494

Ch. 40.

1800

Public expression of loyalty.

HADFIELD'S ACQUITTAL.

dence in support of it, the Chief Justice interposed, and said he was satisfied of the prisoner's insanity at the time the act was committed. The Attorney General, upon this intimation, readily consented to an acquittal; and soon after introduced the Act under which, prisoners acquitted on the ground of insanity, are detained in custody.

The attempt on the King's life called forth a general expression of loyalty and attachment to his person, such as had not been witnessed since his recovery in 1789. The secondary reasons

which had contributed to the demonstration of

joy and relief on that occasion, were not diminished in force by the lapse of time. Whatever difference of opinion might exist as to the positive claims of George the Third upon the affections of his subjects, all friends of the monarchy were agreed in praying that the day might be far distant, when the heir apparent should take his place. At the birthday drawingroom on the 4th of June, all the principal members of the Opposition, who had rarely attended at Court since the dismissal of the Coalition, came to offer their respects and congratulations.

Committees of both Houses were engaged during the Session in devising means for the mitigation of distress, owing to a partial failure of the wheat crop in the past and the present

f Fox did not appear; but even his absence, according to Lady Harcourt, appears to have been caused by accident.-MSS.

ACT TO PREVENT SALE OF NEW BREAD.

years. Many persons were found to recommend
sumptuary laws; restrictions in the use of wheat
in distilleries and other processes; interference
with the trade of millers, and other rude remedies
which, if they have any effect at all, have only a
mischievous effect. Parliament had the good
sense to reject all these schemes. The only
measure of legislation which they adopted was an
act to prevent the sales of fine wheaten bread-
a measure, which was deemed of such importance,
that it was passed through all its stages in both
Houses on one and the same day. The folly of
some of the judges did more than all the acts of
incendiaries to create popular discontent, and to
increase the scarcity. Some informers took
advantage of the obsolete laws against forestalling,
to prosecute the corn factors, a useful body of
tradesmen, through whose agency the foreign
trade in corn was chiefly carried on.
Mr. Rusby,
a partner in one of the principal corn houses in
the City, was tried before Lord Kenyon, for having,
in the course of his business, bought and re-sold
wheat in the same market, an act, which, under an
old statute of Edward the Sixth, constituted the
offence of regrating. He was convicted under
the eager direction of the Chief Justice, who told
the jury that by their verdict they had conferred
almost the greatest benefit upon the country that

It was said that, in consequence of this act, the consumption of bread in the metropolis was reduced by one-sixth.-Second Report of the Commons Committee.

495

Ch. 40.

1800

496

Ch. 40.

1850

LORD KENYON'S IGNORANCE.

h

ever was conferred by any jury. The Act of Edward, which included forestalling and engrossing as well as regrating, had been repealed early in the present reign. But the legislature, while intending to abolish an offence, which could only be considered an offence in a state of primitive society, hardly removed from a state of barter, omitted to enact in the usual form, that no person should in future be prosecuted on such charges. And it was afterwards held in Westminster Hall, that two of the offences named in the statute of Edward, namely, forestalling and engrossing, were still indictable at common law. On the question of regrating, the definition of which is simply the difference between wholesale and retail trade, Kenyon could get only one of the puisne judges of his court to support his opinion, that re-selling a commodity for a profit in the market where it had been bought, was a misdemeanour. The Court of King's Bench being thus equally divided on the point of law, judgment in the case of Rusby was arrested. But the effects of Kenyon's ignorance and folly, were not easily repaired. Corn factors were for a long time deterred from following their useful business; and the starving multitude were taught by authority to add one other delusion to the creation of ignorance and want.

The Session which had commenced with a haughty rejection of the pacific overtures of the

BONAPARTE'S MOVEMENTS.

French Government, was not brought to a close before the English ministry had learned to alter their tone. Disappointed in his hope of peace, if he seriously entertained it, Bonaparte made immediate preparations for such a prosecution of the war, as was little expected. Moreau, next to Bonaparte himself, the best general which the Revolution had produced, retained his command upon the Rhine. The French army succeeded once more in crossing the river on the 25th of April, and, before the end of June, had overrun Bavaria, occupied Munich, and driven the Austrian general behind the Inn. On the other hand, Genoa, the last possession of the French in Italy, after a close investment by sea and land for nearly two months, was surrendered by Massena. Bonaparte himself, with an army of reserve, had watched the campaign in Germany and Italy. The course of events determined him upon making a great effort for the recovery of Italy, the first and greatest of his conquests. He made a feint as if it had been his intention to assemble an army at Dijon for the relief of Genoa; his real purpose never was suspected; nor was it likely to enter into the calculations of an enemy, however sagacious and well informed. Bonaparte's intention was to cross the Alps by the Great St. Bernard Mountain, and so descend upon the plains in the rear of the Austrian army before Genoa. This great enterprise was accomplished in four days; and the Imperialists, who, up to

498

Ch. 40.

1800

RAISING OF THE SIEGE OF GENOA.

that time, had derided the idea of the French army of reserve as an impossibility and an empty vaunt, were startled by the appearance of the corps of Lannes before Ivria. Even then, the Imperial generals regarded this as a detached movement to divert them from the great operation in which they were engaged. They would not believe that a French army fully equipped, under Bonaparte himself, had passed the Alps. The fall of Ivria even failed to convince Melas that the French force in his rear consisted of more than a single division, which he could easily crush. The Austrian commander-in-chief, however, removed his head quarters to Turin, when he heard that Bonaparte, reinforced by twenty thousand men from the army of the Rhine, was making rapid advances. Melas then sent orders to Ott to raise the siege of Genoa, and to move by forced marches with all his strength upon Pavia. But when the order arrived, Ott was engaged in negotiating the terms of the capitulation under which Genoa was to be surrendered. Ott, without knowledge of the urgency which had dictated the peremptory order of his chief, delayed obedience until he had completed the great work in which the military energies of Austria had been so long engaged. By this delay, not only was the garrison of Genoa, amounting to eight thousand men, enabled to join the French army, but the chance which might have remained of arresting their triumphant progress, was lost. Bonaparte, having defeated an Austrian