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hundred years upon the maxim "Nolumus leges Anglic mutare;" who had handed down the constitution inviolate from the Saxon Heptarchy; preserved it alike amidst Plantagenet violence, Tudor severity, and Stuart despotism; saved it during the madness of civil dissension in the Wars of the Roses, and the fury of religious animosity in the days of the Covenant; who had kept alive the sacred fire, equally amidst the extremities of Danish invasion, the insolence of Norman conquest, and the usurpation of republican frenzy ; who had tempered the triumph of revolution by the steadfast adherence to ancient custom, and, while they expelled a dynasty from the throne, maintained inviolate the structure of the government.

He will ask, what were the fortunate and bewitching examples of innovation, which made the English people forget all these advantages, and abandon all these principles; which induced them to surrender their high place as the leaders of civilisation, to follow in the wake of foreign revolution; and converted the pride of British freedom into the slavish imitation of French democracy?

He will be answered, that these fundamental changes in the constitution took place in the very age that revolution had exhibited its most terrific features, and the perils of innovation had been most convincingly demonstrated; during the lifetime of many who had seen the church, the nobility, and the throne of France perish in the whirlwind excited by their precipitate reforms; among the sons of the generation who had witnessed the prostration of thirty millions of men under the guillotine of the Convention -who had beheld that great country incessantly agitated since the commencement of her Revolution, torn by years of anarchy, trembling under the reign of blood, and crushed under the car of Napoleon-who had mourned the failure of every endeavour to frame theoretical constitutions in so many other states-seen Spain, Portugal, Piedmont, Naples, and South America, convulsed by the vain attempt to establish free governments, and relapsing into closer bondage from the defeat of their efforts :-that the British revolution took place at the moment when France was suffering under the destruction of her recently established institutions-when the anarchy of Belgium was withering

the prosperity of her beautiful provinces, and the British manufacturers were thriving on the ruin of their democratic neighbours; that it was this very example which overthrew the venerable fabric of the English constitution; and that the English people relinquished their ancient post in the van of civilisation, and followed in the rear of France, because they saw that, after forty years' experience, the people of that country were inadequate to the formation of a stable government.

He will ask, whether this perilous change was adopted in consequence of a universal delusion having seized the people; whether, as in France, the rage for innovation had destroyed the strongest intellects; whether the nobility fled on the appearance of danger, or a slavish press precluded the possibility of truth being made public?

He will be answered, that such was not the character of England; that Talent put forth its energies in the cause of freedom, and Property remained tranquil in the midst of alarm, and Honour was to be found at the post of danger; that, at the prospect of peril to the constitution, all the best feelings of our nature were revived in a large and gifted body; that genius, long a stranger to the Conservative party, instantly joined its ranks, and united with learning in resistance to revolution; that names destined for immortality threw their shield over the state, and philosophy vindicated its noble destiny, and history made manifest present danger; that a House of Commons was dissolved because it refused to sacrifice the constitution, and passion appealed to in default of reason; that the question was discussed for half a year, and all the consequences of the innovation were fully explained; that the generosity of youth joined the perilous side, and the flower of England, at both universities, gave to patriotism what they had refused to power; that the talent arrayed in defence of the constitution overshadowed its adversaries, and numbered among its ranks the hero who had conquered Napoleon by his arms, and the genius which had captivated the world by its fancy.*

There is no period in the English annals which, in point of general prosperity, can be compared with that which elapsed from the battle of Waterloo to the commencement

Sir Walter Scott.

of the Reform question. We say general prosperity, because we are as much aware as any one can be of the magnitude and severity of the distress, which, during the same time, affected numerous individuals and classes of society. Indeed, the severity of this distress among many, contrasted with the general opulence and wellbeing with which they were surrounded, has been, without doubt, one among the many causes of the widespread discontent which has generated the desolating passion for democratic power. But while this is admitted on the one hand, it must be conceded, on the other, that the general prosperity of the empire has, during that period, reached a height never before equalled. Facts undisputed, decisive facts, place this beyond a doubt.

*

The population of the island has, during this time, very greatly increased; and the sum of the national wealth has increased in a still greater proportion. Since 1811, the population of the whole empire has increased above a fourth, and that of the great towns, generally speaking, above a half. The census of 1821, and that just completed, demonstrate this remarkable fact. The population of the British empire is now doubling once in forty-two years. Such a rapid increase the effects of the extraordinary growth of our manufactures, and the prodigious demand for labour by the vast armaments of the war-is not, of itself, any sure criterion of general prosperity; but, coupled with a corresponding or greater increase of national wealth and general prosperity, it is a most decisive proof. Whatever may be said of the growth of innumerable beggars, as in Ireland, it is quite clear, that a nation which is at once adding to its numbers, and increasing their prosperity, is in the highest state of public welfare.

Now, no one can move from home-he can hardly walk, either in the streets or the fields-without being sensible, that in the last twenty years the middle and lower orders have prodigiously increased in happiness, upon the whole, in this country. Look at the dwellings of the middle ranks : how they have expanded in size, augmented in comforts, increased in elegance! What multitudes of villas have, during that time, grown up round all the great cities, indi* Dupin, p. 32.

cating at once the improved tastes, easy circumstances, and prosperous lives of their inhabitants! What crowds of open carriages are to be everywhere seen in the streets, filled with the sons and daughters of the middle classes; a species of vehicle literally unknown during the war; a luxury confined to the great and the affluent, during the most prosperous periods of any former peace. Approach the shops, not only of the metropolis, but of any of the considerable towns in the country; what luxury and opulence meet your eye-what multitudes of inventions to catch the taste of wealth-what innumerable comforts to gratify the wishes of industry! Enter the private houses of the citizenstheir dress, their furniture, their habits of life, bespeak the general ease of their condition. The dwellings of shopkeepers and artisans are better furnished now than those of the nobility were thirty years ago; and the abodes of private gentlemen are arrayed in a style of sumptuous elegance, which a century back was confined to the palaces of princes.

In another costly and beneficial species of luxury, the change is still more extraordinary. The taste for travelling has become universal, not only among the higher, but among the middle orders. Steamboats have furnished the means of visiting the most distant quarters of the empire, with ease and expedition, to multitudes who, twenty years ago, never thought of stirring from home. There is hardly a shopboy in London who has not seen the Highlands of Scotland, or the Lakes of Cumberland; and the scenes which we formerly read of in Coxe and Eustace, as remote, and, to most, inaccessible quarters of the globe, are now as familiar to every gentleman as the principal objects in his own country.

Nor is this great and increasing expenditure the result, as many imagine, merely of an increased turn for expense among the middle orders. Facts demonstrate the reverse. The common complaint, that capital cannot find an investment, that the bankers have more money thrown on their hands than they know what to do with, is decisive evidence that, great as the industry of the country is, the accumulated savings of its industry are still greater. The Funds, the great savings' bank of the middle orders, maintain

their high price, notwithstanding the gloomy aspect of the Continental horizon, and the imminent peril of domestic convulsion: a clear proof that the opulence of the nation, upon the whole, is so great, that it cannot find any adequate means of employment. Ask the bankers, and they will tell you, that they never had such extensive balances in their hands belonging to the industrious classes, and that they literally are at a loss to find an outlet for the accumulation of so many rills. Inquire of the attorneys whence they draw the immense loans which are advanced in mortgage on landed estates, and threaten, before long, to effect a general change in the state of landed property in every part of the kingdom, and they will answer, that they find them with ease among the industrious classes in the towns; and that the owner of many a noble palace is, in truth, little better than a trustee, permitted to gather in his rents for the use of the thriving citizens, among whom they are ultimately divided.

The general revenues, and returns of industry in the state-the exports, the imports, the tonnage of our shipping, the produce of our colonies, illustrate the same truths. They are all much greater than they were during the years of the war, in which they reached the largest amounts. The exports, which only once during the war (in 1809) reached £40,000,000, now amount to £52,000,000; and if the great change in the value of money is taken into account, it is not going too far to assert, that this latter sum indicates double the produce of industry ever raised in Britain before the battle of Waterloo. The shipping now in employment is greater than it was, even during the monopoly of the ocean by British fleets, in the time of the Continental blockade. The revenue of

£50,000,000, now raised, is at least equal to what £70,000,000 would have been with the war prices: a sum almost as great as was raised by taxation in Britain even during the prolific days of the income-tax.

The agriculture of the empire has augmented in a similar proportion. It is It is impossible to travel anywhere without being struck with the vast improvement of the cultivation during the last fifteen years: an improvement which is most remarkable-even greater than took place during the

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