412, 413. the disturbance.1 and in addition to the contemplated riot in the | in the field, which have won for the Duke of 1 An. Reg. streets, it was intended to attack the Wellington, as a soldier, a general, and a con1830, 158, Duke of Wellington's house while the queror, a great, brilliant, and imperishable re159, Roe- police were absent in other quarters, nown, coupled with a deviation by the noble buck, i. in order to give a political color to Duke from his proper sphere into the labyrinth of politics-I wish to heaven I had not lived to see the day when the forgetfulness of the people of the merits of the soldier, and the forgetfulness of the soldier of his own proper sphere of greatness, display to England, to Europe, and to the world, that he 1830, 161, 162; can not accompany his Majesty on Parl. Deb. i. his journey into the hearts of an at- 74, 75 (new tached and loyal population." 1 Ann. Reg. series.) leaves Minis It was now evident to all the world that the downfall of the Wellington Minis- 79. try was at hand, and the only Division on question was on what point they the Civil List should make their election to be ters in a mibeaten. Three important questions nority stood for early discussion-the Civ. Nov. 15. il List, Parliamentary Reform, and Negro Slavery-of the two last of which notices of motion had been given by Mr. Brougham, and the former stood for the 16th of November. Immense was the effect of this announcement 77. upon the already excited minds of General con- the metropolis. The most alarmsternation on ing reports were immediately in the occasion. circulation, that a vast conspiracy had been discovered; that we were on the edge of a terrible convulsion; that the Revolt of the Barricades was to be re-enacted that very day in the streets of London. The citizens looked to the bolts and bars of their doors; the more courageous laid in arms, and prepared for resistance; the shutters were lined with iron plates, and iron blinds were hastily run up. Such was the general consternation that in two hours the Funds fell 34 per cent. Before the end of the week the panic had subsided, when it was seen that no outbreak took place, and that the excessive alarm had been in a great measure unfounded. But with that reaction commenced a new set of feelings still more dam-isters, with great propriety, resolved to retire aging to the Government. Ashamed of their own fears, and of the ridiculous length to which they had been carried, the citizens were fain to throw the responsibility for them upon the Ministers; and those who had a few days before been loudest in the exaggeration of the danger, were now foremost in proclaiming 1830, 160, 161, its entire groundlessness, and the Martineau, ii culpable timidity of the Govern18; Roebuck, ment which had yielded to such i. 415, 416. unfounded alarms.2 2 Ann. Reg. The liberal chiefs in Parliament made a skill78. ful use of the consternation proSpeech of Mr. duced by this event. "I regret Brougham on much," said Mr. Brougham, the the occasion. appearance of the letter of this morning. I regret it on account of the mischief which it is certain to cause in the mercantile world, and still more from the connection which it has with the fatal speech from the throne, and the still more fatal speech of the Duke of Wellington against every species of reform-a declaration to which I conscientiously believe he owes nine-tenths of his present unpopularity. I wish that that declaration had not been made. I wish also that I had not lived to see the day when a forgetfulness of the invaluable services men the time has at length arrived, and all London meets on Tuesday Come armed, we assure you, from ocular demonstration, six thousand cutlasses have been removed from the Tower for the immediate use of Peel's bloody gang. Remember the cursed speech from the throne. These damned police are to be armed. Englishmen, will you put up with this?"-Ann. Reg., p. 159, 160. Min on the first, on which they foresaw they would tineau, ii. 19: series). He had lately succeeded to the baronetey on the death of his father, at the reverend age of eighty. CHAPTER XXIII. DOMESTIC HISTORY OF ENGLAND FROM THE FALL OF THE WELLINGTON ADMINISTRATION IN 1829, TO THE PASSING OF THE REFORM BILL IN 1832. 1. Reflections on Wellington ther met their wishes, nor provided for their necessities. 3. THUS fell the Wellington Administration, the | most important event in the domestic history of England since the The very errors, as they were deemed by the fall of the Revolution, in the general annals many at the time, were themselves of Europe since the battle of Wa- forced upon their authors by general Continued. terloo. In the decisive and last- and irresistible causes. It is easy to ing transference by the political power in the see now, on the retrospect, that it was the monState by which it was followed to another etary measures of 1819 and 1826, coupled with party, it bears a very close resemblance to the the emancipation of the Catholics, which brought overthrow of the Coalition Ministry by Mr. Pitt about the change, because it was these which in 1784, which terminated a dominion of nearly spread discontent and division among the rural a century by the Whigs, and introduced one of and industrious classes, who had heretofore been half the time by the Tories. But in its polit- the firmest supporters of the throne, the steadical and social results it was far more import-iest friends of the constitution. But that only ant than Mr. Pitt's triumph. It induced a trans-removes the difficulty a step farther back. The ference not merely of the reins of government question remains, What caused these measures from one party to another, but of political to be adopted by successive governments, in power from one class in society to another. It opposition alike to the interests of the whole terminated the long-established dominion of industrious classes of the people and their rethe landed and commercial aristocracy, and ligious feelings, and in direct antagonism to the vested it in the class of shop-keepers and small policy pursued for a century and a half by the householders. It closed the sway of the inter- Government, and under which the country had ests of production, whether in land or manu- risen to an unexampled height of prosperity factures, and created that of buying and sell- and glory? It is evident to any one who attening. Thence has ensued an entire change in tively considers the progress of these changes our whole domestic policy, both in relation to that they were not forced upon the Legislature agriculture and manufactures, and the adoption by individual men, but forced upon individual of a series of measures calculated, by cheapen-men by the Legislature; and that a fixed maing every thing, to benefit consumers and the holders of realized capital, without any regard to their influence on those engaged in the work of production. Thence also have arisen changes in our foreign policy equally startling and unexpected. It has displaced Great Britain from the head of Conservative alliances, and placed her in the front rank of the coalitions founded upon movement; and, stifling the ancient animosity of France and England, has brought the legions of both nations in cordial amity and generous rivalry to combat the forces of the Czar, in defense of Turkey, on the shores of the Crimea. 2. Causes which rendered the change so de cisive. jority had got into the House of Commons, which rendered it impossible to carry on the government in any other way. Each successive administration since the peace had been compelled to relinquish, as the price of retaining office, a part of the old system, until none remained, and an entire change of government and of the constitution had become unavoidable. 4. It is not difficult to see, at this distance of time, what was the cause which rendered this change of system neces- What had set sary; and what is very remarkable, these causes and perhaps unprecedented in hu in motion. Superficial observers, and those whose atten- man affairs, that cause is to be found in the nattion is exclusively fixed on the ural consequences of the entire success of the influence of individual agency in opposite system. So amazingly had the whole human affairs, see in these vast industrial interests of the community-landevents and this entire change of ed, manufacturing, commercial, and colonialsystem, both foreign and domes- grown and prospered under the old protective tic, the effect only of the capacity of the lead-system, under which they had all found shelter ers and their dexterity in the management of during a hundred and fifty years, that a new parties; and they declaim against the mistakes interest had arisen in society, the fruit of their which, as they conceive, have ruined ancient prosperity, but which was destined to limit and interests, and the tergiversations which have restrain it. This was the interest of REALIZED broken up old alliances. But without disput- CAPITAL, the produce of long-protected and thriv ing the important effect of individual men in ing industry, but which had at length, from the moulding the fate of nations, it may with safe- unexampled impulse and successes of the war, ty be asserted that, in this instance, the great acquired an influence which enabled it to set change which took place was owing to general all other interests at defiance. This interest, causes. The Wellington Administration, and by the command of ready money, and the acwith it the old system of government in Great quisition of the close boroughs, had succeeded Britain, fell, because it had become unsuited to in acquiring a majority in the House of Comthe altered circumstances of the people; it nei-mons, and with it the entire government of the State. Its interests were no longer identical | claims to a higher situation than the aristowith those of the industry from which it had cratic Whigs were willing to allow to any man sprung; on the contrary, they were adverse to who had raised himself by the unaideď force it. To sell dear is the interest of the creators of his own abilities, without patrician conneeof wealth; to buy cheap is the interest of its tions or support. On the other hand, it was inheritors. It is in the nature of things that very material to take the question of reform, Sir R. Peel the father, who made the fortune, which had only been postponed to the 25th should be the supporter of the protective; Sir November, out of the hands of a man at once R. Peel the son, who succeeded to it, the ad- so powerful, and so little inclined to follow the vocate of the cheapening system. Thence the dictates or counsel of any other person. So change of system in the Legislature when the strongly was Mr. Brougham himself impressed inheritors became the more powerful body; and with these difficulties, that in postponing his thence the creation of a general discontent in motion for reform, which he stated he did with the industrious classes, which at length over great reluctance, he said, "No change that can whelmed at once the Ministry and the previous take place in the Administration can by possi system of government. When once capital, for bility affect me." Earl Grey first proposed for its own advantage, had rendered the currency him the situation of Master of the Rolls, which of the country entirely dependent on the re- is permanent, and is consistent with a seat in tention of gold, and introduced free trade into the House of Commons, but to this the King the principal branches of manufacture, a revo- peremptorily objected. The Attorney-Generlution in the whole frame and system of gov- al's gown was next offered to him, but at once ernment had become inevitable, and it was rejected. At length, on the King's suggestion, merely a question of time when it was to take it was agreed to offer him the Great Seals, place. which were immediately accepted. No further difficulty was experienced in making up the Administration, which was composed almost entirely of noblemen of the Whig party. The Duke of Richmond, as representing the ultraTories, was made Postmaster-General, with a sent in the Cabinet; a negotiation was opened with Sir Edward Knatchbull, the leader of the same party in the House of Commons, but it failed of success. The new Ministry was of ficially announced on the 21st November, and gave very general satisfaction to the country.* It is remarkable that in a Liberal Cabinet of fif teen members thirteen were peers, 434, 450, Maror sons of peers, one a baronet, tineau, ii. 21, and only one commoner.1 declaration against Re form so im It was this circumstance which rendered the 5. Duke of Wellington's famous declaWhat made ration against reform so very influthe Duke's ential in inducing the immediate downfall of his administration. It announced the determination of Govportant. ernment at all hazards to maintain the existing system in the House of Commons. But that was the precise thing which the country desired to have altered, because it had been | the cause of all the suffering which had been experienced. It was against the " 'boroughmongers," as they were called, that the outery was directed, because they brought in the men who had pursued the system which had been attended with such disastrous results. There was no hostility against the Crown; little, comparatively speaking, against the House of Lords, except in so far as it influenced the House of Commons. It was the venal and nomination boroughs which were the object of the general indignation, and they were so because the persons who got into Parliament through their seats had first, by the measures they pursued for the advantage of capital, created the distress, and then shown themselves insensible to all petitions for its relief. When the Duke of Wellington, therefore, declared himself decidedly opposed to every species of reform, he not only thwarted a vehement national passion, but expressed his determination to uphold what was the source of all the suffering which was experienced, and continue the close boroughs, which had become a great national grievance. It is no wonder that it accelerated his fall. the new Min claims. 1 Ann. Reg. 1830, 163, 165; Roebuck, i 22. 7 EARL GREY, who at this eventful crisis sueceeded to the government of the country, has left a name which Character of never will be forgotten in English Earl Grey. history, for he introduced that change in the constitution which has been attended with such great and lasting effects. He was beyond all doubt a most remarkable man. Gifted by nature with talents of a very high order, he *The new Ministry stood as follows: pos In the Cabinet.-First Lord of the Treasury, Earl Grey; Lord-Chancellor, Lord Brougham; Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the Commons, Lord Althorpe ; President of the Council, Marquess of Lansdowne, Lord Privy Seal, Earl of Durham; Home Secretary, Lord Melbourne; Foreign Affairs, Lord Palmerston; Secretary of Colonies, Lord Goderich; First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir James Graham, President of the Board of Control, Mr. Charles cellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Lord Holland; without Grant, Postmaster-General, Duke of Richmond; Chan office, Lord Carlisle. quess Wellesley, Master of the Horse, Lord Albemarle; Groom of the Stole, Marquess of Winchester, First Commissioner of Land Revenue, Mr. Agar Es: Treasurer of the Navy, Mr. Poulett Thomson, Attorney-General, Sir T. Denman; Solicitor-General, Sir W. Horne. Earl Grey, as a matter of course, was sent for Not in the Cabinet.-President of the Board of Trade, 6. by the King to form the new Min-Lord Auckland; Secretary at War, Mr. C. W. W. Wynn Master-General of Ordnance, Sir James Kempt, Lord The difficulty istry, which it was easy to fore-Chamberlain, Duke of Devonshire; Lord Steward, Marin forming see would be composed chiefly, if istry fixes Mr. not entirely, of the leaders of the Brougham's Liberal party in the two Houses of Parliament. No small embarrassment, however, was experienced in forming the administration, chiefly in consequence of the difficulty of finding a suitable situation for Mr. Brougham, whose great abilities, and position as the real if not the avowed leader of the Lib-or-General, II Coburn, Esq.-Ann. Reg., 1530, p. 164, In Scotland.--Lord-Advocate, F. Jeffrey, Esq.; Soliciteral party in the House of Commons, gave him 105, ROEBUCK, vol. i. p. 450, 451, In Ireland - Lord Lieutenant, Marquess of Anglesea; Lord-Chancellor, Lord Plunkett: Commander of the Forces, Sir John Byng: Chief Secretary, Lord Starkey, sessed, at the same time, that quality of still 8. power he enjoyed when the victory was gained. There was much to condemn in the mode in which, in its latter stages, he carried on the contest, but nothing save to admire in the conduct he pursued after it was over. He then boldly confronted menaced rebellion in Ireland, coerced its wildest excesses, and when he had the power to have carried innovation in Great Britain to any imaginable length, stopped short with one organic change, and observed henceforward the landmarks of the constitution. of the Reform In Although the practical results of the Reform Bill, which he carried through, 10. have been widely different from He was miswhat he either intended or de- led by others sired, yet this is not so much to as to the effect be ascribed as a fault to Earl Grey, ill. as it was the unfortunate result of the elevated position he occupied, and the sphere in which he had moved in society. the framing of that measure itself he was as completely misled by the representations of others of inferior rank about him, who possessed the practical knowledge which he wanted, and had their own ends in view in their representation, as he had been in early life as to the tendency of the French Revolution by the declamations of the philosophers and Girondists. He said it was the most aristocratic measure ever brought forward in Parliament, when it was a measure, as experience has now proved, which took the government of the country entirely out of the hands of the aristocracy. He declared he would stand or fall by his order, and yet he exerted all his talent and influence to carry through a measure which politically nullified that order, and substituted that of shop-keepers, with whom assuredly his aristocratic feelings had nothing in common, in its room. In this there was no duplicity or disingenuousness on the part of this proud and straightforward nobleman. He believed all he said, and acted accordingly; but his measures, being founded on no practical acquaintance with the community to which they referred, had a directly contrary tendency to what he intended, and ere long precipitated himself from power, and his order from the dominant position it had so long held in English society.* As a public speaker he must be assigned a very high place-second, perhaps, His character only to Pitt and Fox in the Auas an orator, gustan age of English oratory. He and in private had not the power of lucid exposition of the former, nor the impetuous flow of the latter, but in condensed expression, cogent argument, and sarcastic power, he was equal to either. He had not the poetic fancy or playful expression of Canning, but he was more thoroughly, and at all times, in earnest-the great secret for moving and permanently ruling the hearts of men. His well-known philippic against that celebrated orator, when he succeeded to power in April, 1827, is deservedly placed among the most brilliant specimens of rhetorical power which the English language can boast. In society, his manner, though somewhat reserved and stately, had all the courtesy which belongs to real high-breeding, and in domestic life he was simplicity itself the sure sign of a mind superior to any station, how lofty soever, to which its possessor may be ele- to have been carried by circumstances far beyond his orig vated. 9. and errors, but noble use of power when ac quired. The great fault of Earl Grey, as of most men of his rank who are called to the His defects general direction of affairs, was a want of practical acquaintance with mankind in all grades. He shared this defect with his whole cabinet, when arranged in 1830, which was almost entirely composed of the nobility; and so conspicuous did this deficiency immediately become, that, as will appear in the sequel, he was saved from early overthrow only by identifying himself with the extreme movement party, and advancing a measure which entirely and forever changed the institutions of the nation, He did great service to his country by taking the direction of that movement, and preventing it from falling into other and less scrupulous hands, and deserves its lasting gratitude for the use which he made of the vast In the course of the debates on the Reform Bill in the House of Peers, Lord Sidmouth, who supposed Lord Grey inal intention, said to him, "I hope God will forgive you on account of this bill; I don't think I can." To which Lord Grey replied, "Mark my words: within two years you will find that we have become unpopular from hav ing brought forward the most aristocratic measure that ever was proposed in Parliament." Lord Althorpe, too, did not conceal his opinion; he avowed it, "that the Re nation; and the wonder is, who can doubt it, while the new county representation preponderates over the addition to the towns."-See Sidmouth's Lafe, iii. 439; and form Bill was the most aristocratic act ever offered to the Miss MARTINEAU, 1. 28, 29. The truth is, that there These were: 1. 11. 13. statesman. Second only to Earl Grey in influence and Brougham took an interest, or has been mainstation, and superior to him in versa-ly instrumental in promoting, are Character tile power, LORD BROUGHAM now stood considered, we shall have more cause His characof Lord prominently forward in a totally dif- to admire the variety of his acquire- ter as a Brougham. ferent sphere and position from that ments, the versatility of his powers, in which he had first moved and risen to such than the length of his vision or the solidity of eminence. A tribune of the people, he was his judgment. He did not foresee the real tendsuddenly made a senator; a brilliant and suc-ency of the measures which he so powerfully cessful advocate, he was at once, and without advocated, and in consequence brought about having gone through any of the intermediate results the very reverse of what he intended stations, elevated to the very highest judicial and desired. He professed to "stand upon the station; a common lawyer, chiefly known in ancient ways of the constitution" in all his propolitical or popular cases at nisi prius, he was jects of reform; and yet he strenuously supput at the head of the Court of Chancery, and ported, or besought the House of Peers, “on immersed in all the subtleties of conveyancing, his bended knees," to pass a bill on that suband the niceties of the law of equity. He was ject, which entirely altered those ways, bethe first barrister, if we except perhaps Lord cause, in lieu of the old representation of classErskine, who was made Lord-Chancellor, and es and interest, it introduced the new repreput at the head of the court of last resort, en- sentation of mere numbers. He was the untirely from political considerations, and to avoid compromising foe through life of West India a difficulty in the formation of an administra- slavery, and the generous advocate of the poor tion, without any regard to his competency to negro's rights; and yet, by urging on the fatal discharge the important duties with which he step of immediate and unprepared emancipawas intrusted. tion, he has proved his worst enemy, and thrown He was no common man who could stand back the sable inhabitants of the Antilles cen12. such a change of position, not only turies in the path of real and lasting improveHis merits with no diminution, but in some re- ment. No man saw more clearly, or has exas a Judge. spects with an increase of reputation. pressed more strongly, the decline which would It is reported to have been said of him, when be brought on British agriculture from the unhe was elevated to the Wool-sack, by a very restrained competition of foreign states; and great lawyer, "It is a pity Lord Brougham yet he has been active in the furthering of a does not know a little of English law, for then series of measures which have rendered Great he would know something of every thing;" Britain, in seven years, from being practically and certainly his judgments in the Chancery self-supporting, dependent on foreign states, in Court will never be placed on a level with ordinary years for a seventh, in unfavorable those of Lord Eldon, or Lord St. Leonards, or ones for a fifth, of the national subsistence.* the other great masters of the law of equity. In two important particulars, however, his laBut it is a mistake to imagine that he proved bors have been attended with unmitigated good. a failure on the bench. It was not to be sup. He has been through life the zealous supportposed that a man of his extraordinary versatiler of the cause of general education, although ity of talent and variety of information should have acquired the vast store of precedents which can be mastered only by a powerful mind exclusively devoted to their acquisition; still less that he should be on a level with experienced equity lawyers, when the first time he entered the Chancery Court was in advanced years as its head. But his example, and the great ability which he has shown now for a quarter of a century in determining cases in the House of Peers, proves that an extensive acquaintance with precedents is not an indispensable requisite for a great Judge; and that strong natural talents, and habits of forensic debate, in a different branch of jurisprudence, may, when the cases are fully laid before him, sometimes enable the Judge to supply the want of early acquaintance with another branch of law. Lord Eldon's judgments on Scotch cases are universally regarded with the utmost respect by the Scotch bar, and yet he never practiced at it, and had little experience of appeal cases from that part of the island before being put on the Wool-sack. If the legislative measures in which Lord sectarian jealousy has hitherto much impeded the beneficent results of his efforts; and he has devoted his great powers, with equal judgment and success, to the great and difficult subject of Law Reform. 14. His style of speaking, though always ener getic and powerful, affords the most striking contrast to that which his His style taste approves, and which he has uni- of oratory. formly recommended to the imitation of others. The last is condensed even to the confines of dryness; the first diffuse to those of excess. No one feels more strongly, or has expressed more emphatically, the manly simplicity of ancient oratory; and yet no one in his own speeches has deviated more completely from the style of Demosthenes, or overlaid ideas always forcible, often striking, by an overwhelming deluge of words. It would seem as if in his own style of oratory he was desirous, by the process of reductio ad absurdum, of establishing the truths of the general principles on eloquence which he has elsewhere inculcated. * Consumed in British Islands, 1854. By man By animals and distillers. Qrs. 32,850,000 16,350,000 Qrs. 49.200.000 Produced 42,265.771 Imported on average of seven years, 6,929,786 9.987,714 these small shop-keepers chiefly dependent on the moneyed and commercial, instead of the landed and aristocratic class, 3. The vast extension of the commerce and manufactures of the country, which rendered the greater part of the boroughs, and many of the counties in the manufacturing districts, dependent on the employment furnished by the great manufacturing cities, not the purchases-M CULLOCH, in Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th edit, made by the impoverished landlords in their vicinity. voce Great Britain. |