I. CHAP. age; its sway begins when the body to which it was united is mouldering in the grave. The prophet is even more revered in future times than the lawgiver; when time has placed its signet on opinions, they carry conviction to every breast; and he who has had the courage to defend the cause of truth against the prejudices of one age, is sure of gaining the suffrages of the next. CHAPTER II. HISTORY OF ENGLAND FROM THE PEACE OF PARIS, IN 1815, TO THE END OF THE YEAR 1816. II. 1815. 1. ing position Britain at So great had been the success, so glorious the triumphs CHAP. of England, in the latter years of the war, that the least sanguine were led to entertain the most unbounded hopes of the future prosperity of the empire. Prosperity Commandunheard of, and universal, had, with a few transient of Great periods of distress, when the contest was at the worst, the close of pervaded every department of the state. The colonial the war. possessions of Great Britain encircled the earth; the loss of the North American colonies had been more than compensated by the acquisition of a splendid empire in India, where sixty millions of men were already subject to our rule, and forty millions more were in a state of alliance; the whole West India islands had fallen into our hands, and were in the very highest state of prosperity; Java had been added to our Eastern possessions, and had been only relinquished from the impulse of a perhaps imprudent generosity; and the foundation had been laid, in Australia, of those flourishing colonies which are, perhaps, destined one day to rival Europe itself in numbers, riches, and splendour. How different was this prospect from that which, a few years before, the world had exhibited! There had been a time when, in the words of exalted eloquence," the Continent lay flat before our rival; when the Spaniard, the Austrian, the II. 1815. CHAP. Prussian, had retired; when the iron quality of Russia had dissolved; when the domination of France had come to the water's edge; and when, behold, from a misty speck in the west the avenging genius of these our countries issues forth, grasping ten thousand thunderbolts, breaks the spell of France, stops in his own person the flying fortunes of the world, sweeps the sea, rights the globe, and retires in a flame of glory."* Nor had the domestic prosperity of this memorable period been inferior to its external renown. Agriculture, commerce, and manufactures at home had gone on increasing, during the whole struggle, in an unparalleled ratio; the landed proprietors were in affluence, and for the most part enjoyed incomes triple of what they had possessed at its commencement; wealth to an unheard-of extent had been created among the farmers; the soil, daily increasing in fertility and breadth of cultivated land, had become adequate to the maintenance of a rapidly-increasing population; and Great Britain, as the effect of her long exclusion from the Continent, had obtained the inestimable blessing of being self-supporting as regards the national subsistence. The exports, imports, and tonnage had more than doubled since the war began; and although severe distress, especially during the years 1810 and 1811, had pervaded the manufacturing districts, yet their condition, upon the whole, had been one of general and extraordinary prosperity. 2. facts prov sperity of Facts proved by the parliamentary records sufficiently Statistical demonstrated that this description was not the high-flown ing the ge- picture of imagination, but the sober representation of neral pro truth. The revenue raised by taxation within the year had the state. risen from £19,000,000, in 1792, to £72,000,000, in 1815; the total expenditure from taxes and loans had reached, in 1814 and 1815, the enormous amount of £117,000,000 each year. In the latter years of the war, Great Britain had above 1,000,000 of men in arms in Europe and Asia; * Grattan. II. 1815. and besides paying the whole of these immense armaments, CHAP. she was able to lend £11,000,000 yearly to the Continental powers; yet were these copious bleedings so far from having exhausted the capital or resources of the country, that the loan of 1814, although of the enormous amount of £35,000,000, was obtained at the rate of £4, 11s. 1d. per cent, being a lower rate of interest than had been paid at the commencement of the war. The exports, which in 1792 were £27,000,000, had swelled in 1815 to nearly £58,000,000, official value; the imports had advanced during the same period from £19,000,000 to £32,000,000. The shipping had advanced from 1,000,000 to 2,500,000 tons. The population of England had risen from 9,400,000 in 1792, to 13,400,000 in 1815; that of Great Britain and Ireland from 14,000,000 in the former period, to 18,000,000 in the latter. Yet, notwithstanding this rapid increase, and the absorption of nearly 500,000 pairs of robust arms in the army, militia, and navy, the imports of grain had gone on continually diminishing, and had sunk in 1815 to less than 500,000 quarters. And so far was this prodigious expenditure and rapid increase of numbers from having exhausted the resources of the state, that above £6,000,000 annually was raised by the voluntary efforts of the inhabitants, to mitigate the distresses and assuage the sufferings of the poor; and a noble 1 See Table sinking fund was in existence, and had been kept sacred in Hist. of Europe, during all the vicissitudes of the struggle, which already App. C. had reached £16,000,000 a-year, and would certainly, if where the left to itself, have extinguished the whole public debt by all given. the year 1845.1 xcvi., figures are 3. general an When such had been the prosperity and so great the progress of the empire, during the continuance of a long Warm and and bloody war, in the course of which it had repeatedly ticipations been reduced to the very greatest straits, and compelled of general to fight for its very existence against the forces of com- on the bined Europe, there seemed to be no possible limits which could be assigned to the prosperity of the state when the prosperity peace. II. 1815. CHAP. contest was over, and the blessings of peace had returned to gladden our own and every other land. If the industry of our people had been so sustained, their progress so great, during a war in which we were for a long period shut out from the Continent, and for a time from America also, what might be expected when universal peace prevailed, and the harbours of all nations, long famishing for the luxuries of British produce and manufactures, were everywhere thrown open for their reception? Views of this sort were so obviously supported by the appearances of the social world, that they were embraced not only by the ardent and enthusiastic, but the prudent and the sagacious, in every part of the country. The landholders borrowed, the capitalists lent money, on the faith of their justice. The merchant embarked his fortune in the sure confidence that the present flattering appearances would not prove fallacious; and the eloquent preacher expressed no more than the general feeling when he said-" The mighty are fallen, and the weapons of war have perished. The cry of freedom bursts from the unfettered earth, and the standards of victory wave in all the winds of heaven. Again in every corner of our own land the voice of joy and gladness is heard. The cheerful sounds of labour rise again in our streets, and the dark ocean again begins to whiten with our sails. Over this busy scene of human joy the genial influences of heaven have descended. The unclouded sun of summer has ripened for us all the riches of harvest. The God of nature hath crowned the year 1 Sermon on with his goodness, and all things living are filled with giving, Jan. plenteousness. Even the infant shares in the general joy; 13, 1814, by and the aged, when he recollects the sufferings of former Alison years, is led to say, with the good old Simeon in the Gospel, Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."" 1 the Thanks the Rev. Archibald Sermons, i. 450. Such were the expectations and feelings of the people at the termination of the war. Never were hopes more cruelly disappointed, never anticipations more desperately |