CHAP. XXXV. 1834. 12. Effect of the mone inducing the pros. perity of 1835. It has been already seen how powerfully the monetary crises of 1825 and 1831 contributed to swell the public discontent and suffering, which at length found vent in the Reform revolution. Not less important were the tary laws in effects of the opposite set of causes in producing the feverish prosperity of 1835 and 1836, terminating, as a natural consequence, in the long-continued depression from 1837 to 1842. Several causes concurred, in the first of these years, in retaining the gold in the nation, and inducing a high though fleeting degree of social wellbeing. Four fine seasons in succession had reduced to nothing the importation of wheat, and rendered the country for the chief food of the people self-supporting.* The effect of this, of course, was to stop altogether that drain of the precious metals, the most serious that can set in upon any country, which arises from the necessity of paying for large importations of food in gold or silver, from the disinclination of the raisers of it to take payment in any other form. At the same time, the reduced price of provisions increased the surplus available for other purchases in the hands of the middle and working classes so much as to communicate a fresh and very important impulse both to foreign commerce and domestic manufactures. And all this occurred at the very time when, from the pacification, in part at least, of South America, the supplies of the precious metals from those regions were considerably increased; and when the restored confidence of the nation in the stability of existing things, by the rolling past of the Reform tempest, had renewed, IMPORTATION OF WHEAT INTO GREAT BRITAIN FROM 1830 To 1836. XXXV. after a dreary interval, the taste for comforts and luxu- CHAP. ries, and inspired the raisers of them with sufficient trust in the fortunes of the country to undertake their production. 1834. prosperity 1836. The effect of these concurring causes ere long ap- 13. peared, in the magnitude of the reserve treasure in Growing the possession of the Bank of England, the consequent of 1835 and extension of its paper circulation, and the general rise of prices, and encouragement of speculation among the industrious classes over the whole country. The Funds in the latter part of 1834 rose to 91, and the Four per Cents in March stood at 104-a state of things which enabled the Chancellor of the Exchequer to carry through a bill reducing the interest on the latter stock to 3 per cent, which was a very considerable saving to the nation, as the stock of that description amounted to £156,000,000. The dissentients were only 969, holding stock to the amount of £4,600,000; but Government, to pay off this sum, adopted the very questionable measure of making payment of that sum out of the "monies, stocks, and exchequer bills held by them under the Savings Bank Act;" a step which did not in reality diminish the security of the holders of money in those invaluable establishments, as the stock of those who dissented was placed in the names of the Commissioners in an account entitled "The Funds for the Banks of Savings;" but it had an awkward appearance, and gave rise to various sinister reports as to the security of these establishments, which time has now happily completely dispelled. The trade, navigation, and revenue of the United Kingdom evinced great elasticity towards the close of 1834, and during the whole of 1835 and 1836, insomuch that that period may be reckoned with justice one of the most prosperous which the country had ever known.11 Ann. Reg. The revenue, as is always the case, rose in propor- 291, 292, App. to tion, and for the first time for many years exhibited Chron. a flattering and growing increase, bringing out an esti 1834, 290, CHAP. mated surplus of income above expenditure, in 1835, of XXXV. 1834. 14. mania. 1 Ante, c. £1,815,000.* The effects of this extraordinary flood of prosperity, Joint-stock the result of the important change made upon the currency laws in 1834, by declaring Bank of England notes a legal tender everywhere but at the Bank of England, xxxi. § 64. already noticed,' were very important, and are still felt in various branches of industry and social economymoney being abundant, and the terrors of the bankers of a run upon them for gold allayed by this great change. Advances were liberally made to carry on mercantile undertakings, and both railway and banking speculations exhibited a rapid increase. In the three years ending with 1835, thirty-four joint-stock banks were established ; and in 1836 no less than forty-four new ones were set up-making in all two hundred joint-stock banks, with six hundred and seventy branches, all founded since the joint-stock system had been established in 1826.† The issues of the country banks increased in a similar proportion in the year 1836 they rose £1,500,000. Railway speculations underwent a similar increase the number of bills for establishing new lines augmented from eleven in 1833 to thirty-five in 1836 and forty-two in 1837, and the capital expended in them swelled from * EXPORTS AND IMPORTS OF GREAT BRITAIN FROM 1834 TO 1836. XXXV. 1834. £2,312,000 in 1834 to £22,874,000 in 1836.* These CHAP. four seasons in succession, at the same time, lowered the price of provisions to an unprecedented degree-from 55s. 9d. in 1832, wheat fell to 35s. 9d. in 1835. In a word, the perilous tendency of a circulation based entirely on the retention of gold, was during these years unequivocally evinced in a way directly the reverse of what had hitherto been experienced, but not less fatal; for exchange during those years being favourable, and the export of gold small, paper was issued in abundance, and speculation went on as wildly and extravagantly as it had done ten years before, unchecked by the memory of the terrible catastrophe in which it had then terminated. One class only, though the most important—the agricultural was severely suffering; the unprecedentedly 1 Mart. ii. low price of every kind of rural produce threatened, if 328, 329. it lasted much longer, to involve them in total ruin.1 Amid this general prosperity, a calamitous occurred on the 16th October, which filled the inhabi- Burning of tants of London with consternation. At six o'clock Houses of event in the evening of that day, a fire suddenly broke out near the entrance of the two Houses, occasioned by the imprudent burning of a large quantity of old records, which had overheated the flues which penetrated the building, that frequent cause of conflagration in modern edifices. The flames burnt with such fury, and spread with such rapidity, that all attempts to check them were vain; and the whole efforts of the fire-engines, which on the first alarm were hurried to the spot, were directed to prevent the conflagration spreading to the adjoining structures of Westminster Hall and the Speaker's house. These were with great difficulty preserved from destruction, but both * RAILWAY BILLS PASSED AND CAPITAL AUTHORISED. 15. the two Parliament. 1834. CHAP. Houses of Parliament, and a great number of the official XXXV. rooms connected with them, became the prey of the flames, and were utterly destroyed. The Painted Chamber, fraught with so many interesting recollections from the earliest period of the monarchy-the chapel of St Stephen's, which carried the imagination back to the days of our Saxon kings-the splendid tapestry representing the Spanish Armada, were all destroyed. The lovers of the fine arts can hardly regret a devastation which has made room for the splendid structure which now adorns the same spot, and is destined to witness, it is to be hoped for many generations, the meetings of the Reformed House of Commons; but those who are impressed with the reverence for antiquity, will long lament the loss of a structure hallowed by the memories of eight centuries; and there were not awanting those who thought this calamitous event was ominous of the fate of the empire, and that, as the old constitution had perished, it was fitting that the structure which had witnessed its growth should perish with it. 16. The new Cabinet. Dec. 18, 1834. Jan. 1, 1835. It was in the midst of this growing prosperity that Sir R. Peel, in obedience to his sovereign's command, assumed the reins of office, and attempted the arduous task of forming an Administration, and conducting the Government in the face of a decided majority in the House of Commons and the urban constituencies. It was at first said by the Liberals that he would not succeed in even forming a Cabinet, and that the King, after his illjudged attempt to form a new Administration, would be forced to go back to the old one. In this hope, however, they were disappointed, for soon after Sir Robert's return the new Ministry appeared in the Gazette, and Parliament was dissolved by proclamation. The first step of Sir R. Peel was to open a negotiation with Lord Stanley and Sir James Graham, as their secession from the late Administration led to the hope that they might, without a compromise of principle, join the present. But though both these statesmen expressed them |