1846-1850.
The Irish Famine--Smith O'Brien's Rebellion--Widow Cormack's
Cabbages--The Special Commission--Revival of the Chartist
Movement--The Monster Petition--Its Exposure and Collapse of the
Movement--Revolutionary Movements in Britain compared with those
in other Countries--Growing Affection for the Queen--Its
Causes--Royal Visit to Ireland--The Pacifico Imbroglio--Rupture
with France Imminent--_Civis Romanus Sum_--Lord Palmerston's
Rise--Sir Robert Peel's Death--The Invention of Chloroform.
[Sidenote: The Irish Famine.]
The condition of affairs in Ireland, with which it had fallen to the
Russell Ministry to deal on entering office in 1846, had become truly
appalling. Nearly a million of money had been expended by Peel's
Government in relief of the distress caused by the failure of the potato
crop in 1845, and the disease had reappeared with greater intensity in
the following season. Further measures of relief were brought forward by
the Prime Minister; charitable subscriptions poured in from every town
in England and Scotland; nearly every country in Europe, including even
Turkey, contributed help in the hour of need, and the United States
Government freighted some of their war vessels with grain for their
starving cousins.
[Illustration: THE FIRST CLOSED DIVING HELMET.
Invented by A. Siebe, 1839. Now in the Patents Museum. South
Kensington.]
Nevertheless, the situation was one of extraordinary perplexity. In the
footprints of famine stalked sedition. Agrarian murders rose to a
frightful figure; secret societies grew apace; midnight drilling went on
in almost every county; and that very peasantry whose destitution had
touched the hearts of the whole civilised world, proved themselves able
to buy enormous quantities of arms and ammunition. In Clonmel alone,
1,138 stand of arms were sold in a few days, and everywhere, to quote a
letter written at the time, "the peasantry are armed or are arming
almost to a man. The stores of the armourer are more frequently
exhausted than the provision stores." So brisk was the demand as to
cause a revival of the gun trade in Birmingham, where the existing stock
of small arms was entirely cleared out. But there could be no doubt of
the reality and severity of the distress. It was worst in the south and
west; famine and famine-fever carried off thousands, and the population
of Ireland, which had stood at eight millions in 1845, could only be
reckoned at six millions in 1848. The difference, however, was not
entirely due to deaths by starvation or disease. The westward stream of
emigration had set in, and tens of thousands of Irish families sought
and found the means of better existence in the land of plenty beyond the
Atlantic.
[Illustration: _J. Doyle_ ("_H. B._").} {_Political Sketches, 1847._
AN INTERESTING GROUP; OR, "MISFORTUNE MAKES STRANGE BEDFELLOWS."
Lord Lincoln, Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Goulbourne, Mr. Disraeli, Lord George
Bentinck, and Mr. O'Brien.
Lord George Bentinck's plan of relief works for Ireland, which mainly
took the form of railway extension, was at first opposed by the
Government, but afterwards adopted by them, thus bringing this
"interesting group" of men into line.]
But the ferment of rebellion was spreading swiftly among those who
remained. All the misery of the famine was laid at the door of the land
system; not unfrequently coroners' juries returned verdicts of wilful
murder against the Prime Minister or Lord Lieutenant, holding them
directly responsible for not averting the disasters of the country. Once
more the Government had to undertake the hateful task of bringing
forward a Coercion Bill, for the people seemed on the brink of civil
war. Technically that limit was actually transgressed, though the means
were ludicrously inadequate to the end--repeal of the Union. The "Young
Ireland" party, inflamed by the successful revolution in France,
separated from and plunged ahead of O'Connor's Repealers. O'Connor had
precipitated the rupture by endeavouring to induce his party to pledge
themselves against any except constitutional means. His proposal was
laughed to scorn. William Smith O'Brien, brother of Lord Inchiquin,
claiming descent from Brian Boruibh, placed himself at the head of the
"Confederates," as the new party was called, with Meagher, Dillon, and
others as his lieutenants; the _United Irishman_ newspaper was started
in opposition to the less inflammatory _Nation_, the organ of the older
party. It was managed by John Mitchell, who filled its columns week by
week with the most violent and acrid sedition.
[Illustration: _F. Winterhalter._} {_In the Royal Collection._
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF WALES Christmas 1846.]
[Illustration: _F. Winterhalter._} {_In the Royal Collection._
HER MAJESTY AND THE PRINCE CONSORT WITH THE ROYAL CHILDREN, 1846.
The Princess Royal (born 1840), Prince of Wales (1841), Princess Alice
(1843), Prince Alfred (1844), and Princess Helena (1846).]
[Sidenote: Smith O'Brien's Rebellion.]
[Sidenote: Widow Cormack's Cabbages.]
[Sidenote: The Special Commission.]
It was impossible for the Government to allow this sort of stuff to be
circulated among an excitable peasantry, smarting under imaginary wrongs
and real distress and armed to the teeth; but the existing law contained
no provisions framed to stop it. The Prime Minister, therefore,
introduced and passed what is known as the Treason Felony Act, making
written incitement to insurrection a crime punishable with
transportation, and enabling the Executive to imprison persons charged
with contravention of it. Mitchell was arrested at once, but Smith
O'Brien continued to hold armed meetings in various parts of Ireland:
matters looked threatening, and there was grave apprehension in England
as to the result. On the morning of August 7 it was turned into mirth by
the arrival in London from Liverpool of one of the first telegraphic
despatches of importance ever published in this country. Rebellion had
actually broken out: Smith O'Brien in person had led a considerable
force to attack a body of fifty or sixty police, who defended themselves
in the house of one Widow Cormack, near Ballingarry, in Tipperary. A
good deal of firing took place but very little bloodshed; thanks, on the
one hand, to the indifferent arms carried by the rebels, and, on the
other, to the forbearance of the police, who could easily have shot
O'Brien, so theatrically did he expose himself during the brief contest.
The chief damage was done to the poor widow's cabbages, which the
Confederates trampled to pieces in the garden adjoining the house. The
affair was soon over: the patriots, not relishing a few rounds from the
muskets of the police, melted quickly away, and the heroic O'Brien was
arrested in the act of taking his railway ticket at Thurles station. It
is unlucky for any cause--it is worse, it is fatal to it--when it
becomes ridiculous, and people have never since been able to mention
Smith O'Brien's cabbage garden without a grin. But the general state of
Ireland had grown to be no laughing matter. The number of persons
arrested for complicity in seditions, or for the frequent murders of
landlords, agents, and policemen far exceeded what the ordinary
tribunals of the country could deal with, and a special Commission of
judges was appointed to try them.
[Illustration: THE "SPURN" LIGHTSHIP.
The first light-vessel was moored at the Nore in 1732. Since that date,
to the untechnical eye, the change in the outward appearance of a
lightship has not been great; but the efficiency of the light has been
increased, since 1837, from about 1,500 candles to about 20,000 candles.
The _Spurn_ Lightship shows a light of the power just named, and in
foggy weather sounds a powerful siren in place of the old-fashioned
gong.]
[Illustration: THE EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE.
The present Lighthouse was erected in 1881, when Smeaton's celebrated
tower was removed to the Hoe at Plymouth, except the lowermost courses,
which are shown in the picture and still remain on the rock. The lantern
sends out a series of flashes of 79,000 candle-power.]
[Illustration: THE SMALLS LIGHTHOUSE IN 1837.
With the exception of Smeaton's tower at the Eddystone and that on the
Bell Rock, this was the only rock Lighthouse on the coast of Great
Britain in 1837. It was built on oak piles, and in stormy weather rocked
like a ship. Its lantern was furnished with twenty-seven argand lamps
with reflectors, giving a light of about 3,000 candle-power. It was
superseded by the present granite tower in 1861.]
[Sidenote: Revival of the Chartist Movement.]
The spirit of revolution was astir in many lands besides Ireland in the
year when Louis Philippe was forced from the throne of France. In
England the Chartist movement was sympathetically inflamed into renewed
activity. A Chartist convention assembled in London in spring and made
arrangements for a monster demonstration to be held on Kennington Common
on April 10. But the Convention had hardly begun deliberating before
disunion appeared in its councils. There were two parties among the
Chartists--the constitutional Radicals and the physical force party. The
latter were for assembling on Kennington Common under arms; but the
venerable leader of the whole movement, Feargus O'Connor, would have
nothing to do with unconstitutional or violent proceedings. The
consequence of this was a rupture in the camp. Every preparation was
made by the authorities to protect London from the ravages of a mob: the
troops were under arms: the police mustered in great force: thousands of
special constables were sworn in, and the Chartist procession was
prohibited. But about 20,000 Chartists did assemble on the Common to
listen to harangues by O'Connor and others. O'Connor then went to the
Home Office, interviewed Sir George Grey, and told him the meeting had
taken place without disorder. "Are you going back to it?" asked Grey.
"No," replied O'Connor, "I've had my toes trodden on till I'm lame: my
pocket has been picked, and I'll have no more to do with them."
[Illustration: DIOPTRIC LANTERN.
The series of circular glass prisms collects the rays from the
lamp--usually an oil lamp with several concentric wicks--and
concentrates them into a horizontal beam of great power. The Lantern
illustrated is that of the Lighthouse at Spurn Point, and is the most
powerful oil Lantern yet made; it has a maximum intensity of 179,000
candles. But this power is greatly exceeded by the electric lights at
St. Catherine's, the Lizard, and elsewhere.]
[Sidenote: The Monster Petition.]
[Sidenote: Its Exposure, and Collapse of the Movement.]
It was ridicule--that universal solvent--which finally shattered this
once formidable Chartist League. A monster petition to Parliament had
been in course of signature for some months. Feargus O'Connor, in
presenting it, declared that 5,700,000 names were attached to it. It was
remitted in the ordinary course to the Committee on Public Petitions,
who employed a number of clerks to examine the signatures. The result
was speedily made known. Instead of nearly six million names, less than
two million were appended to it. Whole sheets of these were found to
have been written by the same hand. But the crowning exposure, which
convulsed the whole nation with laughter, appeared from the analysis of
the names themselves. Those of the Queen and Prince Albert, of Ministers
and leaders of Opposition were of frequent occurrence; noted names in
fiction, especially that of "Cheeks the Marine," a familiar character in
Marryat's novels, then very popular, appeared in every sheet, besides
all sorts of ribaldries, indecencies, and buffooneries. Chartism was a
genuine and an earnest movement: it was an upheaval against class
privileges, a revolt against class grievances. But these privileges and
grievances were in course of removal; the extension of the franchise had
brought about repeal of the corn laws, laid the foundation of free
trade, and redressed some, at least, of the evils prevalent in factories
and mines. Much remained to be done, which has been done since, but
Chartism was to have no hand in the doing of it. As a political force it
collapsed; as a social movement it crumbled away under the intolerable
ridicule of the Monster Petition.
[Illustration: SECTIONS OF THE EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE,
Shewing the interior, and the method of morticing the stones for greater
security. The Lantern is a double dioptric one, and consists of two such
arrangements as that shewn on the left of this page placed one above the
other. The fog-signal is an explosive one of gun-cotton.]
[Sidenote: Revolutionary Movements in Britain compared with those in
other Countries.]
It will be long before English statesmen forget the lessons of 1848-9.
During these years the whole of Europe was convulsed by violent popular
conflicts with authority. In France the Bourbon dynasty collapsed with
the abdication of Louis Philippe, and then, to repeat Mr. Justin
McCarthy's happy phrase, "came a Red Republican rising against a
Republic that strove not to be red," to be drowned in blood by
Cavaignac. The Pope was chased from Rome, the Emperor of Austria from
Vienna, the Italian princes from their duchies, the German rulers from
their principalities; there were sanguinary struggles in Poland, in
Naples, in Sardinia; while Great Britain had only to blush for Widow
Cormack's cabbages and the picking of Feargus O'Connor's pocket at
Kennington. Yet there was no doubt of the earnestness of the leaders of
agitation and insurrection in England: no question about the reality of
the grievances.
Freedom of speech and freedom of the press, no ineffective safety valves
in times of discontent, were tolerated in the United Kingdom--then, as
now--far beyond the limits of public security, as these were reckoned by
every other European State. But the chief safety of England lay in the
faith of the masses in the power of Parliament to devise measures of
redress, and their confidence that the Sovereign would interpose no bar
to remedial legislation. Nor have that faith and confidence been
betrayed. Throughout all the years that have elapsed since the
dissolution of the Chartist League, Parliament has been diligent in
devising measures to meet the ever-changing and growing wants of the
people, and the Royal Assent has always been cordially given to them.
The Queen and her Consort do not appear very prominently or very often
in the chronicles of these early years, but all the time there had been
growing silently that popular affection for the Sovereign which
disappeared entirely from practical politics with the active reign of
George III. The qualities of Prince Albert, his industry, his untiring
anxiety for the welfare of the people, his unobtrusive influence in
favour of freedom, were becoming known: the Crown was becoming more than
the decorative centre of the Court--the mere frontispiece of the
aristocracy--it was becoming recognised as the actual head of the
British people.
[Illustration: _J. D. Francis._} {_From an Engraving._
HER MAJESTY IN THE WALKING COSTUME OF 1846.]
[Sidenote: Growing Affection for the Queen. Its Causes.]
[Sidenote: Royal Visit to Ireland.]
The growing affection of the people for their Queen was stimulated about
this time by the act of a harebrained scamp who, on May 17, discharged a
rusty pistol, loaded, it is believed, with no deadly missile, at Her
Majesty as she was driving in Constitution Hill with three of her
children. The fact that the wretch was an Irishman was regarded rightly
as being of no political significance, and it was a happy--it was more,
it was a wise--project which was carried into effect by the visit of the
Queen and Prince Albert, with the Prince of Wales and Princess Royal, to
Ireland in August 1849. The Royal yacht was escorted by four warships,
but the reception they met with at Cork, at Dublin, and at Belfast
proved that to be but a formal precaution. Perhaps, had it been possible
in later years that the Monarch and her family should become more
familiar to the warm-hearted Irish, many subsequent misfortunes and
misunderstandings might never have taken place.
[Illustration: A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF THE
UNITED KINGDOM IN 1837 AND 1897.]
[Sidenote: The Pacifico Imbroglio.]
The Parliamentary session of 1850 must ever be memorable for two
events--the sudden rise of Lord Palmerston into fame and popularity, and
the equally sudden removal of the most illustrious figure in the House
of Commons. The debate, which was the occasion of the first, and
immediately preceded the second of these events, arose out of one of the
most trivial and least creditable matters that ever agitated the
Councils and menaced the peace of a great nation. Certain British
subjects had suffered loss in the destruction of their property during
the disturbances at Athens in 1847, and had lodged claims for
compensation against the Greek Government. The principal sufferer was a
Portuguese Jew, named Pacifico, a British subject in virtue of having
been born in Gibraltar. The Greeks were needy and delayed a settlement.
Then there was Mr. Finlay, too, the historian of Greece, long resident
at Athens, who had a grievance of a different sort, arising out of a
demand made by the Greek Government that he should surrender a piece of
land at less than he considered its value. The strange thing was that
Palmerston took up these private claims as an international question,
although neither of the claimants had tried the experiment of litigation
in the Greek courts. A British squadron was ordered to the Piræus, all
the Greek vessels in that harbour were seized, and Athens was blockaded.
The Greeks appealed to the governments of France and Russia, who
remonstrated with Great Britain touching this high-handed dealing with a
weak State. Russia was rudely outspoken and menacing: she was told
bluntly by Lord Palmerston that it was none of her business. France was
more conciliatory, and by her aid a convention in regard to the disputed
claims was arranged in London. But there was so much delay in
communicating the result to the British Ambassador in Athens, Mr. Wyse,
that he was left in ignorance that a modified payment had been agreed
on, and continued to press for payment of the full claims. Thereupon
arose serious misunderstanding between the British and French
Governments, England being accused of breach of faith. Appearances were
certainly against her; the French Ambassador was recalled from London,
and two great nations seemed on the brink of war.
[Illustration: _J. Leech._} {_From "Punch."_
THE GRECIAN DIFFICULTY.
Mr. Punch: "Why don't you hit one of your own size?"]
[Illustration: MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF YE ENGLYSHE IN 1849. No. 8.
YE COMMONS RESSOLVED INTO A COMMYTTEE OF YE WHOLE HOUSE.
_Richard Doyle._} {_From "Punch."_]
[Sidenote: Rupture with France Imminent.]
[Sidenote: Civis Romanus Sum.]
The Government had a wretchedly bad case to defend in Parliament; a
case, too, which had been damaged by the introduction of that element
which had told with such fatal effect against the Chartists and Smith
O'Brien's Confederates--the element of ridicule. For the grasping Jew
Pacifico had specified in his bill against the Greek Government various
possessions strangely out of keeping with what had always been his
modest household. Among the articles alleged to have been destroyed by
fire were a bedstead, valued at £150, sheets for the same at £30, and a
pillow-case at £10. Ministers already beaten in the Upper House stood in
a critical position in the Lower. But Lord Palmerston rose to the
occasion, and exhibited eloquence which hitherto he had not been
suspected of possessing. He spoke with great vigour for nearly five
hours, and wound up with a peroration which, spoken by a man of other
mould than "Old Pam," might have savoured of claptrap, and read in cold
blood at this day, seems to rise no higher than what Americans call
"spread-eagleism." "If," he asked, "a subject of ancient Rome could hold
himself free from indignity by saying _Civis Romanus sum_, shall not a
British subject also, in whatever land he may be, feel confident that
the watchful eye and strong arm of England will protect him against
injustice and wrong?" _Civis Romanus_ carried the House and the country
with the speaker: Palmerston's appeal saved the Government.
[Sidenote: Lord Palmerston's Rise.]
[Sidenote: Sir Robert Peel's Death.]
Sir Robert Peel made his last speech in opposition to the vote of
confidence: though, in referring to Palmerston's defence of the
Government, he declared that "his speech made us all proud of the man
who made it." He delivered his last vote on the fourth day of the
debate, about four o'clock in the morning of June 29. Next day at noon
he attended a meeting of the Royal Commissioners of the Great Exhibition
which was to be held the following year. After the meeting he mounted
his horse, went to write his name in the Queen's book at Buckingham
Palace, and then rode up Constitution Hill. He stopped to talk to the
Hon. Miss Ellis, whom he met riding down from Hyde Park: something
frightened his horse, which, by a sudden bound, unseated him. Peel in
falling kept hold of the reins and pulled the horse on the top of him.
He was internally and fatally injured, one of his ribs having been
broken and forced into the lung. He died on July 2, after terrible
suffering. The doctors were unable to deal with the injuries owing to
the intense agony caused by the slightest movement. It brings to one's
apprehension what an incalculable boon to suffering humanity has since
that time been discovered in the use of anæsthetics. Chloroform had
already been invented, it is true, in 1850; but its employment was
little understood. Three years earlier Charles Greville had witnessed
one of the first operations under chloroform in St. George's Hospital.
How many suffering ones and friends of suffering ones have had cause to
echo the feeling expressed in his journal: "I have no words to express
my admiration for this invention, which is the greatest blessing ever
bestowed on mankind, and the inventor of it the greatest of benefactors,
whose memory ought to be venerated by countless millions for ages yet to
come." In spite of this, it is greatly to be feared that the names of
Guthrie the American and Soubeiran the Frenchman, who simultaneously
discovered chloroform in 1831, and Lawrence of London and Simpson of
Edinburgh, who first employed it in our hospitals, have been almost
forgotten by the many.
[Illustration: _C. J. Staniland, R.I._}
THE LIFEBOAT OF 1837.
The form of Lifeboat introduced by Henry Greathead in 1789, having a
curved keel, and rendered additionally buoyant by means of cork, was
still the recognised form in 1837, and boats built by him have been in
use until quite recently. The Lifeboat crews on the north and east
coasts still prefer, and use, a boat of very similar shape.]
[Illustration: _From a Photo by_} {_Bennetto, Newquay._
THE LIFEBOAT OF 1897.
This is the standard self-righting boat of the Royal National Lifeboat
Institution, and is the outcome of innumerable experiments. The
Institution has a fleet of 298 Lifeboats, and has been the means of
saving, since 1824, no fewer than 39,815 lives. The Illustration shews
the Newquay boat entering the water by means of the slip way.]
[Illustration: THE GREAT EXHIBITION OF 1851, IN HYDE PARK.]