560

ABORTIVE INSURRECTION IN IRELAND.

[1848 demagogues. The display of the national will,—the unostentatious preparations of the government, and their bold resolve not to prevent the proposed meeting of the Chartists on Kennington Common, but steadily to oppose their return over either of the bridges in procession,-was enough for present safety and future peace. This resistance to their return in multitudes at night-fall was accomplished, not by the soldiery, who continued unseen to the last, but by the police alone. The great Petition was ignobly carried to the House of Commons in a cart, to be presented by Mr. Feargus O'Connor without his legions. Physical-force Chartism was really at an end, although its revival was several times attempted, to be put down by the same firmness.

Contemporaneous with the abortive proceedings of disaffection in London, in Glasgow, and in a few provincial towns, was what at first appeared to be a serious renewal of insurrection Ireland. An association was in 1847 formed in Dublin, called "The Irish Confederation." Of this Confederation Mr. Smith O'Brien, with several others who attained to distinction as the utterers of the boldest sedition, and the announcers of the bloodiest resolves, were leading authorities. The French Revolution gave a new impulse to their exertions. Up with the barricades and invoke the God of battles," cried Mr. Meagher, at a meeting held to congratulate the Provisional Government of France. The uttering of seditious speeches was, up to April, an offence which the law regarded as a misdemeanor; but an Act was then passed which rendered it felony to compass or imagine the deposition of the Queen, or to give expression to any such intention. Under this Act, Mr. Mitchell was tried and convicted; and Mr. Duffy was about to be prosecuted. It was determined by Mr. O'Brien and his bold associates in an act of treason, to rise in August to rescue Mr. Mitchell, and to prevent the trial of Mr. Duffy. A War Directory was appointed by the Confederation, and a mighty warrior, Mr. O'Brien, was to take the field in person and lead his forces to the overthrow of the despotic government. On the 28th of July the great rebel was in arms. He engaged the Police in a pitched battle near Ballingarry, where he had seven of his army killed and several wounded. On the 5th of August he was arrested at Thurles. The adventure of "the cabbage-garden" will be long remembered, in connection with the wise mercy of the government, which, after a few years, permitted his return to Ireland, to warn political fanaticism of the probable danger of that public contempt which awaits the anarchist who is too silly to be mischievous. The insurrection had soon come to an end. There were trials for high treason, of which the ridicule attached to the traitors could not prevent the people acknowledging that their capital sentence was deserved; rejoicing equally when, in the next year, after the demand of a writ of error, the sentence was commuted to transportation. Ireland was now free to apply herself to the amelioration of her social evils, instead of continuing a vain struggle for a separation from a country which had saved her in the direst hour of her calamity, and which was now ready to devote her capital and her skill, in a hearty endeavour to improve the material resources of the neglected land.

The essential differences between the institutions of England and of France, and the no less remarkable diversity in the political aspirations of the people of each, may in some degree account for the contrast between the two countries which 1848 presented. The insurrectionary movements in the one

1848.]

FRENCH REPUBLIC-CONTINENTAL CONVULSIONS.

561

were suppressed without bloodshed. In the other, within four months after the proclamation of the Republic, sixteen thousand persons were killed or wounded in the streets of Paris. The short career of the Provisional Government of France had been upheld by military force, amidst the increasing animosities of the Socialists. When the National Assembly was opened and had appointed an Executive Commission of five members, there was an attempt to form another Provisional Government of those who had now come to be designated as Red Republicans. This attempt was put down. The election of prince Louis Napoleon to a seat in the National Assembly was met by the proposition of a decree for his banishment. He was admitted to take his seat by the vote of a great majority. Close upon this event came the terrible crisis which, after four days' fighting, ended in the total rout of the insurgents; the appointment of general Cavaignac as Dictator; and the declaration that Paris was in a state of siege, that is, under martial law. This state endured from the 24th of June till the 20th of October. On the 21st of December prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte took the oath as President of the French Republic, to continue in office till May, 1852.

The year 1848 will be memorable, not only for the Revolution of France, and its great example of extreme democratic opinions terminating, after a sanguinary struggle, in military despotism, but for the universal up-heaving of the continental kingdoms in an earthquake of which the tremblings have not yet subsided. To trace these events beyond this general reference to them would be beyond the scope of our history. We could not attempt to narrate the convulsions of Italy; the war between Austria and Sardinia; the insurrection of Hungary and the Hungarian war; the violated promises of sovereigns to their peoples; the dead calm, which was not peace, that ensued when Absolutism had triumphed; without going into a view of cause and effect, of the merit of contending principles, of the balance of good and evil, in the absence of which a meagre narrative of occurrences would be wholly unsatisfactory.*

Amidst the general disquiet of Europe, the Session of Parliament came to a close on the 5th of September. It was in no boastful spirit that the Queen said, that, surrounded by convulsions and wars between neighbouring States, she had had the satisfaction of being able to preserve peace for her own dominions, and to maintain our domestic tranquillity. "The strength of our institutions has been tried, and has not been found wanting." In these troublous times the social improvement of the country steadily wentforward. The great measure of establishing a General Board of Health, and to create Local Boards, was the timely work of this Session. It is unnecessary to point out how the condition of the cities and towns of this kingdom has been essentially changed-how the amount of human suffering has been lessened, and the moral improvement and contentment of the inhabitants in dense and populous districts promoted, by the Public Health Act. The awakening had succeeded to a lethargic sleep. No one was more strenuous in proclaiming how individual energy was to make legislative

* In the Appendix, we do not profess to present the occurrences there briefly noticed in their chronological succession with any attempt to digest them historically. We offer those imperfect Annals of nineteen years as some aid to the reader, if he should desire to trace the course of very marked events from the close of this history.

VOL. VIII.-260.

562

FREE-TRADE BANQUET-OPENING OF PARLIAMENT.

[1849.

provisions effectual than Prince Albert. At a meeting of the "Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes," he uttered words which sank deep into the national mind: "Depend upon it, the interests of classes too often contrasted are identical, and it is only ignorance which prevents their uniting for each other's advantage. To dispel that ignorance, to show how man can help man notwithstanding the complicated state of civilized society, ought to be the aim of every philanthropic person; but it is more peculiarly the duty of those who, under the blessing of Divine Providence, enjoy station, wealth, and education."

On the 31st of January, 1849, there was a public banquet in the Freetrade Hall at Manchester, to celebrate the triumph of that principle which had so often been advocated in that vast room. Two thousand persons were assembled. The renowned leaders of the League were the chief speakers. Their special vocation was now at an end, but they were ready again to do battle for political truth if a defeated party should attain power, and attempt to undo the great work of seven years. The hand of the clock was approaching the hour which was to begin another day, when the band struck up the inspiriting air of " A good time coming, boys." A chorus, very solemn in its joyfulness, burst from those two thousand voices. As the clock struck twelve, the chairman called for silence. “THE GOOD TIME HAS COME," he shouted. Then that multitude stood up, and with the British huzza which has struck terror into many an enemy proclaimed that one foe to the well-being of the people was at last laid low. The first of February, so hopefully expected, so patiently waited for, had arrived. The millions who earned their daily bread by the sweat of their brow might at last eat "untaxed food."

When the Session of Parliament was opened by the Queen on the 1st of February, the same newspaper contained the Speech of her Majesty, and the Report of the great banquet at Manchester. The royal speech contrasted the tranquillity and loyalty of England with the condition of the continent, convulsed by anarchy or trodden down by absolutism. Who, with any pretence to political philosophy, can now fail to trace this peace and contentment, in a very material degree, to the extinction of that injustice which had been so long perpetrated by delusive legislation, for the supposed interests of an exclusive class? The great statesman who accomplished this work points, with an honest exultation, to those who had been loudest in condemnation of the measures of 1846, who, on the 10th of April, 1848, openly rejoiced that provision had been made for the total repeal of the Corn-Laws. Yet, he says, these admissions were retracted, on the removal of all danger from popular disaffection. 'They were retracted without due reflection on the causes which had interfered in the hour of danger to promote loyalty to the throne, and confidence in the justice of parliament."

66

All these inconsistencies of party feeling have long since passed away. We have no pleasure in recalling the wearisome period of controversy that preceded the common agreement of all, except a few who still pored over their obsolete statistics, to enter upon a new era of manly exertion, unimpeded by class prejudices and unembittered by class animosities. We were

"Memoirs by Sir Robert Peel," p. 319.

1849.]

FINAL EXTINCTION OF THE CORN-LAWS.

563

becoming an united people, even in that dawning of a brighter day when the Queen met her Parliament on the 1st of February, 1849, and said-"I observe with satisfaction that this portion of the United Kingdom has remained tranquil amidst the convulsions which have disturbed so many parts of Europe. It is with pride and thankfulness that I advert to the loyal spirit of my people, and that attachment to our institutions which has animated them during a period of commercial difficulty, deficient production of food, and political revolution. I look to the protection of Almighty God for favour in our continued progress; and I trust you will assist me in upholding the fabric of the Constitution, founded as it is upon the principles of freedom and of justice."

END OF THE HISTORY.

POSTSCRIPT.

I HAVE thus completed a labour of seven years, in writing the History of my country from the Roman period to a remarkable epoch of the reign of Queen Victoria. With a reverent heart I thank the Supreme Controller of all human designs that He has permitted me, in reaching a prolonged term of the life of man, to carry forward my purpose to its close.

In referring from time to time to the irrevocable results of this longcontinued occupation-irrevocable, because this History of four thousand pages has been produced at periodical intervals, thus precluding the power of revising it as a whole-I am conscious of errors that might have been corrected under other circumstances. But I am not conscious of any material want of harmony between the earlier and the later portions— certainly of no essential discordance of principles and feelings. Whatever may be the defects of this narration,-stretching over nineteen hundred years of recorded time, and comprehending a vast body of facts, of whose quantity and varied character the Indexes, full as they are, will give an inadequate conception-I am warranted in saying that it is the only complete History of England-a Library History and not a School History-which is the production of one writer. With the exception of three Chapters, the "Popular History" has been wholly written by myself. This unity of thought, whatever may be the knowledge and ability of a historian, must have a certain value beyond what may be attained by a division of labour. Being the production of one mind, the due proportions of the narrative, from the first Chapter to the last, have, I trust, been maintained.

Having undertaken, perhaps somewhat rashly, to write a History of England that, regarding only its chronological extent, involved a large range

Those three chapters are Chap. xxix. of Vol. v. ; Chap. iv. of Vol. vii. ; and Chap. viii. of Vol. viii. Being confined to the subject of the Fine Arts, I felt that they required technical knowledge and a peculiar judgment to which I could not pretend. I therefore confided them to Mr. James Thorne, who has for some years contributed many articles on Art to works in which I have been engaged.