XXIII.

1832.

CHAP. food of the country; but it was not then, or from that cause, that the great emigration commenced. It was in 1849, after two fine harvests-for the first of which a thanksgiving was returned that it became so great, and in 1851 that it reached its highest point. The reason was, that the fall of prices, produced by the combined influence of a contracted and fettered currency and free trade in grain, had rendered it impossible to cultivate the land with cereal crops to a profit. The exportation of wheat to England had fallen off by 1,500,000 quarters; and Ireland, the great agricultural state, found its occupation gone, and its children sought employment in Transatlantic wilds. There can be no doubt that this emigration was, in the first instance at least, a very great advantage, though, if it continues, it may come to impair the strength and drain away the resources of the State. But be it for good or for evil, one thing is perfectly clear, that this great change is mainly to be ascribed to the Reform Bill; and that it is the magnitude of the effects with which it has thus come to be attended which renders its passing so vital an era in English history.

123.

To understand how this came about, and perceive how Principle of these immense consequences are distinctly to be traced to the old Con- the revolution effected in the English constitution by that

stitution.

great change, we have only to recollect that the old constitution which had grown up, like a code of consuetudinary law, with the wants and requirements of six centuries, was based upon the representation of classes, not numbers, and had come in the progress of time to admit all the great interests of the State to a share, and nearly an equal share, of the legislature. The House of Peers represented, or rather was composed entirely of, the landed aristocracy, spiritual and temporal. The county members were returned by the inferior landholders, tenantry, and freeholders; the universities had their members; the boroughs afforded an ample field to the various commercial and manufacturing interests; and

XXIII.

1832.

124.

proved by

though the colonies were not directly represented, yet the CHAP. great amount of wealth which their prosperity remitted to the mother country had enabled persons who had made their fortunes there, and whose interests and feelings were identified with those of their inhabitants, to obtain seats in the House of Commons for the rotten boroughs in great numbers. Thus the House of Commons had come to be an assembly, not of the representatives of any one class or section of society, but of all sections and classes; and though the influence of wealth, landed or commercial, was mainly influential in procuring the returns, yet those of labour were by no means disregarded, for the potwallopers in many large boroughs returned members of their own choice, whose influence, from the noisy character of themselves and their constituents, was much greater than would at first sight have been supposed from their limited number. That this was the true character of the House of Commons, and the secret of its long-continued influence and Which is popularity, is decisively proved by its legislative acts. the acts of Every interest in society was protected by the laws fiscal regulations which it passed, and none in such a degree as to beget the suspicion that any one interest had acquired a disproportioned sway in the legislature. It is often said that the landed interest was the preponderating one in the Chapel of St Stephens; and certainly, if we consider only the heavy fiscal duties which protected its produce, we should be inclined to suppose that the opinion was well founded. But a closer examination will show that the Corn Laws were only a branch, though doubtless a most important branch, of the general system of protection established through the country, and for every branch of industry. The West Indies were equally protected. The heavy duties on foreign sugar, and the rapid growth of those then magnificent settlements, prove that they shared to the very full in the general protective policy which prevailed. Canada was equally secured by the duties which were so heavy a burden on Baltic

or

the House

of Com

mons.

1832.

CHAP. timber. The manufacturing interest shared to the very XXIII. full in the benefits of the same system. There was not a branch of manufactures which was not fenced in by heavy protective duties. The shipping interest was protected by the Navigation Laws; and though the direct representation of labour was inconsiderable in the legislature, yet experience had proved that its interests were not forgotten, for a noble fund of above six millions a-year was voluntarily imposed on themselves by the landed interest for the relief of the poor, and had been maintained inviolate during a desperate contest of twenty years' duration, which had added six hundred millions to the national debt.

125.

tribution of

burdens.

What was equally significant of the effective represenEqual dis- tation of all classes of society under the old constitution, the public was the equitable manner in which the public burdens were distributed over the various classes of society. Universally it will be found that the first result of class government, whether of an oligarchy, aristocracy, or democracy, is to establish an exemption from direct taxation in favour of the dominant class. The exemption, so much and justly the subject of complaint, in favour of the Notables in France prior to the Revolution, was but an example of what all other notables, aristocratic or democratic, will do when they get the power. But in Great Britain, anterior to 1832, the burden of taxation was so equally diffused that no one could discover from that test in whose hands the government of the State was really vested. The income-tax, which during the war produced fifteen millions sterling, was paid by less than three hundred thousand of the most affluent of the community. Poor-rates, assessed taxes, and local burdens, to the amount of thirteen millions more, were exclusively paid by the landed interest, who, in consideration of that immense burden, were relieved of the succession tax, which was felt as very oppressive by the middle classes. That tax, however, has now, by the act of 1853,

XXIII. 1832.

been laid on the land, while not one of the exclusive bur- CHAP. dens borne by it have been shared with the rest of the community.* The working classes paid no direct taxes to Government whatever; but they contributed largely to the necessities of the State in the shape of indirect duties, which produced about half of the public revenue, and from their great number were chiefly paid by that rank of society. Thus, whatever objections there might be to many parts of the old mixed constitution of the country in practice, it had long worked well, both for the protection of the industry and the equitable adjustment of the burdens of all classes of society; and the most odious feature of class government-unjust exemption from taxation-was unknown.

126.

the diffi

sentative

to system.

The representative system may work very well in a country where the interests of the different classes of Causes of society are identical or nearly so, and no one has an culties of interest to endeavour to enrich itself at the expense of the repreits neighbours; but it necessarily becomes exposed great hazard when these interests become separate, and each class looks to its own advantage, without regard to the other ones, in the legislative measures which it advocates. A community is like a private family all is in general harmony in childhood and early youth, when none have a wish but that of their parents; but wait till separate interests arise, till the daughters are to get marriage-portions, and the younger sons be fitted out in the world at the expense of the elder, and the harmony

VI. Excess of assessed taxes falling on land above personal

XXIII. 1832.

CHAP. is often found to cease. During the long growth of the British empire, the interests of all classes were the same, for they were all engaged in or dependent on the creation of wealth, either agricultural or commercial. Thence the unanimity which so long prevailed in the country and the House of Commons, and the long continuance, with universal concurrence, of a protective policy by the Government. But this auspicious state of things was not destined for permanent endurance; and, what is very remarkable, it was at length terminated from the consequences of the very benefits which its former existence had brought about. The mixed constitution, the representation of interests, perished from the effect of its own blessings, which had become changed into curses.

127.

broke up

the old constitution.

The long enjoyment of peace in the British Islands, What first and the unexampled successes and triumphs of the war, had gradually raised up a class in Great Britain whose interests were not identical with those of production, but adverse to it. The riches made during the war, when the merchants and manufacturers of England enjoyed the practical monopoly of the commerce of the world, had been so immense that the holders of realised wealth came to overbalance those engaged in its creation. The interests of the consumer began to be spoken ofa topic never broached in former days, when the powers of consumption were mainly dependent upon those of production. The cessation of the property tax and the long duration of peace augmented immensely the number and influence of those who, enjoying a fixed money income from the industry and accumulation of former days, found their fortunes and consideration in society augmented by every diminution that could be effected in the cost of the principal articles of consumption. Thence the introduction of the cheapening system, and of a ceaseless effort on the part of the persons enjoying a fixed income to beat down the remuneration of all those engaged in the work of production. The strife, as might