favour of the proprietors, were iden- | wealth irrevocably at variance with tical with those in the unrepresented those of the producers. The former great towns. As long as men see were interested in measures tending their interests attended to, and their to lower prices, because it augmented wishes consulted by those intrusted the value, and in effect increased the with the administration of affairs, they amount of their fixed incomes; the latare contented, even though they have||ter were dependent on the rise of prices, had no hand in their selection. It is because it diminished the weight of when a divergence between the two their debts and obligations, and inbegins that discontent commences, creased the remuneration for their inand the cry for a change of institu- dustry. It was impossible to reconcile tions is heard. This divergence was these opposite interests: the amiable first felt after the termination of the dream of the interests of all classes bewar. During its continuance, as prices ing the same vanished before the stern of the produce of all kinds of industry reality of their being at variance. The were continually rising, the interests inhabitants of the great unrepresented of the landlords, the capitalists, and boroughs were not aware to what their the commercial men were the same distresses were owing: they ascribed all were making money; and therefore it, at the dictation of their political all alike were interested in the support leaders, to the weight of taxation, the of the protective system, by which the extravagance of Government, or the prices of all the productions of indus- like; but they all felt the pressure, and try were kept up, and the process of discontent was general, because sufferaccumulation favoured. But when the ing among the industrial classes had war ceased, and prices rapidly fell, the become universal. The demand for reinterests of the different classes of so- form, which was regularly hushed over ciety, so far from being identical, came the whole empire when suffering, from into collision. To sell dear was the an extension of the currency, had disinterest of the producers and those appeared, was revived with increased who rested on their industry; to buy intensity when, by any of the measures cheap was the interest of those engaged which have been mentioned, the supply in buying and selling, or holding real- of money was rendered scanty. So inised wealth, and the whole class of variable is this sequence, that it oburban consumers. Thence a clear and viously stands in the relation of cause decided breach between them, and the and effect.* "In times of distress or commencement of discontent and com- disaster," says Mr Roebuck, "reform plaint against the proprietors of the excited much attention; but when proclose boroughs, and the members sperity and success returned, it seemed whom they sent to Parliament; for to have passed almost out of rememthe measures which they pursued, sug-brance. The matter, however, was never gested by their opulent constituents, entirely forgotten; for although presswere often not only noways condu- ing public exigencies might induce the cive to those of the unrepresented towns, but directly at variance with them. 4. (3.) This divergence appeared in the most striking manner, and became irreparable, upon the passing of the monetary bill of 1819, and the commencement of the system of free trade and a restricted currency. As this great change rendered the fall of prices permanent, and ere long caused it to amount * PETITIONS TO PARLIAMENT IN FAVOUR OF REFORM. Currency. 28,551,480 25,881,620 1830, 14 27,677,897 to 50 per cent on every species of pro-Quarterly Review, No. xc., July 1831; duce, it placed the interests of the consumers and of the holders of realised TOOKE On Prices, ii. 381, 383; and MARSHAL'S people occasionally to postpone their desires, although great prosperity led to a temporary forgetfulness, the cry for reform always returned with the reappearance of distress; and to the faulty constitution of the House of Commons Liberal politicians were ever prone to ascribe nearly all the national misfortunes." result of the measures which had re- successive session had been marked by 5. (4.) In this state of affairs the Catholic agitation began, and the great and dangerous example was presented to the world of a vast political change being forced on the Government against its will, by the efforts of a well-drilled and numerous party in the state. Ministers had, with more sincerity than wisdom, admitted that they had yielded to external pressure; the Duke of Welling-garded or derided; and almost every ton had declared, amidst the cheers of the House of Peers, in words more graceful in a veteran conqueror than judicious in a young statesman, that the point was yielded to avoid the terrible alternative of civil war. This important acknowledgment was not lost upon the friends of parliamentary re-regarded the complaints of rural indusform. If agitation, kept within legal bounds, and steering clear of the penalties of high treason, had succeeded so well in Ireland, why might it not be attended with similar results in Great Britain, the more especially as the voice of the great numerical majority, particularly in the large towns, which was likely to be loudest and most attended to in the matter, was sure to be raised in its support? It was resolved accordingly by the Liberal leaders to make this the next cheval de bataille with the Government; and although it was well known that most of the Whig aristocracy who influenced so many of the close boroughs would be reluctant to part with what they regarded as their birthright, yet it was anticipated, not without reason, that they would be overpowered by the loud voice of the people, and be constrained, in the last resort, to listen to their demands rather than lose their support. 6. (5.) In this expectation they were not disappointed, and very much owing to a defection in the ranks of their adversaries, which had never before been experienced, but was the natural try, as an enemy in possession of an array of strong fortresses despises the partial insurrection or general suffering of the inhabitants of the fields. Accordingly, discontent at existing institutions and the desire for change had become of late years more general among the farmers and landholders than even the inhabitants of towns; and the question was often put in the form of the algebraic problem: “Given the Toryism of a landed proprietor; required to find the period of want of rents which will reduce him to a Radical reformer." 7. (6.) When the minds of the industrious classes, especially in the country, were in this state of discontent, owing to the constant difficulties in which they were kept by the fall in the price of every species of produce, and the vexatious contrast which their situation presented to that of the moneyed classes, who were every day growing richer from the same cause, Catholic emancipation blew it into a perfect flame, and created that schism among the upholders of the constitution which gave it every prospect of success. In tived by a majority of 74 in a House of 184; but the names in the minority revealed the great transposition of parties which had taken place. In the course of it, Mr William Smith, the member for Norwich, said, "One effect, he was happy to find, had been produced by the Catholic Relief Bill, which its best friends had not anticipated: it had transformed a number of the highest Tories in the land into something very nearly resembling Radical reformers." jured in their fortunes and circumstances by the measures which had been pursued, they now found themselves wounded in their affections. The strongest convictions of their understandings, the deepest feelings of their hearts, had been set at nought or lacerated by a great measure forced upon the nation, in opposition alike to the known wishes of the Sovereign, and the loudly expressed sentiments of a decided majority of the people, by ministerial influence and the votes of the representatives of the close bor- 8. A circumstance occurred at this oughs. Immense was the impression time which most materially tended to which the perception of this occasion- swell the cry for reform in Parliament, ed. It was admitted by the advocates by increasing the difficulties under of emancipation, that, if the popular which, from the effect of legislative voice had determined the question, it measures, the industrious classes lawould never have been carried; and boured. By the Act passed in Februyet it had become the law of the land. ary 1826, regarding small notes, it had Before this stern reality the illusion of been provided that, though no new the people's voice being all-powerful stamps were to be issued for small in England had melted away. The notes after its date, the notes already wrath of the leaders of the old Tories in circulation were to continue to cirand the High Church party exhaled culate, and be received as a legal tenin Parliament on many different occa- der for three years longer. These three sions it found vent in the channels years expired in March 1829; and all worked out by the Radical reformers. notes in England below £5 immediSo vehement did the excitement be- ately disappeared from the circulation. come that the Duke of Wellington Great was the effect of this decisive challenged Lord Winchelsea for ex- change upon the fortunes and wellbepressions used in a letter published in ing of the industrious classes, both in the newspapers, and a duel ensued, town and country, over the whole nahappily without any serious results on tion. Coinciding, by a singular chance either side.* A motion was made for in point of time, with the sudden conparliamentary reform soon after the version of so many statesmen and legisRelief Bill passed, which was nega-lators, in both Houses, on the subject *This duel deserves to be noticed as one to him motives for his conduct, public or of the last between any men of mark in Great private, which disgrace or criminate him. If Britain before this barbarous practice went a gentleman commits such an act indiscreetly, into desuetude. The cause of offence was, in the heat of debate, or in a moment of party that, in a letter published in the newspapers violence, he is always ready to make reparato the secretary of the Association for estab- tion to the party whom he may have thus inlishing King's College, London, Lord Win-jured. I am convinced that your Lordship chelsea said:-"Late political events have convinced me that the whole transaction (regarding the College) was intended as a blind to the Protestant and High Church party, that the noble Duke, who had for some time previous to that determined upon breaking in upon the constitution of 1688, might the more effectually, under the cloak of some outward show of zeal for the Protestant religion, carry on his insidious designs for the infringement of our liberties, and the introduction of Popery into every department of the State." The Duke, upon seeing this, wrote to Lord Winchelsea:-"No man has a right, whether in publio or private, by speech, or in writing, or in print, to insult another, by attributing | will, upon reflection, be anxious to reclaim yourself from the pain of having thus insulted a man who never injured or offended you." Lord Winchelsea refused to make what was deened by the Duke a satisfactory explanation: the parties met, and Lord Winchelsea fired in the air, after receiving the Duke's fire, which carried off a curl of his hair. The Earl, having done so, made a very handsome apology for words which were certainly unwarrantable in the circumstances, because they imputed motives not apparent on the face of the transaction. The Duke rode to the place of meeting at Chalk Farm, attended only by Sir Henry Hardinge as his second, and a single servant.-See Ann. Reg. 1829, pp. 58, 62. of the Catholic claims, and the passing | were standing still, the weavers were of the Relief Bill in consequence, it starving, and it was quite certain that powerfully tended to inflame the desire many even of the masters were giving for radical change, by superadding per-up the trade, and becoming mere imsonal and private distress generally in porters." The allegations of the petithe industrious classes to indignation tioners were so notoriously well-foundat public measures, distrust in public ed, and so entirely supported by the men. The diminution in the circula- parliamentary returns on the subject, tion in consequence was immediate and that Ministers did not attempt to deny decisive: but this effect, great as it was, the facts asserted, but only alleged that was the least part of the calamity.* It the distress was owing, not to Free was the contraction of credit consequent Trade, but to over-production; that it on the diminution which was the real was as great in France as in England; evil, and that in a commercial country and that matters would be still worse if soon induced universal distress. It is the system of protection were restored. one thing for bankers to issue small notes They took, however, the only proper to their customers of their own strik- course which could be adopted under ing off, which, from being the general the circumstances, and in conformity medium of circulation, they are sure with the principles of Free Trade; and will not come back upon them for a very that was, to make a considerable relong period, if at all: it is another and duction in the duties on the importaa very different thing to issue sove- tion of the raw material. The duties, reigns or large notes, whether of their accordingly, were lowered on fine silk own, which return to them immedi- from 5s. to 3s. 6d., and on inferior from ately, or the Bank of England, which 5s. to 1s. 6d. This change only augcan only be purchased for full value. mented the general clamour as it threw numbers of persons engaged in working up raw silk out of employment, and serious riots took place in Bethnal Green and Spitalfields, during which property to a large amount was destroyed. 9. The silk-weavers were the first who brought their sufferings before the Legislature, under the new state of monetary matters. It appeared from the statements made by the petitioners, that, since the change in the law re- 10. The gradual recovery of the garding the importation of foreign country from the monetary crisis of silks, there had been a progressive and 1825, and the non-arrival as yet of the most alarming diminution in the im-lowering effects of the suppression of portation of the raw material, and increase in the importation of the foreign manufactured, insomuch that "there had already been lost to the industry of this country no less than £1,000,000 yearly. Hence our silk-mills and looms small notes in March 1829, enabled the Chancellor of the Exchequer to exhibit a more cheering picture of the state of the finances than had been presented in the preceding year. The revenue of 1828 had been £55,187,000, and the expenditure £49,336,000, leaving a surplus applicable to the reduction of debt of £5,850,000. These figures deserve to be particularly noted, as affording a proof of the elasticity of the British finances, and the large sums which, notwithstanding the copious bleedings to which the Sinking Fund had been subjected, were still appli in Spitalfields; in 1829 there were 9000. The rate of wages in the former period was 17s. a-week, in the latter 9s. Weavers in the former period got 8s., in the latter 5s.-Parl. Deb., vol. xxi. pp. 751, 754; Ann. Reg. 1829, 116, 117. 2 A cable to the reduction of the national | in that year. But the prices of these debt, before the extinction of small articles were set down according to the notes, and consequent lasting contrac-old valuations in 1697; the real money tion of the currency, took full effect. value, which is the declared value, was It will appear in the sequel how woe- £10,500,000. In 1816, the official vafully matters changed after this de- lue- that is, the quantity-was the cisive contraction; and as Catholic same, but the money or declared value emancipation was the last triumph of had sunk to £7,100,000; in other the nomination borough - holders, so words, £3,400,000 was lost to Ireland this was the last year when any mate- on the exports alone, being 34 per cent, rial reduction of the debt was effected. although the rents, taxes, and engageIn three years after this, the surplus ments of every kind remained the same. entirely disappeared, and was succeed- In 1817, the distress became such that ed by a course of years, during which, Government was compelled to postpone in a period of profound peace, consid- for two years longer the Bank Restricerable additions were annually made to tion Act; and the consequence was, the public debt.* that in 1818 the exports of Ireland to Great Britain rose to £10,300,000— within a trifle of what they had been in the last year of the war. But in 1819 the Bank Restriction Act passed; and the consequence was, that though the productions exported rose in 1822, as measured by official value, to £6,100,000, the money value sank to £7,000,000! For more work they got less than two-thirds of the return in money! Whoever considers these figures will have no difficulty in perceiving to what cause the whole subsequent difficulties and disturbances both of Great Britain and Ireland have been owing." 11. The debate on this budget, however, elicited some facts regarding the state of the country, which threw an important light on the causes which had brought about the recent great change in Ireland, and were preparing a still greater in Great Britain. The former were thus stated by MrAttwood: "In 1814, the last year of the war, the exportations from Ireland to Great Britain amounted to £5,100,000, official value-official value is the measure of quantity: this account exhibits the gross amount of corn, cattle, linen, salted provisions, and other commodities sent from Ireland to Great Britain 1859-Last date in Lord Goderich's Return, No. 443, 805,078,554 The interest is diminished in these cases. 28,204,299 |