1832-1833 HUSKISSON'S DEATH 909 of whom Stephenson was one, sent in engines to compete. Stephenson's, which was called the 'Rocket,' was the only one which would move, and finally ran at the rate of thirty-five miles an hour. After that there was no doubt that Stephenson's was the only engine likely to be of any use. Unfortunately the experiment cost the life of a statesman. Huskisson, who had quarrelled with Wellington in 1828 (see p. 895), seeing him in a railway carriage, stepped up to shake hands, when he was himself run over by the Rocket and killed. 1841 Resignation and Re-instatement of the Melbourne Final Resignation of the Melbourne Ministry 1. Liberals and Conservatives. 1832.-Before the end of 1832 a Parliament met, in which the House of Commons was elected by the new constituencies created by the Reform Act. The Ministerialists were in an enormous majority, all of them anxious to make use of their victory by the introduction of practical reforms. There was, however, considerable difference amongst them as to the reforms desirable, the Radicals wishing to go much farther than the Whigs. To conceal, as far as possible, this difference, a new name—that of Liberals—was borrowed from Continental politicians, to cover the whole party. Their opponents, finding the name of Tories unpopular, began to call themselves Conservatives. 2. Irish Tithes. 1831-1833.-One of the first difficulties which the Government had to face was that of Irish tithes. Catholic emancipation had not made Ireland richer, and there was still in that country a superabundant population, in many parts scarcely able to live and at the same time meet the demands of their landlords and of the clergy of a Church which was not their own. There was no poor law in Ireland to give relief to the destitute, and many of the landlords were absentees. In 1831 and 1832 the payment of tithes was often refused, and the collectors were sometimes murdered. General outrages also increased in number, and in 1833, when an attempt was made by the Government to enforce the payment of tithes, only 12,000l. out of 104,000l. was recovered. The Government was divided as to the proper measures to be adopted. The Chief Secretary 1—the minister specially entrusted with Irish affairs-was Stanley, a man of great abilities and a fiery temper, who wished to accompany proposals of redress by strong measures for the coercion of those by whom the law was resisted. His policy was described as a 'quick alternation of kicks and kindness.' On the other hand, O'Connell had begun to denounce the Union between Ireland and Great Britain and to ask for its repeal. In 1833 Stanley brought in a Bill for the trial of offenders in disturbed districts by courts-martial. As soon as this had been passed Althorp brought in another Bill to reduce the number of Irish bishops from twenty-two to twelve, and to tax the Irish clergy and apply the proceeds to the extinction of Church-cess, a rate levied to keep the church buildings in good condition. This Bill too became law, but only after the Government had dropped what was called the Appropriation Clause, which was to enable the Government to apply to general purposes the revenue obtained by diminishing the number of the bishops. 3. Abolition of Slavery. 1833.-Stanley had made so many enemies in Ireland that it was thought advisable to remove him from his post. He became Colonial Secretary, and was at once confronted with the question of the abolition of slavery in British colonies. For some years Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, and Zachary Macaulay (the father of Macaulay the historian), had been pleading the cause of the slave. In the West Indies slaves were often subjected to brutal cruelty. To take a few instances: a little slave-girl, having dropped some cream belonging to her mistress, was scolded by her mother, a slave-woman named America. The master of both of them had America flogged with no less than 175 lashes for remonstrating with her own daughter, holding that, as the child was his property, she ought only to have been scolded by himself or his wife. Three slave-women were flogged for crying when their brothers were flogged. Another woman, whose brother was 1 I.e. the chief secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant, but practically controlling him, as being responsible directly to Parliament, of which he is a member. 1833-1834 PRACTICAL REFORMS 911 flogged for attending a dissenting chapel, was flogged merely for sighing. When Stanley came into office, new as he was to the details of the subject, he mastered them in three weeks, and carried a Bill for the complete abolition of slavery, though leaving the former slaves apprentices to their late masters for twelve years. The purchase-money given by Great Britain to the slave-owners was 20,000,000l. The apprenticeship system was found unsatisfactory and was soon done away with. 4. The First Factory Act. 1833.-The abolition of negro slavery was accompanied by an effort to lighten the sorrows of factory children who were kept at work in unwholesome air often for thirteen hours a day. Lord Ashley, who afterwards became Earl of Shaftesbury, took up their cause, and carried a Bill limiting the hours of labour for children under thirteen years to eight hours a day, and for children between thirteen and eighteen to twelve hours a day, though he would himself have preferred a stronger measure. This law was the beginning of a factory legislation which has done much to make England peaceable and contented. Relief was 5. The New Poor Law. 1834. The session of 1834 was occupied with a measure of a different kind. The Poor Law, as it existed, was a direct encouragement to thriftlessness. given to the poor at random, even when they were earning wages, so that employers of labour preferred to be served by paupers, because part of the wages would then be paid out of the rates. The more children a poor man had the more he received from the rates, and in this and in other ways labourers were taught that they would be better off by being dependent on the parish than by striving to make their own way in the world. The consequent increase of the rates had become unbearable to those who had to pay them: in one parish, for instance, rates which had been less than 117. in 1801 had risen to 3677. in 1832. By the new Poor Law, passed in 1834, workhouses were built and no person was to receive relief who did not consent to live in one of them. The object of this rule was that no one might claim to be supported by others who was capable of supporting himself, and residence in the workhouse, where work would be required, was considered as the best test of real poverty, because it was thought that no one would consent to go in unless he was really distressed. Afterwards it was remembered that in some cases, such as those of old people who could not work even if they had the will, no such test was required. The strict rule of the law was, therefore, subsequently relaxed, and outdoor relief granted in certain cases. 1834.-The ministry had by this Every piece of successful legis 6. Break-up of the Ministry. time lost much of its popularity. lation alienated some of its supporters, and the rapidity of the changes effected by the reformed Parliament frightened many easygoing people. Peel, too, who led the Conservatives in the House of Commons, was growing in favour by the ability, and still more by the moderation, which he displayed. The ministers, too, disagreed amongst themselves. An open rupture occurred when Lord John Russell declared for the right of Parliament to appropriate the misused revenues of the Irish Church to other purposes. "Johnny," wrote Stanley to Sir James Graham, the First Lord of the Admiralty, "has upset the coach." Stanley, Graham, and Lord Ripon --who had formerly been known as Lord Goderich (see p. 892) — resigned together. Further misunderstandings brought about the resignation of Grey, who had been an excellent Prime Minister as long as the Reform question was still unsettled, but who did not possess the qualities needed in the head of a divided Cabinet. He was succeeded by Lord Melbourne, and Melbourne contrived to keep his followers together for a few months. In November, however, Lord Althorp, who was the leader of the House of Commons, became Earl Spencer by his father's death, and it was therefore necessary to find a successor to him. The king, who had long been alienated from the Reformers, took advantage of the occasion to dismiss the ministry. It was the last time that a ministry was dismissed by a sovereign. 7. Foreign Policy of the Reformers. 1830-1834.—Whilst the home policy of the Reform ministry had been weakened by divisions in the Cabinet, its foreign policy had been in the strong hands of Lord Palmerston (see p. 901). In 1830 the revolution at Paris had been followed by a revolution at Brussels, the object of which was not to procure internal reforms but to separate Belgium from the kingdom of the Netherlands, of which it had formed a part only since 1814 (see p. 873). Lord Palmerston's policy was to forward the desire of the Belgians for independence and at the same time to hinder any attempt on the part of France to annex their territory. In this, with the assistance of Louis Philippe the new king of the French, he completely succeeded. In 1831 Leopold of Saxe Coburg, whose first wife had been the Princess Charlotte (see p. 881), was chosen by the Belgians as their king, and married one of the daughters of Louis Philippe. Though the Dutch resisted for a time, they were compelled to relinquish their hold on any part of Belgium. A French army captured from them 1834-1835 PEEL AND MELBOURNE 913 The the citadel of Antwerp and then retired to its own territory. key-stone of Palmerston's policy was an alliance-not too trustful -between the constitutional monarchies of England and France, which was drawn the more tightly because the absolute government of Austria crushed all attempts at resistance in Italy, and the absolute government of Russia put down with great harshness an attempt made by Poland to assert her independence. To these two monarchies Prussia was a close ally, and Europe was thus divided into two camps, the absolute and the constitutional. 8. Peel's First Ministry. 1834-1835.—Sir Robert Peel, having been appointed Prime Minister by the king, dissolved Parliament. In an address to the electors of Tamworth, the borough for which he stood, he threw off the doctrines of the old Tories, professing himself to be a moderate but conservative reformer. This 'Tamworth manifesto,' as it was called, served his party in good stead. The Conservatives gained seat after seat, and it is probable that, if the king had had a little more patience and had allowed the ministry to fall to pieces of itself instead of dismissing it, the Conservatives would have been in a majority. As it was, though they had nearly half the House, they were still in a minority. When Parliament met, February 19, 1835, it had some difficulty in finding temporary accommodation, as the old Houses of Parliament, in which the struggles of nearly three centuries had been conducted, had been burnt to the ground in the preceding October. Peel was outvoted from the beginning, but he insisted on bringing in his measures before he would retire, and, at all events, had the satisfaction of showing that he was capable of preparing good laws as well as of giving good advice. The Liberals, however, were too angry to adopt even good laws when proposed by a minister who had risen to power by the use of the king's prerogative. They entered into an agreement with O'Connell, known, from the place where its terms were settled, as the Lichfield House Compact, and, having thus secured, by the support of the Irish members, an undivided majority, they insisted on the appropriation of the surplus revenues of the Irish Church to purposes of education. They carried a succession of votes on this subject, and, on April 8, 1835, Peel resigned. He left behind him a general impression that he was the first statesman in the country. 9. Beginning of Melbourne's Second Ministry. 1835-1837.-Melbourne again became Prime Minister, and Russell Home Secretary and leader of the House of Commons. The first great work of the new ministry was the passing of a Municipal Corporations |