XLI. 1841. the large balance, of course, having to be paid in gold CHAP. or silver, to the entire destruction, under the existing monetary system, of all credit and commercial industry in the country. It was easy to see to what this large and increasing balance of imports over exports was owing. It arose from the great importation of grain during these years, in consequence of the continued unfavourable harvests and high prices, which had swelled from nothing at all in 1835 and 1836, to 3,000,000 quarters in 1842. This great import of grain cost the nation, almost all in gold and silver-wheat being on an average at 64s.no less than £10,000,000 sterling in one year.* This state of things was sufficiently calamitous in itself; but when its effect upon the currency, and through it on the whole credit and industry of the country, is taken into view, the effect became beyond measure disastrous. The gold and silver held by the Bank of England, which in 1838 had been above £10,000,000, had sunk on 15th October 1839 to £2,545,000, and even in February 1842 had only risen to £5,600,000; as a necessary consequence of which, the notes of the Bank in circulation, which in 1818 had been £27,771,000, with a population little more than half, and transactions not a third of the present, and in 1835 and 1836 had been £19,147,000 and £18,154,000 respectively, had sunk at the first period to £16,732,000, Tooke and at the second to £17,500,000.1 Whoever will con- ii. 386, iii. sider these figures with attention, will at once perceive 439; Porwhat was the cause of the universal distress, and how, 356, 475. under the existing monetary system, five bad seasons in *IMPORTS OF WHEAT INTO GREAT BRITAIN FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 1 on Prices, 78, iv. 437, ter, 94, 146, XLI. 1841. CHAP. succession had come to tell with decisive and ruinous effect upon the whole commercial and manufacturing interests of the country. Nor will it appear surprising that, in England and Wales alone, the paupers had risen in the latter year to 1,427,000, of whom 85,000 were able-bodied, being about an eleventh of the entire population.* 18. Immense difficulties in finance, and from the inade When such was the state of the country, it was next to impossible to see where an increase of revenue was to be looked for, or even the existing annual deficit of £2,500,000 of be filled up. Yet was it absolutely necessary to make a great effort in finance, and that without maments. delay, for this deficit, large as it was, promised to be doubled in the ensuing year by the enormous expenses of the Affghanistan expedition, which had already cost quate national ar The following official table exhibits a melancholy picture of the effect of this long-continued distress upon the duration and chances of life, especially in manufacturing and mining districts, where the chances of life are, most favourable circumstances, so precarious under the The immense proportion of deaths in the manufacturing districts under five years of age, being from 47 to 51 per cent in them all, and about double of those in the rural under the same age, is particularly remarkable, and apparently points to some fixed law of nature.-See the Table in Parl. Deb., lix. 687, Sept. 28, 1841; and DOUBLEDAY, ii. 330. £10,000,000, and left a deficit of £2,500,000 on the CHAP. Indian revenue, which could only be made up from the exchequer of Great Britain. Add to this, that not only had France been irritated in the highest degree by the course pursued by England in the Levant, but a new cause of discord, to be immediately noticed, had sprung up about Otaheite and its sable queen, Pomare, which threatened still farther to embroil the two nations. Incessant demands were daily made on the Government for additional troops, both from the colonies and the manufacturing districts of Great Britain; but yet the national forces were only 92,000, exclusive of India, of whom more than a half were absorbed by the colonies. And as the disturbed state of Ireland required more than a half of the 45,000 left in the British Islands to be permanently stationed in that country, the force in England was so much reduced, that we have the authority of the late Lord Hardinge for the assertion, that when he came into office in 1841, if an invasion from France had taken place, he could not have collected, after garrisoning the sea fortresses, more than 10,000 men and 42 guns to defend London, and the greater part of the latter were so crazy, that if taken into a wet clay field they would have gone to pieces.* At this period Louis Philippe had 300,000 regular soldiers disposable in France; and while England had only ten ships of the line afloat in the Mediterranean, France had seventeen. XLI. 1841. 19. tress in the As might naturally have been expected, this longcontinued and poignant suffering produced at length seri- Great disous disturbances, which broke out in the manufacturing manufacturing districts. districts. Indeed, the amount of distress ascertained to exist by the Committee of Inquiry, appointed by the Ministry in the autumn of 1841, was such, that the only surprising thing was, how a universal disruption of society did not take place. In Carlisle, one-fourth of the The Author had this from Lord Hardinge's own lips, and he made the same statement afterwards in Parliament. XLI. 1842. CHAP. inhabitants were found to be in a state bordering on starvation. In Stockport above half the master-spinners had failed, 3000 houses were shut up and uninhabited, and 5000 persons were walking the streets in a state of idleness. At Leeds the heap of stones broken by the paupers had swelled to 150,000 tons, when all the workmen employed on it were taken into the workhouse. In Manchester the sale of new clothes for the poorer classes had almost entirely ceased; nothing could find a market among them but shirts, and patches to mend the old garments. The condition of the shopkeepers, especially of the humbler class, was scarcely less distressing, while poor-rates were daily increasing beyond all precedent ; their trade had sunk to a third, often not more than a tenth, of what it had been five years before. In Dorsetshire, the wages of an able-bodied labourer were only 4s. a-week, and the best could not earn more than 6s., and this with wheat at 70s. the quarter. In a word, the condition of the labouring poor in all the manufacturing districts was such that it could not by possibility become worse without multitudes being swept by absolute famine into an untimely grave.1 1 Spectator, 1842, 27, 32, 337, 630, 637; Mart. ii. 520, 521. 20. With all the magnanimous patience and long-suffering Seriousriots of the working-classes, it could not be expected that this in England universal distress in the manufacturing districts could in autumn 1842. continue for any great length of time without producing XLI. 1842. serious riots requiring the interposition of the military. CHAP. In the Potteries, a body of six thousand men collected together, and kept Staffordshire in a continual state of anxiety and alarm. In Manchester and its vicinity the influx of rioters became so great in August 1842, that it evidently proceeded from some common design, and the whole troops which London could spare, including a regiment of the Guards, were despatched, at two hours' notice, by railway to the scene of danger. Even after their arrival, the forces of the insurgents were so large that it appeared at one time as if the whole of Lancashire was in their possession. Mills were stopped, machinery destroyed, windows smashed, and threatening letters sent in every direction. Three rioters were shot dead by the military at Barslem, and several wounded. Lady Peel received an anonymous letter which intimated that on a certain night Sir Robert's splendid seat, Drayton Manor, would be burned down. She had the courage to remain after procuring a guard, and the threatened attack was not made. It was fully ascertained that these violent acts 1842; Specwere organised and directed by the Chartist leaders, and 800; Mart. a sense of this, joined to the presence of a large military Morning force collected from all quarters in the district, at length 1842. restored a forced tranquillity.1 1 Morning Post, Aug. tator, 1842, ii. 522, 523; Chron. 22. serious riots In Scotland matters assumed a still more formidable aspect; for the people there, slow to move, and not still more readily excited, are tenacious of purpose, and, when once in Scotland. fairly roused, are capable of the most desperate acts. Aug. 1842. There is a certain amount of distress which so paralyses the mind as to render disturbance impossible; there is another which inflames it. Paisley, in Renfrewshire, in August 1842, had attained the former stage; for there were seventeen thousand persons out of employment, or working for 24d. a-day; and so sunk were their spirits, that they remained quiet, and even recruiting for the army had ceased. In Lanarkshire the case was different; the colliers' and iron-miners' wages had sunk from 5s. to 2s. 9d. or 2s. 6d. a-day; but even the reduced sum was |