On November 14th Lord Melbourne put his resignation and that of his colleagues into the hands of the King, who applied to the Duke of Wellington to form a new cabinet; but the Duke advised his sovereign to entrust this duty to Sir Robert Peel, and as Sir Robert was spending the winter in Italy, he offered to carry on the public business until he could return. A messenger was at once sent off, who arrived in Rome on November 25th. Sir Robert left next day, reached England on December 9th, and by the end of December the official arrangements of the new ministry were complete. This was the third ministry in 1834, the premiers being Earl Grey, Lord Melbourne, and Sir R. Peel.
The dresses illustrated are two for walking, one dinner, and one for a ball. The front and back of a cap are also shown.
CHAPTER XVIII.
1835.
First cargo of ice to India — Election riots at Halifax and in Scotland — A female sailor — The new temporary Houses of Parliament — The King and others hissed — Question of admitting ladies — A political skit — Deaths of Hunt and Cobbett.
The chronicle of this year must be made up of odds and ends, for there is no one thing of absorbing interest to record. And first, we find a paragraph in The Times of January 11th (quoting the Mechanic's Magazine), headed
"Exportation of Ice to India.
"Lord William Bentinck has presented to Mr. Rogers, supercargo of the ship Tuscany, a handsome silver vase, bearing the following inscription: 'Presented by Lord William Bentinck, Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief in India, to Mr. Rogers, of Boston, in acknowledgment of the spirit and enterprise which projected and successfully executed the first attempt to export (sic) a cargo of American ice into Calcutta.' The quantity of ice landed by the Tuscany was about one hundred tons, and the selling price being 6-1/2 cents per lb., it is calculated that the owners received $12,500 upon an investment which, including the cost of all the extra precautions for preserving the ice, did not exceed $500."
Owing to the resignation of the ministry in November, 1834, Parliament was dissolved, and a General Election took place—which, after the manner of the times, conduced to riotous behaviour in several places. At the close of the poll at Halifax, on January 14th, the yellow, or Reforming party, attacked various houses, public and private. In some, they contented themselves with breaking windows only; in others, they entered the premises, broke all the window frames, window shutters, inside and out, and other wood-work, and completely demolished every article of furniture within their reach. The mob, three hundred in number, entered the house of Mr. J. Norris, simultaneously, through the dining-room windows, library windows, and by breaking down the principal door. All the windows were broken to pieces—the window frames, in many places; and the whole furniture in the dining-room and library, and all the pictures, with the exception of six or eight, which were badly injured, were destroyed; whilst the plate was stolen, the bookcase was smashed, and quantities of books were taken from the shelves and torn to pieces. These, with music books and prints, were scattered over the lawn in front of the house, and in the garden, until the place looked as if it had been covered with snow. A grand piano was smashed to atoms, together with other musical instruments; a marble mantelpiece was broken, and the place was wrecked.
A similar attack on the vicarage was repelled. At Shaw Lodge, the residence of Mr. J. Holdsworth, the mob entered the house, and demolished all before them. At the Field, Mr. J. Staveley's house was attacked and entered, and all the furniture, pictures, etc., were smashed, as well as the windows and window frames of the house and warehouse adjoining. Many other houses were attacked and received different degrees of damage, and the mob did not disperse till the arrival of a troop of lancers.