was the cause of the rapid and extraordinary en-
hancement of prices which then took place in
every article, whether of rude or manufactured
produce, w bile it lasted ; that the still more rapid
and disastrous fall of prices which had taken
place since the peace, was the result of the great
contraction of the currency, especially of country
* Several of that most able and lamented gentleman's
papers on tlie subject in the Edinburgh Review, as well
as his spi^ches on it ir. Parliairient, are models of clear
»ii J fiirc'y e reasoning.
bankers, which had ensued from the prospect of
immediately resuming cash payments in terms
of the cxh-ting law on the termination of hostil.
ities ; and that by far the greatest evil which im-
pended over the country was the necessity of pay-
ing olf in a contracted, and therefore dear, cur-
rency during peace, the debts, public and private,
which had been contracted during the lavish issue
of a plentiful, and therefore cheap, currency dur-
ing the war.
The extraordinary thing is, that when so many
of the true and undeniable views on 54.
the subject were entertained by the Extraordina
ablest and best-informed men in the r>' insensibi
.1 1 • 1 • lity to right
country, the obvious conclusions coiiiclusions
which llowed from them were, by which then
common consent, rejected on both prevailed,
sides. Mr. Horner saw clearly that we had been
so prosperous, and done such mighty thingsduring
the war, because we had possessed a currency
adequate to our necessities, and had languished
and suffered since the peace, because it had been
suddenly and violently contracted from the pros-
pect of immediately resuming cash payments.
He saw also that intei'minable disasters impended
over the country in the attempt to pay off war
debts, public or private, in a peace currency.
But neither he nor his opponents on the Treasury
Bench perceived, what is now evident to every
reasonable person who, apart from interested
motives, reflects on the subject, that all those
difficulties and dangers might have been averted,
without either risk or dettiment, by the simple
expedient of taking the paper currency, like the
metallic, at once into the hands of Government,
and issuing, not an unlimited amount of notes,
like the French assignats. not convertible into
the precious metals, but such a limited amount
as might be adequate to the permanent and aver-
age wants of the community. He saw clearly
that oscillations in the value of money, and con-
sequently in the price of every article of com-
merce, were among the most grievous evils which
can afflict society, and rendered property and un-
dertakings of esery kind to the last degree in-
secure ; and he thought that he would guard
effectually against them, by fixing the entire cur-
rency on a gold basis — forgetting, what he him-
self at the same time saw, that gold itself is an
article of commerce, and, like every other such
article, is subject to perpetual variations of price ;
and that, from its being so portable and valuable,
and every where in request, it is subject to more
sudden and violent changes of value than any
other article in existence.
He saw clearly that the great contraction of
the currency was owing to the pros- 5(;_
pect of the resumption of cash pay- General errors
ments : but he could see no remedy o" '^p subject
r ., ' •, ,1 ■■I . ■which then
lor the evils thence arising but in prevailed.
the immediate adoption of such pay-
ments. Hesawthe impossibility of paying off war
debts in a peace currency ; but it never occurred
to him that the whole difficulty might be avoided
by extending the war currency, under adequate
safeguards ag^nst abuse, into peace. He was
as much alive as any man to the perils of a sud-
den contraction of the currency; but it never oc-
curred to him how fearfully these dangers must
be aggravated by the contraction of paper going
on at the very time when a still greater contrac- .
lion of the annual produce of the treasure mines for
TS16.1
HISTORf OF EUROPE.
4^
the use of the globe was going on, from the dis-
asters consequent on the South American revolu-
tion. The truth is, that, as generally occurs in hu-
man affairs, men's attention was fixed exclusively
on the Inst evils which had been experienced;
and as these had been the ruinous rise of prices,
and destruction of realized property which had
resulted from the frightful abuse of the system
of assi^nats in France, the eyes of a whole gene-
ration were shut to the still more serious and last-
ing evils Resulting from the undue contraction of
the currency, and the fixing it entirely on a me-
tallic basis, of which Great Britain was ere long
to furnish so memorable an example.
A measure, of great importance to both coun-
tries, passed both Houses in this ses-
ConsoHdation ^'°" of Parliament, for the consolida-
oftheEnglisli tionof the English and Irish Exche-
and Irish E.x- quers. It appeared from the state-
May^'o'^isie "'^"'^ °f '^^ Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, that the unredeemed debt
of Ireland was £105,000,000 ; the Sinking Fund,
£2.087,000 ; and the whole charge of the debt, in-
terest, annuities, and Sinking Fund, £5,900,000.
On the other hand, the entire permanent revenue
was only £2,081,000 a year, having risen to that
amount from £847,000 in 1797. The entire
gross revenue of the island was £7,000,000 ; but
the clear produce, after deducting the expense
of collection, was £.5,752,000; and as it was stip-
ulated in the union that two-seventeenths of the
expenditure of the United Kingdom should be
defrayed by Ireland, the result was that the clear
revenue of Ireland was unable to defray the in-
terest of its own debt, without contributing any
thing at all to the joint expenses of the United
Kingdom, which for several years past had been
entirely provided for by Great Britain. In these
circumstances, a consolidation of the two Ex-
1 -n 1 n V. chequers had become a matter of
i an. JL/eoat. i i . •. i -^
xxxiv.5t8 615. absolute necessity, and it was ac-
cordingly unanimously agreed to."^
This was undoubtedly a very great improve-
57. ment ; for, as matters stood before,
Heflections on the confusion arising from the sep-
'.his subject. j^,.jj^g charges for Ireland had been
such as to occasion very great difficulty in ar-
riving at a clear idea of the revenue and finan-
cial condition of the United Kingdom. Unhap-
pily, however, the state of Ireland ha.s ever
iince been such that it has been found imprac-
licable to carry into execution the declared in-
tentions of Government, in bringing forward
the consolidation, of subjecting both countries
to a similar measure of taxation. Ireland has
from first to last been most generously treated
by England in the article of assessment. It
never paid the income-tax or assessed taxes,
nor, till within these few years, any poor-rates.
With the exception of a trifiing hearth-tax, no
man in Ireland has ever paid any direct tax to
Government. Yet such has ever been the im-
providence and want of industry of its inhabitants,
that allliough possessing triple the population,
and more than triple the arable acres ol' Scotland,
Ireland has never paid its own expenses ; while ;
Scotland has yielded, for half a century, above
five millions a year of clear surplus to the Im-
perial Treasury ; and in the great famine of
1840, while Ireland received .£8,000,000 from
the British Exchequer, Scotland, gr(^at part of
which had sulfcred just as much, got nothing
In a very early period of the sejsijn. Mr.
Brougham, moved for a copy of „
the treaty concluded at Paris on Motion re
the 2Gth September, 1815, entitled spectinsthe
"The Holy Alliance," of which an Holy Allianoe
account will hereafter be given. i{^^J' â„¢"^'
This treaty he stigmatized as no-
thing but a convention for the enslavi.ig ol
mankind, under the mask of piety and religion.
Lord Castlereagh, without denying the exist-
ence of such a treaty, which he stated had been
communicated to the Prince-Regent, and of the
principles of which he entirely approved, added
that it had not received his royal highness's
signature, " as the forms of the British Con-
stitution prevented him from acceding to it."
This being the case, the rules of Parliament
forbade the production of any treaty to which
this country was not a party. The House, upon
a division, supported the latter view, the num-
bers being 104 to 30. There can be ho ques-
tion of the wisdom of this determination on the
part of the British Government; for however
sincere and philanthropic were the feelings
which undoubtedly prompted the Emperor Alex-
ander to bring about that celebrated Alliance,
they were such as could be acted on only by
absolute governments, omnipotent for good or
for evil, and never could be rendered palatable,
to a popular government such as great Britain,
divided by the passions, political and religious,
of a whole people, and ruled by a legislature
chiefly intent upon the present ne-
cessities and practical wants of its ^^"'3^^363'
subjects.' '
A warm debate also ensued on another topic
of foreign policy, a bill for the de- ^g
tention of Napoleon in St. Helena. Bill for the de-
This bill was strongly opposed by tention of Na-
Lord Holland and Lord Lauder- l'"^'^""-
dale, who stigmatized the detention as illegal,
unjust, and ungenerous; while it was defended
by Earl Bathurst and Lord Castlereagh as a
measure for the general security of the world,
agreed to by the whole allied powers, and ren-
dered unavoidable by his breach of all his en-
gagements, and open declaration of war against
the Allies, by returning from Elba and dethron-
ing Louis XVIII. The debates on this subject,
which terminated in the bill being passed in
both Houses without a division, are of little his-
torical value; for if the detaining Napoleon in
captivity was illegal, it could not be validated
by any British Act of Parliament — if legal, it
required no such authorrty for its support. But
it must always bo a matter of regret to every
generous mind in Britain that the conduct of so
great a man, in breaking his engagements, had
been such as to render his detention a matter of
absolute necessity; and of gratificalion to every
British subject, that necessary as that detention
was, it excited so strong a feeling of commise-
ration and regret in the breast of 1 p^^l. Dcbai.
a large portion of the English peo- xxxiii. JOH.
ple.i â– loiu.
Another topic was soon brought forward
of still more general interest, and
which [lassed both Houses of Par- j^/jarrrf'n of
liamenl without a dissentient voice, the I'rinccts
as it excited a universal feeling ol' cimrlotte o(
joy throughout the country. On w'"''',"^', .
'.1 1 1.1 ■>« 1 T 1 I • -^ 1 Mar<;li 14
the Mth March, Lord Livcrpoo ,
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
[Chap. 11,
in ilie Hi'iisp of Lords, aiitl Lord Cnstlereagh
in the House of t'ommous, iospoi;tivcly pic-
seiiteil i\ niossnge Crom the rriiico-Ueifciit to
the ellei-t ihnt he had consented to a man iayc ol
his daii-jhter. the I'lineess Charlolto Augusta,
to I'rinee Leopohl ol Saxe-Coboinu;. The an-
noiineem«nt of this auspicious union was re-
ceived with the utmost satisfaction by both
Houses if Parliament, and universal joy by the
\i.,.h i« country; and on iho next day the
March 15. ,, ■'',.,, .• 1 ,1
House of Commons hxcd the pro-
vision of her royal highness at j:GO,000 a year,
of which jf 10,000 was to be for her own privy
purse, and jt^O.OOO for the support of their es-
tablisiuncnt. The like sum was settled as a pro-
vision for the Prince of Cobourg, in the event
of his surviving his august spouse. These pro-
visions were independent of £00,000 for the
oultit of the royal pair, and were all agreed to
without a dissenting voice. The marriage,
from which so much was hoped, took place on
the 2d May following, and ere long the situation
of her royal highness gave hopes of an heir to
the monarchy. The Prince and Princess fixed
their residence at Claremcnt, near London, now
an object of melancholy interest to every Brit-
ish heart, where their simple, unostentatious
life, their fervent and mutual attachment, their
kindness and alfability of manner, won the af-
fections of all who approached them, as the
1 Pari. Debat. "oble example of domestic virtue
.x.xxiii. 37b, and purity which they exhibited in
362; Ann. their conduct commanded the re-
Reg. 1816, 96. ^jjp^.^ ^,. ,,jg ^,j^^,^ nation. I
The heart of the nation still beat violently
gj at the recollection of the glorious
Voles for pub- events of the war; and the chill of
lie moiiu- inditi'erence and economy had not
ments. ^.^^ paralyzed the expression of it
by public grants. At an early period of the
session a monument at the public expense was
unanimously voted for the battle of Waterloo,
to which, soon after, one was also agreed to for
the battle of Trafalgar. The.se graceful trib-
utes of a nation's gratitude to the gallant men
by which it had been brought through the perils
of the war, gave universal satisfaction, and
great expectations were formed of the magnifi-
cence of the monuments which would thus be
added to the growing splendor of the metrop-
olis ; for it was understood that £250,000 would
be expended on each monument. Unfortunately,
however, although the monuments were unani-
mously voted, their cost did not enter the esti-
mates for the year, and thus nothing was done
toward their commencement at that time. In
subsequent times, the national ardor cooled, or
the national necessities had increased ; and the
result has been, that two sterile votes of the
House of Commons remain as the only national
monument for the greatest and mo.st glorious
' Pari. Debat. triumphs which ever immortalized
xxxi. 1049 i the history of a nation in modern
xxih. 311, times.i
To the memory of individual heroes who had
g2. died in the contest, however, the
Monument.sto public gratitude was evinced in a
^'n^h^"^'"" more satisfactory way. Monuments
and otners. ^.^^.^ ^^^^^ ^^ j..^ Thomas Picton,
Sir Edward Pakenham, and Generals Hay, Gore,
Skerrett, Gibbs, and Gillespie, and the requisite
funds set apart for their completion. They were
with great propriety placed in St. Pau.ls, ni
Westminster Abbey was so full that space could
scarcely be found for any additional structures,
and began that noble circle of sepulchral sculp-
ture which now adorns tha', sublime cathedral,
and which, having been commenced at a periotl
when taste was comparatively pure, and the
finest monuments of antiquity were accessible
to artists, is in a great measure free from that
painful exhibition of conceit and bad taste by
which, with a few exceptions, those of West-
minster Abbey are characterized. A great im-
pulse was given to sculpture in this year, and
the only secure foundation laid for national
eminence in that art, by the grant from Parlia-
ment of £3.5,000 for the purchase from Lord
Elgin of the Friezes, which he had by the per-
mission of the Turkish Government brought
from the Parthenon of Athens. Certainly, how-
ever nuich the traveler who sees the chasms
which their removal has made on the still ex-
quisite remains of that inimitable edifice may
regret the spoliation, no Englishman can fail to
feel gratification at beholding them arranged
with so much taste and efl"eet as they now are,
in the noble halls of the British Museum ; and
not only forming the last stage in the historic
gallery, beginning with the Nineveh sculptures,
which are there preserved, but laying the only
sure foundation, in the study of an- iparl. Deb.
cient perfection, of the desire to emu- xxxiv. 1027,
late it, in the only nation perhaps now 1039; xxxi.
in existence capable of approaching xxxii^822
it.i
^Magnificent grants, bespeaking the nation's
gratitude, were bestowed by Parlia- 53
ment on the officers and men en- Grams to the
gaged in the war. A vote of thanks officers and
was proposed and carried with en- l^llXeT^f
thusiastic cheers, in the Houses of
Lords and Commons, to the Duke of Wellington,
Prince Blucher, the Prince of Orange, and the
officers and men engaged in the Waterloo cam-
paign. An additional gi-ant of £200,000 was
bestowed on the Duke of Wellington — making,
with former grants, £500,000 which he had
received from the justice or gratitude of his
country. On this occasion, Mr. Whitbread. who
had alwa3'S been a vigilant opponent of Govern-
ment, and had more than once condemned in
no measured terms the military conduct of the
Duke of Wellington, made an amende honorable
to both, which can not be read without emotion
by any generous mind, and which is not less
honorable to the party making than to those who
received it.* Finally, the sacrifices of the war
* " He had always bnen one who watched with an eye
of extreme jealousy the proceedings of Ministers ; but
their conduct in tlie prosecution of the war, waiving for
the moment all consideration of its necessity or policy,
was such as extorted his applause ; and he had no hesi-
tation in saying, that every department of Government
must have exerted itself to the utmost, to give that com-
plete efficiency to every part of the army which enabled
the genius of the Duke of Wellington, aided by such
means, to accomplish the wonderful victory he had
achieved. It was gratifying to the House to hear the
traits of heroism which have been mentioned of that noble
Duke, especially that of his throwing himself into one
of the British squares when charged by the enemy. To
see a commander of his eminence, distinguished above
all the commanders of the earth, throw iiimself into a
hollow square of infantry, as a secure refuge till the raga
and torrent of the attack was passed, and that not once
only, but twice or thrice during the course of the battle
proved that his confidence was placed not on one par
64.
New coinage.
1816.]
were wound up oy a grant of £800,000 to the
troops engaged in the Peninsula from 1807 to
1814, for the stores and munitions of war cap-
tured by them during its campaigns. And al-
though this grant rather fell short of, than ex-
ceeded, the value of the captures made by the
army, yet it must always be considered an hon-
orable trait of the English Parliament that they
agreed to «o considerable a payment to their
gallant defenders after the contest and the dan-
ger were alike over, and the nation was laboring
under the accumulated evils of gen-
xxxi'^978^999! ^"^^^ distress and a fearfully dimin-
ished revenue.^
A measure of less thrilling interest, but great
practical importance, was passed in
this session of Parliament, the bene-
fit of which the nation has ever since
experienced. This was the formation of a new
silver coinage. The old coins which had been
for above half a century, some a whole century,
in circulation, had become extremely worn out
and debased, and a new issue, especially of
shillings, was loudly called for — the more so as,
from the contemplated return to cash payments,
it was evident that the entire currency of the
country would ere long be rested on a metallic
basis. An act passed accordingly, authorizing
a new silver coinage, and the calling in and re-
moulding of the old one. This great improve-
ment was carried into execution with entire
success — the new coins were elegant in design,
and substantial in material ; and to such an
a Pari. Debat. extent did the issue take place,
x.\xiv. 1018, that in the Ibllowing year no less
1027; Alis- than £6,711,000 was thrown off
c°T%i AnT' at the Mint and sent forth to the
public.2
Long as the preceding abstract of the parlia-
mentary proceedings in the year
Reflections ^^i-^ has been, it will not by the
on tlie preced- reflecting mind be deemed inordi-
ing Parlia- nate. During peace, it is the na-
ratWe"^ "'''"" tional thought and social interests
which are the real objects of historic
portraiture; its battles and sieges are to be found
in the debates of the legislature. 'J'here is no
period of repose, in this view, which is so in-
teresting and important both in England and
France, as this year ; for not only was the tran-
sition then made from war to peace, but the
great questions then emerged which have dis-
tracted the later period, and still divide the
opinions of the world. The great fall of prices
then began, which has ever since, with a few
intervals, been felt as so serious an impediment
to British industry. The sudden contraction of
the currency, from the prospect of a speedy re-
sumption of cash payments, then involved one-
half of the I'armcrs and traders of the United
Kingdom in bankruptcy. The evils of an. ex-
cessive importation of the principal articles of
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
41
ticular corps, but in the whole British army. In that
mutual confidence lay ttio Htroneth and power of the
British army. The Duko of Wi'ilinKton knew ho was
safe when ho thus tru.sleil liimMoM to the fidelity and valor
of his men, and they knew and Iblt lliat the sacred charge
thus confided to them could never l)e wrested from their
ha^vls. If such a trait were recorded in history as having
occurred ten centuries ago, with what emotions of ad-
miration and generous enthusiasm would it be read I" —
Mr. \Vh iDBi^D's Speech, June 23, 1H15, Pari. Deb.
xxxi 991 «92.
consumption reacted by for:.ing on a ruincj.s
export of our manufactures, in search of a mar-
ket which general cheapness had so much in-
jured at home. The Exchequer shared in th^
universal embarrassment, and the demand for a
general remission of taxation was so loud and
general, that Government were reluctantly com-
pelled to abandon at once above a fourth of the
revenue, and thereby, for the time at least, com-
pletely to nullify the action of the Sinking Fund.
The difficulties of peace rose up in appalling
magnitude in the very first year of its endurance ;
and it is not the least important part of history
to unfold their origin, trace their effects, and
portray the contemporary ideas which they
awakened in the general mind.
When so many causes contributed to produce,
in an unexampled degree, gene- „„
ral distress and suffering through Efforts of ths
the country, it was not to be ex- factious to
pected that the efforts of faction st^'|"^up ^edi-
were to be awanting to inflame the
general discontent, and direct it to the demand
for a great and theoretical change in the gov-
ernment. This accordingly was in a very re-
markable manner the case in Great Britain at
this period; and perhaps at no time in its long
annals was discontent more general, or were
the efforts of faction more systematically directed
to inflame it into sedition, or involve it in overt
acts of high treason, than in this and the three
succeeding years. Persons unknown before,
unheard of since, suddenly shot up into portent-
ous celebrity with the manufacturing classes,
by magnifying their sufferings, inflaming their
passions, and ascribing all the public distresses
to the measures, the corruption, and the oppres-
sion of their superiors. According to these men,
the reckless prodigality of Government, sup-
ported by a corrupt majority in Parliament, and
sustained by fictitious paper credit, was the
source of all our distresses ; it was this which
made provisions high, wages low, imports ruin-
ous, and want of employment universal. The
only remedies for these evils were a great re-
duction of expenditure, reform in Parliament,
and a return to a metallic currency. The Com-
mon Council of London, that faithful mirror of the
feelings oi the populace of the metropolis at this
juncture, presented a petition to the Prince Re-
gent, which as a picture of the capacity of that
body for the duties of legislation in peace, de-
serves a f)lace beside the celebrated specimen of
their fitness for the duties of war, adbrded by
their diatribe against the Duke of Wellington
after the battle of Talavera.* It is remarkaiile
that the measures which they rccohmicndcd as
likely to alleviate the public distress
— viz., a sudden reduction of ex- 1 A?."' ?''^'^'-
pcnditurc, and return to a tnct»llic iiuyhcs' Ilis-
currency — are the very ones which tory of Eng-
experience has now proved were '''"''> '"■•"'*
best calculated to increase them. 't **' "*^
* Vide Histnrj/ of Europe, chap. Ixii. ^67.
+ "Wo fi)rt)ear'to enter into dt^ails of the afilicliTig
scenes of privations and sufferings that every when exist;
the distress and inisery which for so many yei ^s has
been progressively accumulating, has at length ccoma