titled in these circumstances to insert in the king's speech at the close of the session a cordial congratulation of the legislature and the country on the flourishing condition of all branches of our commerce and manufactures, and the gradual abatement of those difficulties under which the agricultural interest has so long and so severely suffered.' While it was 'recovering from the depression under which it had laboured, an increasing activity was pervading almost every branch of manufacture,' and trade and commerce were extending themselves both at home and abroad.' It is noteworthy that at this period of national prosperity steps were taken for the first time to provide a National Gallery. On the death, in 1822, of Mr. Angerstein, a London merchant, who had formed a splendid collection of pictures, comprising the best specimens both of the ancient and modern schools, the Government availed themselves of the opportunity to secure them for the sum of £57,000, to form a nucleus for a National Gallery in the metropolis. Mr. Robinson justly remarked that if a National Gallery had existed in former times the liberality of individuals would long ere this have furnished it with as fine and beautiful specimens of art as can be found in any part of the world,' and he expressed his hope that if a National Gallery were formed at this time the collection of a high-spirited individual of acknowledged taste and judgment' would be presented to it. This expectation was speedily fulfilled. Sir George Beaumont, the generous patron of Wordsworth-to whose exertions the purchase of the Angerstein collection was mainly owing, two years after this transaction was conpleted-presented sixteen fine pictures to the nation. At this time, too, a magnificent addition was made to the library of the British Museum. George III. had collected a splendid library of 65,000, volumes, which his successor chose to regard as his own private property, and he also appropriated to himself, quite illegally, not only the money which his successor left, but the whole of the jewels both of the late king and queen, and also of his own wife. He even laid hands on some valuable jewels which undoubtedly belonged to the Crown, and afterwards bestowed them on some of his female favourites.' The king had even a design,' says Greville, 'of selling the library collected by the late king; but this he was obliged to abandon, for the ministers and the Royal Family must have interfered to oppose so scandalous a transaction. It was, therefore, presented to the British Museum,' and obtained for His Majesty from courtly historians totally unmerited eulogiums on his royal munificence.' At this period, when a feeling of content and satisfaction was widely diffused through all classes of the British people, Ireland was, as usual, in a state of anarchy and misery. The king had scarcely quitted her shores when the Orangemen and the Roman Catholics were again at open war, and the most shocking outrages were perpetrated in every part of the country. The Government tried a conciliatory policy. Lord Talbot, the ultra-protestant viceroy, was recalled and succeeded by the Marquis of Wellesley, a zealous advocate of the Roman Catholic claims; and Saurin, the severe and unpopular attorney-general, was replaced by Plunket. But the disorder of Ireland had now attained a height far beyond the reach of such a remedy as the mere change of ministers. Large districts of the country were in a state of open insurrection. Disguised bands of ruffians ranged throughout Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary, breaking open the houses of the gentry, seizing arms and gunpowder and portable articles of value, robbing the mails, and murdering the guards, houghing cattle, carrying off females possessed of a little money into the recesses of the mountains, outraging them in the most brutal manner, and compelling them to marry some of their captors. The country was virtually in a state of insurrection, and immediate and stringent measures were required for the restoration of order before anything could be done to ameliorate the condition of the wretched inhabitants. As the the Irish Government were exercised with Accordingly, in 1822, the Ministry laid before Parliament bills for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act and the re-enactment of the Insurrection Act. The lord-lieutenant was empowered, on a memorial from seven magistrates, to proclaim any county to be in a disturbed state. The proclamation warned the inhabitants of a disturbed to trial, and thirty-five were condemned to district that they must remain within their houses from sunset to sunrise. Any justice of the peace might enter any house in such a district, during the period mentioned, and give orders for the apprehension of the inmates who were absent. All persons found out of their usual places of residences, except on lawful business, from sunset to sunrise, were to be treated as idle and disorderly persons. All persons administering illegal oaths or demanding arms, all persons having offensive weapons in their possession and refusing to give them up, all persons not being travellers or inmates found assembled in a public-house at night, and all persons hawking or dispersing seditious papers or pamphlets, were to be classed in the same category, and to be tried without a jury. The persons found guilty of the last-mentioned offence were to be held liable to twelve months' imprisonment. Those who committed any of the other offences enumerated in the Insurrection Act were to be liable to transportation for seven years. An act was also passed to indemnify persons who since the preceding November, with a view to the preservation of peace, but without legal authority, had seized arms or gunpowder. Severe restrictions were also imposed on the importation of arms and ammunition into Ireland, or the manufacture of these articles in the country. These restrictions were to remain in force for seven years. The operation of the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act was limited to the 1st of August following. These extraordinary powers intrusted to death. Some of them were immediately executed, and it was intimated that the fate of the remainder would be determined by the conduct of the people in the district. By these vigorous measures disturbances in the proclaimed districts were completely suppressed, but still the country continued in a feverish and excited state. Coercion was necessary, and it had done its work; but the root of the disaffection and misery of the Irish people had not been reached, and in consequence the Government found it necessary to apply to Parliament for the continuance of the Insurrection Act for another year. The proposal was strenuously resisted by Mr. Charles Grant, who had for several years held the office of Irish Secretary. He contended that the present disorders in Ireland were only the symptoms of a deep-seated and chronic disease in the body politic. He traced the causes to the wretched condition of the Irish peasantry, who were reduced to the lowest possible scale of existence, so that, having nothing to fall back upon, the most common variation of fortune plunged them at once into absolute misery; to the unsatisfactory relations between landlords and tenants; to the rapid increase of the population, which leads to the minute subdivision of land; to the exorbitant rents exacted by the landlords; the burden of local taxation; the want of education; the miserably defective state of the police; the sectarian animosities between Roman Catholics and Protestants; the tithe system, and the oppressive mode in which tithes were exacted; and, to crown all, to the rooted distrust among the was held at the King's Theatre, which propeople of the intentions of the British Gov-duced £3500 to relieve the distress. A ernment and Legislature-the fatal legacy royal letter was sent to the two archbishops, of six hundred years of injustice and op- requiring them to enjoin the clergy of their pression. Mere coercion might repress for respective provinces to enforce upon their a time violent outrages and disorders; but parishioners the duty of affording succour unless accompanied by remedial measures, to their distressed fellow-subjects, and it would do nothing to cure the evils with authorizing collections to be made from which Ireland was affected. The House house to house throughout every parish in was assured that measures of relief were England. A sum exceeding £250,000 was under the consideration of the Irish execu- thus raised, which was supplemented by tive, and the adverse motion was in couse- an equal amount placed by Parliament at quence not pressed to a division. the disposal of the Irish government, to be spent in giving employment to the people on works of public utility. By these measures the plague was stayed, and the people saved from actual starvation, until about the end of August the new potato crop furnished a sufficient supply of the usual food for the peasantry. The insurrection had scarcely been suppressed by the iron hand of authority when famine broke out among the wretched inhabitants of the southern provinces of Ireland. The incessant rains of the autumn of 1821 had, to a large extent, destroyed in the ground the staple article of food for the Irish peasantry. The consequence was that, early in the spring, great numbers of them were in a state of destitution. The price of potatoes rose from a penny or three-halfpence to sixpence-halfpenny the stone. The stores of the poorer classes were speedily exhausted, even the roots intended for seed were consumed, and the towns and villages were crowded with the starving peasantry in search of employment or relief. The tales of their sufferings were heart-rending. It was no uncommon thing to see men and women fainting in the streets or on the roadside from mere hunger. Malignant fever followed in the wake of famine, and carried off great numbers, whose strength had been broken down by want of food. If the British parliament and people had been slow to devise adequate remedies for the disordered state of Ireland, they deeply sympathized with the misery of the people, and nobly responded to the claims made upon them to alleviate their sufferings. A public subscription was opened in England for the relief of the starving peasantry in the sister island, and a most liberal response was made to the appeal on their behalf. A committee was formed in London to promote this praiseworthy object, and a ball The disturbances and the distress which had for some time prevailed in Ireland had diverted public attention from the question of Roman Catholic emancipation; but on the 30th of April, 1822, Mr. Canning introduced a bill to repeal so much of the act of the 30th Charles II. as prevented Roman Catholic peers from sitting and voting in the Upper House, and supported it by a speech of remarkable eloquence. Though opposed by Mr. Peel, the motion was carried by 249 to 244, and the second reading was passed by 235 votes to 223. It was sent up to the House of Lords about the end of May, but was thrown out there on the second reading by a majority of 42. The cause of emancipation suffered not a little from the conduct both of the Roman Catholics in Ireland and of their friends at Westminster. As no general measure of relief had been proposed in 1822, it was deemed expedient to bring the question formally before Parliament during the session of 1823, and the 17th of April was fixed for a motion on the subject. On that day, after several petitions had been presented for and against the Roman Catholic claims, Sir F. Burdett made a fierce attack on Mr. Canning, who was absent at the moment, for his alleged defection from the cause, and represented the discussion on the subject as an annual farce, carried on year after year, conducive to no good purpose.' Tierney followed, and charged the Foreign Secretary with the ruin of the hopes of the Roman Catholics, from his having taken office without making the concession of their claims an absolute condition. Canning, on his return to the House, replied to these unjustifiable attacks, and asserted that, both in and out of office, he had done everything in his power to promote the success of this great cause. Mr. Grey Bennet declared that he now thought the affair was a perfect trick, or what in familiar language was called a humbug.' He was followed by Brougham in a most violent and insulting speech, in which, after highly complimenting 'the single-hearted, plain, manly, and upright conduct' of Peel, who had never swerved from his opinions, he poured out a torrent of virulent abuse on Canning, who had, he said, 'exhibited a specimen, the most incredible specimen, of monstrous truckling for the purpose of obtaining office, that the whole history of political tergiversation could furnish.' This was more than Canning, who was remarkably sensitive and not in robust health, could bear; and, looking steadily at his accuser, he said calmly, with suppressed emotion, 'I rise to say that that is false.' After a profound silence in the House for some seconds, the Speaker, in a low tone, expressed a hope that the secretary would withdraw the words he had used. Canning declared that 'no consideration on earth should induce him to retract the sentiment.' A very unsatisfactory discussion ensued, and at one time it appeared that the only solution of the difficulty was to commit both Canning and Brougham to the custody of the serjeant-at-arms. In the end Sir Robert Wilson suggested that Brougham's invective should be understood as referring only to Canning's official and parliamentary conduct, and that Canning's rejoinder had been made under the impression that the words were intended to apply to his personal character; that the secretary might consistently with his honour and feelings adopt this explanation, and that Brougham, on his part, should then declare that his accusation was intended to apply exclusively to Mr. Canning's political conduct. This dexterous, but certainly very ridiculous explanation, which virtually implied that a man might be a knave in his public character, and yet of unblemished personal honour, was adopted by both parties; and this unpleasant and indecorous altercation was brought to a peaceful, though not a creditable issue. After this personal affair had been settled, Mr. Plunket brought on his motion that the House should go into committee on the Roman Catholic claims. As he rose, Burdett, Hume, and other Radical members, left the House in a body. In these disheartening circumstances Plunket's speech was brief, and a few remarks from Mr. Banks and Mr. Becher constituted the whole of the debate. Its adjournment till the following day was negatived by 292 votes to 184, as was the proposal, without a division, that it should be adjourned till Monday next, and a motion for the adjournment of the House was carried by a majority of 313 to 111. It was evident that the cause of Roman Catholic emancipation had been seriously injured by the intemperate conduct of its friends, and that the wisest policy for the present was to allow the question to rest. Even the proposal of Lord Nugent that the Roman Catholics of Britain should be admitted to the elective franchise like their brethren in Ireland, though supported by Peel and adopted by the Commons, was rejected by the House of Lords-the Chancellor, as usual, making a strong speech against the bill. Meanwhile every branch of trade and commerce in England and Scotland continued to enjoy unexampled prosperity. Even the agriculturists ceased to complain of any grievances. The prosperity,' said Lord Dudley, 'extended to all orders, all professions, and all districts.' 'Such is the against the injustice of their masters, while prosperity at which the country has arrived,' the masters were protected from the comsaid an eminent member of Parliament, bination of the men. The combination 'that I feel in some measure at a loss how laws had besides completely failed to attain to proceed, whether to give precedence to the object for which they were passed. our agriculture, which is the main support They, indeed, prevented open and avowed of our country; to our manufactures, which combinations; but they could not reach have increased, and are increasing to a most those that were secret, and consequently unexampled extent; or to our commerce, of a dangerous character. The practice of which distributes them to the ends of the combining to protect their interests became earth, and finds daily new outlets for the dis- all but universal among the mechanics and tribution and new sources of national wealth artizans. Strikes were of frequent occurand prosperity.' But unfortunately the rence, and led to acts of an atrocious prospect of increasing wealth to the mas- description. At such times unpopular ters, and of comfort to the men, was at manufacturers, and especially their manathis period seriously injured by violent gers, lived in continual dread of personal disputes between the manufacturers and injury; and workmen who refused to join their workmen. For centuries the legis- the strike had their tools destroyed and lature had made vigorous attempts to their persons shockingly maimed or burned regulate the price of labour, under the with vitriol, and were sometimes even mistaken notion that the interests, both of brutally murdered. In consequence a masters and men, would be more efficiently strong feeling began to grow up, not only protected by statute than by private among the workpeople, but among the contract; and though these enactments masters also, that the combination laws had totally failed to attain the object for did more harm than good. In unison which they were framed, some of the most with this feeling a select committee was severe of them still encumbered the statute- appointed at the commencement of 1824, book. A law passed about the beginning on the motion of Mr. Hume, to inquire of the present century declared all com- into the state of the law respecting the binations to obtain an advance of wages emigration of artizans, the exportation of illegal. Even a peaceful meeting to dis- machinery, and the combinations of workcuss the rate of wages rendered workmen men to raise wages, or to regulate their liable to the penalty of three months' im- hours of labour. The committee left the prisonment, which might be inflicted by question as to the propriety of permitting two justices of the peace. In order to the importation of machinery to stand over secure for the country a monopoly of for future consideration; but they recomskilled workmanship, it was made penal mended the entire repeal of the laws which for an artizan to leave the kingdom, and prohibited the emigration of workmen, who the exportation of machinery was also could not but be irritated at being forbidden forbidden. These unjust and oppressive to carry their labour to the best market, laws naturally created a great deal of irri-' while all other classes of the community tation among the working classes; for are permitted to go abroad and to take though they nominally applied to both their capital with them wherever they masters and men, they had entirely failed think proper.' There was reason to believe, to reach the former when they combined too, that many skilled workmen, who wished to reduce wages, while the latter had fre- to return home, remained abroad from an quently suffered imprisonment for their apprehension that they might be punished combinations to raise wages. The men on their return. It was also recommended naturally felt that they were not protected that the combination laws should be abo |