PROROGATION AND DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT.
Parliament was prorogued by the king in person on the 28rd of July. In his speech he thanked both houses for their expressions of sympathy and affectionate attachment, conveyed to him on the demise of his lamented brother, and on his accession; and said that he ascended the throne with a deep sense of the sacred duties which devolved upon him, and with a humble and earnest prayer to Almighty God, that he would prosper his anxious endeavours to promote the happiness of a free and loyal people. His majesty referred to the Catholic Relief bill, expressing a hope that it would put an end to religious feuds; and declaring that he was determined to support the Protestant religion as by law established. On the next day parliament was dissolved by proclamation, and writs were ordered to be issued for the election of a new one, returnable on the 14th of September.
STATE OF PARTIES.
The session just closed had broken up the alliance which enabled ministers to retain office; and as this alliance, whilst it lasted, seemed to widen the breach between them and their ancient friends, they were destined, in the ensuing elections, to meet with a formidable opposition. To oust the ministry was the avowed object of the Whigs, and whoever professed the same object was their friend. The hostility of the Tories rested on different grounds from that of the Whigs, but it was equally formidable. The ministry, therefore, was forced to an election in face of the combined opposition of the two parties—by playing off one of which against the other it had flattered itself with being able to retain its power. Yet the opposition was not stated on any special ground. The manifestoes of the Whigs attacked it on the ground of incapacity; but in what they were incapable was not shown. The Duke of Wellington was said by them to be a domineering soldier, unfitted to conduct alone the government of the nation, yet determined to surround himself with men of mean capacity and dependent spirit, who would act as the unreflecting instruments of his will. Such were the views put forth by the Whigs, and though the offended Tories did not deliberately act in union with them, yet their influence operated in the same direction—namely, to overthrow the ministry. This general spirit of opposition suddenly gained an addition of strength by a revolution in France. The ministers of Charles X., discovering that the new elections increased the number of their opponents, broke through the fences of the constitution, with a determination to establish a species of Prussian government, in which the material interests of the people should dominate over those that are intellectual and political. A royal ordinance abolished the liberty of the press; cancelled the existing system of representation; and fashioned for the kingdom a new system of election, which would produce a chamber of deputies more subservient to the royal will. Paris rose in arms against these decrees, and the rabble overcame the troops. Charles X. and his descendants were then excluded from the throne by the deputies then in Paris, and the French crown was presented by them at the same time to the Duke of Orleans. This revolution in France was followed by another in Belgium, where a national congress declared Belgium an independent state, excluded the house of Orange from the throne, and set themselves about the election of a new king. These events were hailed in England by the Whigs with applause, as the dawning of a new and glorious era in the history of man. Public meetings were held to pass resolutions commending the spirit with which the Parisians had shaken off encroaching despotism, and deputations were sent to congratulate them on their triumph. The people of England were especially called on to remark how little they had to fear from military power, since the citizens of Paris and Brussels had been able to set it at defiance. It was also stated that they were clearly entitled to be heard in the government, since it was in their power to make the government what they chose. The excitement produced by these events, indeed, acted in the elections very unfavourably to ministers; and it had also the effect of bringing forward the question of parliamentary reform in a much more prominent and remarkable shape than it had yet assumed. The force of example was now added to the existing motives for change, and the notion of transferring the privileges of a corrupt borough to an unrepresented place, or giving the elective franchise to a populous town, was discarded. A wild and indiscriminating change was abroad. Meetings, petitions, and addresses were got up on every hand, advocating extensive alterations in our representative system, all of which, however vague and indeterminate in their respective conditions, tended to confer the elective rights on a much larger proportion of the people than had hitherto enjoyed them. Threats were even uttered that a refusal of these rights would lead to a general convulsion, in which the privileged orders might possibly be forced to yield more than was required. As a natural consequence of these menaces and demands, disturbances took place throughout the country. Lurking incendiaries wreaked their vengeance on property, the destruction of which only tended to aggravate the prevailing distress. Night after night they lighted up conflagrations, by which a large quantity of grain, and even of live stock, was consumed. Bands of men, also, still more daring than the incendiary, attacked machinery of all kinds, particularly thrashing machines, the use of which became so unpopular that insurance-offices refused a policy to those who kept them on their premises. The military force was increased in the disturbed counties, and a proclamation was issued, offering a reward of five hundred pounds for the conviction of an incendiary. A special commission, also, was ordered to proceed into those counties where the outrages were committed. The first offenders that were seized, being tried before county magistrates, met with lenity, from commiseration for their starving condition. But this only increased the evil; and, therefore, the government resolved to quell the riotous proceedings by the strong arm of the law. They were aided in this work by the yeomanry and fanners, who, mounting their horses and scouring the country, aided the civil officers in the discovery and apprehension of offenders.
MEETING OF THE NEW PARLIAMENT.
It was under these gloomy circumstances that, on the 26th of October, the new parliament met for the dispatch of business. The meeting of parliament found parties precisely as they had been at the dissolution, with this difference, that all the elements of opposition had acquired new vigour by the course of events, while new topics had sprung up, on which it would be forced to make a trial of strength. It appeared certain that the question of reform would speedily be brought forward; and the ministers may have hoped that such a discussion would restore to their ranks their former adherents. The session opened in reality on the 2nd of November, the intervening days being occupied in swearing in members, and in the reelection of Mr. Manners Sutton as speaker. The king attended on that day in person. In his speech his majesty alluded to the important events which had occurred on the continent; to the continuance of his diplomatic relations with the new French dynasty; to the endeavours he was making to restore tranquillity in the Netherlands; to the maintenance of those general treaties by which the political system of Europe had been established; and to the hope of renewing his diplomatic relations with Portugal, because the government of that country had determined to perform a great act of justice and humanity by the grant of a general amnesty. The remainder of his majesty’s address referred to the estimates, the expiration of the civil list on the demise of his late brother, and his own dependence upon the generosity and loyalty of the house and the country.
The usual addresses were carried in both houses, though not without signs of opposition to ministers on the subjects of reform and retrenchment. Earl Grey, in allusion to that part of the address which spoke of the proceedings in Belgium as a revolt against an enlightened government, and expressed our determination to maintain in regard to it those general treaties by which the political system of Europe had been fixed, said, that all this sounded like threatened interference, while our principle should have been, as in the case of France, non-interference. He could not conceive why we should be bound by treaties to interfere between Holland and the Low Countries. We ought to learn wisdom from what had passed before our eyes; and when the spirit of liberty was breaking out all around, it was our duty to secure our own institutions by introducing into them a temperate reform. Unless we did so, he was persuaded that we must make up our minds to witness the destruction of the constitution. He had been a reformer all his life; but at no period had he been inclined to go further than he would be prepared to go now, if the opportunity offered. He did not found this on abstract right. It was said that every man who paid taxes, nay, that every man arrived at years of discretion, had a right to vote for representatives. He denied this. The right of the people was to have a good government, one calculated to secure their privileges and happiness; and if that was incompatible with universal suffrage, then the limitation, and not the extension, was the true right of the people. In reply to Earl Grey on this subject, the Duke of Wellington went beyond his usual prudence and reserve. He remarked:—“The noble earl has alluded to something in the shape of a parliamentary reform; but he has been candid enough to acknowledge that he is not prepared with any measure of reform. I have as little scruple to say, that his majesty’s government is as totally unprepared as the noble lord. Nay, on my part I will go further, and say, that I have never read or heard of any measure, up to the present moment, which could in any degree satisfy my mind that the state of the representation could be improved, or be rendered more satisfactory to the country at large than at the present moment. I will not, however, at such an unseasonable time enter upon the subject, or excite discussion; but I shall not hesitate to declare unequivocally what are my sentiments upon it. I am fully convinced that the country possesses at the present moment a legislature which answers all the good purposes of legislation, and this to a greater degree than any legislature ever has answered in any country whatever. I will go further, and say, that the legislature and the system of representation possess the full and entire confidence of the country—deservedly possess that confidence; and the discussions in the legislature have a very great influence over the opinions of the country. I will go still further, and say, that if at the present moment I had imposed upon me the duty of forming a legislature for a country like this, in possession of great property of various descriptions, I do not mean to assert that I would form such a legislature as we possess now, for the nature of man is incapable of reaching it at once; but my great endeavour would be to form some description of the legislature which would produce the same results. The representation of the people at present contains a large body of the property of the country, in which the landed interest have a predominating influence. Under these circumstances I am not prepared to bring forward any measure of the description alluded to by the noble lord. I am not only not prepared to bring forward any measure of this nature, but I will at once declare that, as far as I am concerned, as long as I hold any station in the government of the country, I shall always feel it my duty to resist such measures when proposed by others.”
In the house of commons Mr. Brougham did not wait even till the address was moved before he gave notice that, on the 16th, he would submit a distinct proposition for a change in the representation. Sir Robert Peel professed that he saw difficulties about the question which he was by no means prepared to encounter. He wished, nevertheless, to say nothing then which might prevent discussion hereafter, or interfere with its advance towards a satisfactory termination. These declarations of ministers spread widely the flames of discontent, which had already been kindled against government; and the consequences appeared in formidable combinations, both in and out of parliament, to embarrass ministers, and thwart their measures.