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ew York Public Libra

Hudson Park Branch, 66 LEROY STREET

CIRCULATING DEPARTMENT

1829

APSLEY HOUSE

Apsley House, the residence of the Duke of Wellington: from an

engraving of 1829.

897

[graphic]

in Ireland. These freeholders had been allowed to vote as long as their votes were given to the landlords; their votes were taken from them now that they were given to the candidates supported by the priests.

11. Death of George IV.

1830.-Catholic emancipation was

the result of the spread of one of the principles which had actuated the French Revolutionists in 1789, the principle that religious opinions ought not to be a bar to the exercise of civil or political rights. It was as far, at least, as Great Britain was concernednot the result of any democratic movement. The mass of Englishmen and Scotchmen still entertained a strong dislike of the Roman Catholics, and it has often been said, perhaps with truth, that if Parliament had been reformed in 1829, the Emancipation Bill would have been rejected. The position of the ministers in the House of Commons was weakened in consequence of the enmity of many of their old supporters, whilst the opposition, composed of Whigs and Canningites, was not likely to give them constant support. In the course of 1830 the Whigs chose Lord Althorp as their leader, who, though he had no commanding genius, inspired confidence by his thorough honesty. Before the effect of this change appeared George IV. died unregretted on June 26.

12. William IV. and the Second French Revolution. 1830.The eldest surviving brother of the late king succeeded as William IV. He was eccentric, and courted popularity by walking about the streets, and allowed himself to be treated with the utmost familiarity by his subjects. Some people thought that, like his father, he would be a lunatic before he died. A new Parliament was elected in which the Tories, though they lost many seats, still had a majority; but it was a majority divided against itself. Events occurred on the Continent which tended to weaken still further the Wellington ministry. In France Charles X., having succeeded his brother Louis XVIII., became rapidly unpopular. Defying the Chambers, which answered in France to the Parliament in England, he was overthrown in July 1830 by a revolution which placed his distant cousin, the Duke of Orleans, on the throne. Louis Philippe, however, instead of taking the title of King of France, which had been borne by the preceding kings, assumed that of King of the French, as a sign of his adoption of a merely constitutional authority. He was, in fact, to be to France what William III. had been to England. Such a movement in a neighbouring nation could not fail to influence Englishmen, especially as there was a feeling now spreading in England in some respects analogous to

1830

WILLIAM IV.

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that which existed in France. Charles X. had been deposed not merely because he claimed absolute power, but because he did so in the interests of the aristocracy as opposed to those of the middle

[graphic][merged small][subsumed]

class, and in England too the middle class was striving to assert itself against the landowners who almost exclusively filled the two Houses. The lead was taken by the Birmingham Political Union, and all over the country demands were made for Parliamentary reform.

13. The End of the Wellington Ministry. 1830.-In the House of Lords, when a new Parliament was opened in November, Lord Grey-who as Mr. Grey had urged the necessity of reforming Parliament in the early days of the great French Revolution (see p. 827)-suggested to Wellington that it would be well to bring in such a measure now. Wellington not only refused, but added that if he had to form for the first time a legislature for the country 'he did not mean to assert that he could form such a legislature as they vossessed now, for the nature of man was incapable of reaching such

[graphic]

The Duke of Wellington: from a bust by Francis in the National Portrait Gallery.

excellence at once; but his great endeavour would be to form some description of legislature which would produce the same results.' After this his ministry was doomed. On November 15 it was defeated in the House of Commons by a combination between the opposition and dissatisfied Tories, and Wellington at once resigned. He had done good service to the state, having practised economy and maintained efficiency. In London his ministry made its mark by the introduction, in 1829, of a new police, in the place of the old useless constables who allowed thieves to escape instead

1830

THE REFORM MINISTRY

901

of catching them. The nicknames of Bobby' and 'Peeler' which long attached themselves to policemen had their origin in the names of Robert Peel, by whom the force was organised.

14. Lord Grey's Ministry. 1830.-Lord Grey became the head of a ministry composed of Whigs and Canningites. Amongst the former were Lord John Russell, Lord Althorp who led the House of Commons, and Viscount Melbourne, a man of great abilities and great indolence of temperament, of whom it was said

[graphic]

Earl Grey: from a figure in Hayter's Reformed Parliament in the National Portrait Gallery.

that his usual answer to proposals of reform was, 'Can't you let it alone?' Amongst the latter was Lord Palmerston, another Canningite, who had long been known as a painstaking official of considerable powers, but who now for the first time found a position worthy of them by becoming Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Brougham, a stirring but eccentric orator, was made Lord Chancellor to keep him from being troublesome in the House of Com

mons.

To Lord John Russell an inferior office was assigned, and he was not made a member of the Cabinet, but, in consequence

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