32

ITS RESULT.

1848

selves to the number of not less than 170,000 as special constables, of whom Prince Louis Napoleon was one, for the purpose of supporting the regular civil force, or of acting, if this had become necessary, along with the military. Neither can it be doubted, that they would have acted with unmistakeable energy, had the occasion arisen. But the measures of the Government were so well devised, that the day which had been apprehended as likely to be one of bloodshed and destruction passed off without disturbance. The Chartists assembled at Kennington Common, not 500,000 strong, as alleged by Mr. Feargus O'Connor, their leader and chief speaker, (then hovering on the verge of the insanity which afterwards overtook him,) but to the number of certainly not more than 23,000. They had the wisdom to bow to the intimation of the police, that they would not be allowed to cross the bridges in mass; and their monster Petition, instead of being triumphantly borne in procession to the doors of Parliament, was despatched thither by back streets in three common cabs, and presented to the House of Commons in the usual manner. The baffled processionists had to find their way back to their homes in broken order as best they might, and feeling that they had provoked the mingled anger and contempt of that English people whose political aspirations they professed to represent.

These feelings were not diminished when it came to be known, as it soon was, that the numbers who had mustered in procession did not exceed 8,000, while Mr. Feargus O'Connor stated them in his place in the House of Commons at half a million, and that the monster Petition, instead of the 5,700,000 signatures which he protested were attached to it, had in fact only 1,975,496 signatures. Of these, moreover, a very large portion were purely fictitious, having in many instances been copied by paid clerks out of local Directories, or swelled by the addition of the names of Her Majesty, the

1848

THE TENTH OF APRIL.

33

Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, and others of equally Chartist proclivities.

When the day had passed, people were half disposed to smile at their own fears; but the relief with which the tidings were received throughout the kingdom showed how great was the alarm which had been generally felt. The day would have ended very differently, but that the Chartist leaders were aware how futile any attempt to carry out their plans of mischief would have been in the face of the complete precautions which had been taken by the Government. "Yes,' said the Duke of Wellington at Lord Palmerston's, an evening or two before, in answer to the Chevalier Bunsen's remark, 'Your Grace will take us all in charge, and London too, on the 10th ?—Yes, we have taken our measures; but not a soldier or piece of artillery shall you see, unless in actual need. Should the force of law, the mounted or unmounted police, be overpowered or in danger, then the troops shall advance then is their time! But it is not fair on either side to call them in to do the work of police; the military must not be confounded with the police, nor merged in the police '-(Bunsen's Memoirs, ii. 174.)

4

6

'The Duke must be happier to-day, I think,' Sir Robert Gardiner wrote to the Prince, on the 10th, than ever he was after any of his victories. The people cheered him as he came to his early post at the Horse Guards. It may be hoped this triumph of discretion, to say the least of it, must strengthen the King's power at Brussels, as I fervently hope it will confound people in other quarters. God bless Her Majesty in every way! Her subjects will deeply share the happiness Her Majesty and your Royal Highness must feel, in knowing all the evils of a fearful chance have been so mercifully averted.'

The aides-de-camp of the Prince of Prussia, now the Emperor, who had for the time been compelled to leave Berlin, in deference to the popular VOL. II.

D

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THE TENTH OF APRIL.

1848

The Queen, yielding to the representations of her Ministers that it was better the Court should be out of London on the 10th, had retired with Prince Albert to Osborne two days before, and just three weeks after the birth of the Princess Louise. On the 11th she was able to write to King Leopold :

"Thank God! The Chartist meeting and procession have turned out a complete failure. The loyalty of the people at large has been very striking, and their indignation at their peace being interfered with by such wanton and worthless men, immense.'

6

The same day a letter from the Prince bore the welcome news to Baron Stockmar. We,' he writes, had our revolution yesterday, and it ended in smoke. London turned out some hundreds of special constables; the troops were kept out of sight, to prevent the possibility of a collision, and the law has remained triumphant. I hope this will read with advantage on the Continent. Ireland still looks

dangerous.'

'What a glorious day was yesterday for England!' were the Prince's words, in a letter of the same date to his Secretary, Colonel (afterwards Sir Charles) Phipps. How mightily will this tell all over the world!'

clamour at his having acted with the troops against the mob there, and who were fresh from scenes of revolutionary violence, expressed surprise, says Madame Bunsen, that she should have ventured to walk in St. James's Park on the morning of the 10th, while she on her part declared her inability to believe that any disturbance could take place. The incident, while it indicates the prevailing uneasiness, marks in a striking way the wide contrast which England presented at that stormy time to the other countries of the Continent.

CHAPTER XXV.

• IRELAND still looks dangerous,' wrote the Prince, on the 11th of April; and its condition at that moment certainly caused the Government much anxiety. They had lost no time in putting the Coercion Bill of the last autumn session in force. The search for arms which it authorised met indeed with no great success; for they were either conveyed out of the proclaimed districts, or too well concealed for the police to trace. But the firmness shown by the Government had its usual effect. The people, who had been tampering with sedition, were evidently cowed, and acknowledged they must be quiet, as the law had now got above them.' The number of convictions for crime which were obtained was also satisfactory. At the Limerick January assizes, the roll of cases suggests an appalling picture of the condition into which society had fallen. It included ten cases of murder, two of conspiring to murder, one of soliciting to murder, and two of shooting with felonious intent: but witnesses were now found to speak out, and juries to convict, and by the end of January the Lord Lieutenant (Lord Clarendon) was able to report to the Government, that the Commission had been most successful in bringing criminals to justice.

Meanwhile the misery of the country was great; famine and disease were doing their deadly work on all sides, and thousands were flying from starvation and death to England and Scotland, to swell the crowds of unemployed and struggling artisans, of whom unhappily there were already

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STATE OF IRELAND.

1848

too many there. Amidst so much suffering, it would have been indeed surprising had not great bitterness of heart existed among people who were being constantly told, that their wretchedness was due to the domination of an alien race, and to the selfishness, neglect, and oppression of their landlords. This state of feeling was not likely to die out, under the stimulants that were being hourly applied to it by many of those to whom the bulk of the people looked up as their political as well as spiritual leaders. How maddening these stimulants were, may be conceived, when a leading ecclesiastic of the Roman Catholic Church did not hesitate to denounce the Herculean efforts which the Government had made to mitigate the prevailing distress as a mockery of the poor law, which fattens foreign stipendiaries, and leaves the native poor to starve,' (Dr. McHale's Letter to Lord John Russell. Feast of St. Thomas of Canterbury, 1847), and the minor clergy of the same faith kept up the irritation of their flocks by language even more unmeasured. Nor were there wanting others, who, themselves regardless of the poor, yet took advantage of the prevailing destitution to organise secret conspiracies, all of which had the one object of attacking the rights of property, and realising the cherished Celtic dream of redressing the wrongs of a conquered race by establishing a new order of things, in which those who now occupied the land as tenants should for the future hold it for themselves alone.

Others there were, known as the party of Young Ireland, who from very various motives were bent on severing Ireland from the legislative union of the three kingdoms, as the sole means of restoring the country to independence and prosperity. The bolder spirits among these thought that the time had now come for throwing off all disguise, and accomplishing their objects by force. Their Dublin organ, The United Irishman, edited by Mr. John Mitchel, spoke