XXI. 1826. talents were always respected, his capacity dreaded, CHAP. by his political opponents; and in his later years, when popular principles were in the ascendant, he gave many unequivocal proofs, that, though willing to be the leader, he would not condescend to be the slave of the people. 43. heat and Great Bri 1826. The year 1826 was long remembered in Great Britain from the excessive drought which everywhere prevailed, Excessive and the extraordinary heat with which it was accompa- drought of nied. The dry weather began early in June, and con- tain in tinued almost without intermission till the end of October, during the greater part of which time the thermometer in the shade was above 80°. It was the climate of the West Indies, without its moisture or sea-breezes. The consequences were remarkable and curious in the extreme; they clearly demonstrated that a long succession of such seasons would change the character, and with it the destinies of the British people. Harvest began in the south of England in the beginning of July; it was general over the whole island in the first week of August. The wheat crops did not suffer materially from this long drought. It was not likely that a vegetable which comes to perfection under the sun of Egypt, should wither under his rays, however ardent, in Great Britain. But the oats were so deficient that in the beginning of September they were 30s. the quarter, or double the usual price. The deer perished of thirst in the parks, the cattle in the fields. The green crops failed entirely; the grass was everywhere burned up, the hay harvest was almost nothing; and the price of fodder, and all kinds of food for animals, rose to such a degree in the succeeding winter, that it was evident that a succession of such seasons would confine the use of animal food to the most wealthy classes of the community. * The Author saw a field of wheat cut down on the miles to the south of Edinburgh, on the 11th July. banks of the Esk, six earlier than what is reckoned an early season, and about the season of harvest in Spain and Italy. VOL. IV. F XXI. 1826. CHAP. Who can calculate the effect of such a change in unbracing the nerves, and lessening the courage and energy of the great body of the British people? And this shows. how insensible we are to the greatest blessings of our social and physical situation. We lament our fogs and our rains, and envy the blue skies and cloudless sun of Italy, forgetting that it is these fogs and rains, and the mild and humid winters with which they are accompanied, which have provided the food for man by which his physical and mental energies are developed in the highest degree, and that but for them the Anglo-Saxon race, instead of performing its destined mission to “replenish the earth and subdue it," would have been pining in hope1826, 173. less subjection to the Scythian, like the Ryots of Hindostan or the Fellahs of Egypt.1 1 Ann. Reg. 44. The parliamentary session terminated on 31st May, Dissolution and next day the House of Commons was dissolved by ment, and royal proclamation. The elections were conducted with of Parlia elections. out heat or animosity the measures of Government had become so liberal and conciliatory that the Opposition had hardly a topic left whereon to declaim. Even the Corn Laws, the last stronghold of the aristocracy, had been partially yielded to the demands of the people, and this concession begat the hope of still farther relaxation. The Catholic question was the principal topic on the hustings, and Mr Canning and the Duke of York were the acknowledged leaders of the opposite parties. The future primeminister and the heir-apparent to the throne divided the affections of the thinking and religious portion of the community, and each of the two parties had a worthy leader to follow. To neither of these men had Providence allotted a long span of existence; ere two years had expired they were both gathered to their fathers. 3 Ann. Reg. The anti-Catholic party, however, upon the whole, de171; Mar cidedly gained by the elections. Two candidates in Yorkshire were elected on the ground of opposing the Catholics.2 Lord John Russell was defeated in 1826, 170, tineau, i. 404, 405. XXI. 1826. Huntingdonshire, and the Bedford interest generally CHAP. appeared to be waning, from the vigour of the Protestant party. The elections in Great Britain, however, passed over without riots; and they were memorable for one circumstance, heretofore unknown in England, that several persons going to them were struck down on the road by coup de soleil, and that it was often impossible to get water for the horses engaged in transporting them. 45. General in terference in the Irish In Ireland, the elections gave token of a more alarming spirit, and augured unequivocally an approaching stormfor the priests, for the first time, took an active part in of the priests the contests. Mr Sheehan said to them, "Here are the elections. natural enemies of your country; and here are your priests, who wait on the bed of sickness, and we, your friends alike in prosperity or woe-follow us or them." Mr Shiel afterwards said, "The whole body of the peasantry have risen up in a tumultuous revolt against their landlords. I avow that this extraordinary political phenomenon is, to a great extent, the result of the interposition of the clergy, whose influence has been brought into full and unrestrained activity." Several elections in Ireland were gained to the Catholic cause by this new and powerful religious co-operation, but not so many as were lost in England from the zeal of the opposite party. The great majority in the two islands were arrayed under opposite banners, and stood in open hostility to each other—an ominous circumstance, which it was evident Catholic eman- 1 Ann. Reg. 1826, 171, cipation would not remove, and which augured ill for the 174. peace of the empire in future times.1 the new Nov. 14. The next session of Parliament was opened on the 14th 46. November, in consequence of the necessity of providing an Opening of immediate remedy to the high price of oats. The rise in Parliament. their price had been so rapid, in consequence of the drought of the summer, that the averages taken by the existing law, at the prices of the six weeks preceding, would not rise soon enough to let in the requisite supplies immediately from abroad, and partial famine might be the consequence. XXI. 1826. CHAP. Parliament was assembled accordingly, and the general distress which prevailed formed a leading feature in the royal speech. "I have deeply sympathised," said his Majesty," with the sufferings which, for some time past, have been so severely felt by the manufacturing class, and contemplated with satisfaction the exemplary patience with which they have been borne. The depression under which the trade and manufactures of the country have been labouring, have abated more slowly than I thought myself warranted in anticipating; but I retain a firm expectation that this abatement will be progressive, and that the time is not far distant when, under the blessing 1 Ann. Reg. of Divine Providence, the commerce and industry of the United Kingdom will have resumed their wonted activity."1 1826, 175, 177. 47. The measure proposed by Government to meet the Temporary existing crisis was an act of Parliament sanctioning an relaxation Order in Council, which had been issued on the 15th SepLaws. tember preceding, authorising the importation of foreign of the Corn grain, at a duty of 2s. a quarter, till the 15th February, when the next averages might be struck. This measure, being founded in obvious necessity, the price of oats having risen to 30s. a quarter, met with general concurrence -the agricultural party only protesting that their acquiescence in it was not to be regarded as any abandonment of their general principles, but a concession only to the 2 Ann. Reg. Overbearing necessities of the moment; the adoption of 181; Parl. such temporary relief, so far from a deviation from, being strictly in harmony with the spirit of the existing Corn Laws.2 1826, 179, Deb. xvi. 126, 130. ing gal. 48. Before the House of Commons, however, had sat many King's mes- weeks, a topic of a far more momentous and exciting sage regard-kind was brought before it, which, more than the rise in the price of oats, had been the real cause of its early convocation. On the 11th December, a message was brought from the King to both Houses of Parliament, which stated, in substance, that "an earnest application had been XXI. 1826. received by his Majesty from the Princess-Regent of CHAP. Portugal, claiming, in virtue of the ancient obligations of alliance and amity subsisting between his Majesty and the Crown of Portugal, his Majesty's aid against a hostile aggression from Spain; that repeated assurances had been given by the King of France that he would neither commit, nor allow to be committed, any hostile act on the realm of Portugal; but that, notwithstanding these assurances, hostile inroads into the territory of Portugal have been concerted in Spain, and executed under the eyes of the Spanish authorities, by Portuguese regiments, which had deserted into Spain, and which the Spanish government had repeatedly and solemnly engaged to disarm and disperse." This message took both Houses of Parliament, the country, and the world, entirely by surprise. No one had the slightest idea that any such events, 1 Ann. Reg. so obviously ominous to the peace of Europe, were in Parl. Deb. progress; and the excitement thence arising throughout 333. Europe was proportionally greater.1 1826, 192; xvi. 334, 49. had come to pass. To understand how this came about, and how the rival powers of England and France, and the principles of consti- How this tutional and despotic government, were thus openly brought into collision, it is only necessary to recollect that, though Spain had undergone a counter-revolution, in Portugal a constitutional monarchy still existed, under the sway of the infant daughter of the King of Brazil, the laws of which provided that its crown should never be united to that of Portugal. The government of Portugal, remodelled, as already mentioned, after the counter-revolution of 1823,2 2 Ante, c. was a constitutional one; but so moderate and tempered that it had excited no enthusiasm in the liberal party, either there or elsewhere. Such as it was, however, it was the object of great jealousy both to the Spanish government and the Royalist party in Portugal; and a civil war having arisen, as will be more fully narrated in the account of the transactions of the Peninsula, Don Miguel, the King of Brazil's younger brother, had been xii. § 93. |