Righting the people's wrongs; a lesson from history of our own times

Front matter

A O^

.3*"- x^

RIGHTING THE PEOPLE'S WRONGS

Introduction

importance and timeliness of the subject.

Birth of English Democracy — The Monarchical Form clothing a Republican Spirit — Two Typical Revolutions — Transition-period between the Old England and the New — Difficulties to be Met — Social Discontent, .... 19

Chapter I. SOME LEADING CAUSES OF THE POPULAR UNREST

The American Republic — Effect of the French Revolution — Passage from Absolute to Constitutional Monarchy — Spirit of the Age — Physical Science — Philosophical and Religious Thought — The Oxford Movement — "No Popery" — Disappointment at Results of Reform Bill — Lord Durham — The New Poor Law — Machinery — Condition of the Poor — <<The Cry of the People," ... 23

Chapter IL

origin, progress, and result of chartism.

Estimate of Movement — Reform Bill of i 831 — Middle Classes demand Representation — Reform Necessary — Difficulties in the Way — Votes on Bill — Passage of Bill — Result of Bill — Reaction — Rise of Chartism — Its Demands — Its Spread — Conservatism of the Masses — The Reformer — Leaders of Movement — Unwise Advocates — How Chartism IS

Contents

might have Succeeded — Indifference of Government — Opposition and Riots — A New Influence, 43

Chapter III. HISTORY OF THE CORN LAWS

Com Laws after Norman Conquest — Statute of 1436 — Statute of 1463 — Legislation of 1660— 1670 — Corn Laws under William and Mary — Burke's Act (1773) — Statute of 1791 — Enactments from 1791 to 1846 — Repeal of Corn Laws becomes Question of the Hour, 68

Chapter IV. THE anti-corn-law LEAGUE

What it Accomplished — Its Opponents — Later a Class-movement — Purity of Leaders — Story of the Movement — Richard Cobden — John Bright — Dark Days and Cobden's Faith, 78

Chapter V

humanitarian spirit in literature of period AND

some thinkers who wrought for progress.

Political Influences not Alone at Work — A Wave of Human Sympathy — Bulwer's "King Arthur" — Ebenezer Elliott

— Carlyle — Dickens — Elizabeth Barrett — Hood — Mackay

— Massey — Maurice — Charles Kingsley — Mazzini — Youth a Nation's Hope, 103

Chapter VI. "CARRYING THE WAR INTO AFRICA."

Disappointment in Melbourne Ministry — Mr. Wood of Manchester — Parliamentary Tactics — Agitators' Troubles — Postal Reform — A Tory Ministry — Cobden in Parliament — Compact between Cobden and John Bright — The Press opens its Columns — Thomas Moore — Thomas Campbell — -The Year 1844 — Absurd Remedies Proposed, 151 16

Chapter X. LESSONS FOR THE PRESENT

Importance of Repeal and of Reform Bill — Obstacles Apparently Insurmountable — No Such Word as Fail — League Methods — Singleness of Aim — Tables Turned — Youth the Mainstay of Anti-Corn-Law Movement — Appeal to Reason and Conscience — Lessons of Chartism — Conclusion, 195

I. Typical Poems and Songs of the Period of the Corn- Law AND Chartist Agitations, 213

Exordium to "The Village Patriarch," by Ebenezer

Elliott, 214

*' Battle Song," by Ebenezer Elliott, 215

Contents

"The Home of Taste," by Ebenezer Elliott, .... 216

*<The Press," by Ebenezer Elliott, "7

«<The Cry of the Children," by Elizabeth Barrett, . . 218, *'The Song of the Shirt," by Thomas Hood, . . . 223 •'The Souls of the Children," by Charles Mackay, . . 226

"British Freedom," by Charles Mackay, 229

*'The Wants of the People," by Charles Mackay, . .230 Answer to Cowley's Question, by Charles Mackay, . 232 *'The Three Preachers," by Charles Mackay, . . . 232 ; "The Voice of the Time," by Charles Mackay, . . 234

"Now," by Charles Mackay, 236

*'The Fermentation," by Charles Mackay, . . . ,237

*'The Railways," by Charles Mackay, 239

*'The Watcher on the Tower," by Charles Mackay, . 241

*< Clear the Way," by Charles Mackay, 243

"The Good Time Coming," by Charles Mackay, . . 244

*'Eternal Justice," by Charles Mackay, 245

"The Earth for All," by Gerald Massey, .... 248 "The Lords of Land and Money," by Gerald Massey, 249 "A Cry of the Unemployed," by Gerald Massey, . .250 "Our Fathers are Praying for Pauper-Pay," Gerald Massey, 252 From "Anathema Maranatha," by Gerald Massey, . . 254 From "Onward and Sunward," by Gerald Massey, . 254 *' Song of the Red Republican," by Gerald Massey, . 254

"The Awakening," by Gerald Massey, 255

"To-day and To-mor ow," by Gerald Massey, . . . 256 "Alton Locke's Song," by Charles Kingsley, . . .257 "The Day of the Lord," by Charles Kingsley, . . . 258

II. Dr. Charles Mackay's Political Fable of the

Tailor-ruled Land, 260

III. Chartist Petition Presented to the Commons in

1839, 264

Index, 269

INTRODUCTION

IMPORTANCE AND TIMELINESS OF THE SUBJECT

Birth of English Democracy — The Monarchical Form clothing a Republican Spirit — Two Typical Revolutions — Transitionperiod between the Old England and the New — Difficulties to be Met — Social Discontent.

TO FRIENDS of popular government there has seldom been a decade of greater interest, or one more instructive in its practical lessons, than were the first ten years of Queen Victoria's reign ; for during this period the spirit of progressive democracy was introduced into the political life of Great Britain to such an extent that it changed the genius or character of the government. True, the new spirit was present when the great Reform Bill of 1 83 1-'32 was passed ; but personal government could not be said to have given place to constitutional rule during the reign of William IV. Victoria, however, accepted the spirit as well as the letter of the new demand born of the democratic ideal that was to be progressively and practically applied to public affairs. Hence the beginning of her rule marked the advent of the republican temper which has been fostered and expanded with the succeeding years.

History has afforded many sad illustrations of republican shells masking imperial despotism or intolerable tyrannies, under autocratic or oligarchical rule ; but in England we find the form and paraphernalia of monarchy clothing a government which, since the dawn of the Victorian age, has suc-|i cessively enlarged the rights and privileges of the people, and which has from year to year, in its internal policy and in that of its Anglo-Saxon dependencies, accepted the larger demand of a free government whose face is set toward the republican ideal. For this reason a brief survey of the period will prove helpful and, I think, inspiring to those who are earnestly working for freedom, for fraternity, and for happiness based on justice and enlightenment

The condition and general outlook in Englanc during the first years of Queen Victoria's reign wa^ in so many respects analogous to that present in France when Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette

Importance a?id 'Timeliness of the Subject

ascended the throne, that the happy outcome in Great Britain stands in bold and brilliant relief against the dark background of the wanton slaughter of life and the destruction of property that marked the Reign of Terror. In each country the transition was revolutionary, working changes of a fundamental and far-reaching character. In France, all the savage and brutal instincts of millions were unleashed, the result being a drama of unparalleled ferocity, in which reason, justice, love and the humanitarian impulses were banished to enthrone hate and to glut revenge. In England, on the other hand, a revolution scarcely less fundamental, but slower in its processes, was carried to a victorious issue by peaceable measures, primarily through the unremitting and indefatigable labors of a little band of social reformers who fully understood the meaning and importance of the two words, organization and education ; and secondarily by the presence of high moral purpose and of far-seeing, courageous and incorruptible statesmanship, unhampered by the throne.

The first decade of the Victorian age was, to use the language of Dr. Charles Mackay, " a transition period from the old England to the new. The slow civilization of our grandfathers was giving place to the far more active, prying, aggressive civilization of the present day — the day of steam, electricity, and engineering, and of material rather than intellectual or moral progress." * Moreover, the difficulties and obstacles, at home and abroad, that confronted the State were of the gravest character. In Canada revolution, in Jamaica threatened revolt, in India the rising mutterings of a coming storm were enough to tax the wisdom of far greater statesmen than easy-going Melbourne and his associates. But, serious as were these dangers, they sank into comparative insignificance before the rising flood of social discontent which, swelled as' it was by many different tributaries, threatened to sweep away the old regime with the fury that had marked the great continental revolution.*!"

* Charles Mackay, LL.D., <' Forty Years' Recollections," vol. I., P- 77-

■j-"It is easy to imagine a succession of events," says Justin McCarthy, "which might have thrown the country into utter confusion. . . . Things were looking ominous for the new reign. The last two reigns had done much to loosen not only the personal feeling of allegiance, but even the general confidence in the virtue of mon- 1 archical rule. . . . Social discontent prevailed almost everywhere. | . . . Class-interests were fiercely arrayed against each other. The cause of each man's class filled him with positive fanaticism." ("His-; tory of Our Own Times," Am. ed., vol. I., p. i6.) 1

Chapter I. Some Leading Causes Of The Popular

UNREST

The American Republic — Effect of the French Revolution — Passage from Absolute to Constitutional Monarchy — Spirit of the Age — Physical Science — Philosophical and Religious Thought — The Oxford Movement — "No Popery" — Disappointment at Results of Reform Bill — Lord Durham — The New Poor Law — Machinery — Condition of the Poor — "The Cry of the People.'"

TO APPRECIATE intelligently the difficulties that the statesmanship of the 'forties of the nineteenth century had to meet, it will be necessary for us to recall to mind some of the leading sources of this popular discontent. The fifty years that preceded the coronation of the Queen had revolutionized the thought of Europe. The vigorous young republic over the water, in spite of the gloomy predictions that had been confidently and persistently made in regard to her for half a century, had moved forward with stately and uninterrupted tread, till she occupied a commanding position among the positive and inspiring powers

^3 of civilization. Men of the Old World had become convinced that the daring ideals of the new order were practicable. The republic was "a great fact"; and its success had excited the wonder of the world, and the admiration of the friends of freedom in all lands.

The French Revolution, through its excesses and the failure of the experiment, had caused a revulsion in public feeling ; but, in spite of this, the upheaval had shaken every throne in western Europe, and planted a great new hope in the hearts of miUions of people. Moreover, the broadly humanitarian and philosophical controversies and intellectual agitations that preceded and followed the Revolution had appealed to the conscience, to the rationality,' and to the sense of justice of more than one great English statesman, while they produced a profound and indelible impression upon the great middle class of the nation.

Another factor that strengthened the revolutionary

impulses was the new-born confidence on the part

of the masses in their own power, when once banded

together. The starving miserables of France, when

acting in concert, had proved irresistible against even

the Bastile and the throne. This sahent fact had

taken lodgment in the minds of tens of thousands

of the very poor, vs^ho seemed to be too ignorant to appreciate the higher motives that actuated those who were fighting the battle of progress from a love of justice ; and this realization of the possibility ot victory made them far less patient than they had been before the upheaval in France.

At this time all western continental Europe was fast moving toward a revolutionary outbreak, and England had become infected with the spirit of revolt. Then, again, during the last two reigns the nation had passed from a personal monarchy to a constitutional form of government ; and the vanishing of the old reverence that had hedged the throne was noticeable in every class, though it was perhaps nowhere so conspicuous as among the very poor, whose lot was pitiable in the extreme.

The tendency to revolt was favored by the general temper of the age. It was a time when the thought of the nation was in a state of flux. The old views were rapidly falling away. Ancient theories were being questioned, when indeed they were not impatiently discarded. The old ideals were giving place to new ones more in harmony with the larger thought that had come with the larger life of the age. It was as if the word change were graven over every gatev/ay of research. In science, in religion, in commerce and trade, no less than in political and social economy, there was a degree of restlessness that always marks a time of growth and transition, and which gives impetus to revolutionary impulses. In the epigrammatic phrase of Lord Brougham, " The schoolmaster was abroad in the land."

The value of steam and the wonders and uses of electricity were new to the nation ; and these discoveries were stimulating the brain of thousands of inventive geniuses, while they opened new worlds of possibility to the mercantile and trading classes.

Physical science was also girding herself for the most brilliant march of discovery in the history of the ages — a march in which Great Britain was to take a leading part. Charles Darwin had returned from his memorable voyage round the world in "The Beagle," and, with brain teeming with new and wonderful thought born of his research, was busily engaged in the production of his immortal works; while Alfred Russell Wallace, Herbert Spencer, John Tyndall and others who were to make the nineteenth century forever glorious in the history of scientific progress, were in the flush of early manhood.

In the domain of religion the revolutionary

impulses were very marked. The rise of physical

science, with the startling new theories of evolution;

the innovations of investigators in natural history,

in geology, in astronomy, and indeed in all departments of scientific research ; the general quickening of the spirit of unrest and skepticism ; the spread of German transcendentahsm, and the dissemination of the philosophical French liberalism, were influencing the thought of England. Perhaps this was nowhere more apparent than in the broadening vision of great divines and churchmen. But this invasion of the precincts of the church by the newer thought and speculation, while it wove a fascinating spell over many of the noblest thinkers, naturally produced a powerful reaction in the minds of others no less able or conscientious, who saw with the gravest apprehension the fading away of the old reverence for form, for rite, for ritual, and for dogma. To them it seemed that the church, loosed from her moorings, was floating into a sea of skepticism. In 1833 the famous Oxford Move- .ment was launched by John Henry Newman and other able and intensely religious men. They were reactionists who, unconsciously at first, had set their face toward Rome. In 1841 Dr. Newman issued his famous " Tract No. 90," which occasioned such heated controversy that it might almost be said to have convulsed the councils of the Established Church. To the clear-seeing it was evident that the keen thinker and masterly logician, its author,

was already under the fascination of the great Latin

%7 church ; and his formal acceptance of Catholicisml in 1845, surprised no one.

The years that followed the Oxford Movement were marked by a religious upheaval which shook the Church of England as it had not been moved in generations. The controversies were between intellectual giants, who were also men of pure motives and noble impulses ; in the strenuous conflict life-long friends were arrayed against each other, teachers against disciples, and brother against brother. A striking: instance of this was seen in the case of the Newman brothers. We have seen how the new thought and larger views of life that busied the brain of the period filled the mystical and contemplative divine, John Henry Newman, with alarm, and drove him into the arms of Rome. The same influences, playing upon the more rationalistic mind of Francis Newman, fascinated him with the broader outlook and led him into the ranks of Liberalism.*

* These brothers were equally pure in heart and purpose, equally sincere and earnest. Both were passionate lovers of truth. Each was logical and endowed with keen intellectual perception. But with the one the mystical and poetic quality, with the other the rationalistic, seemed to hold supremacy. In the Newman brothers we have one of the most suggestive illustrations of how the same influences will produce diametrically opposite impressions on two elevated, truth-loving natures. Their lives also show something of the play of forces at work in the church at this period. We can easily understand how the scholarship of England was moved by the keen and often bitter controversy, and how something of the old-time prejudice flamed up in the minds of some of her noblest churchmen.

The effect upon the popular mind of this movement toward the Church of Rome by a few of the brightest lights of the English church was insignificant, as compared with the general alarm and prejudice excited by another agitation, largely without substantial basis, which was professedly religious, but was in reality carried on chiefly for political ends. The old cry of " No Popery ! " was used as a slogan by demagogues, and the fact that O'Connell and his colleagues were acting with Lord Melbourne was seized on by the Opposition to excite the religious prejudices of the sentimental and the timid to the dangerous pass where judgment and reason become clouded, if they do not even give place to insane hate. The spirit of religious intolerance and bigotry ever sleeps lightly in the heart of a people that holds with grim tenacity to a dogmatic theology; and to us of the present day it seems almost incredible that eminent men, who represented that element of society which prided itself on its conservatism and respectability, should have gone to such lengths as did the Tories in an attempt to unleash the religious fanaticism of the people.

A great cry was raised by the Conservatives at the danger that threatened England from the immaturity of the Queen, and from the friendliness shown by the ministry to Daniel O'Connell and other Irish-

Catholic members of the House. For a time there seemed to be a systematic and determined attempt to create the impression that there was grave danger of the Queen throwing her influence in favor of " Popery," as the Conservatives were pleased to term Catholicism.

Many intimations were indulged in to the effect that an effort was being made to wed the youthful sovereign to a Catholic prince. It is an old and favorite device of politicians who are governed by motives other than the highest, to assume as a fact something derogatory to the Opposition, and then to argue on the false assumption as if it were sound. At this time demagogues were quick to employ this discreditable method to injure the ministry by further inflaming the religious passions of the people.

Even the staid old London 'Times insisted that " the anticipations of certain Irish Roman Catholics respecting the success of their warfare against church and state under the auspices of these not untried ministers into whose hands the all but infant Queen has been compelled by her unhappy condition to deliver herself and her indignant people are to be taken for nothing, and as nothing, but the chimeras of a band of visionary traitors."

It is a law of life that like calls forth like, and the Liberals were not slow in retaliating. Charges of meditated treason and dark hints of designs upon the throne were freely and unjustifiably indulged in. Mr. Henry Grattan, the son of the great orator, in a public address said : " If her Majesty were once fairly placed in the hands of the Tories, I would not give an orange peel for her life." And in order to give further emphasis to his absurd and extraordinary imputation, he added : "If some of the low miscreants of the party got round her Majesty and had the mixing of the royal bowl at night, I fear she would have a long sleep."

While it is obvious that this agitation was due chiefly to political demagogy, it cannot be denied that the trouble was constantly fed by indiscreet and indefensible utterances and actions on the part both of Catholics and of Protestants, chiefly in Ireland, though to some extent in England also.*

* It was during the early years of Queen Victoria's reign, when the Corn-Law agitators and the anti-Papal zealots were active, that Thomas Moore voiced the sentiments of thousands of Englishmen in a little waif, two stanzas of which run as follows :

"What, still those two infernal questions. That with our meals, our slumber mix !

That spoil our tempers and digestions, Eternal Corn and Catholics !

"Gods! were there ever two such bores!

Nothing else talked of night or mom, Nothing in doors, or out of doors, But endless Catholics and Corn!"

It is thus quite clear that the general spirit of the time was one of widespread unrest. But, passing from a general survey to a closer scrutiny of the politicaljof the social, and of the economic conditions, we see everywhere indications of a great storm brewing.*

The profound agitation that had convulsed England during the long, memorable and bitterly contested Reform-Bill struggle, had interested as no agitation had ever done before the masses of the English people in political measures ; and, as is always the case when some distinctively progressive step is taken, the bill had aroused extravagant and unwarranted expectations in the minds of thousands of the slow-thinking toilers. There of course had followed in this class bitter disappointment, while even the more discerning and discriminating among progressive Englishmen, who regarded the measure

* The mistakes of the Conservatives had exerted a strong influence upon the public mind. This had been very noticeable in the popular reaction that followed the persistent attempt of the Duke of Wellington, in 1830, when at the head of the ministry, to destroy the freedom of the press by rigorous persecution (see "History of the English Parliament," vol. XIII.). Although this dangerous attempt of the crown and its ministers came practically to an end in 1831 with the failure of the Whig attorney-general to convict Cobbett, the effort had served to arouse the more thoughtful and patriotic among the people to the importance not only of boldly resisting the attempts to suppress the freedom of the press, but also of uniting in a demand for larger freedom and a wider meed of justice.

merely as the opening wedge (as indeed it proved to be) to greater and more essential reforms, were disappointed on finding that the Liberal or Whig party had no intention of involving the country in further agitation by taking the " next step."

The laboring classes were enraged by the refusal of the Liberal ministry to extend the franchise, or to adopt other measures that it was believed would better the pitiable condition of workingmen. They had worked hard for the success of the Reform Bill. Indeed, the measure would never have become a law had it not been for the artisan class. Royalty and the aristocracy yielded only after it had become clear that revolution would inevitably follow if they persisted in their opposition. The gigantic demonstrations of revolt in England, in 1831, after the Lords had refused to pass the measure, revealed to the Conservatives the ugly fact that " if constitutional means failed the bill would be carried by unconstitutional pressure."* None knew better than did the workingmen that the success of the Reform Bill had been made possible by their persistent, determined and united action ; and they now felt that, in common fairness, the demands of the artisan :lass should receive consideration at the hands of those whom they had helped, who had promised to

*J. Franck Bright, D.D., "History of England," vol. III., p. 1426. 3 33 be and who they had supposed were their friends.

In spite however of the indignation of the laboring classes, and of the angry cry of the starving in the great cities, the Liberals refused to advance. Lord Melbourne and Lord Russell seemed to think that, after the passage of the Reform Bill, the people should rest content for a generation, while the ministry enjoyed the emoluments and honors of office undisturbed — as a reward for what they had done.

Lord Durham, it is true, wished to move forward. He was a great statesman, with all his faults ; in many respects, one of the most commanding and influential figures of the stormy days before the Reform Bill became a law. In fact, its success was in no small degree due to his indefatigable labors. Had he had his way, the bill would have been far more radical and republican in spirit and in character. He was the most advanced member of Lord Grey's illustrious cabinet, and was long regarded as the hope of the progressive reformers. He was brave, bold, imperious, often passionate in his outbursts when he felt that custom, law, or man's selfishness was retarding justice, or blocking progress.

But Lord Durham was not to be the chosen leader who should guide the English nation forward into a broader and happier estate. A short time after the accession of the Queen, he was sent to Canada to quell the rebellion which had broken out in that province. Here he set out, as some one has observed, "to make or mar a career, if not a country." But an evil fate pursued him. He builded wisely ; he wrought great things ; yet in so doing he ruined himself.*

Lord Durham, however, was far too radical to suit the majority of the Whigs. Indeed, the Melbourne cabinet, which first essayed to guide the fortunes of England under Victoria, was almost as indifferent to the wrongs of the poor as the Tories were solicitous for the preservation and protection of the ancient privileges and vested rights of the landed gentry. Hence throughout the kingdom the rising tide of angry discontent, which had

* Mr. McCarthy admirably characterizes Lord Durham's labors and their results in the following passage :

"Lord Durham made a country and he marred a career. He is distinctly the founder of the system which has since worked with such gratifying success in Canada ; he is the founder even of the principle which allowed the quiet development of the provinces into a confederation with neighbouring colonies under the name of the Dominion of Canada. But the singular quality which in home politics had helped to mar so much of Lord Durham's personal career was in full work during his visit to Canada. It would not be easy to find in modern political history so curious an example of splendid success combined with all the appearance of utter and disastrous failure. The mission of Lord Durham saved Canada. It ruined Lord Durham." (" History of Our Own Times," Am. ed., vol. I., p. 43.)

How Engl a fid Averted a Revolution of Force

rapidly increased during the latter half of William's reign, swelled ominously as the terrible distress of the working classes in the great cities grew during the opening years of Victoria's rule.

The Liberals had further incensed the very poor by the enactment, in 1833, of a new poor law, which abolished outdoor relief and established workhouses for the reception of the starving. By this law, husbands and wives demanding assistance were not only compelled to work (which in the large majority of cases they were quite willing to do), but they were separated, in order that society should not be burdened by additional expense due to any more children born ; while the little ones who had already come into the world were taken from their parents. We can easily understand how extremely brutal this statute appeared to be to hundreds of thousands of the very poor, whose lives had been spent in a tragic battle for bread, and whose only joy in existence lay under the little roof that sheltered husband, wife and children. The condition of tens of thousands of the working people was so precarious that none knew when he might be forced to ask for bread ; and to know that that asking would be met by the demand for the breaking-up of the home and the incarceration of its inmates in workhouses produced

the most bitter resentment, and led to many riots.

For generations a large proportion of the working people had lived in constant fear of starvation and the potter's field. Thousands rarely, if ever, enjoyed a full meal. During the reform agitation they had been led to hope for better things, and instead of the expected loaf the Liberals had given them a stone in the form of the new poor bill.

Another cause of apprehension and discontent among the poor was found in the rapid introduction of machinery, which had already begun to displace thousands of workers. So long as the toilers had felt that the employers were compelled to make use of their services, they had had something to hope for in the way of work ; but as machine after machine was introduced, each of which performed the labor of a number of workers, a feeling akin to despair took possession of a large proportion of the artisan class and goaded them to many acts of violence, such as breaking up the machinery, and in other ways seeking to wreak vengeance on the employers who, they felt, were attempting to deprive them of the miserable pittance necessary to keep them from the poorhouse.