lished, as they had been nothing but instru- these strikes failed to gain the end which ments of oppression in the hands of the workmen had in view they were folemployers, and that masters and men should be left free to manage their affairs in their own way. At the same time, it was thonght necessary that a new law should be passed for the summary punishment of either employers or workmen 'who, by threats, intimidation, or acts of violence, should interfere with that act of freedom which ought to be allowed to each party of employing his labour or capital in the manner he may deem most advantageous.' Bills founded on this report were some short time after brought into the House of Commons, and passing through all stages without encountering opposition, became law. It very soon became apparent, however, that the repeal of the combination statutes had been too sweeping and unrestricted. It took away at the same time all the security which had been afforded by the common law against violent measures to regulate wages, and in consequence, combinations and strikes increased to a most unusual and alarming extent. The operatives seem to have imagined that as the legislature had removed all restrictions on their combinations to raise wages, it had encouraged them to combine, and that by means of their trades' unions they could compel the masters to pay them whatever wages they chose to demand. As their demands at this period were in most cases unreasonable, and the remuneration for labour had already reached its proper level, the masters refused to raise their wages, and strikes took place in nearly all the manufacturing districts. In Glasgow scarcely any work was done from August to January, and in the northern and midland counties of England a similar state of matters existed. Industry was in consequence paralysed, and the trade and commerce of the country were seriously injured. As VOL. I. lowed by violent outrages, both against the Liberal Commercial Policy of the Government, and its beneficial results-Wild Commercial Speculation- Its ruinous issues-Failure of numerous Banks in London and the Country-General Panic-Efforts of the Bank of England to stay it-Government Measures for restoring Commercial Confidence-Discontent and Rioting in the Manufacturing Districts-The Corn Laws assailed - Restoration of forfeited Scottish Peerages-Independence of Brazil-Threatened Invasion of Portugal from Spain prevented by British interference-Burmese War-War with the Ashantees on the Gold Coast-British reverses-Governor M'Carthy killed- Complete overthrow of the Ashantees - Parliament Prorogued-New Election-Disastrous effect of long-continued drought-Duke of York's opposition to the Roman Catholic Claims-- His Illness, Death, and Character-Succeeded as Commander-in-chief by the Duke of WellingtonIllness of Lord Liverpool, and its effect upon the Government-Result of Discussions in Parliament on the Corn Laws and the Roman Catholic Claims-Canning made Prime Minister-His difficulties in forming an AdministrationSupported by the Whigs-Virulently opposed and maligned by the Tories-His Illness and Death-Feeling of the Country-His Character. manufactures were still in full employment; the various departments of the iron trade were flourishing; on all sides new buildings were in the course of erection; and money was so abundant that men of enterprise, though without capital, found no difficulty in commanding funds for any plausible undertaking.' NOTWITHSTANDING the uneasy feeling that | sons employed in the cotton and woollen had been excited by the manner in which the workmen had abused the repeal of the labour laws, the Government persevered in their liberal commercial policy. They abolished the useless bounties on the whale and herring fisheries; they made a large reduction of the duties on silk, wool, and iron; on coffee, sugar, spirits, and wines; on foreign cotton and linen goods; on paper and books; on foreign earthenware and glass; on copper, zinc, and lead; and, indeed, on almost every article of consumption in the country. And though these changes were regarded with great apprehension by the persons engaged in the various branches of trade and commerce, whose interests were affected by the reduction of duties, the results fully vindicated the wisdom of the ministerial policy. Instead of our manufactures being ruined by the removal of restrictive and prohibitory duties, as had been confidently predicted, they were vastly increased in extent and value. All old industries were enlarged, and new and extensive commercial enterprises were undertaken, adding largely to the wealth of the capitalist and the comforts of the workmen. Nearly all property,' wrote the annual chronicler, 'had risen All these savings enabled the changreatly in pecuniary value, and every branch cellor not only to persevere in reversing of internal industry was thriving. Agri- the narrow and short-sighted policy of cultural distress had disappeared; the per- his predecessor, but to promote the moral The revenue, of course, shared largely in the general prosperity. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had calculated that, after his large remissions of taxation in 1824, he would have a surplus of only £420,000; it actually amounted to £1,437,744. He estimated that this sum would be nearly doubled in 1826, and that in 1827 it would amount to £1,254,000. He resolved to alter the absurd system of import duties on sugar, and the drawback allowed for re-exportation, by which the public lost 3s. on each cwt., that went into the pocket of the merchant. By reducing the duty to 27s. per cwt., and the drawback to the same amount, Robinson saved the country the sum of £300,000 a year. The conversion of the four per cent. stock into three-and-a-half per cent. had procured an annual saving to the country of £375,000. welfare as well as the fiscal prosperity and became a perfect mania. New joint and social comfort of the people. The stock companies sprung into existence illicit traffic in wine, and especially in almost daily, and no scheme was too wild spirits, created by the high duties on these or absurd not to receive extensive support. articles, had been productive of immense Companies were formed, not only for life mischief, and had demoralized large num- insurance, steam navigation, the formation bers both in Great Britain and Ireland, of canals and railroads, and other similar who carried on smuggling as their regular undertakings, but for baking, brewing, employment. The legislature in vain endeavoured, as Robinson admitted, to check the mischief by the most rigorous measures. They surrounded, as he said, the coast with ships and guards as with a wall of brass; they imposed penalty upon penalty, and inflicted punishment upon punishment, but all to no purpose. In spite of this vigilant and costly preventive system, smuggling, he admitted, flourished in every quarter of the three kingdoms. Its active agents hovered around our coasts, penetrated our harbours, traversed the interior, invaded the splendid palace of the noble and the humble cottage of the poor, offering their temptations in every quarter, and all classes of society yielded to the seduction. In the previous session Robinson, by the reduction of the duties on Irish and Scottish whisky from 5s. 6d. to 2s. the gallon, had dealt illicit distillation a blow from which it never recovered. Following out this judicious and effective policy, he reduced one-half the duties on British spirits, French wines, and cider, and thus, at one stroke, did more to suppress the smuggling traffic than all the costly efforts of the excise had ever been able to accomplish, while the revenue itself, in the long run, suffered no material loss. The sudden and unexampled prosperity of the country was, however, destined to meet with an equally sudden and most disastrous reverse. The abundance of money and the low rate of interest led to an almost incredible burst of commercial speculation. The banks increased their issue of notes until there was, in 1825, from thirty to forty per cent. more paper out than in 1822. Money became a drug in the market, and its owners did not seem to know what to do with it. The rage for speculation seized all classes, washing-baths, wool-growing, coal portage, and the like. There was one company formed to undertake the getting up of companies, and another was advertised, the precise nature and object of which was professedly a secret known only to the projectors. The prospectuses of no fewer than thirty-five new companies were advertised in the Times and Morning Chronicle of the 23rd and 24th January, 1825. The recognition of the American republics turned the stream of speculation largely in that direction. Companies were formed to fish for pearls on the coast of Columbia, where no pearls were ever found, and to dig for gold and silver on the tops of mountains and in clefts 'where there were no workmen or tools to do this work, no fuel for the fires, and no roads or carriages to bring away the produce.' So reckless and ignorant or dishonest were the promoters of some of these bubble companies that warming pans from Birmingham were among the articles which, for want of room in the warehouses, were exposed under the burning sun of Rio Janeiro; skates from Sheffield were offered for sale to a people who had never heard of ice; and china and cut-glass were exported for the use of savages whose dishes and drinking vessels were cocoa-nut shells and cow-horns. The South American colonies seemed to afford an almost boundless field for British industry and the investment of British capital; and it was alleged that not less than £150,000,000 of British gold was sunk in Mexico and South America. The increased demand thus produced caused an enormous rise in the price of almost every article of manufacturing industry. The price of pig-iron, for example, rose from £6 to £12 a ton, and cotton rose from 74d. | dates, or to lend money on securities which, to 1s. 6d. a lb. The rise in the market in the present state of the market, could price of shares in speculative companies, not be realized, while on the faith of these most of which proved mere swindles, was securities they had issued their notes in still more extraordinary. A share in the large quantities. They were consequently Anglo-Mexican Mine, on which £10 was unable in this hour of need to give assistpaid, was sold at £158; one in the United ance to their customers, whose funds were Mexican, of the same amount, brought locked up in unsaleable goods. £125; and a share in the Real del Monte, on which £70 was paid, realized £1350. The vast quantities of cotton, wine, silk, and other productions which had been imThoughtful and foreseeing men clearly ported far beyond the immediate wants of perceived that this speculative madness the people, had the effect of turning the rate must, at no distant day, end in wide-spread of exchange against the country. The Bank ruin; but their warnings were unheeded. of England, in conformity with its habitual Not only did country bankers persist in policy, immediately diminished its issues their paper issues-even paying a large and discounts. The feeling of uneasicommission to persons who undertook to ness which had previously existed now promote the circulation of their notes, till deepened into great and general alarm. their net note issue amounted to not less Several important commercial failures took than £6,000,000-but the directors of place, and led to a run upon the country the Bank of England continued to increase bankers, and bank after bank were comtheir discounts and to diminish their pelled to close their doors. Serious apprereserves, until, at the end of August, 1825, hensions began to be entertained respecting the circulation of the bank amounted to the stability of some of the London banking about £19,400,000, while the bullion in houses; and when at length, on the 5th of its coffers had decreased to £3,600,000. December, the failure of the great house Other alarming symptoms speedily ap- of Sir Peter Pole & Co. was announced, a peared. The superabundant productions complete panic ensued, and Lombard Street of the manufacturer could not find an was filled with men of business hastening outlet; the still more superabundant ex- to withdraw their money from their bankportations of the merchant could not ers, or, with anxious hearts, waiting to hear find a market. In consequence the prices the tale of fresh disasters. It was known of almost all commodities were lowered, that the house in question kept accounts and especially those of the joint-stock with no fewer than forty-four country companies, which had been inflated to banks, and their ruin was naturally exsuch an extravagant height. Holders were pected to follow its stoppage. The funds now eager to sell out, buyers were few in immediately fell, and they went down still number, and reluctant to purchase. The lower when, next day, other three equally speculations in the American colonies important banking houses closed their brought no returns; no gold or silver came doors. The scene which followed is thus from Mexico, or pearls from Columbia; described by Mr. Baring, the famous Lonmerchants were hard pressed for money, don merchant :-'A panic seized the public. and as they could not find a market for Men would not part with their money on their goods, they had recourse to their any terms, nor for any security, and the bankers. But the bankers themselves were consequence was general distress. Persons already feeling the pressure of the changed of undoubted wealth and real capital were times. They had been induced by the seen walking about the streets of London abundance of money and the low rate of not knowing whether they should be able interest, to discount bills of unusually long to meet their engagements for next day.' The insolvencies in the metropolis pro- | fidence throughout that part of the country. duced of course a great and disastrous effect An order was also issued to the officers of upon the country banks. The notes, and the mint to expedite the coinage of soverespecially the one-pound notes, which they eigns as fast as its machinery could produce had issued in such vast numbers, underwent them. For about a week 150,000 sovereigns an immediate and enormous depreciation, were coined per day. The bank increased and could now be bought for five shillings its discounts, and in the course of four or apiece, sometimes for even less than that five days it had issued in gold and notes sum. In many districts, it was remarked, not less than £8,000,000. By these prompt the country people looked at every kind of and vigorous measures the panic was stayed bank-note as if it would burn their fingers, before the end of the year, and some degree and would not accept one on any terms. of mutual confidence restored. In the Banks continued to break at the rate of course of the first months of the new year half a dozen a day, until no fewer than trade began to return to its natural channels; sixty-three country banks, and five or six at the end of February it was announced London ones, had stopped payment. On the that the bullion in the bank amounted to 17th of December, the coin in the Bank of £2,500,000, and that the danger was England amounted to only about £1,000,000. over. But it was long before the country The directors entreated the Ministry to fully recovered from the effects of this follow the example of Mr. Pitt in the crisis commercial crisis, and the distress which of 1793, and to issue exchequer bills. Lord the collapse of trade and the consequent Liverpool, however, declined to accede to want of employment produced among the their request, on the ground that, in Mr. working classes was widely and very severely Pitt's time, the national distress was owing felt.* to a failure of the harvest and the outbreak of the war with France-causes over which the sufferers had no control; whereas, in the present case, it was due to foolish and extravagant speculations, and if the assistance of the Government were accorded under these circumstances, it would operate as a premium on rash and reckless trading. The Premier was equally firm in his refusal to suspend cash payments; but he recommended the directors of the Bank of England to avail themselves of the authority which had been granted some years before, but had hitherto been unused, of issuing one-pound notes. One of the directors fortunately remembered that there was somewhere in the bank a box full of these notes, which had never been issued. They were immediately put in circulation to the amount of £500,000, and proved highly serviceable in arresting the progress of the panic. The Gurneys, the celebrated Norwich bankers, displayed piles of these notes upon their counters several feet thick, and the spectacle at once restored con The commercial disasters of 1825 had taught an important lesson both to the government and the legislature. Though some of the causes of the catastrophe lay beyond the direct reach of parliamentary interposition, and no security against their recurrence could be found, except in the experience of the sufferings which they had occasioned; to others, at least, corrections, if not effectual remedies, could be applied. The legislature could not prevent rash and reckless speculation, nor the establishment of bubble companies by knavish speculators; but it was possible to put restrictions on the facilities which had enabled them to set afloat schemes that had benefited only rogues, and had brought unexampled distress on all other classes of the community. The Ministry, therefore, lost no time in devising measures to protect both public and private interests against such sudden *This crisis proved fatal to a good many publishing firms, among others to that of Constable & Co., and Ballantyne the printer, in whose ruin Sir Walter |