The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

by Edward Farr; E. H. Nolan

CHAPTER LXIV.

VICTORIA. 1852

Home Affairs: General State of Great Britain; Religious Agitations; Death of the Duke of Wellington; The Court; Parliamentary Discussions; Changes of Ministry..... Ireland: Animosities on Account of Religion; Insecurity of Life; Terrible Assassinations..... Colonies: War at the Cape; Gold in California; General Condition of the British Colonies..... Foreign Affairs: Electric Telegraph Between London and Paris; Revival of the French Empire; English Policy in Reference to that Event; Indignant Feeling of the English nation towards Austria and the despotic Princes of Italy; Efforts of the British Navy to put down Piracy and Slavery.

A.D. 1852

The year 1852, like its predecessor, opened in the British Isles with fierce religious controversies. The agitation about the papal aggression had not died away, and events occurred, from day to day, inflaming the spirit of religious difference. Yet this was not an unmixed evil—“The greatest blessings have been achieved by discussions, errors suffer in the ordeal; truth never does; the dross is consumed in the fire; the gold comes out more brilliant, more precious, more pure.” *

* Rev. Dr. Cumming’s “Apocalyptic Sketches,” p. 153

What was generally called the Achilli trial, early in the year, aggravated the existing religious dissensions, and extended the spirit of polemical conflict. Although the trial did not take place until June, the public anticipated it with intense excitement. Dr. Achilli had been a Roman Catholic priest; he left the Church of Rome, and devoted himself to preach against its tenets, and the spirit of persecution which it breathed. He produced a powerful impression both in Great Britain and Ireland. It became exceedingly important to silence him, and the Romish church resorted to its old instrument in such cases, defamation. The Rev. Mr. Newman, a Roman Catholic priest, a convert from the Church of England, who had, as a clergyman of that church, distinguished himself at Oxford by his Jesuitical casuistry in upholding Puseyism, and teaching that, by receiving the Church of England Articles in a “non-natural sense,” clergymen might remain in her communion, and receive her emoluments, while they taught the doctrines peculiar to the Church of Rome, publicly attacked the character of Dr. Achilli, averring that he was unworthy of credit, because he had been expelled from the Church of Rome for dissolute habits. Achilli took an action for libel, which was tried in the Court of Queen’s Bench, when a verdict was given in favour of Dr. Achilli. The case assumed a peculiar aspect from the fact that a number of women had been brought from Italy, by the Roman Catholic priests, who swore that they had participated with Dr. Achilli in criminal intercourse. The doctor solemnly swore that some of these women he had never seen, and that, in respect to others whom he had known, no accusation had ever until then been brought against him. The mode in which these women gave their testimony, and the contradictory character of it, left the jury no alternative but to believe the allegations of Dr. Achilli, that the case was got up against him, by a conspiracy of Roman Catholic priests, for the purpose of destroying his moral reputation, and thereby preventing his effective preaching from injuring their sectarian interests.

Another event still more aggravated the odiumtheologicum which prevailed. In the town of Stockport fierce religious riots broke out between the Irish Roman Catholics and the Protestants of that town. A religious procession of an offensive nature was got up by the Roman Catholic clergy. This was resented by the Protestant population as an insult: the Roman Catholic party persisted in the aggressive movement, and the result was riot and bloodshed for several days. This event produced terrible excitement elsewhere: and in Ireland some of the newspapers in the Roman Catholic interest incited the people to commit violence upon their Protestant neighbours. In addition to the animosity which raged between Protestants and Romanists, the controversy concerning the admission of Jews to parliament divided other sections of the community. The parliamentary debates on this subject in the previous year were remembered, and the remembrance embittered by various incidents. Among these was the trial of Miller versus Salomons. Mr. Salomons having been elected member for Greenwich, presented himself in the House of Commons, and voted. The action was to enforce a penalty of £500 for having voted without taking the oath of abjuration. The case was tried in the Court of Exchequer, before the barons, who were, with the exception of Baron Martin, unanimous in a decision against Mr. Salomons. This trial took place in April, and had the effect of exasperating the wealthy Jewish community of London and exciting the liberal politicians, who desired the emancipation of their Jewish fellow citizens from all civil disabilities on account of their religion.

The general condition of Great Britain was prosperous. The influx of gold from the newly-discovered gold regions, especially those of Australia, stimulated enterprise. The recent remissions of duties afforded relaxation to the pressure of taxation upon industry; trade was good; the industrial classes were contented; the farmers, sharing in the general prosperity, yielded less willingly to make themselves instruments of agitation in the hands of Lord Derby. Benjamin Disraeli, and other less prominent leaders of the opponents of free-trade, especially in corn. With the exception of the Cape of Good Hope, the tidings received from the colonies were favourable. No foreign war threatened, although many apprehended that the “coup d’état” by leading to the revival of the empire, would also lead to a revival of the old imperial attitude of France to England,—that of menace and ambition. The policy pursued by the British government was, however, so conciliatory and fair, that no opportunity was left for France to make a quarrel. It was moreover the interest of the French president to court alliance with England, to prevent the possibility of a continental coalition against him, which he knew would never dare the power of France while England was her ally. The discussions connected with the outrage committed upon Erskine Mather, Esq., at Florence, by Austrian officers, alone agitated the country in connection with foreign politics. The progress of that event was laid fully before the reader in the last chapter. During the debates about it in parliament and the press, in 1852, a strong public sentiment was evoked against the Duke of Tuscany, and the Austrian government and army. Much sympathy was felt towards the young Englishman who had so well maintained his country’s honour, and to his father, by whom he was sustained in the manly and patriotic course which he had adopted. The procedure of the diplomatic agents of the English government, of the English government itself, and of the foreign minister, Lord Malmesbury most especially, excited the indignation of the people, and tended much to weaken the cabinet of which Lord Malmesbury was so prominent a member: probably the apathy and want of manly spirit and patriotism displayed by the British government and its employés in the Florence affair, did more to shake the confidence of the people in the administration than all the party attacks to which in its short existence it was exposed.

Among the home events of the year which excited general interest were a series of earthquakes, which spread alarm over a large portion of Great Britain. Such rare phenomena in this island naturally attracted the attention of the philosophical, and affected the multitude with awe. On the 4th of November the inhabitants of the northwestern districts of England felt the shocks usually characteristic of earthquake. The chief force of the subterranean commotion seemed to be beneath Liverpool and the districts that surround it. In Manchester the shock was felt more severely than in most other districts. On the opposite coast of Ireland, especially in the counties of Dublin and Wicklow, the vibrations of the earth were nearly as remarkable as in Lancashire and Cheshire.

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