XXI. 1826. Petersburg, in the name of religion, to establish Musco- CHAP. vite domination at Constantinople. But so utterly blind are men to the plainest truths where their interests or passions are concerned, that the same individuals who had most cordially applauded English intervention in South America, the source of unnumbered woes to humanity, were now most vehement in their condemnation of Spanish intervention in Portugal in favour of absolutism ; and it was hard to say whether the cheers of the House of Commons were loudest when Mr Canning announced, in his opening speech, the departure of the British troops for the well-known heights of Lisbon, where foreign dominion shall not prevail, or on his reply, when he declared that when France made one aggression on Spain he determined that England should make another, and that "he called the new world into existence to redress the balance of the old." 56. state of the ning of This warlike interlude interrupted only for a very short period the fixed attention of the British people to objects Improved of domestic interest. These soon resumed their accustomed country in course, and entirely absorbed general thought. The im- the beginprovement of the country during the course of the winter 1827. of 1826-7, though slow, was steady if the cheering symptoms of general prosperity had not yet returned, those of universal suffering had sensibly abated. There were no longer any failures of banks, and no call for additional public measures to restore commercial confidence. Those already adopted had gone far to assuage the general suffering; a crisis which had been brought on by a sudden and unexpected contraction of the currency in the midst of the greatest and most pressing money engagements, had been successfully arrested by the measures forced upon the Government, in opposition to their strongest prepossessions, by the public necessities. The issue of nine millions of additional Bank of England notes in the last three weeks of 1825 had stopped the panic; the guaranteeing by Government of loans to the extent of 1827. CHAP. three millions more by the Bank had sensibly arrested XXI. its effects. Wages, indeed, were still low-in many branches of industry distressingly so-but employment was general; and though the failure of the home market was still severely felt, yet foreign ones had generally revived, and the happy prospect of the continuance of general peace enabled the merchants to begin again, 1827, 1, 2. though as yet with fear and trembling, their renovating speculations.1 1 Ann. Reg. 57. the Duke of York. Jan. 5, 1827. Two domestic events occurred in the early part of this Death of year, attended with important consequences, and which, in the critical state and equal balance of parties at that period in the British empire, were attended with lasting effects. The first of these was the death of the Duke of York, who expired on the 5th January. The health of the illustrious Prince had been long declining, though no immediate danger was apprehended; but during the last six months the symptoms had assumed the character of decided dropsy, which, though for some time baffled by the skill of his physicians, assumed, in December 1826, the most alarming symptoms. The increase of his bodily sufferings, however, and the near approach of death, with which he was well acquainted, could not for a moment render him insensible to the call of patriotism. He continued to the very last to discharge all his important duties as Commander-in-Chief; and when grievously oppressed by breathlessness, and supported by pillows in bed, he personally gave the whole orders, and made the entire arrangements for the small but brilliant expedition which left the British shores in the middle of December, and did such service to the interests of humanity by preserving the peace of Europe, when violently threatened in the close of 1826. On the 28th December the sacra1827, 2, 3; ment was administered to him, along with his sister the Princess Sophia, by the hands of the Bishop of London ;2 on the next day he received the parting visit of his royal 2 Ann. Reg. Martineau, i. 428. brother; and on the 5th January he expired, in the CHAP. sixty-fourth year of his age. ter. XXI. 1827. 58. The character of the Duke of York, as of all persons who have taken a decided part in great political questions His characwhich divided society, has been variously drawn by writers of different parties; but it is possible at this distance of time to represent it in its true colours, without intemperate bias on either side. By one party he is represented as a firm patriot, a sincere politician, the intrepid assertor of the principles which had placed his family on the throne; by another, as an obstinate bigot, who wilfully shut his eyes to the lights of the age, and obstructed, as long as he had the power, the greatest social amelioration in the British empire. He was in reality neither so great a man as his panegyrists represent, nor so reprehensible as his detractors assert. He was an honest, kind-hearted, intrepid Prince, without any extensive reach of vision, but with a clear perception of his duty within the limits over which it extended, and the resolute will which, having once discerned, never hesitated to discharge it. Possessed of good abilities, he had exhibited early in life, in the campaign in Flanders, the decision and daring which form such material elements in the character of a great general; and when subsequently raised to the important situation of Commander-in-Chief, which he held for thirty-two years, the services he rendered to the army were such that he may be truly said to have laid the foundation of the edifice of which Wellington raised the superstructure. 59. Indefatigable in his attention to business, zealous in the discharge of duty, easy of access, affable in manner, he Continued. won the hearts of the officers by the courtesy of his demeanour, the straightforwardness of his conduct, and the equity of his distribution of patronage; while he endeared himself to the private soldiers by his unwearied attention to their interests, and the vast improvements which he XXI. 1827. CHAP. introduced both in their material comforts and moral training. With truth he said, on his death-bed, that if the condition of the first English expedition, which landed at Ostend in 1794, were compared with that which he had recently despatched to Lisbon, it would not be believed that they belonged to the same age or nation. Mr Peel said, in moving an address of condolence to the King on the death of his brother, that he did not believe that, during the ten thousand days he had held his exalted situation, there had been one on which he had not devoted some time to its duties. It was by his long and judicious efforts that the numerous abuses existing in the army at his entry on office were rooted out, promotion put on a better footing, the station of the soldier elevated, and that noble body of men created, who carried the English standards in triumph to Paris, Delhi, and Nankin. That he was not an immaculate character, is only to say that he was a child of Adam. Liberal even to profusion in private life, his attention was so incessantly absorbed by the cares of his office, that he allowed his affairs to fall into confusion, and he left nothing but the memory of his great services behind him. His irregularities of another kind, the frequent accompaniment of exalted rank and an ardent disposition, were fastened on, during one memorable investigation, by the combined forces of scandal and faction, with such intensity as rendered his temporary retirement from office a matter of necessity. But he was soon restored to it with the unanimous approbation of the nation, which, however frequently overborne for a time by the vehemence of party or the clamour of the press, is rarely in the end unjust in the estimate of private character, or ungrateful for public services. His decided and manly declaration of his sentiments on Catholic emancipation, shortly before his death, exposed him again to unbounded obloquy at the time; but experience has long since stilled that clamour, and suggested a doubt whether those who are reckoned, during their life,1 to have been 1 Ann. Reg. 1827, 7. behind the age, were not sometimes in reality in advance CHAP. of it. XXI. 1827. 60. retirement The Duke of York was soon followed to the grave by another public man, who had long held a prominent Illness and place in the councils of the country. Lord Liverpool, who of Lord since 1812 had been prime-minister, had himself moved Liverpool. the address of condolence to the King on his brother's death in the beginning of February, and had announced that he would on the 15th introduce the intended alteration on the Corn Laws in the House of Peers, when he was suddenly seized with a paralytic attack, which, though not at the time fatal, was of such severity as to render his retention of office impossible. He tendered his resignation to his Majesty as soon as returning consciousness, six weeks after, enabled him to do so; and his situation was such as to give the Sovereign no alternative but to accept Twiss's Life it. During the long interval the nation remained with- 583, 584. out a prime-minister.1 1 Ann. Reg. 1827,90,91; of Eldon, ii. ter, and its to his times. Lord Liverpool was not a man of striking abilities, and 61. still less of decision of character; but on that very account His charache was peculiarly fitted for the situation which he so long adaptation held. The period during which he was prime-minister was, at least during its last twelve years, essentially one of transition. He came into office when the crisis of the war was over, and he had only to reap the fruits of the courage and capacity of his predecessors. His long reign. occurred when difficulties of another kind were accumulating round the throne, when new ideas were fermenting in the nation, when extended power was loudly demanded by the people, and when whole classes of society, enriched by industry and peace, were prosecuting their objects of separate aggrandisement. The utopian dream of the interests of all classes being identical, was then fast giving way to the stern reality of the more powerful enriching itself at the expense of the weaker. The opposite parties at that period were so nearly balanced, that if he had acted with decision, and thrown himself, without |