422 CHARTIST RIOTS-INSURRECTION AT NEWPORT. [1839. were most indignant that his great measure of Catholic Emancipation was attended with some practical results-let us view these Tory agitators going about the country proclaiming that the Poor Laws were a system of wholesale murder, that children were tortured in factories for the amusement of the mill-owners, and that the Corn-laws were the only restraint upon the power of the manufacturers to oppress their work-people-and then let us ask ourselves how the country could have been full of this madness and folly without inducing the physical-force Chartists to believe that their time for action was at hand. The first serious demonstration of this revolutionary spirit was made at Birmingham in a series of outbreaks and contests between the police, the military, and the mob, which lasted from the 4th to the 15th of July. There were smashing of windows and street-lamps; bonfires made of goods pillaged from warehouses; houses burnt down. The community of this thriving seat of manufactures, where workmen had ample wages and could afford to be Ten-pound householders, was kept in terror till the riots were put down by the necessary employment of the military under judicious regulation. There were the same demonstrations at Sheffield, with the disposition too common in that place to think lightly of secret murder.❤ The most violent outbreak took place later in the year. At Newport, in Monmouthshire, there was a magistrate of the borough, named John Frost, who in the previous February had used violent language at a public meeting at Pontypool. Lord John Russell was greatly blamed for treating this insolent demagogue with some leniency, and for not at once removing him from his position as a magistrate. In a few months, however, he earned his degradation by new violence. During the summer and autumn he was organizing an insurrection in the country near Newport, where there was a large population engaged in labours connected with the mineral wealth of the district. The Attorney-General, on the trial for high treason in which this Chartist organization ended, described the country as, in a great degree, wild and mountainous, abounding in every part with mines of coal and iron, of late years worked to a considerable extent. In a district, he said, where, fifty years before, there were scarcely any inhabitants, save the scattered huts of a few shepherds and mountaineers, there was then a dense population, amounting to upwards of forty thousand. Those who know the wonderful country from which the Usk and the Taff, assisted by railroads running into the hearts of the mountains, bring their rich freights to Newport and Cardiff, will comprehend how those towns alone now comprise more than fifty thousand inhabitants. It was arranged by the insurgents that on the night of Sunday the 3rd of November, three divisions from various points were to march upon Newport and take possession of the town while the inhabitants. were asleep. The weather was such as to prevent the completion of these arrangements. The divisions from Nant-y-Glo and Pontypool did not join their leader at the time appointed, but after waiting till daylight he marched into the town with five or six thousand followers about ten o'clock. The mayor, Mr. Phillips, was very imperfectly prepared for resistance to this rabble, who came into the town five abreast, armed with guns, bludgeons, pikes, and pickaxes. Mr. Phillips, with his party of special constables and about thirty soldiers had taken his position in the West Gate Inn, which stands in the market-place. The insurgents moved up to the door of the inn, 1839.] JOHN FROST AND OTHERS TRIED FOR HIGH TREASON. 423 and called upon those within to surrender. The demand was of course refused. A volley from the street was then discharged against the bow-window of the room. The wooden pillars of the porch still show by bullet-holes the sort of conflict that here took place. Almost at the instant of the first street firing, the rioters broke open the door of the inn and poured into the house. There would have been a massacre of the civil and military guardians of the peace, had not the officer in command given orders to fire, as the Chartists were rushing down the passage. A volley soon put to flight the terrified assailants. The mayor distinguished himself by the gallantry which befits an English gentleman. He, with lieutenant Gray and serjeant Daley, fearlessly opened each one of the three shutters of the window that looked upon the street. A shower of slugs was immediately poured in upon them, and Mr. Phillips and several others were wounded; but the construction of the window enabled the military to pour a raking fire upon the mob, who soon fled in all directions. The soldiers then made a sortie and effectually cleared the streets. Frost and two other of the leaders, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones, were quickly apprehended. On the 1st of January they were tried at Newport, under a Special Commission before that able and constitutional judge, sir Nicholas Tindal. They were each found guilty of high treason, and received the capital sentence, which was finally commuted to transportation for life. Within the last few years the chief delinquent has been allowed to return. Sir Thomas Phillips was knighted by her Majesty, and was received at Court with signal honour. CHAPTER XXIV. The System of Penny Postage first comes into operation-Mr. Rowland Hill-Opposition to the proposed change-Postage Stamps-Marriage of the Queen to Prince Albert of Saxe. Coburg-Privilege of Parliament Stockdale v. Hansaid-Attempt upon the Queen's Life-Prorogation-Affairs of the Levant-Treaty of Alliance-Exclusion of FrancePrince Napoleon lands near Boulogne-Failure of his attempt to produce an insurrection— Differences of England and France on the affairs of the East-War threatened-M. Thiers and lord Palmerston-Naval Successes against Mehemet Ali-Interment at Paris of the remains of Napoleon-Session of Parliament-The Anti-Corn Law League-Declarations of the Ministry on questions of Free Trade-Debates on the Sugar Duties-Ministers defeated on the question of the Sugar Duties-Meeting of New Parliament-Amendment to the Address carried-Resignation of Ministers. Ox the morning of the 10th of January, 1840, the people of the United Kingdom rose in the possession of a new power-the power of sending by the post a letter not weighing more than half an ounce upon the prepayment of one penny, and this without any regard to the distance which the letter had to travel. At this time, when the system of a universal penny postage has been in operation two-and-twenty years-when the number of letters transmitted by the post has increased from 76 millions in 1839 to 593 millions in 1861, an increase of 680 per cent.-it is more interesting to look back upon the difficulties of achieving such a result than to trace the gradual success which in a few years put an end to all opposition to a system so pregnant with national advantage. To the sagacity and the perseverance of one man, the author of this system, the high praise is due, not so much that he triumphed over the petty jealousies and selfish fears of the post-office authorities, but that he established his own convictions against the doubts of some of the ablest and most conscientious leaders of public opinion. The government adopted his views reluctantly, strengthened in their hesitation by such a clear-headed supporter of the government as Sydney Smith. Temperate opposers of the government, such as the duke of Wellington and sir Robert Peel, saw great danger and little good in the project. Mr. Rowland Hill in 1837 published his plan of a cheap and uniform postage. A Committee of the House of Commons was appointed in 1837, which continued its inquiries throughout the session of 1838, and arrived at the conviction that "the mode recommended of charging and collecting postage, in a pamphlet published by Mr. Rowland Hill," was feasible, and deserving of a trial under legislative * Ante, p. 390. |