1832. CHAP. impassioned neighbours on securing some real advantages XXXI. from the victory they had gained, but the advantages were different, and of a less perilous kind. They consisted, not in establishing principles, but diminishing burdens; not in subverting governments, but in lowering prices. They had been told for years that the cost of everything would be lowered a half, wages doubled, and taxes halved, the moment the Bill was passed; and what they were now set on was to exact pledges from their representatives which might immediately secure this desirable consummation. There might be something very ridiculous in expecting such results to follow from a mere change in the representation, but it was incomparably less dangerous for the nation to follow such illusions than to be set on forcing on successive and still more perilous organic changes in the constitution. 5. were at the English movement. II. It was a matter of the very highest importance, The nobility and now proved of the most essential service, that, unlike head of the the French, the English Revolution was headed and directed by several of the greatest and most influential families in the country, and a large part of the nobility. They began it, indeed, in entire ignorance of the consequences of their own measure, and contended for it at last rather from the dogged resolution not to be beaten, than any clear perception of the benefit it was likely to confer either upon their country or themselves. But still the passing of the Bill left them in possession of the reins of power, and holding a very great sway in the nation, from gratitude for benefits received, and the expectation of still greater ones to come. This was a matter of the greatest consequence, especially in the first moments of hallucination and triumph consequent on the passing of the Bill. It was impossible to suppose that the Russells and Cavendishes, the Greys and the Elliots, could be set on measures which went to destroy their own influence in the State, and possibly endanger the hereditary estates from the possession of which they mainly derived XXXI. 1832. 6. Conserva their posts. their grandeur. They had cordially supported the Reform Bill in the belief that it was an important party move, which would permanently destroy their political opponents, and give themselves a long, perhaps a perpetual lease of power. To attain this object, they had entered into a temporary union with the Chartists and Radicals, and largely availed themselves of the aid which their violence or intimidation could afford. But in their secret hearts they disliked and dreaded their dangerous allies even more than the Tories; and while constantly lauding them in public, they were in reality in secret devising means to thwart their designs, and had no intention whatever of vacating in their favour the seats of power. III. Among the causes which tended to deaden the revolutionary enthusiasm, and avert, in the first instance, Effect of the the dangers of the Reform Bill, a prominent place must tives rebe assigned to the patriotic and intrepid conduct of the mining at Conservatives in everywhere remaining at their posts, and in many cases doing their utmost to obtain places in the legislature. Unlike the French noblesse, who emigrated en masse, joined their arms to those of the foreigner, and doubled the strength of the revolutionary party by allying with it the patriotic, the English aristocracy all remained in the country, and did their utmost to moderate a fervour which the greater part of them had had no share in creating, but from the effects of which all, whether supporters or opponents, were equally, to all appearance, destined to suffer. The effect of this courageous and truly patriotic conduct was immense. There is something in danger bravely dared, in obloquy voluntarily incurred, which inevitably commands respect; and however much such qualities may be disregarded or calumniated during the heat of the contest, they sink into the mind when its excitement is over. Reviled, insulted, assaulted, abused, the Conservatives were generally seen upon the hustings or the platform, opposing to the brutality of mob violence the calm resolution of intellectual strength. VOL. V. Y CHAP. This conduct was the more dignified and impressive that XXXI. it was obviously disinterested: the majority for the 1832. 7. of Govern ment. Liberal party under the new constitution was so overwhelming, that it was evident that for a very long period, perhaps for ever, their opponents would be excluded from power. The Liberal press contained the most violent abuse of the Conservatives, and the Radicals exclaimed that the Bill had obviously not gone far enough, "for some Tories had got into Parliament." But in the mean time the thoughts of many were changed "Respect was mingled with surprise, And the stern joy which warriors feel IV. A place not less important in working out moderaModeration tion of conduct after the Reform Bill passed, must be assigned to the conduct of the Government in striving to allay the general fervour to which they had owed their victory. This was a very delicate and hazardous thing to attempt, for the experience of every age has proved that the only way to keep the lead of a movement is to advance before it, and that the first halt in agitation is a step towards the ruin of the agitators. The Reform Ministry ere long experienced this. From the moment of their triumph their popularity began to fail, and before three years had elapsed the leaders of the movement were driven from power amidst the general obloquy of those upon whom they had conferred the greatest political benefits. It must always be recorded to the honour of Earl Grey's Administration, that they voluntarily incurred this odium, and accelerated this fall, to avert the dangers which their previous ambitious conduct had brought upon the country. By continuing the movement, they would in the end, indeed, have destroyed their country, but in the first instance they would have saved themselves by checking it, they in the end saved their country, but in the outset destroyed themselves. V. The subjection of the Irish Catholic members of XXXI. 1832. 8. effect of the Ireland of Rome at Parliament to the influence of a foreign power, in the CHAP. Court of Rome, fraught with so many evils, on other occasions, to the best interests of the empire, on this undoubtedly worked for good. Intoxicated with the double Beneficial victory it had gained in the passing, first of Catholic influence in Emancipation, then of the Reform Bill, the conclave the See of of the Vatican deemed the time come when they were this period. entitled to reap the fruits of victory in the elevation of their own, and the depression of the Protestant Establishment. Thence a division among the Reformers and a schism in their ranks, from which they have never since entirely recovered. Union had constituted their strength, and that was unbroken as long as victory was doubtful; division revealed their weakness, and that appeared as soon as it was secured. Of the Reformers of Great Britain the great majority were Protestants, and not a few as sturdy opponents of the See of Rome as their ancestors in the days of the Puritans, or the Solemn League and Covenant. When the Vatican, therefore, threw off the mask, and measures were commenced evidently intended to destroy the Protestant Establishment in Ireland, and open the door to the replacing the Catholic faith in these realms, not a few of the most zealous paused or became lukewarm in the cause. It was impossible to feel any sympathy with a cause, independent of religious differences, which was supported by fire-raising and murder, and forcibly retained the rural population of Ireland in a state of misery and barbarity unparalleled in a Christian state. Divisions in this as in all other coalitions were consequent upon success; and it was fortunate for the British empire that they appeared so soon, and with such serious effects. Earl Grey was overturned in two years after their united triumph by O'Connell, to whom he had opened the doors of Parliament. Had they remained united, he is a bold man who should have predicted what would have been the present state of the British empire. CHAP. 1832. 9. the cholera the Reform mania. Feb. 18, 1832. VI. On one occasion, during the fervour of the first great convulsion, Pétion, looking at the watery sky, said, "You need not be afraid; there will be no revolution to-night." Influence of In effect, the rain soon after began to fall in torrents, and in checking the assemblage destined to overturn the Girondists was dispersed. Every person must have observed how often a cloud, charged with the most dangerous electric fluid, is deprived of its alarming qualities by descending in rain. A physical visitation of Providence this year sensibly abated the Reform mania: it supplanted the passion for power in the multitude by a still stronger and more general feeling the terror of death. The CHOLERA, whose appearance in the east of Europe and France has already been recounted, was first detected in Great Britain in the autumn of 1831, and in the spring of the following year it broke out in the metropolis, and excited universal consternation. It made its first appearance in Sunderland, from whence it spread to Newcastle and Scotland; and as long as its ravages were confined to the north it excited very little attention in the south, and nothing was done to arrest it in Parliament. But no sooner did one case appear at Rotherhithe, near Woolwich, than this apathy was cast off; in extreme alarm, Parliament passed three Acts in one day. The disease continued its ravages over nearly the whole country through the summer and autumn of 1832, exhibiting everywhere the same strange and contradictory features which have elsewhere marked its progress. In general, it was most fatal in the neighbourhood of stagnant waters, and in some places half the inhabitants in such localities perished. In other places, again, its ravages were most severely felt in airy, elevated, and cleanly situations, and among the richest and most orderly persons. Generally speaking, however, the mortality was greatest among the intemperate, the dissipated, and the profligate. It was peculiarly virulent in North Shields and Newcastle in England, and in Musselburgh and Haddington in Scotland. A central board of health |