CHAPTER IV.

MEMBER FOR SHREWSBURY.-PROTECTIONISM.

The Conservative Majority-Lord Melbourne's retirement-Peel is sent forState of the country-Issue of half farthings-Misery of the working-classes -Mr. Disraeli speaks on commercial policy-State of Ireland-O'Connell's agitation-His trial, sentence, and liberation-Approaching famine-Unscrupulousness of O'Connell-Wretchedness of his tenants-Mr. Disraeli on Irish questions-Session of 1844-Speech on Lord John Russell's Irish motionOn Maynooth-On Coercion-Becomes lieutenant to Lord George Bentinck -The Whig treatment of Irish distress-Lord George Bentinck on Irish railways-Warmly supported by Mr. Disraeli-Anti-Corn Law agitationThe Leaguers not always wise-Ireland joins them-Peel's wavering-Import duties abolished in Ireland by a Cabinet memorandum-Peel resigns-Lord John sent for-Fails to form a government-Peel returns to office a Free Trader-Disgust of his party-Session of 1846-Queen's speech-Intrigues concerning the Coercion Bill-Resignation of Peel-Lord John again sent for -Prorogation of Parliament and general election-Mr. Disraeli throughout the lieutenant of Lord George Bentinck-Has himself related the history of this struggle-Why he quarrelled with Peel-His powers of invectiveAssaults on the ex-leader of the Tories-Peel's reply-The sugar dutiesThe Session of 1847 - Mr. Disraeli's speeches-Close of the Session-Mr. Disraeli retires from Shrewsbury-Buys Hughenden Manor-Addresses the electors of Buckinghamshire—Is opposed by Dr. Lee, but returned without even the formality of a show of hands-Busy with literature-"Coningsby " -"Young England"-The Duke of Rutland and Lord Strangford-What the reviews said-Personalities-"Sybil" and "Tancred "-Thomas Cooper the Chartist-" Tancred" an anticipation of modern religious criticismGreat speech at the Manchester Athenæum.

WHEN Mr. Disraeli entered Parliament as member for Shrewsbury he found the Conservative party with a splendid majority. The general election had returned 368 Tories as

Lord Melbourne's Resignation.

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against 292 Liberals of all shades. There were 181 new members in Parliament; 78 Liberals of various types had been replaced by Tories, and although 38 Tories had had to give place to as many Liberals, the Conservative party could boast of a gain of 80 on a division. The petitions were few and unimportant. Thirteen members lost their seats, but five elections only were declared void. On the whole, then, Peel saw a fair prospect before him with the opening of Parliament. The Whigs, however, died hard. Parliament was opened by Commission on the 24th of August, the Long Vacation not having become in the early years of the "forties" quite such an institution as it has been of late, and an amendment to the Address was forthwith moved. Some time was wasted over the discussions on this matter, but on the 28th of the month the division was at last taken, and Lord Melbourne found himself in a minority of 91 in a house of 629. Even a Whig Cabinet could not pretend that it enjoyed the confidence of the country after such a defeat, and Lord Melbourne placed his resignation in the hands of the Queen, and retired forthwith from public life. He retained his seat in Parliament, it is true, and as late as 1848 voted in the Whig interest, but his influence departed with his resignation of office, and from this moment he practically fades out of the chronicle of English politics.

There was but one thing for the Queen to do, and that she did. She sent for Sir Robert Peel, and by the end of the month his ministry was formed. As a matter of course he took his place as First Lord of the Treasury; Lord Lyndhurst became Chancellor; Lord Wharncliffe, President of the Council; Sir James Graham went to the Home Office; Lord Aberdeen took the Foreign Office; Mr. Gladstone, then a Tory, the Board of Trade; while

the Duke of Wellington consented to accept the leadership in the Upper House without a portfolio. There was nothing very striking about the re-elections consequent upon the change of government, unless, indeed, we except a gratuitous declaration made by Mr. Gladstone to the electors of Newark. By way of propitiating the agricultural constituency for which he sat, he announced that "There were two points on which the British farmer might rely, the first of which was that adequate protection would be given to him, while the second was that protection would be given to him by means of the sliding scale." When the Government had fairly settled itself into harness, Parliament was prorogued, and an interval of comparative quiet succeeded. The calm was, however, of but very short duration. Ten years of unbroken Whig ascendancy had left the country in a painfully inflammable condition. The New Poor Law had created an amount of exasperation amongst the peasantry which can hardly be over-estimated, and for which in these later days it is not difficult to find an excuse. Wages in the agricultural districts were the same as they had been under the old Poor Law, and the harshness of the new law was a cruel change for those accustomed to the careless easiness of the old. In the manufacturing districts the operatives were ground down by a miserable tyranny. The hours of labour were outrageously long; machinery was cleaned in meal times, and "truck and tommy" were in full swing. When the Parliament-christened by the Whigs the "do-nothing Parliament,"-adjourned in October, popular distress was enormous, and popular discontent was beginning to display itself in very unpleasant ways. The harvest of 1841 had not been more than an average one, and scarcely had it been gathered in when incendiarism made itself

The National Distress.

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felt. All through Bedfordshire, Nottinghamshire, Warwick, and Yorkshire the firebrand was carried. Night after night farmers lay down to sleep uneasily, conscious that before morning dawned there was something more than a chance that their outlying ricks would be consumed at the bidding of the emissaries of "Captain Swing." Nor were the agricultural districts alone distressed. Manufactures were almost at a standstill. The distress in the Midlands and in the North was appalling. In Leeds alone, out of a total number of 19,936, there were 16,136 operatives who were wholly unemployed. The average weekly income of the unemployed "hands" was reckoned at 114d. In Paisley 14,000 persons were out of work, and were simply dying of starvation. Nottingham and Bradford were in quite as evil a case. The winter was as terrible as the autumn, and when with the spring the spirits of the people rose in some small degree, it is not surprising that they began once more to seek in political nostrums the remedy for social wrongs. The 2nd of May, 1842, saw a Chartist demonstration on an unusual scale, and the presentation of a petition with 3,315,702 signatures, calling for the earnest consideration of the authorities. The petition meant nothing and produced nothing. There was a fancy dress ball at Buckingham Palace ten days later, and the day before a Royal letter was issued calling for a collection in all the churches for the benefit of the poor. On the 26th of May there was a ball at Willis's Rooms "for the benefit of the Spitalfields Weavers," and on the 30th of the month poor Francis made a despairing attempt to attract attention to the wrongs of his order by a futile attempt to shoot the Queen on Constitution Hill.

From this time forward the social history of the country is

but one long record of agitation, rioting, and discontent. The Ministry made a noble effort to meet the difficulties of the case, and on the 24th of June a Royal Proclamation formally authorized the issue of half-farthings. Strange to say, even this concession did not satisfy the people of England. Food riots in one district were followed by even more serious disturbances in others, and Chartist meetings rapidly succeeded each other. Seditious placards were to be seen everywhere. The Anti-Corn Law League was busy, and side by side with it were working political organizations of all kinds, the dangerous character of which it was impossible to ignore. Before August was out another attempt had been made upon the Queen's life, the criminal in this case getting off with eighteen months' imprisonment. Early in the autumn it became necessary to take extraordinary steps for the punishment of the rioters. A hundred and fifty were brought up in September at York, and at the end of the month a Special Commission was sent down to Stafford. Early in October a similar Commission was sent down to Lancaster. Meanwhile, Feargus O'Connor and fifty-eight of those who acted with him had been arrested and were brought to trial. In Wales matters were as bad. "Rebecca and her daughters" openly set the law at defiance, and from one end of the Principality to the other rioted in the very wantonness of mischief. By the autumn of 1843 Wales was described as "utterly lawless" a state of things which the Times ascribed to the prevalence of Dissent, and to the consequent contempt of the Welsh people for authority. It would probably have been safer to ascribe the phenomenon to the dearness of food and the general hardness of the times. Nothing, however, could excuse the lengths to which the Rebeccaites went, and after the 10th