XXIII. 1830.

CHAP. regard to their influence on those engaged in the work of production. Thence also have arisen changes in our foreign policy equally startling and unexpected. It has displaced Great Britain from the head of Conservative alliances, and placed her in the front rank of the coalitions founded upon movement; and, stifling the ancient animosity of France and England, has brought the legions of both nations in cordial amity and generous rivalry to combat the forces of the Czar, in defence of Turkey, on the shores of the Crimea.

2.

Causes

which rendered the change so decisive.

3.

Superficial observers, and those whose attention is exclusively fixed on the influence of individual agency in' human affairs, see in these vast events and this entire change of system, both foreign and domestic, the effect only of the capacity of the leaders and their dexterity in the management of parties; and they declaim against the mistakes which, as they conceive, have ruined ancient interests, and the tergiversations which have broken up old alliances. But without disputing the important effect of individual men in moulding the fate of nations, it may with safety be asserted that, in this instance, the great change which took place was owing to general causes. The Wellington Administration, and with it the old system of government in Great Britain, fell, because it had become unsuited to the altered circumstances of the people; it neither met their wishes, nor provided for their necessities.

The very errors, as they were deemed by many at the Continued. time, were themselves forced upon their authors by general and irresistible causes. It is easy to see now, on the retrospect, that it was the monetary measures of 1819 and 1826, coupled with the emancipation of the Catholics, which brought about the change, because it was these which spread discontent and division among the rural and industrious classes, who had heretofore been the firmest supporters of the throne, the steadiest friends of the constitution. But that only removes the difficulty a

XXIII.

step farther back. The question remains, What caused CHAP. these measures to be adopted by successive governments, 1830. in opposition alike to the interests of the whole industrious classes of the people and their religious feelings, and in direct antagonism to the policy pursued for a century and a half by the Government, and under which the country had risen to an unexampled height of prosperity and glory? It is evident to any one who attentively considers the progress of these changes that they were not forced upon the legislature by individual men, but forced upon individual men by the legislature; and that a fixed majority had got into the House of Commons, which rendered it impossible to carry on the government in any other way. Each successive administration since the peace had been compelled to relinquish, as the price of retaining office, a part of the old system, until none remained, and an entire change of government and of the constitution had become unavoidable.

set these

causes in

It is not difficult to see, at this distance of time, what 4. was the cause which rendered this change of system What had necessary; and what is very remarkable, and perhaps unprecedented in human affairs, that cause is to be found motion? in the natural consequences of the entire success of the opposite system. So amazingly had the whole industrial interests of the community-landed, manufacturing, commercial, and colonial-grown and prospered under the old protective system, under which they had all found shelter during an hundred and fifty years, that a new interest had arisen in society, the fruit of their prosperity, but which was destined to limit and restrain it. This was the interest of REALISED CAPITAL, the produce of long-protected and thriving industry, but which had at length, from the unexampled impulse and successes of the war, acquired an influence which enabled it to set all other interests at defiance. This interest, by the command of ready money, and the acquisition of the close boroughs, had succeeded in acquiring a majority in the House of

XXIII.

CHAP. Commons, and with it the entire government of the State. Its interests were no longer identical with those of the 1830. industry from which it had sprung; on the contrary, they were adverse to it. To sell dear is the interest of the creators of wealth; to buy cheap is the interest of its inheritors. It is in the nature of things that Sir R. Peel the father, who made the fortune, should be the supporter of the protective; Sir R. Peel the son, who succeeded to it, the advocate of the cheapening system. Thence the change of system in the legislature when the inheritors became the more powerful body; and thence the creation of a general discontent in the industrious classes, which at length overwhelmed at once the Ministry and the previous system of government. When once capital, for its own advantage, had rendered the currency of the country entirely dependent on the retention of gold, and introduced free trade into the principal branches of manufacture, a revolution in the whole frame and system of government had become inevitable, and it was merely a question of time when it was to take place.

5.

declaration

Reform so

It was this circumstance which rendered the Duke of What made Wellington's famous declaration against reform so very the Duke's influential in inducing the immediate downfall of his adagainst ministration. It announced the determination of Governimportant. ment at all hazards to maintain the existing system in the House of Commons. But that was the precise thing which the country desired to have altered, because it had been the cause of all the suffering which had been experienced. It was against the "borough-mongers," as they were called, that the outcry was directed, because they brought in the men who had pursued the system which had been attended with such disastrous results. There was no hostility against the Crown; little, comparatively speaking, against the House of Lords, except in so far as it influenced the House of Commons. It was the venal and nomination boroughs which were the object of the general indignation, and they were so because the

XXIII.

1830.

persons who got into Parliament through their seats had CHAP. first, by the measures they pursued for the advantage of capital, created the distress, and then shown themselves insensible to all petitions for its relief. When the Duke of Wellington, therefore, declared himself decidedly opposed to every species of reform, he not only thwarted a vehement national passion, but expressed his determination to uphold what was the source of all the suffering which was experienced, and continue the close boroughs, which had become a great national grievance. wonder that it accelerated his fall.

It is no

6.

stry fixes Mr

claims.

Earl Grey, as a matter of course, was sent for by the King to form the new Ministry, which it was easy to The diffiforesee would be composed chiefly, if not entirely, of the forming the leaders of the liberal party in the two Houses of Parlia- new Mini ment. No small embarrassment, however, was experienced Brougham's in forming the administration, chiefly in consequence of the difficulty of finding a suitable situation for Mr Brougham, whose great abilities, and position as the real if not the avowed leader of the liberal party in the House of Commons, gave him claims to a higher situation than the aristocratic Whigs were willing to allow to any man who had raised himself by the unaided force of his own abilities, without patrician connections or support. On the other hand, it was very material to take the question of reform, which had only been postponed to the 25th November, out of the hands of a man at once so powerful, and so little inclined to follow the dictates or counsel of any other person. So strongly was Mr Brougham himself impressed with these difficulties, that in postponing his motion for reform, which he stated he did with great reluctance, he said, "No change that can take place in the Administration can by possibility affect me." Earl Grey first proposed for him the situation of Master of the Rolls, which is permanent, and is consistent with a seat in the House of Commons, but to this the King peremptorily objected. The Attorney-General's gown was

CHAP. next offered to him, but at once rejected.

XXIII. 1830.

1 Ann. Reg. 1830, 163,

165; Roe

buck, i.

434, 450;

Martineau,

ii. 21, 22.

7.

of Earl

Grey.

At length, on the King's suggestion, it was agreed to offer him the Great Seals, which were immediately accepted. No further difficulty was experienced in making up the Administration, which was composed almost entirely of noblemen of the Whig party. The Duke of Richmond, as representing the ultra-Tories, was made PostmasterGeneral, with a seat in the Cabinet; a negotiation was opened with Sir Edward Knatchbull, the leader of the same party in the House of Commons, but it failed of success. The new Ministry was officially announced on the 21st November, and gave very general satisfaction to the country.* It is remarkable that in a Liberal Cabinet of fifteen members thirteen were peers, or sons of peers, one a baronet, and only one commoner.1

EARL GREY, who at this eventful crisis succeeded to Character the government of the country, has left a name which never will be forgotten in English history, for he introduced that change in the constitution which has been attended with such great and lasting effects. He was beyond all doubt a most remarkable man.

* The new Ministry stood as follows:

Gifted by

In the Cabinet.-First Lord of the Treasury, Earl Grey; Lord Chancellor, Lord Brougham; Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the Commons, Lord Althorpe; President of the Council, Marquess of Lansdowne; Lord Privy Seal, Earl of Durham; Home Secretary, Lord Melbourne; Foreign Affairs, Lord Palmerston; Secretary of Colonies, Lord Goderich; First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir James Graham; President of the Board of Control, Mr Chas. Grant; Postmaster-General, Duke of Richmond; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Lord Holland; without office, Lord Carlisle.

Not in the Cabinet.-President of the Board of Trade, Lord Auckland; Secretary-at-War, Mr C. W. W. Wynn; Master-General of Ordnance, Sir James Kempt; Lord Chamberlain, Duke of Devonshire; Lord Steward, Marquess Wellesley; Master of the Horse, Lord Albemarle; Groom of the Stole, Marquess of Winchester; First Commissioner of Land Revenue, Mr Agar Ellis; Treasurer of the Navy, Mr Poulett Thomson; Attorney-General, Sir T. Denman; Solicitor-General, Sir W. Horne.

In Ireland.-Lord-Lieutenant, Marquess of Anglesea; Lord-Chancellor, Lord Plunkett; Commander of the Forces, Sir John Byng; Chief Secretary, Lord Stanley; Attorney-General, Mr Pennefather; Solicitor-General, Mr Crompton.

In Scotland.-Lord-Advocate, F. Jeffrey, Esq.; Solicitor-General, H. Cockburn, Esq.-Ann. Reg. 1830, pp. 164, 165; ROEBUCK, vol. i. pp. 450, 451.