CHAP. XXII. 1830. 1830, 146, 58. state of Ire ure of eman pacify it. even more serious than their number; for of the eightytwo county seats for England, only twenty-eight were ministerial; of thirteen great cities only three returned members in that interest; and upon the whole of two 1 Ann. Reg. hundred and thirty-six seats, more or less open, only 147. seventy-nine were ministerial, while a hundred and forty-one were in decided opposition, and sixteen neutral.1 The enthusiasm excited by the French Revolution Distracted was no doubt one great cause of this decisive change, land, and especially in the great towns, where it was sedulously entire fail- fostered in public meetings, headed by Whigs and Libecipation to rals of all sorts. But much was also owing to the deep heart-burnings produced in the agricultural districts by the resistance of Government to every petition for relief, and the entire failure of Catholic emancipation to allay any of the disturbances, or alleviate any of the sufferings of Ireland. The English Protestant leaders pointed with triumph on the hustings to the example of that distracted country, as proving what might be expected when men deviated from the faith of their fathers. So far from being pacified, it was daily becoming more disturbed; so far from O'Connell having sunk into a nisi prius lawyer, he had become a more formidable chief of agitation than ever. Emancipation had become the platform on which the leaders of the movement planted their whole batteries for the demolition of the Protestant faith, and the severance of the connection with Great Britain. A new Catholic Association was formed under the title of "The Friends of Ireland, of all Religious Denominations," the avowed objects of which 1830, 148. were a repeal of the Subletting Act, radical reform in Parliament, and the repeal of the Union.2 2 Ann. Reg. The Lord-Lieutenant put down this Association by proclamation, upon which Mr O'Connell counselled a general run upon the banks, and formed a new association under the title of "The Anti-Union Association." This, too, was forbidden by the Lord-Lieutenant, upon which O'Connell XXII. 1830. 59. efforts of their influ summoned it to meet under the significant title of CHAP. "Association of Irish Volunteers for the Repeal of the Union." He told them in the most emphatic terms to look at France and Belgium for examples of what might Successive be done when the people were determined, and enjoined the agitapetitions from every county, city, parish, and village in tors, and Ireland, for the repeal of the Union, and the severance ence on the of all connection between Church and State. This Association, too, was proclaimed down; but meanwhile the object was gained: agitation was kept up, the press daily became more inflamed, the people more excited; and these feelings having been roused to the highest pitch at the time the elections came on, a great number of seats, especially in counties, were lost to the Government, and handed over to the most violent of the repeal agitators. And thus Ministers lost seats in the English counties from the indignation felt at the concession of Ann. Reg. Catholic emancipation; they lost as many in Ireland, 148. from the ingratitude with which the gift was received.1 * 1830, 147, 60. the Man A melancholy catastrophe, which heralded in vast social changes, diverted for a brief period during this Opening of autumn the public attention in Great Britain from the chester and important political revolutions in progress, both abroad Liverpool and at home. On the 15th September, the Manchester Sept. 15. and Liverpool Railway was opened, being the FIRST EVER CONSTRUCTED FOR TRAVELLING in the empire. As such, * During the heat of this controversy in Ireland, Mr O'Connell was challenged for some violent expressions he had used in regard to Sir Henry Hardinge, then Secretary for Ireland. He refused to fight, on the ground of a vow registered in heaven " never again to shed the blood of man in single combat, in consequence of once having done so before; and certainly no reasonable or honourable man will reproach another with abstaining from the absurdity of adding one crime to another by superadding murder to insult; but those who adopt this course should be careful to observe the justum moderamen in their own language, and if they have been casually betrayed into an intemperate expression, immediately to make the proper reparation. Instead of this, O'Connell had no sooner registered his vow in heaven against fighting, than he proceeded to apply the most violent and slanderous expressions to all his opponents on earth. It was then he first used his favourite expression, "base, bloody, and brutal," with regard to the Duke of Wellington and Mr Peel, who had earned for him emancipation. His conduct at this period VOL. IV. Ꭱ Railway. XXII. 1830. CHAP. it excited a very great interest, for opinions were much divided as to the success of the attempt; and some of the most eminent scientific characters had confidently predicted that it would prove a failure, or that at all events the carriages, owing to the friction of the wheels on the rails, could never be brought to go more than ten miles an hour. The Duke of Wellington, Mr Huskisson, and several persons of the highest distinction, went to Liverpool to be present at the opening, and set out in ten carriages, three on the southern and seven on the northern line, but travelling in the same direction, and 1 Ann. Reg. nearly abreast. It was deemed an astonishing effort 146; Chron. that the carriage which conveyed the Duke went sometimes at the rate of fifteen miles an hour! 1 1830, 145, 61. of Mr Huskisson. At Parkside station the carriages stopped, and Mr And death Huskisson and several of his friends got out. Some of them, with the kind intention of bringing the Duke of Wellington and Mr Huskisson together after their estrangement, led the latter round to that part of the train where the Duke was seated, who, as soon as he saw him, held out his hand to him, which was shaken cordially. At this instant the train containing the other gentlemen set off, coming up past them, and a general cry arose, "Get in, get in!" Mr Holmes, who was with Mr Huskisson, immediately, with great presence of mind, drew himself close up to the Duke's train, the only thing to be done in such a situation, and which insures perfect is thus commented on by one of the ablest of the liberal annalists: "The correspondence on occasion of this offence to Sir H. Hardinge settles the matter for ever about O'Connell's honour, and the possibility of having dealings with him as between man and man; and it is here referred to as evidence that all parties that afterwards courted him, or allied themselves with him more or less for political purposes, were not entitled to complain when he betrayed, insulted, or reviled them. That any terms should have been held with O'Connell by Government, English public, or gentlemen in or out of Parliament, after his present agitation for repeal, and his published correspondence with Sir H. Hardinge in Oct. 1830, is one of the moral disgraces of our time."Miss MARTINEAU, ii. 8. These expressions are given as conveying the opinion of a liberal historian of deserved reputation, and of her party on their eminent men, rather than the author's own; for certainly they evince a tendency to slide too much into the very fault which she so justly censures in O'Connell. CHAP. 1830. safety. Mr Huskisson unfortunately seized hold of one of the doors of the Duke's train, which was struck by a projecting part of the other train in passing, and swung round. This caused Mr Huskisson to swing round also, and he fell on the other railway, so that his right leg was passed over by the engine and instantly crushed. The only words he uttered were" I have met my death; God forgive me." This unhappily proved too true. He was carried to Eccles, where the best medical advice was obtained, but in vain. He survived only a few hours in great pain, which he bore with unshrinking fortitude. He received the sacrament with Mrs Huskisson, and his last words were" The country has had the best of me ; I trust it will do justice to my public character. I regret not the few years that might have remained to me, except for those dear ones," added he, grasping Mrs Huskisson's hand, "whom I leave behind me." He expired a few 1830, 145, minutes after, and was interred, after a public funeral, in kisson's the new cemetery at Liverpool on the 24th, amidst the 240. tears of an immense concourse of spectators.1 1 Ann. Reg. 147; Hus Life, i. 234, 62. on the railway system, growth. With this mournful catastrophe, and thus baptised in blood, did the railway system arise in England. Rapid Reflections beyond all human calculation was the progress which it made, and boundless beyond all human ken are the effects and its rapid which it has produced. Like most of the discoveries destined to produce great and lasting changes on human affairs, its introduction owed little to science, by which it was distrusted, and its effects did not immediately develop themselves. But ere long they were fully made manifest, and they have now, in a manner, changed the whole face of society in the civilised world. Before the year 1850, no less than eleven hundred and eleven Acts of Parliament had been passed, to form new lines or extend old Prog. of ones; and the capital authorised to be expended on 327. them amounted to the enormous sum of £348,012,188.2 A considerable impulse was given to these undertakings in the years 1834 and 1835, which were distinguished by 2 Porter, the Nation, XXII. 1830. CHAP. great commercial activity; but by far the greater part of the railways were set on foot during the joint-stock mania, which lasted from the beginning of 1845 to the end of 63. Its vast 1847, during which the sums authorised to be raised by and lasting monetary Acts of Parliament were above £230,000,000.* Not effects. more than £200,000,000 of the whole sums expended on railways has proved productive, or yielded any return whatever; and above £150,000,000 has been absolutely lost in these undertakings, so far as the proprietors or the capital of the nation is concerned. It will appear in the sequel how powerfully this prodigious raising and expenditure of money came to influence the fortunes and destinies of the State; what unbounded prosperity it produced at one time, and what terrible disasters at another; and how the existing monetary system, encouraging speculations at first, and withdrawing the means of completing them at last, landed the nation in a series of difficulties, from which it was only extricated by events in the western and southern hemispheres, so timely and im327, 3d edit. portant that they can only be ascribed to Divine interposition.1 1 Porter, 64. and politi But the effects of the railway system have not been And moral confined merely to the industrial and monetary concerns cal effects. of the nation, great and lasting as these effects have been. It has produced social and political results of the very highest importance, and which, like other things in this world, have been partly salutary and partly pernicious. It has in a great measure destroyed space, and brought the most distant parts of the empire into comparatively close proximity with its great cities and metropolis. In this way it has, to a most surprising degree, equalised the circumstances of the different parts of the country, and |