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poration Acts passed under that king (see pp. 230, 231). Mr. Peel was left in a minority, and withdrew his opposition. In the lords the measure was supported by lord HOLLAND, the nephew of Charles James Fox, and the duke of SUSSEX, the sixth son of George III., to whom his consistent support of civil and religious liberty had been most distasteful, as it now was to George IV. The passing of this act gave a new stimulus to the agitation for Catholic relief. The crisis was brought on by the election of O'Connell for the county of Clare. The duke of Wellington was convinced that his choice lay between concession and a civil war, the horrors of which he deprecated with deep feeling; and his ministry announced a measure for the relief of the Catholics in the king's speech (1829). Mr. Peel, who had always opposed the Catholic claims, was rejected by his constituents of the University of Oxford, in favour of sir Robert Harry Inglis, a kind-hearted simple-minded Tory, who always held that " wherever the king carried his flag, there he

should carry his church." Peel came back to the house as member for Westbury, and introduced the bill, which passed the lords on April 10, after earnest opposition. Lord Eldon was moved to tears, and lord Winchelsea came forward as the champion of religion in a duel with the duke of Wellington. The act opened parliament and offices of state to the Catholics on their taking a new oath in place of the oath of supremacy; but they were excluded from the offices of regent, viceroy of Ireland, and lord chancellor both in England and Ireland. The exclusion from the crown, and its forfeiture by marriage with a Catholic, remained in force. The words of the new oath, "on the true faith of a Christian," had the effect of excluding the Jews from parliament till 1858, when they were admitted.

The king gave his assent to the bill, but showed a resentment against the ministry, which was shared by the Tory party. Their violent opposition, in concert with the radicals, was only neutralized by the support of the Whigs, which enabled Peel to carry some valuable measures, among which was the formation of the new police (1830). He had previously mitigated the criminal law; and Mr. Brougham had moved (Feb. 1828), in a speech of surpassing eloquence, for a commission on the state of the law, which led to most important reforms. But the rejection of lord John Russell's motion to give members to the great manufacturing towns of Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds, left the question of parliamentary reform to be settled in the next reign. Meanwhile the king was living in peevish seclusion at Windsor, where he died on the 26th of June, 1830, in the 68th year of his age and the 11th of his reign, and was succeeded by his next surviving brother, William Henry duke of Clarence.

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William Wilberforce. Medal struck on the abolition of the Slave Trade.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK-continued.

WILLIAM IV. A.D. 1830-1837.

WILLIAM IV., the third son of George III., was within two months of completing his 65th year when he came to the throne. He was married to the princess ADELAIDE of Saxe Meiningen (July 11, 1818), by whom he had two daughters, who died in infancy. He had entered the navy at the usual early age, which shut him out from the advantages of education. He never affected statesmanship, but followed at one time the current of popular opinion, and at another the influence of those about him. He gained popularity by his sailor-like frankness and simplicity of manner.

He ascended the throne at a great crisis in Europe as well as England. The continental princes had cast to the winds the liberal professions which had raised the hopes of their people during the last conflict with Napoleon, and relied on their vast armies and the support of Russia. In France the Charter had been tolerably observed by Louis XVIII., but Charles X. followed a reactionary policy, which became more decided under the ministry of POLIGNAC (1829). The ordinances against the freedom of the press caused a revolt in Paris, which lasted three days (July 27-29, 1830), and ended in the REVOLUTION OF 1830. Charles X. fled to England, and the

duke of Orleans, son of Philippe-Egalité, was made "king of the French" by the title of LOUIS-PHILIPPE I. An equally sudden revolution separated Belgium from the kingdom of Holland, to which it had been united by the congress of Vienna. Ultimately prince

Leopold became king of the Belgians.

These events had a marked effect on the English elections, which were unfavourable to ministers. The tone of the king's speech, and the declaration of the duke of Wellington against any change in the representation, produced the greatest ferment. There were rumours of vast bodies of reformers marching up to London from the north, and the king's visit to the city on Nov. 9 was put off. At last, on Nov. 15, the government were defeated on the motion of sir H. Parnell for an inquiry into the civil list; they resigned next day, and were succeeded by the ministry of EARL GREY, in which BROUGHAM (b. Sep. 9, 1779) was lord chancellor with a peerage, lord Althorp chancellor of the exchequer and leader of the House of Commons, and the other leading members were lords Lansdowne, Palmerston, Melbourne, Goderich, and Durham, and sir James Graham. Their bill for parliamentary reform was brought in by lord John Russell, who was not in the cabinet, on March 1, 1831. The modest claim of seats for a few great towns was found to be replaced by changes so vast, that the announcement was received at first with silent wonder, and then with derisive shouts; and the first reading was only carried by a majority of 1. A dissolution produced a parliament pledged to "the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill." It was carried by large majorities in the commons, after tremendous struggles, but rejected in the lords by a majority of 41 (Oct. 3). Formidable riots ensued. Nottingham Castle, the residence of the duke of Newcastle, was burnt; and Bristol was in the hands of the mob for several days, and a large part of the city was burnt down. Amidst these commotions, England was visited in the autumn by that new plague, the CHOLERA, which had gradually advanced from India across Asia and Europe. A second great outbreak of it occurred in 1849.

The Reform Bill was brought in again on the meeting of parliament in December, and passed the commons in March, 1832. The opposition of the lords was only overcome by the resolution of the ministry to create a body of new peers, a measure forced upon the king by a temporary resignation, which proved the inability of the Tories to form a government. The execution of the threat was avoided by the wisdom of the duke of Wellington, who advised the king to desire the absence of the great body of opposition peers, and so the bill was carried. It received the royal assent on June 7, 1832, 50 years and a month after Pitt's first motion (p. 296). Its principle was the proportioning of the representation to the

the right, pursued by Grouchy; but on his left Ney failed to dislodge the English from Quatre Bras; and Wellington, after arranging with Blücher for a new junction on the field of the approaching battle, fell back on the 17th to a position which he had long marked and caused to be surveyed, and which is said to have attracted the notice also of Marlborough, on the ridge of Mont St. Jean, in front of WATERLOO. Napoleon took up his position on the opposite ridge of La Belle Alliance; and here, on Sunday, June 18th, 1815, was fought one of the most obstinate and decisive battles of all history. Napoleon had about 78,000 men, and Wellington 72,720; but the emperor was vastly superior in artillery, and he commanded his own veteran troops, while only half of Wellington's were British, most of them raw recruits; and the rest were Hanoverians, Dutch, and Belgians, some disaffected, and some cowards who fled at the first volley. But the Duke's iron will maintained the position against Napoleon's fiercest efforts, while the Prussians strained every nerve to reach the field. Leaving his rear engaged with Grouchy at Wavre, Blücher made a cross march against Napoleon's right, which his van began to threaten early in the afternoon, and he arrived in force upon the field just as the column of French guards had reeled back broken from their last attempt to charge, and Wellington had given the signal for the advance of his whole line. It was about seven o'clock when Napoleon exclaimed Sauve qui peut, and rode off the field to Charleroi. The Prussians took up the pursuit throughout the night; while Wellington returned, after meeting Blücher, to his quarters at Waterloo, and recorded in one of his letters the conviction that "no amount of glory could compensate for the losses of such a day :" a use of the word glory even more significant than its supposed absence from his despatches. The loss of the French from the 16th to the 18th was about 30,000; and that of the allies 15,000.

Napoleon reached Paris on the 21st; and, after a brief struggle with the Chambers, he abdicated in favour of his son, Napoleon II., and fled to Rochefort, intending to embark for America (June 29). Thus ended the HUNDRED DAYS of his second empire (March 21 -June 29). Louis XVIII. re-entered Paris on July 8; and Napoleon, after writing to the prince regent that "he came, like Themistocles, to throw himself on the hospitality of the British people," embarked for England on board the Bellerophon (July 15). By the decision of the allies, he was conveyed to the island of St. Helena, where he died on May 5, 1821. A new Peace of Paris was signed by the allies, Nov. 20. The affairs of Europe were regulated by the Congress of Vienna, which parcelled out kingdoms regardless of the wishes of their inhabitants; and a second congress,

at Aix-la-Chapelle, arranged for the withdrawal of the allied troops from France (Sept. 1818). The duke of Wellington, who had remained as generalissimo, returned home in November. The war had raised the English national debt from a little less than 228 millions to nearly 800 millions, involving an annual charge of 28 millions. In 1816 the piracy of the Algerines was suppressed by sir Edward Pellew (lord EXMOUTH), who bombarded Algiers (Aug. 27), and compelled the Dey to release 1083 Christian slaves.

The war was succeeded by much distress and discontent. Trade languished, and the high price of bread was aggravated by the mistaken policy of a corn-law, closing the ports till the price of wheat reached 808. a quarter. The prohibition was afterwards modified by a sliding-scale, lowering the duty with the rise of the price (1829). The reform agitation was renewed, with its adjuncts of political clubs, mob orators, and government prosecutions. The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended in 1817, on account of an attack on the prince regent as he returned from opening parliament. A reform meeting at Manchester, in Aug. 1819, at which the yeomanry were called out and some lives lost, was long remembered as "the Peterloo Massacre." Amidst the general alarm the home secretary, lord Sidmouth (formerly Mr. Addington), carried the "Six Acts" for suppressing seditious meetings and writings and the use of arms. A more wholesome measure was the act passed by Mr. Secretary (afterwards sir Robert) PEEL, for the resumption of cash payments and the regulation of the currency (1819).

The unhappy death of sir SAMUEL ROMILLY, by his own hand, deprived the country of a leader in the reform of the criminal law; but the work of its mitigation was steadily carried on from this time, against much opposition from lords Eldon and Ellenborough.

The last years of George III. were clouded with mournful events in the royal family, in addition to the king's continued illness. The princess CHARLOTTE, only daughter of the prince regent, formed a marriage of affection with prince LEOPOLD, of Saxe-Coburg, now king of the Belgians (May 16, 1816); and, on Nov. 6, 1817, she died in childbirth, amidst a grief even more intense than that we have lately witnessed. Marriages were now contracted by the dukes of Clarence, Kent, Cumberland, and Cambridge. The duke of Kent espoused the princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg, who gave birth to our present queen, May 24, 1819; but the duke died on Jan. 23, 1820. In less than a week he was followed to the tomb by his father, George III., who expired Jan. 29, 1820, in the 82nd year of his age and the 60th of his reign; the longest in our annals. Queen Charlotte had already died in November 1818.

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