A Comprehensive History of Norwich

by A. D. Bayne

CHAPTER I.
Political History.

We have already recorded the chief political events of the last century, and we shall now proceed to connect it with the present period by a brief review of political meetings and elections. An account of all the contested elections, in full detail, would be highly interesting if it could be written, but unfortunately the local records are very imperfect and unreliable. The public journals have been, of course, biassed by party considerations, and from them it is impossible to derive an impartial account.

The English parliament has now attained the patriarchal age of 600 years. The latest researches confirm the conclusions of the earlier historians, that the year 1265 is the date of the first regal summons convoking the great council of the nation, at least in its complete form, on a muster of lords, spiritual and temporal, knights of the shire, and representatives of cities and boroughs; and throughout the whole sexcentenary period which has elapsed, the estates of the realm have been convened at frequent intervals to advise the sovereign on national affairs. Parliament gradually effected great advances in the cause of liberty; for, at the time of granting taxes and aids, they generally coupled such concessions with important provisions for the good of their fellow-citizens and the community at large.

Henry IV. directed a writ to the bailiffs by which four citizens of Norwich were ordered to be returned to Parliament; but, the attendance of members being then paid for by their constituents, the expense was an object, and they therefore made interest to get the members reduced to two only. Under the old charters of the city the freemen were entitled to vote for members of parliament and members of the corporation; and householders were not included in the list of voters till the Reform Act of 1832. The old freemen, therefore, formed the greater part of the constituency, and in the course of time became a very corrupt body here, as well as in all other corporate towns. By the act of 1729, it was provided “that at every election for burgesses in parliament, every one that votes must swear that he hath been admitted to his freedom twelve calendar months before that election, and that he hath not been polled at that election before, or in case of an election of two members, but for one person.” The Reform Act of 1832, however, extended the franchise to £10 householders in towns, and gave them a preponderating power in parliament.

For many centuries the House of Commons represented only the landed interest, and nearly all laws were in favour of the land-owners, who, under pretence of protecting native industry, enacted laws to prevent or to limit the importation of foreign corn. The great land-owners in the House of Lords had their nominees, too, in the House of Commons, and ruled the entire country.

The first Revolution in France produced a wonderful effect on the political and religious worlds. In the year 1790 commenced those great and important events in France, which laid the foundation of the long war that afterwards raged between that unfortunate empire and this country, and which almost ruined Norwich. Party spirit here began to rage with increased violence. The Tories were vehemently against the Revolution, and the Whigs were equally earnest in its favour. It is well known, indeed, that the unparalleled convulsions on the continent extended their influence to England and Scotland, and raised a storm, although not so disastrous, yet scarcely less permanent. The jealousies of government had been excited to an unreasonable height, and the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act furnished the ministers with an opportunity of gratifying all their revenge on political opponents. England, in short, by the base, suspicious, and mean conduct of her rulers, became for a short time the land of persecution and oppression. Many of the most respectable men were imprisoned on frivolous charges, while others were accused of high treason; and though acquitted by juries, yet imprisonment injured their health, distressed their families, and exhausted their property. These disgraceful transactions continued for some time, and roused a strong feeling of indignation against the government of the day.

Mr. Mark Wilks, a Baptist preacher in this city, of whose history we have already given some extensive details (see p. 482), made himself very prominent as an advocate of the Revolution, and of radical principles. On July 14th, 1791, he preached two political discourses, before crowded congregations, in defence of the Revolution in France, and these discourses had a marked effect in the city; and he became a very active political partizan, both in the city and county. He took a great interest in Hardy and his associates, who had become involved in debt by the great expenses of their trial. He instituted a subscription in all parts of the kingdom to assist the sufferers; and on April 19th, 1795, he preached two sermons in Norwich, in which he exposed with great severity the injustice of the measures adopted against them, and vindicated their characters and conduct. The collections, after the sermons, amounted to a large sum. In one of his sermons, he said:—

“In favour of Mr. Windham’s acquitted felons, (Thomas Hardy, John Horne Tooke, Bonney, Kidd, Joyce, Holcroft, Richton, and Baxter, and all their supposed associates in guilt), we may adduce their peaceable and orderly demeanour in all their public and private transactions. By whatever names men are called, whether loyalists or republicans, whether Reevites or Jacobins, I will venture to say that friends of anarchy are foes of society, and ought to be considered as wolves scattering the shepherd’s flock, and dealt with accordingly. But have we seen one atom of licentious wantonness, one spark of civil discord in these friends of reform? No! the peaceable and orderly deportment of these societies has been sufficient to convince every unprejudiced mind how much they have acted under the influence of that wisdom which cometh from above, which is in its nature peaceable, and productive of good fruits.

“The Jacobins in this city—and except at Paris there can have been none greater—have given repeated demonstrations of their love of peace. At a time when the starving poor felt an iniquitous disposition to riot; when the friends of freedom were represented as having formed a design of regulating markets, dividing farms, and equalising property; and when the imbecile farmer credulously imbibed the representation, the affiliated societies in this city published this resolve, ‘That if any member should break the peace by the violation of existing laws, he should not only be excluded, but delivered up into the hands of justice.’ No exclusion, however, has taken place in consequence of this resolution; and the reason has been obvious—there has been no offence. The traitorous conspirators (so called) in this city can call upon the Right Hon. W. Windham to bear testimony to their love of peace. The opposition he experienced last July, he very well knows arose from no personal disrespect, nor from any view of incompetency on his part in point of talents, but from a love of peace and an inveterate hatred of this accursed war. Mr. Windham very well knows, that when he appeared in the character of a true patriot, when it was his creed that ‘The influence of the crown had increased, was increasing, and ought to be diminished;’ when he avowedly acted as a spy on the executive government; when he was found to be the vigilant guardian of the life, liberty, and property of his constituents; when no horrid imprecation from his all-erring lips had blasted our commercial interests; when he had not learned to calumniate his constituents and to impute the blackest crimes to the friends of his country; when he had not apostatized from the sacred path marked out by a Hampden’s and a Sydney’s blood; when he had not frowned on freedom and preached the doctrine of extermination, he was respected—yes, loved; at least by one, who has offended his best friends, sacrificed his interest, and endangered his life to procure his present elevation. Mr. Windham knows that he was never despised by the Whig interest in the city, till he appeared in the character of a war minister, and the enthusiastic abettor of the most disgraceful and perilous measures ever pursued by weak and wicked men. Perhaps Mr. Windham may boast that his friends in Norwich are not diminished, that he found as many last July as he was wont to find. True, but where did he find them? Where public money had paved his way! At the Back of the Inns, among flannel-waistcoat manufacturers, in the precincts of the Cathedral, and in many places and connexions where, on former occasions, he would have been ashamed to have sought them. Here are those who by the possession of places, contracts, promises, expectations, and anticipations, are influenced to vote for all the measures of government, right or wrong; and those who, connected with the above description, are pleased with their prosperity and rejoice to see them fatten, though on the public spoil.

“Those, too, are to be met with here, who under the influence of superstition and prejudice tremble for the safety of Church and King. Nor are we without those brainless Gallios, by whom men and measures are never weighed; who, devoid of sense and negligent of the means which might make them wise, always see with the eyes of others, and bow obsequious to their lordly wills. To the credit of the nation, however, at the late election, a fifth class of citizens was found, a class of freemen who, though called Jacobin levellers, could not countenance a man of blood. These, averse to coercive measures, averse to violence, averse to war, averse to the annihilation of commerce, and alike averse to a nation’s ruin, turned their eyes to a friend of peace; and in the person of Mr. Mingay found an unsullied blank, on which 770 freemen wrote their protest against the measures of the administration, the commencement and continuance of a dreadful war. Let me ask Mr. Windham, let me ask the world, who are the best men, the advocates of negociation, who wish to overcome evil with good, or those who destroy the world by casting about firebrands, arrows, and death? If the former, I will then assert that the reputed conspirators are of that description, and deserve the character of the best of men.

“When the friends of freedom met to celebrate the deliverance of the acquitted felons, had the duke of Portland known their character, our present worthy mayor would have received no orders from his grace’s office to parade the streets with constables to preserve the peace. Had no curry-favour sycophant, no worthless candidate for the receiver generalship, endeavoured to excite the jealousy of his grace, the mayor would not have been necessitated to do what to him was unpleasant, or of vindicating in his letter to the duke, which to his honour he did, the injured character of his fellow-citizens.

“Thank God! the traitorous conspirators need no militia, no barracks, no standing army, no royal proclamations, no suspension of the Habeas Corpus, to keep them quiet. Men of principle detest tumult; and in their love of order and of peace, they find a restraint more powerful than any government can impose. From their peaceful habitations the savage whoop has not been heard; they have not assailed their quiet neighbours, nor burnt the dwellings of God or man. But can this be fairly said of their accusers? Have no anarchists, rioters, and levellers been found among them? (alluding to events at Birmingham). Ah! had that been happily the case, thy streets, O Birmingham, had never been lighted by the rioter’s torch! nor Thy temples, blessed God, reduced to ruins! Bigotry and persecution had not deprived us of the most splendid talents, nor had philosophy been forced to seek an asylum under calmer skies! Had the vain, the greedy, the ambitious candidates for honour and emoluments in the army, the navy, and the church been under the same influence that has governed the hearts and directed the conduct of the friends of freedom, the destroying sword had been lodged in its peaceful scabbard, there to have slept an eternal sleep.”

The preacher proceeded in the same eloquent manner to denounce the war and its advocates, and to defend the friends of freedom and peace, who it appears were numerous in this city, and who formed various associations of, what was deemed, a radical character. The Tories also had their political clubs under various names, and held weekly or monthly meetings at different hotels or taverns. The Eldon Club, formed and named in honour of Lord Eldon, is the only one that now remains, and the members have long held their meeting at the Bell Inn, on the Castle Hill. For some years the growing feeling here in favor of various pluses of reform, manifested itself chiefly in contests for the representation of the city; but gradually, public meetings and petitions to parliament became more and more frequent, and during the few years which preceded the great Reform Bill, were very numerous and often very excited. Amongst the first subjects which called forth the indignant protests of the citizens was that of the corn-laws. On Jan. 12th, 1815, a county meeting was held at the Shirehall, when it was unanimously resolved to petition parliament to take the corn-laws into consideration, on account of the depressed prices of agricultural produce. The bill, fixing the protecting price of wheat imported at 80s. per qr. and barley at 20s. per coomb, was this session enacted. On February 8th, at a numerous meeting held at the Guildhall, the mayor, (J. W. Robberds,) presiding, it was resolved to petition the House of Lords against the bill, which had then passed the House of Commons. The petition was signed by 13,000 citizens, but it passed the House of Lords, and received the royal assent. Great excitement prevailed, and on March 17th, Thomas William Coke, Esq. and Lord Albemarle, both Liberals, were attacked by the populace, at the cattle show, and pelted with stones, in consequence of the support which they had given to the corn-laws. Fortunately, they escaped to the Angel Inn (now the Royal Hotel), and afterwards from the city, but the tumult raged so highly, that the riot act was read, and the Brunswick Hussars were called out to quell the disturbance.

In the following year (1816) the attention of the citizens was turned to the question of Parliamentary Reform, and on the 14th October, a common hall was held for the adoption of a petition in its favour. Mr. Edward Taylor moved the adoption of the petition, and after congratulating the meeting on having a representative, in the person of Mr. Smith, who was an able and constant friend of the liberties of the people and of Parliamentary Reform, he reminded the audience that it was in vain for members of parliament to attempt to stem the torrent of corruption, unless the people supported them. The people had been long inactive, but he hoped to see the spirit of zeal and energy on behalf of this great cause revived, and extend itself to the verge of the island; and that petitions on the same principle as that about to be adopted by the present meeting would be sent to the legislature from every part of the kingdom. Mr. Firth had objected to the time as inappropriate. This he (Mr. Taylor) regarded as the old Pitt cant, according to which it always appeared that there were two seasons when any attempt to reform parliament was improper; the former of these was a state of war, when it was said that the ministers had something else to do besides redressing public grievances; the other was a state of peace, when the objection was that, all things being quiet, it was best not to disturb them. He (Mr. Taylor), however, affirmed that it was no less the duty than the right of the people of this country to call loudly for reform, especially at a time when their burdens and distresses were so great. Surely they were justified in asking for retrenchment in the public expenditure, when Lord Bathurst alone took more of the nation’s money, than was sufficient to maintain the poor of Norwich for a year. There was a long black list exhibiting many more such; while, at the same time, our trade was stagnant, and our poor rates increasing; and, therefore, he asked boldly whether such persons as these, who were taking the public money, ought not to be called on to disgorge some of the plunder. The petition was adopted by acclamation, and then Mr. William Smith, M.P., for Norwich, addressed the audience, approving of its prayer.