason. In the meantime a tremendous outcry was raised
on account of the alleged partiality of the Irish Government on the
subject of patronage. It was said that every office was at the disposal
of the Roman Catholics; that from the bench of justice down to the
office of police-constable there was no chance for any one else. In the
midst of a war of factions in the spring of 1836 a tremendous sensation
was produced by the blowing up of the statue of King William on College
Green. On the 8th of February, a little after midnight, this astounding
event occurred. The statue stood on a pedestal eighteen feet in height,
surrounded by an enclosure of iron railing, the head being about thirty
feet from the level of the street. The figure consisted of lead, and
though weighing several tons, it was blown up to a considerable height,
and fell at some distance from the pedestal. The Government and the
corporation offered rewards for the discovery of the authors of this
outrage, but without success. It was a mystery how such a quantity of
gunpowder could have been got into the statue, and how a train could
have been laid without detection in so public a place, the police being
always on duty on College Green at night. King William, however, was
restored to his position.
Happily, the prevalence as well as the acerbity of party spirit was
restrained by the prosperous state of the country in the winter of
1835-36. There were, indeed, unusual indications of general contentment
among the people. Allowing for partial depression in agriculture, all
the great branches of national industry were flourishing. The great
clothing districts of Yorkshire and Lancashire, both woollen and
cotton, were all in a thriving condition. Even in the silk trade of
Macclesfield, Coventry, and Spitalfields, there were no complaints,
nor yet in the hosiery and lace trades of Nottingham, Derby, and
Leicester, while the potteries of Staffordshire, and the iron trade in
all its branches, were unusually flourishing. Of course, the shipping
interest profited by the internal activity of the various manufactures
and trades. Money was cheap, and speculation was rife. The farmers,
it is true, complained, but their agricultural distress to a certain
extent was felt to be chronic. Farming was considered a poor trade,
its profits, on the average, ranging below those of commerce. Most of
the farmers being tenants at will, and their rents being liable to
increase with their profits, they were not encouraged to invest much in
permanent improvements.
But if Great Britain was prosperous, the affairs of Canada got into a
very disturbed state, and became a source of trouble for some time to
the Government in the mother country. To the conflicting elements of
race and religion were added the discontents arising from misgovernment
by a distant Power not always sufficiently mindful of the interests of
the colony. For many years after Lower Canada, a French province, had
come into the possession of Britain, a large portion of the country
westward--lying along the great lakes--now known as Upper Canada,
nearly double the extent of England, was one vast forest, constituting
the Indian hunting-ground. In 1791, when by an Act of the Imperial
Parliament the colony received a constitution, and was divided into
Upper and Lower Canada, with separate legislatures, the amount of the
white population in Upper Canada was estimated at 50,000. Twenty years
later it had increased to 77,000, and in 1825 emigration had swelled
its numbers to 158,000, which in 1830 was increased to 210,000, and in
1834 the population exceeded 320,000, the emigration for the last five
years having proceeded at the rate of 12,000 a year. The disturbances
which arose in 1834 caused a check to emigration; but when tranquillity
was restored it went on rapidly increasing, till, in 1852, it was
nearly a million. The increase of wealth was not less remarkable. The
total amount of assessable property, in 1830, was £1,854,965; 1835,
£3,407,618; 1840, £4,608,843; 1845, £6,393,630.
[Illustration: IRISH PRISONERS LIBERATED DURING LORD MULGRAVE'S
PROGRESS. (_See p._ 396.)]
Lower Canada was inhabited chiefly by French Canadians, speaking the
French language, retaining their ancient laws, manners, and religion,
wedded to old customs in agriculture, and stationary in their habits.
Of its population, amounting to 890,000 in 1852, nearly three-fourths
were of French origin, the remainder being composed of emigrants
from Great Britain and Ireland and other countries, while in Upper
Canada the number of French was under 27,000. Lower Canada, however,
might have been expected to make much more rapid progress from its
natural advantages in being much nearer to the seaboard of the Gulf
of St. Lawrence, and being enabled to monopolise much of the ocean
navigation, which terminated at Montreal. Thus, the cities of Quebec
and Montreal rose quickly into importance when the Upper Province
began to be settled. In 1827 the cities had each a population of above
27,000; but by the census of 1852 it was found that Quebec had a
population of 42,000, and Montreal 57,000. The growth of the towns of
Upper Canada was still more rapid. In 1817 Toronto, then called Little
York, had only 1,200 inhabitants; in 1826 it had scarcely 1,700; but
in 1836 it had risen to 10,000. Among the other principal towns of
Upper Canada were Hamilton, Kingston, London, and Bytown (now called
Ottawa), which grew rapidly. Situated so near Europe, and offering
inexhaustible supplies of fertile and cheap land, with light taxes
and a liberal government, it was natural to expect in Upper Canada a
mixed population, and an analysis of the census of 1852 showed that
its inhabitants were composed of people from most of the countries of
Europe. The largest single element was composed of Canadians, not of
French origin, upwards of half a million; the next of Irish, 176,267;
then English, 82,699; Scottish, 75,811; from the United States, 43,732;
Germany and Holland, 10,000. Many of those settlers emigrated from the
old countries to avoid the pressure of distress. They consisted, to a
large extent, of the worst paid classes of workmen, such as hand-loom
weavers, that had lost employment by the introduction of machinery.
Those persons were now found to be in the enjoyment of independence, as
the proprietors of well-cleared and well-cultivated farms, having all
the necessaries of life in abundance.
Such are the elements which constituted the nucleus of that great
nation which has been growing up under the British sceptre in North
America. The French and Roman Catholic portions of the community
could be most easily excited to disaffection against their Protestant
governors, and in 1834 the irritation of the popular mind, supposed to
be chiefly the work of the clergy, had risen to such a height that the
Home Government thought it prudent to recall the Governor, Lord Aylmer,
supposing his administration to be the cause of it. Sir Robert Peel
appointed Lord Amherst as his successor. In one respect he was not the
best that could be selected; for though his antecedents and experience
were sufficient to warrant the appointment, the name must have been
obnoxious to the priests and people of Lower Canada, as it was by the
arms of his uncle, whose title he inherited, that the province had been
wrested from France. He had been at one time ambassador to China, and
subsequently Governor-General of India. He had, however, no opportunity
of testing his administrative abilities in this new field, for after
the fall of Peel the Melbourne Government determined on associating
him with two Commissioners. Lord Melbourne thereupon sent out the
Earl of Gosford as Governor, with a Board of Commissioners, of which
he was chairman, to inquire into the grievances by which the colony
was agitated. The Government having refused to sanction a Bill that
had been brought into the Lower House of Assembly for the purpose of
rendering the Upper House elective, the Lower House had recourse to
the extreme proceeding of stopping the supplies. The salaries of all
the public servants ceased to be paid, in consequence of which the
Colonial Secretary authorised the Governor to advance £31,000 from the
military chest to meet the emergency. The Governor having required
time to consider the answer he should give in these circumstances, the
Opposition members all withdrew; and they were so numerous that they
did not leave a quorum to carry on the public business.
It was in these peculiar circumstances that the extraordinary measure
was adopted of sending out a commission. The king, however, was furious
at what he regarded as a breach of his prerogative. He told Sir George
Grey, one of the Commission, in the presence of his Ministers, that he
was to assert the prerogative of the Crown, which persons who ought
to have known better had dared to deny, and that he was to recollect
that Lower Canada had been conquered by the sword. A week later he
favoured Lord Gosford with this outburst--"By God I will never consent
to alienate the Crown lands, nor to make the Council elective. Mind,
my lord, the Cabinet is not my Cabinet. They had better take all, or
by God I will have them impeached." As Lord Glenelg, the Colonial
Secretary, was the person alluded to in the first sally, the Ministry
drew up a strongly worded remonstrance which was read to the king
by Lord Melbourne. But Lord Glenelg's instructions to Lord Gosford
were toned down, and his mission was therefore foredoomed to failure.
It was found that the sense of grievance and the complaints of bad
government prevailed in both provinces, though of a different character
in each. The _habitants_ of the Lower Province complained of the
preference shown by the Government to the British settlers and to the
English language over the French. Englishmen, they said, monopolised
the public offices, which they administered with the partiality and
injustice of a dominant race. They complained also of the interference
of the Government in elections, and of its unreasonable delay in
considering or sanctioning the Bills passed by the Assembly. They
insisted, moreover, that the Upper House, corresponding to the House
of Peers, should be elective, instead of being appointed by the Crown
and subject to its will. In the Upper Province the chief grounds of
discontent arose from the want of due control over the public money
and its expenditure. Many of the electors had gone out from Great
Britain and Ireland during the Reform agitation, bearing with them
strong convictions and excited feelings on the subject of popular
rights, and they were not at all disposed to submit to monopoly in
the colony of their adoption, after assisting to overthrow it in the
mother country. Lord Gosford opened the Assembly in November, 1835,
and in the course of his speech he said, "I have received the commands
of our most gracious Sovereign to acquaint you that his Majesty is
disposed to place under the control of the representatives of the
people all public moneys payable to his Majesty or to his officers in
this province, whether arising from taxes or from any other source.
The accounts which will be submitted to your examination show the
large arrears due as salaries to public officers and for the ordinary
expenditure of the Government; and I earnestly request of you to pass
such votes as may effect the liquidation of these arrears, and provide
for the maintenance of the public servants, pending the inquiry by the
Commissioners."
This concession, though deemed by the Home Government a large one, did
not satisfy the Canadians. They took it as an instalment, but gave no
pledge to make the return that was sought, by liquidating the arrears.
In their answer to the Governor they said, "The great body of the
people of this province, without distinction, consider the extension
of the elective principle, and its application to the constitution
of the Legislative Council in particular, and the repeal of the Acts
passed in Great Britain on matters concerning the internal government
of the province, as fully within the jurisdiction of the provincial
Parliament, as well as the privileges conferred by such Acts; and
the full and unrestrained enjoyment on the part of the legislature
and of this House of their legislative and constitutional rights,
as being essential to the prosperity and welfare of his Majesty's
faithful subjects in Canada, as well as necessary to insure their
future confidence in his Government, their future contentment under
it, and to remove the causes which have been obstacles to it." Mr.
Roebuck had become their champion and paid agent in the British House
of Commons, and one of their first acts was to insert the agent's bill
for the amount of his expenses (£500) in the public accounts. This the
Government refused to sanction, whereupon the Assembly took it upon
them to pass it themselves without such sanction. The temper exhibited
on both sides in these proceedings indicated no sign of a fair prospect
of conciliation between the ruler and the ruled, more especially as
the British Government exhibited anything but a conciliatory spirit.
The discontent and agitation went on increasing during the following
year. The Assembly rose in its demands, still persisting in refusing
to vote the supplies. They required that the "executive council" of
the Governor should be subjected to their control, and that their
proceedings should be made public. The Assembly, in fact, had become
quite refractory, owing to the violent measures of the democratic
party, led on by Papineau, the Canadian O'Connell.
The result of the general election in the Upper Province was favourable
to the Government; for of the 62 members returned, 44 were opposed to
the organic changes demanded by the majority of the old Assembly. The
result was that the Government and the legislature of this province
were able to work together harmoniously and satisfactorily. This
result, however, was said to be obtained by extraordinary, and not
always legitimate influence, on the part of the Government, and there
was a large body of malcontents who joined the Lower Province in its
rebellion, which occurred in 1837. The Governor of Upper Canada,
who brought about this favourable change, was Sir Francis Head, who
held the post of major in the army in 1835, when he was employed as
Assistant Poor Law Commissioner in the county of Kent. Lord Glenelg,
recognising in him a man of capacity and energy, fitted for a great
emergency, suddenly appointed him Governor of Upper Canada. He rendered
most important service afterwards in conducting the military operations
by which the rebellion was put down. Lord Gosford was not so successful
in the Lower Province. He was accused of having misled the people
by holding out false hopes, and both he and the Colonial Secretary,
under whose instructions he acted, were charged with something like
treachery, by hinting at great concessions and keeping the word of
promise to the ear, for the mere purpose of quieting the agitation and
evading the reforms demanded. Lord Gosford, unable to stem the torrent
of disaffection, dissolved the Assembly, and was recalled in order to
make way for Sir J. Colborne. Both these Governors rendered the most
important service in putting down the rebellion which soon afterwards
broke out, and effecting the pacification and union of the provinces,
which, as we shall hereafter see, were placed upon the solid basis of
self-government and equal rights.
The Great Seal had remained in commission ever since the resignation of
Sir Robert Peel, and it was supposed to be reserved for Lord Brougham
when the king's objections to his reappointment should be overcome.
Such, however was not the case, as Lord Melbourne was determined to
have nothing more to do with him. On the 1st of January, 1836, Sir
Charles Pepys, Master of the Rolls, was appointed to the office of
Lord Chancellor, and created a peer by the title of Lord Cottenham.
At the same time Mr. Henry Bickersteth, appointed Master of the
Rolls, was called to the Upper House by the title of Baron Langdale.
Lord Brougham, thus passed over, was too ill to make any protest,
but before long he assumed an attitude of active opposition to the
Ministry. Parliament was opened by the king in person on the 4th of
February, 1836, in a Speech remarkable for the number and variety of
its topics. It gave the usual assurances of the maintenance of friendly
relations with all Foreign Powers--expressed regret at the continuance
of the civil contest in the northern provinces of Spain, and hope of
a successful result to our mediation between France and the United
States. Referring to domestic affairs, the state of commerce and
manufactures was declared to be highly satisfactory; but difficulties
continued to press on agriculture. Measures were to be submitted
for increasing the efficiency of the Church, for the commutation of
tithes, for alleviating the grievances of Dissenters; and improvements
in the administration of justice were recommended, especially in the
Court of Chancery. The special attention of Parliament was directed
to the condition of the poor of Ireland, and it was suggested that as
experience had proved the salutary effect of the Poor Law Amendment
Act in England, a similar measure might be found useful in alleviating
the social condition of Ireland. Allusion was also made to the reform
of Irish corporations, and the adjustment of the Irish Tithe question,
which we have already disposed of in preceding pages. Chiefly with
reference to these questions, amendments to the Address were moved in
both Houses; in the Upper by the Duke of Wellington, whose amendment
was carried without a division; in the Commons Ministers won by 284
against 243.
On the 8th of February Lord John Russell brought forward the paragraph
of the Speech relating to agricultural distress, and moved for a
select committee to inquire into the causes of the depression of the
agricultural interest, although he confessed that he did not anticipate
any satisfactory result from the investigation. In this the noble lord
did not miscalculate, for after sitting for eight months the committee
could not agree to any report, and all the benefit they conferred
upon the public was an outline of the evidence which was laid before
the House at the end of the Session. On the 9th and the 12th the same
Minister submitted three measures to the House, which were passed
into law this Session--namely, a Bill for the Commutation of Tithes
in England; a Bill for a General Registration of Marriages, Births,
and Deaths; and another for the amendment of the Law of Marriage. On
the 16th of this month Mr. Hardy brought before the House of Commons
the case of Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Raphael. The latter gentleman was
one of the sheriffs of London, and he wished to represent an Irish
constituency. Mr. O'Connell thought it was possible to get him in
for the borough of Carlow; but he warned him that the expenses would
be £2,000, and that this sum should be deposited in a bank as a
preliminary, "say £2,000." It was alleged that this was a corrupt
bargain, and Mr. O'Connell was accused of selling a Parliamentary
seat. Mr. Hardy, therefore, moved for a select committee to investigate
the transaction. The committee was obtained, and the result was a
complete acquittal of Mr. O'Connell. So strong, however, was the
feeling against him that no less than sixty members of Brooks's Club
resigned, having failed to procure his expulsion.
[Illustration: JOSEPH HUME.]
Attention was now turned to a matter of the highest importance in a
commercial, an intellectual, and a moral point of view. The stamp
duty on newspapers had been the subject of keen agitation for some
months, and newspaper vendors had incurred repeated penalties for
the sale of unstamped newspapers; some of them having been not only
fined, but imprisoned. A general impression prevailed that such an
impost was impolitic, if not unjust, and that the time had come when
the diffusion of knowledge must be freed from the trammels by which it
had been so long restrained. A deputation, consisting of Dr. Birkbeck,
Mr. Hume, Colonel Thompson, Mr. O'Connell, Mr. Grote, Mr. Roebuck, Mr.
Brotherton, Mr. Wallace, and Mr. Buckingham, having, on the 11th of
February, waited upon Lord Melbourne, to ask for an entire abolition of
the stamp on newspapers, he promised to give his most serious attention
to the matter; and he kept his word, for on the 15th of the next month
the Chancellor of the Exchequer brought the subject before Parliament,
and announced the intentions of Government with regard to it. He stated
that it was proposed to revise the whole of the existing law respecting
stamp duties, first by consolidating into one statute the 150 Acts of
Parliament over which the law was at present distributed; secondly, by
the apportionment of the various rates on a new principle--namely, by
the simple and uniform rule of making the price of the stamp in every
case correspond to the pecuniary value involved in the transaction for
which it is required. The effect of this change would be to reduce
the stamp duty upon indentures of apprenticeship, bills of lading,
and many others of the more common instruments, and to increase it
upon mortgages and conveyances of large amounts of property. It was
intimated that the proposed Consolidation Act would contain no less
than 330 sections. With regard to the stamp on newspapers, then
fourpence with discount, it was proposed to reduce it to one penny
without discount. This would be a remission of a proportion, varying
according to the price of the newspaper, of between two-thirds and
three-fourths of the tax. To this remission Parliament assented,
and the illicit circulation of unstamped papers was in consequence
abandoned. Some of the members very reasonably objected to any stamp
whatever on newspapers; but the time was not yet come when Government
would venture entirely to remove it, although the advantages which
must necessarily arise from such a proceeding could not but have been
foreseen. It was considered unfair that the public at large should pay
for the carriage of newspapers by post; and it does not seem to have
been remembered that, as only a portion of them would be transmitted
in this way, an injustice would be committed by demanding payment for
all. The difficulty of the case was, however, in due time, easily
surmounted; and political knowledge was, by the change even then made,
in a great degree exempted from taxation--a good preparation for the
time, which was not very far off, when a newspaper of a high order
might be obtained, even for the reduced price of the stamp.
The condition of the Irish poor, and the expediency of a State
provision for their support, had long been a subject of anxious
consideration with the Imperial Government and the legislature, and
also with public men of every party who took an interest in the state
of the country. It was at length resolved that something should be done
for their regular relief. At the close of 1835 there had been a Poor
Law Commission in existence for more than two years, consisting of
men specially selected on account of their fitness for the task, and
standing high in public estimation, including the Protestant and Roman
Catholic Archbishops of Dublin. They were appointed, in September,
1833, "to inquire into the condition of the poorer classes in Ireland,
and into the various institutions at present established by law for
their relief, and also whether any and what further remedial measures
appear to be requisite to ameliorate the condition of the Irish poor or
any portion of them." In July, 1835, they made their first report, in
which they refer to the various theories with which they were assailed
in the course of their inquiries. "One party attributed all the poverty
and wretchedness of the country to an asserted extreme use of ardent
spirits, and proposed a system for repressing illicit distillation, for
preventing smuggling, and for substituting beer and coffee. Another
party found the cause in the combinations among workmen, and proposed
rigorous laws against trades unions. Others, again, were equally
confident that the reclamation of the bogs and waste lands was the only
practical remedy. A fourth party declared the nature of the existing
connection between landlord and tenant to be the root of all the evil.
Pawn-broking, redundant population, absence of capital, peculiar
religious tenets and religious differences, political excitement,
want of education, the maladministration of justice, the state of
prison discipline, want of manufactures and of inland navigation,
with a variety of other circumstances, were each supported by their
various advocates with earnestness and ability, as being either alone,
or conjointly with some other, the primary cause of all the evils
of society; and loan-funds, emigration, the repression of political
excitement, the introduction of manufactures, and the extension of
inland navigation, were accordingly proposed each as the principal
means by which the improvement of the country could be promoted."
In consequence of the difficulty of getting impartiality combined
with local information, the Commissioners determined to unite in the
inquiry "a native of Great Britain with a resident native of Ireland."
They were very slow in their investigations, and complaints were
made in Parliament and by the public of the time and money consumed
in the inquiry. In the early part of 1836 they made a second report,
in which they gave an account of the various institutions that had
been established for the relief of the poor, such as infirmaries,
dispensaries, fever hospitals, lunatic asylums, foundling hospitals,
houses of industry, the total charge of which amounted to about
£205,000, of which £50,000 consisted of Parliamentary grants, the
remainder being derived from grand jury presentments, voluntary
contributions, and other local sources. This second report, which
added little or nothing to the knowledge of the public on the subject,
and suggested no general plan for the relief of the poor, was by no
means satisfactory to the public. Mr. Nicholls was then a member of
the English Poor Law Commission; and the state of the Irish poor
being pressed upon his attention, he prepared for the consideration
of Government a series of suggestions, founded upon a general view
of social requirements and upon his experience of the English Poor
Law, coupled with the evidence appended to the Irish Commissioners'
first report. These suggestions were presented to Lord John Russell
in January, 1836, about the same time as the Commissioners' second
report. In due time that body published their third report, containing
the general results of their inquiry upon the condition of the people,
which may be summed up as follows:--There is not the same division
of labour which exists in Great Britain. The labouring class look to
agriculture alone for support, whence the supply of agricultural labour
greatly exceeds the demand for it, and small earnings and widespread
misery are the consequences. It appeared that in Great Britain the
agricultural families constituted little more than one-fourth, whilst
in Ireland they constituted about two-thirds of the whole population;
that there were in Great Britain, in 1831, 1,055,982 agricultural
labourers; in Ireland, 1,131,715, although the cultivated land of Great
Britain amounted to about 34,250,000 acres, and that of Ireland only to
about 14,600,000. So that there were in Ireland about five agricultural
labourers for every two that there were for the same quantity of land
in Great Britain. It further appeared that the agricultural progress
of Great Britain was more than four times that of Ireland; that
agricultural wages varied from sixpence to one shilling a day; that
the average of the country is about eightpence-halfpenny; and that the
earnings of the labourers come, on an average of the whole class, to
from two shillings to two and sixpence a week or thereabouts for the
year round. The Commissioners state that they "cannot estimate the
number of persons out of work and in distress during thirty weeks of
the year at less than 585,000, nor the number of persons dependent
upon them at less than 1,800,000, making in the whole 2,385,000. This,
therefore," it is added, "is about the number for which it would be
necessary to provide accommodation in workhouses, if all who required
relief were there to be relieved;" and they consider it impossible
to provide for such a multitude, or even to attempt it with safety.
The expense of erecting and fitting up the necessary buildings would,
they say, come to about £4,000,000; and, allowing for the maintenance
of each person twopence-halfpenny only a day (that being the expense
at the mendicity establishment of Dublin), the cost of supporting
the whole 2,385,000 for thirty weeks would be something more than
£5,000,000 a year; whereas the gross rental of Ireland (exclusive of
towns) is estimated at less than £10,000,000 a year, the net income of
the landlords at less than £6,000,000, and the public revenue is only
about £4,000,000. They could not, therefore, recommend the present
workhouse system of England as at all suited to Ireland.
Long quotations are then given from the several reports of the
Assistant Commissioners, showing that the feelings of the suffering
labourers in Ireland are also decidedly in favour of emigration.
They do not desire workhouses, it is said, but they do desire a free
passage to a colony where they may have the means of living by their
own industry. The Commissioners then declare that, upon the best
consideration they have been able to give to the whole subject, they
think that a legal provision should be made and rates levied for the
relief and support of curable as well as incurable lunatics, of idiots,
epileptic persons, cripples, deaf and dumb, and blind poor, and all
who labour under permanent bodily infirmities; such relief and support
to be afforded within the walls of public institutions; also for the
relief of the sick poor in hospitals and infirmaries, and convalescent
establishments; or by external attendance, and a supply of food as
well as medicine, where the persons to be relieved are not in a state
to be removed from home; also for the purpose of emigration, for the
support of penitentiaries--to which vagrants may be sent--and for the
maintenance of deserted children; also towards the relief of aged and
infirm persons, of orphans, of helpless widows, and young children, of
the families of sick persons, and of casual destitution. This report
was not signed by all the Commissioners. Three of them set forth their
reasons, in thirteen propositions, for dissenting from the principle of
the voluntary system, as recommended by the report.
At the opening of the Session of 1836, as we have seen, the king stated
in his Speech that a further report of the commission of inquiry into
the condition of the poorer classes in Ireland would be speedily laid
before Parliament. "You will approach this subject," he said, "with
the caution due to its importance and difficulty; and the experience
of the salutary effect produced by the Act for the amendment of the
laws relating to the poor in England and Wales may in many respects
assist your deliberations." On the 9th of February Sir Richard
Musgrave moved for leave to bring in a Bill for the relief of the
poor in Ireland in certain cases, stating that he himself lived in an
atmosphere of misery, and being compelled to witness it daily, he was
determined to pursue the subject, to see whether any and what relief
could be procured from Parliament. A few days later another motion was
made by the member for Stroud for leave to introduce a Bill for the
relief and employment of the poor of Ireland; and on the 3rd of March
a Bill was submitted by Mr. Smith O'Brien, framed upon the principles
of local administration by bodies representing the ratepayers, and a
general central supervision and control on the part of a body named
by the Government, and responsible to Parliament. On the 4th of May
Mr. Poulett Scrope, a gentleman who had given great attention to
questions connected with the poor and the working classes, moved a
series of resolutions affirming the necessity for some provision for
the relief of the Irish poor. Lord Morpeth was then Chief Secretary;
and in commenting upon these resolutions in the House of Commons, he
admitted "that the hideous nature of the evils which prevailed amongst
the poorer classes in Ireland called earnestly for redress, and he
thought no duty more urgent on the Government and on Parliament than
to devise a remedy for them." On the 9th of June following, on the
motion for postponing the consideration of Sir Richard Musgrave's Bill,
Lord Morpeth again assured the House that the subject was under the
immediate consideration of Government, and that he was not without
hope of their being enabled to introduce some preparatory measure in
the present Session; but, at all events, they would take the first
opportunity in the next Session of introducing what he hoped to be a
complete and satisfactory measure. Nothing, however, was done during
the Session, Government seeming to be puzzled to know what to do with
such conflicting testimony on a subject of enormous difficulty.
In order to get, if possible, more trustworthy information and a
clue out of the labyrinth, they gave directions to Mr. Nicholls to
proceed to Ireland, taking with him the reports of the Commissioners
of Inquiry, and there to examine how far it might be judicious or
practicable to offer relief to whole classes of the poor; whether
of the sick, the infirm, or orphan children; whether such relief
might not have the effect of promoting imposture without suppressing
mendicity; whether the condition of the great bulk of the poorer
classes would be improved by such a measure; whether any kind of
workhouse could be established which should not give its inmates
a superior degree of comfort to the common lot of the independent
labourer; whether the restraint of a workhouse would be an effectual
check to applicants for admission; and whether, if the system were
once established, the inmates would not resist by force the restraints
which would be necessary. He was further to inquire by what machinery
the funds for carrying out a Poor Law system could be best raised and
expended. He was dispensed from inquiring as to the extent and the
occasional severity of the destitution, though he properly questioned
the estimate of 2,385,000 as being excessive, and it was no doubt a
great exaggeration. On this point, Mr. Nicholls thought it enough to
state at the end of his mission that the misery prevalent among the
labouring classes in Ireland appeared to be "of a nature and intensity
calculated to produce great demoralisation and danger." His first
report was delivered on the 15th of November, 1836. His attention had
been particularly directed to the south and west, "everywhere examining
and inquiring as to the condition of the people, their character and
wants; and endeavouring to ascertain whether, and how far, the system
of relief established in England was applicable to the present state
of Ireland." The route from Cork round by the western coast, and
ending at Armagh, was deemed most eligible, because the inhabitants
of the manufacturing and commercial districts of the north and east
more nearly resembled the English than those of the southern and
western parts of Ireland; and if the English system should be found
applicable to the latter, there could be no doubt of its applicability
to the others. It was impossible, he said, to pass through the country
without being struck with the evidence of increasing wealth everywhere
apparent. Great as had been the improvement in England during the same
period, he believed that in Ireland it had been equal. The increase
of capital was steadily progressive. The great obstacles to its
more general application to the improvement of the country were the
excessive subdivision of land, and the dependence of the people for
subsistence upon the possession of a plot of potato-ground. One of the
most striking circumstances resulting from the want of employment was
the prevalence of mendicancy, with the falsehood and fraud which formed
part of the profession, and which spread its contagion among the lower
orders.
[Illustration: IRISH TRAMPS.]
Mr. Nicholls next applied himself to the solution of the problem how
the workhouse system, which had been safely and effectually applied
to depauperise England, might be applied with safety and efficiency
to put down mendicancy and relieve destitution in Ireland. In that
country the task was beset with peculiar difficulties. Assuming the
principle that the pauper should not be better off than the labourer,
it would be difficult to devise any workhouse dress, diet, or lodging
that would not be better than what many of the poor actually enjoyed.
But, on the other hand, the Irish poor were fond of change, hopeful,
sanguine, migratory, desultory in their habits, hating all restraints
of order and system, averse from the trouble of cleanliness; and rather
than be subject to the restrictions and regularity of a workhouse, an
Irishman, in health and strength, would wander the world over to obtain
a living. Hence, no matter how well he might be lodged, fed, and clad
in a workhouse, he could not endure the confinement. Consequently,
Mr. Nicholls found in the state of Ireland no sufficient reason for
departing from the principle of the English Poor Law, which recognises
destitution alone as the ground of relief, nor for establishing a
distinction in the one country that does not exist in the other.
It was upon this very able report of Mr. Nicholls that the Irish Poor
Law was based. After undergoing much consideration, it was finally
adopted by the Government on the 13th of December, 1836, and on the
following day he was directed to have a Bill prepared, embodying
all his recommendations. This was accordingly done; and after being
scrutinised, clause by clause, in a committee of the Cabinet specially
appointed for the purpose, and receiving various emendations, the Bill
was introduced on the 13th of February, 1837, by Lord John Russell,
then Home Secretary, and Leader of the House of Commons. His speech
on the occasion was able and comprehensive. "It appears," he said,
"from the testimony both of theory and experience, that when a country
is overrun by marauders and mendicants having no proper means of
subsistence, but preying on the industry and relying on the charity of
others, the introduction of a Poor Law serves several very important
objects. In the first place, it acts as a measure of peace, enabling
the country to prohibit vagrancy, which is so often connected with
outrage, by offering a substitute to those who rely on vagrancy and
outrage as a means of subsistence. When an individual or a family
is unable to obtain subsistence, and is without the means of living
from day to day, it would be unjust to say they shall not go about
and endeavour to obtain from the charity of the affluent that which
circumstances have denied to themselves. But when you can say to such
persons, 'Here are the means of subsistence offered to you'--when
you can say this on the one hand, you may, on the other hand, say,
'You are not entitled to beg, you shall no longer infest the country
in a manner injurious to its peace, and liable to imposition and
outrage.'" Another way, he observed, in which a Poor Law is beneficial
is, that it is a great promoter of social concord, by showing a
disposition in the State and in the community to attend to the welfare
of all classes. It is of use also by interesting the landowners and
persons of property in the welfare of their tenants and neighbours. A
landowner who looks only to receiving the rent of his estate may be
regardless of the numbers in his neighbourhood who are in a state of
destitution, or who follow mendicancy and are ready to commit crime;
but if he is compelled to furnish means for the subsistence of those
persons so destitute, it then becomes his interest to see that those
around him have the means of living, and are not in actual want. He
considered that these objects, and several others collateral to them,
were attained in England by the Act of Elizabeth. Almost the greatest
benefit that could be conferred on a country was, he observed, a high
standard of subsistence for the labouring classes; and such a benefit
was secured for England chiefly by the Quest Act of Elizabeth. Lord
John Russell then alluded to the abuses which subsequently arose, and
to the correction of those abuses then in progress under the provisions
of the Poor Law Amendment Act, and said that we ought to endeavour to
obtain for Ireland all the good effects of the English system, and to
guard against the evils which had arisen under it.
In the course of his speech Lord John Russell stated that he had made
inquiry with respect to the amount of relief afforded to wandering
mendicants, and the result was that in most cases a shilling an acre
was paid by farmers in the year, and he calculated that it amounted on
the whole to perhaps £1,000,000 a year. Among those thus relieved, he
said, the number of impostors must be enormous. It was not proposed,
however, to prohibit vagrancy until the whole of the workhouses
should be built and ready for the reception of the destitute. A
lengthened discussion then took place in reference to the proposed
measure, in which Mr. Shaw, Mr. O'Connell, Lord Howick, Sir Robert
Peel, Lord Stanley, and other members took part. The Bill was read a
first time, and on the 25th of April, 1837, Lord John Russell moved
the second reading, when the debate was adjourned till the 1st of
May. Notwithstanding a good deal of hostile discussion the second
reading was carried without a division. On the 9th of May the House
went into committee on the Bill. Twenty clauses were passed with only
two unimportant divisions. The introduction of a settlement clause
was rejected by a majority of 120 to 68. The vagrancy clauses were
postponed for future consideration. The committee had got to the
sixtieth clause on the 7th of June, when the king's illness became so
serious that his recovery was highly improbable, and the business of
Parliament was consequently suspended. He died on the 20th of June,
and on the 17th of July Parliament was prorogued, so that there was an
end for the present to the Irish Poor Relief Bill, and all the other
measures then before Parliament.
The Conservative party had got the impression that the commercial
interest in the House of Commons would swamp the landed interest, in
consequence of the preponderance of the representatives of cities
and boroughs. But that impression was shown to be a delusion by many
votes. The number who supported a motion of Lord Chandos on the 27th
of April, 1836, was, considering its nature, remarkable:--"That in
the application of any surplus revenue towards the relief of the
burdens of the country, either by remission of taxation or otherwise,
due regard should be had to the necessity of a portion thereof being
applied to the relief of the agricultural interest." That interest had
been relieved to a considerable extent in a variety of ways during
the recent progress of legislation, and especially by the Poor Law
Amendment Act, which had been an immense boon to both landlords and
tenants. The policy of the motion of Lord Chandos was so unsound that
Sir Robert Peel, Lord Stanley, and Sir James Graham felt constrained to
vote with Ministers for its rejection. The motion was defeated by 211
votes to 150.
On the 6th of May, 1836, the Chancellor of the Exchequer brought
forward the Budget, which placed in a strong light the long standing
anomaly of distress among the agricultural classes, contrasting with
general prosperity in the commercial classes. He was enabled to exhibit
a more favourable state of the finances than he had anticipated in
his estimate the previous year. The total income of the nation was
£46,980,000, its total expenditure £45,205,807, which would give a
surplus of £1,774,193. Of this surplus all but £662,000 would be
absorbed by the interest on the West Indian Loan, which had now become
a permanent charge. There was an addition of 5,000 seamen to the navy,
for which the sum of £434,000 was required. This addition seemed to be
quite necessary from the feeble condition of the navy as compared with
the navies of other nations. On the 4th of March Mr. Charles Wood had
stated that the French would have twelve sail of the line at sea during
summer; that in 1834 the Russians had five sail of the line cruising
in the Black Sea, and eighteen besides frigates in the Baltic. During
this period there never were in the English Channel ports more than
two frigates and a sloop, with crews perhaps amounting to 1,000 men,
disposable for sea at any one time, and that only for a day or two.
Moreover all the line-of-battle ships Great Britain had afloat in every
part of the world did not exceed ten. The land forces voted for the
year were 81,319 men, not counting the Indian army. Of these one-half
were required in the colonies. France had 360,000 regular soldiers, and
three times that number of National Guards. With the surplus at his
disposal the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed to reduce the duty on
first-class paper from fivepence to threepence-halfpenny--a suitable
accompaniment to the reduction of the stamp on newspapers, already
noticed--and to abolish the duty on stained paper; to remit the South
Sea duties, amounting to £10,000; to reduce the duties on insurances
of farming-stock, on taxed carts, and on newspapers. He estimated the
total amount of repeals for the present year at £351,000, which would
be increased to £520,000 when they all came into operation. This was
the best of Mr. Spring-Rice's indifferent Budgets.
The measures of Church Reform that had been adopted in Ireland
suggested the propriety of adopting similar measures in England, where
the relations between the clergy and the people were not at all as
satisfactory as they should be, and where the system of ecclesiastical
finances stood greatly in need of improvement. Accordingly, a Royal
Commission was appointed during the Administration of Sir Robert Peel,
dated the 4th of February, 1835, on the ground that it was "expedient
that the fullest and most attentive consideration should be forthwith
given to ecclesiastical duties and revenues." The Commissioners were
directed to consider the state of the several dioceses in England and
Wales with reference to the amount of their revenues and the more equal
distribution of episcopal duties, and the prevention of the necessity
of attaching by _commendam_ to bishoprics benefices with cure of souls.
They were to consider also the state of the several cathedral and
collegiate churches in England and Wales, with a view to the suggestion
of such measures as might render them conducive to the efficiency
of the Established Church; and to devise the best mode of providing
for the cure of souls, with special reference to the residence of
the clergy on their respective benefices. They were also expected to
report their opinions as to what measures it would be expedient to
adopt on the various matters submitted for their consideration. The
Commissioners were the two Archbishops, the Bishops of London, Lincoln,
and Gloucester, the Lord Chancellor, the First Lord of the Treasury,
with other members of the Government and laymen not in office. When the
change of Government occurred a few months afterwards, it was necessary
to issue a new commission, which was dated the 6th of June, for the
purpose of substituting the names of Lord Melbourne and his colleagues
for those of Sir Robert Peel and the other members of the outgoing
Administration. But before this change occurred the first report had
been issued, dated the 17th of March, 1835. Three other reports were
published in 1836, dated respectively March 4th, May 20th, and June
24th. A fifth had been prepared, but not signed, when the death of the
king occurred. It was, however, presented as a Parliamentary paper in
1838.
The first report related to the duties and revenues of bishops.
The Commissioners suggested various alterations of the boundaries
of dioceses. They recommended the union of the sees of Gloucester
and Bristol, and of Bangor and St. Asaph. They also recommended the
establishment of two new sees, Ripon and Manchester. They calculated
the net income of the bishoprics of England and Wales at £148,875.
They found that, owing to the unequal manner in which this revenue
was distributed, the income of one-half the bishoprics was below the
sum necessary to cover the expenses to which a bishop is unavoidably
subject, which rendered it necessary to hold livings _in commendam_.
To do away with this state of things, and with a view to diminish the
inducements to episcopal translations, they recommended a different
distribution of episcopal revenues. In the second and fourth reports,
and the draft of the fifth report, they presented the result of their
inquiries on cathedral and collegiate churches. They recommended the
appropriation of part of their revenues, and of the whole of the
endowments for non-residentiary prebends, dignitaries, and officers,
and that the proceeds in both cases should be carried to the account of
a fund, out of which better provision should be made for the cure of
souls. In their second report they stated that they had prepared a Bill
for regulating pluralities and the residence of the clergy.
[Illustration: BRITISH LINE-OF-BATTLE SHIPS (1836).]
On the 13th of August, 1836, an Act was passed establishing the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners permanently as "one body politic and
corporate, by the name of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for
England." The number of Commissioners incorporated was thirteen, of
whom eight were _ex officio_ members--namely: the Archbishops of
Canterbury and York, the Bishop of London, the Lord Chancellor, the
Lord President of the Council, the First Lord of the Treasury, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and one of the Principal Secretaries of
State, who was to be nominated by the sign-manual. There were five
other Commissioners, including two bishops, who were to be removable
at the pleasure of the Crown. The lay members were required to sign
a declaration that they were members of the united Church of England
and Ireland by law established. A subsequent Act, passed in August,
1840, considerably modified the constitution of this Commission. The
following were added to the list of _ex officio_ members: all the
Bishops of England and Wales; the Deans of Canterbury, St. Paul's, and
Westminster; the two Chief Justices; the Master of the Rolls; the Chief
Baron; and the Judges of the Prerogative and Admiralty Courts. By this
Act the Crown was empowered to appoint four laymen, and the Archbishop
of Canterbury two, in addition to the three appointed under the former
Act; and it was provided that, instead of being removable at the
pleasure of the Crown, the non _ex officio_ members should continue so
long as they should "well demean themselves" in the execution of their
duties.
[Illustration: RIPON CATHEDRAL.]
By the Acts 6 and 7 William IV., c. 71, a Board of Commissioners,
called the "Tithe Commissioners of England and Wales," was appointed,
the object of which was to convert the tithes into a rent-charge,
payable in money, but varying in amount according to the average price
of corn for seven preceding years. The amount of the tithes was to
be calculated on an average of the seven years preceding Christmas,
1835; and the quantity of grain thus ascertained was to remain for
ever as the annual charge upon the parish. The annual money value was
ascertained from the returns of the Comptroller of Corn, who published
annually, in January, the average price of an Imperial bushel of
wheat, barley, and oats, computed from the weekly averages of the corn
returns during the seven preceding years. The Commissioners reported
in 1851 that voluntary commutations had been commenced in 9,634 tithe
districts; 7,070 agreements had been received, of which 6,778 had been
confirmed; and 5,529 drafts of compulsory awards had been received,
of which 5,260 had been confirmed. Thus in 12,038 tithe districts the
rent charges had been finally established by confirmed agreements or
confirmed awards.
One of the most important measures of the Session was the Marriage
Act, a subject which had been taken up by Sir Robert Peel during
his short-lived Ministry. By this Act Dissenters were relieved from
a galling and degrading grievance, one which, of all others, most
painfully oppressed their consciences. Notwithstanding their strong
objection to the ceremonies of the Established Church, they were
obliged, in order to be legally married, to comply with its ritual in
the marriage service, the phraseology of which they considered not the
least objectionable part of the liturgy. By this Act marriages were
treated as a civil contract, to which the parties might add whatever
religious ceremony they pleased, or they might be married without
any religious ceremony at all, or without any other form, except
that of making a declaration of the Act before a public officer, in
any registered place of religious worship, or in the office of the
superintendent registrar. This was a great step towards religious
equality, and tended more than anything, since the repeal of the Test
and Corporation Acts, to promote social harmony and peace between
different denominations.
In connection with this reform an Act was passed which supplied a
great want--namely, the uniform registration of marriages, births,
and deaths. The state of the law on these matters had been very
unsatisfactory, notwithstanding a long series of enactments upon the
subject. Although the law required the registration of births and
deaths, it made no provision for recording the date at which either
occurred, and so it was essentially defective. It only provided
records of the performance of the religious ceremonies of baptism,
marriage, and burial, according to the rites of the Established Church,
affording, therefore, an insufficient register even for the members of
that Church; while for those who dissented from it, and consequently
did not avail themselves of its services for baptism and burial, it
afforded no register at all. Even this inadequate system was not fully
and regularly carried out, and the loud and long-continued complaints
on the subject led to an inquiry by a Select Committee of the House
of Commons in 1833. In order, therefore, to secure a complete and
trustworthy record of vital statistics, the committee recommended
"a national civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths,
including all ranks of society, and religionists of every class." In
pursuance of these recommendations, a General Registration Bill was
brought into Parliament; and in August, 1836, the Act for registering
marriages, births, and deaths in England became law, as a companion
to the Marriage Act, which passed at the same time. Their operation,
however, was suspended for a limited time by the Act of 7 William IV.,
c. 1, and they were amended by the Act of 1 Victoria, c. 22, and came
into operation on the 1st of July, 1837. One of the most important
and useful provisions of this measure was that which required the
cause of death to be recorded, with the time, locality, sex, age, and
occupation, thus affording data of the highest importance to medical
science, and to all who were charged with the preservation of the
public health. In order that fatal diseases might be recorded in a
uniform manner, the Registrar-General furnished qualified medical
practitioners with books of printed forms--"certificates of cause of
death"--to be filled up and given to registrars of births and deaths;
and he caused to be circulated a nosological table of diseases, for
the purpose of securing, as far as possible, uniformity of nomenclature
in the medical certificates. In order to carry out this measure, a
central office was established at Somerset House, London, presided
over by an officer named the Registrar-General, appointed under the
Great Seal, under whom was a chief clerk, who acted as his secretary
and assistant registrar-general, six superintendents, and a staff of
clerks, who were appointed by the Lords of the Treasury. From this
office emanated instructions to all the local officers charged with
the duties of registration under the Act--superintendent registrars,
registrars of births and deaths, and registrars of marriages, any of
whom might be dismissed by the Registrar-General, on whom devolved the
entire control and responsibility of the operations.
Great attention was drawn at this time to the operation of the new
Poor Law Act, which seemed, in some respects, repugnant to humane and
Christian feeling, and was strongly denounced by a portion of the
press. An attempt was made by Mr. Walter to get the stringency of the
law in some measure relaxed, and on the 1st of August he moved for a
Select Committee to inquire into its operation, particularly in regard
to outdoor relief, and the separation of husbands from their wives, and
children from their parents. But it seemed to be the opinion of the
House that the workhouse test would lose its effect in a great measure
if the separation in question did not take place. The operation of the
Act was certainly successful in saving the pockets of the ratepayers,
for on a comparison between the years 1834 and 1836 there was a saving
to the amount of £1,794,990. The question did not seem to excite much
interest, for the attendance was thin, as appears by the numbers on the
division, which were--for the motion, 46; against it, 82.
The winter of 1836-7 was marked by great commercial activity, and a
strong tendency to over-trading, chiefly on the part of the banks. The
result was a reaction, and considerable monetary embarrassment. In the
reckless spirit of enterprise which led to these consequences, the
American houses took the lead. The American speculators indulged an
inordinate thirst for gain by land jobs, and over-trading in British
produce. The most remarkable examples of this were afforded by three
great American houses in London, called "the three W.'s." From an
account of these firms, published in June, 1837, it appeared that the
amount of bills payable by them from June to December, was as follows:
Wilson and Co., £936,300; Wigan and Co., £674,700; Wildes and Co.,
£505,000; total acceptances, £2,116,000. This was upwards of one-sixth
of the aggregate circulation of the private and joint-stock banks of
England and Wales, and about one-eighth of the average circulation
of the Bank of England. The shipments to America by Wigan and Co.
amounted to £1,118,900. The number of joint-stock banks that started
into existence at this time was remarkable. From 1825 to 1833 only
thirty joint-stock banks had been established. In that year the Charter
of the Bank of England being renewed, without many of the exclusive
privileges it formerly enjoyed, and the spirit of commercial enterprise
being active, joint-stock banks began to increase rapidly. There was an
average of ten new companies annually, till 1836, when forty-five of
these establishments came into existence in the course of ten months.
In Ireland there were ten started in the course of two years. The
consequence of this greatly increased banking accommodation produced a
wild spirit of commercial adventure, which collapsed first in America,
where the monetary confusion was unexampled--bankers, importers,
merchants, traders, and the Government having been all flung into a
chaos of bankruptcy and insolvency. This state of things in America had
an immediate effect in England. Discounts were abruptly refused to the
largest and hitherto most respectable houses of Liverpool and London.
Trade, in consequence, became paralysed; prices suddenly dropped
from thirty to forty per cent.; and the numerous share bubbles--the
railway projects, the insurance companies, the distillery companies,
the cemetery companies, the sperm oil, the cotton twist, zoological
gardens, and other speculations--which had floated on the pecuniary
tide, all suddenly collapsed, and there was an end to the career of
unprincipled adventurers. It is satisfactory, however, to observe
that the sound commerce of the country soon recovered the shock thus
given; and in less than two years the pecuniary difficulties had passed
away. Commerce had resumed its wonted activity, and flowed steadily
in legitimate channels. The American banks resumed payment, and the
three great American houses, which had involved themselves to such an
enormous extent, were enabled to meet all their liabilities.
The foreign relations of England at this period were, on the whole,
satisfactory--as might be expected from the fact that our foreign
policy was committed to the able management of Lord Palmerston, who,
while sympathising with oppressed nationalities, acted steadily
upon the principle of non-intervention. Considering, however, the
comparative smallness o£ our naval and military forces, the formidable
military powers of Russia and France created a good deal of uneasiness,
which the king expressed in one of his odd impromptu speeches at
Windsor. On the 19th of February there was a debate in the House of
Commons on Eastern affairs, in which the vast resources and aggressive
policy Of Russia were placed in a strong light. On that occasion
Lord Dudley Stuart said, "Russia has 50,000,000 subjects in Europe
alone, exclusive of Asia; an army of 700,000 men, and a navy of eighty
line-of-battle ships and frigates, guided by the energy of a Government
of unmitigated despotism, at whose absolute and unlimited disposal
stand persons and property of every description. These formidable means
are constantly applied to purposes of territorial aggrandisement, and
every new acquisition becomes the means of gaining others. Who can tell
that the Hellespont may not be subject to Russia at any moment? She
has a large fleet in the Black Sea, full command of the mouths of the
Danube, and of the commercial marine cities of Odessa and Trebizond.
In three days she may be at Constantinople from Sebastopol; and if
once there, the Dardanelles will be so fortified by Russian engineers
that she can never be expelled except by a general war. She could be
in entire possession of these important straits before any expedition
could be sent from this country, even if such a thing could be thought
of against the enormous military force at the command of Russia. That
Russia is determined to have the Dardanelles is evident from the treaty
of Unkiar-Skelessi, by which she began by excluding the ships of all
other nations. The effect of this treaty was to exclude any ship of war
from these straits, except with the permission of Russia. Russia might
at any moment insist on the exclusion of our ships of war from the
Dardanelles--nay, she has already done so; for when Lord Durham, going
on his late embassy to the Court of St. Petersburg, arrived at the
Dardanelles in a frigate, he was obliged to go on board the _Pluto_,
an armed vessel without her guns, before he could pass the straits;
and when he arrived at Sebastopol no salute was fired, and the excuse
given was that they did not know the _Pluto_ from a merchant vessel.
But both before and since Lord Durham went, Russian ships of war, with
their guns out and their streamers flying, passed through the Black Sea
to the Dardanelles, and again through the Dardanelles to the Black
Sea. Russia has now fifteen ships of the line and seven frigates in the
Black Sea. Sebastopol is only three days' sail from the Hellespont.
Turkey has no force capable of resisting such an armament; the forts
of the Hellespont are incapable of defence against a land force, for
they are open in the rear. Russia might any day have 100,000 men in
Constantinople before England or France could even fit out expeditions
to defend it."
Lord Palmerston and Mr. Poulett Thompson treated the apprehensions of
Lord Dudley Stuart as visionary, and expressed their conviction that
there was nothing in the conduct of the Czar to excite either alarm or
hostility in Great Britain. Their real opinions were very different. A
few days later an event occurred which showed how little Russia was to
be relied upon; and that it was impossible to restrain her aggressive
propensities, even by the most solemn treaty obligations, undertaken in
the face of Europe, and guaranteed by the Great Powers. Cracow, which
comprised a small territory about 490 square miles in extent, with a
population of about 123,000, including the city, was at the general
settlement in 1815 formed into a free State, whose independence was
guaranteed by the Treaty of Vienna in the following terms:--"The town
of Cracow, with its territory, is declared to be for ever a free,
independent, and strictly neutral city, under the protection of Russia,
Austria, and Prussia." During the insurrection of Poland in 1830 the
little State of Cracow could not repress its sympathies, and the news
of the outbreak was received there with the greatest enthusiasm. After
the destruction of the Polish army, persons who were compromised by the
revolt sought an asylum in Cracow; and 2,000 political refugees were
found settled there in 1836. This served as a pretext for the military
occupation of the city in February of that year, notwithstanding the
joint guarantee that it should never be entered by a foreign army. This
was only a prelude to the ultimate extinction of its independence,
which occurred ten years later. Lord Palmerston launched a vigorous
protest, but it had no result.
Meanwhile, the attention of the Western Powers was called to the
constitutional monarchy of Spain. For, whatever were its merits
in comparison with the systems that preceded it, it had not the
merit of securing good government, protecting life and property,
and maintaining public tranquillity. During the summer of 1836 that
country, always more or less disturbed, was the scene of fresh
tumults and insurrections, breaking out at different points, at
Malaga, Cadiz, Seville, and Cordova. The Constitution of 1812 was
proclaimed, and provincial juntas were established in defiance of
the queen's authority. Madrid was also the scene of insurrection,
which was repressed, and the city was put in a state of siege. Soon
afterwards a more determined demand was made for the Constitution of
1812, when a regiment of militia forced themselves into the apartments
of the queen regent, in spite of the remonstrances of the French and
British Ambassadors, and extorted from her a promise to accept that
Constitution. This daring act was the signal for a general rising in
the capital. The Prime Minister, Isturitz, fled to Lisbon, and there
took ship for England. He was fortunate in escaping with his life,
for had he fallen into the hands of the enraged populace he would
probably have shared the fate of General Quesada, the military governor
of Madrid, who was caught about three miles from the capital and
killed. Order was at length restored by the queen regent proclaiming
the Constitution, subject to the revision of the Cortes and by the
appointment of a decidedly Liberal Administration, which commenced by
calling for a conscription of 50,000 men to carry on the war against
the Carlists, who were still in active rebellion. The Constitution
so imperatively demanded by the people was first proclaimed at Cadiz
in 1812, and again by Riego in 1820. It now was brought forward once
more, and on the 24th of February, 1837, adopted by the general
Cortes assembled for the purpose, having been previously revised by a
committee.
The Spanish Revolution had a marked effect on French politics.
M. Thiers and his colleagues had been pressing for an effective
intervention against Don Carlos; but they were unable to overcome
the reluctance of the king to send a French army into Spain, even to
sustain the _régime_ which the king had recognised and approved. This
was completely superseded by the changes that had just taken place.
He should now interpose, not to protect the reigning dynasty against
pretenders, but to take part in a war between Constitutionalists and
Liberals of different shades. When, therefore, Louis Philippe was asked
to send aid to the French legion of volunteers serving as auxiliaries
in Spain, and to adopt other measures against the Carlists, as the only
means of preventing the queen's Government from being carried away by
the torrent of revolution, he positively refused. Lord Palmerston,
influenced by the continued ill-success of the Spanish Legion, made
overtures to the same effect, but without result. Louis Philippe was,
in fact, listening to the overtures of Metternich, and inclined to
desert the British alliance.
Spain and Portugal are so bound together by natural sympathy that they
generally share the same vicissitudes. Bad feeling had arisen between
the national party and the Government in consequence of the appointment
of Prince Ferdinand, the husband of the queen, to be commander-in-chief
of the army. Other causes increased the popular discontent, which
was at its height when the public was electrified by the news of the
Spanish Revolution. The Ministers were obliged to make concessions;
but, besides being inadequate, they were too late. The steamboat from
Oporto was loaded with opposition members, who were received with the
most enthusiastic demonstrations of welcome. On the 9th of September
the clubs had everything arranged for a revolution, and a mixed array
of troops of the line, caçadors, and National Guards, proclaimed the
Constitution adopted by John VI.; and, having sung a constitutional
hymn, they appointed a deputation, headed by Viscount Sa Bandiera, to
wait upon Queen Donna Maria. She had first contemplated resistance, but
the army would not act against the people. The National Guards were in
possession of the city, having occupied the Rocio Square in Lisbon all
night, and in the morning they were informed that the queen had yielded
to their wishes, appointing a new Ministry, with Bandiera at its head.
Some of the most obnoxious of the ex-Ministers took refuge from popular
vengeance on board the ships of the British squadron lying in the
Tagus. Most of the peers protested against the Revolution; but it was
an accomplished fact, and they were obliged to acquiesce.
[Illustration: DEPUTATION OF CONSTITUTIONALISTS BEFORE THE QUEEN OF
PORTUGAL. (_See p._ 413.)]
The state of parties in the House of Commons at the opening of the
Session of 1837 was so evenly balanced, that Government had a very
narrow majority. The number of Whigs was calculated at 150, of Liberals
100, and of Radicals 80, making the total number of Ministerialists
330. On the other side, the Tories counted 139, the Ultra-Tories 100,
and the Conservatives, belonging to the new school which Sir Robert
Peel had constituted, 80. Parliament was opened by commission on the
last day of January. The Royal Speech announced the continuance of
friendly relations with Foreign Powers, alluded to the affairs of Spain
and Portugal, and directed the attention of Parliament to the state
of Lower Canada. It recommended a renewal of the inquiry into the
operation of joint-stock banks; also measures for the improvement of
civil and criminal jurisprudence, and for giving increased stability
to the Established Church. Special attention was directed to the state
of Ireland, with reference to its municipal corporations and the
collection of tithes, and to "the difficult and pressing question of
a legal provision for the poor." Animated debates on the Address took
place in both Houses. The Radicals, led on by Mr. Roebuck, strongly
condemned the want of earnest purpose on the part of Ministers, whom he
represented as "worse than the Tories." He accused them of pandering
to popular passions on one side, and to patrician feelings on the
other. But, situated as they were, what could they do? Their majority
was small and uncertain in the Commons, while the Opposition in the
Lords was powerful and determined. Lord Lyndhurst mutilated measure
after measure, and then at the end of each Session taunted Ministers
with their failure. They were trying to get on with a House of Commons
elected under the influence of a Conservative Administration. Of
course, Lord Melbourne could have dissolved Parliament and appealed
to the country, in the hope of getting a working majority; but the
king was decidedly averse from a dissolution; and it would have been
an exceedingly unwise course to adopt, at a time when the precarious
state of his health plainly indicated that the reign was fast drawing
to a close, and its termination would necessitate another general
election. It was unreasonable to expect that in consequence of weakness
proceeding from such causes a Liberal Cabinet should surrender the
reins of power to the Tory party, on the eve of a new reign, and with
all the bright prospects that would be opened by the accession of a
youthful queen to the Throne. At the close of the Session of 1836 they
had, indeed, contemplated resignation, but eventually determined to go
on.
The Ministry lost no time in introducing their Irish measures--the
new Municipal Reform Bill and the Bill for the Relief of the Poor.
The former, after three nights' debate, passed the Commons by a
majority--302 to 247. It was during this debate that Mr. Sheil
delivered his brilliant reply to the indiscreet and unstatesmanlike
taunt of Lord Lyndhurst, who, when speaking on the same question in
the Upper House, declared that the Irish were "aliens in blood, in
language, and religion." "The Duke of Wellington," said Mr. Sheil,
"is not a man of sudden emotions; but he should not, when he heard
that word used, have forgotten Vimiera, Badajoz, and Salamanca, and
Toulouse, and the last glorious conflict which crowned all his former
victories. On that day, when the destinies of mankind were trembling
in the balance, when the batteries spread slaughter over the field,
and the legions of France rushed again and again to the onset, did the
'aliens' then flinch? On that day the blood of the men of England, of
Ireland, and of Scotland was poured forth together. They fought on the
same field, they died the same death, they were stretched in the same
pit; their dust was commingled; the same dew of heaven fell on the
grass that covered them; the same grass sprang from the soil in which
they reposed together. And is it to be endured that we are to be called
aliens and strangers to that empire for whose salvation our best blood
has been poured out?"
The subject of Church rates having created much ill-feeling in towns
and districts where the Dissenters were most numerous, an attempt
was made by the Government to abolish the impost. It was found that
the sum which they produced was about £250,000 a year, and it was
proposed to obtain that amount by a better management of the estates
of bishops, deans, and chapters, by placing them under the control of
eleven Commissioners, who should first pay the bishops and dignitaries'
salaries out of the proceeds, and devote the rest of the fund thus
realised to the objects for which Church rates were levied, namely,
the repair of churches and the supply of the necessaries for public
worship. But an outcry was raised against this plan as being based upon
the principle of Church spoliation. The bishops and clergy resisted
strenuously, and the friends of the Church were roused to such an
extent that the majority in the House of Commons on the second reading
of the Bill was only five. This majority was tantamount to defeat, and
therefore the measure was abandoned.
On the 9th of June a bulletin was published, which fixed public
attention on the precarious state of the king's health. It announced
that his Majesty had suffered for some time from an affection of the
chest, which had produced considerable weakness. The burden of regal
state, assumed at so late a period of life, seemed to have been too
much for his strength, and to have caused too great a change in his
habits. In the preceding month of April his eldest natural daughter,
Lady De Lisle, died, and also the queen's mother, the Dowager Duchess
of Meiningen. These events made a deep impression upon his mind, which
acted upon his enfeebled constitution and aggravated the symptoms of
his disease. From the 9th of June, when the first bulletin was issued,
he grew daily worse; the circulation became more languid, and the
general decay more apparent. On the 20th of June he expired, in the
seventy-third year of his age, having reigned nearly seven years. His
kindness of heart and simplicity of character, which had endeared him
greatly to all classes of his subjects, caused him to be generally and
sincerely lamented. In the House of Peers Lord Melbourne referred to
his death as a loss which had deprived the nation of a monarch always
anxious for the interest and welfare of his subjects; and added, "which
has deprived me of a most generous master, and the world of a man--I
would say one of the best of men--a monarch of the strictest integrity
that it has ever pleased Divine Providence to place over these realms.
The knowledge which he had acquired in the course of his professional
education of the colonial service and of civil matters, was found by
him exceedingly valuable, and he dealt with the details of practical
business in the most familiar and most advantageous manner. A more
fair or more just man I have never met with in my intercourse with the
world. He gave the most patient attention, even when his own opinion
was opposed to what was stated, being most willing to hear what could
be urged in opposition to it. These were great and striking qualities
in any man, but more striking in a monarch." The declaration doubtless
came from the heart, and was the more creditable, because the king's
opposition to the Ministry had been most pronounced. He looked upon
the second Melbourne Cabinet as forced upon him, and, though he had
regard for one or two of them--particularly Lord Melbourne and Lord
Palmerston--he made no secret of his dislike to the whole, and never
invited them to Windsor. We have already given an instance of one of
his discreditable outbursts, and his conduct during his later years
was in other respects eccentric in the extreme. Besides, his zeal for
reform had long passed away; and he was in complete sympathy with the
factious proceedings of the majority of the House of Lords when each
Ministerial measure was proposed--for instance, the Church Rates Bill
he met with a long and ably argued list of objections which it required
all Lord Melbourne's tact and firmness to overcome. But, with all his
oddities and faults, William IV. was a thoroughly honourable man, and
his opposition to his Ministers entirely aboveboard.
CHAPTER XII.
THE PROGRESS OF THE NATION DURING THE REIGNS OF GEORGE IV. AND WILLIAM
IV.
Increase of Population--Nature of its Employment--Wealth
of the Nation--The Cotton Trade--Hosiery--The Silk and
Woollen Trades--Linen Goods--Minerals and Coal--Hardware and
Cutlery--Roads--Railways--Steamboats--The Coasting Trade--Traffic
between England and Ireland--Imports and Exports--Coffee and
Tea--The Revenue--Houses and Carriages--Real Property and
Savings-banks--Popular Education--Amelioration of Criminal
Legislation--Effect of Education on Crime--The Religious
Bodies--The Irvingites--Religious Leaders in England, Scotland,
and Ireland--Progress of Science--Mathematicians--Astronomers:
Herschel and Lord Rosse--Discoveries in Light by Brewster and
others--Irish Men of Science--Mrs. Somerville, Wheatstone,
Daguerre, and Fox Talbot--Cavendish and Dalton--Mechanicians:
Sir Marc Brunel--Babbage--The Fine Arts: Turner--Lawrence and
Wilkie--Haydon--Sculpture--Architects: Soane, Barry, and the
Pugins--Historians: Mackintosh, Lingard, and Hallam--Napier
and Gurwood--Biographers: Moore and Lockhart--Miscellaneous
Writers--Cheap Literature--Sir Walter Scott--Lady Blessington
and Lady Morgan--Mrs. Hemans--L. E. L.--Pollok--Professor Wilson
("Christopher North")--Sheridan Knowles and Bulwer Lytton--Manners
and Morals--Almack's--Other Amusements--English Cookery--Hyde
Park--Male and Female Costume.
It is a singular fact, and by no means creditable to the "collective
wisdom of the nation," that we have had no authentic enumeration of
the English people till the beginning of the nineteenth century. The
result, however, of the census of 1800 showed that the population
of England had made progress throughout the whole of the preceding
century, with the exception of the first ten years, when it seemed to
have declined. Mr. Finlayson, the actuary, drew up a statement founded
on the returns of births, marriages, and deaths, giving an estimate
of the population at decennial periods, from which it appears that in
the year 1700 it was 5,134,516, and in 1800 it was 9,187,176. Further,
from the decennial census we gather that the population of Great
Britain and Ireland, which in 1821 amounted to 21,193,458, was at the
enumeration in 1831, 24,306,719; the percentage rate of increase during
that interval being 14.68, or very nearly 1½ per cent. per annum;
and that at the enumeration in 1841 the numbers were 26,916,991, being
an increase since 1831 of 2,610,272, or 10·74 per cent., which is very
little beyond 1 per cent. per annum. Comparing 1841 with 1821, it
appears that the increase in the twenty years was in England 33·20, or
1·66 per cent. per annum; Wales, 27·06, or 1·35; Scotland, 25·16, or
1·25; Ireland, 20·50, or 1·02; the United Kingdom, 27·06, or 1·35 per
cent. per annum. For the purpose of comparison with the corresponding
number of years in the nineteenth century, it may be stated that the
increase during thirty years, from 1700 to 1800, is computed to have
amounted to 1,959,590, or 27-1/10 per cent., while the actual increase
in England and Wales, in the same space of time between 1801 and 1831,
as found by numeration, reached to 5,024,207 souls, or 56-3/5 per
cent.[2]
A very instructive point of comparison is the relative increase of
different classes of occupations in the decennial period from 1831 to
1841. A comparative return of the Commissioners includes males only,
ages twenty years and upwards, and exhibits the following results. The
number of occupiers and labourers in agriculture had decreased in that
period from 1,251,751 to 1,215,264; but the Commissioners explained
this result by supposing that numerous farm servants had been returned
in 1841 as domestic servants instead of as agricultural labourers.
Persons engaged in commerce, trade, and manufactures had increased
from 1,572,292 to 2,039,409 (or 29·7 per cent.); capitalists, bankers,
professional, and other educated men, from 216,263 to 286,175 (or
32·3 per cent.); labourers employed in labour not agricultural had
decreased from 611,744 to 610,157; other males, twenty years of age,
except servants, had increased from 237,337 to 392,211; male servants,
twenty years of age and upwards, had increased from 79,737 to 164,384;
including, however, as already noticed, many farm servants. For the
purpose of instituting a just comparison of the relative increase of
particular employments, it must be understood that the total number
of male persons, twenty years of age and upwards (exclusive of army,
navy, and merchant seamen), had increased in this period of ten years
from 3,969,124 to 4,707,600 (or 18·6 per cent.). These people were
better fed than their ancestors, and had more work to do. There are
three kinds of raw material the consumption of which is particularly
indicative of social advancement, as giving employment to the people,
adding to their comforts, and increasing the national wealth. These are
timber, cotton, and wool. Taking all the different kinds of imported
timber, there was an increase during the ten years of 37 per cent.;
in cotton there was an increase of 61 per cent.; and of sheep and
lamb's wool, in addition to the home production, there was an increased
importation of more than 78 per cent.
[Illustration: ARRIVAL OF THE MAIL COACH. (_See p._ 420.)]
The population of Great Britain had thus rapidly increased, and the
condition of the people had improved, notwithstanding heavy taxation,
and the burden of an enormous National Debt, incurred by one of the
most protracted and expensive wars on record, which strained the
national energies to the uttermost. How vast, then, must have been the
national resources by which all demands were met, leaving the State
stronger and wealthier than ever! The extent of these resources is
shown in some measure by the amount of our exports. The total declared
value of all British and Irish produce and manufactures exported in
1831 was £37,164,372; in 1841 the value of exports had increased to
£51,634,623, being at the rate of 38·9 per cent. Another example of the
greatly increased commerce of the country is afforded by the returns of
shipping. In 1831 the number of ships, British and foreign, engaged in
the colonial and foreign trades was 20,573, of which the total tonnage
amounted to 3,241,927. In 1841 the number of ships had increased to
28,052, and the tonnage to 4,652,376, giving an increase of 43 per
cent. In the former year the tonnage employed in our coasting trade
amounted to 9,419,681; in the latter it had increased to 11,417,991,
showing an increase of 20 per cent. But other indications of national
wealth were referred to by the Census Commissioners of 1841. During the
same period the accumulations in savings-banks were very large, and
went on increasing. In 1831 there were nearly 500,000 depositors, whose
deposits amounted to about £14,000,000. In 1841 it was found that both
the depositors and the amount deposited had very nearly doubled. From
the proceeds of the property tax, which in 1815 was about £52,000,000,
and in 1842 over £82,000,000, an estimate has been formed, in the
absence of returns, for the years 1831 and 1841, which sets down the
increase of real property during that period as not less than from 20
to 25 per cent. In 1815 the annual profits of trades in England and
Wales were assessed at £35,000,000 in round numbers, and in 1841 they
had increased to £50,000,000. During the decennial period, 1831-41,
legacy duty had been paid upon a capital of about £423,000,000, or more
than one-half the aggregate amount upon which the duty had been paid in
the thirty-four preceding years. The stamp duties, also, upon probates
of wills and letters of administration in the United Kingdom amounted
to upwards of £1,000,000, having increased in ten years at the rate of
10 per cent.
The marvellous increase of national wealth in Great Britain since
the reign of George III. is to be mainly ascribed to two mechanical
agencies--the spinning-jenny and the steam-engine; both of which,
however, would have failed to produce the results that have been
attained if there had not been a boundless supply of cotton from the
Southern States of America to feed our manufactories with the raw
material. The production was estimated in bales, which in 1832 amounted
to more than 1,000,000; and in 1839 was upwards of 2,000,000 bales. It
appears from Mr. Woodbury's tables, that in 1834 sixty-eight per cent.
of all the cotton produced in the world was shipped for England. In
this case the demand, enormous as it was, produced an adequate supply.
But this demand could not possibly have existed without the inventions
of Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton, and Cartwright, in the improvement
of spinning machinery.
In 1817 the number of power-looms in Lancashire was estimated at 2,000,
of which only about 1,000 were then in employment, and the wages had
fallen below the rate at which goods could be produced by machinery.
To the power-loom, therefore, the hand-loom weavers gradually gave
way. In 1832 there were 80,000 power-looms in Lancashire, employing
persons of both sexes and of all ages from nine years upwards, at rates
of wages varying from half-a-crown to ten shillings a week. In 1817
the estimated number of persons employed in the spinning of cotton in
Great Britain was 110,763, and the quantity of yarn produced was under
100,000,000 lbs.; in 1853 the yarn spun was nearly 700,000,000 lbs.
In 1838 the total number of cotton factories in Great Britain and
Ireland was 1,815, of which there were in England and Wales, 1,599; in
Scotland, 192; in Ireland, 24. The total number of persons employed in
these factories was 206,000, of whom 145,934 were females.
The chief seats of the hosiery manufacture are in the counties of
Derby, Nottingham, and Leicester. The number of stocking-frames in
England in 1821 was under 30,000, showing an increase in thirty
years of only 10,000. Mr. Felkin gives an estimate for 1833, which
states that there were 33,000 frames in England, producing 3,510,000
dozen stockings a year, and consuming 8,137,000 lbs. of cotton yarn,
worsted, and silk, valued at £814,000; the wages for making them
amounting to £948,000, and for finishing, £229,000; the total value
being little short of £2,000,000 sterling, and the total value of
the materials £560,000. The total number of persons employed in the
making of stockings was 73,000. The total of fixed capital engaged in
the manufacture was £385,000, and of floating capital £1,050,000. The
quantity of cotton hosiery goods made in 1833 was estimated by Mr.
Felkin to have increased more than fifty per cent. in the preceding
twenty years.
As to the silk and wool trades, in the ten years preceding 1824 the
quantity of raw and thrown silk used by our manufacturers was on an
average of 1,882,311 lbs. per annum. In the ten succeeding years the
average was nearly double, viz. 95 per cent. higher; and in the sixteen
years which ended in 1849 there was an increase of 120 per cent. over
the quantity used under the restrictive system. According to the
report of the inspectors of factories, there were, in 1835, 231 silk
factories in England, six in Scotland, and one in Ireland. The total
number of females thus employed was over 20,000, and the total number
of both sexes was about 31,000. The total number of woollen and worsted
factories at work in 1835 was returned by the inspectors of factories
as being 1,313, showing an increase of ten per cent. in four years.
The total number of persons employed in them in 1835 was 71,274, on
which there was an increase of twenty per cent. up to 1839. There was
a general depression in the price of British wool, in consequence of
which a Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to inquire into
the causes. From the evidence which they received, it appeared that the
actual number of sheep in England and Wales had increased one-fifth
since the year 1800, when it was 19,000,000, yielding about 95,000,000
lbs. of wool, or about five pounds for each fleet. It was estimated
that the quantity used for manufacturing purposes increased during the
first half of the nineteenth century by 115 per cent. Yorkshire is
the chief seat of the woollen manufacture, and the best proof of its
progress, perhaps, is presented in the state of the population, which
in the whole of the West Riding increased during the first forty years
of the century at the rate of 104 per cent. At the census of 1801 it
was 563,953, while the census of 1841 showed it to be 1,154,101.
The exports from the United Kingdom of all kinds of linen goods,
and of flax yarn, amounted, in 1834, to the total declared value of
£2,579,658. The quantities of Irish linen shipped in subsequent years
continually increased from 34,500,000 yards in 1800 to 55,000,000
yards in 1835. The manufacture of linen also made great progress in
Scotland, especially in the town and neighbourhood of Dundee. In 1814
the quantity of flax imported into Dundee for use in the factories did
not exceed 3,000 tons; but in 1831 it was 15,000 tons, and in 1833 it
was nearly 18,000 tons, including 3,380 tons of hemp. The quantity of
linen sail cloth and bagging into which this material was made, and
which was shipped from Dundee in the same year, amounted to 60,000,000
yards. The manufacture of linen increased rapidly in England, and the
improvement of the quality was wonderful, owing to the perfection of
the machinery. The length of a pound of yarn of average fineness in
1814 was only 3,330 yards; but in 1833 a pound of the average quality
contained 11,170 yards; the yarn of that quality having during twenty
years fallen to one-ninth of the price; the raw material having
been reduced in price at the same time about one-half. The English
manufacturers embarked to so large an extent in the linen trade that
they became large exporters of linen yarn to Ireland and also to France.
Among the resources of Great Britain to which she is mainly indebted
for her pre-eminence as a manufacturing nation, and without which she
would not have been able to make anything like the progress she has
made, or to bid defiance to foreign competition as she may always do,
are her mines of coal and iron. The total produce of all the British
ironworks was found, after a careful estimate, to be, in 1823, 442,066
tons; in 1825, 581,367 tons; in 1828, 653,417, and in 1830, 702,584
tons. In 1844 the quantity reached 1,500,000 tons. The quantity
of tin produced in England in 1820 was 3,578 tons; in 1834 it was
4,000 tons. In addition to the quantities used at home, there was a
considerable exportation of tin plates, the value of which in 1820 was
about £161,000, and in 1840 it was more than £360,000. The produce of
the copper mines in Cornwall was much greater than that of the tin
mines; for while in 1820 it was only 7,364 tons, it had increased in
1840 to 11,000 tons. The increase during 60 years had been threefold,
and the value annually raised exceeded £1,000,000 sterling. In the
year 1820 the quantity of coals shipped from the port of Newcastle
was more than 2,000,000 tons. In the year 1840 it had increased to
nearly 3,000,000. From the port of Sunderland the quantity shipped in
1820 was considerably more than 1,000,000. In 1840 it was 1,300,000
tons. Large quantities were also shipped from the port of Stockton.
The chief coal districts have naturally become the chief manufacturing
districts; and as the coal is on the spot, it is impossible to estimate
the quantities consumed in working the factories in Lancashire, the
West Riding of Yorkshire, Nottingham, Derby, Birmingham, Wolverhampton,
Leicester, Coventry, and Staffordshire. The town of Sheffield alone,
it was estimated in 1835, required for manufacturing purposes about
515,000 tons of coals. Dr. Buckland, in his address to the Geological
Society, in 1840, stated that "the average value of the annual produce
of the mines of the British islands amounts to the enormous sum of
£20,000,000, of which about £8,000,000 arises from iron, and £9,000,000
from coals."
The progress in the manufacture of hardware is strikingly exhibited
by the increase of the population of Birmingham. According to the
census of 1821, it was 106,722; in 1831 it was 146,986; in 1841 it
was 181,116, showing an increase of 80 per cent. in twenty years. The
number of houses during the same period was nearly doubled. Mr. Babbage
has given a table, extracted from the books of a highly respectable
house in Birmingham, showing the reduction in the price of various
articles made of iron between 1812 and 1832, which varied from 40 to
80 per cent. The exportation of cutlery from England amounted in 1820
to about 7,000 tons; in 1839 it was 21,000 tons. Since 1820 the annual
value of the exportations of hardware and cutlery increased about 50
per cent. The town of Sheffield is another remarkable instance of the
growth of population in consequence of the manufacture of cutlery. In
1821 the population was 65,275; in 1841 it was 111,000. The various
manufacturers of cutlery and plated goods, and the conversion of iron
into steel, employed in 1835 upwards of 560 furnaces. The declared
value of British-made plated ware, jewellery, and watches, exported
from the United Kingdom in 1827 was £169,456; in 1839 it amounted to
£258,076. The value of machinery shipped to foreign countries in 1831
was only £29,000; in 1836 it was £166,000; in 1837, £280,000; and in
1840, £374,000.
The construction of public roads has been greatly improved in the
United Kingdom by the general adoption of the plan of Mr. Macadam,
who gave his name to the process of substituting stones broken small
for the old rough pavement. We read with astonishment of the state of
English roads a century ago, of carriages breaking down and sticking
fast in deep ruts, and of days passed in a journey which now only
occupies as many hours. Yet in early times England was better off
in this respect than other countries. Of all the proofs of social
progress which the country now exhibits to such a marvellous extent
on every side, there is nothing more decisive or more wonderful than
the rapidity with which we have improved and extended our internal
communication. From 1818 to 1839 the length of turnpike roads in
England and Wales was increased by more than 1,000 miles. In the former
year England and Wales contained paved streets and turnpike roads to
the extent of 19,725 miles. Scotland also made great progress in the
construction of highways from the commencement of the century, and
roads were thrown across the wildest districts in Ireland. By the
improvement of the common roads, and in the construction of vehicles,
stage coaches increased their speed from four to ten miles an hour.
Upon the Stamp Office returns for 1834 a calculation was based which
showed that the extent of travelling on licensed conveyances in that
year would be equal to the conveyance of one person for a distance of
597,159,420 miles, or more than six times the distance between the
earth and the sun. There were, in 1837, in England, fifty-four mail
coaches drawn by four horses each, and forty-nine by two horses each,
drawn at an average speed of nine miles an hour. Ireland had at the
same time thirty four-horse mails, and Scotland ten.
[Illustration: BELL'S "COMET." (_See p._ 421.)]
The number of Railway Acts passed during the first half of the century
was more than 1,000; and the sums which Parliament authorised the
various companies to expend in the construction of railways from 1826
to 1849 amounted to the enormous total of £348,012,188, the yearly
average being £14,500,508. The Liverpool and Manchester Company was the
first that contemplated the conveyance of passengers, which, however,
was regarded as a sort of subsidiary traffic, that might produce some
£20,000 a year, the main reliance being on the conveyance of raw
cotton, manufactured goods, coals, and cattle. It need not be remarked
how widely the result differed from their anticipation. The receipts
from passengers in 1840 amounted to £343,910, and it was estimated that
the saving to the public on that line alone was nearly a quarter of a
million annually. But as yet the system was in its infancy, though the
broad gauge had been introduced by Brunel in 1833.
[Illustration: SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. (_After the Portrait by Sir T.
Lawrence, P.R.A._)]
The first steamboat that was worked for hire in Britain was the
_Comet_, a small vessel with an engine of three horse-power. Two
years later the _Elizabeth_, of eight horse-power, and the _Clyde_,
of fourteen horse-power, were placed upon the river Clyde. Thus
Scotland has had the honour of leading the way in this great line of
improvement. In 1820 there were but three steam-vessels built and
registered in England, four in Scotland, and one in Ireland. In 1826
there were fifty in England, and twenty-two in Scotland, with 9,000
tons burden. The building of steamers proceeded regularly, with an
increasing amount of tonnage, till the number rose in 1849 to 1,296
steam-vessels, the aggregate burden of which was 177,310 tons. They
were distributed as follows:--In the ports of England, 865 vessels,
103,154 tons; Scotland, 166 vessels, 29,206 tons; Ireland, 111 vessels,
26,369 tons; the Channel Islands, 7 vessels, 955 tons; the colonies,
147 vessels, 17,626 tons. A Committee of the House of Commons was
appointed in June, 1837, to inquire into the best means of establishing
communication by steam with India by way of the Red Sea. During the
year arrangements were made for the establishment of a regular monthly
steam communication between Great Britain and India by way of the
Red Sea upon the following basis:--"The Government undertakes the
transmission of the monthly mails between Great Britain and Alexandria
at the sole charge of the public; and the East India Company undertakes
the transmission of these mails between Alexandria and Bombay, upon
condition that one-half of the expense incurred in the purchase and
navigation of steam-vessels, and of any other expense incurred in the
service, is defrayed by the Government, which is to receive the whole
money connected with postage of letters between London and Bombay."
This arrangement was carried out, and a further economy of time was
obtained by the overland route to Marseilles, instead of transmitting
the mails by steam-packets from Falmouth through the Strait of
Gibraltar. In this way the journey was shortened to the extent of
more than 1,000 miles, the direct distance by Marseilles and Malta
being 5,238 miles, and by way of Falmouth, 6,310 miles. This system of
conveyance was maintained till 1841, when the Government entered into
a contract with the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company,
which undertook to employ powerful steam-vessels for the carrying of
letters and passengers between England and Egypt, and between Suez,
Ceylon, Madras, and Calcutta, towards the expenses of which the East
India Company undertook to contribute £20,000 per annum for five years.
After some time there was a further extension of the plan, by which
the Government engaged to contribute £50,000 per annum towards the
expense of the line of steam-packets between Bombay and Suez, £115,000
per annum for the service between Calcutta and Suez, and £45,000 for
the service between Ceylon and Hong Kong, making a total of £210,000
per annum, of which one-third was to be repaid by the East India
Company. By these arrangements was obtained a regular and safe steam
communication twice a month to India, and once a month to China. We
may judge of the extent of the intercourse thus carried on by the fact
that in 1836 Great Britain received from Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and
Ceylon about 180,000 letters, and sent to those places in the same year
nearly 112,000 letters.
The coasting trade carried on by means of steamers underwent an
astounding development during the twenty years now under review. In
1820 there were but nine steamers engaged in it, with a tonnage of 500.
The next year there were 188 steamers, and thenceforth they went on
doubling for several years. In 1830 the number of vessels was nearly
7,000, with a tonnage of more than a million; in 1840 it was upwards
of 15,000, with a tonnage of nearly three millions; and in 1849 it was
18,343, with a tonnage of upwards of four millions and a quarter. This
account does not include vessels arriving and departing in ballast or
with passengers only, which are not required to enter the Custom House.
Steam-vessels were not employed in this kingdom for conveying goods
coastwise before 1820, nor in foreign trade, except for the conveyance
of passengers, earlier than 1822. In the foreign trade the number of
steamers increased gradually from that year till they reached the
number of 4,000, with an aggregate tonnage of 800,000.
The effect of steam communication between Great Britain and Ireland
was to increase very greatly the traffic of those countries. It has
been stated that in order to save the salaries of one or two junior
clerks, it was determined to cease keeping any official records of
this traffic, with the exception of grain and flour. In the absence of
such records we can only arrive at an approximation to the quantity
and value of the exports and imports. It was, however, estimated by
persons acquainted with the subject, that the quantity of agricultural
produce imported into Liverpool alone in 1832 was worth four millions
and a half sterling; and this produce consisted chiefly of live
stock--horses, sheep, and pigs--which could not have been so profitably
brought over by sailing vessels. The value of agricultural produce
brought to the port of Bristol from Ireland in the same year was one
million sterling. The total value of all sorts of live animals brought
from Ireland to Liverpool in 1837 was £3,397,760. One of the most
curious items in the traffic is the egg trade. In the course of the
year 1832 no less than £100,000 was paid for Irish eggs in Liverpool
and Bristol alone. Looking at the whole traffic between the two
islands, we perceive that the amount of tonnage employed in 1849 was
250 per cent. more than it was in 1801. Up to 1826 the increase was not
so rapid as subsequently, it being then only 62 per cent. on the whole
period, showing an annual increase of 2-2/5 per cent., whereas for the
quarter of a century that followed, the increase was 188 per cent., the
annual increase being 8 per cent.