it be the greatest calamity, but a calamity imbittered by the greatest disgrace, to live under such an ignoble tyranny as this.

'Come the eleventh plague, rather than this should be;

Come, sink us, rather, in the sea;

Come rather pestilence, and reap us down,

Come God's sword rather than our own.

Let rather Roman come again,

Or Saxon, Norman, or the Dane,

In all the bonds we ever bore,

We grieved, we sighed, we wept; we never blushed before.'

But blush indeed we shall, if we submit to this base and vulgar dictation and domination; and I for one, believing, as I do, when I read those comments of the honourable member, and consider his present motion, that I have been selected as an object of attack for the purpose of discouraging resistance to the insidious efforts which the honourable gentleman is daily making, to weaken the foundations of property and the authority of law. I will at least preserve myself from the reproach of having furthered the objects he has in view by any symptom of intimidation or submission."

Messrs. Cobbett and Fielden could only find five supporters in a House of more than three hundred members, viz., Mr. T. Attwood, Mr. Patrick Lalor, Mr. John O'Connell, Mr. Feargus O'Connor, and Mr. James Roe. As the resolutions had been moved and seconded, they were of course entered on the minutes of the proceedings, but on the motion of Lord Althorpe (afterwards Earl Spencer), the House indignantly ordered that they should be expunged from the journals.

The immediate convertibility of paper into gold is now universally recognized as the only sound principle on which a banking system can rest: the country still suffers from some of the evils which Pitt's departure from that principle

P

has produced; and the few who complain of Peel's remedial measure are daily diminishing in number, and have long since lost all public influence. On the other hand, the financial reputation of Sir Robert Peel has steadily increased, and the great bulk of the nation gratefully recognizes in him the statesman who restored us to a sound system of currency.

CHAPTER VIII.

MR. PEEL'S PARLIAMENTARY CAREER OUT OF OFFICE.

AFTER peace had been re-established by the overthrow of Napoleon, England exhibited signal proofs of the exhaustion occasioned by the unparalleled exertions which had been made to support the war. Over-strained credit was shaken to its base; paper-currency suffered a terrible collapse; the sudden transitions of demand, and the vicissitudes of the seasons, aggravated by a stringent corn-law which limited the supply of human food, produced a fearful amount of suffering in the metropolis, and the manufacturing districts. Dangerous riots took place in the metropolis and other large towns; secret societies were formed, to effect changes in the constitution by physical force; secret drillings were practised; and the operative classes of Lancashire and Lanarkshire began to prepare themselves by nightly trainings for a revolution, which they believed to be fast approaching, and from which they expected the most visionary benefits. To wipe out the national debt "with a sponge," to set aside all expensive establishments in church and state,—to establish a system of universal suffrage,--and other schemes still wilder, were agitated in their associations, which were the more dangerous on account of the general ignorance of the members. Instead of endeavouring to conciliate the minds of the people by inquiring into the nature of their practical grievances, government allowed the discontents to ripen until acts of violence were committed which justified the interference of an armed force. The Prince Regent was assaulted

on his return from opening the Session of Parliament in January, 1817, and shortly after a message was sent to both Houses, communicating to them "papers containing information respecting certain practices, meetings, and combinations in the metropolis and in different parts of the kingdom, evidently calculated to endanger the public tranquillity, to alienate the affections of his majesty's subjects from his majesty's person and government, and to bring into hatred and contempt the whole system of our laws and constitution." These papers were referred to Select Committees in both Houses; and in both, these committees reported that there was a dangerous and wide-spread conspiracy for the subversion of public order. Bills were at once introduced for suspending the Habeas Corpus Act,-preventing seditious meetings, punishing attempts to seduce soldiers or sailors from their allegiance, and providing for the security of the royal person. They were carried with but slight opposition. In March, Lord Sidmouth issued a circular authorizing magistrates to grant warrants against persons accused of publishing libels; which was severely reprobated by Earl Grey and Sir Samuel Romilly, but was nevertheless sanctioned by parliament. A second message from the Regent was presented in June, with additional papers, similar to those sent at the beginning of the session, and the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act was renewed and extended. In the following year tranquillity was said to be restored, and an act of indemnity was passed. But these circumstances greatly weakened the influence of the government in the country, and their parliamentary strength was much diminished by the results of the election of 1818.

Mr. Peel's refusal to accept office on his return from Ireland, was generally attributed to his want of confidence in the stability of the cabinet; ministers, however, showed that they recognized the value of his independent support:

he was chosen to move the re-election of the Speaker, and to preside over the Bank Committee, whose labours have been described in the preceding chapter. He took a leading part in resisting Mr. Tierney's proposal that the expenses of the custody of the king's person should be paid out of the privy purse, and quoted Sheridan's authority for regarding this fund as sacred. A derisive cheer greeted the statement; upon which he exclaimed-" If what I have heard from the other side be meant as a cheer of derision at the name of Mr. Sheridan, I must say that I could not expect such an expression towards an individual who was one of the most able supporters the party from whom it proceeded ever had the honour to possess, while he was by universal confession one of the greatest ornaments of whom that House and the British empire ever had reason to be proud."

On the 3rd of May, 1819, Mr. Grattan, already stricken by mortal disease, brought the Catholic Question before the House for the last time. His motion was seconded by Mr. Croker. The debate was abruptly brought to a conclusion: Mr. Plunkett and Mr. Peel were watching each other, each being anxious to have the reply; and while they were thus coquetting, the Speaker put the question, and a division was thus forced on, in accordance with the forms, but contrary to the general wishes, of the House. Greatly to the mortification of Lord Liverpool, the question was only lost by a majority of two. But ministers had to endure more signal defeats; upon Sir James Mackintosh's proposal for a Select Committee on Capital Punishments, they were beaten by a majority of nineteen; and on Lord Archibald Hamilton's motion for a Reform of the Scotch Burghs, they were outvoted by a majority of five. But for the credit measure for the

reflected upon the Cabinet by Peel's

resumption of cash-payments, Lord Liverpool would have resigned.