=Source.=—Lord Beaconsfield’s _Endymion_, bk. iii., chap. x.
The condition of England at the meeting of Parliament in 1842 was not
satisfactory. The depression of trade in the manufacturing districts
seemed overwhelming, and continued increasing during the whole of the
year. A memorial from Stockport to the Queen in the spring represented
that more than half the master-spinners had failed, and that no less
than three thousand dwelling-houses were untenanted. One-fifth of the
population of Leeds were dependent on the poor-rates. The state of
Sheffield was not less severe—and the blast furnaces of Wolverhampton
were extinguished. There were almost daily meetings at Liverpool,
Manchester, and Leeds, to consider the great and increasing distress
of the country, and to induce ministers to bring forward remedial
measures; but as these were impossible, violence was soon substituted
for passionate appeals to the fears or the humanity of the Government.
Vast bodies of the population assembled in Stalybridge, and Ashton, and
Oldham, and marched into Manchester.
For a week the rioting was unchecked, but the Government despatched a
strong military force to that city, and order was restored.
The state of affairs in Scotland was not more favourable. There were
food riots in several of the Scotch towns, and in Glasgow the multitude
assembled, and then commenced what they called a begging tour, but
which was really a progress of not disguised intimidation. The economic
crisis in Ireland was yet to come, but the whole of that country was
absorbed in a harassing and dangerous agitation for the repeal of the
union between the two countries.
During all this time, the Anti-Corn-Law League was holding regular
and frequent meetings at Manchester, at which statements were made,
distinguished by much eloquence and little scruple. But the able
leaders of this confederacy never succeeded in enlisting the sympathies
of the great body of the population. Between the masters and the
workmen there was an alienation of feeling, which apparently never
could be removed. This reserve, however, did not enlist the working
classes on the side of the Government; they had their own object, and
one which they themselves enthusiastically cherished. And this was the
Charter, a political settlement which was to restore the golden age,
and which the master manufacturers and the middle classes generally
looked upon with even more apprehension than Her Majesty’s advisers. It
is hardly necessary to add, that in a state of affairs like that which
is here faintly but still faithfully sketched, the rapid diminution of
the revenue was inevitable, and of course that decline mainly occurred
in the two all-important branches of the customs and excise....
The minister brought forward his revision of the tariff, which was
denounced by the League as futile, and in which anathema the opposition
soon found it convenient to agree. Had the minister included in his
measure that “total and immediate repeal” of the existing corn laws
which was preached by many as a panacea, the effect would have been
probably much the same. No doubt a tariff may aggravate, or may
mitigate, such a condition of commercial depression as periodically
visits a state of society like that of England, but it does not
produce it. It was produced in 1842, as it has been produced at the
present time,[1] by an abuse of capital and credit, and by a degree of
production which the wants of the world have not warranted.
And yet all this time, there were certain influences at work in
the great body of the nation, neither foreseen, nor for some time
recognised, by statesmen and those great capitalists on whose opinion
statesmen much depend, which were stirring, as it were, like the
unconscious power of the forces of nature, and which were destined to
baffle all the calculations of persons in authority and the leading
spirits of all parties, strengthen a perplexed administration, confound
a sanguine opposition, render all the rhetoric, statistics, and
subscriptions of the Anti-Corn-Law fruitless, and absolutely make the
Chartists forget the Charter.
There was abundant capital in the country and a mass of unemployed
labour. But the markets on which they had of late depended, the
American especially, were overworked and overstocked, and in some
instances were not only overstocked, but disturbed by war, as the
Chinese, for example—and capital and labour wanted a new channel.
The new channel came, and all the persons of authority, alike political
and commercial, seemed quite surprised that it had arrived; but when a
thing or a man is wanted, they generally appear. One or two lines of
railway which had been long sleepily in formation, about this time were
finished, and one or two lines of railway which had been finished for
some time and were unnoticed, announced dividends, and not contemptible
ones. Suddenly there was a general feeling in the country that its
capital should be invested in railways; that the whole surface of the
land should be transformed, and covered, as by a network, with these
mighty means of communication. When the passions of the English,
naturally an enthusiastic people, are excited on a subject of finance,
their will, their determination, and resource, are irresistible. This
was signally proved in the present instance, for they never ceased
subscribing their capital until the sum entrusted to this new form of
investment reached an amount almost equal to the national debt; and
this, too, in a very few years. The immediate effect on the condition
of the country was absolutely prodigious. The value of land rose, all
the blast furnaces were relit, a stimulant was given to every branch of
the home trade, the amount suddenly paid in wages exceeded that ever
known in this country, and wages, too, at a high rate. Large portions
of the labouring classes not only enjoyed comfort, but commanded
luxury. All this of course soon acted on the revenue, and both customs
and especially excise soon furnished an ample surplus.
It cannot be pretended that all this energy and enterprise were free
in their operation from those evils which, it seems, must inevitably
attend any extensive public speculation, however well-founded. Many
of the scenes and circumstances recalled the days of the South Sea
Scheme. The gambling in shares of companies which were formed only in
name was without limit. The principal towns of the north established
for that purpose stock exchanges of their own, and Leeds especially,
one-fifth of whose population had been authoritatively described in the
first session of the new parliament as dependent on the poor-rates, now
boasted of a stock exchange which in the extent of its transactions
rivalled that of the metropolis. And the gambling was universal, from
the noble to the mechanic. It was confined to no class and no sex. The
scene which took place at the Board of Trade on the last day on which
plans could be lodged, and when midnight had arrived while crowds from
the country were still filling the hall, and pressing at the doors,
deserved and required for its adequate representation the genius of
a Hogarth. This was the day on which it was announced that the total
number of railway projects, on which deposits had been paid, had
reached nearly to eight hundred.
What is remarkable in this vast movement in which so many millions were
produced, and so many more promised, is, that the great leaders of the
financial world took no part in it. The mighty loan-mongers on whose
fiat the fate of kings and empires sometimes depended, seemed like
men who, witnessing some eccentricity of nature, watch it with mixed
feelings of curiosity and alarm. Even Lombard Street, which never
was more wanted, was inactive, and it was only by the irresistible
pressure of circumstances that a banking firm which had an extensive
country connection was ultimately forced to take the leading part that
was required, and almost unconsciously lay the foundation of the vast
fortunes which it has realised, and organise the varied connection
which it now commands. All seemed to come from the provinces, and from
unknown people in the provinces.
[1] _Endymion_ was published in 1880.