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ENGLAND IN THENINETEENTH CENTURY
i






In front of the throne are the Commissioners with Lord Brougham presiding as Chancellor. The Duke of Sussex is the stout figure by the curtain on the right The benches of the Tory Peers are vacant The Commons are at the bar.
The Reform Bill receiving the Royal Assent in the House of Lords.


SELECTIONS FROM ENGLISH LITERATURE
8.
ENGLAND IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
edited by
Dr. p. geyl
PROFESSOR OF DUTCH HISTORY AND INSTITUTIONS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
AND
Dr. e. kruisinga
LECTURER ON ENGLISH PHILOLOGY FOR THE MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION. THE HAGUE
volume i. (1815—1860)
KEMINK EN ZOON
over den dom te utrecht 1924




PREFACE
The necessities of modern life make it more and more difficult to maintain the classical education that used to be the exclusive means of entering upon the most important professions in our society. In Holland, which is compelled, by the circumstances of its geographical and economical position, to burden the pupils of its secondary schools with three modern foreign languages, an increasing number of pupils choose what is grandly called the side of modern humanism. If, however, modern languages are really to supply the place of the classics, the teaching must profit by the long experience of the classical language masters, just as the scientific study of modern languages has been partly based on the example of classical philology.
Now, the study of the classics in our schools means the study of the best of the poets and historians of ancient Rome and Oreece. The present book aims to make it possible for modern language masters to supplement the literary reading of their pupils by a selection from various English historians with passages from memoirs and some letters. All of them illustrate a single period of English history, and one in which it will not be very difficult for the master to interest his pupils.
The book may also serve a second (and secondary) purpose: it suppljes suitable material of very various grades of difficulty for occasional translation irtto the mother tongue. The new rules for the final examinations of the secondary schools make this translation the only means of judging the pupil's progress as far as the written part is concerned. The rules have induced some masters to publish collections of newspaper and


novel cuttings for purposes of regular translation. The example of the classical masters shows conclusively that it is not necessary to descend to this level in order to satisfy the requirements of the examination. And it is certain that the translation of such titbits has nothing to do with a humanistic education.
In the selection of the pieces offered here it has been attempted to illustrate the most important political events of the period, and to give some idea of the social life of the times. I venture to think that the study of the book will have a beneficent influence on the thoroughness of the literary reading, especially with respect to the novel of the nineteenth century. If the selection is representative of the best historical literature of the present time, it is entirely due to the cooperation of Professor Geyl. Indeed, without his collaboration the book would perhaps have remained a plan only, and at any rate would have been far less perfect than it is now. The preface is signed by myself alone, at the request of Professor Geyl, who disclaims the experience of a schoolmaster. It enables me to thank him for making this book what it is, and for contributing a historian's share in the attempt to raise the Standard of teaching in our schools.
The second part will appear in the spring of 1925.
E. KRUIS INGA.


TABLÈ OF CONTENTS
I. WATERLOO Thomas Hardy 1-8
II. PETERLOO J. L. & B. Hammond 9-14
III. CASTLEREAGH Lord Byron 15-18
IV. GEORGE IV. & WILLIAM IV 19-24
a. W. M. Thackeray.
b. Charles Greville.
V. THE REFORM BILL 25-41
a. Sidney Smith.
b. G. M. Trevelyan.
VI. AN ELECTION FOR PARLIAMENT
Charles Dickens 42—65
VII. QUEEN VICTORIA 66-99
a. Journal.
b. Lytton Strachey.
c. Lytton Strachey.
d. Letters.
VIII. LABOUR CONDITIONS 100-117
a. Sidney Smith.
b. Charles Lamb.
c. and d. J. L. & B. Hammond
IX. COBDEN AND BRIGHT .. Lord Morley 118-126
X. DISRAËLI 127-133
a. Sybil. , b. Speeches.


XI. SHAFTESBURY J. L. & B. Hammond .. 134-141
XII. PALMERSTON AND GLADSTONE 142-156
a. R. B. Mowat.
b. F. J. C. Hearnshaw.
c. Justin McCarthy.
d. Gladstone's Speeches.
XIII. THE CRIMEAN WAR 157-177
a. Sir E. Cook.
b. Lytton Strachey.
XIV. THE INDIAN MUTINY Justin McCarthy 178-189
List of Sovereigns and Ministries 190
Table of Chief Dates 191-192
PHONETIC SYMBOLS
VOWELS AND DIPHTHONGS
Strong-Stressat
a in fam farm ai. in main mine
i in bit beat au in haus house
i in nit knii oi in bsi boy
u in fud food ei in neim name
u in ttt fooi ou in roud road
o in b law ió in hiar hear
aa in bssd bird f3 in kfsr care
e in bred ftread ira in pusr poor
ce in mat möf 33 /n drasr drawer
o in hot hot
a in nAt nut
Weak-Stressed I in krïeit create
leidï lady
felöu /e/fo»'
vxljü vafue
k entar enter
I sgou ago
ï in
Su in
ü in
3 in
CONSONANTS AND VOWELLIKES
•q sin iq sing |> in J)in thin s in Su s/ioe ö in öouz inose. £ in vizsn vision


i
WATERLOO
At the beginning of our period stands Waterloo. It gave immense prestige to the name of Wellington, and as regards England added spectacular military glory to the substantial merit of having by the pressure of sea-power contributed, more perhaps than any other member of the great alliance, to Napoleon's downfall.
From Thomas Hardy's grandiose dramatic epic The Dynasts (1903—8) in which the struggle between England and France from 1802 onwards is depicted in a number of vivid saenes, we select the one concerning the ball that was held on the eve of the battle (It is also described in a famous chapter of Thackeray's Vanity Fair).
The Prince of Orange, who is mentioned in the first lines, the son of the new King of the Netherlands, was in command of the vanguard of the combined Anglo-Dutch army with headquarters near Braine-le-Comte. The Prussians under Blücher stood near Charleroi. Wellington would have preferred to hold his hand, covering the Netherlands, till the Russians and Austrians were ready to cross the Rhine, but Napoleon, in an attempt to defeat his enemies separately, attacked, and his first blow was directed against the Prussians.
The scène which we quote shows us Wellington being apprised of the fact and deciding to bring his main force into the battle.
THE DYNASTS
A June midnight at the Duke and Duchess of Richmond's. Band of stringed instruments in the background. The room is crowded with a brilliant assemblage of more than two
1. stringed [strirjd] instruments: harp, violin, etc. Contrast: wind-instruments, such as flute, organ, etc.
England in the 19* Cent. I.
1


2
WATERLOO
hundred of the distinguished people sojourning in the city on
account of the war and other reasons
Enter Lieutenant Webster, A.D.C. to the Prince of Orange 1). The Prince goes apart with him and receives a despatch. After reading it he speaks to Wellington, and the two, accompanied by the Duke of Richmond, retire into an alcove s). Webster, in passing back across the ballroom, exchanges a hasty word with two or three of the guests known to him, a young officer among them, and goes out.
Young Officer (to partner) The French have passed the Sambre at Charleroi!
Partner
What—does it mean that Bonaparte indeed Is bearing down upon us?
Young Officer It is so.
The one who spoke to me in passing out Is Aide to the Prince of Orange, bringing him Despatches from Rebecque, his Chief of Staff, Now at the front, not far from Braine le Comte; He says that Ney, leading the French vanguard, Has burst on Quatre-Bras.
Partner
O horrid time! Will you, then, have to go and face them there?
1. A. D. C: aide-de-camp [eidakoq].
2. alcove [aelkouv]: vaulted recess in the wall of a room.


THE DYNASTS
3
Young Officer
I shall, of course, sweet. Promptly1) too, no doubt. (He gazes about the room.)
See—the news spreads; the dance is paralyzed.
They are all whispering round. (The band stops.) Here comes
one more,
He's attaché from the Prussian force At our headquarters.
Enter General Müffling. He looks prepossessed a), and goes straight to Wellington and Richmond in the alcove, who by this time ») have been joined by the Duke of Brunswick.
Several Guests (at back of room)
Yes, you see, it's true! The army sets about to march at once.
Picton (to another general)
I am damn glad we are to be off. Pottering4)about herepinned to petticoat-tails5)—it does one no good, but blasted8) harm!
Another Guest
The ball cannot go on, can it? Didn't the Duke know the French were so near? If he did, how could he let us run risks so coolly?
1. promptly: at once, very soon.
2. prepossessed: occupied by other thoughts than those suggested by his surroundings.
3. by this time: after all that precedes had happened.
4. to potter about: to go about without doing any solid work.
5. pinned to petticoat-tails: in the company of women.
6. damm and blasted: are swear-words, used as intensifying words here.


4
WATERLOO
Lady Hamilton Dalrymple (to partner)
A deep concern1) weights2) those responsible Who gather in the alcove. Wellington Affects a cheerfulness in outward port3), But cannot rout4) his real anxiety!
The Duchess of Richmond goes to her husband.
i
Duchess
Ought I to stop the ball? It hardly *) seems right to let it continue if all be true.
Richmond
I have put that very question to Wellington, my dear. He says that we need not hurry off the guests. The men have to assemble some time before the officers, who can stay on here a little longer without inconvenience; and he would prefer that they should, not to create a panic in the city, where the friends and spies of Napoléon are all agog") for some such thing, which they would instantly communicate to him to take advantage of.
Duchess
Is it safe to stay on? Should we not be thinking about getting the children away?
1. concern: uneasiness, anxiety.
2. to weight: to burden, to lie upon.
3. outward port: bearing; way in which he holds his body, the expression of his face, etc.
4. to rout: to drive away.
5. hardly: not quite, not really.
6. to be agog for: to be eagerly expecting.


THE DYNASTS
5
Richmond
There's no hurry at all, even if Bonaparte were really sure to enter. But he's never going to set foot in Brussels1)—don't you imagine it for a moment.
Duchess (anxiously) I hope not. But I wish we had never brought them here!
Richmond
It is too late, my dear, to wish that now. Don't be flurried *); make the people go on dancing.
The Duchess returns to her guests. The Duke rejoins Wellington, Brunswick, Müffling, and the Prince of Orange in the alcove.
Wellington
We need not be astride8) till five o'clock If all the men are marshalled well ahead. The Brussels citizens must not suppose
They stand in serious peril He, I think,
Directs his main attack mistakenly;
It should have been through Mons, not Charleroi.
Müffling
The Austrian armies, and the Russian too,
Will show nowhere in this4). The thing that's done,
1. he's never going to set foot in B.: he is certainly not, etc.
2. to be flurried: to be agitated.
3. astride: on horseback.
4. will show nowhere in this: will be far away, will not be in time.


6
WATERLOO
Be it a historied feat or nine days' fizz1), Will be done long before they join us here.
Wellington
Yes, faith; and 'tis a pity2). But, by God, BlOcher I think and I can make a shift3) To do the business without troubling 'em!4) Though I've an infamous5) army, that's the truth,— Weak, and but ill-equipped,—and what's as bad, A damned unpractised staff!
Müffling
We'Il hope for luck. Blücher concentres certainly by now Near Ligny, as he says in his despatch. Your Grace, I glean, will mass at Quatre-Bras?
Wellington
Ay, now we are sure this move on Charleroi
Is no mere feint8). Though I had meant Nivelles.
Have ye a good map, Richmond, near at hand?
Richmond
In the next room there's one. (Exit Richmond.)
1. to fizz: to make a sputtering or hissing sound, as of sodawater when it is first poured out.
2. 'ris: used in poetry only, for U's.
3. to make a shift: to manage, to succeed. '
4. 'em: still used in familiar English for them.
5. infamous: very bad.
6. feint: pretendek attack, to hide the real plan of attack.


THE DYNASTS
7
Wellington calls up various general officers from other parts of the room. Picton, Uxbridge, Vivian, Kempt, Pack, Maitland. Ponsonby Somerset, and others join him in succession, receive orders, and go out severally 1).
Prince of Orange
As my divisions seem to lie around
The probable point of impact, it behoves me*)
To start at once for Genappe, Duke, I deern?
Being in Brussels, all for this damned ball,
The dispositions out there have, so far,
Been made by young Saxe Weimar and Perponcher,
On their own judgment quite. I go, your Grace?
Wellington
Yes, certainly. 'Tis now desirable. Farewell! Good luck, until we meet again, The battle won!
Exit Prince of Orange, and, shorty after, Müffling.
Richmond returns with a map, which he spreads out on the table. Wellington scans it closely.
Napoléon has befooled me, By God he has,—gained four-and-twenty hours' Good march upon me!
Richmond What do you mean to do?
1. severally. one after the other.
2. it behoves me to start: it is right that I should start.


8
the dynasts
Wellington
I have bidden the army concentrate in strength
At Quatre-Bras. But we shan't stop him there;
So I must fight him here. (He marks Waterloo with his thumb-
nail).
Thomas Hardy, The Dynasts. Third Part. London. Macmillan. 1908.


II.
PETERLOO
The glory of Waterloo, we said, stands at the beginning of our penod. But it was swiftly followed by the squalor of domestic discontents, of economie depression, of popular misery and universal disillusion. The industrial revolution, as English historians call the sudden growth of modern industrialism which had begun in the last decades of the 18* century, had disorganised the lives of thousands of independent workers, at the sametime that the old class of small peasant proprietors, too, was being dispossessed of the land, and had created large masses of proletarian workers, concentrated in the industrial towns Never was there greater tension of feeling between the haves and the have-nots.
For many years, as we shall see from further fragments, the people's dissatisfaction with their lot found vent in the great political movement for parliamentary reform. This movement aimed at breaking the power of the political obligarchy, mainly composed of the landed aristocracy, which sat entrenched in Parliament owing to the obsolete and corrupt character of the electoral laws. Its object was achieved with the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832 (see ch. V).
Against all manifestations of popular discontent the Conservative Government of Lord Liverpool and Lord Castlereagh followed a policy of brutal repression. It culminated in 1819(August 16) in the massacre of St. Peter's Fields near Manchester, which the Radicals, sarcastically evoking the memory of Wellington's great victory, dubbed the day of Peterloo.
The story of Peterloo is well known, and its full history belongs rather to the reform movement than to the subject of this book, but the main facts may well be recalled because they illustrate the argument1) of these chapters with peculiar
1. argument: summaryof the contents of abook.orof achapter(often prefixed to a chapter, e.g. in editions of classical authors). Here rather^ main subject.


10
PETERLOO
force. The Lancashire reformers decided to hold a great meeting in St. Peter's Fields, on the outskirts of Manchester. The magistratesx) were uneasy about the meeting, for popular discontent, inflamed by the recent Corn Law2), was acute: meetings had been held in various northern towns: an attempt had been made to organise a boycott of exciseable3) goods, drilling had been going on, and several persons had found their way into prison, where it was hoped that they would learn that in the circumstances of contemporary *) society to speak the truth or anything like it was sedition. But though the magistrates disliked the meeting, they decided only a few hours before it began that it could not be regarded as illegal. When the vast throng assembled, there was nothing in its appearance to shake the opinion of the magistrates. The meeting was in its Sunday clothes, bands8) were playing "God Save the King," and one out of every three persons was a woman. The chief orator of the day, Henry Hunt, a brave, vain, and sincere man, had a taste for language that sounded violent and dangerous to the authorities, but even he could scarcely lead a revolution with so decorous6) an army. Bamford, the leader of the three
t, magistrale: justice of the peace. Before the reorganization of local government (by the Municipal Corporation Act of 1835 for the towns, and the Local Government Act of 1888 for the rest of the country) the justices of the peace were not only judges of first instance in criminal cases (like our kantonrechters) but they were also charged with the administration of the town or county.
2. The first act levying a tax on corn was passed in 1815.
3. exciseable goods: goods on which a tax must be paid before they Jeave the place where they are manufactured.
4. contemporary society: the society in which they lived.
5. band: company of men organized to play on musical instruments.
6. decorous [dïloras]: decent, behaving with propriety.


PETERLOO
11
thousand from Middleton1), ha's described the scène when his contingent started; howhe addressed them, saying that sticks were only to be carried by the old and infirm, that the procession was to march in military order, that the reformers were determined, by taking the most elaborate *) precautions against disturbance and confusion, to give the lie to their enemies who said the working classes were a rabble. The Middleton Reformers, reinforced by another three thousand from Rochdale set out on their slow march towards Manchester; a band was playing, the men were in their Sunday shirts, children were in the ranks, women and girls at their head. As they went their army was swollen by new contingents, and when they passed through the Irish weavers' quarter they were received with an enthusiasm more demonstrative than the enthusiasm of Englishmen, expressingitself in a language 4) that few of them could understand. When all the contingents had poured into the Fields, the meeting numbered 80,000 persons, assembled to demand universal suffrage, vote by ballot5), annual Parliaments, and the repeal *) of the Corn Laws. The town they met in, though almost the largest in England, was unrepresented in a Parliament that gave two seats to Old Sarum 7). Of the eighty
1. Samuel Bamford, in his Early days and passages in the life of a radical, gave an interesting account of the conditions of life among the working class during the early 19th century. Middleton is an industrial town near Manchester.
2. elaborate [ï 1 aebarït]: worked out with great care and attention to details.
3. Rochdale is an industrial town in Lancashire.
4. i.e. in Irish.
5. vote by ballot: voting by means of a small ball, a ticket, or a votingpaper, in order to secure secrecy. For the method of voting then in use, see no. VI.
6. repeal: Parliament may repeal, i.e. revoke (Du. herroepen) any of its own Acts (or laws).
7. Old Sarum: a place that had been important enough, centuries before,


12
PETERLOO
thousand, the vast mass were voteless men and women, whom Parliament had handed over to their employers by the Combination Laws 1), while it had taxed their food for the benefit of the landowners by a most drastic Corn Law. The classes that controlled Parliament and their lives were represented by the magistrates, who were landlords or parsons2), and by the yeomanry8), who were largely manufacturers. Between those classes must be shared the responsibility for the sudden and unprovoked charge on a defenceless and unresisting crowd, for if the magistrates gave the orders, the yeomanry supplied the zeal. Hunt had scarcely begun his speech, when the yeomanry cavalry advanced brandishing their swords. Hunt told the reformers to cheer, which they did; the yeomanry then rode into the crowd, which gave way for them, and arrested Hunt. But this was not enough for the yeomanry, who cried, "Have at their flags," and began striking wildly all round them. The magistrates then gave the order to charge. In ten minutes the field was deserted except for dead and wounded, and banners, hats*), shawls, and bonnets: the strangest débris of any battlefield since the madness of Ajax6). Eleven people died, two of them women, one a child, and over four hundred were wounded,
to send two members to Parliament, and had retained this right, like all other boroughs, even though it had practically disappeared as an inhabited place. The right belonged in reality to the owner of the land. Old Sarum was often cited as the best example of a "rotten borough."
1. By the Combination Laws of Pitt (passed in 1799 and 1800) Trade= Unions were made illegal.
2. Parsons, i.e. clergymen, were often the younger sons of the landlords.
3. yeomanry [joumanri]: voluntary cavalry, especially organized in defenceof the ruling class, because the militia (resemblingour old schutterij)* was not to be trusted.
4. hats: this probably refers to the hats of children and girls, the women wearing bonnets and the men caps.
5. the madness of Ajax: Ajax, one of the heroes before Troy, became


PETERLOO
13
one hundred and thirteen being women. Of the wounded more than a quarter were wounded by the sword. So bitter were the hatreds and suspicions of class, that wounded men and women did not dare to apply for parish reliëf!), or even go to hospital for treatment, for fear it should be discovered that they had received their wounds at Peterloo. A correspondent wrote to the fclome Office 2) to say that the woman from Eccles who had been killed was a dangerous character, for she had been heard to curse the curate. The magistrates, hussars, and yeomanry were thanked by the Government: Fitzwilliam was dismissed from his Lord Lieutenancy 3) for protesting at a great Yorkshire meeting; Hunt and three of his colleagues were sent toprison, Hunt for two years and a half, the others for a year. And Hunt, whose arrest was the nominal excuse for the violent onslaught, had actually offered to surrender himself to the authorities the night before.
The scène at Peterloo illustrates very vividly all the conditions of the time. The working people who met there were excluded from the rights of citizens: they were refused representation, education, liberty to combine in answer to the.combinations of their masters. The law existed solely for their repression and punishment. They were nowhere recognised as belonging to society, except in the sense in which his wheels and engines belonged to the owner of a mill4). Their leaders mad, in later tradition (as in the tragedy by Sophocles), and fought against the herds of the Greeks. On coming to himself he killed himself.
1. parish reliëf: help, especially in the form of money, from the overseer of the parish, i.e. the person charged with looking after the poor (Burgerlik Armbestuur).
2. The Home Office has some of the duties of our Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken, but it is also the ministry of criminal justice and of police.
3. The Lord Lieutenant of a county is the leader of the justices of the peace of the county; his office has düninished in importance together with that of the justices.
4. mill: building with machinery for manufacturing cotton goods. Originally such factories were driven by water-power: hence their name.


14
peterloo
were intrepid*) and public-spirited men, but little more: they were not statesmen who could make a nation out of chaos: they were not generals who could use the power of numbers against the overwhelming powers of wealth, education, custom, discipline, and force: they were not even heroes who could embellish, by the greatness of their minds and lives, the great history of the cause of freedom. The magistrates knew so little of the world they governed that they thought that a meeting to which reformers had brought their wives and children was designed for some violent purpose. Magistrates and yeomanry cared so little for the lives of a subject class that they exposed this crowd of defenceless people to all the dangers of a cavalry charge with a levity *) that revolted every onlooker and won the middle classes of England to reform. For though the magistrates and yeomanry made every effort to disguise the facts, the eye-witnesses included a number of independent people, and among others the reporter of the Times. The truth by this means travelled through the country, and almost every large town held a meeting of protest. Prentice *) describes the consequent4) change of mind in the middle classes as the breaking up of a long frost.
J. L. and Barbara Hammond, The Towrt Labourer (17601832.) London. Longmans. 1920.
1. intrepid [in'trepïd]: fearless.
2. leviti [levïtï]: want of thought, carelessness.
3. Prentice, like Bamford, was one of the men who during the f ormer half of the nineteenth century, promoted such institutions as Priendly Sodeties, Co-operative Societies, Mechanics' Institutes, Sunday Schools, etc. to benefit the working classes. Prentice wrotea history of Manchester, from which some of the details in this extract have been taken.
4. consequent: that is the result (öf what has been described).


III.]
CASTLEREAGH
Intense bitterness of feeling was oharacteristic of the political life of those days. Privilege and oppression were met with virulentJ) abuse and hatred such as our own more tolerant time knows no more. Of the statesmen of the period none, perhaps, was more generally loathed than Lord Castlereagh, the director of England's foreign policy and the man who had had the profoundest influence on the great international settlement at Vienna. The English Radicals, however, remembered against him the part which he had played in forcing Ireland into the Union, and held him responsible for all the harshest measures of the Administration. Shelley, on hearing of Peterloo, wrote the Masqué of Anarchy, in which occur thè lines: I met Murder on the way — He had a mask like Castlereagh.
Byron persecuted him with his invectives) even into the grave. The following passage from the Preface to Cantos Vlff. of his Don Juan, which appeared in 1823, shows of what lapses ») from good taste political passion was capable.
Lord Castlereagh, or rather Lord Londonderry, for to that title he succeeded shortly before his death, was given to hypochondria«) and died by his own hand. Byron does not scruple to make savage play with even the saddest aspects of the tragedy.
It will be noticed that Byron denies even ability to the hated minister, whose rather pompous and high-flown manner of speaking lent itself to parody. It is interesting to compare with the heated denunciations of contemporaries the measured judgment of the modern historian. It is as a foreign minister that
1. virulent: [virjütent]: malignant, bitter.
2. invective: violent and abusive attack.
3. lapse: falling away from what is right or proper.
4. hypochondria [hïpöu'kondria]: morbid state of depression.


16
CASTLEREAGH
Castlereagh's reputation has grown since his own life-time, and especially in our age, which, as Prof. C. K. Webster remarks in his chapter on "the pacification of Europe 1813—1815", in the Cambridge History Of British Policy, I (1922), "is painfully conscious of the difficulty of such work as Castlereagh tried to accomplish." And he goes on: "The courage and commonsense of his diplomacy during the Pacification of Europe are such as to compel admiration even from those who detest many of the principles for which he stood."
What Prof. Webster has in mind before everything else is the determination with which Castlereagh, undaunted by the clamour of excited patriots at home and the pressure of some of the Continental Allies, maintained a policy of moderation towards the vanquished enemy, France. The Peace of Vienna was no vindictive peace.
DON JUAN, PREFACE TO CANTOS VI., VIL, AND VIII.
In the course of these cantos, a stanza or two will be found relative to the late Marquis öf Londonderry, but written some time before his decease. Had that person's oligarchy1) died with him, they would have been suppressed: as it is, I am aware of nothing in the manner of his death or of his life to prevent the free expression of the opinions of all whom his whole existence was consumed in endeavouring to enslave. That he was an amiable man in private life, may or may not be true; but with this the public have nothing to do: and as to lamenting his death, it will be time enough when Ireland has ceased to mourn for his birth. As a minister, I, for one of millions *), Iooked upon him as one of the most despotic in
1. oligarchy [olïgakï]: government of a country by a small number of people.
2. for one of millions: an adaptation of the commonphrase 'I for one,' meaning 'I personally.'


PREFACE TO DON JUAN
17
intention, and the weakest in intellect, that ever tyrannized over a country. It is the first time indeed, since the Normans, that England has been insulted by a minister (at least) who could not speak English1), and that Parliament permitted itself to be dictated to in the language of Mrs. Malaprop 2).
Of the manner of his death little need be said, except that, if a poor Radical had cut his throat, he would have been buried in a cross-road, with the usual appurtenances of the stake and mallet *). But the Minister was an elegant lunatic—a sentimental suicide; he merely cut the 'carotid artery' (blessings on their learningf), and lo! the pageant, and the Abbey4), and 'the syllables of dolour % yelled forth' by the newspapers, and the harangue of the coroner«) in an eulogy over the bleeding body of the deceased (an Antony worthy of such a Caesar), and the nauseous and atrocious cant of a degraded crew of conspiratois against all that is sincere and honourable. In his death he was
f. An allusion to the first two kings of the House of Hanover, George I. and George II., of whom the first could not speak English at all, whereas the second spoke it with a marked German accent.
2. Personage in a comedy by Sheridan, The /?/vafc(1775). Mrs. Malaprop is fond of using learned words, but she invariably chooses wrong ones, e.g, 'Now don't attempt to extirpate yourself from the matter' instead of exculpate.
3. Down to the end of the nineteenth century (1882) it was Iegal to bury suïcides in a cross-road with a stake driven through the body. A mallet is a wooden hammer. Such a burial is described by Thomas Hardy (see no. I here) in a tale (The Grove by the HandposQ occurring in the collection A Changed Man and Other Tales.
4. the pageant and the Abbey: public and solemn burial with a religious service in Westminster Abbey, the church where the greatest personages of English history have been buried.
5. dolour [dotar]: a poetical word for 'sorrow.'
6. coroner: official (usually a doctor) presiding over the jury that must inquire into the cause of death in the case of persons who are supposed to have died by violence or accident.
England in the 19th Cent. I.
2


18
CASTLEREAGH
necessarily one of two things by the law — a felonx) or a madman; and in either case no great subject for panegyric2). In his life he was — what all the world knows, and half of it will feel for years to cóme, unless his death prove a 'moral lesson' to the surviving Sejani8) of Europe. It may at least serve as some consolation to the nations that their oppressors are not happy, and in some instances judge so justly of their own actions, as to anticipate the sentence of mankind. Let us hear no more of this man; and let Ireland remove the ashes of her Grattan4) from the sanctuary of Westminster. Shall the patriot of humanity repose by the Werther of politics5)?
1. felon [felan]. In English law crimes are divided into two classes, felonies and misdemeanours (like our misdaden and misdrijven). A person guilty of a felony, the more serious kind, is a felon. A suïcide is called a felo de se ['felöudï'sf), a Latin phrase meaning a "criminal with respect to himself' and is looked upon by the law as a murderer.
2. panegyric [psenï'dzirïk]: speech in praise of someone.
3. Sejani: plural of Sejanus, chief of the pretorian guards of the Roman emperor Tiberius (14—37). Sejanus was accused of treason against the emperor and executed, in 31.
4. Henry Grattan, 1746—1820, one of the great orators of the old Irish House of Commons, who after the Union had been a member of the Parliament at Westminster. Grattan had been buried in the Abbey, which (this is what Byron means) is no longer a place for his ashes now that the statesman who contributed so much to the extinction of Ireland's parliamentary independence has also been laid to rest there.
5. Werther, the unfortunate hero of Goethe's novel, which for a while made suicide fashionable in Europe.


IV.
GEORGE IV. AND WILLIAM IV.
The Royal family did not, in those difficult days, inspire such feelings of respect as might have counterbalanced*) the hatred aroused by the leading ministers. If it did not excite so violent an aversion, it is only because men cannot hate what they despise. Utter contempt was the feeling most generally evoked by all George III. 's six sons, of whom the eldest was Regent during his father's long periods of madness, and was king after him from 1820 to 1830. Thackeray draws an unflattering portrait of him in his lectures on The four Georges (a).
After George IV. 's death in 1830 his brother William IV. reigned until 1837. He was a less depraved2), but also a less intelligent man than his predecessor had been. That it was impossible to feel anything like respect for him is clear from the entries in Charles Greville's Journal which we quote (b).
Greville was Clerk to the Privy Council *) and moved in governing circles. His famous diary, which covers the period from 1818 tot 1852 and was published shortly after Greville's death in 1865 (when it moved the indignation of Queen Victoria), is full of first-hand political gossip, often somewhat ill-natured.
1. to counterbalance: to cause the second of a pair of scales to be even; to neutralize the effect of.
2. depraved: morally bad, corrupt.
3. Privy Council: originally the Privy [privï] i.e. private, Council was a body of men selected by the King to advise him in the administration of the country. The administration of justice is now entirely (or almost entirely) independent of it. For the rest the administration is now actually under the Cabinet, which is looked upon as a committee of the Council. Most of the business of the full Privy Council is now of a formal kind.—The Clerk to the Privy Council had nevertheless "exceptiónal opportunities for observing the inner workings of high political circles."


20
GEORGE IV. AND WILLIAM IV.
(a) THACKERAY, THE FOUR GEORGES (1860)
Nature and circumstance had done their utmost to prepare the Prince for being spoiled: the dreadful dulness of Papa's Court, its stupid amusements, its dreary occupations, the maddening humdrum, the stifling sobriety of its routine, would have made a scapegrace x) of a much less lively prince. All the big princes bolted from that castle of ennui where old King George sat, postingup2) his books and droning over his Handel and old Queen Charlotte over her snuff and her tambourframe3). Most of the sturdy gallant sons settled down after sowing their wild oats, and became sober subjects of their father and brother—not ill liked by the nation, which pardons youthful irregularities readily enough, for the sake of pluck, and unaffectedness, and good—humour.
The boy is father of the man. Our Prince signalised his entrance into the world by a feat worthy of his future life. He invented a new shoe-buckle. It was an inch long and five inches broad. "It covered almost the whole instep, reaching down to the ground on either side of the foot." A sweet invention! lovely and useful as the Prince on whose foot it sparkled. At his first appearance at a Court ball, we read that "his coat was pink silk, with white cuffs; his waistcoat white silk, embroidered with various-coloured foil4), and adorned with a prof usion of French paste6). And his hat was ornamented with two rows of steel beads, five thousand in number, with a but-
1. scapegrace: person, especially a child, who gets into trouble by thoughtlessness.
2. to post up: to stick to a post, also to put in a prominent place.
3. tambour-frame: a circular frame on which silk is stretched to be embroidered.
4. foil: material that sets something off by its contrast.
5. paste [peist]: imitation-diamonds.


THE FOUR GEORGES
21
ton and loop of the same metal, and cocked in a new military style." What a Florizel *){ Do these details seem trivial? They are the grave incidents of his life. His biographers say that when he commenced housekeeping in that splendid new palace of his, the Prince of Wales had some windy projects of encouraging literature, science, and the arts; of having assemblies of literary characters; and societies for the encouragement of geography, astronomy, and botany. Astronomy, geography, and botany! Fiddlesticks! French ballet-dancers, French cooks, horse-jockeys, buffoons, procurers, tailors, boxers, fencingmasters, china, jewel, and gimcrack-merchants2)—these were his real companions. At first he made a pretence of having Burke and Fox and Sheridan8) for his friends But how could such men be serious before such an empty scapegrace as this lad? Fox might talk dice with him, and Sheridan wine; but what else had these men of genius in common with their tawdry young host of Carlton House? That fribble4) the leader of such men as Fox and Burke! That man's opinions about the Constitutioni the India Bill5), justice to the Catholics—about any
1. Florizel: George IV, when Prince of Wales, corresponded under this name with Mrs. Robinson, the actress, generally known as Perdita, that being the character in which she first attracted the Prince's attention. The names come from Shakespeare's Winter's Tale.
2. gimcrack-merchants [dzlmkraek'maatsants]: dealers in knick-knacks i.e. useless ornaments. ,
3. Edmund Burke and Charles Fox were two of the leading statesmen; the former, who is one of Engiand's great political thinkers and writers, became strongly conservative during the latter part of his life, the latter remained a staunch whig till the end. Sheridan is the playwright referred to on p. 17,2 ; he was also a successful Parliamentary speaker.
4. fribble: frivolous person.
5. The India Bill: a most controversial proposal by which Fox, in 1782, tried to regulate the powers of the East India Corn pan y and its relations with the State.—Catholic emancipation was carried only in 1829.


22
GEORGE IV. AND WILLIAM IV.
question graver than the button for a waistcoat or the sauce for a partridge—worth anything! The friendship between the Prince and the Whig chiefs was impossible. They were hypocrites in pretending to respect him, and if he broke the holrbw contract between them, who shall blame him? His natural companions were dandies and parasites. He could talk to a tailor and a cook: but, as the equal of great statesmen, to set up a creature, lazy, weak, indolent, besotted, of monstrous vanity, and levity incurable—it is absurd. They thoughtx) to use him, and did for a while; but they must have known how timid he was; how entirely heartless and treacherous, and have expected his desertion. His next set of friends were mere table companions, of whom he grew tired too; and then we hear of him with a very few select toadies *), mere boys from school or the Guards, whose sprightliness tickled the fancy of the wornout voluptuary. What matters what friendslie had? He dropped all his friends; he never could have real friends. An heir to the throne has flatterers, adventurers who hang about him, ambitious men who use him; but friendship is denied him.
And women, I suppose, are as false and selfish in their dealings with such a character as men. Shall we take the Leporello part *), flourish a catalogue of the conquests of this Royal Don Juan, and teil the namés of the favourites to whom, one after the other, George Prince flung his pocket-handkerchief *)? What
1. To think when construed with an infinitive must refer to the future, so that it comes to mean to expect.
2. toady: short for toad-eater, a flatterer and parasite.
3. the Leporello part: Leporello is Don Juan's servant in Mozart's Don Giovannt.
4. flung his pocket-handkerehitf: allusion to the custom in the haremof the Sultan of Turkey of designating the woman selected to be his companion by throwing hit handkerckchicf to her.


GREVILLE S DIARY
23
purpose would it answer to say how Perdita*) was pursued, won, deserted, and by whom succeeded? What good in knowing that he did actualiy marry Mrs. Fitz-Herbert according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church; that her marriage settlements have been seen in London; that the names of the witneses to her marriage are known? This sort of vice that we are now come to presents no new or fleeting trait of manners. Debauchees, dissolute, heartless, fickle, cowardly, have been ever since the world began. This one had more temptations than most, and so much may be said in extenuation for him.
It was an unlucky thing for this doomed one, and tending to lead him yet farther on the road to the deuce8), that, besides being lovely, so that women were fascinated by him; and heirapparent, so that all the world flattered him; he should have a beautiful voice, which led him directly in the way of drink: and thus all the pleasant devils were coaxing on poor Florizel; desire, and idleness, and vanity, and drunkenness, all clashing their merry cymbals and bidding him come on.
(b) GREVILLE'S DIARY
The king (William IV) has been to Woolwich inspecting the artillery, to whom he gave a dinner, with toast and hip, hip hurrahing, and three times three, himself giving the time. I tremble for him, at present he is only a mountebank 3), but he bids fair to be a maniac 4).
After dinner he made a number of speeches, so ridiculous and
1. Perdita: see p. 21,1.
2. deuce: a mild word for devil.
3. a mountebank [mauntïbxrjk]: travelling quack who address es th public in market-places from a platform.
4. maniac [meiniak]: a madman or lunatic.


24
GEORGE IV. AND WILLIAM IV.
nonsensical, beyond all belief but to those who heard them, rambling from one subject to another, repeating the same thing over and over again, and altogether such a mass of confusion, thrash *), and imbecility as made one blush and laugh at the same time.
The other day he gave a dinner to one of the regiments at Windsor and as usual he made a parcel of foolish speeches, in one of which, after descanting upon2) their exploits in Spain against the French8), he went on: "Talking of France, I must say that whether at peace or at war with that country, I shall always consider her as our natural enemy, and whoever may be her king or ruler, I shall keep a watchful eye for the purpose of repressing her ambitious encroachments *)." If he was not such an ass that nobody does anything but laugh at what he says, this would be very important. Such as he is, it is nothing. "What can you expect" (as I forget who said) "from a man with a head like a pine apple." His head is just of that shape.
It is difficult to imagine anything more irksome 5) for a Government beset with difficulties like this than to have to discuss the various details of their measures with a silly bustling old fellow who cannot possibly comprehend the scope and bearing of anything.
t. thrash: used by mistake for trash 'rubbish, nonsensical talk.'
2. to descant upon: to talk fully (especially in praise).
3. i.e. the regiment's exploits during the Napoleonic period in the war in Spain (the Peninsular War).
4. encroachment: usurping another's territory or rights.
5. irksome: tedious, tiresome.


V.
THE REFORM BILL
Under William IV. the great movement for parliamentary reform, to which we referred already, came to a crisis.
The system of representation in Parliament had gradually become corrupted to such an extent that the representative principle could hardly be said to prevail in actual practice as far the British people were concerned. Numbers of localities were represented in Parliament because in former centuries they had possessed some importance. Since then, the number of their inhabitants might have shrunk, they might even have practically disappeared, but still they had their two members of Parliament. In reality these boroughs, "pocket boroughs", "rotten boroughs", had fallen under the influence of some powerful aristocratie landowner, who practically nominated the members. On the other hand, towns that were of no importance in the Middle Ages, but had suddenly, owing to the Industrial Revolution in most cases, become thriving and populous communities, like Manchester and Birmingham, were not represented at all.
Our first fragment (a) gives some idea of the sense of grievance with which the reformers looked upon the state of affairs that the Tories sought to preserve so tenaciously. It is part of a speech delivered in 1831 by the Rev. Sydney Smith. This man (1771—1845), a clergyman of the Church of England, was famous as a wit and as a political speaker and writer. In 1802 he founded the Edinburgh Review. His staunch advocacy of Whig principles long hindered his preferment, but in 1831 Lord Grey made him a canon of St. Paul's.
For the previous year had seen the end of the long Tory domination, and a Whig Government had been formed under Lord Grey (1764—1845), a member of one of the old aristocratie families which were so powerful in the counsels of the Whig party. He presented to Parliament the famous Reform Bill, the object of which was to redistribute parliamentary representation on a more rational plan. "Sixty boroughs with less


26
THE REFORM BILL
than 2.000 inhabitants apiece, returning in the aggregate 119 members, were to be totally disfranchised; 47 other boroughs, with more than 2.000 but less than 4.000 inhabitants, were to lose one member apiece." These were "the disfranchisement clauses", a list of these boroughs being contained in "schedules A and B". The "enfranchisement" clauses granted representation to the new industrial towns. This was a formidable attack on the vested interests of the aristocracy and it was only because public opinion had become thoroughly roused in favour of reform that the House of Commons, which was so largely composed of the sons and nominees of the aristocracy, could be got to pass the drastic measure by a handsome majority. It was, however, rejected by the Lords (April 1831). The owners of the pocket boroughs refused to consent to their being dispossessed. The Bill was a second time introduced in the summer of 1831 and met with a similar fate. Before the year was over it was introduced for the third time, though in a somewhat altered form. It was not before April 1832 that it reached the House of Lords again, and on May 7 a vote was taken there which in the eyes of its sponsors amounted to a rejection.
Our second fragment (b), which is taken from Mr. G. M. Trevelyan's Lord Orey of the Reform Bill, describes the ten days' crisis (May 9—18) that had still to be passed through before the Lords could be prevailed upon to give up their opposition to the will of the country.
There was only one means by which determined opposition of the House of Lords could be broken. The king could make use of his prerogative of creating peers and in that way, by adding a sufficiënt number of Whig gentlemen to the peerage, reverse the position of the parties in the House It was a procedure which the Tories denounced as unconstitutional and which was entirely repugnant to the conservative mind of William IV. When Grey advised him to resort to it, the King at first refused. He hoped that the Duke "of Wellington, who was willing to sacrifice his personal conviction, would be able to form a Tory Government, not to get rid of the Bill, but to pass it without having to create peers. When this proved impracticable the King still refused Grey's demand. He gave way only before the immediate danger of revolution, and once he had signed the paper promising to create peers, it proved unnecessary to do so, as most of the Tory Lords, in order to avoid the swelling of the numbers of their order, withdrew their opposition to the Bill.


its practical consequences
27
The stand of the Whig leaders had been supported by the threatening attidude of the people all over the county. The PoHtical Unions mentioned in Mr. Trevelyan's account had been formed in most towns. The model of Thomas Attwood's Birmingham Union founded in 1830 and presided over by middleclass leaders, but including all classes, prevailed in the Midlands and West. In the industrial North there were 'Low Political Unions' of working - men only.
(a) ON THE PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE REFORM BILL
Speech by the Rev. Sydney Smith
Stick to the Bill—it is your Magna Charta, and your RunnymedeKing John made a present to the Barons. King William has made a similar present to you. Never mind; common qualities good in common times. If a man does not vote for the Bill, he is unclean—the plague-spot is upon him— push him into the lazaretto of the last century, with Wetherell and Sadler2)—purify the air before you approach him—bathe your hands in Chloride of Lime if you have been contaminated by his touch.
So far from its being a merely theoretical improvement, I put it to any man, who is himself embarked in a profession, or has sons in the same situation, if the unfair influence of Borough-
1. Magna Charta, the charter granted by King John in 1215 to his Barons at Runnymede was long looked upon as the beginning of British 'liberties,' i.e. the beginning of the power of Parliament. Its importance, according to modern scholars, has been much exaggerated.
2. Sir Charles Wetherell and Mtchael Thomas Sadler were prominent Tories.
3. chloride [kloraid] of limeia. disinfectant.


28
THE REFORM BILL
mongers *) has not perpetually thwarted him in his lawful career of ambition and professional emolument? "I have been in three general engagements at sea," said an old sailor,—"have been twice wounded;—I commanded the boats when the French frigate, the Astrolabe, was cut out2) so gallantly." "Then you are made a Post Captain?" 3) "No. I was very near it; but— Lieutenant Thompson cut me out, as I cut out the French frigate; his father is Town Clerk 4) of the Borough for which Lord F— is Member, and there my chance was finished." In the same manner, all over England, you will find great scholars rotting on curacies6)—brave captains starving in garrets— profound lawyers decayed and mouldering in the Inns of Court8), because the parsons, warriors, and advocates of Boroughmongers must be crammed to saturation7), before there is a moreel of bread for the man who does not sell his votes, and put his country up to auction; and though this is of every day
1. boroughmongers: dealers in boroughs, I.e. people who 'control' boroughs, and can, therefore, make a man a member of Parliament. Seats in Parliament were frequently sold, and it was generally considered as the most natural thing in the world, the borough being looked upon as the 'property* of the 'owner,' who had, indeed, often paid for it, unless he had inherited the property.
2. to cut out a ship: to surprise and carry off a ship from a harbour, etc. by getting between it and the shore; in a figurative sense to cut out means: to get in front of a rival so as to prevent his success, to supplant him.
3. post-captain: commander of a vessel of 20 guns or more.
4. town-clerk: a post similar to that of our gemeentesekretaris.
5. curacy: a situation as curate, i.e. helper of a vicar or rector; curates were among the worst paid of all people. ^50 a year was by no means unusual.
6. Inns of Court: colleges in London whose members have the exclusive right of admitting people to the English Bar, i.e. making them barrlsters. Barristers are the lawyers who piead in court.
.7. saturation [saetjü'reiSan]: state of holding as much of a substance as possible; thus a piece of paper may be saturated with moisture.


ITS PRACTICAL CONSEQUENSES 29"
occurrence, the Borough system, we are told, is no practical eviL
But the thing I cannot, and will not bear, is this;—what right has this Lord, or that Marquis, to buy ten seats in Parliament, in the shape of Boroughs, and then to make lawsto govern me? And how are these masses of power re-distributed? The eldest son of my Lord is just come from Eton—he knows a good deaK about Aeneas and Dido, Apollo and Daphne—and that is all; and to this boy his father gives a six hundredth part of the power of making laws1), as he would give him a horse or a double-barrelled gun. Then Vellum, the steward2), is put in—an admirable man;—he has raised the estates—watched the progress of the family Road, and Canal Bills8)—and Vellum shall help to rule over the people of Israël. A neighbouring country gentle/nan, Mr. Plumpkin4), hunts with my Lord— opens him a gate or two, while the hounds are running—dines. with my Lord—agrees with my Lord—wishes he could rival the South-Down sheep of my Lord—and upon Plumpkin is conferred a portion of the government. Then there is a distant relation of the same name, in the County Militia, with white teeth, who calls up the carriage at the Opera, and is always
li There being about 600 members of Parliament.
2. Vellum the steward: the steward or agent is called Vellum, i.e. parchment, because it is part of his business to look after the documents proving the Lord's ownership of the estate. This was extremely important as long a& there was no Land-Registry(Dutch: kadaster), and English lawyers succeeded in preventing this being establishedtill the end of the nineteenth century„
3. The passage of Private Bills of Parliament, i.e. of Bills of local importance, is in the hands of small committees appointed by Parliament, which has no time to deal with the hundreds of cases to be dealt with. It was naturally of the greatest importance to get one's friends on such a committee. Vellum looked after the family interests when a Road Bill or a Canal Bill affecting the land of his master was being discussed.
4. Plumpkin: an allusion to plump fat.'
29


30
THE REFORM BILL
wishing O'Connell*) was hanged, drawn, and quartered,—then a barrister, who has written an article in the Quarterly2), and is very likely to speak, and refute M'Culloch8); and these five people, in whose nomination I have no more agency than I have in the nomination of the toll-keepers of the Bosphorüs, are to make laws for me and my family—to put their hands in my purse, and to sway the future destinies of this country; and when the neighbours step in, and beg permission to say a few words before these persons are chosen, there is an universal cry of ruin, confusion, and destruction;—we have become a great people under Vellum and Plumpkin—undèr Vellum and Plumpkin ourships havecovered the ocean—under Vellum and Plumpkin our armies have secured the strength of the Hills *)— to turn out Vellum and Plumpkin is not Reform, but Revolution.
(b) THE DAYS OF MAY On May 7 Lord Lyndhufst5) moved8) in Committee7) to
1. Daniël O'Connell, 1775—1847, the great leader of the Irish people in their struggle for Catholic emancipation and the repeal of the Act of Union.
2. The Quarterly was a periodical appearing every quarter, i.e. every three months; it had been set up in 1809, in opposition to the Whig Edinburgh Reviexv (first published in 1802).
3. John Ramsay M'Culloch (1789—1864) was one of the best-known exponents of the new school of political economists.
4. secured the strength of the Hills: an allusion to Psalm 95,4 (In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also).
5. Lord Lyndhurst was one of the Tory leaders.
6. to move: to propose in the form of a motion in Parliament.
7. A meeting of the House of Commons for the purpose of considering a bill in detail is technically called a Committee of the House. The practical difference is that the rules of procedure are less strict, members being allowed, e.g., to speak more than once. The meeting is not presided over by the Speaker.




vnn^vP^ri»^ ft™,3?" donVeem '£ eat y0Ur Sh0!;s- ■I„1ïve aIready placed six in Schedule A, and am about to discuss a seventh, while you nave scarcely got through one. Come, cheer up, and all will be well to-morrow."
Grey and Brougham: the dinner at Hounslow, after their interview with the King, May, 1832. (See page 31)


THE DAYS OF MAY
31
postpone the consideration of the disfranchising clauses of the Bill after the enfranchising clauses had been taken. Grey, who had already told Wharncliffe1) in private that the Government could not agreeto this procedure, nowpublicly warnedthe House that if the amendment was carried he would have to 'consider what course he should take.' But they would not listen. Waverers and Wellington men2) trooped off togetherto the division3), and carried by thirty—five the postponement of Schedules A and B.
As soon as the House rose, the Cabinet chiefs, without leaving Westminster, met hastily in the Lord Chancellor's room, and decided to resign if the King would not give them power to make peers at once.
That afternoon (May 8), Grey and Brougham*)posted down to Windsor6) and saw the King. They asked for not less than fifty peers. He replied that he would send them an answer next day, but they had no doubt from his manner that it would contain a refusal. They started back to London at once, dining on the way at a public-house at Hounslow on mutton chops; Brougham's universal appetite added kidneys, but Grey declared that 'he cared not for kidneys.' The meal took hold of the popular imagination, and was immortalised by Doyle in one of the most famous of his 'H.B.' cartoons«).
1. Wharncliffe: one of the members of the Whig Government.
2. Waverers was the nickname of those Tories who had occasionally shown an inclination to compromise. The followers of the Duke of Wellington were what would nowadays be called the die-hards.
"3. A division: a vote in either House of Parliament. In order to vote members must leave their seats and "troop off" into the aye-lobby or the no-lobby.
4. Lord Brougham was the Lord Chancellor.
5. The King was staying at the old royal castle at Windsor, some forty kilometres from London.
6. John Doyle, the father of'Dicky Doyle,' and father also of a less savage style of political cartoon than that of Gillray or Cruikshank.


32
THE REFORM BILL
Next day (May 9) arrived the King's letter. Declining to make so 'large an addition to the Peerage,' he accepted their resignations, but asked them to 'continue in discharge of their official functions' until the new Ministry was formed.
It is important to remember that throughout the ten 'Days of May,'x) the Whig Ministers were in charge of the ordinary running of the administration, though they were in no position to make decisions of policy. None of them was for an hour superseded by a Tory. The anomalous state of affairs is indicated by a letter which Grey wrote from Downing Street on May 14 to inform Lord Hill, commandirig the troops in England, that two privates from the barracks at Birmingham had joined Attwood's Political Union, and had stated that 'the greater part of their conrades are prepared to follow their example.' 'lam no longer in a situation,' adds the fallen Prime Minister, 'to offer any advice, but I cannot help suggesting that the most expediënt course would be to remove the regiment immediately from Birmingham to some other quarter, without attracting publick notice to the cause of it atpresent.' Thus, if the Revolution had broken out that week, there would have been no really responsible Ministers to suppress it or to negotiate with its chiefs.
But in fact the Revolution was timed for the moment of Wellington's taking office, and not before. To some extent, though by no means entirely, the 'Days of May' were due to a misunderstanding. The King's intention was to get the Bill passed unaltered, but, in order to avoid peer-making, to have it passed by the Tories. The people thought that the Bill as well as the Ministry was in danger. William commissioned Lyndhurst to take soundings a), and then asked Wellington to
1. May 9-18.
2. to take soundings: to find out the depth at sea; here figuratively: to try to find out quietiy what people think or intend to do.


THE DAYS OF MAY
33
form a Government and pass the Bill. The Duke thought it his duty to help his sovereign 'to shake off the trammels of a tyrannical Minister' at any expense to his own consistency in the matter of Reform. By some queer .subtlety in his usually straightforward mind, he thought that the Lords would be degraded by passing the Bill under threat of peer-making, if the Bill was presented to them by Lord Grey, but not if it was presented to them by himself—although in either case the threat of peer-making would be the compelling force. The point was too subtle for Peel, who refused to take office to pass the Bill, and thereby made the task of Cabinet-making difficult from the start.
A point that was too subtle for Peel was very much too subtle for the mass of Englishmen. All they knew was that the King had refused to make peers, that Grey had thereforeresigned, and that the King had sent for Wellington—the man who had stood almost alone in pronouncing against any reform at all, the soldier who was reported to have said that if the people of England were not quiet, 'there was a way to make them.' Those words, everywhere repeated, were taken up as a challenge. They would show the Duke that English citizens could stand up to the soldiers as well as Frenchmen or Belgians. The middle and working classes were for once united, in the resolve to make forcible resistance to the formation of a Wellington Ministry.
The House of Commons gradually came to believe the amazing truth that the Tories were themselves going to pass 'the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill *).' But the people never believed it, and if they had it would have made no difference, they were so angry. 'Every man you met,' said Cobbett2),
1. -This was the battle cry of the Reformers.
2. William Cobbett, 1762—1835, a man of peasant extractron; he founded, in 1802, the Political Register, which became the leading journal of democratie principles.
England in the 19th Cent. I.
3


34
THE REFORM BILL
'seemed to be convulsed with rage.' When, on May 13, Attwood was informed of the Duke's good intentions as a Reformer, he replied that, whatever sort of Bill the Tories passed, if the House of Lords could, even at the climax of this great popular movement, make and unmake Ministries at will, 'there was an end of popular power in England, and the spirit of the people would be utterly broken.'
Attwood was right in thinking that the coming era would be profoundly affected by the example of Wellington's success or failure. The defeat, upon this.issue, of the King and Lords by the Commons and the people was the source from which sprang the peaceful democratie movement of the Victorian Age. The 'Days of May' half won beforehand the battle for the repeal of the Corn Laws, and for the working class franchise of 1867.
But Grey, the man of an earlier generation, more concerned with winding up the terrible arrears of the age gone by than in foreseeing the distant future, would have been content to have the unaltered Bill passed by the Tories. He and Althorp1) indulged their too domestic natures in the happy prospect of shuffling off the cares of State. Althorp, 'with bright eye and radiant smile,' went off to oil the locks of his beloved fowlingpieces2), which had been rusting for eighteen months. And Grey wrote to Holland *) on May 13:
Can a new administration be formed? I begin to be afraid that the attempt will fail.
And two days later, when Holland had rebuked his want of
spirit, replied:
I believe all you say is quite right; the truth is that never was captive more desirous of escaping from prison than I am from my present situation. But I will do my duty.
1. John Charles Spencer, Viscount Althorp, 1782-1845, was Lord Grey's Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons.
2. fowling-piece: light gun used in shooting birds.
3. Lord Holland was a great Whig nobleman.


THE DAYS OF MAY
35
The attempt to form a Tory Ministry was frustrated by the House of Commons. The Whig Ministers had tried to render the work of the Cabinet-makers easy, on condition that 'the Bill' was passed. But the Commons would have none of it. There, on the evening of May 14, all manoeuvres and subtletieswereswept away by a wave of angry distrust, feit by Whig and Tory alike, at the prospect of anti-Reformers passing the Reform Bill as the price of office. When from both sides of the House one private member after another rose to express the abhorrence feit by any plain man at this ridiculous, dangerous, and dishonourable shift*), the other Tory chiefs saw that Peel was in the right.
Hearing that the Lower House was unmanageable, Wellington next day (May 15) abandoned the attempt to form a Cabinet, and Grey was again sent for. The Commons, by preventing the formation of a Tory Ministry, had averted an organised insurrection in the great cities of England and Scotland, though if we are to judge by the debates very few members were aware of it. Still less did the Whig and Tory magnates, with whom lay the decision of the Cabinet crisis, discuss their conduct in relation to the impending2) insurrection. Yet few contingent historical propositions3) are more certain than this, that if the Duke had taken office there would have been a rebellion.
The disturbances of the winter had died away at the beginning of the year 1832, though cholera and bad trade continued. But with the return of order came an increasing deter-
1. shift: change from one position to another; also trick, artifice.
2. to impend: to hang threateningly over, to be imminent.
3. contingent historical proposition: statement of a historian what would have happened, in his opinion, if something had been done or had occurred which as a matter of fact has not been done or has not occurred.


36
THE REFORM BILL
mination to fight, if necessary, for the Bill. The Proclamation of November 22 had checked the militarisation of the Unions, but had not disarmed them. Those of them that looked to Attwood for orders had indeed kept within the letter of the law, but the law could not prevent their individual members from purchasing arms. And the 'Low Political Unions' of the northern working men sometimes transgressed the proclamation. There was drilling at Manchester in January. In Lancashire and Yorkshire a vigorous trade went on with workingclass customers for swords at .twelve shillings each, and then by competition at six shillings. At Halifax the Political Union obtained four hundred pistols from a Birmingham firm. In Scotland, Jeffrey had written to Grey, in January, that order was perfect, Iargely owing to the Unions; that there were 'no burnings, no turbulent assemblies,' but that 'the passion for Reform was more universal than ever,' and that if it was not obtained peaceably, 'the rising would not be confined to the lower orders,' but that 'persons of good estate and character' would cast in their lot with the rebels.
Such was the state of things in the island when, in the second week of May, thenews spread that Wellington was forming a Ministry. The immediate effect was not rioting, as when the Lords threw out the Bill in Octoberbut a general suspension of work and business in the big towns. Men of all classes stood about in groups to listen for the news, and to await the coming crisis. In Scotland, wrote Cockburn2), 'the fearful part of it' was 'the absence of riot.' In England Sir Robert Heron 3) observed 'no breaking of windows, no trifling
1. For the second time.
2. H. T. Cockburn [kouban]: 1779-1854, a great Scottish lawyer, Solicitor-General for Scotland in Lord Grey's Ministry.
3. Sir Robert Heron, a Whig member of Parliament.


THE DAYS OF MAY
37
expressions of discontent: all seemed reserved for a tremendous explosion.' In the whole of Yorkshire and Lancashire, in the 'Days of May,' there was only one riot—in York. But one of the members for Yorkshire had a letter from some of his leading constituents *) to say that they were 'tired of signing petitions, and wished to fight it out, and the sooner the better.' Pikes were hammered in Sheffield without concealment. Employers and workmen prepared to act together even in Manchester, where business was suspended. Everywhere that week the Political Unions were swelled by crowds of new members, prepared to obey any commands, Iawful or unlawful, that they might receive from their chiefs. If the authority of the Government became paralysed or hostile, here would be the new bulwark against anarchy. The English genius for improvisation, for ordered liberty, and for self-help in a crisis, had found expression in Attwood's Political Unions.
In many places the Yeomanry refused to serve under Tory officers. Even in an old-world county like Bucks, 'the respectable classes' came to the resolution of not acting as special cohstables. The regiments of the gallant little army that had rushed about from place to place, putting down so many local riots, would be alike unwilling and unable to suppress the organised and simultaneous revolt of the principal towns of the country.
Birmingham, during the 'Days of May,' passed morally under the obedience of Attwood's Union. Its ranks were being swelled by soldiers from the barracks, by Quakers, by Roman Catholic priests, and by 500 conservative-minded citizens, who now joined in a body to avert a social revolution. The Police reports for Birmingham, and indeed for the country generally, were no heavier in May than in other months.
t constituents [kanstltjuants]: people with a vote for Parliament.


38
THE REFORM BILL
'If any accident,' it was said, 'had made resistance begin anywhere, it would have run like an electric shock.' Such being the state of England and Scotland, what were the plans of the popular leaders ? Place and Attwood were in complete understanding and close correspondence with each other and with the Union chiefs in all the great cities of the island. Their plan was first to try and prevent the Duke from taking office. For this purpose they created a run on the banks, initiated by Place's x) famous placard, 'To stop the Duke, go for Gold!' The refusal of taxes also began, and was to continue until Grey was again in the saddle.
But if, in spite of all, the Duke came into office, then, and only then, resort was to be made to the system of 'hostile defence,' as Place termed it. London's part in it would be not to make the revolution, but to demonstrate in such a way that none of the 7000 troups in and around the capital could be moved to the provinces. It was calculated, too optimistically indeed, that then only 4000 troups would be left to coerce the rest of the island. As the City Fathers were at one with the mob and the Unions, there should have been no difficulty about London fulfilling its part. Meanwhile, Birmingham and the other great cities were to barricade themselves, to create where necessary new municipal authorities, to close all banks, and then to sit down in a state of armed defence against any action the Government might take. What would happen after that, time and the hour would determine. It was hoped that the Duke would resign.
This programme was not a hole-and-corner conspiracy ^ of
1. Francis Place, 1771 —1854,-a very remarkable man, who from his tailor's shop near Charing Cross did an immense amount of organizing work for the democratie movement of his time, and became a force in politics.
2. a hole-and-comer conspiracy: a secret, underhand affair.


THE DAYS OF MAY
39
fools and fanatics. It was announced in its principles by the Times and other newspapers, who declared that the people would pay no taxes till Lord Grey came back, that the middle and working classes were united and prepared to fight if troups were sent against them; but that till Wellington actually took office the word was 'peace, order, and no taxes.'
It is most strange, that while men were crying from the housetops that there would be armed resistance if the Duke came in, neither he, Peel, nor Croker, neither Grey, Holland, nor Althorp, discussed it in their letters and speeches as relevant to the question whether the Duke should take office. One cannot but suspect that it secretly influenced their minds, though they thought that 'noblesse' obliged them to avoid aliusion to a subject so indecorous and unconstitutional.
The news that Wellington had on May 15 abandoned his attempt to form a Cabinet spread next day over the land, and for a few hours relaxed the tension. But presentlyl) it was discovered that all was still at issue2). The King had not really yielded. He had only asked Lord Grey to continue in office and to pass the Bill; but he still refused to make peers, trusting that Wellington would ease matters by withdrawing his opposition. The Duke, however, refused to do anything more than abstain from voting as an individual peer. Even now he would not, as a party leader, call off the opposition, because to do so would be to yield to the unconstitutional threat of peer making 1
On May 17 Grey came down to the House, expecting to hear the Duke deprecate further opposition, and prepared in return to announce the Ministerial crisis at an end. Instead of this, he heard himself fiercely assailed for his unconstitutional
1. presently: shortly afterwards.
2. to be at issue: to be undecided, uncertain.


40
THE REFORM BILL
conduct by Lyndhurst and Wellington themselves. Taken unawares, he had no declaration of policy to make. The crisis remained as acute as before.
The rage of the people rose high at this fresh disappointment. May 18 was the day when the preparations for revolt were most complete, and the passion that inspired them nearest to breaking-point. Place sent a précis of the conspirators' intentions to his friend Hobhouse, the Minister-at-War, for the instruction of his colleagues. It was now a question of hours. The Cabinet met in Oowning Street at noon, and decided to ask for 'full and indisputable security' for the passage of the Bill. Grey and Brougham took the Cabinet minute across to the King at St. James's Palace. He was in great distress, and most unwilling to comply. The afternoon wore on, and the capital and the country hung on the issue of that prolonged interview. At length William gave way, and wrote the famous words:
His Majesty authorises Lord Grey, if any obstacle should arise during the further progress of the Bill, to submit to him a creation of peers to such extent as shall be necessary to enable him to carry the Bill.
The battle was won. The country instantly sank to rest with a sigh of profound reliëf. When the King pressed for a forcible dissolution of the Political Unions, Grey refused with unusual emphasis, adding with truth that they would dissolve of themselves if nothing foolish was done. He had learnt, during the last months of the struggle, how much the country owed to these Unions, of which he had at first been distrustful. On May 19 he sent for Attwood, thanked him for his services, and asked if anything could be done for him by way of showing the gratitude of the Ministers. It equally well became Grey to offer and Attwood to refuse.
The Tory lords, privately informed by Taylor of what the
1. Taylor: private secretary to William IV.


the days of may
41
King had promised to do if they held out any longer, abandoned their opposition in Committee1). On June4theThird Readingof the Bill was carried by 106 to 22. On June 7 the Reform Bill received the Royal Assent by Commission; the scène was in the House of Lords; the Tory benches were empty, and the six Commissioners were Grey, Holland, Brougham, Wellesley, Lansdowne, and Durham >).
G. M. Trevelyan, Lord Grey of the Reform Bill.
London 1916.
1. Committee: see p. 30, 7.
2. See frontispice.


VI.
ELECTIONS
Dickens's Pickwick Papers appeared from April 1836 to November 1837, after the Reform Act, that is to say, but it is unnecessary to inquire whether the famous Eatanswill election (the description of which notable event we insert here) was fought under the old or under the new dispensation. After 1832 as before electioneering methods differed vastly from those of our own day. In the first place an election lasted many days and was carried on in the most public manner. On the first day the two candidates were presented to the people who were invited to indicate by a show of hands which was their favourite. The verdict of the crowd, however, which included probably a majority of people without a legal right to vote was an empty formality. "No ceremonial could be at once more useless and more mischievous. The candidates were proposed and seconded in face of each other on a public platform in some open street or market-place in the presence of a vast tumultuous crowd, three-fourths of whom were generally drunk and all of whom were inflamed by the passion of a furious partisanship. Fortunate indeed was the orator whose speech was anything more than dumb show. The Conservative part of the crowd usually made it a point of honour not to listen to the Liberal candidate or allow him to be heard; the Liberal partisans were equally resolute to drown the eloquence of the Tory candidate. Brass bands and drums not unusually accompanied the efforts of the speakers to make themselves heard. Brickbats, dead cats, and rotten eggs came flying like bewildering meteors round the ears of the rival politicians on the hustings. The crowds generally enlivened the time by a series of faction fights among themselves. Anything more grotesque, more absurd, more outrageous it would be impossible to imagine." (McCarthy, History of our own Times, ch. LIX).
For many days after this performance (Nomination Day) the votes of qualified electors were taken. Every elector had publicly to state his choice, — a practice which offered a wide field to


the pickwick club
43
bribery and intimidation. It was not till 1872 that Gladstone succeeded in introducing the secrecy of the ballot.
The Eatanswill election is, of course, a satire; some may be inclined to call it a caricature. Yet, as is always the case with Dickens at his best, it is in all its details intimately related with reality, and is more intensely alive than any mere photographically correct account could ever be.
THE POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF THE PICKWICK CLUB
by
CHARLES DICKENS
Chapter XIII.
It appears, that the Eatanswillx) people, like the people of many other small towns, considered themselves of the utmost and most mighty importance, and that every man in Eatanswill, conscious of the weight that attached to his example, feit himself bound to unite, heart and soul, with one of the two great parties that divided the town—the Blues and the Buffs 2). Now the Blues lost no opportunity of opposing the Buffs, and the Buffs lost no opportunity of opposing the Blues; and the consequence was, that whenever the Buffs and Blues met together at public meeting, Town-Hall, fair, or market, disputes and high words arose between them. With these dissensions *)
t. Eatanswill: a speaking name, suggesting eat and swill. To swill: to drink greedily.
2. The Blues are the Tories or Conservatives; the Buffs are the Whigs or Liberals.
3. Note the use of with here; it expresses attendant circumstances.— dissension: discord arising from differences of opinion.


44
ELECTIONS
it is almost superfluous to say that everything in Eatanswill was made a party question. If the Buffs proposed to new skylightx) the market-place, the Blues got up public meetings, and denounced the proceeding; if the Blues proposed the erection of an additional pump in the High Street, the Buffs rose as one man and stood aghast at the enormity. There were Blue shops and Buff shops, Blue inns and Buff inns;—there was a Blue aisle *) and a Buff aisle in the very church itself.
Of course it was essentially and indispensably necessary that each of these powerful parties -should have its chosen organ and representative: and, accordingly, there were two newspapers in the town—the Eatanswill Gazette and the Eatanswill Independent; the former advocating Blue principles, and the latter conducted on grounds decidedly Buff. Fine newspapers they were. Such leading articles, and such spirited attacks!—"Our worthless contemporary, the Gazette"—"That disgraceful and dastardly journal, the Independent"—"That false and scurrilous3) print, the Independent."—"That vile and slanderous calumniator, the Gazette;" these, and other spirit-stirring denunciations were strewn plentifully over the columns of each, in every number, and excited feelingsof the most intense delight and indignation in the bosoms of the townspeople.
Mr. Pickwick, with his usual foresight and sagacity, had chosen a peculiarly desirable moment for his visit to the borough4). Never was such a contest known. The
1. skylight: window in a roof or a ceiling; the market was evidently covered.
2. aisle [ai 1]: in larger churches the divisions north and south of the nave. Two rows of pi Hars separate the nave from the aisles.
3. scurrilous: grossly abusive.
4. The town was a borough, i.e. had the right to send one or more members to Parliament.


THE PICWICK CLUB
45
Honourable *) Samuel Slumkey, of Slumkey Hall, was the Blue candidate; and Horatio Fizkin, Esq., of Fizkin Lodge, near Eatanswill, had been prevailed upon by his friends to stand forward on the Buff interest. The Gazette warned the electors of Eatanswill that the eyes not only of England, but of the whole civilised world, were upon them; and the Independent imperatively demandedtoknow.whethertheconstituency2) of Eatanswill were the grand fellows they had always taken them for, or base and servile tools, undeserving alike the name of Englishmen and the blessings of freedom. Never had such a commotion agitated the town before,.
It was late in the evenirig, when Mr. Pickwick and his companions, assisted by Sam3), dismounted from the roof of the Eatanswill coach. Large blue silk flags were flying from the windows of the Town Arms Inn, and bills were posted in every sash4), intimating, in gigantic letters, that the Honourable Samuel Slumkey's Committee sat there daily. A crowd of idlers were assembled in the road, looking at a hoarse man in the balcony, who was apparently talking himself very red in the face in Mr. Slumkey's behalf; but the force and point of whose
1. The English resemble or surpass the Germans in their fondness for titles. Mr. Slumkey was probably called honourable because he was the son of a peer below the rank of Marquess. His name suggests that his father owned part of the land on which the town was built. It was, and is, the custom for such landlords not to sell the ownership of the land but only the leasehold (Dutch erfpacht), so that in course of years it returns to their owners; if the land has increased in value the rent is increased.— slums are the dirty back streets or alleys of a town. — Fizkin is formed with the diminutive ending— kin; the first part suggests to fizz: to make a hissing sound, as of a champagne-bottle on being opened; also applied to persons with respect to their temper.
2. constituency: body of voters who elect a member of Parliament. See37,l.
3. Sam: Mr. Pickwick's servant.
4. sash: one of two equal frames forming a window.


46
ELECTIONS
arguments were somewhat impaired by the perpetual beating of four large drums which Mr. Fizkin's committee had stationed at the street corner. There was a busy little man beside him, though, who took off his hat at intervals and motioned to the people to cheer, which they regularly did, most enthusiastically; and as the red-f aced gentleman went on talking till he was redder in the face than ever* it seemed to answer his purpose quite as well as if anybody had heard him.
The Pickwickians had no sooner dismounted than they were surrounded by a branch mob öf the honest and independentx), who forthwith set up three deafening cheers, which being responded to by the main body (for it's not at all necessafy for a crowd to know what they are cheering about), swelled into a tremendous roar of triumph, which stopped even the red-faced man in the balcony.
"Hurrah!" shouted the mob in conclusion.
"One cheer more," screamed the little fugleman2) in the balcony; and out shouted the mob again, as if lungs were cast iron, with steel works.
"Slumkey for ever!" roared the honest and independent.
"Slumkey for ever!" echoed Mr. Pickwick, taking off his hat.
"No Fizkin!" roared the crowd.
"Certainly not!" shouted Mr. Pickwick.
"Hurrah!" And then there was another roaring, like that; of a whole menagerie when the elephant has rung the bell for the cold meat8).
1. a branch mob of the honest and independent: allusion not quite clear.
2. fugleman: originally a military term (an adaptation of German flügelmann), meaning a soldier formerly placed before a regiment while drilling, to show the motions and time; also leader, organizer, spokesman.
3. when the elephant has rung the bell for the cold meat: probably an allusion to a custom in the Zoological Gardens or in menageries to have the feeding of the animals announced by a bell which an elephant had been trained to ring.


THE PICKWICK CLUB
47
"Who is Slumkey?" whispered Mr. Tupman.
"I don't know," replied Mr. Pickwick, in the same tone.
"Hush! Don't ask any questions. It's always best on these occasions to do what the mob do."
"But suppose there are two mobs?" suggested Mr. Snodgrass.
"Shout with the largest," replied Mr. Pickwick.
Volumes could not have said more.
They entered the house, the crowd opening right and left to et them pass, and cheering vociferously. The first object of consideration was to secure quarters for the night.
"Can we have beds here?" inquired Mr. Pickwick, summoning the waiter.
"Don't know, sir," replied the man; "afraid we're full, sir. I'll inquire, sir." Away he went for that purpose, and presently returned, to ask whether the gentlemen were "Blue."
As neither Mr. Pickwick nor his companions took any vital interest in the cause of either candidate, the question was rather a difficult one to answer. In this dilemma Mr. Pickwick bethought himself of his new friend, Mr. Perker
"Do you know a gentleman of the name of Perker?" inquired Mr. Pickwick.
"Certainly, sir; Honourable Mr. Samuel Slumkey's agent."
"He is Blue I think?"
"Oh yes, sir."
"Then we are Blue," said Mr. Pickwick; but observing that the man looked rather doubtful at this accommodating *) announcement, he gave him his card, and desired 8) him to pre-
1. Mr. Perker: the name is meant to make the reader think of perky: self-assertive, and of to perk: to move briskly with a consciousness of one's importance.
2. accommodating: obliging, doing what people wish one to do, or even thinking what people wish one to think.
3. to desire: to request.


48
ELECTIONS
sent it to Mr. Perker forthwith, if lie should happen to be in the house. The waiter retired; and reappearing almost immediately with a request that Mr. Pickwick would follow him, led the way to a large room on the first floor, where, seated at a long table covered with books and papers, was Mr. Perker.
"Ah—ah, my dear sir," said the little man, advancing to meet him; "very happy to see you, my dear sir, very. Pray sit down. So you have carried your intention into effect. You have come down here to see an election—eh?"
Mr. Pickwick replied in the affirmative.
"Spirited contest, my dear sir," said the little man.
" I am delighted to hear it," said Mr Pickwick, rubbing his hands. "I like to see sturdy patriotism, on whatever side it is called forth. And so it's a spirited contest?"
"Oh yes," said the little man, "very much so, indeed. We have opened all the public-houses in the place, and left our adversary nothing but the beer-shops. Masterly stroke of policy that, my dear sir, eh?" The little man smiled complacently and took a large pinch of snuff.
"And what are the probabilities as to the result of the contest?" inquired Mr. Pickwick.
"Why, doubtful, my dear sir; rather doubtful as yet," replied the little man. "Fizkin's people have got three-and-thirty voters in the lock-up coach-house at the White Hart."
"In the coach-house!" said Mr. Pickwick, considerably astonished by this second stroke of policy.
"They keep 'em locked up there till they want'em," resumed the little man. "The effect of that is, you see, to prevent our getting at them; and even if we could, it would be of no use, for
1. complacently: pleased with oneseif.


THE PICKWICK PAPERS
49
they keep them very drunk on purpose. Smartx) fellow, Fizkin's agent—very smart fellow, indeed."
Mr. Pickwick stared, but said nothing.
"We are pretty confident, though,", said Mr. Perker, sinking his voice almost to a whisper. "We had a little tea-party here, last night—five-and-forty women, my dear sir—and gave every one of 'em a green parasol when she went away2)."
"A parasol!" said Mr. Pickwick.
"Fact, my dear sir, fact. Five-and-forty green parasols, at seven and sixpence a-piece. All women like finery—extraordinary the effect of those parasols. Secured all their husbands, and half their brothers—beats stockings, and flannel, and all that sort of thing hollow. My idea, my dear sir, entirely. Hail, rain, or sunshine, you can't walk half a dozen yards up the street without encountering half a dozen green parasols."
Here the little man mdulged in a convulsion of mirth, which was only checked by the entrance of a third party.
This was a tall, thin man, with a sandy-coloured head inclined to baldness, and a face in which solemn importance was blended with a look of unfathomable profundity. He was dressed in a long brown surtout3), with a black cloth waistcoat and drab *) trousers. A doublé eye-glass dangled at his waistcoat, and on his head he wore a very low-crowned hat with a broad brim. The new-comer was introduced to Mr. Pickwick as Mr. Pott5), the editor of The Eatanswill Gazette. After a few preliminary remarks, Mr. Pott turned round to Mr. Pickwick, and said with solemnity,—
1. smart: sharp, clever.
2. As women did not vote it could not be called bribery.
3. surtout [saa'tu]: overcoat; the word is now obsolete.
4. drab: of a dull light brown colour.
5. The name is meant to make the reader think of the familiar expression a big pot: an important person.
England in the 19th Cent. I.
4


50
ELECTIONS
"This contest excites great interest in the metropolis sir?"
"I believe it does," said Mr. Pickwick.
"To which I have reason to know," said Pott, looking towards Mr. Perker for conoboration2)—"to which I have reason to know that my article of last Saturday in some degrée contributed."
"Not the least doubt of it," said the little man.
"The ptess is a mighty engine, sir," said Pott.
Mr. Pickwick yielded his fullest assent to the proposition.
"But I trust, sir," said Pott, "that I have never abused the enormous power I wield. I trust, sir, that I have never pointed the noble instrument which is placed in my hands, against the sacred bosom of private life, or the tender breast of individual reputation; I trust, sir, that I have devoted my energies to—to endeavours—humble they may be, humble 1 know they are—to instil those principles of—which—are "
Here the editor of The Eatanswill Gazette appearing to ramble, Mr. Pickwick came to his reliëf, and said,—
"Certainly."
'"And what, sir"—said Pott—"what, sir, Iet me ask you as an impartial man, is the state of the public mind in London, with reference to my contest with the Independent?"
"Greatly excited, no doubt," interposed Mr. Perker, with a look of slyness which was very likely accidental.
"The contest," said Pott, "shall be prolonged so long as I have health and strength, and that portion of talent with which I am gifted. From that contest, sir, although it may unsettle men's minds and excite their feelings, and render
1. metropolis: capital, i.e. London. The word is characteristic of the newspaper man who Ioves high-sounding words.
2. conoboration: confirmation by further evidence.


THE PICKWICK PAPERS
51
them incapable for the discharge of the every-day duties of ordinary life—from that contest, sir, I~will never shrink till I have set my heel upon The Eatanswill Independent. I wish the people of London, and the people of this country, to know, sir, that they may rely upon me—that I will not desert them; that I am resolved to stand'by them, sir, to the last."
"Your conduct is most noble, sir," said Mr. Pickwick; and he grasped the hand of the magnanimous Pott. fc-v
"You are, sir, I perceive, a man of sense and talent," said Mr. Pott, almost breathless with the vehemence of his patriotic declaration. "I am most happy, sir, to make the acquaintance of such.a man."
"And I," said Mr. Pickwick, "feel deeply honoured by this expression of your opinion. Allow me, sir, to introducé you to my fellow-travellers, the other corresponding members of the club I am proud to have founded."
"I shall be delighted," said Mr. Pott.
Mr. Pickwick withdrew, and returning with his friends, presented them in due form to the editor of The Eatanswill Gazette.
The noise and bustle which ushered in the morning were sufficiënt to dispel from the mind of the most romantic visionary in existence any associations but those which were immediately connected with the rapidly-approaching election. The beating of drums, the blowing of horns and trumpets, the shouting of men, and tramping of horses, echoed and re-echoed through the streets from the earliest dawn of day; and an occasional fight between the light skirmishefs of either party at once enlivened the preparations, andx) agreeably diversified their character.
"Well, Sam," said Mr. Pickwick, as his valet appeared at
1. at once.... and: as well.... as.


52
ELECTIONS
his bedroom door, just as he was concluding his toilet; "all alive to-day, I suppose?"
"RegTar game, sir," replied Mr. Weller; "ourpeople's a-collecting down «at the Town Arms, and they're a-hollering themselves hoarse already."
"Ah," said Mr. Pickwick, "do they seem devoted to their party, Sam?"
"Never see1) such dewotion2) in my life, sir."
"Energetic, eh?" said Mr. Pickwick.
"Uncommon," replied Sam'; "I never see men eat and drink so much afore. I wonder they an't afeer'd3) o' bustin."
"That's the mistaken kindness of the gentry here," said Mr. Pickwick.
"Wery likely," replied Sam, briefly.
"Fine, fresh, hearty fellows they seem," said Mr. Pickwick, glancing from the window.
"Wery fresh," replied Sam; "me and the two waiters at the Peacock has been a-pumpin' over the independent woters as supped there last night."
"Pumping over independent voters!" exclaimed Mr. Pickwick.
"Yes," said his attendant: "every man slept vere he feil down. We dragged 'em out, one by one, this mornin', and put 'em under the pump, and they're in reg'lar fine order now. Shillin' a head the committee paid for that 'ere job."
"Can such things be!" exclaimed the astonished Mr. Pickwick.
1. see for saw.
2. dewotion: it is supposed by Dickens that in vuigar London English w is used for v, and vice versa.
3. afeer'd: afraid.


THE PICKWICK PAPERS
53
"Lord bless your heart, sir," said Sam, "why, where was you half baptized? that's nothin', that an't." l) "Nothing?" said Mr. Pickwick.
"Nothin' at all, sir," replied his attendant. "The night afore the last day o' the last election here the opposite party bribed the barmaid at the Town Arms to hocusthe brandy-and-water of fourteen unpolled electors *) as was a-stoppin' in the house."
"What do you mean by 'hocussing' brandy-and-water?" inquired Mr. Pickwick.
"Puttin' laud'num in it," replied Sam. "Blessed if she didn't send 'em all to sleep till twelve hours arter the election was over. They took one man up to the booth *) in a truck *), fast asleep, by way of experiment, but it was no go—they wouldn't poll him; so they brought him back, and put him to bed again."
"Strange practices these," said Mr. Pickwick, half speaking to himself and half addressing Sam.
"Not half so strange as a miraculous circumstance as happened to my own father at an election time, in this wery place, sir," replied Sam.
"What was that?" inquired Mr. Pickwick.
"Why, he drove a coach down here once," said Sam; '"lection time came on, and he was engaged by vun party to bring down woters from London. Night afore he was a-goin' to drive up, committee on t'other side sends for him quietly8), and away
1. This repetition of subject and auxiliary is very common in spoken English: He's a clever boy, is John.—an't [eint] is now generally considered as vulgar, but is by no means uncommon, even among educated speakers.
2. unpolled: who have not yet voted. jy^
3. booth: polling-booth, the place of voting described above. &
4. truck: a wheeibarrow, such as is used by porters at a railwaystation.
5. quietly: secretly.


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he goes vith the messenger, who shows him in; large room—lots of genTm'n—heaps of papers, pens and ink, and all that 'ere. 'Ah, Mr. Weller,' says the gen'l'm'n in the chair, 'glad to see you, sir; how are you?'—'Wery well, thank'ee, sir,' says my father; 'I hope you're pretty middlin',' says he.—'Pretty well, thank'ee, sir,' says the gen'l'm'n; 'sit down, Mr. Weller—pray sit down, sir.' So my father sits down, and he and the gen'l'm'n looks wery hard at each other. 'You don't remember me?' says the gen'l'm'n.—'Can't say I dp,' says my father.—'Oh, I know you,'says the gen'l'm'n; 'know'd you when you was a boy,' says he.—'Well, I dón't remember you,' says my father.—'That's wery odd,'says the gen'l'm'n.—'Wery,' says my father.—'You must have a badjnem'ry. Mr. Weller,' says the gen'l'm'n.— 'Well, it is a wery bad 'un,' says my father.—'I thought so,' says the gen'l'm'n. So then they pours him out a glass of wine, and gammons1) him about his driving, and gets him into a reg'lar good humour, and at last shoves a twenty-pound note in his hand. 'It's a wery bad road between this and London,' says the gen'l'm'n.—'Here and there it is a heavy road,' says my father.—"Specially near the canal, I think,' says the gen'l'm'n. —'Nasty bit that 'ere,' says my father.—'Well, Mr. Weller,' says the gen'l'm'n, 'you're a wery good whip, and can do what you like with your horses, we know. We're all wery fond o' you, Mr. Weller; so in case you should have an accident when you're a-bringing these here woters down, and should tip 'em over into the canal vithout hurtin' of 'em, this is for yourself,' says he.—'Gen'l'm'n, you're wery kind,' says my father, 'and I'll drink your health in another glass of wine,'says he; which he did, and then buttons up the money, and bows himself out. You wouldn't believe, sir," continued Sam, with a look of in-
1. to gammon: to talk pleasantly without meaning what one says; to deceive.


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expressible impudence at his master, "that on the wery day as he came down with them woters his coach was upset on that 'ere wery spot, and ev'ry man on'em was turned into the canal."
"And got out again?" inquired Mr. Pickwick hastily.
"Why," replied Sam, very slowly, "I rather think one old gen'l'm'n was missin'; I know his hat was found, but I an't quite certain whether his head was in it or not. But what I look at is the hex-traordinary and wonderful coincidence, that arter what that gen'l'm'n said my father's coach should be upset, in that wery place and on that wery day!"
"It is, no doubt, a very extraordinary circumstance, indeed," said Mr Pickwick. "But brush my hat, Sam, for I hear Mr. Winkle calling me to breakfast."
With these words Mr. Pickwick descended to the parlour, where he found breakfast laid, and the familyx) already assembled. The meal was hastfly dispatched; each of the gentlemen's hats was decorated with an enormous blue favour, made up by the fair hands of Mrs. Pott herself; and as Mr. Winkle had undertaken to escort that lady to a housetop in the immediate vicinity of the hustings, Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Pott repaired to the Town Arms, from the back window of which one of Mr. Slumkey's committee was addressing six small boys and one girl, whom he dignified, at every second sentence, with the imposing title of "men of Eatanswill," whereat the six small boys aforesaid cheered prodigiously.
The stable-yard exhibited unequivocal2) symptoms of the glory and strength of the Eatanswill Blues. There was a regular army of blue flags, some with one handle, and some with two, exhibiting appropriate devices, in golden characters four feet high, and stout in proportion. There was a grand band of
1. the family, i. e. Mr. and Mrs. Pott.
2. unequivocal: unmistakable, not to be misunderstood.


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trumpets, bassoons *) and drums, marshalled four abreast, and earning their money, if ever men did, especially the drumbeaters, who were very muscular. There were bodies of constables with blue staves, twenty committee men with blue scarfs, and a mob of voters with blue cockades. There were electors on horseback, and electors afoot. There was an open carriage and four, for the Honourable Samuel Slumkey; and there were four carriages and pair2), for his friends and supporters; and the flags were rustling, and the band was playing, and the constables were swearing, and the twenty •committee men were squabbling, and the mob were shouting, and the horses were backing, and the post-boys perspiring; and everybody and everything, then and there assembled, was for the special use, behoof, honour, and renown of the Honourable Samuel Slumkey, of Slumkey Hall, one of the candidates for the representation of the Borough of Eatanswill, in the Commons House of Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Loud and long were the cheers, and mighty was the rustling of one of the blue flags, with "Liberty of the Press" inscribed thereon, when the sandy *) head of Mr. Pott was discerned in one the windows by the mob beneath; and tremendous was the enthusiasm when the Honourable Samuel Slumkey himself, in top-boots and a blue neckerchief, advanced and seized the hand of the said Pott, and melodramatically testified by gestures to the crowd his ineffaceable obligations to The Eatanswill Gazette.
"Is everything ready?" said the Honourable Samuel Slumkey to Mr. Perker.
"Everything, my dear sir," was the little man's reply.
1. bassoons: Dutch fagot.
2. a carriage and pair: a carriage and two horses.
3. sandy: yellowish-red.


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"Nothing has been omitted, I hope?" said the Honourable Samuel Slumkey.
"Nothing has been left undone, my dear sir—nothing whatever. There are twenty washed men at the street door for you to shake hands with; and six children in arms that you're to pat on the head, and inquire the age of. Be particular about the children, my dear sir; it has always a great effect, that sort of thing."
"I'll take care," said the Honourable Samuel Slumkey.
"And perhaps, my dear sir," said the cautious little man, "perhaps if you could— I don't mean to say it's indispensable —but if you could manage to kiss one of 'em, it would produce a very great impression on the crowd."
"Wouldn't it have as good an effect if the proposer or seconder did that?" said the Honourable Samuel Slumkey.
"Why, I'm afraid it wouldn't," replied the agent; "if it were done by yourself, my dear sir, I think it would make you very popular."
"Very well," said the Honourable Samuel Slumkey, with a resigned air, "then it must be done—that's all."
"Arrange the procession," cried the twenty committee-men.
Amidst the cheers of the assembled throng, the band, and the constables, and the committee-men, and the voters, and the horsemen, and the carriages, took their places—each of the two-horse vehicles being closely packed with as many gentlemen as could manage to stand upright in it; and that assigned to Mr. Perker, containing Mr. Pickwick, Mr. Tupman, Mr. Snodgrass, and about half a dozen of the committee besides.
There was a moment of awful suspense as the procession waited for the Honourable Samuel Slumkey to step into his carriage. Suddenly the crowd set up great cheering.
"He has come out," said little Mr. Perker, greatly excited;


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the more so as their position did not enable them to see what Tvas going forward.
Another cheer, .much louder.
"He has shaken hands with the men," cried the little agent.
Another cheer, far more vehement.
"He has patted the babies on the head," said Mr. Perker, trembling with anxiety.
A roar of applause that rent the air.
"He has kissed one of 'em!" exclaimed the delighted little man.
A second roar.
"He has kissed another," gasped the excited manager. A third roar.
"He's kissing 'em all!" screamed the enthusiastic little gentleman. And hailed by the deaf ening shouts of the multitude, the procession moved on.
How or by what means it became mixed up with the other procession, and how it was ever extricated *) from the confusion •consequent thereupon, is more than we can undertake to describe, inasmuch as Mr. Pickwick's hat was knocked over his eyes, nose, and mouth, by one poke of a Buff flagstaff2), very early in the proceedings. He describes himself as being surrounded on every side, when he could catch a glimpse of the scène, by angry and ferocious countenances, by a vast cloud of dust, and by a dense crowd of combatants. He represents himself as being forced from the carriage by some unseen power, and being personally engaged in a pugilistic encounter3); but with whom, or how, or why, he is wholly unable to state. He then feit himself forced up some wooden steps by the persons
1. to extricate: to disentangle, to free.
2. flagstaff: pole on which a flag is hung.
3. a pugilistic encounter: a fight with one's fists.


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from behind; and on removing his hat, found himself surrounded by his friends, in the very front of the left hand side of the hustings. The right was reserved for the Buff party, and the centre for the Mayor and his officers, one of whom—the fat crier of Eatanswill—was ringing an enormous bell, by way of commanding silence; while Mr. Horatio Fizkin and the Honourable Samuel Slumkey, with their hands upon their hearts, were bowing with the utmost affability to the troubled sea of heads that inundated the open space in front, and from whence arose a storm of groans, and shouts, and yells, and hootings, that would have done honour to an earthquake.
"There's Winkle," said Mr. Tupman, pulling his friend by the sleeve.
"Where?", said Mr. Pickwick, putting on his spectacles, which he had fortunately kept in his pocket hitherto.
"There," said Mr. Tupman, "on the top of that house." And there, sure enough, in the leaden gutter of a tiled roof, were Mr. Winkle and Mrs. Pott, comfortably seated in a couple of chairs, waving their handkerchiefs in token of recognition—a compliment which Mr. Pickwick returned by kissing his hand to "the lady. |
The proceedings had not yet commenced; and.as an inactive crowd is generally disposed to be jocose this very innocent action was sufficiënt to awaken their facetiousness.
"Oh, you wicked old rascal," cried one voice, "looking arter "the girls, are you?"
"Oh, you wenerable2) sinner," cried another.
"Putting on his spectacles to look at a married 'ooman!" said a third.
1. jocose [dzöu'kous]: inclined to jokes.
2. venerable is usually applied to old people; the speaker here uses it ironically.


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"I see him a-winkin' at her with his wicked old eye," shouted a fourth.
"Look arter your wife, Pott," bellowed a fifth; and then there was a roar of laughter.
As these taunts *) .were accompanied with invidious comparisons between Mr. Pickwick and an aged ram, and several witticisms of the like nature; and as they moreover rather tended to convey reflections upon the honour of an innocent lady, Mr. Pickwick's indignation was excessive; but as silence was proclaimed at the moment, he contented himself by scorching the mob with a look of pity for their misguided minds, at which they laughed more boisterously than ever.
"Silence!" roared the Mayor's attendants.
"Whiffin, proclaim silence," said the Mayor, with an air of pomp befHting his lofty station2). In obedience to this command the crier performed another concerto8) on the bell, whereupon a gentleman in the crowd called out "Muffins;" which occasioned another laugh4).
"Gentlemen," said the Mayor, at as loud a pitch as he could possibly force his voice to—"gentlemen, brother electors of the Borough of Eatanswill, we are met here to-day for the purpose of choosing a representative in the room of our late "
Here the Mayor was interrupted by a voice in the crowd.
"Suc-cess to the Mayor!" cried the voice, "and may he never
1. taunt: contemptuous reproach.
2. The position of a mayor should not be identified with that of a Dutch burgemeester. An English mayor is one of the members of the town-council elected as chairman for one year.
3. concerto [kon'tsaatöu]: musical composition for a solo instrument accompanied by an orchestra.
4. muffins are light flat round spongy cakes, eaten toasted and buttered with tea. They are sold by men in the street who use a bell to attract people's attention.


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desert the nail and sarspan *) business, as he got his money by."
This allusion to the professional pursuits of the orator was received with a storm of delight, which, with a bell accompaniment, rendered the remainder of his speech inaudible, with the exception of the concluding sentence, in which he thanked the meeting for the patiënt attention with which they had heard him throughout—an expression of gratitude which elicited another burst of mirth, of about a quarter of an hour's duration.
Next, a tall, thin gentleman, in a very stiff white neckerchief, after being repeatedly desired by the crowd to "send a boy home to ask whether he hadn't left his woice under the pillow," begged to nominate a fit and proper person to represent them in Parliament. And when he said it was Horatio Fizkin, Esquire, of Fizkin Lodge, near Eatanswill, the Fizkinites applauded, and the Slumkeyites groaned, so long and so loudly that both he and the seconder might have sung comic songs in lieu of speaking without anybody's being a bit the wiser.
The friends of Horatio Fizkin, Esquire, having had their innings2), a little choleric, pink-faced, man stood forward to propose another fit and proper person to represent the electors of Eatanswill in Parliament; and very swimmingly the pinkfaced gentleman would have got on, if he had not been rather too choleric to entertain a sufficiënt perception of the fun of the crowd. But after a very few sentences'of figurative eloquence, the pink-faced gentleman got from denouncing3) those who interrupted him in the mob to exchanging defiances with the gentlemen on the hustings; whereupon arose an uproar which
1. sarspan [saspaen] for saucepan: metal vessel with a long handle for boiling things in the kitchen.
2. innings: play of a batman at cricket as long as his turn lasts.
3. to denounce: to speak violently against.


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reduced him to the necessity of expressing his feelings by serious pantomime, which he did, and then left the stage to his seconder, who delivered a written speech of half an hour's length, and wouldn't be stopped, because he had sent it all to The Eatanswill Gazette, and The Eatanswill Gazette had already printed it, every word.
Then Horatio Fizkin, Esquire, of Fizkin Lodge, near Eatanswill, presented himself for the purpose of addressing the electors, which he no sooner did, than the band employed by the Honourable Samuel Slumkey commenced performing with a power to which their strength in the morning was a trifle; in return for which, the Buff crowd belaboured the heads and shoulders of the Blue crowd; on which the Blue crowd endeavoured to dispossess themselves of their very unpleasant neighbours, the Buff crowd; and a scène of struggling, and pushing, and fighting succeeded to which we can no more do justice than the Mayor could, although he issued imperative orders to twelve constables to seize the ringleaders, who might amount in number to two hundred and fifty or thereabouts. At all these encounters, Horatio Fizkin, Esquire, of Fizkin Lodge, and his friends, waxed fierce and furious; until at last Horatio Fizkin, Esquire, of Fizkin Lodge, be'gged to ask his opponent, the Honourable Samuel Slumkey, of Slumkey Hall, whether that band played by his consent; which question the Honourable Samuel Slumkey declining to answer, Horatio Fizkin, Esquire, of Fizkin Lodge, shook his fist in the countenance of the Honourable Samuel Slumkey, of Slumkey Hall; upon which the Honourable Samuel Slumkey, his blood being up, defied Horatio Fizkin, Esquire, to mortal combat1). At this violation of all known
f. Duels were probably rare in those days, although they were not completely abolished till later. Dickens seems to imply that their absurdity was already recognized in his days.


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rules and precedents of order, the Mayor commanded another fantasia on the bell, and declared that he would bring before himself both Horatio Fizkin, Esquire, of Fizkin Lodge, and the Honourable Samuel Slumkey, of Slumkey Hall, and bind them over to keep the peacex). Upon this terrific denunciation the supporters of the two candidates interfered, and after the friends of each party had quarrelled in pairs for three-quarters of an hour, Horatio Fizkin, Esquire, touched his hat to the Honourable Samuel Slumkey; the Honourable Samuel Slumkey touched his hat to Horatio Fizkin, Esquire; the band was stopped; the crowd were partialty quieted; and Horatio Fizkin, Esquire, was permitted to proceed.
The speeches of the two candidates, though differing in every other respect, afforded a beautiful tribute to the merit and high worth of the electors of Eatanswill. Both expressed their opinion that a more independent, a more enlightened, a more public-spirrjed, a more noble-minded, a more disinterested set of men than those who had promised to vote for him never existed on earth; each darkly hinted his suspicions that the electors in the opposite interest had certain swinish and besotted infirmities *) which rendered them unfit for the exercise of the important duties they were called upon to discharge. Fizkin expressed his readinessto do anything he was wanted; Slumkey, his determination to do nothing that was asked of him. Both said that the trade, the manufactures, the commerce, the prosperity of Eatanswill, would ever be dearer to their hearts than any earthly object; and each had it in his power to state,
1. The Mayor was an ex officio justice of the peace, so that he could legally bind them over to keep the peace, i. e. lay them under the obligation to appear before him If they repeated their offence.
2. to besot: to make stupid, often by drink.


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with the utmost confidence, that he was the man who would eventually be returned.
There was a show of hands; the Mayor decided in favour of the Honourable Samuel Slumkey, of Slumkey Hall. Horatio Fizkin, Esquire, of Fizkin Lodge, demandedapoll1), and a poll was fixed accordingly. Then a vote of thanks was moved to the Mayor for his able conduct in the chair8); and the Mayor, devoutly wishing that he had had achair to display his able conduct in (for he had been standing during the whole proceedings), returned thanks. The processions re-formed, the carriages rolled slowly through the crowd, and its members screeched and shouted after them as their feelings or caprice dictated.
During the whole time of the polling the town was in a perpetual fever of excitement. Everything was conducted on the most liberal and delightful scale. Excisable articles3) were remarkably cheap at all the public-houses; and^spring vans paraded the streets for the accommodation of voters who were seized with any temporary dizziness in the head—an epidemie which prevailed among the electors, during the contest, to a most alarming extent, and under the influence of which they might frequently be seen lying on the pavements in a state of utter insensibility. A small body of electors remained unpolled on the very last day. They were calculating and reflecting persons, who had not yet been convinced by the arguments of either party, although' they had had frequent conferences with each. One hour before the close of the poll, Mr. Perker solicited
1. The poll or voting was practically necessary because there was more than one candidate.
2. conduct in the chair: conduct as chairman.
3. excisable articles: see p. 10 note 4. Among the articles meant here the most important is no doubt beer; perhaps also tobacco.


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the honour of a private interview with these intelligent, these noble, these patriotic men. It was granted. His arguments were brief, butsatisfactory. They went in abody to the poll; and when they returned, the Honourable Samuel Slumkey, of Slumkey Hall, was returnedx) also.
1. A member who is elected is said to be returned to Parliament. England in the 19th Cent. I 5


VII.
QUEEN VICTORIA
On June 20 1837 William IV died. The period of the uncles, those "nasty old men," came to a close, and a new period opened with Victoria as Queen of England. Victoria was the only surviving cnild of any of George III. 's six sons. Her father, the Duke of Kent, had died shortly after she had come into the world, and she had lived quietly with her mother in their palace at South Kensington. In 1837 she was just 18 years of age.
Of the following three fragments the first (a) is taken from Victoria's own diary, published after her death in The letters of Queen Victoria. It is her entry on the day of her accession. Its most remarkable feature is the self-possession to which it bears witness. The second fragment (b) is taken from the book Queen Victoria by that most brilliant modern writer, Mr. Lytton Strachey (1921). It, too, describes the accession, and the period that followed immediately. While Victoria in her diary artlessly and unconsciously reveals something of her own personality, her biographer not only completes the picture with sure and subtle touches, but also, without seeming to do so, appraises the soul and the mind which are the subject of it, and brings out their qualities and their limitations with an irony full of tolerance and of understanding. Both for its psychological insight and as a piece of literature, this sketch of the youthful Queen must needs occupy a very high place indeed in any anthology of English historical writings.
Equally finished is the sketch of Lord Melbourne (c), the Prime Minister by whose advice Victoria in the first years of her reign allowed herself to be so entirely guided, or if that is too passive a word to describe the relationship, to whose advice she clung so passionately. It was a wrench when, in 1841, Lord Melbourne was forced to resign and to make room for the Tory leader Sir Robert Peel. Victoria was able to bear it with some composure only because the year before she had married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, who till his early death in 1860 had a very great influence on her in political matters as well as in others. ; « w


QUEEN VICTORIA
67
To this marriage Mr. Strachey alludes when he says (p. 78) that Baron Stockmar's establishment at Buckingham Palace was the prelude to yet another advance of the house of Coburg, which had furnished consorts to many European rulers already, and of which the Baron was the devoted and sagacious servant! Victoria's own mother was a Saxe-Coburg, and so was Leopold, once the husband of Victoria's cousin Charlotte, who would have been Queen in her stead had she not died young. Leopold was, in fact, a brother of Victoria's mother. Since his first wife's early death he had risen to be King of the Belgians. He maintamed a regular correspondence with his niece, from which our third and fourth fragments (c and d) contain a few samples, concluded by a letter to the faithful Stockmar.
The first four letters to Uncle Leopold (d) relate to the February Revolution in France, which made an end of the Orleans monarchy. Louis Philippe's family, too, was in more than one way related to the Coburgs. His eldest daughter was the wife of King Leopold. Another daughter, the Princess Clementine (Clem), was married to Prince Augustus, a maternal cousin of Victoria's, while one of his sons, the Duke of Nemours, was married to the Princess Victoria (Vic), a sister of Prince Augustus. Both Victoria and Leopold, therefore looked upon the February Revolution in the light of a family tragedy lt is cunous to note how this family feeling colours Victoria's appreciation of the crisis, without making her forget that her attitude towards it must be governed by the interests of her country. The word revolution naturally frightens her, vet a feeling of pnde in the stability of English society is as strong m her mind as pity with the relatives who fly to her for safety ~PV'xmoreover, which is not unmingled with disapproval.'
• !?e u?su three letters contain Victoria's impressions of the visit which, seven years later, she paid to Napoleon III., who ZfJhe">. as,EmPer°r of the French, reigning in Louis Philippe's stead. The frankness with which the Queen adores the new ligM is amusing. Altogether these letters with their superlatives and underlinings and exclamations afford a good examdle of Victoria s gushing style. It may be questioned whether "the poor Queen (Louis Philippe's widow) was greatly consoled on V1» ** V,ctona> wl>üe enjoying the hospitality of the upstart Emperor, "had thought much of her and the family." It should be remembered that the visit was paid when the
,nTlaniWar Was at its height' that is t0 say ^en the French ana cngnsft were unitedly fighting the Russians. The scène of


68
QUEEN VICTORIA
the Queen of England visiting the tomb of Napoleon I. on the Emperor's arm is none the less striking for that.
(a) EXTRACT FROM THE QUEEN'S JOURNAL
TUESDAY, 20th June 1837.
I was awoke at six o'clock by Mamma, who told me that the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham were here ,and wished to see me. I got out "of bed and went into my sittingroom (only in my dressing-gown) and alom, and saw them. Lord Conyngham (the Lord Chamberlain) then acquainted me that my poor Uncle, the King, was no more, and had expired at 12 minutes past two this morning, and consequently that I am Queen. Lord Conyngham knelt down and kissed my hand, at the same time delivering to me the official announcement of the poor King's demisex). The Archbishop then told me that the Queen was desirous that he should come and teil me the details of the last moments of my poor good Uncle; he said that he had directed his mind to religion, and had died in a perfectly happy, quiet state of mind, and was quite prepared for his death. He added that the King's sufferings at the last were not very great but that there was a good deal of uneasiness. Lord Conyngham, whom I charged to express my feelings of condolence and sorrow to the poor Queen, returned directly to Windsor. I then went tt) my room and dressed.
Since it has pleased Providence to place me in this station, I shall do my utmost to fulfil my duty towards my country; I am very young and perhaps in many, though not in all things, inexperienced, but I am sure that very few have more real
1. demise [dï'maiz]: death.


THE QUEEN'S JOURNAL
69
good-will and more real desire to do what is fit and right than I have.
Breakfasted, during which time good, faithful Stockmar came and talked to me. Wrote a letter to dear Uncle Leopold and a few words to dear good Feodore. Received a letter from Lord Melbourne in which he said he would wait upon me at a little before 9. At 9 came Lord Melbourne, whom I saw in my room,, and of course quite alone, as I shall always do all my Ministers. He kissed my hand, and I then acquainted him that it had long been my intention to retain him and the rest of the present Ministry at the head of affairs, and that it could not be in better hands than his. He again then kissed my hand. He then read to me the Declaration which I was to read to the Council, which he wrote himself, and which is a very fine one. I then talked with him some little time longer, after which he left me. He was in full dress. I like him very much and feel confidence in him. He is a very straightforward, honest, clever and good man. I then wrote a letter to the Queen. At about 11 Lord Melbourne came again to me, and spoke to me upon various subjects. At about half past 11 I went downstairs and held a Council in the red saloon.
I went in of course quite alone and remained seated the whole time. My two Unclés, the Dukes of Cumberland and Sussex, and Lord Melbourne conducted me. The Declaration, the various forms, the swearing in of the Privy Councillors, of which there were a great number present, and the reception of some of the Lords of the Council, previous to the Council, in an adjacent room (likewise alone), I subjoin here. I was not at all nervous and had the satisfaction of hearing that people were satisfied with what I had done and how I had done it. Received, after this, audiences of Lord Melbourne, Lord John Russell, Lord Albemarle (Master of the Horse), and the Archbishop of Canterbury,


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QUEEN VICTORIA
all in my room and alone. Saw Stockmar. Saw Clark, whom I named my Physician. Saw Mary1). Wrote to Uncle Ernest. Saw Ernest Hohenlohe, who brought me a kind and very feeling letter from the poor Queen. I feel very much for her, and really feel that the poor good King was always so kind personally to me, that I should be ungrateful were I not to recollect it and feel grieved at his death. The poor Queen is wonderfully composed now, I hear.
Wrote my journal. Took my dinner upstairs alone. Went downstairs. Saw Stockmar. .At about twenty minutes to 9 came Lord Melbourne and remained till near 10. I had a very important and a very comfortable conversation with him. Each time I see him I feel more confidence in him; I find him very kind in his manner too. Saw Stockmar. Went down and said good-night to Mamma, etc. My dear Lehzen will always remain with me as my friend, but will take no situation about me, and I think she is right.
Letters of Queen Victoria. Ed. by A. C. Benson and Viscount Esher. London 1907.
(b) QUEEN VICTORIA'S ACCESSION
When all was over, the Archbishop and the Lord Chamberlain ordered a carriage, and drove post-haste from Windsor to Kensington. They arrived at the Palace at five o'clock, and it was only with considerable difficulty that they gained admittance. At six the Duchess woke up her daughter, and told her that the Archbishop of Canterburry and Lord Conyngham were there, and wished to see her. She got out of bed, put on her
1. Mary: perhaps the Baroness Lehzen, her former governess.


THE QUEEN'S ACCESSION
71
dressing-gown, and went, alone, into the room where the messengere were standing. Lord Conyngham feil on his knees, and officially announced the death of the King; the Archbishop added some pereonal details. Looking at the bending, murmuring dignitaries before her, she knew that she was Queen of England. 'Since it has pleased Providence', she wrote that day in her journal, 'to place me in this station, 1 shall do my utmost to fulfil my duty towards my country; I am very young, and perhaps in many, though not in all things, inexperienced, but I.am sure, that very few have more real good will and more real desire to do what is fit and right than I have.' But there was scant time for resolutions and reflections. At once, affairs were thick upon her. Stockmar came to breakfast, and gave some good advice. She wrote a letter to her uncle Leopold, and a hurried note to her sister Feodora. A letter came from the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, announcing his approaching arrival. He came at nine, in full court dress, and kissed her hand. She saw him alone, and repeated to him the lesson which, no doubt, the faithful Stockmar had taught her at breakfast,' It has long been my intention to retain your Lordship and the rest of the present Ministry at the head of affairs'; whereupon Lord Melbourne again kissed her hand and shortly after left her. She then wrote a letter of condolence to Queen Adelaide. At eleven, Lord Melbourne came again; and at half past el even she went downstairs into the red saloon to hold her first Council. The great assembly of lords and notables, bishops, generals, and Ministers of State, saw the doors thrown open and a very short, very slim girl in deep plain mourning come into the room alone and move forward to her seat with extraordinary dignity and grace; they saw a countenance, not beautiful, but prepossessing—fair hair, blue prominent eyes, a small curved nose, an open mouth revealing the upper teeth, a tiny chin, a clear com-


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queen victoria
plexion, and, over all, the strangely mingled signs of innocence, of gravity, of youth, and of composure; they heard a high unwavering voice reading aloud with perfect clarity; and then, the ceremony over, they saw the small figure rise and, with the same consummate grace, the same amazing dignity, pass out from among them, as she had come in, alone.
lytton strachey. Queen Victoria. London 1921.
(c) LORD MELBOURNE I.
The new queen was almost entirely unknown tohersubjects. In her public appearances her mother had invariably dominated the scène. Her private life had been that of a novice in a convent: hardly a human being from the outside world had ever spoken to her; and no human being at all, except her mother and the Baroness Lehzen, had ever been alone with her in a room. Thus it was not only the public at large that was in ignorance of everything concerning her; the inner circles of statesmen and officials and high-bom ladies were equally in the dark. When she suddenly emerged from this deep obscurity, the impression that she created was immediate and profound. Her bearing at her first Council filled the whole gathering with astonishment and admiration; the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, even the savage Croker even the cold and caustic Greville')—all
1. John Wilson Croker, 1780—1857, Tory publicist and politicianl associated from its earliest days with the Quarterly Review. Croker is stil, remembered for the vehemence of his opposition to all that was new in politics and literature; he wrote the review in the Quarterly of Keats's Endymion that caused the poet so much pain.
2. Greville: see Chapter IV.


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were completely carried away. Everything that was reported of her subsequent proceedings seemed to be of no less happy augury1). Her perceptions were quick, her decisions were sensible, her language was discreet; she performed her royal duties with extraordinary facility. Among the outside public there was a great wave of enthusiasm. Sentiment and romance were coming into fashion; and the spectacle of the little girlqueen, innocent, modest, with fair hair and pink cheeks, driving through her capital, filled the hearts of the beholders with raptures of affectionate loyalty. What, above all, struck everybody with overwhelming force was the contrast between Victoria and her uncles. The nasty old men, debauched and selfish, pigheaded and ridiculous, with their perpetual burden of debts, confusions, and disreputabilities,—they had vanished like the snows of winter, and here at last, crowned and radiant, was the spring. Lord John Russell, in an elaborate oration, gave voice to the general sentiment. He hoped that Victoria might prove an Elizabeth without her tyranny, an Anne without her weakness. He asked England to pray that the illustrious Princess who had just ascended the throne with the purest intentions and the justest desires might see slavery abolished, crime diminished, and education improved. He trusted that her people would henceforward derive their strength, their conduct, and their loyalty from enlightened religious and moral principles, and that, so fortified, the reign of Victoria might prove celebrated to posterity and to all the nations of the earth.
Very soon, however, there were signs that the future might turn out to be not quite so simple and roseate as a delighted public dreamed. The 'illustrious Princess' might perhaps, after
1. augury: omen, presentiment, promise.


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QUEEN VICTORIA
all, have something within her which squared ill*) with the easy vision of a well-conducted heroine in an edifyirig storybook. The purest intentions and the justest desires? No doubt; but was that all? To those who watched closely, for instance, there might be something ominous in the curious contour of that little mouth. When, after her first Council, she crossed the ante-room and found her mother waiting for her, she said: 'And now, Mamma, am I really and truly Queen?' 'You 'see, my dear, that it is so'. 'Then, dear Mamma, I hope you will grant me the first request I make to you, as Queen. Let me be by myself for an hour'. For an hour she remained in solitude. Then she reappeared, and gave a significant order: her bed was to be moved out of her mother's room. It was the doom of the Duchess of Kent. The long years of waiting were over at last; the moment of a lifetime had come; her daughter was Queen of Engeland; and that very moment brought her own annihilation. She found herself, absolutely and irretrievably, shut off from every vestige of influence, of confidence, of power. She was surrounded, indeed, by all the outward signs of respect and consideration; but that made the inward truth of her position only the more intolerable. Through the mingled formalities of Court etiquette and filial duty, she could never penetrate to Victoria. She was unable to conceal her disappointment and her rage. 'II n'ya plus d'avenirpourmoi, 'she exclaimed to Madame de Lieven *); 'je ne suis plus rien. 'For eighteen years, she said, this child had been the sole object of her existence, of her thoughts, her hopes, and now—no! she would not be comforted, she had lost everything, she was to the last degree unhappy. Sailing, so gallantly and so pertinaciously,
1. to square with: to agree with.
2. Madame de Lieven, the wife of the Russian Ambassador, took an active part in the polltics of those days.


LORD MELBOURNE
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through the buffeting storms of life, the stately vessel, with sails still swelling and pennons flying, had put into harbour at last; to find there nothing—a land of bleak desolation.
Within a month of the accession, the realities of the new situation assumed a visible shape. The whole royal household moved from Kensington to Buckingham Palace, and, in the new abode, the Duchess of Kent was given a suite of apartments entirely separate from the Queen's. By Victoria herself the change was welcomed, though, at the moment of departure, she could afford to be sentimental. 'Though I rejoice to go into B. P. for many reasons,' she wrote in her diary, 'it is not without feelings of regret that I shall bid adieu for ever to this my birthplace, where I have been bom and bred, and to which I am really attached!' Her memory lingered for a moment over visions of the past: her sister's wedding, pleasant balls and
delicious concerts and there were other recollections. 'I
have gone through painful and disagreeable scènes here, 'tis true, 'she concluded, 'but still I am fond of the poor old palace.'
At the same time she took another decided step. She had determined that she would see no more of Sir John Conroy. She rewarded his past services with liberality: he was given a baronetcy and a pension of sS 3000 a year; he remained a member of the Duchess's household, but his personal intercourse with the Queen came to an abrupt conclusion.
II.
It was clear that these interior changes—whatever else they might betoken—marked the triumph of one person—the Baroness Lehzen. The pastor's daughter observed the ruin of her enemies. Discreet and victorious, she remained in possession of the field. More closely than ever did she cleave to the side of


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QUEEN VICTORIA
her mistress, her pupil, and her friend; and in the recesses of the palace her mysterious figure was at once invisible and omnipresent. When the Queen's Ministers came in at one door, the Baroness went out by another; when they retired, she immediately returned. Nobody knew,—nobody will ever know —the precise extent and the precise nature of her influence. She herself declared that she never discussed public affairs with the Queen, that she was concerned with private matters only— with private letters and the details of private life. Certainly her hand is everywhere discernible in Victoria's early correspondence. The Journal is written in the style of a child; the Letters are not so simple; they are the work of a child, rearranged— with the minimum of alteration, no doubt, and yet perceptibly —by a governess. And the governess was no fooi: narrow, jealous, provincial, she might be; but she was an acute and vigorous woman, who had gained, by a peculiar insight, a peculiar ascendency. That ascendency she meant to keep. No doubt it was true that technically she took no part in public business; but the distinction between what is public and what is private is always a subtle one; and in the case of a reigning sovereign—as "the next few years were to show—it is often imaginary. Considering allthings—the characters of the persons, and the character of the times—it was something more than a mere matter of private interest that the bedroom of Baroness Lehzen at Buckingham Palace should have been next door to the bedroom of the Queen.
But the influence wielded by the Baroness, suprème as it seemed within its own sphere, was not unlimited; there were other forces at work. For one thing, the faithful Stockmar had taken up his residence in the palace. During the twenty years which had elapsed since the death of the Princess Charlotte, his experiences had been varied and remarkable. The unknown


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counsellor of a disappointed princeling1) had gradually risen to a position of European importance. His devotion to his master had been not only whole-hearted but cautious and wise. It was Stockmar's advice that had kept Prince Leopold in England during the critical years which followed his wife's death, and had thus secured to him the essential requisite of a point d'appui in the country of his adoption. It was Stockmar's discretion which had smoothed over the embarrassments surrounding the Prince's acceptance and rejection of the Greek crown2). It was Stockmar who had induced the Prince to become the constitutional Sovereign of Belgium. Above all, it was Stockmar's tact, honesty, and diplomatic skill which, through a long series of arduous and complicated negotiations, had led to the guarantee of Belgian neutrality by the Great Powers. His labours had been rewarded by a German barony and by the complete confidence of King Leopold. Nor was it only in Brussels that he was treated with respect and listened to with attention. The statesmen who governed — Lord Grey, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Palmerston, Lord Melbourne—had learnt to put a high value upon his probity and his intelligence. 'He is one of the cleverest fellows I ever saw,' said Lord Melbourne— 'the most discreet man, the most well-judging, and most cool man.' And Lord Palmerston cited Baron Stockmar as the only absolutely disinterested man he had come across in life. At last he was able to retire to Coburg, and to enjoy for a few years the society of the wife and children whom his labours in
1. The princeling was Prince Leopold when he was only a younger Prince of Coburg.
2. Since 1825 there had been negotiations with Prince Leopold with a view to his being invited to the throne of Greece, which had only just thrown off the yoke of the Turks. In 1830 a definite offer was made, but Leopold refused.


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QUEEN VICTORIA
the service of his master had hitherto only allowed him to visit at long intervals for a month or two at a time. But in 1836 he had been again entrusted with an important negotiation, which he had brought to a successful conclusion in the marriagé of Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, a nephew of King Leopold's, with Queen Maria II. of Portugal. The House of Coburg was beginning to spread over Europe; and the establishment of the Baron at Buckingham Palace in 1837 was to be the prelude of another and a more momentous advance.
King Leopold and his counsellor provide in their careers an example of the curious diversity of human ambitions. The desires of man are wonderfully various; but no less various are the means by which those desires may reach satisfaction: and so the work of the world gets done. The correct mind of Leopold craved for the whole apparatus of royalty. Mere power would have held no attractions for him; he must be an actual king— the crowned head of a people. It was not enough to do; it was essential also to^be recognised; anything else would not be fitting. The greatness that he dreamt of was surrounded by every appropriate circumstance. To be a Majesty, to be a cousin of Sovereigns, to marry a Bourbon for diplomatic ends, to correspond with the Queen of England, to be very stiff and very punctual, to found a dynasty, to bore ambassadresses into fits, to live, on the highest pinnacle, an exemplary life devoted to the public service—such were his objects, and such, in fact, were his achievements. The 'Marquis Peu-a-Peu,' as George IV. called him, had what he wanted. But this would never have been the case if it had not happened that the ambition of Stockmar took a form exactly complementary to his own. The sovereignty that the Baron sought for was by no means obvious. The satisfaction of his essential being lay in obscurity, in invisibility—in passing, unobserved, through a hidden


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entrance, into the very central chamber of power, and in sitting there ,quietly, pulling the subtle strings that set the wheels of the whole world in motion. A very few people, in very high places, and exceptionally well-informed, knew that Baron Stockmar was a most important person: that was enough. The fortunes of the master and the servant, intimately interacting, rose together. The Baron's secret skill had given Leopold his unexceptionable kingdom; and Leopold, in his turn, as time went on, was able to furnish the-Baron with more keys to more and more back doors.
Stockmar took up his abode in the Palace partly as the emissary of King Leopold, but more particularly as the friend and adviser of a queen who was almost a child, and who, no doubt, would be much in need of advice and friendship. For it would be a mistake to suppose that either of these two men was actuated by a vulgar selfishness. The King, indeed, was very well aware on which side his bread was buttered; during an adventurous and chequered life he had acquired a shrewd knowledge of the world' s workings; and he was ready enough to use that knowledge to strengthen his position and to spread his influence. But then, the firmer his position and the wider his influence, the better for Europe; of that he was quite certain. And besides, he was a constitutional monarch; and it would be highly indecorous in a constitutional monarch to have any aims that were low or personal. As for Stockmar, the disinterestedness which Palmerston had noted was undoubtedly a basic element in his character. The ordinary schemer is always an optimist; and Stockmar, racked by dyspepsiaand haunted by gloomy forebodings, was a constitutionally melancholy man. A schemer, no doubt, he was; but he schemed distrustfully, spleneti-
1. dyspepsia: indigestion.


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QUEEN VICTORIA
cally, to do good. To do good! What nobler end could aman scheme for? Yet it is perilous to scheme at all.
With Lehzen to supervise every detail of her conduct, with Stockmar in the next room, so full of wisdom and experience of affairs, with her Uncle Leopold's letters, too, pouring out so constantly their stream of encouragements, general reflections, and highly valuable tipsx), Victoria, even had she been without other guidance, would-have stood in no lack of private counsellors. But other guidance she had; for all these influences paled before a new star, of the first magnitude, which, rising suddenly upon her horizon, immediately dominated her life.
III.
William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne was fifty-eight years of age, and had been for the last three years Prime Minister of England. In every outward respect he was one of the most -fortunate of mankind. He had been bom into the midst of riches, brilliance, and power. His mother, fascinating and intelligent, had been a great Whig hostess, and he had been bred up as a member of that radiant society which, during the last •quarter of the eighteenth century, concentrated within itself the ultimate perfections of a hundred years of triumphant aristocracy. Nature had given him beauty and brains; the unexpected death of an elder brother brought him wealth, a peerage, and the possibility of high advancement. Within that charmed circle, whatever one's personal disabilities, it was -difficult to fail; and to him, with all his advantages, success was well-nigh unavoidable. With little effort, he attained political éminence. On the triumph of the Whigs he became one of the leading members of the Government; and when Lord Grey
1. tip: secret information or advice; it is used in sporting slang.


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retired from the premiership he quietly stepped into the vacant place. Nor was it only in the visible signs of fortune that Fate had been kind to him. Bound to succeed, and to succeed easily, he was gifted with so fine a nature that his success became him. His mind, at once supple and copious, his temperament, at once calm and sensitive, enabled him not merely to work but to live with perfect facility and with the grace of strength. In society he was a notable talker, a captivating companion, a charming man. If one looked deeper, one saw at once that he was not ordinary, that the piquancies of his conversation and his manner—his free-and-easy vagueness, his abrupt questions, his lollings and loungings, his innumerable oaths—were something more than an amusing ornament, were the outward manifestation of an individuality peculiar to the core.
The precise nature of this individuality was very difficult to gauge: it was dubious, complex, perhaps self-contradictory
Whatever else he might be, one thing was certain: Lord Melbourne was always human—too human perhaps.
And now, with old age upon him, his life took a sudden, new, extraordinary turn. He became, in the twinkling of an eye, the intimate adviser and the daily companion of a young girl who had stepped all at once from a nursery to a throne. His relations with women had been, like everything else about him, ambiguous. Nobody had ever been able quite to gauge the shifting, emotional complexities of his married life; Lady Caroline vanished; but his peculiar susceptibilities remained. Female society of some kind or other was necessary to him, and he did not stint himself; a great part of every day was invariably spent in it. The feminine element in him made it easy, made it natural,
1. to become: to suit, to look well in a person (both of clothes and of actions).
England In the 19th Cent. I.
6


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QUEEN VICTORIA
and inevitable for him to be the friend of a great many women; but the masculine element in him was strong as well. In such circumstances it is also easy, it is even natural, perhaps it is even inevitable, to be something more than a friend. There were rumours and combustionsx). Lord Melbourne was twice a co-respondent in a divorce-action*); but on each occasion he won his suit. The lovely Lady Brandon, the unhappy and brilliant
Mrs. Norton the law exonerated them both. Beyond that
hung an impenetrable veil. But at any rate it was clear that, with such a record, the Prime Minister's position in Buckingham Palace must be a highly delicate one. However, he was used to delicacies, and he met the situation with consummate success. His behaviour was from the first moment impeccable. His manner towards the young Queen mingled, with perfect facility, the watchfulness and the respect of a statesman and a courtier with the tender solicitude *) of a parent. He was at once reverential and affectionate, at once the servant and the guide. At the same time the habits of his life underwent a surprising change. His comfortable, unpunctual days became subject to the unaltering routine of a palace;|no longer did he sprawl on sof as; not a single 'damn' escapedghis lips. The man of the world who had been the friend of Byron'and the Regent, the talker whose paradoxes had held Holland House *) enthralled, the cynic whose ribaldries had enlivened so many deep potations, the lover whose soft words had captivated such beauty and such passion and such wit, might now be seen, evening
1. combustion: destruction by fire; here used figuratively.
2. The co-respondent is the accused man in a divorce-suit; the accused wife is the respondent.
3. solicitude: anxiety, uneasiness.
4. Holland House was for a long time the centre of the Whig statesmen and politicians.


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after evening, talking with infinite politeness, to a schoolgirl, bolt upright, amid the silence and the rigidity of Court etiquette!
IV.
On her side, Victoria was instantaneously fascinated by Lord Melbourne. The good report of Stockmar had no doubt prepared the way; Lehzen was wisely propitiated *); and the first favourable impression was never afterwards belied. She found him perfect; and perfect in her sight he remained. Her absolute and unconcealed adoration was very natural; what innocent young creature could have resisted, in any circumstances, the charm and the devotion of such a man? But, in her situation, there was a special influence which gave a peculiar glow to all she feit. After years of emptiness and dullness and suppression, she had come suddenly, in the heyday of youth, into freedom and power. She was mistress of herself, of great domains and palaces; she was Queen of England. Responsibilities and difficulties she might have, no doubt, and in heavy measure; but one feeling dominated and absorbed all others-the feeling of joy. Everything pleased her. She was in high spirits from morning till night. Mr. Creevey *), grown old now, and very near his end, catching a ghmpse of her at Brighton, was much amused, in his sharp fashion, by the ingenuous gaiety of 'little Vic.'-'A more homely little being you never beheld, when she is at her ease and she is evidently dying to be always more so. She laughs in real earnest, opening her mouth as wide as it can go, showing not very pretty gums....She eats quite as heartily as she laughs, I think I may say she gobbles8).... She blushes and
1. to propitiate: to win the favour of.
2. Thomas Creevey M. P.; the quotation in the text is taken from his Diary, which was published after his death.
3. to gobble: to eat greedily.


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QUEEN VICTORIA
laughs every instant in so natural a way as to disarm anybody.' But it was not merely when she was laughing orgobblingthat she enjoyed herself; the performance of her official duties gave her intense satisfaction. 'I really have immensely to do,' she wrote in her journal a few days after her accession; 'I receive so many Communications from my Ministers, but I like it very much.' And again, a week later,' I repeat what I said before that I have so many Communications from the Ministers,, and from me to them, and I get so many papers to sign every day, that I have always a very great deal to do .1 Might in this work.' Through the giri's immaturity the vigorous predestined tastes of the woman were pushing themselves into existence with eager velocity, with delicious force.
One detail of her happy situation deserves particular mention. Apart from the splendour of her social position and the momentousness x) of her political one, she was a person of great wealth. As soon as Parliament met, an annuity of £ 385,000 was settled upon her. When the expenses of her household had been discharged, she was left with £ 68,000 a year of her own. She enjoyed besides the revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster, which amounted annually to over £ 27,000. The first use to which she put her money was characteristic: she paid off her father's debts. In money matters, no less than in other matters, she was determined to be correct. She had the instincts of a man of business; and she never could have borne to be in a position that was financially unsound.
With youth and happiness guilding every hour, the days passed merrily enough. And each day hinged upon Lord Melbourne. Her diary shows us, with undiminished clarity, the life of the young sovereign during the early months of her reign—a life satisfactorily regular, full of delightful business, a life of
1. momentousness: importance.


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simple pleasures, mostly physical—riding, eating, dancing—a quick, easy, highly unsophisticated life, sufficiënt unto itself. The light of the morning is upon it; and, in the rosy radiance, the figure of 'Lord M.' emerges, glorified and suprème. If she is the heroine of the story, he is the hero; but indeed they are more than hero and heroine, for there are no other characters at all. Lehzen, the Baron, Uncle Leopold, are unsubstantial shadows— the incidental supers of the piece Her paradise was peopled by two persons, and surely that was enough. One sees them together still, a curious couple, strangely united in those arttess pages, under the magical illumination of that dawn of eighty years ago; the polished high fine gentleman with the whitening hair and whiskers and the thick dark eyebrows and the mobile lips and the big expressive eyes; and beside him the tiny Queen—fair, slim, elegant, active, in her plain girl's dress and little tippet *), looking up at him earnestly3), adoringly, with eyes blue and projecting, and half-open mouth. So they appear upon every page of the Journal; upon every page Lord M.fis present, Lord M. is speaking, Lord M. is being amusing, instructive, delightful, and affectionate at once, while Victoria drinks in the honeyed words, laughs till she shows her gums, tries hard to remember, and runs off, as soon as she is left alone, to put it all down. Their long conversations touched upon a multitude of topics. Lord M. would criticise books, throw out a remark or two on the British Constitution, make some passing reflections on human life, and teil story after
1. super is an abbreviation of supernumerary: person in the performance of a piay who has a siient part.
2. tippet: cape of fur etc. covering the shoulders, worn by women but also as part of the official dress of judges, clergy, and others.
3. earnestly does not mean Dutch ernstig; it also expresses eagerness and zeal.


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QUEEN VICTORIA
story of the great people of the eighteenth century. Then there would be business—a despatch perhaps from Lord Durham in Canada, which Lord M. would read. But first he must explain a little. 'He said that I must know that Canada originally belonged to the French, and was only ceded to the English in 1760, when it was taken in an expedition under Wolfe; "a very daring enterprise," he said. Canada was then entirely
French, and the British only came afterwards Lord M.
explained this very clearly (and much better than I have done) and said a good deal more about it. He then read me Durham's despatch, which is a very long one and took him more than 1/2 an hour to read. Lord M. read it beautifully with that fine soft voice of his, and with so much expression, so that it is needless to say I was much interested by it.' And then the talk would take a more personal turn. Lord M. would describe his boyhood, and she would learn that lie wore his hair long, as all boys then did, till he was 17; (how handsome he must have looked!).' Or she would find out about his queer tastes and habits—how he never carried a watch, which seemed quite extraordinary.' ' " I always ask the servant what o'clock it is, and then he tells me what he likes," said Lord M.' Or, as the rooks wheeled about round the trees, 'in a manner which indicated rain', he would say that he could sit looking at them for an hour, and was quite
surprised at my disliking them Lord M. said "The rooks
are my delight."'
The day's routine, whether in London or at Windsor, was almost invariable. The morning was devoted to business and Lord M. In the afternoon the whole Court went out riding. The Queen, in her velvet riding-habit and a top-hat with a veil draped about the brim, headed the cavalcade; and Lord M. rode beside her. The lively troup went fast and far, to the extreme exhilaration of Her Majesty. Back in the Palace again,


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there was still time for a little more fun before dinner—a game of battledore and shuttlecockx) perhaps, a romp *) along the galleries with some children. Dinner came, and the ceremonial decidedly tightened. The gentleman of highest rank sat on the right hand of the Queen; on her left—it soon became an established rule—sat Lord Melbourne. After the ladies had left the dining-room, the gentlemen were not permitted to remain behind for very long; indeed, the short time allowed them for their wine-drinking formed the subject—so it was rumoured— of one of the few disputes between the Queen and her Prime Minister; but her determination carried the day, and from that moment after-dinner drunkenness began to go out of fashion. When the company was reassembled in the drawing-room the etiquette was stiff. For a few minutes the Queen spoke in turn to each one of her guests; and during these short uneasy colloquies the aridity3) of royalty was apt to become painfully evident. One night Mr. Greville, the Clerk of the Privy Council, was present; his turn soon came; the middle-aged, hard-faced viveur was addressed by his young hostess. 'Have you been riding to-day, Mr. Greville?' asked the Queen. 'No, Madam, I have not, 'replied Mr. Greville. 'It was a fine day,' continued the Queen. 'Yes ,Madam, a very fine day,' said Mr. Greville. 'It was rather cold, though, 'said the Queen. 'It was rather cold, Madam,' said Mr. Greville. 'Your sister, Lady Frances Egerton, rides, I think, doesn't she?' said the Queen. 'She does ride sometimes, Madam,' said Mr. Greville. There was a pause,
1. .The game of battledore and shuttlecock is a children's game. The battledore resembles a racket in tennis but it is made of parchment and much smaller; the shuttlecock is a cork stuck with feathers in various colours and taking the place of the ball in tennis.
2. to romp: to play, chasing each other and wrestling, exclusively said «f children.
3. aridity: dryness, emptiness.


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QUEEN VICTORIA
after which Mr. Greville ventured to take the lead, though he did not venture to change the subject. 'Has your Majesty been riding to-day?' asked Mr. Greville. 'Oh yes, a very long ride,' answered the Queen with animation. 'Has your Majesty got a nice horse?' said Mr; Greville. 'Oh, a very nice horse,' said the Queen. It was over. Her Majesty gave a smile and an inclination of the head, Mr. Greville a profound bow, and the next conversation began with the next gentleman. When all the guests had been disposed of, the Duchess. of Kent sat down to her whist, while everybody else was ranged about the round table. Lord Melbourne sat beside the Queen, and talked pertinaciously1)— very often a propos to the contents of one of the large albums of engravings with which the round table was covered—until it was half-past-eleven and time to go to bed.
Occasionally, there were little diversions: the evening might be spent at the opera or at the play. Next morning the royal critic was careful to note down her impressions. 'It was Shakespeare's tragedy of Hamlet, and we came in at the beginning of it. Mr. Charles Kean (son of old Kean) acted the part of Hamlet, and I must say beautifully. His conception of this very difficult, and I may almost say incomprehensible, character is admirable; his delivery of all the fine long speeches quite beautiful; he is excessively graceful and all his actions and
attitudes are good, though not at all good-looking in f ace 1
came away just as Hamlet was over.' Later on, she went to see Macready in King Lear. The story was new to her; she knew nothing about it, and at first she took very little interest in what was passing on the stage; she preferred to chatter and laugh with the Lord Chamberlain. But, as the play went on, her mood changed; her attention was fixed, and then she laughed no more. Yet she was puzzled; it seemed a strange, a
1. pertinacious: persistent, obstinate.


letters
89
horrible business. What did Lord M. think? Lord M. thought it was a very fine play, but to be sure, 'a rough, coarse play, written for those times, with exaggerated characters,' Tm glad you've seen it,' he added. But, undoubtedly, the evenihgs which she enjoyed most were those on which there was dancing. She was always ready enough to seize any excuse—the arrival of cousins—a birthday—a gathering of yo> ng people—to give the command for that. Then, when the band played, and the figures of the dancers swayed to the music, and she feit her own figure swaying too, with youthful spirits, so close'on every side—then her happiness reached its height, her eyes sparkled, she must go on and on into the small hours of the morning. For a moment Lord M. himself was forgotten.
lytton strachey. Queen Victoria. London 1921.
(d) LETTERS Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians.
Buckingham Palace, lst March 1848.
My Dearest Uncle,—Every hour seemstobringfresh newsand events. Victoire and her children and Montpensier are at Jersey* and are expected to arrivé to-morrow. About the King and Queen, we still know nothing, but we have some clue, and think he may be somewhere on the coast, or even in England. We do everything we can for the poor dear Family, who are indeed most dreadfully to be pitied; but you will naturally understand that we cannot make cause commune with them, and cannot take a hostile position opposite to the new state of things in France; we leave them alone, but if a Government which has the approbation of the country be formed, we shall feef it necessary to recognise it, in order to pin them down to maintain peace and


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the existing treaties, which is of great importance. It will not be pleasant for us to do this, but the public good and the peace of Europe go before one's feelings. God knows what one feels towards the French. I trust, dear Uncle, that you will maintain the fine and independent position you are now in, which is so gratifying to us, and I am sure you will feel that much as we all must sympathise with our poor French relations, you should not for that quarrel with the existing state of things, which however is very uncertain. There were fresh reports of grèat confusion at Paris, which is sure to happen. All our poor relations have gone through is worthy only of a dreadful romance, and poor Clém. behaves beautifully, courageously, and calmly, and is full of resignation; but she can get no sleep, poor thing—and hears the horrid cries andsees those fiend-like faces before her! The children are very happy with ours, but very unmanageable. I saw the Duchesse de Montpensier to-day.
Now, with every wish for all going on well, believe me ever, your devoted Niece,
Victoria R.
Buckingham Palace, 7th March 1848.
My Dearest Uncle,—Albert has written to you so constantly -that I have little to add; he just tells me this is not quite true. However, there is nothing very new except that we have seen -the King and Queen; Albert went down to Claremont to see -them on Saturday, and yesterday they came here with Montpensier. They both look very abattus, and the poor Queen cried much in thinking of what she had gone through-and what dangers the King had incurred; in short, humbled poor people they looked. Dearest Vic I saw on Sunday; she has also gone ihrough much, and is so dear and good and gentle. She looked


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wonderfully well considering. They are still very much in want of means, and live on a very reduced scale.
Buckingham Palace, llth March 1848.
My Dearest Uncle, -1 profit by the departure of Andrews to write to you a few lines, and to wish you joy of the continued satisfactory behaviour of my friends, the good Belgians; fervently do I hope and really trust all will go on well; but what an extraordinary state of things everywhere. "Je ne sais plus ou je suis," and I fancy really that we have gone back into the old century. But I also feel one must not be nervous or alarmed at these moments, but be of good cheer, and muster up courage io meet all the difficulties.
Our little riots are mere nothing, and the feeling here is good— What is your opinion as to the late events at Paris? Do you not think the King ought to have returned toVincennes or somewhere else a day or two before, and put himself at the head of the army? Ought not Montpensier at least to have gone to Vincennes? I know Clém even thinks this-as also that one ought to have foreseen, and ought to have managed things better. Certainly at the very last, if they had not gone, they would all have been massacred; and I think they were quite right, and in short could not avoid going as quickly as they could, but there is an impression they fled too quickly. Still the recollection of Louis XVI.... is enough to justify all, and everybody will admit that, but the Princes, they think, ought to have remained. What do you think of all this? I think the blunders were all on the last three or four days-and on the last day, but were no longer to be avoided at last, there seemed


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a fatality, and all was lost. Poor Nemours did his best till he could no langer get to the troops. People here also abuse him for letting Victoire go alone—but he remained. todohisduty; a little more empressement on her arrival here I would have wished. Albert told you all about the Montpensiers' journey. It would do the King irreparable mischief if they went now to Spain; the feeling of anger would all return. Poor people, they are in a sad state of want at present.
I must conclude. Hoping to.hear from you, and to have your opinion. Ever your devoted Niece,
Victoria R.
Buckingham Palace, 4th April 1848.
My Dearest Uncle,—I have to thank you for three most kind letters, of the 18th an 25 th March, and of the lst. Thank God, I am particularly strong and well in every possible respect, which is a blessing in these awful, sad, heart-breaking times. From the first I heard all that passed, and my only thoughts and talk were—Politics, but I never was calmer and quieter or less nervous. Great events make me quiet and calm, and little trifles fidget me and irritate my nerves. But I feel grown old and serious and the future is very dark. God, however, will come to help and protect us, and we must keep up our spirits. Germany makes me so sad; on the other hand Belgium is a real pride and happiness.
We saw your poor father and mother-in-Iaw with the Nemours, Joinville, and Aumale yesterday. Still a dream to see them thus, herel They are well in health, and the young people's conduct most praiseworthy, really the three Princesses are astonishing, and a beautiful lesson to every one. They are so


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much admired and respected for it. My beloved Vic, with her lovelyface, is perfection, and so cheerful. She often comes to see me, and this is a great pleasure to me, if only it was not caused by such misfortunes!
Now good-bye. With fervent prayers for the continuation of your present most flourishing position, ever your devoted Niece,
Victoria R.
St. Cloud1), 23rd August 1855.
My Dearest Uncle,-I do not intend to attempt any description, for I have no time for anything of the sort; besides I have no doubt you will read the papers, and I know good Van de Weyer has written au long to you about it2) all. I will therefore only give in a few words my impressions.
I am delighted, enchanted, amused, and interested, and think I never saw anything more beautiful and gay than Paris-or more splendid than all the Palaces. Our reception is rawfgratifying— for it is enthusiastic and really kind in the highest degree; and Maréchal Magnan*) (whom you know well) says that such a
1. The Queen and Prince left Osborne early on the 18th in their new yacht, Victoria and Albert, for Boulogne, and the visit to France, which lasted nine days, was brilliantly successful. The Queen, in her Journal, recorded with great minuteness the details of this interesting time, and some extracts are printed by Sir Theodore Martin in The Life of the Prince Consort.
2. Van de Weyer: the Belgian Ambassador in London.
3. Maréchal Magnan had repressed an insurrectlon in Lyons in 1849 and aid^d in the coup d'Etat of 1851.


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reception as I have received every day here is much greater and much more enthusiastic even than Napoleon on his return from his victories had received! Our entrance into Paris was a scène which was quite feënhaft, and which could hardly be seen anywhere else; was quite overpowering—splendidly decorated— illuminated—immensely crowded—and 60,000 troops out—from the Gare de Strasbourg to St. Cloud, of which 20,000 Gardes Nationales, who had come great distances to see me.
The Emperor has done wonders for Paris, and for the Bois de Boulogne. Everything is beautifully monté at Court—very quiet, and in excellent order; I must say we are both much struck with the difference between this and the poor King's time, when the noise, confusion, and bustle were great. We have been to the Exposition, to Versailles—which is most splendid and magnificent—to the Grand Opera, where the reception and the way in which "God save the Queen" was sung were most magnificent. Yesterday we went to the Tuileries; in the evening Thedtre ici; to-night an immense ball at the Hotel de Ville. They have asked to call a new street, which we opened, after mei
The heat is very great, but the weather splendid, and though the sun may be hotter, the air is certainly lighter than ours—and I have no headache.
The Zouaves are on guard here, and you can't see finer men, the Cent Gardes are splendid too.
We drove to look at poor Neuilly on Sunday, the Emperor and Empress proposing it themselves; and it was a most melancholy sight, all in ruins. At le grand Trianon we saw the pretty chapel in which poor Mariex) was married; at the Tuileries the Cabinet where the poor King signed his fatal abdication. I wish you woüld take an opportuity of telling the poor Queen that
1. Poor Marie: probably Louis Philippe 's second danghter, who had died in 1839 as wife of the Prince of Wurtemberg.


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we had thought of her and the family here, had visited those spots which were connected with them in particular, and that we had greatly admired the King's great works at Versailles, which have been left quite intact. Indeed, the Emperor (as in everything) has shown great tact and good feeling about all this, and spoken without any bitterness of the King.
I still mean to visit (and this was his proposition) the Chapelle de St. Ferdinand, which I hope you will likewise mention to the Queen
The children are so fond of the Emperor, who is so very kind to them. He is very fascinating, with that great quiet and gentleness. He has certainly excellent manners, and both he and the dear and very charming Empress (whom Albert likes particulary) do the honneurs extremely well and very gracefully, and are full of every kind attention
Instead of my short letter I have written you a very long one and must end. Many thanks for your kind letter of the 17th.
How beautiful and how enjoyable is this place!
Ever your devoted Niece,
Victoria R.
Osborne, 29th August 1855.
My Dearest Uncle, - Here we are again, after the pleasantest and most interesting and triumphant ten days that I think I ever passed. So complete a success, so very hearty and kind a reception with and from so difficile a people as the French is indeed most gratifying and most promising for the future. The Army were most friendly and amicable towards us also.
In short, the complete Union of the two countries is stamped and sealed in the most satisfactory and solid manner, for it is


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not only a Union of the two Governments — the two Sovereigns —it is that of the two Nationsl Albert has told you of all the very extraordinary combinations of circumstances which helped to make all so interesting, so satisf actory. Of the Splendour of the Fête at Versailles I can really give no faint impression for it exceeded all imaginationl I have formed a great affection for the Emperor, and I believe it is very reciprocal, forheshowed us a confidence which we must feel as very gratifying, and spoke to us on all subjects, even.the most delicate. I find no great personal rancour towards the Orleans. He has destroyed nothing that the King did, even to the Gymnastics of the children at St. Cloud, and showed much kind and good feeling in taking us to see poor Chartres'x) monument, which is beautiful. Nothing could exceed his tact and kindness, I find I must end in a great hurry, and will say more another day. Ever your devoted Niece,
Victoria R.
Queen Victoria to Baron Stockmar
Osborne, lst September 1855.
You continue to refuse to answer me, but I amnot discouraged by it; but on the contrary must write to you to give vent to my delight at our triumphant, most interesting, and most enjoyable visit to Paris. The Prince has written to you, and given you some general accounts, which will please you, and the
Times has some descriptions of the wonderful beauty and
magnificence of everything. I never enjoyed myself more, or was more delighted or more interested, and I can think and
li The Duke of Chartres, Louis Philippe 's second son.


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talk of nothing else. I am deeply touched by the extraordinary warmth, heartiness and enthusiasm with which we have been received by all ranks, and the kindness shown to every one has brought us all back-beginning with ourselves and ending with the lowest of our servants-full of gratitude, pleasure, admiration, regret at its being over, and a great desire to see "such a visit renewed! It was touching and pleasing in the extreme to see the alliance sealed so completely, and without lowering either Country's pride, and to see old enmities and nvalries wiped out over the tomb of Napoleon t, before whose coffin I stood (by torchlight) at the arm of Napoleon III., now my nearest and dearest ally! We have come back with feelings of real affection for and interest in France-and indeed how could it be otherwise when one saw how much was done to please and delight us? The Army too (such a fine one!) I feel a real affection for, as the companions of my beloved troops!
For the Emperor personally I have conceived a real affection and friendship, and so I may truly say of the Prince. You know what I feit the moment I saw him and became acquainted with him, what I wrote down about him, etc. Well, we have now seen him for full ten days, from twelve to fourteen hours every dayoften alone; and I cannot say how pleasant and easy it is to live with him, or how attached one becomes to him. I know no one who puts me more at myease, or to whom I feit more inclined to talk unreservedly, or in whom involuntarily I should be more inclined to confide, than the Emperor! He was entirely at his ease with us-spoke most openly and frankly with us on all subjects-EVEN the most delicate, viz. the Orleans Family {this was with me, for I was driving alone with him), and I am happy to feel that there is nothing now between us which could mar our personal good entente and friendly, and intimate footing. He is so simple, so naïf, never making des
England in the 19th Cent. I.
7


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QUEEN VICTORIA
phrases, or paying compliments—so full of tact, good taste, high breeding; his attentions and respect towards us were so simple and unaffected, his kindness and friendship for the Prince so natural and gratifying, because it is not forced, not pour faire des compliments. He is quite The Emperor, and yet in no way playing it; the Court and whole house infinitely more regal and better managed than in poor Louis Philippe's time, when all" was in great noise and confusion, and there was no Court. We parted with mutual sorrow. and the Emperor expressed his hope that we shall frequently meet and "pas avec de si grands cérémonies"! What I write here is my feeling and conviction: wonderful it is that this man whom certainly we were not over well-disposed to—should by force of circumstances be drawn into such close connection with us, and become personally our friend, and this entirely by his own personal qualities, in spite of so much that was and could be said against him! To the children (who behaved beautifully, and had the most extraordinary success) his kindness, and judicious kindness, was great, and they are excessively fond of him. In short, without attempting to do anything particular to make one like him, or ANY personal attraction in outward appearance, he has the power of attaching those to him who come near him and know him, which is quite incredible. He is excessively kind in private, and so very quiet. I shall always look back on the time passed not only in France, but with him personally, as most agreeable. The Prince, though less enthusiastic than I am, I can see well, sharés this feeling, and I think it is very reciprocal on the Emperor's part; he is very fond of the Prince and truly appreciates him. With respect to the War, nothing can be more frank and fair and honest than he is about it, but it makes him unhappy and anxious. The dear Empress, who was all kindness and goodness, whom


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we are all very fond of, we saw comparatively but little of as for really and certainly very good reasons she must take great care of herself
Victoria R.
99


VUL.
LABOUR CONDITIONS
We must now give some passages to illustrate the terrible conditions under which at this time the wage-earning class in England lived and worked. Nothing can make us realize more vividly how terrible they were, and how widely the present differs from that not so very distant past, than to read about the labour of children and the indifference with which otherwise gentle people passed by this grievous evil.
Our first quotation (a) is from an article that appeared in the Edinburgh Review of 1819. It is an account, based on the evidence given before a Committee of the House of Lords, of the sufferings of children employed to sweep chimneys. The author, the same Rev. Sidney Smith whom we have met in connection with the Reform Bill, (see V a v, p. 25 ff.), is deeply struck with the horror of it all; the last few sentences of his article show, however, that he was by no means inclined to advocate a change in the fundamental organization of society.
The first attempt to improve the condition of the little chimney sweeps by Act of Parliament was made in 1788. The Bill was passed by the House of Commons, but altered by the Lords so as to make it ineffective. In 1817, 1818, and 1819 attempts were renewed by Henry Grey Bennet, a Radical M. P. A Bill prohibiting the use of climbing boys passed the Commons in 1818, but the Lords appointed a committee to take evidence (this is the one from which the quotations are taken in the articles of Sidney Smith). The result was that it was officially proved that all chimneys could be swept by machines, or by ball and brush, with the exception of a few, which could be altered by the owners. This was all the easier because these complicated chimneys were only found in very great houses. In 1819 Bennet introduced his third bill. It again passed the House of Commons, but was wrecked by the Lords. Among the opponents was Lord Lauderdale; his arguments are so characteristically English that they should be quoted. The noble speaker


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urged that such reforms should be left "entirely to the moral
IVtF^hTA6 m°St m0ral Pe°P'e on the face oTthe earth. When t had been proved hopeless to obtain a orohibition, Bennet introduced a bill to improve the condition Sf the
failed by the opposition of the Lords. Lord Eldon the Lord Chancellor objected to the bill because it contained the words 'female girl or woman.» The noble lord, to Xm the eSt worcnng of an Act of Parliament was more important than human life was not quite scrupulous in his assertion for the
ffie^hVtefnr*'y,e °r womaï'LÓrd Laï
Sous ffi L T"ar$ a" obJection that was considered so «?f ?h i -V* destr°yed any chance the bill might have hadIf the legislature attempted to lay down a moral code fo thé people, there was always a danger that everTfeeline of henï V^CehW0U^ ?C extirPated." I? Iasted Si 1872 before Lord Shaftesbury (about whom more in a moment) succeeded in pass ng a measure which put a stop to this outrage l a2h TTd 1uotation (b) shows that even a man like Charles Lamb, ai charming and refined writer, who was not lactónï in
SrSni^and tf ^ Utt!e Ckmne* "weepers'Souï •nfi ™. p ty and.the indignation which one would exoect rZ mrf °CC?l? in.Lamb's Essays of Elia (1823) P
ses were just then beginning to feel forthe chiS in tïë Sstrac't
h Jvh6 a°Uhth passaSe> fi"a»y. (d), is taken from Lord Shaftesseries by these same wnters. In this fragment we hear something
Lord ACiï?°n«WhiCh,PrecVailed in SKS^ÏÏtS nïï? ,Ashley. afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury, is one"of thé
n0i,1nftt0hlracters of that aSe- "e was a great practical philS!
Se^oSÏlS?^ °n than °ne °^aPsion in shakuTg C2?P,ac.e.n1°y and rousing the consciences of the aristocrarv and the middle class (the only classes who had anv nolitical
Tiï'Z™{3" th? Ref?rm Act of '832). He hlmse^belonï ed to the land-owning class and to the Tory partv As he advanced ,n hfe his religieus preoccupations (see ch XI) eot more and more the upp% hand in his mind, and it" may te


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ascribed to this fact that he failed to obtain that influence over his party which might have developed it into the party of social reform.
The report mentioned in the opening sentence of our fragment was the first report (1842) of a Royal Commission on the Employment of Women and Children, which Ashley had got appointed in 1840. The report made a profound impression; see fragment d. It also reached people who rarely read bluebooks. The most famous poetic utterance is by Mrs. Browning, The Cry of the Children (Blackwood's Magazine, August 1843).
The factory laws which Ashley got on the statute book served as an example for similar legislation in several Continental countries.
SIDNEY SMITH (Edinburgh Review, 1819).
Account of the Proceedings of the Society for superseding the Necessity of Climbing Boys. Baldwin & C. London: 1816.
An excellent and well-arranged dinner is a most pleasing occurrence, and a great triumph of civilised life. It is not only the descending morsel, and the enveloping sauce—but the rank, wealth, wit, andbeauty which surround the meats—the learned management of light and heat—the silent and rapid services of the attendants—the smiling and sedulous1) host, proffering gusts2) and relishes—the exotic8) bottles—the embossed *)
1. sedulous: anxious to please his guests.
2. gust: a keen relish or flavour. A rellsh is added to food to improve its tastiness, such as the welt-known Worcester sauce for soups.
3. exotic [eg'zotïk]: introduced from foreign countries; frequently applied to plants.
4. embossed: with figures in reliëf.


SIDNEY SMITH ON CHIMNEY SWEEPERS
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plate—the pleasant remarks—the handsome dresses—the cunning artifices in fruit and farina*)! The hour of dinner, in short, includes everything of sensual and intellectual gratification which a great nation glories in producing *).
In the midst of all this, who knows that the kitchen chimney caught fire half an hour before dinner!—and that a poor little wretch, of six or seven years old, was sent up in the midst of the flames to put it out? We could not, previous to reading this evidence, have formed a conception of the miseries of these wretches, or that there shoulrj exist, in a civilised country, a class of human beings destined to such extreme and varied distress. We will give a short epitome of what is developed in the evidence before the two Houses of Parliament.
Boys are made chimney sweepers at the early age of five or six.
Little boys for small flaes, is a common phrase on the cards left at the door by itinerant chimney sweepers. Flues made to ovens and coppers8) are often less than nine inches square; and it may easily be conceived, how slender the frame of that human body must be, which can force itself through such an aperture.
The following is a specimen of the manner in which they are taught this art of climbing chimneys.
"Do you remember being taught to climb chimneys? Yes.— What did you feel upon the first attempt to climb a chimney?
1. farina: flour or meal of corn used for the puddings.
2. The modern reader runs a risk of mistaking this for irony; but it was meant in ail seriousness by a writer who was considered as a person of advanced views by his contemporaries.
3. copper.-large copper or iron pot used in cooking and especially in washing.


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LABOUR CONDITIONS
The first chimney I went up they 1:old me there was some plumpudding and money up at the top of it, and that is the way they enticed me up; and when I got up, I would not let the other boy get from under me to get at it; I could not get up, and shoved the pot and half the chimney down into the yard.—Did you experience any inconvenience to your knees, or your elbows? Yes, the skin was off my knees, and elbows too, in climbing up the new chimneys they forced me up.—How did they force you up? When I got up I cried out about my sore khees.—Were you beat or compelled to go up by any violent means? Yes, when I went to a narrow chimney, if I could not do it, I durst not go home; when I used to come down, my master would Well beat me with the brush; and not only my master, but when we used to go with the journeymen, if we could not do it, they used to hit us three or four times with the brush."—Lords' Minutes, No. 1. p. 5.
They are often stuck fast in a chimney, and, after remaining there many hours, are cut out.
"Have you heard of any accidents that have recently happened to climbing boys in the small flues? Yes; I have often met with accidents myself when I was a boy; there was lately one in Mary-le-bone *), where the boy lost his life in a flue, a boy of the name of Tinsey (his father was of the same trade)'; that boy I think was about eleven or twelve years old. — Was there a coroner's inquest sat on the body of that boy you mentioned *)? Yes, there was; he was an apprentice of a man of the name of
1. to entice: to win over a person, often by false promises.
2. Mary-le-bone [maerïban]: a London parish.
3. a coroner's inquest: inquiry or examination by a coroner. As to coroner, see p. 17, note 6.


SIDNEY SMITH ON CHIMNEY SWEEPERS 105
Gay. — How many accidents do you recollect, which were attended with loss of life to the climbing boys? I have heard talk of many more than I know of; I never knew of more than three since I have been at the trade, but I have heard talk of many more. — Of twenty or thirty? I cannot say; I have been near losing my own life several times." — Commonsr Report, p. 53.
We come now to burning little chimney sweepers. A large party are invited to dinner — a great display is to be made; — and about an hour before dinner there is an alarm that the kitchen chimney is on fire! It is impossible to put off the distinguished personages who are expected. It gets very late for the soup and fish, the cook is franticx) — all eyes are turned upon the sable *) consolation of the master chimney sweeper — and up into the midst of the burning chimney is sent one of the miserable little infants of the brush! There is a positive prohibition of this practice, and an enactment of penalties in one of the Acts of Parliament which respect chimney sweepers. But what matter acts of Parliament, when the pleasures of genteel people are concerned? Or what is a toasted child, compared to the agonies of the mistress of the house with a deranged dinner?
"Did you ever know a boy get burnt up a chimney? Yes. — Is that usual? Yes, I have been burnt myself, and have got the scars on my legs; a year ago I was up a chimney in Liquor Pond Street; I have been up more than forty chimneys where I have been burnt. Did your master or the journeymen ever direct you to go up a chimney that is on fire? Yes, it is a general case. — Do they compel you to go up a chimney that is on
1. frantic: very excited; beside oneself with pain, grief, or anxiety.
2. sable is used in heraldry for black.
105


106
LABOUR CONDITIONS
fire? Oh yes, it was the general practice for two of us to stop at home on Sunday to be ready in case of a chimney being a-f ire. — You say it is general to compel the boys to go up chimneys on fire? Yes, boys get very ill treated if they do not go up." — Lords' Minutes, p. 34.
The bed of these poor little wretches is often the soot they have swept in the day.
"How are the boys generally lodged; where do they sleep at night? Some masters may be better than others, but I know I have slept on the soot that was gathered in the day myself. — Where do boys generally sleep? Never on a bed; I never slept on a bed while I was apprentice. — Do they sleep in cellars? Yes, very often; I have slept in the cellar myself on the sacks I took out. — What had you to cover you? The same. — Had you any pillow? No further than my breeches and jacket under my head. — How were you clothed? When I was apprentice we had a pair of leather breeches and a small flannel jacket. Any shoes or stockings? Oh dear no; no stockings. — Had you any other clothes for Sunday? Sometimes we had an old bit of a jacket, that we might wash out ourselves, and a shirt." — Lords' Minutes, p. 40.
According to the humanity of the master, the soot remains upon the bodies of the children, unwashed off, for any time from a week to a year.
"Are the boys generally washed regularly? No, unless they wash themselves. — Did not your master take care you were


SIDNEY SMITH ON CHIMNEY SWEEPERS
107
washed? No. — Not once in three months No, not once a year. — Did not he find you soap? No; I can take my oath on the Bible that he never found me one piece of soap during the time I was apprentice." — Lords' Minutes, p. 41.
■ The sight of a little chimney sweeper often excites pity: and they have small presents made to them at the houses where they sweep. These benevolent alms are disposed of in the following manner: —
"Do the boys receive little present of money from people often in your trade? Yes, it is in general the custom. — Are they allowed to keep that for their own use> Not the whole of it, — the journeymen take what they think proper. The journeymen are entitled to half by the master's orders; and whatever a boy may get, if two boys and one journeyman are sent to a large house to sweep a number of chimneys, and after they have done, there should be a shilling or eighteenpence given to the boys, the journeyman has his full half, and the two boys in general have the other. — Is it usual or customary for the journeyman to play at chuck farthing or other games with the boys? Frequently. — Do they win the money from the boys? Frequently; the children give their money to the journeyman to screen *) for them. — What do you mean by screening? Such a thing as sifting the soot. The child is tired, and he says, 'Jem, I will give you twopence if you will sift my share of the soot;' there is2) sometimes twenty or thirty
1. to screen, in non-technical language, means to hide partlyorcompletely so as to protect; it is often taken f igurati vely: to protect by taking the blame upon oneself.
2. The singular verb is used because there is a sort of pro visional subject; the construction is still quite common in familiar English.


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LABOUR CONDITIONS
bushels to sift. — Do you think the boys retain one quarter of that given them for their own use? No." — Lords' Minutes, p. 35.
We have been thus particular in stating the case of the chimney sweepers, and in founding it upon the basis of facts, that we may make an answer to those profligate persons who are always ready to fling an air of ridicule upon the labours of humanity, because they are desirous that what they have not virtue to do themselves, should appear to be foolish and romantic when done by others. A still higher degree of depravity than this, is to want1) every sort of compassion for human misery, when it is accompanied by filth,poverty, and ignorance, — to regulate humanity by the income tax, and to deern the bodily wretchedness and the dirty tears of the poor a fit subject for pleasantry and contempt. We should have been loth *) to believe, that such deep-seated and disgusting immorality existed in these days; but the notice of it is forced upon us. Nor must we pass over a set of marvellously weak gentlemen, who discover democracy and revolution in every effort to improve the condition of the lower orders, and to take off a little of the load of misery from those points where it presses the hardest. Such are the men into whose heart Mrs. Fry3) has struck the deepest terror, — who abhor Mr. Bentham and
1. to want: to be without.
2. loth [ioub]: unwilüng.
3. Mrs. Fry, like the more famous John Howard, was one of the philanthropists of the early nineteenth century. She also interested herself in the improvement of prisons. It is now hardly intelligible that they could ever have been looked upon as revolutionaries.


SIDNEY SMITH ON CHIMNEY SWEEPERS
109
his penftentiaryx); Mr. Bennet and his hulks2); Sir James Mackintosh and his bloodless assizes; Mr. Tooke and his sweeping machines, — and every human being who is great and good enough to sacrifice his quiet to his love for his fellow creatures. Certainly we admit that humanity is sometimes the veil of ambition or of faction; but we have no doubt that there are a great many excellent persons to whom it is misery to see misery, and pleasure to lessen it; and who, by callingthe public attention to the worst cases, and by giving birth to judicious legislative enactments for their improvement, have made, and are making, the world somewhat happier than they found it. Upon these principles we join hands with the friends of the chimney sweepers, and most heartily wish for the diminution of their numbers, .and the limitation of their trade.
We are thoroughly convinced that there are many respectable master chimney sweepers; though we suspect their numbers have. been increased by the alarm which their former tyranny excited, and by the severe laws, made for their coercion8): bur even with good masters the trade is miserable, — with bad ones it is not to be endured; and the evidence already quoted shows us how many of that character are to be met with in the occupation of sweeping chimneys.
After all, we must own that it was quite right to throw out -the bill for prohibiting the sweeping of chimneys by boys —
1. Jeremy Bentham (1748—1832) was a great lawyer who had a great influence on his contemporaries by his books on the reform of law. This influence became still strenger after his death. A historian of English law {Professor Dicey) has called the years from 1825 to 1870 the period of Benthamism or Individualism.—penitentiary: prison for reforming rather than punishing persons.
2. For Bennet, see the introduction to this chapter.—ftuZ/cs: dismantled ship, formerly used as a prison.
3. coercion: controlling, especially governing, by military force.


110
LABOUR CONDITIONS
because humanity is a modern invention; and there are many chimneys in old houses which cannot possibly be swept in any other manner. But the construction of chimneys should be attended to in some new building act; and the treatment of boys be watched over with the most severe jealousy of the law. Above, all, those who have chimneys accessible to machinery, should encourage the use of machines1), and not think it beneath their dignity to take a little trouble, in order to do a great deal of good. We should have been very glad to have seconded the views of the Climbing Society, and to have pleaded for the complete abolition of climbing boys, if we could conscientiously have done so. But such a measure, we are convinced from the evidence, could not be carried into execution without great injury to property, and great increased risk of fire. The Lords have investigated the matter with the greatest patience, humanity, and good sense; and they do not venture, in their Report, to recommend to the House the abolition of climbing boys.
CHARLES LAMB
The Praise of Chimney-sweepers
I like to meet a sweep — understand me — not a^grown sweeper — old chimney-sweepers are by no means attractive — but one of those tender novices, blooming through their first nigritude the maternal washings not quite effaced from the cheek — such as come forth with the dawn, or somewhat
1. The price of a machine is fifteen shillings.
2. nigritude: an unusual word for blackness; Lamb purposely uses Latin words in contrast to the simplicity of his subject.


LAMB ON CHIMNEY SWEEPERS
111
earlier with their little professional notes sounding like the peep-peep of a young sparrow; or liker to the matin1) lark should I pronounce them, in their aerial ascents not seldom anticipating the sun-rise?
I have a kindly yearning towards these dim specks — poor blots — innocent blacknesses —.
I révérence these young Africans of our own growth — these almost clergy imps *), who sport their cloth *) without assump* tion; and from their little pulpits (the tops of chimneys), in the nipping air of a December morning, preach a lesson of patience to mankind.
When a child, what a mysterious pleasure it was to witness their operation! to see achitno bigger than one's-self, enter, oneknew not by what process, into what seemed the fauces Averni4) — to pursue him in imagination, as he went sounding on through so many dark stifling caverns, horrid shades! to shudder with the idea that "now, surely, he must be lost for ever!" — to revive at hearing his feeble shout of discovered day-light — and then ( O fulness of delight!) running out of doors, to come just in time to see the sable phenomenon emerge in safety, the brandished weapon of his art victorious like some flag waved over a conquered citadel! I seem to remember having been told, that a bad sweep was once left in a stack with his brush, to indicate which way the wind blew. It was an awful spectacle, certainly; not much unlike the old stage direction in Macbeth, where the "Apparition of a child crowned, with a tree in his hand, rises."
1. matin: morning. See note 2 on p. 110.
2. imp: little devil.
3. to sport: to wear ostentatiously, i. e. in such a way that it attracts attention.
4. fauces Averni: the entrance of Heil; a reminiscence from Vergil.


112
LAB0UR CONDITIONS
Reader, if thou meetest one of these small gentry in thy early rambles, it is good to give him a penny, — it is better to give him two-pence. If it be starving weather, and to the proper troubles of his hard occupation, a pair of kibed heels (no unusual accompaniment) be superadded; the demand on thy humanity will surely rise to a tester1).
THE EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN
It requires an effort as we think of the children in the mill, punished with the punishment of Sisyphus for the pleasures of a life they had never tasted *), and of the children in the mines, keeping their blind vigil before the sun had risen, and keeping, their blind vigil after the sun had set, to remember that this was an age in which childhood and all the promise and mystery of childhood were taking a new place in the affections of the cultivated classes. Rousseau's spell had less power in England than on the Continent, but even in England the book, which as Lord Morley has said, "filled parents with a sense of the dignity and moment3) of their task," had given an eager life to the study of the play and development of children's minds. Charles and Mary Lamb were publishing Poetry jor Children and the Tales from Shakespeare which are still in common use, and the Edgeworths, the Aikins, and the Taylors, who were all writing at this time, were to rule the imaginations
1. tester: a colloquial word for sixpence.
2. The story of Sisyphus is too well-known to bear repetition. It may be added, however, that in life Sisyphus had been a king.
3. moment: weight, importance.


LABOUR CONDITIONS
113
of children for many generations after their own, with a sway as absolute as the sway of Scott or Mayne Reid over the imaginations of boys. The greatest portrait painter of the age *) was describing the charm and grace and laughter of happy and careless childhood. But so deep and distant was the underworld where children were stolen from the sunshine as soon as they could creep beneath an engine or watch a trap-door in a mine, that the sleep of these rulers who admired Sir Joshua's portraits of innocence, and took pride in their sensibility and tenderness, was never broken or haunted by an echo of the
"Voces, vagitus et ingens Infantumque animae flentes in limine primo, Quos dulcis vitae exsortes et ab ubere raptos Abstulit atra dies2."
(d) THE REPORT OF 1842
It is not surprising that the revelations of the Commission took England by storm, and that Ashley could record in his diary of May 14th, 1842, "the feeling in my favour has become
1. Sir Joshua Reynolds. His pictures of Innocence and Childhood have been reproduced innumerable times.
2. Vergil, Aeneis Book VI. 11. 426ff. The words mean: Voices, and a graet crying, and the weeping spirits of children at the very entrance (of Heil, namely, or the Avernus into which Aeneas had descended), whom a black day had taken away, deprived of the sweet life, and torn from their mothers' breasts.
England in the 19th Cent. I.
8


114
LABOUR CONDITIONS
quite enthusiastic; the press on all sides is working most vigorously." For the Report shocked both the humanity and the delicacy of Victorian England by the general picture it gave of the social conditions of the coalfields.
In every district except North Staffordshire, where the younger children were needed in the Potteriesx), the employment of children of seven was common, in many pits children were employed at six, in some at five, and in one case a child of three was found to be employed. Even babies were sometimes taken down into the pits to keep the rats from their father's food. The youngest children were employed as trappers; that is, they were in charge of the doors in the galleries, on the opening and closing of which the safety of the mine depended. For the ventilation of the mine was contrived on a simple principle; there were two shafts, one the downcast, the other the upcast. A fire was lighted at the foot of the upcast to drive the air up the shaft, and air was sucked down through the downcast to fill the vacuüm. This air was conducted by means of a series of doors through all the workings of the mine on its passage to the upcast, and these doors were in the charge of a little boy or girl who sat in a small hole, with a string in his or her hand, in darkness and solitude for twelve hours or longer at a time. "Although this employment," reported the Commission, "scarcely deserves the name of labour, yet as the children engaged in it are commonly excluded from light, and are always without companions, it would, were it not for the passing and re-passing of the coal carriages, amount to solitary confinement of the worst order."
Children were also employed to push the small carriages filled with coals along the passages, and as the passages were
1. For a description of life in the pottery-district, see Arnold Bennett's Clayhanger.


THE REPORT OF 1842
115
often very low and narrow, it was necessary to use very small
children for this purpose As a rule the carriages were
pushed along small iron railways, but sometimes they were drawn by children and women, "harnessed like dogs in a gocart," and moving, like dogs, on all fours. Another chfldren's task was that of pumping water in the under-bottom of pits, a task that kept children standing ankle-deep in water for twelve hours
The hours worked by the children varied from one district to another. They were seldom less than twelve; in Derbyshire, singled out as the worst county by the Commission, where the mines were let to small contractors, known as "butties," they were often sixteen, and the Commissioners could report that in some cases children had been known to remain in the pit for thirty-six hours, while working doublé shifts. In such a life there was little time or energy to spare for education or religion, and the stories told by the Sub-Commissioners to illustrate the neglect and ignorance in which these children grew up made a deep impression on a ruling class which cherished the Christian revelation not least as an aid to civil order
The employment of women offended an instinct that was still more powerful. The picture of men and women working together in the mines, almost naked, under repulsive and degrading conditions, outraged the sense of decency of the
1. Thus Anna Hoile, in the Halifax district, a hurrier, attended a Sundayschool, though she could not read. "I have heard of God and of Jesus Christ, but I can't teil who that was; if I died a good girl I should go to heaven - if I were bad I should have to be burned in brimstone and fire; they told me that at school yesterday, I did not know it before." Henry Jowett, aged eleven, said, "I do not know who God is. Jesüs Christ is heaven; if I die a bad boy I do not know what will become of me; I have heard of the devil, they used to teil me of him at the everyday school."
(Authors' Note).


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LABOUR CONDITIONS
House of Commons even more than the story of human misery had outraged its sense of pity. This was almost the only feature of the arrangements brought to light by the Commission for which no one was ready with an apology.
Such was the indignation of the country that Ashley was able to strike his blow at once. On June 7th, a month after the publication of the report, he introduced a Bill to exclude from the pits all women and girls, all boys under thirteen, * and all parish apprenticesl); and to forbid the employment of any one as an engineman under the age of twenty-one or over the age of fifty. His speech, arranging and presenting the facts set out in the Report with admirable skill, occupied two hours; its effect was overwhelming. "Many men, I hear, shed tears — Beckett Denison confessed to me that he did, and that he left the House lest he should be seen. Sir G. Grey told William Cooper that he "would rather have made that speech than any he had ever heard. Even Joseph Hume was touched *)." But the most striking tribute came from Cobden, who crossed the floor of the House to wring him warmly by the hand. "You know how opposed I have been to your views; but I don't think I have ever been put into such a frame of
1. parish apprentices: people who received poor reliëf were compelled to entrust their children to the parish authorities. These tried to dispose of the children in the least expensive way possible, and often bound them over as apprentices till they were of age. The system did not differ essentially from slavery, except that the employers had no interest to look after the health of their 'apprentices': if the children died there was no difficulty and no expense in getting others.
2. The quotation is from Ashley's private diary. W. Cooper was an Australian divine, over on a visit. Joseph Hume /was one of the leading members of the radical group in the House of Commons. About Richard Cobden see chapter IX. In the introduction to IX something is said about the attitude of the middle class' liberals towards social legislation. See also Macaulay on the next page. '


the report of 1842
117
mind, in the whole course of my life as I have been by your speech." Graham >), declaring that he had never heard a statement more clearly convincing in itself, assured Ashley "that Her Majesty's Government would render him every assistance in carrying on the measure."
j. l. hammond and barbara hammond, Lord Shaftesbury.
London Constable. 1923.
In the House of Lords, which contained many owners of coalnunes there was much opposition to the Bill. As the Lords did not dare to throw out the Bill, they 'amended' it. The age Trant tor boys was fixed at ten, and parish apprentices were not to afrie b,?y<)nd eiêhteen; bu* «ie exclusion of women and gins from the mines was maintained. In July, 1842 the Bill was passed; it was the first of many factory acts which gradually built up a complete system of government regulation of all branches of mdustry. But this result belongs to later times.
MACAULAY ON SOCIAL LEGISLATION
A lawgiver who, from tenderness for labouring men, fixes the hours of their work and the amount of their wages, is certain to make them far more wretched than he found them.
Comic Dramatists of the Restoration (Edinburgh Review, January 1841).
L Graham was the Home Secretary.


IX.
COBDEN AND BRIGHT
While Lord Ashley *) worked to improve the conditions of the working population by legal regulations, a different school of. thought ascribed the misery of the people to a superfluity rather than to a lack of legislative interference. We mean the Manchester Liberals, of whom Richard Cobden and John Bright were the most representative leaders. With these men a new class made itself a force in English politics. Ashley, Earl of Shaftesbury as he was to be on the death of his father, belonged to the landed aristocracy who had now governed England for centuries and who were still, even in spite of the Reform Bill, all-powerful. Cobden and Bright were manufacturers.
The great cause, through the promotion of which these men came to the very front rank among the politicians of their age, was that of free trade. They attacked the Corn Laws, that is to say the import duties by which the price of homegrown corn was artificially kept up, to the great and obvious advantage of the land-owning class, but to the no less obvious misery of the wage-earning proletariat. For them dear bread meant a difficult life. There is no doubt that Cobden and Bright and many of their co-workers in the cause were inspired by as pure a zeal for the welfare of the people as were Lord Ashley and his friends in their activities. Unfortunatety these two groups of reformers did not always see eye to eye, and while the philanthropic landowners imputed to the anti-corn-law agitators as their real motive the desire for even cheaper labour, the manufacturers taunted the Tories who were for ever speaking about the long working hours and insanitary conditions in mines and mills with the misery, the low wages and the bad housing conditions by which the agricultural labourer was afflicted.
1. Lord Ashley was cal led a lord by courtesy only. He could theref ore be a member of the House of Commons. When his father died he became Lord Shaftesbury, and a member of the House of Lords.


COBDEN AS AN AGITATOR
119
To the present-day historian both achievements, Lord Ashley's Factory Laws and Cobden and Bright's overthrow of the Corn Laws (which they effected in 1846 as we shall see in the next chapter) appear important stages in the progress from the almost barbarous state in which the industrial revolution had left social conditions to a more humane society that offered to the mass of the people some chances of human development.
Their ultimate success itself was hardly more important than the methods by which Cobden and Bright achieved it, the methods of orderly agitation, so typical for English political life. but of which there never was a more perfect example than their Anti-Corn-Law League and its activities.
Our quotation is from The life of Richard Cobden (1881) by John Morley, who was himself one of the most eminent Liberals of a later generation, both as a writer and a statesman.
COBDEN AS AN AGITATOR
In the autumn of 1841 there happened what proved to be a signal eventx) in the annals of the League, and in Cobden's personal history. He and Mr. Bright made that solemn compact which gave so strong an impulse to the movement, and was the beginning of an affectionate and noble friendship that lasted without a cloud or a jar until Cobden's death.
Mr. Bright, who was seven years younger than Cobden,
1. Mr. Bright lost his wife on the lOth of September, and Cobden's visit to him was on the 13th. (Author's Note).


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COBDEN AND BRIGHT
had made his acquaintance some time before the question of the Corn Laws had come up. He had gone over in the year 1836 or 1837 to Manchester, to call upon Cobden, "to ask him if he would be kind enough to come to Rochdale, and to speak at an education meeting which was about to be held in the schoolroom of the Baptist chapel in West Street of that town. I found him in his office in Mosley Street. I introduced myself to him. I told him what I wanted. His countenance lit up with pleasure to find that there were others that were working in this question, and he without hesitation agreed to come. He came, and he spoke; and though he was then so young a speaker, yet the qualities of his speech were such as remained with him so long as he was able to speak at all — clearness, logic, a conversational eloquence, a persuasiveness which, when conjoined with the absolute truth which there was in his eye and in his countenance — a persuasiveness which it was almost impossible to resist."
Then came the gradual formation of the League, Cobden's election to Parliament, and the close of his first session. "It was in September, in the year 1841," said Mr. Bright. "The sufferings throughout the country were fearful; and you who live now, but were not of age to observe what was passing in the country then, can have no idea of the state of your country
in that year At that time I was at Leamington, and I was,
on the day when Mr. Cobden called upon me — for he happened to be there at the time on a visit to some relatives — I was in the depths of grief, I might almost say of despair; for the light and sunshine of my house had been extinguished. All that was left on earth of my young wife, except the memory of a sainted life and of a too brief happiness, was lying still and cold in the chamber above us. Mr. Cobden called upon me as his friend, and addressed me, as you might suppose,


COBDEN AS AN AGITATOR
12.1
with words of condolence1). After a time he looked up and said, There are thousands of houses in England at this moment where wives, mothers, and children are dying of hunger. Now,' he said, 'when the first paroxysm of your grief is past, I would advise you to come with me, and we will never rest till the Corn Law is repealed.' I accepted his invitation. I knew that the description he had given of the homes of thousands was not an exaggerated description. I feit in my conscience that there was a work which somebody must do, and therefore I accepted his invitation, and from that time we never ceased to labour hard on behalf of the resolution which we had made."
"For seven years," Mr. Bright says, "the discussion on that one question — whether it was good for a man to have half a loaf or a whole loaf — for seven years the discussion was maintained, I will not say with doubtful result, for the result was never doubtful, and never could be in such a cause; but for five years or more (1841 — 1846) we devoted ourselves without stint; every working hour almost was given up to the discussion and to the movement in connexion with this question."
Cobden seemed to have few of the endowments of an agitator, as that character is ordinarily thought of. He had no striking physical gifts of the histrionic kind2). He had one physical quality which must be ranked first among the secondary
1. This and the preceding passages are from the very beautiful address delivered by Mr. Bright, when he unveiled the statue of his friend at Bradford, July 25,1877. The address is to be found in Mr. Thorold Rogers' volume of Public Addresses of John Bright, pp. 354—366.
2. histrionic: of actors or acting; behaviour that reminds one of the stage.


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COBDEN AND BRIGHT
endowments of great workers. Later in life he said, "If I had not had the faculty of sleeping like a dead fish, in five minutes after the most exciting mental effort, and with the certainty -of having oblivion for six consecutive hours, I should not have Deen alive now." In his early days, he was slight in frame and tmild. He afterwards grew nearer to portliness. He had a large and powerful head, and the indescribable charm of a candid eye. His features were not of a commanding type; but they "were illuminated and made attractive by the brightness of intelligence, of sympathy and of earnestness. About the mouth Tvas a curiously winning mobility and play. His voice was clear, "varied in its tones, sweet, and penetrating; but it had scarcely the compass, or the depth, of the many resources that have usually been found in orators who have drawn great multitudes of men to listen to them. Of nervous fire, indeed, he had abundance, though it was not the fire which flames up in the radiant colours of a strong imagination. It was rather the glow of a thoroughly convinced reason, of intellectual ingenuity, of argumentative keenness. It came from transparent honesty, thoroughly clear ideas, and a very definite purpose. These -were exactly the qualities that Cobden's share in the work ■demanded. Any professor could have supplied a demonstration -of the economie fallacy of monopoly. Fox, the Unitarian minister was better able to stir men's spirits by pictures, which were none the less true for being very florid, of the social miseries that came of monopoly. In Cobden the fervour and the logic were mixed, and his fervour was seen to have its source in the strength of his logical confidence.
It has often been pointed out how the two great spokesmen
1. The Unitarians are a religious society of unorthodox doctrines. They reject the tenet of the divinity of Christ. — The word minister in • colloquial English means a clergyman of a Nonconformist congregation.


COBDEN AS AN AGITATOR
123
of the League were the complements of one another; how their gifts differed, so that one exactly covered the ground which the other was predisposed to leave comparatively untouched. The differences between them, it is true, were not so many as the points of resemblance. If in Mr. Bright there was a deeper austerityx), in both there was the same homeliness of allusion, and the same graphic plainness. Both avoided the stilted abstractions of rhetoric2), and neither was ever afraid of the vulgarity of details. In Cobden as in Bright, we feel that there was nothing personal or small, and that what they cared for so vehemently were great causes. There was a resolute standing aloof from the small things of party, which could be almost arrogant, if the whole texture of what they had to say were less thouroughly penetrated with political morality and with humanity. Then there came the points of difference. Mr. Bright had all the resources of passion alive within his breast. He was carried along by vehement political anger, and deeper than that, there glowed a wrath as stern as that of an ancient prophet. To cling to a mischievous error seemed to him to savour of moral depravity3) and corruption of heart. What he saw was the selfishness of the aristocracy and the landlords, and he was too deeply moved by hatred of this, to care to deal very patiently with the bad reasoning which their own self-interest inclined his adversaries to mistake for good. His invective was not the expression of mere irritation, but a profound and menacing passion. Hence he dominated his audiences from a height, while his companion rather drew
1. austerity: sternness, severe simplicity of life.
2. the stilted abstractions of rhetoric: the pompous or bombastic statements of a speaker who thinks more of making an effect on his listeners than of spreading the truth.
3. depravity: wickedness.


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COBDEN AND BRIGHT
them along after him as friends and equals. Cobden was by no means incapable of passion, of violent feeling, or of vehement expression. His fighting qualities were in their own way as formidable as Mr. Bright's; and he had a way of dropping his jaw and throwing back his head, when he took off the gloves for an encounter in good earnest, which was not less alarming to his opponents than the more sombre style of his colleague. Still, it was not passion to which we must look for the secret of his oratorical success. I have asked many scores of those who knew him, Conservatives as well as Liberals, what this secret was, and in no single case did my interlocutor fail to begin, and in nearly every case he ended as he had begun, with the word persuasiveness. Cobden made his way to men's hearts by the union which they saw in him of simplicity, earnestness, and conviction, with a singular facility of exposition. This facility consisted in a remarkable power of apt and homely illustration, and a curióus ingenuity in framing the argument that happened to be wanted. Besides his skill in thus hitting on the right argument, Cobden had the oratorical art of presenting it in the way that made its admission to the understanding of a listener easy and undenied. He always seemed to have made exactly the right degree of allowance for the difficulty with which men follow a speech, as compared with the ease of following the same argument on a printed page which they may con x) and ponder until their apprehension is complete. Then men were attracted by his mental alacrity, by the instant readiness with which he turned round to grapple with a new objection. Prompt and confident, he was never at a loss, and he never hesitated. This is what Mr. Disraeli meant when he spoke of Cobden's "sauciness2)." It had an excellent
1. to con: to examine or study by looking at it again and again.
2. sauciness: a more familiar word for impudence.


COBDEN AS AN AGITATOR
125
effect, because everybody knew that it sprang, not from levity or presumption, but from a free mastery of his subject.
If in one sense the Corn Laws did not seem a promising theme for a popular agitation, they .were excellently fitted to bring out Cobden's peculiar strength, for they dealt with firm matter and demonstrable inferences *), and this was the region where Cobden's powers naturally exercised themselves. In such an appeal to sentiment and popular passion as the contemporary agitation of O'Connell for Repeal, he could have played no eading part. Where knowledge and logic were the proper nstruments, Cobden was a master.
Enormous masses of material for the case poured every week into the offices of the League. All the day long Cobden was talking with men who had something to teil him. Correspondents from every quarter of the land plied him with information2). Yet he was never overwhelmed by the volume of the stream. He was incessantly on the alert for a useful fact, a telling illustration, a new fallacy to exposé. So dexterously did he move through the ever-growing piles of matter, that it seemed to his companions as if nothing apposite8) ever escaped him, and nothing irrelevant ever detained him.
A political or religious agitator must not be afraid of incessant repetition. Repetition is his most effective instrument. The fastidiousness 4) which is proper to literature, and which makes a man dread to say the same thing twice, is in the field of propagandism mere impotency. This is one reason why even the greatest agitators in causes which have shaken the
1. infermee: a term in logic for the conclusion based upon given facts.
2. to ply is used with reference to various actions having one thing in common: that they take place regularly. Thus a boat may ply between two harbours, and a nurse may ply a patiënt with f ood.
3. apposite: appropriate, suitable for the purpose.
4. fastidious: hard to please.


126
cobden and bright
world, are often among the least interesting men in history. Cobden had moral and social gifts which invest him with a peculiar attraction, and will long make his memory interesting as that of a versatile nature; but he was never afraid of the agitator's art of repeating his formula, his principles, his illustrations, his phrases, with untiring reiteration.
john Morley, The Life of Richard Cobden.
London 1881.


X.
DISRAELI
The condition of the people was a question of compelling interest in "the hungry forties". A man who was to play a great part in English politics, Benjamin Disraeli, was deeply interested by it and for some time it looked as if he might take his share in the task, for which his religious preoccupations unfitted Ashley, of inspiring the Tory party with a realisation of its responsibilities for the well-being of the people.
Disraeli, a man of Jewish birth, was a strange recruit to the Tory party. His brilliancy was distrusted. His ideals of a paternal Toryism, no mere party of resistance, but a party that would solve the social problems of the age in a spirit of révérence for the established order, were derided. A group of enthusiastic young aristocrats, whom Disraeli called "Young England", looked up to him as their leader. Meanwhile, although he was a member of Parliament since 1838, he developed these ideas mainly in his novels, particularly in Sybil, or the two nations (1846), from which our first two quotations (a) are taken. They show that Disraeli, with an eye dimmed by no prejudices recognised the evils from which rural life suffered as well as those of the industrial population. They show also, as does the very title of the book (by the two nations are meant the rich and the poor of England), how well he realised the senousness of the problem and how daringly he could put it.
Yet when the final round was fought in the corn-law struggle Disraeli was to be found in the front rank of the defenders of privilege. As Morley has put it, severely but not unjustly: "To accidents of his position in society and necessities of personal ambition, it must, I suppose, be attributed that one who conceived so truly the seriousness of the problem, should have brought nothing better to its solution than the childish bathos of Young England."
The fact is that Disraeli was intensely ambitious and that he was something of a political adventurer, not without brilliant


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DISRAELI
and original ideas, not even without convictions, but too ready to sacrifice them to the exigencies of his parliamentary career.
The crisis over the corn-laws was reached in 1846. The AntiCorn-Law League had made a great impression in the country and on its leading statesmen as well. The Whigs (led by Lord John Russell) were converted. Sir Robert Peel, the Prime Minister and leader of the Tory party, feit his faith in protection shaken. When towards the end of 1845 a famine threatened zin Ireland, where the potato erop had failed, Peel feit that it would be monstrous to keep out food with tariffs, and announced the repeal of the Corn Laws. His action angered a large section of his own party very greatly. The fox-hunting and port-drinking squires expected their leader to fight for protection to the bitter end, but however much they fumed at his betrayal of his trust, they were helpless. They had no leader of sufficiënt ability to stand up to Peel and his friends. They were "the stupid party" par excellence.
And here was Disraeli's opportunity. Peel had never done justice to the merits and the claims of this brilliant member of his party. Disraeli saw that the moment had come when he could at one blow avenge the slights which he had suffered and raise himself to a prominent parliamentary position. So, when the ministerial proposals were discussed in the House of Commons, he, to the delight of the protectionists, came out with a violent attack on them and particularly on the inconsistency of the Minister who, leader of the Tory party though he was, invited the House to abandon one of the chief points of the Tory creed.
Our third and fourth quotations (b) are from Disraeli's speeches during this session. They give an idea of his style, of his mordant wit. To the rousing cheers of hundreds of Peel's nominal followers Disraeli lashed him with sarcasms and it was he, more than anyone else, who, although he could not prevent the abolition of the Corn Laws, made it impossible for Peel to remain in office and even to remain in the Tóry party. Before the year was out Peel and a number of friends had formed an independent group. With the "Peelites" went the ablest members of the party, and Disraeli was left behind with the sure prospect of leading it in due time.


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(a) SYBIL OR THE TWO NATIONS
We quote a characteristic utterance of Lord Marney, the bad landlord of the novel. "His character as a landlord", (writes Mr. Monypenny in his Life of Disraeli)
"was revealed by the condition of the rural town of Marney: a collection of ruined hovels arranged in narrow and crowded lanes, in which the agricultural labourers lived amid surroundings of indescribable squalor till pestilence or famine released them from their misery. Their sufferings caused no qualms of conscience*) in Lord Marney."
"I wish the people were as well off in every part of the country as they are on my estate. They get their eight shillings a-week, always at least seven, and every hand is at this moment in employ, except a parcel of scoundrels who prefer wood-stealing and poaching if you gave them doublé the wages. The rate of wages is nothing; certainty is the thing; and every man at Marney may be sure of his seven shillings a week for at least nine months in the year; and for the other three, they can go to the House2), and a very proper place for them; it is heated
with hot air, and has every comfort The poor are well
off indeed. Their incomes are certain; that is a great point, and they have no cares. No anxieties; they always have a resource, they always have the House. People without cares do not require so much food as those whose life entails anxieties."
This is a glance at rural conditions. But Disraeli also shows us a gang issuing from a mine:
lï qualms [kwamz] of conscience: misgiving, scruple. 2. the House is the Workhouse (armenhuis), which was looked upon as worse than prison by the poor.
England in the 19**1 Cent. I.
9


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"Bands of stalwart men—broad-chested and muscular, wet with toil, and black as the children of the tropics; troops of youth1), alas! of both sexes, though neither their raiment nor their language indicates the difference; all are clad in male attire; and oaths that men might shudderat, issue from lips borne to breathe words of sweetness. Yet these are to be, some are, the mothers of England! But can we wonder at the hideous coarseness of their language, when we remember the savage rudeness of their lives? Naked to the waist, an iron chain fastened to a belt of leather runs between their legs clad in canvas trousers, while on hands and feet an English girl, for twelve, sometimes for sixteen hours a day, hauls and hurries tubs of coals up subterranean roads, dark, precipitous and plashy; circumstances that seem to have escaped the notice of the Society for the abolition of Negro Slavery. Those worthy gentlemen too appear to have been singularly unconscióus of the sufferings of the little trappers, which was remarkable, as many of them were in their own employ.
See, too, these emerge from the bowels of the earth! Infants of four and five years of age, many of them girls, pretty and still soft and timid; entrusted with the fulfilment of responsible duties, and the nature of which entails on them the necessity of being the earliest to enter the mines and the latest to leave it. Their labour indeed is not severe, for that would be impossible, but it is passed in darkness and in solitude. They endure that punishment which philosophical philanthropy has invented for the direst criminals and which those criminals deern more terrible than the death for which it is substituted *)."
1. youth is taken collectively here in a way that is hardly possible in present-day English. It also refers to young men only in present English.
2. An allusion to cellulary imprisonment.


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(b) SPEECHES
The following are two passages from Disraeli's speeches in the Corn-law debates of 1846. In the first he pours out his scorn on the Prime Minister himself for his desertion of the protectionist principle; in the second he lashes1) those members of the Tory-party who allowed themselves to be led astray by Peel.
"Sir 2), there is a difficulty in finding a parallel to the position of the right hon. Gentleman in any part of history. The only parallel which I can find is an accident in the late war in the Levant, which was terminated by the policy of the noble Lord opposite. I remember when that great struggle was taking place, when the existence of the Turkish Empire was at stake, the late Sultan, a man of great energy and fertile in resources,' was determined to fit out an immense fleet to maintain his empire. Accordingly a vast armament was collected. It consisted of many of thefinest ships that were ever built. The crews were picked men, the officers were the ablest that could be found, and both officers and men were rewarded before they fought. There never was an armament which left the Dardanelles similarly appointed since the day of Solyman the Great3). The Sultan personally witnessed the departure of the fleet; all the muftis4) prayed for the success of the expedition, as all the muftis here prayed for the success of the last general election. Away went the fleet; but what was the Sultan's cónsternation when the lord high
1. te lash: to strike violently at, to break out into strong language against. .ft/y j;
2. Members of Parliament are not allowed to address their fellowmembers but must address the speech to the Speaker.
3. Solyman the Great was Sultan of Turkey.
4. mufti: Mohammedan priest.


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admiral steered at once into the enemy's port! Now, sir, the lord high admiral, on that occasion, was very much misrepresented. He, too, was called a traitor; and he too vindicated himself. "True it is," said he, "I did place myself at the head of this valiant armada — true it is that my sovereign embraced me — true it is that all the muftis in the empire offered up prayers for my success; but I have an objection to war; I see no use in prolonging the struggle, and the only reason I had for accepting the command was that I might terminate the contest by betraying my master." And, sir, these reasons, offered by a man of great plausibility, of vast adroitness, have had their effect, for — you may be surprised at it — but I assure you it is a fact, which by the way the gallant officer oppositex) (Commodore Napier) can testify, that he is at this moment the First Lord of the Admiralty at Constantinople, under the rew reign.
"Yet, even then the right hon. gentleman2) had no cause to complain of his party. It is very true that, on a subsequent occasion, 240 gentlemen recorded their sense of his conduct *). But then he might have remembered the considerable section of converts that he obtained, even in the last hour. (Loud laughter). Why, what a compliment to a Minister — not only
1. Commodore Napier. Sir Charles Napier, 1786—1860, a naval officer, who in 1840 had commanded a small squadron to watch the course of events in Syria, that is to say, the late war in the East to which Disraeli alluded in his speech. In 1841 Napier had been elected a member of Parliament.—As to gallant, see p. 148, note 1.—A member opposite is a member sitting on the other side of the House and belonging to the opposite party,the assumption being that there are only two parties.
2. Sir R. Peel. All members of the Privy Council are "Right Honourable."
3. That is to say: voted against him. The 240, therefore, were the faithful Tories whose resentment Disraeli voiced.


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to vote for him, but to vote for him against your opinions (much cheering) and in favour of opinions which he had always drilled you to distrust. (Loud cheers). That was a scène, I believe, unprecedented in the House of Commons. Indeed, I recollect nothing equal to it, unless it be the conversion of the Saxons by Charlemagne, which is the only historical incident that bears any parallel to that illustrious occasion. (Great cheers and laughter). Ranged on the banks of the Rhine, the Saxons determined to resist any further movement on the part of the great Caesar; but when the Emperor appeared, instead of conquering he converted them. How were they converted? In battalions — the old chronicler informs us they were converted in battalions and baptised in platoons. (Roars of laughter). It was utterly impossible to bring these individuals from a state of reprobation to a state of grace with a celerity sufficiently quick. When I saw the hundred and twelve fall into rank and file, I was irresistibly reminded of that memorable incident on the banks of the Rhine. (Loud cheers).
W. F. Monypenny and G. E. Buckle, Life of Disraeli. 6 vol. London. 1910—20.


XI.
SHAFTESBURY
The following fragment sketches the religious physiognomy of a man whose activities in the cause of social reform we have already noted, Lord Shaftesbury (Ashley). It has an additional interest in'that it presents the spiritual background against which "the most important and active champion of the Evangelical movement" appears. The Evangelical movement can be said to be the reflection within the Established Church of the Wesleyan movement, which did so much, since the last decades of the IS^ century, to revive the religious feelings of the masses outside it. Many of the most prominent statesmen of this time were influenced by the Evangelical spirit, and it contributed powerfully to impress upon the Victorian age its distinguishing feature of moral strictness, which easily degenerated into censoriousness1) and sanctimoniousness ), but which was not unaccompanied by an earnest striving after justice and humanity and decidedly raised the tone of public life.
In the last paragraph of our quotation the authors draw an effective contrast between Lord Shaftesbury and his stepfatherin-law, Lord Palmerston, a statesman who achieved during the last ten or twenty years of his long life an immense popularity by appealing (to remain within the phraseology of our quotation) to the unregenerated feelings of his countrymen. He could venture to do so, however, only in foreign politics (as we shall see in the succeeding fragments). In domestic politics he had outwardly to conform to the prevailing temper even though he was really out of sympathy with it.
}. censoriousness: tendency to be over-critical of other people's actions, especially in the moral sphere.
2. sanctimoniousness: making a show and taking a pride in one's own piety and goodness.


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RELIGION AND PHILANTHROPY
Shaftesbury said of Pitt, after reading Wilberforce's account of his life, that he was like an unbaptised person. It was a good phrase, not only for the man but for his age; for the age of cold reason against which Wesley, Whitefield and Wilberforce had led the revolt of the emotions. The Evangelical Movement was like a great public baptism, and if we compare the atmosphere of the letters of Peel, or Graham, or Gladstone, or Salisbury with the world in which Fox, or Shelburne, or Pitt debated with their friends the issues or topics of the hour, we can mark the change it brought into the manners and tone of politics.
The religious reaction from the eighteenth century produced a creed of conduct and belief that marked the extreme contrast to the temper and outlook of that century. Composure, common sense, toleration, a view of religion that did not make it any difficulty to the enjoyment of life, these were the characteristics of eighteenth century culture. It might be objected that this was a religion of manners; that it was rather an intellectual compromise than a spiritual force; that it did not touch the heart or imagination of man with any divine impulse; that it supplied neither discipline nor stimulus in his moral life. The leaders of the Evangelical reaction would have said this in blame of that century, but they said more than this. They said that the really important in religion were just those things that the eighteenth century mistrusted or despised. So they substituted for composure, enthusiasm x); for toleration, intoler-
1. enthusiasm: the word is not used here in its famiiiar modern sense, but in the meaning attached to it in the eighteenth century, when it was used for 'confidence of divine favour, trust in communion with God.' The enemies of 'enthusiasm' naturally considered it to be mis-directed religious emotion.


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ance; and for the view that religion was not necessarily a melancholy exercise, a special satisfaction in an atmosphere of gloom that was sometimes sanctimonious rather than reverent. Finally they concentrated their attention on those aspects of religion that are associated with its taboos and inhibitionsl), holding them of equal consequence with the spirit in which man kneels before the mystery of the government of the world. In all this the Evangelical revival followed the general law of religious revolts, limiting issues in order to make them more intense, and seizing on particular details of behaviour or ceremonial, as giving the clue not merely to a man's character but to his capacity for religious truth.
The most dramatic achievement of this revival was the Victorian Sunday. When the old Chartist's daughter in Meredith's poem *) wanted to urge decorum and respectability^ on her troublesome parent, she told him to wear a Sunday face. The phrase aptly describes the Evangelical movement. Sunday is connected with two things, neither of which is melancholy to a normal society: one is religion, the other rest or holiday. The Greeks were not made miserable by their religion, so long as their politics were stable, vigorous and self-possessed. We cannot associate unhappiness with the beauty and the colour of the great cathedrals, nor with the grace and dignity of the
1. taboo is usually applied to the prohibitions on religious grounds that are found among savages.
2. The reference is to Meredith's poem The Old Chartist, but it is not the daughter who uses the expression:
And that's what my fine daughter said:—she meant: Pray, hold your tongue, and wear a Sunday face. The old man, who has returned from transportation, clearly uses it sarcastically.


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collectsx) and prayers that are recited in every village church every Sunday evening. The air of gloom that envelops the minds described in Mark Rutherford's novels, or Mr. Gosse's vivid book, "Father and Son", is the mark of a society that lives an incomplete life, or a perverse and twisted life. The form of the Evangelical revival was indeed determined in part by social conditions; it was the reflexion of the despair that came into men's lives with the lengthening shadows of the industrial revolution.
Shaftesbury had been immersed in this spirit as a child. His devotion to his old nurse; his memories of the home where his parents neither gave nor elicited the tenderness and affection that belong to the age of childhood; a boyhood and youth in which he had fostered a religious life of his own in a hostile and contemptuous atmosphere: all this was the furnace in which his evangelical faith took its rigid and lasting form. We can understand his position if we imagine a patrician family in the closing days of the Roman Empire, living in careless ease, never thinking about its religion, with a son and heir secretly converted to Christianity, thinking of nothing else. In Shaftesbury's home the eighteenth century and the Evangelical revival dwelt under one roof; the prodigal parents represented to this austere and unbending son the world that he sought to regenerate.
When he entered politics Shaftesbury became, if not the
1. The collects are short prayers read at appropriate days or in the morning and evening service (e.g. prayers for the King, or the Royal Family, etc). All these prayers are carefully prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer. This collectlon is compulsory for all services of the English Church; it was arranged in the time of the Reformation when English took the place of Latin in the Church, and revised several timés. The last revision took place in the time of Archbishop Laud (in the seventeenth century).


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nominal leader of the Evangelical movement, by far its most important and active Champion. He was sentinel for all that it held sacred in habit or doctrine in public life. From time to time reformers tried to let a little light and colour into the prison that Sunday had become for the 'English people; they never caught Shaftesbury napping. In 1856 he beat them over the question of opening the British Museum and the Crystal Palace on Sundays. The same year Sir Benjamin Hones, first Commissioner of Works, introduced military bands into the Parks on Sundays. Shaftesbury tried to rouse Palmerstonx) against this, but at first without success; finally, with the help of a letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury, he persuaded Palmerston to cancel his permission. Shaftesbury barricaded his windows for two Sundays, as he had heard rumours that London was angry and meant to show what it thought of his exploit. But the day passed without incident, and Shaftesbury wrote exultantly2) to his son that London did not really want the bands. As Chairman of the Lord's Day Observance Society, and the Working Men's Lord's Day Rest Association, he worked incessantly to keep the Sunday face in England. One of the meetings 'of the second of these bodies was broken up by violent disorder, but as a rule there seems to have been little in the way of hostile demonstration. This was partly due to Shaftesbury's efforts to shorten the working day; he was one of the patrons of the Early Closing Association.
His religious views were simple, rigid, final and exclusive. He believed in the literal truth and literal application of every word of the Bible. He said in his diary that he did not resort
1. Lord Palmerston (see introduction to this fragment) was then Home Secretary.
2. exultantly: rejoicing at his success.


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to "Sortes Biblicae *)/' but on more than one critical occasion he opened the Bible at random, and took the first sentence that caught his eye as a Divine message. He was too humane to like the idea of eternal punishment, but as he found it in the Bible he accepted it. He believed that the second coming of Christ was imminent, and his envelopes were stamped with an inscription in Greek, "So come, Lord Jesus." It was easy for Christians who were not less sincere and devout than Shaftesbury to fall out of step with such a mind, and his controversies were endless. His life was one long conflict with those who found more or found less than he found in the Bible: Socinians, Tractarians, Neologians, Ritualists.
In 1838 he wrote to Melbourne in consternation, because a learned Unitarian had been allowed to dedicate to the young Queen a book on the Harmony of the Gospels. In 1842 he was absorbed in the struggle over the Chair of Poetry at Oxford. A candidate had been proposed who was a Tractarian; on this ground the Evangelicals decided to organise opposition to his election. A rival candidate was produced, and Cardwell drew up a circular setting out his claims. But Shaftesbury was horrified to find that the new candidate was recommended on the ground of his "poetical attainments and critical acumen2)." He objected that this put the election on a totally wrong basis. What had these things to do with the Chair of Poetry? "I would vote for Sternhold and Hopkins, Nicholas Brady or Nahum Tate *), against a whole host of the mightiest geniuses
1. sortes biblicae: an allusion to the sortes Vergilianae. In the Middle Ages Vergil was looked upon as a prophet so that Dante chose him as his guide in his poem on the visit to Heil and Purgatory. Vergil's poetry was used to find out the future in the same way as is here said of the Bible.
2. acumen: sharpness of thinking, penetration.
3. These are translators of the Psalms into English verse.


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in the art of verse, were they candidates upon the same principles for the office to which Mr. Williams aspires." Gladstone feit that this furious controversy was likely to do the Church harm, and he tried to arrange a compromise, suggesting that both candidates should withdraw in favour of a third. But passions were too hot; the anti-Tractarians were confident of victory, and the battle was fought out, with the result that Shaftesbury's man won by a handsome majority. Shaftesbury's polemical efforts excited great admiration. "What a noble dash you have made at the Puseyites" wrote a lady, famous herself, as a Protestant writer, for what she called the anger that is not sinful.
In 1855 a piece of good fortune put Shaftesbury in a position in which he could take more effective steps against the dreaded Puseyites. When Palmerston became Prime Minister, Shaftesbury wrote to his son: "I much fear that Palmerston's ecclesiastical appointments will be detestable. He does not know, in theology, Moses from Sidney Smith 1). The vicar of Romsey, where he goes to church, is the only clergyman he ever spoke to; and as for the wants, the feelings, the views, the hopes and fears, of the country, and particularly the religious part of it, they are as strange to him as the interior of Japan. Why, it was only a short time ago that he heard, for the first time, of the grand heresy of Puseyites and Tractarians2)!" But the sky cleared suddenly in a surprising and delightful manner. The friendship between Palmerston and Shaftesbury, his wife's son-in-law, is one of the strangest incidents of the Victorian
1. The Liberal clergyman mentioned in chapters V. and VIII.
2. The Tractarians are a party of ecclesiastical reformers in the early nineteenth century (1833—1840) who advocated the 'sacramentai' side of the doctrines and life of the Church (Wakeman, History of the Church of England p. 458).They published the Tracts for the Times. Some of them went over to the Church of Rome; the most famous of these was Newman,


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age. The cynical, free-living survivor of the unbaptised eighteenth century, and the earnest, solemn, strait-laced Evangelical developed a warm attachment, and respect for each other. Palmerston, conscious of his deplorable ignorance of theological controversy, put himself into the hands of the only one among his friends who was an expert on that subject. Palmerston had few guiding prejudices or principles. He did not care about the politics of the bishops, so long as they were reasonably polite, and he did not think, like Fox, that the only use to which you could put the Protestant Church in Ireland was the encouragement of scholarship. He had been sent down from Cambridge1), and hevwas anxious that it should not appear that this incident had soured his appreciation ■of the claims of Cambridge men. "I am a very lucky man," he said, "luckier than most Ministers. I have no sons, grandsons, or nephews to stuff into the Church; and, so far as all that is concerned, I can do what I think right." He had a Tobust Protestant sentiment, and he liked the bishops to keep •on good terms with the Nonconformists. There was nothing ■else in his genial and leisurely mind on this subject, and these restrictions left Shaftesbury with all the freedom he could ■desire.
j. l. hammond and barbara hammond, Lord Shaftesbury.
London, Constable. 1923.
afterwards a Cardinal. One of the Tractarians was Dr. Pusey, Professor of Hebrew in the University of Oxford. The authority of his great learning and his lofty character gave much support to the cause, and for a long time the adherents were called (or nicknamed) Puseyites. The more common name is now Ritualists (because they have re-introduced most of the ritual of the Roman Catholic Church). 1. A student is sent down (i.e. sent away for good) for misbehaviour.


XII.
PALMERSTON AND GLADSTONE
Lord Palmerston, we said, was really out of sympathy with the Victorian spirit of strict morality and belief in principles. His popularity as a foreign minister proves that the English people, so strait-laced at home, were glad of an escape from the high moral tone in the field of international politics. For ii was as an apostle of national pride, as a clever and successful opportunist, not averse from forcible methods, as an unblushing advocate of the theory that national interests come before abstract justice, that Palmerston rose to be a great man in the eyes of his compatriots.
Our first quotation (a) is a sketch of his personality by Mr. R. B. Mowat, taken from the second volume of the Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy. The second quotation (b), taken from a chapter in the same volume written by Professor F. J. C. Hearnshaw, gives some idea how trying this bluff and jovial man could be to those who had to work with him.
Popular as he was with the great public, Palmerston got on very badly with the court. It was not only his manners or his methods. There were deep differences of opinion. In the revolutionary and nationalist movements which convulsed the continent from 1848 onwards Palmerston on the whole liked to show his sympathy with the popular side. The sympathies of the Queen and her Consort on the other hand were with the cause of order and legitimism.
The third quotation (c), taken from Justin Mc Carthy's History óf our own Times, is intended to show Palmerston in action. It describes his speech in the Don Pacifico debate in the House of Commons. (Palmerston was an Irish peer, that is to say he was no hereditary member of the House of Lords, but was eligible for, and as a matter of fact a member of, the House of Commons).
The occasion was a famous one in the career of Palmerston. On April' 4, 1847, an Athenian mob attacked and plundered the


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house of a Portuguese Jew, bom in Gibraltar, and a British subject, Don Pacifico. Don Pacifico made a claim against the Greek government for compensation, and demanded no less than £ 32.000. Lord Palmerston vehemently supported this claim, and when the Greek government, "very poor and very dilatory", hesitated, he ordered the British fleet to the Piraeus. This action was the more questionable as France and Russia were friendly to Greece and nothing less than a European war was risked for the sake of the doubtful Englishman's ridiculously inflated claim. When the question was at last settled by arbitration Don Pacifico was adjudged about one thirtieth of the sum he had originally demanded. "He had, it seems, charged in his bill one hundred and fifty pounds sterling for a bedstead, thirty pounds for the sheets of the bed, twenty-five pounds for two coveriets, and ten pounds for a pillow-case. Cleopatra might have been contented with bed-furniture so luxurious as Don Pacifico represented himself to have in his common use. The jewellery of his wife and daughters he estimated at two thousand pounds. He gave no vouchers for any of these claims, saying that all his papers had been destroyed by the mob. It seemed too that he had always lived in a humble sort of way, and was never supposed by his neighbours to possess such splendour of ornament and household goods." (Justin McCarthy, A History of our own Times).
It was in June 1850, after the question had occupied the attention, and occasionally shaken the nerves, of the world over a period of three years, that the House of Commons had "a fulldress debate" upon it, in which Palmerston secured a great victory and established his reputation as a party-leader.
The fourth fragment, finally, (d) is the peroration of Gladstone's speech later in the same debate. It is evidence of the hostility with which some of the best and noblest minds in English politics regarded the unmoral chauvinism of Palmerston's foreign policy. Gladstone, who years afterwards (see vol. II) was to carry the religious fervour of the age victoriously into the domain of foreign politics which first Palmerston, then Disraeli had barred to it, is here seen preluding upon his later triumphs in an utterance which loses nothing in beauty and nobility from the fact that it could not turn the tide against the Foreign Secretary.


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PALMERSTON (a).
Palmerston was a well-educated man, conversant not only with the Latin and Greek tongues, but with French and Italian, and a hard worker, who thoroughly mastered all the current business of the Foreign Office. He was in the habit of writing, in his own neat hand, many of the despatches and letters which went out from the Foreign Office. The Instructions which he sent to Ambassadors and others were always clear and practical; „but his policy was not always consistent. The truth is that, with all his great knowledge of Foreign Affairs, he was without the perfect clear-headedness of which the thorough study of political problems is a necessary condition. He saw with absolute precision what he wanted at the moment and how to ■get it; but he did not take very long views: nor did he always stop to correlate his current views with those he had previously -put forward.
Moreover, his masterful will, combined with the "jauntiness" that made him so popular a figure in the street, led him to -pay little attention to other men's — and, indeed, to other nations' — feelings. It is well known how he irritated Queen 'Victoria by not troubling to send her despatches in time for her to read them before they had to be sent off; and the venerable Talleyrand, the doyen of European diplomatists, during his London Mission of 1830—4, complained that Palmerston rsometimes kept him waiting for two or three hours in the ante-rooms of the Foreign Office.
Palmerston's private correspondence is full of cricketing metaphors. He is always "making a capital hit," or going to do something "off his own bat," or seeing that someone "gets a
1. jauntiness: airy self-satisfaction.


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good innings" x); and there is, in some of it, in fact, a suggestion of irresponsibility. But in his official despatches he was careful of his words; and he was beyond all doubt in earnest when upholding what he conceived to be the honour and dignity of his country. He was, at the same time, quite straightforward; foreign Ambassadors, if in doubt about the intentions of the British Government, formed the habit of asking Palmerston point blank what he wanted, aware that if he told them anything definite at all, it would be true.
As the years went on his unrivalled knowledge of Foreign Affairs, and his personal popularity, made his influence at the Foreign Office absolute; and even the opinions of his colleagues in the Cabinet failed, speaking generally, to make any impression on him, br affect his course of action.
(b).
Complaints against Palmerston related first to what we have called his public manners, secondly to his methods. The first need not detain us long. He was unquestionably irritating. He kept important and pompous personages waiting in his ante-room; he left letters, and those not always trivial ones, unanswered for months; finally, when he wrote, he frequently employed expressions which by their undiplomatic pungency roused their recipients to an ecstacy of fury. Lord Ponsonby *), for instance, told Lord John Russell that "he had received from Palmerston letters which are not to be submitted to by any man," and it would be easy to cull from his despatches to Vienna, Paris, Athens, Naples, Lisbon and Madrid passages
1. a good innings: play of one batsman during his turn.
2. Lord Ponsonby, 1770—1855, British Ambassador at Vienna 1846— 1850.
England in the 19th Cent. I.
10


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containing unpleasant truths so unpleasantly put as to be nicely1) calculated to excite the extremest exasperation in the chanceries to which they were addressed.
More serious, however, than any such defects of manner were the arbitrary and unconstitutional methods which Palmerston adopted in his conduct of foreign affairs. Within his own department he was almost as autocratie as a Tsar in Russia. The Queen and the Prince Consort were constantly complaining of advice ignored, instructions disregarded, memoranda neglected, wishes flouted*), and still more of business transacted without their knowledge, of despatches sent out as to which they were never informed, of letters forwarded in spite of the severe disapproval of the Sovereign or the Prince, and with passages which they had erased deliberately reinserted. Too much will not be made at the present day of these royal lamentations and indignations: it will be generally agreed that the young Queen, her conscientious Consort (who drafted her letters for her), and the estimable Stockmar whose counsel was constantly sought by both, were exceeding the due limit of interference in the proceedings of Cabinet government. Palmerston was justified in refusing to have his policy determined by them; but he might with great advantage have observed with more care the forms of courtesy in his dealings with his Sovereign and her intimate advisers. In vain were rules of procedure drawn up by the mediatorial •) Russell; Palmerston did not observe them. But what was perhaps most galling of all was the way in which he received the memoranda of the Court, expressed the most humble gratitude for them and the
1. nice is here used in its older meaning of 'precise,' as still often in such an expression as a nice distinction.
2. to flout: to mock, to insult, to express comtempt for.
3. mediatorial: who mediates, i. e. tries to reconcile.


PALMERSTON
147
most cordial agreement with the principles advanced in them, and then acted in diametrical opposition to everything which they advocated. Far more serious, however, than Palmerston's mdifference to the influence of the Court, was his impatience of restraint on the part of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet He conducted the affairs of his Department with an extreme of mdependence and insubordination which necessitated, and more than justified, his dismissal in 1851 Few, indeed except Lord John Russell, would have tolerated his intractïbility*) so long. It was all the more indefensible because no man was more stern and inflexible than Palmerston himself m exacting complete obedience from his own subordinates. His constant recommendation of Constitutional government to foreign potentates failed to make him at home either submissive to his superiors, or regardful of his inferiors. He had the instincts of an autocrat.
The Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy.
Volume II. 1923.
(c).
Lord Palmerston's speech was indeed a masterpiece of parliamentary argument and address. It was in part a complete exposition and defence of the whole course of the foreign policy
J; T°wf<* the end of that year Palmerston was curtly dismissed from
^ ^°hn RuSSe" for havinS wlthout authorisation expressed approval of Louis Napoleon's coup (Tétat of December 2
wishes"'of IS.'' StUbb0rn"esS °f a « wh° "»< "ot consider the


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which the noble speaker1) had directed. But although the resolution treated only of the general policy of the Government, Lord Palmerston did not fail to make a special defence of his action towards Greece. He based his vindication of this particular chapter of his policy on the ground which, of all others, gave him most advantage in addressing a parliamentary assembly. He contended that in all he had done he had been actuated by the resolve that the poorest claimant who bore the name of an English citizen should be protected by the whole strength of England against the oppression of a foreign government. His speech was an appeal to all the elementary emotions of manhood and citizenship and good-fellowship. To vote against him seemed to be to declare that England was unable or unwilling to protect her children. A man appeared to be guilty of an unpatriotic and ignoble act who censured the minister whose only error, if error it were, was a too proud and generous resolve to make the name óf England and the rights of Englishmen respected throughout the world. A good deal of ridicule had been heaped not unnaturally on Don Pacifico, his claims, his career, and his costly bed-furniture. Lord Palmerston turned that very ridicule to good account for his own cause. He repelled with a warmth of seemingly generous indignation the suggestion that because a man was lowly, pitiful, even ridiculous, even of doubtful conduct in his earlier career, therefore he was one with whom a foreign gov-
1. Members of the House of Commons must address the chairman, called the Speaker. When they speak of their fellow-members they must not call them by their name, but by the constituency which they represent. As the title of a member as such is the Honourable, they will say for example 'the Honourable member for Uverpool'. If the member is a soldier he is the gallant member; if a lawyer he is the learned member; if a son of alord, or an Irish lord (English lords are members of the House of Lords) he is the noble member. See note 1 to p. 45.


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ernment was not bound to observe any principles of fair dealing at all. He protested against having serious things treated*) jocosely; as if any man in Parliament had ever treated serious things more often in a jocose spirit. He protested against having the House kept "in a roar of laughter at the poverty of one sufferer, or at the miserable habitation of another; at the nationality of one man, or the religion of another; as if because a man was poor he might be bastinadoed and tortured with impunity, as if a man who was born in Scotland might be robbed without redress, or because a man is of the Jewish persuasion he is a fair mark for any outrage."
He really made it appear as if the question between him and his opponents was that of the protection of Englishmen abroad; as if he were anxious to look after their lives andsafety, while his opponents were urging the odious principle that when once an Englishman put his foot on a foreign shore his own government renounced all intent to concern themselves with any fate that might befall him. Here was a new turn given to the debate, a new opportunity afforded to those who, while they did not approve exactly of what had been done with Greece, were nevertheless anxious to support the general principles of Lord Palmerston's foreign policy. The speech was a marvellous appeal to what are called "English interests." In a peroration of thrilling power Lord Palmerston asked for the verdict of the House to decide "whether, as the Roman in days of old held himself free from indignity when he could say 'Chris Romanus sum', so also a British subject, in whatever land he may be, shall feel confident that the watchful eye and the strong arm of England will protect him against injustice and wrong."
When Lord Palmerston closed his speech the overwhelming
1. Note the construction of to have.


150
palmerston and gladstone
plaudits of the House foretold the victory he had won. It was indeed a masterpiece of telling defence?). The speech occupied some five hours in delivery. It was spoken, as Mr. Gladstone afterwards said, from the dusk of one day to the dawn of the next. It was spoken without the help of a single note. Lord Palmerston always wisely thought that in order to have full command of such an audience a man should, if possible, never use notes. He was,quite conscious of his own lack of the higher gifts of imagination and emotion that make the great orator; but he knew also what a splendid weapon of attack and defence was his fluency and readiness, and he was not willing to weaken the effect of its spontaneity by the interposition of a single note. All this great speech, therefore, full as it was of minute details, names, dates, figures, references of all kinds, was delivered with the same facility, the same lack of effort, the same absence of any adventitious *) aids to memory which characterised Palmerston's ordinary style when he answered a simple question. Nothing could be more complete than Palmerston's success. "Civis Romanus" settled the matter. Who was in the House of Commons so rude that he would not be a Roman? Who was there so lacking of patriotic spirit that would not have his countrymen as good as any Roman citizen of them all?
J. McCarthy, History of Our Own Times. London. 1880.
(d). GLADSTONE'S SPEECH
Sir, I am well prepared, following the example of other and more distinguished men, to bear my share in the abuse which, I doubt not, may attend the part which we shall take on this
1. to teil also means: to produce a marked effect.
2. adventitious: coming from without, not forming an essential part.


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occasion. I am prepared to hear it said that we are espousing the cause, as against England, of countries other than our own; that we cabal1) against the noble Lord because he is the protector of Englishmen domiciled abroad. Sir, I deny that he has truly protected Englishmen by the course he has pursued. I hold that no Minister in his place can really give to Englishmen resident in foreign lands either an effectual or a permanent protection, except by a careful observance of the principles that have been consecrated by the universal assent of mankind for governing the conduct of nation to nation. In vain do you talk to us of a knot of foreign conspirators: the only knot of foreign conspirators against the noble Lord, is the combined opinion of civilized Europe. In vain you talk of the two kinds of revolutionists — the revolutionists who will have too much refprm for the noble Lord's taste, and the revolutionists who will have too little .These, he says, are the persons opposed to him and his moderate reforms, and on all grounds petty, paltry, narrow and personal, but under his description there will, I fear, be found to fall nearly every party in nearly every country of Christendom.
Sir, great as is the influence and power of Britain, she cannot afford to follow, for any length of time, a self-isolating policy. It would be a contravention of the law of nature and of God, if it were possible for any single nation of Christendom to emancipate itself from the obligations which bind all other nations, and to arrogate, in the face of mankind, a position of peculiar privilege. And now I will grapple with the noble Lord on the ground which he selected for himself, in the most triumphant portion of his speech, by his reference to those emphatic words, Civis Romanus sum. He vaunted, amidst the cheers of his supporters that under his administration an Eng-
1. to cabal [kabaal]: to intrigue.


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lishman should be, throughout the world, what a citizen of Rome had been. What then, Sir, was a Roman citizen? He was the member of a privileged caste; he belonged to a conquering race, to a nation that held all others bound down by the strong arm of power. For him there was to be an exceptional system of law; for him principles were to be asserted, and by him rights were to be enjoyed, that were denied to the rest of the world. Is such, then, the view of the noble Lord, as to the relation that is to subsist between England and other countries? Does he make the claim for us, that we are to be uplifted upon a platform high above the standing-ground of all other nations? It is, indeed, too clear, not only from the expressions, but from the whole spirit of the speech of the noble Viscount, that too much of this notion is lurking in his mind; that he adopts in part that vain conception, that we, forsooth, have a mission to be the censors of vice and folly, of abuse and imperfection, among the other countries of the world; that we are to be the universal school masters; and that all those who hesitate to recognize our office, can be governed only by prejudice or personal animosity, and should have the blind war of diplomacy forthwith declared against them. And certainly, if the business of a Foreign Secretary properly were to carry on such diplomatic wars, all must admit that the noble Lord is a master in the discharge of his functions. What, Sir, ought a Foreign Secretary to be? Is he to be like some gallant knight at a tournament of old, pricking forth into the lists, armed at all points, confiding in his sinews and his skill, challenging all corners for the sake of honour, and having no other duty than to lay as many as possible of his adversaries sprawling in the dust? If such is the idea of a good Foreign Secretary, I, for one, would vote to the noble Lord his present appointment for his life. But, Sir, I do not understand the duty of a Secre-


GLADSTONE
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tary for Foreign Affairs to be of such a character. I understand it to be his duty to conciliate peace with dignity. I think it to be the very first of all his duties studiously to observe, and to exalt in honour among mankind, that great code of principles which is termed the law of nations, which the hon. and learned Member for Sheffieldx) has found, indeed, to be very vague in their nature, and greatty dependent on the discretion of each particular country; but in which I find, on the contrary, a great and noble monument of human wisdom, founded on the combined dictates of reason and experience — a precarious inheritance bequeathed to us by the generations that have gone before us, and a firm foundation on which we must take care to build whatever it may be our part to add to their acquisitions, if, indeed, wewishtomaintainand to consolidate the brotherhood of nations, and to promote the peace and welfare of the world.
Sir, the English people, whom we are here to represent, are indeed a great and noble people; but it adds nothing to their greatness or their nobleness, that when we assemble in this place we should trumpet forth our virtues in elaborate panegyrics *), and designate those who may not be wholly of our mind as a knot of foreign conspirators. When, indeed, I heard the hon. and learned gentleman the Member for Sheffield2) glorifying us, together with the rest of the people of this country, and announcing that we soared in unapproachable greatness, and the like, I confess I feit that eulogies such as those savoured somewhat of bombast; and thought it much to the honour of this House that the praises thus vented seemed to fall so flat; that the cookery of the hon. and learned gentleman was evidently seasoned beyond the capacity and relish of our
1. Mr. J. A. Roebuck.
2. panegyrics: see note 2 on p. 18.


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palates. It is this insular temper, and this self-glorifying tendency, which the policy of the noble Lord and the doctrines of his supporters tend so much to foment1), and which has given to that policy the quarrelsome character that marks some of their speeches-, for, indeed, it seems as if there lay upon the noble Lord an absolute necessity for quarrelling. No doubt it makes a difference what may be the institutions of one country or another. If he can, he will quarrel with an absolute monarchy. If he cannot find an absolute monarchy for the purpose, he will quarrel with one that is limited. If he cannot find even that, yet, sooner than not quarrel at all, he will quarrel with a republic. He has Iately shown us this in the case of France: he showed it once before in the case of America. The tenacious memory of the noble Lord reached back to transactions many years farther off than 1843: he referred to the foundation of the throne in Belgium, which was under Earl Grey's Government, and had nothing to do with the present Motion; but I am sorry it should not have retained what happened to him in 1843 respecting the Ash'burton treaty, when this House, by its vote upon that treaty, read him a lesson of which he seems not to have reaped the benefit. The House of Commons at that time had the good sense to take a dispassionate view of a question depending between ourselves and a foreign country, and, rejecting the advice of the noble Lord, which must have led to a rupture between the two Powers, showed that it had no fear even of being thought afraid.
Sir, I say the policy of the noble Lord tends to encourage and confirm in us that which is our besetting fault and weakness, both as a nation and as individuals. Let an Englishman travel where he will as a private person, he is found in general to
1. to foment: to foster by applying warmth, to stimulate.


GLADSTONE
155
be upright, high-minded, brave, liberal, and true; but with all this, foreigners are too often sensible of something that galis1) them in his presence, and I apprehend it is because he has too great a tendency to self-esteem — too little disposition to regard the feelings, the habits, and the ideas of others. Sir, I find this characteristic too plainly legible in the policy of the noble Lord. I doubt not that use will be made of our present debate to work upon this peculiar weakness of the English mind. The people will be told that those who oppose the Motion are governed by personal motives, have no regard for public principle, no enlarged ideas of national policy. You will take your case before a favourable jury, and you think to gain your verdict; but, Sir, let the House of Commons be warned — let it wam itself — against all Ulusions. There is in this case also a course of appeal. There is an appeal, such as the hon. and learned Member for Sheffield had made, from the one House of Parliament to the other. There is a further appeal from this House of Parliament to the people of England, but, lastly, there is also an appeal from the people of England to the general sentiment of the civilized world; and f, for my part, am of opinion that England will stand shorn of a chief part of her glory and her pride if she shall be found to have separated herself, through the policy she pursues abroad, from the moral supports which the general and fixed convictions of mankind afford — if the day shall come in which she may continue to excite the wonder and the f ear of other nations, but in which she shall have no part in their affection and their regard.
No, Sir, let it not be so: let us recognize, and recognize with frankness, the equality of the weak with the strong; the principles of brotherhood among nations, and of their sacred independence. When we are asking for the maintenance of the
1. to gall: to vex, to annoy.


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rights which belong to our fellow-subjects resident in Greece, let us do as we would be done by, and let us pay all the respect to a feeble State, and to the infancy of free institutions, which we should desire and should exact from others towards their maturity and their strength. Let us refrain from all gratuitousx) and arbitrary meddling in the internal concerns of other States, even as we should resent the same interference if it were attempted to be practised towards ourselves. If the noble Lord has indeed acted upon these principles Iet the Government to which he belongs have your verdict in its favour; but it he has departed from them, as I contend, and as I humbly think and urge upon you that it has been too amply proved, then the House of Commons must not shrink from the performance of its duty, under whatever expectations of momentary obloquy2) or reproach, because we shall have done what is right; we shall enjoy the peace of our consciences, and receive, whether a little sooner or a little later, the approval of the public voice, for having entered our solemn protest against a system of policy which we believe, nay, which we know, whatever may be its first aspect, must of necessity in its final results be unfavourable even to the security of British subjects resident abroad, which it professes so much to study — unfavourable to the dignity of the country, which the Motion of the hon. and learned Member asserts that it preserves — and equally unfavourable to that other great and sacred object which also it suggests to our recollection, the maintenance of peace with the nations of the world.
Gladstone's Speeches ed. Bassett. London.
Methuen, 1916.
1. gratuitous: given for nothing; done without good cause.
2. obloquy: abuse, being ill spoken of.


XIII.
THE CRIMEAN WAR
Our two fragments relate to the Crimean war. England and France fought Russia as the allies of Turkey. The real object of the war was the preservation of the Turkish empire and to keep Russia out of Constantinople, that is to say from the Mediterranean. But the inner meaning of the war need not detain us. Our quotations are only concerned with the sufferings of the English troops in that distant theatre and the efforts of various people to improve their lot.
The Crimean war has left an evil memory in English history for the inefficiency with which it was conducted, and nothing was so terrible as the break-down (for it amounted to that) of the medical service. Our first fragment (a) is taken from Sir Edward Cook's biography in the Makers of the Nineteenth Century series of Delane of The Times (1915). Delane was the greatest editor The Times ever had.Under his leadership the paper was a force of the first magnitude in English politics. In the Crimean war it played an important part owing to the courageous action of its correspondent Russell, who revealed the terrible state of affairs in the army, and to Delane's no less courageous action in going on printing Russell's despatches in the face of the frightened anger of the ruling class who wanted the scandal hushed up.
Our first fragment concludes with the statement that the questions whether Russell was justified in his criticisms or whether the apologists of Lord Raglan, the Commander-inChief, were right, "requires careful scrutiny." In the second quotation (b) we shall clearly see, not only that conditions at the theatre of war actually were frightful, but also that help had to come from other than the official quarters and even that it had to fight its way against the authorities all the time.
The story of Florence Nightingale is one of the romances of English history. Popular imagination grew sentimental over "the lady with the lamp" whose sweet smile relieved the sufferings of the rough soldiers. Mr. Lytton Strachey, from whose Eminent


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THE CRIMEAN WAR
Victorians our quotation is taken, insists on the hard and practical qualities, will-power, domineering temper, organising talent, that were needed to do the work that Miss Nightingale did. "A demon possessed her." Her achievement, of course, had not only momentous consequences for the development of the army medical service, it also marks an epoch in feminist history. Activities as Miss Nightingale's on the part of a woman, well-connected, well-bred, of independent means, unmarried, were altogether unheard of at that time. It was only against the persistent opposition of her parents that this remarkable woman had been able to instruct herself in the art of nursing and had at last, about a year before she set out on the Crimean adventure which was to make her name immortal, become "the super-intendent of a charitable. nursing home in Harley Street" (the doctors' street in London).
(a) DELANE OF THE TIMES
During the terrible Crimean winter, 1854—1855, The Times was ruthlessly1) outspoken in exposing the sufferings of the troops; in criticising the shortcomings alike of the authorities at home and of the commanders in the field; in pressing for greater vigour and for the despatch of reinforcements. At the very beginning of the war Russell wrote to Delane: "Am I to teil these things or hold my tongue?" It was "one of those casual exclamations," says Russell 's biographer, "which mark a crisis in a man's life." It was an exclamation rather than a question. Russell, moved by pity and indignation, did not wait, and had no need to wait, for his editor's answer. All Delane's correspondents were instructed to teil the truth without fear or favour. "Publicity," he used to say, "is my trade"; adding, "Details the public wants and details it shall have." Delane and Russell gave them; the effect produced was great
1. ruthless [rujlïs]: without pity or mercy.


delane of The Times
159
and the credit, or discredit, of the revelations attached almost entirely to The Times.
The opportunity which Russell had was unique. Since the days of the Crimean war we have seen the business of war correspondence run its full course and sink perhaps into comparative insignificance. Owing to the vastly increased range of modern weapons and extended sphere of military operations, on the one hand, and owing, en the other, to the extreme severity of the censorship, the opportunities even of the most enterprising correspondents are greatly restricted. All are placed very much in the same position — a position generally in the rear of actual operations; and, except when enterprise takes the form of fiction, the correspondent becomes, so far as any immediate publication is concerned, little more than an official chronicler. He may still, on rare occasion,*) make a stir, but only as saying what some person or persons in authority or command desire, or do not object, to have said. Russell's position was entirely different. He was free to say whatever he liked, and what those in authority and command disliked. The special war-correspondent was a new invention, and the check of a censorship had not kept pace with it. The Crimean war was the first in which newspaper correspondents — called by Lord Wolseley "the curse of modern armies" — were in the field; Lord Raglan and his immediate successors were the first, and last, commanders to conduct a campaign under the unchecked criticism of unofficial eye-witnesses. The correspondents were given no recognised status; they had to trust to their own wits, luck and daring, to maintain their position; but their proceedings and correspondence were otherwise unfettered. This journalistic enterprise which in later days was spread over a dozen newspapers or more was then largely
1. Perhaps a misprint for occasions.


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THE CRIMEAN WAR
concentrated in The Times, whose resources and prestige out-distanced all competitors. Russell's letters were even more easily first than were those of Archibald Forbes of the Daily News in a later warx). What the British public knew about the state of things at the seat of war was what Russell and Delane told them.
When these reports had caused all England to ring with indignation at the sorry plight of the troops and at the miscalculation of the authorities, Delane was accused of proclaiming and magnifying these things in order to make a journalistic sensation. Greville *), who had a foot in two camps, who liked to keep in with The Times, but who, though in some respects a Radical, was deeply committed to the governing classes *), was in a state of terrible fluster4). He records "a great battle with Delane," and takes credit to himself for having influenced the editor on at least one occasion. In other places he is full of impotent railings against "the clamour and diatribes8" of his friend. "The Times goes on against Raglan with greater vehemence every day, and will not be restrained by any remonstrances." "The Press, with T.he Times at its head, is striving to throw everything into confusion, and running a-muck against the aristocratie element of society and of the Constitu-
tion (The people) are told that it is not this or that Minister
who can restore our affairs, but a change in the whole system of government, and the substitution of plebeians and new men for the leaders of parties and members of aristocratie families, of whom all Governments have been for the most part composed.
1. To wit in the Franco-German war of 1870—1.
2. The diarist: see chapter V.
3. deeply committed to: intimately connected with, by ties of friendship, private interest, etc.
4. fluster: agitation.
5. diatribe: bitter critidsm.


delane of The Times
161
What effect these revolutionary doctrines will have on the opinions of the people at large remains to be seen; but it is evident that The Times, their great propagator, thinks them popular and generally acceptable, or they would not have plunged into that course."
The effect which the articles produced on people at large was shown clearly enough in due course. Delane carried the day1); but Greville was not alone in his disgusted alarm. Ministers (or some of them), the commanders, the Court were all perturbed by the freedom of speech in which The Times and its correspondents indulged. The Queen wanted to know by what right the editor of The Times tried her officers, and the Prince Consort called Russell a "miserable scribbler." Sidney Herbert2) trusted that the army would "lynch The Times- correspondent." Lord Clarendon, who had by this time succeeded Lord John Russell at the Foreign Office, was "in despair at the doings of The Times. Three pitched battles gained would not repair the mischief done by Mr. Russell and the articles upon his letters." The audacious paper actually declined to "throw a veil over our shortcomings." This line of objection, very natural in a minister, was taken also, and with greater reason, by the Commander at the front. Lord Raglan complained to the Secretary of State that the disclosures made in Russell's letters "must be invaluable to the Russians and in the same degree detrimental to H. M.'s troops." Kinglake, whose history of the Crimean war is conceived as an epic with Lord Raglan for Achilles, accepts all these severe judgments, and casts*) The Times for the part
1. to carry the day: to conquer, to prove the strongest.
2. The War Secretary.
3. to cast is a term of the theatre. To cast a play is to decide which actor is to have each part, to allot the parts to the actors.
England in the 19*^ Cent. I.
11


162
the crimean war
of Thersites1). Are the judgments correct? The question requires careful scrutiny.
sir edward cook, Delane of the Times,
London. Constable. 1915.
(b) MISS NIGHTINGALE
Miss Nightingale had been a year in her nursing-home in Harley Street, when Fate knocked at the door. The Crimean War broke out; the battle of the Alma was fought; and the terrible condition of our military hospitals at Scutari began to be known in England. It sometimes happens that the plans of Providence are a little difficult to follow, but on this occasion all was plain; there was a perfect co-ordination of events. For years Miss Nightingale had been getting ready; at last she was prepared — experienced, free, mature, yet still young — she was thirty-four — desirous to serve, accustomed to command: at that precise moment the desperate need of a great nation came, and she was there to satisfy it. If the war had fallen a few years earlier, she would have lacked the knowledge, perhaps even the power, for such a work; a few years later and she would, no doubt, have been fixed in the routine of some absorbing task, and moreover, she would have been growing old. Nor was it only the coincidence of Time that was remarkable. It so feil out that Sidney Herbert was at the War Office and in the Cabinet; and Sidney Herbert was an intimate friend of Miss Nightingale's, convinced, from personal experience in
i, Thersites Is the warrior before Troy, who criticises and rails at the generais, and is depicted by Homer as a cowardly fooi.


MISS NIGHTINGALE
163
charitable work, of her suprème capacity. After suchpremises1), it seems hardly more than a matter of course that her letter,' in which she offered her services for the East, and Sidney Herbert's letter, in which he asked for them, should actually have cróssed in the post. Thus it all happened, without a hitch2). The appointment was made, and even Mrs. Nightingale, overawed by the magnitude of the venture, could only approve. A pair of faithful friends offered themselves as personal attendants; thirty-eight nurses were collected; and within a week of the crossing of the letters Miss Nightingale, amid a great burst of popular enthusiasm, left for Constantinople.
Miss Nightingale arrived at Scutari - a suburb of Constantinople, on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus — on November 4th, 1854; it was ten days after the battle of Balaclava, and the day before the battle of Inkerman. The organisation of the hospitals, which had already given way under the stress of the battle of the Alma, was now to be subjected to the further pressure which these two desperate and bloody engagements implied. Great detachments of wounded were already beginning to pour in. The men, after receiving such summary treatment as could be given them at the smaller hospitals in the Crimea itseff, were forthwith shipped in batches8) of two hundred across the Black Sea to Scutari. This voyage was in normal times one of four days and a half; but the times were no longer normal, and now the transit often lasted for a fortnight or three weeks. It received,»not without reason, the name of "the
h premist [premis]: a statement from which another is inferredfthe inference). See note 1 on p. 125.
2. without a hitch: without any temporary stoppage or impediment.
3. batch: quantity or number of anything coming together, e. g. a batch of letters that one receives on one day, or that one has to answer.


164
THE CRIMEAN WAR
middle passage1)." Between, and sometimes on the decks, the wounded, the sick, and the dying were crowded — men who had just undergone the amputation of limbs, men in the clutches of f ever or of f rostbite, men in the last stages of dysentery and cholera — without beds, sometimes without blankets, often hardly clothed. The one or two surgeons on board did what they could; but medical stores were lacking, and the only form of nursing available was that provided by a handful of invalid soldiers, who were usually themselves prostrate by the end of the voyage. There was no other food beside the ordinary salt rations of ship diet; and even the water was sometimes so stored that it was out of reach of the weak. For many months, the average of deaths during these voyages was 74 in the thousand; the corpses were shot out into the waters; and who shall say they were the most unfortunate? At Scutari, the landing-stage, constructed with all the perverseness of Oriental ingenuity, could only be approached with great difficulty, and, in rough weather, not at all. When it was reached, what remained of the men in the ships had first to be disembarked, and then conveyed up 3 steep slope of a quarter of a mile to the nearest of the hospitals. The most serious cases might be put upon stretchers — for there were far too few for all; the rest were carried or dragged up the hill by such convalescent soldiers as could be got together, who were not too obviously infirm for the work. At last the journey was accomplished; slowly, one by one, living or dying, the wounded were
1. the middle passage: name given in the time of the slave-trade to the voyage of the slaves across the Atlantic, during which great numbers of them died through the crowding and the neglect of all consideration for human life on board a slave-ship. The word middle refers to the beginning and end of the slave-journey being over land (in Africa and America respectively).


MISS NIGHTINGALE
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carried up into the hospital. And in the hospital what did they find?
Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate1): the delusive doors bore no such inscription; and yet behind them Heil yawned. Want, neglect, confusion, misery — in every shape and in every degree of intensity — filled the endless corridors and the vast apartments of the gigantic barrack-house, which, without forethought or preparation, had been hurriedly set aside as the chief shelter for the vict'ms of the war. The very building itself was radically detective. Huge sewers2) underlay it, and cess-pools3) loaded with filth wafted their poison into the upper rooms. The floors were in so rotten a condition that many of them could not be scrubbed; the walls were thick with dirt; incredible multitudes of vermin swarmed everywhere. And, enormous as the building was, it was yet too small. It contained four miles of beds, crushed together so close that there was but just room to pass between them. Under such conditions, the most elaborate system of ventilation might well have been at fault; but here there was no ventilation. The stench was indescribable. "I have been acquainted," said Miss Nightingale, "with the dwellings of the worst parts of most of the great cities in Europe, but have never been in any atmosphere which I could compare with that of the Barrack Hospital at night". The structural defects were equalled by the deficiencies in the commonest objects of hospital use. There were not enough bedsteads; the sheets were of canvas, and so coarse that the wounded men recoiled from them, begging to be left
1. Dante tells in the Inferno (Canto Terzo 111-9) that the doors of Heil had an inscription of which these were the last words: Give up all hope, you that enter here.
2. sewer: Dutch riool.
3. cess-pool: Dutch zinkput.


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in their blankets; there was no bedroom furniture of any kind, and empty beer-bottles were used for candlesticks. There were no basins, no towels, no soap, no brooms, no mops1), no trays, no plates; there were neither slippers nor scissors, neither shoebrushes nor blacking; there were no knives or forks or spoons. The supply of fuel was constantly deficiënt. The cooking arrangements were preposterously8) inadequate, and the laundry was a farce. As for purely medical materials, the tale was no better. Stretchers, splints *), bandages — all were lacking, and so were the most ordinary drugs.
To replace such wants, to struggle against such difficulties, there was a handful of men overburdened by the strain of ceaseless work, bound down by the traditions of official routine, and enfeebled either by old age or inexperience or sheer incompetence. They had proved utterly unequal to their task. The principal doctor was lost in the imbecilities of a senile optimism. The wretched official whose business it was to provide for the wants of the hospital was tied fast hand and foot by red tape. A few of the younger doctors struggled valiantly, but what could they do? Unprepared, disorganised, with such help only as they could find among the miserable band of convalescent soldiers drafted off to tend their sick comrades, they were faced with disease, mutilation, and death in all their most appalling4) forms, crowded multitudinously about them in an ever increasing mass. They were like men in a shipwreck, fighting, not for safety, but for the next moment's bare exis-
1. mop: bundie of coarse yarn or cloth fastened at the end of a stick to clean floors, etc. Dutch stokdweil.
2. preposterous: foolish, absurdly bad.
3. splint: flexible strip of wood for holding a bone when it has been set by the surgeon.
4. to appal [apDl]: to terrify or frighten.


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tence — to gain, by yet another frenziedx) effort, some brief respite from the waters of destruction.
In these surroundings, those who had been long inured 2) to scènes of human suffering — surgeons with a world-wide knowledge of agonies, soldiers familiar with fields of carnage, missionaries with remembrances of famine and of plague — yet found a depth of horror which they had never known before. There were moments, there were places, in the Barrack Hospital at Scutari, where the strongest hand was struck with trembling, and the boldest eye would turn away its gaze.
Miss Nightingale came, and she, at any rate, in that Inferno, did not abandon hope. For one thing, she brought material succour8). Before she left London she had consulted Dr. Andrew Smith, the head of the Army Medical Board, as to whether it would be useful to take out stores of any kind to Scutari; and Dr. Andrew Smith had told her that "nothing was needed." Even Sidney Herbert had given her similar assurances; possibly, owing to an oversight, there might have been some delay in the delivery of the medical stores, which, he said, had been sent out from England "in profusion", but "four days would have remedied this." She preferred to trust her own instincts, and at Marseilles purchased a large quantity of miscellaneous provisions, which were of the utmost use at Scutari. She came, too, amply provided with money — in all, during her stay in the East, about £ 7000 reached her from private sources; and, in addition, she was able to avail herself of another valuable means of help. At the same time as herself, Mr. Macdonald, of the Times, had arrived
1. frenzied: as of a person that is frenzied, i. e. temporarily deranged.
2. inured [in'juad]: accustomed.
3. succour [SAksr]: help. .sVlo.


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at Scutari, charged with the duty of administering the large sums of money collected through the agency of that newspaper in aid of the sick and wounded; and Mr. Macdonald had the sense to see that the best use he could make of the Times fund was to put it at the disposal of Miss Nightingale. "I cannot conceive," wrote an eye-witness, "as I now calmly look back on the first three weeks after the arrival of the wounded from Inkerman, how it could have been possible to have avoided a state of things too disastrous to contemplate, had not Miss Nightingale been there, with the means placed at her disposal by Mr. Macdonald." But the official view was different. What! Was the public service to admit, by accepting outside charity, that it was unable to discharge its own duties without the assistance of private and irregular benevolence? Never! And accordingly when Lord Strafford de Redciffe, our ambassador at Constantinople, was asked by Mr. Macdonald how the Times Fund could best be employed, he answered that there was indeed one object to which it might very well be devoted — the building of an English Protestant Church at Pera.
Mr. Macdonald did not waste further time with Lord Strafford, and immediately joined forces with Miss Nightingale. But, with such a frame of mind in the highest quarters, it is easy to imagine the kind of disgust and alarm with which the sudden intrusion of a band of amateurs and females must have filled the minds of the ordinary officer and the ordinary military surgeon.They could not understand it; what had women to do with war? Honest Colonels relieved their spleen by the cracking of heavy jokes about "the Bird"; while poor Dr. Hall, a rough terriër of a man, who had worried his way to the top of his profession, was struck speechless with astonishment, and at last observed that Miss Nightingale's appointment was extremely droll.


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Her position was, indeed, an official one, but it was hardly the easier for that. In the hospitals it was her duty to provide the services of herself and her nurses when they were asked for by the doctors, and not until then. At first some of the surgeons would have nothing to say to her, and, though she was welcomed by others, the majority were hostile and suspicious. But gradually she gained ground. Her good will could not be denied, and her capacity could not be disregarded. With consummate tact, with all the gentleness of suprème strength, she managed at last to impose her personality upon the susceptible.1), overwrought, discouraged, and helpless group of men in authority who surrounded her. She stood firm; she was a rock in the angry ocean; with her alone wassafety, comfort, life. And so it was that hope dawned at Scutari. The reign of chaos and old night began to dwindle; order came upon the scène, and common sense, and forethought, and decision, radiating out from the little room off the great gallery in the Barrack Hospital where, day and night, the -Lady Superintendent was at her task. Progress might be slow, but it was sure. The first sign of a great change came with the appearance of some of those necessary objects with which the hospitals had been unprovided for months. The sick men began to enjoy the use of towels and soap, knives and forks, combs and tooth-brushes. Dr. Hall might snort when he heard of it, asking with a growl, what a soldier wanted with a tooth-brush; but the good work went on. Eventually the whole business of purveying to the hospitals2) was, in effect, carried out by Miss Nightingale. She alone, it seemed, whatever the contingency 8), knew where
1. susceptible: sensitive, impressionable.
2. to purvey: to supply articles of food, clothes, or anything wanted. Shopkeepers are allowed to call themselves 'Purveyor to His Majesty The King', and announce this in their advertisements.
3. contingency: things or drcumstances that may occur. See p. 35, note 3.


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to lay her hands on what was wanted; she alone could dispense her stores with readiness; above all she alone possessed the art of circumventingx) the pernicious influences of officiai etiquette. This was her greatest enemy, and sometimes even she was baffled by it. On one occasion 27,000 shirts, sent out at her instance by the Home Government, arrived, were landed, and were only waiting to be unpacked. But the official "Purveyor" intervened; "he could not unpack them," he said, "without a Board." Miss Nightingale pleaded in vain; the sick and wounded lay half-naked shivering for want of clothing; and three weeks elapsed before the Board released the shirts. A little later, however, on a similar occasion, Miss Nightingale feit that she could assert her own authority. She ordered a Government consignment to be forcibly opened, while the miserable "Purveyor" stood by, wringing his hands in departmental agony.
Vast quantities of valuable stores sent from England lay, she found, engulfed in the bottomless abyss of the Turkish Customs House. Other ship-loads, buried beneath munitions of war destined for Balaclava, passed Scutari without a sign, and thus hospital materials were sometimes carried to and fro three times over the Black Sea, before they reached their destination. The whole system was clearly at f ault, and Miss Nightingale suggested to the home authorities that a government Store House should be instituted at Scutari for the reception and distribution of consignments. Six months after her arrival this was done.
In the meantime she had reorganised the kitchens and the laundries in the hospitals. The ill-cooked hunks of meat2), vilely served at irregular intervals, which had hitherto been
1. to circumvent: to get round a'person, i.e. to outwit.
2. hunk: large piece, roughly cut.


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the only diet for the sick men were replaced by punctual meals, well-prepared and appetising, while strengthening extra foods — soups and wines and jellies ("preposterous luxuries," snarled*) Dr. Hall) — were distributed to those who needed them. One thing, however, she could not effect. The separation of the bones from the meat was no part of official cookery: the rule was that the food must be divided into equal portions, and if some of the portions were all bone — every man must take his chance. The rule, perhaps, was not a very good one; but there it was. "It would require a new regulation of the Service," she was told, "to bone the meat." As for the washing arrangements, they were revolutionised. Up to the time of Miss Nightingale's arrival the number of shirts which the authorities had succeeded in washing was seven. The hospital bedding, she found, was "washed" in cold water. She took a Turkish house, had boilers installed, and employed soldiers' wives to do the laundry work. The expenses were defrayed from her own funds and that of the Times; and henceforth the sick and wounded had the comfort of clean linen.
Then she turned her attention to their clothing. Owing to military exigencies the greater number of the men had abandoned their kit *); their knapsacks were lost for ever; they possessed nothing but what was on their persons, and that was usually only fit for speedy destruction. The "Purveyor", of course, pointed out that, according to the regulations, all soldiers should bring with them into hospital an adequate supply of clothing, and he declared that it was no business of his to make good their deficiencies. Apparently, it was the business pf Miss Nightingale. She procured soeks, boots, and shirts in
1. to snarl: to growl, said of angry or quarrelling dogs.
2. kit: soldier's valise or knapsack, or the things in it.


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enormous quantities; she had trousers made, she rigged up1) dressing-gowns. "The fact is," she told Sidney Herbert, "I am now clothing the British Army."
All at once, word came from the Crimea that a great new contingent of sick and wounded might shortly be expected. Where were they to go? Every available inch in the wards was occupied; the affair was serious and pressing, and the authorities stood aghast. There were some dilapidated rooms in the Barrack Hospital, unfit for human habitation, but Miss Nightingale believed that if measures were promptly taken they might be made capable of accommodating several hundred beds. One of the doctors agreed with her; the rest of the officials were irresolute: it would be a very expensive job, they said; it would involve building; and who could take the responsibility? The proper course was that a representation should be made to the Director-General of the Army Medical Department in London; then the Director-General would apply to the Horse Guards, the Horse Guards would move the Ordnance, the Ordnance would lay the matter before the Treasury, and, if the Treasury gave its consent, the work might be correctly carried through, several months after the necessity for it had disappeared. Miss Nightingale, however, had made up her mind, and she persuaded Lord Strafford — or thought she had persuaded him — to give his sanction to the required expenditure. A hundred and twenty-five workmen were immediately engaged, and the work was begun. The workmen struck; whereupon Lord Strafford washed his hands of the whole business. Miss Nightingale engaged two hundred other workmen on her own authority, and paid the bill dut of her own resources. The wards were ready by the required date; five hundred sick men were
1. to rig up: to make or arrange with all kinds of material that are not exactly meant for the purpose but happen to be available.


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received in them; and all the utensils, including knives, forks, spoons, cans and towels, were supplied by Miss Nightingale.
This remarkable woman was in truth performing the function of an administrative chief. How had this come about? Was she not in reality merely a nurse? Was it not her duty simply to tend the sick? And indeed, was it not as a ministering angel, a gentle "lady with a lamp" that she actually impressed the minds of her contemporaries? No doubt that was so; and yet it is no less certain that, as she herself said, the specificx) business of nursing was "the least important of the functions into which she had been forced." It was clear that in the state of disorganisation into which the hospitals at Scutari had fallen the most pressing, the really vital, need was for something more than nursing; it was for the necessary elements of civilised life — the commonest material objects, the most ordinary cleanliness, the rudimentary habits of order and authority. "Oh, dear Miss Nightingale," said one of her party as they were approaching Constantinople, "when we land, let there be no delays, lét us get straight to nursing the poor f ellows!" "The strongest will be wanted at the washtub," was Miss Nightingale's answer. And it was upon the washtub, and all that the washtub stood for, that she expended her greatest energies. Yet to say that is perhaps to say too much. For to those who watched her at work among the sick, moving day and night from bed to bed, with that unflinching2) courage, with that indefatigable vigilance, it seemed as if the concentrated force of an undivided and unparalleled devotion could hardly suffice for that portion of her task alone. Wherever, in those vast
1. specific [spe'sifïk]: peculiar. Thus the specific business of a nurse is to look after a patiënt, but cooking or washing is occasionally necessary.
2. to flinch: to draw back (from something unpleasant, e. g. an unpleasant duty).


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wards, suffering was at its worst and the need for help was greatest, there, as if by magie, was Miss Nightingale. Her superhuman equanimity would, at the moment of some ghastly operation, nerve the victim to endure and almost to hope. Her sympathy would assuage the pangs of the dying and bring back to those still living something of the forgotten charm of life. Over and over again her untiring efforts rescued those whom the surgeons had abandoned as beyond the possibility of cure. Her mere presence brought with it astrange influence. Apassionate idolatry spread among the men: they kissed her shadow as it passed. They did more. "Before she came," said a soldier, "there was cussin' and swearin', but after that it was as 'oly as a church." The most cherished privilege of the fightingman was abandoned for the sake of Miss Nightingale. In those "lowest sinks of human misery," as she herself put it, she never heard the use of one expression "which could distress a gentlewoman."
She was heroic; and these were the humble tributes paid by those of grosser mould to that high quality. Certainly, she was heroic. Yet her heroism was not of that simple sort so dear to the readers of novels and the compilers of hagiologies*) — the romantic sentimental heroism with which mankind loves to invest its chosen darlings: it was made of sterner stuff. To the wounded soldier on his couch of agony she might well appear in the guise of a gracious angel of mercy; but the military surgeons, and the orderlies,2) and her own nurses, and the "Purveyor," and Dr. Hall, and even Lord Strafford himself could teil a different story. It was not by gentle sweetness and womanly self-abnegation that she had brought order out of chaos in the Scutari Hospitals, that, from her own resources,
1. hagiology: [hcegï'obdzï]: a work on the lives of saints.
2. orderty: short for orderty officer, officer of the day.


MISS NIGHTINGALE
17.<S
she had clothed the British Army, that she had spread her dominion over the serriedx) and reluctant powers of the official world; it was by strict method, by stern discipline, by rigid attention to detail, by ceaseless labour, by the fixed determination of an indomitable will. Beneath her cool and calm demeanour lurked fierce and passionate fires. As she passed through the wards in her plain dress, so quiet, so unassuming, she struck the casual observer simply as the pattern of a perfect lady; but the keener eye perceived something more than that — the serenity of high deliberation in the scope of the capacious brow, the sign of power in the dominating curve of the thin nose, and the traces of a harsh and dangerous temper — something peevish, something mocking, and yet something precise — in the small and delicate mouth. There was humour in the face; but the curious watcher might wonder whether it was humour of a very pleasant kind; might ask himself, even as he heard the laughter and marked the jokes with which she cheered the spirits of her patients, what sort of sardonic2) merriment this same lady might not give vent to, in the privacy of her chamber. As for her voice, it was true of it, even more than of her countenance, that it "had that in it one must fain call master." Those clear tones were in no need of emphasis: "I never heard her raise her voice," said one of her companions. Only, when she had spoken, it seemed as if nothing could follow but obedience. Once, when she had given some direction, a doctor ventured to remark that the thing could not be done. "But it must be done," said Miss Nightingale. A chance bystander, who heard the words, never forgot through all his life the
1. serried: standing or marching shoulder to shoulder, without any openings between them.
2. sardonic [sa'donïk]: scornful, sneering.


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irresistible authority of them. And they were spoken quietly indeed.
Late at night, when the long miles of beds lay wrapped in darkness, Miss Nightingale would sit at work in her little room, over her correspondence. It was one of the most formidable of all her duties. There were hundreds of letters to be written to the friends and relations of soldiers; there was the enormous mass of official documents to be dealt with; there were her own private letters to be answered; and,, most important of all, there was the composition of her long and confidential reports to Sidney Herbert. These were by no means official Communications. Her soul, pent up all day in the restraint and reserve of a vast responsibility, now at last poured itself out in these letters with all its natural vehemence, like a swollen torrent through an open sluice. Here, at least, she did not mince matters1). Here she painted in her darkest colours the hideous scènes which surrounded her; here she tore away remorselessly the last veils still shrouding the abominable truth. Then she would fill pages with recommendations and suggestions, with criticisms of the minutest details of organisation, with elaborate calculations of contingencies,-with exhaustive analyses and statistical statements piled up in breathless eagerness one on the top of the other. And then her pen, in the virulence2) of its volubility *), would rush on to the discussion of individuals, to the denunciation of an incompetent surgeon or the ridicule of a self-sufficient nurse. Her sarcasm searched the ranks of the officials with the deadly and unsparing precision of a machine-
1. to mince: to cut very small (e. g. meat); hence in a figurative sense to mince matters: to express one's disapproval in mild words, so as not to offend or hurt.
2. virulence: see p. 15 note 1.
3. volubility [voljütilïtï]: fluency (usually applied to speech).


miss][nightingale
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gun. Her nicknames were terrible. She respected no one: Lord Stratford, Lord Raglan, Lady Stratford, Dr. Andrew Smith, Dr. Hall, the Commissary-General, the Purveyor — she fulminated against them all. The intolerable futility of mankind obsessed her like a nightmare, and she gnashed her teeth against it.."I do well to be angry," was the burden of her cry. How many just menwere there at Scutari? How many who cared at all for the sick, or had done anything for their reliëf? Were there ten? Were there five? Was there even one? She could not be sure.
lytton strachey, Eminent Victorians.
London 1918.
1. Allusion to the many passages in the Bible where the just and the unjust are contrasted, perhaps especially to Luke XV. 7: I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
England in the 19th Cent. I. 12


XIV.
THE INDIAN MUTINY
We conclude our present volume with a chapter of Justin McCarthy's History of our own Times (1880) on the Indian mutiny. That terrible outbreak began on May 10, 1857, at Meerut near Delhi, as a mutiny of Sepoys. When the mutineers possessed themselves of the person of the Great Mogul's last descendant, an old man, who lived in retirement in his palace at Delhi and drew a pension from the East India Company, and proclaimed him Emperor of India, the military revolt began to wear the appearance of a national revolution. There were many causes of discontent to facilitate this perilous extension, principal among them perhaps the recent annexations (of the Punjaub and of Oudh*) among other regions) effected by Lord Dalhousie *), who had just gone home and been replaced as Viceroy by Lord Canning.
Our fragment deals with the impression which the news of the rebellion made on its first coming to Calcutta, the seat of the central government of India, and next with the first attempts made to suppress it, directed from the newly annexed province of the Punjaub. Both "Clemency Canning" and Sir Henry Lawrence, "who tried to do his duty", are famous figures in the history of the Mutiny. In reading our author's frank strictures on the attitude of English public opinion during this trying time, one should remember that he was himself an Irishman and a Nationalist member of Parliament.
The further course of the Mutiny falls outside our scope. For some time it spread alarmingly. The capture of Cawnpore by Nana Sahib particularly was an event full of the most dangerous possibilities. Nana Sahib, however, illustrated his success mainly by the horrible massacre which has made his name infamous. Only in March 1858 did the rebellion receive its death blow with the capture of Lucknow by the English. The most
1. Oudh: [aud].
2. Dalhousie [dael'hauzï].


THE INDIAN MUTINY
179
momentous consequence of the whole affair was that it led to the dissolution of the East India Company and the transfer of the government of India to the Crown.
There is no recklessness, no cruelty, like the cruelty and the recklessness of panic. Perhaps there is hardly any panic so demoralising in its effects as that which seizes the unwarlike members of a ruling race set down in the midst of overwhelming numbers of the subject populations, at a moment when the cry goes abroad that the subjected are rising in rebellion. Fortunately there was at the head of affairs in India a man with a cool head, a quiet, firm will, and a courage that never f altered. If ever the crisis found the man, Lord Canning was the man called for by that crisis in India. He had all the divining genius of the true statesman; the man who can rise to the height of some unexpected and new emergency and he had the cool courage of a practised conqueror. The greatest trial to which a ruler can be subjected is to be called upon at a moment's notice to deal with events and conditions for which there is no precedent. The second-class statesman, the official statesman, if we may use such an expression, collapses under such a trial.' The man of genius finds it his opportunity, and makes his own of it. Lord Canning thus found his opportunity in the Indian Munity. Among all the distracting *) counsels and wild stories poured in upon him from every side, he kept his mind clear. He never gave way either to anger or to alarm. If he ever showed a little impatience, it was only where panic would too openly have proclaimed itself by counsels of wholesale cruelty. He could not, perhaps, always conceal from frightened people the
1. emergency [ï'rrmdiMisï]: unexpected events which require immediate action.
2. to distract: to draw in different directions, to confuse.


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fact that he rather despised their terrors. Throughout the whole of that excited period there were few names, even among the chiefs of rebellion, on which fiercer denunciation was showered by Englishmen than the name of Lord Canning. Because he would not listen to the bloodthirsty clamours of mere frenzy, he was nicknamed "Clemency Canning," as if clemency were an attribute of which a man ought to be ashamed. Indeed, for some time people wrote and spoke, not merely in India but in England, as if clemency were a thing to be reprobatedx), like treason or crime. Every allowance must be made for the unparalleled excitement of such a time, and in especial for the manner in which the elementary *) passions of manhood were inflamed by the stories, happily not true, of the wholesale dishonour and barbarous mutilation of women. But when the fullest allowance *) has been made for all this, it must be said by any one looking back on that painful time, that some of the public instructors of England betrayed a fury and ferocity which no conditions can excuse on the part of civilised and Christian men who have time to reflect before they write or speak. The advices which some English journals showered upon the Government, the army, and all concerned in repressing the Mutiny, might more fittingly have come from some of the heroes of the "Spanish Fury." Nay, the SpanishFury itself was, in express words, held up to the English army as an example for them to imitate. An English paper, of high and well-earned authority, distinctly declared that such mercy as AlVa showed the Netherlands was the mercy that English soldiers must
1. to reprobate [repröubeit]: to express disapproval of.
2. elementary: a term used in chemistry for elements that cannot be further decomposed; also: belonging to the great forces of nature.
3. allowance: consideration which lessens the effect or importance of what has been brought fOrward.


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show to the rebellious regions of India. There was for a while but little talk of repression. Every one in England well knew that the rebellion would be repressed. It has to be remembered, to the credit of England's national courage and resolve, that not at the worst moment of the crisis did it seem to have occurred to any Englishman that there was the slightest possibility of the rebellion being allowed to succeed. It is painful to have to remember that the talk was not of repression, but of revenge. Public speakers and writers were shrieking out for the vengeance which must be inflicted on India when the rebellion had been put down. For a while it seemed a question of patriotism which would propose the most savage and sanguinary measures of revenge. We shall see farther on that one distinguished English officer was clamorous to have powers given to him to impale1), to burn alive, and to flay 2) mutineers who had taken part in the murder of English women. Mr. Disraeli, to do him justice, raised his voice in remonstrance against the wild passions of the hour, even when these passions were strongest and most general. He declared that if such a temper were encouraged we ought to take down from our altars the images of Christ and raise the statue of Moloch there; and he protested against making Nana Sahib, of whom we shall hear more, the model for the conduct of a British officer. Mr. Disraeli did, indeed, at a later period, show an inclination to back out of this courageous and honourable expression of opinion, but it stands, at all events, to the credit of his first impulse that he could venture, at such a time, to talk of morality, mercy, and Christianity.
If people were so carried away in England, where the danger was far remote, we can easily imagine what were the fears and
1. to impale: a form of capital punishment in earlier times, by thrusting a pointed stake through the body.
2. to flay: to take off the skin.


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passions roused in India, where the terror was or might be at the door of every one. Lord Canning was gravely embarrassed by the wild urgencies x) and counsels of distracted Englishmen, who were furious with him because he even thought of distinguishing friend from foe where native races were concerned. He bore himself with perfect calmness; listened to everything that any one had to say, where time gave him any chance of doing so, read as f ar as possible all the myriad Communications poured in upon him, regarded no suggestion as unworthy of consideration, but made his own resolves and his own judgment the final arbiter8). He was greatly assisted and encouraged in his counsels by his brave and noble wife, who proved herself in every way worthy to be the helpmate of such a man at such a crisis. He did not for a moment underestimate the danger; but neither did he exaggerate its importance. He never allowed it to master him. He looked upon it with the quiet, resolute eye of one who is determined to be the conqueror in the strüggle.
Lord Canning saw that the one important thing was to strike at Delhi, which had proclaimed itself the headquarters of the rebellion. He knew that English troops were on their way to China for the purpose of wreaking the wrongs of English subjects there, and he took on his own responsibility the bold step of intercepting them, and calling them to the work of helping to put down the Mutiny in India. The dispute with China he thought could well afford to wait, but with the Mutiny it must be now or never. India could not wait for reinforcements brought all the way from England. In Scott's "Betrothed," the soldier of the knight who owns the frontier castle encourages him, when
1. wgency: what a person urges others to do, I.e. recommends with persistence and great earnestness.
2. arbiter: person appointed to settle a dispute between two parties, umpire.


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the Welsh are about to attack, by the assurance that the forces of the constable of Chester will soon come to his aid, and that with these reinforcements they will send the Welsh dragon-flag flying from the field. The knight sadly answers that it must fly from the field before the reinforcements arrivé, "or it will fly over all our dead bodies." Thus feit Lord Canning when he thought of the strong arms that England could send to his assistance. He knew well enough, as well as the wildest alarmist could know, that the rebel flag must be forced to fly from some field before that help came, or it would fly over the dead bodies of those who then represented English authority in India. He had, therefore, no hesitation in appealing to Lord Elginx), the Envoy in charge of the Chinese expedition, to stop the troops that were on their way to China, and lend them to the service in India at such a need. Lord Elgin had the courage and the wisdom to assent to the appeal at once. Fortune, too, was favourable to Canning in more ways than one. The Persian war was of short duration. Sir James Outram2) was soon victorious, and the Persians sued for a peace. The Treaty of Peace was signed at Paris in March 1857, and was arranged so quickly that Outram inflicted a crushing s) defeat on the Persians after the treaty was signed, but before the news of its signature had time to reach the seat of war. Outram, therefore, and his gallant companions, Colonel Jacob and Colonel Havelock, were able to lend their invaluable services to the Governor-General of India. Most important for Lord Canning's purposes was the manner in which the affairs of the Punjaub were managed at this crisis. The Punjaub was under the administration of one
1. Elgin [elgïn].
2. Outram [utram].
3. a crushing defeat: an overwhelming defeat; a defeat that destroys the enemy's power completely.


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THE INDIAN MUTINY
of the ablest public servants India has ever had — Sir John, afterwards Lord Lawrence. John Lawrence had from his youth been in the Civil Service of the East India Company; and when Lord Dalhousie annexed the Punjaub, he made Lawrence and his soldier-brother — the gallant Sir Henry Lawrence — two out of a board of three for the administration of the affairs of the newly-acquired province. Afterwards Sir John Lawrence was named the Chief Commissioner of the Punjaub, and by the promptitude and energy of himself and his subordinates, the province was completely saved for English rule at the outbreak of the Mutiny. Fortunately, the electric telegraph extended from Calcutta to Lahore, the chief city of the Punjaub. On May 11 the news of the outbreak at Meerut was brought to the authorities at Lahore. As it happened, Sir John Lawrence was then away at Rawul Pindee, in the Upper Punjaub; but Mr. Robert Montgomery, the Judicial Commissioner at Lahore, was invested with plenary power1), and he showed that he could use it to advantage. Meean Meer is a large military cantonment *) five or six miles from Lahore, and there were then some four thousand native troops there, with only about thirteen hundred Europeans of the Queen's and the Company's service. There was no time to be lost. If the spirit of mutiny were to spread, the condition of things in the Punjaub would be desperate; but what did the condition of things in the Punjaub involve? The possible loss of a province? Something far greater than that. It meant the possibility of a momentary collapse of all British authority in India. For if any one will take the trouble to cast a glance at a map of India, he will see that the Punjaub is so placed as to become a basis of operations for the precise military movements which every experienced eye
1. plenary power [plinarï pauar]: absolute, unrestrlcted power.
2. cantonment: [kan'tunmant]: military station.


THE INDIAN MUTINY
185
then saw to be necessary for the saving of our Indian Empire. The candle would have been burning at both ends, so far as regards the North-West Provinces, if the Punjaub had gone with Delhi and Lucknow. While the Punjaub held firm it was like a barrier raised at one side of the rebellious movement, not merely preventing it from going any farther in that direction, but keeping it pent up until the moment came when the blow from the other direction could fall upon it. The first thing to be done to strike effectively at the rebellion was to make an attack on Delhi; and the possession of the Punjaub was of inestimable advantage to the authorities for that purpose. It will be seen, then, that the moment was critical for those to whose hands the administration of the great new province had been entrusted. There was no actual reason to assume that the Sepoys in Meean Meer intended to join the rebellion. There would be a certain danger of converting them into rebels if any rash movement were to be made for the purpose of guarding against treachery on their part. Either way was a serious responsibility, a momentous risk. The authorities soon made up their minds. Any risk would be better than that of leaving it in the power of the native troops to join the rebellion. A ball and supper were to be given at Lahore that night' .To avoid creating any alarm it was arranged that the entertainments should take place. During the dancing and feasting Mr. Montgomery held a council of the leading officials of Lahore, civil and military, and it was resolved at once to disarm the native troops. A parade was ordered for daybreak at Meean Meer; and on the parade-ground an order was given for a military movement which brought the heads of four columns of the native troops in front of twelve guns charged with grape1), the artillerymen with their portfires *)
1. grape: short for grape-shot, Dutch schroot.
2. port-fire: a fuse or match formerly used in firing cannons.


186
THE INDIAN MUTINY
lighted, and the soldiers of one of the Queen's regiments standing behind with loaded muskets. A command was given to the Sepoys to pile arms. They had Tmmediate death before them if they disobeyed. They stood literally at the cannon's mouth. They piled their arms, which .were borne away at once^ in carts by European soldiers, and all chances of a rebellious movement were over in that province, and the Punjaub was saved. Something of the same kind was done at Mooltan, in the Lower Punjaub, later on; and the province, thus assured to English civil and military authority, became a basis for some of the most important operations by which the Mutiny was crushed, and the sceptre of India restored to the Queen.
Within little more than a fortnight from the occupation of Delhi by the rebels, the British forces under General Anson, the Commander-in-Chief, were advancing on that city. The commander did not live to conduct any of the operations. He died of cholera almost at the beginning of the march. He had lived long enough to come in for much sharp censure. The temper of the time both in England and in India expected men to work by witchcraft rather than wit, and Anson was furiously denounced by some of the prindpal English journals because he did not recapture Delhi without having even to march an army to the neighbourhood of the city. He was described as "a holiday soldier who had never seen service either in peace or in war." His appointment was denounced as "a shameless joband a tribute altogether to "the claims of family and personal acquaintance." We cannot venture now to criticise
1. a ƒ<*: a familiar expression fora piece of work, and espedally an action in which duty or the well-being of the state is sacrificed to private advantage (e.g. in appointments).


THE INDIAN MUTINY
187
the mode of General Anson's appointment; and he had not time to show whether he was any better than a holiday soldier. But it would appear that Lord Canning had no poor opinion of his capacity, and was particularly impressed by his coolness and command of temper. He died, however, at the very outset of his march; and we only refer now to the severe attacks which were made upon him to illustrate the temper of the nation, and the manner in which it delighted to hear itself addressed. We are always rebuking other nations for their impatience and fretfulness1)under difficulties. It is a lesson of no slight importance for us to be reminded that when the hour of strain and pressure comes we are found to be in most ways very like our neighbours.
The siege of Delhi proved long and difficult. Another general died, another had to give up his command, before the city was recaptured. It was justly considered by Lord Canning and by all the authorities as of the utmost importance that Delhi should be taken before the arrival of great reinforcements from home. Meanwhile the rebellion was breaking out at new points almost everywhere in these northern and north-western regions. On May 30 the Mutiny declared itself at Lucknow. Sir Henry Lawrence was governor of Oudh. He endeavoured to drive the rebels from the place, but the numbers of the 'mutineers were overwhelming. He had under his command, too, a force partly made up of native troops, and some of these deserted him in the battle. He had to retreat and to fortify the Residency at Lucknow, and remove all the Europeans, men, women, and children thither, and patiently stand a siege. Lawrence himself had not long to endure the siege. On July 2 he had been up with the dawn, and after a great amount of work he lay on a sofa, not, as it has been well said, to rest, but to transact business in a recumbent position. His nephew and another officer were
1. fretfulness: discontent, irritation.


188
THE 1NDIAN MUTINY
with him. Suddenly a great crash was heard, and the room was filled with smoke and dust. One of his companions was flung to the ground. A shell had b'urst. When there was silence the officer who had been flung down called out, "Sir Henry, are you hurt?" At first there was no answer. Then a weak voice was heard to reply in just the words that Browning has put into the mouth of the gallant French lad similarly questioned by the great Napoleon. "I am killed," was the answer that came faintly but firmly from Sir Henry Lawrence's lips. The shell had wounded him in the thigh so fearfully as to leave surgery no chance of doirïg anything for his reliëf. On the morning of July 4 he died calmly and in perfect submission to the will of Providence. He had made all possible arrangements for his successor, and for the work to be done. He desired that on his tomb should be engraven merely the words, " Here lies Henry Lawrence, who tried to do his duty." The epitaph was a simple, truthful summing up of a simple, truthful career. The man, however, was greater than the career. Lawrence had not opportunity to show in actual result the greatness of spirit that was in him. The immense influence he exercised over all who came within his reach bears testimony to his strength and nobleness of character better than any of the mere successes which his biographer can record. He was full of sympathy. His soul was alive to the noblest and purest aspirations. "It is the due admixture of romance and reality," he was himself accustomed to say, "that best carries a man through life." No professional teacher or philosopher ever spoke a truer sentence. As one of his many admirers says of him — "What he said and wrote, he did, or rather he was." Let the bitterest enemy of England write the history of her rule in India, and set down as against her every wrong that was done in her name, from *) those which
1. from: since the time of, beginning with.


the indian mutiny
189
Burke denounced *) to those which the Madras Commission exposed a); he will have to say that men, many men, like Henry Lawrence, lived and died devoted to the cause of that rule, and the world will take account of the admission.
j. McCarthy, History of Our Own Times. London.
Chatto & Windus. 1880.
1. Burke took a leading part in the impeachment (that is, prosecution by the House of Commons before the House of Lords) of Warren Hastings in 1788 for actions committed as Governor-General of Bengal.
2. The Madras Commission: a commission instituted at Madras in 1851 to enquire into crueities alleged to have been committed by the native poiice.


190
ENGLAND IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
ENGLISH SOVEREIGNS
1760-1820. George III.
1820-1830. George IV.
1830-1837. William IV.
1837-1901. Victoria.
LIST OF MINISTRIES
1812—1827. Liverpool Ministry (Tory).
1827. Canning Ministry (Liberal Tory). — Goderich
Ministery (Liberal Tory).
1828—1830. Wellington—Peel Ministry (Tory).
1830—1834. Grey Ministry (Whig).
1834. First Melbourne Ministry (Whig).
1834— 1835. First Peel Ministry (Conservative).
1835— 1841. Melbourne Ministry (Whig). 1841—1846. Second Peel Ministry (Conservative). 1846—1852. Lord John Russell's Ministry (Whig).
1852. First Derby-Disraeli Ministry (Conservative).
1852—1855. Aberdeen Coalition Ministry (Peelites and Whigs).
1855—1858. First Palmerston Ministry (Whig).
1858— 1859. Second Derby-Disraeli Ministry (Conservative).
1859— 1865. Second Palmerston Ministry (Whig and Peelites,
Liberals).


CHIEF DATES
191
CHIEF DATES
1815. Battle of Quatre-Bras, June 16. Battle of Waterloo, June 18.
1819. Manchester Massacre (Peterloo), August 16.
1820. George IV.
1822. Death of Castlereagh, and of Shelley.
1823. Publication of Byron's Don Juan, Cantos VI. to XIV.
1824. Death of Byron.
Charles Lamb, Essays of Elia (Second Series). Repeal of the Combination Acts. 1826. B. Disraeli, Vivian Grey.
1829. Catholic Emancipation Act.
1830. Death of George IV. Accession of William IV. Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway, September.
1831. Reform agitation.
1832. Parliamentary Reform Bill passed, June 7.
1834. New Poor Law.
1835. Municipal Corporations Act.
1836. Charles Dickens, Pickwick (completed in 1837).
1837. Victoria.
Dickens, Oliver Twist (in Bentley's Miscellany, 1837— 1839).
1838. Formation of the Anti-Corn-Law League.
1840. Victoria married to Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
1842. Children's Employment Commission, First Report (Mines). Shaftesbury's Mines Act.
1843. Mrs. Browning, The Cry of the Children (Blackwood's Magazine, August).
Dickens, Christmas Carol (December).
Hood, The Song of the Shirt (Punch, Christmas number).


192
CHIEF DATES
1844.
1846.
B. Disraeli, Coningsby. Repeal of the Corn-Laws. B. Disraeli, Sybil. Charlotte Brontè', Jane Eyre.
1847.
Thackeray, Vanity Fair (completed in 1848).
1848. (February)" Revolution in France; abdication of Louis Philippe.
1849. Charlotte Brontë, Shirley.
1850. Don Pacifico debate.
1851. (2 Dec.) Coup d'état of Louis Napoleon; Palmerston dismissed from office.
1852. Napoleon HL declared Emperor.
1854. War against Russia. Siege of Sebastopol. 1857. Sepoy Mutiny in Bengal.
1859. Darwin, Origin of Species.
1860. Thackeray? The Four Georges.