Chapter LIX: {victoria. 1847} (2)

Repeal of the union, besides enabling him to accomplish the class of religious objects thus described, would also have given him power to transfer the funds of the Irish Established Church to the Roman Catholic. He and most of his followers having loudly professed “the voluntary principle,” it may seem to readers, cognisant of that fact, and unacquainted with the modes of procedure adopted by the Irish popular party, as unlikely that those who composed it, or, at all events, he who led it, would ever desire the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. The truth is, that most of the men who declaimed in favour of the voluntary principle were chiefly actuated, like O’Connell himself, in their political agitation, by the desire and hope of Roman Catholic ascendancy. The great repeal leader proved at last that he was utterly insincere in these protestations of voluntarism, for afterwards, during the English agitation concerning the Maynooth grant, he turned “the voluntaries” and their principle into open ridicule. He had served his turn of them, and then held them and the principles he pretended in common with them to support, in derision. Yet O’Connell was not a dishonest politician, apart from his religious mission. He was a man to be trusted in political engagements; few public men of the day would act with such truth and honour to party, and in any purely political contest or interest. When the promotion of his Church was concerned, his conduct proved that he believed a doctrine which he often repudiated—that the end sanctified the means. He was educated a Jesuit, was one in spirit, was allied with them in the purposes and objects of his private life, and his public policy. If any considerable amount of Romish influence could have been introduced to the British cabinet, with the hope that it would become a permanent element in the government of England, O’Connell would have been the deadliest enemy of repeal: the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland would have put down repeal as injurious to it. The Young Irelanders would have still agitated for Irish independence; but they would have been mobbed, or assassinated, or otherwise soon crushed as a party. The Protestants would then have been the repealers. The argument of Mr. Lucas, that repeal would weaken the Irish Roman Catholic body, through the influence of the English government upon the colonies and foreign states, was that which prevailed with so many Romanists of respectability in Ireland, and with the English Roman Catholic party, in keeping them aloof from the repeal agitation, and inducing them even to oppose it; nor was O’Connell himself free from the effect of such a consideration. His professions of the supreme value of repeal were based upon the conviction that it was hopeless to overcome the religious hostility of the British people to any increased influence of Romanism in the government; yet he lingered on, hoping against this conviction, and feeling the difficulty, if not desperation, of the task he imposed upon himself, declaring still that he would only turn to repeal as the _dernier ressort_, and that his first cry was “Justice to Ireland.” Had everything been conceded which was claimed, “Justice to Ireland” would still have been, the cry, on the ground that, being an integral part of the United Kingdom, she was entitled to see her religion established in a fair proportion of the colonies, or placed on a par with the English Church in them all. With O’Connell and with Ireland the grievances were religious; the social evils of Ireland were abetted by many who were repealers: yet there was a sense of political injustice, and a patriotic desire on the part of O’Connell and the people for the glory of Ireland, so far as it was not necessary to merge that in the glory of Rome. Civil and religious liberty for Ireland and for the world were not desired by either the Irish Roman Catholic party or their political champion. The spirit of the speeches at Conciliation Hall, of the Irish press in that interest,—even of the Irish press in the Whig service, which was conducted by Romanists, and the tone of confidential conversation among Irish Roman Catholics at that period, all proved this allegation. Foreign despotisms, if Protestant, were abused and denounced; if Romish, they were treated with respect, and sympathy in case of any disturbance in their dominions; or if it were not for the moment politic to abet their proceedings, their misdeeds were passed over in silence. All the social wrongs and civil tyrannies practised at Rome were upheld as warmly in Ireland, and especially in Conciliation Hall, as they could have been in the conclave of cardinals. One of the favourite topics of the day among the Roman Catholics of Ireland, even amidst their sufferings, during 1847, (and subsequently still more so), was the prospect of the Roman Catholic religion becoming the established religion of the United States, through the instrumentality of the Irish and German Roman Catholics of the immigration. While they cried aloud for religious equality for themselves, they carried on in Ireland a fierce and brutal religious persecution, which was only restrained by the influence of the more enlightened and liberal laymen of their own communion, and by fear of the law; the impolicy of such a cause was not sufficient to check the raging zealotry which so extensively prevailed. All this O’Connell sanctioned and fostered, and, except when doing so would hamper his policy or political relations in England, he invited it.

Intellectually, O’Connell was a giant. His grasp of mind was comprehensive and tenacious; and he was capable of reasoning clearly whenever his religious bias allowed of his doing so dispassionately. His perception was quick, keen, and discriminating, especially where character was concerned. His knowledge of human nature was profound, although he had not been a successful student of metaphysics. His eloquence was more varied than that of any other man of his times; and he possessed the faculty of adapting himself to his audience, and to the changing feelings of an audience, to a degree which few men ever attain. In a moment he could melt a popular audience to tears or convulse it with laughter. He could be plain or ornate, coarse or courteous. The eloquence of invective and vituperation was carried by O’Connell to a very inglorious perfection. His eulogies were as dextrous and expressive as they were, nevertheless, morally repugnant to honest minds. The writer of these lines has heard him address a mob of peasants in the county of Waterford on repeal, and an assembly of Quakers, Methodists, and “other sectaries,” as he would himself call them, in the city of Cork, on an anti-slavery occasion, with equal effect. His broad-brimmed and sedate audience were as much delighted with his elegant and pathetic eloquence in favour of humanity and natural rights, as his peasant mob were while he discoursed to them upon the certainty and glory of repeal, and declared that “they were the finest peasantry in the world.” On the one occasion his action was graceful, and at times expressive even to sublimity; on the other, it was bold and broadly natural, nor less expressive of the passion he felt or simulated, and endeavoured to excite. He possessed the oratory necessary for an Irish tribune, and that which was adapted to the English senator: In his profession he held a high place. Having given up his life to politics and polemics, he could not have become a first authority in law, but he was unsurpassed as a counsel, especially in criminal cases. Most men thought that he had not the mental and moral qualities necessary for the bench, while he was pre-eminently the man of the bar. This, however, is hardly a fair estimate of him. He possessed in a remarkable degree all those qualities in an advocate which entitle him to cherish the ambition of becoming a judge. From the judgment-seat, when his bigotry did not blind him, O’Connell would have given charges as luminous and just as his speeches in court were powerful specimens of effective advocacy. His general attainments were very considerable. The writer of this history once took part in a conversation where O’Connell displayed a knowledge of Biblical criticism, and a capacity to apply what knowledge of that description which he possessed, which was very astonishing. On the same occasion he brought forth stores of ecclesiastical history, which proved that, although his studies had been confined to a particular school on that subject, his reading within the limits of that school were very extensive, and his memory altogether extraordinary. He had the faculty of attaching men strongly to him, not only as a party-leader, but as a man and a friend. Many thought him jealous of the fame of other orators of his time; but there is no just ground for this. No man approached him in reputation except Richard Lalor Shiel. O’Connell did not betray in public any jealousy of this great oratorical rival; but he often indicated, where he did not profess it, a distrust of his good faith— and the suspicions of the leader were not ill founded: Shiel was never in earnest in his arguments for the separation of the Irish from the English parliament, but preferred the policy of infusing Roman Catholic influence: he also preferred a high imperial position to that of a provincial demagogue. This, in the opinion of the Irish popular party, was treason to Ireland; and no doubt O’Connell sympathised with that feeling, and suspected that the man second only in power to himself was neither so ardent an Irishman or Roman Catholic as his countrymen desired him to be. This feeling on O’Connell’s part will account for many acts towards Shiel which were set down to personal jealousy. Dr. Michelsen is very unjust to O’Connell in the following critique upon his character:—“His greatest fault was no doubt his egotism; he could not endure a rival at his side, and would not have hesitated to annihilate any one who did not follow him with implicit obedience.” O’Connell would have hailed with delight any accession of eloquence or personal power to Conciliation Hall; but a particular policy had been arranged between O’Connell and the priests—they intrusted their cause to him, and when men started up and questioned, or attempted to modify this policy, O’Connell regarded it as rebellion, not merely against his leadership, but his party, and the church itself; hence, it was necessary for him to put down the disturber; and he was backed by clergy and people in doing so, which would not have been the case had not the understanding between him and the Roman Catholic hierarchy of Ireland been complete. Dr. Michelsen again says:—“It is a mistake to suppose that O’Connell entertained an irreconcilable hatred to England; he had never ceased to regard her as his second fatherland, as the land of his glory, of his intellectual activity. His partiality for England was only surpassed by his excessive love for his native home, and many apparent contradictions in his life can only be reconciled by this double sympathy in his character.”*

* “England since the Accession of Queen Victoria,” by Edward
H. Michellen, Ph.D.

It is obvious that the writer of this paragraph has neither studied O’Connell, his country, or the party which he led. One of the grand causes of O’Connell’s failure in many things was his rancorous hatred to England. Thomas Gaspey, Esq., in his “History of England,” views this matter correctly in writing of O’Connell’s death, and the feeling in England concerning him:—“In England his departure was regarded with indifference. The hostility and scorn he frequently expressed for the Saxons, and his disparaging remarks on English women, had precluded him from gaining any of the popularity he had enjoyed in Ireland.”

The hatred of O’Connell to England was threefold—that of race, of nation, and of creed. He regarded England as the chief abettor of heresy in the world, and therefore would have rejoiced over her downfall; this was the common feeling of his party. So far as his animosity was connected with race and nationality, it was not unprovoked. The English people cherished deep prejudices against Ireland and the whole Celtic race; and the English newspapers frequently discussed the universal claims of the Anglo-Saxon to dominancy, and every social and national virtue, thereby creating a feeling of resentment in all countries where these articles were reprinted. The chief invidiousness, however, was to the Celt, and among Celts to the Irishman. This circumstance made repealers of numbers of Irishmen who were neither Celtic in race nor Roman in creed.

MR. JOHN O’CONNELL ASSUMES THE PRESIDENCY OF THE REPEAL ASSOCIATION—INFLUENCE OF THE REPEAL AGITATION UPON THE GENERAL ELECTIONS IN IRELAND.

The death of Mr. O’Connell, it was generally supposed in England, would allow agitation in Ireland to die of itself. Others supposed that it would now assume a worse form, in consequence of the absence of those restraints which the superior sagacity of the arch agitator laid upon the more fiery and imprudent ringleaders. The latter opinion was the correct one, and the people of England were astonished to find that Mr. O’Connell’s son John not only became the chairman at Conciliation Hall, but the recognised leader of the agitation. The priests gave him their confidence, and, at first, the people very generally; but he was not possessed of those qualities which enabled him to hold the reins of power. As Richard Cromwell to the deceased Oliver, so John O’Connell exhibited a contrast to his father, which soon caused the people to fall off from his leadership: his name, and the influence of the priests, were the means of retaining it for him for a time. After the death of his father, the temporary inheritor of his position indicated much energy and activity, although, even in this respect, none of the agitators approached their late chief: O’Connell’s powers of physical endurance and toil had been prodigious.

A general election, the policy of which will be noticed on another page, called out the leadership of John O’Connell, and the action of the committee at Conciliation Hall, in a manner to test whether the people were disposed to follow them. The general impression in England was, that the popular fervour had ebbed, and that the repeal members would not generally be returned: the English press made confident predictions to that effect. John O’Connell and the clique at Conciliation Hall accepted the ordeal, and were backed by priests and people in their policy. An extraordinary meeting was convened, and an address to the electors of Ireland resolved upon. It was a document which ought to be retained upon the page of history, for it discloses the spirit and temper of the repeal party, and of the Roman Catholic electors who responded practically to such an appeal. The repealers, as has been already shown, were not confined to Roman Catholics, nor were all that communion repealers; but, on the whole, the religious division of Protestant and Romanist defined the boundary between anti-repealers and repealers.

The following is copied from _Saunders’ News Letter_ of the 12th of June:—

_Address of the Loyal National Repeal Association to the Electors of Ireland._

“‘God prosper the cause!—oh! it cannot but thrive, While the pulse of one patriot heart is alive. How sainted by sorrow its martyrs have died! Far, far, from the footprint of coward or slave, The young spirit of freedom shall shelter their grave!’

“On you—fellow-countrymen—electors—at this moment devolves the good and holy task of protecting the graves of the sorrow-sainted martyrs of Ireland from the polluting tread of coward or of slave. None such will be found amongst you—none such will dare to show themselves if you be true.

“In this year of death, our country still survives! Weeping, fainting, bleeding, yet she lives; and lives to claim, aye, and to have—the services of her true children.

“Yes! although from him whose life’s devotion to Ireland was repaid by her confidence and her love, and from those without whose potent aid his labours had been vain—the beloved clergy of the people—down throughout all ranks and orders of the national organisation, Death has been busy, still enough remain of devoted, determined, patriot hearts, to carry out the good work he began, and to make it, with the blessing of a merciful God, speedily triumphant!

“Rally, then—rally, electors of Ireland—your country calls! Your dead brethren, even from their graves, invoke you. Drive from your hustings the men who shall have dared to think you cowards—who shall dare to ask you to continue slaves! And there are those who will so dare;—mark you not the exulting tone of Whig and Tory, and every other class of panderers to English passions and prejudices:—‘Repeal,’ they say, ‘is gone!’ ‘Ireland is at last subdued—she begs for bread, and is fearful to demand her rights lest we withhold our alms!’ It is false; how foully false you know, and at the elections you will prove. Deep as is the baseness of those who build their party hopes upon a nation’s misery, deeper still would be our baseness if ever, even amid all the heart-crushing calamities of the time, we shrunk in aught from our high purposes, and from our vows for Ireland’s regeneration.

“Nay, if but the hope of relief from our present distress were to animate us, even so should we cry out for that home parliament which alone can bring back wealth and abundance to the land—alone can guard her from recurring season after season of want, of pestilence, of death!

“Be ready then in time, fellow-countrymen, the elections are at hand; give us repealers—true and trusty repealers—men pledged to the safe, peaceful, constitutional principles you have been taught by him whom you followed so devotedly, and whom you mourn so affectionately and sincerely!

“On you—on each one and all of you together, and on none but you, the task now lies of helping Ireland at this fearful crisis of her fortunes. Yours, and yours alone, will be the glories of success, or the shame of not having sought it. Your distress has left the Repeal Association without funds to aid your contest, and we can do no more than to exhort and to advise. Let not the wily enemies of your freedom delude you. The duty is upon you; the means are in your hands, not in ours; if the duty be not done, poor Ireland will suffer the disastrous and ruinous consequences; but the blame of them, and the shame, will be upon you. Fellow-countrymen, this must not be—nay, this will not be. We answer for you. Unaided, undirected, as you are, you will bestir yourselves—on yourselves will depend, and you will achieve the victory. Meet in your committees; encourage the timid, cheer up the desponding; turn away with contempt from the whig or tory dependent, who would counsel you to dishonour, and vote for none but a staunch repealer—for one who will maintain the peace principles of the association, and aid it to work out and re-establish the inalienable and imperishable right of Ireland to legislate for herself.

“Had our own parliament ruled us, the landlords would not have had their tyrannies sanctioned and increased in license till the suffering people were reduced down to the lumper potato for a wretched, and, alas! a fatally precarious subsistence. Our manufactures would yet exist, giving comfort to our skilful artizans, and offering refuge to the peasant, unable to obtain a maintenance upon the land. In every village neighbourhood, the money raised by the hard toil of the labourer would be finding its way back, and briskly circulating there, by reason of the thousand sources of employment that would arise around the restored residence of the large proprietor. Irish money would thus stay at home to create and increase Irish wealth, and to support Irish poverty; and the grudging doles of an alien parliament would never more be needed in the land.

“Fellow-countrymen, for such results the association has been struggling—for such objects you are now called upon to work. By all that this wretched land has yet endured from English misrule,—by the accumulated and aggravated suffering of the last disastrous forty-seven years, with their fell climax in this year of death,—by the myriads of fresh graves, the fearful husbandry of death, that are ridging your fields and even your humble homesteads,—by the holy and most adorable name of the Deity, who chasteneth whom He loveth,—we entreat, we implore, we exhort, we adjure you to stand true to Ireland at these elections; to spurn Whig and Tory, and to prove yourselves worthy of your rights by returning none but those who will unflinchingly assert them;—and foremost amongst those rights, before all and above all, the right to make your own laws in your own parliament at home.”

The elections issued in a triumph for which the Repeal Committee itself was hardly prepared. There was a great increase in “repeal members.” This arose from a variety of causes. The Conservatives had lost heart in connection with the expenses which the famine had imposed upon their estates. The people universally attributed their distress to the government, and to their connection with heretic England. The priests made great exertions throughout the country. Fearful scenes of violence took place, “the moral-force repealers,” lay and clerical, inciting the people to these outrages by the most inflammatory appeals to their fanaticism, and by examples which were calculated to encourage them. The most awful denunciations were heaped upon the heads of “all bad Catholics who should vote against their religion and country.” These denunciations came from sacerdotal lips, and from the altar as well as the pulpit. The popular press rivalled the priests in anathemas against all who were not willing “to vote for Ireland against the Saxon.” Public placards might be seen in town and country, headed, like the address of the Repeal Committee to the electors, with inflammatory poetry: a favourite couplet on these occasions was—

“On our side is virtue and Erin,
On theirs is the Saxon and guilt.”

The context of these lines was judiciously omitted from the placards, but not from the speeches of the electioneering agents and orators—

“Then onward—our green banner rearing—
Go, flesh every sword to the hilt.”

If this injunction was not obeyed to the letter, it was nearly so, and at all events it was carried out in spirit.

Of green banners there was abundance, and if the sword gave place to the brickbat and the bludgeon, the consequences were pretty much the same—“Green Erin” gained a great victory over Erin of the Orange preferences, and over the Saxon in general. The spirit in which this result was received at Conciliation Hall, and its effect upon the hopes and aspirations of the people, may be gathered most readily from the address of the General Election Committee of the Repealers to the people of Ireland, when the elections had closed.

“_Fellow-countrymen_,—Even in this hour of triumph—even now, when you have so nobly vindicated at the elections the glorious cause of repeal—our congratulations must, in sad accordance with the unvarying fate of Ireland ever since Englishmen have controlled her fortunes, be mingled with considerations of mournfulness and peril! It is not merely—and, alas! that such a calamity should have to be treated as of secondary magnitude—it is not merely that the niggard state charity of England is now at once to cease and be entirely withdrawn, but we have to contemplate a still more fearful and far wider-spreading misery at the end of autumn and in the early winter.

“All-bounteous Heaven has blessed our fields with abundance; but Ireland’s poverty—the unholy doing of man—must cause the produce of her harvest to be exported away from her starving people, and sold at the rich markets of England, to meet the enormous rents of cruel absentees. Five millions of your money go annually to those absentees; and so many have lately fled from the sight of the calamities their carelessness for their country had allowed England to inflict, that more than an additional million must be drained away this year!

“What is there to save our people? The potato has not been sown in one-third of the extent of former years. The substitute crops, though promising, will be fearfully short of the deficiency caused by the loss of the potato; and those crops would be taken from us by the high prices in England, even if we had not to send them there to get money for the absentees. Food gone, and money gone, what is to become of us? The stinted relief that England gave us is out. The means voted with grudging and insult are expended and gone. Her representatives are pledged to give us no more, and not only to refuse if the government should propose a further advance, but to call upon the minister to insist strictly and speedily on repayment of that which has been given. We therefore have no hope of money from England! Have we then any money at home? Alas! it is but as the dribblings of the mountain stream when the winter floods have passed, and the summer heats are exhausting and absorbing its waters; and had we tenfold what little remains, how are the rates to be paid, when, according to even the starvation scale of the government soup-kitchens, the cost of maintaining our poor will exceed by nearly double the whole rated value of the property in Ireland! No Whig nor Tory can tell us of the means of meeting the coming disaster. The members of the ministry have not touched upon it at any of their elections. The press of England is mute, save when it gives utterance to calumnies and insults. Ireland is not in the thoughts of any of our English fellow-subjects. Their own interests, their own monetary perils, their own necessities, absorb their whole attention.

“Should we not then take counsel from ourselves? Should not our newly-elected members agree to come together here in Dublin, and consult for the safety of the country, and decide upon the matters they will urge upon the reluctant ear of the English parliament? Should they not meet, if only to concert how best to recall the absentees to their long-neglected duties at home; how best to compel all the monies of the country to be spent at home; and thus to give a chance of saving our unhappy people from being swept off the face of the earth by widely-desolating famine, or the yet more desolating and dreadful agency of a bloody, a bootless, a criminal, and all-destroying civil war?

“Again we shall address you, when the time is near that parliament is to assemble, and ask of you to announce to your representatives your opinions. We shall carefully make use of the intervening time to collect and concentrate the expression of your sentiments respecting each particular point of policy that should be pressed upon your members’ attention, as well as respecting the great leading principles of the national movement. Thus shall the ‘Council of National Distress and National Safety’ come to its labours with materials prepared and suitably digested, and thus be enabled all the readier and speedier to take, boldly and explicitly, its decisions and resolves, and maintain them firmly, undauntedly, and perseveringly in the British House of Commons. Thus shall the Irish members best show themselves to be worthy of the high trust with which they have been honoured, and of the far higher and prouder distinction of being again, and at no distant time, deputed to represent their beloved country in her restored native parliament.”

The representation that the relief England had given to the people was stinted, was a vile calumny, showing the utter want of principle of the party from which it emanated. The intimation that it was not the intention of government to do more; that the “stinted relief” which England gave was “out;” and that nothing but ruin remained, although rich England was at hand to save, if she were only charitable and just,—was well calculated to keep up disaffection in the public mind.

The success of the repealers at the elections might be supposed as tending to quiet the country, as it afforded a constitutional medium of expressing their views. But it had not that effect: the desire to procure arms which showed itself in 1846 continued through 1847, and notwithstanding the great distress so generally felt, the expenditure of money upon aggressive weapons was in some parts of the country larger than in the previous year.

BITTER DISPUTES BETWEEN “OLD IRELAND” AND “YOUNG IRELAND.”

The Young Irelanders were encouraged by the death of O’Connell to believe that they could take the lead in public affairs among the Roman Catholics, and they supposed that the Protestant population were more likely to listen to arguments in favour of an effort to achieve national independence, coming from them, than they were to hearken to the old repeal arguments from the Old Irelanders. In this they were disappointed; notwithstanding that several of the leaders were Protestants, no considerable number of that persuasion followed the new faction. The true tendency of that agitation was seen by the Protestants, who rather prepared to resist both the Old Ireland and Young Ireland parties, in the struggle which might be brought about by a coalition of these parties. Such a coalition was the policy of the Young Ireland party; but they made the doctrine of physical force a _sine qua non_ in the creed of the coalesced parties; and the Old Irelanders, still clinging to the policy of their deceased chief, refused the terms. John O’Connell and his adherents were then made the objects of unsparing ridicule by the _literati_ of the new party, and the lampoons and caricatures of which the chairman and committee of Conciliation Hall were the victims, told upon the people, and gradually insinuated a contempt for the weak and vacillating policy, as it was described, by which they were guided. The party of John O’Connell, as when under the guidance of his father, was not slow to resort to physical violence, whenever there was a chance of doing so with impunity, while they continued to proclaim the sanctity and permanent obligation of the O’Connell doctrine of moral force. The Young Irelanders endeavoured to reunite Irishmen to lift the arm of a manly and brave revolt against English connection. The Old Irelanders had no objection to kill scripture-readers, break church windows, waylay Protestants, and maltreat them at market or fair, and riotously disperse the assemblages of Young Irelanders, while they preached passive resistance as alone justifiable to the government. Of course the leaders of Old Ireland denounced all breakers of the laws; but when outrages were committed, especially on Young Irelanders or Protestants, they palliated them, or denied them in the face of evidence which was conclusive. John O’Connell found himself in a hurricane of political passion, which he could not quell, and through which he had neither power nor skill to direct his course. By the end of the year he found the reins of authority slipping through his hands; Smith O’Brien and his compeers were rampant; and Ireland, stained with blood, blackened with pestilence, exhausted by famine, raged with impotent fury against the imperial government and Great Britain: in all the folly of domestic faction, she was pitied and scorned by Great Britain when she supposed herself feared. There were no men amongst the leaders of the disaffected in Ireland to command the respect of England, in that sense which a dominant nation respects the power of a rival, or of an insurgent province. The wish became very extensive in Great Britain that all Irish grievances should be redressed, and that in every respect Ireland should be placed on a footing with the other portions of the United Kingdom, if in any a sense of injustice were experienced; but to the honest menaces of the Young Irelanders, and the hypocritical reliance on moral persuasion of Conciliation Hall, the people of Great Britain only gave their ear from curiosity, perfectly regardless of any power which any faction or union of factions might put forth. Great Britain awaited the outburst of passion which was in Ireland so rapidly coming to a crisis,’ as unmoved as the crag abides the eddies of the current which bubble and burst against it.

GENERAL STATE OF AFFAIRS IN GREAT BRITAIN.

This year was one which, in many respects, tested the power and resources of Great Britain. In her colonies she had conflicts to wage of great magnitude. Ireland was smitten with famine and disease, and turbulent. In the Highlands of Scotland the hardy peasantry suffered from the scarcity of provisions caused by the failure of the potato and other crops during 1846.

The commercial embarrassments of the year were felt from the beginning, and continued, with more or less pressure, to the close. From the operations of various causes, money was dear both on the European and American continents. Early in January, so severely was this circumstance felt in Paris, that the Bank of France applied to that of England for aid, which was granted; but the consequence, of course, was a rapid rise in the rate of interest in Great Britain and Ireland. This continued until all speculative transactions were paralysed. The timely increase in the price of accommodation by the Bank of England did much to mitigate the evils of the crisis. These were produced by recent bad harvests, and the failure of the potato crop. The great extent to which railway transactions had been carried, and the consequent drainage of capital; the wild speculations which began to prevail in France, and were so marvellously developed in England, also conduced to the monetary disturbance. Besides the operation of all these causes, there was an uneasy feeling on the continent connected with political affairs, which communicated itself to England, and made capitalists timid.

During the month of September panic pervaded the monetary and commercial world. Failures in every branch of business in London and in the provinces were numerous and disastrous. The following were among the most extensive in London:—

Liabilities.

Sanderson and Co...................... £1,725,900

J. and S. Woolley ..................... 90,500

Reid, Irving, and Co................... 1,500,000

Gower, Nephews........................ 450,000

Cockerell and Co...................... 600,000

Bensusan and Co...................... 60,000

Perkins, Schlusser, and Mullens...... 150,000

Luall, Brothers, and Co................ 400,000

Philips and Co......................... 150,000

Prime, Ward, and Co................... 100,000

Robinson and Co......................... 96,000

Castellain................................. 100,000

Giles and Co............................ 160,000

Some of these persons, and many others who incurred like misfortune, had been regarded as opulent merchants or bankers, and were men of position and influence. Mr. Robinson was, at the time of his failure, a governor of the Bank of England; Sir John Rae Reid had lately filled that office. Mr. Gomer and Mr. Settle were bank directors at the time of their stoppage.

The Bank of England not only raised its rate of interest to eight per cent., but contracted the time of accommodation to thirty days. The funds, always susceptible of the influence of an uneasy state of public affairs, and of violent changes in the money market, were at this juncture peculiarly so, falling as much as two per cent, in a single day. Consols were as low as eighty-four. Railway shares suffered more than any other kind of stock or scrip, becoming so depreciated in the market as to be unsaleable. A great outcry was raised against the monetary policy which had been initiated by Sir Robert Peel. “Peel’s bill” was the subject of unmeasured denunciation by all who were accustomed to obtain bank accommodation, but to whom that advantage was no longer open. Early in October a deputation from the city bankers waited upon the government for the purpose of inducing some relaxation upon the stringency of Sir Robert Peel’s bill. The deputation consisted of most influential men—such as Mr. Masterman, Mr. Abel Smith, Mr. Glynn, Mr. Bevan, Mr. Barnett. The chancellor of the exchequer addressed the deputation in terms which led them to expect that the object for which they were deputed would be accomplished. Their expectations were not disappointed, for the following letter was addressed to the governors of the Bank:—

“Her majesty’s government have seen with the deepest regret the pressure which has existed for some weeks upon the commercial interests of the country, and that this pressure has been aggravated by a want of that confidence which is necessary for carrying on the ordinary dealings of trade. They have been in hopes that the check given to transactions of a speculative character, the transfer of capital from other countries, the influx of bullion, and the feeling which a knowledge of these circumstances might have been expected to produce, would have removed the prevailing distrust. They were encouraged in this expectation by the speedy cessation of a similar state of feeling in the month of April last. These hopes, however, have been disappointed, and her majesty’s government have come to the conclusion that the time has arrived when they ought to attempt, by some extraordinary and temporary measure, to restore confidence to the mercantile and manufacturing community. For this purpose, they recommend to the directors of the Bank of England, in the present emergency, to enlarge the amount of their discounts and advances upon approved security; but that, in order to retain this operation within reasonable limits, a high rate of interest should be charged. In present circumstances they would suggest that the rate of interest should not be less than eight per cent. If this course should lead to any infringement of the existing law, her majesty’s government will be prepared to propose to parliament, on its meeting, a bill of indemnity. They will rely upon the discretion of the directors to reduce as soon as possible the amount of their notes, if any extraordinary issues should take place within the limits pi escribed by law. Her majesty’s government are of opinion that any extra profit derived from this measure should be carried to the account of the public, but the precise mode of doing so must be left to future arrangement. Her majesty’s government are not insensible to the evil of any departure from the law which has placed the currency of this country upon a sound basis; but they feel confident that, in the present circumstances, the measure which they have proposed may be safely adopted; and that, at the same time, the main provision of that law and the vital principle of preserving the convertibility of the bank-note may be firmly maintained.”

The Bank directors passed resolutions consequent upon this letter, which were of great importance to the trading community. These resolutions were conveyed to the government by a letter from the governor and deputy governor of the Bank:—

_Bank Resolutions_.

“Resolved,—That this Court do accede to the recommendation contained in the letter from the First Lord of the Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, dated this day, and addressed to the Governor and Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, which has been read;

“That the minimum rate of discount on bills not having more than 95 days to run be 8 per cent;

“That advances be made on Bills of Exchange, Stock, Exchequer Bills, and other approved securities, in sums of not less than £2000, and for periods to be fixed by the Governors, at the rate of 8 per cent, per annum.”

The immediate effects of this measure can be most briefly shown by the following reference made a few days afterwards by an authority in such matters:—“As soon as the correspondence between the Bank of England and the Government was made public, a rise of nearly two and a half per cent, immediately ensued. Consols on Saturday left off at 80 ¾ to ⅞, and on Monday 83 ½ ⅝. Several fluctuations, however, occurred in the course of the day; and a fall of one per cent, on the announcement by the Bank broker of the truth of the correspondence alluded to above, excited much surprise. On Tuesday, the market was very unsettled, operations being nearly confined to Consols. The opening quotation was 83 ⅝, and the highest quotation 84 ⅜, with numerous fluctuations. A tendency to reaction was visible on Wednesday; the first price was 83 ¼ for money, which declined to 82 ⅜, but afterwards rallied to 82 ½¾, at which price they closed. On Thursday, there was scarcely any fluctuation until towards the close of business. The news of a banking failure in the West of England caused a fall of nearly ½ per cent.; and, at closing, 82 ¼ for Money, to 82 ⅜ to ½ for Time, were the current quotations. Exchequer Bills have considerably fluctuated during the week; about 20s. dis. for large bills is the closing quotation. Bank Stock has rather improved, but India Bonds continue very much depressed, quoting about 30s. dis.”

The prevailing feeling among political economists was unfavourable to the measure; and there were many effects attending upon it which vindicated their judgment. In the provinces banks gave way, and mercantile houses of eminence were closed; a general apprehension among the more skilful financiers was entertained that no _ultimate_ benefit, but considerable ultimate injury, would ensue. The judgment of this class of persons may be best combed in the following review of the event:—“On this resolve being generally circulated, nothing could exceed the agitation that prevailed. Everywhere it became the engrossing subject of conversation; and, while many who were favourable to the ‘expansion’ objected to the high rate of interest, others, more experienced, remembering 1825 and 1836, with all the train of evils that resulted upon the withdrawal of the notes then issued, loudly expressed their disapprobation of this invasion of the most valuable clause in the Bank charter bill. Its mere relaxation, it was observed, robs the measure, at once and for ever, of the powerful check to over-trading that a knowledge that, under no circumstances whatever, a relaxation would be resorted to, was calculated to produce. The immediate effect in Liverpool has been to raise the value of cotton one per cent. This is a direct hindrance to manufacturing, and Manchester, Leeds, &c, consequently suffer. It is remarked at Liverpool that eight per cent., although high, is nothing in comparison with being obliged to sell. It follows, therefore, that, when sold, all the charges incident to withholding must be paid by the purchaser, and ultimately by the consumer. From Manchester, advices have been received of the failure of Messrs. Fairbridge and Mr. Robert Gardner (the latter is greatly regretted); from Leeds, of a firm it would be premature to mention. In the meantime, money in London is rather dearer than cheaper. Discount houses, and the joint-stock banks, are taking money repayable at short dates at six percent., five having hitherto been the current rate. Good bills will not be done under eight per cent., and second-rate at scarcely any price. The Directors of the Bank of England at present have not been subject to any great demands since Monday; the difficulty of offering good security being at once an obstacle to firms partially insolvent. At present, it is almost premature to judge, but doubts are entertained whether the benefits resulting, even for the present, from the ‘relaxation,’ will at all balance the baleful effects anticipated.”

The government did not expect that such opinions would be entertained by so large and influential a portion of the public, and were desirous to retrace their steps as soon as they could do so with a good grace, for before a month had passed measures were taken to that effect. The following letter was addressed by the cabinet to the governors of the Bank:—

“Her majesty’s government have watched with the deepest interest the gradual revival of confidence in the commercial classes of the country. They have the satisfaction of believing that the course adopted by the Bank of England on their recommendation, has contributed to produce this result, whilst it has led to no infringement of the law. It appears, from the accounts which you have transmitted to us, that the reserve of the Bank of England has been for some time steadily increasing, and now amounts to £5,000,000. This increase has in great measure arisen from the return of notes and coin from the country. The bullion exceeds £10,000,000, and the state of the exchange promises a further influx of the precious metals. The knowledge of these facts by the public is calculated to inspire still further confidence. In these circumstances it appears to her majesty’s government that the purpose which they had in view in the letter which we addressed to you on the 25th October has been fully answered, and that it is unnecessary to continue that letter any longer in force.”

The harvest of 1847 was such as to restore confidence in some degree, and from that and other causes, especially the cessation of all speculative undertakings, money became easier. The government, however, claimed credit for their plan, which, in the opinion of so many qualified to judge, did more harm in some directions than it did good in others. If the number and magnitude of the different commercial failures were to be taken into account, there appeared as much necessity for the government measure when it was withdrawn, as when, twenty-eight days before, it was introduced. The following were announced to the end of November:—

IN GLASGOW. Liabilities.

Campbell of May......................... £600,000

A. and J. Bournie...................... 200,000

IN LIVERPOOL.

Ashburner ............................ 30,000

Napier of Camlachie..................... 40,000

IN NEWCASTLE.

Carrand Co.............................. 70,000

IN MANCHESTER.

David Ainsworth ..................... 30,000

IN BLACKBURN.

Roget and Co............................. 76,000

IN LONDON.

Freemanand Cook.......................... 350,000

Sargeant, Garden, and Co................. 150,000

Thurbonand Co............................ 120,000

Coates and Co............................ 100,000

Leaf, Barnet, and Co..................... 100,000

Farmer and Ward......................... 55,000

Ryder, Wimbolt, and Co.................. 50,000

Pemberton and Co........................ 30,000

Abbot and Co............................ 30,000

Besides the great number of mercantile firms which failed, several banks were reduced to the same necessity: the West India, the Shrewsbury, Market Drayton, and the Honiton, were among the principal. Many foreign mercantile establishments which had connections with British houses also stopped payment, adding to the distress and alarm.

During the ensuing month large imports of bullion arrived from the continent and America, and the aspect of affairs became more hopeful.

Throughout the year the English populace experienced much distress, and bore it with patience; still there were food riots and disturbances of various sorts, which had to be put down by the strong arm of the law.

Notwithstanding the gloomy condition of all monetary and mercantile transactions, there were men of enterprise, who contemplated future undertakings of great magnitude. Among these projects was one proposing the formation of a ship canal across the Isthmus of Suez, which, however, was not carried into effect. The French government and people were very desirous to have such a work accomplished; but English politicians regarded it with jealousy, especially Lord Palmerston, then the highest authority in England on foreign affairs. By him the measure was regarded as impracticable, at all events, as a pecuniary speculation; and in its political tendency, likely to separate Egypt from Turkey, and to give France, as a great Mediterranean power, an undue preponderance. He also regarded it as endangering, and not remotely, English empire in India. At all events, Mr. Stephenson, the great English engineer, investigated the subject, and surveyed the line through which certain French speculators proposed that the canal should be cut. As the subject is technical, Mr. Stephenson’s views are given in his own words, used ten years afterwards:—

“In 1847, in conjunction with a French and Austrian engineer, he investigated the matter, feeling how important would be the establishment, if possible, of a communication between the Red Sea and Mediterranean. The levels given by a French engineer, who visited Egypt in 1801, during the French invasion, indicated a difference between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean of something like thirty-two feet. It was suggested that if the old canal of Ptolemy were opened again, a current might be established between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, which would not impede steam navigation, and would at the same time scour the canal and enable a perfect channel to be maintained. However, after investigation, he and the other engineers found that, instead of there being thirty-two feet difference of level between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, there was no difference at all, though the notion of that difference of level had been entertained for upwards of fifty years. While that notion existed it was believed by professional men that a canal, or a new Bosphorus, as it was called, might be maintained between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean; but the difference of level being found to be _nil_, the engineers with whom he was associated abandoned the project altogether, and he believed justly. Since that time he had walked over the district, at some considerable inconvenience, and investigated the feasibility of opening a canal between the two seas, assuming them to be on a level, and supposing the canal to be supplied with water from the higher level of the Nile, but he had come to the conclusion that the thing was, he would say, absurd, were it not that other engineers, whose opinion he respected, had been to the spot since and declared it to be practicable. He coincided in opinion with the first lord of the Treasury. Money, it was true, would overcome any difficulty, but, commercially speaking, he must frankly declare that he believed this scheme to be unfeasible. Whatever its political import might be, he believed it to be an undesirable scheme, speaking as an engineer. In his opinion, the railway now nearly completed would be more effective, as far as India and postal arrangements were concerned, than this new Bosphorus between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.”

POLITICAL AGITATION IN ENGLAND.

The commercial distress gave an opportunity for certain political charlatans to stir up the minds of the people. The Chartists, headed by Fergus O’Connor, took advantage of the privations of the populace by appealing to their passions and their sufferings, representing them as the dupes of the upper and middle classes, especially the latter, who were described as enriching themselves at the expense of the poor. The “people’s charter” was declared to be the panacea; all social evils were to vanish before the application of that political remedy. Some of the political demands of the chartists were just; all classes of liberal politicals felt that the people were entitled to a wider distribution of the franchise, but many who thus felt were deterred from the concession by the intemperate language and impracticable schemes of Fergus O’Connor and the lesser leaders of the confederacy. Whatever might be supposed imprudent as a measure of political agitation in a rich country, and where the vast mass of the people had a strong aversion to all constitutional, or as it was the fashion to name them, “organic changes,” by sanguinary or violent means, was resorted to by Mr. O’Connor and his coadjutors. He propounded principles of political economy so absurd, that it was difficult to suppose he could have any faith in his own theories,—holding out the hope of an ultimate division of the land among the people: others propounded the doctrine of a law by which every man should be provided with “a fair day’s wages for a fair day’s work,” and the duty of supplying that “fair day’s work” for him rested, it was alleged, with the government. These men, in fact, did their utmost to bring about a social war, and the doctrines of communism were actively propagated and eagerly received among large numbers of the operatives in the metropolis and the north of England, and among the labourers elsewhere. There was, probably, no important town in England that had not its chartist association, which looked forward to a violent political revolution by which high wages could be procured by little labour. The Chartists, like the Irish repealers, were divided into sections, characterised respectively by their profession of physical force or moral force. The moral force Chartists were like the Old Irelanders, not generally very sincere in their belief of its efficacy. They professed it merely as a cover to conceal what they meditated; they were as much physical-force men as those who were so designated, but did not deem it politic to make the avowal.