79. speech in thus be decided, within a few votes, by the There are 1 Parl. Deb. one. Amidst all this violence and excitement, the bill was carried to the Upper House. Lord Grey's It was read a first time without opposition, and the second reading the House of came on on October 3. The debate Lords. lasted for five nights, and much exceeded that of the Commons in dignity, statesmanlike views, and eloquence; giving thus the clearest proof of the weight which the Upper House had acquired, by the successive additions of talent of the highest order from the Lower. "It exhibited," says Mr. Roebuck, "a most admirable, striking, and memorable example of finished excellence in parliamentary discussion." Earl Grey moved the second reading in a calm, dignified, and powerful speech, which concluded with these memorable words: "Brave I know your lordships to be, and angrily sus ceptible when approached with a menace. fling aside all ideas of menace and intimidation; but I conjure you, as you value your rights and dignities, and as you wish to transmit them unimpaired to your posterity, to lend a willing ear to the representations of the people. Do not take up a position which will show that you will not attend to the voice of nine-tenths of the people, who call upon you, in a tone too loud not to be heard, and too decisive to be misunderstood. The people are all but unanimous in support of the bill; the immense preponderance of county members, and members for populous places who have voted for it, is a sufficient proof of that. If this measure be refused, none other will be accepted; none less would, if accepted, be satisfactory. Do not, I beg, flatter yourselves that it is possible by a less effective measure than this to quiet the storm which will rage, and to govern the agitation which will have been produced. I certainly deprecate popular violence. As a citizen of a free State, and feeling that freedom is essentially connected with order, I deprecate it. As a member of the Government it is my duty to maintain tranquillity; but as a citizen, as a member of the Government, as a man and a statesman, I am bound to look at the conse- This decision, having been long foreseen, took quences which may flow from rejecting the no one by surprise; and the re- 82. measure. And although I do not say, as the forming party, both in and out of Vote of connoble Duke (Wellington) did on another occa- Parliament, adopted immediate fidence in the sion, that the rejection of this measure will lead measures to obviate its effects. Commons to civil war-1 trust it will not produce any such The Funds suddenly fell, many of effect-yet I see such consequences likely to the shops were closed in London, and that genarise from it as make me tremble for the secu-eral anxiety was felt which is so often the prerity of this House and of this country. Upon Mirror of your lordships, then, as you value Parliament, the tranquillity and prosperity of 1831, 2604; the country, I earnestly call to conParl. Deb sider well before you reject this The debate elicited talent of the very highest order on both sides; and Lord Har- 81. Irowby in particular, on the second Bill thrown night, made the best speech which out by a mahad yet been delivered in either jority of fortyHouse against the bill. The closing night of the debate brought 2 Parl. Deb. the two great champions on the vii. 1146,1175. opposite sides-Lord Brougham and Lord Lyndhurst-into the lists, whose speeches, as might have been expected, embraced every thing which could be urged on either side. and were master-pieces of forensic power and eloquence. The former said, "By all you hold most dear-by all the ties that bind every one of us to one common order, and one common country-I solemnly adjure you-I warn you vii. 965, 966. measure.2 I implore you-on my bended knees I supplicate you-reject not this bill." The latter said, "Perilous as the situation is in which we are placed, it is at the same time a proud one: the eyes of the country are anxiously turned upon us, and if we decide as becomes us, we shall merit the eternal gratitude of every friend of the constitution, and of the British empire." On a division, which took place at half past six, the bill was lost by a majority 3 Parl. Deb. of 41-the numbers being 199 to viii. 275, 276, 158.3 299, 340. carried by 131. cursor of some great public calamity. The King requested Ministers to retain their places, and shape the bill so as to disarm their opponents, being much alarmed at the prospect of an ap proaching convulsion. On the Monday following, Lord Ebrington, in the House of Commons, moved a vote of confidence in Ministers, which * The vote was in these words: "That while this House laments the present state of a bill for introducing a reform into the Commons House of Parliament, in favor of wh ch 84. was carried by a majority of 131-the numbers | hundred thousand persons. At this meeting being 329 to 198. This vote enabled the Min- very violent language, as might have isters to retain their places; and the parlia-been expected, was used, though not Great meetmentary contest, for the present at least, being more so than was usual on all such ing of politnow over, the King, on 20th October, prorogued occasions at that period. But it ical unions at BirmingParliament in person, with these significant acquired a historic importance from ham words: "To the consideration of the important what followed. The meeting voted question of the reform of the House of Com- an address to the King, setting forth the "awmons the attention of Parliament must neces- ful consequences" which might ensue from the sarily again be called at the opening of the en- rejection of the bill, their pain at imagining suing session; and you may be assured of my that the House of Lords should be so infatuated unaltered desire to promote its settlement by as to reject it, and their earnest desire that his such improvements in the representation as Majesty should create as many peers as might may be found necessary for securing to my peo-be necessary to insure its success. They voted ple the full enjoyment of their rights, which, 1 Ann. Reg. in combination with those of the 1831, 291; other orders of the State, are essenRoebuck, i tial to the support of our free constitution." 217, 221. try. 83. also thanks to Lord Althorpe and Lord John The declared resolution of the King and the House of Commons to carry out the Disorders in principles of reform, however, was London and not sufficient to allay the apprehenin the coun- sions or calm the passions of the people. In London these ebullitions were confined to the lowest of the populace, whose acts, however, indicated to what they Similar meetings, attended by vast multihad been stimulated by the incendiary lan- tudes, took place at Liverpool, Bir- 85. guage so long addressed to them by the re-mingham, Glasgow, Newcastle, Ed- Riots at Derforming journals and the public meetings. The inburgh, and all the great towns, at by and NotDuke of Wellington, the Duke of Cumberland, all of which language the most vio- tingham. and the Marquess of Londonderry were assault-lent was used, and ensigns the most revolutioned in the street, and with difficulty res- ary were displayed; while the press, provinOct. 12. cued by the police and the respectable cial as well as metropolitan, increased every by-standers from the violence of the mob. The hour in vigor and audacity. To intimidate the latter nobleman, whose courage and determina- Peers was the great object, and acts soon ention during the whole contest had signalized sued more calculated even than words to prohim for vengeance, was struck senseless from duce this effect. At Derby, the mob, as usual, his horse by showers of stones at the gate of demolished the windows of the anti-Reformers; the Palace, amidst cries of "Murder him-cut and some of the ringleaders having been appre2 An. Reg. his throat!" Persons respectably | hended by the magistrates and put in jail, it 1831, 280, dressed, and wearing ribbons round was forthwith attacked, the doors forced, and 281. their arms, took the lead on these oc- the whole prisoners liberated. At Nottingham casions, gave orders, and, rushing forward from the violence was of a still more serious and systhe crowd, led it on, and made way for those tematic kind, as the Duke of Newcastle, to who commenced the demolition of the windows whom the castle and great part of the propof Apsley House.* But alarming as these riots erty in the town belonged, had signalized himwere in the metropolis, they were as nothing self by the most decided opposition to the bill. to those which occurred in the provinces, where A mob suddenly assembled there, and moved scenes ensued which have affixed a lasting stain against that venerable pile, once a royal resion the English character, and proved that, when dence, and associated with many of the most their passions are thoroughly roused, the peo- memorable events in English history; for it 3 Ann. Reg. ple of this country may become as was there that Charles I. unfurled his banner 1831, Marti- dangerous, and engage in atrocities at the commencement of the civil wars. neau, ii. 46, as frightful, as the worst populace of foreign states." 47. The * One of the speakers said: "He declared before God, that if all constitutional modes of obtaining success of the reform measure failed, he should and would be the first While the bill was yet pending in the House of Lords, a great meeting was called by the Po-man to refuse the payment of taxes, except by a levy upon litical Union of Birmingham, attended, it was said by the Reformers, by one hundred and fifty thousand, and probably, in truth, by one his goods (tremendous cheers). I now call upon all those who are prepared to join me in this step to hold up their up, accompanied by vehement cheering). I now call upon hands (an immense forest of hands was immediately held you who are not prepared to adopt this course to hold up the opinion of the country stands unequivocally promi- your hands and signify your dissent (not a single hand nent, and which has been matured by discussions the was held up). Mark my words, Failing all other constimost anxious and the most laborious, it feels itself most tutional means."" Another speaker said: "It is said that imperatively called upon to reassert its firm adherence to the reverend fathers in God, the bishops, will oppose this the principles and leading provisions of that great meas- bill if they do, their fate, which even now is exceeding ure, and to express its unabated confidence in the integ-ly doubtful, will be irrevocably sealed. The haughty remrity, perseverance, and ability of those Ministers who, introducing and conducting it so well, consulted the best interests of the country."-Ann. Reg., 1831, p. 278. See in particular the statements of Mr. Trevor and Col. Trench (who followed the crowd which committed the outrages), in the House of Commons on 14th October. -Ann. Reg., 1831, p. 288, 289. nants of the Establishment will be buried in the dust, with a nation's execration for their epitaph: the splendid mitre will fall from the heads of the bishops; their crosses will fall as if from a palsied hand; their robes of lawn may be turned into a garb of mourning, and my Lord Bishop of London may shut up his episcopal palace, and take out a license for a beer-shop."-Ann. Reg., 1831, p. 282. 1831, 281. £6. at Bristol. thus afforded them to prepare for ulterior measures. The indecision evinced the preceding evening spread far and wide the conviction that the magistrates would not order the soldiers to act, and that if ordered they would not do so. This belief brought multitudes next day to the expected scene of plunder and intoxication; the bargemen from the adjoining canals flocked in on all sides, and those wild-looking haggard desperadoes began to appear in the streets, which in all civil convulsions, like the stormbirds to the distressed mariners, betoken coming shipwreck. Thus reinforced, the mob returned in greater numbers on the following morning to the scene of their former violence, broke open and ransacked the cellars of the Mansion House, and soon intoxicated wretches added the fumes of drunkenness to the horrors of the scene. The military were again called in, and a troop of the 14th was soon on the spot; but no magistrate was there to give them orders, and the commanding officer, though the violence was going forward, having no orders from the civil authorities, thought it his duty to abstain from acting, and soon after deemed it best to withdraw his men from the risk of contamination, and moved them to the barracks. They were replaced at the Mansion House by another troop less obnoxious to the people. Upon this the mob cheered loud- 1 Martineau, ly, and leaving the Mansion House, ii. 48. Ann. where nothing now remained to pil- Reg. 1831. lage, dispersed in different bodies Chron. 175, over the city.' 176. gates were quickly forced, the building sacked, | the mob made good use of the breathing-time set on fire, and burnt to the ground. A regiment of hussars having opportunely arrived from Derby, prevented any farther damage being done in the town; but the mob, thirsting for plunder, issued forth into the country, and attacked several houses of noblemen or gentlemen known to entertain anti-reform principles. Among these were those of Lord Middleton and Mr. Musters, the latter of which was sacked and pillaged, and his unfortunate lady, driven to seek safety by concealment among An Reg the shrubbery bushes on a cold and rainy October evening, lost her life.' These disorders, serious as they were, however, all sunk into insignificance beCommence- fore the riots at Bristol, which were ment of riots of so dreadful a kind as not only to spread a universal panic over the Oct. 29. country, but to affix a dark stain on the English character, and suggest a painful doubt as to its ability to retain its equilibrium in periods of violent political excitement. The occasion, or rather the pretext, for the outbreak, was the appearance of Sir Charles Wetherall, a noted anti-Reformer, who, as Recorder of Bristol, with more courage than judgment, made his public entrance into Bristol on the 29th October. He was received by the magistrates with the pomp and respect usually shown to the judicial representatives of royalty on such occasions; but at the same time the cavalcade was followed by a disorderly mob, which, beginning with groans and hisses, soon proceeded to throwing of stones and brickbats. The respectable citizens at the commercial rooms received them with three cheers; but this only irritated the rabble, who, when the procession reached the Mansion House, assailed it with missiles of every description. The mayor in vain requested the mob to disperse, and withdrew a portion of the special constables, who were particularly obnoxious to them, in order to appease their fury. This only increased it, and the mob swelled in number and audacity as night approached. The Riot Act was read, but the military were not called in. The consequence was, that the constables were suddenly attacked and driven back, the doors of the building forced, the Mansion House stormed, its whole furniture smashed and pillaged, and the iron palings in front torn up, and put into the hands of the rioters for future mischief. Meanwhile Sir Charles and the magistrates escaped by a back door, and the former left the city. The latter called in the military, and two troops of dragoons, amply sufficient to have arrested the disorders, arrived in the square. But they received at first no orders to act, either from the magistrates or the commanding officer; and the soldiers, not knowing what to 2 Ann. Reg. do, for some time merely walked 1831, 292; their horses through the multitude. Martineau, Seeing this, the mob proceeded to ii. 48; break the windows of the Council Hughes, vii. 294. Trial of House, and the military then charged, Bristol Riot dispersed the crowd, and prevented ers, 28, 29. any farther mischief that night." 87. But the lull was of short duration. Deeming the riot over, the magistrates alFrightful lowed the dragoons, who were much disorders. fatigued, to retire for the night, and The most frightful scene of violence and devastation ensued. One detachment 88. proceeded to the bridewell, where Immense they broke open the doors, libera- destruction of property. ted the prisoners, who immediately joined them, and set the building on fire; another went to the new jail, which was also forced open, the prisoners liberated, and the building consigned to the flames. The Gloucester county prison shared the same fate, and the chief toll-houses round the town were destroyed. A band next proceeded to the bishop's palace, which was set on fire and totally consumed. The Mansion House shared the same fate; and, not content with this, the rioters set fire to the Custom House, Excise Office, and other buildings in Queen Square, which soon were wrapped in one awful conflagration. An attempt was made to fire the shipping in the docks, but happily repulsed by the vigilance and courage of the seamen. Exclusive of the Mansion House, jails, and other public edifices, forty-two private houses and warehouses were burnt, and property to the amount of £500,000 destroyed. Before night, Queen Square and the adjoining streets exhibited the most appalling spectacle. Flames were bursting forth on all sides; the walls of buildings already consumed were falling in every minute, and the square and streets filled with infuriated crowds in the last stage of intoxication, many of whom were lying senseless on the pave- 2 Ann. Reg. ment, while not a few perished in 1831, 176. the flames which they themselves 177; Marti had raised.2 neau, ii 48. While these terrible scenes were going on in the town, the soldiers, for fear of irritating the act. 89. The mayor, people, had been sent into the country; and at once, and with the utmost vigor. Had this the officers and men beheld with been done at the commencement of the riots, The riots are speechless agony the whole firma- they might have been put down in a few hours. at once sup- ment, on Sunday night, reddened A melancholy tragedy, which closed the Bristol pressed when the military by the flames of the burning city. disorders, brought home these truths still more are ordered to At length, however, the enormity impressively to the public mind. of the evil worked out its own cure. and the commanding officer of the district, ColOrders were sent by the magistrates to the mil- onel Brereton, were both brought to trial for itary to return on Monday morning; and under neglect of duty on the occasion. The former the command of an active and gallant officer was acquitted, as it was proved he had not (Captain Wetherall of the 14th) the work was been adequately supported by the military; but speedily and effectually done. The dragoons the evidence against the latter proved so overcharged the rioters with the utmost vigor in all whelming, that after the fourth day 1 Ann. Reg. the streets where they were assembled, and in an of the trial he committed suicide 1831, 13, 14, hour's time the insurrection was quelled. Pass-by shooting himself through the Chron.; Maring from the extreme of audacity to the most abject terror, the rioters fled in crowds from the sabres of the military, and in many instances, in drunken alarm, precipitated themselves into the burning houses, and perished miserably. On the whole, no less than ninety-four persons were killed and wounded during these disastrous days, who were brought to the public hospitals, and probably a still greater number Anished in the burning houses, and 295; Chron. were never heard of. Since Lord George Gordon's riots in 1780, no Martineau, such scenes had disgraced the annals of England.' 1831, 294, 177, 178; ii. 48, 49. 90. ful scenes. per tineau, ii. 49. 91. Nov. 3. heart.1 Disturbances of a lesser but very alarming kind took place about the same time in other quarters. At the Disturbances Bristol riots, it was proved that in other quarsome of the rioters, when firing the ters. bishop's palace, exclaimed, "We'll soon have every church in England down!" This disposition appeared in attacks on those who had hitherto been the object of most veneration to the English mind. At Croydon the Archbishop of Canterbury was publicly insulted when returning from a Bible meeting. Lord Tenterden's carriage was attacked when This violent outbreak, like many other things his lordship was proceeding to Westminster when matters have reached the ex- Hall; and Bond Street and Regent Street were Good effects tremity of evil, in the end did good. kept in alarm by mobs of some thousand perof these dread- All classes took the alarm at the sons, which broke the windows of all the reterrible consequences which it was spectable shops. At Bath the mob surrounded now apparent flowed from exciting the passions the inn where the yeomanry were assembled to of the people. It was seen how little security proceed to Bristol during the riots, thus prethe boasted solidity of the English character venting them getting out, and almost pulled afforded, when the cupidity of the populace the building down. Serious riots took Nov. 3. was excited by the prospect of power or plun- place at Worcester and Coventry, at the der. The trial of the ringleaders, which came latter of which places a mill was burnt down. on in December, and was presided over by Lord Finally, to give greater unity to the operations Tenterden, terminated in the conviction of a of the different political unions, a "Na- Oct. 31. great number of prisoners, three of whom un- tional Political Union" was formed in derwent the last punishment of the law. What London at a great meeting, Sir Francis Burdett was still more material, the facts which came in the chair. This Union, a few days Nov. 7. out in evidence as to the committing of the after, issued a proclamation, in which, worst acts of incendiarism in presence of the besides demanding annual Parliaments, unimilitary, but in absence of the magistrates, versal suffrage, and vote by ballot, it was stated, drew from that venerable judge an exposition "that all property honestly acquired is sacred of the law on that important point; which and inviolable; that all men are born equally amounted to this, that every citizen, armed or free, and have certain natural and unalienable unarmed, is entitled to interfere to prevent a rights; that all hereditary distinctions of birth felony being committed, or destruction to life are unnatural, and opposed to the equal rights or property being effected; that a citizen does of man, and ought to be abolished; and that they not cease to be such by becoming a soldier; would never be satisfied with any laws which and that, although in the general case it is ad- stopped short of these principles." At the same visable for the military to await the orders of time, an immense number of staves, having the a civil magistrate before they act, yet they are tricolor flag painted on them, were prepared in entitled, and even bound to do so, even without the neighborhood of Bethnal Green; swordsuch orders, in extreme cases, in defense either sticks were to be seen in many shops of the of their own lives, or of the lives or property metropolis, and the demand for bludgeons was of others. Lastly, these events so great that the makers could not supply it. afforded a decisive proof of the And during the whole recess, Earl Grey's pri Bristol Riot ruinous effects which invariably vacy was daily intruded upon by result from either the magistrates deputations of political unions call or military officers flinching from ing upon him to call Parliament intheir duty in the commencement of stantly together, and quell the opsuch disorders, whether from timidity or mis-position of the factious by a great taken humanity. The only course to be adopt-creation of peers.? ed in such cases is to let the felonious intent However insensible Ministers, in the heat be fairly proved by deeds before giving the of the reform contest, might be to the signs orders to act, but when it is so proved, to act of the times, they did not escape the penetra 2 Per Lord Tenterden, ers' TrialLeak's Crown Cases. Ann, Reg. 297: Marti neau, . 51, 52: Hughes, 1831, 295. VII 296 92. new bill. ting eye of the chief magistrate of the realm. | ically congratulated the new Parliament upon Though not free from foibles, which the tribute paid to the manes of the old one, Proclamation prevented the higher points of his by adopting General Gascoigne's amendment. against polit- character from being appreciated, In truth, however, the new bill, though it ical unions. William IV. was by no means des- adopted some of the amendments for 94. titute of the sagacity and firmness which is in- which the Opposition had contended Increased herent in his race. He early conceived the ut- in the discussion of the former one, democratmost apprehension at the proceedings of the was in reality more democratic than ic characpolitical unions, and daily, and even hourly, the former one had been. The ten-ter of the called upon his Ministers to check them. He pound clause, which enfranchised the composed and submitted to them a very elab- middle class, and the schedules A and B, which orate memoir on the subject, required from the disfranchised property and the colonies, were law officers a statement of the means which the retained. The first of these schedules, being existing law afforded for their suppression, and that containing boroughs which were to be enrequired his Ministers, if these means were in- tirely disfranchised, was kept up at its original sufficient, to apply to Parliament for additional amount of fifty-six, and there was no addition powers. Thus urged, and having the sacking to the one hundred and forty-four county memof Bristol before their eyes, the Minis- bers, as proposed by the first bill. Eleven towns ters at length issued a proclamation were taken from Schedule B, and placed in against the political unions, which satisfied the Schedule C, containing new towns returning King, but was far from checking the proceed- two members each. The general result was, ings of these audacious bodies. Trusting to the that the borough members for England amountprotection of juries, which in the present ex-ed to three hundred and twenty-eight, and the cited state of the public mind would never, they flattered themselves, convict them, they proceeded unchecked in their measures to overawe and intimidate the Government; and 1 Roebuck, the National Political Union, in deii. 219, 220, rision, ostentatiously placarded the Ann. Reg. proclamation at the door of the 1831, 296, Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand, which was then their headquarters.1 Nov. 22. 298 Mar troduced. Dec. 12. county to one hundred and forty-four, or con- 95. tineau, ii. 52, 53. Parliament met on the 6th December, after this The second reading of the bill was carried brief and stormy recess, and the first by a majority of 136; the numbers 93. The new Re- thing done of course was to bring in being 367 to 231. This was a much Division on form Bill in- a new Reform Bill. It was intro- larger majority than had yet been the bill, and duced on the 12th by Lord John obtained on the subject, and demon- Sir R. Peel's Russell in the Lower House, and strated the progress which the ques- against it. speech though the leading principles of the former bill tion was making in the public mind. were preserved entire, several alterations in It was strenuously and firmly, though tempermatters of detail were introduced, which af- ately, opposed by Sir R. Peel. "I shall oppose forded a just though transient subject for con- this bill," said he, "to the last, believing as I gratulation and triumph to the Conservative do that the people are grossly deluded as to opposition. Lord Chandos's fifty-pound clause the practical benefits to be derived from it; for voters in counties was retained, and as this that it is the first step, not directly, to revoluwas done with the secret approbation of the tion, but to a series of changes which will affect Whig leaders, it could not justly be considered the property and alter the mixed constitution as a triumph to their political opponents. But of the country; that it will be fatal to the auother changes, which had been resisted with thority of the House of Lords, and that it will the whole influence of Government in the for- force on a series of farther concessions. I will mer Parliament, were adopted. The House was oppose it to the last, convinced that, though restored to its original number of 658, though my opposition will be unavailing, it will not the former House had been dissolved on that be fruitless, because it will in some degree opvery point. The census of 1831 was adopted pose a bar to future concessions. If the whole as the basis of the disfranchisement, notwith- House were now to join in giving way, it would standing the strenuous efforts made to retain have less power to resist future concessions. that of 1821; and very considerable changes On this ground I take my stand, not opposed were made in the distribution of boroughs in to any well-considered reform of any of our inthe schedule. A change, important in princi- stitutions which the well-being of the country ple, though not very material in its present re- demands, but opposed to this reform in our consults, was introduced also in the calculations stitution, because it tends to root up the feelon which the rule for disfranchising boroughs ings of respect toward it which are founded in was framed. This was no longer done by mere prejudice perhaps, as well as in higher sources numbers, but by numbers compounded with the of veneration for all our institutions. I believe amount of assessed taxes paid-an obvious im- that reform will do this, and I will wield all provement, as letting in at least some consid- the power that I possess to oppose the gradual eration of property, and which was industri- progress of that spirit of democracy to which * Ann. Reg. ously and correctly worked out by others think we ought gradually to yield; for 1832, 17, 18, Lieutenant Drummond. Sir Robert if we make these concessions, it will only lead Parl Deb. Peel made a skillful use of the ad- to establish the supremacy of that principle. XI. 407, 413. vantage thus afforded him, and iron- We may, I know, make it supreme; we may VOL. II-A A |