they were pledged, they moved for a long interval, and parliament was adjourned to the 3rd of February 1831.

At the close of this year One of the people's cause, there was as much disturbance in Ireland as if the government in London had been composed of the rankest anti-Catholics. O'Connell set himself up against Lord Anglesey; organised insults to him on his arrival; encouraged tumultuous processions and meetings, by which he was himself to be thanked for his advocacy of repeal of the union; and put out addresses, in defiance and reply to the proclamations of the viceroy, the whole tenor of which was to rouse the strong passions of the Irish artisans and peasants against the government, the law, and the imperial connection, from which, at this juncture, so many benefits might be expected. His interspersed exhortations were to observe the law; his influence went to excite that fever of the mind which is sure to throw off law, sooner or later: and thus inauspiciously began the new reign of the popular viceroy, Lord Anglesey.

By this time the dread of something more awful than Irish disturbance and Kentish rick-burning was stealing into the heart of the nation. All reports of the Asiatic cholera which Englishmen had listened to, had been to their ears and imaginations like the accounts which have come down to us of the desolating plagues of the middle ages-something horrible to conceive of, but nothing to be afraid of, as if it could ever reach us. But now it was known-known by orders of the privy-council-that the plague had spread from Asia into Europe, and was travelling north-westwards, exactly in the direction of our islands. All that was at present proposed was an attention to the quarantine laws; but the imagination of the people naturally went further than the letters of the privycouncil. If George IV. and the Wellington ministry had lived through the year, its close would have been a season of almost unequalled gloom. But the nation now had an honest-hearted and unselfish king, a popular ministry, and a prospect of immeasurable political benefits. So that it was in a mood, on the whole, of hope and joy that they saw the expiration of the year One of the people's cause.

CHAPTER III.

Popular Discontents-Prospect of Conflict-Ministerial Declaration— Reform Bill brought forward-Reception of the Bill-Debate-First Reading Second Reading-Defeat of Ministers-True Crisis-The Palace The Lords-The Commons-Prorogation-Dissolution. THE year 1831 opened gloomily. Those who believed that revolution was at hand, feared to wish one another a happy new year; and the anxiety about revolution was by no means confined to anti-reformers. Society was already in a discontented and tumultuous state; its most ignorant portion being acted upon at once by hardship at home and example from abroad; and there was every reason to expect a deadly struggle before parliamentary reform could be carried. The ignorant and misled among the peasantry and artisans looked upon the French and other revolutions as showing that men had only to take affairs into their own hands, in order to obtain whatever they wanted; and, in their small way, they took matters into their own hands. Machine-breaking went on to such an extent, that men were tried for the offence in groups of twelve or twenty at a time; and the January nights were lighted up by burning barns and ricks, as the preceding months had been. On the 3rd of January, a Manchester manufacturer was murdered in a manner which gave a shock to the whole kingdom. He left his father's house to go to the mill, in the evening, when it was dark; he was brought home dead within ten minutes, shot through the heart, in the lane, by one of three men who were lying in wait for him. The significance of the case lay in the circumstance that it was a murder from revenge, occasioned by a quarrel about the trade union. There was fear lest the practice should spread; lest every manufacturer who refused to employ men belonging to a trade union-and there were many such-should be liable to be picked off

by an assassin, appointed by lot to be the instrument of the vengeance of his union. A reward of £1000 for the detection of the murderer was offered by the secretary of state, and another £1000 by the father and family of the victim; but no clue was obtained at the time nor for some years afterwards.

As for the dangers which might follow upon the action of government on the great question, the coolest heads had the strongest sense of them. The apprehensions of the anti-reformers were all about the consequences of the Reform Bill, if carried. The apprehensions of the most thoughtful reformers were of the perils attending its passage. On a superficial view it might appear that the result was so certain, that the way could not be much embarrassed; but there was not only the anti-reforming aristocracy to be encountered on the one hand, but large masses of malcontents on the other. In the estimate of the anti-reform forces might be included-possibly, under certain circumstances the sovereign; certainly, the House of Peers-almost a whole House of Peers, made desperate, not only by fear of loss of political power, but by spoliation of what they considered their lawful, and a wholly inestimable property; next, the aristocracy, in the House of Commons and out of it, who had influence and property of the same kind at stake; and, lastly, the whole body of Toryism in England-a party never small, and at this time made particularly active and desperate by a sincere belief that the constitution was likely to be overthrown, and that the English nation would presently be living under mob-rule. Large numbers of this party, who had not the remotest interest in borough property, were as fierce against the reform measure as the peers themselves, from this tremendous fear. There was quite as much folly among the lowest classes on the other side. The hungry and the desperately ignorant, who are always eager for change, because they may gain and cannot lose, believed that parliamentary reform would feed and clothe them, and bring work and good wages, and a removal of all the taxes. It was too probable that a protracted opposition would raise these poor people in riot, and turn the necessary revolution, from being a peaceable one, into an over

throw of law and order. It is necessary to take note of this state of things, in order to understand and appreciate the action of the middle classes during the two following

years.

While the ministers were hard at work, preparing their mighty measure, the middle classes were preparing for their support. The action of the non-electors during this month of January was as powerful a satire on the then existing system of representation as could have been displayed. The vast populations of Leeds, Birmingham, and Manchester, and countless hosts of intelligent and enlightened tradesmen and artisans elsewhere, sent shoals of petitions to parliament for a reform of the House of Commons; and they did something more effectual by forming political unions, or preparing for their immediate formation, in case of need. This was the force which kept the peace, and preserved us from disastrous revolution. These people knew what they were about, and they went calmly to their work. Of course, the anti-reformers complained of compulsion, of extorted consent, of unconstitutional forces being put in action. This was true, since they themselves compelled the compulsion, and called out the unconstitutional forces. There was no question about the fact, but only about the justification of it. No one denies that occasions may and do occur when the assertion of a nation's will against either a corrupt government or a tyrannical party is virtuous, and absolutely required by patriotic duty. The fearful and trying question is, when this ought to be done, and how men are to recognise the true occasion when it comes. There probably never was an occasion when the duty was more clear than now. The sovereign and his ministers were on the side of the people; and if the opposing party should prove disloyal to sovereign and people for the sake of their own political power and mercenary interests; if they held out till the one party or the other must yield, it was for the interest of peace, law, order, loyalty, and the permanence of the constitution, that the class most concerned-the orderly middle class, who had the strongest conceivable stake in the preservation of law and peace-should overstep the bounds of custom, and occupy a debatable land of legality, in support

of the majority of the government and the nation. They felt that they occupied the strong central position whereby they upheld the patriotic government above them, and repressed the eager, untaught, and impoverished multitude below them; and they saw that whatever might best secure the completion of the act which must now be carried through, they must do. They therefore prepared themselves for all consequences of their determination that parliamentary reform should take place. Some formed themselves into political unions; some held themselves ready to do so, if need should arise; all made a more rapid progress in political knowledge and thought than they could perhaps have antecedently supposed possible in the time: when the period of struggle arrived they did their duty magnificently; and their conduct stands for ever before the world, a model of critical political action, and a ground of confidence in the political welfare of England in all future times.

When the Houses reassembled, on the 3rd of February, Lord Grey made the expected declaration that a measure of parliamentary reform was in readiness to be brought forward in the other House. He intimated that the work had been laborious, and in its first stages, difficult; but that it had been the desire of the ministers to prepare a scheme, which should be effective, without exceeding the bounds of a just and well-advised moderation;' and that they had succeeded to their wish-the whole government being unanimous in their adoption of the measure as an exponent of their principle and aim. When Lord John Russell afterwards brought the measure forward, he declared the whole scheme to be Lord Grey's; and there was assuredly no mind in England which had more earnestly, or for more years, meditated the subject. The execution was universally understood to have been confided in chief to Lord Durham; and there was assuredly no heart more in the work, or more true to the principles of popular freedom. The profoundest secrecy was observed as to the scope and details of the measure, to the very last moment. It was of great consequence that it should be so, in order that the eager friends and foes of the measure should not rush into conflict on any misunderstanding or