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X.

1822.

1820.

Berri was assassinated on 13th March; émeutes in Paris, CHAP. which so nearly overturned the Government, broke out on 7th June, the military conspiracy on 19th August; the assassination of the English Cabinet was fixed for 19th February by the Cato Street conspirators; the insurrection at Glasgow took place on 3d April. So many April 3, movements of a revolutionary character, occurring so near each other in point of time, in so many different countries, demonstrates either a simultaneous agency of different bodies acting under one common central authority, or a common sense of the advent of a period in an especial manner favourable to the designs which they all had in contemplation. And when it is recollected that the Chambers of France had, by the operation of the coups d'état of 5th September 1816 and March 1819, been so thoroughly rendered democratical that the dethronement of the king and establishment of a republic, by vote of the legislature, was with confidence anticipated when the next fifth had been elected for the Chamber of Deputies, and that distress in Great Britain had become so general, by the operation of the monetary law of 1819, that insurrectionary movements were in preparation in all the great manufacturing towns, and had actually broken out in several,—it must be confessed, that a more favourable time for such a general outbreak could hardly have been selected.

163.

characters

the diffe

And yet, although these revolutionary movements were obviously made in pursuance of a common design, and Different for a common purpose, yet the agents in them, and the of the reparties in each state to which their execution was in- volts in trusted, were widely different. In Great Britain, they rent states. were entirely conducted by the very lowest classes of society; and although they met with apologists and defenders more frequently than might have been expected in the House of Commons, and from a portion of the press, yet no person of respectability or good education was actually implicated in the treasonable proceedings.

X.

1822.

CHAP. The whole respectable and influential classes were ranged on the other side. But the case was widely different on the Continent. The French revolutionists embraced a large part of the talent, and by far the greater part of the education of the country; and it was their concurrence, as the event afterwards proved, which rendered any insurrectionary movement in that country so extremely formidable. In Spain and Portugal, the principal merchants in the seaport towns, the most renowned generals, and almost the whole officers in the army, were engaged on the revolutionary side, and their adhesion to its enemies. in the last struggle left the throne without a defence. In Italy, the ardent and generous youth, and nearly the whole educated classes, were deeply imbued with Liberal ideas, and willing to run any hazard to secure their establishment; and nearly the whole youth educated at the German universities had embraced the same sentiments, and longed for the period when the Fatherland was to take its place as the first and greatest of representative governments. Such is the difference between the action of the revolutionary principle upon a constitutional and a despotic monarchy, and such the security which the long enjoyment of freedom affords for the continuance of that blessing to future times.

CHAPTER XI.

ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND SPAIN, FROM THE ACCESSION OF
VILLELE IN 1819 TO THE CONGRESS OF VERONA IN 1822.

XI.

1821.

1.

of France

land in re

volution.

FRANCE and England, since the peace of 1815, had CHAP. pursued separate paths, and their governments had never as yet been brought into collision with each other. Severally occupied with domestic concerns, oppressed with the Divergence burdens or striving to heal the wounds of war, their gov- and Engernments were amicable, if not cordially united, and no-gard to the thing had as yet occurred which threatened to bring them Spanish Reinto a state of hostility with each other. But the Spanish revolution ere long had this effect. It was viewed with very different eyes on the opposite sides of the Channel. Justly proud of their own constitution, and dating its completion from the Revolution of 1688, which had expelled the Stuarts from the throne-for the most part ignorant of the physical and political circumstances of the Peninsula, which rendered a similar constitution inapplicable to its inhabitants, and deeply imbued with the prevailing delusion of the day, that forms of government were everything, and differences of race nothing-the English had hailed the Spanish revolution with generous enthusiasm, and anticipated the entire resurrection of the Peninsula from the convulsion which seemed to have liberated them from their oppressors. These sentiments were entirely shared by the numerous and energetic party in France, which aimed at expelling the Bourbons, and restoring a

XI.

1821.

CHAP. republican form of government in that country. But for that very reason, opinions diametrically opposite were entertained by the supporters of the monarchy, and all who were desirous to save the country from a repetition of the horrors of the first Revolution. They were unanimously impressed with the belief that revolutionary governments could not be established in Spain and Italy without endangering to the last degree the existing institutions in France; that the contagion of democracy would speedily spread across the Alps and the Pyrenees; and that a numerous and powerful party set upon overturning the existing order of things, already with difficulty held in subjection, would, from the example of success in the neighbouring states, speedily become irresistible.

2.

causes

divergence.

This divergence of opinion and feeling, coupled with Peculiar the imminent danger to France from the convulsions in which aug. the adjoining kingdoms, and the comparative exemption mented this of Great Britain from it, in consequence of remoteness of situation, and difference of national temperament, must inevitably, under any circumstances, have led to a difference in the policy of the two countries, and seriously endangered their amicable relations. But this danger was much increased in France and England at this period, in consequence of the recent events which had occurred in the Peninsula, and the character of the men who were then placed, by the prevailing feeling in the two countries, at the head of affairs. Spain and Portugal were the theatre of Wellington's triumphs; they had been liberated by the arms of England from the thraldom of Napoleon; they had witnessed the first reverses which led to the overthrow of his empire. The French beheld with envy any movement which threatened to increase an influence from which they had already suffered so much; the English, with jealousy any attempt to interrupt it. In addition to this, the two Ministers of Foreign Affairs on the opposite sides of the Channel, when matters approached a crisis, were of a character and tem

XI.

1821.

perament entirely in harmony with the ideas of the pre- CHAP. vailing influential majority in their respective countries, and both alike gifted with the genius capable of inflaming, and destitute of the calmness requisite to allay, the ferment of their respective people.

3.

of Mr Can

ning.

GEORGE CANNING, who was the Foreign Minister that was imposed upon the King of England, on Lord London- Character derry's death, by the general voice of the nation, rather than selected by his choice, and who took the lead, on the British side, in the great debate with France which ensued regarding the affairs of the Peninsula, was one of the most remarkable men that ever rose to the head of affairs in Great Britain. Of respectable but not noble birth, he owed nothing to aristocratic descent, and was indebted for his introduction to Parliament and political life to the friendships which he formed at college, where his brilliant talents, both in the subjects of study and in conversation, early procured for him distinction.* It is seldom that

* George Canning was born in London on 11th April 1770. He was descended from an ancient family, which, in the time of Edward III., had commenced with a mayor of Bristol, and had since been one of the most respected of the county of Warwick. His father, George Canning, the third son of the family, was called to the bar, but being a man of more literary than legal tastes, he never got into practice,' and died in 1771 in very needy circumstances, leaving Mrs Canning, an Irish lady of great beauty and accomplishments, in such destitution that she was obliged for a short time to go on the stage for her subsistence. Young Canning was educated at Eton out of the proceeds of a small Irish estate bequeathed to him by his grandfather, and there his talents and assiduity soon procured for him distinction. He joined there several of his schoolfellows in getting up a literary work, which attained considerable classical eminence, entitled the Microcosm. Mr Canning was its avowed editor, and principal contributor. In 1788, in his eighteenth year, he left Eton, already preceded by his literary reputation, and was entered at Christ Church, Oxford. The continued industry and brilliant parts which he there exhibited gained for him the highest honours, and, what proved of still more importance to him in after-life, the friendship of many eminent men, among whom was Lord Hawkesbury, who afterwards became Earl of Liverpool. On leaving Oxford he entered Lincoln's Inn, but rather with the design of strengthening his mind by legal argument than following the law as a profession. He there formed an acquaintance with Mr Sheridan, which soon ripened into a friendship that continued through life.

His literary and oratorical distinction was much enhanced by the brilliant appearances he made in several private societies in London, and this led to his introduction into public life. Mr Pitt, having heard of his talents as a speaker and writer, sent for him, and in a private interview stated to him that, if he

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