which was true in 1826 would have been grievously disappointing to the chancellor of the exchequer-disappointing to his benevolence, even more than to his pride.

The reductions which the chancellor of the exchequer found himself enabled to propose in 1825 were on hemp, coffee, wine, spirits, and cider, and some of the assessed taxes which pressed on industry, and on the comfort of the working-classes; among which, the most important were the house-tax on inhabited houses under £10 rent, and the window-duty on houses not having more than seven windows. An effort was made by Mr. Hobhouse to get the whole window-duty repealed; but this pernicious and most indefensible tax still subsists. These taxes together amounted to a little more than a million and a half. In 1826, March 13, when the country was in a very suffering state, and when parliament was about to be dissolved, the chancellor of the exchequer passed in review our whole financial system for the preceding ten years, declaring that there had been a reduction of taxation to the amount of twenty-seven millions and a half since the peace. Some opposition members-Mr. Maberley, Mr. Hume, and Mr. Hobhouse the foremost-protested against the statement that there had been any reduction at all; the increase in the number of tax-payers so far exceeding the relief, as that multitudes had been deprived of the use of articles of comfort and luxury who had formerly enjoyed them. Thus, though the yield of the duties on comforts and luxuries had so increased as to occasion the reduction of some of them, the enjoyment of these comforts by individuals had considerably lessened; and the country was therefore, if judged of by its consumption, in a declining state. The object of this opposition was to obtain a revision of government expenditure, and a reduction in many national establishments. The object was not obtained; the House of Commons throwing out by a large majority the forty-seven resolutions offered by Mr. Hume, and the motion founded upon them. The sum of the resolutions was: That the continued pressure of taxation has greatly increased the privations and distress of the productive, industrious, and labouring classes of the community;' and the resulting motion was for an address to

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on

the crown, praying that his majesty would be graciously pleased to take into his consideration the present alarming state of the country, and to direct an immediate inquiry to be made into the causes of the existing distress, and the adoption of measures calculated to bring it to as speedy a termination as possible, and to prevent its further spreading.' The motion was lost by a majority of 152 to 51, the 4th of May, within a month of the dissolution of parliament. A more curious instance can scarcely be found than in the addresses of Prosperity Robinson and Adversity Hume, of the opposite conclusions which may be drawn from a view of a statistical subject, where the figures were indisputable on both sides-as far as they went. The discrepancy lay in the want of a common ground on which to base their calculations. The existing parliament, it is clear, thought the chancellor of the exchequer altogether in the right. In the poor-law inquiry of subsequent years, it came out that all who had congratulated the nation on a pervading spread and increase of material prosperity had been widely mistaken.

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On the 31st of May, the session was closed by commission, the speech declaring that, the state of the public business enabling his majesty to close the session at a period of the year the most convenient for a general election, it is his majesty's intention to dissolve, without delay, the present parliament, and to direct the issue of writs for the calling of a new one.' The speech announced peace with the Burmese; declared that every endeavour had been used to preserve peace among the nations in both hemispheres; and expressed deep concern at the distresses of the manufacturing classes at home, admiration at the patience with which those distresses had been generally borne, and a hope that the pressure was gradually giving

way.

Thus was dismissed the seventh parliament of the United Kingdom, after a duration of six sessions. It had done some great things. The Commons had not had the opportunity of protecting the queen further than by announcing that they were ready to protect her, for her case had never reached them; but such indications as they had been able to give were on the right side. The

great work of parliamentary reform had begun with the enlargement of the representation of Yorkshire; and that of the abolition of slavery with the issue of the celebrated circular to the West India colonies. Our country had been ennobled in the eyes of the world by the foreign policy of Mr. Canning, enthusiastically sanctioned by parliament; and broad foundations had been laid for friendship with mankind at large, and prosperity at home, by a practical admission of the principles of free-trade. There had been a reduction of taxation, considerable, though less than men of a later time would have achieved during ten years of peace. These were things actually done. A considerable, but indefinite progress had been made towards other great achievements, which were sure to be effected in time. Nothing was done for national education, for Catholic emancipation, for emigration, for Chancery reform, for the repeal of the corn-laws, or for general parliamentary reform; but these great topics had been discussed, and some of them diligently studied; and all clear-sighted men knew that they were ripening for fruition, through all the gales of passion and frosts of indifference which retarded their growth. There could be no doubt that the country was in an advancing state, however severe the visitations of distress under which it was labouring at the end of the six years' term; and however fearful the turbulence of some districts and classes from the withholding of political rights on the ground of religion. Much as there was yet to be done and undone, the improvement in our political state since 1820 was very striking. The cabinet was liberalised, and still liberalising; and, in the train of the cabinet, the king. The House of Commons had grown wiser by its six years' experience, and under the influence of the genius of Mr. Canning-imperfect as was that statesman's fidelity to his own genius in some points of high importance. And now, there was every reason to hope that the new parliament would be an improvement upon its predecessor; and that the light which had been shed abroad in the diffusion of improved principles of policy would appear with some effectual concentration in the people's House, arranging their present affairs, and decreeing their

future destiny, with a clearer and more comprehensive knowledge than hitherto.

The principal topics set up for tests at the elections were the corn-laws and Catholic emancipation; and, more partially, the abolition of slavery. The anti-Catholic strength rather gained than lost by the perturbation of the time. The uncompromised candidates said, with regard to the corn-laws, what was usually said in those days-that they would agree to what should be best for both grower and consumer; and the anti-slavery test did not obtain much support. There was an opposition talked of to Mr. Huskisson at Liverpool; but the enemies of free-trade could not find a candidate. Lord Howick and Mr. Beaumont failed in Northumberland; and Mr. Brougham in Westmoreland, where the Lowther interest put forth its strength. Some of the Radical demagogues tried their chance; or rather, as Cobbett avowed, did their best to empty the purses of certain of the aristocracy. Cobbett himself stood for Preston, and polled nearly 1000 votes; and Hunt opposed Sir Thomas Lethbridge in Somersetshire; of course, unsuccessfully. Lord John Russell failed in Huntingdonshire; and the Bedford interest altogether succumbed for the time to the anti-Catholic spirit. As has been mentioned, the priests were active in Ireland, and wrought wonders-overpowering the Beresford interest in Waterford.

One circumstance which makes the elections of 1826 memorable to those engaged in them was the excessive heat of the season. Deaths from sun-stroke were not confined to labourers in the field and on the road, but extended to persons engaged in the elections. There was difficulty in obtaining grass for horses, and even water for thirsty agents and electors. The effect of the drought upon the crops and the markets has been mentioned; and the consequent early summoning of the new parliament,. in order to confirm the necessary alteration in the duties, and to grant an indemnity to ministers for that alteration. As there was an average crop of wheat, and a very abundant one of potatoes, the alarm and inconvenience caused by the drought of the summer were not of long duration.

VOL. II.

G

CHAPTER XII.

Crimes and Punishments-Education-Emigration-Arts and Discovery-Remarkable Seasons-Art and Literature-NecrologyPoliticians-Men of Science-Travellers-Artists-Authors-Poets: Byron, Keats, Shelley-Close of the Period.

IN casting the eye over the chronicles of these years, nothing is so painfully impressive as the frequent records of capital punishments. Even in these recent days, men were brought out upon the scaffold in batches, and hanged in rows. Boys of seventeen, hired for the adventure of stealing sheep, or to pass forged notes, were hanged with the strong-bodied burglar, and the hoary old coiner. The day before an execution, the jail was crowded with the families of the doomed men, come to bid them farewell. Six or eight wives together, who are to be widows tomorrow; fifteen or twenty children, who are to be orphans to-morrow; these were the moaning and weeping reprovers of our law, so barbarous at so late a day! Some ameliorations in the law had, as we know, taken place; but still, men were brought out in batches, and hanged in rows. The number of executions was fearfully on the increase; and yet it was universally known that so much impunity was allowed, on account of the severity of the law, as materially to weaken the authority of law, and encourage crime.

In 1826, a discovery was made of a gang of banditti who led a romantic life in Gloucestershire. In the neighbourhood of Wickwar, the inhabitants had suffered cruelly for seven years under incessant depredations, and the consequent pains of insecurity. The thefts were so various and vast as to indicate the co-operation of a large number of persons; but none of the stolen property was ever traced, nor any thief ever recognised. The police at last were set to arrest, almost at a venture, a family of the name of Mills-an old man and his wife, and their four