the congress at vienna—napoleon's escape from elba—military preparations—england supplies the money—wellington organises his army—napoleon's journey through france—his entry into paris—the enemy gathers round him—napoleon's preparations—the new constitution—positions of wellington and blucher—the duchess of richmond's ball—battles of ligny and quatre bras—blucher's retreat—the field of waterloo—the battle—charge of the old guard—arrival of the prussians—the retreat—french assertions about the battle refuted—napoleon's abdication—the allies march on paris—end of the hundred days—the emperor is sent to st. helena—the war in america—events on the canadian frontier—repeated incapacity of sir george prevost—his recall—failure of american designs on canada—capture of washington by the british—other expeditions—failure of the expedition to new orleans—anxiety of the united states for peace—mediation of the czar—treaty of ghent—execution of ney and labédoyère—inability of wellington to interfere—murat's attempt on naples—his execution—the second treaty of paris—final conditions between france and the allies—remainder of the third george's reign—corn law of 1815—general distress—riots and political meetings—the storming of algiers—repressive measures in parliament—suspension of the habeas corpus act—secret meetings in lancashire—the spy oliver—the derbyshire insurrection—refusal of juries to convict—suppression of seditious writings—circular to lords-lieutenant—the flight of cobbett—first trial of hone—the trials before lord ellenborough—bill for the abolition of sinecures—death of the princess charlotte—opening of the session of 1818—repeal of the suspension act—operation of the corn law—the indemnity bill—its passage through parliament—attempts at reform—marriages of the dukes of clarence, cambridge, and kent—renewal of the alien act—dissolution of parliament and general election—strike in manchester—congress of aix-la-chapelle—raids of the pindarrees—lord hastings determines to suppress them—malcolm's campaign—outbreak of cholera—campaign against the peishwa—pacification of the mahratta district—apparent prosperity of great britain in 1819—opening of parliament—debates on the royal expenditure—resumption of cash payments—the budget—social reforms—the scottish burghs—roman catholic emancipation rejected—weakness of the government—meeting at manchester—the peterloo massacre—the six acts—the cato street conspiracy—attempted insurrection in scotland—trials of hunt and his associates—death of george iii.

the allied sovereigns and their ministers met at vienna, in the opening of the year 1815, in congress, to settle the boundaries of all such states as had undergone disruptions and transformations through the will of buonaparte. they were proceeding, with the utmost composure, to rearrange the map of europe according to their several interests and ambitions. austria, spain, france, great britain, portugal, prussia, russia, and sweden had their sovereigns or their representatives there. those for great britain were the duke of wellington, the lords cathcart and clancarty, and sir charles stewart. all at once a clap of political thunder shook the place, and made every astute diplomatist look aghast. it was announced that buonaparte had escaped from elba, and was rapidly traversing france on the way to paris, and that his old soldiers were flocking with acclamation to his standard. it was what was certain to occur—what every man not a cunning diplomatist must have foreseen from the first, as certainly as that a stone thrown up is sure to come down again. yet no one seems to have foreseen it, except it were lord castlereagh, who, not arriving at paris before this foolish scheme was adopted, had protested against it, and then yielded to it. on the 13th of march the ministers of the allied powers met, and signed a paper which, at length, was in earnest, and showed that they were now as well convinced of a simple fact as the dullest intellect had been ten years before—that there was no use treating buonaparte otherwise than as a wild beast. they now declared him an outlaw, a violator of treaties, and an incorrigible disturber of the peace of the world; and they delivered him over to public contempt and vengeance. of course, the british ambassadors were immediately looked to for the means of moving the armies of these high and mighty powers, and the duke of wellington to plan and to lead the military operations against the man who had once more developed himself from the emperor of elba into the emperor of the french.

the duke of wellington wrote to the british government to inform them of this event, and that the allied sovereigns were this time resolved to make sure of the fugitive; that the emperor of austria had agreed to bring into the field three hundred thousand men; the czar, two hundred and twenty-five thousand; prussia, two hundred and thirty-six thousand; the other states of germany, one hundred and fifty thousand; and that it was expected holland would furnish fifty thousand. thus nine hundred and sixty thousand men were promised, independently of sweden and great britain; so that a million of men might be calculated upon to crush buonaparte, provided that the latter power were ready to furnish the necessary millions of money to put this mighty host in motion.

the congress of vienna.

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the duke earnestly recommended the utmost[89] promptness and liberality as the only means to settle the matter effectually and at once. he said that to give only moderate assistance was sure to enable buonaparte to protract the contest, and would cost britain more in the end; that, on the contrary, if britain found the means of maintaining a great army, he was confident that "the contest would be a very short one, and decidedly successful." and this, in the circumstances, was clearly the best advice. great britain, having been no party to the silly arrangement for setting up buonaparte as a burlesque emperor at the very doors of france, might very well have said to the allied sovereigns—"this is your work; we have no further concern in it; you may finish it as you please." but britain was sure not to do this; as both the government and nation had set their mind on hunting down the slippery and mischievous adventurer, they were sure to follow up the pursuit.

the british ministry adopted the advice most cordially. lord liverpool, in the house of lords, and lord castlereagh, in the commons, on the 6th of april, announced the astounding fact of the escape of buonaparte, and proposed addresses from both houses to the prince regent, recommending the most energetic measures of co-operation with the allies now finally to crush this lawless man. whitbread vehemently opposed this measure, declaring that it was not our business "to commence a new crusade to determine who should fill the throne of france." this was true enough; but it was a truth, in the then temper of the government or public, which was not likely to be attended to. the addresses were carried in both houses without any division, and lord wellington was nominated to command the forces which should take the field for great britain; and these were to amount to no fewer than one hundred and fifty thousand, and to consist of a moderate number of british soldiers, and the rest to be paid hanoverians, belgians, dutch, and germans. parliament immediately voted the enormous sum of ninety million pounds for supplies, knowing the vast subsidies which would be required by the allied monarchs, besides the large sum necessary to pay our own quota of troops.

on the 23rd of march the allied sovereigns, including that of the united kingdom, signed, by their plenipotentiaries, a new treaty of alliance offensive and defensive, on the same principles as the treaty of chaumont, entered into in march, 1814. the duke of wellington then hastened away to belgium to muster his forces there—for belgium, as it had been so often before, was sure to become the battle-ground on this occasion. so early as the 5th of april he announced that he had placed thirteen thousand four hundred men in the fortresses of belgium, and had besides twenty-three thousand british and hanoverian troops, twenty thousand dutch and belgian, and sixty pieces of artillery. unfortunately, the bulk of his victorious army of the peninsula had been sent to the inglorious contest with america, where a good naval blockade would have been the most effectual kind of warfare. but he observed that buonaparte would require some time to assemble a strong force, and this time must be employed by britain to collect a correspondingly powerful army. the duke, with accustomed energy, not only applied himself with all his strength to this object, but to stimulating, by letters, the allied sovereigns to hasten up their quotas, some of them notoriously the slowest nations in the world.

buonaparte landed at cannes on the 1st of march. his advanced guard presented themselves before antibes, and were made prisoners by the garrison. this did not discourage buonaparte; he advanced by forced marches with his now less than one thousand men, and leaving behind him his train of artillery. till he reached dauphiné, however, he received very little encouragement from any party. all the authorities, proprietors, and clergy, stood aloof; only a few peasantry occasionally cried "vive l'empereur!" but did not join him. he began to be very uneasy. but on the 7th of march, as he approached grenoble, colonel labédoyère, who had been gained over before, came out with an eagle in his hand, and at the gates distributed tricolour cockades, which had been concealed in a drum. buonaparte advanced alone towards the troops, and called on any one who wished to kill his emperor to do his pleasure. all cried "vive l'empereur!" and crowded round him. general marchand endeavoured to recall the soldiers to their duty, but in vain.

whilst napoleon was thus advancing towards paris, the besotted bourbons rather rejoiced in it, for they said it would compel the two chambers to invest the king with despotic power—that was what they were still longing for; and louis himself, addressing the foreign ambassadors, bade them assure their sovereigns that he was well, and that the foolish enterprise of "that man" should as little disturb europe as it had disturbed him.

monsieur and the duke of orleans hastened to lyons, and the duke of angoulême to nìmes. corps of volunteers were called out, and an address[90] to the people was composed by benjamin constant, calling on them to defend their liberties against buonaparte; and a woman on the staircase of the tuileries exclaimed, "if louis has not men enough to fight, let him call out the widows and childless mothers who have been rendered such by napoleon!" meanwhile the conspiracy of general l'allemand and his brother at lille, to carry over the garrison of eight thousand men to napoleon, was discovered by general mortier, and defeated. had this plot succeeded, louis and his family must have been made prisoners. but that was the extent of the adhesion to the bourbon cause.

when buonaparte reached lyons, the soldiers, in spite of the duke of orleans, of monsieur, and of marshal macdonald, went over to him to a man. he was now at the head of seven thousand men, and macon, chalons, dijon, and nearly all burgundy declared for him. marseilles and provence stood out, the authorities of marseilles setting a price upon his head. but being now in lyons, buonaparte issued, with amazing rapidity, no fewer than eight decrees, abolishing every change made by the bourbons during his absence, confiscating the property of every emigrant who had not lost it before, restoring the tricolour flag and cockade, and the legion of honour; abolishing the two chambers, and calling a champ-de-mai, to be held in the month of may to determine on a new constitution, and to assist at the coronation of the empress and the king of rome. he boldly announced that the empress was coming; that austria, russia, and great britain were all his friends, and that without this he could not have escaped. these decrees, disseminated on all sides, had a wonderful effect on the people, and he advanced rapidly, reaching auxerre on the 17th of march. he rode on several hours in advance of his army, without guards, talking familiarly with the people, sympathising in their distresses, and promising all sorts of redresses. the lancers of auxerre and montereau trampled the white cockade under foot and joined him. he appointed cambacérès minister of justice; fouché, of police; and davoust minister of war. but fouché, doubting the sincerity of buonaparte, at once offered his services to louis, and promised, on being admitted to a private interview, to point out to the king a certain means of extinguishing the usurper. this was presumed to mean assassination by some of his secret agents, and was honourably rejected by louis, and an officer was sent to arrest fouché; but that adroit sycophant retired by a back door, locking it after him, got over a wall, and was the next moment in the house of the duchess of st. leu, and in the midst of the assembled buonapartists, who received him with exultation.

thus surrounded by treason, louis doubted the fidelity of soult, who resigned his command; but he trusted ney, and sent him to attack buonaparte in the rear, whilst an army at mélun, under clarke, duke of feltre, was to attack him in front. ney took leave of louis on the 9th of march, declaring that he would bring buonaparte to him in a cage; but at lons-le-saulnier, on the 14th, he received a letter from napoleon, calling him "the bravest of the brave," and inviting him to resume his place in his army, and ney went over at once. to abate the public opinion of his treason, he pretended that this expedition had been long arranged between himself and buonaparte, but this buonaparte at st. helena denied.

astounded by these repeated defections, louis tried to gather some notion of the state of other bodies and troops about him. he attended a sitting of the chamber of deputies, and was received with acclamation; he reviewed twenty-five thousand of the national guard, and there was the same display of loyalty; he inspected six thousand troops of the line, but there the reception was not encouraging. he finally summoned a council at the tuileries, and there the generals declared frankly that he had no real means of resisting buonaparte. this was on the 18th of march, and louis felt that it was time for him to be making his retreat. at one o'clock in the morning of the 20th he was on his way towards lille, escorted by a body of household troops. it was time, for that very day buonaparte reached the camp of mélun, where macdonald had drawn up the troops to attack him; but buonaparte threw himself amongst them, attended only by a slight escort of horse, and the soldiers all went over to him with a shout. macdonald rode back to paris, and, following the king, assumed the command of the guard accompanying him. louis hoped that the troops at lille, under mortier, would stand by him; but mortier assured him of the contrary, and so, taking leave of macdonald on the frontiers, louis pursued his way to ostend and thence to ghent, where he established his court. the household troops who had accompanied him were disbanded on the frontiers, and in attempting to regain their homes by different routes, most of them were killed, or plundered and abused.

on the evening of the very day that louis[91] quitted paris buonaparte arrived in it. he had slept on the night of the 19th at fontainebleau, where, in the preceding april, he had signed his abdication. no sooner had the king departed than the buonapartists, who were all ready for that event, came forth from their hiding-places. lavalette resumed his position at the post-office, and thus managed to intercept the proclamations of louis, and to circulate those of buonaparte. exelmans took down the white flag from the tuileries and hoisted the tricolour, and a host of the adherents of the old imperial government, hurrying from all quarters, thronged the avenues to the palace, and filled the court of the carrousel. there were ex-ministers of buonaparte, ex-councillors, ex-chamberlains, in imperial costume—in short, every species of officers and courtiers, down to cooks, and butlers, and valets, all crushing forward to re-occupy their places.

the guards at the gates stood with tricolour cockades on their hats, and the great ladies of the court came driving in, for they were not far off. the duchess of st. leu had been permitted to remain in paris, and her house had been the focus of all the buonapartist adherents and conspiracies. from that centre had been sent summonses to every branch of the buonaparte family to be in readiness, and all had responded except cardinal fesch, louis buonaparte, and eugene beauharnais, who had too much sense to quit munich with his wife, the daughter of the bavarian king. even murat, to his ruin, had been induced to declare for buonaparte once more.

when the returned emperor, therefore, drove up to the tuileries, at nearly ten o'clock on the night of the 20th—a foggy and wet night—his carriage, covered with mud, was surrounded by his friends, as if he had only been absent on one of his campaigns. as he stepped out of his carriage in his old grey great-coat and cocked hat, now to be seen in the museum of the louvre, he was instantly so hemmed in that he called out, "my friends, you stifle me!" and a number of general officers at once hoisted him upon their shoulders, and thus bore him into the palace and up into the state apartments amid deafening shouts of "vive l'empereur!"

thus was the man who had been put down by all the assembled armies of europe not twelve months before, who had quitted paris weeping like a woman, and threatened, in his exile southward, with being torn limb from limb—thus was he as it were miraculously borne back again on men's shoulders, and seated on the throne of the twice-expelled bourbons! it was far more like a wild romance than any serious history. the peace of the world had again to be achieved. the bourbons had been worsted everywhere, even in loyal vendée, and in marseilles, which had so recently set a price on buonaparte's head. the duke of angoulême was surrounded in marseilles, and surrendered on condition of quitting france. the duke of bourbon found la vendée so permeated by buonapartism that he was obliged to escape by sea from nantes; and the duchess of angoulême, who had thrown herself into bordeaux, found the troops there infected by the buonaparte mania, and, quitting the place in indignation, went on board an english frigate.

but the position of buonaparte was far from being secure or satisfactory. though the soldiers had come over to him, and endeavoured to rouse the populace of paris to shout for his return, it was in vain. the guards, incensed at their silence, struck them with the flat of their swords, and bade them cry, "napoleon and liberty!" but, though they saw that napoleon had returned, they very much doubted whether he had brought liberty with him, and they remained cold and indifferent. they saw the armies of the allies looming again in the distance, and they gave no credence to napoleon's ready lies that he was at peace with them. but he omitted no exertions to enter into such a peace. he dispatched messengers to every court, offering to accept the terms of the treaty of paris, though he had repeatedly avowed that this treaty consummated the disgrace of france. to these messages no answers were returned. it was already determined that he should receive no communication from the allied sovereigns but in the shape of overwhelming armies. they had proclaimed, in their congress at vienna, and in their new treaty of coalition, that he had forfeited every claim to consideration, and the british house of commons had fully coincided with them, and already upwards of a million of soldiers were in arms, and in march towards france to finally crush him.

in england the chancellor of the exchequer had found no difficulty in raising a loan of thirty-six million pounds, and this money was freely devoted to put the armies of the coalition in motion. never had such vast armaments been in preparation from the very north of europe to france. the congress had removed its locale from vienna to frankfort, to be nearer the scene of action. the emperors of russia and austria, and the king of prussia, were again at the head[92] of their forces. on the side of switzerland, one hundred and fifty thousand austrians, who were liberated from italy by the defeat of murat, were ready to march into france; another army of the same number directed its course to the upper rhine. schwarzenberg was again commander-in-chief of austria. two hundred thousand russians, under barclay de tolly, were also marching for alsace, and langeron, sacken, and other generals were at the head of other numerous divisions, all under the nominal leadership of the archduke constantine. blucher was already posted in belgium with one hundred and fifty thousand prussians; and the army of wellington, of eighty thousand men, composed of british, and different nations in british pay, occupied flanders. the contingents of holland, sweden, and the smaller german states raised the total to upwards of a million of men, which, if they were not all at hand, were ready to march up in case of any reverses to those first in the field.

to contend against this enormous force, buonaparte, by the most surprising exertions, had again collected upwards of two hundred thousand men of considerable military practice; but he dared not to name the conscription to a people already sore on that point; and he endeavoured to raise further reinforcements by an enrolment of national guards all over france. for this purpose commissioners were sent down into the departments, on the authority of an imperial decree of april the 5th; and he proposed to raise as many federates, or volunteers of the lower orders—the only class which had raised a cheer for him on his return. but these schemes proved, for the most part, abortive. in the northern departments, where heretofore the commands of buonaparte had been most freely obeyed, the inhabitants showed a sullen and dogged resistance, and the same was the case in brittany. farther south matters were worse. in the departments of gard, marne, and nether loire, the white flag and cockade were openly displayed; and wherever the tree of liberty was planted—for it was now the trick of buonaparte to associate the sacred name of liberty with his, a name and a thing on which he had so uniformly trampled—it was cut down and burnt. it was in such circumstances that buonaparte had to put his frontiers into a state of defence against the advancing hosts. he had defended the northern side of paris with a double line of fortifications; strongly fortified montmartre, and on the open southern side cast up some field-works, relying, however, on the seine as the best barrier. paris he placed under the command of general haxo; and the fortresses on the side of alsace, the vosges, and lorraine were all strongly garrisoned. lyons, guise, vitry, soissons, chateau-thierry, langres, and other towns were made as strong as forts, redoubts, field-works, and garrisons could make them; and trusting by these to retard the slow austrians, and even the russians, till he could have given a desperate blow to the allies in the netherlands, of whom he was most afraid, on the 11th of june he quitted paris, saying, "i go to measure myself with wellington!"

he had, however, lost something of his old self-confidence, and the opposition which he had met with from the state, and the alienation of the people, were not exhilarating. napoleon saw that he must conciliate the french by concessions, but neither his temperament nor his necessities permitted him to do this liberally. he gave nominal freedom to the press, but he bought up the majority of the editors and proprietors; yet, not being able to do this wholly, the opposition spoke bitter things to him and of him, and damaged his cause seriously. he called on siéyès, carnot, and fouché to assist in framing his constitution; and he gave peerages to carnot and siéyès, and those once stern republicans accepted them. but, even with their aid, he could not bring himself to grant a free constitution. nobody believed him to be sincere even in what he did give. the police were as strict as ever, and yet every night the walls of paris were covered with proclamations of louis xviii., forbidding the payment of taxes, and announcing the approach of one million two hundred thousand men.

the very dames des halles, the market women, took up the word against them. they sang a song with much vivacity, "donnez-nous notre paire de gants,"—equivalent in pronunciation to notre père de ghent, that is, louis, who was then residing at ghent. none but the very lowest of the population retained the old illusions respecting him. in such circumstances, not even his new constitution could satisfy anybody. it was very much the same as louis xviii. had sworn to in 1814. it granted free election of the house of representatives, which was to be renewed every five years; the members were to be paid; land and other taxes were to be voted once a year; ministers were to be responsible; juries, right of petition, freedom of worship, inviolability of property, were all established. but buonaparte destroyed the value of these concessions by publishing this, not as[93] a new constitution, but as "an additional act" to his former constitution. the word "additional" meant everything, for it proclaimed that all the despotic decrees preceding this fresh declaration were still in force, and thus it neutralised or reduced these concessions to a mere burlesque.

sir thomas picton.

(from the painting by sir m. a. shee, p.r.a.)

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napoleon, however, called his champ-de-mai together for the electors to this anomalous document; but, to add to the incongruity, the assembly was held in the champ-de-mars, and not in may at all, but on the 1st of june. there he and his brothers, even lucien, who had been wiled back to his assistance, figured in fantastic robes as emperor and princes of the blood, and the electors swore to the constitution; but the whole was a dead and dreary fiasco. on the 4th the two chambers, that of peers and that of representatives, met. the peers, who were his own officers and picked men, readily agreed to the constitution; but not so the chamber of representatives. they chose lanjuinais president, who had been a zealous advocate of louis xvi., and who had drawn up the list of crimes under which buonaparte's forfeiture had been pronounced in 1814. they entered into a warm discussion on the propriety of abolishing all titles of honour in that chamber. they rejected a proposition to bestow on napoleon the title of saviour of his country, and they severely criticised the "additional act," declaring that "the nation would entertain no plans of aggrandisement; that not even the will of a victorious prince should lead them beyond the boundaries of self-defence." in this state of things buonaparte was compelled to depart, leaving the refractory chamber to discuss the articles of his new constitution.

[94]

napoleon was at vervins, on the 12th of june, with his guard, and on the 14th he had joined five divisions of infantry and four of cavalry at beaumont. the triple line of strong fortresses on the belgian frontiers enabled him to assemble his forces unobserved by the allies, whilst he was perfectly informed by spies of their arrangements. wellington had arrived at brussels, and had thrown strong garrisons into ostend, antwerp, nieuwport, ypres, tournay, mons, and ath. he had about thirty thousand british, but not his famous peninsular troops, who had been sent to america. yet he had the celebrated german legion, eight thousand strong, which had won so many laurels in spain; fifteen thousand hanoverians; five thousand brunswickers, under their brave duke, the hereditary mortal foe of napoleon; and seventeen thousand men, belgians, dutch, and troops of nassau, under the prince of orange. doubts were entertained of the trustworthiness of the belgians, who had fought under napoleon, and who had shown much discontent of late; and napoleon confidently calculated on them, and had belgian officers with him to lead them when they should come over to him. but, on the whole, the belgians behaved well; for, like all others, their country had felt severely the tyranny of napoleon. altogether, wellington's army amounted to about seventy-five thousand men. he occupied with his advanced division, under the prince of orange, enghien, braine-le-comte, and nivelles; with his second, under lord hill, hal, oudenarde, and grammont; and with his reserve, under picton, brussels and ghent. what he had most to complain of was the very defective manner in which he had been supplied with cannon on so momentous an occasion, being able to muster only eighty-four pieces of artillery, though he had applied for a hundred and fifty, and though there were cannons enough at woolwich to have supplied the whole of the allied armies.

blucher's headquarters were at namur, his right extending to charleroi, near the left of wellington, and his left and reserves covering gevil and liége. his force amounted to eighty thousand men, supplied with two hundred cannon. on the 15th buonaparte addressed his army, telling them that the enemies arrayed against them were the same that they had so often beaten, and whom they must beat again if they were the men they had been. "madmen!" he exclaimed, "the moment of prosperity has blinded them. the oppression and humiliation of the french people are beyond their power. if they enter france they will there find their tomb!" this address had such an effect that the french advanced with all the spirit of their former days. they swept the western bank of the sambre of the prussian outposts; they advanced to charleroi, drove out the prussians under ziethen, and compelled them to fall back on the village of gosselies, and thence to ligny and st. amand. it was now seen that the object of buonaparte was to cut off the communication between the prussians and british, and defeat the prussians first, instead of having to fight the two armies at once. to complete this ney had been dispatched to attack and drive back the british advance at quatre bras and frasnes; but, hearing firing in the direction of charleroi, which was the engagement with ziethen, he sent a division to support the french there, and thus found his main body too weak to move the british at quatre bras. for doing this without orders, buonaparte reprimanded ney, as he afterwards did grouchy for too implicitly following his orders in pursuit of blucher.

the duke of wellington was informed, at brussels, on the same day, of this attack of napoleon on the prussians at ligny, and of the british advance, under the prince of orange, at quatre bras. it has been said that he was taken by surprise. quite the contrary. he was waiting in the most suitable position for the movement of buonaparte. this was announced to him by a prussian officer of high rank, said to be baron müffling, who arrived at half-past one at his hotel in brussels. wellington immediately dispatched orders to all the cantonments of his army to break up and concentrate on quatre bras, his intention being that his whole force should be there by eleven o'clock the next night, friday, the 16th. at three o'clock his grace sat down to dinner, and it was at first proposed that notice should be sent to the duchess of richmond to put off a ball which she was going to give at her hotel that evening; but, on further consideration, it was concluded to let the ball proceed, and that the duke and his officers should attend it, as though nothing was about to occur, by which the great inconvenience of having the whole city in confusion during their preparations for departure would be avoided. accordingly, every officer received orders to quit the ball-room, and as quietly as possible, at ten o'clock, and proceed to his respective division en route. this arrangement was carried out, and the duke himself remained at the ball till twelve o'clock, and left brussels the next morning (april 16) at six[95] o'clock for quatre bras. such were the facts which gave rise to the widespread report that the duke knew nothing of the attack of napoleon till the thunder of his cannon was heard by the duke of brunswick in the ball-room.

wellington arrived early in the forenoon at quatre bras, and then rode to brie, to consult with blucher. it appeared as if it was the intention of buonaparte to bear down with his whole force on blucher; and though bulow's division, stationed between liége and hainault, was too far off to arrive in time, blucher resolved to stand battle; and it was agreed that wellington should, if possible, march to his assistance, and vice versa, should the attack be on wellington. ney, with a division of forty-five thousand, attacked the british at quatre bras and frasnes, whilst napoleon directed the rest of his force on blucher at ligny, and general d'erlon lay with ten thousand men near marchiennes, to act in favour of either french force, as might be required. buonaparte did not attack blucher till about three o'clock, and then he continued the battle with the utmost fury for two hours along his whole line. buonaparte, finding that he could not break the prussian line, sent for the division of d'erlon, and then, contriving to get into the rear of blucher's position at ligny, threw the prussians into disorder. blucher made a desperate charge, at the head of his cavalry, to repel the french, but his horse was killed under him; and the french cuirassiers galloped over him, a prussian officer having flung a cloak over him. he escaped with his life, and, remounting, led the retreat towards tilly. the loss of the french in this battle is stated by general gourgaud at seven thousand, but is supposed to exceed ten thousand. the prussians admit the loss of as many, but the french declared that they lost fifteen thousand. it was, however, a severe blow for the allies; and had ney managed to defeat wellington, the consequences would have been momentous. but ney found that the british had evacuated frasnes that morning, and lay across four roads at quatre bras—one leading to st. amand, the prussian position. on another, leading from charleroi to brussels, was a wood, called the bois de bossu; and here the attack commenced on the belgians. the wood was sharply contested, and about three o'clock the belgians were driven out by the french, who, in their turn, were expelled by the british guards. the battle then became general and severe, the 42nd highlanders suffering greatly. ney endeavoured to cut through the british by a furious charge of cavalry; but this was repelled by such a deadly fire as heaped the causeway with men and horses. ney then sent for the division of d'erlon, but that had been already summoned by buonaparte. the battle was continued till it was dark, and the british remained on the field, hoping that the prussians had also maintained their ground, and that they might form a junction in the morning. but the prussians had retreated in the night to wavre, about six leagues in the rear of ligny, and had gone off in such silence that napoleon was not even aware of it. but wellington was aware of it, and, on the morning of the 17th, began a retreat also on waterloo, where he and blucher had concerted to form a junction and give battle. blucher had made his retreat so artfully, that the french were at a loss to know which way he had taken. it appeared as if he had directed his march for namur, and about three o'clock on the 17th grouchy received orders to pursue blucher, wherever he might have gone. this dispatch of grouchy with thirty-two thousand men to deal with blucher proved a serious mistake for napoleon, who, not having grouchy's division to support him at the battle of waterloo, severely blamed him, and charged his own defeat upon him. but it was the ungenerous practice of buonaparte, whenever he was defeated, to charge it upon some of his generals, even when they had been acting most meritoriously. this he did in russia, and this he repeated in the retreat on paris in 1814, and this we shall find him doing again in the battle of waterloo, to the undaunted and indefatigable ney. grouchy has shown satisfactorily that he himself first brought to napoleon the news of blucher's retreat, and requested orders to pursue him with his cavalry, but that he could not obtain such order till noon on the 17th, and then the order was to follow him wherever he went. we shall soon see that thielemann, by blucher's orders, kept grouchy well employed, and took care to prevent his return to waterloo.

waterloo views.

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[97]

quatre bras.

from the painting by vereker m hamilton, r.e.

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marshal blucher. (from the portrait by sir thomas lawrence, p.r.a.)

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napoleon, finding blucher gone, turned his attentions to wellington, expecting to find him still at quatre bras; but, as we have said, the duke was now on his retreat to waterloo. buonaparte dispatched his cavalry in hot haste after him, and they came up with his rear at genappe, where the british had to pass through a narrow street, and over a narrow bridge across the dyle. there the french came with such impetus that they threw the light cavalry into confusion; but the heavy dragoons soon rode back, and drove the french with such effect before them, that they made no further interruption of the march. without an enemy at their rear the march was repugnant enough to the soldiers. british soldiers abominate anything like a retreat. they had heard of the defeat of the prussians at ligny; and this retrograde movement looked too much of the same character to please them. besides, it was raining torrents all the way; and they had to tramp across fields up to the knees in mud. at five in the evening, however, the duke commanded a halt, and took up his position on ground which thenceforth was to be immortal. he was on the field of waterloo! long before this the position had attracted his attention, and he had thought that had he to fight a battle anywhere in that part of the country, it should be on that ground. about two miles beyond the village of waterloo, which has been chosen to bear the name of this famous battle, and about a mile beyond the hamlet of mont st. jean, there stretches across the charleroi road a ridge of some elevation. on this wellington posted his army, his left extending to a hamlet called la haye, and his right across the nivelles road, to a village and ravine called braine merbes. these two roads united in the highway to brussels, just behind the hamlet of mont st. jean, and close behind the centre of wellington's position was the farm of mont st. jean; a little below his centre, on the charleroi road or causeway, leading through genappe to quatre bras, whence they had come, was another farmhouse, called la haye sainte. on wellington's right, but down in the valley near the nivelles road, lay an old chateau, with its walled orchard, and a wood beyond it, called hougomont—a contraction of chateau-gomont. below this[98] position ran a valley, and from it ascended opposite other rising grounds, chiefly open cornfields; and along this ascent, at about half a mile distant, buonaparte posted his army, shutting in by his right the chateau of hougomont, and commanding it from the high ground. nearly opposite to wellington's centre stood a farmhouse, enclosed in its orchards, called la belle alliance. there buonaparte took his stand, and kept it during all the fight—each commander being able to view the whole field. close behind wellington the ground again descended towards mont st. jean, which gave a considerable protection to his reserves, and kept them wholly out of the observation of the french. to make the situation of wellington's army clear, we have only to say that behind the village of waterloo extended the beech wood of soigne along the road to brussels for the greater part of the way.

when buonaparte, early in the morning of the 18th, mounted his horse to reconnoitre wellington's position, he was rejoiced to observe so few troops; for many were hidden behind the height on which wellington took his stand. one of his staff suggested that wellington would be joined by blucher; but so wholly ignorant was napoleon of the settled plan of the two generals that he scouted the idea. "blucher," he said, "is defeated. he cannot rally for three days. i have seventy-five thousand men: the english only fifty thousand. the town of brussels awaits me with open arms. the english opposition waits but for my success to raise their heads. then adieu subsidies and farewell coalition!" and, looking again at the small body of troops visible, he exclaimed, in exultation, "i have them there at last, these english!" general foy, who had had ample experience of "these english" in spain, said, "wellington never shows his troops; but, if he be yonder, i must warn your majesty that the english infantry, in close fighting, is the very devil!" and soult, who had felt the strength of that infantry too often, confirmed foy's assertion.

wellington was quite prepared for the fiercest attack of buonaparte. notwithstanding his loss at quatre bras, he had still about sixty-eight thousand men, though the british portion did not exceed thirty-five thousand; and buonaparte, as he had stated, had about seventy thousand, but most of them of the very best troops of france, whilst few of wellington's army had been under fire before, and some of the belgians and hanoverians were of very inferior quality. in point of cannon, buonaparte had more than double the number that wellington had. but the duke informed blucher that he should make a stand here, and the brave old marshal replied to wellington's request of a detachment of prussians to support him, that he would be there with his main army. wellington therefore expected the arrival of the prussians about noon; but though they lay only about twelve miles off, the difficulties of the route over the heights of chapelle-lambert, and the occupation of part of wavre by the french division under grouchy, prevented their advance under bulow from reaching the field till half-past four. wellington, however, rested in confident expectation of the support of the prussians and of their numerous cannon.

buonaparte posted himself in his centre, near the farmhouse of la belle alliance, having ney and soult near him, but counts reille and d'erlon being in immediate command of the centre. his left, which stretched round the chateau of hougomont, was commanded by his brother jerome; his right by count lobau. wellington took his post on the ridge near where the great mound of the dead surmounted by the belgian lion now stands. his troops were divided into two lines; the right of the first line—consisting of british, hanoverian, and belgian troops—under lord hill. the centre, under the prince of orange, consisted of troops of brunswick and nassau, flanked on the right by the guards under general cooke, and on the left by the division of the hanoverian general alten. the left wing consisted of the divisions of picton, lambert, and kemp. the second line consisted of troops in which less confidence was placed, or which had suffered severely at quatre bras on the 16th. in and around the farmhouse of la haye sainte, in advance of the centre, was placed a body of germans. the plan of each commander was simple: wellington's, to keep his ground till blucher should come up, and then all simultaneously charge forward to drive the french from the field; napoleon's, by his brisk and ponderous charges to break and disperse the british before the prussians could arrive.

by permission of messrs. s. hildesheimer & co., ld. reproduced by andré & sleigh. ld., bushey, herts.

the battle of waterloo: french cuirassiers charging a british square.

from the painting by p. jazet.

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it was not till between eleven and twelve o'clock on the morning of sunday, the 18th of june, that this terrible conflict commenced; for the troops of napoleon had not yet all reached the ground, having suffered from the tempests of wind and rain equally with the allies. the rain had now ceased, but the morning was gloomy and lowering. the action opened by a brisk cannonade on the house and wood of hougomont, which were held by the troops of nassau. these were driven out;[99] but their place was immediately taken by the british guards under general byng and colonels home and macdonald. a tremendous cannonade was kept up on hougomont by jerome's batteries from the slopes above; and under cover of this fire the french advanced through the wood in front of hougomont, but were met by a terrible fire from the british, who had the orchard wall as a breastwork from which to assail the enemy. the contest here was continued through the day with dreadful fury, but the british held their ground with bull-dog tenacity. the buildings of the farmyard and an old chapel were set fire to by the french shells; but the british maintained their post amid the flames, and filled the wood in front and a lane running under the orchard wall with mountains of dead.

the fire had soon become general, and a desperate struggle was raging along the whole line. buonaparte threw column after column forward against the british squares; but they were met with deadly volleys of artillery and musketry, and reeled back amid horrible slaughter. a desperate push was made to carry la haye sainte and the farm of mont st. jean, on wellington's left centre, by the cuirassiers, followed by four columns of french infantry. the cuirassiers charged furiously along the genappe causeway, but were met and hurled back by the heavy british cavalry. the four columns of infantry reached la haye sainte and dispersed a body of belgians; but picton, advancing with pack's brigade, forced them back, and the british cavalry, which had repulsed the cuirassiers, attacking them in flank, they were broken with heavy slaughter and left two thousand prisoners and a couple of eagles behind them. but the british, both cavalry and infantry, pursuing their advantage too far, were in turn repulsed with great loss, and generals picton and ponsonby were killed. the french then again surrounded la haye sainte, where a detachment of the german legion, falling short of ammunition, and none being able to be conveyed to them, were literally massacred, refusing to surrender. in a little time the french were driven out of the farmhouses by shells.

soon after, a resolute attack was made on the right of the british centre by a great body of cavalry, which rode impetuously into the front of the squares and of thirty pieces of artillery. though cut down in heaps, they drove the artillerymen from their guns, but these only retreated amongst the infantry, carrying with them the implements for serving the guns, and, the moment the infantry repelled their assailants a little, the men were at their guns again, and renewed the firing. the cuirassiers fought most undauntedly; they rode along the very front of the squares, firing their pistols into them, or cutting at them with their swords. again and again they dashed forward to break the squares, but in every instance were met with such a destructive fire that they were compelled to draw off, only a mere fragment of this fine cavalry surviving this heroic but fatal attempt. from that time the french continued the battle chiefly by an incessant fire of artillery along the whole line, which the british avoided in great part by lying on their faces.

by six o'clock in the evening the allied army had lost ten thousand men in killed and wounded, besides a great number of the dispersed belgians and other foreigners of the worst class, who had run off, and taken refuge in the wood of soigne. but the french had suffered more severely; they had lost fifteen thousand in killed and wounded, and had had more than two thousand taken prisoners. at about half-past four, too, firing had been heard on the french right, and it proved to be the advanced division of bulow. grouchy had overtaken the prussians at wavre, but had been stopped there by general thielemann, by order of blucher, and kept from crossing the dyle till it was too late to prevent the march of blucher on waterloo; so that whilst thielemann was thus holding back grouchy, who now heard the firing from waterloo, blucher was on the track of his advanced division towards the great battle-field. when buonaparte heard the firing on the right, he thought, or affected to think, that it was grouchy, whom he had sent for in haste, who was beating the prussians; but he perceived that he must now make one gigantic effort, or all would be lost the moment that the main armies of the british and prussians united. sending, therefore, a force to beat back bulow, he prepared for one of those thunderbolts which so often had saved him at the last moment. he formed his imperial guard into two columns at the bottom of the declivity of la belle alliance, and supporting them by four battalions of the old guard, and putting ney at their head, ordered him to break the british squares. that splendid body of men, the french guards, rushed forward, for the last time, with cries of "vive l'empereur!" and buonaparte rode at their head as well as ney, as far as the farm of la haye sainte. there the great corsican, who had told his army on joining it this last campaign that he and they must now conquer[100] or die, declined the death by suddenly wheeling his horse aside, and there remaining, still and stiff as a statue of stone, watching the last grand venture. the british right at this moment was wheeling towards buonaparte's position, so that his guards were received by a simultaneous fire in front and in the flank. the british soldiers advanced from both sides, as if to close round the french, and poured in one incessant fire, each man independently loading and discharging his piece as fast as he could. the french guards endeavoured to deploy that they might renew the charge, but under so terrible a fire they found it impossible: they staggered, broke, and melted into a confused mass. as they rolled wildly down the hill, the battalions of the old guard tried to check the pursuing british; but at this moment wellington, who had maitland's and adams's brigades of guards lying on their faces behind the ridge on which he stood, gave the command to charge, and, rushing down the hill, they swept the old guard before them. on seeing this, buonaparte exclaimed, "they are mingled together! all is lost for the present!" and rode from the field. the battle was won. but at the same moment wellington ordered the advance of the whole line, and the french, quitting every point of their position, began a hasty and confused retreat from the field.

buonaparte, in his bulletin of june 21st, found a reason for this utter defeat in a panic fear that suddenly seized the army, through some evil-disposed person raising the cry of "sauve qui peut!" but ney denied, in his letter to the duke of otranto, that any such cry was raised. another statement made very confidently in paris was, that the old guard, being summoned to surrender, replied, "the guard dies, but never surrenders!"—a circumstance which never took place, though the guards fought with the utmost bravery.

as this rout was taking place, bulow, who had beaten back the french battalions from frischermont and planchenoit, was approaching la belle alliance, and blucher with the main army soon after appeared following him. at a farmhouse called maison rouge, or maison du roi, behind la belle alliance, the duke of wellington and blucher met and felicitated each other. blucher, in the continental manner, embraced and kissed the victorious duke; and it was agreed that, as the army of wellington had been fighting hard for eight hours, the prussians should make the pursuit. blucher swore that he would follow the french whilst a horse or a man could move, and, with three cheers from the british, he set forward with his troops in chase. so far from "the guards dying, but not surrendering," these brave men flew now before the stern old prussian, and immediately in the narrow passage at genappe they abandoned to him sixty pieces of their cannon. amongst other spoil they captured the carriage of napoleon, and found in it, amongst other curious papers, a proclamation for publication the next day at brussels. as it was moonlight, the prussians continued the chase till late into the night, slaughtering the fugitives like sheep. numbers quitted the road and fled across the country, seeking shelter in the woods, where many of them were afterwards found dead or severely wounded. the highway, according to general gneisenau, was covered with cannon, caissons, carriages, baggage, arms, and property of every kind. the wounded were humanely sent to brussels, but those who could continue their flight did so till they had reached france, where they sold their horses and arms, and dispersed themselves to their homes. the grand army was no more, with the exception of the division of grouchy, who made good his retreat to paris, only to be upbraided by buonaparte as the cause of his defeat. in this battle and retreat the french lost more men than at leipsic, the killed and wounded exceeding thirty thousand.

but the loss of the allies had also been perfectly awful. the prussians, besides the great slaughter at ligny, had been engaged in a bloody struggle at planchenoit, and the british and their allies had lost in the battle of waterloo two thousand four hundred and thirty-two killed, and nine thousand five hundred and twenty-eight wounded; these, added to the numbers killed and wounded at quatre bras, raised the total to fifteen thousand. of british and hanoverian officers alone six hundred were killed or wounded at waterloo. the duke of brunswick fell at the head of his troops at quatre bras, without having the satisfaction of witnessing the final ruin of buonaparte. so many of wellington's staff were disabled that he had at one time no officer to dispatch with a pressing order. a young piedmontese, of the family of de salis, offered himself. "were you ever in a battle before?" asked the duke. "no, sir," he replied. "then," said the duke, "you are a lucky man, for you will never see such another." when the duke, who had witnessed so many bloody battles, saw the carnage of waterloo, and heard, one after another, the losses of so many companions in arms, he was quite overcome. in his despatches he says: "i cannot express the regret and sorrow with which i look round me, and contemplate the losses that we have sustained." and again, "the losses i have sustained have quite broken me down, and i have no feeling for the advantages we have gained."

the battle of waterloo. (see p. 99.)

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[102]

it is scarcely worth while to attempt to expose the assertions due to napoleon and the mortified vanity of the french, which have declared that wellington made a bad choice of his battle-field, and that he would have been beaten had not the prussians come up. these statements have been amply refuted by military authorities. the selection of the field may be supposed to be a good one when it is known that marlborough had chosen the very same, and was only prevented from fighting on it by the dutch commissioners. but no one can examine the field without seeing its strength. had wellington been driven from his position, the long villages of mont st. jean and waterloo behind him, succeeded by the beech wood of soigne, would have enabled him to hold the french in check for days—much more for the time sufficient for the whole prussian force to come up. when it is seen what resistance such a mere farm as la haye sainte, or the chateau of hougomont, enabled the british to make, what would the houses, gardens, and orchards of mont st. jean and waterloo have done, stretching for two miles, backed by the wood of soigne—not a forest choked by underwood, but of clear ground, from which ascended the tall, smooth boles of the beech trees? as to the danger of being defeated had not the prussians come up, there was none. no advantage through the whole day had been gained by the french, except making an entry into the court-yard of hougomont, and in capturing la haye sainte, from both of which they had long been driven again. the cuirassiers had been completely cut up before the arrival of the prussians; not a square of infantry had been broken; and when buonaparte made his last effort—that of hurling his guards on the british columns—they were, according to the positive evidence of marshal ney, who led them on, totally annihilated. it is true that the prussians had been for some time engaged on the right of the french, and had stood their ground; but they had been terribly cut up at planchenoit, and they do not appear to have made much advance till the total rout of the french by the last charge of the british. wellington had advanced his whole line, and was leading on the pursuit in person when he and blucher met on the high ground behind la belle alliance—that is, beyond the very ground on which buonaparte had stood the whole day. the prussians fought bravely, but they did not affect the question of victory or defeat as it regarded the british; they came in, however, to undertake the chase, for which the british were too tired after standing on the field twelve hours, and fighting desperately for eight; and they executed that chase most completely.

on the 19th of june paris was excited by the announcements of buonaparte's bulletin that terrible defeats had been inflicted on the prussians at ligny, and on the british at quatre bras. a hundred cannon and thousands of prisoners were declared to be taken. the imperialists were in ecstasies; the royalists, in spite of the notorious falsehood of buonaparte on such occasions, were dejected. on the 21st whispers were busily circulating that not only had a most dreadful pitched battle been fought, but that the fine french army which had so lately left france was utterly annihilated or dispersed. it was soon added that, instead of being at the head of victorious forces, as he had represented, buonaparte had again fled from his army, and was in the palace of the elysée-bourbon. and this last news was true. napoleon had never stopped in his own flight till he reached philippevillè. there he proposed to proceed to grouchy, and put himself at the head of his division; but he heard that that too was defeated, and he hurried on to paris, fearful of the steps that the two legislative chambers might take.

"on the road from waterloo to paris."

from the painting by marcus stone, a.r.a., in the corporation of london art gallery, guildhall.

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buonaparte, seeing that nothing was to be expected from the chambers—for even the peers adopted the resolutions of the representatives—who had already demanded his abdication—assumed the air of the despotic emperor, and demanded of carnot that he should issue orders for a levy of three hundred thousand men, and should find supplies. carnot said both propositions were impossible. napoleon then summoned, on the night of the 21st, a general council, consisting of the late ministers, the presidents, and vice-presidents of the two chambers, where regnault and maret recommended a show of resistance whilst offering terms of peace; but lafayette said that would only make matters worse. the allies were victorious, and there was but one course for the emperor; and lanjuinais and constant supported that view. on the 22nd the chamber of representatives met early, and again demanded an act of abdication. napoleon complied, but, as on his former abdication, only in favour of his son. the chamber thanked him, but took no notice of the clause in favour of napoleon ii. but lucien buonaparte[103] and labédoyère, in violent language, pressed on the house of peers the recognition of napoleon ii. they persisted in passing it quietly over; but they required napoleon to issue a proclamation to the army, declaring his abdication, without which the soldiers would not believe it, and, to conciliate them, he complied. still, fearing lest he should put himself at the head of grouchy's division, or some other, though small, troublesome force, they insisted that he should retire to malmaison—so long the favourite abode of the repudiated josephine, with this, too, he complied, but immediately discovered that he was surrounded by guards, and was in fact a prisoner. general becker was appointed to have surveillance over napoleon; and it was supposed that, as becker had personal cause of resentment against him, this surveillance would be rigorous. but becker was a man of honour; he respected the misfortunes of a man who, whatever had been his crimes, had made himself almost master of the world, and he treated him with the utmost courtesy. orders were issued by the provisional government for two frigates to convey napoleon to the united states, and becker was to allow of his retirement to rochefort, in order to his embarkation—to accompany him there, but not to permit his movement in any other direction.

meanwhile, the british and prussian armies advanced, and on the 1st of july wellington was within a few miles of paris, with his right on the heights of richebourg, and his left on the forest of bondy; and blucher, at the same time, crossing the seine on the 2nd, posted his army, with its right at plessis-piquet, his left at st. cloud, and his reserve at versailles. in this position, commissioners were sent by the provisional government to wellington, desiring a suspension of hostilities, informing him that buonaparte had abdicated and retired from paris. the duke replied, that so long as the army remained in paris there could be no suspension of hostilities, and that he had no authority to treat on any question of government. the commissioners demanded whether the allies would stop if napoleon ii. was proclaimed? wellington said "no." whether they would stop provided they chose another prince of a royal house?—probably meaning the duke of orleans. as the duke said he had no orders to accept any such proposals, they were useless, and he handed to them the proclamation of louis xviii., offering to grant constitutional liberties, and to pardon all offenders, excepting a few who had committed the most recent and aggravated treason. these were supposed to mean ney, labédoyère, and some others. wellington offered, however, to remain where he was on condition that the regular troops should be sent beyond the loire, and the town be held by the national guard till the king's arrival. the commissioners did not comply with this demand; and the necessity of such compliance was sufficiently shown by this army disputing the advance of the prussians on the 2nd of july. they had resisted blucher at st. cloud, meudon, and in the village of issy. blucher succeeded, but with considerable loss; and the next day the french made another attack to recover issy, but without effect.

wellington was therefore on the point of entering paris when, on the same day, the 3rd, he received a flag of truce from the provisional government, asking for a military convention between the armies at st. cloud. this was accepted, and one english and one prussian officer met three french officers, and the convention was concluded by the agreement that the french army should retire behind the river loire, and that the allies should be put in peaceable possession of paris, with all the defences on the montmartre side of the city, as well as every other. this convention was signed the next day by wellington, blucher, and davoust, and, according to its stipulation, the french troops evacuated paris, and marched towards the loire. ney and labédoyère made their exit from the city, knowing that they would be arrested by louis xviii., if possible.

on the 7th of july the british and prussian forces entered paris. the former encamped themselves in the bois de boulogne, and the prussians bivouacked along the seine. there they came into full view of the bridge of jena, so named to commemorate the victory of buonaparte on that field, so fatal to the prussians, and of the column in the place vend?me, erected with cannon taken from the austrians, and bearing insulting mementoes of the defeats of prussia. the prussians had already lowered the statue of napoleon from the top of the column, and were beginning to demolish the bridge, when the duke of wellington interfered. he represented that, although these objects were justly offensive to prussia, they ought to be left to the decision of the king of france, in whose capital they were, and that the name of the bridge might be changed. blucher was unwilling to give way, and also insisted on the levy of a military contribution on the city of paris of one hundred million francs, as some reparation for the[104] spoliations of the french in berlin. wellington suggested that these matters should be left for the determination of the allied sovereigns, and at length prevailed.

the next day, the 8th of july, louis a second time entered his capital, escorted by the national guard. fouché announced to the two chambers that their functions were at an end; but they still declared themselves sitting in permanence. but general desolles, commander of the national guard, proceeded to close the chambers. he found both of them deserted, and locked the doors, and put his seal upon them, setting also a guard. soon afterwards the members of the chamber of representatives, who had only adjourned, began to arrive, but were received with jeers by the guards, which were eagerly joined in by the populace, and they retreated in confusion. fouché, in reward for his politic private correspondence with the allies, was reinstated in his old office of minister of police, and the government of louis recommenced in great quiet—affording the french much more real liberty than they had enjoyed either under buonaparte or the factions of the revolution. and thus ended the celebrated hundred days from the landing of napoleon to his second exclusion.

buonaparte had arrived in rochefort on the 3rd of july—only fifteen days after the battle of waterloo. the two frigates provided by the provisional government to convey him to america—the saale and the medusa, accompanied by the corvette balladière and the large brig epervier—lay in the aix roads; but buonaparte was very sure that the british government would not permit them to sail. that government, anticipating such an event as the endeavour of napoleon to make his escape to america—whence he might watch his opportunity of once more renewing the troubles of the world—had, immediately after the battle of waterloo, placed no less than thirty vessels of different descriptions along the whole coast of france, from ushant to cape finisterre, thus making it impossible for any vessel to pass out of a french port without undergoing the severest search. napoleon thereupon embarking in a british frigate, the bellerophon, wrote a theatrical letter, claiming the hospitality of the prince regent:—

"rochefort, july 13th, 1815.

"royal highness,—a victim to the factions which distract my country, and to the enmity of the greatest powers of europe, i have terminated my political career, and i come, like themistocles, to throw myself on the hospitality of the british people. i put myself under the protection of their laws, which i claim from your royal highness, as the most powerful, the most constant, and the most generous of my enemies.

"napoleon."

this note contained much that was not true. it implied that buonaparte had come voluntarily and without necessity on board the bellerophon, whilst it was well known that perhaps another hour would have been too late to secure him from seizure by the officers of louis, king of france. he affected to claim the protection of british laws, when he was a notoriously proclaimed outlaw, so proclaimed by the whole of the allied powers for the breach of his solemn engagement to renounce all claims on the throne of france. there was, therefore, no answer whatever to that note from the prince regent, who was under engagement to his allies, as they to him, to hold no communication with a man who had so shamefully broken his word, and had, moreover, thereby sacrificed so many valuable lives. the reply was from lord melville, first lord of the admiralty, announcing to him that the british government, with the approbation of its allies, had determined that, to prevent any further opportunity for the disturbance of the peace of europe by general buonaparte, he should be sent to st. helena; that they had been guided in this choice, not only by the desire of his security, but also by the consideration that the island was extremely healthy, and would afford him much greater liberty than he could enjoy in a nearer locality; and that he might select three officers, with his surgeon, and twelve domestics to attend him. from the number of the officers savary and lallemand were expressly excepted. it also added that the persons permitted to accompany him would be subject to a certain degree of restraint, and would not be permitted to leave the island without the sanction of the british government. it was finally added that general buonaparte should make no delay in the selection of his suite, as rear-admiral sir george cockburn, appointed to the command of the cape of good hope, would convey him in the northumberland to st. helena, and would be presently ready to sail. napoleon left plymouth sound on the 5th of august, and died at st. helena on may 5th, 1821, having spent his last years in quarrelling with his gaoler, sir hudson lowe, and in an elaborate attempt to falsify history.

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jamestown, st. helena.

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the war in america, amid the absorbing momentousness of the gigantic conflict in europe, went on with little attention from ministers at home, and, consequently, with the results which seem destined to attend britain's campaigns in that quarter. in canada, which the americans were particularly anxious to obtain, there was a most meagre and inadequate british force; and, what was much worse, the ministry still continued there the incompetent governor, sir george prevost. the only circumstances to which britain owed the preservation of those provinces were the loyalty of the people and the sterling bravery of the handful of soldiers. early in the year 1813 the american general, dearborn, suddenly approached york, on lake ontario, and attacked it, supported by the flotilla under command of commodore chauncey. the british had about seven hundred men there, partly regulars, partly militia, with some few indians. general sheaffe drew off the main part of his force, and left the rest to capitulate, abandoning a considerable quantity of military and other stores, which were most desirable for the americans. the british government ought to have taken care to have had a fleet on the lakes, but this had been neglected, so that the americans could not be prevented from bearing down on any point of the lake frontiers. dearborn, having a strong flotilla, embarked the stores he won at york and sailed for niagara, where he landed at fort george, with six thousand infantry, two hundred and fifty cavalry, and a good train of artillery. the british there, under vincent, were not a fourth of the enemy. vincent, therefore, after some gallant fighting, retired up the strait to burlington bay, about fifty miles from fort george, and, collecting the little garrisons from fort erie and other points, found himself at the head of about one thousand six hundred men, and resolved to make a stand. dearborn, rendered confident by his great superiority of numbers, marched after him, and, on the 4th of june, was seen approaching the british position. he encamped about five miles from vincent, with three thousand five hundred men and nine pieces of artillery. he intended to attack the next morning, but in this he was forestalled; for colonel harvey[106] reconnoitred his camp, and advised general vincent to assault it at midnight with fixed bayonets. this was done, and though the attacking party numbered only seven hundred and four men, the americans fled in all directions, leaving two generals, one hundred prisoners, and four pieces of artillery in their hands. colonel harvey, who had headed the charge, returned to the british camp loaded with booty. it was expected that, in the morning, when dearborn ascertained the inferior force of british, he would renew the fight; but after destroying provisions and stores, to facilitate his flight, he decamped, and only halted eleven miles off, where he met with strong reinforcements.

about the same time sir james yeo, who had dared to attack the superior squadron of commodore chauncey on lake ontario, and took two of his schooners, now prevailed on the spiritless sir george prevost to join him in an attack on sacketts harbour. here the americans had a dockyard, where they built vessels for the lake fleet, and had now a frigate nearly ready for launching. sir george consented, but, on reconnoitring the place, his heart failed him, and he returned across the water towards kingston. sir james was highly chagrined, but prevailed on this faint-hearted governor to make the attempt. seven hundred and fifty men were landed, who drove the americans at the point of the bayonet from the harbour, and set fire to the new frigate, to a gun-brig, and to the naval barracks and arsenal abounding with stores. some of the americans were in full flight into the woods, and others shut themselves up in log barracks, whence they could soon have been burnt out. in the midst of this success the miserable sir george prevost commanded a retreat. men and officers, astonished at the order, and highly indignant at serving under so dastardly a commander, were, however, obliged to draw off. the americans, equally amazed, turned back to endeavour to extinguish the flames. the arsenal, the brig, and the stores were too far gone; but the new frigate, being built of green wood, had refused to burn, and they recovered it but little injured. thus, however, was lost the chance of crushing the american superiority on the lake, which must have been the case had sacketts harbour been completely destroyed.

sir james yeo, greatly disappointed, put sir george prevost and his troops over to kingston again, and then proceeded to the head of the lake, to reinforce general vincent. dearborn, as soon as he heard of this junction, fled along the lake shore to fort george, where he shut himself up in a strongly-entrenched camp with about five thousand men. there vincent, however, determined to attack him, but once more he was met by the curse of an incompetent appointment. major-general rottenburg had been made governor of upper canada, and assumed the command over the brave vincent, only to do nothing.

the western extremity of lake erie was the scene of a most unequal contest at the commencement of 1813. colonel procter lay near frenchtown, about twenty miles from detroit, with about five hundred troops, partly regulars, partly militia and sailors. in addition, he was supported by about the same number of red indians. the americans, under general winchester—an old officer of the war of independence—amounted to one thousand two hundred men. with these winchester had scoured the michigan country, and, at the end of january, advanced to attack procter. sir george prevost had commanded procter to act on the defensive; but scorning this cowardly advice, he suddenly advanced by night, as the americans had quartered themselves in frenchtown, surprised, and captured or destroyed the whole of them, except about thirty who escaped into the woods. winchester himself was seized by round head, the indian chief, who arrayed himself in his uniform, and then delivered him up to colonel procter. from this point colonel procter hastened to cross the lake in a flotilla, and attack general harrison at fort meigs. he knew that harrison was expecting strong reinforcements, and he was anxious to dislodge him before they arrived. procter had with him one thousand men, half regulars, half militia, and one thousand two hundred indians; but harrison's force was much stronger, and defended by a well-entrenched camp. procter erected batteries, and fired across the river miami, endeavouring to destroy the american block-houses with red-hot shot, but they were of wood too green to take fire. on the 5th of may harrison's expected reinforcements came down the river in boats, one thousand three hundred strong. harrison now commenced acting on the offensive, to aid the disembarkation of the troops; but he was defeated by procter, who routed the whole of the new forces, under general clay, took five hundred and fifty prisoners, and killed as many more. but his success had its disadvantage. his indian allies, loaded with booty, returned to the detroit frontier, and the canadian militia to their farms. procter was[107] compelled, therefore, to leave harrison in his camp, and return also to detroit, for sir george prevost had provided him with no new militia, or other force, to supply the place of those gone. still worse, prevost could not even be prevailed on to send sailors to man the few british vessels on lake erie, where the american flotilla was now far superior to the british one. in vain did captain barclay, who commanded the little squadron, urge prevost to send him sailors, or the few vessels must be captured or destroyed; in vain did colonel procter urge, too, the necessity of this measure. sir george, who took care to keep out of harm's way himself, sent taunting messages to captain barclay, telling him that the quality of his men made up for the inferiority of numbers, and that he ought to fight. barclay, who was as brave a man as ever commanded a vessel, and had lost an arm in the service, but who did not pretend to do impossibilities, was now, however, stung to give battle. he had three hundred and fifty-six men—few of whom were experienced seamen—and forty-six guns of very inferior description. the american commodore, percy, had five hundred and eighty men, and fifty-four guns, with picked crews on all his vessels. barclay fought till he had taken percy's ship, and lost his remaining arm. in the end the british vessels were compelled to strike, but not till they had lost, in killed and wounded, one hundred and thirty-five men, and had killed and wounded one hundred and twenty-three of the americans. this success enormously elated the americans, and they now confidently calculated on defeating procter, and annexing upper canada. harrison made haste to interpose nearly six thousand men between procter—who had now only five hundred, and as many indians—and the country on which he was endeavouring to retreat. the forces of procter were compelled to give ground, and harrison inflicted a severe revenge on the indians, for their slaughter of the americans at meigs. the chief, tecumseh, being killed, they flayed him, and cut up his skin into razor-straps, as presents to the chief men of the congress, and mr. clay is said to have boasted the possession of one of these. the american armies now put themselves on the track for kingston and montreal. harrison marched along the shore of lake erie with upwards of five thousand men, and general wilkinson, with ten thousand more, crossed lake ontario, towards kingston, to join him. general hampton, at the same time also, was marching on montreal. sir george prevost was in the utmost alarm, and sent orders to general vincent to fall down to kingston, leaving exposed all upper canada. but as general rottenburg was moving on kingston, vincent, who was now joined by the remainder of procter's force, determined to disobey these orders; and several general officers confirmed him in this resolution, and offered to share the responsibility. this was the salvation of upper canada. the three american generals were attacked and routed. the canadian militia did good service, and the americans were completely driven out of both upper and lower canada before winter. in their retreat they grew brutal, and committed savage cruelties on the unarmed population. they burnt down the town of newark, near fort george, driving about four hundred women and children out of it into the snow. they destroyed various villages in their route. this ferocity excited the british and canadians to retaliation. colonel murray crossed the water, and pursued them in their own territories. he attacked and carried fort niagara, killed or made prisoners of the whole garrison, and captured the arms and stores. general hull came up, with two thousand men, to check the march of murray, who with one thousand regulars and militia, and between three and four hundred indians, on the 30th of december, repulsed him with great slaughter, pursued him, and—to avenge the poor canadians—set fire to buffalo and the village of black rock. the whole of that frontier was thus left defenceless.

whilst these operations were going on the british blockading squadrons rode in every american port and completely obstructed all commerce. their vessels ascended many of the rivers, especially the chesapeake and its tributaries. at the end of june sir s. beckwith landed, from the squadron of admiral cockburn, at hampton, in virginia, where the americans had a fortified camp, and drove them out of it, and captured all their batteries. in the following month admiral cockburn visited the coasts of north carolina and seized the islands, towns, and ports of portsmouth and ocracoke. the complaints of the americans of the miseries of this state of blockade began very unpleasantly to reach the ears of president madison.

in the spring of 1814 the americans made a fresh attempt to invade canada. wilkinson, who had retreated so precipitately the preceding autumn, was the first to cross the frontier; but he was repulsed and pursued to sacketts harbour, where he took refuge. the british burned some of his block-houses and barracks, and carried off great quantities of stores. in april general[108] drummond, being put across lake ontario by sir james yeo's squadron, stormed fort oswego, destroyed it, and burnt the barracks. in may the british were not so successful in intercepting some naval stores which the americans were conveying to sacketts harbour. they were repulsed with loss. at the beginning of july the american general, brown, crossed the niagara with a strong force, attacked and took fort erie, and advanced into canada. general riall attempted to stop him at chippeway, with an insufficient force, and was compelled to retreat to near fort niagara. there he was reinforced by general drummond, with a detachment of the troops recently landed from the army of the peninsula. riall and drummond had now about three thousand men, and brown had five thousand. a severe battle was fought, almost close to the cataract of niagara, where the veteran peninsular men defeated brown, killing and wounding one thousand five hundred of his troops, but having six hundred killed and wounded themselves. they pursued brown to chippeway, and thence to erie. there drummond rashly attempted the reduction of the fort with his inferior numbers, and was repulsed with loss.

sir george prevost now put himself at the head of the brave troops that had so lately advanced from conquest to conquest under wellington. he had eleven thousand of these brave fellows, including a fine regiment of cavalry, and a numerous train of artillery. with such an army, an able general would not only have cleared the whole frontier of canada, but would have inflicted a severe chastisement on the americans in their own territory. the great object to be accomplished was the destruction of sacketts harbour, with which must fall at once the whole naval power of america on lake ontario. every military man expected that this would be done; but sir george, after waiting in a camp at chamblay, advanced to plattsburg harbour, on lake champlain. but there he would do nothing till the american flotilla, which lay in the harbour, was also attacked. for this purpose captain downie was sent by sir james yeo from the ontario squadron suddenly to take command of a squadron of a few ships and a miscellaneous naval force, as hastily mustered and knowing little of each other—downie knowing only one of his officers. the ship which he commanded was just launched, was unfinished, and everything was in confusion: yet in this condition, sir george prevost insisted on their going into action against a superior and well-prepared american squadron, promising to make a simultaneous attack on the harbour and defences on land. downie commenced the attack on the water, but found no co-operation from sir george on shore, who stood still till he had seen downie killed, and the unequal british vessels, three in number, fairly battered to pieces, and compelled to strike. and, after all, sir george never did commence the attack on the fort with that fine army, which would have carried it in ten minutes, but marched back again, amid the inconceivable indignation of officers and men, who could not comprehend why they should be condemned to obey the orders of so disgraceful a poltroon. on their march, or rather retreat, they were insulted by the wondering americans, and abandoned vast quantities of stores, ammunition, and provisions. the loss of men during this scandalous expedition was not more than two hundred; but eight hundred veterans—who had been accustomed to very different scenes, under a very different commander—in their resentment at his indignity went over to the enemy. in fact, had this unhappy general continued longer in command, the whole british force would have become thoroughly demoralised.

the officers who had served under prevost had too long withheld their remonstrances, expecting that the british government would see plainly enough the wretched incompetence of the man. but now sir james yeo made a formal and plain-spoken charge against him, and especially for his wicked abandonment of captain downie and his squadron to destruction. he was recalled; but it was too late: a natural death had, in the meantime, rescued him from that punishment which he so richly deserved. it could not, however, rescue him from the disgrace which must hang on his memory so long as the history of these transactions remains.

in september the americans in fort erie, being strongly reinforced, and elated by their repulse of general drummond, marched out and made an attack on the british lines. general de watteville received them with such effect that they rapidly fell back on fort erie and, no longer feeling themselves safe even there, they evacuated the fort, demolished its works, and retreated altogether from the shore of upper canada. when the news of peace, which had been concluded in december of this year, arrived in the spring, before the commencement of military operations—though thirty thousand men at a time had invaded the canadian frontiers, and hampton, wilkinson, and harrison had all been marching in the direction of kingston and montreal simultaneously, the british were in possession of their fortress of niagara, and of michilimakinac, the key of the michigan territory; and they had nothing to give in exchange but the defenceless shore of the detroit. they had totally failed in their grand design on canada, and had lost—in killed, wounded, and prisoners—nearly fifty thousand men, besides vast quantities of stores and ammunition. in short, they had incurred an expenditure quite heavy enough to deter them from lightly attacking the canadas again.

napoleon on board the "bellerophon." (from the picture by w. q. orchardson, r. a.)

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in july, 1814, whilst the struggles were going on upon the canadian frontiers, the british projected an expedition against the very capital of the united states. this was carried into execution about the middle of august. sir alexander cochrane landed general ross, and a strong body of troops, on the banks of the patuxent, and accompanied them in a flotilla of launches, armed boats, and small craft up the river itself. on entering the reach at pig point they saw the american flotilla, commanded by commodore baring, lying seventeen in number. they prepared to attack it, when they saw flames begin to issue from the different vessels, and comprehended that the commodore had deserted them; and it was firmly believed that he had so timed the setting fire to his vessels that they might blow up when the british were close upon them, if they had not already boarded them. fortunately, the flames had made too much progress, and the british escaped this danger. the vessels blew up one after another, except one, which the british secured. both soldiers and sailors were highly incensed at this treachery, and prepared to avenge it on washington itself. on the 24th of august they were encountered at bladensburg, within five miles of washington, by eight or nine thousand american troops, posted on the right bank of the potomac, on a commanding ridge. madison was on one of the hills, to watch the battle, on the event of which depended the fate of the capital.

to reach the enemy the british had to cross the river, and that by a single bridge. this was commanded by the american artillery, and it might have been expected that it would not be easily carried; but, on the contrary, a light brigade swept over it, in face of the cannon, followed by the rest of the army; and the troops deploying right and left the moment they were over, this single division—about one thousand six hundred strong—routed the whole american force before the remainder of the british could come into action. few of the americans waited to be killed or wounded. madison had the mortification to see his army all flying in precipitation, and the city open to the british.

before entering washington, general ross sent in a flag of truce—or, rather, he carried one himself, for he accompanied it—to see that all was done that could be done to arrange terms, without further mischief or bloodshed. he demanded that all military stores should be delivered up, and that the other public property should be ransomed at a certain sum. but scarcely had they entered the place, with the flag of truce displayed, when—with total disregard of all such customs established by civilised nations in war—the party was fired upon, and the horse of general ross killed under him. there was nothing for it but to order the troops forward. the city was taken possession of, under strict orders to respect private property, and to destroy only that of the state. under these orders, the capitol, the president's house, the senate-house, the house of representatives, the treasury, the war-office, the arsenal, the dockyard, and the ropewalk were given to the flames; the bridge over the potomac, and some other public works, were blown up; a frigate on the stocks and some smaller craft were burnt. all was done that could be done by general ross, and the officers under him, to protect private property; but the soldiers were so incensed at the treachery by which the americans had sought to blow up the seamen, by the firing on the flag of truce, and the unprincipled manner in which the americans had carried on the war in canada, as well as by the insults and gasconading of the americans on all occasions, that they could not be restrained from committing some excesses. yet it may be said that never was the capital of a nation so easily taken, and never did the capital of a nation which had given so much irritating provocation escape with so little scathe. the following evening it was evacuated in perfect order, and without any enemy appearing to molest the retreat. on the 30th the troops were safely re-embarked.

but this was not the only chastisement which the americans had received. on the 27th captain gordon, of the seahorse, accompanied by other vessels, attacked alexandria, situated lower on the potomac. they found no resistance from fort washington, built to protect the river at that point; and the authorities of alexandria delivered up all public property, on condition that the private property should be spared. the british carried off the naval and ordnance stores, as well as twenty-one vessels, of different freights. on the 12th of september general ross made an[111] assault on the city of baltimore. this was a strongly fortified place, and the americans can always fight well under cover; and, on that account, the attempt should have been made with due military approaches. but general ross had so readily dispersed the army that defended washington, and another which had been drawn up in front of baltimore, that he made a rash endeavour to carry the place at once, but was killed in the attempt, as well as a considerable number of his men. he had inflicted a loss of six or eight hundred men, in killed and wounded, on the americans; but this was little satisfaction for his own loss.

earlier than this, in july, colonel pilkington took all the islands in the bay of passamaquoddy; and in another expedition, in september, the british took the fort of castine, on the penobscot river, defeated double their number of americans, pursued up the river the john adams, a fine frigate, and compelled the commander to burn it. they took the town of bangor, and reduced the whole district of maine, from passamaquoddy bay to the penobscot. in fact, these ravages and inroads, which rendered the whole seaboard of america unsafe, made the americans, and especially president madison, exclaim loudly against the barbarous and wanton destruction of their capital and ports.

but, not contented with this superiority, the british were tempted to invest and endeavour to storm new orleans. this was returning to the old blunders, and giving the american sharp-shooters the opportunity of picking off our men at pleasure in the open field from behind their walls and batteries. this ill-advised enterprise was conducted by sir edward pakenham. nothing was so easy as for our ships to blockade the mouth of the mississippi, and thus destroy the trade, not only of new orleans, but of all the towns on that river; but this common-sense plan was abandoned for the formidable and ruinous one of endeavouring to take the place by storm. the city of new orleans lies at the distance of one hundred and ten miles from the sea, on a low, boggy promontory, defended on the river side by a chain of powerful forts, and on the other by morasses. having landed as near new orleans as they could, the british troops, on the 23rd of december, were met by an american army, and received a momentary repulse; but this was quickly reversed, and on christmas day sir edward pakenham encamped at the distance of six miles from new orleans. but he found at least twenty thousand americans posted between him and the city, behind a deep canal and extensive earthworks. there was no way of approaching them except across bogs, or through sugar plantations swarming with riflemen, who could pick off our men at pleasure. this was exactly one of those situations which the whole course of our former wars in that country had warned us to avoid, as it enabled the americans, by their numerous and excellent riflemen, to destroy our soldiers, without their being in scarcely any danger themselves. in fair and open fight they knew too well that they had no chance with british troops, and the folly of giving them such opportunities of decimating those troops from behind walls and embankments is too palpable to require military knowledge or experience to point it out. yet sir edward pakenham, who had fought in the peninsula, was imprudent enough to run himself into this old and often-exposed snare. on the 26th of december he commenced a fight on these unequal terms, the americans firing red-hot balls from their batteries on the unscreened advancing columns, whilst from the thickets around the kentucky riflemen picked off the soldiers on the flanks. pakenham thus, however, advanced two or three miles. he then collected vast quantities of hogsheads of sugar and treacle, and made defences with them, from which he poured a sharp fire on the enemy. by this means he approached to within three or four hundred yards of the american lines, and there, during the very last night of the year, the soldiers worked intensely to cast up still more extensive breastworks of sugar and treacle casks, and earth.

the new year of 1815 was commenced by a heavy fire along the whole of this defence from thirty-six pieces of cannon, the immediate effect of which was to drive the americans, in a terrible panic, from their guns, and walls composed of cotton bales and earth. why an immediate advance was not made at this moment does not appear. it would probably have placed the whole of the american defences in the hands of the british troops, and driven the americans into the city. but even then little advantage would have been gained, for the news of the contest was bringing down riflemen in legions from the country all round, and the british, struggling in bogs, and exposed at every fresh advance, must be mowed down without a chance of retaliating.

in a little time the americans, recovering their spirits, returned to their guns, and plied them so well that they soon knocked the breastworks of sugar and treacle casks to pieces. as nothing[112] would tempt the americans to show themselves from behind their cotton bales and embankments, after maintaining this murderous position for two whole nights and days, pakenham drew back his men, sacrificing some of his guns, and formed a scheme of sending a detachment across the river to turn the batteries and then play them upon the enemy. but for this purpose it was necessary to cut a canal across the tongue of land on which the army stood, in order to bring up the boats required to carry the troops over the river. major-general lambert had arrived with reinforcements, so that against the american twenty thousand pakenham had now about eight thousand men. all worked at the canal, and it was finished on the 6th of january. colonel thornton was to carry across the river one thousand four hundred men, and surprise the great flanking battery of eighteen or twenty guns, whilst sir edward pakenham advanced against the lines in front. a rocket was to be thrown up by pakenham when he commenced his assault, and thornton was at that instant to make a rush on the battery and turn it on the enemy. but they had not sufficiently calculated on the treacherous soil through which they cut their canal. thornton found it already so sludged up that he could only get boats through it sufficient to carry over three hundred and fifty men, and this with so much delay that, when pakenham's rocket went up, he was still three miles from the battery—and that in broad daylight—which he ought already to have taken. unaware of this, pakenham advanced against the chain of forts and ramparts. he had ordered ladders and fascines to be in readiness for crossing the canal, but by some gross neglect it was found that they were not there, and thus the whole of the british troops were exposed to the deadly fire of the american batteries and musketry. no valour was of any use in such circumstances; but sir edward cheered on the few but brave-hearted troops till the ladders and fascines could arrive; but ere this happened, pakenham was killed. generals gibbs and keane took the place of the fallen commander, and still cheered on their men; but it was only to unavailing slaughter: the american marksmen, under cover, and with their rifles on rest, picked off the british soldiers at their pleasure. gibbs was soon killed and keane disabled by a wound. in such circumstances the troops gave way and retired, a strong reserve protecting the rear; but out of gun-shot there was no further danger, for the americans were much too cunning to show their heads beyond the protection of their defences.

meanwhile, colonel thornton, though delayed, and with only a handful of men, still pushed on towards the battery, surprised the americans, who expected no attack in that quarter, and carried it against overwhelming numbers. when about to turn the captured guns against the enemy, a messenger came in haste to say that pakenham had fallen, and the attacking force had retired. but thornton would not retrace his steps without carrying off a good quantity of the artillery, amongst which was a howitzer, inscribed, "taken at the surrender of yorktown, 1781." on his return to the main body, which he did without any pursuit—for even so small a band the americans did not venture to pursue—it was found that he had had but three men killed and forty wounded, he himself being amongst the latter.

on the 18th of january, 1815, commenced the final retreat of the british to their ships. they were allowed to march away without molestation, taking all their guns and stores with them, except ten old ship guns of no value, which they rendered useless before they abandoned them. andrew jackson, afterwards president of the united states, commanded in this defence of new orleans, and loud were the boastings of his prowess all over the states, when, in fact, he had not risked a man. his merit was to have shown what excellent shots his countrymen were, and how careful they were to keep out of the reach of shot themselves. so far as the british were concerned, they had shown not only their unparalleled bravery, but also, as on many such occasions, their great want of prudence. this sacrifice of life would have been spared by a single and much more effectual blockade, and the most lamentable part of the business was, that all the time peace had been made, though the news of it had not reached them.

but general lambert did not retire far without striking another blow. his predecessor had failed to take new orleans, but he had brought away the troops in excellent order, and he passed over in sir alexander cochrane's squadron and attacked and took the important forts of mobile, at the confluence of the mobile, tombigbee, and alabama rivers—the territories around which have since grown into states. this was a basis for important operations on those shores; but they were rendered unnecessary by the peace.

[113]

by permission of the corporation of liverpool.

on the evening of the battle of waterloo.

by ernest crofts, r.a. from the painting in the walker art gallery.

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new orleans.

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when peace was made in europe, the united states became anxious for peace too. madison had begun the war in the ungenerous hope of wresting canada from great britain, because he thought her too deeply engaged in the gigantic war against napoleon to be able to defend that colony. he believed that it would fall an easy prey; that the canadians must so greatly admire the model republic that they would abandon monarchy at the first call, and that he should thus have the glory of absorbing that great world of the north into the american republic. in all this, he and those who thought with him found themselves egregiously deceived. the canadians showed they were staunchly attached to great britain, and the attempts at invasion were beaten back by the native militia and by our handful of troops with the greatest ease. meanwhile, the blockade of the east, and the seizure of the merchant shipping, drove the new england and other eastern states to desperation. throughout this war great britain made a uniform declaration of a preference for peace, but her offers were regularly rejected so long as napoleon was triumphant. the united states, professing the utmost love of freedom, were the blind and enthusiastic worshippers of the man who was trampling the liberties of all europe under his feet. it was not till the last moment—not till he had been defeated in russia, driven by britain out of spain, routed and pursued out of germany, and compelled to renounce the imperial crown of france—that the american government began to understand the formidable character of the power which it had so long and so insolently provoked, and to fear the whole weight of its resentment directed against its shores. it is certain that, had britain been animated by a spirit of vengeance, it had now the opportunity, by sending strong fleets and a powerful army to the coast of america, to ravage her seaboard towns, and so utterly annihilate her trade as to reduce her to the utmost misery, and to precipitate a most disastrous system of internal disintegration. the new england states, in 1814, not only threatened to secede, but stoutly declared that they would not furnish another shilling towards paying the expenses of the war. they even intimated an idea of making a separate peace with britain. in massachusetts especially these[114] menaces were vehement. governor strong spoke out plainly in the legislative chamber of that state. madison endeavoured to mollify this spirit by abandoning his embargo and emancipation acts, but this was now too late, for the strict blockade of the british, in 1814, rendered these acts perfectly dead.

to procure peace, madison now sought the good offices of the emperor alexander of russia with great britain, and these offices were readily accepted, for the latter had never willingly gone into or continued this unnatural war. a congress was appointed at gothenburg, and thence transferred to ghent. there, on the 24th of december, 1814, a loose and indefinite peace was concluded, in which every principle on which the war had been begun was left to be settled by commissioners; and some of which—such was the difficulty of negotiating with the americans—were not settled for many years. on these points alone were the two powers agreed—that all hostilities between the contracting parties and the indians should be put an end to, and that both parties should continue their efforts for the suppression of the slave-trade. such was the joy of the north-eastern states of america at the peace that the citizens of new york carried the british envoy, sent to ratify the treaty, in triumph through the streets.

when the bourbons had entered paris in 1814 they had shown the utmost liberality towards those who had driven them from france and had murdered those of their family on the throne and nearest to it. they did not imitate the summary vengeance of napoleon, whose government, in 1812, had put to death not only general mallet, who had endeavoured to restore the bourbons, but also thirteen of his accomplices, on the plain of grenelle. when louis xviii. returned, there were numbers of the bloody revolutionists who had voted for, and some who had acted in, the frightful atrocities of the revolution—many who had urged on the sufferings, the indignities, and the death of louis xvi., marie antoinette, the princess elizabeth, the princess lamballe, and the worst form of death of the unhappy dauphin. yet no vengeance was taken, and numbers of these people were allowed to reside unharmed in paris. having been now again driven forth, and seen the readiness with which those who had sworn to maintain their government had taken their oaths and betrayed them, it might have been expected that there would have been some severe punishments. but the natural mildness of louis xviii., and the wise counsels of wellington and talleyrand, produced a very different scene. never, after such provocations, and especially to the sensitive natures of frenchmen, was so much lenity shown. in the proclamation of louis xviii. of the 24th of july, nineteen persons only were ordered for trial, and thirty-eight were ordered to quit paris, and to reside in particular parts of france, under the observation of the police, till their fate should be decided by the chambers. of the nineteen threatened with capital punishment, with trial before a military tribunal, only ney and labédoyère suffered; another, lavalette, was condemned, but escaped by changing dresses with his wife in prison. it was also stated that such individuals as should be condemned to exile should be allowed to sell their property in france, and carry the proceeds with them. yet more clamour was raised by the buonapartists about the deaths of ney and labédoyère than had been made in any executions by the imperial or the revolutionary parties over whole hecatombs of innocent persons. as for ney and labédoyère, their treason had been so barefaced and outrageous that no reasonable person could expect anything but summary punishment for them. ney had declared to louis xviii. that he would bring buonaparte to him in a cage, and then carried over his whole army at once to the emperor. labédoyère had been equally perjured after the most generous forgiveness of his former treasons, and he had been particularly active in stimulating the parisians to make a useless resistance to the allies approaching paris, by stating that the bourbons were preparing a most sanguinary proscription. both officers knew that they had no hope of life, no plea of protection, and they fled in disguise. yet vehement reproaches were cast on the duke of wellington for having, as the buonapartists asserted, broken the 12th article of the convention of paris, by which the city was surrendered to the allied armies. madame ney, after the seizure and condemnation of her husband, went to the duke, and demanded his interference on the marshal's behalf, as a right on the ground of this article, which she interpreted as guaranteeing all the inhabitants, of whatever political creed or conduct, from prosecution by the restored government. it was in vain that wellington explained to her that this article, and indeed the whole convention, related solely to the military surrender, and not to the political measures of the government of louis, with which the duke had[115] publicly and repeatedly declared that he had no concern, and in which he would not interfere. when the commissioners from the provisional government had waited on him, so early as the 2nd of july, at estrées, and claimed exemption for political offenders, he showed them the proclamation of louis, dated cambray, the 28th of june, making exceptions to the general amnesty, and distinctly told them that he had no orders to interfere with the measures of the bourbon government. to this the commissioners had nothing to object, and they thus clearly understood that the british commander would not take any part in political, but merely in military measures. nevertheless, when ney was executed, the clamour was renewed that wellington had betrayed him. we now anticipate, somewhat, to dispose of this calumny, for there never was a party so recklessly addicted to charging their enemies with breach of faith as that of buonaparte and his followers. the foul charge was so industriously disseminated over europe, that wellington, at paris, on the 19th of november, 1815, issued a memorial on the subject, which he first caused to be sent to all the allied powers and then to be published. in this most decisive document he stated that the convention of paris related exclusively to the military occupation of the place, and was never intended, and could not be intended, to prevent either the existing french government, the provisional, or any french government that might succeed it, from acting towards political offenders as it might deem proper. he had refused before to enter into a question of settling the government. to make this clear, he quoted the 11th article, providing for the non-interference of the allied army with property; and the 12th:—"seront pareillement respectées les personnes et les propriétés particulières; les habitants, et en général tous les individus qui se trouvent dans la capitale, continueront à jouir de leur droits et libertés sans pouvoir être inquiétés, ou recherchés en rein, relativement aux fonctions qu'ils occupent ou avaient occupées, à leur conduite, et à leur opinions politiques." labédoyère was shot on the 19th of august, 1815, and ney on the 7th of december.

it remains only to notice the terminating scene of the once gay murat, buonaparte's gallant leader of cavalry in so many campaigns, and finally king of naples. in consequence of plans that he had laid with buonaparte in elba, murat rose on the 22nd of march of this year, and pushed forward with the intention of driving the austrians out of upper italy. but austria was well aware of what had been in progress, and, though murat proclaimed the independence of italy, the italians fled from him rather than joined him. on the po he was met by the austrians, under general fremont, fifty thousand strong, and defeated. he retreated rapidly towards naples again, suffering other discomfitures, and at the same time receiving a notice from lord william bentinck that, as he had broken his convention with the european powers, britain was at war with him. to keep the neapolitans in his interest, he drew up a liberal constitution, on the 12th of may, amid the mountains of the abruzzi, and sent it to naples, where his queen, caroline buonaparte, proclaimed it. it was of no avail; the people, instead of assisting him, were ready to rise against him, and his soldiers every day rapidly deserted and went to their homes.

murat hastened in disguise to naples to consult with his wife, who had as much courage and more judgment than he had; but this availed him nothing. on the 20th of may his generals signed a convention with the austrians at casa lanza, a farmhouse near capua, to surrender capua on the 21st, and naples on the 23rd, on condition that all the neapolitan officers who took the oath of allegiance to king ferdinand should retain their respective ranks, honours, and estates. at this news murat fled out of naples, and, with a very small attendance, crossed over in a fisherman's boat to the island of ischia, and his wife went on board the vessel of commodore campbell, which, however, she was only able to effect by a guard of three hundred english sailors and marines, for the lazzaroni were all in insurrection. commodore campbell, having received caroline buonaparte, her property and attendants on board his squadron, then sailed to gaeta, where were the four children of murat, took them on board, and conveyed them altogether to trieste, the emperor of austria having given madame murat free permission to take up her residence in austria, under the name of the countess of lipano.

well had it been for murat could he have made up his mind to seek the same asylum; for it appears clear that it would have been granted him, for he was no longer dangerous. but he clung convulsively to the fortunes of napoleon, and making his way in a small coasting vessel, he followed him to france, and reached the port of fréjus on the 28th or 29th of may, where buonaparte had landed on his return from elba. from this place murat wrote to buonaparte[116] through fouché, offering his services to him; but buonaparte, who would have been duly sensible of the services of murat had he succeeded in holding italy against the austrians, and thus acting as an important divider of the efforts of the austrians, was equally sensible of the little value of murat as a mere individual, defeated, and having lost italy. he refused to give him a word of reply. murat accordingly lay in concealment with his followers, vainly hoping for a word of encouragement, till the news of the utter defeat of buonaparte at waterloo came upon him like the shock of an earthquake. the south of france was no longer a place for any who had been prominent amongst the retainers of buonaparte; some of murat's followers made haste to escape from the search and the vengeance of the royalists. as for murat himself, he wrote again to fouché, imploring his good offices with the allies to obtain him a passport for england. receiving no response to this, murat condescended to write a most imploring letter to louis xviii., but he had no time to wait for the slow progress of diplomatic life—he fled and, after many adventures, reached corsica. there he was allowed to remain, and a few weeks would have brought him the assurance of entire freedom from enmity on the part of the allies. but, unfortunately, by this time the shock of the utter overthrow and captivity of buonaparte following on his own misfortunes, had overturned his intellect. he conceived the insane idea of recovering naples by the same means that buonaparte had for a while recovered paris. a large number of neapolitan and corsican refugees encouraged him in the mad project.

capture of murat. (see p. 117.)

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on the 8th of october murat landed near pizzo, on the calabrian coast—a coast more than any other in italy fraught with fierce recollections of the french. his army now consisted of only twenty-eight men; yet, in his utter madness, he advanced at the head of this miserable knot of men, crying, "i am your king, joachim!" and waving the neapolitan flag. but the people of pizzo, headed by an old bourbon partisan, pursued him, not to join, but to seize him. when they began firing on him, he fled back to his vessels; but the commander, a man who had received the greatest benefits from him, deaf to his cries,[117] pushed out to sea, and left him. his pursuers were instantly upon him, fired at him, and wounded him; then rushing on him, they knocked him down and treated him most cruelly. women, more like furies than anything else, struck their nails into his face and tore off his hair, and he was only saved from being torn to pieces by the old bourbon and his soldiers, who beat off these female savages and conveyed him to the prison at pizzo. the news of his capture was a great delight to ferdinand. he entertained none of the magnanimity of the allies, but sent at once officers to try by court-martial and, of course, to condemn him. some of these officers had been in murat's service, and had received from him numerous favours, but not the less readily did they sentence him to death; and on the 13th of october, 1815, he was shot in the courtyard of the prison at pizzo—with characteristic bravery refusing to have his eyes bound, and with characteristic vanity bidding the soldiers "save his face, and aim at his heart!"

lord castlereagh.

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the congress of vienna, interrupted by the last razzia of buonaparte, now resumed its sittings, and the conditions between france and the allies were finally settled, and treaties embodying them were signed at paris by louis xviii. on the 20th of november. france was rigorously confined to the frontier of 1790, losing the additions conferred on it by the first treaty of paris; and to prevent any danger of a recurrence of the calamities which had called the allies thus a second time to paris, they were to retain in their hands seventeen of the principal frontier[118] fortresses, and one hundred and fifty thousand of their soldiers were to be quartered, and maintained by france, in different parts of the kingdom. the term of their stay was not to exceed five years, and that term might be curtailed should the aspect of europe warrant it. the allied sovereigns also insisted on the payment of the enormous expenses which had been occasioned by this campaign of the hundred days—the amount of which was estimated at seven hundred millions of francs. this sum, however, was not to be exacted at once, but to be paid by easy instalments.

there was one restitution, however, which the allies had too delicately passed over on their former visit to paris—that of the works of art which napoleon and his generals had carried off from every town in italy, germany, and the netherlands, during their wars. as has been already stated, museums had been freely pillaged by buonaparte or by his orders. accordingly, there was now a great stripping of the louvre, and other places, of the precious pictures and statues which the hands of the greatest marauder that the world had ever seen had accumulated there. the "horses of the sun," from st. mark's, venice, the "venus di medici," the "apollo belvedere," the "horses of the car of victory," which buonaparte had carried away from berlin, and many a glorious painting by the old masters, precious books, manuscripts, and other objects of antiquity, now travelled back to their respective original localities, to the great joy of their owners, and the infinite disgust of the french, who deemed themselves robbed by this defeat of robbery.

louis xviii., having raised an army of thirty thousand men, thought that he could protect himself, and was anxious that france might be spared the expense of supporting the one hundred and fifty thousand men. accordingly, one-fifth of the army was withdrawn in 1817. in the following year a congress was held, in the month of september, at aix-la-chapelle, at which the emperors of russia and austria and the king of prussia attended; on the part of france, the duke of richelieu; and of great britain, the duke of wellington and lord castlereagh, when it was determined that a complete evacuation of france might and should take place by the 20th of november, when the three years terminated. at this congress it was determined also that, besides the seven hundred million francs for the charges incurred by the allied armies, another seven hundred millions should be paid in indemnification of damages to private individuals in the different countries overrun by france. these and other items raised the total to be paid by france for napoleon's outbreak of the hundred days to about sixty million pounds sterling.

great britain, which had amassed so vast a debt in aiding the continental sovereigns against napoleon, played the magnanimous to the last. she gave up her share of the public indemnities, amounting to five million pounds, to the king of holland and the netherlands, to enable him to restore that line of fortresses along the belgian frontiers which our dutch king, william iii., had planned, and which joseph ii. of austria had suffered to fall to decay, thus rendering invasion from france especially easy. nor was this all: she advanced five million pounds to enable the different sovereigns to march their troops home again, as she had advanced the money to march them up, the money demanded of france not being ready. truly might napoleon, in st. helena, say that england, with her small army, had no business interfering in continental wars; that "with our fleet, our commerce, and our colonies, we are the strongest power in the world, so long as we remain in our natural position; but that our gains in continental wars are for others, our losses are for ourselves, and are permanent."

here, then, our history of the political transactions of the reign of george iii. terminates. that reign really terminated in 1811, with the appointment of the regency, which continued the ruling power during the remainder of his life. from that date it is really the history of the regency that we have been prosecuting. but this was necessary to maintain the unity of the narrative of that most unexampled struggle which was involving the very existence of every nation in europe. of all this the poor old, blind, and deranged king knew nothing—had no concern with it. the reins of power had fallen from his hands for ever: his "kingdom was taken from him, and given to another." he had lived to witness the rending away of the great western branch of his empire, and the sun of his intellect went down in the midst of that tempest which threatened to lay in ruins every dynasty around him. we have watched and detailed that mighty shaking of the nations to its end. the events of the few remaining years during which george iii. lived but did not rule, were of a totally different character and belong to a totally different story. they are occupied by the national distresses consequent on the war, and the efforts for reform, stimulated by these distresses, the first[119] chapter of which did not close till the achievement of the reform bill in 1832.

the government and parliament which, with so lavish a hand, had enabled the continental monarchs to fight their battles, which had spent above two thousand millions of money in these wars, of which eight hundred millions remained as a perpetual debt, with the perpetual necessity of twenty-eight millions of taxation annually to discharge the interest—that burden on posterity which napoleon had, with such satisfaction, at st. helena, pronounced permanent—this same government and parliament, seeing the war concluded, were in great haste to stave off the effects of this burden from the landed aristocracy, the party which had incurred it, and to lay it upon the people. they saw that the ports of the world, once more open to us, would, in exchange for our manufactures, send us abundance of corn; and, that the rents might remain during peace at the enormous rate to which war prices had raised them, they must keep out this foreign corn. true, this exclusion of foreign corn must raise the cost of living to the vast labouring population to a ruinous degree, and threatened fearful convulsions from starving people in the manufacturing districts; but these considerations had no weight with the land-holding government and its parliamentary majority. in 1814 they were in haste to pass a corn law excluding all corn except at famine prices; but the lateness of the season, and an inundation of petitions against it, put it off for that session. but in 1815 it was introduced again and carried by a large majority. by this all corn from abroad was excluded, except when the price was eighty shillings per quarter. by this law it was decreed that the people who fought the battles of the world, and who would bear the bulk of the weight of taxation created by these wars, were never, so long as this law continued, to eat corn at less than four pounds per quarter. this was, in fact, not only a prohibition of cheap bread, but a prohibition of the sale of the labours of the people to foreign nations to the same extent. it was an enactment to destroy the manufacturing interest for the imagined benefit of land-owners; and it was done on this plea, as stated by mr. western, one of the leading advocates of the bill—"that, if there is a small deficiency of supply, the price will rise in a ratio far beyond any proportion of such deficiency: the effect, indeed, is almost incalculable. so, likewise, in a surplus of supply beyond demand, the price will fall in a ratio exceeding almost tenfold the amount of such surplus." the avowed object, therefore, was to prevent the manufacturing population from reaping the benefit of that continental peace which they had purchased at such a cost, and consequently to repress the growth of their trade to the same degree. mr. tooke, in his "history of prices," confirms this view of the matter, asserting that "the price of corn in this country has risen from one hundred to two hundred per cent., and upwards, when the utmost computed deficiency of the crops has not been more than between one-sixth and one-third below an average, and when that deficiency has been relieved by foreign supplies." mr. western candidly showed that, to the farmer, years of deficiency were the most profitable, from this principle of enormous rise from a small cause; that if the produce of an acre of wheat in a good year is thirty-three bushels at six shillings, the amount realised would be only nine pounds eighteen shillings; but, if the produce were reduced by an unfavourable season one-sixth, and the price raised from six shillings to twelve shillings, the produce of twenty-seven and a half bushels would realise sixteen pounds ten shillings, the difference being profit!

the effect was immediately shown by a rapid rise of prices, wheat becoming one hundred and three shillings a quarter. but this did not satisfy the land-owners, and mr. western, in 1816, introduced no less than fourteen resolutions to make more stringent the exclusion of foreign corn. it was openly declared "that excessive taxation renders it necessary to give protection to all articles, the produce of our own soil, against similar articles, the growth of foreign countries." mr. barham declared that "the country must be forced to feed its own population. no partial advantage to be derived from commerce could compensate for any deficiency in this respect. the true principle of national prosperity was an absolute prohibition of the importations of foreign agricultural produce, except in extreme cases;" and on this ground it was proposed to exclude foreign rape-seed, linseed, tallow, butter, cheese, etc.

some of the most eminent land-owners were clear-sighted and disinterested enough to oppose these views with all their power. the dukes of buckinghamshire and devonshire, the lords carlisle, spencer, grey, grenville, wellesley, and many members of the commons, voted and protested energetically against them; and the additional restrictions were not carried. but enough had been done to originate the most frightful[120] sufferings and convulsions. we shall see these agitations every remaining year of this reign. the prince regent, in his opening speech, in 1816, declared "manufactures and commerce to be in a flourishing condition." but mr. brougham at once exposed this fallacy. he admitted that there had been an active manufacturing and an unusual amount of exportation in expectation of the ports of the world being thrown open by the peace; but he declared that the people of the continent were too much exhausted by the war to be able to purchase, and that the bulk of these exported goods would have to be sold at a ruinous reduction—at almost nominal prices; and then would immediately follow a stoppage of mills, a vast population thrown out of employment, and bread and all provisions made exorbitantly dear when there was the least power to purchase. all this was speedily realised. british goods were soon selling in holland and the north of europe for less than their cost price in london and manchester. abundant harvests defeated in some degree the expectations of the agriculturists, and thus both farmers and manufacturers were ruined together; for, the check being given to commerce, the manufacturing population could purchase at no price, and, in spite of the harvest, the price of wheat was still one hundred and three shillings per quarter. many farmers, as well as manufacturers, failed; country banks were broken, and paper-money was reduced in value twenty-five per cent.; and a circumstance greatly augmenting the public distress was the reduction of its issues by the bank of england from thirty-one millions to twenty-six millions.

the year 1816 was a most melancholy year. both agricultural and manufacturing labourers rose in great masses to destroy machinery, to which, and not to the temporary poverty of the whole civilised world, exhausted by war, they attributed the glut of manufactured goods, and the surplus of all kinds of labour. in suffolk and norfolk, and on the isle of ely, the agricultural labourers and fen-men destroyed the threshing-machines, attacked mills and farms, pulled down the houses of butchers and bakers, and marched about in great bands, with flags inscribed "bread or blood!" in littleport and ely shops and public-houses were ransacked, and the soldiers were called out to quell the rioters, and much blood was shed, and numbers were thrown into prison, of whom thirty-four were condemned to death, and five executed. the colliers and workers in the iron mines and furnaces of staffordshire and warwickshire, as well as in the populous districts of south wales, were thrown out of work, and the distress was terrible. the sufferings and consequent ferments in lancashire were equally great. in nottinghamshire, leicestershire, and derbyshire, the luddites broke out again, as they had done in 1812, and by night demolished the stocking-frames and the machinery in the cotton-mills. great alarm existed everywhere, and on the 29th of july a meeting was called at the "city of london" tavern to consider the means of relieving the distress, the duke of york taking the chair, the dukes of kent and cambridge, the archbishop of canterbury, the bishop of london, the chancellor of the exchequer, and others attending. many palliatives were proposed, but lord cochrane and other reformers declared that the only effectual remedy would be the abolition of the corn law. soup-kitchens were recommended, but in scotland these were spurned at as only insults to the sufferers; at glasgow the soup-kitchen was attacked, and its coppers and materials destroyed; and at dundee the people helped themselves by clearing a hundred shops of their provisions.

during the whole of these scenes the attitude of government was not merely indifferent, but absolutely repulsive. at no time had so cold and narrow-spirited a ministry existed. the names of castlereagh, liverpool, sidmouth, and lord eldon as lord chancellor, recall the memory of a callous cabinet. they were still dreaming of additional taxation when, on the 17th of march, they were thunderstruck by seeing the property-tax repealed by a majority of forty. the prince regent had become utterly odious by his reckless extravagance and sensual life. the abolition of the property-tax was immediately followed by other resistance. on the 20th of march a motion of disapprobation of the advance of the salary of the secretary to the admiralty, at such a time, from three to four thousand pounds a-year was made, but lost. on this occasion henry brougham pronounced a most terrible philippic against the prince regent, describing him as devoted, in the secret recesses of his palace, to the most vicious pleasures, and callous to the distresses and sufferings of others! mr. wellesley pole described it as "language such as he had never heard in that house before."

not only in parliament, but everywhere the cry for reform rose with the distress. hampden clubs were founded in every town and village almost throughout the kingdom, the central one[121] being held at the "crown and anchor" in the strand, london, its president being sir francis burdett, and its leading members being william cobbett, major cartwright, lord cochrane, henry hunt, and others. the object of these clubs was to prosecute the cause of parliamentary reform, and to unite the reformers in one system of action. with the spirit of reform arose, too, that of cheap publications, which has now acquired such a vast power. william cobbett's political register, on the 18th of november, 1816, was reduced from a shilling and a halfpenny to twopence, and thence-forward became a stupendous engine of reform, being read everywhere by the reformers, and especially by the working-classes in town and country, by the artisan in the workshop, and the shepherd on the mountain. the great endeavour of cobbett was to show the people the folly of breaking machinery, and the wisdom of moral union.

the mob of spenceans summoning the tower of london. (see p. 121.)

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it is only too true, however, that many of the hampden clubs entertained very seditious ideas, and designs of seizing on the property of the leading individuals of their respective vicinities. still more questionable were the doctrines of the spenceans, or spencean philanthropists, a society of whom was established in london this year, and whose chief leaders were spence, a yorkshire schoolmaster, one preston, a workman, watson the elder, a surgeon, watson the younger, his son, and castles, who afterwards turned informer against them. mr. "orator" hunt patronised them. they sought a common property in all land, and the destruction of all machinery. these people, with hunt and watson at their head, on the 2nd of december, met in spa fields. the spenceans had arms concealed in a waggon, and a flag displayed declaring that the soldiers were their friends. the crowd was immense, and soon there was a cry to go and summon the tower. mr. hunt and his party appear to have excused themselves from taking part in this mad movement. the mob reached the tower, and a man, supposed to be preston, summoned the sentinels to surrender, at which they only laughed. the mob then followed young watson into the city, and ransacked the shop of mr. beckwith, a gunsmith, on snow hill, of its firearms. a gentleman in the shop remonstrated, and young watson[122] fired at him and severely wounded him. young watson then made his escape, but his father was secured and imprisoned; and the lord mayor and sir james shaw dispersed the mob on cornhill, and took one of their flags and several prisoners. watson the elder was afterwards tried and acquitted; but a sailor who was concerned in the plunder of the gunsmith's shop was hanged. a week after this riot the corporation of london presented an address to the throne, setting forth the urgent necessity for parliamentary reform.

these events were a little diversified by the storming of algiers on the 27th of august. in 1815 the government of the united states of america had set the example of punishing the piratical depredations of the algerines. they seized a frigate and a brig, and obtained a compensation of sixty thousand dollars. they do not appear to have troubled themselves to procure any release of christian slaves, or to put an end to the practice of making such slaves; and, indeed, it would have been rather an awkward proposal on the part of north americans, as the dey might have demanded, as a condition of such a treaty, the liberation of some three millions of black slaves in return. but at the congress of vienna a strong feeling had been shown on the part of european governments to interfere on this point. it was to the disgrace of great britain that, at the very time that she had been exerting herself so zealously to put an end to the negro slave trade, she had been under engagements of treaty with this nest of corsairs; and lord cochrane stated in parliament this year that only three or four years before it had been his humiliating duty to carry rich presents from our government to the dey of algiers. but in the spring of this year it was determined to make an effort to check the daring piracies of tunis, algiers, and tripoli. lord exmouth was sent to these predatory powers, but rather to treat than to chastise; and he effected the release of one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two christian slaves. from tunis and tripoli he obtained a declaration that no more christian slaves should be made. the dey of algiers refused to make such concession till he had obtained the permission of the sultan. lord exmouth gave him three months to determine this point, and returned home. a clause in the treaty which he had made with algiers ordered that sicily and sardinia should pay nearly four hundred thousand dollars for the ransom of their subjects; they accordingly paid it. this clause excited just condemnation in england, as actually acknowledging the right of the algerines to make christian slaves.

but the matter was not to be thus peacefully ended. before lord exmouth had cleared out of the mediterranean, the algerines—not in any concert with their government but in an impulse of pure fanaticism—had rushed down from their castle at bona on the christian inhabitants of the town, where a coral fishery was carried on chiefly by italians and sicilians, under protection of a treaty made by britain, and under that of her flag, and committed a brutal massacre on the fishermen, and also pulled down and trampled on the british flag, and pillaged the house of the british vice-consul.

scarcely had lord exmouth reached home when he was ordered forth again to avenge this outrage, and he sailed from plymouth on the 28th of july, 1816, with a fleet of twenty-five large and small ships. at gibraltar he was joined by the dutch admiral van cappellan with five frigates and a sloop, to which were added a number of british gunboats. on the 27th of august lord exmouth sailed right into the formidable harbour of algiers, and dispatched a messenger to the dey, demanding instant and ample recompense for the outrage; the delivery of all christian slaves in the kingdom of algiers; the repayment of the money received by the dey for the liberation of sicilian and sardinian slaves; the liberation of the british consul—who had been imprisoned—and of two boats' crews detained; and peace between algiers and holland. the messenger landed at eleven o'clock, and two hours were given the dey to prepare his answer. the messenger remained till half-past two o'clock, and no answer arriving, he came off, and lord exmouth gave instant orders for the bombardment. the attack was terrible. the firing from the fleet, which was vigorously returned from the batteries in the town and on the mole, continued till nine in the evening. then most of the algerine batteries were knocked literally to pieces, but the firing did not cease till about eleven. no sooner was the assault over than a land wind arose and carried the fleet out of the harbour, so that the vessels were all out of gunshot by two o'clock in the morning. a wonderful spectacle then presented itself to the eyes of the spectators in the fleet. nine algerine frigates, a number of gunboats, the storehouses within the mole, and much of the town were in one huge blaze, and by this they could see that the batteries remained mere heaps of ruins. the next morning lord exmouth sent in a letter to[123] the dey with the offer of the previous day, saying, "if you receive this offer as you ought, you will fire three guns." they were fired. the dey made apologies, and signed fresh treaties of peace and amity, which were not of long endurance. but within three days one thousand and eighty-three christian slaves arrived from the interior, and were received on board and conveyed to their respective countries.

we must return from victory abroad to discontent at home. on the 28th of january, 1817, the prince regent opened the fifth session of parliament. in his speech he expressed indignation at "the attempts which had been made to take advantage of the distresses of the country for the purpose of exciting a spirit of sedition and violence;" and he declared himself determined to put down these attempts by stern measures. the seconder of the address in the commons had the good sense to believe that the demagogues and their acts would die of themselves. certainly, if the demagogues had no cause on which to base their efforts, those efforts must have proved fruitless; and the wisdom of government consisted in seriously inquiring whether there were such causes. to attempt to insure peace by smothering distress is the old remedy of tyrants, and is like heaping fuel on fire to put it out. whilst this debate was proceeding, a message arrived from the lords to announce that the regent, on his return from the house, had been insulted, and some missile thrown through the windows of his carriage. the house agreed upon an address to the regent on this event, and then adjourned.

the next day the debate was resumed. it appeared that the prince had been hooted at, and a stone, or other missile, flung through the window of the carriage. the ministerial party endeavoured to raise the occurrence into an attempt on the prince's life; the opposition hinted at the expression of public disgust with the tone which government was assuming towards the distresses of the people, called zealously for stringent reductions of expense, and moved an amendment to that very effect. but the government had yet much to learn on this head; and lord sidmouth announced that the prince regent in three days would send down a message on the disaffection of the people. it would have been wise to have added to this measure a recommendation of serious inquiry into the causes of this disaffection, for disaffection towards a government never exists without a cause; but the government had carried on matters so easily whilst they had nothing to do but to vote large sums of money for foreign war that they had grown callous, and had been so much in co-operation with arbitrary monarchs that they had acquired too much of the same spirit; and they now set about to put down the people of england as they, by means of the people of england, had put down buonaparte. it was their plan to create alarm, and under the influence of that alarm to pass severe measures for the crippling of the constitution and the suppression of all complaints of political evil.

in the debate on this subject, george canning, who on many occasions had shown himself capable of better things, breathed the very language of toryism. he declared the representation of parliament perfect, and treated the most moderate proposals for reform as only emanations from the mad theories of the spenceans. the message of the prince regent came down on the 3rd of february, ordering certain papers to be laid before the house, "concerning certain practices, meetings, and combinations in the metropolis, and in different parts of the kingdom, evidently calculated to endanger the public tranquillity, to alienate the affections of his majesty's subjects from his majesty's person and government, and to bring into hatred and contempt the whole system of our laws and institutions." lord sidmouth endeavoured to guard the house of peers against the belief that the insult to the regent had any share in the origination of this message, but the house of lords, in its address, directly charged this event as an additional proof of the public disaffection. unfortunately, the regent had two houses of parliament only too much disposed to make themselves the instruments of such vengeance. the message was referred to a secret committee in each house, and on the 18th and 19th of february they respectively made their reports. both went at great length into the affair of the spa fields meeting, and the proceedings and designs of the spenceans were made to represent the designs of the working classes all over the kingdom; that such men as thistlewood, who not long after suffered for his justly odious conduct, were conspicuous among the spenceans, and that there had been an affray in spa fields, were circumstances to give ample colouring to the reports of these committees. the lords' report stated—"it appears clear that the object is, by means of societies, or clubs, established, or to be established, in all parts of great britain, under pretence of parliamentary reform, to infect the minds of all classes of the community, and particularly of those whose[124] situation most exposes them to such impressions, with a spirit of discontent and disaffection, of insubordination, and contempt of all law, religion, and morality; and to hold out to them the plunder of all property as the main object of their efforts, and the restoration of their natural rights; and no endeavours are omitted to prepare them to take up arms, on the first signal, for accomplishing their designs."

the country societies were pointed out "as principally to be found in the neighbourhood of leicester, loughborough, nottingham, mansfield, derby, chesterfield, sheffield, blackburn, manchester, birmingham, norwich, glasgow, and its vicinity; but," it added, "they extend, and are spreading in some parts of the country, to almost every village." the report of the commons went over much the same ground, dwelling particularly on the hampden clubs as avowed engines of revolution. it dwelt on the acts and activity of the leaders, of the numbers which they had seduced and were seducing, the oaths which bound them together, and the means prepared for the forcible attainment of their objects, which were the overthrow of all rights of property and all the national institutions, in order to introduce a reign of general confusion, plunder, and anarchy.

now, though in some obscure and ignorant parts of the country there were clubs which contemplated the foolish idea of seizing on neighbouring properties, the committees must have been very ill-informed to have drawn any such conclusion as to the hampden clubs, which were organised for parliamentary reform under the auspices of sir francis burdett, major cartwright, lord cochrane, cobbett, and others. most of these persons had large properties to be sacrificed by the propagation of any such principles, and the great topics of cobbett's register, the organ through which he communicated with the people, were the necessity of refraining from all violence, and of rising into influence by purely political co-operation. but these reports answered the purposes of the government, and they proceeded to introduce, and succeeded in passing, four acts for the suppression of popular opinion. the first was to provide severe punishment for all attempts to seduce the soldiers or sailors from their allegiance; the second to give safeguards to the person of the sovereign, but which did not include the most effectual of all—that of making him beloved; the third was to prevent seditious meetings, and gave great power to the magistrates and police to interfere with any meeting for the mildest reforms; the fourth was the old measure of suspension of the habeas corpus act, which armed the magistrates with the fearful authority to arrest and imprison at pleasure, without being compelled to bring the accused to trial. the last of these acts was not passed till the 29th of march, and it was to continue in force only till the 1st of july. but in the meantime events took place which occasioned its renewal.

within a few days after the first passing of this act, that is, in the first week of march, a body of weavers—said by the government to amount to ten thousand men, but by a more competent authority, samuel bamford, the author of the "life of a radical," not to have exceeded four or five thousand—met in st. peter's field, at manchester, and commenced a march southward. the intention was to proceed to london, to present to the prince regent, in person, a petition describing their distress. bamford had been consulted, and had condemned the project as wild, and likely to bring down nothing but trouble on the petitioners. he believed that they were instigated by spies sent out by government in order to find an opportunity of justifying their arbitrary measures. suspicious persons had been trying him. but the poor, deluded people assembled, "many of them," says bamford, "having blankets, rugs, or large coats rolled up, and tied knapsack-like on their backs. some had papers, supposed to be petitions, rolled up, and some had stout walking-sticks." from their blankets, they afterwards acquired the name of blanketeers. the magistrates appeared and read the riot act, and dispersed the multitude by soldiers and constables; but three or four hundred fled in the direction of their intended route, and continued their march, pursued by a body of yeomanry. by the time that they reached macclesfield, at nine o'clock at night, they amounted to only one hundred and eighty; yet many of them persisted in proceeding, but they continually melted away, from hunger and from the misery of lying out in the fields on march nights. by the time that they reached leek they were reduced to twenty, and six only were known to pass over the bridge at ashbourne.

this was an attempt as constitutional as it was ignorantly and hopelessly planned by suffering people; but more criminal speculations were on foot. a second report of the lords' secret committee, recommending the renewal of the suspension of the habeas corpus act, stated that a general insurrection was planned to take place at manchester, on the 30th of march—to seize the[125] magistrates, to liberate the prisoners, burn the soldiers in their barracks, and set fire to a number of factories; and that such proposals were really in agitation is confirmed by bamford and other of the radical leaders. the report says that the design was discovered by the vigilance of the magistrates, a few days before its intended taking place; but it is far more probable that the magistrates had received some intimation of what was in progress from those who had misguided the ignorant multitude. bamford tells us that both he and his friends had been applied to to engage in the design, but they had condemned it as the work of incendiaries, who had availed themselves of the resentment of the blanketeers at their treatment, to instigate them to a dreadful revenge. the truth was, a number of spies in the pay of government, with the notorious oliver at their head, were traversing the manufacturing districts of derbyshire, nottinghamshire, yorkshire, and lancashire, to stimulate the suffering population into open insurrection, that they might be crushed by the military. bamford and the more enlightened workmen at once saw through the snare, and not only repulsed the tempters, but warned their fellows against their arts. the failure of the first design, however, did not put an end to the diabolical attempt on the part of the spies. they recommended the most secret meetings for the purpose; that another night attack should be prepared for manchester, and that ministers should be assassinated. such proposals were again made to bamford and his friends, but they not only indignantly repelled them, but sought safety for their own persons in concealment, for continual seizures of leading reformers were now made.

the "nottingham captain" and the agitators at the "white horse." (see p. 126.)

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disappointed in this quarter, the odious race of incendiary spies of government tried their arts, and succeeded in duping some individuals in yorkshire, and many more in derbyshire. that the principal government spy, oliver, was busily engaged in this work of stirring up the ignorant and suffering population to open insurrection from the 17th of april to the 7th of june, when such an outbreak took place in derbyshire, we have the most complete evidence. it then came out, from a servant of sir john byng, commander of the forces in that district, that oliver had previously[126] been in communication with sir john, and no doubt obtained his immediate liberation from him on the safe netting of his nine victims. in fact, in a letter from this sir john byng (then lord strafford), in 1846, to the dean of norwich, he candidly admits that he had received orders from lord sidmouth to assist the operations of oliver, who was, his lordship said, going down into that part of the country where meetings were being frequently held, and that oliver, who carried a letter to sir john, was to give him all the information that he could, so that he might prevent such meetings. here, as well as from other sources, we are assured that oliver only received authority to collect information of the proceedings of the conspirators, and by no means to incite them to illegal acts. we have also the assurance of mr. louis allsop, a distinguished solicitor of nottingham, that oliver was in communication with him on the 7th of june, immediately on his return from yorkshire, and informed him that a meeting was the same evening to take place in nottingham, and he and another gentleman strongly urged him to attend it, which oliver did. mr. allsop says that oliver had no instructions to incite, but only to collect information. all this has been industriously put forward to excuse ministers. but what are the facts? we find oliver not only—according to evidence which came out on the trials of the unfortunate dupes at derby—directly stimulating the simple people to insurrection, but joining in deluding them into the persuasion that all london was ready to rise, and that one hundred and fifty thousand from the east and west of the capital only waited for them. we find him not only disseminating these ideas throughout these districts from the 17th of april to the 27th of may, but also to have concerted a simultaneous rising in yorkshire, at nottingham, and in derbyshire, on the 6th of june. thornhill-lees, in yorkshire, was on the verge of action, and ten delegates, including oliver, were arrested. in derbyshire the insurrection actually took place.

what immediately follows shows that oliver had planned and brought to a crisis, by his personal exertions, this unhappy rising. on sunday, the 8th of june, jeremiah brandreth, a framework-knitter of nottingham, appeared with some others at a public-house called the "white horse," in the village of pentrich, in derbyshire. this village is about fourteen miles from nottingham, and about a mile from the small market town of ripley. it is in a district of coal and iron mines, and is near the large iron foundry of butterley. the working people of the village, and of the neighbouring village of south wingfield, were chiefly colliers, workers in the iron mines or iron foundry, or agricultural labourers—a race little informed at that day, and therefore capable of being readily imposed on. this brandreth had been known for years as a fiery agitator. he was a little, dark-haired man, of perhaps thirty years of age. he had been much with oliver, and was one of his most thorough dupes, ready for the commission of any desperate deed. he had acquired the cognomen of the "nottingham captain," and now appeared in an old brown great-coat, with a gun in his hand, and a pistol thrust into an apron, which was rolled round his waist as a belt.

two of the workmen from butterley foundry entered the "white horse," which was kept by a widow wightman, whose son george was deep in the foolish conspiracy into which oliver and this his blind, savage tool, the nottingham captain, were leading him. they found brandreth with a map before him, and telling them there was no good to be done, they must march up to london and overthrow the government. he said all the country was rising; that at nottingham the people had already taken the castle and seized the soldiers in their barracks, and were waiting for them. this shows that he had come straight from oliver, who, on the 7th, was at nottingham, attending the meeting there, and who knew that the meeting in yorkshire had been prevented. yet he had allowed the people of nottingham to believe that the yorkshire men were coming, according to agreement, in thousands; and he allowed brandreth to go and arouse derbyshire, under the belief that nottingham that night would be in the hands of the insurgents. on monday night, the 9th of june, brandreth and a knot of his colleagues proceeded to muster their troop of insurgents for the march to nottingham. they roused up the men in their cottages, and, if they refused to go, they broke in the doors with a crowbar, and compelled them to join them. most of these unwilling levies slipped away in the dark on the first opportunity. at south wingfield he assembled his forces in an old barn, and then they proceeded through the neighbourhood demanding men and guns. an old woman had the courage to tap the "captain" on the shoulder, and say—"my lad, we have a magistrate here;" and many of the men thought brandreth must be mad or drunk. at the farm of widow hetherinton he demanded her men and arms, and when she stoutly refused him, he put the gun through[127] the window and shot one of her men dead. as the day dawned, brandreth and his infatuated troop appeared before the gates of butterley foundry, and demanded the men; but mr. goodwin, the manager, had been apprised of their approach, and had closed the gates. brandreth had planned to take butterley foundry, and carry away not only the men but a small cannon kept there; but mr. goodwin went out and told brandreth he should not have a man for any such insane purpose, and seeing an old man that he well knew, isaac ludlam, who bore a good character, and had been a local preacher amongst the methodists, he seized him by the collar and pushed him into the foundry court, telling him not to be a fool, but stay at home. ludlam, however, replied, "he was as bad as he could be," rushed out, and went on—to his death; for he was one of those that were executed.

all this time it was raining heavily, and brandreth, daunted by the weather, or by the courageous conduct of the manager, gave the word to march. the manager calculated that there were only about a hundred of them at this point; but they were soon after joined by another troop from ripley, and they took two roads, which united about three miles farther on, collecting fresh men by the most direful threats. when they reached eastwood, a village three or four miles farther on the road to nottingham, they were said to amount to three hundred, but ragged, famished, drenched with the rain, and not half of them armed, even with rude pikes. near eastwood they were met by a troop of horse from nottingham, which had been summoned by mr. rolleston, a magistrate, and at the sight they fled in confusion. about forty guns and a number of pikes were picked up, and a considerable number of prisoners were made, amongst them brandreth. these prisoners were afterwards tried at a special assize at derby. they were defended by thomas (afterwards lord) denman, whose eloquence on the occasion raised him at once into notice, and whose generous, gratuitous, and indefatigable exertions on behalf of these simple, ignorant victims of government instigation, showed him to be a man of the noblest nature. notwithstanding his efforts, twenty of these unhappy dupes were transported for different terms, and three—brandreth, ludlam, and turner—were hanged and then beheaded as traitors.

such were the means employed by the british government in 1817 to quiet the country under its distress—a distress the inevitable result of the long and stupendous war. the only idea was to tighten the reins of government—to stimulate the sufferers into overt acts, and then crush them. fortunately, with the exception of the derby juries, the juries in general saw through the miserable farce of rebellion, and discharged the greater part of oliver's and lord sidmouth's victims. watson was acquitted of high treason in london on the 16th of june, less than a week after the derbyshire insurrection. his son had eluded the pursuit of the police. seventeen prisoners on the like charges were liberated in july in glasgow and edinburgh, and were paid seven shillings each to carry them home. on the 22nd of august, of the twenty-four persons that oliver had entrapped in yorkshire, twenty-two were discharged—against eleven of them no bills being found by the grand jury—and the two left in prison were detained there because, under the suspension of the habeas corpus act, they were not brought up for trial. the manchester blanketeers were, in like manner, all discharged, though the duke of northumberland did his utmost to stimulate lord sidmouth to get them punished. on the country at large the impression was that the government had propagated a most needless alarm, and that those who had fallen on the scaffold had been exalted by them from poor, ignorant labourers into burlesque traitors, through the execrable agency of their incendiaries, oliver, castles, mitchell, and others.

but the government had to receive another lesson this year on the folly of endeavouring, in the nineteenth century, to crush the liberties of britons. there was an organ called the press, which, partaking neither of the governmental fears of a natural complaint by the public of the evils which preyed upon it, nor the governmental hopes of silencing the sufferers without any attempt to mitigate their calamities, reported freely the mingled folly and cruelty of ministers, and called for the only remedy of the country's misfortunes—reform. on moving the second reading of the bill for the suspension of the habeas corpus act, lord sidmouth observed that some noble lords had complained that the authors and publishers of infamous libels on the government were not prosecuted. he assured them that the government were quite as anxious as these noble lords to punish the offenders, but that the law officers of the crown were greatly puzzled in their attempts to deal with them; that authors had now become so skilful from experience, that the difficulties of convicting them immeasurably exceeded those of any former time.

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it would seem that the law officers of the crown despaired of proceeding in the old way, but they, or the ministers themselves, hit on a new and more daring one. on the 27th of march the secretary of state addressed a circular letter to the lords-lieutenant of counties, informing them that the law officers were of opinion that a justice of the peace may issue warrants to apprehend persons charged with the publication of political libels, and compel them to give bail; and he required the lords-lieutenant to communicate this opinion to the ensuing quarter sessions, that all magistrates might act upon it. this was the most daring attack on the liberty of the subject which had been made in england since the days of the stuarts. lord grey, on the 12th of may, made a most zealous and able speech in the house of lords against this proceeding, denouncing the investment of justices of the peace with the power to decide beforehand questions which might puzzle the acutest juries, and to arrest and imprison for what might turn out to be no offence at all. he said:—"if such be the power of the magistrate, and if this be the law, where, i ask, are all the boasted securities of our independence and freedom?" but it appears from the correspondence of lord sidmouth, that he was at this moment glorying in this expedient and triumphing in its imagined success. he said the charge of having put such power into the hands of magistrates, he would do his best and most constant endeavour to deserve; and that already the activity of the dealers in libellous matter was much diminished. he had, in truth, struck a deadly terror to the hearts of the stoutest patriots, who saw no prospect but ruin and incarceration if they dared to speak the truth. cobbett then fled, and got over to america. in taking leave of his readers, in his register of march 28th, he gave his reasons for escaping from the storm:—"lord sidmouth was 'sorry to say' that i had not written anything that the law officers could prosecute with any chance of success. i do not remove," he continued, "for the purpose of writing libels, but for the purpose of being able to write what is not libellous. i do not retire from the combat with the attorney-general, but from a combat with a dungeon, deprived of pen, ink, and paper. a combat with the attorney-general is quite unequal enough; that, however, i would have encountered. i know too well what a trial by special jury is; yet that, or any sort of trial, i would stand to face. so that i could be sure of a trial of whatever sort, i would have run the risk; but against the absolute power of imprisonment, without even a hearing, for time unlimited, in any gaol in the kingdom, without the use of pen, ink, and paper, and without communication with any soul but the keepers—against such a power it would have been worse than madness to attempt to strive."

nor were the fears of cobbett imaginary. the ministry at this time were such fanatics in tyranny, that they would have rejoiced to have thus caged the great political lion, and kept him in silence. at this very moment they had pounced upon one who was equally clever in his way, and who had, perhaps, annoyed them still more, but whom they did not so much fear to bring into a court of justice. this was william hone, who had for some time been making them the laughing-stock of the whole nation by his famous parodies. hone was a poor bookseller in the old bailey, who had spent his life in the quest after curious books, and in the accumulation of more knowledge than wealth. his parodies had first brought him into notice, and it did not appear a very formidable thing for the government to try a secluded bookworm not even able to fee counsel for his defence. his trial did not come on at the guildhall till the 18th of december, and then it was evident that the man of satirical fun meant to make a stout fight. the judge, mr. justice abbott, and the attorney-general, sir samuel shepherd, from their manner of surveying the accused, did not apprehend much difficulty in obtaining a verdict against him. but they very soon discovered their mistake. the charge against hone was for having published a profane and impious libel upon the catechism, the lord's prayer, and the ten commandments, thereby bringing into contempt the christian religion. the special indictment was for the publication of john wilkes's catechism. the attorney-general did not very judiciously commence his charge, for he admitted that he did not believe that hone meant to ridicule religion, but to produce a telling political squib. this let out the whole gist of the prosecution, though that was very well perceived by most people before; and it was in vain that he went on to argue that the mischief was just the same. hone opened his own defence with the awkwardness and timidity natural to a man who had passed his life amid books, and not in courts; but he managed to complain of his imprisonment, his harsh treatment, of his poverty in not being able to fee counsel, of the expense of copies of the informations against him, and of the haste, at last, with which he had been[129] called to plead. the judge repeatedly interrupted him, with a mild sort of severity, and the spectators were expecting him to make a short and ineffective defence. hone, on the contrary, began to show more boldness and pertinacity. he began to open his books, and to read parody after parody of former times. in vain mr. justice abbott and the attorney-general stopped him, and told him that he was not to be allowed to add to his offence by producing other instances of the crime in other persons. but hone told them that he was accused of putting parodies on sacred things into his books, and it was out of his books he must defend himself. the poor, pale, threadbare retailer of old books was now warmed into eloquence, and stood in the most unquestionable ascendency on the floor of the court, reading and commenting as though he would go on for ever; and he did go on for six hours. he declared that the editor of blackwood's magazine was a parodist—he parodied a chapter of ezekiel; martin luther was a parodist—he parodied the first psalm; bishop latimer was a parodist; so was dr. boys, dean of canterbury; so was the author of the "rolliad;" so was mr. canning. he proved all that he said by reading passages from the authors, and he concluded by saying that he did not believe that any of these writers meant to ridicule the scriptures, and that he could not, therefore, see why he should be supposed to do so more than they. nay, he had done what they never did: as soon as he was aware that his parodies had given offence he suppressed them—and that long ago, not waiting till he was prosecuted. they, in fact, were prosecuting him for what he had voluntarily and long ago suppressed. the attorney-general, in reply, asserted that it would not save the defendant that he had quoted martin luther and dr. boys, for he must pronounce them both libellous. the judge charged the jury as if it were their sacred duty to find the defendant guilty; but, after only a quarter of an hour's deliberation, they acquitted him.

william cobbett.

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this signal and unexpected defeat seemed to rouse the government to a fresh effort for victory over the triumphant bookseller. the lord chief justice ellenborough, who was not accustomed to let juries and the accused off so easily, rose from his sick bed, where he was fast drifting towards the close of his career. the defendant was called into court the next morning, the 19th of december. there sat ellenborough, with a severe and determined air. abbott sat by his side. hone this time was charged with having published an impious and profane libel, called "the litany, or general supplication." the attorney-general again asserted that, whatever might be the intention of the defendant, the publication had the effect of bringing into contempt the service of the church. hone opened his books to recommence the reading of parallel productions of a former day, or by persons high in esteem in the church, but this was precisely what the invalid lord chief justice had left his bed to prevent. the judge told him all that was beside the mark, but hone would not allow that it was so, opened his books, and read on in spite of all attempts to stop him. never had ellenborough, not even in his strongest and best days, been so stoutly encountered; scarcely ever had such a scene been witnessed in the memory of man. the spectators showed an intense interest in the combat, for such it was, and it was evident that the general sympathy went with the accused, who put forth such extraordinary and unlooked-for power. the exhausted chief justice was compelled to give way, and hone went on reading one parody after another, and dwelt especially on the parodies of the litany which the cavaliers wrote to ridicule the puritan roundheads. when he had done, the lord chief justice addressed the jury in a strain of strong direction to find a verdict for the crown. he said "he would deliver the jury his solemn opinion, as he was required by the act of parliament to do; and under the authority of that act, and still more in obedience to his conscience and his god, he pronounced this to be a most impious and profane libel. believing and hoping that they, the jury, were christians, he had no doubt but they would be of the same opinion." this time the solemn and severe energy of the lord chief justice seemed to have made an impression on part of the jury, for they took an hour and a half to determine their verdict, but they again returned one of not guilty.

here, had the government been wise, they would have stopped; but they were not contented without experiencing a third defeat. the next morning, the 20th of december, they returned to the charge with an indictment against mr. hone for publishing a parody on the athanasian creed, called "the sinecurist's creed." the old chief justice was again on the bench, apparently as resolved as ever, and this time the defendant, on entering the court, appeared pale and exhausted, as he well might, for he had put forth exertions and powers of mind which had astonished the whole country and excited the deepest interest. the attorney-general humanely offered to postpone the trial, but the defendant preferred to go on. he only begged for a few minutes' delay to enable him to put down a few notes on the attorney-general's address after that was delivered; but the chief justice would not allow him this trifling favour, but said, if the defendant would make a formal request for the purpose, he would put off the trial for a day. this would have injured the cause of the defendant, by making it appear that he was in some degree worsted, and, fatigued as he was, he replied, promptly, "no! i make no such request." william hone, on this third trial, once more seemed to forget his past fatigues, and rose with a strength that completely cowed the old and fiery judge. he did not desist till he had converted his dictatorial manner into a suppliant one. after quoting many eminent churchmen as dissentients from the athanasian creed, and amongst them warburton and tillotson, he added, "even his lordship's father, the bishop of carlisle, he believed, took a similar view of this creed." this was coming too near; and the judge said, "whatever that opinion was, he has gone, many years ago, where he has had to account for his belief and his opinions. for common delicacy, forbear." "o, my lord," replied the satisfied defendant, "i shall certainly forbear." the judge had profited by the lesson to-day: he gave a much more temperate charge to the jury, and they required only twenty minutes to return the third and final victory of not guilty. never had this arbitrary government suffered so withering a defeat. the sensation throughout the country was immense. the very next day lord ellenborough sent in his announcement of retiring from[131] the bench, and in a very short time he retired from this world altogether (december 13, 1818), it being a settled conviction of the public mind that the mortification of such a putting-down, by a man whom he rose from his sick-bed to extinguish, tended materially to hasten that departure.

the only matters of interest debated in parliament during this year, except that of the discontent in the country, were a long debate on catholic emancipation, in the month of may, which was negatived by a majority of only twenty-four, showing that that question was progressing towards its goal; and a motion of lord castlereagh for the gradual abolition of sinecures. this intimated some slight impression of the necessity to do something to abate the public dissatisfaction, but it was an impression only on the surface. this ministry was too much determined to maintain the scale of war expenditure to which they had been accustomed to make any real retrenchment. a committee appointed to consider the scheme recommended the abolition of sinecures to the amount of fifty-four thousand pounds per annum, but neutralised the benefit by recommending instead a pension-list of forty-two thousand pounds per annum. the country received the amendment with disgust and derision.

the year, gloomy in itself from the dislocation of trade and the discontent of the people, terminated still more gloomily from another cause—the death of the princess charlotte. this event, wholly unexpected, was a startling shock to the whole nation. this amiable and accomplished princess was not yet twenty-two. she had been married only in may, 1816, to prince leopold of coburg, and died on the 6th of november, 1817, a few hours after being delivered of a stillborn child. what rendered the event the more painful was that her death was attributed to neglect by her accoucheur, sir richard croft. dr. baillie, who saw her soon after her confinement, refused to join in the issue of a bulletin which the other medical men had prepared, stating that she was going on well, and a few hours proved the fatal correctness of his opinion. sir richard, overwhelmed by the public indignation and his own feelings, soon afterwards destroyed himself. no prince or princess had stood so well with the nation for many years. the people saw in her a future queen, with the vigour, unaccompanied by the vices and tyrannies, of elizabeth. she had taken the part of her mother against the treatment of her father, and this was another cause which drew towards her the affections of the people. all these hopes were extinguished in a moment, and the whole nation was plunged into sorrow and consternation, the more so that, notwithstanding the twelve children of george iii., there had only been this single grandchild, and several of his sons remained unmarried.

the year 1818 commenced gloomily. on the 27th of january parliament was opened by a speech, drawn up for the prince regent, but read by the lord chancellor. the first topic was, of course, the severe loss which the country and the prince had sustained in the death of the princess charlotte. it was only too well known that the prince and his daughter had not for some time been on very cordial terms, the princess having taken the part of her mother; and the vicious and voluptuous life of the regent did not probably leave much depth of paternal affection in his nature, which had originally been generous and capable of better things. it was remarked by mr. ward, afterwards lord dudley and ward, that the mention of the princess "was rather dry—sulky, rather than sad." but the death of his only issue, and that at the moment that she might have been expected to give a continued succession to the throne, was a severe blow to him. there was an end of all succession in his line. he stood now without the hopeful support which his daughter's affectionate regard in the country had afforded him, and he was ill able to bear the loss of any causes of popularity. he received a serious shock; and it was only by copious bleeding that he was saved from dangerous consequences; yet, so little was the depth of his trouble, that within three months of his loss he attended a dinner given by the prussian ambassador, and entertained the company with a song.

the rest of the speech consisted of endeavours to represent the country as in a prosperous condition; to have escaped from insurrection by the vigilance of ministers, and to have recovered the elasticity of commerce. no amendment was moved to the address in either house, but not the less did the conduct of ministers escape some animadversion. in the peers, lord lansdowne ridiculed the alarms which had been raised regarding the movements in derbyshire, which, he said, had not been at all participated in by the working population at large, and had been put down by eighteen dragoons. he contended that there was no evidence of any correspondence with these conspirators in other quarters; but this was notoriously incorrect, for there had been a correspondence in lancashire and yorkshire, a[132] correspondence especially disgraceful to ministers, for it was on the part of their own incendiary agents. he observed truly, however, that the insurrection, as it was called, had by no means justified the suspension of the habeas corpus act, for it could have been most readily put down without it by the regular course of law. in the commons, sir samuel romilly thought that the derbyshire insurrectionists had been very properly brought to trial; for brandreth had committed a murder, and, therefore, those who acted with him were, in the eye of the law, equally guilty. but if they were properly brought to trial, there were others who ought still more properly to have been brought to trial too—the very men whom government had sent out, and who had aroused these poor people into insurrection by false and treacherous statements. there was no justice in trying and punishing the victims, and screening their own agents; and this was what government had done, and were still doing. it is in vain, therefore, that their defenders contend that they gave no authority to oliver and the other spies to excite the people to outbreak: these spies having notoriously done it, they still protected and rewarded them, and thus made themselves responsible for their whole guilt. if they had not authorised the worst part of the conduct of the spies, they now acted as though they had, and thus morally assumed the onus of these detestable proceedings. one thing immediately resulted from the p?ans of ministers on the flourishing state of the country—the repeal of the suspension act. the opposition at once declared that if the condition of the country was as ministers described it, there could be no occasion for the continuance of this suppression of the constitution; and accordingly a bill for the repeal of the suspension act was at once brought in and passed by the lords on the 28th, and by the commons on the 29th of january.

old bailey, london, 1814.

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now, much of this at the moment was true; the manufacturers were naturally anxious to resume their business, and a fall in the price of corn, after the plentiful harvest of 1817, to seventy-four shillings and sixpence, relieved a little the pressure on the working classes. could cheap bread have[133] been secured, the condition of the people might soon have become easy; but the fatal corn law came immediately into operation. by the end of 1817 corn had risen in price again to eighty-five shillings and fourpence; and then the ports were opened, but the supplies did not bring down the markets. the spring of 1818 proved wet, and then about the middle of may a drought set in, and continued till september, so that the apprehension of a deficient harvest kept up the price of all articles of life, notwithstanding that a million and a half quarters of wheat had been imported during the year. so long as bread was tolerably cheap, and work more abundant, political agitation in the manufacturing districts subsided; but it was soon proved that the apparent increase of activity in manufacturing and commercial exports was but a feverish desire on the part of manufacturers and merchants to force a trade for which the exhausted continent was not yet prepared. nothing but a free importation of corn could have carried the country comfortably through the crisis; and this was denied by the measures of government, except at a rate of price that put the proper consumption of bread beyond the means of the working classes.

beaus and belles of the regency period.

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meanwhile ministers, anxious to exonerate themselves from the odium so fully their due for fomenting insurrection, commenced parliamentary inquiries which only the more clearly demonstrated their guilt. on the 2nd of february the celebrated green bag was sent down by the prince regent to the lords, and another green bag on the following day to the commons. these green bags—or rather, this green bag, for they were classed as one by the public, their contents being one—made a great figure in the newspaper comments of the time. they were stuffed with documents regarding the late extraordinary powers assumed by ministers, and the occurrences in the midland counties which had been held to justify them. no doubt the papers had been carefully selected, and they were now submitted to a secret committee of each house, which, being named by ministers, was pretty sure to bring in reports accordingly. on the 23rd the lords' committee brought up their report, and on the 27th the commons' produced theirs. as might have been expected from their parentage,[134] there was a striking likeness in the offspring of the committees; they were veritable twins. both travelled over the same ground; the statements made by the secret committee of 1816 averring that schemes of conspiracy were in agitation, and the events of 1817, particularly in derbyshire and yorkshire, as fully confirming these averments. they were compelled, however, to confess that the insurrections, though clearly connected in different counties, in lancashire, yorkshire, derbyshire, and nottinghamshire, were not very formidable, and that the mass of the population in these counties did not at all sanction, much less second, such proceedings. yet, notwithstanding this confession, the fact remained that under the arbitrary measures of ministers a great number of persons had been thrown into prison, against whom no charge could be established; and that at derby three had been executed, and twenty others transported or imprisoned for long terms, and these, every one of them, through the acts and incitements of the emissaries of ministers themselves. on the motion for printing the report of the commons, which, of course, justified ministers, mr. tierney said it was scarcely worth while to oppose the printing of "a document so absurd, contemptible, and ludicrous."

but ministers were too sensible of the unconstitutional character of their deeds to rest satisfied with the mere justification of an accepted report. a bill of indemnity was introduced to cover "all persons who had in 1817 taken any part in apprehending, imprisoning, or detaining in custody persons suspected of high treason, or treasonable practices, and in the suppression of tumultuous and unlawful assemblies." thus ministers were shielded under general terms, and to avoid all appearance of personal movement in this matter by those in the cabinet the most immediately active, the bill was introduced by the duke of montrose, the master of the horse.

there was an energetic debate in each house as the bill passed through. it was opposed in the peers by lords lansdowne, holland, and erskine, but was carried by ninety-three against twenty-seven. ten peers entered a strong protest on the journals against the measure, denying the traitorous conspiracy or the extensive disaffection to the government alleged, affirming that the execution of the ordinary laws would have been amply sufficient, and that ministers were not entitled to indemnity for causeless arrests and long imprisonments which had taken place, for the bill went to protect them in decidedly illegal acts. in the house of commons the bill was strongly opposed by brougham, tierney, mr. lambton—afterwards lord durham—and sir samuel romilly. they condemned the conduct of ministers in severe language, while the bill was supported by canning, by mr. lamb—afterwards lord melbourne, who generally went with the other side—by sir william garrow, and sir samuel shepherd, attorney-general.

ministers carried their indemnity in the commons by one hundred and sixty-two against sixty-nine; but this did not prevent a prolongation of the demands of the reformers for a searching inquiry into their employment of the spies. many petitions were presented to the house of commons for this inquiry—one of them from samuel bamford, who had been a sufferer by imprisonment. on the 3rd of february hone's case was brought forward by william smith, of norwich; on the 10th, lord archibald hamilton made a motion for inquiry into similar prosecutions of persons in scotland, and especially of andrew m'kinley, and this was supported by sir samuel romilly and others, but rejected; yet the next day mr. fazakerley made a demand for a rigid inquiry into the employment of the spies, and for ascertaining whether they really had exceeded their instructions. here was an opportunity for ministers to clear themselves, were they really innocent of sending them out to excite as well as to discover conspirators. there was a violent debate, but the motion was rejected by one hundred and eleven against fifty-two. the discussion left no doubt of the employment of oliver and others, and this fact being put beyond dispute, ministers should, in self-vindication, have cleared themselves, if they were guiltless, as their friends pretended; but they did not do so. on the 17th lord folkestone moved for inquiry into the treatment in prison of mr. ogden and others, and a similar motion was made on the 19th, in the lords, by the earl of carnarvon. in both cases ministers, instead of courting inquiry, resented it, and closed the door of investigation by large majorities. lords sidmouth, bathurst, and liverpool were prominent in staving off these inquiries; and lords grosvenor, king, and holland were earnest in urging the necessity of such inquiry for their own good fame. lord stanley, afterwards earl of derby, put this in the strongest light. he said that he thought ministers "had been much calumniated, but they would be most so by themselves if they refused to inquire into those acts, when inquiry, according to their own statements, would fully[135] acquit them of the charges laid against them." this was so self-evident that the fact that they would not admit this inquiry might, were there no other grounds for decision, be taken as positive proof of their guilt. but it is not likely that oliver and his comrades, who were for months in daily communication with ministers whilst on their detestable missions, would have dared so far to exceed their orders, or, had they done so, that they would have been protected at the expense of the reputations of ministers themselves, and rewarded into the bargain. the instructions to these men were undoubtedly of too dark a character to be produced in open daylight.

amid this melancholy manifestation of a convicted, yet dogged, treason against the people on the part of their rulers, many motions for reform and improvements in our laws were brought forward. on the part of mr. sturges bourne, a committee brought in a report recommending three bills for the improvement of the poor law: one for the establishment of select vestries, one for a general reform of the poor law, and one for revising the law of settlement. on the part of henry brougham, a bill was introduced for appointment of commissioners to inquire into the condition of the charities in england for the education of the poor. there were many attempts to reform the criminal law, in which sir samuel romilly especially exerted himself. one of these was to take away the penalty of death from the offence of stealing from a shop to the value of five shillings, another was to prevent arrests for libel before indictment was found, and another, by sir james mackintosh, to inquire into the forgery of bank of england notes. there was a bill brought in by mr. wynn to amend the election laws; and one for alterations in the law of tithes, by mr. curwen; another by sir robert peel, father of the great statesman, for limiting the hours of labour in cotton and other factories; a bill to amend the law of bankruptcy, and a bill to amend the copyright act, by sir egerton brydges; and finally a bill for parliamentary reform, introduced by sir francis burdett, and supported by lord cochrane, subsequently the earl of dundonald. all of these were thrown out, except the select vestries bill, brougham's bill to inquire into the public charities, a bill for rewarding apprehenders of highway robbers and other offenders, and a bill granting a million of money to build new churches. the cause of reform found little encouragement from the parliamentary majorities of the sidmouths, liverpools, and castlereaghs. this list of rejections of projects of reform was far from complete; a long succession followed. the scots came with a vigorous demand, made on their behalf by lord archibald hamilton, for a sweeping reform of their burghs. municipal reform was equally needed, both in scotland and england. the whole system was flagrantly corrupt. many boroughs were sinking into bankruptcy; and the elections of their officers were conducted on the most arbitrary and exclusive principles. the scots had agitated this question before the outbreak of the french revolution, but that and the great war issuing out of it had swamped the agitation altogether. it was now revived, but only to meet with a defeat like a score of other measures quite as needful. lord archibald hamilton asked for the abolition of the scottish commissary courts in conformity with the recommendation of a commission of inquiry in 1808; general thornton called for the repeal of certain religious declarations to be made on taking office; and dr. phillimore for amendment of the marriage act of 1753; and numerous demands for the repeal of taxes of one kind or another all met the same fate of refusal.

the death of the princess charlotte left the prospect of the succession to the crown equally serious. of the numerous sons and daughters of george iii. not one had legitimate issue. it might be necessary soon to look abroad in germany or in denmark for an heir to the crown. this consideration led to a number of royal marriages during the earlier part of this year. the first of these marriages was not of this description. it was that of the princess elizabeth, his majesty's third daughter, to the landgrave and hereditary prince of hesse-homburg, on the 7th of april. as the princess was already nearly eight-and-forty, no expectation of issue in that quarter was entertained. on the 13th of april lord liverpool brought down a message from the regent to the peers, and lord castlereagh to the commons, announcing treaties of marriage in progress between the duke of clarence and the princess adelaide louisa, of saxe-meiningen; and also between the duke of cambridge and the princess augusta wilhelmina, of hesse, youngest daughter of the landgrave of hesse. the house of commons was also asked to add an additional ten thousand pounds a year to the allowance of the duke of clarence, and six thousand pounds a year each to those of the dukes of cumberland and cambridge, and to that of the duke of kent,[136] if he, too, should marry. ministers intimated that it had been the intention to ask much larger sums, but they found that it was necessary to reduce the sum asked for the duke of clarence. it was a matter of notoriety that the duke had already a large family by the actress, mrs. jordan, and probably the feeling of the house was influenced by his desertion of that lady; but there was a stout opposition and the sum was reduced to six thousand pounds. loud acclamations followed the carrying of this amendment, and lord castlereagh rose and said, after the refusal of the sum asked, he believed he might say that the negotiation for the marriage might be considered at an end. the next day the duke sent a message declining the sum granted; yet, after all, his marriage took place. the duke of cumberland was already married to the princess frederica sophia, the daughter of the duke of mecklenburg-strelitz, who had been divorced from frederick louis, prince of prussia. the duke of cumberland was one of the most unpopular men in the whole kingdom, for there were rumours of very dark passages in his life, and parliament had rejected an application for an additional allowance on his marriage; and it now rejected this application amid much applause. the sum asked for the duke of cambridge was carried, but not without considerable opposition. the spirit of reform was in the air.

on the 13th of may came down a message, announcing the approaching marriage of the duke of kent with the daughter of the duke of saxe-coburg-saalfeld, victoria maria louisa, sister of prince leopold, and widow of emich charles, the prince of leiningen. the princess was already the mother of a son and daughter. the nation was extremely favourable to this match. the duke of kent was popular, and the more so that he had always been treated with unnatural harshness by his father. he had been put under the care of an old martinet general in hanover, who had received a large annual allowance with him, and kept him so sparely that the poor youth ran away. he had been then sent to gibraltar, where the severe discipline which he had been taught to consider necessary in the army brought him into disgrace with the garrison. but towards the public at large his conduct had been marked by much liberality of principle.

it was deemed necessary, before the end of the session, which would close the term of parliament, to renew the alien act. it had been renewed in 1814, and again in 1816, each time for two years. on the last occasion it had been vehemently opposed, and as determined an opposition was now manifested against its renewal. from the 5th of may to the 29th the fight was continued, every opportunity and advantage which the forms of parliament afforded being resorted to to delay and defeat it; but on the 29th it passed the commons by ninety-four votes against twenty-nine. it was introduced into the lords on the 1st of june by lord sidmouth. but it had been discovered that, by an act of the scottish parliament of 1685, all foreigners holding shares in the bank of scotland to a certain amount became thereby naturalised; and, by the act of union, all subjects of scotland became naturalised subjects of england. a clause, therefore, was introduced by the lords to obviate this, and passed; but on the bill being sent down to the commons it was struck out; and ministers were compelled to allow the bill without this clause to pass, and to introduce their separate bill, which was passed on the 9th of june.

ministers were in haste to close and dissolve parliament in order to call a new one before the very probable demise of the king—for though they had provided that in case of the decease of the queen the parliament should not reassemble, this did not apply to the decease of the king; and should this take place before the day fixed for the assembling of the new parliament, the old parliament—even though formally dissolved—would reassemble: therefore, on the 10th of june—the very day after the passing of the supplementary alien bill—the prince regent came down to the house of lords, prorogued parliament, and then immediately the lord chancellor pronounced it dissolved. the members of the commons were taken by surprise. no such sudden dismissal had taken place since 1625, when charles i. dismissed his oxford parliament after a single week's session. on the return to their own house the speaker was proceeding, as usual, to read the royal speech, but he was reminded by mr. tierney that there was no parliament in existence, and by lord castlereagh that, by so doing, he might render himself liable to a pr?munire, and he therefore desisted and the members withdrew.

the elections for the new parliament were carried on with much vigour, and there were upwards of a hundred contested ones. in some cases the contest was extremely violent, considering the death of the king was almost daily expected, and that the term of the parliament must necessarily be a short one. in westminster there were no less than six candidates. lord cochrane was about to depart for chili to take the command of[137] the naval forces of that state, and therefore did not offer himself again. there were sir francis burdett again, the honourable douglas kinnaird, sir murray maxwell, sir samuel romilly, major cartwright, and mr. henry hunt, commonly called orator hunt. of these sir murray maxwell was a tory, and received severe treatment. major cartwright and hunt obtained very little support, and soon withdrew from the contest. the members returned were romilly and burdett, a whig and a radical. for london were returned four new members, all whigs, wood, wilson, waithman, and thorpe. brougham patriotically stood for westmoreland, to break, if possible, the influence of the lowther family; but he was compelled to retire on the fourth day, and two of the lowther family were returned. a hundred and ninety new members were returned, and the opposition gained considerably by the election. an acute observer, well accustomed to party battles, remarked that government did not appear much beloved, and that they had almost spent all their war popularity; and they were not destined to recover it in the coming year.

gibraltar.

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scarcely were the elections over when a strike took place amongst the working cotton-spinners in manchester. food was dear, and the rate of wages was not in any proportion to the dearness. the men who turned out paraded the streets, and, as is generally too much the spirit of strikes, endeavoured forcibly to compel the workmen of other factories to cease working too. the magistrates, on the 1st of september, issued a proclamation, that they were determined to resist such attempts, and to punish the offenders. sir john byng, the same who had favoured the endeavours of oliver in yorkshire, commanded the forces there, and every precaution was taken to secure the factories still in work. on the very next day the spinners were joined by a great mob from stockport, and they endeavoured to break into gray's mill, in ancoat's lane, and force the men to cease. but there was a party of soldiers placed within in expectation of the attack, and they fired on the assailants, and killed one man and wounded two others. the troops then dispersed the mob, which was said to have amounted to at least thirty thousand men. this ended the strike and[138] the rioting for the time. the coroner's jury pronounced the death of the man justifiable homicide, and ministers congratulated themselves on the speedy end of the disturbance. but the elements of fresh ones were rife in the same districts. the country was by no means in the prosperous condition that they had represented it.

in the autumn the great congress of sovereigns assembled at aix-la-chapelle. we have already anticipated their chief object—the final evacuation of france by the allied troops, and the settlement of compensations. they assembled about the middle of september, and remained together till the middle of november. their business conferences, however, did not commence till the 30th of september. with regard to the evacuation of france, we need only state that it was greatly promoted by the exertions of the duke of wellington. robert owen was there to endeavour to enlist the sovereigns in his schemes of social reform, but did not make any proselytes amongst the crowned heads, though the czar alexander told him he fully entered into his views, as he was generally accustomed to tell all reformers and religious professors, leaving them in the pleasing delusion that they had won him to their opinions. clarkson was there to engage them to sanction the suppression of the slave trade, but with as indifferent a result. this was the closing scene of the great european drama, which opened with the french revolution and terminated with the capture of buonaparte. the congress of aix-la-chapelle may be regarded as the recital of the epilogue.

the year 1818 did not close without one more brush of war. this was in india. there had not been much quiet, even after the destruction of tippoo sultan and the power of mysore. when the earl of moira (afterwards marquis of hastings) succeeded, as governor-general, to earl minto, in 1813, he found the country still disturbed in different directions, particularly on the north-west frontiers. the burmese engaged his immediate attention, and then the nepaulese, who were not quietened till after two campaigns. but there was a far more troublesome enemy than either of these in the field. these were the pindarrees, a multitude of horsemen made up of the scum of hindostan—men who had either lost caste, or never had any—who formed themselves into flying bands, and with the swiftness of the wind rushed down on the cultivated districts, and swept all before them—cattle, sheep, money, jewels, everything that could be made prey of. the two most celebrated chiefs of the pindarrees were kureem and cheetoo, but cheetoo managed to put down kureem, and became the one great and formidable head of these robbers. in 1811 he rode at the head of twenty-five thousand cavalry. in 1814, whilst our troops were engaged in nepaul, the pindarrees, under cheetoo, crossed the nerbudda, the godavery, and advanced to the kistnah, ravaging the whole of the deccan and the neighbouring territories; and in spite of our forces under major frazer in one direction, and colonel doveton in another, they effected their retreat across the nerbudda again, loaded with enormous booty. in 1816 they made a still more extensive incursion, ten thousand of them descending into the madras presidency as far as guntoor, and though colonel doveton exerted himself to come up with them, it was in vain. in twelve days cheetoo's marauders had plundered three hundred and ninety villages in the company's territory, put to death one hundred and eighty-two people, wounded five hundred and five, and tortured in various ways three thousand six hundred.

it was now found that our pretended mahratta allies, the peishwa, scindiah, and other chiefs, were in league with cheetoo, and unless this conspiracy were broken the most fearful devastations might be expected on our states. the governor-general represented this to the authorities at home, and recommended that the pindarrees should be regularly hunted down and destroyed. in the course of 1816 he received full authority to execute this scheme. at the end of october he posted lieutenant-colonel walker along the southern bank of the nerbudda, to prevent the pindarrees from crossing into the company's territories; but as the line of river thus to be guarded was one hundred and fifty miles in length, the force employed was found insufficient against such adroit and rapid enemies. in november cheetoo dashed across the river between lieutenant-colonel walker's posts, and his forces dividing, one part made a rapid gallop through forests, and over rivers and mountains, right across the continent, into the district of ganjam, in the northern circars, hoping to reach juggernaut and plunder the temple of its enormous wealth. but this division was met with in ganjam by the company's troops, and driven back with severe loss. the other division descended into the deccan, as far as beeder, where it again divided: one portion being met with by major macdonald, who had marched from hyderabad, was completely cut up, though it was[139] six thousand strong. the other body struck westward into konkan, under a chief named sheik dulloo, and then, turning north, plundered all the western coast, and escaped with the booty beyond the nerbudda, though not without some loss at the hands of the british troops on that river.

as it was now clearly useless to endeavour to prevent these desperate hordes from crossing the nerbudda, it was determined to march into their own retreats beyond that river, and regularly hunt them down. sir john malcolm, one of our ablest officers, who has left us a most graphic account of these transactions, had just now returned from england, and he was appointed, with major-general marshall, to this service. not only cheetoo, but kureem, was again on foot; and sir john learnt that cheetoo was posted near the camp of the holkar mahrattas, and had received a lac and sixty thousand rupees from the peishwa. by this time he had advanced as far as agra, but on this information he fell back on oojein, where sir thomas hislop lay with another body of troops. on the 21st of december, 1817, holkar's army and cheetoo's army made a united attack on the british at mahidpore, on the banks of the seepra. they were received with a murderous slaughter, and fled, leaving seventy pieces of artillery, all they had, and a great quantity of arms. they fled in confusion to rampoora, a fortified town in malwa. the british on their part had suffered severely, having one hundred and seventy-four killed, and six hundred and four wounded. amongst these were thirty-five officers wounded, half of them severely.

sir john malcolm and captain grant pursued the fugitives along the banks of the seepra, killing numbers, and seizing immense booty, including elephants and numerous camels. he left them no time to reassemble, but advanced rapidly on the capital of holkar, joined by reinforcements from the bombay army under major-general sir william keir. alarmed at this vigorous action, the holkar mahrattas hastily concluded peace, gave up all their forts, and placed their territories under british protection. some pathan chiefs attempted to resist, trusting to the defences of rampoora; but general brown soon stormed that place, and the whole country of the holkar mahrattas was reduced to obedience. no respite was granted to the pindarrees. cheetoo was followed from place to place by the gujerat army under sir william keir, and sought refuge in vain amongst the hills and jungles of malwa and along the nerbudda. at length, in january, 1818, cheetoo's last camp was surprised and cut to pieces. after seeking refuge amongst various tribes, cheetoo was ultimately found in the jungle near the fort of aseerghur, torn to pieces by a tiger, his horse grazing not far off, safe, and a bag on his saddle containing his remaining jewels and two hundred and fifty rupees. and thus ended the existence of the long formidable hosts of the pindarrees.

whilst this extirpation of the pindarrees had been going on, the cholera broke out at jessore, in the low lands of the delta of the ganges. this fatal disease has been supposed by medical men to receive its force, if not its origin, from the want of salt in this unhealthy district. salt being one of the monopolies of the east india company, it was not permitted, though abundant in madras, to be carried into bengal except on payment of a duty of two hundred per cent. the natives, therefore, who subsisted on a rice diet, not being able to procure this necessary antiseptic, frequently fell victims to the terrible scourge of cholera. from this centre, where it may fairly be said to have raged in perpetuity, it now spread rapidly up the course of the ganges, the jumna, and their confluent rivers, and if the british impost on salt had anything to do with the prevalence of the epidemic, a severe retribution now fell upon those who profited by it. the marquis of hastings, the governor-general, was posted in bundelcund with his army, when it appeared there and swept away thousands. the very men attending on the governor-general at dinner dropped down behind his chair and died. to seek a healthier region, he marched eastward, but all the way the pest pursued him, and when he reached the healthy station of erich, on the right bank of the betwah river, towards the end of november, one-tenth of the force had fallen under its ravages. the scourge did not stop there, but for a number of years continued to spread at an amazing speed, and eventually overspread europe with its horrors.

during the time that malcolm, keir, hislop, and other officers were running down the pindarrees, major-general smith, who had received reinforcements at poonah, was performing the same service against bajee rao, the peishwa who had furnished cheetoo with funds. he marched from poonah at the end of november, 1817, accompanied by mr. mountstuart elphinstone. they encountered the army of the peishwa on the kistnah, where his general, gokla, had posted himself strongly in a ghaut. the pass was speedily cleared, and the army of the peishwa made a rapid[140] retreat. the chase was continued from place to place, the peishwa dodging about in an extraordinary manner, till, at length, he managed to get behind general smith, and, passing between poonah and seroor, he was joined by his favourite trimbukjee, whom he had long lost sight of, with strong reinforcements of both horse and infantry. general smith, so soon as he could discover the route of the peishwa, pursued it, but soon after the mahrattas showed themselves again in the vicinity of poonah. to secure that city from the peishwa's arms, captain f. f. staunton was dispatched from seroor on the last day of the year with six hundred sepoys, three hundred horse, and two six-pounders; but he was not able to reach poonah. the very next day, the 1st of january, 1818, he found his way barred by the whole army of the peishwa, consisting of twenty thousand horse and several thousand foot. could they have remained a little longer, general smith, who was on the track of the peishwa, would have been up to support them. but in the night of the 2nd of january, having no provisions, staunton fell back, carrying with him all his wounded and his guns, and reached seroor by nine o'clock on the morning of the 3rd of january.

surrender of the peishwa. (see p. 141.)

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that very day general smith reached corregaum in force, and at this apparition the peishwa fled back towards the sources of the kistnah, whence he had descended. not only general smith, but brigadier-general pritzler and colonel boles kept up the pursuit, advancing from different quarters, as the slippery mahratta chief turned and man?uvred. at length weary of the chase, they determined to reduce satara, his capital, and then each of his strong forts and towns one after another, thus depriving him of supplies, and leaving him no place of refuge or subsistence. satara surrendered to general smith on the 10th of february, the same day that he appeared before it. as one place after another fell, gokla, the peishwa's general, made an effort to arrest this process of reduction, and this enabled general smith to attack him on the 20th of february, at ashtee, where he completely routed him. gokla himself was killed, and the peishwa only escaped by abandoning his palanquin and mounting a horse. general smith and lieutenant warrand were[141] wounded, but not a man was killed on the british side. great booty was taken, including twelve elephants and fifty-seven camels.

the remnant of the mahratta army fled northwards, pursued and continually reduced by the british. at the same time the reduction of the towns and forts was steadily going on, and every day the fugitive peishwa became more and more involved in the toils of his enemies. he endeavoured to escape into nagpore, but on the banks of the wurda he was met, on the 1st of april, by colonel scott and driven back, only to fall into the hands of colonel adams, who attacked him near soonee with only one regiment of native cavalry and some horse artillery, and gave him a thorough defeat, taking five guns, three elephants, and two hundred camels. more than a thousand mahrattas fell, and the peishwa himself narrowly escaped, his palanquin, which he had abandoned, being found shot through. bajee rao now endeavoured to get to the north-east into malwa, but he was stopped by general sir thomas hislop, who was advancing from that quarter towards the deccan. at length, his forces dispersed, his towns in possession of the british, his way on all sides cut off, the peishwa came in and surrendered himself to sir john malcolm, on the 3rd of june, 1818, on promise of good treatment. sir john granted him eight lacs of rupees per annum, on condition that he resigned the title of peishwa for ever, and surrendered all his possessions. this was confirmed by the supreme government at calcutta. thus was the existence of the pindarrees, and the power of the mahrattas, broken up, and the rajah of satara restored. he was a minor, but on reaching the age of twenty-one, which was in the year 1821, he was invested with the government of his dominions. these included a district of about eleven thousand square miles, and produced a net revenue of fifteen million rupees. out of this, however, three lacs per annum were reserved for chiefs who had become subjects of the company, and three more lacs were alienated. as for trimbukjee, whose crimes and murders had determined the british to secure him at any cost, he was discovered, after a long quest, in the neighbourhood of nassick, by captain swanston, and carried to tannah, the prison from which he had escaped. he was thence transferred to calcutta, and finally to the rock of chunar, near benares. the last success of this war was the reduction of the fortress of aseerghur, one of the most formidable strongholds in india, which had undergone some most arduous sieges.

none of the princes who accepted our protection benefited more than scindiah. he was relieved from the insolence of haughty military chieftains, who commanded his armies, and left him as little free will as they left to his subjects quiet possession of their property. he was enabled to disband his vast armies, and reduce them to thirteen thousand infantry and nine thousand horse. his disbanded soldiers returned home, and became tillers of the land lately running into jungle, by which, and other influences of peace, his revenue was nearly doubled. all the districts wrested from him by the pindarrees were restored to him; he lost only the mischievous fortress of aseerghur. sir john malcolm cleared the country of the swarms of arabs, and of mekranees from beluchistan, who had acquired a most formidable ascendency in the armies of the indian chiefs; and these chiefs were informed that again to employ these mercenary ruffians, or to allow them to remain on their territories, would be regarded as a declaration of hostility by the british government. similar changes were introduced into the territories of the dethroned peishwa by the honourable mountstuart elphinstone, who resided at poonah; and by the conquest of the poonah territory, by the treaty of mundissoor, made by sir john malcolm after his great victory at mahidpore, and by exchanges made with the guicowar of baroda, and other arrangements, the british dominions were now linked together in one broad and continuous expanse, from calcutta to bombay, and from bombay to madras, as by the former mahratta war they had been established between madras and calcutta.

if we were to believe figures, and the returns of exports and imports, and of duties paid, we must set down the opening of the year 1819 as considerably prosperous. this was the view which ministers took of the condition of great britain when they met the new parliament on the 14th of january. the speculations that had been carried on during 1818 had swelled the revenue, and given an impression of growing commerce, which unfortunately did not exist. the results of these speculations in imports of raw material, especially of cotton, and in extensive exports of manufactures to countries not yet sufficiently reinvigorated to purchase, had produced numerous and heavy failures during the latter part of the past year, and these still continued, in strange contrast to the self-congratulating language of ministers. in nothing was the fall of price so great as in cotton, and those who had bought[142] largely suffered in proportion. these bankruptcies were not confined to great britain; they extended to new york, and to southern ports of the united states, where the same speculation had been going on largely.

besides the flattering assurances of the steady improvement in commerce and manufactures, and, consequently, in the revenues, the regent's speech, read, as usual, by the lord chancellor, justly congratulated the country on the successful termination of the pindarree war by the marquis of hastings. it informed the two houses that a new treaty had been entered into with the united states for adjusting the different points at issue between the two nations, not settled by the treaty of peace, and also for regulating the commerce between them. it announced the results of the congress at aix-la-chapelle, and stated that some new measures were needed for the care of his majesty's person in consequence of the death of the queen. the address, in both houses, was carried almost pro forma. mr. manners sutton was elected speaker of the commons by acclamation.

the new arrangements for the care of the king's person came on first for discussion. on the 25th of january lord liverpool introduced a bill to make the duke of york guardian of his majesty's person in place of the late queen. this question was decided with little debate. on the 4th of february a message was brought down from the regent informing the house of commons that, in consequence of the demise of her majesty, fifty-eight thousand pounds became disposable for the general purposes of the civil list; and recommending that the claims of her late majesty's servants to the liberality of the house should be considered. lord castlereagh moved that the house should go into committee on this subject, as, besides the fifty-eight thousand pounds, there was another sum of one hundred thousand pounds, which had been appropriated to the maintenance of the establishment at windsor. it was understood that ministers would propose to reduce the sum for the establishment at windsor to fifty thousand pounds, but that they would recommend that ten thousand pounds, which her majesty had received in consideration of her charge of the king, should be transferred to the duke of york. mr. tierney objected to the charge of fifty thousand pounds for the maintenance of the establishment at windsor. he said he could not conceive how this money was to be spent, or on whom, for certainly it could not be on the king, who, he understood, was in that state of mental and bodily debility which made it necessary that as few persons as possible should be about him, and that his regimen was so very simple that it could cost next to nothing.

on the 22nd the commons went into committee on this subject, and mr. tierney then proposed that both the establishment at windsor and the salary to the duke of york should be paid out of the privy purse or other private funds of the crown. there was a private property belonging to the crown of one hundred and forty thousand pounds a year, and surely this was sufficient to defray the charge of the necessary care of the king's person. he reminded the house also of the sums which had been voted for the royal family since 1811. besides fifty thousand pounds a year set apart for the debts of the prince regent, he had a privy purse of sixty thousand pounds a year, besides an additional grant of ten thousand pounds a year made since. the king had also a privy purse of sixty thousand pounds a year, with an additional revenue of ten thousand pounds from the duchy of lancaster. surely, out of all these sums, there must be ample means of taking care of the king's person. to all these second statements mr. peel—afterwards the sir robert who began his political career in the ranks of high toryism—replied that the duke of york would accept no salary which came from the privy purse, and he quoted sheridan and adam, old friends of the prince regent, and staunch whigs, who had zealously advocated the sacredness of the privy purse. when the vote was taken for the disposal of the sum for the windsor establishment, it was carried by two hundred and eighty against one hundred and eighty-six, a sufficient proof that in the new parliament the government possessed a strong majority. on the 25th the proposal to confer on the duke of york ten thousand pounds per annum, for this charge of his own father's person, was also carried by a still larger majority—two hundred and forty-seven against one hundred and thirty-seven. in the debate, denman and brougham opposed the vote, and canning supported it. in the house of peers lords grey, lansdowne, and other whig peers opposed the vote of the ten thousand pounds to the duke of york. and truly, in private life, it would not have seemed very filial conduct for a man, already possessing a large income, to require a great annual payment for discharging the simple duty of seeing that his aged father, a gentleman also of ample means, was well looked after.

a great portion of the present session was[143] occupied with discussing the return to cash payments, which, by the act of parliament, ought to take place on the 5th of july of this year. it appears that no less than fifty debates and conversations in both houses took place on this important subject during the session. very soon after the meeting of parliament a secret committee of each house was appointed to inquire into the state of the bank. these committees were, however, so managed, by delivering to the members lists of suitable persons for such committees, that scarcely any but ministerial men were voted, though these votes were given by ballot. in the commons this result was so evident that the opposition declined to vote at all. the first reports of the committees went rather to close more strictly than to open the issue of gold by the bank. it had been paying in gold its notes issued previous to january, 1817. this payment it was proposed to stop, as, at present, evidently injurious to the interests of the country. mr. peel, on moving for a bill for this purpose, stated that the gold at the present price was fast finding its way abroad, and was as rapidly absorbed in re-minting a gold coinage for france. it appeared that during the first half of 1818 gold to the value of no less than one hundred and twenty-eight million francs had been coined at the french mint, of which three-fourths were derived from the gold coinage of england. a bill was accordingly passed to stop payment altogether in gold till the necessary preparations were made by a fresh bill. still, the condition of the bank was represented as flourishing. its liabilities were stated in january, 1819, as amounting to thirty-three million eight hundred and ninety-four thousand five hundred and eighty pounds; its assets, including the debt due from government, fifty-three million seven hundred and eighty-three thousand seven hundred pounds. the total bank surplus appeared to be nineteen million eight hundred and eighty-nine thousand one hundred and twenty pounds; and its surplus, independent of the government debt, and therefore available for current use, was five million two hundred and two thousand three hundred and twenty pounds. the committees adopted the scheme broached by mr. ricardo in his "proposals for an economical and secure currency," published in 1816. this was that the bank, in the first instance, should not pay for its notes in gold coin, but in ingots of a certain weight, its fineness being attested by a stamp; and this degree of purity should be regulated from time to time till the gold descended to the mint price of three pounds seventeen shillings and tenpence-halfpenny per ounce. when the mint gold at length reached this rate of value, then the payment in coin was to be begun. resolutions to this effect were moved by the earl of harrowby on the 21st of may, and they received the approval, not only of the ministerial side, but of the leading opposition members, lords grenville, lansdowne, and king.

in the house of commons similar resolutions were moved on the 24th by mr. robert peel, who, on this occasion, made the first of those candid admissions of new views which he afterwards repeated on the question of catholic emancipation, and finally on the abolition of the corn laws. this eminent statesman, though beginning his career in the ranks of conservatism, had a mind capable of sacrificing prejudice to truth, though it was certain to procure him much obloquy and opposition from his former colleagues. he now frankly admitted that the evidence produced before the secret committee of the commons, of which he had been a member, had greatly changed his views regarding the currency since in 1811 he opposed the resolutions of mr. horner, the chairman of the bullion committee. he now believed the doctrines of mr. horner to be mainly sound, and to represent the true nature of our monetary system; and, whilst making this confession, he had only to regret that he was compelled by his convictions to vote in opposition to the opinions of his venerated father. several modifications were proposed during the debate, but there appeared so much unanimity in the house that no alterations were made, and the resolutions passed without a division. the resolutions were to this effect:—that the restrictions on cash payments should continue till the 1st of may, 1822; that, meanwhile, the house should make provision for the gradual payment of ten millions of the fourteen millions due from the government to the bank; that, from the 1st of february, 1820, the bank should take up its notes in gold ingots, stamped and assayed in quantities of not less than sixty ounces, and at a rate of eighty-one shillings per ounce. after the 1st of october of the same year the rate of gold should be reduced to seventy-nine shillings and sixpence per ounce; and again on the 1st of may, 1821, the price should be reduced to seventy-seven shillings and tenpence halfpenny per ounce; and at this rate of gold, on the 1st of may, 1822, the bank should finally commence paying in the gold coin of the realm. bills to this effect were introduced into both houses by the chancellor of the exchequer and mr. peel, and were readily[144] passed; and such was the flourishing condition of the bank that it did not wait for the full operation of the act, but commenced paying in coin to any amount on the 1st of may, 1821.

the mint, london.

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the select committee of the commons appointed at the instance of lord castlereagh, to inquire into the state of the national income and expenditure, now presented its report on the 3rd of june, and it was agreed to. the chancellor of the exchequer stated on its authority that, since 1815, taxation had been reduced eighteen million pounds per annum; that in 1816 the revenue of great britain and ireland had been consolidated, and that, at that time, the interest of the debt of ireland, including the sinking fund provided for its reduction, exceeded the entire revenue of that part of the united kingdom by one million nine hundred thousand pounds. he then announced that supplies for the present year would be required to the amount of twenty million five hundred thousand pounds; that the existing revenue would only furnish seven million pounds towards this; and that it would be necessary to have recourse to the sinking fund to make up the deficiency of thirteen million five hundred thousand pounds. this sinking fund was fifteen million five hundred thousand pounds, so that it would leave only two million pounds; but as it was necessary to have a tolerable surplus in hand to meet exigencies, it was proposed to raise this reserve fund to five million pounds by fresh taxes to the amount of three million pounds.

on this basis mr. vansittart, the chancellor of the exchequer, on the 9th of june, produced his budget. including the interest on the debt, the whole annual expenditure amounted to seventy-six million, seventy-four thousand pounds—an ominous peace expenditure. instead, therefore, of the supplies, aided by the draft from the sinking fund, leaving a surplus of two million pounds, a fresh loan of twelve million pounds—besides the three million pounds of new taxes on malt, tobacco, coffee, cocoa, tea, british spirits, pepper, and foreign wool was needed. by the hocus-pocus of exchequer accounts this was made to look like a reduction of the debt instead of an increase of it; but the country saw with dismay that three years after the peace the incubus of past war was still[145] adding to its burden. mr. tierney, on the 18th, moved for a committee to inquire into the state of the nation, but this was negatived by three hundred and fifty-seven votes against one hundred and seventy-eight; and a motion of sir henry parnell on the 1st of july for extensive retrenchments was got rid of in the same manner.

sir samuel romilly.

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but amid the discouragements of monetary legislation, which showed that it would require a determined contest to compel ministers to retrench, there were symptoms of a spirit of legal and social reform amongst parliamentary men generally which augured the approach of better times. mr. sturges bourne obtained the passing of his long-advocated poor law bill; but bills for regulating settlements, and for preventing the misapplication of the poor rates, were thrown out. a bill was passed to regulate the treatment of children in cotton factories, and to limit the hours of their employment. mr. brougham's act for inquiry into the charitable foundations of england was extended, with the support of government, so as to apply to educational as well as to all kinds of charities, except such as had special visitors, or were maintained by private subscriptions. sir james mackintosh also took up the humane track of labour occupied so nobly by the late sir samuel romilly. on the 2nd of march he moved for the appointment of a select committee to take into consideration the subject of capital punishment as regarded felonies. this was eminently needed, for the penal laws during the reign of george iii. were truly draconian. notwithstanding a strong opposition by ministers, the motion was carried, amid much cheering, and on the 6th of july sir james mackintosh introduced the report, which[146] was ordered to be printed. government, as if to wipe out their disgrace in resisting so humane a measure, now proposed an inquiry into the condition of gaols and other places of confinement, and into the best method of employing and reforming delinquents during their imprisonment. some reforms were made in scottish law. the old rights of trial by battle, and of appeals of murder, felony, or mayhem, were abolished as rendered unnecessary by the full exercise of the institution of jury, and as belonging only to a barbarous age. the severity of the scottish law against duels was mitigated, that law pronouncing forfeiture of all movable property, and banishment against all persons sending, or even carrying, a challenge to fight a duel. the principle of that law was sound, but its severity was its own defeat. a more questionable bill was one carried, after much opposition, called the foreign enlistment bill, which was intended to check the aid of englishmen in assisting the spanish south american colonists in throwing off the oppressive government of the mother country. numbers of englishmen were engaged on the side of independence, and this bill was vainly intended to put an end to that generous aid.

the scottish burgh question was brought forward again this session. the magistrates of the burgh of aberdeen having been elected, in 1817, in the same corrupt manner as those of montrose had been in 1816, the court of session had declared the election illegal. the burgh of montrose was found to have been disfranchised; but this was not the case with aberdeen, and the magistrates applied to government to grant a warrant for a new election, or rather a re-election of themselves. this the government, in the face of the decision of the court of session, as well as of a numerously signed petition from the burgesses praying that the election should be by open poll, issued. on the 1st of april lord archibald hamilton moved an address to the prince regent, praying for a copy of this warrant. it was strenuously resisted by ministers, but the motion was lost by only a small majority. on the 6th of may lord archibald hamilton renewed his motion in another form—namely, that the petitions which had been presented from scottish burghs on the subject of reform should be submitted to a committee of inquiry. he showed that out of sixty-six royal burghs thirty-nine had voted for reform; that these thirty-nine contained a population of four hundred and twenty thousand souls, whilst the remaining twenty-seven contained only sixty thousand. the preponderance was so great that, in spite of the opposition of ministers, the house took another view of the matter, and lord archibald's motion was carried, though only by one hundred and forty-nine votes against one hundred and forty-four.

the question of catholic emancipation was brought forward on the 3rd of may, by grattan: it was the last time that he did so, but he had the satisfaction of seeing that the question was rapidly advancing, for it was lost by only two votes. a fortnight afterwards lord donoughmore introduced a similar motion, in the hope of surmounting this small difference, but, after a long debate, he found the majority increased against it by thirty-nine votes. the closing contest of the session was for parliamentary reform. sir francis burdett brought on his annual motion, on the 1st of july, for the eighteenth time, but was defeated by one hundred and fifty-three votes against fifty-eight. he was seconded by mr. george lamb, younger brother of lord melbourne, who, however, did not go the length of annual parliaments and universal suffrage. even at that day, joseph hume was for moderate reform, and lord john russell was alarmed at anything further than triennial parliaments, and the transferring the franchise from certain corrupt boroughs to others not yet represented. such were the feeble ideas of reform amongst its self-constituted leaders. parliament was prorogued, on the 13th of july, by the prince regent in person.

during this first session of the new parliament ministers had carried matters with a high hand, imagining that they had a majority which would enable them to resist popular opinion, as they had done since the conclusion of the war. but the progress of the session did not warrant this conclusion. they were defeated in several very important contests, and before the session came to an end were made to feel that they had greatly declined in public confidence. in the severe debate of the 18th of may, on the motion of mr. tierney for a committee of inquiry into the state of the nation, they had a majority of more than two to one. but this was very different on the 3rd of june, when they only carried their foreign enlistment bill by a majority of thirteen. on the question of the resumption of cash payments, the conversion of mr. peel to the principles of horner was a rude shock to the cabinet, and shrewd men prognosticated that, the entire system of mr. vansittart being thus overturned, he must retire. then came not merely partial conversions, or near approaches to defeat, but actual defeats. such were those on sir james mackintosh's motion for inquiry into the criminal laws, and on lord archibald[147] hamilton's for scottish burgh reform. the question of catholic emancipation had approached to a crisis, and a majority of only two against it was, in truth, a real defeat. the consequence was that the conviction of the insecurity of ministers was not only shared by men of impartial judgment, but by themselves. towards the end of the session lord liverpool himself was found writing to a friend, that unless the measure for the return to cash payments raised the confidence of the public in them, they must soon go out:—"i am quite satisfied that, if we cannot carry what has been proposed, it is far better for the country that we should cease to be a government. after the defeats we have already experienced during this session, our remaining in office is a positive evil. it confounds all ideas of government in the minds of men. it disgraces us personally, and renders us less capable every day of being of any real service to the country, either now or hereafter. if, therefore, things are to remain as they are, i am quite sure that there is no advantage, in any way, in our being the persons to carry on the public service. a strong and decisive effort can alone redeem our character and credit, and is as necessary for the country as it is for ourselves."

this appeal did something to strengthen them, but not permanently. the fact that parliament might terminate any day from the death of the king did much to keep members in remembrance of their constituents; but the great cause of ministerial decay of popularity was that the circumstance and spirit of the times demanded more liberal legislation than such men as liverpool, sidmouth, and eldon could comprehend, much less originate. the manufacturing districts were especially in a depressed condition. the efforts which had been made to force a trade had failed. the excessive exportation of manufactured goods had resulted exactly as brougham had prognosticated: the foreign markets had been glutted before the people were capable of buying, and the fall in prices had been ruinous. the equally great importation of raw material to continue the supply of fabrics for which the demand was inadequate, had made matters worse. the bankruptcies during the first half of this year were double the average number, credit was severely shaken, and numbers of workmen were thrown out of employment or reduced to very low wages. wheat, though not so high as a year or two ago, averaged eighty shillings per quarter. the consequence was a renewed political action, and meetings were called by the workmen in various parts of the manufacturing districts to consider both their unsatisfactory position and the governmental as well as commercial causes of it. the corn laws were justly denounced as one potent cause of their sufferings, and the popular leaders of reform were called upon to assist them in getting rid of it. so early as the 18th of january a meeting of this character was held at manchester. application had been made to the borough-reeve to summon a meeting to petition parliament for this object, but he declined, the manchester authorities of that day standing strangely aloof from the people in their endeavours for relief from this enactment, which was as inimical to their own interests as manufacturers, as it was to the comfort of their work-people.

refused in this quarter, the people proceeded to hold a meeting without such sanction, and invited mr. "orator" hunt to go down and take the chair. perhaps they could not have selected a more unsafe guide on the occasion, for personal vanity was hunt's besetting sin. hunt, instead of encouraging the very constitutional object of the meeting—to petition parliament for the repeal of the obnoxious law—treated the petitioning that house as ridiculous, and persuaded the excited people to put their sentiments into the form of a remonstrance to the prince regent. the meeting then dispersed quietly; but hunt found occasion to keep himself in the public eye there a little longer. some officers of the 7th hussars, who were posted at manchester, treated him rudely as he appeared at the theatre, asserting that when "god save the king" was called for, he hissed. whether he did so or not, the conduct of the officers answered his purpose of making political capital; he wrote to the commander-in-chief, the duke of york, and then sent his letter to the newspapers. still more, he wrote to samuel bamford to support him in a scheme which was particularly calculated to produce riot and bloodshed, and in this case bamford did not exercise his usual good sense. at hunt's suggestion—to select a dozen stout fellows, and appear on the evening of the following monday in the pit of the theatre, armed with stout cudgels, to inflict a summary chastisement on the officers in case of a second demonstration of their feelings—bamford appeared at the time appointed with ten stout, picked fellows, with knotty cudgels, marching along the streets to the theatre. the object was immediately perceived by the people, who crowded to the door of the theatre, completely filling the space in front. but the manager was too prudent to open his theatre in such circumstances. he announced[148] that there would be no performance that evening. hunt was, therefore, disappointed of a catastrophe in the theatre; but he drove up in a carriage, mounted the box, and addressed the crowd in very exciting tones, declaring that the magistrates desired nothing so much as an opportunity of letting loose the bloody butchers of waterloo upon them—meaning the 7th hussars. it was not his fault that all went off quietly.

in may the gingham-weavers of carlisle and that neighbourhood held a similar gathering, and in june meetings were held on hunslet common, near leeds, at glasgow, ashton-under-lyne, and other places. the meeting at glasgow, on the 16th of june, was held on the green, and amounted to thirty or forty thousand people. they complained of the low wages for cotton-weaving, and proposed a petition to the prince regent, praying that he would enable them to get over to canada, promising that all such as received that favour should repay the outlay by yearly instalments. but the bulk of the assembly protested against emigration, asserting that the remedy for their distresses lay in annual parliaments, universal suffrage, and the consequent reduction of taxation; and they proposed that they should march up to london in a body, and present their petition to the prince regent in person. at ashton the chair was taken by the rev. joseph harrison, and the strange creature called dr. healey, of whom bamford gives an extraordinary account in his "life of a radical," made a most wild and seditious harangue. at a great meeting at stockport, on the 28th of the same month, a very different personage presided. this was sir charles wolseley, of wolseley park, in staffordshire. sir charles said that he had been engaged in the outbreak of the french revolution, and had assisted in the taking of the bastille, and that he would spend his last drop of blood, if it were necessary, in destroying the bastilles of his own country. the acquisition of such an advocate of reform was not likely to be received with apathy. sir charles was invited to preside at a similar meeting at new hall, near birmingham, on the 12th of july. at this meeting he was elected "legislatorial attorney and representative" for that town. this was a circumstance that excited the alarm of government. they immediately issued warrants for the apprehension both of sir charles and of dr. harrison for seditious expressions used at the stockport meeting. sir charles was arrested at his own house, at wolseley park; and harrison was taken on the platform of a public meeting, at smithfield, in london, on the 21st of july, at which hunt was presiding. on conveying harrison to stockport, the constable who arrested him was attacked by the mob, and a pistol was fired at him, the ball of which lodged in his body.

circumstances appeared now to be growing serious. meetings were held in defiance of the strict measures of government throughout the manufacturing districts; and at blackburn it was announced at such a gathering, on the 5th of july, that the women had also formed themselves into "sister reform associations," and these called on their own sex everywhere to imitate their example, so as to co-operate with the men, and to instil into the minds of their children a hatred of tyrannical rulers. the men, at the same time, made another advance in the reform agitation; this was drilling-a movement which gave great alarm to the magistrates of lancashire, who wrote from various quarters to apprise government of it. it was a circumstance that might well excite suspicion that something more than reform was intended. but when it came to be explained by the parties themselves, it turned out to mean nothing more than that the reformers in the neighbourhood of manchester were intending to hold a great meeting in order to elect a representative, as the people of birmingham had done, and that they wished to assemble in the utmost order and quiet. but the very means employed by them to avoid confusion, and enable them to meet and disperse with decorum, were just those most calculated to excite the fears of a magistracy and ministry already suspicious.

the great meeting had been intended to take place on the 9th of august; and on the 31st of july an advertisement appeared in the manchester observer calling on the inhabitants to meet on the 9th in the area near st. peter's church for the purpose of electing a representative to parliament, as well as for adopting major cartwright's plan of parliamentary reform. this immediately drew from the magistrates a notice that such a meeting would be illegal, and that those who attended it would do so at their peril. the working men on this announced that the meeting would not take place, and a requisition was presented to the borough-reeve and constables, requesting leave to hold such a meeting. it was refused; and on its refusal the people proceeded with their original design, only appointing the 16th as the day of meeting, with hunt in the chair.

[149]

the peterloo massacre: hussars charging the people. (see p. 151.)

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this was taking a bold step in defiance of the authorities, and orderly and peaceable conduct[150] was, more than ever, necessary. on the morning of the day proposed there was little appearance of any stir amongst the artisans of the town, and it does not seem that they took any or much part in the assembly, but that it was made up of the parties marching in from the country and towns around. during the forenoon of this day, monday, the 16th of august, large bodies came marching in from every quarter, so that by twelve o'clock it was calculated that eighty or a hundred thousand such people were congregated in and around the open space designated. some of them had disregarded the injunctions of the general committee, and had gone extensively armed with sticks. bamford soon heard that his eccentric friend, called "the quacking" dr. healey, of whom his narrative gives some ludicrous recitals, had headed the band from lees and saddleworth, with a black flag borne behind him, on which stared out in great white letters, "equal representation or death" on the one side, and on the other, "love," with a heart and two clasped hands—but all white on their black ground, looking most sepulchral and hideous. presently loud shouts indicated that hunt was approaching, who came, preceded by a band of music, seated in an open barouche, with a number of gentlemen, and on the box a woman, who, it appeared, had been hoisted up there by the crowd, as the carriage passed through it.

the platform for the chairman and speakers consisted of a couple of waggons boarded over, and hunt and his friends had some difficulty in reaching it through the dense crowd, the attendant bands continuing to play "god save the king," and "rule britannia," till they were safely placed on the platform, when the music ceased, and hunt, having been called to the chair, took off his white hat, and was commencing his address, when there was a strange movement in the throng, and a cry, "the soldiers are upon us!" and this was the fact. the magistrates had met in great numbers on the previous saturday, and had determined to seize the ringleaders; but instead of doing this as they might have done, at their several localities when drilling, or on their way to the town, they left this to be done after these vast numbers were assembled, and by the aid of the soldiers, which was certain to produce serious consequences. we have the statements of these magistrates themselves, as laid before parliament, and of sir william jolliffe, m.p., lieutenant of the 15th hussars, and personally engaged on the occasion. the reason assigned by them was, that they waited to see "what the complexion of the meeting might be;" but, if this was the case, they might as well have waited till some disorder took place, which they did not, but sent the soldiers into the crowd, whilst peacefully and in an orderly manner standing to listen to the chairman. had they waited to the end, they would undoubtedly have seen the immense crowd disappear as quietly as it had come. but the magistrates were clearly excited by their fears. they had assembled a great constabulary and military force. two hundred special constables had been sworn in; six troops of the 15th hussars lying in the barracks were held in readiness; a troop of horse artillery with two guns; the greater part of the 31st regiment of infantry; several companies of the 88th regiment; the cheshire yeomanry, nearly four hundred men, who had ridden in that very morning; and about forty manchester yeomanry, chiefly master manufacturers. these were troops enough to storm a town, much more to defend it from an unarmed multitude. the whole of this force, except the manchester yeomanry, was put under the command of colonel l'estrange, of the 31st regiment, in the absence of sir john byng, the general of the district, but who had his headquarters at pontefract, and who, it appeared, had received no information of these military preparations, or of the imagined need of them.

we have the accounts of what took place from both sides—from the magistrates and the people. mr hulton, the chairman of the bench of magistrates, made the following statements in evidence, on the trial of hunt, at york. he said that the warrants for the apprehension of the leaders of this movement were not given to nadin, the chief constable, till after the meeting had assembled, and that he immediately declared that it was impossible for him to execute them without the protection of the military; that orders were at once issued to the commander of the manchester yeomanry, and to colonel l'estrange, to come to the house where the magistrates sat. the yeomanry arrived first, coming at a quick trot, and so soon as the people saw them they set up a great shout. the yeomanry advanced with drawn swords, and drew up in line before the inn where the magistrates were. they were ordered to advance with the chief constable to the hustings, and support him in executing the warrants. they attempted to do this, but were soon separated one from another in the dense mob, and brought to a stand. in this condition, sir william jolliffe also giving evidence, said that he then, for the first time, saw the manchester troop of yeomanry.[151] they were scattered, singly or in small groups, all over the field, literally hemmed in and wedged into the mob, so that they were powerless either to make an impression, or to escape; and it required only a glance to discover their helpless condition, and the necessity of the hussars being brought to their rescue. the hussars now coming up, were, accordingly, ordered to ride in and disperse the mob. the word "forward" was given, and the charge was sounded, and the troop dashed in amongst the unarmed crowd. such a crowd never yet stood a charge of horse. there was a general attempt to fly, but their own numbers prevented them, and a scene of terrible confusion ensued. "people, yeomen, constables," says sir william jolliffe, one of these hussars, "in their confused attempts to escape, ran one over another, so that by the time we had arrived at the midst of the field, the fugitives were literally piled up to a considerable elevation above the level of the ground."

surely, both magistrates and soldiers might now have been satisfied. a defenceless multitude have no means of resistance, and, doing their best to get away, might have been left to do so without further molestation, which would be equally brutal in the magistrates, and cowardly in the soldiers. but neither of these parties seems to have thought so on this unhappy occasion. the magistrates issued no orders to desist, and the soldiers, by the confession of one of their officers, went on striking with the flats of their swords at the impeded people, who were thrown down in their vain efforts to get away, and piled in struggling heaps on the field. mr. hulton confessed that he walked away from the window after he had let loose the horse-soldiers on the people. "he would rather not see any advance of the military." he was, in fact, so tender-hearted that he did not mind the people—men, women, and children, met to exercise their political rights—being trodden down under the iron hoofs of horses, and cut down by the sword, so long as he did not see it.

hunt, and about a dozen of his friends, were seized on the platform. bamford and some others, who had escaped, were afterwards taken. the streets were then cleared by the infantry. such was the celebrated manchester massacre, in which the actual wounds inflicted by the soldiers do not appear to have been many. about seventy people were carried to the infirmaries, or went there, to have their wounds dressed—a considerable number for severe cuts and fractured limbs; and six lives were lost, including a special constable run over by the cavalry, and a manchester yeoman, who was struck from his horse by a brickbat, aimed by a man whom he was pursuing.

the ministers and the prince regent, indeed, fully approved of the conduct of these magistrates, and that was to be expected, for neither of these parties ever evinced much sympathy for the people, and consequently received very little regard in return. there was a disposition to rule by the high hand in both the prince and the cabinet, which eventually brought them into extreme odium, and warned them that very different times were approaching. on the reassembling of parliament lord sidmouth made the most candid statement of the full and entire approbation of himself and his colleagues of this cruel and dastardly transaction. he said that the news of the event reached town on the tuesday night; and that it was followed on the wednesday by two gentlemen from manchester, one of them a magistrate, to give the government the most minute particulars regarding it; that a cabinet council was immediately summoned, at which the two manchester gentlemen attended, and entered into the fullest details of all that had taken place; and that the attorney-general and solicitor-general, then present, gave it as their opinion that the proceedings were perfectly justified by the necessity of the case. the statement of all particulars was then dispatched to the prince regent, who was yachting off christchurch, and, on the 19th, the prince replied, by the hand of sir benjamin bloomfield, expressing his "high approbation and commendation of the conduct of the magistrates and civil authorities at manchester, as well as of the officers and troops, both regular and yeoman cavalry, whose firmness and effectual support of the civil power preserved the peace of the town on that most critical occasion." to most people this appeared to be giving commendation, not for preserving, but for disturbing the peace of the town; but lord sidmouth, having received this sanction, addressed letters, on the 21st, to the lords-lieutenant of lancashire and cheshire, the earls of derby and stamford, requesting them to convey to the magistrates of the two counties, who were present at manchester on the 16th, "the great satisfaction derived by his royal highness from their prompt, decisive, and efficient measures for the preservation of the public tranquillity." hunt and his confederates were charged with high treason; but, on the circumstances being examined, they were found not to bear out this charge, and hunt and his friends were indicted only for a treasonable[152] conspiracy; and true bills to the extent of this mitigated charge were proved against hunt and nine others at the summer assizes for the county of lancaster.

great meetings were held in various towns and counties to condemn the whole proceedings, and addresses were sent up and presented to the prince regent which were, in fact, censures of his own conduct, and were not, therefore, received in a becoming manner. to one from the common council of london he replied that he received it with regret, and that those who drew it up knew little or nothing of the circumstances which preceded or attended the manchester meeting. the fact was, that they knew these a great deal better than he did. similar addresses were sent up from westminster, york, norwich, bristol, liverpool, birmingham, leeds, sheffield, and many other towns. a meeting of the county of york was calculated at twenty thousand persons, and amongst them was the earl fitzwilliam, lord-lieutenant of the west riding, who had also signed the requisition to the high-sheriff. for this conduct he was summarily dismissed from his lord-lieutenancy. scarcely less offence was given by the duke of hamilton, lord-lieutenant of the county of lanark, who sent a subscription of fifty pounds to the committee for the relief of the manchester sufferers, expressing, at the same time, his severe censure of the outrage committed on the 16th of august. of course, the ministerial party in town and country did all in their power to counteract this strong and general expression of disapprobation. in scotland and the north of england the squirearchy got up associations for raising troops of yeomanry, as in direct approval of the savage conduct of the manchester yeomanry. in the immediate neighbourhood of the scene of outrage the conflict of opinion between the two parties ran high. numbers of the manchester yeomanry were indicted for cutting and maiming in st. peter's field, with intent to kill; but these bills were thrown out by the grand jury at the lancaster assizes. an inquest at oldham, on the body of one of the men killed, was also the scene of a fierce and regular conflict for nine days, that was put an end to by an order from the court of king's bench. but even men who were accustomed to support ministers generally were startled by their conduct on this occasion. mr. ward, afterwards lord dudley and ward, in one of his letters written from paris at the time, but not published till a later date, says:—"what do reasonable people think of the manchester business? i am inclined to suspect that the magistrates were in too great a hurry, and that their loyal zeal, and the nova gloria in armis tempted the yeomanry to too liberal a use of the sabre—in short, that their conduct has given some colour of reason to the complaints and anger of the jacobins. the approbation of government was probably given as the supposed price of support from the tories in that part of the country."

but the government was, at that juncture, very far from being a wise government. parliament was called together on the 23rd of november, and opened by the prince regent in person. in his speech he spoke of the unsettled state of the country, and recommended measures of repression. the addresses were in the same tone, and they were commented upon with great warmth by the opposition, and amendments moved. zealous debates took place in both houses, especially in the commons, where the discussion continued two evenings, and till five o'clock on the third morning. the addresses, however, were carried in the lords by one hundred and fifty-nine to thirty-four, and in the commons by three hundred and eighty-one to one hundred and fifty. the prince regent sent down a mass of papers to both houses relating to the condition of the disturbed districts, and a host of bills, founded on these, were introduced. in the lords, on the 29th of november, the lord chancellor eldon introduced one in keeping with his alarms, namely, "an act to prevent delay in the administration of justice in cases of misdemeanour." this was followed by three others, introduced by lord sidmouth; one to prevent the training of persons to the use of arms, and to the practice of military evolutions and exercises, another to prevent and punish blasphemous and pernicious libels. amongst others, hone was again at work, and ridiculing the despotically-spirited ministers in his "political house that jack built." the third was to authorise justices of the peace, in certain disturbed counties, to seize and detain arms collected and kept for purposes dangerous to the public peace. these were to continue in force till 1822. not thinking he had yet done enough, on the 17th of december lord sidmouth brought into the peers another bill more effectually to prevent seditious meetings and assemblies, which he proposed should continue in force five years. in the commons, in addition to all this, on the 3rd, lord castlereagh had introduced a bill for imposing stamp duties and other regulations on newspapers, to prevent blasphemous and seditious libels, as if sidmouth's bill on that[153] subject had not fettered the press sufficiently. all these bills were passed, notwithstanding the strongest remonstrances by the opposition as so many infringements of the constitution, and they became known as sidmouth's and castlereagh's six acts.

view of cato street, london, showing the stable at which the conspirators were captured. a, loft; b, stable-door. (from a print published in 1820.)

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these enactments, unaccompanied by any others the object of which was to relieve the distress of the people, only tended still more to exasperate the feelings of the working classes. in fact, nothing had been so obvious as the effect of the proceedings of government of late in disturbing that peace which they professed themselves so desirous to preserve. they, in truth, were the real agitators. the passing of the six acts only made the popular resentment the deeper, and whilst this tended to render the more prudent reformers cautious, it stimulated the lowest and most unprincipled of them to actual and deadly conspiracy. the general conspiracy believed in by ministers never existed, but a conspiracy was actually on foot in london, which again was found to have been, if not originally excited, yet actively stimulated, by the agents of government. the details of this transaction, and of the concluding scene of the manchester outrage, namely, the trial of hunt and his associates, necessarily lead us about two months beyond the death of george iii., which took place on the 29th of january, 1820. in november, 1819, whilst government were framing their six acts, the more completely to coerce the people, they were again sending amongst them incendiaries to urge them to an open breach of the laws in order to furnish justifications for their despotic policy. the leading miscreant of this class was a man named edwards, who kept a small shop at eton for the sale of plaster casts. some of the emissaries appeared at middleton, the place of bamford's abode, but he was in prison awaiting his trial with hunt and the rest, and the people tempted were too cautious to listen to these agents of government. but in london these agents found more combustible materials, and succeeded in leading into the snare some who had been long ready for any folly or crime. chief amongst these was thistlewood, who had been a lieutenant in the army, a man who had, or conceived that he had, suffered injustice at the hands[154] of ministers, and who had wrought up his temper to the perpetration of some desperate deed. bamford when in london, in 1816, had found thistlewood mixed up with the spenceans, and to be met with any day at their places of resort—the "cock," in grafton street, the "mulberry tree," in moorfields, the "nag's head," carnaby market, no. 8, lumber street, borough, and a public-house in spa fields, called "merlin's cave." at these places they might be found, amidst clouds of tobacco-smoke and the fumes of beer, discussing remedies for the miserable condition of the people. at the latter place thistlewood was often to be found with the watsons, preston, and castles, who was employed to betray them. from this spot they issued for their mad attempt on the tower on the 2nd of december of that year. thistlewood was one of those seized on that occasion, but was acquitted on his trial. not warned by this, he no sooner got abroad than he sent a challenge to lord sidmouth, for which he was arrested, and sentenced to a year's imprisonment. he issued from gaol still more embittered against sidmouth and his colleagues, and resolved on striking some mortal blow at them. he did not lack comrades of a like fiery and abandoned stamp, and they determined on a scheme for cutting off the whole cabinet together. the detestable deed was to be perpetrated in the autumn of 1819, a time when the public mind, especially that of the working classes, was so embittered against the government. they did not, however, succeed in their intentions, and it was at this crisis of unwilling delay that the man edwards became privy to their plans. in november he carried the important, and, as he hoped, to him profitable secret to sir herbert taylor, who was attached to the establishment of the king at windsor, and by him he was introduced to lord sidmouth. this minister and his colleagues, with that fondness for the employment of spies, and for fomenting sedition instead of nipping it in the bud, immediately engaged edwards, on good pay, to lead forward the conspirators into overt action. it was not enough for them that, by adding another witness or two to edwards, they would be able to produce the most complete proof of the treason of these men—they rather luxuriated in the nursing of this plot, and thus ripening it into something bloody and horrible; and in this they succeeded.

the christmas holidays necessarily postponed the plans of the conspirators by the ministers going out of town, and the deaths of the king and of the duke of kent produced further impediments by preventing the regular cabinet meetings. at one moment the plan appeared to be in jeopardy from the ministers being in danger of dismissal for their refusal to procure the new king a divorce; but all these hindrances only the more enabled edwards to ply his arts, and stimulate his victims to their destruction. so thoroughly had he brought them to this point, that, on the 19th of february, they came to the resolution to assassinate the ministers each at his own house, as they could not get them all together; but at this moment edwards brought them word that the ministers were going to have a cabinet dinner the next day. to make sure, they sent out for a newspaper, and finding that it was so, thistlewood remarked that as there had not been a cabinet dinner for a long time, there would be fourteen or sixteen there, and it would be a fine haul to murder them all together. the dinner was to be at the house of lord harrowby, and it was planned that one of the conspirators should call with a note, and then the rest should rush in and put the ministers all to death, and bring away the heads of sidmouth and castlereagh in bags provided for that purpose. they were then to fire the cavalry barracks by throwing fire-balls into the straw-sheds, and the people rising, as they hoped, on the spread of the news, they were to take the bank and the tower.

the ministers being duly informed of all, the preparations for the dinner were carried on ostensibly as though nothing was suspected. on the 23rd of february, when the evening had arrived, carriages began to collect about the house of lord harrowby, and the scouts who were sent out to see that there were no soldiers or police stationed there, reported all right. but the carriages were driving to the house of the archbishop of york, which adjoined lord harrowby's, and this had deceived the conspirators. the ministers had remained at home to dine, and then had assembled at lord liverpool's to await the news of the result. the police, conducted by the spies, meanwhile reached the rendezvous of the conspirators, which was a stable in cato street, near the edgware road. the soldiers had orders to be in readiness, and surround the place immediately, and assist in securing the desperadoes. but it seems that the soldiers were not ready at the moment, and on the police entering the stable they found that the conspirators were in the hayloft over it. they were proceeding up the ladder to the loft, and smithers, one of the police, had just entered it, when thistlewood, seeing that they[155] were betrayed, stabbed the man to the heart, blew out the light, and made his escape. there was a confused firing of pistols in the dark, and the soldiers coming up, nine of the conspirators were secured, with a quantity of arms and ammunition; but fourteen were said to have succeeded in escaping.

the next morning london was thrown into consternation by the announcement of this conspiracy, and by a reward of one thousand pounds being offered in the gazette for the apprehension of thistlewood. he was captured before eight o'clock that morning, whilst in bed, at the house of a comrade, in moorfields. but his arrest did not diminish the wild alarms which not only seized the capital but the country. this was immediately believed to be only the centre of that universal conspiracy of which government had taken so much pains to propagate an impression. people everywhere were arming for the defence of their own neighbourhoods, and magistrates and yeomanry were turning out by night to keep watch against a surprise, whilst people in town took great care to lock and barricade their houses against the invisible foe. thistlewood and nine others were put upon their trial on the 13th of april, and, after a trial of three days, he and eight of them were pronounced guilty, and himself and four of the most desperate were condemned to death; the others were sentenced to transportation for life; but one man, who was proved to have been amongst them without being aware of their object, was pardoned. thistlewood and the four others were executed on the 1st of may. the next day alderman wood moved in the house of commons for an inquiry into the conduct of edwards, but it was rejected by a large majority. on the 19th he again returned to the subject, and supported his motion by producing depositions from many persons brought before him as a magistrate, demonstrating, in the plainest manner, that edwards had recommended to them the murder of ministers and the destruction of parliament, had furnished plans for these objects, and had done all in his power to seduce needy men into these measures. he proved, also, from the same depositions, that edwards himself had been living for six weeks in great affluence in the house of a schoolmaster in st. george's street, hanover square, who was not aware of the occupation of edwards till the wretch himself informed him of it. alderman wood called on parliament to act on this unquestionable evidence, and purge itself of any sanction of such disgraceful transactions. but ministers again resisted all inquiry, and their friends openly defended them in the use of such means, even ridiculing alderman wood, and those who supported his motion, for supposing that lord sidmouth would proceed against edwards through any depositions furnished by magistrates. the motion was, of course, thrown out.

before these discussions took place, an attempt had been made by similar means to lead the people of scotland into insurrection. emissaries appeared in the towns and villages informing the people that there were preparations made for a general rising, and they were ordered to cease all work and betake themselves to certain places of rendezvous. on the morning of sunday, the 2nd of april, the walls of glasgow were found placarded everywhere by a proclamation, ordering all persons to cease labour and turn out for a general revolution. the next morning the magistrates called out the military, and they were drawn up in the streets in readiness for the appearance of an insurrection, but none took place. the people were all in wonder, and assembled to see what would happen; but there appeared not the slightest disposition to make any disorder, and some of the cotton mills were at work as though nothing was expected to take place. but still, the mischief had not altogether failed. some fifty poor ignorant men had been decoyed out of glasgow to near kilsyth, on the assurance that four or five thousand men would there join them, and proceed to take the carron ironworks and thus supply themselves with artillery. these poor dupes were met on the road, on some high ground on bonnymuir, by a detachment of armed men sent out against them, and, after some resistance, during which some of them were wounded, nineteen were made prisoners and the rest fled. other arrests were made in different parts of scotland, and they were tried in the following july and august; but so little interest was felt in this attempt, or in the details of what was called "the battle of bonnymuir," that three only were punished and the rest discharged.

there remain only the trials of hunt and his associates in the meeting at manchester to close the events which arose out of circumstances originating under the reign of george iii. these took place at york spring assizes, whither they had been prudently removed out of the district where both parties were too much inflamed for a fair verdict to be expected. during the time that they lay in prison the conduct of hunt had greatly disgusted his humble associates. he[156] showed so much love of himself that bamford says he began to think that he could never have really loved his country. the government had found it necessary a second time to lower its charge against the manchester prisoners. at first it was high treason, then it subsided to treasonable conspiracy, and now, at last, it was merely "for unlawful assembling for the purpose of moving and inciting to hatred and contempt of the government." of this they were all convicted, and were confined in different gaols for various periods, and were called upon to give substantial security for good behaviour in future before being set at liberty. hunt was imprisoned for three years in ilchester gaol. it is only justice to him to state that though, during this imprisonment, he was continually sending to the newspapers complaints of ill treatment, he was instrumental in making known to the public some flagrant malpractices going on in the gaol, and which, through these exposures, were afterwards corrected.

surprise of the cato street conspirators. (see p. 155.)

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the trial of sir charles wolseley and dr. harrison for their speeches at the meeting for reform at stockport in june, 1819, terminated also in their conviction and imprisonment for eighteen months, as well as the giving of security for their future good behaviour on liberation.

with these inglorious events closed the long reign of george iii. indeed, he had passed away before they were brought to their conclusion. he died on the 29th of january, 1820, in the eighty-second year of his age, and the sixtieth of his reign. only six days previously had died his fourth son, the duke of kent, in his fifty-third year. but the duke had not departed without leaving an heir to the throne in the princess victoria, who was born on the 24th of may, 1819. could the old king have been made sensible of these events, there were others which showed that his line, which of late had appeared likely to die out in one generation, notwithstanding his numerous family, was again giving signs of perpetuation. on the 26th of march, 1819, a son had also been born to the duke of cambridge, and a son to the duke of cumberland on may 27th of the same year, afterwards king of hanover.