X. 1819. CHAP. Commons by Lord Castlereagh, subjecting newspapers to certain stamps, and to prevent the abuses arising from the publication of blasphemous and seditious libels. The first and third of the first four acts alone were permanent ; the second and third were temporary only in their endurance, and have long since expired. The bills were all strenuously resisted, with the exception of the first, in both houses, but were passed by large majorities,—that in the Commons, on the Seditious Meetings Bill, being 223, the numbers 351 to 128; in the Lords, on the same bill, 97, the numbers being 135 to 38. Act, however, which is still in gree of unanimity prevailed. houses usually opposed to acquainted with the state of the country, added their 1819, 133, testimony to its necessity; and that the practice of Sidmouth's training was then generally prevalent has since been iii. 302, 303. admitted by the Radical leaders, and their ablest historical advocates.1* 1 Parl. Deb. xli. 675, 677, 1295; 134; Lord Memoirs, 36. Lord Sid Lord Cas tlereagh made on cals. In regard to the Training force, a much greater deSeveral members of both Government, but officially A curious but instructive circumstance took place Impression when the Radical leaders were brought up for examinamouth and tion before the Privy Council, into the presence of those whom they had been taught to regard as of a cruel and the Radi- unrelenting disposition, and the bitterest enemies of the people. "The simple-minded men who had followed Hunt were surprised," says Miss Martineau, "when brought into the presence of the Privy Council, at the actual appearance of the rulers of the land, whom they had regarded as their cruel enemies. They found no cruelty or ferocity in the faces of the tyrants 2-Lord Castlereagh, the good-looking person in a plum-coloured "Martineau, i. 246. * "There is, and can be, no dispute about the fact of military training; the only question is in regard to the design or object of the practice. Numerous informations were taken by the Lancashire magistrates, and transmitted to Government in the beginning of August." Bamford, the Radical annalist, assures us it was done solely with a view to the great meeting on the 16th August at Manchester. See Miss MARTINEAU, i. 227; Bamford's Life of a Radical, i. 177, 180. 1 X. 1820. 1 106. coat, with a gold ring on the little finger of his left hand, CHAP. on which he sometimes looked while addressing them: Lord Sidmouth, a tall, square, and bony figure, with thin and grey hairs, broad and prominent forehead, whose mild. and intelligent eyes looked forth from their cavernous orbits; his manners affable, and much more encouraging to freedom of speech than had been expected." "How Bamford's often," says Thiers, "would factions the most opposite be Radical, i. reconciled, if they could meet and read each other's hearts." On the other hand, Hunt was far from exhibiting the constancy in adversity which, in every age, has animated the patriot and the hero. He was alternately querulous and depressed-elated by popular applause, but sadly cast down when the intoxicating draught was taken from his lips. In this there is nothing surprising; rectitude of intention is the principle which animates the patriot, who is sustained by its consciousness when aiding the people often against their will. Vanity is the pre- 2 Martineau, vailing passion of the demagogue, and his spirits sink the i. 246, 247. moment the exciting influence is withdrawn.2 37. Duke of The beginning of the year 1820 was marked by two events which strongly riveted the attention of the nation, Death of the and had a beneficial general effect in reviving those feelings Kent. of loyalty, which, though sometimes forgotten, are never ex- Jan. 13. tinct in the breast of the English people. The Duke of Kent, the father of our present gracious Sovereign, had accompanied the Duchess and his infant daughter, the future Sovereign of Great Britain, to Sidmouth in Devonshire, for the benefit of change of air. There he was unfortunately exposed to wet and cold on the 13th January, which brought on a cough and inflammation of the lungs, which, notwithstanding the most active treatment, terminated fatally on the 23d of the same month. He was interred, with the usual solemnities, at Windsor on 7th February. This prince took little share in public life ; and the rigorous discipline which he had found it necessary to enforce in the army, in his earlier years, when in VOL. II. 2 D CHAP. command, had at the time given rise to considerable disX. cussion. But he had survived this temporary unpopu1820. larity, as really estimable characters seldom fail to do; 1 Ann. Reg. 1820, 6; Hughes, vi. 403. 38. George III. Jan. 28. and in his latter years he possessed alike the respect of the nation and the warm affection of his personal friends. Personally intrepid, as his race have ever been, he possessed at the same time the kindness of heart and charm of manner, which in all, but in none so much as those of exalted station, are the main foundation of lasting affection. In politics he inclined to the Liberal side, as his brother the Prince-Regent and the Duke of Sussex had so long done; but he had little turn for political contentions, and shrouded himself in preference in the seclusion and enjoyments of private life. Deeds of beneficence, or the support of institutions of charity, of which he was a munificent patron, alone brought him before the eye of the public; but in private, no one was more kindly in his disposition, or had secured by acts of generosity a wider or more attached circle of friends.1 The death of the Duke of Kent was speedily followed Death of by that of his father, who had so long swayed the sceptre of the realm. Towards the end of January, the health of George III., which had hitherto been surprisingly preserved during his long and melancholy mental alienation, rapidly sunk. His strength failed, his appetite left him, and it became evident that the powers of nature were exhausted. At length, at half-past eight on the 28th January, he breathed his last; and the PrinceRegent, as George IV., formally ascended the throne, of which, during ten years, he had discharged the duties. On Monday the 31st, the new sovereign was proclaimed with the usual formalities at the Palace, Temple Bar, 1820, 7; Charing Cross, and other places; the members of Par441. liament were sworn in, and both houses immediately adjourned to the 17th February.2 2 Ann. Reg. Hughes, vi. Although he had lived nearly ten years in retirement, and the practical discharge of the functions of royalty by grown X. 1820. 39. pression death made on the sovereign who succeeded him had so long withdrawn CHAP. him from the public gaze, the death of George III. made a profound impression on the British heart. The very circumstances under which the demise had taken place Deep imadded to the melancholy interest which it excited, and the which his feelings with which the bereavement was regarded by the othe people. Nearly the whole existing generation had country. up during his long reign of sixty years; there was no one who had not been accustomed to regard the 4th of June, the well-known birthday of the sovereign, as a day of rejoicing; no one could form an idea of a king without the aged form which still flitted through the halls of Windsor occurring to the mind. The very obscurity in which his last days had been shrouded, the mental darkness which had prevented him from being conscious of the surpassing glories of the close of his reign, the malady which had secluded him from the eyes of his affectionate people, added to the emotion which his death occasioned. Old feelings were revived, former affections, long pent up, gushed forth, and flowed without control. The realisation of the catastrophe, though not of the sorrows, of Lear on the theatre of the world, profoundly affected every heart. The king had survived all his unpopularity; he had lived down the bitterest of his enemies. When the eloquent preacher quoted the words of Scripture, "And Joseph asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your father well? the old man of whom ye spake, is he yet alive? And they answered, Our father is yet alive. And they bowed their heads, and made obeisance," all felt that now, as in the days of the patriarchs, the same affections of a people to their common father were experienced. The removal of the aged king from this earthly scene made no change in the political world; it was unfelt in the councils or cabinets of princes; but, like a similar bereavement in private life, the circle of the domestic affections was for a * Sermon on the Jubilee, 1810, by Rev. A. Alison—Sermons, i. 419. CHAP. 1820. 40. Birth of Queen Victoria. May 29, 1819. season drawn closer, from the removal of one who had shared in its brightness. Nor did it lessen the emotion felt on this event, that it occurred at the time when the mighty antagonist of the departed sovereign was declining in distant and hopeless captivity, and that while George III. slept to death in the solitude of his ancestral halls, Napoleon was dying a discrowned exile in the melancholy main. The French said, in the days of their loyalty, "The king is dead-long live the king!" Never was the value of this noble maxim more strongly felt than on the present occasion. The death of the king, preceded as it had been by that of the Princess Charlotte, the heiress of the throne, the age and circumstances of the sovereign who had just ascended it, and the situation of the other members of the royal family, had long awakened a feeling of disquietude as to the succession to the monarchy. The Duke of York, now the heir-apparent, was married, had no family, and the duchess was in declining health; the Duke of Clarence, the next in succession, was advanced in years, and although he had had children, they had all died in infancy or early youth. The successors to the crown, after the present sovereign, whose health was known to be in a precarious condition, were, a prince from whom no issue could now be expected, and, after him, an infant princess. Many were the gloomy apprehensions entertained of the eventual consequences of such a state of things, at a time when Europe was convulsed by revolutionary passions, and vigour and capacity on the throne seemed, in an especial manner, requisite to steer the monarchy through the shoals with which it was surrounded. But how often does the course of events deviate from what was once anticipated, and Providence, out of seeming disaster, educe the means of future salvation! Out of this apparently untoward combination of circumstances arose an event of the last im |