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they were right in determining to make this tardy concession. These large gatherings and the conduct they displayed were ascribed by the opponents of reform to the influence of a little knot of agitators, and they argued that the persons who were guilty of the conduct we have related had thereby shown their sovereign unfitness for the franchise. But wise and thoughtful men saw that these gatherings and disturbances were the expression of a strong feeling that could not safely be despised. They knew that neither Mr. Beales nor any of his associates could stir these multitudes as they had done, unless there were real and deeply-felt grievances at the bottom of the demand for reform made in this violent and unpleasant manner, and they also knew that if any class was suffering from the action of real wrongs, the only way to get them redressed was to allow the voice of that class to be heard in parliament by granting the franchise to a large portion at least of the persons composing it. The result showed that this might be done without danger to the state, and that a House of Commons elected to a great extent by persons belonging to the class represented by the members of the reform league and the Hyde-park rioters might be composed of men of very moderate opinions and strong anti-revolutionary feelings.

The reform question at this moment occupied so prominent and important a position in the eyes of the nation and of the legislature, that it has been necessary that we should follow out its history, which in fact forms the political and parliamentary history of the year, to its conclusion. We must now revert to one necessary portion of the parliamentary work of this as of every other year, the financial statement of the chancellor of the exchequer, to which now, as on former occasions, the genius of Mr. Gladstone gave an interest which none before or after him had been able to impart to it. This statement, like most of those which had recently preceded it, was of a highly satisfactory character. The estimated revenue was 67,575,000l.; the estimated expenditure 66,225,000l.; leaving a surplus of 1,350,000l. The chancellor of the exchequer proposed to repeal the duties on timber and pepper; to put the wine duties on a fairer footing, by making them to depend on the percentage of alcohol they contained; to lower the duty on stage-coaches and post-horses from a penny to a

1866.]

MONETARY PANIC.

293

farthing a mile, in order to enable them to compete with railways on more equal terms. These reductions would leave a balance of 788,000l., which Mr. Gladstone proposed should be applied to pay off a portion of the national debt. He pointed out that the expense of our present armament and the interest of debts incurred in past years, formed 83 per cent. of the national expenditure, and that consequently the amount devoted to the civil charges was only 17 per cent. of the whole.. He dwelt on the possible effects of the exhaustion of our coal-fields; and on the financial measures that should be adopted in order to maintain the commercial supremacy of the country in case that event should occur. The new government wisely, and indeed almost necessarily, adopted the financial proposals of their predecessors.

The failure of the old and, as it had hitherto been regarded, respectable and well-established firm of Overend, Gurney, and Co., which had recently been put on the footing of a joint-stock limited-liability company, caused a panic in the City such as had rarely, if ever, occurred before. It took place on the 10th of May, and was followed by an immediate rise of the Bank of England rate of discount, which was already as high as 8 per cent., to the still higher rate of 9. Bankruptcy after bankruptcy ensued. The English Joint-stock Bank failed; and this failure was speedily succeeded by that of the great railway contractors Peto and Betts. In dire sequence to these followed the fall of the firms of Shripton, another great railway contractor; of the Imperial Mercantile Credit Association; of the Consolidated Discount Company; and the consequence of these failures was that multitudes of other firms suddenly found themselves on the verge of bankruptcy.

Under these circumstances the government acted with a promptitude and decision which probably saved the country from still greater disasters. The very same night, in the House of Commons Mr. Gladstone announced that, after numerous conferences with bank directors and other persons capable of advising him with regard to the conduct that should be pursued in this crisis, he had determined to suspend the Bank-charter act. The Bank, in order to afford as much relief as possible, had that day raised its loan and discount to something over 4,000,000l., and had consequently reduced their reserves to about 3,000,000l.

The decision of the government had the effect of allaying the panic; and though many serious failures followed, public confidence was gradually restored, and the crisis terminated.

No event that happened in the course of this year excited more attention or evoked stronger feelings than the conduct of Governor Eyre in 1865, which was discussed with very great earnestness in parliament, in the press, and by the English people generally during this year. In suppressing an insurrection in Jamaica, he had sanctioned the trial of several of those who were alleged to have taken part in the insurrection by young and inexperienced officers, whose sentence of death had been followed by the immediate execution of the condemned persons. But the case which excited the greatest amount of attention, and brought on Governor Eyre the most severe condemnation in this country, was that of George William Gordon, a man of colour, occupying a respectable position and a member of the House of Assembly, a fact which certainly entitled him to some consideration. We give the circumstances which attended this man's execution, and the reasons which, in his opinion, justified it, in the words of the governor himself:

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'I find everywhere,' he wrote, 'the most unmistakable evidence that George William Gordon, a coloured member of the House of Assembly, had not only been mixed up in the matter, but was himself, through his own misrepresentations and seditious language addressed to the ignorant black people, the chief cause and origin of the whole rebellion. Mr. Gordon was now in Kingston; and it became necessary to decide what action should be taken with regard to him. Having obtained a deposition on oath that certain seditious printed notices had been sent through the post-office, directed in his handwriting, to the parties who had been leaders in the rebellion, I at once called upon the custos to issue a warrant and capture him. For some little time he managed to evade the capture; but finding that sooner or later it was inevitable, he proceeded to the house of General O'Connor and there gave himself up. I at once had him placed on board the Wolverine for safe custody, and conveyed to Morant Bay.'

There the unfortunate man was tried by court-martial,

1866.]

GOVERNOR EYRE.

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and hanged, with the sanction of the governor, whose conduct was afterwards approved by the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly of the Island. In England, however, it was generally regarded in a very different light. Gordon, though a man of colour, was a British subject, and as slavery was abolished, he was as much a British subject, as much entitled to any protection the law affords to British subjects, as any white man in the United Kingdom. If he could legally be dealt with in this manner, then in case of an insurrection taking place in England, any member of the British parliament might be seized, carried off to some place in which martial law had been proclaimed, tried by courtmartial, and hung immediately after. To most people in England the conduct of Governor Eyre appeared to be utterly indefensible. The only excuse that it seemed possible to make for it, was, that there might be danger of a rescue. But in Gordon's case there could be no such danger, for he was on board a British man-of-war, where he might have been detained, and allowed time and opportunity to prepare his defence, and summon witnesses who might perhaps have proved that he had not been guilty of the conduct attributed to him. The Russell government yielded to the feeling that generally prevailed by issuing a commission to inquire into the matter, recalling Governor Eyre, and sending out Sir H. Storks, a man of very different character, to replace him. Nothing more fully showed the sort of justice which was dealt to Gordon and the other accused persons than a letter addressed to Mr. Charles Buxton, M.P., by Lieutenant Brand, an officer who had sat on one of these courts, the spirit of which may be judged by the following extract: If you have a spark of gentlemanly or generous feeling left, you will contradict your letter relative to my court, or I shall expect you to give me satisfaction in a way more suited to my tastes. And you know, sir, that it is a damned cowardly thing for you to write officers (who did their best, and whose acts were fully approved by their superiors), down, when you well know they are not allowed to write in a newspaper,' &c.

The admiralty of the conservative government showed their opinion of Mr. Brand's conduct-as, of course, any admiralty must have done-by at once suspending him, and recalling him; but they could not bring to life again

those who had suffered in conformity with the sentence of his 'court.' It ought to be added, that he subsequently apologised in the fullest and handsomest manner to Mr. Buxton. There was nothing in his conduct that affected his character as an officer and a gentleman; but there was much to disqualify him from sitting in judgment in a trial for life and death. The view we have taken of Governor Eyre's conduct was, we believe, that of an overwhelming majority of the people of this country; but it is only just to the governor to set against the general condemnation of the very characteristic apology of one whose opinions are always entitled to respectful consideration.

'All the light,' wrote Thomas Carlyle, 'that has yet reached me on Mr. Eyre and his history in the world goes steadily to establish the conclusion that he is a just, humane, and valiant man, faithful to his trusts everywhere, and with no ordinary faculty for executing them; and his late services in Jamaica were of great, perhaps incalculable value, as certainly they were of perilous and appalling difficulty; somewhat like the case of "fire" suddenly reported in the ship's powder-room in mid ocean, where the moments mean the ages, and life and death hang on the use or misuse of the moments; and, in short, that penalty and clamour are not the things the governor merits from any of us, but honour and thanks, and wise imitation, should similar emergencies arise, on the great scale or on the small, in whatever we are governing. The English nation has never loved anarchy, nor was wont to spend its sympathy on miserable mad seditions, especially of this inhuman and half-brutish type; but always loved order and the prompt suppression of seditions, and reserved its tears for something worthier than the promoters of such delirious and fatal enterprises who had got their wages for their industry. Has the English nation, then, changed altogether? I flatter myself it has not-not yet quite; but only that certain loose and superficial portions of it have become a great deal louder, and not any wiser, than they formerly used to be. At any rate, though much averse at any time, and at this time in particular, to figure on committees or to run into public noises without call, I do at once feel that as a British citizen I should and must make you welcome to my name for your committee, and to whatever good it can do you; with the hope only that many other British men

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