The History of the Reform Bill of 1832

Front matter

BY THE REV. W. N. MOLESWORTH, M.A. ENGLAND AND FRANCE. Extra cloth boards, price 2s. 6d. The Prize Essay on the Immense Importance of a Close Alliance between England and France : Adjudicators — The Right Hon. Lord Brougham. The Right Hon. the Earl of Clarendon. The Right Hon. the Earl of Shaftesbury. Donor— The Rev. J. A. Emerton, D.D. OPINIONS OP THE PRESS. " It is a sermon that might have been preached from the Mount." — Manchester Examiner. " Not a common book." — Rochdale Observer. "Reasoned with logical precision, characterised by generous warmth, tempered by a sound and cautious discretion." — Morning Post. " Very sound, very practical, gracefully and (at times) powerfully written; replete with good sense and acutene?s, and inspired by an enlightened and Christian tone of thought." — Union.

" An excellent essay, in which many important aspects of the question are briefly, but very effectively, brought out." — Herald of Peace. "Perfectly logical, strongly written, and pervaded by the very policy which we declare to be the true one." — Treaty. "It is a clear and forcible exposition of his views, and cannot be read without a feeling of high gratification at the way in which this important subject has been treated, and a conviction that the noble adjudicators were fully justified in awarding the prize to its talented author." — Buckingham shire Advertiser. The Strong Man Disturbed in his Palace : A Sermon on behalf of the National Society. A Lecture on the System of Religious Education established by the Reformers. An Essay on the Religious Importance of Secular Instruction. Plain Lectures on Astronomy "These lectures on astronomy are written in a singularly clear and interesting style, which proves their author to possess no ordinary power of presenting a difficult subject in an intelligible form.

They have also the advantages of good print and a low price." — Intellectual Observer. A Lecture on the History of Industrial Progress : Delivered before the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers' Co-operative Society, and published by them. MANCHESTER : A. IRELAND & CO.. PALL MALL. HISTORY or REFORM BILL, THE HISTORY op TnE REFORM BILL OF 1832 nv THE REV. W. N. MOLESWORTH, M.A., Incumbent of St. Clement's, Rochdale, AUTHOR OF THE PRIZE ESSAY ON THE "FRENCH ALLIANCE," &c, 4c. LONDON:/ CHAPMAN AND HALL, J1,\nÆeSTER: IEELAND AND CO. 1865. ISii/JU of Translation. Reserved.]

Preface

. The Author is fully aware that, in the present state of public opinion, the appearance of a work of this nature from the pen of a clergyman will provoke some censure. He is therefore happy to be able to justify himself in words borrowed from a recent article in one of the ablest of our weekly newspapers. Speaking of the recommendation of a London coroner's jury, the writer of the article in question says : — "They were simply expressing the feeling becoming engrained in the popular mind that a pastor should be ignorant of all but theology, that art and science are irre ligious, that a minister should confine himself to preaching and visiting, with good books for his sole reading and gossip for his only recreation. There are parishes in England where the clergyman must study chemistry on the sly, and geology in silence, and there is scarcely one in which the sight of an easel in the vicar's sitting room would not give deep offence. By an odd but explicable

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. IV whim, the study of astronomy— of all sciences the most absorbing — is exempted from censure; but it is the only one which would provoke from a party in the parish no kind of hostile comment. Such narrowness is, we are bound to say, almost confined to laymen, but it is lay opinion which in England creates the external law of the church, and the opinion expressed so clearly by the city jury has two permanent and most pernicious effects. It forces on the clergy a kind of hypocrisy — an appearance of ignorance they do not feel — and it lowers throughout the country the clerical ideal. The true pastor, to our minds, is the man who, learned in all human learning, familiar with all human practice, physician and teacher, savan and divine, farmer and orator, uses those rich stores of capacity to higher ends than gain, who, touching life at all points, comprehends it in all, and derives from his comprehension the power of healing the physician obtains from the study which the St. Botolph's jury have taken on themselves to condemn." — Spectator, November 19th, 1864.

This eloquent paragraph expresses the convictions on which the Author of this work has acted for many years. Indeed he has found it absolutely necessary to the maintenance of his mental and bodily health, and to the effective discharge of his pastoral duties to have always in hand some study or occupation which would serve as a mental diversion from his ordinary pursuits, which he could follow without interference with them, which he could take up

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. V and lay aside at pleasure, and the materials for which were within his reach. All these conditions he has found in the work now presented to the public, in which he has endeavoured to trace the progress of one of the most important struggles that has ever taken place in this country. If, on the one hand, he labours under some special disadvantages in the preparation of such a work, arising from the distance at which he resides from the metropolis, he hopes that he may lay claim on the other hand to some special qualification for its due performance. Old enough to have received an indelible inrpression of the passions which that struggle evoked, he is young enough to be able to regard it with the impartiality which belongs to posterity. His profession and habits of life, while serving to keep him aloof from the strife of parties, have directed his thoughts to what may be termed the philosophy of politics, and while they have prevented him from being an active participator in the great events which have occurred during his life, they have caused him to be a thoughtful and interested spectator of those events.

There are no doubt others who are in many respects bettei qualified than he is to write this history, but they have not done it. The time when it ought to be undertaken has arrived. The generation that witnessed the struggle is passing away; the generation that is succeeding them can hardly realize the opposition it encountered, the enthusiasm it awakened, or the extent and importance of the changes it has produced.

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. VI The point to which the Author has especially directed his attention, and to which he desires to draw the attention of the reader is, the influence exercised by the people on the character and success of the measure whose history he has undertaken to write. He believes that in its main features the Reform Bill was virtually their work, and he has endeavoured to discover and point out the true causes of the interest they manifested in it. But as parliament and particularly the House of Commons, was the arena in which the battle was fought, the debates of the two houses, and especially of the lower house, must necessarily occupy a prominent place in any history of the Reform Bill. And yet it would be impossible to give an account of all the numberless and often tedious and unprofitable discussions which arose on it.

The Author has therefore adopted two principles of selection. In the first place. he has chosen those debates which occurred before the subject was exhausted; and in the next place, he has preserved the speeches of men who might be regarded as expressing the opinions and wishes of large bodies of their countrymen. Of these speeches, he has only given, in a very condensed form, those portions which serve to illus trate or carry forward the history of the period in which they were delivered. If any one should complain that the passages he has thus given are too many aud too long, he can only plead that he has laboured most dili gently by all the compression consistent with the fair exhibition of the style, individuality, and arguments of

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. VII the speakers, and by the careful elimination of personal allusions, parliamentary conventionalities, and those repe titions which are almost unavoidable, and sometimes even desirable in public speaking, to reduce them within the narrowest limits consistent with his plan and objects. While diligently examining all materials of every kind that have come within his reach, and which could by any possibility throw light on his subject, the Author has not been very solicitous to pry into the secret history of court or other intrigues, whether employed for the promotion or the defeat of the measure, and which, in his opinion, had very little real influence on its fortunes. As it has been his chief aim to trace and exhibit the working of the popular mind, he has sought chiefly those materials which seemed best adapted to answer these purposes, and he trusts that he has not been unsuccessful.

Mr. Roebuck's " History of the Whig Ministry" is a work which embraces the period of which he has undertaken to treat. Of course he has consulted it. But he purposely abstained from looking into it until the outline of his own history was completed and nearly filled up. After having carefully weighed Mr. Roebuck's statements, he has not thought it necessary to alter any of the conclusions which he had previously and independently reached. The Author feels bound to ac knowledge his great obligations to the daily and weekly press of the period, especially the Times and the Examiner. The former of these newspapers has furnished him with a very large amount of materials for his history, of a very

PREFACE.

. useful and reliable character, and they are all the more valuable and important, because, while its pages faithfully reflected the variations of the public opinion of the period, they exercised a guiding and controlling influence such as no other journal ever wielded. The Author cannot conclude this preface without ex pressing his grateful thanks to Earl Russell and Lord Brougham, for the kind readiness with which they have afforded him information. At the same time he thinks it right to add that for every statement and every opinion advanced in the work he alone is responsible. W. N. M. Spoti.and, Rochdale, Nov. 28, 1884. CONTENTS.

Chapter I

Introductory Observations ...... 1 Reform by the Long Parliament and Cromwell ... 4 Re-appearance of the Question in 1745 . . . . .7 The Elder Pitt on Reform ...... 9 Mr, W. Pitt's Motion for a Select Committee on Parliamentary Reform 12 Mr. Pitt renews his attempt in 1783 . . . . .12 Mr, Pitt's last effort . . . . . . 13 Mr. Grey . . . . . . . .13 Petition of "the Friends of the Peopb" .... 14 The Corn Laws . . . . . . .16 "The Blanketeers" . . . . . . 17 Agitation and consequent Alarms . . . . .18 Proceedings of the Government ..... 20 Great Manchester Reform Meeting . . . , .21 Lord J. Russell's Motion ... . . . , 26 The Wellington Administration ... .28 Mr. Huskisson's Removal from the Ministry ... 29 Catholic Emancipation . . .... 30 Daniel O'Connell ....... 32 -Embarrassment of the Government . . . . ,33 The Clare Election ....;.. 35 Effects of Mr. O'Connell's Election ..... 36 Necessity of Concession ...... 38 Perplexity of the Government . . . . , l 39 Concession resolved ..... .40 The Catholic Emancipation Bill introduced . , . .42 Sir C. Wetherell ... .... 43 Indignation of the Protestant Party . . . . .44 Distress ........ 46 Opening of Parliament at commencement of 1830 . 47 The Marquis of Blandford's Reform Bill . . 49 East Retford again . . . . .51 Lord Howiek's Motion . -, 52 Petition from Newark . . 52 Lord J. Russell's Motion . . 63 Death of George IV. .

X CONTENTS. FADE William IV 54 Position of the Government on the eve of the General Election . 55 Revolution in France ...••• 56 Opening of the New Parliament . . . . • .58 Declaration of the Duke of Wellington against Reform . . 59 The Guildhall Dinner ....... 61 Unpopularity of the Government ..... 62 Defeat of the Government . . . . , ,63 Resignation of the Wellington Administration ... 65

Chapter II

Influence of freedom of Speech and of the Press on the Measures of Parliament ..... . . G6 Earl Grey accepts Office ...... 68 Mr. Brougham ........ 70 Earl Grey's Explanations ...... 72 Committee to frame a Reform Bill . . . . .73 Distress and Discontent, ...... 75 Machine Breaking and Incendiary Fires . . . .76 State of the Country ...... 79 Re-assemblage of Parliament and announcement of the Reform Bill . 95 Lord J. Russell ....... 96 Financial Embarrassments of the Government . . .98 Appearance presented by the House of Commons . , . 101 Introduction of the Reform Bill , . , . .101 Lord J. Russell's speech . . . , . .103 Sir R. H. Inglis's speech . . . . , , .119 Mr. Hume's speech , . . . , .121 Mr. Hunt's speech ....... 121 Sir C. Wetherell's speech . . . . . .126 The Attorney-General's speech . . . , .132 Lord Palmerston's speech ..... 133 Sir R. Peel's speech c 135 Mr. Stanley's speech • • . . , 142 Mr. C. VV.

Wynn's speech ... J45 Mr. O'Connell's speech . 147 Mr. D. W. Harvey's speech ... . , 554 Termination of the Debate ..... 155 Reception of the Bill by the Country s , , jc = Political Unions ..... igi The Press •>«.., 1G2 Meetings and Petitions , . , jko Public Feeling . .... 164 Sir R. H. Inglis and the Time) .... ifi- Second Reading .... ,/>,, Lord J. Russell's Explanations . , > jgo CONTENTS. XI PAGE General Gascoyne's Motion . . . . .171 General Gascoyne's speech , . . . . .172 Mr. Sadler . . . . . . . .174 Lord Althorp's speech ...... 174 Mr. Stanley's speech ....... 174 Mr. O'Connell's speech ...... 177 Obstacles to a Dissolution . . . . . .180 Mr. La wson at the bar of the House of Lords . . 181 Question of a Dissolution ..... 182 Interview of Lords Grey and Brougham with the King . . 185 Scene in the House of Lords ...... 188 The King's Speech . ...... 190 Scene in the House of Commons ..... 190

Chapter III

Illuminations . ... 195 General Election . . . . . . .195 Re-election of the Speaker . . „ . . .198 The King's Speech . . . . . . .199 Re-introduction of the Reform Bill < . . . 200 Second Reading ....... 204 Prosecution of Cobbett ...... 205 Anomalies of the old system exposed . > . . .213 The Night of Divisions . . ... 214 The Bill in Committee . . . . . . .215 Alderman Thompson's "inadvertence" .... 216 Sir A. Agnew's Motion ....... 218 Mr. Mackinnon's Motion ...... 218 The Committee . . . . . . . .221 The Coronation ....... 240 Report of the Committee ...... 240 Third Reading ....... 241 The Bill passes the House of Commons .... 242 What will the Lords do? ...... 242 The Bill carried up to the House of Lords . . . .245 Dinner to Lords Althorp and J. Russell .... 246 Asserted re-aetion -* 248 Earl Grey's speech -. • • 249 Lord WharnclirTe's speech ...... 254 Lord Melbourne's speech . , 254 Duke of Wellington's speech- ' . . * . .- . 255 Lord Brougham's speech ...... 255 Lord Lyndhurst's speech ...... 255 Speeches of the Chief Justice and the Archbishop of Canterbury . 257 Earl Grey's reply ....... 258 The Division . c . .260 CONTENTS.

Chapter IV

' PAGE Effects of the Rejection of the Bill . . • « .261 Popular Indignation .,..•• 26- Scene in the House of Lords ....•• 263 Procession ........ 270 Riotous Proceedings ....... 271 Lord Brougham condemns the Outrages . 273 Lord Ebrington's Resolution ...... 274 The Birmingham Meeting ...... 275 Impatience of the Nation ...... 277 Lord Brougham's Explanations ..... 278 Prorogation of Parliament ...... 280 Asserted re-action ....... 280 The Political Unions . . . . . . .281 The Bristol Riots ....... 282 Disturbed State of the Country ....... 298 Parliament re-assembles ...... 301 The Reform Bill introduced by Lord J. Russell . . .301 Sir R. Peel's Observations ...... 305 Second Reading ........ 306 What will be done with the Lords ? .... 306 Close of the year 1831 . .... , 303 The New Year . . . . ' . . 309 Re-assemblage of Parliament ...... 310 The Bill passed in the House of Commons .... 310 The Waverers ........ 313 The Second Reading . . . . . .313 The Committee ........ 318 Lord Lyndhurst's Motion ...... 319 Lord Ellenborough's Programme ..... 320 Resignation of the Ministry . . . , .321 Altercation between Lords Carnarvon and Grey . . . 323 Lord Ebrington's Resolution . . 395 State of the Nation ....... 326 Meetings ....... 327 Efforts to embarrass the coming Administration . . . 328 Attempts to form a Ministry , 393 Failure of the attempts to form a Ministry ..... 328 Earl Grey re-called ...... 331 Earl Grey and Lord Brougham have an interview with the King . 332 Explanations ..... 334 The Bil! in Committee ..... 005 The Amendments of the Lords accepted by the Commons 336 Results of the Dill .... „,. The Royal Assent .... hoo HISTOKY OF THE REFORM BILL.

Chapter I

Whatever differences of opinion may have formerly prechap. I. vailed respecting the great struggle which I have undertaken introduc to record, it may now be regarded by every Englishman with *?ry , feelings of unmixed pride and satisfaction. If it yields in stormy grandeur and world-wide results to the first French revolution and in dramatic interest to that of 1830, it is inferior to neither of them in the benefits which have resulted from it to the country which was the scene of it, and it presents a spectacle without parallel in the history of the world, — that of a mighty change, invading the most powerful interests and meeting the most pertinacious resistance, accom plished without a crime, nay without a violation even of the forms of the constitution of the country in which it was effected.

In tracing the course of this struggle I shall have to point out to the reader the circumstances which had given to the landed proprietors of this country a legislative - monopoly which once, perhaps, properly belonged to them, but which the growth of other interests had rendered it right that they should no longer retain. I shall show how this exclusive power was abused, as all such power is sure to be, by its possessors ; how the abuse gave rise to discontents and violences ; how those who possessed it entrenched themselves behind the forms of a constitution whose spirit they violated; A Chap. I, Introduc tory Remarks HISTORY OF THE REFORM BILL. how for a long time they resisted and defied the just demands of the people ; and how at last the nation, profiting by a favourable combination of circumstances, triumphed after a desperate struggle over the most powerful aristocracy in the world, and tore from them the rights which they had not the wisdom to concede.

In narrating this struggle I shall not confine myself to that part of it which was carried on within the walls of parliament. I shall rather seek to trace and exhibit the great social and popular forces which originated and over-ruled the legislative conflict. For we shall not rightly appreciate its nature if we regard the Reform Bill merely as the work of certain statesmen and legislators who took a leading part in the preparation aud discussion of its various provisions. They indeed gave it its outward form, but the substance and the leading principles were the outgrowth of a long chain of causes by which they were themselves controlled. No doubt they exercised a very important discretionary power in framing and modifying the details of the measure, but they never would have triumphed over the obstacles they en countered if the bill had not responded to the wishes of the people and the requirements of the times.

The abuses which they succeeded in removing were the silent growth of a period during which the landed interest was dominant, and the commercial, manufacturing, and trading interests almost unrepresented in the councils of the nation. Throuo-hout the whole of the eighteenth, and still more during the preceding part of the nineteenth century, these interests had been advancing with rapid strides, and for a long time their growth was favoured by the dominant interest, because it evidently tended to raise the value of land and increase the demand for agricultural produce. But no sooner did they begin to demand that share in the legislation of the country which their rising importance fairly entitled them CAUSES OF THE POPULAR DEMAND FOR REFORM. 3 Chap. I Introduc tory Remarks to claim, and which the increasing magnitude and com plexity of their ill-understood operations rendered more and more necessary to them, thfin the jealousy and apprehensions of the ruling class were roused and manifested.

The consequences of this exclusion from political in fluence were felt not only by the leaders of the national industry but by the great bulk of the working classes, who are always the chief sufferers in periods of national distress, whether proceeding from mistaken legislation or from other causes, because while in such circumstances those above them find their superfluities diminished, they are deprived of the comforts or even the necessaries of life. And this is the true explanation of a circumstance which was often triumphantly referred to by the ojjponents of Reform. " It is only," said they, " in times of great distress that we hear much about Reform. In periods of prosperity and abundance scarcely a meeting is held or a petition pre sented on the subject." The fact is that the clamour for reform sprang not so much from a sense of the theoretical imperfections of the then existing state of things, not from any strong moral disapprobation of the bribery, corruption, and other flagrant abuses that flourished under it, but from the actual and severe distress which ignorant and selfish legis lation combined with other causes to produce.

The people cried out because they were suffering, they ceased to cry when they ceased to suffer, and they called for Parliamen tary Reform because they justly believed that it would bring with it an alleviation of their sufferings. No doubt they greatly exaggerated the effects which that measure would produce, and overlooked many causes of distress which it would not remove, but still they were right in their belief, that it would tend to a great amelioration of their condition, as the event has abundantly proved. The carrying of the bill was, above all, their work — the work of men on whom it i CHAr. I. Introduc tory Remarks. Reform by Long Par liament and Crom well. HISTORY OF THE REFORM BILL. conferred no privileges, and who might be supposed by superficial observers to be rather losers than gainers by it.

Their very exaggerations were fortunate, because they tended to keep alive that popular enthusiasm for the measure, without which it would certainly have been rejected. The mining, manufacturing, and commercial interests were not the only ones that were affected by the monopoly of power which the landed proprietary enjoyed. None suffered more severely from this cause than the farmers and agricultural labourers, because the course of legislation was naturally favourable to the landlord and unfavourable to the tenant. Under a normal and equitable state of things, those important classes, connected by ties of strong sympathy and common interest with the great landlords, commonly voted with them from conviction rather than coercion ; but on this occasion an unerring instinct taught them that their interests and the claims of the territorial aristocracy were at variance, and they declared against these claims with such unanimity that the counties — usually the stronghold of the Tory party — sent up, as we shall see, an overwhelming majority of representatives favourable to reform.

The inhabitants of the country districts shook off the political apathy which usually characterises them, and contributed no less largely to the popular victory than the inhabitants of the towns. The abuses of which the reformers complained were of no recent origin. Many of them were probably as old as our representative system, which, growing up in ages when anarchy and oppression were struggling together in one weltering chaos, was certain to present. a great multitude of anomalies. If some of these were from time to time corrected others sprang up in their place. In the early periods of our parliamentary history, there seems to have been no fixed rule for the selection of the towns which returned members to the lower house. The king appears to have issued his writs REFORM BY THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 5 to such as he thought proper, being usually, though by Chap. I. no means invariably, guided in his choice by their importance Reform by and population ; and as, in those early times, the lower house Uament" was not an object of jealousy to the crown, but, on the conanijCrom_ trary, often proved a useful ally to the sovereign in the contests which arose between him and his barons, there was no motive for the improper exercise of this power, and little danger of its being seriously abused.

But when the House of Commons begun to be recognised as a great estate of the realm, it was felt that bounds must be put to this arbitrary discretion, and the crown had no difficulty in relinquishing a prerogative which was of no great advantage to it. Thus, by the tacit consent of all parties, this discretionary power gradu ally fell into disuse. It is perhaps to be regretted that it was not formally transferred to the legislature or to the House of Commons, instead of being left in such a position that any step taken by parliament would be regarded as an usurp ation of the prerogative of the crown, and any attempt on the part of the crown to revive its dormant rights would call forth susceptibilities that were neither unnatural nor unfounded. A power which ought to have been regulated was prac tically destroyed, and the necessary consequence was that towns which had grown into importance were wholly un represented, while others which had fallen into decay still continued to send members to the House of Commons.

Thus a distribution of the representation, originally made without much care, but proportioned to the population with tolerable fairness, had, even in the time of Charles I., become so evidently anomalous as to attract the attention of the Long Parliament, which increased the number of members returned by the counties and the metropolis — gave repre sentatives to Manchester, Leeds, and Halifax, which even then were rising into importance — disfranchised a considerable number of decayed boroughs — and conferred the elective c Chap. I. 1615 HISTORY OF THE REFORM BILL. franchise on every owner of land whatever might be his tenure. It a"so enacted that representatives should be sent to the House of Commons from Scotland and Ireland, which was thought a fair and desirable arrangement, and one against which no serious objection would be urged.

The civil war prevented the proposed changes from being carried into effect at the time when they were enacted, but the plan was subsequently'adopted by Cromwell in summoning the parliament of 1645, and is thus described by Clarendon in his history of that period : — " But the time drew near now, when he was obliged by the instrument of government, and upon his oath, to call a parliament ; which seemed to him the only means left to compose the minds of the people to an entire submission to his government. In order to this meeting, though he did not observe the old course in sending writs out to all the little boroughs throughout England, which used to send burgesses (in which there is so great an inequality, that some single coun ties send more members to parliament than six other counties do), he seemed to take a more equal way, by appointing more knights for every shire to be chosen, and fewer burgesses, whereby the number of the whole was much lessened ; and yet the people being left to their own election, it was not thought an ill temperament, and was then generally looked upon as an alteration fit to be more warrantably made and in a better time.

And so upon the receipt of his writs, elections were made accordingly in all places ; and such per sons for the moment chosen and returned as were believed to be least affected to the present government and to those who had any authority in it ; there being strict order given, ' that no person who had ever been against the parliament during the time of the civil war, or the sons of any such persons, should be capable of being chosen to sit in that parliament ;' nor were any such persons made choice of." RE -APPEARANCE OF THE QUESTION. It is curious to remark how little opposition or objection Chap. I. this great change in the constitution of the country seems to 1645. have encountered, especially when we look at the storm raised by the introduction of the Reform Bill— a measure which, considering the time at which it was introduced and the great increase in the anomalies of our representation which had taken place in the interval, we shall see to be a much less violent change than that which Cromwell thus boldly carried out.