The Life and Times of Queen Victoria (Illustrated Edition). Robert Thomas Wilson
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Название: The Life and Times of Queen Victoria (Illustrated Edition)

Автор: Robert Thomas Wilson

Издательство: Bookwire

Жанр: Документальная литература

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isbn: 4064066380502

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СКАЧАТЬ complained that it was not half enough for them to live on. Another speaker, one William Burchall, said, “that though their wages had risen within the last few months a shilling a week, bread had risen two shillings, so that the difference was against them. He was past forty years of age, and he could say that he had never purchased a pound of good slaughtered beef fit to be carried into the market. As to mutton, he had purchased a little of that, but never as much as would average a pound a year in forty years. He knew what veal was, but never had any at all.” Another man said that, during thirty-nine weeks, ending 10th of June, 1844, he had earned only £5 19s. 8d., or 3s. 1d. a week; and that but for getting a little land to rent from Lord Carnarvon, he and his wife and eight children would have starved. His house rent came to £4 a year, and his bread bill alone came to from 7s. 7d. to 8s. 8d. a week. Another man said that he had so little bread to eat that he got weak, and was then discharged as unfit for service. James Pegler complained he had been “hunted down” under the Poor Laws, having been, with his wife and family, forced into the workhouse, and separated from them for eleven months. At last, he was turned away to get work, and because he went out of the district to find it, he was taken before the magistrate, charged with desertion, and sent to prison for a month. “God bless my heart and life,” exclaimed this poor creature, “I never see’d such a go, to be sure, as how I was served. I know enough of starvation and misery to make me say ‘God send us Free Trade.’” At this meeting the labourers declared they were thankful that Providence had put it out of the power of Government “to write taxation on the bosom of the streams and rivulets that were so bountifully spread around their neighbourhood.”35 They were unconsciously illustrating the wisdom of Paul Louis Courier, who once said that the rich are grateful to Providence for what it gives—the poor, for what it leaves them.

      The Queen, it has been reported, was deeply affected by these demonstrations of suffering. It is said that she will never forget, as long as she lives, that she began her reign when the wealth and power of England were waning. She was, on her accession to the throne, the object of the most chivalrous devotion that any Queen could inspire. Yet, when crowned, the tears fell from her eyes, as she thought of her own responsibility in the midst of a nation sinking deeper and deeper into destitution, and plunging deeper and deeper into debt. Mrs. Browning, when she read the account of her Majesty’s coronation, gave apt expression to the popular hopes that were raised by the significance which the people instinctively attached to this incident of the ceremony.

      “God save thee, weeping Queen!

       Thou shalt be well beloved;

       The tyrant’s sceptre cannot move

       As those pure tears have moved!

       The nature in thy eyes we see

       Which tyrants cannot own;

       The love that guardeth liberties,

       Strange blessing on the nation lies,

       Whose Sovereign wept;

       Yea, wept to wear a crown.”

      As if in fulfilment of the hopes which the Queen’s conduct and bearing since her accession had inspired, a happier day was now dawning. There was every prospect that content would now gladden the reign that began in sorrow and in tears. The partial relaxation of the Protective tariff during the last three years had brought hope to the heart of the Sovereign, for it was certainly followed by some amelioration in the lot of her subjects. Her Majesty was profoundly impressed by Sir Robert Peel’s inferences from the success of this experimental loosening of the shackles on commerce. She was, therefore, naturally inclined to give the weight of her artless sympathies and “sweet counsel” to a new departure in fiscal policy, that promised to “make Plenty smile on the cheek of Toil.” The opening of the Parliamentary Session of 1846 was, therefore, to the Queen no mere formal or ordinary ceremony of State. It was, in her opinion, and in the opinion of the Prince Consort, the initiation of a “bloodless revolution,” and the closing of a distinct epoch in the history of Party Government.

      DOG’S HEAD.

      (Drawn and Etched by the Prince Consort.)

      CHAPTER XIII.

       THE FREE TRADE PARLIAMENT.

       Table of Contents

      Opening of Parliament in 1846—The Queen’s Speech—The Debate on the Address—Sir Robert Peel’s Statement—Mr. Disraeli’s Philippics—Bishop Wilberforce on Peel’s Reception by the House of Commons—Peel’s Mistake—Lord George Bentinck’s Attack on the Prince Consort—The Queen’s Explanations—The Court and the Peelites—The Corn Bill in the House of Lords—Lord Stanley’s Political Dinner-Party—The Duke of Wellington and the Peers—Triumph in the Lords and Defeat in the Commons—Peel’s Coercion Bill for Ireland—A Factious Opposition—Fall of the Government—Lord Aberdeen’s adroit Diplomacy—The Oregon Controversy and its Settlement—The Government’s Policy in India—War in the Punjab—Victories over the Sikhs—Resignation of the Ministry—The Queen’s Farewell to Peel—Her Suggestion of a Coalition—Wellington and Cobden advise Peel to dissolve—Reasons for his Refusal—The Queen and the Duke of Wellington—The Duke’s Letter to Lord John Russell—Lyndhurst and Reconstruction—Disintegration of the Tory Party—The Peelites in Opposition—A Hint from Aristophanes—Tory Persecution of Peel.

      It was on the 19th of January, 1846,36 that the Queen opened in person the Parliament which revolutionised the commercial policy of England, and transferred the political centre of gravity from the territorial to the commercial aristocracy of the country. The Royal procession was formed at Buckingham Palace in the usual order. Her Majesty and Prince Albert descended the grand staircase shortly before two o’clock, the Queen wearing a lustrous diamond circlet on her fair white brow. The Prince was habited in a Field-Marshal’s uniform, and the orders of the Garter and Golden Fleece shone on his breast. The State coach with its eight cream-coloured horses then drove with the Royal party to the Palace of the Legislature, and as her Majesty passed through the densely crowded Royal Gallery it was seen that she was labouring under deep but suppressed emotion.

      From the Throne she read, in clear but thrilling tones, the following speech:—

      “My Lords and Gentlemen,—

      “It gives me great satisfaction again to meet you in Parliament, and to have the opportunity of recurring to your assistance and advice.

      “I continue to receive from my allies, and from other foreign Powers, the strongest assurances of the desire to cultivate the most friendly relations with this country.

      “I rejoice that, in concert with the Emperor of Russia, and through the success of our joint mediation, I have been enabled to adjust the differences which have long prevailed between the Ottoman Porte and the King of Persia, and had seriously endangered the tranquillity of the East.

      “For several years a desolating and sanguinary warfare has afflicted the States of the Rio de la Plata. The commerce of all nations has been interrupted, and acts of barbarity have been committed unknown to the practice of a civilised people. In conjunction with the King of the French I am endeavouring to effect the pacification of these States.

      “The Convention concluded with France in the course of last year, for the more effectual suppression of the Slave Trade, is about to be carried into immediate execution by the active co-operation of the two Powers on the coast of Africa. It is СКАЧАТЬ