4

RURAL OUTRAGES.

[1831.

the same causes of excitement extending to the peasants, roused them, not to make speeches and pass resolutions after the fashion of the middle-classes, but to make violent attacks similar to those made by the mobs in towns. The mobs who broke threshingmachines, and assaulted Mr. Bennett, member for Wilts, acted exactly as the rabble had done who broke the windows of the Duke of Wellington and assaulted the Duke himself. The men who thus congregated in the southern counties were besides accustomed to deeds of violence, and very constant forcible opposition to the law. As smugglers and poachers, many portions of the population of these southern counties had been in the constant habit of violating the law, in concert, and in large numbers. The only thing that was a cause of astonishment was the very small quantity of mischief that was done, and the ease with which the mutinous spirit was suppressed. The reason for this result, however, is plain and obvious. The whole of the instructed classes at this early stage of the reform contests, were anxious to proceed peaceably, and according to constitutional forms. They were therefore loud in their denunciations against any violence on the part both of the mobs in the towns, and of the farm labourers in the country. The special commissions brought the accused rioters and rick-burners to immediate trial, and condemned them to severe and instant punishment. They who were found guilty of arson were executed—and, although the number was of necessity small, the terror resulting from the execu

1831.]

PUBLIC OPINION IN ENGLAND.

5

tions was immense, and the crime of arson was at once suppressed, and has not since appeared except in solitary and rare instances. We shall, however, soon see the excitement of the people rising and extending. The resistance on the part of the aristocracy in the Lords to the Reform Bill created afterwards a fearful commotion-and we shall arrive at a moment when

the

peace of the whole country hung trembling in the balance when the educated classes began seriously to contemplate resistance and insurrection-which were only prevented by a fortunate and most wise compliance on the part of the Lords, at the suggestion of the Duke of Wellington, to the will of the great majority of the enlightened classes throughout the country. But during the autumn and winter of 1830-31, though imprudent and hot-headed persons might and did use threatening language, the community as a whole were anxious to preserve the peace. The proper and legal modes of obtaining their wishes had yet to be tried, and the people generally had a great and wise faith in the reforming powers of their old institutions, and looked to them with a confident hope, that by their means would be obtained the salutary changes they so earnestly desired. The actual violence was entirely confined to the ignorant labourers in the country-and to the mobs of thieves and ruffians in the towns-and the first to resist, put down, and punish the mutinous, whether in town or country, were the middle classes who were most eager for reform.

6

PUBLIC OPINION IN ENGLAND.

[1831.

The distress of the people formed at this time a favourite topic for declamation in parliament. The most noisy declaimers were, however, the angry high Tory party. The passing of catholic emancipation had put them into so bad a humour that they sought for, and were glad to find any subject for complaint, and attack upon the government. The more fanatical did not hesitate to ascribe every evil they discovered, or imagined, to the anger of Heaven, which they asserted was roused by the late flagrant departure by parliament from true protestant principles. The more long-sighted supposed these concessions dangerous as indications of a future policy. Taking them in conjunction with the reforms proposed by Mr. Peel in the law, and the changes propounded by him in the currency, and by Mr. Huskisson in our commercial and financial system, they fancied they could detect a fundamental change gradually going on in the minds of the great chiefs of their party, which must eventually lead to an utter subversion of the old Tory rule. They, therefore, were jealous, suspicious, and ready on all occasions to find fault, and exaggerate every evil and difficulty that occurred. In this way, or on this account, they were constantly harping on the distress of the country. They descanted on the ruin that impended over the agricultural interest, and endeavoured by every means in their power to alarm the chiefs of their party, and to excite the party itself to resistance. Some distress undoubtedly existed. It was exaggerated, however,

1831.]

PUBLIC OPINION IN ENGLAND.

7

on all sides—first by the Tories, then by the Whigs. The immediate purpose of both being the same, though their ultimate aim was very different. The Tory party endeavoured to alarm the government, in the hope of separating them entirely from the reformers, and in this they succeeded. The Whigs for a time acted with the government; but when they found the Duke of Wellington endeavouring to win back his friends, and avoiding alliance with themselves, they then joined in the cry respecting the public distress, exaggerated its consequences, and attributed the whole mischief to the government. They did this early enough to make a sort of common cause with the high Tories, and so succeeded in defeating and destroying the government; and now that they had succeeded to their places, they still talked of distress in order to persuade the world that they were called to office in a time of peculiar difficulty -a period which they designated a' most momentous crisis.' In all this, there was great exaggeration. The people, in spite of partial distress, were, on the whole, really well off, and daily improving in intelligence. This prosperity and increasing knowledge made them formidable now that they demanded reform.

While such was the disturbed, and, politically speaking, uncomfortable state of England, Ireland was in a condition still more turbulent and really alarming, and her people suffered far greater distress than was known to any portion of the English population.

The late concession made by the imperial parliament

8

STATE OF IRELAND.

[1831.

to the claims of the catholics had been so long delayed, that great permanent evil had been the consequence. The injustice of that delay excited both in England and Ireland feelings of strong indignation. In Ireland, as we have before stated, there naturally arose a class of men who made it their business to keep this feeling alive, to stir it up, and increase it by what is now but too well known under the name of agitation. Good and prudent men were to be found in every class who sanctioned, and in some measure aided these agitators in their endeavours to keep their countrymen on the alert. That such efforts should be needed all honest and wise men acknowledged to be a calamity, and so believing, they never failed to press upon the rulers of the country the danger necessarily resulting from the continued refusal of justice to a large and suffering population. The result proved the truth of their anticipations. Catholic emancipation was gained by agitation, and before it was so gained a large organized band of agitators had grown up, and constituted a fearful engine of mischief in Ireland ;-the head of this band was Mr. O'Connell. To obtain for his catholic countrymen the privileges to which he thought them entitled, he had entirely relinquished a lucrative profession. He had, moreover, in the pursuit of his great political objects, lost the habits of that profession; had become accustomed to excitement, desultory exertion, and the pleasures of popularity. When emancipation was obtained his vocation was apparently