Chapter V: Part 5

=Source.=--Martineau's _History of the Peace_, Vol. III. pp. 254-5. Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.

_Speech by Mr. O'Connell at Edinburgh, 1835._

"We achieved but one good measure this last session; but that was not our fault; for the 170 tyrants of the country prevented us from achieving more. Ancient Athens was degraded for submitting to thirty tyrants; modern Athens will never allow 170 tyrants to rule over her.... It was stated in one of the clubs, that at one time a dog had bitten the bishop, whereupon a noble lord, who was present, said, 'I will lay any wager that the bishop began the quarrel.' Now, really the House of Lords began the quarrel with me. They may treat me as a mad dog if they please; I won't fight them; but I will treat them as the Quaker treated the dog which had attacked him. 'Heaven forbid,' said he, 'that I should do thee the slightest injury, I am a man of peace, and I will not hurt thee'; but when the dog went away, he cried out, 'Mad dog! mad dog!' and all the people set upon him. Now, that is my remedy with the House of Lords. I am more honest than the Quaker was; for the dog that attacked me is really mad. Bills were rejected in the House of Lords simply because Daniel O'Connell supported them; and I do say, that if I had any twelve men on a jury on a question of lunacy, I would put it to such jury to say if such men were not confirmed madmen. So you perceive the dog is really mad--and accordingly I have started on this mission to rouse the public mind to the necessity of reforming the House of Lords; and I have had 50,000 cheering me at Manchester, and 100,000 cheering me in Newcastle; and I heard one simultaneous cry, 'Down with the mad dogs, and up with common sense!' The same cry has resounded through Auld Reekie. The Calton Hill and Arthur's Seat re-echoed with the sound; and all Scotland has expressed the same determination to use every legitimate effort to remove the House of Lords. Though the Commons are with us, yet the House of Lords are against us; and they have determined that they will not concede a portion of freedom which they can possibly keep back. Sir Robert Peel, the greatest humbug that ever lived, and as full of political and religious cant as any man that ever canted in this canting world--feeling himself quite safe on his own dunghill, says that we want but one chamber--one House of radical reformers. He knew that in saying this he was saying what was not true. We know too well the advantage of double deliberation not to support two Houses; but they must be subject to popular control; they must be the servants, not the masters, of the people."

THE FACTORY SYSTEM (1836).

=Source.=--_The Curse of the Factory System_, by John Fielden, M.P. London, 1836.

"Oldham, 25th February, 1836.

"Sir,

"I am instructed by the Master Spinners and Manufacturers in this Township to forward you the inclosed copy of a Memorial, the original of which has this day been forwarded to John Frederick Lees, Esq., one of the Members for this Borough, for presentation to the Lords of His Majesty's Privy Council for Trade, and to solicit your assistance and influence in obtaining an alteration of the present Factory Regulation Act.

"I am, Sir,

"Your obedient Servant,

"KAY CLEGG.

"John Fielden, Esq., M.P.

"House of Commons, London."

"_To the Right Honourable the Lords of His Majesty's Privy Council for Trade, etc., etc._

"The Memorial of the Undersigned Mill-owners, Occupiers of Mills, Master-Spinners, and Manufacturers of the Township of Oldham, in the County of Lancaster.

"Showeth,

"That an Act of Parliament was made and passed in the third and fourth years of the reign of his present Majesty, entitled 'An Act to regulate the labour of children and young persons in the Mills and Factories of the United Kingdom.'

"That the eighth section of the said Act enacts 'That after the expiration of thirty months from the passing of such Act it shall not be lawful for any person whatsoever to employ, keep, or allow to remain, in any factory or mill for a longer period than forty-eight hours in any one week, any child who shall not have completed his or her thirteenth year of age.'

"That the said Act has prohibited the employment of children under twelve years of age for more than nine hours in any one day since the first day of March one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five, and such prohibition has tended greatly to injure the interests both of your Memorialists and the parents of such children, without any advantage resulting to the children themselves.

"That your Memorialists are looking forward with great anxiety and alarm to the situation in which they will be placed on the first day of March next, by the working of children under thirteen years of age being restricted to forty-eight hours in one week, for that such restriction will have the effect of throwing all children under thirteen years of age wholly out of employment, and will render it impossible for your Memorialists to work their respective mills with advantage, in proof whereof your Memorialists confidently appeal to the Factory Inspectors of this district for the truth of their assertion.

"That your Memorialists are far from wishing a total repeal of the provisions of the said Factory Act, but humbly submit that it is absolutely necessary to the carrying on of the cotton trade with advantage, to allow the employment of children of eleven years of age for sixty-nine hours a week.

"That your Memorialists approve of the principle of appointing responsible superintendents over the mills and factories of the United Kingdom, and are favourable to a restriction of the employment of young persons under twenty-one years of age to sixty-nine hours in the week.

"Your Memorialists, therefore, pray that a Bill may be
forthwith introduced by his Majesty's Government, which shall
prevent the latter part of the above-mentioned section from
coming into operation on the first of March next, and which
shall permit children of eleven years of age to be employed for
sixty-nine hours per week in the mills and factories of the
United Kingdom."

This memorial is signed by seventy-two mill-owners, but I do not think it necessary to publish their names. The following is the answer that I returned to Mr. Clegg:

"London, February 29, 1836.

"Sir,

"I have received your letter of the 27th, and a copy of the memorial sent to Mr. Lees.

"The prayer of the Memorialists, that young children between eleven and thirteen years of age should be allowed to work in factories sixty-nine hours in the week instead of forty-eight hours a week, which the law now prescribes, is so revolting to my feelings, and so opposed to my views of the protection such children are entitled to, that I must decline supporting the prayer of the Memorialists.

"The work-people have long petitioned that the maximum of time for those under twenty-one should be fifty-eight hours per week. This I should be glad to see adopted, as an experiment, and would support such a proposition by my vote; but I do not think the restriction is sufficient.

"I am embarked in the same business with the Memorialists. I have had long experience in it. I have paid great attention to this question; and, after mature consideration of it, I am convinced that eight hours work per day, in factories, is as long as ought to be exacted from either children or adults, and I am of opinion, too, that such a regulation, combined with a daily system of training and instruction, would be more advantageous both to masters and servants, than the regulation now in practice. But the subject is so important, and is likely to be brought under the consideration of Parliament so soon, that I propose to publish my opinions, and the reasons for those opinions, and the conclusions I have come to on this question, in reply to the Memorialists.

"I am, Sir,

"Your obedient Servant,

"JOHN FIELDEN.

"Klay Clegg, Esq., Oldham."

THE EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN.

=Source.=--_The Curse of the Factory System_, by John Fielden, M.P. London, 1836.

The Commissioners have given a short summary in pp. 26 to 28 of their report, of the "Effects of Factory Labour on Children," from which I make the extracts following. It is taken, it appears, from the mouths of the children themselves, their parents, and their overlookers.

The account of the child, when questioned, is:

"Sick-tired, especially in the winter nights; so tired she can do nothing; feels so tired she throws herself down when she gangs home, no caring what she does; often much tired, and feels sore, standing so long on her legs; often so tired she could not eat her supper; night and morning very tired; has two sisters in the mill; has heard them complain to her mother, and she says they must work; whiles I do not know what to do with myself; as tired every morning as I can be."

Another speaks in this way:

"Many a time has been so fatigued that she could hardly take off her clothes at night, or put them on in the morning; her mother would be raging at her, because when she sat down she could not get up again through the house; thinks they are in bondage; no much better than the Israelites in Egypt, and life no pleasure to them; so tired that she can't eat her supper, nor wake of herself."

The Commissioners say the evidence of parents is generally this:

"Her children come home so tired and worn out they can hardly eat their supper; has often seen her daughter come home so fatigued that she would go to bed supperless; has seen young workers absolutely oppressed, and unable to sit down or rise up."

They say that the evidence of the overlooker is:

"Children are very often tired and stiff-like; have known children hide themselves in the stove among the wool, so that they should not go home when the work is over; have seen six or eight fetched out of the stove and beat home; beat out of the mill, however; they hide because too tired to go home."

Again, an overlooker says:

"Many a one I have had to rouse, when the work is very slack, from fatigue; the children very much jaded when worked late at night; the children bore the long hours very ill indeed; after working eight or nine or ten hours, they were nearly ready to faint; some were asleep; some were only kept awake by being spoke to, or by a little chastisement, to make them jump up. I was obliged to chastise them when they were almost fainting, and it hurt my feelings; then they would spring up and work pretty well for another hour; but the last two or three hours was my hardest work, for they then got so exhausted."

Another child says:

"She often falls asleep while sitting, sometimes standing; her little sister falls asleep, and they wake her by a cry; was up at four this morning, which made her fall asleep at one, when the Factory Commissioners came to inspect the mill."

A spinner says:

"I find it difficult to keep my piecers awake the last hours of a winter's evening; have seen them fall asleep, and go on performing their work with their hands while they were asleep, after the billey had stopped, when their work was over; I have stopped and looked at them for two minutes, going through the motions of piecening when they were fast asleep, when there was no work to do, and they were doing nothing; children at night are so fatigued that they are asleep often as soon as they sit down, so that it is impossible to wake them to sense enough to wash themselves, or even to eat a bit of supper, being so stupid in sleep."

In alluding to the cruelty of parents, who suffer their children to be overworked in factories for their own gain, as spoken of in the Report of the Board of Health in Manchester, and above-quoted, the Commissioners say that

"It is not wholly unknown in the West Riding of Yorkshire for parents to carry their children to the mills in the morning on their backs, and to carry them back again at night."

And, further, that

"It appears in evidence that sometimes the sole consideration by which parents are influenced in making choice of a person under whom to place their children, is the amount of wages, not the mode of treatment, to be secured to them."

If this is not enough to show that there were grounds for the further protection, I will now refer to the same Report of the Commissioners, to show, that from Scotland the details are full as affecting, and even more disgusting. At page 18 (Report) the Commissioners open with these words:

"Had the fact not been established by indubitable evidence, everyone must have been slow to credit, that in this age and country the proprietors of extensive factories could have been indifferent to the well-being of their work-people to such a degree as is implied in the following statements":

In page 41 an half-overseer gives this evidence:

"Does not like the long hours; he is very tired and hoarse at night; and that some of the young female workers in his, the spinning flat, have so swelled legs, one in particular, from standing so long, about seventeen years old, that she can hardly walk; that various of them have their feet bent in and their legs crooked from the same cause."

In short, so universal is this complaint of "sair tired," and of swelled legs, ankles, feet, hands, and arms, that it almost seems as if one voice spoke the facts; for if we find them varied, it is only here and there by touches like the above, so true to nature, that one would think they must pierce even the most callous and avaricious man to the very core. In one page we find a little child of eight years old complaining that she is "sair tired" every night, and has no time _for going to play_.

"That, at the age when children suffer these injuries from the labour they undergo, they are not _free agents_, but are _let out to hire_, the wages they earn being received and appropriated by their parents and guardians, and therefore they think that a case is made out for the interference of the legislature in behalf of the children employed in factories"--p. 32.

THE POLICE (1836).

=Source.=--_Treatise on the Magistracy of England_, by Edward Mullins. London, 1836.

_Commissioners' Report on Police._

"The constable is most commonly an uneducated person, from the class of petty tradesmen or mechanics, and in practice is usually nominated by his predecessor on going out of office. No inquiry takes place into his qualification or fitness for the office, and indeed he is said to be often the person in the parish the most likely to break the peace. So common is it for the constable to be unable to write or read, that an improper fee is often charged upon that ground by the Magistrate's clerk, 'for making out the constable's bill for conveyance to gaol.'

"'The manner of appointing constables, in my opinion,' says a correspondent, 'might be advantageously altered, for the court leet jury and steward being irresponsible parties, and the jurymen (vulgarly called Tom-fool's men) not liking the burthen themselves, often appoint persons of _bad character_, and sometimes for the purpose of keeping them off the parish.' If respectable persons are sometimes chosen at the Leet, they 'find substitutes for a _small sum_, and these deputies blunder through the year, and when they are most wanted are never to be found.' What integrity or propriety of conduct can there be expected from one whose necessity renders every shilling that is offered him an irresistible temptation?

"Entirely ignorant of his duties when first appointed, the parish constable is often displaced at the end of the year, when his acquaintance with them is, perhaps, beginning to improve. Even when suited in other respects to the employment, his efficiency is always in a great measure impaired by the nature of his position with regard to those among whom he is called upon to act. Belonging entirely to their class, and brought into constant contact with them by his ordinary occupations, he is embarrassed in the discharge of his duty by considerations of personal safety, interest or feeling, and by an anxiety to retain the good will of his neighbours. When all these circumstances are considered, it would, indeed, be surprising if the constables were found to render satisfactory service. In point of fact they are deficient in zeal and activity to a degree which it is difficult to exaggerate, and it may be said, without undue severity, that they are in all respects utterly unfit for the duties to which they are appointed.

"The accuracy of this statement, we believe (continue the Commissioners) will be generally admitted by those who have opportunities of becoming acquainted with the subject by personal observation. 'No person can be aware,' says the treasurer of the West Riding of Yorkshire, 'of the reluctance shewn by the parish constables in apprehending felons, particularly since the disposition shewn by the lower orders to retaliate by committing destruction on their property.' 'There is not a single constable,' he afterwards adds, 'who dares move, nor has he any encouragement to move, and if he does move, he is quite incompetent.'

"'We cannot go on in the country,' says another witness, 'with our present police; when there is the least danger we are obliged immediately to call out the special constables.' 'The present system of parochial police,' says another, 'is unsound; it consists of a constable in each parish, who has very often to make his election between violating his duty as a constable, and forfeiting the regard and affection of his neighbours.' '_The great end of police is to prevent crime_,' is the remark of another gentleman of great experience on this subject, 'and who ever heard of this being the object of the present force? They are worse than useless.'

"The frauds, extortion, embezzlement and pillage practised by these officers are the natural consequence of their situation. They charge for assistants when they are accompanied only by their wives or by poor labourers, to whom they pay the common farmers' day wages, receiving the county allowance and retaining the difference.

"They charge for carriages when they compel prisoners to walk to gaol; they receive the full mileage for all the witnesses attending a prosecution, and contract with coaches to carry them at half price.

"They receive their allowance for time and trouble, and often keep back a part; they pass stolen goods from hand to hand, so as to make as many of themselves as possible necessary witnesses at the trial; and what is matter of most serious charge against them, they withhold, and it is said, in many instances appropriate, the money and other valuable property found upon persons apprehended.

"'We have at Thirsk (observes a Yorkshire magistrate) an association for the prosecution of felons, but it does little good, as we have _no police_, and the _constables are extremely bad_--so bad as to call forth many severe expressions on their inefficiency by Baron Alderson, a short time ago at York, in the case of two violent attempts at murder committed near Thirsk.'"

The Commissioners further report that, "It is the deliberate opinion of a very valuable correspondent, that our constabulary system has _greatly promoted_ the _increase_ of crime; that no useful improvement can be introduced into the present _miserable_ system of attempting to exercise police through parish constables annually elected. 'Our constabulary system,' says this correspondent, 'is so _absurd_ and _unjust_, that I really do not think it fair or equitable to blame or deride the unfortunate conscripts who are compelled to be tithingmen; if I did, I could compose a _farce_ with the anecdotes to be collected of petty occurrences in the warfare with offences in this neighbourhood; neglect of duty, forgetfulness, ignorance, blunders, cowardice without excuse, supineness,'" etc.

The current of evidence as to the decayed and worn-out state of the parish constabulary system is irresistibly strong; and its defects are the more striking when viewed in contrast with the improved system of an organized and permanent police as established in many parts of the kingdom.

THE KING AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION (1836).

=Source.=--_The Edinburgh Review._ Vol. 133, pp. 319-321.

_From the 'Recollections' of Lord Broughton de Gyfford._

"I heard from all quarters that H.M. was in a state of great excitement. This was not all we knew of the Royal disinclination to us; for, on Saturday, July 11, in Downing Street, Lord Melbourne addressed us as follows:

"'Gentlemen, you may as well know how you stand;' and, pulling a paper from his pocket, he read a memorandum of a conversation between the King and Lord Gosford, after the review, the day before. The King said to Lord Gosford, 'Mind what you are about in Canada. By G----d! I will never consent to alienate the Crown lands, nor to make the Council elective. Mind me, my Lord, the Cabinet is not my Cabinet, they had better take care, or, by G----d! I will have them impeached. You are a gentleman, I believe. I have no fear of you; but take care what you do.'

"We all stared at each other. Melbourne said, 'It is better not to quarrel with him. He is evidently in a state of great excitement.' And yet the King gave Dedel, the Dutch Ambassador, the same day, on taking leave, very sensible advice, and told him 'to let the King of Holland know that he was ignorant of his true position, and that Belgium was lost irrecoverably.' H.M. had also given his assent in writing to the second reading of our Irish Church Reform Bill, which showed that these outbursts were more physical than signs of any settled design; although there were some of us who thought it was intended to drive us by incivilities to resign our places, and thus make us the apparent authors of our own retirement. Lord Frederick Fitzclarence told me that his father had much to bear, being beset by the Duke of Cumberland and Duchess of Gloucester by day, and by the Queen at night. As to ourselves, it was clear to me that, if we continued in the Government, it would be entirely owing to the good sense and good manners of our chief, who knew how to deal with his master, as well as with his colleagues, and never, that I saw, made a mistake in regard to either; and I must add that, when a stand was to be made on anything considered to be a vital principle of his Government, he was as firm as a rock.

"We foresaw that the instructions, which we had agreed upon as the basis of Lord Gosford's administration in Canada, would meet with much disfavour in the Royal closet; and Lord Glenelg told me that when he read these instructions to the King, H.M. broke out violently against the use of certain words, saying, 'No, my Lord, I will not have that word; strike out "_conciliatory_"--strike out "_liberal_"'; and then he added, 'you cannot wonder at my making these difficulties with a Ministry that has been forced upon me.' However, as Glenelg went on reading, H.M. got more calm. He approved of what was said about the Legislative Council and the territorial revenues. In short, he approved of the instructions generally on that day, and also on the following Monday; but, when Glenelg went into the closet this day (Wednesday, 15th July), he was very sulky, and, indeed, rude; and objected to some things to which he had previously consented. Lord Melbourne was told by Glenelg how he had been treated, and, when he (Lord M.) went into the closet, the King said he hoped he had not been uncivil to Lord Glenelg, on which Lord Melbourne made only a stiff bow. The King took the reproof most becomingly; for when Glenelg went in a second time, H.M. was exceedingly kind to him, and said, 'He approved of every word of the instructions'; and he then remarked 'that he was not like William III. who often signed what he did not approve. He would not do that. He was not disposed to infringe on the liberty of any of his subjects; but he must preserve his own prerogative.'

"H.M. retained his good humour at the Council, which he held afterwards to hear the Recorder's Report. Chief Justice Denman was detained at Guildhall, and kept His Majesty waiting a long time. When he came the King took his apologies very kindly. He asked the Chief Justice when he should leave London for the holidays, and where he lived; and invited him to Windsor, and said he should be glad to see him, adding, 'I hope you won't hang me, my Lord.' Such was this kind good man, generally most just and generous, but, when irritated, scarcely himself. He was more sincere than suited his Royal office, and could not conceal his likings and dislikings from those who were most affected by them."

STATISTICS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND FOR THE YEARS 1816-1837.

=Source.=--Alison's _History of Europe_, London, 1848; compiled from Porter's _Party Tables_, Marshall's Edition, and other sources.

-------+--------------+--------------+-------------
YEAR. | EXPORTS. | IMPORTS. | POPULATION.
-------+--------------+--------------+-------------
| | |
1816 | £49,197,851 | £26,374,921 | 13,640,000
| | |
1817 | 50,404,111 | 29,910,502 | 13,860,000
| | |
1818 | 53,560,338 | 35,845,340 | 14,000,000
| | |
1819 | 42,438,989 | 29,681,640 | 14,200,000
| | |
1820 | 48,965,537 | 31,515,222 | 14,300,000
| | |
1821 | 51,461,423 | 29,769,122 | 14,391,631
| | |
1822 | 53,464,122 | 29,432,376 | 14,600,000
| | |
1823 | 52,408,276 | 34,591,260 | 14,800,000
| | |
1824 | 58,940,336 | 36,056,551 | 15,000,000
| | |
1825 | 56,335,514 | 42,660,954 | 15,200,000
| | |
1826 | 51,042,071 | 36,174,350 | 15,400,000
| | |
1827 | 62,050,008 | 43,489,346 | 15,600,000
| | |
1828 | 62,744,002 | 43,536,187 | 15,850,000
| | |
1829 | 66,835,443 | 42,311,609 | 16,140,000
| | |
1830 | 69,691,301 | 46,245,241 | 16,240,000
| | |
1831 | 71,429,004 | 49,713,889 | 16,539,318
| | |
1832 | 76,971,571 | 44,586,741 | 16,800,000
| | |
1833 | 79,773,142 | 45,952,551 | 17,050,000
| | |
1834 | 85,393,686 | 49,362,811 | 17,270,000
| | |
1835 | 91,074,455 | 48,911,542 | 17,480,000
| | |
1836 | 97,621,548 | 57,023,867 | 17,690,000
| | |
1837 | 85,781,669 | 54,737,301 | 17,800,000
-------+--------------+--------------+-------------

-------+------------+-------------+---------------
| TAXES | TAXES | AVERAGE PRICE
YEAR. | IMPOSED. | REPEALED. | OF WHEAT.
| | | WINCH. QR.
-------+------------+-------------+---------------
| | | _s._ _d._
| | |
1816 | £320,058 | £17,547,565 | 82 0
| | |
1817 | 7,991 | 36,495 | 116 0
| | |
1818 | 1,336 | 9,564 | 98 0
| | |
1819 | 3,094,902 | 705,846 | 78 0
| | |
1820 | 119,602 | 4,000 | 76 0
| | |
1821 | 42,642 | 471,309 | 71 0
| | |
1822 | ---- | 2,139,101 | 53 0
| | |
1823 | 18,596 | 4,050,250 | 57 0
| | |
1824 | 45,605 | 1,704,724 | 72 0
| | |
1825 | 43,000 | 3,639,551 | 84 0
| | |
1826 | 188,000 | 1,973,812 | 73 0
| | |
1827 | 21,402 | 4,038 | 50 0
| | |
1828 | 1,966 | 51,998 | 71 0
| | |
1829 | ---- | 126,406 | 55 4
| | |
1830 | 696,004 | 4,093,955 | 64 10
| | |
1831 | 627,586 | 1,598,536 | 58 3
| | |
1832 | 44,526 | 747,264 | 52 6
| | |
1833 | ---- | 1,526,914 | 47 10
| | |
1834 | 198,394 | 2,091,516 | 39 8
| | |
1835 | 75 | 165,817 | 35 3
| | |
1836 | ---- | 986,786 | 57 7
| | |
1837 | 3,991 | 234 | 51 3
-------+------------+-------------+---------------

GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT M ACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Mr. Wilbraham was M.P. for Dover.

[2] The depression in the rate of interest created by this monetary plethora is thus exhibited by Mr. Tooke:

---------------+------------+-----------------
| 3 Per Cent.| Premium on
Dates. | Consols. | Exchequer Bills.
---------------+------------+-----------------
April 3, 1823, | 73½ | 10 to 12
July 1, 1823, | 80¾ | 21 to 24
Oct. 3, 1823, | 82½ | 37 to 40
Jan. 1, 1824, | 86 | 51 to 53
Apr. 2, 1824, | 94¼ | 56 to 58
---------------+------------+-----------------

_Tooke on the State of the Currency_, 1826, p. 41.

[3] James Deacon Hume, Esq., then of the Customs, now (1830) of the Board of Trade.

[4] The speech of Lord John Russell, when on March 1, 1831, he introduced the first Reform Bill, opened a debate which practically lasted until June 5, 1832. The Whig ministry knew that the fate of their party depended upon that of the Bill, and they came to realize that the fate of the dynasty itself might depend upon the same thing. The Opposition were no less desirous of victory, seeing in the Bill a measure which threatened the prosperity of the people and the very existence of the State. "The country was divided into two hostile camps, regarding each other with feelings of increased exasperation. On the one hand, the anti-reformers though, comparatively few, were immensely strong in position and prestige.... On the other hand, the reformers could count upon the support of the great mass of the people."

[5] The First Reform Bill had passed two readings when the ministry, concluded after an adverse vote upon a motion, introduced by General Gascoyne, in opposition to their policy, that it was useless to continue the struggle in Parliament. Confident of the support of the electors, they resolved to appeal to the country. To do this a dissolution of Parliament was necessary, and against this the anti-reformers were firmly arrayed. The ministry appealed to the King. In the selection which follows, this appeal is vividly described, and the action of the King in dissolving Parliament is clearly portrayed.

[6] Mr. O'Connell

[7] Mr. Cobbett.

[8] _Character, Object, and Effects of Trades Unions_, etc., 8vo, 1834. See also an able article in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for June, 1834.