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THE reigns of the first and third sons of George III. may be regarded as a period of transition, during which the great political questions that had been postponed by the war received their solution. The accession of the prince regent to the throne as GEORGE IV. (1820-1830) involved little more than a change of title. He was in his 58th year, having been born Aug. 12, 1762. His accomplished manners had gained him the character of the "first gentleman in Europe," and he was a patron of literature and art. But he was vain, selfish, and insincere. His nature, originally amiable, had been spoilt by a life of dissipation. His domestic relations were most unhappy. In 1795, he was forced, as a condition of the payment of his debts, to abandon Mrs. Fitzherbert, and to marry the princess CAROLINE of Brunswick, to whom he took a deep disgust. After the birth of the princess Charlotte (Jan. 7, 1796), they separated, and the princess of Wales lived abroad, giving colour by her imprudence to charges against her chastity. On her

return to England (June 6, 1820) to claim her rank as queen, a bill of pains and penalties against her was brought into the House of Lords, and passed its third reading by a majority of only 9. As there was no hope of success in the commons, and the popular agitation was extreme, the bill was abandoned. But the queen's name remained excluded from the liturgy, and she was repulsed from the door of Westminster Abbey at the coronation (July 19, 1821). She died, broken down by her troubles, on Aug. 7, 1821, at the age of 52. Her remains were conveyed to Brunswick for interment, by way of Harwich; and the passage of the funeral cortège through London was attended with serious riots. The trial of queen Caroline was the death-blow to George IV.'s popularity in England; but Ireland and Scotland were rejoiced at receiving visits from the only king whom they had seen since the Revolution. Meanwhile the Tory government were alarmed by the radical agitation, and by the Cato Street Conspiracy to assassinate the ministers and change the form of government, for which Thistlewood and four others were executed (May 1, 1820).

In 1822 lord Sidmouth was succeeded as home secretary by Mr. Peel, and the suicide of lord Londonderry (lord Castlereagh) called Canning to the post of foreign secretary. He devoted all his energy to resisting the "Holy Alliance," which had been formed, after the Peace of Paris, between France, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, for the maintenance of despotism on the continent. At the Congress of Verona they resolved on an armed intervention against the constitutional party in Spain, which was executed under the duc d'Angoulême in the following year (1823). Unable to resist this movement, Canning formed treaties of commerce with the American colonies which had revolted from Spain, and boasted that he "had called the new world to redress the balance of the old" (1824). In the House of Commons, the splendid eloquence of Canning and HENRY BROUGHAM was called forth by these foreign questions, and by debates on parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation. In 1825 occurred a terrible commercial crisis; and the failure of many banks led to new laws to regulate the paper currency. The systematic adoption of emigration as a remedy for distress gave a new impulse to the colonies of Canada and Australia.

Great changes occurred on the thrones of Europe. In France and Russia Louis XVIII. and Alexander I. were succeeded by their brothers CHARLES X. (1824) and NICHOLAS I. (1825). In 1825, John VI. of Portugal erected Brazil into an independent empire under his brother DOM PEDRO, who, on John's death (March 1826), abdicated the throne of Portugal in favour of his daughter, DONNA MARIA, at the same time giving the people a constitution. The usurpation of the throne by Dom Pedro's brother, Dom Miguel,

ferocious tyrant (1827), led to a civil war, which lasted till May 1832. England declared in favour of Donna Maria, who was ultimately established on the throne; and commodore CHARLES NAPIER distinguished himself as commander of Dom Pedro's fleet. In the east of Europe Russia pursued a course of aggrandisement at the expense of Turkey, and the Greeks took up arms for their independence. The combined fleets of England, France, and Russia, under sir Edward Codrington, destroyed the Turkish and Egyptian fleet at NAVARINO (Oct. 20, 1827). This blow decided the war, and Greece was erected into a kingdom, the crown of which was ultimately accepted by prince Otho of Bavaria.

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Meanwhile the Catholic question had become pressing. In 1824 DANIEL O'CONNELL, a barrister of great eloquence, organized the Catholic Association," and collected a "Rent" from the Irish people. In 1825 a relief bill, brought in by sir Francis Burdett, passed the commons, but was lost in the lords, where the duke of York uttered a solemn oath that, if he came to the throne, he would never consent to the repeal of the Catholic disabilities. The duke, however, died on Jan. 5, 1827, and in February the long administration of lord Liverpool was ended by his seizure with paralysis. The king, who disliked Canning for his opposition in the affair of queen Caroline, as well as for his former advocacy of the Catholic claims, felt nevertheless obliged to receive him as premier (April 1, 1827). But Canning had already contracted a mortal disease at the funeral of the duke of York. He was regarded by the aristocracy as an upstart. He was deserted by the duke of Wellington, Mr. Peel, lord Eldon, and the old Tory party. He was harassed by his false position between the opposition, who called on him to redeem his professions in favour of the Catholics, and the king, who declared that he should break his coronation oath if he consented to emancipation. In four short months Canning died (Aug. 8, 1827). He was buried privately in Westminster Abbey, and his widow was made a viscountess. The title descended to his son, who raised it to an earldom by his signal services in India, and has just died, like his father, a martyr to the public service (June, 1862).

The short administration of viscount GODERICH, now earl of Ripon (Aug. 1827-Jan. 1828), was again succeeded by that of the duke of Wellington, with Mr. Peel as home secretary. The friends of Mr. Canning-namely, Mr. Huskisson, Mr. Lamb, Mr. Grant, and lord Palmerston-afterwards left the ministry. It was under this Tory government that the disabilities both of the Protestant Dissenters and of the Roman Catholics were removed. Lord JOHN RUSSELL (b. Aug. 18, 1792), the younger son of the duke of Bedford, and the faithful inheritor of the principles for which lord William Russell suffered under Charles II., moved the Repeal of the Test and Cor

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.

WILLIAM

FRIEND

OF

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

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