we find one which it almost made the public ill to read of, that, when the sick could not be carried to cholera hospitals, their abodes should be watched and guarded, to prevent communication; that the word “ SICK "should be conspicuously painted on the front of the dwelling, while there were patients there, and the word " CAUTION for some weeks afterwards.1 Men began to think of the nightly bell and dead-cart, and of grass growing in the streets, and received with panic the news of the actual appearance of the disease in various parts of the island at the same time. In the truthful spirit of history, it must be told that a large and thoughtful class of society were deeply moved and impressed at this time by what was taking place in Edward Irving's chapel and sect. Men and women The unknown were declared to have the gift of unknown tongues; tongues. and the manifestations of the power whatever in the vast range of the nervous powers of man it might be - were truly awe-striking. Some laughed then, as many laugh now but it may be doubted whether any thoughtful person could laugh in the face of facts. We have the testimony of a man who could never be listened to without respect, of a man whose heart and mind were not only naturally cheerful, but anchored on a cheerful faith, as to what was the aspect of that season to such men as himself. In reply to some question about the Irvingite gift, Dr. Arnold 2 writes, "If the thing be real, I should take it merely as a sign of the coming of the day of the Lord,the only use, as far as I can make out, that ever was derived from the gift of tongues. I do not see that it was ever made a vehicle of instruction, or ever superseded the study of tongues, but that it was merely a sign of the power of God; a man being for the time transformed into a mere instrument to utter sounds which he himself understood not. . . . However, whether this be a real sign or no, I believe that 'the day of the Lord' is coming, that is, the termination of one of the great aiūves [ages] of the human race: whether the final one of all or not, that, I believe, no created being knows or can know. The termination of the Jewish alov in the first century, and of the Roman alov in the fifth and sixth, were each marked by the same concurrence of calamities, wars, tumults, pestilences, earthquakes, &c., all marking the time of one of God's peculiar seasons of visitation. My sense of the evil of the times, and to what prospects I am bringing up my children, is overwhelmingly bitter. All the moral and physical world appears so exactly to announce the coming of the 'great day of the Lord,'—that is, a period of fearful visitation, to terminate the existing state of things, whether to terminate the whole existence of the 1 Order in Council, Oct. 20, 1831 2 Life of Dr. Arnold, i. pp. 302–3. human race, neither man nor angel knows,—that no entireness of private happiness can possibly close my mind against the sense of it." Thus could the thoughtful-active in the duties of life feel at this time; and, when men of business proposed to each other any of the ordinary enterprises of their calling, they were sure to encounter looks of surprise, and be asked how any thing could be done while the cholera and the Reform Bill engrossed men's minds. At the same time, London was overhung with heavy fogs; and that sense of indisposition was prevalent, that vague restlessness and depression, observable in the seasons when cholera manifests itself. the King went down to the House, to open the session on the 6th of December, it was observed that he did not look well; and the topics of the speech-the disputed Bill, the pestilence, the distress, the riots were not the most cheerful. It was under such influences as these that parties came together in Parliament, for what all knew to be the final struggle on the controversy of the time. which are When Opening of the session. On the 12th of December, Lord John Russell moved for leave to bring in a new Reform Bill.2 It was to be not less Third Reefficient than the last, and the few alterations made form Bill. tended to render it more so. There was now also a new census, that of the year then closing; so that the census of 1821, with all the difficulties which hung about it, might be dismissed. The Bill was read a first time. The debate on the second reading began on Friday the 16th, and was continued the next evening, concluding early in the morning of Sunday the 18th, when the majority was 162 in a House of 486. The majority was a very 3 large one; and ministers might rest on that during the Christmas recess but the spirit of opposition to reform in general, and to this Bill in particular, was growing more fierce from day to day. 3 The House met again on the 17th of January, and on the 20th went into committee on the Bill. It is amusing to read the complaints of the anti-reformers about being hurried in committee, as if the provisions of the Bill were perfectly new to them. Some changes had been introduced since the long summer nights, of which so many had been spent in the discussion of the measure, and theSA -due mainly to the use of the new census — were considered with all possible dilatoriness. By no arts of delay, however, could the minority of the committee protract its sittings beyond the 9th of March. The report was considered on the 14th. When, on the 19th, the third reading was moved for, Lord Mahon, seconded by Sir John Malcolm, made the last effort employed in the House of Commons against the Bill. He 1 Hansard, ix. p. 1. VOL. III. 19 2 Hansard, ix. p. 156. moved that it should be read that day six months; and a debate of three nights ensued, - worn out as all now felt the subject to be. Worn out as all felt the subject to be, there was a freshness given to it by the thought that must have been in every considerate mind, that here the people's representatives were ending their preparations for a great new period; that they had done their share, and must now await the doubtful event, the one party expecting revolution if the Bill did become law, and the other if it did not. All felt assured that they should not have to discuss a fourth Bill, and that the issue now rested finally with the Lords. At such a moment, the words of the leaders are weighed with a strong interest.1 "At this, the last stage of the Reform Bill," said Lord Mahon, " on the brink of the most momentous decision to which, not only this House, but, I believe, any legislative assembly in any country, ever came, when the real alternative at issue is no longer between reform or no reform, but between a moderate reform on the one hand, and a revolutionary reform on the other, at such a moment, it is with feelings of no ordinary difficulty that I venture to address you." Lord John Russell's closing declaration, when the last division had yielded a majority of 116, in a House of 594, was this: "With respect to the expectations of the government, he would say that in proposing this measure they had not acted lightly, but after much consideration, which had induced them to think, a year ago, that a measure of this kind was necessary, if they meant to stand between the abuses which they wished to correct, and the convulsions which they desired to avoid. He was convinced, that, if Parliament should refuse to entertain a measure of this nature, they would place in collision that party which, on the one hand, opposed all reform in the Commons House of Parliament, and that which, on the other, desired a reform extending to universal suffrage. The consequence of this would be, that much blood would be shed in the struggle between the contending parties, and he was perfectly persuaded that the British Constitution would perish in the conflict. I move, sir, that this Bill do pass." It passed; and then "the next question, 'That this be the title of the Bill, A Bill to amend the Representation of the People of England and Wales, was carried by acclamation. Lord through the John Russell and Lord Althorp were ordered to carry the Bill to the Lords, and to request the concurrence Final passage Commons. of their lordships to the same." 4 2 When they discharged their errand, three days afterwards, on Monday, March 26,— they were attended by a large number of members of their own House. The first reading in the Lords 1 Hansard, xi. p. 414. 3 Hansard, xi. p. 855. 2 Hansard, xi. p. 780. 2 took place immediately; and the second, which was to be a period of critical debate, was fixed for the 5th of April, but, First reading for reasons of convenience, did not begin till the 9th. in the Lords. Already, on this first night, there was a defection of waverers from the late majority, several Peers intimating their intention of voting the Bill into committee; some in hopes that it might be improved there into something good, and others because there was now less danger in passing the Bill than in refusing it.1 This conduct, after the anti-reformers had strained every nerve to bring up before the King's face all the opposition that could be aroused throughout the British islands, Lord Roden having presented at the levée on the 28th of February a petition against reform, signed by 230,000 Irish Protestants, discouraged some members of their Lordships' House, and exasperated others; so that the conflict of passions within the House was almost as fierce as between their House and the unions. The Duke of Buckingham did what he could to accommodate matters all round, by promising that, if their lordships would throw out the Bill on the second reading, he would himself immediately bring in a Reform Bill, by which representatives should be given to all the large towns, and some consolidation of boroughs be effected. Absurd as was the supposition that the country would give up its own Bill for one from the Duke of Buckingham, the incident is worth noting as a proof that the high Conservatives were giving way, were surrendering their main arguments of antiquarian analogy, and becoming eager to avow themselves reformers. The deepest anxiety that had yet been felt was about the division on the question of the second reading in the Lords. The stanch Tories saw that it was "too clear," as Lord Eldon said, that their own party would split on this question, and that then it was to be feared the Bill would pass. The reform lords saw that another triumph of their opponents would be the doom of their House; while they were by no means sure that the Bill would pass even in case of victory now; for the event would be determined by the waverers, who could not be depended on at the last moment. The debate extended over the nights from the 9th to the 13th of April. It was bright morning on the 14th when the votes were taken. The lights had grown yellower and dimmer in the fresh daylight, the faces of division. the wearied legislators had appeared more and more haggard and heated; and, at last, the slanting rays of the morning sun shone full in upon the woolsack, as the keen eyes of the Chancellor shot their glances, as wakeful as ever, from under the great wig. The attendance of strangers was as full as it had been twelve hours Debate and 1 Hansard, xi. p. 861-864. 2 Autobiography of a Working-man, p. 241. 8 Hansard, xii. p. 1. before; for it was not a scene which men would miss for the sake of food and sleep. It was a quarter past seven on Friday morning when the House adjourned, after yielding a majority of nine to the Administration.1 In a few hours, lists were handed about which showed how the minority of forty-one of six months before had been changed into a majority of nine. Seventeen Peers had turned round.2 Twelve who had been absent before, now voted for the Bill; and ten who had voted against it before, now absented themselves. Among the twelve were the Archbishop of York, and the Bishops of London, St. David's, Worcester, and Chester. Among the ten was the Bishop of Peterborough. It was the bishops who saved the Bill this time; but their deed did not restore the credit their order had lost in October. The Easter recess, which postponed the meeting of the Houses till the 7th of May, now afforded time for the people to apply Pressure from that "pressure from without" which might be neceswithout. sary to prevent the waverers from spoiling the Bill in committee. This "pressure from without" was spoken of by the Peers with an abhorrence and contempt in which it is impossible for any one who appreciates their function not to sympathize. But they had brought it upon themselves; and now they must bear Meetings and it. The Birmingham Political Union met on the 27th petitions. of April, and invited all the unions of the counties of Warwick, Worcester, and Stafford, to congregate at Newhall Hill in Birmingham, on the day of the re-assembling of Parliament. Monster meetings were held in all the large towns, and monster petitions sent to the King to yield to the necessity for creating more Peers. The Edinburgh meeting, 60,000 strong, was held before the windows of Charles X. at Holyrood; and there he saw the spectacle of an orderly assemblage met to express their concord with their sovereign, and their determination to aid him in obtaining for them the rights to which he was able to see that time had given birth.3 The cheering of that multitude for " King William, the Father of his country," must have gone to the exile's heart. The petitions to the King and the Lords from Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Paisley, Dundee, and indeed from every populous place in the land, were in exactly the same strain, and nearly in the same words. That from Birmingham implored the Peers "not to drive to despair a high-minded, generous, and fearless people, or to urge them on, by a rejection of their claims, to demands of a much more extensive nature, but rather to pass the Reform Bill into a law, unimpaired in any of its great parts and provisions." The National Union, on the 3d 2 Annual Register, 1832, p. 146. 1 Hansard, xii. p. 452. |