Chapter V

1830.

Duke of Wellington mobbed and stoned--Owing to riots, the King
postponed his visit to the city--No Lord Mayor's show, nor
dinner--Riots in the city--Apsley House besieged--Ireland
proclaimed--Ferment in the country--Change of Ministry--Royal
succession--Scotch regalia--Curious story of a bank-note.

Rioting was not confined to the country. The cry of parliamentary reform was exciting the great towns, and especially London. On November 2nd, when the King went to open Parliament, the Duke of Wellington was mobbed in the Park, and struck on the cheek with a stone. The King and Queen were going to dine at Guildhall on Lord Mayor's day, November 9th, and all was prepared for the banquet, but, on the 7th, the Duke of Wellington received the following letter:--

"MY LORD DUKE,

"From the situation of Lord Mayor, to which I have been elected,
numberless communications have been made to me, both personally
and by letter, in reference to the 9th, and it is on that account
that I take the liberty of addressing your Grace.

"Although the feelings of the respectable citizens of London are
decidedly loyal, yet it cannot but be known that there are, both
in London, as well as the country, a set of desperate and
abandoned characters who are anxious to avail themselves of any
circumstance to create tumult and confusion. While all of any
respectability in the city are vieing with each other to testify
their loyalty on the occasion; from what I learn, it is the
intention of some of the desperate characters above mentioned, to
take the opportunity of making an attack on your Grace's person,
on your approach to the Hall. Every exertion on my part shall be
used to make the best possible arrangements in the City; and, at
the same time, I feel that, should any violent attack be made in
one quarter, any civil force alone might not be sufficiently
effectual; and I should not be doing my duty, after what I have
heard, did I not take the liberty of suggesting to your Grace the
propriety of coming strongly and sufficiently guarded.

"I probably may be considered as giving you needless trouble, but
the respect which I, as well as every person who really wishes
the welfare of the country, must have for your Grace, and the
gratitude we owe you, has induced me to adopt this course.

"I have, etc.
"(Signed) JOHN KEY,
"Lord Mayor Elect."

Other communications to a similar effect were made to the Ministers; and in the evening of the 7th the following letter was received by the Lord Mayor, from Sir Robert Peel:--

"MY LORD,

"I am commanded by the King to inform your Lordship, that his
Majesty's confidential servants have felt it to be their duty to
advise the King to postpone the visit which their Majesties
intended to pay the City of London on Tuesday next. From
information which has been recently received, there is reason to
apprehend that, notwithstanding the devoted loyalty and affection
borne to his Majesty by the citizens of London, advantage would
be taken of an occasion which must necessarily assemble a vast
number of persons by night, to create tumult and confusion, and
thereby to endanger the properties and the lives of his subjects.
It would be a source of deep and lasting concern to their
Majesties were any calamity to occur on the occasion of their
visit to the City of London, and their Majesties have therefore
resolved, though not without the greatest reluctance and regret,
to forego, for the present, the satisfaction which that visit
would have afforded to their Majesties.

"I have the honour to be, my Lord,
"Your obedient servant,
"ROBERT PEEL."

A deputation from the committee appointed to superintend the entertainment waited upon his Majesty's ministers three times on Tuesday; and the Duke of Wellington plainly told them that there was but one of two courses to be adopted--the postponement of the visit, or the alternative of bringing a large body of military into the City.

The effect of Sir Robert Peel's letter upon the minds of the citizens was beyond description. Men hastened to purchase arms, and to secure the fastenings of their houses, as if there was going to be an armed rebellion. On the 8th, consols fell three per cent. in about an hour and a half, whilst the streets were choked with busy crowds, listening to and spreading all sorts of alarming rumours. The prevailing one was that it was intended to allow the procession to return to the Guildhall unmolested, but that, in the evening, the passage of Temple Bar and the bridges should have been barricaded, the gas-pipes cut off, and, under the cloud of darkness, an indiscriminate plunder of the City take place.

The new Lord Mayor proclaimed that neither the usual procession, nor the banquet would take place, and, accordingly, there were neither this year. And well it was that it was so, for there would assuredly have been a riot; as it was, it was bad enough, as we see from the following account taken from the _Annual Register_:--

"Both on Monday and on Tuesday (8th and 9th November) the streets
of the Metropolis were unusually crowded, and a considerable
degree of excitement prevailed. On Monday night a meeting was
held at the Rotunda, in Blackfriars Road, at which Mr. Hunt
presided as Chairman. It did not terminate till half-past eleven
o'clock, when Hunt retired. The instant he left the meeting, an
individual exposed a tri-coloured flag, with 'Reform' painted
upon it; and a cry of 'Now for the West End,' was instantly
raised. This seemed to act as a signal, evidently preconcerted,
as the individuals composing the meeting, one and all, assented,
and sallied forth in a body, the individual unfurling the
tri-coloured flag.

"They then proceeded over the bridge, in numbers amounting to
about a thousand, shouting as they passed along, 'Reform!' 'Down
with the Police!' 'No Peel!' 'No Wellington!' In their route they
were joined by others, and in this manner they proceeded through
Fleet Street and the Strand. The Adelphi theatre was closing, and
the audience about to leave, when, the shouts of the mob being
heard, the doors were instantly closed, and the audience were
kept in the house till they had passed. As they proceeded, they
were joined by a considerable number of notoriously bad
characters, who were very loud in their exclamations against the
police.

"The mob first proceeded into Downing Street, where they formed
themselves into a line immediately in the front of the residence
of Earl Bathurst. A gentleman in the house, hearing the tumult,
presented himself at the balcony, armed with a brace of pistols,
and, addressing the mob, warned them against committing any
illegal act, declaring that he would fire upon the first man that
attempted to enter the house. Yells and groans followed this
declaration, and a cry of 'Go it, go it!' was raised by the mob.
At this moment, another gentleman came out on the balcony, and
took the pistols out of his hands, upon which the mob gave loud
cheers.

"A strong body of the new police arrived from Scotland Yard, and
formed themselves into a line at the end of King Street to
prevent the mob from going to the House of Commons, where they
intended to proceed. A general fight now ensued, in which the new
police were assisted by several respectable-looking men, who used
every endeavour to put the mob to the rout. In the skirmish many
received broken heads, and the flag was captured. Inspector
Lincoln of the E division arrived with a body of seventy men, and
an equal number of the B division also came up, when the mob,
seeing the reinforcement, took to flight in all directions, and
the most perfect quietude succeeded. Three of the most desperate
of the rioters were arrested, and carried to the watch house in
the Almonry, Westminster. A reinforcement of the Royal Horse
Guards, blue, were mounted in the yard of the Horse Guards, and
remained there during the night, and extra policemen, in bodies,
paraded the streets.

"At an early hour in the morning of Tuesday, the new police were
called out in considerable numbers, and, by five o'clock in the
evening, a double row flanked the edges of either pavements, on
the Westminster side of Temple Bar, for a considerable distance.
This precaution was not taken without occasion, for, before this
period, a dense mob had collected within Temple Bar, in order to
see the preparations there made for an illumination. It was, at
last, found necessary, at a late hour in the afternoon, to employ
workmen in removing the temporary gas-pipes by which the lighting
up was intended to have been effected, lest any of the mob should
clamber the Bar, and communicate light to the various gas
orifices.

"As soon as the workmen arrived for this purpose, a body of
vagabonds ran through the avenues into Westminster, and
endeavoured to excite alarm by cries of 'Fire! Fire!' A large
body of the police were drawn up, about six o'clock, in the open
space leading to Waterloo Bridge, and similar precautions were
taken in other parts of Westminster.

"About half-past five, the refuse of the mob, which at an early
hour had assembled in the City, proceeded along the Strand, in a
body of between three and four hundred, consisting principally
of boys of the lowest description, vociferating 'No Peel--down
with the raw lobsters!' and other expressions of a similar
tendency. On arriving at Catherine Street, they rushed up it,
headed by a youth about sixteen, who cheered on the throng with
'This way, my lads--we'll give it them.' A temporary halt was
made at the corner of York Street; the mob then proceeded down
York Street, through Maiden Lane, Chandos Street, Hemming's Row,
to the rear of the Menagerie, at Charing Cross; the whole of them
yelling, shouting, groaning, and breaking windows in their
progress. A strong body of the E division now rushed upon them,
and dealt out severe blows with their staves on the heads and
arms of the mob. The captain of the gang was the first to
retreat; and the rioters were completely dispersed. At seven
o'clock the end of Fleet Street, by Temple Bar, was nearly
impassable, and the mob, who extended beyond the pathways, so as
to leave barely room for a coach to pass, demanded from each
passenger or coachman, as a passport, that he should pull off his
hat and shout 'Huzzah!'

"The City side of Temple Bar was in a very tumultuous state.
Stones were repeatedly thrown thence upon the police stationed on
the Westminster side. Attempts were also made to close the gates,
and several rushes upon the police were made from within. Mr.
Brown, the Marshal, insisted upon having the control of the gate,
as belonging to the City, and caused it to be instantly opened,
which produced loud cheering among the mob, and the cry of 'The
City police for ever!' They soon, however, lost their popularity,
by opposing the passage of the mob through the gate; and Mr.
Brown received a severe wound upon the head, in attempting to
disarm the rioters. The other City officers were also roughly
handled. The mob forced their way, but returned soon afterwards,
and went quietly through the City. The police were afterwards
withdrawn to a passage leading out of Picket Place into Newcastle
Court; and conflicts took place between them and the mob, in
which many on both sides received serious injuries. The mob, who
appeared afraid to venture outside the gates of Temple Bar,
amused themselves with throwing stones and large pieces of wood
among the police in Picket Place; they obtained these missiles
from the New Law Institution in Chancery Lane, the scaffold of
which was broken down and carried off, amidst loud cheers.

"In the course of the evening, another mob, of between four and
five hundred persons, proceeded along Piccadilly, and, in a smart
trot, made their way to Apsley House, the residence of the Duke
of Wellington; hallooing, and bestowing the usual expression of
disapprobation on the Duke, Mr. Peel, and the police. On their
reaching the end of Piccadilly, they were met with a strong force
of the D division of police, who succeeded in dispersing them in
different directions, without any serious accident to either
party. At eleven o'clock, Piccadilly and the whole of the West
End, from the bottom of the Haymarket upwards, was in an
undisturbed state; but the police, in number between four and
five hundred, were drawn up in Spring Gardens, ready to act,
should necessity require them to do so. Frequent communications
took place from the different station-houses to the head-quarters
at Scotland Yard, and the men employed as messengers upon this
occasion were attired in plain clothes, the better to facilitate
their progress, and prevent them from being attacked.

"Several parties of ill-disposed persons, many of whom were boys,
paraded the streets in Bethnal Green, Spitalfields, and
Whitechapel, for the purpose of creating a riot, but were
disappointed. One party, more formidable than the rest, passed by
Worship Street Office into Church Street, Spitalfields, where
they demolished the gas lamp and some windows at the police
station there, and, afterwards, those of a Mr. Chapple, a
fruiterer; thence they took a circuit round Bethnal Green, and
returned into the City without committing further mischief. The
magistrates were the whole evening in attendance at the different
offices. As early as six o'clock, the shops in St. Paul's
Churchyard, Ludgate Hill, and Fleet Street, were completely
closed, in consequence of the number of men assembled. The City
police in motion in the course of the day amounted to from five
hundred to six hundred men, including the firemen, ticket
porters, and tackle porters."

The whole country was in a state of ferment. In Ireland, the feeling for repeal of the Union was so strong, that the Duke of Northumberland, as Lord Lieutenant, issued a proclamation putting in force the Act (10 George IV. c. 1) entitled, "An Act for the Suppression of dangerous Associations or Assemblies in Ireland." And the _Leeds Intelligencer_ (quoted in the _Times_ of October 23rd) says--

"We observe that fears are expressed in some of the Metropolitan
papers, that disturbances are on the point of breaking out in the
North. It was reported in the City, on Monday afternoon, the
_Standard_ tells us, 'that a reinforcement of troops had been
demanded for Cumberland, in consequence of symptoms of
dissatisfaction having appeared among the colliers. Two
regiments, they state, are to start from Portsmouth. Artillery,
also, it is said, has been ordered from Woolwich, on Friday, for
the North. The state of the collieries and manufacturing
districts in that part of England is alarming.' Our information
does not at all bear out this alarming statement. Except some
Radical demonstrations at Carlisle, such as threats, political
nocturnal trainings, and a supposed secret preparation of
pikes--young trees having been cut down in various places--we
hear of nothing which should cause a sudden movement of troops.
Certain, however, it is, that an augmentation of force is taking
place in the North. The detachment of artillery stationed in
Leeds for about a year past, marched for Newcastle on Monday
morning."

Space prevents my giving any more about the riotous state of the country during this year, exception only being made to the following excerpt from the "Greville Memoirs":--

"December 1.--The last two or three days have produced no
remarkable outrages, and, though the state of the country is
still dreadful, it is rather better on the whole, than it was;
but London is like the capital of a country desolated by cruel
war, or foreign invasion, and we are always looking for reports
of battles, burnings, and other disorders. Wherever there has
been anything like fighting, the mob has always been beaten, and
has shown the greatest cowardice. They do not, however, seem to
have been actuated by a very ferocious spirit; and, considering
the disorders of the times, it is remarkable that they have not
been more violent and rapacious. Lord Craven, who is just of age,
with three or four more young Lords, his friends, defeated and
dispersed them in Hampshire. They broke into the Duke of
Beaufort's house at Heythrop, but he and his sons got them out
without mischief, and, afterwards, took some of them. On Monday,
as the field which had been out with the King's hounds were
returning to town, they were summoned to assist in quelling a
riot at Woburn, which they did; the gentlemen charged and broke
the people, and took some of them; and, fortunately, some troops
came up to secure the prisoners. The alarm, however, still
continues, and a feverish anxiety about the future universally
prevails, for no man can foresee what course events will take,
nor how his own individual circumstances may be affected by
them."

The Houses of Parliament were dissolved on July 23rd, and re-assembled on October 26th. On November 15th, the Ministry were defeated over the Civil List by a majority of twenty-nine, and on the next day the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel resigned, and were succeeded by a Ministry, at the head of which was Earl Grey. On the 15th, the Lord Chancellor (Lord Lyndhurst) moved the appointment of a Regency in case of the death of the King before the Princess Victoria arrived at the age of eighteen. He said that the Bill which he was about to propose, provided that, in the event of a posthumous child, her Majesty the Queen should be guardian and regent during the minority; and that her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent should be guardian and regent during the minority of the Princess Victoria; subject to be superseded in the regency, in the case of the birth of a posthumous child. An amendment was afterwards introduced, to the effect that the Princess Victoria should not marry, while a minor, without the consent of the King; or, in the event of his death, without the consent of both Houses of Parliament; and that, if the Duchess of Kent, while regent, married a foreigner, she should lose the regency. This Bill became law on December 23rd, and is know as 1 Gul. IV. c. 2.

In December, the King sent to Scotland, for the purpose of being deposited with the regalia, in the Crown-room of Edinburgh Castle, a beautiful massive gold collar of the Garter, with rose diamond and enamelled George, left to the King (George IV.) by Cardinal York, the last of the royal line of Stuarts; and an ancient rose diamond badge of St. Andrew, and a sapphire ring, set round with brilliants, being Charles the First's coronation ring. The former of these jewels (which weighs about three pounds), was presented to James VI. by his queen, and was worn by that monarch.

I wind up the year with a very curious story of a bank-note. The _Carlisle Patriot_ quoted in the _Times_ of December 29, says--

"We mentioned in our last that a £5 Bank of England note had been
received by a mercantile house in Liverpool, on the back of which
were written the following words: 'If this note gets into the
hand of John Dean, of Long Hills, near Carlisle, his brother
Andrew is a prisoner in Algiers.' The paragraph was read by a
person in Carlisle, who knew Andrew Dean, and is acquainted with
his brother, John Dean's, family, who are residing at Longtown.
John Dean's son was in Carlisle on Thursday last, and heard of
the paragraph from the person above alluded to; he called at this
office, in company with a friend, and, from what he related of
his uncle, there is every reason to believe that he is the Andrew
Dean, whose imprisonment in a distant country has, by this
singular means, been made known to his friends in England. Andrew
Dean, it appears, was formerly in the British navy, which he left
some time ago, and settled in business in Algiers. Communications
will be made to the Liverpool house, and also to Sir James Graham
(First Lord of the Admiralty), to ask his assistance in the
interesting inquiry."

I can trace no more about it; but it was pointed out that the Ironmongers' Company has a fund of enormous amount, purposely reserved for the liberation of captives in Barbary.

Here are some bonnets and fashions worn in 1830. Two walking dresses, one evening, and one ball dress.