Conservative dinner, at Ashton-under-Lyne, to listen to " expres-
sions most insulting and disrespectful towards the Queen."* Mr.
Macaulay, who, in May, 1839, na d been returned as member for
Edinburgh, upon the elevation of Mr. Abercromby to the peerage,
when he retired from the office of Speaker, thus expressed himself
on the first night of the Session in 1840, in burning words that
must have been bitterer to some than the contempt of good and
quiet subjects : " A change has come over the spirit of a part, I
hope not the larger part, of the Tory body. It was once the glory
of the Tories that, through all changes of fortune, they were ani-
mated by a steady and fervent loyalty which made even error re-
spectable, and gave to what might otherwise have been called
servility something of the manliness and nobleness of freedom. A
great Tory poet, whose eminent services to the cause of monarchy
had been ill requited by an ungrateful Court, boasted that

' Loyalty is still the same,
Whether it win or lose the game ;
True as the dial to the sun,
Although it be not shined upon.'

Toryism has now changed its character. We have lived to see a mon-
ster of a faction made up of the worst parts of the Cavalier and the
worst parts of the Roundhead. We have lived to see a race of disloyal
Tories. We have lived to see Tories giving themselves the airs of
those insolent pikemen who puffed out their tobacco-smoke in the
face of Charles the First. We have lived to see Tories who, be-
cause they were not allowed to grind the people after the fashion
of Straft'ord, turn round and revile the Sovereign in the style of
Hugh Peters. I say, therefore, that, while the leader is still what
he was eleven years ago, when his moderation alienated his intem-
perate followers, his followers are more intemperate than ever." f
Let us contemplate this violence of the fierce and unscrupulous

* See Annual Register (then a vehicle of Conservative politics), 1839, pp. 311, 312-
f. Macaulay's " Speeches, " p. 201.



CHARTIST RIOTS. 253

partisans who professed to serve under the leadership of sir Robert
Peel, but who 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 proclaim-
ing 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 mil-
itary, and the mob, which lasted from the 4th to the I5th 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 lan-
guage 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 organ-
izing an insurrection in the country near Newport, where there
was a large population engaged in labours connected with the min-
eral 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 be-
fore, 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, as-
sisted by railroads running into the hearts of the mountains, bring
their rich freights to Newport and Cardiff, will comprehend how"



2- \. HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

those towns alone now comprise more than fifty thousand inhab-
itants. 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 posi-
tion in the West Gate Inn, which stands in the market-place. The
insurgents moved up to the door of the inn 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
ist of January they were tried at Newport, under a Special Com-
mission 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 Ma-
jesty, and was received at Court with signal honour.



PENNY POSTAGE. 255



CHAPTER XII.

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. Hansard. Attempt upon
the Queen's Life. Prorogation. Affairs of the Levant. Treaty of Alliance. Ex-
clusion of France. Prince 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 Parlia-
ment. 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.

ON the morning of the loth of January, 1840, the people of the
United Kingdom rose in the possession of a new power the pow-
er 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 oper-
ation 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 opposi-
tion 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

* Ante, p. 213.



256 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

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 de-
serving of a trial under legislative sanction. The Committee ex-
amined 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 two-
pence 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 Ex-
chequer, Mr. Spring Rice, on the 5th of July, 1839, proposed a reso-
lution, "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 frank-
ing should be abolished, and that official franking be strictly limit-
ed 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 Com-
mons, 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 experimen-
tal 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
loth 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 feel-
ings, and the demonstration of whose necessity had been establish-
ed 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 Re-




QUEEN VICTORIA. Vol. viii. 256.



MARRIAGE OF THE QUEEN. 257

form ; and the manifest earnestness of his character, and the invin-
cibility of his logic, mainly conduced to establish those convictions
in the public mind which eventually settled all doubts. Lord Mel-
bourne, 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 com-
munity 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 hesi-
tation 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 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 stamps
known to the post-office authorities. Even in the Sandwich Islands
the Postage Stamp was in use.f

On the 1 6th 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 bless-
ing 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 mose lively satisfaction to find the resolu-
tion 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 omit-
ting from the bill of naturalization all mention of precedence ; the
other by a reduction of the ministerial proposition of an annuity of
5o,ooo/. to one of 3O,ooo/. The distresses of the country fully jus-
tified the decision of the majority who supported the grant of a

* Hansard, vol. xlix. col. 1214. t Report of the Postmaster-General, 1862.

VOL. VIII. 17



258 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

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 Con-
servative party with those generally classed amongst Radicals. The
marriage took place on the loth of February, and it was welcomed
with general festivities throughout the country. There was a wel-
come 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 Univer-
sity 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 under-
stood 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 congratula-
tory 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."

There was a subject which occupied the attention of Parliament
during 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 Laws in matters of privilege. The
words of the Bill of Rights would appear to have settled that " de-
bates 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, pub-
lished by order of that House, Lord Chief Justice Denman de-
clared that the fact of the House of Commons having directed
Messrs. Hansard to publish all their Parliamentary Reports was no




PRINCE ALBERT. Vol. viii. 258.



PRIVILEGE OF PARLIAMENT. 259

justification for them, or for any bookseller who publishes a Par-
liamentary Report containing a libel against any man. A Commit-
tee of Parliament was then appointed to inquire into this question.
The House resolved that the publication of its Reports was essen-
tial 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 determi-
nation of either House, is a breach and contempt of the privileges of
Parliament. Stockdale was defeated upon the first trial. He com-
menced a second action, when the Queen's Bench again decided
against the privilege 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 hun-
dred 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 sheriffs 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 ra-
storing 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 I4th 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 inconsist-
ency. In a case for which the Constitution 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." *

* " Constitutional History," vol. i. p. 454-



260 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

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, meas-
ures for further carrying into effect the Reports of the Ecclesiasti-
cal 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 dis-
charge of a second pistol. Neither of the royal couple were in-
jured, 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 kind-
ness 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 pth of July. Wit-
nesses 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 Jus-
tice 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 refine-
ments 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 differ-
ence in the character of individuals may frequently be traced to dif-
ference 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

* Hansard, vol. iiv. co!. 1047.



PROROGATION. 261

his conduct. But we have all our duties to perform, and one of
the most important of these is, that we should strive against what-
ever 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