ae eenemeenmeneeeen CHAPTER 51 The Chartists and Sir Robert Peel 1838-1851 “TRE HUNGaY roRyies’ : this sinister phrase comes with a shock after the history of the previous years, which kad been so full of achievement and promise. Nevertheless the years from 1837-10 1848 were hungry years for many people. Bad harvests were partly to blame, but so wes a slaiup in industry. British indusicy seemed to have developed a certain rhythm, in which periods of prosperity and full employment alternated with years of depression when employers had to cut their losses, reduce wages and dismiss many ‘4f theix workmen, Such a depression occucred in many industries fiom 1827 to vga, and agun from 1847 to 1948, and the bad ‘arvests of these years made its effects worse. 2 “Te goverumear fer al its good inventions, secme ress to fect tae economic wands The only conslatin it could oft ‘was the workhouse; and we have seen what life within those walls * was lke, Tn the north of England unemployed weavers stormed the “Poor Law Basiilles’ in these years, demanding a return to the old| system of outdoor relief. The Whigs and the reformers grew discouraged by the failure of their efforts to improve conditions. ‘They could not even balance the budget however, let alone bring back prosperity. For the time being, at least, no further reforms ware attempted. ‘Try to do no good, and you won't get into aay scrapes,’ was the opinion of Lord Melbourne, who had succeeded Grey as Whig Prime Minister. So working men were left once again to help themselves if they could. In some occupations they wied to form Trades Unions, t0 bargain for higher wages and protect their jobs. Back in 1834 ‘Robert Owen had tried to form a ‘Grand National Trades Union’ of all industries. His great project had failed however, and individual 482 fri kta ah 1838-1851 483 unions also found che going hard. ‘The authorities ajd the employers frowned on hens 1834. six ters: Tol- puddle, in Dorset, were found guilty of ‘administering illegalloaths? when they tried to form a farmworkers? union, and sentented to twansportation. The workmen in industry themselves dif! not co-operate willingly. Union funds were slender, and treaburers sometimes made off with them. A host of difficulties stood In the way of organized labour. Nevertheless this was the period|when the foundations of the Trade Union movement were laid. | {__Vatious groups of radicals and working-class leaders in Lohdon,| Birmingham and the north thought the Trades Unions a poor| weapon. They reasoned that the best way of helping thembelves ‘was to get the vote, as the middle class had done in 1832. This was the idea behind the ‘People’s Charter’ which was drawn bp in 2538. The Charter put forward the demand for a vote for every adalt males for a secret ballot and an election every year; for the abolition of the property qualification for membership of Darla. ‘ment; and for payment of members. These changes, the Chartists hoped, would result in bringing working men to Westminster, where they could look after their own interests, The Chirists believed that change could only come through Parliament} but they_had lost faith ia the Whigs and. the middle clats as reformers. rs q 1 ‘They found many excited. supporters. At mass meetings in provincial towns and rallies held by fickering torchlight on uert e2n moors thousands of people put their signatures to the An Irishman, Feargus O'Connor, published a Chartist ews. Paper, the Northern Star, and a Chartist\Convention met, fits in London and then in Bismingham. Irs representatives brought the Charter before Parliament, in 1339, i Neither Whigs nor Tories, sq m had any sumpathy with Chartism however. The petition to Parliament to consider the Charter received only forty-six votes and the Chartist demonstrations served only to revive the old fears of ‘sedition! and ebelion. Soldiers were despatched to Keep onder i peer towns where the Chartists had made sinister threats pf a ‘national holiday” or general strike, or even a ‘sacred da)’ of evolution, if the Charter was rejected. But in the event there was no ‘national holiday’, for the government’s precautions werel well Way484. THE CHARTISTS AND SIR ROBERT PEEL. ‘taken. Nor was there a rising, except in Newport, Monmouth- shite, where twenty-four men were killed in an affray: with the itia. When matters reached the point of direct action the Chartist. Jeaders hesitated, and after the failure of 1839 the movement broke ‘upinto separate units, some of which planned violence, but others of which went no farther than discussion and agitation. In 1842 + ‘however and again in 1848, both years of depression and hunger, ? the Charter came before Parliament again. pe: /The middle class had its own answer to the depresiio introduction of free trade. The reformed Parliament had neither abolished the Corn Laws nor taken the taxes off manufactured goods and imports of raw materials. The ‘Manchester School” of ‘manufacturers maintained that these were the causes of distress. Afthe Com Laws were repealed, they argued, bread would be more plentiful and cheaper. Wages, however small, would go farthe: When fe came to buying food; and people would have rote to fpendd.on clothes and household goods as wall Tf the dessand for (Tse titogs ticeased en oottes oot els ould soon be working full time again to meet it. There would be a job for everyone, and people would buy more bread as well as more of eve else they needed. The removal of taxes on manufac- tures would help, but cheap bread was the first essential. The ‘manufacturers did not stress the other conclusion to the argument: that they would not have to pay higher wages if prices fell. They concentrated on attacking the Corn Laws, and in 1839 formed the Anti-Corn Law League to put forward their demand. The League, , unlike the Trades Unions, had copious funds. Unlike the Chartists, its members were respectable. John Bright and Richard Cobden, the north-country businessmen who were its leaders, were eloquent {nd influential men. The League campaigned all over the country, ‘in Parliament as well, where Cobden sat as Member ‘for Stockport. : ' ‘The Chartists did not like the League. They distrusted it as a selfish instrument of their employers. They had no votes however, $0 theit opposition counted for little. The Tory squires did not like it for its political programme; and they had Sees Tn 1847 in fact the Tories won a general election against the disillusioned ‘Whigs and came back to power determined to maintain the Corn the 1838-1851 4 Jus, Sir Robert Peel, that tall fair-haired northcauntryman whose fey manner and vaguely Lancastrian sccentGarredon the Tories of the countryside, was now Prime Minister He had a second chance to prove his ability in tackling hunger and dis content, His first measure had nothing to do with the Corn Laws ot wages however. Itwas directed at conditions in the coal mines} which had been described'in the report of a commission of inquiry, Published in 1840. ‘The commission’s report is among the most terrible documents in English history, recording as it does the labour of litle children underground for twelve hours or more a day. The commissioners found ‘a beautiful girl, only six years old, carrying half a hundred weight ofcoals, and regularly making with this load fourteen long and(oilsom@ journeys a day’. Another litte girl, of eight, told the commissioners: ‘I go at four and sometimes half past three in the morning, and come cut at five and half past. I never go to sleep, ‘Sometimes I sing when I've a light, but not in the dark; I dare net sing then.’ Even after Parliament had heard the commissioners’ report there ‘was still some opposition to making changes in the mines, but Peel id _not listen to it He may have seemed ‘an iceberg” to fis ministerial colleagues, but he showed that his attitude to social problems was ow more enlightened and determined then that of the Whigs. Mélbourne bad done nothing about the report, bat Peel acted on it. The| Mines Act|of 1842 prohibited the work of women and children in the mines, and once again appointed inspectors to enforce the law. In 1844 another|Factory Acilimited Te isas fle ae eas half each a day, and those of women to twelve. While trade was bad however Parliament could not be brought to agree to a ten-hour day for every man and Woman in industry. The ten-hour day which was Ashley's great objective did not become law until 1847. ‘The Factory and Mines Acts were great reforms; but what had Peel done about hunger and five trade? Cobden was on his feet in, Parliament continually to put his case, and gradually Peel convinced by his logic. Year by year his budgets reduced the tares oa trade and brought down the prices English people had to pay |for the necessities of life. To offset the budget deficit Peel se |imtroduced the income-tax. Finally, in 1846, he repealed the Cova ad I bY be yee486 THE CHARTISTS AND SIR ROBERT PEEL Laws. 1845 had been another year of bad harvests, particularly s0 in Ireland, where steady rain rotted the potato crop in the ground. Peel’s move towards free trade in corn and cheaper bread was intended to help Ireland first. ‘Rotten potatoes have done ’, maintained Wellington, “They have put Peel in his damned fright!" He used his authority to rally the Tory party behind repeal, but the ‘Tory squires were sure that Pee! had betrayed them. The repeal of ' she Corn Laws revealed moreclearly even than the Reform Acthad ‘done that their domination of English politics was av an end. They took revenge oa Peel by voting against him on a trivial motion aad forcing his resignation. He was never in power again, and died in 1850, but he had rade his mark as an outstandingly intelligent, sonscieatious and courageous politician, ready to examine dificult problems and put the solutions into effect regardless of opposition and unpopularity. His character and his career did credit to the age in which he lived, In the long run however cheap corn did nat save ‘lzeland from poverty. The peasants remained as they always had ‘been om the brink of starvation, and more and more of them e2 year emigrated to America. There they blamed the rule of the (eget Dalaman oral farTiament for all the woes of Ireland, even though it had just tied to help them. ‘The ‘Fenian Brotherhood’ raised funds ‘and made plans for rebelfion, and talked of eventual freedom from ie ‘Saxon yoke’. In 1848 there was a rebellion in Ireland and it ressed by brutal methods which added more resentment /oas. su to the mounting score. “Tn England, 1848 was the year of the third Chartist petition, ‘which was launched at a monster rally in Hyde Park and carried s0 many signatures that it had to be taken to Westminster in a fleet of Ghansom cabs. When it arrived it was rejected as before however. ‘In the next few years the-Chartist agitation died away. Chartism ‘had always been a political moi ed on hunger, and hunge ‘was on the decrease for almost twenty years after 1848. From then on business recovered and factories returned to work. Farming too, despite the gloomy predictions of the Tories, entered a golden a of productivity. The Manchester ‘School claied all these iz Provements as triumphs for free trades but there were probably ‘other reasons behind the recovery, connected with currency and ‘movements in international trade. Whatever the causes of recovery, there is no doubt that the eacane 1838-1851 487 1840's ended better than they began. A German writer, Frdidricl Engels, who visited England at the beginning of the period, Masse cnraged by the poverty and affluence which he saw existing de by side that he forecast a revolution. “The war of the poor agaist the, rich,’ wrote Engels, ‘will be the most bloodthirsty the world has ever seen.” But there was no revolution in England and during the 1850's every class of the population shared in the mouuting Prosperity ofthe country; though of course the shares wefe not ‘The nearest thing to the ‘proletarian’ or working-class revofution which Engels predicted oectrred in France m 1808; shar gfe and middle class both rebelled agsinst the last of the Boufbost Louis Philippe. There were revolutions ia Ausira, Flungary} Ialy and Germany too? all aimed at breaking the power of the Avherac Empire, and securing representative governments, These dsings ame very near to success before they were suppressed! with the usual brutality. In Hungary Russian tcoops had io Be called in io Festore the Austrian government. Throughout these yehrs of revolution Palmerston was in his element, criticizing the old governments of France, Austria and Russia and giving encourages ent and advice tothe ebes. When the revolutions fated Eee became a refuge for exiles. Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, ‘was a guest at Palmersion’s own home, : By comparison with European events, the third Chartist demonstration was nothing and Ireland was easily forgotten Tie revolutions served only to confirm how different England wad fiona Europe, ‘In the midst of the roar of lutionary water} that are deluging the whole earth,’ srowGrealyi is grand to set how wwe stand erect and unscathed. It is the finest tribute that ever hes been paid to our constizution, the greatest test that ever has| been applied to it.’ England remained at peace, and returm/a wn prosperity. ‘The German Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who mdcried Queen Victoria in 1840, was so impressed by the material actieve. ments of his new countrymen that he suggested that they i Compare these publicly with those of the rest of the world. He was Sac of the promoters of a scheme for a ‘Great Exhibition of the ‘Works gad Industries of All Nations’ which took place in 1854. | | |488, ‘THE CHARTISTS AND SIR ROBERT PEEL 12 cool spring morning in that year the Queen drove through “London to Hyde Park to open it. The Exhibition was housed in the tal Palace, a huge iron stricture covered by nine hundred Smestaaae square feet of glass. On show inside were manufactured ‘and_raw materials, machines, furniture and_sculpture red from every corner of the Empire and the world. Six million people came to visit this great monument of the Victorian age. For many of them, we may guess, the greatest thrill was the journey by rail, whether they came in the covered coaches of the First and Second Class, or in the open and weather-beaten trucks of the Third. Some came from the south-west along the broad- ~ ‘gauge line which Isambard Kingdom Brunel had built; others came < on the narrower gauge of the north, but all lines led to London. ‘The railways which now covered England, like. the Crystal Palace itself, marked the end of the age of iron and steam, the first pphase of the industrial revolution. They were the clearest evidence |) that the last fifty years or more had been years of progress. Whether the England of 1851 was compared with Europe or with the England of ten, twenty or a hundred years before, the evidence of progress could not be denied. The Victorians were proud of these < achievements, material, social and political, They firmly believed that there were still better times to come. In the History of England which he wrote at this time, Thomas Babington ‘Macaulay concluded that ‘the history of our country during the < ast hundred and sixty years is eminently the history of physical, of moral and of intellectual improvement’; and he forecast a future age when ‘numerous comforts and luxuries which are now : ‘unknown, or confined to a few, may be within the reach of every diligent and thrifty working man’, CHAPTER 52 Palmerston; the Crimean War; Victorian England 1851-1865 (Tur Great Exurprrion was designed to show what years of peace and hard work could achieve. The Prince Consort hoped that ,it would set an example to the nations of the world, and convince ‘them that wars and revolutions were a waste of time and energy. Within three years however England and the other European powers were engaged ia an expensive and slow-moving war which proved to be one of the most pointless ever fought, 7 The war cra religious dispute in the Middle East: who Cuemson, h I sand the Church of the, Ws ‘Nativity at Bethlehem - the monks of the Roman Catholic Church ™*21d3,3 had the right to look after the Hol OF thove of the Eastem Onhodor? The decision lay with the Turkish ‘Stltan, for Bethlehem, like the rest of Palestine, lay within the Ottoman Empire. The affair became an international trial of strength however, for it was Louis Napoleon, now the second Emperor of the French, who had revived the western claim, ‘hich had lapsed for many years; while the patron of the eastern. church was the Tsar Nicholas of Rusia, When the Suan decided 4in favour of the Latin monks the Tsar refused to surrender the right and put forward a further claim to protect all the Christian subjects of the Sultan, from Palestine to the Danube. Napoleon prompted the Sultan to refuse. Since both the Tsar and the Emperor were determined not to yield, it seemed likely that war would begin at any moment. ._ Palmerston was not ia charge of foreign affairs at the time but he ‘was a member of Lord Aberdeen’s cabinet, which had to decide ‘whether to intervene. In practice England had intervened already, 489 ) ted wd dd wd did wi wo ted ted bd tot ded ios