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CHAP. which most fascinates the minds of men.

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All admire,

156.

able firmness.

"Justum et tenacem propositi virum

Non civium ardor prava jubentium,
Non voltus instantis tyranni

Mente quatit solida neque Auster,
Dux inquieti turbidus Hadriæ,

Nec fulminantis magna manus Jovis :

Si fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinæ."

Never was there a human being to whom these noble Its indomit- lines were more applicable than to Lord Londonderry. His whole life was a continual struggle with the majority in his own or foreign lands; he combated to subdue and to bless them. He began his career by strenuous efforts to effect the Irish Union, and rescue his native country from the incapable legislature by which its energies had so long been repressed. His mature strength was exerted in a long and desperate conflict with the despotism of revolutionary France, which his firmness, as much as the arm of Wellington, brought to a triumphant issue; his latter days in a ceaseless conflict with the revolutionary spirit in his own country, and an anxious effort to uphold the dignity of Great Britain, and the independence of lesser states abroad. The uncompromising antagonist of Radicalism at home, he was at the same time the resolute opponent of despotism abroad. If Poland retained, after the overthrow of Napoleon, any remnant of nationality, it was owing to his persevering and almost unaided efforts; and at the very time when the savage wretches who raised a shout at his funeral were rejoicing in his death, he had been preparing to assert at Verona, as he had done to the Congresses of Laybach and Troppau, the independent action of Great Britain, and her non-accordance in the policy of the Continental sovereigns against the efforts of human freedom.

His policy in domestic affairs was marked by the same far-seeing wisdom, the same intrepid resistance to the

X.

blindness of present clamour. He made the most stren- CHAP. uous efforts to uphold the Sinking Fund, that noble monument of Mr Pitt's patriotic foresight: had those 157.

1822.

in domestic

efforts been successful, the whole national debt would His policy have been paid off by the year 1845, and the nation affairs. for ever have been freed from the payment of thirty millions a-year for its interest. He resisted with a firm hand, and at the expense of present popularity with the multitude, the efforts of faction during the seven trying years which followed the close of the war, and bequeathed the constitution, after a season of peculiar danger, unshaken to his successors. The firm friend of freedom, he was on that very account the resolute opponent of democracy, the insidious enemy which, under the guise of a friend, has in every age blasted its progress, and destroyed its substance. Discerning the principal cause of the distress which had occasioned these convulsions, his last act was one that bequeathed to his country a currency adequate to its necessities, and which he alone of his Cabinet had the honesty to admit was a departure from former error. Elegant and courteous in his manners, with a noble figure and finely-chiselled countenance, he was beloved in his family circle and by all his friends, not less than respected by the wide circle of sovereigns and statesmen with whom he had so worthily upheld the honour and the dignity of England.

158.

changes in

from the resumption of cash payments.

Three years only had elapsed since the great monetary change of 1819 had been carried into effect, and already it Political had become evident that that was the turning-point of Eng- progress, lish history, and that an entire alteration would ere long be induced in its external and internal policy. Changes great, decisive, and irremediable, had already occurred, or were in progress. The cutting off of a hundred millions a-year from the remuneration of industry, agricultural and manufacturing, while the public and private debts * Vide History of Europe, chap. xli. sect. 24, where this is demonstrated, and the calculation given.

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1822.

CHAP. remained the same, had changed the whole relations of society, altered all the views of men. Reduction in expenditure, when so great a chasm had been effected in income, was the universal cry. In 1819, the House of Commons had solemnly resolved that the Sinking Fund should under no circumstances be reduced below £5,000,000 a-year, and laid on £3,000,000 of indirect taxes to bring it up to that amount; but already the system was abandoned, taxes to the amount of £3,500,000 had been repealed in a single year, and the doctrine openly promulgated by Government, which has since been so constantly acted upon, that the nation should instantly receive the full benefit of a surplus income in a reduction of taxation, instead of a maintenance of the Sinking Fund. The fierce demand for a reduction of expenditure, which made itself heard in an unmistakable manner even in the unreformed House of Commons, had rendered it indispensable to reduce the land and sea forces of the state to a degree inconsistent with the security of its vast colonial dependencies, and the maintenance of its position as an independent power.

159.

Internal changes, arising from the

same cause.

Changes still more important in their ultimate effects were already taking place in the social position and balance of parties in the state. The distress in Irelanda purely agricultural state, upon which the fall of 50 per cent in its produce fell with unmitigated severity-had become such that a change in the system of government in that country had become indispensable; and the altered system of Lord Wellesley presaged, at no distant period, the admission of the Roman Catholics into the legislature, and the attempt to form a harmonious legislature out of the united Celt and Saxon-the conscientious servant of Rome, and the sturdy friend of Protestant England. The widespread and deep distress of the manufacturing classes, and the inability of the legislature to afford them any relief, had rendered loud and threatening the demand for reform in those great hives of industry, while the still

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1822.

greater and more irremediable sufferings of the agricul- CHAP. turists had shaken the class hitherto the most firmly attached to existing institutions, and diffused a very general opinion that things could not be worse than they were, and that no alleviation of the evils under which the country laboured could be hoped for till the representation of the people was put on a different footing. Lastly, the general necessity of cheapening everything, to meet the reduced price of produce, had extended itself to freights, and several acts had already passed the legislature which foreshadowed the repeal of the Navigation Laws, and the abandonment of the system under which England had won the sceptre of the seas, and a colonial empire which encircled the earth. The dawn of the whole future of England is to be found in these three years.

160.

donderry

of the real

The Marquis of Londonderry was the last minister in Great Britain of the rulers who really governed the state; Lord Lonthat is, of men who took counsel only of their own ideas, was the last and imprinted them on the internal and external policy rulers of of their country. Thenceforward statesmen were guided England. on both sides of the Channel, not by what they deemed right, but what they found practicable; the ruling power was found elsewhere than either in the cabinet or the legislature. Querulous and desponding men, among whom Chateaubriand stands foremost, perceiving this, and comparing the past with the present, concluded that this was because the period of greatness had passed, because the age of giants had been succeeded by that of pigmies; and that men were not directed, because no one able to lead them appeared. But this was a mistake: it was not that the age of great men had ceased, but the age of great causes had succeeded. Public opinion had become irresistible the press ruled alike the cabinet and the legislature on important questions; where the people were strongly roused, their voice had become omnipotent; on all it gradually but incessantly acted, and in the end modified the opinions of government.

VOL. II.

2 L

CHAP.

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1822.

The Vox Populi is not always, at the moment, the Vox Dei: it is so only when the period of action has passed, and that of reflection has arisen-when the storms of passion are hushed, and the whisperings of interest no longer of the rulers heard; but when the still small voice of experience speaks of thought. in persuasive tones to future generations of men, it will be

161. Increased ascendant

162.

of the revo

spirit in

countries.

shown whether the apparent government of the many is more beneficial in its effects than the real government of a few; but this much is certain, that it is their apparent government only. Men seek in vain to escape from the first of human necessities-the necessity of being governed by establishing democratic institutions. They do not change the direction of the many by the few: by the establishment of these they only change the few who direct. The oligarchy of intellect and eloquence comes instead of that of property and influence; happy if it is in reality more wise in its measures and far-seeing in its policy than that which it has supplanted. But it is itself directed by the leaders of thought: the real rulers of men appear in those who direct general opinion; and the responsibility of the philosopher or the orator becomes overwhelming when he shares with it that of the statesman and the sovereign.

No doubt can remain, upon considering the events in Simultane- the memorable years 1819 and 1820 in Europe, that ous outbreak they were the result of a concerted plan among the revolutionary lutionists in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, and Engdifferent land; and that the general overthrow of governments, which occurred in 1848, had been prepared, and was expected, in 1820. The slightest attention to dates proves this in the most decisive manner. The insurrection of Riego at Cadiz broke out on 1st January 1820-that at Corunna on 24th February in the same year-the king was constrained to accept the Constitution on 7th March; Kotzebue was murdered in Germany on 21st March; the revolution of Naples took place on 7th March, that of Piedmont on 7th June; the Duke de

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