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'Ann. Reg.

116, and Lord J. Russell's

ration. March 23.

enue.

be enabled to establish a republic, full, I have | onded his amendment, and it was negatived no doubt, of energy-not wanting, I have no without a division. Posterity will probably doubt, in talent-but fatal, in my conscience I reverse the sentence, as it has already done believe, to our mixed form of government, and the unanimous vote of the National Assembly ultimately destructive of all those usages and finding Louis XVI. guilty, and come to regard practices which have long insured to the contraction of the currency, and introdue1832, 43, us a large share of peace and prosper- tion of Free Trade, to which he referred the 44, Parl. ity, and which have made and pre-whole existing distress, as the real Deb. xi. 1 Ann. Reg. served this the proudest kingdom in cause of all the convulsions into 729, 780. 1832, 31. the annals of the world." which the nation had been thrown.1 The third reading of the bill was carried, on But how insensible soever the House of Com23d March, in the Commons, after mons, during the heat of the reform 96. 98. Third reading a very long discussion in commit- contest, might be to the real causes Declining carried in the tee, by a majority of 116, in a which had induced the general dis- state of the Commons by House of 594, being less than the tress, and with it the desire for public revmajority on the second reading, change, its effects were soon brought closing decla- but larger by 7 than the final di- to light in a form which could neither be overvision on the first bill. Lord John looked nor mistaken. The revenue exhibited Russell closed his arduous task a falling off to a most alarming extent. On with these remarkable words, which, without October 3d, the Chancellor of the Exchequer doubt, expressed in good faith the opinion of brought forward his second budget for the year, Government regarding the measure: "With re- the first having been abandoned, as 2 Ante, c. spect to the expectations of the Government, I already stated, and he was obliged xxii. 103, will say that, in proposing this measure, they to admit a very considerable defal- 104. have not acted lightly; but, after much con- cation in the principal articles of revenue. sideration, they were induced to think, a year The Customs, in the preceding quarter, had ago, that a measure of this kind was necessary, fallen £644,000 below the corresponding quarif they would stand between the abuses which ter in the preceding year, and the Excise, in the they wished to correct and the convulsions they same period, no less than £1,909,000. Upon desired to avoid. I am convinced that, if Par- the whole, the Chancellor of the Exchequer liament should refuse to entertain a measure estimated the revenue at £47,250,000, and the of this nature, they would place in collision expenditure at £46,756,000, leaving an apparthat party which, on the one hand, opposed ent excess of income of £500,000 a year. But all reform in the Commons House of Parlia- so far were these expectations from being realment, and that which, on the other, desired a ized, that the total income, deducting the cost reform extending to universal suffrage. The of collection from both sides, for the year endconsequence of this would be, that much blood ing 5th January, 1852, was only would be shed in the struggle between the con- £46,424,000, and the total expendi- 1831, 285, tending parties; and I am perfectly convinced ture £47,123,000, leaving a deficit 290, and for that the British constitution would of £700,000 a year, which of course 1832, 229, perish in the conflict. I move, sir, more than extinguished the last 230; App. that this bill do now pass." remnants of the Sinking Fund.3 Before following the bill to its next stage, and recording the momentous conflict between the Crown and the dewhich ensued in the Upper mocracy Mr. Hunt's House, it is necessary to mention motion re- two circumstances which occurred garding it. at this period, which threw an important light both on the causes that had produced the reform passion, and the effect its gratification was likely to have on the prosperity and welfare of the nation. Before the first half of the year 1831 had passed, all branches of industry in the country had come to be sensibly affected by the consternation which generally prevailed, and the feeling of danger which existed on the part of the holders of property in regard to the security of their possessions. Before the end of the year this feeling had become so strong that enterprise and speculations of all sorts were paralyzed, expenditure was generally contracted, and industry of every kind in consequence became depressed to a most alarming degree. Mr. Hunt, the Radieal member for Preston, brought this under the notice of the House of Commons, by an amendment on the Address, which expressed the feeling of the democratic classes in regard to the remote causes of their distresses.* No one sec

2 Parl. Deb. xi. 780.

97.

General dis

tress in the country, and

"2

That by the present critical and alarming state of our country, when irade and manufactures are reduced to |

3 Ann. Reg.

to Chron.

Ireland also, before the end of the year, ex

such difficulties by the withdrawing of, and narrowing the by which the incomes of all those classes but those who circulation, without a proportionate reduction of taxation, lived upon the taxes are reduced one half in value, the greatest distresses existed; that these were aggravated by the baleful system called Free Trade, by which a competition of foreign silks, gloves, and other articles is permitted with our own manufactures; that by these means the people have been driven to desperation and frenzy: and that to these causes are to be attributed those incendiary proceedings going on in the country."—Ann. Reg.,

1831, p. 13.

* The income and expenditure for the year 1831, as act

ually realized, stood as follows:

Customs
Excise..

Stamps.
Taxes.

Post-office
Lesser Payments.

INCOME-Net.

EXPENDITURE.

Interest of Funded Debt
Terminable Annuities
Interest of Unfunded Debt
Civil List, etc
Army..
Navy.
Ordnance.
Miscellaneous

Deduct income, net..

£16,516,271

16,303,025

6,947,829

4,864,343

1,530,205

262,757

£46,424,430

£24,372,894

3,318,688

649,633

1,548,772

7,216,292

5,689,858

1.472,944

2.854,013

£47,123,465

46,424,440

£699,025

Excess of expenditure over income..
Ann. Reg., 1832, p. 229, 230. App. to Chron.

hibited a most afflicting increase of predial | tility of the Peers to the bill was to be over

99 outrage and disorder. Then was seen State of how utterly fallacious an idea it had Ireland. been that the exclusion of the Catholics from the Legislature had been the real cause of the disturbances of the country, and how little their admission into it had done to remove them. So far from it, their success on the former occasion had only made them more audacious; and the agitators and priests over the whole country had now banded the people together in a general combination for resistance to tithes, which led to the most frightful tragedies. The misery and crimes of the people were daily increasing, and never had this increase been so great as since emancipation had passed. Murder, robbery, searching for arms, were committed in open day, and by such large bodies as set resistance at defiance even by the armed police. In daylight they dug up the potatoes in the fields. Five were shot dead while attacking a house in Tipperary; but this had no effect in deterring from similar outrages. Nine persons were killed during a conflict between the insurgents and police at Castle Pollard, in the county of Westmeath, on the 23d of May. Twelve were killed May 23. and twenty wounded during an affray June 18. at Newtonbarry, in Wexford, originating in a sale for distraining of tithes. The coroner's jury, after sitting nine days, could arrive 1 Ann. Reg. at no verdict, six Catholics being on 1831, 324, the one side, and six Protestants on the other.1

326.

rages in

Nov. 25.

that

1 Roebuck, ii. 223.

come. The King had, in the outset of the discussions on the Reform Bill, distinctly declared to his Ministers that he would not dissolve the House of Commons if it should reject the bill, nor create peers if the Upper House did the same. "He had been induced, however," says the Whig historian, "under the mixed influence of vanity and alarm, to dissolve the intractable Parliament of 1830; but he declared he never would consent to any coercion of the Peers by means of creation."i The Cabinet, however, distinctly saw matters had now come to such a point that such a measure was unavoidable, to avoid a rejection of the bill; and great division of opinion existed in the Ministry on the subject. Lord Brougham and Lord Durham strenuously supported the measure, which they represented as unavoidable, and even urged a creation of sixty, to neutralize an anticipated majority to that amount. Lord Grey, on the other hand, manifested the utmost repugnance, and declared that he could never bring himself to acquiesce in any such unconstitutional measure. Lord Durham combated Earl Grey's objections in a written memoir, dated in January, 1832; and Sir James Graham recommended the creation of a small batch of peers in the first instance, to show that Government were determined, and had the power to enforce their determination. The discussions in the Cabinet were long and anxious; and when Parliament met, on 6th December, no decision was arrived at on the subject. It was not till the first week of January, 1832, that the repugnance of Lord Grey was overcome; and a majority of the Cabinet had resolved to present the creations to the King as a Cabinet meas- ii. 223, 224.

ure.2

As winter approached, and the severities of 100. nature were added to the animosiDreadful ties of man, these outrages assumed a tithe out- still more sombre and alarming charWexford acter. Payment of tithe generally and New- ceased; when it was recovered, it was tonbarry. only by distraining, which generally led to conflicts between the police and peasantry, ending in wounds and death, terminating in still more unseemly struggles for vengeance or impunity in the courts of justice. In the end of November, five of the peasantry were shot dead by the military in a tithe riot, when the latter had been assailed by a band of ruffians; but soon after the insurgents took a bloody revenge. A strong party of police having gone to protect a legal officer employed to serve a tithe notice, the peasantry assembled in multi-a tudes on the road-sides, armed with pitchforks, bludgeons, and scythes, and having closed with the procession of the police, the commanding officer and twelve of his men were killed. Such was the ferocity of the mob, that they beat out the brains of five of the police, who lay on the ground weltering in their blood, and put to death the captain's son, a boy of ten years 2 Ann. Reg. of age, who was with the proces1831, 324, sion, and the pony on which he

Dec. 14.

326, 328.

101.

rode!2

While these frightful scenes were going forward, and the country, from one Resolution end to the other, was in a state of of the Cabi- the most violent excitement, from net to create the dread of yet greater calamities peers. impending over it, the Cabinet were anxiously engaged in the consideration of the all-important question, how the declared hos

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2 Roebuck,

sents.

Meanwhile the King, who also foresaw that the matter would ultimately come 102. to his decision, was in a state of the The King is utmost anxiety and agitation, and violently agihe repeatedly and vehemently de- tated, and reclared that he considered a crea- luctantly contion of peers a revolutionary proceeding, and tending directly to the destruction of the House of Lords. It was on the 1st January, for the first time, that the majority of the Cabinet was brought round to the creation of peers, and on the 3d of the same month, after long conference with Earl Grey, he was, with great reluctance, induced to give his consent to the measure of peer-making," as he termed it, if, on reflection, the Cabinet should remain of opinion that it was absolutely unavoidable; but, to be satisfied of that, he required all the members of the Cabinet to give him their opinion in writing; adding, at the same time, that nothing but the most stern necessity would induce him to consent to so fatal a measure, and that, if done at all, he would prefer doing it at once to proceeding by successive small creations. He insisted, also, that the new peerages, with the exception of two, or at most three, should be in favor either of the eldest sons or heirspresumptive of peers, and he expressed a hope that twenty-one might be sufficient. These conditions he said he considered essential to the preservation of the hereditary character of the peerage, and he expressed the utmost alarm at

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103.

towns, meetings attended by thirty thousand or
forty thousand persons were held, at which the
most violent language was used, and the most
revolutionary ensigns were exhibited. Charles
X., from his windows in Holyrood, gazed on a
scene in the King's Park of Edinburgh which
recalled the opening events of the French Rev-
olution; and a speaker at Newcastle reminded
the Sovereign that a "fairer head than that of
Adelaide had ere this rolled on the scaffold."
The object of all these petitions and speeches
was the same-to induce the Lords, by threats
of revolution, to pass the bill, and the King by
similar threats to create peers sufficient to co-
erce them if they refused to do so. The Na-
tional Union, on 3d May, spoke the voice
May 3.
of all the unions when it said that there
was reason to expect that, if the Lords denied or
impaired the bill, “the payment of taxes would
cease, the other obligations of so- 1 Martineau, ii.
ciety would be disregarded, and 56, 57: Ann
the ultimate consequence might be Reg. 1832, 170,
the extinction of the privileged or- 171; Personal
knowledge.
ders."

Amidst this tumult and anarchy the second
reading of the bill came on in the 105.
House of Peers. The debate com- Second read-
menced on the 9th, and was not con- ing of the bill
carried by a
cluded till seven o'clock on the morn- majority of
ing of the 13th, when it was carried nine.
by a majority of NINE. The solicita- April 13.
tions of the King, the threats of the people, had
not been without their effects. Seventeen peers
had changed their vote; twelve, who had for-
merly been absent, now appeared, and voted
for the bill; ten, who had voted against it,
were now absent. Among the twelve were the
Archbishop of York, and the Bishops of London,
St. David's, Worcester, and Chester. "It was
the bishops," says the Liberal historian, "who
saved the bill this time, but this deed
did not restore the credit they had 3 Martineau,
lost in October." It never does so:
concession to democracy never either satisfies
its desires or commands its esteem.
It is ascribed to fear, and that gen-xii. 454.
erates nothing but contempt.3

In the mean time a negotiation was secretly commenced, through Sir Herbert Secret negoti- Taylor, the King's private secretaations with ry, between his Majesty and some the waverers. of the Opposition peers, particularly Lord Wharncliffe and Lord Harrowby, the object of which was to induce them to vote for the second reading of the bill as a matter of absolute necessity, and in the hope of effecting some important improvements upon it in committee. The fixed opinion of the King, which he expressed on all occasions, was, that a large measure of reform had become indispensable, but that a creation of peers to effect it would give an irremediable wound to the constitution, and that every possible effort should be made to avert so dire an alternative. The influence of his Majesty, as well as the obvious reason of the thing, had a decisive effect upon a considerable number of peers, respectable alike by their talents and their position, and the result appeared in the vote which followed, though it did not avert the catastrophe which was apprehended. Indeed, to any one who calmly considers the circumstances of the British empire at this period, it must be evident that the view taken by the King and these peers was well founded, and that there was now no alternative between an extensive reform and revolution. The nation had been worked up to such a pitch by the long dependence of the question and the efforts of the press, that it had become altogether ungovernable, and it had determined upon a change, which, for good or for evil, must be conceded. "A majority," says Roebuck, "of the wealthy, intelligent, and instructed, as well as the poor and la2 Martineau, borious millions, had now resolved ii. 56, 57; Ann. Reg. to have the Reform Bill. They had 1832, 100, resolved to have it, if possible, by 102; Roebuck, ii. 259. peaceable means, but, if that were not possible, BY FORCE.' Decisive proof of this ungovernable and rev- It soon appeared, however, that the object olutionary spirit speedily appeared of this defection had been to meet Revolution during the three weeks which imme- the wishes of the Sovereign, or avert Lord Lyndary meetings diately preceded the second reading the wrath of the people, but by no hurst's to coerce the of the bill in the Upper House. The means to pass the bill entire in obe- amendment Peers. political unions and Radicals turn-dience to the mandates of either. On carried by ed the Easter recess to good account in the fur- May 7, when Parliament met after therance of agitation to overawe and coerce the recess, and when a meeting of not less than the House of Peers. The assembly of numbers one hundred thousand persons was held in Birmade, and violence of the speeches delivered at mingham, Lord Lyndhurst proposed in comthe meetings which they called in all the great mittee to defer the consideration of the distowns, much exceeded any thing witnessed even franchising clauses in the bill till the enfranduring the earlier stages of this disastrous con- chising clauses had been considered. "Begin," test. Every thing breathed approaching civil said he, "by enfranchising, by conferring rights war. Argument or persuasion was little thought and privileges, by granting boons and favors, of: threats, denunciations of vengeance, predic- and not by depriving a portion of the commutions of approaching and prepared rebellion, nity of the privileges which they at present enformed the staple of the harangues. The great joy." "Should this amendment be carried,” object was to make as imposing as possible a said Earl Grey, in reply, "it may be necessary display of numbers and physical strength, and for me to consider what course I shall take. I certainly the multitudes assembled did give fear- dread the effect of the House of Lords opposing ful evidence of the extent to which the passions itself as an insurmountable barrier to what the of the people had at length come to be stirred. people think necessary for the good Parl. Deb At Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manches-government of the country." The xii. 717, ter, Leeds, Paisley, Sheffield, and all the great House being in committee, proxies 718

104.

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ii. 57.

3 Parl. Deb.

106.

thirty-five.

could not be taken, and, after an angry debate, the amendment was carried by a majority of 35-the numbers being 151 to 116.

107.

accepted. May 9.

Ministers next day held a cabinet council, at which it was resolved to resign unMinisters less the King would give them power resign, and to create a number of peers sufficient their resigto give them such a working majorination is ty as might be necessary to carry the bill unimpaired in its leading provisions. The King refused to do so, and the Ministers immediately tendered their resignations, which were accepted. Lord Althorpe made this announcement in the House of Commons on the 9th, and Lord Grey did the same in the House of Lords. Matters had now come to the crisis which had long been foreseen on both sides. The Crown and the House of Lords had taken their stand to resist the bill, the Commons to force it upon them. Par Deb. When Charles I. planted his standard at Nottingham the crisis was scarcely ii. 281, 282; more violent, nor the dreadful alternMartineau, ative of civil war to all appearance

xii. 787; Roebuck,

ii. 59, 60.

sends for

the Duke of

more imminent.1

the leaders of political unions, but by some of the greatest and proudest magnates of the land. Lord Milton, now Earl Fitzwilliam, desired the tax-gatherer who called upon him at this time, to call again a week after, as "he was not certain that circumstances might not arise which would oblige him to resist the payment." The Sovereign, so recently the object of the most fulsome flattery, could no longer show himself in public without being insulted.1* 1 Mirror of The Queen, to whose influence the Parliament, change was generally ascribed, was 1832, 2456. the victim of general abuse, and the public meetings often ended with "three groans for the Queen." Then were seen the infernal placards in the streets of London, "To stop the Duke, go for gold;" and with such success was the suggestion adopted, that in three days no' less than £1,800,000 was drawn out of the Bank of England in specie. In Manchester, placards appeared in the windows, "Notice-No taxes paid till the Reform Bill is passed;" and a petition, signed by 25,000 persons, was speedily got up, calling on the Commons to stop the supplies till this was done. The Common Council of London petitioned the House of Commons to the same effect. Attempts were made to seduce some privates of the Scots Greys, then stationed at Birmingham. In a word, Great Britain was on the verge of a civil war; the leaders of the political unions were quite prepared to embark in it; and although it is not yet known how far these frantic designs were countenanced by persons in authority, it was proved at the trial of Smith O'Brien, in 1848, that, 2 Roebuck, at this period, questions of a very ii. 291, 292; sinister kind were put to a distin- Martineau, guished officer at Manchester by a Ann. Reg. person in the confidence of a late cabi- 1832, 172, net minister.2+

ii. 65, 66;

173.

"At a quarter past twelve the royal carriage reached Hounslow, where a strong guard of honor of the 9th Lancers joined the royal carriage, in which were the King and Queen. The postillions passed on at a rapid rate, and on entering the town of Brentford, the people, who had assembled in great numbers, began to groan, hiss, and make the most tremendous noises that can be imagined. The escort kept behind and close to the carriage-windows, or told a number of clots of dirt were hurled at the carriage. in all probability mischief would have ensued, as we were Along the road to London the people expressed their feelings in a similar manner; and when the carriage entered the Park, the mob saluted their Majesties with yells and execrations of every description, which we refrain from publishing."-Sun, May 12, 1832.

In this extremity the King applied to his for108. mer Chancellor, Lord Lyndhurst, who The King advised his Majesty to send for the Duke of Wellington. The old soldier Wellington at once obeyed the perilous summons. to form a "I should have been ashamed," said ministry. he, "to show my face in the streets, if I had refused to assist my Sovereign in the distressing circumstances in which he was placed." The King frankly stated to the Duke of Wellington that, in his opinion, a large measure of reform was necessary; and the Duke, though strongly of opinion that such a measure was unnecessary, consented to assist the King in forming an administration on this basis; but he declined the situation of Premier, or indeed any situation in the Cabinet, for himself. Sir R. Peel, to whom the premiership was offered, at once refused it, saying, that "no authority nor example of any man or number of men could shake his determination not to accept office upon such conditions." Upon this determination being reported to the King, the Duke, at his request, immediately agreed to accept the perilous post of prime-minister. Mr. Manners Sutton was to be leader of the House of Com2 Mirror of mons; Mr. Baring, Chancellor of the Parliament, Exchequer; and Lord Lyndhurst, 1832, 2074 Chancellor; and for the next five Roebuck, ii. days the Duke was busily engaged 285, 286; Parl. Deb. in endeavoring to form an adminisxii. 997, 107. tration. No sooner was the resignation of the MinisThe petition from Birmingham bore: "Your petitiontry known, and that the King had ers find it declared, that the people of England may have sent for Lord Lyndhurst and the Duke arms for their defense suitable to their condition, and as excitement of Wellington, than a storm arose in right will be put in force generally, and that the whole of allowed by law; and your petitioners apprehend that this in the coun- the country more violent than any the people of England will think it necessary to have arms which had been yet experienced, and for their defense, in order that they may be prepared for which demonstrated how well founded was the any circumstances which may arise. Your petitioners, therefore, pray your honorable House forthwith to present opinion of the King that an extensive measure a petition to his Majesty not to allow the resignation of of reform had now become necessary. Meet- his Ministers, but instantly to create a sufficient number ings were called in all the great towns, at which of peers to insure the carrying of the bill of reform unimthe most violent language was used; and insur-paired into a law; and that your honorable House will instantly withhold all supplies, and adopt any other measrection was openly threatened if the bill was ures whatever which may be necessary to carry the bill not instantly carried, and the late Ministry re- of reform, and to insure the safety and liberty of the counstored to office. Non-payment of taxes was uni-"-Birmingham Petition, May 12, 1832; Ann. Reg., 1832, p. 172. versally recommended, and this not merely by

109.

Vehement

try.

Mr. Hume told the multitude, that there were 150 peers against them, but he did not know how many women, though he had heard there were some'-an allusion which was immediately followed by three groans for the Queen; and her Majesty shortly after, while taking an airing, was grossly insulted by the populace." - Ann. Reg., 1832, p. 172.

"The political unions every where began to organize

110.

The Duke fails in

Great as were the difficulties in the way of they will be divided: in short, in taking office the formation of a new administra- they will present a most miserable example of tion, from this vehement excitement impotent ambition, and appear as if they wishof the public mind, it was not these ed to show to the world a melancholy example forming an which caused the attempt to fail. The of little men bringing a great empire 1 Parl Deb. insurmountable obstacles were found to destruction." A curious proof of xii. 856, pre-excitement, as Mr. Roebuck remarks, 857 Roewhen we recollect that among these 305, Ann. little men "the Duke of Wellington Reg. 1832, was numbered."*

Adminis

tration. in the division of opinion which vailed among those who would necessarily form the new Cabinet, on the subject of reform. The courage of the Duke was equal to the emergency, and he showed that he was willing to brave all the dangers, and incur all the obloquy consequent on accepting office, on condition of carrying through an extensive measure of reform, rather than desert his Sovereign on this crisis.

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buck, ii.

184, 185.

The King

create peers.

All was now accomplished. The King, at the eleventh hour, had made an ef 112. fort to assert the independence of the Crown, and avert the degrada- submits, tion of the House of Peers, but with- and gives Sir R. Peel, on the other hand, who was sensi-out success. A large majority of authority to tively alive to the danger of change of conduct, the House of Commons had supportfelt that, if he was now to carry a measure to ed the Whigs in their attempt to force the two which he had on principle given a most decided other branches of the Legislature, and nothing opposition, and which he had declared to be remained to the Sovereign but submission. dangerous to the existence of our monarchical The only resource competent to a constitutioninstitutions and to the peace of the country, he al monarch in such a crisis-that of appealing might obtain power at the moment, but he to the people was sure to fail in this instance. would ruin himself in the estimation of the ju- In the excited state of the public mind, a still dicious, the honest, and the instructed portion larger majority in favor of the bill would inof his countrymen. He saw clearly, from the evitably be returned. The King saw the neexcitement which the retirement of Lord Grey cessity of his situation, and yielded, as by the created, that the Reform Bill must be carried; spirit of the constitution he was bound to do. and he was desirous, for many reasons, that it Earl Grey and his Cabinet were reinstated in should become law under the auspices of its office, on a permission given in writing authors and original proposers." These were that they might create as many peers as the sentiments of the great majority of his fol- might be necessary to secure a majority in the 1 Parl. Deb. lowers, and the consequence was that House of Lords. The reluctance of the King xii. 1073, the negotiation failed; and on the was painfully manifest, but he had no alterna1074; Roe- 17th it was announced in the House tive, and the decisive paper was given to the 286; Ann. of Commons that the commission Lord-Chancellor, who, with Earl Greyt and Reg. 1832, granted to the Duke of Wellington Sir Herbert Taylor, were alone present at had failed.1 this memorable interview. All stood but the Sovereign the whole time-a thing unprecedented with that courteous monarch.2

buck, ii.

175.

ton's motion

Meanwhile the Commons had not been idle. III. On the very night when Lord AlLord Ebring thorpe announced Earl Grey's resin the House ignation, Lord Ebrington moved for of Commons a call of the House, and an address carried by to his Majesty on the present state eighty. of public affairs. The motion was resisted by the whole strength of the Tories, and carried by a majority of 80 only-the numbers being 288 to 208. This majority, though sufficiently large to insure the creation of peers and the forcing through of the bill, was a considerable falling off from that which formerly supported Ministers, for on the third reading of the last Reform Bill the majority had been 139. This change, though mainly owing to their own violence and threats of revolution, excited no small indignation and some alarm in the minds of the Reformers, and a rigid inquiry was instituted into the conduct of every defaulter, with a view to excluding him from the next Parliament. The debate was characterized by extreme violence rather than great ability, and the passions on both sides were so strongly roused as to exclude the reason. Among the rest, Mr. Macaulay said, "The new Ministry will go forth to the contest without arms, either offensive or defensive. If they have recourse to force, they will find it vain; if they attempt gagging bills,

their members for actual insurrection. Meetings in London were held by day and by night, at which the most violent language was employed, not by unknown or inferior persons, but by men of rank and substance."-ROEBUCK, vol. ii. p. 291; and Mirror of Parl., 1832, p. 245.

May 17.

2 Roebuck, ii. 331, 337.

such as, in more calm and happier times, appears scarcely The violence of the public press at this period was credible. Take, for example, the Times of May 14, 1832:

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But of the multitudinous feelings produced by this tem

porary overthrow of a nation's confidence, there is none so active or so general as that of astonishment at the individual who it is now notorious has tripped up the heels of Lord Grey. What, the Duke of Wellington! The commander-in-chief of all the ultra anti-reformers in the kingdom now offers himself as Minister-nay, has for soine months been making fierce love to the office, with a full and undisguised resolution to bring in with his own hands a strong and satisfactory' reform bill! There ship-there may be food for incontinent exultation and may be dexterity in such conduct-there may be generalchuckling at Apsley House; but it affords evidence also of more ignoble faction, of a lust for office more sordid and execrable, of a meanness of inconsistency more humiliating and more shameful, than we had even suspected the Duke of Wellington of being capable of affixing to his own political character. As for success in such a course of imposture, it is, let us once for all warn his Grace, hopeless." It is curious to contrast this passage with the just and splendid eulogium on the Duke in the columns of the same journal twenty years afterward, on occasion of his

death.

It was in these terms: "The King grants permission to Earl Grey and to his Chancellor, Lord Brougham, to create such a number of peers as will be sufficient to insure the passing of the Reform Bill-first calling WILLIAM R. Windsor, May 17, up peers' eldest sons. 1832."-ROEBUCK, vol. ii. p. 331, note.

"The excitement, anger, and hurt pride of the King

at this memorable interview were very evident, and marked by unusual circumstances. The one was, that he kept Lord Grey and the Chancellor both standing the whole time; the other, that Sir Herbert Taylor was kept in the room. The Chancellor's asking for a written promise Earl Grey deemed harsh and uncalled for: I wonder,' said he, as soon as they ef. the presence, how

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