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BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE NO

CCCXXVII

JANUARY 1843

VOL

LIII

CONTENTS GREAT BRITAIN AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE YEAR 1843 LESURQUES; OR THE VICTIM OF JUDICIAL ERROR CALEB STUKELY PART X

IMAGINARY CONVERSATION

BY WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR TASSO AND CORNELIA THE WORLD OF LONDON SECOND SERIES PART I

THE DREAM OF LORD NITHSDALE TWO HOURS OF MYSTERY THE EAST AND SOUTH OF EUROPE THE CURSE OF GLENCOE

BY B

SIMMONS THE MARTYRS' MONUMENT

A MONOLOGUE TASTE AND MUSIC IN ENGLAND GREAT BRITAIN AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE YEAR 1843

Great Britain at the present moment occupies a position of dignity of grandeur and of RESPONSIBILITY unparalleled in either her own history or that of any other nation ancient or modern

Let him who is inclined to doubt this assertion of whatever country he may be and whether friendly hostile or indifferent to England glance for a moment at a map of the world and having at length found out our little island (which perhaps he may consider a mere fragment chipped off as it were from the continent of Europe ) turn to our stupendous possessions in the east and in the west--in fact all over the world--and he may be apt to think of the fond speculative boast of the ancient geometrician "[Greek: Dos pou sto chai ton chosmon chinaeso] " and to paraphrase and apply it thus--"Give the genius of Great Britain but where she may place her foot--some mere point peeping above the waves of the sea--and she shall move the world

" Is not this language warranted by recent facts? While our irritable but glorious neighbour France--_pace tantae gentis!_--is frittering away her warlike energies in Algeria and Russia is worried by her unsuccessful and unjust attempts upon Circassia behold the glorious monarch of this little island Queen Victoria roused by indignities and injuries offered to her most distant subjects in the East strike single-handed a blow there which shakes a vast and ancient empire to its very foundations and forces its haughty emperor from his throne to assume the attitude of a suppliant for peace yielding her peremptory but just demands even at the cannon's mouth and actually relinquishing to her a large portion of his dominions

Events these so astonishing that their true character and consequences have not yet been calmly considered and appreciated by either ourselves or other nations

Look again at recent occurrences in British India--that vast territory which only our prodigious enterprise and skill have acquired for us and nothing but profound sagacity can preserve to the British crown--and observe with mixed feelings two principal matters: a perilous but temporary error of overweening ambition on the part of Great Britain yet retrieved with power and dignity; and converted into an opportunity of displaying--where for the interests of Great Britain it was imperiously demanded--her irresistible valour her moderation her wisdom; exhibiting under circumstances the most adverse possible in its full splendour and majesty the force of that OPINION by which alone we can hold India

Passing swiftly over to the Western Continent gaze at our vast possessions _there_ also--in British North America--containing considerably upwards of four millions of square geographical miles of land; that is nearly a ninth part of the whole terrestrial surface of the globe![1]--besides nearly a million and a half miles of water--five hundred thousand of these square miles being capable and in rapid progress of profitable cultivation! at more than three thousand miles' distance from the mother country and in immediate juxtaposition to the territory of our distinguished but jealous descendants and rivals--a rising nation--the United States! Pausing here in the long catalogue of our foreign possessions let our fancied observer turn back his eye towards the little island that owns them; will he not be filled with wonder possibly with a conviction that Great Britain is destined by Almighty God to be the instrument of effecting His sublime but hidden purposes with reference to humanity? Assume however our observer to be actuated by a hostile and jealous spirit and to regard our foreign possessions and the national greatness derived from them as only nominal and apparent--to insinuate that we could not really hold them or vindicate our vaunted supremacy if powerfully challenged and resented

Let him then meditate upon the authentic intelligence which we have just received from the East: what must then be his real sentiments on this the 1st day of January 1843? Let us ask him in all manly calmness whether England has not _done_ what he doubted or denied her ability to do? whether she has not shown the world that she may indeed do what she pleases among the nations so long as her pleasure is regulated and supported by her accustomed sagacity and spirit? She has however recently had to pass through an awful ordeal principally occasioned by the brief ascendency of incompetent councils; and while expressing in terms of transport our conviction that "out of this nettle danger we have plucked the flower safety"--we cannot repress our feelings of indignation against those who precipitated us into that danger and of gratitude towards those who under Divine Providence have been instrumental in extricating us from it not only rapidly but with credit; not merely with credit but with glory

To appreciate our present position we must refer to that which we occupied some twelve or eighteen months ago; and that will necessarily involve a brief examination of the policy and proceedings of the late and of the present Government

We shall speak in an unreserved and independent spirit in giving utterance to the reflections which have occurred to us during a watchful attention paid to the course of public affairs both foreign and domestic in the interval alluded to; though feeling the task which we have undertaken both a delicate and a difficult one

[1] Malte Brun xi

179

Alison x

256

After a desperate tenacity in retaining office exhibited by the late Government which was utterly unexampled and most degrading to the character and position of public men engaged in carrying on the Queen's Government Sir Robert Peel was called to the head of affairs by her Majesty in accordance with the declared wishes of a triumphant majority of her subjects--of a perfectly overwhelming majority of the educated the thinking and the monied classes of society

When he first placed his foot upon the commanding eminence of the premiership the sight which presented itself to his quick and comprehensive glance must have been indeed one calculated to make --"the boldest hold his breath For a time

" What appalling evidence in every direction of the ignorance and madness of his predecessors! An exchequer empty exactly at the moment when it ought to have been fullest in order to support our tremendous operations in the East and elsewhere: in fact a prospect of immediate national insolvency; all resources ordinary and extraordinary exhausted; all income anticipated: an average deficiency of revenue actual and estimated in the six years next preceding the 5th of January 1843 of L

10 072 000! Symptoms of social disorganization visible on the very surface of society: ruin bestriding our mercantile interests palsied every where by the long pressure of financial misrule: credit vanishing rapidly: the working-classes plunged daily deeper and deeper into misery and starvation ready to listen to the most desperate suggestions: and a Government bewildered with a consciousness of incompetency and of the swiftly approaching consequences of their misrule at the eleventh hour--on the eve of a general election-- suddenly resolving (in the language of their own leader) to stir society to its foundations by proposing a wild and ruinous alteration in the Corn-Laws declaring that it and it only would bring cheap bread to the doors of the very poorest in the land:--after the manner of giving out ardent spirits to an already infuriated mob

In Ireland crime and sedition fearfully in the ascendant; treasonable efforts made to separate her from us; threats even held out of her entering into a foreign alliance against us

So much for our domestic--now for our foreign condition and prospects

He would see Europe exhibiting serious symptoms of distrust and hostility: France irritated and trifled with on the verge of actual war with us: our criminally neglected differences with America fast ripening into the fatal bloom of war: the very existence of the Canadas at stake

In India the tenure by which we hold it in the very act of being loosened; our troops shedding their blood in vain in the prosecution of as mad and wicked an enterprise as ever was undertaken by a civilized nation; the glory of our hitherto invincible arms tarnished; the finances of India deranged and wasted away in securing only fresh accessions of disgraceful defeat

In China we were engaged in spite of the whisper of our guardian angel Wellington in a _little war_ and experiencing all its degrading and ruinous consequences to our commerce our military and naval reputation our statesmanship our honour

Did ever this great empire exhibit such a spectacle before as that which it thus presented to the anxious eye of the new Premier? Having concluded the disheartening and alarming survey he must have descended to his cabinet oppressed and desponding enquiring who is sufficient for these things? With no disposition to bestow an undue encomium on any one we cannot but say happy was Queen Victoria in having at such a moment such a man to call to the head of her distracted affairs as Sir Robert Peel

He was a man preeminently distinguished by caution sobriety and firmness of character--by remarkable clear-sightedness and strength of intellect--thoroughly practical in all things--of immense knowledge entirely at his command--of consummate tact and judgment in the conduct of public affairs--of indefatigable patience and perseverance--of imperturbable self-possession

He seemed formed by nature and habit to be the leader of a great deliberative assembly

Add to all this--a personal character of unsullied purity and a fortune so large as to place him beyond the reach of suspicion or temptation

Such was the man called upon by his sovereign and his country in a most serious crisis of her affairs

He was originally fortunate in being surrounded by political friends eminently qualified for office; from among whom he made with due deliberation a selection which satisfied the country the instant that their names were laid before it

We know not when a British sovereign has been surrounded by a more brilliant and powerful body of ministers than those who at this moment stand around Queen Victoria

They constitute the first real GOVERNMENT which this country has seen for the last twelve years; and they instantly addressed themselves to the discharge of the duties assigned to them with a practised skill and energy and system which were quickly felt in all departments of the State

In contenting himself with the general superintendance of the affairs of his government and devolving on another the harassing office of Chancellor of the Exchequer which till then had been conjoined with that of the First Lord of the Treasury Sir Robert Peel acted with his usual judgment and secured in particular one capital object--_unity of action

_ As soon as the late Ministry and their adherents perceived that Sir Robert Peel's advent to power was inevitable they clamorously required of him a full preliminary statement of the policy he intended to adopt on being actually installed in office! By those who had floundered on session after session from blunder to blunder from folly to folly--each more glaring and destructive than the preceding one--he was modestly expected to commit himself _instanter_ to some scheme struck off to please them at a heat! A cut-and-dried exposition of his plans of domestic and foreign policy before it was even certain that he would ever be called on to frame or act on them; before he had had a glimpse of the authentic and official _data_ of which none but the actual adviser of the crown could be in possession

This was doubtless _their_ notion of statesmanship and faithfully acted on from first to last; but Sir Robert Peel and his friends had been brought up in another school whose maxim was--_priusquam incipias consulta--sed ubi consulueris mature facto opus est_

The Premier stood unmoved by the entreaties the coaxings and the threatenings of those wriggling before him in miserable discomfiture and restlessness on the abhorred benches of Opposition; calmly demonstrating to them the folly and injustice of which they were guilty

Yet the circumstances of the country made his adherence to this first determination exquisitely trying

He relied however on the cautious integrity of his purposes and the necessity of the case; and amidst the silent agitation of friends and the frenzied clamour of opponents and with a dreadful prospect before the country in the ensuing winter--maintained the silence he had imposed upon himself and with his companions entered forthwith on a searching and complete investigation of the affairs of the nation

Not seduced by the irrepressible eagerness of friends or dismayed by the dark threats and dismal predictions of enemies who even appealed direct to the throne against them Ministers pursued their course with calmness and determination till the legitimate moment had arrived for announcing to the country their thoroughly considered plans for the future

Sir Robert Peel is undoubtedly entitled to the credit of resuscitating and re-organizing the great party all but annihilated by the passing of the Reform Bill

It is under vast obligations to him; but so is he to it

What fortitude and fidelity have been theirs! How admirable their conduct on the occasion we are alluding to! And here let us also pay a just tribute of respect to the Conservative newspaper press both in the metropolis and in the country

To select particular instances would be vain and invidious; but while the whole country has daily opportunities of judging of the assistance afforded to the Conservative cause by the powerful and independent metropolitan press few are aware as we are of the very great ability generally displayed by the provincial Conservative press

Their resolute and persevering exposure of the dangerous false doctrines of our unscrupulous adversaries and eloquent advocacy of Conservative principles are above all praise and are appreciated in the highest quarters

The winter was at length nearly passed through when Parliament assembled

The distress which the people had suffered and continued to suffer no pen can adequately describe or do justice to the touching fortitude with which those sufferings were borne

It wrung the hearts of all who had opportunities of personally observing it

They resisted poor famishing souls! all the fiendish attempts that were systematically made to undermine their loyalty to seduce them into insubordination and rebellion

Let us by and by see how far the result has justified this implied confidence of theirs in the power the wisdom and the integrity of the new Government

After all the boasting of the Opposition--in spite of their vehement efforts during the recess to concert and mature what were given out as the most formidable system of tactics ever exhibited in parliament for the dislodgement of a Ministry denounced as equally hateful to the Queen and to the country the very first division utterly annihilated the Opposition

So overwhelming was the Ministerial majority that it astonished their friends as much as it dismayed their enemies: and to an accurate observer of what passed in the House of Commons it was plain that the legitimate energies of the Opposition were paralyzed thenceforth to the end of the session

Forthwith there sprung up however a sort of conspiracy to _annoy_ the triumphant Ministers to exhaust their energies to impede all legislation as far as those ends could be attained by the most wicked and _vulgar_ faction ever witnessed within the House of Commons! The precise seat of Sir Robert Peel's difficulty at home was that his immediate predecessors had (whether wilfully or otherwise signifies nothing for the present) raised expectations among the people which _no party_ could satisfy; while their measures has reduced the people to a state in which the disappointment of those expectations seemed to excuse if not justify even downright rebellion

They arrayed the agricultural and manufacturing interests in deadly hostility against each other; they sought to make the one responsible for the consequences springing only from the reckless misconduct of the other

The farmers must be run down and ruined in order to repair the effects of excessive credit and over-trading among the manufacturers; the corn-grower must smart for the sins of the cotton-spinner

Such were some of the fierce elements of discord in full action when the affairs of the nation were committed by her Majesty to her present Ministers on whom it lay to promote permanent domestic tranquillity amidst this conflict between interests which had been taught that they were irreconcilable with each other; to sustain the public credit at once without endangering our internal peace and safety or compromising the honour of the nation in its critical and embarrassing foreign relations

How were they to effect these apparently incompatible objects? "See " said the enemies of the Ministry "see by and by when parliament assembles a cruel specimen of _class legislation_--the unjust triumph of the landed interest--the legitimate working of the Chandos clause in the Reform Bill!" But bear witness parliamentary records how stood the fact! That the present Ministry are mainly indebted for their accession to power to the prodigious exertions of the agricultural interest during the last general election is we presume undeniable

It was talked of as their mere tool or puppet

Their first act is to lower the duties on the importation of foreign cattle! "We are ruined!" cried the farmers in dismay; and the Duke of Buckingham withdrew from the Cabinet

"This is a step in the right way " said the opponents of Ministers "but it will clearly cost Peel his place--then _we_ return and will go the rest of the journey and quickly arrive at the goal of free-trade in corn and every thing else except those particular articles in which _we_ deal and which must be protected for the benefit of the country against foreign competition

" Then the Radical journals teemed with joyful paragraphs announcing that Sir Robert Peel's ministry was already crumbling to pieces! The farmers it would seem were every where up in arms; confusion (and something a vast deal worse!) was drunk at all their meetings to Peel! Nevertheless these happy things came not to pass; Sir Robert Peel's Ministry _would_ not fall to pieces; and the curses of the farmers came not so fast or loud as their eager disinterested friends could have wished! To be serious the alteration of the Corn-Laws was undoubtedly a very bold one but the result of most anxious and profound consideration

A moment's reflection of the character and circumstances of the Ministry who proposed it served first to arrest the apprehensions entertained by the agricultural interest; while the thorough discussions which took place in Parliament demonstrating the necessity of _some_ change--the moderation and caution of the one proposed--several undoubted and very great improvements in details and above all _a formal recognition of the principle of agricultural protection_ still further allayed the fears of the most timorous

To _us_ it appears that the simple principle of a scale of duties adapted to admit foreign corn when we want it and exclude it when we can grow sufficient ourselves is abundantly vindicated and will not be disturbed for many years to come if even then

Has this principle been surrendered by Sir Robert Peel? It has not; and we venture to express our confident belief that it never will

He cannot of course prevent the subject from being mooted during the ensuing session because there are persons unfortunately sent to Parliament for the very purpose; but while he is listening with a calm smile and apparently thoughtfully to the voluble tradesmen who are haranguing him upon the subject it is not improbable that he will be revolving in his mind matters much more personally interesting and important to them; viz

how he shall put a stop to the monstrous joint-stock banking system frauds as exhibited at this moment at Manchester in the Northern and Central Banking Company and other similar establishments blessed with the disinterested patronage of the chief member of the "Anti-Corn-Law League

" The mention of that snug little speculation of two or three ingenious and enterprising Manchester manufacturers forces from us an observation or two viz

that the thing _will not do_ after all

There is much cry and little wool; very little corn and a great deal of cotton

They have a smart saying at Manchester to the effect that it is no use whistling against thunder; which we shall interpret to mean that all their "great meetings " speechifyings subscriptions and so forth will fail to kindle a single spark of real enthusiasm in their favour among those who are daily becoming more and more personally sensible first of the solid benefits conferred by the wise policy of the present Administration; secondly of the want of personal respectability among the leaders of the League; and lastly the necessity and vast advantage of supporting the agriculture of Old England

The recent discussions on the Corn-Laws in Parliament and elsewhere the masterly expositions of the true principles on which they are really based have thrown a flood of light on the subject now made visible and intelligible to the lowest capacity

That some further alteration may not erelong be made on the scale of duties no one can assert though we have no reason to believe that any such is at present contemplated; but that the principle of the "sliding scale " as it is called will be firmly adhered to we entertain no doubt whatever

The conduct of the agricultural interest with reference to subjects of such vital importance to them as the Corn-Law Bill and the Tariff has been characterized by signal forbearance and fortitude; nor let them rest assured will it be lost upon the Ministry or the country

The next step in Sir Robert Peel's bold and comprehensive policy was to devise some method of recruiting _forthwith_ its languishing vital energies--to rescue its financial concerns from the desperate condition in which he found them

With an immediate and perspective increase of expenditure that was perfectly frightful--in the meditation and actual prosecution of vast but useless enterprises--of foreign interference and aggrandizement to secure a little longer continuance of popular favour they deliberately destroyed a principal source of revenue by the reduction of the postage duties in defiance of the repeated protests and warnings of Sir Robert Peel when in Opposition

They had in fact brought matters to such a pitch as to render it almost impossible for even "a heaven-born minister" to conduct the affairs of the nation with safety and honour without inflicting grievous disappointment and sufferings and incurring thereby a degree of obloquy fatal to any Ministry

They seemed in fact to imagine as they went on that the day of reckoning could never arrive because they had resolved to stave it off from time to time however near it approached by a series of desperate expedients really destructive of the national prosperity but provocative of what served their purposes viz

temporary popular enthusiasm

What cruelty! what profligacy! what madness! And all under the flag on which were inscribed "_Peace! Retrenchment! Reform!_" Acting on the salutary maxim that the knowledge of the disease is half the cure Sir Robert Peel resolved to lay before the nation _the whole truth_ however appalling

Listen to the following pregnant sentences which he addressed to the House of Commons within a few moments after he had risen to develope his financial policy we mean on the 11th of March 1842:--"It is sometimes necessary on the occasion of financial statements of this kind to maintain great reserve and to speak with great caution

A due regard for the public interest may impose on a Minister the duty of only partially disclosing matters of importance

But I am hampered by no fetters of official duty

I mean to lay before you the truth--the unexaggerated truth but to conceal nothing

I do this because in great financial difficulties the first step towards improvement is to look those difficulties boldly in the face

This is true of individuals--it is true also of nations

There can be no hope of improvement or of recovery _if you consent to conceal from yourselves the real difficulties with which you have to contend_

"[2] There was no gainsaying the facts which amidst an agitated and breathless silence he proceeded to detail with dreadful clearness and brevity; and out of which the question instantly sprung into the minds of every one--_are we not on the very verge of national insolvency_? He proceeded to demonstrate that his predecessors had exhausted every device which their financial ingenuity could suggest down to their last supposed master-stroke the addition of 10 per cent to the assessed taxes--thus adding very nearly the last straw which was to break the camel's back--the last peculiarly cruel pressure on the lower orders

[2] Hansard vol

lxi

col

423