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1840.] OPPOSITION TO THE PROPOSED CHANGE-POSTAGE STAMPS.

425

sanction. The Committee examined a great number of mercantile and other authorities, the questions and answers contained in their Report amounting to nearly twelve thousand. There were necessarily strong differences of opinion amongst the witnesses, many even of the most favourable to a reduction to a uniform rate considering that a penny postage was too low. Lord Ashburton, although an advocate of Post-office Reform, held that the reduction to a penny would wholly destroy the revenue. Lord Lowther, the Postmaster-General, thought twopence the smallest rate that would cover the expenses. Colonel Maberly, the secretary to the post office, considered Mr. Hill's plan a most preposterous one, and maintained that if the rates were to be reduced to a penny, the revenue would not recover itself for forty or fifty years. The Committee, after a long struggle between its members, negatived both a penny and a three-halfpenny rate as inadequate, and finally recommended the adoption of a twopenny rate. Public opinion, however, had been brought so strongly to bear in favour of a penny rate, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Spring Rice, on the 5th of July, 1839, proposed a resolution," that it is expedient to reduce the postage on letters to one uniform rate of a penny postage, according to a certain amount of weight to be determined that the parliamentary privilege of franking should be abolished, and that official franking be strictly limited-the House pledging itself to make good any deficiency that may occur in the revenue from such reduction of the postage." A Bill was accordingly passed to this effect in the House of Commons, its operation being limited in its duration to one year, and the Treasury retaining the power of fixing the rates at first, although the ultimate reduction was to be to one penny. This experimental measure reduced all rates above fourpence to that sum, leaving those below fourpence unaltered. With this complication of charge the experiment could not have a fair trial, and accordingly on the 10th of January, 1840, the uniform half-ounce rate became by order of the Treasury one penny. The final accomplishment of this great reform presented a signal example of the force of public opinion when brought to bear upon a subject unconnected with party feelings, and the demonstration of whose necessity had been established not by passionate appeals for public support and sympathy, but by patient investigation and conclusive reasoning. This was the high merit of the man who conceived the scheme of Post-office Reform; and the manifest earnestness of his character, and the invincibility of his logic, mainly conduced to establish those convictions in the public mind which eventually settled all doubts. Lord Melbourne, in moving the second reading of the bill, assigned as a conclusive answer to the question, how he could venture to tamper with so large a sum as that derivable from the Post-office revenue, that "there was such a general demand from all classes of the community for a measure of this nature, that it was a very difficult matter to withstand it." In 1840 the number of letters sent through the post had more than doubled, and the legislature had little hesitation in making the Act of 1839 permanent, instead of its duration being limited to the year which would expire in October. A stamped envelope, printed upon a peculiar paper, and bearing an elaborate design, was originally chosen as the mode of

* Hansard, vol. xlix. col. 1214.

426 MARRIAGE OF THE QUEEN TO PRINCE ALBERT OF SAXE COBURG. [1840. rendering prepayment convenient to the sender of a letter. A simpler plan soon superseded this attempt to enlist the Fine Arts in a plain business operation. The plan of prepaying letters by affixing a stamp bearing the head of the ruler of the country, came into use here in May, 1840. The habit of prepayment by postage stamps has now become so universal throughout the world, that in 1861 the system was established in eighty different countries or colonies; and there were between six and seven hundred varieties of stamp known to the post-office authorities. Even in the Sandwich Islands the Postage Stamp was in use."

On the 16th of January Parliament was opened by the Queen in person. The first paragraph of her Majesty's speech contained an announcement which had been previously made to the Privy Council. "Since you were last assembled, I have declared my intention of allying myself in marriage with the Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg and Gotha. I humbly implore that the Divine blessing may prosper this union, and render it conducive to the interests of my people as well as to my own domestic happiness, and it will be to me a source of the most lively satisfaction to find the resolution I have taken approved by my Parliament." The preliminary measures of the legislature for the naturalization of prince Albert, and for granting him an annuity, produced some discussion,-first, upon the subject of precedence, and next, as to the amount of the annual sum to be granted. The one question was settled by omitting from the bill of naturalization all mention of precedence; the other by a reduction of the ministerial proposition of an annuity of 50,000l. to one of 30,000l. The distresses of the country fully justified the decision of the majority who supported the grant of a smaller sum. The good sense of the Queen and of prince Albert prevented the slightest expression of discontent at the vote of the House of Commons, which was carried by the union of the Conservative party with those generally classed amongst Radicals. The marriage took place on the 10th of February, and it was welcomed with general festivities throughout the country. There was a welcome of a higher kind from those who knew something of the character and acquirements of the young prince; from those who were aware that he had received a public education at the University of Bonn, and that his abilities were as conspicuous as his total freedom from all desire to find a royal road to learning." But the people generally rejoiced in this union because it was understood to be one of affection, and which gave that earnest of domestic happiness which offered a solid foundation for the discharge of public duty. The modest answer of prince Albert to the congratulatory messages of the Houses of Parliament evidently expressed the feelings of one who was careful to weigh the words which he uttered. To the marquis of Lansdowne and other peers who had attended upon his Royal Highness with the congratulations of the peers, he said, "I return to the House of Lords my warmest thanks for the message which you have now delivered. I learn with lively satisfaction their approbation of the choice which her Majesty has made, and it will be the study of my life to justify the favourable opinion which you have now expressed."

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There was a subject which occupied the attention of Parliament during

Report of the Postmaster-General, 1862.

1840.]

PRIVILEGE OF PARLIAMENT STOCKDALE v. HANSARD.

427

this Session which excited considerable public interest at the time, but which must be dismissed by us as briefly as possible. It was the question of Privilege of Parliament. In 1837 the privilege of the House of Commons came into conflict with the jurisdiction of the Law Courts. There had been similar conflicts in earlier times, and the opinions of great lawyers were by no means settled as to the powers of Courts of Law in matters of privilege. The words of the Bill of Rights would appear to have settled that "debates and proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament." But since the Revolution there had been several occasions in which there was a clashing of jurisdictions. The House of Commons was probably taken by surprise when, in the case of Stockdale against Hansard,-which was an action for libel against the printer of the House of Commons, contained in a Report of the Inspector of Prisons, published by order of that House,-Lord Chief Justice Denman declared that the fact of the House of Commons having directed Messrs. Hansard to publish all their Parliamentary Reports was no justification for them, or for any bookseller who publishes a Parliamentary Report containing a libel against any man. A Committee of Parliament was then appointed to inquire into this question. The House resolved that the publication of its Reports was essential to the constitutional functions of Parliament; that the House of Commons has a sole and exclusive jurisdiction to determine upon its privileges; and that for any Court or tribunal to assume to decide upon matters of privilege inconsistent with the determination of either House, is a breach and contempt of the privileges of Parliament. Stockdale was defeated upon the first trial. He commenced a second action, when the Queen's Bench again decided against the privileges of the House. Upon a third action, which was undefended, Messrs. Hansard were instructed by the House of Commons not to plead; judgment consequently went by default; and the damages were assessed in the Sheriff's Court at six hundred pounds. Then ensued a contest between the House and the Sheriffs. As in all cases in which personal interests are held to be arbitrarily attacked, the sheriff's had a large amount of public sympathy when they, as well as Stockdale, were committed to the custody of the Sergeant-at-Arms. The sheriffs were kept in close custody for having refused to obey the order of the House for restoring the money which they had levied upon Hansard, holding that they were bound by their duty to the Court of Queen's Bench to refuse their obedience to the order. There were other actions arising out of these vexatious proceedings; but the main question was finally settled by the passing of an Act, which received the Royal Assent on the 14th of April, 1840, by which proceedings, criminal or civil, against persons for publication of papers printed by order of either House of Parliament, were to be stayed by the Courts, upon delivery of a certificate and affidavit to the effect that such publication was by order of Parliament. Mr. May has very clearly stated the necessity for this measure, which was one of compromise. "No course was open to the Commons befitting their high jurisdiction and dignity, by which the obedience of courts and plaintiffs could be ensured: their power of commitment was at once impotent and oppressive; yet they could not suffer their authority to be wholly defied and contemned. Hence their proceedings were inevitably marked by hesitation and inconsistency. In a case for which the Constitu

428

ATTEMPT UPON THE QUEEN'S LIFE.

[1840

tion has made no provision, even the wisdom of sir Robert Peel, and the solid learning of Mr. Serjeant Wilde, were unequal to devise expedients less open to objection."*

The Houses of Parliament were proceeding in due course in the discussion of various important matters-such as a rupture with China, the reform of the municipal institutions of Ireland, measures for further carrying into effect the Reports of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the Corn Laws - when they were startled by a circumstance which produced a similar amount of alarm and indignation throughout the kingdom. As the Queen, with prince Albert, was riding up Constitution Hill in an open carriage, a pistol was fired at them, and in about half a minute there was a discharge of a second pistol. Neither of the royal couple were injured, and they both preserved remarkable presence of mind. Lord John Russell, in moving the next day for a joint address with the House of Lords to congratulate her Majesty on her escape, stated that the Queen, immediately after the attempt, proceeded to the house of her mother to relieve her mind under the anxiety in which she might have been thrown by exaggerated reports; and that on her return her Majesty showed herself in her usual manner to her subjects, affording a proof at once of her safety and of the kindness and fortitude of her character.† The youth, named Oxford, who had committed this atrocious crime, was a barman at a public-house. He was tried at the Old Bailey on the 9th of July. Witnesses were produced to prove that he was insane. Dr. Connolly held that he was of unsound mind. Dr. Chowne considered the doing a criminal act without a motive was a proof to some extent of an unsound mind-what was called moral insanity. Chief Justice Denman cautioned the jury against the dangerous doctrine that the commission of a great crime without an apparent motive was in itself proof of insanity. Sir Benjamin Brodie has written some sensible remarks upon the acquittal of the boy Oxford upon the ground of moral insanity. We give these remarks of an eminent physiologist, because juries are too often embarrassed by opinions and arguments which, if taken without great qualification, would have the effect of impairing the safer belief that every person not absolutely a lunatic is responsible for his actions: "It seems to me that juries have not unfrequently been misled by the refinements of medical witnesses, who, having adopted the theory of a purely moral insanity, have applied that term to cases to which the term insanity ought not to be applied at all. It is true, that the difference in the character of individuals may frequently be traced to difference in their organization, and to different conditions as to bodily health; and that, therefore, one person has more, and another has less, difficulty in controlling his temper, and regulating his conduct. But we have all our duties to perform, and one of the most important of these is, that we should strive against whatever evil tendency there may be in us arising out of our physical constitution. Even if we admit (which I do not admit in reality) that the impulse which led Oxford to the commission of his crime was at the time irresistible, still the question remains, whether, when the notion of it first haunted him, he might not have kept it under his control; and thus prevented himself from passing into that

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1840.]

PROROGATION-AFFAIRS OF THE LEVANT.

429

state of mind which was beyond his control afterwards. If I have been rightly informed, Oxford was himself of this opinion; as he said, when another attempt had been made to take away the life of the Queen, 'that if he himself had been hanged, this would not have happened.' *

Parliament was prorogued by the Queen on the 11th of August. The Royal Speech touched upon some important points in the foreign relations of the country. Her Majesty congratulated the Parliament upon the termination of the civil war in Spain, the objects for which the Quadruple engagements of 1834 had been contracted having been accomplished. Differences with the government of Naples had been put into a train of adjustment by the mediation of France. Her Majesty was (6 engaged, in concert with the Emperor of Austria, the King of Prussia, the Emperor of Russia, and the Sultan, in measures intended to effect the permanent pacification of the Levant, to maintain the integrity and independence of the Ottoman empire, and thereby to afford additional security for the peace of Europe."

The events which had rendered the intervention of the European powers necessary for the pacification of the Levant were these: Mehemet Ali, the pasha of Egypt, had in 1831 invaded Syria, in a war which he waged against the pasha of Damascus. Egypt and Syria were both integral parts of the Ottoman dominions, and Mehemet Ali was bound to yield obedience to the command of the sultan. He refused to withdraw his troops from Syria; and in 1832 the sultan Mahmoud and his powerful viceroy were at open war. The Turkish government was saved from utter ruin by the aid of its most formidable enemy, Russia. But the victories of Mehemet Ali had secured for him the possession of Syria, yet only as a vassal of the Porte. A war between the sultan and his viceroy was prevented for six years by the mediation of England, France, and Russia. But in 1839 the sultan could no longer endure the ambition of his great vassal, who evidently designed to subject all Arabia to his sway; and Mahmoud sent an army across the Euphrates to recover Syria. A signal victory of Mehemet Ali preceded the death of Mahmoud on the 1st of July, 1839. His successor Abd-ulMejid, was only in his sixteenth year. The pasha of Egypt was encouraged in his resistance by the youth and apparent weakness of the new sultan, who was surrounded by treacherous officers. The influence of Mehemet Ali was so powerful at Constantinople that the Capitan Pasha (High Admiral) took the Turkish fleet through the Dardanelles to Alexandria and delivered it over to the sultan's rebellious viceroy. The strong will and propitious fortune of Mehemet Ali seemed to threaten the dissolution of the Turkish empire. The European powers tendered their mediation, which the sultan accepted. He offered Mehemet Ali the hereditary sovereignty of Egypt instead of remaining a vaseal, but the ambitious pasha required to have Syria as well. France, although formally bound by a treaty of 1839 to act in co-operation with England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, had her own policy as to a settlement of the Syrian question, and declined entering into the views of the other four powers. Lord Palmerston resolved to conclude a treaty for the maintenance of the Ottoman empire without the co-operation of France. The

* Brodie's "Psychological Inquiries," 3rd edition, p. 98.

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