tion, while taxes, bonds, bills, and money debts | ately began organizing an expedition to restore of every description remained the same, will the constitutional régime and the throne of have no difficulty in discerning what it was Donna Maria. Upon receiving intelligence of that uprooted the attachment to old institutions these preparations, the British government inwhich is so remarkable a feature in the English formed the Brazilian minister that they could character, and induced the agricultural distress not permit such a breach of neutrality, and that in Ireland which paved the way for Catholic the refugees, as a measure of precaution, would emancipation, and the general distress in Great be directed to remove further from the coast. Britain which brought on the Reform Bill. The envoy then stated that these troops were The only topic, during the remainder of the about to be conveyed to Brazil; and, according session of 1829, deserving of atten-ly, four vessels, having on board six hundred and fifty officers and men, sailed from 1 Ann. Rez. Plymouth, with Count Saldanha, 1829, 188, 189; the minister-at-war under the Con- Martineau, i. 510, 511. stitutional Government.1

13.

refusal of the

English Gov

terfere in its

Jan. 16, 1830.

Relations with tion, was the state of our relations Portugal, and with Portugal, which are chiefly remarkable from the clear line ernment to in- which was drawn by the Duke of Wellington in regard to the duty They were informed, before they set out, concerns. of Great Britain as a neutral pow- that, if they attempted a descent 15. er, when that country was distracted by oppo- on any part of the Portuguese ter- And is heat off site factions contending for the crown. To un- ritories, they would be resisted by by the British derstand how this came about, it is necessary the British cruisers. They made squadron. to premise, what will be more fully detailed in straight, however, for Terceira, the the account of the transactions of Portugal, that largest of the Azores, which had declared for a counter-revolution had taken place in Lisbon, Don Miguel, and were met by Captain Walpole in conformity with that which had resulted in in the Ranger, who, after firing two shots in the Spain from the French invasion, and that Dox air to bring them to, which failed of effect. disMIGUEL, the uncle of the little queen, and the charged one at Saldanha's vessel, which killed heir-male of the family, had been placed on the one man and wounded another. This had the throne by the absolute party. The infant sov- desired effect, and the squadron, after a streauereign, Donna Maria, had been supported by ous effort to effect its object, returned to Brest. the English interest, and she herself received This proceeding made a great noise at the time, with royal honors at Windsor. In consequence, and was every where represented by the Liban application was made to the British govern- eral party in Europe as an intervention of the ment to re-establish the constitutional throne British government in favor of Don Miguel. It in Portugal by force of arms; but to this appli- is evident, however, that it was no such thing, cation a negative was returned by the British but simply a prevention of intervention by the government. "It is assumed," said Lord Aber- Liberals, which could not be permitted, aedeen, the Foreign Secretary, "that the usurpa-cording to the laws of neutrality, from the tion of the throne of Portugal by the Infant British shores. As such, it is important, as Don Miguel has given to her most Faithful drawing the line between real neutrality and Majesty the right of demanding from this coun- the covert intervention which often bears its try effectual succors to recover her throne and name; and affords a striking contrast to the kingdom. But in the whole series of the treat- insidious conduct of preceding governments, ies there is no express stipulation which can which, while professing neutrality, allowed exwarrant this pretension; neither is it warrant-peditions of ten and twelve thousand men to be ed by their general tenor or spirit. It is either for the purpose of exciting successful rebellion, or of deciding by force a doubtful question of succession, that Great Britain is now called upon to act. But it is impossible to suppose that any independent state could ever intend But it was easier to pursue an honest straightthus to commit the control and direction of its forward course in regard to for- 16. internal affairs to the hands of another power. eign states, which had become the Great distress The whole spirit of the treaties, as well as their subject of internal contests, than in Great Brit1 Parl. Deb. history, shows that the principle of to preserve that contentment and land during xxi. 1633; the guarantee given by England is tranquillity at home which might the whole of Ann. Reg. the protection of Portugal from for- avert them from the British Isl- 1829. 1829, 187. eign interference only." ands. The great contraction of the curreney An opportunity soon occurred of putting consequent on the entire suppression of small these principles in practice, and of notes, which took effect in March of this year, The expe- proving to the world that, however came to tell with decisive and appalling effect determined to protect her allies from upon all branches of industry. Interest of monTerceira. foreign aggression, Great Britain ey was low, and wages still lower-a sure proof, would not interfere with their internal dissen- when coexisting, of want of employment for sions; and that she would concede to other capital, and of failure in the demand for labor. countries the same right of choosing their sov-"The interest of money." says Miss Martineau, ereign and form of government which she had assumed to herself. A number of Portuguese refugees, most of them military men, had arrived in Great Britain, upon the occurrence of the revolution in Portugal, and, following the example of those who had so efficiently aided the South American revolution, they immedi

14.

dition to

fitted out in the Thames and at Portsmouth, which succeeded in revolutionizing 2 Pari. Deb.. South America, and thereby brought xxi. 1633; unnumbered calamities upon both Ann. Reg. hemispheres.2

1629, 189.

ain and Ire

a decided advocate for the cheapening system,
"was never known to be lower, and the manu-
facturers' stocks, with which their shelves were
too well loaded, had suffered a depre-
ciation of 40 per cent."

3 Martineau,
This pro- i. 539.
digious fall, which pervaded alike
all branches of industry, both agricultural and

17.

in many

liberately piled their furniture in great heaps,
to which they set fire. The workmen who had
taken in work at the reduced prices were next
assailed; and such was the alarm produced by
this "reign of terror," as it was called, that they
were compelled to return the materials they had
received from their masters and join 1 Ann. Reg.
the strike. Nor were the disorders 1829, 132, 133,
terminated but by the introduction Martineau, i.
of a large body of military.'
539, 540.

the agitation

of the Union

manufacturing, occasioned of course a vast diminution of imported articles, and a corresponding and most distressing fall in wages, and in many places entire cessation in the demand for labor. At Huddersfield it appeared, from a report drawn up by a committee of masters, "that in the several townships occupied in fancy business there are 13,000 individuals who have not more than 24d. a day to live upon, and find wear and tear for looms." The same deplorable prostration of industry and reduc- Ireland, being a purely agricultural country, tion of wages took place in every branch of in which it was impossible by the 18. manufacturing industry, and in none more than introduction of machinery to coun- And in Irethe silk trade; and in consequence the sums ex-terbalance the reduction in the price land, where pended for the relief of the poor in England and of produce and the people being for the repeal Wales, which in 1824 and 1825 had been on already at the starving pointan average £5,750,000, rose in 1828, 1829, and shared to a still greater degree in commenced. 1830, to nearly £7,000,000 sterling. these causes of suffering, and the agitators were This lamentable fall in the wages of labor not slow in turning it to the best account. It was soon attended by its usual con- soon appeared that emancipation had done noSerious riots sequence-a variety of outbreaks thing to conciliate the Catholics or heal the diand disturbances in the districts visions of the country; it had only given the places. which were more immediately af- leaders a vantage-ground from whence to make fected. Constrained by the general fall in the fresh attacks on the constitution, and the people price of their produce to lessen the cost of pro- an example of the success which might be atduction, the masters every where lowered the tained by well-organized agitation. Mr. O'Conwages of their workmen, and this immediately nell had often declared, before the Relief Bill gave rise to strikes and disturbances. A gen- passed, that "Catholic emancipation would coneral strike took place at Macclesfield, and the vert the great agitator into a mere nisi prius delegates from Spitalfields openly recommend- lawyer;" but when it was obtained, instead of ed the destruction of looms by cutting out the keeping his word he immediately commenced a silk. Ignorant of the real cause of their suffer- fresh agitation for the repeal of the Union. In ing, the whole vengeance of the workmen was this crusade he constantly referred to the cardirected against the engine-looms, the visible rying of the Relief Bill, not as a reason for parival of their labor and the supposed source of cification or a motive to gratitude, but as an their distress. The delegates assured them "the incentive to renewed efforts and still more vital destroying angel was the best ally they had;" changes. "We have now," said he, at Youghnor were they long of acting upon the advice. al, "a brighter era opened to us, and I trust At Coventry, Nuneaton, and Bedworth, serious that all classes of my countrymen will unite riots took place; and such was the terror pro- together, and, by forming one firm general duced by the violence of the workmen, that the phalanx, achieve what is still wanting to make masters generally gave in for a time to their Ireland what it ought to be. Ireland had her demands. They soon found it impossible, how- 1782-she shall have another 1782. Let no ever, at existing prices, to go on with such wa- man tell me it is useless to look for a repeal of ges, and a reduction again took place. Upon the odious Union, that blot upon our national this riots again ensued; and they were partic- character. It is for the repeal of that measure ularly violent at Barnsley, in Yorkshire, where that we must now use all the constitutional the combined workmen attacked the dwelling- means in our power. That Union engenders houses of the obnoxious manufacturers, and de- absenteeism and all the thousand evils which naturally flow in its train. I want no disseveration; but I want, and must have, a repeal of that cursed measure which deprived Ireland of her Senate, and thereby rendered her a dependent upon British aristocracy, British intrigue, and British interests. I pity the man who pronounces the attainment of such a consummation to be Utopian. Look at the Catholic question: do I not remember when it was difficult to obtain a meeting of five Catholics to look for a restoration of our then withheld rights? I recollect when we agitators were almost as much execrated by our fellow-slaves as we were by our oppressors. The contentions of religion are over, freedom has been obtain

PRICE OF WHEAT, COTTON, IRON, ETC., FROM 1827
TO 1829.

Wheat per
Quarter.

Iron per
Ton.

Silk per lb.

Sugar Wool per cwt. per lb.

Years.

Cotton per lb.

1827

8. d. 50 2

8. d.
0 101

8. d.
23 8

16281 71 8

0 81

7 10

£ s. 8.10

12) 55 4 --TOOKE On Prices, ii. 390, 420.

£ s. 35 0

s. d.
26
2 6
20

Silk
Thread.

Wool. lb. lb. lb. 1827 272,448.909/47,938.947 29,115,341 3,146,926 463,801 11828227.760,642 41,069,731 30,236,059 4,256,423,508,818)

1829 222,767,411 39,071,215 21,516,649 3,594,754 211,179 ed, but the people shall no longer be misrepre-TOOKE On Prices, ii. 391.

127.

Serious riots

estants and

Ireland.

restored, her sons be of one creed, all joined in | tional income in the last year has not attained the common cause of seeing old Ire- the full amount at which it had been estimated, 1999. land great and glorious among the the diminution is not such as to cause any doubt nations of Europe." as to the future prosperity of the revenue. The estimates have been framed with the utmost regard to economy, and his Majesty hopes to be able to make a considerable reduction in the amount of the public expenditure, without impairing the efficiency of our naval and military establishments." These words are very remarkable, for they at once indicate the cause of past suffering, and the necessities which were to prescribe future policy. An augmentation beyond all former precedent of exports was attended with financial embarrassment and general distress, which compelled the most rigid economy! Inconsistent as these things may appear, they are not so in reality, and subsequent experience has proved that they are often cause and effect. Pecuniary embarrassment, arising from a general fall of prices, often leads for a time to an increase of production in the hope of compensating by quantity what has become awanting in price; and a great increase in the amount of produce Parl. Deb. arises from the very difficulties of xxii. 2. 3; those engaged in the work of pro- Aun. Reg. duction.

1830, 5, 6.

The Catholics were not slow in acting upon these recommendations, nor were 19. the Protestants less eager in meetbetween Prot- ing the shouts of triumph by the notes of defiance. Then was seen Catholics in how deadly was the animosity of the two creeds, and how vain the hope that a measure of equal justice could reconcile two great parties, each of which was vehemently contending for the mastery. Conflicts more serious, exasperation more violent, bloodshed more deplorable ensued than had been known, save in the rebellion of 1798, in the whole recent annals of Ireland. The 12th July, the anniversary of the battle of the Boyne, and well-known season of Orange glorification in Ireland, was the signal for general disturbance. "The country," says the annalist, “was armed for civil war; its condition was much more alarming than it had been when it was to be cured by the Relief Bill. Emancipation might be Ireland's ark, but it was sent abroad to float over noisy and troubled waters." In the county of Clare the two parties met, one side armed with muskets and bayonets, the other with scythes and pitchforks; one man was killed, and seven or eight wounded on each side. In Armagh a contest ensued in which ten men were slain; the county of Fermanagh assumed the aspect of open war. Eight hundred Catholics, armed with the usual rustic weapons, attacked the Protestants, four of whom were kill-produce such great and lasting effects on its ed, and seven wounded. Catholics to the num- future destinies. No one attempted to deny ber of some thousands formed an encampment the existence of great and severe distress; the on Benauglen mountain, to which reinforce- only question was, whether it was partial or uniments speedily poured in from the adjoining versal. Earl Stanhope, who moved the amend counties of Leitrim, Cavan, and Monaghan, in ment in the House of Lords, maintained the latwhich the presence of a large body of military ter. "The speech from the throne," said he, alone prevented civil war from openly break-"spoke of distress in some parts of the couning out; while in Tipperary the disturbances try; but what part of the country was it in came to such a pass, that at a numerous meet- which Ministers had not found distress prevailing of the magistracy, held in the middle of Sep-ing, and that, too, general, not partial? tember, it was unanimously resolved to memorialize the Government to renew the Insurrection Act, to pass an Arms Act, rendering the possession of them a transportable offense, and * Ann. Reg. to multiply the number of military 1829, 129, posts through the country, as the 131 Marti only means of averting open rebellneau, i. 540. ion.2

20

21.

The debate which ensued on the Address was still more characteristic of the state of the country, and the lam- Interesting deentable consequences of the con- bate on the traction of the currency, and con- public distress sequent prostration of industry, of Lords. which was destined, ere long, to

in the House

The

kingdom is in a state of universal distress-one likely to be unequaled in its duration, as it is intolerable in its pressure, unless Parliament thinks fit to inquire for a remedy. It is not confined to agriculture, it has extended to manufactures, to trade, and to commerce. All these great interests had never before, at one time, been at so low an ebb, nor in a condition which It was amidst these scenes of distress and dis- demanded more loudly the prompt and ener order that Parliament met in the be-getic interference of Parliament. The speech Meeting of ginning of February, and the speech ascribed the distress which was so universal to Parliament. from the throne bore testimony to a bad harvest; but did a bad harvest make Feb. 4, 1830 the general suffering which prevail- corn cheap? and yet it is the excessive reduced. His Majesty stated "that the exports in tion of prices which is now felt as so great an the last year of British produce and manufac- evil, especially by the agricultural classes. The tures had exceeded that of any former year. evil is so notorious that nobody but the King's He laments that, notwithstanding this indica ministers doubts its existence; and how can tion of an active commerce, distress should pre- even they feasibly pretend to deny its existvail among the agricultural and manufacturing ence? And how could even they pretend to classes in some parts of the United Kingdom. deny it, if they cast their eyes around, and It would be most gratifying to the paternal saw the counties spontaneously pouring on feelings of his Majesty to be enabled to propose them every kind of solicitation for relief, while for your consideration measures calculated to in towns Mr. Alderman Waithman has attestremove the difficulties of any portion of his sub-ed that stocks of every kind have sunk in valjects, and at the same time compatible with the ue 40 per cent.? general interests of his people. Though the na

"There can be no doubt to what this uni

remained the same, but advanced in a similar proportion. Probably the Duke would have given a sharp answer to his Commissary-General, in 1813, if he had proposed the same amount of rations for his army, then 75,000 strong, which had sufficed for it in the preceding year, when it was 45,000 only. He forgot that, though the currency, upon the whole, might be the same as during the war, yet the proportion of it which consisted in paper had sunk from £53,000,000 to £28,000,000; and that it is a very different thing, as every person enfrom bankers when made in their own notes, which may be with safety four times their solid capital, and when made in sovereigns or Bank of England notes, when they can only be measured by that solid capital itself. He referred to the striking increase of houses and evident marks of riches in great cities, which was undoubtedly true, seemingly not aware that that was a proof of the existence and universality of the very evil complained of, which was that, from the change in the value of money, the realized wealth in the towns had increased 50 per cent., and the remuneration of industry in the country decreased in a similar proportion; and that it only confirmed the cominon adage, that the rich were every day becoming richer, and the poor poorer. Above all, he took it for granted, in the statement which he made as to the amount of gold currency in circulation (£28,000,000), that the whole gold which had been coined since 1819 was still at home, forgetting how large a proportion of it had been withdrawn in the immense loans to foreign countries contracted since that period, and remitted to South America for mining speculations undertaken by English capitalists in that quarter, and overlooking the certainty of the continuance and increase of the drain upon the metallic resources of this country, owing to the supply of the precious metals for the general use of the globe having, from the effects of the revolution in South America, sunk to a fourth of its former amount.

the House of Commons, no real colleagues in the Cabinet. He was a commander-in-chief there, surrounded by his generals of division, but not a premier aided by the counsels of his followers. He felt the solitude of his situation, and was aware of the necessity of conciliating some of the Whig magnates. Accordingly, on the death of the Chief Baron of Scotland, he appointed Mr. Abercromby, an English lawyer and commissioner for the Duke of Devonshire, to that office, instead of the Lord-Advocate of Scotland, Sir W. Rae, whose position entitled him to expect, and whose long and able serv-gaged in industry knows, to obtain advances ices in that situation gave him a right to claim it. Encouraged by this step, which seemed to indicate an intention on the part of the premier to follow the example of Mr. Canning, and form a coalition cabinet, the Whigs in the early part of the session abstained from any direct attacks upon Ministers, and even on some occasions gave them their support. They were loud in praise of both the Duke and Mr. Peel for their conduct on the Catholic question, describing it as a more glorious triumph than any which had been won on the fields of Spain." But their expectations were not realized; the Cabinet doors were not opened; and their leaders, smarting under the bitterness of dis1 Roebuck, History of appointed hopes, gave vent to their the Whigs, feelings in the most acrimonious ex1. 137, 139; pressions, and prepared for a course Martineau, i. 541, 5 542. of the most uncompromising hostility.' The Duke of Wellington's speech on the distresses of the country met the quesReflections on tion boldly and openly, in his usual the Duke's ex- straightforward way; but nothing planation. can be more evident than that it involved the most obvious fallacies. He said that the currency, including gold and silver, was as large as it had been at the highest period during the war-forgetting that, since its termination, the nation had advanced a fourth in numbers, and a half in industry and commerce, and that, to render the currency commensurate to its necessities, it should not have

27.

1#

* “When I find,” said Sir F. Burdett, “the prime-minister of England so shamefully insensible to suffering and distress, which are painfully apparent throughout the land; when, instead of meeting such an overwhelming pressure of necessity with some measure of relief, or some attempt at relief, he seeks to stifle every important inquiry when he calls that a partial and temporary evil, which is both long-lived and universal, I can not look on such a mournful crisis, in which public misfortune is in

sulted by ministerial apathy, without hailing any prospect

of change in the system which has produced it. What shall we say to the ignorance which can attribute our distresses to the introduction of machinery and the application of steam, that noble improvement in the inventions of man, to which men of science and intelligence mainly ascribe our prosperity ? I feel a high and unfeigned respect for that illustrious person's abilities in the field: but I can not help thinking that he did himself no less than Justice when he said, a few months before he accepted peculiar nature, if he ever were induced to take such a burden on his shoulders. In fact, both myself and very

office, that he should be a fit inmate for an asylum of a

many honorable members about me, have long treated this illustrious individual with much tenderness, because we

felt he has conferred the greatest benefits upon his country. He is the only man who could have accomplished what he has done, and be his praise in proportion. But let it at the same time be remembered that, if his service was great, his recompense has been commensurate. We have repaid him abundantly in returns of confidence and approbation. The time, however, is come when it will be necessary to do much more."-Mirror of Parliament, vol. i., p. 67.

28.

distress which pervaded the country,
Aware of the universal cry for relief from
the Opposition, when they felt them- Sir James
selves at liberty to resume active Graham's
erations upon the disappointment of
their hopes of being admitted into of the sala-
the Cabinet, bent all their energies ries of pub-
to force the most extensive reductions

орmotion for a reduction

lic officers.

of expenditure upon the Government. They did not venture in a body openly to face the question of the contraction of the currency, fearful of exciting the jealousy of the capitalists by whom that great change had been introduced, and whose fortunes had been so largely augmented by it, or perhaps ignorant of its vital importance on the matter of general distress which occupied universal attention; but all sections of the Opposition united on the common ground of demanding a reduction of the national expenditure, which was, in truth, a necessary consequence of the great reduction