‘How long will ye quietly and cowardly suffer yourselves to be imposed upon and half-starved by a set of mercenary slaves and Government hirelings? Can you still suffer them to proceed in their extensive monopolies while your children are crying for bread? No! let them not exist a day longer. We are the sovereignty; rise then from your lethargy. Be at the Corn Market on Monday.’
By means of these placards, and handbills to the same effect, a mob of over a thousand was collected in Mark Lane by nine a.m., and their number was doubled in another hour. They hissed and pelted the corn factors; but, about eleven a.m., when they began to break windows, the Lord Mayor appeared upon the spot. In vain he assured them that their behaviour could in no way affect the market. They only yelled at him, ‘Cheap bread!’ ‘Birmingham and Nottingham for ever!’ ‘Three loaves for eighteen-pence,’ etc. They even hissed the Lord Mayor and smashed the windows close by him. This was more than he could bear, and he ordered the Riot Act to be read. The constables charged the mob, who, of course, fled, and the Lord Mayor returned to the Mansion House.
They only went to other parts of the City, and, when night fell, they began smashing windows, etc. At last, fear of their firing the City induced the authorities to invoke the assistance of some Volunteers and Militia, and by their efforts the mob was driven over London Bridge into Southwark, where they rendered the night lively by breaking windows, etc.
For a day or two there was peace; but on the morning and during the day and night of the 18th of September the mob had it all their own way, breaking windows and pillaging. A royal proclamation was issued, calling on the civil authorities to suppress these riots, which was done at last by means of cavalry and Volunteers, but only after the mob having two more days’ uncontrolled possession of London. But the people in the country were not so quickly satisfied; their wages were smaller than those of their London brethren, and they proportionately felt the pinch more acutely. In some instances they were put down by force, in others the price of bread was lowered; but it is impossible at this time to take up a newspaper and not find some notice of or allusion to a food riot.
The importation of foreign corn supplied the deficiency of the English crops, and bread was moderately cheap; but in 1815, probably with a view to assuage the agricultural distress then prevalent, a measure was proposed and passed by which foreign corn was to be prohibited, except when wheat had reached 80s. a quarter—a price considered by the great body of consumers as exorbitant. A resolution was passed ‘That it is the opinion of the Committee that any sort of foreign corn, meal, or flour, which may by law be imported into the United Kingdom shall at all times be allowed to be brought into the United Kingdom, and to be warehoused there, without payment of any duty whatever.’
The popular feeling was well worked on; and on March 6 groups of people assembled near the Houses of Parliament, about the usual time of meeting, hooting or cheering the members, and occasionally stopping a carriage and making its occupant walk through the crowd, which at last got so unruly that it was obliged to be dispersed by the military. Yet the whole night they were parading the streets, breaking windows, and yelling: ‘No Corn Bill!’ This conduct continued for two nights longer, until the rioters had almost worn themselves out, when an increase of military force finally extinguished the rising. But there were riots all over the country.
In 1828 an Act of Parliament was passed which fixed the duty on foreign wheat according to a ‘sliding scale,’ whereby it was diminished from 1l. 5s. 8d. per quarter whenever the average price of all England was under 62s., and was gradually reduced, as wheat rose in price, until the duty stood at 1s. when wheat was 73s. and upwards.
Great agitation prevailed as to free corn; and on September 18, 1838, the Anti-Corn Law League, for procuring the repeal of the laws charging duty upon the importation of corn, was founded at Manchester. This organisation lectured, harangued, distributed pamphlets, and was perpetually in evidence—and at last succeeded in its object.
The 5 Vict., c. 14 (April 29, 1842), was a revised sliding scale. When wheat was under 51s. the duty to be 1l.; when 73s. and over, 1s.; and this lasted until the Corn Importation Bill (9, 10, Vic., c. 22) was passed on June 26, 1846, which reduced the duty on wheat to 4s. when imported at or above 53s., until Feb. 1, 1849, when 1s. duty per quarter only was to be levied on all kinds of imported grain. This shilling was taken off on June 24, 1869, and there is now no hindrance of any sort to the importation of foreign corn.
Although there was fierce political contention over the Anti-Corn Law agitation physical force was not resorted to, and the next bread riots we hear of were in 1855. They seem to have begun at Liverpool, where, on Feb. 19, an unruly mob took possession of the city, clamouring for bread and looting the bakers’ shops. The police were unable to cope with the riot; therefore, special constables were sworn in and peace was restored towards evening. Next day about 60 prisoners were brought before the magistrates; some were committed for trial, others sentenced to one, two, or three months’ imprisonment.