The History of England under the reign of George III, George IV, William IV. and Queen Victoria (to ... 1852; by T. G. Continued, to ... 1859 ... by H. Tyrrell)

Front matter

THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND: UNDER THE REIGN OF GEORGE IIL, GEOEGE IV., WILLIAM IY., AND QUEEN VICTORIA By THOMAS GASPEY, Esq. VOL. III. PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE LONDON PRINTING AND PUBLISHING COMPANY, LIMITED, 26, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, AND NEW YORK. ILLUSTRATIONS VOL. III. DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER. HORSE-GUARDS— {Frontispiece.) page GEORGE THE FOURTH'S VISIT TO IRELAND— {Title-page.) MOSCOW, RETREAT FROM 20 WELLINGTON, THE DUKE OF 105 PICTON, GENERAL SIR THOMAS 142 ENTRY OF THE ALLIES INTO PARIS . ' .151 EXMOUTH, ADMIRAL LORD VISCOUNT 177 HASTINGS, MARQUIS OF 192 ELLENBOROUGH, EDWARD LAW, LORD 210 CHARLOTTE, PRINCESS OF WALES . . 212 PALMERSTON, LORD VISCOUNT 224 GEORGE IV 260 AMHERST, EARL 381 ELDON, THE EARL OF 412 COMBERMERE, LORD ■ . . . .434 CANNING, RIGHT HON. GEORGE 463 LYNDHURST, LORD 465 CODRINGTON, VICE-ADMIRAL SIR EDWARD 483 CONSTANTINOPLE 484 RUSSELL, LORD JOHN 498 ABERDEEN, EARL OF .551 WILLIAM IV 585 GREY, EARL 603 CROKER, RIGHT HON. JOHN WILSON 659 MELBOURNE, LORD VISCOUNT THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

SERIOUS DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. The angry feelings wbich it has been seen had arisen between England and the United States, the course of events had not tended to allay. The Berlin decree of Bonaparte was but languidly oppos ed by the Americans, but the measures of the English government, intended to counteract the designs of France, were visited with bitter indignation. Bonaparte had declared the British islands in a state of blockade, and forbidden all neutrals to carry on their commercial pursuits with any British port. This serious infringe ment of her rights, as a neutral power, America cared not to resist. She com plained of insults offered to her flag by Great Britain, and the practice which had obtained of admitting British seamen to American citizenship, offended England, and was a fruitful source of discord be tween the two nations.

An American sailor had lost his life, by a shot fired from the British ship Leander. That un fortunate accident called forth fierce re sentment, while little notice was taken of the deaths of other American citizens, which were in proof against the French. It was proposed in congress, at once to suspend all importation from any port of the British dominions, to put an end to

Chapter I. George III

1806—1812. SERIOUS DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. — THE REVOCATION OF THE ORDERS IN COUNCIL CALLED FOR. — COMMODORE RODGERS ATTACKS THE LITTLE BELT. AMERICA DECLARES WAR AGAINST ENGLAND. HOSTILE PROCEED- INGS QF THE AMERICANS. GENERAL HULL INVADES CANADA. THE AMERI- CANS ARE CAPTURED OR REPULSED. AMERICAN SUCCESSES AT SEA. WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND RUSSIA. THE FRENCH INVADE RUSSIA. BURNING OF MOSCOW. BONAPARTE RETREATS. MISERABLE CONDITION OF HIS SOLDIERS. PASSAGE OF THE BEREZYNA. TOTAL RUIN OF THE GRAND ARMY. LORD WEL- LINGTON ENTERS MADRID. HE EXPERI- ENCES NEW DISAPPOINTMENTS. HE FAILS TO CARRY BURGOS. — THE SPAN- IARDS FEEBLY SUPPORT HIM. WELLING- TON WITHDRAWS TO PORTUGAL. AF- FAIRS OF SICILY. PLOT AND COUNTER- PLOT. A GENERAL ELECTION. VJL, III, — }f. 8. [a.d. 1812. HISTOEY OF ENGLAND.

GEORGE III.] her. A few shots were discharged from the Chesapeake, and a second and a third broadside were fired by the Leopard, and then the colours of the Chesapeake were hauled down. all intercourse between the two countries, and also to prohibit the importation of the produce or manufactures of the colonies of Great Britain. Shortly after these plans had been submitted to congress, it was known that Mr. Pitt was no more, and that Mr. Fox was his successor. It was there upon resolved to open a "negotiation with England, but this had led to no important result, when Fox died. The administration of which he was the chief was soon overthrown, but a convention was con cluded by lord Holland and lord Auck land with Messrs. Monro and Pinckney, who had been sent to London, which was signed on the last day of the year 1806.

While they were in the English capital the Berlin decree was received. The Eng lish negotiators did not think it necessary to stay proceedings till it was known how this would be received by the government of the United States. Jefferson, on learn ing that Mr. Fox had ceased to live, sent new instructions to Messrs. Pinckney and Monro, which did not reach London till some time after they had signed the con vention, which convention he then refused to ratify. A new ministry was formed, and Mr. Canning, as secretary for foreign affairs, had to treat with the American envoys. Their tone was high, and his was appropriately so. England, he con tended, had unquestionably a right to offer determined opposition to the Berlin decree, and if America acquiesced in it, her acquiescence partook of the character of hostility to England.

The British government, he insisted, was fully justified in impressing her own subjects who might be found serving on board American vessels. These discussions were going on when news arrived that, on the twenty third of June, 1807, an English fifty-gun ship, the Leopard, had met an American frigate, the Chesapeake, commanded by commodore Barron, which had refused to be searched for English deserters. A shot was then fired to bring her to, and no notice being taken of that, a second was fired, but to no purpose. It appeared to the people in the Leopard that the Che sapeake was preparing to return the fire, upon which a broadside was poured into 2 The American captain sent his fifth lieutenant on board the Leopard, to say he considered the Chesapeake had been made the Leopard's prize. Some of the Leo pard's officers and men went on board the Chesapeake, and found in her coal-hole, one of five deserters for whorn they were seeking a man named Jenkin Ratford.

This man being brought on the quarter deck, swore that he was a native Ame rican, and had never belonged to any English man-of-war ; but it chanced that he was recognised by the Leopard's pur ser as having been one of the crew of the Halifax. Fifteen other British subjects were found in the Chesapeake ; but the deserter from the Halifax, and three others who were identified as British sea men, were the only parties taken out ot the American ship.* In this affair three American seamen were killed, the com modore, a midshipman, and sixteen sailors and marines were wounded. The captain of the Leopard deplored having been com pelled to act as he had done, and offered the Chesapeake every assistance in his power, but her captain refused to accept of any courtesy, and they parted. When the particulars of this affair reached Wash ington, a proclamation was issued by president Jefferson, excluding British ships of war from the ports of the United States, though French ships were allowed to withdraw there from an English enemy.

In his proclamation, the president spoke with great asperity of the attack made on the Chesapeake, stating its object to be to snatch by force from an American ship part of her crew, which it had been previously ascertained were natives of the United States. This document was put forth on the second of July. It was not till the twenty-sixth of that month, that the encounter with the Chesapeake was known in London. Mr. Canning imme- * Ratford having been tried and convicted, was executed on board the Halifax. The others were sentenced to be flogged, but were pardoned. GEORGE III.] HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A.D. 1812. diately, before any demand had been made for redress, prepared a disavowal of the right to search ships in the national ser vice of any country for deserters ; at the same time offering a suitable reparation for the unauthorised proceedings of the captain of the Leopard.

Mr. Monro, on the sixth of August, transmitted to his government Mr. Canning's note to this effect, which had been forwarded to him, and to Mr. Pinckney on the second. A day or two afterwards American newspapers arrived, bringing the president's proclamation. It was accompanied with offensive comments, and it appeared that great outrages had been offered to the British flag, by the American inhabitants of the shores of the Chesapeake. Fresh in structions were received, and the American envoys took a higher tone than before, notwithstanding which the British government continued to seek an amicable arrangement, and, with that object in view, put forth a proclamation which, while it prohibited British seamen from serving foreign princes and states, an nounced that deserters would not again be taken from the national ships of other powers ; though the right of seizing them in foreign merchantmen could not be abandoned.

To give further effect to their declarations on this head, vice-admiral Berkeley was recalled, in consequence of his having ordered the search of the Che sapeake ; and two Americans who had been erroneously claimed as deserters were liberated and sent home. The proclamation of the English government, and other documents of a conciliatory character, had been received, when the president, Mr. Jefferson, proposed an embargo on all ships belonging to the United States, and commanding those of all other nations to leave the American harbours with or with out cargoes. The policy of this proceed ing was warmly debated in a secret session in congress, but large majorities declared eventually in its favour. In the non intercourse law which was then passed, it was declared with respect to England and France, that if either nation revoked her hostile edicts, on that fact being announced by a proclamation of the president, the law should cease to be in force with regard to that, particular nation.

On the twenty third of April, the English minister-plenipotentiary to the United States pledged his court to repeal its anti-neutral decrees by the tenth of June. The president, in consequence, proclaimed that intercourse with England would be renewed on that day. Subsequently the engagements en tered into by Mr. Erskine were declared by the English government to be at variance with his instructions, and the arrangement was disavowed ; but it wTas ordered that no advantage should be taken of American merchants who had sailed for England, under an impression that all matters in dispute had been amicably ad justed. In opposition to the English ministers, the American government laboured to prove that Mr. Erskine was authorised to act as he had done. The good faith ot the English government was vindicated, by the publication of his instructions.

THE REVOCATION OF THE OR- DERS IN COUNCIL CALLED FOR. The Rambouillet decree of Bonaparte, forbidding French vessels to enter the ports of the United States, appeared on the twenty-third of March. In this it was declared, that all American vessels having cargoes arriving from England in any of the ports of France, or of countries occupied by French troops, would be seized and confiscated, but in August, Mr. Armstrong, the American envoy in Paris, was assured that the Berlin and Milan decrees were revoked from the first of November next ensuing; and rely ing on this assurance, the president, on the second day of November, proclaimed that unrestrained commerce with France was allowed, while all intercourse with Great Britain was prohibited. As the latter country had declared herself willing to repeal her orders when France abandoned her decrees, she was now required by the United States to do so.

The English government demanded to see the decree which revoked the Berlin and Milan decrees; insisting that a letter from [A.D. 1812. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. GE03GE III.] against Great Britain, until her Orders in Council were withdrawn; and it was further intimated that all British goods which might arrive out after the second of February, 1811, would be confiscated. The position or principle laid down by the United States, was at this period, that ' the sea, like the air we breathe, must be regarded as common to all men;' and that consequently, no belligerent possessed any right whatever to interfere with neu trals. Bonaparte, it ought to be remembered, had declared that all neutrals who submitted to be searched by the English should be considered the enemies of France and her allies; and many Ameri can ships were detained in the ports of France and Holland, and in those of other states, then in the power of France.

Eugene Beauharnois in Italy, and Murat in Naples, resolutely carried out the views of their master, and captured many Ame rican vessels. These proceedings were complained of, but no steps were taken to retaliate on the allies of France. a French minister, was not by itself a document of sufficient authority to jus tify their abandonment of the Orders in Council. Their refusal gave great offence to the American government; Mr. Erskine was recalled, and Mr. Jackson was sent to Washington as the representative of England. Mr. Jackson met with a very ungracious reception. It was a month after his arrival, before Mr. Madison, who now filled the president's chair, thought fit to leave his country-house, to give him an audience. The secretaries of state imitated the coldness of their chief, and after two interviews, further personal negotiation was declined, while the journals of the United States assailed Mr. Jackson with coarse abuse.

He was charged by the American secretaries with using language insulting to the United States government, from the tone he thought it right to assume in vindication of his own. They decided to hold no further communication with him, and the American public applauded this decision, and clamorously called for war with Eng land. COMMODORE RODGERS ATTACKS THE LITTLE BELT. Mr. Jackson was recalled, but it was announced to the American government by the marquis of Wellesley, that this step had been taken, because his majesty was always disposed to pay the utmost attention to the wishes and sentiments of states in amity with him ; but he added, his majesty had not marked with any ex pression of his displeasure, the conduct of Mr. Jackson; whose integrity, zeal, and ability, had long been known; and who did not appear to have intended any offence to the republic.

Mr. Madison seems to have supposed, that Bonaparte, without revoking altogether the Berlin and Milan decrees, had resolved to make an exception in favour of the United States; and this led to an act of congress being passed, to sanction a proclamation, which issued in November, 1810, stating the obnoxious edicts to have been revoked, and declaring that in consequence thereof, the American restrictions were abrogated, so far as France was con cerned; which however it was distinctly announced would remain in full force MR.FoRSTERhad been sent to America as the successor of Mr. Jackson, but no amicable arrangement was brought about. When congress met in November,1811, it was told by the president, that on the part of Great Britain, indemnity and redress for various wrongs continued to be withheld, and it had become necessary to use the means committed to the executive de partments, to provide for the general se curity.

Works of defence, it added, had been actively carried on, and various steps taken to meet extraordinary emergencies. Warlike preparations were then actively continued; the military establishment of the United States, was raised from six thousand to thirty-one thousand men; two hundred thousand dollars, it was pro vided, should be annually set apart for the next three years to purchase timber for ship-building, and the president was au thorized to raise a loan of eleven million of dollars, which was effected at six per cent, interest. Mr. Pinckney, the Ameri- GEOHGE III.] HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A.D. 1812. can minister at the court of Great Britain, was recalled in March, 1811, and in the May following the British frigate Guerrier, commanded by captain Pechell, having detained some American vessels to search for British sailors, claimed two or three as British subjects, who were afterwards found to be American citizens.

On its being proved to captain Pechell that his prisoners were not Englishmen, he liberated them with the exception of one man, who volunteered to serve in the British navy. The conduct of captain Pechell was considered a great outrage offered to the United States, and commo dore Rodgers in a large frigate, called the President, was ordered to sail in pursuit of the Guerrier. He did not overtake that ship, but on the sixteenth of May he came up with a British sloop, the Little Belt, carrying eighteen carronades, (thirty-two-pounders,) and eighteen nine pounders, commanded by captain Bing ham with a crew of one hundred and twenty-one men and boys. The Presi dent carried fifty-six guns; thirty of them long twenty-four-pounders, and had more than six hundred men on board. Rod gers demanded of his crew if they were disposed to attack the English ship, and being answered by an affirmative shout, preparation was made for battle.

Signals were exchanged by the two ships, and the Little Belt understanding that the President was a neutral, was pursuing her course, when the President gave chase. At half-past six in the evening she approached the Little Belt, and captain Bingham, wishing to guard against sur prise, double-shotted his guns, and got ready for action. The two ships kept nearing each other, till the distance be tween them had been reduced to less than eighty yards, when captain Bingham hailed the President in the usual way, demanding — ' What ship is that?' The question was echoed by commodore Rod gers, and a gun was fired from the Pre sident, which was answered by a gun from the English ship. A fierce, and very unequal contest then ensued, and at the end of half-an-hour, the Little Belt was so far disabled that she could no longer bring her guns to bear on the President, and her firing ceased.

She was hailed again by the American com modore ; who seemed now only to discover that friendly ships had been engaged. He asked if the Little Belt had struck, and was answered in the negative, but the ship was reduced to a mere wreck, eleven of her hands had been killed, and twenty-one wounded. The ships lay-to during the night, and on the next day commodore Rodgers sent his first lieutenant on board the Little Belt, to express his regret for what had occurred, at the same time stating, that had he known the force of the Little Belt was unequal to that of the President, he would not have fired into her. To the question — ' And why did you fire at all ?' the lieutenant replied, — ' Because you first fired upon us.' Captain Bingham and all the people of the Little Belt, denied the truth of this statement.

An offer wras then made of every assistance the Little Belt might require, and she was in vited to enter any American port she might prefer to refit. Captain Bingham did not avail himself of the courtesies offered, and the Little Belt proceeded on her voyage. When complaint was made on the part of the British government, on this subject, Mr. Madison denied that any hostile orders had been given to the American commander, and stated the President to have been fired into from the Little Belt. Between these opposite statements, im partial judges were at some loss how to decide, but it was the general feeling in England, that probability at least was in favour of Bingham's statement, as it was not easy to believe the commander of a small sloop would in wantonness provoke an attack from a ship so vastly superior as the President.

The conduct of com modore Rodgers was approved by his government. Captain Bingham was pro moted to post rank in February, 1812. AMERICA DECLARES WAR AGAINST ENGLAND. Mr. Forster, who had succeeded Mr. Jackson as the British envoy and minis- La.d. 1812. HISTORY OE ENGLAND. GEOBGE III.] pretensions of Great Britain. In the de claration of the prince regent, it was pro vided that the order now put forth, was to be of no effect unless the United States revoked their non-intercourse act. ter-plenipotentiary, was a gentleman of great diplomatic experience, excellent temper, and conciliating manners. These qualities had not the good fortune to extinguish the angry feelings which he laboured to subdue. New circumstances occurred to provoke the people of the United States, and the opposition in parliament exerted themselves to sustain America against England, almost as successfully as the great lord Chatham had done thirty years before.

A committee was appointed by the house of commons, to inquire into the effects of the Orders in Council on the general interests of the nation. That inquiry was in progress when Mr. Perceval was murdered, and was continued, amidst the excitement and confusion which prevailed in consequence of that event. An address to the prince regent, calling for the revocation of the orders, was moved on j the sixteenth of June, in the house of commons, but the motion was withdrawn, an intimation being given by lord Castlereagh, that the ministers were about to submit a proposition of a conciliatory character to the American government, and on the twenty-third of June the Or ders in Council, so far as America was concerned, were revoked by a proclamation from the prince regent. It was only on the twentieth of May, that the English foreign secretary received from Mr. Russell, the charged'affaires of the United States, a copy of a certain instrument, purporting to be a decree passed by the French government on the twenty-eighth of April, 1811, by which the decrees of Berlin and Milan wTere declared to be, definitively, no longer in force with regard to American vessels.

It must be obvious that there was some trickery, when a document of this importance was withheld for thirteen months after the date at which it was pretended to have been issued. It was dated from St. Cloud, and was represented to have been issued in consequence of the act passed by the American congress on the second of March, 1811, under which the execution of the provisions of the non-intercourse act with Great Britain was ordered, and on account of the resistance made to the arbitrary The step thus taken proved ineffectual. A message was sent to congress by the president on the first of June, in which the wrongs complained of as sustained by America from England, were angrily dwelt upon. The message said, ' British cruisers have been in the continual practice ol violating the American flag on the great highway of nations, and of seizing and carrying off persons sailing under it, not in the exercise of a belligerent _ right, founded on the law of nations, against an enemy, but of a municipal prerogative over British subjects.

British jurisdiction is thus extended to neutral vessels, in a situation where no laws can operate but the law of nations, and the laws of the country to which the vessels belong ; and a self-redress is assumed which, if British subjects were wrongfully detained and alone concerned, is that substitution ol force for a resort to the responsible sovereign, which falls within the definition ot war.' Other grievances having been dilated on, the president proceeded to sum up in these words : ' We behold, in fine, on the side of Great Britain a state of war towards the United States, and on the side of the United States a state of peace towards Great Britain. Whether the United States shall continue passive under these progressive usurpations and these accumulative wrongs, or, opposing force to force, in defence of their national rights, commit a just cause into the hands of the Almighty Disposer of events, avoiding all connections that might en tangle it in the contests or views of other powers, and preserving a constant readi ness to concur in an honourable re-establishment of peace and friendship, is a so lemn question,' and this the president recommended to the early consideration of congress.

This message was discussed by congress with closed doors ; the mem bers being bound to secrecy. On the eighteenth of June the injunction of secrecy was removed and the decision come GEORGE III.] HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [A.D. 1812. to made known, by the publication of an act declaring war between the united king dom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the dependencies thereof, and the United States of America and their territories. This was two days after the address moved by Mr. Brougham in the house of com mons, which had been met by an intima tion that a conciliatory step was about to be taken with regard to America. The hostile decision come to by the United States, was carried in the house of representatives by a majority of seventy-nine to forty-nine. There was certainly a large war party in America, but in many parts of the United States an appeal to the sword was strongly deprecated.

The eastern and northern states felt much aggriev ed, and at Boston the church-bells were muffled, and a general mourning called for. The same course was taken else where, but in the southern states, where many privateers were already prepared to make war on the commerce of England, the mob were on the alert to approve of what congress had done ; and while anxious to commence the work of depreda tion, indulged in high-sounding speeches on the importance of vindicating national honour. American squadron stood towards it. Per ceiving the Americans were taking in their studding-sails andwetting them, he thought it right to stand off. He soon found the leading ship of the United States squadron wras gaining fast upon him, and captain Byron thereupon ordered the priming to be wiped from his guns, that in case of a collision, there might be no doubt as to the party by whom the first shot was fired.

Shortly after this three shots were fired from the President, which were promptly answered by four stern-chasers. One of the shots fired at the Belvidera, passing through the captain's cabin, killed a British seaman, and wounded six others. Captain Byron now felt that be fore such a squadron, it was his duty to retreat, and this he successfully accomplished. The Americans lost about twenty in killed and wounded, by the guns of the Belvidera. The opponents of the war in America com plained of the conduct of Madison and the government, in assuming that the French decrees had been actually repealed so far back as April, 1811. The indiscriminate plunder and destruction of American com merce had been continued. They argued it was most degrading to the American people, that the French emperor should have reserved till May, 1812, the official declaration of the decrees said to have been rescinded in April, 1811.

This, it was insisted, could only have been done to prove to the world in what utter con tempt Bonaparte held the Americans and their government. It appeared, too, that they were given up, not because they were unjust, but in consideration of the Ame rican government having assumed a hostile attitude towards England. It was stated that the repeal of the decrees, when first passed, w7as made knowm to the Ame rican envoy at Paris, as well as to the French minister at Washington, that it might be communicated to the president. England had previously declared, that her Orders in Council would be repealed the moment the French decrees were given up, and there was no doubt that she would have been faithful to her promise. The repeal of the decrees by France, if it HOSTILE PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICANS.

War being thus declared, the president immediately forwarded orders to New York, that a squadron previously assembled there, should put to sea, in order to intercept the homeward-bound Jamaica fleet, consisting of eighty-five ships, which it was known were not protected by a very powerful convoy. On the twenty first of June, the President, commanded by commodore Rodgers, with the ships United States, Congress, Essex, Hornet, and Ar gus, manned with two thousand able sea men, and mounting two hundred and fifty guns, left the harbour of New York. An American brig gave Rodgers information in what direction the British frigate Bel videra might be found, and on the twenty third that ship was discovered. Cap tain Byron, her commander, on seeing the HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [a.d. 1812. GEORGE III.] made on the local governments for a levy of twelve hundred men.

On the appear ance of the declaration of war, volunteers came forward, who soon swelled the number to two thousand five hundred, and this force was placed under the command of brigadier-general Hull, the governor of the Michigan territory. He commenced his operations by putting forth a proclamation, addressed to the inhabitants of Canada, in which he stated the army under his command came to seek enemies, but to protect the Cana dians. It went on to say, ' You will be emancipated from tyranny and oppression, and be restored to the dignified station ot freemen. Had I any doubt of eventual success, I might ask your assistance, but I do not. I come, prepared for every contingency ; I have a force which will look down all opposition, and that force is but the vanguard of a much greater.' It then breathed awful threats against the English.

No white man found fighting by the side of an Indian was to be taken prisoner; instant destruction was to be his lot ; and neglect of the dictates ol humanity was to be prevented (or met) by severe and relentless retaliation. This proclamation did not produce the impres sion the American commander seems to have expected. Maj orgeneral Brock, who then commanded in Canada, put forth a manifesto, in which the leading points of Hull's proclamation were noticed, with dignified severity. To the threat of refusing quarter, he replied, if acted upon, it must be with the ' certain assurance of retaliation, not only in the limited operation of war, in that part of the king's dominions, but in every quar ter of the globe, and the execution" of the threat would be considered a deliberate murder, for which every subject of the offending power must be held responsible.' Whether general Hull was overawed at being thus promptly met, or whether other circumstances prevented his forward movement, may be a matter of doubt, but he remained inactive at Sandwich, while the English took up arms in earnest, and captured Michillimackinae, a small fortress on Lake Huron.