XLI. 1841. CHAP. Board of Control. The Cabinet exhibited, upon the whole, a splendid array of talent, and, what was of more importance to the country, an adequate intermixture of business habits and practical acquaintance with affairs; although many doubted whether each was in his proper place, and whether a transposition might not be made with benefit to the public service. In particular, Mr Goulburn seemed hardly adequate to the arduous duties of Chancellor of the Exchequer; and Lord Stanley, notwithstanding his great abilities, was not peculiarly versed in colonial affairs; but so great was the ascendancy of Sir R. Peel over his colleagues, that it was trusted his master mind would pervade every department. No difficulty was now experienced with the Ladies of the Household. The Queen, yielding to her own matured sense, and the necessities of a constitutional monarchy, parted in silence and sorrow from her old and confidential friends; and the appointment of the Duchess of Buccleuch as Mistress of the Robes led to the pleasing hope that they might be succeeded by others not less trustworthy and acceptable to 1 Ann. Reg. her Majesty. The new Ministers, especially the Duke of Wellington and Sir R. Peel, were loudly cheered when they drove up to the palace to kiss hands on their appointment to their respective offices.1* 1841, 199, 200; Mar tineau, ii. 478, 479. If the new Ministry were strong in their talents, their XLI. 1841. difficulties aristocratic connections, and the popular favour they CHAP. enjoyed, they had need of all their advantages; for never did men adventure upon a more difficult under- 15. taking, nor a more arduous task await any government. Immense It was difficult to say whether without or within the of the counprospects of the country were most gloomy-whether for- eign affairs. eign or domestic affairs called most loudly for immediate attention. The aspect of the continent of Europe was threatening in the extreme. Russia, which by the treaty of 13th March 1841 had acquired the absolute command of Lord Lowther. Earl of Lincoln. Sir G. Murray. W. E. Gladstone. Sir T. Freemantle. J. Young. J. Milnes Gaskill. Sir W. Gage. Sir G. Seymour. Hon. Captain Gordon. J. R. Bonham. Colonel Jonathan Peel. Sir F. Pollock. Sir W. Follett. Dr Nichol. Mr Blackburn. B try in for XLI. 1841. CHAP. Turkey by the ships of all other nations being excluded from the Black Sea, had come to the very verge of a war with Great Britain in consequence of the siege of Herat, and the struggle for the central mountains of Affghanistan. France, whose alliance with England had for the last ten years mainly contributed to the peace of Europe, had been alienated beyond redemption by the settlement of the Eastern Question without her intervention, and the defiance to her arms by the bombardment of Beyrout and Acre. Upon Spain, distracted by a savage and relentless civil war but recently extinguished, no reliance whatever could be placed; and the Liberal government of Portugal was only upheld by the constant presence of a British fleet in the Tagus. Austria, though united with England on the Eastern Question, and a party to the attack on Acre, was too nervous about the popular tendencies of the British Government, and the frightful civil war it had kept alive in the Peninsula, not to keep aloof on questions of general politics. The rebellion in Canada had been only recently suppressed, and a large force was still required to restrain its angry spirits; the West India colonies, steeped in ruin from the effects of negro emancipation, were only restrained by absolute impotence from breaking into open revolt; the Cape of Good Hope was threatened by the ceaseless hostility of the Caffres, and almost stripped of the doubtful support of the Boors; and India, involved in a perilous distant warfare in the mountains of Affghanistan, was on the verge of the greatest military disaster recorded in British annals. To complete the whole, England had got involved in a serious war with the Chinese Empire, carried on at an immense distance and at an enormous expense, in which ultimate success was doubtful, and present cost certain; and which, in the most favourable view, promised no successful results but at a vast expenditure of blood and treasure. Fearfully as the horizon was overcast in every direction in external relations, the prospect was still more XLI. 1841. 16. prospect in affairs. alarming in internal affairs; and in truth it was the CHAP. national weakness at home which rendered so formidable the dangers which threatened the State abroad. Five bad seasons in succession had nearly doubled the price of Still darker food, and augmented immensely the annual importation internal from abroad. The price of wheat during the whole year had been above 62s., in September it was 72s. the quarter, and this high rate had been maintained for five years a woeful change for the working classes from 39s. to 40s., at which it had stood before the commencement of this disastrous epoch. The pressure of high prices was not alleviated to the manufacturing classes by proportionally high wages; on the contrary, this period of distress had this peculiar and unprecedented feature, that high prices of provisions of all sorts were accompanied by ruinously low wages, especially in every branch of manufacturing industry. Power-loom weavers and coombers, who ten years before had been making 18s. a-week, could now only make 6s., and that by the most exhausting and incessant toil. Colliers and iron-miners, who four years before had earned 5s. a-day, were now at 2s. 6d., while wheat was nearly doubled in price; and weavers by the hand-loom could with difficulty make 3d. a-day. A hopeless paralysis seemed to have fallen upon the enterprise and activity of the country; the depression was universal and extreme, and continued without abatement during the whole of 1842 and the first half of 1843. The winters 1841-2 and 1842-3 were the most melancholy ever known in English history; and the only comforting feature in the case was the noble patience and resignation with which their sufferings were borne by the poor. Yet such was their intensity that the only surprising thing is how a great proportion of them contrived to prolong existence at all during such a terrible and protracted period of suffering. The distress was so universal that it had ceased to be matter of dispute; the deplorable fact was felt and lamented in XLI. Mart. ii. Doubleday, Personal CHAP. silence. In proroguing Parliament, after a short session of a few weeks, subsequent to Sir R. Peel's accession to 1841. power, the Royal Commission said: "Her Majesty has 1 Ann. Reg. commanded us to express her deep concern for the dis1841, 229; tress which has prevailed for a considerable period in 519, 520; some of the principal manufacturing districts, and to ii. 329, 331; assure you that you may rely upon her cordial concurknowledge. rence in all measures which, after mature consideration, may be taken to prevent thre recurrence of that distress."1 This universal commercial and manufacturing suffering Statistical produced the results that might have been expected on the ing the dis- revenue, trade, and resources of the country. The national income sunk £1,200,000 from 1841 to 1842; while the current expenses were simultaneously increased by a similar amount, leaving a deficiency of £2,500,000, which had to be made up by loan.* The exports and imports of the nation exhibited a similar and still more alarming change the former had sunk from £53,000,000 in 1839 to £47,000,000 in 1842; the latter increased from £62,000,000 in 1839 to £70,000,000 in 1843; 17. details prov tress. -PORTER'S Progress of the Nation, 475, 3d edit. EXPORTS AND IMPORTS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. |