general discontent became prevalent. The mistrust with which the
ministry was regarded was strengthened by the repeated and not always
successful press prosecutions which were undertaken. It was even feared
that, as the Chamber of Deputies was certainly hostile to the ministry,
some attempt would be made to set aside the charter and to obtain a more
favourable Chamber by unconstitutional means. But things had not yet
reached that pass. The old Chamber was quietly opened on the 2nd of
March with a speech in which the King, in the usual language of a
constitutional ruler intending to have recourse to unconstitutional
means of repression, after expatiating on the excellent condition of the
country, went on to assert that if obstacles to the Government should
arise, which he as yet did not foresee, he should find strength to
overcome them in the loyalty of his people. The covert threat was not
lost upon his audience; the address moved in the Lower House expressed
the prevailing mistrust. Concurrence between the sovereign and the
interests of his people was, it declared, the necessary condition for
the good working of the charter; that sympathy was now broken, the
administration had acted, and was continuing to act, as though the
people were disaffected. The King was intreated to choose between his
faithful Parliament and these evil counsellors. Charles did not refuse
to receive the address, but stated in reply to it, that though grieved
to hear that sympathy between himself and his people no longer existed,
he had no intention of receding from his former view. The next day the
Chamber was summarily prorogued, the first instance since the
restoration of so strong a measure, and in May dissolved, a new
Parliament being summoned for August. The elections went constantly
against the Government, in spite of an attempt to rouse the love of
glory in the people by an expedition to Algiers, and of a personal
address by the King, who begged the electors to rally round him for the
support of the royal prerogative. "It is your King who requires this of
you, it is as a father he summons you, do your duty and I will do mine,"
were his closing words.
[Sidenote: Unconstitutional conduct of the French ministry.]
Their ill success in the elections reduced the ministers to a dilemma.
They must either resign or again meet a hostile Parliament, or (a third
alternative) proceed in some unconstitutional way. To all outward
appearance they intended to pursue the second course, and the deputies
actually set out on their journey towards Paris. Polignac and his
friends had hoped to purchase leave to carry on the Government in their
own way by introducing a popular budget, while the eyes of the people
were dazzled by the military successes in Algiers. Finding this out of
the question, at the last hour they determined upon an unconstitutional
act. On the 21st of July, three ordinances were introduced to the
Council, with an explanatory memorial. This memorial declared that the
charter contained no promise of protection to the periodical press, and
that the periodical press had been injurious, especially to the military
affairs in Algiers, and that it must therefore be suppressed; while the
highest duty of Government (its own preservation) authorized the setting
aside of the charter, when all efforts to secure a favourable house had
been exhausted in vain. The three ordinances suspended the liberty of
the periodical press, dissolved the Chamber of Deputies, and altered, to
suit the views of the Court, the structure of the chamber hereafter to
be chosen.
[Sidenote: Outbreak of the Revolution.]
[Sidenote: Abdication of Charles X.]
The ordinances were kept a profound secret, and were given to the
_Moniteur_ to publish at midnight on the 25th of July. Their effect was
an immediate outbreak, headed by the opposition newspaper editors. A
protest, signed by forty-four of them, was issued on the 26th, declaring
that the Government had forfeited its right to obedience. There was a
panic on the Exchange, and all things promised a revolution, the success
of which could scarcely be doubtful, as the army was deeply infected
with disaffection, and there were not more than 6000 trustworthy troops,
under the command of Marmont, himself inclined to constitutional views.
However, the ministry seem to have persuaded themselves that the
effervescence was temporary, and on the 27th an attempt was made to
suppress the protest of the press; the printing offices were closed, and
while the police hammered at the doors unaided by the lookers-on, the
papers were distributed by thousands from the upper windows. The case
even came before one of the courts of law, as one of the printers was
sued for breach of contract for refusing to print; the Tribunal of
Commerce declared that the ordinance, being against the charter, could
not be binding. So highly-strung a state of public feeling could not
last long. Some deputies had assembled to discuss how they should act;
the electors of Paris sent to them, and begged them to assume the
command of the movement, asserting that the insurrection was already
begun, the armourers' shops had been cleared, and that other signs of
immediate revolution were visible. The deputies postponed their reply
till the following morning; by that time the people had taken the law
into their own hands. On all sides barricades were being rapidly thrown
up; the Hôtel de Ville was seized, the tricolour flag hoisted, and the
tocsin rang, while the troops were distributed in various parts of the
town. Marmont, who knew the temper of the army, despatched a messenger
to the King at St. Cloud to urge upon him the necessity of concession.
The ministry was in permanent session in the Tuileries, and a state of
siege having been declared, Marmont became head of the Government. With
him the populace tried to treat. Himself inclined to peace, he could
only answer that his orders were to use force. He however offered to
send another messenger to St. Cloud; the reply brought was to
concentrate his forces, and to act with masses. The answer, which
implied the suppression of the revolt at all hazards, was quite
useless--the soldiers had rapidly deserted; those who kept to their
allegiance had not been supplied with food, and weary and dispirited,
were gradually withdrawn. The uproar continued all night, and fresh
barricades were hourly springing up. On the 29th the same scenes
continued, the troops constantly fraternizing more and more with the
mob, and in the afternoon Marmont found himself obliged to march with
all the troops he could collect to St. Cloud to secure the safety of the
King. It seems that up to that evening Charles and his courtiers still
believed that they had only an émeute to encounter, but the next day, as
no good news arrived, the King found himself gradually deserted, and at
three in the morning of the last day of July himself drove off. When he
heard that Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, had accepted the post of
Lieutenant of the kingdom, he made a final effort to save his dynasty by
abdicating in favour of his grandson, the Duke of Berri. The step was
entirely fruitless; he was recommended to withdraw quietly. He took the
advice, repaired to Cherbourg, and arrived at Spithead on the 17th of
August. After some residence at Lulworth, Charles accepted the
hospitality of the English King, who had offered him the use of Holyrood
House.
[Sidenote: Death of George IV.]
In the midst of this revolution, George IV., who had for some years been
seriously ill, and who since the trial of his wife had withdrawn himself
much from public observation, died. His danger had been hidden from the
people, probably at his own request. But on the 26th of June he died, a
victim to a complication of diseases which had rendered his later years
miserable.
[Sidenote: Review of Wellington's administration.]
[Sidenote: His isolated position.]
Throughout the last session of the reign Wellington had occupied a
position which could not long be maintained. There was no doubt that an
earnest effort might immediately have driven his administration from
office. He had broken with the old high Tories by the Catholic
Emancipation and by his financial policy. He had quarrelled with the
Canningites by insisting upon the resignation of Huskisson. He had
indeed made some approaches towards the Whigs, and admitted both Scarlet
and Lord Roslin to office, but his views rendered it impossible that any
real union with them should be thought of. He thus stood absolutely
alone, allowed to remain in office chiefly because men thought him the
only minister fit to deal with the vacillating and unprincipled King,
and because a speedy change on George's death was expected. Consequently
the session was passed in somewhat meaningless discussions, and in
attacks to which the arbitrary and self-confident character of
Wellington laid him open. Though the settlement of Greece was finally
completed, his foreign policy, as we have seen, which seemed to aim at
little else than at keeping things exactly as they were, met with little
approbation. Attacks against the press in which he engaged seemed at
once somewhat to lower his dignity, and to give openings for the
assaults of the Liberals. His financial measures, although he effected a
saving of upwards of a million in the payment of the Civil Service,
diminished but little the weight of taxation, while continued
disturbances in Ireland, and widespread discontent and misery among the
working-classes, especially in the silk trade, threw gloom over all the
country.
WILLIAM IV.
1830-1837.
Born 1765 = Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, 1818.
CONTEMPORARY PRINCES.
_France._ | _Austria._ | _Spain._ | _Portugal._
Charles X., 1824. |Francis II., 1792.|Ferdinand VII., 1813.|Miguel, 1828.
Louis Philippe, |Ferdinand, 1835. |Isabella II., 1833. |Maria, 1834.
1830.
_Prussia._ | _Russia._ | _Denmark._ | _Sweden._
Frederick-William | Nicholas, 1825. |Frederick VI., | Charles XIV.,
III., 1797-1840. | | 1808-1839. | 1818-1844.
POPES.--Pius VIII., 1829. Gregory XVI., 1831.
_Lord Chancellors._ | _First Lords of the Treasury._
|
April 1827. Lyndhurst. | Jan. 1828. Wellington.
Nov. 1830. Brougham. | Nov. 1830. Grey.
Nov. 1834. Lyndhurst. | July 1834. Melbourne.
April 1835. In Commission. | Nov. 1835. Wellington.
Feb. 1836. Cottenham. | Dec. 1834. Peel.
| April 1835. Melbourne.
|
_Chancellors of the Exchequer._ | _Secretaries (Foreign and Home)._
| Nov. 1830 { Palmerston.
Jan. 1828. Goulburn. | { Melbourne.
Nov. 1830. Althorp. | July 1834 { Palmerston.
Nov. 1834. Wellington. | { Duncannon.
Dec. 1834. Peel. | Nov. 1834 { Wellington.
April 1835. Spring Rice. | { Wellington.
| Dec. 1834 { Wellington.
| { Goulburn.
| April 1835 { Palmerston.
| { Russell.
[Sidenote: Character of William IV.]
It was perhaps fortunate that George IV. was succeeded by a man of very
different character, whose simplicity and geniality speedily made him as
popular as his brother had been the reverse. The little care with which
he preserved the outward forms of dignity shocked the older Tories; the
freedom with which he admitted men of both parties to his table and his
Court seemed to promise a reign conducted on constitutional principles
and without party bias on the part of the Crown. The popularity of the
King was at the time of great importance, because the excitement of the
days of July in France spread rapidly over Europe, especially in Belgium
and Poland, and met with great sympathy in England. Had an unpopular
monarch been upon the throne the Crown might easily have been involved
in the quarrel with the people.
[Sidenote: Effect of the July Revolution in Belgium and Poland.]
In Belgium the revolutionary spirit assumed the form of a national
desire on the part of the French-speaking Belgians to sever themselves
from the Dutch kingdom to which they had been attached by the Treaties
of Vienna. There was good ground for their discontent. The King of the
Netherlands, a clever but injudicious man, had failed to fulfil his
engagements, and had ruled entirely in the interests of the Dutch part
of his kingdom. The liberty of the press granted by the constitution had
been superseded by a royal ordinance, intended to be temporary, but
still remaining in force; a judicial system by which the judges were the
nominees of the Crown had superseded the enactments of the constitution,
by which the judges were elective and irremoveable; the King had twisted
the clause recommending to his care the interests of education to mean
that education should be entirely in the power of the Crown; the French
language had been proscribed in all public acts, and business had to be
carried on in Dutch; an undue proportion of the taxes was laid upon
Belgium, and Protestants were chiefly employed both in public and
educational offices, though absolute equality of religions had been
guaranteed. There is no need to explain the grievances of the Poles.
Destroyed as a nation, divided recklessly among their powerful
neighbours, it was only too natural that they should at once accept any
hope of freedom.
[Sidenote: Effect of the July Revolution in England.]
In England the Revolution in France met with universal sympathy and
admiration. Among those classes which of late years had been in a
constant state of discontent, it was accepted as an example to be at
once followed. But the orderly and self-restrained manner in which the
change in France had been effected had a far different and more
important effect than this. It seemed to show the possibility of great
and thorough changes being carried out without the excesses which had
hitherto accompanied revolutions, and had frightened the well-to-do
middle classes from any co-operation with the more eager and innovating
working-men. It seemed possible that the great question, which had been
almost crushed by the French wars and by the lengthened tenure of
office by the Tories, might be revived and brought to a successful
conclusion without opening the flood-gates of social anarchy.
Parliamentary reform was at once taken up by the Whigs and by the great
middle class of England, who determined to try whether they could not
win it in some less objectionable form than it had assumed in the hands
of radical demagogues.
[Sidenote: Position of Wellington's ministry.]
In the midst of this renewed excitement both on the Continent and in
England, the ministry of Wellington, cut off from its old friends and
disowned by those whose policy it had been enforced to adopt, stood as
representative of the bygone system. The minister, though he had already
so frequently yielded to the pressure of circumstances, was regarded as
the friend of Polignac, the fallen French minister. His foreign policy
read by this light seemed to be directed entirely to uphold the
principles which had actuated the Tory Government at the time of the
Vienna Treaty. He was known to be at heart an enemy of all change, and
his conduct was therefore watched at this crisis with extreme anxiety.
It was felt at the time, and has since been confessed, that his ministry
during the last session had existed only by the toleration of its
enemies. With the death of the King the chief necessity for retaining
the Duke in his position had disappeared, and the time seemed to have
arrived for sweeping away the Government, which was merely obstructive
and bent at the best in keeping things exactly as they were. The
dissolution which necessarily followed the accession of the new King
afforded the Duke's enemies the opportunity they required. In the midst
of much excitement, for the reformers had already begun to cover the
land with associations, the elections took place, with a result
disastrous to Government. There was a loss of at least fifty Government
seats. While the Liberals made extreme and successful efforts in places
where the elections were open, the Tory proprietors of boroughs, in
their hatred to Wellington, whom they regarded as their betrayer,
brought in anti-ministerial nominees. The temper of the people was shown
by the election of Brougham, voluntarily and without expense, to the
representation of Yorkshire, by the loss of their seats by two brothers
and a brother-in-law of Peel, undoubtedly the most important member of
the Government after the Premier, and by the fact that of the eighty-two
representatives of English counties not more twenty were ministerial.
Such a change no doubt offered much hope for the peaceful and
parliamentary character of the constitutional advance which it seemed
now impossible to avoid.
[Sidenote: Danger from O'Connell's agitation for repeal,]
[Sidenote: and from rick-burning.]
[Sidenote: Death of Huskisson.]
But there were still great dangers threatening the country. In Ireland
O'Connell was spending all his energies in preaching the necessity of
repeal, and heaping fierce and unmeaning words of hatred upon the
ministry. He had re-established the Association under the name of "The
Friends of Ireland," and when the Irish Government declared this
illegal, it assumed a new form as the Society of Irish Volunteers. The
lower classes were in a state of wild excitement, and their belief in
their leader was not checked by the inconsistency with which he now
extolled the Revolution in Belgium and in France, though hitherto, in
his love of Catholicism, the Catholic and Jesuit-loving Bourbons had
been the main subjects of his praise; nor did even the want of courage
with which he refused to give satisfaction for the insults he had heaped
on Lord Hardinge injure him with his followers. In October it was found
necessary in Tipperary to take means for suppressing an outbreak by the
use of the soldiery. In England events bearing a strong resemblance to
the opening of a revolution began to be visible. The breaking of
machines both in manufacturing and agricultural districts, and worse
than that, in the South of England rick-burning, became constant. No
efforts and no rewards could arrive at a true knowledge of the
perpetrators of this crime. The farmers were kept in a constant state of
nervous anxiety. A certain number of people were apprehended and hanged
on the charge, but any man was still liable to find his ricks, in spite
of all his care, suddenly and mysteriously bursting into flames. In
London, too, the old demagogues began to make their appearance. Hunt and
Cobbett were again haranguing crowds and filling their minds with hopes
of social equality. Meanwhile the ministry took no step to declare its
intention, and made no advances towards strengthening itself by union
with any other party. It seemed indeed possible for a moment that the
Duke would again yield, readmit the Canningites to his party, and
produce some very moderate reform. If such a plan existed, it
disappeared after the death of Huskisson. On the 15th of September a
number of guests, among whom were the Minister, were asked to attend the
opening of the first great railway in England, running between
Manchester and Liverpool. The train, in which the guests were, stopped
for water at Parkside. Several gentlemen left their seats, and a mutual
friend brought Huskisson to the carriage where Wellington sat to attempt
a reconciliation. The door was open as the old friends greeted each
other warmly. Suddenly a train came up upon the other line, there was a
cry of "Get to your seats;" flurried and unable, apparently, to pass the
open door, Huskisson fell across the line, and was so severely injured
that he died the same evening. The rest of Canning's followers, although
their great leader had been an enemy to reform, at once made it plain
that they had joined the Opposition.
[Sidenote: Parliament. Nov. 2, 1830.]
[Sidenote: Resignation of the ministry.]
It was thus, with unusual anxiety as to the conduct to be expected from
the ministry, that the opening of Parliament on the 2nd of November was
awaited. The worst enemies of the Duke could scarcely have hoped for a
more ill-judged production than the King's speech. There was no sign
that the very critical state of the country was even acknowledged. The
change of dynasty in France was mentioned and accepted, the unpopular
policy of the Government with regard to Miguel praised, the civil war in
Belgium spoken of in terms of severe reprobation, and a determination
expressed to uphold the present political system; the disturbed temper
of the people in England and Ireland was mentioned with indignation, and
the firm purpose of Government declared to repress it by every means in
their power. Of recognition of the necessity of listening to what had
now become the expressed wish of the nation there was not a word. If
anything could be wanted to strengthen the impression caused by the
speech, and to make it clear that the ministry was more conservative
than ever, it was afforded by Wellington's words in the debate on the
address in answer to Lord Grey's recommendation that some plan of reform
should be undertaken. He declared his belief in the perfection of the
legislative system. It possessed the full and entire confidence of the
country; he was not therefore prepared to bring forward any measure of
reform, and might declare at once that "as long as he held any station
in the government of the country, he should always feel it his duty to
resist such measures when proposed by others." It was a challenge to the
reformers which was speedily answered. On the same night Brougham
announced his intention of bringing forward a motion for reform on the
16th, and on that night the fate of the ministry must have been decided.
In the interval before the critical day the excitement of the people was
so great that the King's visit to the City had to be postponed, because
Wellington was afraid to accompany him unless under a strong armed
escort. But before that day arrived the ministry found an opportunity
for resigning. Among the topics of the speech was the reform of the
Civil List. On the 15th Sir Henry Parnell brought in a motion for a
Select Committee; the ministry opposed it on the ground that no further
economy was possible, and being beaten by a majority of twenty-nine,
after taking one day to consider, announced on the 16th that their
resignation had been accepted, and thus saved themselves from defeat on
the more momentous question of reform. During the formation of the new
ministry Brougham's motion was postponed, and it was almost immediately
known that he had passed into the Upper House as Lord Chancellor, and
that the first business of the new Government would be the production of
a Reform Bill.
[Sidenote: Formation of Lord Grey's ministry.]
At such a crisis it was impossible that any statesman except Lord Grey
should be intrusted with the formation of a Cabinet. Now nearly seventy
years of age, he had been the prominent leader in every attempt at
parliamentary reform for the last forty years. He found no difficulty in
selecting his ministers. As far as talents and debating power went the
Liberal party was very strong; it was not yet discovered that the long
absence of the party from office, and its consequent ignorance of the
routine and traditions of official work had rendered most of its members
rather weak administrators. The Chancellorship of the Exchequer was
given to Lord Althorp, a most amiable and excellent man, a steady
partisan of reform and retrenchment, but of an easy and not very
vigorous character. Lord Lansdowne was President of the Council;
Lambton, now become Lord Durham, Grey's son-in-law, was Lord Privy Seal;
the Secretaryships were supplied from the ranks of the Canningites;
Palmerston, Melbourne, and Goderich were respectively Foreign, Home, and
Colonial Secretaries. Charles Grant was President of the Board of
Control. Holland, Auckland, and Graham were also in the Cabinet. In
office, but not of the Cabinet, were Lord John Russell as
Paymaster-General, and Mr. Stanley, subsequently Lord Derby, as
Secretary for Ireland.
[Sidenote: Difficulties attending reform.]