Neither agrarian outrages in Ireland nor clerical agitation in England hindered, in the session of 1848, the passing of measures of social improvement. The Public Health Act, which was based on the representations of Sir Edwin Chadwick and Dr. Southwood Smith, grappled with the sanitary question in cities and towns, and thus improved in a variety of directions the social life of the people. It had hitherto been the fashion of Whigs and Tories alike to neglect practical measures of this kind, even though they were so closely linked to the health and welfare of the community.
FOOTNOTES:
[15] The Croker Papers, vol. iii. ch. xxiv. p. 53.
[16] Judge O’Connor Morris, in his interesting retrospect, Memories and Thoughts of a Life, just published, whilst severely criticising the Whig attitude towards Ireland, admits that Russell’s Irish policy was not only ‘well-meant,’ but in the main successful.
[17] The first Anglican Sisterhood was founded by Dr. Pusey in London in the spring of 1845.
[18] Life of E. B. Pusey, D.D., by H. P. Liddon, D.D., vol. iii. p. 160.
CHAPTER VIII
IN ROUGH WATERS
1848-1852
The People’s Charter—Feargus O’Connor and the crowd—Lord Palmerston strikes from his own bat—Lord John’s view of the political situation—Death of Peel—Palmerston and the Court—‘No Popery’—The Durham Letter—The invasion scare—Lord John’s remark about Palmerston—Fall of the Russell Administration.