there had also arisen through the French wars the idea of nationality. Since the fall of feudalism in the fifteenth century, sovereigns had dealt with their dominions as if they were estates to be bartered or sold at the will of their owners; but the treaty of Vienna was the last which was framed solely upon this principle, and since then the notion that people of the same nation ought to be under the same political rule has been the guiding influence in European politics— a principle of which the union of Germany under the Emperor William, and that of Italy under Victor Emmanuel, have been best examples.

War with the United States.

During the latter part of the French war England had been unhappily engaged in a war with the United States, which had arisen out of the irritation caused by the Orders in Council. The Orders themselves had actually been revoked when the war broke out in 1812, but the slowness of news in those days made this concession too late to prevent war. The fighting was for the most part at sea, and was indecisive. On the Canadian Lakes the English suffered a reverse, and though one of their expeditions took Washington, another against New Orleans was unsuccessful. This most unsatisfactory war was brought to a close in 1814 by the treaty of Ghent, and happily it did not produce any permanent estrangement between England and her former colonists. Ghent. After 1815 almost forty years passed before England was engaged in a European war, and during that time attention will have to be given to domestic affairs.

Treaty of

Condition of

the empire.

It will be well here to take a short survey of the condition of the empire. On the accession of George III. England had held in Europe, Minorca and Gibraltar; in America, Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and the American colonies, with Jamaica, Barbadoes, and a few other West Indian islands; in Africa, St. Helena; and in Asia, Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta. The follies of the American war lost us the North American colonies and Minorca. During the French war we gained in Europe, Malta and Heligoland; in Africa, Cape Colony, Ascension, and Mauritius; in the West Indian islands we secured Trinidad and Tobago, and on the mainland British Guiana. In India, by 1815, we had made ourselves masters of large tracts of

territory on the Ganges and Southern India, and the island of Ceylon, while we were indirect rulers of all south of the Himalayas except Scinde, the Punjab, and Nepaul. On the other hand, by peaceful means we had secured a claim to the great islands of Australia and New Zealand, and had founded regular colonies in New South Wales and Tasmania. Indeed, by this time England had almost completed the project of forming a great colonial empire, of which the lines had been laid down by the colonizing of Virginia, the formation of the East India Company, and the seizure of Jamaica by Cromwell.

Distress which followed the general peace. Cause of depression.

The years which passed between the battle of Waterloo and the death of George III. were times of great depression in all branches of industry. During the war, in spite of the sacrifices which England had made, trade had been on the whole flourishing, though the workpeople had suffered from the low rate of wages and the high price of provisions, and it had been hoped that the restoration of peace would bring with it a period of great prosperity. Instead of this, no sooner had peace been declared than bad times began. The depression of manufacture was in part due to revival of continental industry, which deprived England of the practical Foreign monopoly which she had enjoyed during the war, competition. and so diminished the market for our manufactured goods. Trade was also affected by the uncertainty which existed Unsteadiness in the money market, owing to the large number of bank-notes which had been issued by the Bank of England since Pitt had allowed it to suspend money payments in 1797. These notes had become part of the coinage of the country, but it had always been understood that money payments were to be resumed at the peace, and the uncertainty as to the demand for gold prevented prices from becoming steady. Quite independently of this, there was much distress in some districts in consequence of the rapid substitution of machinery for hand-labour, which, Riots against though it caused a great demand for new workmen, machinery. threw the old hands out of work, and resulted in riots against machinery, which broke out first in Nottinghamshire in 1811. The rioters called themselves Luddites, after a poor idiot who had once in a fit of passion broken a stocking frame,

of prices.

and the destruction of machinery was for many years very common in the manufacturing districts.

Prosperity of

agriculture during the war.

The depression of trade affected in its turn the prosperity of agriculture. During the war agriculture had been extremely prosperous. The price of corn had been as a rule about double what it had been before the war, for not only had the population and wealth of the manufacturing districts increased, but also no corn had been shipped to England from the Continent, so that the British farmers had had the whole benefit of the demand. This had resulted in many commons being reclaimed, and quantities of waste land being brought under cultivation, and the employment, therefore, of a very large country population. When peace came, it was feared that the introduction of foreign corn would result in a rapid fall in its price, and that the change would bring about a terrible disaster in the country districts through the failure of farmers and the sudden fall in the demand for labour.

Accordingly, in 1815 a corn law was passed, prohibiting the introduction of foreign corn until the price of wheat had risen to 80s. a quarter. This price stood midway between

Corn law

Its effect

the price of wheat before the war and its highest passed. price during its continuance. It was thought that for the future the price of wheat would not vary much from 80s. This calculation was wrong. The high price expected encouraged the reclamation of land and the improvement of agriculture, and the consequence was that the price of wheat first rose and then steadily tell. In 1815 the season was good, and the average price of wheat was 63s. a quarter; in 1817 the season was bad, and the average price was 96s. a quarter, and would have been much more, had it not been for foreign competition, which began when the price reached 80s. The price then steadily fell, till in 1822 the average price was only 45s. If the harvest were good, farmers had plenty to sell, but the price was in good and in low in proportion to their rents; if bad, they had

bad seasons.

little to sell, and foreign competition prevented them from selling that little at a monopoly price; so that good years and bad were alike disastrous to the farming interest—a state of things which naturally led to the ruin of numbers of farmers, and to multitudes

of labourers being thrown out of work by the contraction of the area of cultivation.

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This widespread distress caused much discontent both in the manufacturing and agricultural districts. In those days the poor had no votes, and therefore could not feel secure that

Discontent in town and country.

their interests would be represented in Parliament. Their discontent, therefore, smouldered, and in the hands of the more violent took the form of disaffection. Terrified by the French Revolution, the government were exceedingly ready to believe rumours of plots and conspiracies, and undoubtedly there was a widespread feeling in England that the country was in a very dangerous condition.

Fear of revolution.

agitation in

the distressed

Of this disaffection, the first symptoms were the Spa Fields Riots, in which the mob attempted to plunder the gunsmiths' shops, and Outbreaks and the insulting reception which met the prince regent when he opened Parliament in 1817. Alarmed by districts. these occurrences, Parliament at once suspended the Habeas Corpus Act; and Lord Sidmouth, who was then Home Secretary, issued a circular to the lords-lieutenant of counties, authorizing magistrates to apprehend persons accused of libellous publications, by which were meant any writings in which government was attacked. The same year the unemployed workmen of Manchester organized a march of some of their number to London, to lay their case before the prince regent. These men were provided with blankets, in which they intended to sleep, from which the movement was called the "march of the Blanketeers." None, however, of those who set out got far on the journey. The same summer occurred the Derbyshire insurrection, in which some misguided men, encouraged, there is no doubt, to some extent by informers in the employ of the government, attempted an armed rising, which was, of course, quickly suppressed, and the ringleaders were executed. Similar troubles occurred both in the manufacturing and agricultural districts, and broke out at intervals till the revival of trade restored prosperity to the country.

Desire for

Among the more sensible members of the working classes discontent with the state of the country took the form of Parliamentary desire for Parliamentary reform, and the agitation for reform. this, which had almost died out during the war, was

renewed both in and out of Parliament. In Parliament reform was advocated by Sir Francis Burdett, and out of it by William Cobbett, one of the most vigorous of all our writers of popular English. In the House of Commons several motions on the subject were brought forward by Sir Francis Burdett, while in the manufacturing districts the inhabitants of large unrepresented towns, such as Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds, were loud in their demand for a share in the government of the country, and large meetings of the working class, often attended by riots, were held all over the country.

These meetings alarmed government, and proclamations were issued against seditious meetings, which, by stifling legitimate agitation, only added to the discontent. Just after these The St. Peter's proclamations a meeting was called in St. Peter's Field meeting. Field, Manchester, for the purpose of petitioning for Parliamentary reform. The meeting was densely crowded by deputations from all the neighbouring districts, who marched in procession with flags flying, accompanied by their wives and children. The size and enthusiasm of the meeting seem to have quite disconcerted the magistrates, who, finding that they could not easily arrest Mr. Hunt, the leading orator, actually ordered a body of cavalry and yeomanry to charge the unarmed crowd. The result was a scene of frightful confusion; men, women, and children were trampled under the horses' feet, or cut down by the swords of the soldiers. Several persons were killed outright, and numbers were injured. The government supported the magistrates in holding that the meeting was illegal, and secured the conviction and imprisonment of Mr. Hunt and some of the leaders, on a charge of conspiring to alter the law by force and threats.

Six Acts.

Parliament, in its turn, supported the ministers, and passed the celebrated Six Acts, by which the use of arms, training in military exercises, and the holding of unauthorized meetings and assemblies were forbidden, and at the same time regulations were made by which newspapers were controlled, and the publication of blasphemous and seditious libels was made more difficult. These Acts were quite in accord with the fears of the upper classes, but there was never any real danger of revolution. The Acts, however, were strongly condemned by the Whigs, and Lord John Russell, who was then coming forward as their leader,