William IV.-King's Message-Regency Question-Manners of the Commons Prorogation Dissolution - Sympathy with France Mr. Brougham-Yorkshire Election-New House- Death of Mr. Huskisson-O'Connell and the Viceroy-Repeal of the Union-Rick-burning-Anxieties of Parties-Opening of the Popular Discontents-Prospect of Conflict-Ministerial Declara- tion-Reform Bill brought forward-Reception of the Bill— Debate-First Reading-Second Reading-Defeat of Ministers -True Crisis-The Palace-The Lords-The Commons-Pro- rogation-Dissolution General Election-Popular Action-Riots-New House-Second Reform Bill-Committee-Bill passes the Commons-First Reading in the Lords-Debate-Lord Grey-The Bishops- National Political Union-Metropolitan Union-Question of a Creation of Peers-The Waverers-Gravity of the Time-Pro- clamation against Political Unions-The Cholera-The Un- known Tongues-Opening of the Session-Third Reform Bill- Final Passage through the Commons-First Reading in the 378 407 413 435 Resignation of Ministers-Address of the Commons-Attempt to form a Cabinet-Failure-Agitation throughout the Country —The Unions-London Municipality-Soldiery and Police Lord Grey recalled-King's Appeal to the Peers-Progress of the Bill-Its Passage into Law-Position of the House of Lords -Substance of the Reform Bill-What the Bill is and is not- The Cholera-The Poor-law-Swan River Settlement-Slavery- Canada-India-Irish Church-Tithes-Law Reform-Educa- Civil List-Pensions-Regal Income-Pauperism-Confusion of Poverty with Pauperism-New Poor-law-Its Principles-Its VOL. II. b 2 HISTORY OF THE PEACE. BOOK II.-(Continued.) CHAPTER VIII. Speculation-Joint-Stock Companies-Collapse-Panic-Crash-Issue of Small Notes and Coin-King's Speech-Arrangement with Bank of England-Suppression of Small Notes-Scotch BanksBranch and Joint-Stock Banks-Advances on Goods-Position of Ministers-Suffering of the Period. We now enter upon a chapter of modern English history which the moralist regards, and will for a century to come regard, with wonder and shame. It shows how childish the mind of a nation can be; as crises of another kind show how brave and noble it can be, according to the appeal made to its lower or its higher faculties. The same people who had been calm and courageous when their national existence appeared to be in peril, magnanimous and disinterested when the partition of European territory was going on abroad after the peace, staunch and loyal in the cause of a persecuted queen, and well principled in liberty when a new course of foreign policy was entered upon, were now to prove themselves very children under the temptation of sudden prosperity, amidst extraordinary facilities for gambling. It was not altogether rapacity which instigated the follies of 1824 and 1825. Too many were eager for gain, making haste to be rich; and of these the sharpers of society made an easy prey; but with many more, the charm was in the excitement-in the pleasure of sympathy in large enterprises-in the rousing of the faculties of imagination and conception, when their field VOL. II. B of commerce extended over the Pampas and the Andes and beyond the furthest seas, and among the ice-rocks of the poles. When the grey-haired merchant grew eloquent by his fireside about the clefts of the Cordillera, where the precious metals glitter to the miner's torch, it was not his expected gains alone that fired his eye and quickened hi utterance, but that gratification of his conceptive faculty to which his ordinary life had ministered but too little When the professional man perilled his savings to cu through the Isthmus of Panama, he gloried in helping on a mighty work; and described, like a poet, the pouring of the one vast ocean into the other, and the procession of the merchant-ships of the world riding through on the new made current. And so with the aged ladies and retired servants, who gave from their pittance of property and income whatever they could squeeze out, to hold shares in steam-ovens, steam-laundries, or milk-and-egg companies They had their visions of domestic comfort and luxury and looked joyfully for the time when the good things of the table and the wardrobe should abound with little expense of toil. Now was the time for those who make their market of the unwary to come forth and be busy Needy speculators and scheming attorneys, and gamblers of every class, used their opportunity, first for exciting the gambling spirit everywhere within their reach, and then for introducing themselves into a society where at other times they could have obtained no admittance. They knew that their opportunity was short; and they used i diligently. Seasons of speculation and reaction may be observed in the history of every nation, and may be expected to recur till nations have grown much wiser than they are; but such a spectacle of intoxication and collapse as is offered by the years 1824-1826 will hardly we may hope, be equalled again in England. Among the records of the time we have the following picture of the state of society in its material aspect, amidst which the fever of speculation arose : "The increased wealth of the middle classes is sc obvious, that we can neither walk the fields, visit th shops, nor examine the workshops and storehouses, witho being deeply impressed with the changes which a few |