From the year 1805, the Catholic claims had been a prominent subject of parliamentary discussion, and since 1821 they had been sanctioned by a majority in the House of Commons. Almost despairing of their cause, while left to the progress of mere opinion in the English aristocracy, the Irish Catholics had in 1824 united themselves in an Association, with the scarcely concealed purpose of forcing their emancipation by means of a terrifying exhibition of their physical strength. An act was quickly passed for the suppression of this powerful body; but it immediately reäppeared in a new shape. In fact, the impatience of the Catholic population of Ireland under the disabilities and degradation to which they were subjected on account of religion, was evidently becoming so very great, that there could be little hope of either peace or public order in that country till their demands were conceded. Though the English public lent little weight to the agitation, and the king was decidedly hostile to its object, Catholic emancipation rapidly acquired importance with all classes, and in all parts of the empire. In the spring of 1828, a kind of preparation was made for the concession, by the repeal of the test and corporation oaths, imposed in the reign of Charles II.
The ministry soon after received an alarming proof of the growing force of the question. Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald had vacated his seat for the county of Clare, on becoming president of the Board of Trade. He was a friend to emancipation, and possessed great influence in the county; but he was also a member of an anti-Catholic administration. As an expedient for annoying the ministry, the Catholic Association, and all the local influences on that side, were set in motion to procure the return of Mr. Daniel O’Connell, the most distinguished orator of the Catholic party. To the surprise of the nation, Mr. O’Connell was returned by a great majority. It was even surmised that the laws for the exclusion of Catholics from Parliament would be unable to prevent him from taking his seat. The Duke of Wellington now began to see the necessity of taking steps towards a settlement of this agitating question; and the first, and most difficult, was to overcome the scruples of the sovereign. At the opening of the session of 1829, in consequence of a recommendation from the throne, bills were introduced by ministers for removing the civil disabilities of Catholics, and putting down the Catholic Association in Ireland; and notwithstanding a great popular opposition, as well as the most powerful exertions of the older and more rigid class of Tories, this measure was carried by a majority of 353 against 180 in the House of Commons, and by 217 to 112 in the House of Lords.
REIGN OF WILLIAM IV.
The agitations respecting the Catholic Relief Bill had in some measure subsided, when, June 26, 1830, George IV died of ossification of the vital organs, and was succeeded by his next brother, the Duke of Clarence, under the title of William IV. About a month after, a great sensation was produced in Britain by a revolution which took place in France, the main line of the Bourbon family being expelled, and the crown conferred upon Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orleans. By this event, a great impulse was given to the reforming spirit in Britain, and the demands for an improvement in the parliamentary representation became very strong. The consequence was the retirement of the Wellington administration in November, and the formation of a Whig cabinet, headed by Earl Grey. The agitations of the time were much increased by a system of nocturnal fire-raising, which spread through the south of England, and caused the destruction of a vast quantity of agricultural produce and machinery.
The Whig ministry came into power upon an understanding that they were to introduce bills for parliamentary reform, with reference to the three divisions of the United Kingdom. These, when presented in March 1831, were found to propose very extensive changes, particularly the disfranchisement of boroughs of small population, for which the members were usually returned by private influence, and the extension of the right of voting in both boroughs and counties to the middle classes of society. The bills accordingly met with strong opposition from the Tory, now called the Conservative party. By a dissolution of Parliament, the ministry found such an accession of supporters as enabled them to carry the measure through the House of Commons with large majorities; but it encountered great difficulties in the House of Lords; and it was not till after a temporary resignation of the ministry, and some strong expressions of popular anxiety respecting reform, that the bills were allowed to become law.
During the few years which followed the passing of the Reform Bills, the attention of Parliament was chiefly occupied by a series of measures which a large portion of the public deemed necessary for improving the institutions of the country, and for other beneficial purposes. The most important of these, in a moral point of view, was the abolition of slavery in the colonies, the sum of twenty millions being paid to the owners of the negroes, as a compensation. By this act, eight hundred thousand slaves were (August 1, 1834) placed in the condition of freemen, but subject to an apprenticeship to their masters for a few years.
In the same year, an act was passed for amending the laws for the support of the poor in England, which had long been a subject of general complaint. One of the chief provisions of the new enactment established a government commission for the superintendence of the local boards of management, which had latterly been ill conducted, and were now proposed to be reformed. The able-bodied poor were also deprived of the right which had been conferred upon them at the end of the eighteenth century, to compel parishes to support them, either by employment at a certain rate, or pecuniary aid to the same amount: they were now left no resource, failing employment, but that of entering poor-houses, where they were separated from their families. The contemplated results of this measure were a reduction of the enormous burden of the poor-rates, which had latterly exceeded seven millions annually, and a check to the degradation which indiscriminate support was found to produce in the character of the laboring classes.
Early in 1837, the ministry again introduced into the House of Commons a bill for settling the Irish tithe question; but before this or any other measure of importance had been carried, the king died of ossification of the vital organs (June 20), in the seventy-third year of his age, and seventh of his reign, being succeeded by his niece, the Princess Victoria. The deceased monarch is allowed to have been a conscientious and amiable man, not remarkable for ability, but at the same time free from all gross faults.
COMMENCEMENT OF THE PRESENT REIGN.
Queen Victoria began to reign June 20, 1837, having just completed her eighteenth year; was crowned on the 28th of June in the following year; and was married to her cousin, Prince Albert of Coburg and Gotha, February 10, 1840. In the autumns of 1842, ‘44, ‘47, and ‘48, her majesty visited Scotland, but on each occasion more in a private than in a state capacity; residing at the mansions of the nobility that lay in her route to the Highlands, where the Prince Consort enjoyed the invigorating sports of grouse-shooting and deer-stalking. In 1843 she paid a visit, entirely divested of state formalities, to the late royal family of France; and shortly after made another to her uncle, the king of the Belgians. In 1845, besides making the tour of the English midland counties, the royal pair visited the family of Prince Albert at Coburg and Gotha; receiving the attentions of the various German powers that lay on their outward and homeward route. Her majesty has received in turn the friendly visits of several crowned heads, among whom have been the ex-king of the French, Leopold of Belgium, the king of Saxony, and the emperor of Russia. Such interchanges and attentions are not without their importance; at all events they are characteristic of a new era in the international history of Europe.