522

VISIT OF KING LOUIS PHILIPPE TO THE QUEEN.

[1844.

respecting him, of which they disapproved, and offered to award him compensation for his losses and sufferings.

Upon the prorogation of parliament it was stated in the Queen's Speech that the danger of an interruption to the good understanding and friendly relations between this country and France had been happily averted by the spirit of justice and moderation which had animated the two governments. The entente cordiale was to be confirmed by a visit of the King of the French to her Majesty. On the 7th of October he arrived at Windsor Castle, where he remained for a week, being installed a Knight of the Garter, and entertained with sumptuous banquets. It will perhaps be for the historian at some future day to relate whether Louis Philippe, during this friendly visit, forebore altogether to approach the delicate subject of matrimonial alliances of his own family with Spain. His far-reaching projects presented, a year or two later, a question of far greater danger to the good understanding and friendly relations between the two countries, than the arbitrary acts perpetrated upon a poor missionary at Tahiti.

It was in this year that the Prince de Joinville published his celebrated "Note on the State of the Naval Forces of France." With the general public a document like this passes into oblivion, after the lapse of eighteen or twenty years, unless it be revived for the purpose of maintaining some exclusive opinions either of a war-party or a peace-party. We have alluded to this production in the first chapter of this volume; * and there we should have left the subject, had not a politician of no ordinary mark recently called attention to it as a point of history,-of course with his own gloss. "The principal contribution to the first panic," says Mr. Cobden, " previous to the publication of the duke of Wellington's letter, was the pamphlet of Prince Joinville. It is difficult now, after a calm perusal of this tract, to understand how it could have been pressed into the service of the alarmists. It is filled throughout with complaints of the inferiority of the French navy, and offers not a few probably unmerited compliments to the superior management of England." Mr. Cobden then quotes the concluding passage of the pamphlet: "I have been obliged to expose the secret of our weakness compared to the greatness of British power; but I should think myself happy if, by the sincere avowal of those sorrowful truths, I were able to dissipate the illusion, in which are so many clever persons, as to the real condition of the navy of France, and to decide them to ask with me those salutary reforms which alone can give our navy a new era of power and glory.'"+

The Prince de Joinville quotes a passage from a speech in the House of Commons on the 29th of February, 1844, in which it was said that if steamvessels had been employed as at present, Napoleon might easily have landed even fifteen or twenty thousand men on our shores; and that although such a debarkation would not have had much success, the effect would have been "to destroy that confidence which our insular situation now inspires." The speaker, says the royal pamphleteer, adjured the legislature to take into consideration the great use that might be made of steam navigation in the event of a new war. This is the text which the Prince takes for his

* Ante-Note, p. 14.

"The Three Panics," p. 7.

The speaker was Mr. Spring Rice, on the subject of Harbours of Refuge. See Hansard, vol. lxxiii. col. 400.

1844.]

PRINCE DE JOINVILLE'S PAMPHLET.

523

exhortation. Let us build steam vessels of war as quickly as possible, to maintain some approach to equality with the hundred and twenty-five steam vessels of war of Great Britain, of which number seventy-seven are armed. No suggestion could have been more proper. But what are the definite objects he proposes for a large addition to the French steam navy, beyond the defence of the ports and arsenals of France, in the event of a war? "Our successes would not be brilliant, because we should take care at first to avoid compromising all our resources in decisive encounters. But we should carry on war with certainty, because we should attack two things equally vulnerable-the confidence of the English people in the insular position of their country, and its maritime commerce. Who can doubt that, with a steam navy strongly organized, we should have the means of inflicting upon the enemy's coasts losses and sufferings unknown to a nation which has never felt all the miseries which war brings in its train? As the complement of these sufferings would come the evil, equally new for that nation,— that of confidence lost. The wealth accumulated on its coasts and in its ports would cease to remain in security."

We have given "a calm perusal to this tract," and we do not find it “difficult to understand how it could have been pressed into the service of the alarmists." Mr. Cobden quotes a remonstrance by sir William Molesworth to the "Spectator" in January, 1848, in which the philosophical statesman asks "the editor of that staid and philosophical print " whether he considered the French to be ruffians, Pindarees, freebooters, so that "you believe it necessary to keep constant watch and ward against them, as our Saxon forefathers did against the Danes and the Nordmen, lest they should burn our towns, plunder our coasts, and put our queen to ransom." The year 1847-when Louis Philippe and his ministers were full of ambitious projects not very different from those which Louis the Fourteenth had cherished-was not so far removed from 1844, that the people of England had forgotten that a son of the king of the French had published a pamphlet which, to use Mr. Cobden's words "had sounded like a tocsin in our ears;" that a prince of the blood royal had proposed to "burn our towns and plunder our coasts;" had, to repeat the honest language of our great soldier which we have before quoted, issued "an invitation and provocative to war, to be carried on in a manner such as had been disclaimed by the civilized portions of mankind." *

* The pamphlet of the Prince de Joinville, with its accompanying tables, is given in full in "Annuaire Historique," 1844, Appendice, p. 372.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Parliament opened-Improved state of the kingdom-Sir Robert Peel's New Tariff-Opposition of the Country-Party-Mr. Cobden's motion for inquiring into Agricultural Distress-Grant to Maynooth College-Queen's Colleges in Ireland-Jews admitted to Municipal Offices -Prorogation-Apprehended failure of the Potato Crop in Ireland-Proposal of sir Robert Peel to the Cabinet-Lord John Russell's Letter to the Electors of London-Dissensions in the Cabinet-Sir R. Peel resigns-Failure of lord John Russell to form a Ministry-Sir R. Peel resumes power-Parliament opened by the Queen-Sir R. Peel asserts his determination to be unshackled as Minister-The New Tariff and the Corn-Law Bills introduced by sir R. Peel-Debate of Twelve Nights in the Commons-The Bills passed in both Houses -Bill for the Protection of Life in Ireland, rejected by a majority against the Government-Resignation of sir R. Peel-The Russell Administration-The Oregon Question settled-British Columbia-India-War with the Sikhs-Battle of Moodkee-Sir Henry Hardinge and Sir Hugh Gough-Battle of Ferozeshah-Battles of Alliwall and SobraonTreaty of Peace-List of the Russell Ministry.

WHEN Parliament was opened by the Queen on the 4th of February, 1845, "the improved condition of the country" was a fertile subject of her Majesty's congratulation. "Increased activity pervades almost every branch of manufacture; trade and commerce have been extended at home and abroad." At this period the Income Tax was about to expire. Why then, with a certainty of improved revenue from imports, which had risen from sixty-five millions in 1842 to eighty-five millions in 1845, was it necessary for her Majesty to say, with reference to the Income Tax, that it might be expedient to continue its operation for a further period? The reason alleged for this recommendation was, "thus to obtain the means of adequately providing for the public service, and at the same time making a reduction in other taxation." Simple as were these words they were full of significance. The one object in 1842 of imposing an Income Tax was to repair the financial disorder of the country. That object had been accomplished. On the 5th of January, 1845, there had been an excess of income over expenditure of nearly three millions and a half. The Income Tax had produced something above five millions. It was in many respects an objectionable tax, and if not to be wholly abolished there was ample room to reduce the amount of the impost by onehalf. But the minister had a great policy to carry into effect. His partial experiment on Free Trade had prepared him to make a bolder experiment, upon the doctrine that the surest way to improve the condition of the great body of the people was to remove those taxes upon large branches of industry which not only interfered with their extension, but placed many of the comforts and conveniences of life beyond the reach of the humbler classes. M. Guizot has truly as well as eloquently said "the greatest happiness of the greatest

1845.]

SIR ROBERT PEEL'S NEW TARIFF.

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number of human beings as the supreme object of society and of government, was the superior power of which sir Robert Peel had made himself the minister, and which swayed all his opponents; some of them governed like himself, others intimidated or paralyzed by this great idea, which was clearly or dimly present to their minds, either as an incontestable right, or as an irresistible fact.” *

The financial statement of sir Robert Peel was made on the 14th of February. Continuing the Income Tax, he estimated there would be a surplus of 3,400,000l. He said-laying down general principles which ought ever to be kept in mind by a British financial minister-" In the first place you have to consider the claims which may be urged in favour of a reduction of taxation on account of the heaviness with which certain imposts press on articles of general consumption. You are bound also to consider what taxes press on the raw materials which constitute the staple of the manufactures of the country. You are also bound to consider what taxes cause a great increase in the establishments necessary for their collection, and what are those taxes the remission of which will enable us to diminish those establishments, so as to reduce the expense of collection. You are bound also to consider what are those taxes the removal of which will give more scope to commercial enterprise, and occasion an increased demand for labour." Broadly to state the minister's plans for obtaining such results as these, he proposed to abolish all duties on exports, including the duty on coal; he would abolish the import duties on four hundred and thirty raw materials used in manufactures, which, although yielding to the Treasury only 320,000l., would still be a real and efficient relief; he would altogether remove the duties on cotton-wool, which yielded 680,000l.; the reduction to be effected on the sugar-duties would amount to 1,300,000l. More important, perhaps, than any of the imposts to be abolished or reduced was the repeal of the duty upon glass. That duty, upon the value of the manufactured article, was not less than from 200 to 300 per cent.; there was no duty which required such a system of perpetual and vexatious interference with the manufacturer. In France, in Belgium, and in Bohemia, there was no excise duty on glass. In Bohemia, in particular, the manufacture had been brought to a state of admirable perfection. We had peculiar facilities for obtaining the same results, and yet we could not compete with foreigners in the manufacture of glass. "If you permit," said sir Robert, "this article to be free of duty, it is difficult to foresee, in the first place, to what perfection this beautiful fabric may not be brought, and secondly, it is impossible to say to what new purposes glass, manufactured by our own skill and capital, may not be applied." Seven years only had elapsed after the sagacious minister had made this confident anticipation, when we saw a wondrous fabric arise constructed almost wholly of glass, in which the British manufacturer was not ashamed to exhibit his glass wares by the side of his foreign rivals, not perhaps reaching the perfection of some glass fabrics but very nearly approaching their beauty of form and colour. Eleven more years elapsed, and then, in the more extended competition of a second International Exhibition, the British manufacture of glass

Guizot, "Memoirs of Sir Robert Peel," p. 232.

Hansard, vol. lxvii. col. 473.

526

OPPOSITION OF THE COUNTRY-PARTY.

[1845. for domestic use stood at the head of every European production. But, more than all this, it is only necessary to look with a rapid glance at the architecture of our public buildings, of our shops, of our mansions and villas, and even of our humblest cottages, to see how, in conjunction with the subsequent repeal of the window tax, the removal of the duty on glass had enabled every building to be erected with a regard to convenience and comfort, to health and cleanliness, which the existence of those imposts to a great extent prevented. It was the merit of sir Robert Peel rarely to forget the effect of taxation upon the condition of the poor. He had in view the quarry of the cottage window, rarely mended when broken, but patched with paper or stuffed with rag, when he said-"If the House sanction the removal of the duty upon glass, you will thereby confer on the poorer classes a most extensive benefit." It is unnecessary now to follow the discussion upon sir Robert Peel's financial measures, beyond noticing a few points in which the jealousy of free-trade principles occasionally broke out in objections almost ludicrous. One member complained of the removal of the duty on grease, as he judged it would lead to a great importation of foreign butter; another moved the omission of lard from the list of articles to be admitted free of duty. Mr. Cobden, upon such objections, besought the landed interest not to make a pitiable exhibition of themselves; lord John Russell advised them either to surrender the principle of protection to native industry altogether, or resolutely to stand by it in and out of Parliament. Bolder than the parliamentary free-traders was Mr. W. J. Fox. who, at one of the meetings of the League in Covent Garden Theatre, said of those who were horrified at the notion of repealing the duties on butter, bacon, and cheese, "they keep a great chandler's shop, and they look to every minute article in their store, how they can pervert the power of legislation to make the community pay more for the benefit of the aristocracy. There was a time when trading at all was thought inconsistent with the possession of that diguity. Your feudal baron did not mind robbing by the strong hand, but he turned away with contempt from robbing by the short weight of a protective duty." The time was approaching when as strong things would be said in and out of Parliament against the minister who had sufficiently manifested his indisposition to support the chandler's shop. The course which sir Robert Peel was pursuing, of asserting the principles of free-trade cautiously and yet successfully, by enlisting the Opposition, for their support against the imperfectly concealed hostility or indifference of his own supporters, was gradually preparing for him an amount of rebellion and insubordination of which he was too experienced a party leader not accurately to contemplate the final resulthis own deposition.

Upon the opening of parliament lord John Russell endeavoured to produce some ministerial declaration on the subject of the Corn-Laws, by affirming that Protection was the bane of agriculture. He obtained no contradiction from sir Robert Peel; but he was asked by Mr. Miles, one of the most sturdy of the Protectionists, whether he had found it convenient to make a compact alliance with the Corn Law League ? Protectionists and Freetraders equally sought support for their arguments at this time in the distress which was said to exist amongst the agriculturists. On the 13th of March Mr. Cobden moved for a Select Committee to inquire into the causes and