XXXV. 1835. selves in courteous terms towards the new Minister, and CHAP. declared their readiness to give him a fair trial, they were not prepared, at present at least, to join his Cabinet, from a fear that their motives for so doing would be liable to misconstruction. The consequence was that Sir Robert 1 Doublewas thrown back upon the old Tory party exclusively, of Sir R. day's Life and a Cabinet was formed, containing such an amount of Peel, ii. talent and eminence as would in former days have insured Reg. 1835, stability, but could hardly be said to promise it in the ii. 206. altered state of the constitution under the Reform Bill.1* 194; Ann. 2, 3; Mat. CHAP. XXXV. 1835. 17. Previous to entering on the labours of office, Sir R. Peel addressed an important letter to the electors of Tamworth, which was in effect a manifesto to the whole Sir Robert middle classes of the empire. It was in the highest dedress to the gree moderate and conciliatory; disclaimed all intention Tamworth. to interfere with the constitution as established by the Peel's ad electors of Reform Bill, but declared his willingness to reform all real abuses, and listen to all well-founded grounds of complaint. He said: "With regard to the Reform Bill itself, I accept it as a final and irrevocable settlement of a great constitutional question; a settlement which no friend to the peace and welfare of the country would attempt to disturb, either by direct or insidious means. I will carry out its intentions, supposing those to imply a careful review of old institutions, undertaken in a friendly spirit, and with a purpose of improvement. I enter upon the arduous duties assigned to me with the deepest sense of the responsibility they involve, with great distrust of my own qualifications for their adequate discharge, but, at the same time, with a resolution to persevere, which nothing could inspire but the strong impulse of public duty, the consciousness of upright motives, and the firm belief that the people of this country will so far maintain the prerogative of the King, as to give to the Ministers of his choice, not implicit confidence, but a fair trial." There can be no doubt, from his subsequent condress, Ann. duct, that Sir R. Peel was perfectly sincere in these observations, and as little that he was thoroughly wise.1 The constitution having, after a violent struggle well-nigh attended with fatal consequences, been settled on a new basis, nothing could have been more perilous and injudicious than to attempt to alter it, either directly or indirectly. The only wisdom was to let it get its full swing, and work out its natural and inevitable results. "The people," says Harrington, "cannot see, but they can feel." 1 Sir R. Peel's Ad Reg. 1835, 4, 5. XXXV. 1835. 18. manner in which the a received change was in the country. It was seriously apprehended by many persons who CHAP. knew the strength of the reform passion which had got possession of the country, that the restoration to power of a Tory Government would lead to serious disturbances, Peaceable and those who were aware of the length which matters had gone before the Reform Bill was passed, were not little fearful that the displaced Ministry might attempt to regain office, as they had carried the bill, by actual force. These apprehensions, however, proved happily fallacious, and the event showed that the change which had been made, by giving the middle class in towns, where most danger was to be apprehended, the command of the country, had greatly lessened the risk of popular insurrection. The country remained perfectly quiet when the change was announced; conscious of their strength, the Liberals continued peaceable. The usual weapons of party warfare, indeed, were employed unsparingly, though without generally rousing the people to any dangerous excesses. The Liberals loudly declaimed that the reign of the boroughmongers and the Peers was about to return; that the Reform Bill, if not expressly abrogated, would be virtually repealed; and that the newborn liberties of the people would be sacrificed at the shrine of a rapacious oligarchy, to whose restoration to power this was the first step. One leading journal said, evidently on the information of a Cabinet Minister, "The Queen has done it an assertion soon found to have been erroneous, as the cause of it was the resentment felt by his Majesty at the coercions put on him at the passing of the Reform Bill. The few journals who supported the Tory side answered, that these imputations were entirely unfounded; that no infringement on the Reform Bill, either express or implied, was intended, and that the manifesto of Sir Robert Peel proved that more real reformation. of abuses was to be expected from his Administration, than from that which the public indignation had so all; دو XXXV. 1835. 1 Ann. Reg. CHAP. recently chased from power. These apprehensions were natural on both sides, and such as might have been expected under the circumstances; but had the real views 1835, 5, 6, of Sir R. Peel been known, his advent to power would bleday, ii. have been hailed by the Liberals with more joy than that of any of their chiefs who carried the Reform Bill.1 7,57; Dou 196, 197; Mart. ii. 209, 210. 19. in England. The elections took place in the middle of January, and Result of it was from them that the Liberals first obtained decithe elections sive evidence that a great difference of opinion as to their qualifications to carry on the Government had arisen in the country. In the metropolis, indeed, in which, according to custom, the first trials of strength occurred, the Conservatives were eminently unsuccessful. Every one of the twenty members were returned in the Reform interest. But it was far otherwise in the counties, and many of the great towns of England: in them a large intermixture of Tories was returned. Halifax, York, and Leeds returned each one Conservative candidate in the last he was at the head of the poll. Bristol returned two Conservative members, as did Newcastle, Exeter, Hull, and Warrington. Liverpool returned Lord Sandon, a moderate Tory, as one of its members, and though Sir Howard Douglas, the other candidate on that interest, was defeated by Mr Ewart, a Liberal, he polled seven hundred more votes than he had done on the last occasion. In Lancashire and Hampshire both the Liberal candidates were defeated by the Conservative. On the other hand, Manchester, Birmingham, Bolton, Sheffield, Preston, and most of the manufacturing towns, returned Liberals. In a word, contrary to general expectation, and to the no small dismay of the Whigs, who had anticipated a perpetual lease of power from the 3 Ann. Reg. Reform Bill,2 a small majority of the five hundred English members was returned in the Tory interest-an astonishing fact, considering how lately the country had been 1835, 14, 15. XXXV. shaken to its foundations by the Reform tempest, and CHAP. eminently instructive as to the strength of the religious, loyal, and orderly feelings which characterised a large portion of the English people. 1835. Scotland. It was otherwise in Ireland and Scotland, however, 20. where the Reform Bill had worked an entire revolution, Returns in and the class in whom political power had been formerly too exclusively vested was entirely stripped of it. The whole burghs of Scotland, twenty in number, returned Liberal members in the counties, five were gained by the Tories where they had formerly failed, and three by the Whigs where on the last occasion they had been defeated; and Glasgow, which had formerly returned a Conservative (Mr J. Ewing) and a Liberal, now returned two Liberals. The electors of Roxburghshire, who had given a signal proof of their fitness to exercise the electoral rights by hissing the dying Sir Walter Scott when he ventured to express an opinion adverse to them on the Reform Bill, again gave a striking proof of their incapability to bear its excitements on occasion of this election. Serious disturbances took place at Jedburgh, the county town, when Lord John Scott, the Tory candidate, made his appearance, and numbers of the electors were struck by the mob. But this was nothing compared with what occurred at Hawick, one of the polling places for the same county. From the very first, symptoms of very serious riot manifested themselves in that town; and in spite of the strenuous efforts of the sheriff of the county and a numerous body of justices of peace, and a large body of constables, who were in attendance, the most dreadful acts of violence took place. The voters who came up to vote for Lord John were spit upon, pelted with stones, and severely struck, and in some cases thrown into the Slitridge stream which runs through the town, and subjected to the most shocking indignities, which the judges who afterwards VOL. VI. I |