presented to the UNIVERSITY LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO Dr. and Mrs. John Galbraith ^fc THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH at [ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.) LONDON: FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY, 28, STONECUTTER STREET, E.C. PRICE THREEPENCE. MR. SRADLAUGH'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY, AT the request of many friends, and by way of farewell address on leaving for America, I, for the first time in my life, pen a partial autobiographical sketch. I do not pretend that the narrative will be a complete picture of my life, I only vouch the accuracy of the facts so far as I state them. I have not the right in some cases to state political occurrences in which others now living are involved, nor have I the courage of Jean Jacques Rousseau, to photograph my inner life. I shall therefore state little the public may not already know. I was born on the 26th September, 1833, in a small house in Bacchus Walk, Hoxton. My father was a solicitor's clerk with a very poor salary, which he supplemented by law writing. He was an extremely industrious man, and a splendid penman. I never had the opportunity of judging his tastes or thoughts, outside his daily labours, except in one respect, in which I have followed in his footsteps. He was passionately fond of angling. Until 1848 my life needs little relation. My schooling, like that of most poor men's children, was small in quantity, and, except as to the three R's, indifferent in quality. I remember at seven years of age being at a national school in Abbey Street, Bethnal Green; between seven and nine I was at another small private school in the same neighbourhood, and my " edu- cation " was completed before I was eleven years of age at a boys' school in Coalharbour Street, Hackney Road. When about twelve years of age I was first employed as errand lad in the solicitor's office where my father remained his whole life through. After a little more than two years in this occupation, I became wharf clerk and cashier to a firm of coal merchants in Britannia Fields, City Road. While in their employment the excitement of the Chartist movement was at its height in England, and the authorities, frightened by the then huge continental revolution wave, were preparing for the prosecution of some of the leaders amongst the Chartists. Meetings used to be held almost AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. continuously all day on Sunday, and every week-night in the open air on Bonner's Fields, near where the Consump- tion Hospital now stands. These meetings were in knots from fifty to five hundred, sometimes many mo^e, and were occupied chiefly in discussions on theological, social, and political questions, any bystander taking part. The curiosity of a lad took me occasionally in the week evenings to the Bonner's Fields gatherings. On the Sunday I, as a member of the Church of England, was fully occupied as a Sunday- school teacher. This last-named fashion of passing Sunday was broken suddenly. The Bishop of London was announced to hold a confirmation in Bethnal Green. The incumbent of St. Peter's, Hackney Road, the district in which I resided, was one John Graham Packer, and he, desiring to make a good figure when the Bishop came, pressed me to prepare for confirmation, so as to answer any questions the Bishop might put. I studied a little the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, and the four Gospels, and came to the conclusion that they differed. I ventured to write the Rev. Mr. Packer a respectful letter, asking him for aid and explanation. All he did was to denounce my letter to my parents as Atheistical, although at that time I should have shuddered at the very notion of becoming an Atheist, and he suspended me for three months from my office of Sunday-school teacher. This left me my Sundays free, for I did not like to go to church while suspended from my teacher's duty, and I, instead, went to Bonner's Fields, at first to listen, but soon to take part in some of the discussions which were then always pending there. At the commencement I spoke on the orthodox Christian side, but after a debate with Mr. J. Savage, in the Warner Place Hall, in 1849, on the "Inspiration of the Bible," I found that my views were getting very much tinged with Freethought, and in the winter of that year, at the instigation of Mr. Packer, to whom I had submitted the " Diegesis " of Robert Taylor, I having become a teetotaler, which in his view brought out my infidel tendencies still more vigorously had three days given me by my employers, after consultation with my father, to " change my opinions or lose my situa- tion." I am inclined to think now that the threat was never intended to have been enforced, but was used to terrify me into submission. At that time I hardly knew what, if any, AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. 7 opinions I had, but the result was that sooner than make a show of recanting, I left home and situation on the third day, and never returned to either. I was always a very fluent speaker, and now lectured frequently at the Temperance Hall, Warner Place, Hackney Road, at the small Hall in Philpot Street, and in the , open air in Bonner's Fields, where at last on Sunday afternoons scores of hundreds congregated to hear me. My views were then Deistical, but rapidly tending to the more extreme phase into which they ultimately settled. I now took part in all the gatherings held in London on behalf of the Poles and Hungarians, and actually fancied that I could write poetry on Kossuth and Mazzini. It was at this time I made the acquaintance of my friend and co-worker, Mr. Austin Holyoake, at his printing office in Queen's Head Passage, and I remember him taking me to John Street Institution, where, at one of the pleasant Saturday evening gatherings, I met the late Mrs. Emma Martin. At Mr. Austin Holyoake's request, Mr. George Jacob Holyoake, to my great delight, presided at one of my lectures in Philpot Street, and I felt special interest in the number of the Reasoner which contained a brief refer- ence to myself and that lecture. I wrote my first pamphlet, "A Few Words on the Christian's Creed," about the middle of 1850, and was honoured by Dr. Campbell of the British Banner with a leading article vigorously assailing me for the lectures I had then delivered. After leaving home I was chiefly sheltered by Mrs. Sharpies Carlile, with whose chil- dren, Hypatia, Theophila, and Julian, I shared such comlorts as were at her disposal. Here I studied hard everything which came in my way, picking up a little Hebrew and an imperfect smattering of other tongues. I tried to earn my living as a coal merchant, but at sixteen, and without one farthing in my pocket, the business was not extensive enough to be profitable. I got very poor, and at that time was also very proud. A subscription offered me by a few Free- thinkers shocked me, and awakened me to a sense of my poverty ; so telling no one where I was going, I went away, and on the lythof December, 1850, was,after some difficulty, enlisted in the Seventh Dragoon Guards. With this corps I remained until October, 1853, being ultimately appointed orderly-room clerk ; the regiment, during the whole of the 8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. time I remained in it, being quartered in Ireland. While I was in the regiment I was a teetotaler, and used often to lecture to the men in the barrack-room at night, and I have more than once broken out of Portobello barracks to deliver teetotal speeches in the small French Street Hall, Dublin. Many times have I spoken there in my scarlet jacket, between James Haughton and the good old father, the Rev. Dr. Spratt, a Roman Catholic priest, then very active in the cause of temperance. While I was in the regiment my father died, and in the summer of 1853 an aunt's death left me a small sum, out of which I purchased my discharge, and returned to England, to aid in the maintenance of my mother and family. I have now no time for the full story of my army life, which, however, I may tell some day. Before I left the regi- ment I had won the esteem of most of the privates, and of some of the officers. I quitted the regiment with a " very good character " from the Colonel, but I am bound to add, that the Captain of my troop would not have concurred in this character had he had any voice in the matter. The Lieutenant-Colonel, C. P. Ainslie, earned an eternal right to grateful mention at my hands by his gentlemanly and considerate treatment. I cannot say the same for my Captain, who did his best to send me to gaol, and whom I have not yet quite forgiven. On returning to civilian life, I obtained employment in the daytime with a solicitor named Rogers, and in the evening as clerk to a Building Society ; and soon after entering this employ I began again to write and speak, and it was then I, to in some degree avoid the efforts which were afterwards made to ruin me, took the name "Iconoclast," under which all my anti-theological work down to 1868 was done. I give Mr. Rogers' name now for he is dead, and malice can- not injure him. Many anonymous letters were sent to him to warn him of my irreligious opinions ; he treated them all with contempt, only asking me not to let my propaganda become an injury to his business. Soon after my discharge from the army I had a curious Adventure. While I was away a number of poor men had subscribed their funds together and had erected a Working Man's Hall, in Goldsmiths' Row, Hackney Road. Not having any legal advice, it turned out that they had been entrapped into erecting their building on freehold ground AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. 9 without any lease or conveyance from the freeholder, who asserted his legal right to the building. The men consulted me, and finding that under the Statute of Frauds they had no remedy, I recommended them to offer a penalty rent of 20 a year. This being refused, I constituted myself into a law court, and without any riot or breach of the peace, J, with the assistance of a hundred stout men, took every brick of the building bodily away, and divided the mate- rials, so far as was possible, amongst the proper owners. I think I can see now the disappointed rascal of a freeholder when he only had his bare soil left once more. He did not escape unpunished, for to encourage the others to contribute, he had invested some few pounds in the building. He had been too clever : he had relied on the letter of the law, and I beat him with a version of common-sense justice. I lectured once or twice a week in the small Philpot Street Hall, very often then in the Hall of Science, City Road, and then in the old John Street Institution, until I won my- self a name in the party and through the country. In 1855 I had my first notable adventure with the authorities in reference to the right of meeting in Hyde Park, and sub- sequently gave evidence before the Royal Commission ordered by the House of Commons, presided over by the Right Hon. Stuart Wortley. I was very proud that day at Westminster, when, at the conclusion of my testimony against the authorities, the Commissioner publicly thanked me, and the people who crowded the Court of Exchequer cheered me, for the manner in which I denied the right of Sir Richard Mayne, the then Chief Commissioner of Police, to issue the notices forbidding the people to meet in the Park. This was a first step in a course in which I have never flinched or wavered. In 1856 I undertook, with others, the publication of a series of papers, entitled " Half-Hours with Freethinkers," the late John Watts being one of my co-workers. I also by myself commenced the publication of my " Commentary on the Pentateuch," which has since been entirely re-written, and now forms my " Bible : what it is." During the autumn of 1857 I paid my first lecturing visit to Northampton. Early in 1858, when Mr. Edward Truelove was suddenly arrested for publishing the pamphlet, " Is Tyrannicide Jus- tifiable ?" I became Honorary Secretary to the Defence, and 10 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. was at the same time associated with the conduct of the defence of Simon Bernard, who was arrested at the instiga- tion of the French Government for alleged complicity in the Orsini tragedy. It was at this period I gained the friend- ship of poor Bernard, which, without diminution, I retained until he died ; and also the valued friendship of Thomas Allsop, which I still preserve. My associations were from thenceforward such as to encourage in me a strong and bitter feeling against the late Emperor Napoleon. Whilst he was in power I hated him, and never lost an opportunity of working against him until the decheance came. I am not sure now that I always judged him fairly ; but nothing, I think, could have tempted me to either write or speak of him with friendliness or kindliness during his life. Le sang de mes amis etait sur son ame. Now that the tomb covers his remains, my hatred has ceased ; but no other feeling has arisen in its place. Should any of his family seek to resume the Imperial purple, I should remain true to my political declarations of sixteen years since, and should exert myself to the uttermost to prevent France falling under another Empire. I write this with much sadness, as 1870 to 1873 have dispelled some of my illusions held firmly during the fifteen years which preceded. I had believed in such men as Louis Blanc, Ledru Rollin, Victor Hugo, as possible statesmen for France. I was mistaken. They were writers, talkers, and poets ; good men to ride on the stream, or to drown in honest protest, but lacking force to swim against, or turn back, the tide by the might of their will. I had believed too in a Republican France, which is yet only in the womb of time, to be born after many pangs and sore travailing. In 1859 I saw Joseph Mazzini for the first time, and re- mained on terms of communication with the great Italian patriot until the year 1869, from time to time bringing him correspondence from Italy, where my business sometimes took me. After 1869 we found ourselves holding diverse opinions on the Franco-Prussian question Mazzini went for Prussia, I for France and I never saw him again. In June, 1858, I held my first public formal theological debate with the Rev. Brewin Grant, B.A., at that time a Dissenting Minister at Sheffield. Mr. Grant was then a man of some ability, and if he could have forgotten his aptitudes as a circus jester, would have been a redoubtable AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. 11 antagonist. During this year I was elected President of the London Secular Society, in lieu of Mr. George Jacob Holy- oake, who had theretofore led the English Freethought party, but who has of late years devoted himself more com- pletely to general journalistic work. In November, 1858, J commenced editorial duties with the Investigator, formerly conducted by the late Robert Cooper, which I continued until August, 1859. It had but a small circulation, and was financially a very great failure. For the encouragement of young propagandists, I may here insert a little anecdote of my early lecturing experience. I had lectured in Edinburgh in mid-winter ; the audience was small, the profits microscopical. I, after paying my bill at the Temperance Hotel, where I then stayed, had only a few shillings more than my Parliamentary fare to Bolton, where I was next to lecture. I was out of bed at five on a freezing morning, and could have no breakfast, as the people were not up. I carried my luggage (a big tin box, corded round, which then held books and clothes, and a small black bag), for I could not spare any of my scanty cash for a conveyance or porter. The train from Edinburgh being delayed by a severe snow-storm, the corresponding Parlia- mentary had left Carlisle long before our arrival. In order to reach Bolton in time for my lecture, I had to book by a quick train, starting in about three-quarters of an hour, but could only book to Preston, as the increased fare took all my money, except 4^d. With this small sum I could get no refreshment in the station, but in a little shop in the street outside I got a mug of hot tea and a little hot meat pie. From Preston, I got with great difficulty on to Bolton, handing my black bag to the station-master there, as security for my fare from Preston, until the morning. I arrived in Bolton about quarter to eight ; the lecture com- enced at eight, and I, having barely time to run to my dgings, and wash and change, went onto the platform cold nd hungry. I shall never forget that lecture ; it was in an Id Unitarian Chapel. We had no gas, the building seemed full of a foggy mist, and was imperfectly lit with candles. Everything appeared cold, cheerless, and gloomy. The most amusing feature was that an opponent, endowed with extra piety and forbearance, chose that evening to specially attack me for the money-making and easy life I was leading. Peace to that opponent's memory, I have never seen hire 12 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. since. It was while in Scotland on this journey I made the acquaintance, and ultimately won the friendship, of the late Alexander Campbell, of Glasgow a generous, kindly- hearted old Socialist Missionary, who, at a time when others were hostile, spoke encouragingly to me, and who after- v/ards worked with me for a long period on this journal. Occasionally, the lectures were interfered with by the authorities, but this happened oftener in the provinces than in London. In March, 1859, I was to have lectured in the Saint Martin's Hall on " Louis Napoleon," but the Go- vernment on a remonstrance by Count Walewski, as to language used at a previous meeting, at which I had pre- sided for Dr. Bernard interfered ; the hall was garrisoned by police, and the lecture prevented. Mr. Hullah, the then proprietor, being indemnified by the authorities, paid damages for his breach of contract, to avoid a suit which I at once commenced against him. Later in the same month I held a debate in Northampton with Mr. John Bowes, a rather heavy, but well-meaning, old gentleman, utterly un- fitted for platform controversy. The press now began to deal with me tolerably freely, and I find " boy," " young man," and "juvenile appearance" very frequent in the com- ments. My want of education was an especial matter for hostile criticism, the more particularly so when the writer had neither heard nor seen me. Discussions now grew on me so thick and fast that even some of the most important debates may perhaps escape notice in this imperfect chronicling. At Sheffield I debated with a Reverend Dr. Mensor, who styled himself a Jewish Rabbi. He was then in the process of gaining admission to the Church of England, and had been put forward to show my want of scholarship. We both scrawled Hebrew characters for four nights on a black board, to the delight and mystification of the audience, who gave me credit for erudition, because I chalked the square letter characters with tolerable rapidity and clearness. At Glasgow I debated with a Mr. Court, representing the Glasgow Protestant Associa- tion, a glib-tongued missionary, who has since gone to the bad ; at Paisley with a Mr. Smart, a very gentlemanly anta- gonist ; and at Halifax with the Rev. T. D. Matthias, a Welsh Baptist Minister, unquestionably very sincere. All these were formal debates, and were reported with tolerable fulness in the various local journals. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. 13 In the early part of 1860 I, aided by my friends at Sheffield, Halifax, and other parts of England, projected the National Reformer in small snares. Unfortunately, just after the issue of its prospectus, Joseph Barker returned from America, and was associated with me in the editorship. The arrangement was peculiar, Mr. Barker editing the first half of the paper and I the second. It was not precisely a happy union, and the unnatural alliance came to an end in a very brief period. In August, 1861, I officially parted company with Joseph Barker as editor. We had been prac- tically divorced for months before : the first part of the paper usually contained abuse of those who wrote in the second half. He came to me originally at Sheffield, pretending to be an Atheist and a Republican, and soon after pretended to be a Christian, and spoke in favour of slavery. I am sometimes doubtful as to how far Mr. Barker deluded him- self, as well as others, in his various changes of theological and political opinions. If he had had the slightest thorough- ness in his character, he would have been a great man ; as it is, he is only a great turn-coat. In June, 1860, 1 debated again with the Reverend Brewin Grant, every Monday for four weeks, at Bradford, and during this debate had a narrow escape of my life. In one of my journeys to London, the Great Northern train ran through the station at King's Cross, and many persons were seriously injured. I got off with some trifling bruises and a severe shaking. Garibaldi having at this time made his famous Marsala effort, I delivered a series of lectures in his aid, and am "happy to be able to record that, though at that time very poor, I sent him one hundred guineas as my contribution by my tongue. This money was chiefly sent through W. H. Ashurst, Esq., now Solicitor to the General Post Office, and amongst the few letters I preserve, I have one of thanks from " G. Garibaldi," for what I was then doing for Italy. In this year I debated for four nights with Dr. Brindley, an old antagonist of the Socialists, at Oldham ; for two nights with the Rev. Dr. Baylee, the President of St. Aidan's College, at Birkenhead, where a Church of England curate manufactory was for some time carried on ; and for two nights with the Rev. Dr. Rutherford, of Newcastle. Dr. Rutherford has since so identified himself with the cause of 14 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. the Tyneside workers, that I read with regret any harsh words that escaped me in that debate. Although during late years I have managed to keep all my meetings free from violence or disorder, this was not always so. In October, 1860, I paid my first visit to Wigan, and certainly lectured there under considerable difficulty, and incurred personal danger, the resident clergy actually inciting the populace to physical violence, and part destruction of the building I lectured in. I, however, supported by one courageous woman and her husband, persevered, and, despite bricks and kicks, visited Wigan again and again, until I had, bon gre mal gre, improved the manners and customs of the people, so that I am now a welcome speaker there. I could not improve the morals of the clergy, as the public journals have recently shown, but that was their misfortune not my fault. In the winter of 1860, I held two formal debates in Wigan, all of which were fully reported in the local journals ; one with Mr. Hutchings, a respectable Nonconformist layman, and the other with the Rev. Woodville Woodman, a Swedenbor- gian divine. Early in 1861 I visited Guernsey in consequence of an attempt made by the Law Courts of the Island to enforce the blasphemy laws against a Mr. Stephen Bendall, who had distributed some of my pamphlets to the Guernseyites, and had been condemned to imprisonment in default of finding sureties not to repeat the offence. Not daring to prosecute me, although challenged in writing, the authorities permitted drink and leave of absence to be given to soldiers in the garrison, on condition they should try to prevent the lecture, and the house in which I lectured was broken into by a drunken and pious mob, shouting " Kill the Infidel." My antagonists were fortunately as cowardly as they were intolerant, and I succeeded in quelling the riot, delivering my lecture in spite of all opposition, although considerable damage was done to the building. Shortly after this I visited Plymouth, where the Young Men's Christian Association arranged to prosecute me. They were, however, a little too hasty, and had me arrested at an open air meeting when I had scarcely commenced my speech, having only uttered the words " Friends, I am about to address you on the Bible." Having locked me up all night, and refused bail, it was found by their legal adviser that a blunder had been committed, and a charge of " ex- AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. 15 citing a breach of the peace, and assaulting the constable in the execution of his duty," was manufactured. It was tolerably amusing to see the number of dinners, suppers, and breakfasts, all accompanied with pots or cups of Devon- shire cream, sent in to the Devonport Lock-up, where I was confined, by various friends who wanted to show their sympathy. The invented charge, though well sworn to, broke down after two days' hearing, under the severe cross- examination to which I subjected the witnesses. I defended myself, two lawyers appeared against me, and seven magis- trates sat on the bench, predetermined to convict me. Finding that the evidence of the whole of the witnesses whom I wished to call was to be objected to because unbelievers in hell were then incompetent as witnesses according to English law, I am pleased to say that several Nonconformists, disgusted with the bigotry and pious perjury of my prosecutors, came forward. The result was a trium- phant victory, and a certificate of dismissal which I wrung from the reluctant bench of great unpaid. I was not yet satisfied ; some of the magistrates had tried to browbeat me, and I announced in court that I would deliver the lecture I had been prevented from delivering to an audience assem- bled in the borough, and that I should sue at law the Superintendent of Police who had arrested me. The first portion of my defiance was the most difficult to give effect to ; not a hall could be hired in Devonport, and nearly all the convenient open land being under military jurisdiction, it was impossible to procure the tenancy of a field for an open-air meeting. I, however, fulfilled my promise, and despite the police and military authorities combined, I delivered my lecture to an audience assembled in their very teeth. Devonport, Stonehouse, and Plymouth form one garrisoned and fortified town, divided by the River Tamar. All the water to the sea is under the separate jurisdiction of Saltash, some miles distant. I obtained a large boat on which a temporary platform was built, and this boat was quietly moored in the River Tamar on the Devonport side, about two fathoms from the shore. Placards were issued stating that, acting under legal advice, I should address the meeting and deliver the prevented lecture "near to the Devonport Park Gates." Overwhelming force was prepared by the Devonport authorities, and having already erred by too great haste, this time they determined to let 16 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. me fairly commence my lecture before they arrested me. To their horror I quietly walked past the Park Gates where the crowd was waiting, and passing down a bye-lane to the river side, stepped into a little boat, was rowed to the large one, and then delivered my lecture, the audience who had followed me, standing on an open wharf, all within the jurisdiction of the Borough of Devonport, and I being about 9 feet out- side the borough. The face of the Mayor ready to read the riot act, the superintendent with twenty-eight picked police- men to make sure of my arrest, and a military force in readiness to overawe any popular demonstration all these were sights to remember. I am afraid the Devonport Young Men's Christian Association did not limit themselves to prayers and blessings on that famous Sunday. As I had promised, the authorities refusing any apology for the wrongful arrest, I commenced an action against Superintendent Edwards, by whom I had been taken into custody. The borough magistrates indemnified their officer and found funds to resist me. I fought with very little help save from one tried, though anonymous friend, for Joseph Barker, my co-editor, but not co-worker, in our own paper, discouraged any pecuniary support. The cause was made a special jury one, and came on for trial at Exeter Assizes. Unfortunately I was persuaded to brief counsel, and Sir Robert Collier, my leader, commenced his speech with an expression of sorrow for my opinions. This damaged me very much, although I won the case easily after a long trial. The jury, composed of Devonshire landowners, only gave me a farthing damages, and Mr. Baron Channell refused to certify for costs. I was determined not to let the matter rest here, and myself carried it to the Court in Banco, where I argued it in person for two whole days, before Lord Chief Justice Erie and a full bench of Judges. Although I did not succeed in improving my own position, I raised public opinion in favour of free speech, and the enormous costs incurred by the borough authorities, and which they had to bear, have deterred them from ever again interfering either with my lectures, or those of any other speaker, and I now have crowded audiences in the finest hall whenever I visit the three towns. These proceedings cost me several hundred pounds, and burthened me with a debt which took long clear- ing oft. In 1862 I held a four nights' discussion with a Dissenting AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. 17 clergyman, the Rev. W. Barker. My opponent was pro- bably one of the most able and straightforward amongst my numerous antagonists. About this time a severe attack of acute rheumatism prostrated me, and having soon after to visit Italy, I, at first under medical advice, adopted the habit of drinking the light Continental wines, and although continuing an advocate of sobriety, I naturally ceased to take part in any teetotal gatherings. In the struggle between the Northern and Southern States of America, my advocacy and sympathies went with what I am glad to say was the feeling of the great mass of the English people in favour of the North ; and my esteemed friend, and then contributor, W. E. Adams, furnished most valuable aid with his pen in the enlightenment of public opinion, at a time when many of our aristocracy were openly exulting in what they conceived to be the probable break-up of the United States Republic. During the Lanca- shire cotton famine I lectured several times in aid of the fund. I began now also to assume a much more prominent position in the various English political movements, and especially to speak on the Irish Church and Irish Land questions. On the Irish question, I owe much to my late co-worker and contributor, poor Peter Fox Andre, a tho- roughly honest and whole-souled man, whose pen was always on the side of struggling nationalities. One of the disadvantages connected with a public career is, that every vile scoundrel who is too cowardly to face you openly can libel you anonymously. I have had, I think, my full share of this kind of annoyance. Most of the slanders I have treated with utter contempt, and if I had alone consulted my own feelings, should probably never have pursued any other course. Twice, however, I have had recourse to the judgment of the law once in the case of a clergyman of the Church of England, who indulged in a foul libel affecting my wife and children. This fellow I compelled to retract every word he had uttered, and to pay jioo, which, after deducting the costs, was divided amongst various charitable institutions. The reverend libeller wrote me an abject letter, begging me not to ruin his prospects in the Church by publishing his name ; I consented, and he has since repaid my mercy by losing no opportunity of being offensive. He is a prominent contributor to the 18 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. and a fierce ultra-Protestant. He must have greater confidence in my honour than in his own, or fear of expo- sure would compel him to greater reticence. The other case arose during the election, and will be dealt with in its proper order. It was my fortune to be associated with the Reform League from its earliest moments until its dissolution. It is hardly worth while to repeat here the almost stereotyped story of the successful struggle made by the League for Parliamentary Reform. E. Beales, Esq., was the President of the League, and I was one of its Vice-Presidents, and continued nearly the whole time of its existence a member of its executive. The whole of my services and journeys were given to the League without the slightest remuneration, and I repeatedly, and according to my means, contributed to its funds. When I resigned my position on the execu- tive I received from Mr. George Howell, the Secretary, and from Mr. Beales, the President, the most touching and flattering letters as to what Mr. Beales was pleased to des- cribe as the loyalty and utility of my services to the League. Mr. George Howell concluded a long letter as follows : " Be pleased to accept my assurance of sincere regards for your manly courage, consistent and honourable conduct in our cause, and for your kindly consideration for myself as Secretary of this great movement on all occasions." These letters have additional value from the fact that Mr. Beales, whom I sincerely respect, differs widely from me in matters of faith, and Mr. Howell is, fortunately, far from having any friendly feeling towards me. It was while on the Executive of this League that I first became intimately acquainted with Mr. George Odger, and had reason to be pleased with the straightforward course he pursued, and the honest work he did as one of the Executive Committee. Mr. John Baxter Langley and Mr. R. A. Cooper were also amongst my most prominent co-workers. My sympathy with Ireland, and open advocacy of justice for the Irish, nearly brought me into serious trouble. Some who were afterwards indicted as the chiefs of the so-called Fenian movement, came to me for advice. So much I see others have written, and the rest of this portion of my autobio- graphy I may write some day. At present there are men not out of danger whom careless words might imperil, and as regards myself I shall not be guilty of the folly of printing language AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. -f which a government might use against me. My pamphlet on the Irish Question, published in 1866, won a voluntary letter of warm approval from Mr. Gladstone, the only friendly writing I ever received from him in my life. At Huddersfield, the Philosophical Hall having been duly hired for my lectures, pious influence was brought to bear on the lessee to induce him to break his contract. Fortu- nately, what in law amounted to possession had been given, and on the doors being locked against me, I broke them open, and delivered my lecture to a crowded and most orderly audience. I was arrested, and an attempt was made to prosecute me before the Huddersfield magistrates ; but I defended myself with success, and defeated with ease the Conservative solicitor, N. Learoyd, who had been specially retained to ensure my committal to gaol. In 1868 I entered into a contest with the Conservative Government which, having been continued by the Gladstone Government, finished in 1869 with a complete victory for myself. According to the then law every newspaper was required to give sureties to the extent of ;Soo against blasphemous or seditious libel. I had never offered to give these sureties, as they would have probably been liable to forfeiture about once a month. In March, 1868, the Disraeli Government insisted on my compliance with the law. I refused. The Government then required me to stop my paper. I printed on the next issue, "Printed in Defiance of Her Majesty's Government." I was then served with an Attorney-General's information, containing numerous counts, and seeking to recover enormous penalties. I determined to be my own barrister, and while availing myself in consul- tation of the best legal advice, I always argued my own case. The interlocutory hearings before the Judges in Chambers were numerous, for I took objection to nearly every step made by the Government, and I nearly always succeeded. I also brought the matter before Parliament, being specially backed in this by Mr. Milner Gibson, Mr. John Stuart Mill, and Mr. E. H. J. Craufurd. When the information was called on for trial in a crowded court before Mr. Baron Martin, the Government backed out, and declined to make a jury; so the prosecution fell to the ground. Strange to say, it was renewed by the Gladstone Government, who had the coolness to ofier me, by the mouth of Attorney-General Collier, that they would not enforce any penalties if I would 20 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. stop the paper, and admit that I was in the wrong. This I declined, and the prosecution now came on for trial before Baron Bramwell and a special jury. Against me were the Attorney-General, Sir R. Collier, the Solicitor-General, Sir J. D. Coleridge, and Mr. Crompton Hutton. I found that these legal worthies were blundering in their conduct of the trial, and at nisi prius I let them obtain a verdict, which, however, I reversed on purely technical grounds, after a long argument, which I sustained before Lord Chief Baron Kelly and a full court sitting in Banco. Having miserably failed to enforce the law against me, the Government re- pealed the statute, and I can boast that I got rid of the last shackle of the obnoxious English press laws. Mr. J. S. Mill wrote me : " You have gained a very honourable success in obtaining a repeal of the mischievous Act by your persever- ing resistance." The Government, although beaten, refused to reimburse me any portion of the large outlay incurred in- fighting them. It has always been my ambition to enter Parliament, and at the General Election for 1868 I, for the first time, entered the arena as a candidate. I was beaten ; but this is scarcely wonderful. I had all the journals in England except three against me. Every idle or virufent tale which folly could distort or calumny invent was used against me. Despite all, I polled nearly 1,100 votes, and I obtained unasked, but not ungratefully listened to, the public acknowledgments from the Mayor of the borough, also from one of my com- petitors, Mr. Charles Gilpin, as to the loyal manner in which I had fought the contest through. During the election struggle libels rained from all sides. One by the late Mr. Capper, M.P., seeking re-election at Sandwich, was the monstrous story, that in the open square at Northampton I had taken out my watch, and defied God to show his power by striking me dead in five minutes. Challenged for his authority, Mr. Capper pretended to have heard the story from Mr. C. Gilpin, M.P., who indignantly denied being any party to the falsehood. I insisted on an apology from Mr. Capper, which being refused, I sued him, but he died soon after the writ was served. The story was not an original invention by Mr. Capper ; it had been re- ported of Abner Kneeland thirty years before, and is still a favourite one with pious missionaries at street corners. A still more outrageous slander was inserted in the Razor, a AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. 21 pseudo-comic weekly. I compelled this journal to give a full apology, but not until after two years' litigation, and a new trial had been ordered. When obliged to recant, the Christian proprietor became insolvent, to avoid payment of the costs. Unfortunately born poor, my life had been one continued struggle, and the burden of my indebtedness was sorely swollen in this and similar contests. Probably the most severe, and to me certainly the most costly, struggle has been that on the oath question. For- merly it was a fatal objection against the competency of a witness who did not believe in a Deity and in a future state of rewards and punishments. Several attempts had been made to alter the law, but they had all failed ; and indeed Sir J. Trevelyan's measures only provided for affirmation, and did not even seek to abolish the incompetency. In a case in which I was plaintiff in the Court of Common Pleas, my evidence was objected to, and I determined to fight the matter through every possible court, and to get the law changed if possible. I personally argued the case before Lord Chief Justice Bovill and a full Bench, in the Court of Common Pleas, and with the aid of the present Mr. Justice Denman and the late Lord Chancellor Hatherly, the law was twice altered in Parliament. Before victory was ulti- mately obtained I had to carry the case into the Court of Error, and I prepared and sent out at my own cost more than two hundred petitions to Parliament. Ultimately the Evidence Amendment Act, 1869, and the Evidence Further Amendment Act, 1870, gave Freethinkers the right to enter the witness box, and I won my suit. The Christian defendant finished by becoming bankrupt, and I lost a terribly large sum in debt and costs. The original debt and interest were over ^300, and the costs of the various proceedings were very heavy. In the winter of 1870 the Mirfield Town Hall, which had been properly taken and paid for for two nights' lectures, was refused by the proprietors, who barricaded the hall, and ob- tained a great force of police from the neighbourhood. In order that the law might be clearly settled on this matter, I brought an action to try the question, and although the late Mr. Justice Willes expressed himself strongly in my favour, it was held by Mr. Justice Mellor at Nisi Prius that nothing, except a deed under seal or an actual demise, would avail. A mere agreement for a user of a hall was a license revo 22 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. cable at will, even when for a valuable consideration. This convinced me that when hall proprietors break their con- tracts, I must myself enforce my rights as I did at H udders- field, and have done in other places. During the Franco-Prussian struggle I remained neutral until the 4th of September. I was against Bismarck and his blood-and-iron theory, but I was also utterly against the Empire and the Emperor ; so I took no part with either. I was lecturing at Plymouth the day the decheancc was pro- claimed, and immediately after wrote my first article in favour of Republican France. I now set to work, and or- ganised a series of meetings in London and the provinces, some of which were co-operated in by Dr. Congreve, Pro- fessor Beesly, and other prominent members of the Positivist party. These meetings exercised some little effect on the public opinion in this country, but unfortunately the col- lapse on the part of France was so complete, and the re- sources commanded by Bismarck and Moltke so vast, that, except as expressing sympathy, the results were barren. In October, 1870, 1, without any previous communication from myself to them, received from the Republican Government at Tours a long and flattering letter, signed by Leon Gam- betta, Adolphe Cremieux, Al Glais Bizoin, and Admiral Fourichon, declaring that they, as members of the " Gou- vernement de la Defense Nationale, rdunis en d&e'gation a Tours," " tiennent a honneur de vous remercier chalereuse- ment du noble concours que vous apportez a la cause de la France." On the 2nd of February, 1871, M. Tissot, the Charge" d' Affaires of France in England, wrote me : " Quant a moi, mon cher ami, je ne puis que constater ici, comme je 1'ai deja fait, comme je le ferai en toute occasion, la dette que nous avons contracted envers vous. Vous nous avez donn6 votre temps, votre activitd, votre eloquence, votre ame, la meilleure partie de vous meme, en un mot; la France que vous avez e'te' seule a defendre ne 1'oubliera jamais." This is probably a too flattering estimate of my ser vices to France, but coming from the official representative of the French Republic, I feel entitled to insert it In September, 1871, Monsieur Emmanuel Arago, member of the Provisional Government of the 4th of September, wrote the following words upon the letter which had been sent me, as above mentioned, in October, 1870, by the Delegate Go- vernment of Tours : " En lisant cette lettre, j'eprouve tres AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. 2 vivement le regret de n'avoir pu, enferme' dans Paris, joindre ma signature a celles de mes collegues de la delegation de Tours. Mr. Bradlaugh est et sera to uj ours dans la Rdpub- lique notre concitoyen." During 1870, 1871, and 1872, 1 held several debates with the Rev. A. J. Harrison, formerly of Huddersfield. The first at Newcastle, in the splendid Town Hall of that place, was attended by about 5,000 persons. The second debate at Bristol, was notable from being presided over by Professor Newman. The third discussion was at Birmingham, and was an attempt at the Socratic method, and the last platform, encounter was in the New Hall of Science, London. Of the Rev. Mr. Harrison it is enough I should say that, a few weeks since, when rumour put my life in danger, he was one of the first to write a kindly and unaffected letter of sympathy to Mrs. Bradlaugh. When the great cry of thanksgiving was raised for the recovery of the Prince of Wales, I could not let it pass with- out protest. While he lay dangerously ill I had ceased to make any attack on himself or family, but I made no pre- tence of a grief I did not feel. When the thanksgiving day was fixed, and tickets for St. Paul's were sent by the Lord Chamberlain to working men representatives, I felt it right to holdameeting of protest, which was attended byacrowded audience in the New Hall of Science. The "right of meeting " has given me three important occasions of measuring swords with the Government during the last few years, and each time defeat has attended the Government. The first, the Hyde Park meeting, where I acted in accord with Mr. Beales, to whom as chief, let the honour go of this conflict. The second was on the 3ist July, 1871, under the following circumstances. A meet- ing had been held by Mr. G. Odger and some of his friends in Hyde Park, on Sunday, the 3oth of July,, to protest against the grant to Prince Arthur ; this meeting was adjourned until the following evening. Late on the Sunday afternoon, the adjourned meeting was for- bidden by the Government. Early on Monday morning Mr. Odger applied to me to give the friends the benefit of my legal knowledge and personal influence. I consented, and the Government persevering, I took my share of the responsibility of the gathering, and signed with Mr. Odger a new notice convening the meeting. The Home Office no* 24 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. BRADLAUGH. only served us also with a written prohibition, but threatened and prepared to use force. I immediately gave Mr. Bruce notice that the force would be illegal, and that it would be resisted. At the last moment, and in fact only some hall hour before the meeting commenced, the Government abandoned its prohibition, and an enormous meeting of a most orderly character was held in absolute defiance of the authorities. The more recent case was in December, 1872, when finding that Mr. Odger, Mr. Bailey, and others, had been .prosecuted under some monstrous and ridiculous regulations invented by Mr. Ayrton, I, on my own responsibility, deter- mined to throw down the gauntlet to the Government I did this most successfully, and soon after the opening of Parliament the obnoxious regulations were annulled. It is at present too early to speak of the Republican movement in England, which I have sought, and not entirely without success, to organise on a thoroughly legal basis. It is a fair matter for observation that my lectures on " The Impeachment of the House of Brunswick," have been deli- .vered to crowded audiences assembled in some of the finest halls in England and Scotland, notably the Free Trade Hall> Manchester, the Town Hall, Birmingham, the Town Hall, Northampton, and the City Hall, Glasgow. It is, as far as I am aware, the first time any English citizen has, without tumult or disorder and in buildings belonging to various Municipalities, directly challenged the hereditary right of the reigning family. In penning the foregoing sketch I had purposely to omit many facts connected with branches of Italian, Irish, and French politics. I have also entirely omitted my own struggles for existence. The political parts are left out because there are secrets which are not my own alone, and which may not bear full telling ior many years to come. ; The second, because I hope that another year or two of hard work may enable me to free myself from the debt load which for some time has hung heavily round me. THE REAL REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE. BY C. BRADLAUGH. SECOND EDITION. LONDON : FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY, 28, STONECUTTER STREET, E.G. Price Twopence. LONDON : FEINTED BY CHARLES BRADLAUGH AND ANNIE BESANT, 28, STONECUTTER STREET, E.G. THE EEAL REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE. . BY C. BRADLAUGH. Lfi multitude qui no le reiuld be chosen on either side. " A member who had already served in parliament with any distinction, would under this system be almost sure of his re-election. At present the first man in the House may be thrown out of parliament precisely when most wanted, and may be kept out for several years, from no fault of his own, but because a change has taken place in the local balance of parties, or because he has voted against the prejudices or local interests of some influen- tial portion of his constituents." Instances of this have occurred, and will be familiar to the reader. " Under Mr. Hare's system, if he has not deserved to be thrown out, he will be nearly certain to obtain votes from other places, sufficient, with his local strength, to make up the quota of 2000 (or whatever the number may be) necessary for his return to Parliament. Consider next the check which would be given to bribery and intimidation in the return of members to Parliament. Who by bribery and intimidation, could get together 2000 electors from a hundred different parts of the country ? Intimidation would have no means 12 REAL REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE. of acting over so large a surface ; and bribery requires ftecresy, and an organised machinery, which can only be brought into play within narrow local limits. Where would then be the advantage of bribing or coercing the 200 or 300 electors of a small borough? They could not of themselves make up the quota, and nobody could know what part of the country the remaining 1700 or 1800 suffrages might come from. In places so large as to afford the number of 2000 electors, bribery or intimidation would have the same chances as at present. But it is not in such places that, even now, these malpractices are successful. As regards bribery (Mr. Hare truly remarks), the chief cause of it is, that in a closely contested election where certain votes are indispensable, the side which cannot secure those particular votes is sure to be defeated. But under Mr. Hare's plan no vote would be indispensable. A vote from any other part of the country would serve the purpose as well : and a candidate might be in a minority at the particular place and yet be returned." In each election the votes are necessarily given by voting papers, bearing the name and address of the speaker, which are preserved, each quota being kept distinct, and in case of a vacancy occurring by death, or otherwise, the returning officer in direction from the voter is to send a circular letter to each of the electors forming the constituency of the member who had filled the vacant seat with a list of the new candidates, and the candidate obtaining the largest number of suffrages out of such constituency will be re- turned as duly elected to the vacant seat. In the event of a member accepting office under govern- ment, a circular letter is to be sent to the constituency represented by that member, informing them thereof, and unless in reply at least one fourth express their dissent, the representative who has so accepted office under government will not vacate his seat. While Mr. Hare's plan does not propose to equalise the electoral districts in any of the modes heretofore suggested, it of course fulfils the whole object of those who desire this equalisation ; and, unlike all other schemes, is self-adjusting, the quota being declared at each election as before stated. HEAL REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE. 13 There are other points as to the ballot, the suffrage, disqualification of members, &c., upon which some differences of opinion may be expected. Mr. Hare objects to the ballot, and in another pamphlet this shall be fully discussed. The subject is of too much interest to dismiss here in a few lines only. Mr. Hare evidently hopes that undue influence will be so guarded against and checked by the heightened stand- ard of electoral morals induced in the working out of the scheme of personal representation of which he is the author, that he provides for open voting by voting papers, signed by the elector, and these are to be delivered by the voter personally at the polling booth, save under special circum- stances. Mr. Hare's views on the suffrage are that the qualifica- tion should be accessible to every man when he acquires a home and settles to an occupation in life. He says with reference to woman, that given the same qualification as the man, there is no sound reason for excluding her from the parliamentary franchise. He would not disqualify judicial officers, clergymen, or officials from becoming repre- sentatives. Numerous readers will doubtless agree in think- ing that too many probable causes of mischief abound in the adoption of this item. The Judge on the Bench who may have to try a political prisoner should be kept as free as possible from party bias. The system of government in England will most certainly have to undergo a thorough purification before civil service appointments can cease to be regarded as possible wages for ministerial support. He condemns the payment of members, but would limit each candidate's election expenses to .50. This sum would be a sort of guarantee against crowding the lists with sham candidates. All the present machinery of elections would be thrown out of gear by the successful introduction of Mr. Hare's views. We should no longer have the inhabitants of each place divided into parties seeking to return their candidate against the desire of the political opponent. Instead of the elections being, as now, a contest for power in which some got their representative elected, and some vote and see all 1* REAL REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE. their labours fruitless, and their political effort entirely wasted, we should have the election an endeavour to select the ablest representative, each voter knowing that if he had anywhere in the country a quota of sympathising electors, he was sure of being represented in Parliament by the man of his choice. At present our electoral system divides the voters into adverse parties arrayed under formal names, and prevents the expression of the true and individual opinions of the members of either party. " It lowers the force of thought and conscience, reduces the most valuable electoral elements to inaction, and converts the better motives of those who act into an effort for success, and a mere calcula- tion of the means of accomplishing it." Mr Hare's plan would enable the individual expression of opinion to become a reality, not a sham ; it would develop a more self-reliant tone in those electors who at present are crushed out of vigour by the consciousness of their numerical helplessness. It would enable them to enter the House of Commons gathering their votes from east, west, north, and south, who under the present system could never get a majority in any one place, and who yet perhaps are better entitled to rank themselves as representative men in the country than are half the elected members of the Commons House of Par- liament. Those people who have not yet the suffrage right should submit Mr. Hare's views to careful investigation, in order to ascertain whether the bill he proposes would, if enacted, result, as I firmly believe it would, in increasing their oppor- tunities of acquiring the franchise, by placing in Parliament various men having knowledge of and trusted by the people, to whom parliamentary action is at present impossible. Those who hold the reins of government entirely in their own grasp should seriously consider whether it would not be far wiser to carry such a measure now they have the ability, and while there is no hostile popular pressure, than to wait until a stormy reformation has swept them from power, and a manhood suffrage, conceded to the agitated masses to prevent a continuance of riot and revolt, has politically annihilated the classes who have hitherto usurped th* REAL REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE. 15 entire government of the state. The governing minority might in a time of political repose, such as the present, gracefully enact Mr. Hare's measure on the ground that it was just and beneficial to the people; although, notwithstanding that it will be equally just in the next generation, its future benefits will be special to themselves. It would, however, be difficult for the minority of high birth and great estates to obtain the enactment for them- selves from an irritated and overwhelming majority of a measure which, when themselves powerful, they had refused. It is desirable that both sides should regard the question of the political enfranchisement of the people as of equal interest and common benefit. To adopt a phrase of Burke's, politics ought to be adjusted to human nature, and the proper business of the government ought to be to ascertain the general wish and requirements of the nation, legislating in accordance therewith. In one of his speeches the elo- quent calumniator of the French Revolution said, " The people will have it so, and it is not for their representatives to say nay ;" yet either of the members now sitting for Manchester may hear that the non-electors, inhabitants of that city, have assembled to the number of 40,000 in front of the Infirmary, declaring in favour of some measure, and he may, under present circumstances, altogether disregard their united voice, because politically they are dumb. Each individual of the 40,000 may be a tax-paying, law-observing machine, but he is destitute of any rights as a citizen : he has no vote, no voice in the government of his country. The Imperial Parliament is elected without his sanction, he contributes no choice, has no part in its selection ; ail his duty is to obey its edicts, his privilege to pay and pine. That a great political struggle is impending, must be evi- dent to every student of history. In every nation of the world, each period of assault by the governed on their governors for the obtainment of some share in the right to manage the business of the nation, has been preceded by a strong expression of heretical views. This is natural, for what is the latter but the manifestation of an education incon- 1G REAL REPRESENTATION OF THE PROPLF.. sislent with political slavery? While the masses are ignorant they believe everything and remain without the suffrage, but as they are gradually educated to confute the delusions of their ancient teachers, the superstitionists who frightened their children with bogey, so they are also educated enough to dispute the dictum of the great landed aristocracy who treat the nation as in its babyhood, and declare it incapable of self-government. At the present moment the nation, by its wide and fast increasing out-uttered heresy, manifests a rapid extension of education, and I therefore do not believe that it will wait for a very long time before its attention is turned to the achievement of some such result as the real re- presentation of the people in Parliament. No conclusion can be fitter for this brief pamphlet than the renewed recommendation to our readers to obtain for themselves Mr. Hare's volume, of which Mr. Mill says that " it deserves a high rank among manuals of political thought," and that " the system it embodies will be recog- nised as alone just in principle, as one of the greatest of all practical improvements, and as the most efficient safeguard of further parliamentary reform." GEORGE PRINCE OF WALES; WITH RECENT CONTRASTS AND COINCIDENCES. CHARLES BRADLAUGH. LONDON: FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY, 28, STONECUTTER STREET, E.G. PRICE TWOPENCE. THE LIFE OF GEORGE PRINCE OF WALES, "WITH BECENT CONTRASTS AND COINCIDENCES. " ' God save the King !' It is a large economy In God to save the like ; but if he will Be saving 1 all the better : for not one am I Of those who think damnation better still." BYRON. GEOKGE AUGUSTUS FBF.DEIUCK PBINCE OF WALES, was born on August 12th, 1762. He was the son of George III. by the Queen Sophia Charlotte. George III. was thrice married, once privately in 1759, at Curzori Street Chapel, May Fair, to Hannah Lighifoot, a Quakeress, and afterwards on September 18th, 1761, publicly to the Princess Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenberg Strelitz. As Hannah Lightfoot was living at the time of the second marriage, the offspring of that bigamous union would have been illegitimate if George III. had not been King of England. Fortunately it is one of the maxims of our glorious constitution, that the King can do no wrong; besides which, the marriage with Hannah Lightfoot has been positively denied, although it is said that the Earl of Abercorn and Lord Harcourt, amongst others, informed Queen Charlotte of the actuality of the first marriage. I accept the denial, even in the teeth of the fact, for a royal denial, as was shown in the case of the Fitzherbert marriage, of the Duke of York scandal, and of the Mordaunt divorce, is of greater value than any evidence ; and in this case I accept the denial of the Light- foot marriage the more readily, as if the story of that union were true it would cast grave doubts on the right of Her Most Gracious Majesty to reign over us. The only title English monarchs have to their crowns ar.d it must be admitted that this title is an all-sufficient one is that of hereditary right. The monarchs of some countries have been selected by their peoples: our kings and queens are bred from special foreign stocks, and inherit the right to reign just as other persons inherit entailed estates, and any blot on the legitimacy would weaken the right. It is some comfort to know that George HI. married Queen Charlotte George Prince cj Wales. . 3 twice, the second marriage being; solemnised at Kew, in 1705; but whether Hannah Lighifoot was then dead or alive is a matter on which it is difficult to express an opinion. At any rate, if there had ever been any doubt as to the legiti- macy of George Prince of Wales, the second solemnisation of the marriage- with Sophia Charlotte may give all loyal subjects more ease of mind as to the title of the later born members of the Royal Family. Those who argue that Hannah Lightfoot died in 1765, make strange suggestions as to a severe attack of mental disease, which, commencing at this time, although partially repressed, ultimately re- appeared, and many years alter terminated in the absolute idiocy of George III. There is a great contrast between the parents of Prince George and those of the present Prince of Wales. The late Prince Consort is known as Albert the Good, and the statues erected through the country testify more strikingly than his many less known grand deeds, to the great esteem in which his memory is held by all loyal Englishmen ; but George III. was described by Lord Brougham in the fol- lowing fashion : " Of a narrow understanding, which no culture had enlarged; of an obstinate disposition, which no education perhaps could have humanised ; of strong feelings in ordinary things, and a resolute attachment to all his own opinions and predilections, George III. possessed much of the firmness of purpose which, being exhibited by men of con- tracted mind without any discrimination, and as pertinaci- ously when they are in the wrong as when they are in the right, lends to their characters an appearance of inflexible consistency, which is often mistaken for greatness of mind, and not seldom received as a substitute for honesty. In all that related to bis kingly office he was the slave of deep- rooted selfishness; and no feeling of a kindly nature ever was allowed access to his bosom whenever his power was Amcerned." So one who had a fair opportunity of judging writes of the father, and the criticism may aid us to under- stand his son. It is said that on some rare occasions, George III. could be privately and munificently generous ; the name of the father of our present Prince of Wales figured in many public lists of charitable subcrip$fes, but 4 George Prince of Wales. it has never been suggested that he in any way concealed the natural liberality of his disposition. George IV. was by letters patent created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester ; as first born, he was Duke of Cornwall and of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick and Baron of Renfrew. The present Prince of Wales was also created Earl of Dublin, a title afterwards deserved by his praiseworthy exertions at Puncbestown Races for the amelioration of the condition of the Irish people. When George Prince of Wales was only nineteen, he became with his brother Frederick, who was not only Duke of York, but was elected Bishop of Osnaburgh when eleven months old, the subject of much hostile comment. One writer says, " at this period the Prince and his eldest brother were associated in dissipation of every species : their love of gaming was proverbial, and their excess of indul- gence in voluptuousness was sufficient to drain the resources of the country." How great the contrast between the conduct of these two royal princes and that of the present Prince of Wales and his brother the Duke of Edinburgh. Omitting the Continental papers, some of which have dared to print sug- gestions as to the habits of the first, and the Colonial papers, some of which have been wicked enough to charge the second with open and notorious licentiousness, and leaving as un- worthy notice Sir Charles Mordaunt's reference to " the previous bad character" of the present heir-apparent, we defy the finger of slander to touch in any of our respectable journals the slightest remark of a depreciatory character against either of our well- beloved royal princes ; except so, me provincial journal like the Royal Leamington Chron- icle, or cheap paper like Reynolds' s, all our free and inde- p endent press writers agreeing in testifying to the purity of t he living scions of the Hcuse of Brunswick. George Prince of Wales called himself Florizel, and his liaison with Mary Robinson as Perdita was one o-' the most notorious amongst the escapades of his early life. Mrs. Baddeley states that it commenced when the Prince was little more than fourteen. " But," asks Thackeray, u shall we take the Leporello part, flourish a catalogue of the conquests of this royal Don Juan, and tell the names of the favourites to George Prince of Wales. 5 whom one after the other Prince George flung his pocket- handkerchief? What purpose would it answer to say bow Perdita was pursued, won, deserted, and by whom suc- ceeded ? " As Thackeray refrained with George, so we re- frain with Albert Edward, and from Broadwood downwards draw a discreet veil of reticence which only hides from those who cannot see : ** Who has a thing to bring For a gift to our lord the King, Our King all Kings above ? A young girl brought him love; And he dowered her with shame, With a sort of infamous fame, And then with lonely years Of penance and bitter tears. Love is scarcely the thing To bring as a gift for our King." The marriage of Prince George, in 1786, to Mrs. Fitz- herbert, gained additional eclat from the fact that George is said to have written a letter to Charles James Fox, authorising him to deny in Parliament that the formal solemnity had ever taken place. Thackeray's answer ought to have been given to Mr. Eolle, in the House of Commons, in lieu of that spoken by C. J. Fox, who is alleged to have been present at the mar- riage, and yet asserted to the Legislature, if Hansard be reliable, that " it never did happen." The author of "Vanity Fair" says that George " did actually marry Mrs. Fitzherbert according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church ; that her marriage settlements have been seen in London, and that the names of the witnesses to her marriage are known." Yet, of what avail is an author's word against the denial of a Prince ? When George attained his majority he had an allowance of 50,000 per annum, toge- ther with a grant of 60,000 for furnishing Carlton House. When Albert Edward attained his majority he had 40,000 a year voted him by Parliament, he had the income of the Duchy of Cornwall, exceeding net 60,000 per annum, and he had the enormous accumulations of his minority, amount- ing to something like a million sterling. Neither George G George Prince of Wales. Prince nor Albert Edward Prince limited his expenditure to the amounfe of his income. The debts of George came before the Parliament ; the pecuniary embarrassments of Albert Edward, although matter of common talk in some circles, are at present better concealed. The House of Commons in 1787, voted about 160.000 for the payment of the Prince of Wales's debts, solemn pledges of economy for the future being given by. and on behalf of, the royal insolvent. It is a question whether the present Parliament would vote, and whether the country would submit to a repetition of such a payment. In 1788, George III. was inad, and no greater proof can be advanced of the perfect and unimpeachable character of our monarchy than the fact that, with an insane head, the Government went on quite as well as when he was in possession of all his faculties. The mere fact that Jamaica had mutinied, that the American Colonies had broken our oppressive yoke, and that Ireland was held by force and fraud, must not be allowed to militate against our approval of George's reign. That war cost during it more than 1.200000,000, renders the memory of George III. as dear to us, as the King was in life to the members of the London Corresponding Society. I know that one furious Radical, Earl Grey, speaks as if the monarchy were always better without the King than with him, for he declares that " the highly benehcial custom of holding Cabinet Councils without the presence of the Sove- reign arose from George I. not knowing English." And Earl Grey had the audacity to publish this in the reign of her present Majesty, whose constant help and aid in the government of the nation is known to be so highly valuable. I once heard a public lecturer, describing the crowned head of this great empire, say "What is the position which Eng- land's monarch occupies in the great vessel of the State ? He is not the paddle-wheel nor the screw, neither the mast, the sails, the rigging, the bulwarks, nor the keel ; he is the highly decorated figure-head, always costly, not always handsome, and never useful." In consequence of the state of mind of George III., debates took place in the House of Commons as to the Regency. The friends of the Prince claimed it for him as George Prince of Wales. 7 a right ; Pitt, on the contrary, maintained the terribly revo- lutionary doctrine, that in the event of incapacity on the part of the reigning monarch, the right to nominate the Kegent rested with the Parliament. Everyone will see that this is a most dangerous doctrine, for it is equivalent to declaring that the nation has the legal right to select its own ruler on any vacancy occurring in the occupancy of the throne. Fortunately, the King temporarily recovered his reason. When sane, George III. bitterly disliked his eldest son, and showed that dislike in various fashions the King and heir apparent were seldom or never seen together. To-day no such division can be shown between the reigning monarch and Crown Prince ; and although it is true that on the recent royal visit to the City the Prince of Wales was unavoidably absent, it must not be forgotten that immedi- ately his royal mother had left London for Windsor, Albert Edward delighted all loyal citizens by his attendance the same evening at one of the new theatres. George Prince of Wales was called the first gentleman in Europe ; that is, he was so styled while he was alive, although posthumous critics have disputed his claim to the title ; no such dispute is, however, likely to arise in any case with reference to the present Prince of Wales. His royal thoughtfulness for his guests, the sons of the Viceroy of Egypt, when a careless coachman had overturned them in the mud, will remain an ineffaceable testimony of his sensitive and well-trained nature. George is said to have been praised, and not un- duly, for his highly cultivated mind, his elegant accomplish- ments, and his personal graces. Albert Edward has been honoured in the cartoon of the Tomahawk with a pictorial epitome of his elegant accomplishments. In 1788, 1789, and 1790, in order to raise money, George Prince of Wales, Frederick Duke of York, and William Henry Duke of Clarence, issued joint and several bonds, bearing interest, and payable within six months after either of them should ascend the throne. These bonds were issued to an extent in all of nearly one million sterling nominal, but were of course placed at heavy discount. The holders, who were mostly foreigners, were prevented from being importunate creditors by deportation under the Alien Act 8 George Prince of Wales. from this country, and by accusations of treason in tbeir own land. In 1794, the Prince of Wales owing then about 650,000, a bargain was made that Georpe should marry his cousin Princess Caroline Louisa of Brunswick, and that the nation should not only pay all his debts, but also in- crease his annual allowance. George wanted his debts paid, but did not want to marry, and the copy of a letter is pre- served, from him to his proposed spouse, in which he asks her to refuse to marry him, tells her that he loves another woman, and finally winds up : " Tou would find in me a husband who places all bis affections upon another. If this secret which I name to you in confidence does not cause you to reject me ; if ambition, or any other motive of which I am ignorant, cause you to condescend to the arrangements of my family, learn that, as soon as you shall have given an heir to the throne, I will abandon you, never to meet you more in public." It is wonderful how any woman could have married a man writing her such a letter. George said, " Tou cannot accuse me of having deceived you." Not only were the 650,000 debts paid, and the Prince's allow- ance increased from 60,000 to 100.000 per annum, but 71,000 additional was voted for plate, jewels, and marriage sundries, at Carlton House. Six months after the marriage the starving poor cried, "Give us bread," "No famine,' King George III. was pelted on his way to open Parliament, and, when he arrived at Westminster, was so frightened " that," says a Parliamentary writer, " his face was flushed and swollen, his eyes were momentarily turned from side to side, and his manner evinced the utmost perturbation." In great fear the Treason and Sedition Acts were hurried through Parliament. It is alleged that George asked for a glass of brandy after his first interview with his bride elect, and that when he was married, on April 8th, 1795, he did not even remain sober on the wedding-day. No such disgraceful charge could be repeated against Albert Edward, whose constant sobriety, at home and abroad, might serve as an example for loyal temperance lecturers. That La Cigale should pre- tend against our prince, habits more like those of his princely predecessor, is an illustration of the licence of the foreign Prince of Wales. i) press, and that rumour should suggest an instance of public insobriety on the Boulevard des Italiens, shows how far mud may be thrown at royal ermine of the most spotless purity. Thackeray speaks of how George " reeled into chapel to be married ; how he hiccupped out his vows of fidelity." A daughter was born to Prince George on January 7th, 1796. She was named Charlotte Augusta, and immediately after her birth, Prince George, as he threatened, separated himself from his wife. In 1803, the excesses of Prince George caused him further embarrassment, and 60,000 a-year extra were for three years and a half devoted to the liquidation of his liabilities. Who dare write at length the names of the women some titled and fashionable who helped to spend this money ? In the Duke of Buckingham's letters, vaguo references at a later date to one titled dame might be explained iu regard to the expenditure of this period: * Who has a thing to bring For a gift to our lord the King ? A harlot brought him her flesh, Her lusts, and the manifold inesh Of her wiles in tervolved with caprice ; And he gave her his realm to fleece, To corrupt, to ruin, and gave Himself for her toy and her slave. Harlotry's just the thing To bring as a gift for our king 1 ." The Marchioness of Conyngham, one of the many tern porary wives of this modern Solomon, amongst other gifts, had jewels value 80,000. Lady Jersey, another favourite, shared in the work of spoiling the Egyptians. Thackeray says, that the Prince of Wales' ttirf'experiences were unlucky as well as discreditable. He was accused of cheating with his horse Escape, and although of course acquitted, left the Jockey Club in consequence. The Prince living separate from the Princess of Wales, all kinds of rumours were circulated, one allegation being that since the living apart, another and illegitimate child had been born to her, and a Royal Com- mission, including the Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Jus- 10 George Prince of Wales. tice of England, was issued to investigate these slanderous allegations ; the official report made is supposed to have thoroughly cleared Princess Caroline's character, and to have demonstrated the most wicked conduct on the partof Queen Sophia Charlotte and Prince George, but King George III. " directed it should be destroyed, and every trace of the proceedings on the afl'air buried in oblivion." William Cob- bett, however, obtained a copy of all the depositions, either irom the Princess of Wales, or from Mr. Perceval, and printed them in a special number of his Political Register. In a letter printed some time alter her acquittal, the Princess of Wales describes the evidence offered against her before the Royal Commissioners, as " the perjuries of my suborned tra- ducers.' ' In 1809, another royal scandal rang through Europe. His Royal Highness the Duke of York was Commander-in- Chief of his Majesty's forces, and it was proved before Par- liament, by one of his many repudiated mistresses, a Mrs. Mary Ann Clark, that several sums of money had been paid to that lady by officers desirous of procuring promotion. One sum received by Mrs. Clark was shown, by corrobora- tive testimony, to have been applied in part payment of a jeweller's bill, for which the Duke of York was liable. A note was produced which several witnesses, some of them of most unassailable character, declared to be in the Duke's handwriting, and the contents of which referred to the case. The Duke, however, declared the note to be a forgery, and the House of Commons, by a large majority, acquitted him of any participation in the scandalous corruption which un- doubtedly took place. The Duke of York declared, on "the honour of a Prince," that he knew nothing of the corruption proved at the bar of the House. One member of the House of Commons, Mr. Tierney, replied that "It was easy to conceive that His Eoyal Highness would have been prompt to declare his inno- cence upon a vital point; but why declare it upon 'the honour of a Prince ? ' for the thing had no meaning." Mr. Lyttleton, another member of the Parliamentary Committee, said, " If it were in the power of the House to send down to posterity the character of theDuke of York unsullied if their proceedings did not extend beyond their journals, he shjould George Prince of Wales. 11 almost be inclined to concur in the vote of acquittal, even in opposition to his sense of duty. Butthough the House should acquit his Royal Highness, the proofs would still re- main, and public opinion would be guided by them, and not by the decision of the House. Tt was in the power of the House to save its own character, but not that of the Corn- man der-in- Chief." Mr. Wilberforce demanded the Duke of York's removal irom office as " a reparation to the wounded morality of the country." Lord Temple urged that ' His Eoyal Highness cannot be prudently continued a servant of the public." " Wherever he went the deep murmurs of public indignation would strike his ear." Lord Milton said, " His Eoyal Highness had given in a letter in which he declared on the honour of a Prince that he was innocent," " to his other guilt his Eoyal Highness had added that of falsehood." Fortunately for lovers of monarchy, a majority of 364 members against 123 brought in, in effect, a verdict of not guilty, and although the Duke of York resigned his high office, his character was freed from all stain. Now, his Eoyal Highness George William Frederick Charles Guelph Duke of Cambridge, son of the seventh son of George III., happens to be the present Commander- in- Chief. The nation pays to H.E.H. .12,000 per annum, as a slight mark of gratitude for having been born of Eoyal blood. It pays him also 4,432 for being Field Marshal Commander-in-Chief, and permits him also to receive another 5,000 a year for performing the task so distaste, ful to his honourable nature of holding four sinecure colonelcies. He has the full character of Brunswick bravery and inheriting courage from his princely father, vvhose- gallant conduct in leaving his command in Hanover, in 1803, covered his name with glory has gathered enough of laurels in the Crimea to keep his reputation as a warrior green for ever. Of course, in the pure hands of H.E.H. the Duke of Cambridge, all suspicion of anything like im- proper influences in the administration of army patronage is out of the question, and any repetition of the Duke of York scandal simply impossible. Nevertheless, the Belfast Nens Letter, in a paragraph which went round the press about twelve months since, said 12 George Prince of Waks. " The whisper of a grave scandal has become so loud in circles where reliable information is generally to \>p ^'ound, that it is no longer possible to leave it unnoticed. It relates to a very high personage, whose position ought to place him liigh above the breath of suspicion, but whose private life is sullied by excesses which threaten to bring disgrace upon the order to which he be- longs, and even to sully the ermine of Royalty itself. Had the causes of complaint or of reprobation been cunfined to private history alone, the probability is that the veil might not have been raised ; but. it is asserted that a flugrant abuse of patronage has long prevailed in the department over which the person in ques- tion holds imperial sway, and that the storm of dissatisfaction is attaining a strength which will probably lead the House of Com- mons, in the interests of the public, to direct an inquiry into the circumstances of the case. The subject is one of extreme deli- cacy, but, in a reforming age like the present, if suspicion justly attaches, it would seem but right that those who are responsible for the honour of the administration, whether it be military, naval, or civil, should interfere, ere it be too late, to prevent a great scandal, if not national reproach. It is rumoured that certain facts in connection with the matter have been laid before the chief adviser of the Crown." -His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, ought to re- gret that neither Colonel Wardle, nor Lord Folkestone, nor Sir Francis Burdett is now in the House of Commons, to move for a parliamentary inquiry into the foundation of the above scandalous statement, for there can be no doubt that the Duke would be thoroughly cleared from all imputation, despite the allegation of the Queen's Messenger, that " his department is such an Augean stable of corruption, that it can never be cleansed unless the Serpentine is made to flow through it." Just as His Eoyal Highness the Duke of Tork was cleared by the vote of the House of Commons, and as His Koyal Highness the Prince of Wales was freed from suspicion by tbe recent decision in the Mordaunt case, so would the Duke of Cambridge emerge unsullied from the ordeal of a parliamentary inquiry into the present distribu- tion of army patronage. It is no light question ; the money value of the preferment distributed in the department over which the Duke presides has already exceeded .2,000,000 sterling, and the central administration of the English army costs nearly three times as muck as that of the French George Prince of JJ'aks. Icfc whose forces are at least five times as numerous. In 1810, a tragedy took place in connection with the Koyal Family of an almost unparalleled character. His Royal Highness Ernest Augustus Guelph Duke of Cumberland, fifth son of George III. whom Daniel O'Connell described as " the mighty great liar," and of whom another said that " sensibi- lity and virtue were strangers to his breast" was wounded in his own room on the night of the 31st May. The wounds are said to have been inflicted by the Duke's valet, Sellis, who was found dead in bed. Sir Everard Home, the phy- sician, says that Sellis clearly killed himself; another account says that Sellis's " head was nearly severed from the body." An inquest was held on Sellis, but the jury not being per- mitted to see the body, refused to give any verdict, and a second jury was got together who returned a verdict of felo dc se against Sellis. While it is not possible now to say one word which can clear this mystery, it must not be for- gotten as an illustration of the general virtues popularly attributed to the Eoyal Eamily, that it was repeatedly alleged that Sellis did not commit suicide ; that no evidence was offered showing that he had any reasons for destroying himself, nor was it proved that he had shown any disposition towards such a course. On the contrary, it was urged that " the motive for getting rid of Sellis was the Duke's fear lest the man should reveal a secret inculpating his royal master in a crime of the most horrible description." While there is no reason for even supposing Sellis to have been murdered, it must be admitted that the Duke of Cumber- land was extremely unfortunate in the matter of suicides. Twenty years later, Lord Graves committed suicide at a time when his existence interfered with the Duke's in- timacy with Lady Graves, and Englishmen may rejoice that, bad as are some of the living Koyal Princes, there is not one amongst them whose career can be regarded as coincident with that of the Duke of Cumberland. In 1811, Prince George was appointed Eegent, 100,000 extra being voted to him to enable him to bear the cost of the assumption of regal authority, and public opinion may be not unfairly judged by the following extract from a letter printed by the famous Junius, reproaching him for non- 14 George Prince of Wales. performance of his duties as ruler, and contrasting th0 Prince Regent with his iather, the poor mad King : " It is true we had gained little by the private virtues of a sovereign, since they had neither benefited his people nor taught his children morality ; but if not publicly useful, they were a bar- rier to reproach. He did not stain the throne.with vice, nor drown the clamours of the people in the midnight revel. Content him- self to walk soberly through his purr, he left the busy action of the scene to others, but never shrunk his share in the performance. "We did not call him from the stews to the Council-board ; from the bed of adultery to the seat of honour. Sir, it is said you plume yourself upon that princely qualification called honour, but is it in the abandonment of every sacred tie 'or moral obligation? la it in the open disregard of the world's reproof, and the stoical in- difference to the calls of nature and humanity? la it honour which prompts you to quit the arms of a wife for the endearments of a wanton; or with unblushing effrontery to introduce that wanton before the chaste eye of your Royal Mother ? Is it a proof of princely honour to toy away the night in debauchery, the day in lascivious enjoyment, and bid the business of the world standstill? While \ our country groans in distress, and your people are sinking under their privations, is it a sense of princely honour which bids you revel in profusion, and mock their sorrows with your ostentatious prodigality ? It is said you have so far out- stripped the boundaries of enjoyment, that luxury and sensuality toil after you in vain ; would you be redeemed from a state so calamitously despicable, go visit the abode of yoar wretched sub- ject?, and take a lesson from patient indigence." " If this afford not an antidote to the list less apathy of your disposition, deign but to hearken to the grievances and wrongs which overwhelm your people, and the, sense of apprehension must woo you back to reason." No Junius lives to-day with fiery pen to scorch the princely vices of another George. On May 3, 1816, Princess Charlotte of "Wales was married to Prince Leopold, of Saxe Coburg. Prince Leopold had been previously married on January 2, 1815, to theCountess of Co- haky, who was alive at the time of the marriage with Princess Charlotte of Wales. That this was another instance of bigamy is an addition to our story so trifling that we pass it by without further comment. The Princess of Wales died in child-bed on the 6th November, 1817 ; Prince George neTer communicated the death to her mother, " the most George Prince of Wales. 15 brutal omission," says Mr. Wynn, in bis letter to the Duke of Buckingham, " I ever remember, and one which would attach disgrace in private life." On the 23rd January, 1820, the Duke of Kent died. On the evening of Friday, the 28th January, 1 820, died officially King George 111. " He died ! his death made no great stir on earth, His burial made some pomp; there was profusion Of velvet gilding, brass, and no great dearth Of aught but tears. The new world shook him off ; the old ret groans Beneath what he and his prepared, if not Completed : he leaves heirs on many thrones To all his vices, without what begot Compassion for him his tame virtues." For some time the old King had been blind, deaf, and in- curably mad, and yet his Grace of Buckingham and Sir William Knighton, tell us that the news of his death was received by George IV. "with a burst of grief which was very affecting." Living, the son had hated the father ; for ten years that father had suffered chronic lunacy, but his good son finds affectionate grief for the dead as recompense for lack of filial love for the living. In the succeeding month came theThistlewood conspiracy, chiefly promoted, if not originally concocted, by an infamous scoundrel in the employ of the Castlereagh Government, who used the weaknesses of foolish and desperate men in order to terrify the timid by fear of treason and outrage from pur- suing real political reform. Some coincidences quite as fearful, and even more thoroughly the result of police fabrication, might be found in Ireland and England in the present reign. Trials for sedition abounded. Henry Hunt, Sir Francis Burclett, Sir Charles Wolseley, Mr. Joseph Harrison, were all convicted and sentenced during the months of March and April. Colonel McMahon, who hud been pimp and pander-general to the vicious appetite of George Prince of Wales, having died, and his private papers having passed into the hands of Mr. William Knighton, a physician, discreet reticence mad Sir William Knighton the confidential adviser of the now worn-out and irritable debauchee. Next came the trial of the Queen, before th3 16 George Prince of Wales. House of Lords, for alleged adultery with Bartollomeo Bergarni, of which Thackeray says, " As I read her trial in history I vote she is not guilty. I don't say it is an impartial verdict ; but as one reads her story, the heart bleeds lor the kindly, generous, outraged creature. If wrong there be, Jet it be at his door who wickedly thrust her from it." In August, 1820, one of Fremantle's letters to the Duke of Buckingham speaks of the treason, sedition, and blasphemy permeating the press, and a few weeks later Lord Cassilis writes, arguing against any reduction of the army, "a soldier less, and we shall have revolution and civil war." In July, 1821, King George IV. was crowned, his Queen, Caroline, whose name had been previously erased from the Liturgy, being refused admittance even to the Coronation ceremony. It was with George as Prince, not George as King that we desired here to deal. Some other time we may take the ten years of his reign from Coronation to death, and try to wade through the intrigues at the Cottage, the influence of Lady , &c., of which the Buckingham letters say so much and tell so little. It is too much to try to sketch, in a few words, a concluding portrait of the rapidly- corrupting mass of foulness which seldom sat on the throne, or did kingly duty, but which Englishmen prayed for every Sunday, and honoured in their National Anthem, " God save our gracious King." " Here," says Thackeray, " was one who never re- sisted any temptation ; never had a desire, but he coddled it and pampered it ; if he ever had any nerve, frittered it away among cooks, and tailors, and barbers, and furniture- mongers, and opera dancers," " all fiddling, and flowers, a id feasting, and flattery, and folly," "a monstrous image ofc pride, vanity, and weakness." From the accession of Geo ge III. in 1760, to the death of George IV., in 1830, the Ko/ai Family of England received from the national treasury nc less than ^92,090,807. Printed and Published by CHARLES BRAm-Arcn and Axxre BESANT, 28, Stonecutter Street, London, E.C. A LETTER FROM A FREEMASON TO GENERAL H.R.H. ALBERT EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES, Dulte of Saxony, Cornwall, and Rothesay ; Earl of Diiftlin, Colonel 10th Hussars, Colonel-in-CJilef of the Rifle J&rigade, Cap- tain- General and Colonel of the Hon. Artillery Company, K.G., G. C.S.I., K.T., Cf.C.JB., K.P., etc., etc., etc. TO BR/. H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES. DEAR BR.\ I do not ask you to pardon this, to the profane,, perhaps an apparently too familiar style of address, although I do pray pardon if I have unintentionally omitted many of your numerous titles in the formal superscription to this letter. I have never written before to a Prince, and may lack good manners in thus inditing ; but to my brother Masons I have often written, and know they love best a plain, fraternal greeting, if the purpose of the epistle be- honest. You have voluntarily on your part, and unsought on my side, commenced by accepting me as a brother, and you have cemented this fraternity by specially swearing to protect me on appeal in my hour of danger ; and though history teaches me that sworn promises are less well kept than steadfast, manly pledges, and that Princes' oaths are specially rottea reeds to lean upon; yet in the warmth of newly created brother, I am inclined to believe you brother for AVC are brethren, you and I not brothers perhaps as we should be of the same common humanity for in this land I know that Princes are no fair mates for those who are pauper born ; but we are brothers by your own choice, members of the same fraternity by your own joining ; men self-associated in the same grand Masonic brotherhood, and it is for that reason I write you this letter. You, though now a Past Grand Master, are but recently a free and accepted Master 3 Litter to the Prince of Wales. Mason, and probably yet know but little of the grand tradi- tions of the mighty organisation whose temple doors have opened to your appeal. My knowledge of the mystic branch gained amongst the Republicans of all nations is of some years' older date. You are now, as a Freemason, excommu- nicate by the Pope so am I. It is fair to hope that the curse of the Church of Rome may have a purifying and chas- tening effect on your future life, at least as efficacious as the blessing of the Church of England has had on your past career. You have entered into that illustrious fraternity which has numbered in its ranks Swedenborg, Voltaire, and Garibaldi. These are the three who personify grand Idealism and Poetic Madness ; Wit and Genius, and true Humanity ; manly Energy, sterling Honesty, and hearty Republicanism. My sponsor was Simon Bernard yours, I hear, was the King of Sweden. In writing, dear brother, I do not address you as a Prince of Wales, for some of our Princes of Wales have been drunken, riotous spendthrifts, covered in debt, and deep in dishonour ; but you, dear brother, instead of being such an one, figure more reputably as the erudite member of a Royal Geographical Society, or as a steady fellow of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers. Happily there is no fear that in your case a second Doctor Doran may have to pen the narrative of a delicate investigation. If Junius were alive to-day, his pen would not dare to repeat its fierce attack on another Prince of Wales. Junius charged George, Prince of Wales, with quitting the arms of his wife for the endearments of a wanton, with toying away the night in debauchery, and with mocking the sorrows of the people vith an ostentatious prodigality. But your pure career, your sober and virtuous life, would win laudations even from Junius's ghost. You are an English gentleman, as well as Prince of Wales ; a good and kind husband in spite of being Prince of Wales; with you woman's honour is safe from attack, and sure of protection. The draggled and vice- stained plumes on your predecessors' escutcheons have been well cleaned and straightened by modern journalism, and the Prince of Wales' feathers are no longer (like the Bourbon fleur de lis) the heraldic ornament of a race of princes sans foi, sans moeurs. Fit were you as profane to make the journeys to the Altar, for fame writes you as sober and chaste, Letter to the Prince of Wales. $ as high-minded and generous, as kind-hearted and truthful. These are the qualities, oh Albert Edward, which hid your disability as Prince, when you knelt bare-kneed in our audi- ence chamber. The brethren who opened your eyes to the light, overlooked your title as Prince of Wales in favour of your already famous manhood. Your career is a pleasant contrast to that of George Prince of Wales. Yet because you are as different from the princes whose bodies are dust, while their memories still remain to the historian as visible monuments of shame, I write to you, not as English Prince, but as brother Master Mason. Nor do I address you in your right as one of Saxony's princes, for amongst my memo- ries of other men's readings, I have thoughts of some in Saxony's electoral roll, who were lustful, lecherous, and vile ; who were vicious sots and extravagant wasters of their peoples' earnings, who have lured for their seraglios each fresh face that came within their reach : while you, though Duke of Saxony, have joined a brotherhood whose main intent is the promotion of the highest morality. I do not indeed regard your title of Duke at all in writing you, for when we find a Duke of Newcastle's property in the hands of Sheriffs' Officers, his title a jest for bankruptcy messengers, and the Duke of Hamilton's name an European byeword, it is pleasant to be able to think that the Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay is not as these Dukes are ; that this Duke is not a runner after painted donzels, that he has not written cuckold on the forehead of a dozen husbands, that he is not deep, in debt, has not, like these Dukes, scattered gold in filthy gutters, while deaf to the honest claims of justice. We know, brother, that you would never have voluntarily en- rolled yourself in the world's grandest organisation, if you had been as these. It would have been perjury if you had done so perjury which, though imperially honoured at the Tuileries, would be scouted with contempt by a Lancashire workman. I do not write to you as Earl of Dublin, for Ireland's English-given earls have been as plagues to her vitals and curses to her peoples. For 700 years, like locusts, they have devoured the verdure of her fields, and harassed the tillers of her soil. From the Earl of Chepstow to the Earl of Dublin, is the mere journeying from iron gauntlet to greedy glove take and hold ; and Irish peasantry, in deep 4 Letter to the Prince of Wales. despair, unable to struggle, have learned to hate the Earls with whom English rule has blessed them. Nor even is this letter sent to you as Knight of the Garter, for when I read " Honi soil qui mal y pense" I shrink from calculating the amount of evil that might fall upon some people in the world who occupy their thoughts with princes who are Gartered Knights. Nor do I pen this to you as Colonel either of Cavalry, Infantry, or Artillery, for I can but wonder at and admire the glorious military feats which, though your modesty has hidden them, have nevertheless entitled you to command your seniors, one at least with a Waterloo medal on his breast. Our history tells us of a warrior " Black Prince," who killed many foes ; it can also in the future write of you as a gallant soldier before whom pheasant, plover, and pigeon could make no stand. I write to you as a fellow Master Mason, as to one on an equality with myself, so long as you are true to your Masonic pledge, less than myself whenever you forget it. I address this epistle to you a.^ fellow-member of a body which teaches that man is higher than king; that humanity is beyond church and creed ; that true thought is nobler than blind faith, and that virile, earnest effort is better far than dead or submis- sive serfdom. The Grand Lodge of England has just conferred upon you a dignity you have done nothing to earn ; but you saw light in Sweden, and that initiation should have revealed to you that the highest honour will be won by manly effort, not squeezed from slavish, fawning sycophancy. Free- masonry is democracy, are you a Democrat ? Freemasonry is Freethought, are you a Freethinker? Freemasonry is work for human deliverance, are you a worker? I know you may tell me in England of wine-bibbing, song-singing, ineat-eating, and white k'd glove-wearing fashionables who say " Shibboleth," make " royal salutes," and call this Freemasonry; but these are mere badge-wearers, who lift their legs awkwardly over the coffin in which truth lies buried, and who never either know the grand secret, or even work for its discovery. Come with me to-day, and I will show you, even in this country, lodges where the brethren work e Barebones Parliament, is greeted on the 4th of July, 1653, by Oliver Cromwell, in a speech wherein he declares that in the "Act for a Representative," brought forward in the. Parliament he had just dissolved, "plainly the intention was, not to give the people a right of choice," but " was only to recruit the House, the better to perpetuate them- selves," and "truly, I say, when we saw all this, having 18 CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. power in our hands, we could not resolve to let such mon- strous proceedings go on." This " Little Parliament " worked vigorously for five months, doing in that time some good service to the State, and then resolved, "That the sitting of this Parliament any longer, as now constituted, will not be for the good of the Commonwealth, and that, therefore, it is requisite to deliver up unto the Lord-General Cromwell the powers which we received from him." On the i6th of December, 1653, "a council of officers, and other persons interested in the nation," nominated Oliver Cromwell Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. "Through a gross and glaring evidence," says Hallam, " of the omnipotence of the army, the instrument under which he took his title accorded to him no unnecessary executive authority. The sovereignty still resided in the Parliament, he had no negative voice in their laws." On the 4th of September, 1654, was assembled the first Protectorate Parliament duly elected by the nation. This Parliament wants to discuss too freely ; for it discusses the very right and authority of the Protector himself ; but only for a week, for on the izth of September the Parliament House is locked up and guarded with soldiers, and the Members are all invited to attend his Highness in the Painted Chamber, and there he, Oliver Cromwell, tells the assembled Commons " that he would sooner be rolled into his grave and buried with infamy " than throw away the Government, and that, until they all acknowledge his position as Lord Protector, he says, " I have caused a stop to be put to your entrance into the Parliament House." Some submit at once, some more submit to-morrow, some as Bradshaw, Hazelrig, Thomas Scott, Major Wildman will not submit at all. Non-submission avails nothing ; those who will not submit may have no entrance, no voice, but may get them home, or go whither they will, save into the Parliament House. The Lord Protector's Government is certainly of the most despotic; but says one, "it makes England more formidable and considerable to all nations than it has ever been in my days." Cromwell looks to Virginia ; deals sharply with Spain ; refuses to sign the French treaty until some show of justice is done by the Duke of Savoy to the Protestants "of Lucerna, of Perosa, and St. Martin ;" and generally marks himself as a live head for England. CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. 19 There are plots against Cromwell's life, a reward is offered "by Charles II. of " virtuous life and blessed memory," of ^500 a year to any one who by "sword, pistol, or poison," shall kill "the base mechanic fellow, named Oliver Cromwell," and this reward is offered " on the word and faith of a Christian king." There are men too more dangerous, be- cause more honest, who seek Cromwell's life, because they regard his power as paralysing all hope of liberty. And there is a Parliament which has so reluctantly recognised his chieftainship that it cumbers and hinders his Govern- ment by its resolutions and red-tape provisions for limiting his authority; so that on the 22nd of January, 1655, Crom- well makes it a last long speech, of which the peroration is : "I think it my duty to tell you that it is not for the profit of these nations, nor for the common and public good, for you to continue here any longer " ; and Parliament is dissolved, even before the five calendar months are yet run out during which it is provided that Parliament shall not be dissolved. Cromwell construes the month to be but four weeks, and he wears a sword that would, if need be, measure a hour to have only fifty minutes. Parliament had voted the Protectorate elective by 200 voices against 60, and although compelled by Cromwell to admit his personal might unquestioned, had resolutely debated and examined every other article of the instrument of Government, under which the Protectorate had been created. Parliament dissolved, Cromwell governs by a pure military despotism, dividing England into ten districts, pre- sided over by Major-Generals, nominated by himself. These Major-Generals levy heavy taxes on disaffected persons, their authority being, that it is by Cromwell's will. Duties on merchandise having been levied in excess of law, by Cromwell's authority, and a Mr. George Cony, on whom the tax had been enforced, having made suit at law against the collector, Cromwell sent Cony's counsel to the Tower, while the Lord Chief Justice Rolle retired from the bench rather than give judgment against the Protector. And yet after his fashion, and as between individuals, 'Cromwell dealt out a rude justice, and in all matters other than those which touched the firm maintenance of his Government, was equitable in his dealings as chief-magistrate of the land. He filled the benches with wise and able judges, and, outside the one question of his personal rule, he governed well for the country which he held in the grip 20 CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. of his iron gauntlet. In all matters, even of minor appoint- ments, he would have his way, and writes to Mr. Secretary Thurloe : " I have not the particular shining bauble for crowds to gaze at or to kneel to, but to be short I know how to deny petitions, and whatever I think proper for out- ward form, to ' refer ' to any officer or office, I expect that such my compliance with custom shall be looked upon as an indication of my will and pleasure to have the thing done." On the i yth of September, 1656, a fresh Parliament is. summoned of about 400 members, and of these Cromwell, against all law, prevents nearly ninety persons from taking their seats. The men excluded have been duly elected, but some are too Republican, some iew too Royalist, and Cromwell will have none of them. Under this Parliament the major-general system is abolished with Cromwell's con- sent, and some slight show of constitutional Government presented. At last, on the 315* of March, 1657, the House of Commons present to Cromwell their petition and advice that his Highness, the Lord Protector, may be pleased to- adopt the title " king." Irate major-generals and stern Puritan officers have already remonstrated and urged upon his highness the danger of even seeming to covet any such title. And Cromwell, he will, and he will not, become king. For himself, he is far stronger with the Lord Protector's staff than he would be with the king's sceptre; but then the crown, should he take it, would pass to his son by custom. So he refuses, in view of army opposition, but not too peremptorily, for he still hopes and wishes to wear the crown, if it may be done without too much war with his old Iron- side following. In discussing whether or not he shall take the title, he uses no grand thought of right or plea of duty ; it is a shambling, hesitating, argument, with none of the thoroughness of Cromwell in it. "I suppose it will have ta stand on its expediency," he says, and so it does, and being judged by Cromwell to be not expedient, is at last refused. On the 8th of May his Highness says : " I cannot undertake this Government with the title of king," and so keeps the Government as Protector, with such new advantages and stipulations as Parliament sees fit to give and make ; and on the 26th of June, 1657, Oliver Cromwell, now more formally recognised as Protector by the English Parliament, is. solemnly installed in his Protectorship, in Westminster Hall,. with grand State ceremony, and Parliament is prorogued- CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. 21 until January, 1658, when it meets again with two Houses as of old, Lords and Commons. But into the Commons House now the excluded Members may (by terms of the Petition and Advice) enter if they will but take the oath, and they, or at least some of them, do take the oath, and entering range themselves in sturdy opposition. For ten days there is discontented debate in Parliament, with at least the echoings of disaffection outside; and on the 4th of February, therefore, Oliver Cromwell makes his last speech to the two Houses, saying : " You have not only disjointed yourselves, but the whole nation it hath not only been your endeavour to pervert the army while you have been sitting, but some of you have been listing of person by commission of Charles Stuart to join with any insurrection that may be made. And what is likely to come upon this, the enemy being ready to invade us, but even present blood and confusion ? And if this be the end of your sitting, and this be your carriage, I think it high time that an end be put to your sitting. And I do dissolve this Parliament ! And let God be judge between you and me." And now for a brief seven months governs alone again Oliver Crom- well, and on the 3rd of September, 1658, dies. Oliver Cromwell dead, the Protectorate was dead too. It had never been a Government created by the people, it was the work of one resolute man. During the storm-strife provoked by Charles Stuart's arrogant imbecility, Cromwell had taken the helm of the State ship, and had navigated her, roughly but safely, through tempest, fury, and dangerous passages. But he had allowed none other of the crew to study navigation, nor to share with him the piloting ; and when the rudder slipped from his hand, palsied by death, the poor Protectorate bark drifted to wreck, because none had been trained to fill his place. Cromwell's was a one- man rule, a pure despotism. Two thousand years earlier he would have been carried into Rome on the shields of his soldiers, and saluted "Imperator." Cromwell was no Repub- lican ; but he was a grand Englishman, who pushed to the front by virtue of his sturdy thoroughness, and who did mighty service for the nation whose authority he took, whose power he wielded. One with whom he dealt roughly said of him : " One could bear a little with Oliver Cromwell, though contrary to his oath of fidelity to the Parliament, contrary to his duty to the public, contrary to the respect he owed to that venerable body from whom he received his 22 CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. authority, he usurped the functions of Government. His merit was so extraordinary, that our judgments, our passions, might be blinded by it. He made his way to empire by the most illustrious actions; he had under his command an army that had made him a conqueror, and a people that had made him their general." The author of a fine history of "Demo- cracy," recently published in Massachusetts, describes Crom- well as "hypocrite in his religion, a fanatic in his politics, and a despot in his rule." That he was "a despot in his rule," is true ; that he was a " fanatic in his politics," I see no evid- ence. Clearly a monarchist, he trampled on the monarchy and accepted a Government without a king ; was content with a Protectorate with one chamber, equally content with a Protectorate with two chambers. Having overthrown the king, would have accepted himself the kingly title, had it not been for the dangerous opposition of men who were alike fanatics in politics and religion. Whether Cromwell was, or was not, a " hypocrite in religion," is harder perhaps to decide, and I may not be the best one to express an opinion. Many great leaders have professed themselves God-sent, and even I, who would always regard such a profession as utterly untrue in fact, am not prepared to say that the utterer is necessarily a hypocrite. Hindostan gave us recently a great leader claiming to be god-sent. The Moslem, twelve centuries ago, had his Mohammed. That Cromwell was a " fanatic " in his religion is, I think, more easily proveable ; and that he was, at any rate, in the last eleven years of his life " a hypocrite " in his politics, is, I think, capable of demonstration. But, despite all this, he was a man of huger stature and of mightier will than any other who lived in his age. He made the haughty Spaniard bend; forced Mazarin to be tender to Piedmontese Protestants; compelled the sturdy Dutchman to admit England's supre- macy ; and made his brief page of power dazzling with the glory of his grand rule. He died, and the night of his life was without starlight ; his grave without honour afforded no shelter to his bones. A people whom he had overmastered became again willing servants to the dynasty he had ex- pelled. Sole ruler of his race, his sceptre fell as his coffin was lowered. The might of his manhood had offshoot in no breast The Captain is dead, and the wind and waves urge the helpless ship to ruin, for amongst the crew none dares take his place. CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. 23 II. WASH IN GTON. ON the 22nd of February, 1732, nearly three-quarters of a century after the death of Cromwell, George Washington was born at the family homestead on Bridges Creek, on the Virginia side of the Potomac River. Washington was the offspring of a royalist family of estate and position, and his early associations with the friends and relatives of Lord Fairfax were calculated to increase his feeling of reverence for Monarchical and aristocratic traditions. When yet only nineteen years of age, George Washington was appointed Major and Adjutant-General of the Virginian Militia, and before he was twenty-two was charged with a most difficult and dangerous mission to those of the Indians and French then united in arms against the English Colonists, and also to the tribes of Indians who had not yet committed themselves to open hostilities. In this mission he exhibited much prudence, firmness, and devotion, coupled with ad- mirable tact and self-possession. In April, 1754, Washington fought his first battle with a small French force ; and writing to his brother in the flush of the excitement, says how he "heard the bullets whistle." His first campaign ended most disastrously, his command having, after hard fighting, to surrender to a very superior force ; but Washington received, nevertheless, the thanks of the House of Burgesses of Virginia for the bravery he exhibited. In 1755 a great expedition, under General Braddock, having been organised against the Indians, Washington's talents were utilised by the English commander, who ap- pointed Washington as a volunteer aide-de-camp, but only partially adopted the advice given by the young Virginian. The utter disregard by Braddock of part of Washington's information was attended by most fatal consequences ; for the English general led his troops into an ambuscade of Indians and Frenchmen, against which he had been warned, 24 CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. where the English regulars were literally cut to pieces, and Braddock himself was mortally wounded. In this sad busi- ness Washington distinguished himself alike for his courage, his modesty, and his wisdom ; and when, a little later, the Colony of Virginia raised special forces to defend its boun- daries against attacks from the French and Indians, Wash- ington was, with the full assent of his countrymen, appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Colonial forces (somewhat against the wish of Governor Dinwiddie, who behaved with coldness and ungraciousness to the Virginian militia-man). The position of the young Commander-in-Chief was further embarrassed, by the fact that any officer holding a commis- sion from the king refused to obey orders from an officer whose commission was only signed by the Governor ; and we find Washington journeying to Boston in the hope to get himself and officers put upon the regular establishment, with commissions direct from King George III. It is use- less now to speculate on what might have been the result on Washington's military future had his request been com- plied with. Luckily for the struggles for independence, his demand in this respect was refused. Theodore Parker, speaking of his severity as a military disciplinarian at this period, says : " From natural disposition, he loved the exer- cise of power. But he was singularly careful to defer to the civil authority when possible. If the right was doubtful, the conscientious young soldier left it to be exercised by the magistrate, not by the military arm. This is to be noted, because it is so rare for military men to abstain from tyranny." Washington's position was a very painful one ; he had to defend a wide-stretching frontier against a wily and savage enemy, and this with an utterly inadequate force^ badly supplied with munitions of war. He was thwarted and snubbed by Governor Dinwiddie, and nearly all his requests for necessaries in the conduct of military operations were disregarded. Washington's health entirely broke down under these varied annoyances, and he ultimately resigned his position. Having been elected to the House of Bur- gesses of Virginia, he took his seat in 1759, being greeted on his entry to the Legislature by the special thanks of the House for the services he had rendered. To these thanks Washington could make no reply; his talents were not those of the orator. Self-possessed in face cf danger, he was unnerved amidst his friends by the praise thus publicly tendered to him. CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. 25. In the House of Burgesses George Washington was not, therefore, at first a conspicuous figure, save as the soldier who had earned its thanks prior to his installation. There- is, however, a storm rising through the land which shall so- endanger the liberties of the citizens, and excite their wrath, that a man of Washington's stature cannot long be over- looked. The Navigation Laws enforced by England against the Colonies had entirely excluded the Colonists from trade- with foreign countries; had subjected the trade between the various Colonies to heavy duties, and had either totally pro- hibited, or imposed prohibitory restraints on, all Colonial manufactures thought likely to interfere with the manufac- turing interests of the mother country. Much discontent and dissatisfaction had been produced, especially in New England, by the operation of the Navigation Laws ; and in. 1760 this feeling of discontent was aggravated by an attempt made in Boston to collect, under writs of assistance, duties on foreign sugar and molasses, which had been smuggled into Massachusetts. Those writs of assistance were resisted before the law courts as unconstitutional, the question being argued so eloquently by the famous James Otis, that it is said that all his hearers went away ready to take up arms to resist the enforcement of such writs. The litigation on these writs of assistance was really the first potent step in the struggle for independence the beginning of the great American Republic. At the conclusion of the French war, the most active- efforts were made by the British men-of-war, acting under stringent orders from the Home Government, to suppress, the clandestine trade theretofore carried on with the Spanish Colonies. To this the New England men replied by re- solving not to purchase British fabrics, and the home trade was in consequence much diminished. In 1764 the ill-advised Ministry of George III. sought to. levy taxes in the Colonies, and in 1765 the famous Stamp Act was passed. Washington, who had hitherto been a devoted royalist, and had shown himself submissive to all the procedures of the Home Government, now denounces "this unconstitutional method of taxation." The resistance to the Stamp Act was so great that it was repealed on the 1 8th of March, 1766 ; and Washington then writes that all "who were instrumental in procuring the repeal are entitled to the thanks of every British subject, and have mine cor- dially." So that in the spring of 1766 Washington not only 26 CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. regarded himself as a British subject, but actually raised no objection perhaps saw no objection to the clause of the repealing act so much impeached by Henry, Otis, Franklin, and the Adamses which declared that " the king, with the consent of Parliament, had power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the Colonies and people of America, in all cases whatsoever." Those who contended for principles in America still pro- tested against this clause, but Washington took no part in the protest. He remained quietly at Mount Vernon attend- ing to his plantation. Year by year the attitude of the Home Government grew more menacing, and the dissatisfaction in "the Colonies grew more marked. In 1767 a variety of duties were enacted for collection in the Colonies. To prepare for a possible struggle " armed negotiators," in the shape of two regiments, were sent from England to Boston to protect the Commissioners of Customs. The inhabitants of the Bay State City resolved, in towns' meeting, that the king had no right to send troops thither without the consent of the Assembly, and quarters were refused to the troops, who were thereupon billeted in the State House, in Faneuil Hall, and other public buildings. The resistance offered in Massachusetts encouraged others. Washington in 1769 writes to his friend George Mason : "At a time when our lordly masters in Great Britain will be satisfied with nothing less than the deprivation of American freedom, it seems highly necessary that something should be done to avert the stroke, and maintain the liberty which we have derived from our ancestors. But the manner of doing it, to answer the purpose effectually, is the point in question. That no man should scruple, or hesitate a moment, in defence of so valuable a blessing, is clearly my opinion ; yet arms should be the last resource." In 1769, on the proposition of Washington, the burgesses of Virginia following the example of the northern Colonies pledged themselves neither to import nor use any goods, merchandise, or manufactures taxed by Parliament. Wash- ington adhered rigorously to this, and strictly enjoined his London agent not to ship him anything subject to taxation. In 1770 Lord North became Prime Minister in England, and he abandoned all the duties levied in 1767, save one, the right to a tax on tea, which he reserved, " to maintain the Parliamentary right of taxation." "A total repeal," he " cannot be thought of till America is prostrate at our CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. 27 feet." This tea tax, if it had been collected, would have produced not quite ^300 a year. England spent ^139,521,035 in the vain endeavour to enforce the tax ! ! EARLY in 1773 Lord Dunmore was appointed Governor of Virginia, and despite the hostile feeling arising between the Colonists and the Government, Washington appears to have been on the most friendly and intimate terms with the Court Party, until the arrival in Virginia of the news of the monstrously mad and vindictive policy adopted by Lord North a policy which it is now clear was actually strongly urged and enforced by George III. by which the port of Boston was to be closed and its commerce entirely ruined. The whole of Massachusetts determined to stand by Boston, and the query now was, Would the other Colonies stand by Massachusetts ? Washington offered to "raise one thousand men, and subsist them at my own expense, and march myself at their head for the relief of Boston." General Gage had encamped his infantry and artillery on Boston Common, and the cry went round the whole country to break off all intercourse with Great Britain, until the colony was restored to full enjoyment of all its rights ; and further, to renounce all dealings with those on this American side, who should refuse to enter into a similar compact On the 1 8th of July, 1774, a meeting was held in Fairfax County, at which a committee was appointed, with Washington as chairman, to draw up resolutions, which state first the illegal conduct of the British Government; covenant not to import or hold intercourse with England or any colony, town, or province refusing to agree to the plan adopted by the General Congress ; then recommend a petition to the king, "lamenting the necessity of entering into measures that might be displeasing ; declaring their attachment to his person, family, and Government, and their desire to con- tinue in dependence upon Great Britain." The attachment to the person of " mad George " may be passed by as a phrase of fashion, and even when we remember that hi& family included the lustful and lying George IV., the corrupt and brutal Duke of York, the niggardly and paltry William IV., and the bestially immoral Duke of Cumberland, it. must not be forgotten that the "family" was then very young, and the " attachment " was probably for the good qualities, which the Royal Family might have manifested had their lives been reversed, and their vices passed for virtues. On the 3rd of September, 1774, a General Congress of "28 CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. fifty-one deputies, delegated from the various Colonies, assembled at Philadelphia (Georgia alone being unrepre- sented). It was from this Congress that the famous address was sent to England which won such high praise from the lips of Chatham. On his return from this Congress, the eloquent Patrick Henry was asked whom he considered the greatest amongst the men assembled there. He replied ; " If you speak of eloquence, Mr. Rutledge, of South Carolina, is by far the greatest orator ; but if you speak of solid information and sound judgment, Colonel Washington is unquestionably the greatest man on that floor." Even yet Washington irritated as he and his friends had become by aristocratic misrule had no sort of disposition to advo- cate any separation from the mother country. Writing to Captain Mackenzie as to Independence, he says : " I am well satisfied that no such thing is desired by any thinking man in all North America." It is worthy notice that the struggle in England, out of which Cromwell grew into power, and that in America, which ended in the elevation of Washington to the chief magistrature, had each its inception in the denial of the right claimed by the king and his ministers to levy taxes without the consent of the taxed. It was not, says Washing- ton, " against paying the duty of 3d. per pound on tea. No, it is the right only that we have all along disputed." Although Washington appears to have been opposed to some of the extreme measures of resistance advocated by a strong party of the Eastern men, yet so soon as a definite course was resolved upon, he went loyally with the majority ; and he wrote to his brother, " It is my full intention, if needful, to devote my life and fortune to the cause." The crisis soon came ; General Gage detached a body of regular troops to destroy some provincial military stores at Concord, Massachusetts. At Lexington Green these troops fired on the local yaomanry, and before night a large body of English troops had been literally chased into the City of Boston by the " minute men," who ran, gun in hand, from their industries, to revenge the blood recklessly shed on the road to Concord. The Massachusetts yeomen, in their indignation, blockaded the English army within the limits of Boston, and the second Philadelphia Congress shortly afterwards appointed George Washington Commander-in- Chief of the insurgent army, now assembled in front of the Bay State City. Washington who had in no fashion sought CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. 29 the appointment, and whose nomination had been unani- mous when he accepted the position, added : " But lest some unlucky event should happen unfavourable to my reputation, I declare that I do not consider myself equal to the command I am honoured with. As to pay, I beg leave to assure Congress that, as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to accept this arduous employment, at the expense of my domestic ease and hap- piness, I do not wish to make any profit of it. I will keep an exact account of my expenses. These, I doubt not, they will discharge, and this is all I desire." Adams, in a letter written at the moment, praises highly the conduct of Washington, " a gentleman of one of the fairest fortunes upon the Continent, leaving his delicious retirement, his family and friends, sacrificing his ease, and hazarding all in the cause of his country. His views are noble and disin- terested." There is a tree at Cambridge an old elm where it is noted that Washington assumed his high command ; and the first time I halted under the tree I tried hard to picture to myself the variously accoutred, roughly-dressed, badly- armed array of agriculturists which had so shut into Boston the well-drilled, well-armed, and highly-trained regular troops of the British Monarchy. The great fight at Bunker Hill in which the gallant though unsuccessful attempt to fortify a position which would have commanded every por- tion of the City had shown the sturdy stuff of these New England " minute" men had taken place prior to Washing- ton's assumption of command. What army he found was to him very disappointing. Tired of merely watching the British forces, many of the newly-enrolled troops had returned to their farms, which sorely needed cultivation ; and instead of 20,000 men supposed to be in camp, Wash- ington only found there about 14,000 fit for service, and many of these without muskets or ammunition. The only troops presenting any appearance of drill or fair equipment were those from the small colony of Rhode Island. Theo- dore Parker says : " The camp was full of jealousies, rivalries, resentments, petty ambitions ; men thinking much for themselves, little for their imperilled nation." Washing- ton desired to force General Howe into general action, but, on taking stock of the gunpowder in the stores, found that the whole supply of powder would not provide nine cart- ridges per man. 30 CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. In the American, or " Continental," army, as it was called, there were many divisions of opinion and interest. Some of the New England officers were personally indisposed tc co-operate with the Virginian gentleman, whom they found much too aristocratic for their home-spun fancies. To quote the words of Washington himself : " Confusion and discord existed in every department, which in a little time must have ended either in the separation of the army, or fatal contests with one another." While Washington was organising his troops, and slowly obtaining for them the necessary military equipment, he had the constant fear that the British army might be able to take advantage of the disorganisation in the newly-raised levies he commanded. But General Gage and General Howe were content, while waiting for reinforce- ments, to thunder away from Bunker Hill batteries, while keeping their troops within their own works ; the Americans, from want of powder, making but scant reply to the noisy cannonade. The delay in the siege produced many embarrassments. Men who were brave enough in a fight would not patiently wait, doing nothing, in front of this fortified city, while their farms went to ruin. Enlisted for one year only, many would not re-enlist at all. Those who did manifest willingness to re-enlist would only serve under officers of their own choice; and men from one Colony, as Connecticut, would not serve under Rhode Island officers. In a letter written at this juncture Washington says : " I find we are likely to be deserted at a most critical time Our situation is truly alarming Could I have foreseen what I have experienced, and am likely to experience, no consideration upon earth should have induced me to accept this command." It must not be forgotten that the position of the men was not of the most enviable kind. " The first burst of revolutionary zeal had passed away ; enthusiasm had been chilled by the in- action and monotony of a long encampment." No regular commissariat, and nearly all comforts absent. " The troops had suffered privations of every kind want of fuel, clothing, provisions. They looked forward with dismay to the rigours of winter, and longed for their rustic homes and family fire- sides." Throughout the Colonies much more was expected from Washington than he was able to perform, his available force was over-rated, and his motives for inaction mis-con- strued. "I know," writes Washington on the loth of February, 1776, "the unhappy predicament I stand in; I CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. 31 know that much is expected from me ; I know that, without men, without arms, without ammunition, without anything fit for the accommodation of a soldier, little is to be done, and, what is mortifying, I know that I cannot stand justified to the world without exposing my own weakness, and injuring the cause by declaring my wants ; which I am determined not to do further than unavoidable necessity brings every man acquainted with them My own situation is so irk- some to me at times that, if I did not consult the public good more than my own tranquillity, I should long ere this have put everything on the cast of a die. So far from my having an army of 20,000 men well armed, I have been here with less than half that number, including sick, furloughed, and on command, and those neither armed nor clothed as they should be. In short, my situation has been such that I have been obliged to use art to conceal it from my own officers To have the eyes of the whole Continent fixed with anxious expectation of hearing of some great event, and to be restrained in every military operation for want of the necessary means of carrying it on, is not very pleasing, especially as the means used to conceal my weakness from the enemy conceal it also from our friends." Ultimately, as every one knows, the regular army of England evacuated Boston, beleagured by "an undisciplined band of husbandmen," and General Howe and his well- equipped legions sought safety in the warships from the persevering advances of Washington to the reduction of the Bay State City. Convinced that " no accommodation could be effected with Great Britain, on acceptable terms," and that " a pro- tracted war was inevitable," Washington now sought to force upon Congress the need for enlisting an army disposable for the whole war, and available in any portion of the con- tinent. While his energetic remonstrances produced some improvements, there was still much left to be desired. The base of operations was changed from Massachusetts to New York State. Now, to a much larger degree, than when near Boston, Washington felt the effects of treachery ; one plot nearly cost him his life, his very body-guards having been corrupted. Those who were the most willing agents of Monarchy and Toryism were found amongst the Quaker families, one of which, for its cowardly rascality, still re- ceives from the British Government a pension of .4,000 a year. c 32 CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. On the 4th of July, 1776, Independence was declared in words ; but a severe reverse, sustained by Washington on Long Island, made many persons despair of its realisation. The troops he had under him in this campaign were very ill-equipped. "Many of the yeomen of the country, hastily summoned from the plough, were destitute of arms, in lieu of which they were ordered to bring with them a shovel, spade, or pickaxe, or a scythe straightened and fastened to a pole." The effect of the defeat on Long Island was shown in the wholesale return to their farms in Connecticut alone of more than 4,000 men. Despite all this, Washington always presented a firm face to the enemy, even when him- self nearly heart-broken, by the disregard of his entreaties by Congress, and by the indisposition shown by the several Colonial Governments to second his exertions, and comply with his requirements. In September, 1776, the difficulties of his position, and the defection of some of his troops, seem to have rendered Washington desperate, and in some of the frays he risked his life needlessly. His natural calm, however, soon re- turned, and though evidently very doubtful as to the possi- bility of ultimate victory, he now recommenced those series of careful manoeuvres which so embarrassed the English and German generals to whom he was opposed. General Washington had the danger of his position considerably heightened by the conduct of General Lee and General Gates. The first a brave and ambitious soldier, who aspired to the chief command, and who regarded Washington's star as on the wane, actually withheld reinforcements from Washington's crippled forces, when the latter was retreating through the Jerseys after the British successes at Fort Washington. The second (Gates) about the same time pleaded ill-health as an excuse for avoiding a command, so that he might go to Philadelphia to intrigue against Washing- ton before the Congress. If not entirely disregarding, at any rate in no fashion publicly noticing, the hostility of Lee and Gates, General Washington gave courage to his army, and restored the sinking spirits of the American Colonists, by a most brilliant dash at the Hessian quarters at Trenton, where, with actually inferior forces, he created an utter panic amongst the British troops. Just after the Trenton victory rhere is a fine illustration of the slender thread on which tang the future of American Independence. Several of the CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. 33 regiments wished to return home; only enlisted for one year, their term of service had expired, their pay was in arrear, their presence was indispensable to Washington, at any rate for a short time, and by the offer of a bounty of ten dollars per man, they were induced to agree to stay for six weeks ; but there was no money in the pay-chest, and the poor, penniless men could not rely on promises of future pay- ment. Washington had to borrow ^150 to enable him to pay the most pressing, and thus temporarily kept his forces together. At the close of 1 776 Washington was invested by Congress with almost dictatorial powers, and in acknowledging the resolution of Congress, he says : " I find Congress have done me the honour to entrust me with powers, in my military capacity, of the highest nature and almost unlimited extent. Instead of thinking myself freed from all civil obligations by this mark of their confidence, I shall con- stantly bear in mind that, as the sword was the last resort for the preservation of our liberties, so it ought to be the first thing laid aside when those liberties are firmly estab- lished." Washington was true in letter and in spirit to this promise. No enticement of ambition made him waver for one moment in his fidelity to the trust he had accepted. Although Washington possessed nearly absolute authority, he seems to have been extremely reluctant to use it, and often permitted Congress to interfere, and to make appoint- ments and arrangements which were neither consonant with his views nor with the dignity of his position. This is of course open to the criticism, that had Washington been less wise, it might have been very difficult for him to have held together the Eastern men, some of whom honestly seemed to entertain the notion that despite his professions Washing- ton was really aiming at the establishment of a military rule. The surrender of General Burgoyne, and the division under his command, to General Gates in the north ; and the repulse of the army under Washington at Germantown, gave room for some of the disaffected to revive the intrigues hostile to the Commander-in-Chief. General Gates not only omitted to report to George Washington the surrender by Burgoyne, but actually corresponded secretly with dis- satisfied officers in Washington's camp to induce them to cabal against their chief. The glorious achievements of * Gates were compared with the disasters which attended 34 CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. Washington in this campaign. It was overlooked who was afterwards utterly ruined by his defeats in the South was only carrying out Washington's original far-seeing plan of operations, and with a very large force at his com- mand, aided by a generally favourable spirit in the part of the country where his military operations were conducted, while Washington had an inferior force weakened by troops he had detached to aid Gates which troops General Gates now withheld from his Commander and was in a lukewarm State, where many were disaffected to the American cause. Washington himself says that "General Gates was to be exalted on the ruin of my reputation and influence." The American army had great difficulty in obtaining provisions; in some places where the inhabitants had provisions and cattle, they denied them to General Washington, and pre- ferred taking their cattle and food to Philadelphia, where the English army gave them higher prices. In 1778 Washington writes : "For some days past there has been little less than a famine in the camp; a part of the army has been for a week without any kind of flesh, and the rest three or four days. Naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patienqe and fidelity of the soldiery." Philadelphia was occupied during the winter by a British army 20,000 strong, provided with every comfort ; while Washington was at Valley Forge, be- sieging the city after a fashion, with not more than 5,000 men, in sadly wretched plight, sometimes without ammuni- tion to serve its cannon. At last General Howe resigned the command of the British army to Sir Henry Clinton, by whom Philadelphia was evacuated, under orders from the Home Government. Now came the effect of the treaty concluded by Franklin, between France and America, in the aid of a French squadron and French funds. This French contingent rather increased the temporary difficulties of Washington as Corn- man der-in-Chief, although the general effect of the French alliance was to render the British prospects in the Colonies one of the gloomiest character. George III. was wicked enough, personally, to encourage the barbarous employment of Indians; and scalping, ravishing, and burning were amongst the means ineffectually resorted to by an anointed king to win back the affections of his subjects. The English Church and English landed aristocracy, by public addresses, encouraged their king in his cruel obstinacy, and the war CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. 35 to subdue the Colonies was to be carried on in despite of the failures already experienced. In America the French alliance had at least one bad effect ; many deemed that the war would now cease at once; that there was, therefore, no necessity for continuous supplies to the army; for long drills or great preparations. The several Colonies were unwilling to comply with military requisitions, which they thought had now become needless, and General Washington found him- self exceedingly embarrassed, and his popularity endangered by his persistence in requiring the means for continuing a long, arduous, and costly struggle; and at the close of 1778 he writes : " Our affairs are in a more distressed, ruinous, and deplorable condition than they have been since the commencement of the war." Difficulties in the internal condition of the army, and its relation to the various States, may be best illustrated by the case of the Jersey Brigade, in which, in 1779, the officers who complained that they could get no pay, and that their families were starving refused to march unless their arrears were first discharged. Here Washington acted with great tact as well as with great firmness ; and while entirely denying the right of the officers or men to utilise their military position, he at the same time pressed Congress and the State Legislature to deal more patriotically with their defenders in the field. For weeks at a time the army was on half allowance of food, sometimes without meat, sometimes without bread, sometimes without both. Congress being destitute of the power of levying general taxes, the State Governments were each severally charged with the duty of supporting their own quota of troops to the army. This naturally resulted in great inequality and discontent. Some States furnished their troops amply with pay and clothing ; some States were niggardly in these respects ; and some States were so neglectful as to leave their troops practically destitute, producing in these latter a more discontented and muti- nous spirit from the contrast with their more favoured brethren. To remedy this disastrous condition of things increased powers were sought for Washington, but any augmentation of his already large authority was strenuously objected to by some of the best men. It was urged " that his influence was already too great; that even his virtues afforded motives for alarm ; that the enthusiasm of the army, joined to the 36 CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. kind of dictatorship already confided to him, placed Con- gress and the United States at his mercy." In the middle of 1780 matters came to a crisis. Two Connecticut regiments turned out in armed meeting, resolved to march home, " or at best to gain subsistence at the point of the bayonet." Suppressing this mutinous outbreak with considerable difficulty, Washington found it nearly impos- sible to get bread for his famishing soldiers, and in a spirit of deep despondency he wrote : " I have almost ceased to hope." Yet when the English commander, informed by his spies of the condition of Washington's forces, marched to attack the American troops, he found that Washington's great personal influence was enough to arouse their patriot- ism and unite their ranks ; and instead of a discontented and disorganised rabble, the British were confronted by a compact and well-ordered, though badly-equipped, army, before whom the English forces retreated, despite the supe- riority on the royalist side. In 1780 Washington seemed at the end of his resources. He writes : " I see nothing before us but accumulating distress. We have been half our time without provisions, and are likely to continue so. We have no magazines, nor money to form them ; and in a little time we shall have no men, if we have no money to pay them." The Penn- sylvanian troops mutinied in 1781, and compelled Congress to treat with them. Encouraged by this, a part of the Jersey troops also revolted ; but Washington, here close at hand, sternly stamped out this revolt. A striking feature connected with these mutinies by the American troops against Congress is, that the mutineers nevertheless remained faithful to the American cause, and made prisoners of agents sent to them with money and pro- mises from the English camp. In October, 1781, the war was practically decided by the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown ; and it is need- less to dwell here at any length on the closing scenes of a struggle which terminated on the 2oth of January, 1783, by the signature of the treaty at Paris. The army, as in the case of the Commonwealth struggle, was now a power in the land. The pay of officers and men was in arrear ; they had many grievances ; the future conduct of affairs was doubtful ; there was a suggestion of if not an -absolute attempt to organise a military government. One veteran officer took upon himself to suggest to Washington CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. 37 that "the title of King would be attended with some material advantages." Washington replied without hesita- tion that no event in the war had given him so much pain as " your information of there being such ideas expressed in the army," which "I must view with abhorrence and reprehend with severity." With the army General Wash- ington had a most difficult task. Their grievances were real, and to the Congress at Philadelphia he represented these in the strongest terms. To the army itself he was sternly firm in forbidding any use of their military force in support of their claims against Congress. At last, on the 23rd of December, 1783, at Annapolis, having first in methodical fashion settled up his pecuniary accounts and without one farthing pay or profit or recom- pense for his military services George Washington relin- quished the authority the nation had entrusted to his hands, and retired to private life without a stain on his shield, unhesi- tatingly disregarding those allurements of power which would have been irresistible to a weaker man. It is noteworthy that the total amount of Washington's account including ,1,982 los. for secret service was only ^19,306 us. gd., and this was from July, 1775, to December 28th, 1783. In General Washington's own private book there is an entry that he was a considerable loser from items that, " in the perplexity of business," he had omitted to charge. No claim was ever urged by him to have this deficiency made up. In 1785, the Assembly of Virginia, by an unanimous vote^ gave to Washington a number of shares, value about 40,000 dollars, in two schemes connected with the navigation of the Potomac and James Rivers. Washington, who had re- solved not personally to accept any valuable reward, asked and obtained the permission of the Virginian Legislature to apply the gifts to objects of a public nature, and ultimately the value was devoted to educational purposes. The conclusion of the struggle with the mother country left the many, discontented with the burdens and troubles of the war, a full opportunity for the expression of their dis- satisfaction. The Government had little or no effective authority now that the war was concluded, and martial law no longer prevailed. "The confederation," writes Washing- ton, " appears to me to be little more than a shadow without the substance, and Congress a nugatory body, their ordi- nances being little attended to." Colonel Henry Lee 38 CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. having applied to George Washington to use his influence with the people, the latter thus replied from Mount Vernon : "You talk, my good Sir, of employing influence to appease the present tumults in Massachusetts. I know not where that influence is to be found, or, if attainable, that it would be a proper remedy for the disorders. Influence is not government. Let us have a government by which our lives, liberties, and properties will be secured, or let us know the worst at once. There is a call for decision. Know precisely what the insurgents aim at. If they have real grievances, redress them if possible; or acknowledge the justice of them, and your inability to do it at the moment. If they have not, employ the force of the Government against them at once. If this is inadequate, all will be convinced that the superstructure is bad and wants support Let the reins of Government be braced and held with a steady hand, and every violation of the constitution be reprehended. If defective, let it be amended; but not suffered to be trampled upon whilst it has ati existence." Something had to be done to bind the independent Colo- nies together. "A government," says Marshall, "authorised to declare war, but relying on independent States for the means of prosecuting it ; capable of contracting debts, and of pledging the public faith for their payment, but depending on thirteen distinct sovereignties for the preservation of that faith, could only be rescued from ignominy and contempt by finding those sovereignties administered by men exempt from the passions incident to human nature." On the 25th of May, 1787, a Congress assembled at Philadelphia, of which George Washington was appointed President. After several months of doubtful, and some- times bitter, discussion and uncertainty, this Congress pub- lished the Constitution of the United States of America. Of this Constitution Washington writes to Lafayette that, while not free from defects, "the general Government is not invested with more powers than are indispensably neces- sary to perform the functions of a good government," and 'that these powers, as the appointment of all rulers will forever arise from, and at short stated intervals recur to, the free suffrages of the people, are so distributed among the legislative executive and judicial branches into which the general government is arranged, that it can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy, an oligarchy, or an ristocracy, or any other despotic or oppressive form, 1 s6 CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. 39 long as there shall remain any virtue in the body of the people." Under the New Constitution the first Wednesday in January, 1789, was appointed for the election by the people of their first President, and the vote was unanimous in the choice of George Washington. 40 CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. III. THE CONTRAST. THOUGH in many respects occupying positions of similar character, no two men could be more dissimilar than Oliver Cromwell and George Washington. The first, as is shown by his life, grew into a ruler of men by the force of his own character and by the warrior skill he manifested, and this in spite of the leading spirits of his age. The second became the chief magistrate of a newly-made nation by the force of the times, by the suffrages of men with intellects clearer, and even bolder, than his own, and because of the thorough faithfulness he had shown to the cause to which he had most disinterestedly and unselfishly devoted himself. Cromwell made his will the law for the nation, and used his sword to enforce the law. Washington accepted the will of the majority, which had entrusted him with authority, as the law which he was bound to obey. Cromwell played the army, and especially his Ironsides, against the Parlia- ment. Washington submitted most completely to Congress, and refused to side with the dissatisfied army when it wished to rely on its weapons to enforce the redressal even of its just grievances. Neither Cromwell nor Washington were really Republicans. Cromwell, though destroying the Monarchy, never ceased to be Royalist, and took himself the throne uncrowned, it is true, save by the trooper's helmet, in which he had fought his way to the right to wield the Protector's sceptre-staff. Washington, wrestling against a far-away and blundering Government, amidst men with more vigorous politics than he had learned, went with the stream, and became Republican malgre lui that is, he accepted the form, and honestly strove to adopt the spirit from the grander brains who gave to the world the famous Declaration of Independence. Washington made a better man than Cromwell. Cromwell was a bigger man than Washington. Washington rejected the mere whisper of a crown, and indignantly condemned the suggestion, even CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. 41 before it had found clear shape of utterance. Cromwell created the spirit which formally presented to him the kingly dignity for acceptance, and he weighed the glittering bauble regretfully in his hands before he put it aside as an ornament scarcely valuable enough to wear, as against the danger of weakness it brought to the wearer. There can be few men more thoroughly true and honour- able than George Washington. History tells of no other man that you may rank in the same line, with Oliver Cromwell. Washington has many statues, for the century which has marched over his grave has freshened each year the laurel-wreath with which the giant child-Republic crowned its foster-father. Oliver Cromwell has few or no monuments. The country to which he devoted his virility has seen his bones rattle in gibbet chains, and for two hundred years has, on its knees, thanked God that hollow, tinsel, lying, lustful, Stuart was restored to rule England, in lieu of this fierce, sturdy, Puritan man, whose soul inbreathed power only because the power carried England's standard higher. A fitting emblem for Oliver Cromwell is presented by the grandly glorious Western sunset. Still mighty in the fierce- ness of its rays, few eyes can look steadilv into the golden radiance of that evening sun ; the strongest must lower their glances, dazzled by its brilliance. Every cloud is rich with ruddy gilding, as if the mere presence of that sun made glorious the very path it trod. And yet, while one looks, the tints deepen into scarlet, crimson, purple, as though that sun had been some mailed warrior, who had gained his grand pre-eminmce by force of steel, and had left a bloody track to mark his steps to power. And even while you pause to look, the thick dark veil of night falls over all, with a blackness so cold, complete and impenetrable, as to make you almost doubt the reality of the mighty magnificence which yet has scarcely ceased. In the eventide of his life's day such a sun was Cromwell. Few men might look him fairly in the face as peers in strength. His presence gives a glory to the history page which gilds the smaller men whom he led. And yet Tredah and Worcester, Preston and Dunbar, and a host of other encrimsoned clouds, compel us to remember how much the sword was used to carve his steps to rule. And then comes the night of death so thickly black that even the grave cannot protect Cromwell's bones from the gibbet's desecration. 42 CROMWELL AND WASHINGTON. And not unfittingly might the sunrise, almost without twilight, in the same land, do service as emblem for George Washington. He must be a bold man who, in the mists and chill of the dying night, not certain of its coming, would dare watch for the rising sun. And yet, while he watches, the silver rays, climbing over the horizon's hill, shed light and clearness round ; and soon a golden warmth breathes life and health and beauty into blade and bud, giving hope of the meridian splendour soon to come. George Wash- ington was the morning sun of a day whose noontide has not yet been marked a day of liberty rendered more possible now that slavery's cloud no longer hides the sun ; a day the enduring light of wnich depends alone on the honest Republicanism of those who now dwell in that land where Washington was doorkeeper in Liberty's temple. Printed by ANNIE BESANT and CHARLES BRADLAUGH, 28, Stone- cutter Street London, E.G. THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, AND THE COMING STRUGGLE. BY C. BRADLAUGH. (THIRD EDITION.} LONDON: FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY, 28, STONECUTTER STREET, E.G. PRICK TWOPENCE. LONDON : PRINTED BY CHARLES BRADLAUGH AND ANNIE BESANT, 28, STONECUTTER STREET, E.G. THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, AND THE COMING STRUGGLE. THE growth of the Agricultural Labourers' movement in England, the increasing agitation for the repeal of the law of hypothec in Scotland, and the wail from ruined farmers in the Lowlands, all serve to show that it will be on the Land Question that that large section of the English ari- stocracy which regards the preservation of territorial rights and privileges as essential to good Government will shortly have to encounter a stronger force, and to cope with a wider movement, than has been manifested in England during the last 200 years. It is in connection with the Land Ques- tion that thoughtful working men are commencing to look for a speedy solution of some of the most difficult problems as to the more striking evils of modern society. So long as skilled labour in mine or factory could easily earn the means of purchasing grain from foreign lands, men remained comparatively quiescent, while the native land- holders usurped power and avoided obligations. To-day labour struggles despairingly against reduced wage, and to- morrow's outlook is still more gloomy. While wages are decreasing, the cost of living is augmenting. House rent in England and Wales alone has increased from ^36,575,600 per year which it was in 1846 to ^80,726,502 which it had become in 1873 a growth of more than thirty-four millions of pounds in twenty-seven years, all paid by the poor to the rich. The annual income from land, including mines and minerals, has increased, since 1698, from a little over ^6,000,000 to about ^200,000,000. The bulk of the land is in the hands of comparatively few persons, and these monopolise the House of Lords, and materially control the House of Commons. In Scotland, 171 persons own 11,029,228 acres of land, and 409 other persons own other 3,876,980 acres, that is, 580 persons own 14,906,208 acres. In England 773 persons own 8,219,468 of acres, making that, in England and Scotland, 1353 per- sons own more than twenty-three millions of acres. 4 THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, AND In too many cases these landholders treat their freehold rights as of infinitely more importance than the happiness of the peasantry of the neighbourhood. Ancient footpaths are dosed, common rights denied, game preserving and rabbit breeding carried on to the point of crop annihilation, county members nominated and returned as if the title to the free- hold carried with it monopoly of political right ; and a most contemptuous indifference is shown as to the condition of the tiller of the soil, or, what is even worse, there is a mockery of charity, to remedy in small part the evil which the very charitable gentry have themselves created. For the last 163 years this landed aristocracy has been the real governing class, superseding the Crown, and, until 1832, entirely controlling the people. During this time viz., from 1714 the standing army has been built up, and the National Debt has been almost entirely created, while Imperial taxation, and the rent-rolls of the few privileged ones, have enormously increased ; thus the burdens of Imperial and local taxation have been shifted from the shoulders of the landholder to those of the labourer. For since, with the accession of the Brunswick family to the English throne, the monarch, excluded even from the political councils of the nation at first because he could not speak the language of his subjects, as in the case of George I. ; then because of his indifference, as in that of George II. ; and then because of his oft-recurring insanity, as in that of George III. has been practically reduced to a mere costly show puppet, it is impossible for the student of our history not to remark how the landed aristocracy have utilised their possession of political power for the transference from their own shoulders of the bulk of the local and Im- perial taxation. Amongst the agricultural classes, pauperism has become more permanent and more widespread, and certain classes of crime and misery have more prevailed, as the land mono- paly has become more complete. The agricultural labourers of many English counties, and notably of Dorset, Wilts, Gloucester, Norfolk, Suffolk, have, from bad and insufficient food and shelter, so degenerated, that their state is a disgrace to any civilised country in the world. The Westminster JRevfap urges, on the evidence of Mr. Simon, Medical Inspector, that rather more than one- half of our Southern population are so badly fed, that a class of starvation diseases, and a general deterioration of mind, THE COMING STRUGGLE. 5. must result. In Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Somersetshire, insufficiency of nitrogenous food is the average. Landowners, in the large majority of instances, and this whether the proprietor be Whig or Tory, regard their tenants as bound to follow the politics of their freeholder, and as- fairly liable to ejectment when malcontent. Mr. Latham, a magistrate of Cheshire, before the House of Commons' Committee, said that " it was the evil of property that a man considers that he owns not only the property itself, but that he owns the souls of the tenants also." The Duke of Buccleuch, not content with the influence which his vast holdings in Scotland give him, has actually followed the practice of manufacturing voters, by granting to certain persons feu rents or freehold rent-charges, to qualify them for county voters, and this to such a glaring extent as to excite popular indignation. This fabrication, however im- moral, is held to be legal, although, since the grant of the rent "charges, his Grace has actually sold to a railway com- pany a considerable portion of the property charged. This Duke of Buccleuch, in his Wanlockhead mining works, in Dumfriesshire, employs a number of wretched lead miners, who sometimes do not see five pounds in actual money from year's end to year's end, being constantly in debt to the overseer's shop. They are badly paid and tyrannically dealt with. In Wales, because at the general election in 1868 the advantage was " won by the Liberals, through the votes of the freeholders and leaseholders of cottages, the landlords," says the Westminster Review, " enraged at their defeat, pro- ceeded to wreak their vengeance upon those of their tenants who had presumed to vote in accordance with their convic- tions." Mr. Harris, a gentleman of independent means in Cardiganshire, ' believed that as many as 200 notices to quit had been served in Cardiganshire alone, at Lady Day after the election. He was himself aware of from thirty to thirty-five served upon tenant farmers, in some cases where the families had been 200 years upon the estates ; in others where considerable sums had been laid out by the farmers in improving their farms, which, as the law now stands in England, they have no means of recovering." In Ireland you have a landlord perhaps like the late Most Noble the Marquis of Hertford constantly residing out of the country, having no sympathy or connection with 6 THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, AND his property, except that of sucking it as dry of vitality as the law permits him. At election times, "his lieutenant, the agent, armed with notices to quit, and backed by the police, is sufficiently formidable. Threats of eviction (and more than half a million evictions have taken place in Ire- land during the last thirty years), distresses, and demands for immediate payment of rent, large arrears of which are usually due," assail the voter. " It has long been the prac- tice in Ireland for the landlords to collect together their tenants who are voters, to place them upon cars, and send them in a body under the agent to record their votes at the polling-booth. These parties of voters are frequently es- corted by detachments of police and military, on the alleged ground that there is fear of their being prevented by violence from going to the polling place : it is observable that these escorts are always asked for by the landlords or their agents, never by the voters themselves." General MacMurdo, who commanded a brigade in Ireland at the 1868 election, ad- mitted, before the House of Commons' Committee, in answer to Mr. Gathorne Hardy, that these voters are practically prisoners, one of whom would not be allowed to go away even if he desired, until he had been escorted to the polling- booth. Under the feudal system in England, bad as it was, there were no seignorial rights without a declaration of correspond- ing duties the vassals gave their services, and in return the lord apportioned them land, and gave them some sort of pro- tection ; but now the lord claims the land as his own free- hold, without any admission of obligation accompanying the ownership, and regarding himself as unduly taxed if any fiscal imposition touches his pocket. In many cases, in order to relieve themselves from the burdens of supporting the poor, the great proprietors have ordered the wretched cottages of the labourers working on their lands to be des- troyed. The tillers of the soil cleared out from a noble landowner's domains get shelter how they can, in hovels in bad condition and dearly priced, where they are huddled together, as the following picture, taken from the Parliamentary Blue Book, shows : " Modesty must be an unknown virtue, decency an unimaginable thing, where, in one small chamber, with the beds lying as thickly as they can be packed, father, mother, young men, lads, grown and growing up girls two and sometimes three generations are herded promiscuously, where every opera- THE COMING STRUGGLE. 7 tion of the toilette and of nature dressing, undressing, births and deaths is performed by each within the sight or hearing of all ; where children of both sexes, to as high an age as twelve or fourteen, or even more, occupy the same bed; where the whole atmosphere is sensual, and human nature is degraded into something below the level of the swine. It is a hideous picture, and the picture is drawn from life." In Scotland, even under the old semi-barbarous, but patriarchal, system of clanship, the land was treated as the property of the entire clan so aiuch so, at any rate, that the chief of the clan had no power, fcider penalty of death, to alienate any portion of the land without formal authority of the clan given in solemn assembly, and the meanest member had privileges in connection with the cultivation of the soil. In Ireland, the old Brehon laws as to the land are more clear and distinct than on most other topics. Each member of the local society or tribe had a life interest in the land of the society ; and when he lost it by death, or by quitting the tribe, a new partition of land was made, so as to pre- vent too large a portion falling into the hands of any one holder. And yet, after generations of progress, we find that at the passing of the Church Disestablishment Act the land was practically in the hands of a few large families, who con- sider that they are entitled to hold the soil without any sort of consequent liability to provide for the lives or to ensure the happiness of the inhabitants. Under the provisions of the Irish Land Act, 1871, and of the Church Disestablish- ment Act, some facilities are now offered in Ireland to small tenants to become landowners, and under the second Act 4000 proprietaries, averaging twenty acres, have been created, and 6000 similar freeholds are said to be in course of pur- chase. Unfortunately, no similar possibility exists in any other part of the United Kingdom. The land is constantly increasing in value, or, at any rate, a higher rental is exacted by the freeholder, and yet there is no corresponding contribution from the landowner towards the imperial burdens ; on the contrary, the landowner shifts the fiscal burdens on to the labourer. In illustration of this, the territorial incomes for England and Wales alone amounted, in 1800, to ^22, 500,000 ; in 1810 they had increased seven millions; in 1850 they had swollen to ^41, 118,329; in 1861 they had grown to 8 THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, AND ^54,678,412 ; to-day, including mines and minerals, they exceed ^198,000,000; while the land-tax, which in 1800 was about ^2,032,000 per annum, is no\v reduced by redemption to about one-half that amount. Since the date of the usurpation of power by the territorial aristocracy viz., since the accession to the throne of the House of Brunswick land has, according to the Westminster Review, increased in value in Great Britain to a startling extent. Our taxation is constantly and fearfully on the in- crease; in 1842 it was, without the charge for the Kaffi? war, under 57 millions ; in 1877 it overtops 78 millions an increase of 22 millions in twenty-eight years. Out of this taxation, in this country, less than one-seventy- seventh portion of the burden falls on land. In France, land, prior to the Franco-Prussian war, bore one-sixth of all imperial burdens ; in India, nearly one-half of the taxation falls on the land. To make the contrast more striking, we may point out that twenty-five years before the accession of the House of Brunswick, land paid nearly two-thirds of all the imperial taxes, the rents received by the aristocracy being then only the tenth part of what they are to-day. And these rents, which have grown tenfold in two hundred years, for what are they paid ? For the natural fecundity of the soil, which the owner seldom or never aids. It is for the use of air, moisture, heat, for the varied natural forces, that the cultivator pays, and the receiver talks of the rights of pro- perty. We shall have for the future to talk in this country of the rights of life rights which must be recognised, even if the recognition involves the utter abolition of the present landed aristocracy. The great rent-takers have been the opponents of progress, they have hindered reform, they kept the taxes on knowledge, they passed combination laws r they enacted long parliaments, they made the machinery of parliamentary election costly and complicated, so as to bar out the people. They have prevented education, and then have sneered at the masses for their ignorance. All pro- gress in the producing power of labour has added to the value of land, and yet the landowner, who has often stood worse than idly by while the land has increased in value,, now talks of the labourer as of the lower herd which must be checked and restrained. As Louis Blanc says : " The general .wealth and population are susceptible of an almost indefinite increase, and, in fact, never do cease increasing ; commerce demands for its operations a territorial basis THE COMING STRUGGLE. 9 v.-ider and wider ; towns are enlarged, and new ones built ; the construction of a railway suddenly gives to this suburb, to that district, an artificial value of some importance. All this combines in a manner to raise the value of land." These land monopolists, too, are ever grasping ; they swallow common lands and enclose wastes, relying on their long purses, the cost of legal proceedings, and the apathy of a peasantry ignorant of their rights and unable to perform their duties. The Westminster Review says that no less than 7,000,000 acres of commons have gone to increase the already large estates of adjoining proprietors during the last 200 years all, be it remembered, since the landed aristocracy have, under the present reigning family, wielded full parliamen- tary power all taken during the time that the imperial national debt had risen from about ^52,000,000 to that enormous sum, of which we still owe upwards of ^750,000,000 in England, besides our debt in India, being estimated at over ^120,000,000 more. Side by side with this increased taxation, and upon these huge estates, we find an unimproved if not an absolutely deteriorated farm population. The parliamentary blue-books of 1867 describe the population round Mayhill as seeming " to lie entirely out of the pale of civilisation ; type after type of social life degraded almost to the level of barbarism." In Yorkshire we are told of the " immorality and degradation arising from the crowded and neglected state of the dwell- ings of the poor." In Northamptonshire some of the cottages " are disgrace- ful, necessarily unhealthy, and a disgrace to civilisation." In a Bedfordshire parish " one-third of the entire popula- tion were receiving pauper relief, and it seemed altogether to puzzle the relieving officer to account for the manner in which one-half the remainder lived." In Bucks the labourer has to " pay exorbitant rent for a house in which the ordi- nary decencies of life become a dead letter." So we may go through all the eastern, southern, south-western, and most of the midland rural districts, until the repetition grows as nauseous as it is hideous. The wages of this wretched agricultural class varied before the union of agricultural labourers from 75. to 155. per week, wage of los. to 125. per week being the most common, out of which a man had to pay rent, and feed, clothe, and educate himself and his family. Children were 10 THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, AND sent into the fields to work sometimes before they we re- seven years old, often before eight years, and nearly always about that age. Even now, in Somersetshire and Dorset- shire, agricultural labourers' wages average about us. per week. Lord Walsingham claimed them at from 133. to 155. The Prince of Wales pays 135. And with education thus rendered practically impossible, we find the organs of " blood and culture " taunting the masses with their igno- rance. We allege that the mischief is caused by those who exact so much for rent, and waste so much good land for pleasure, that no fair opportunity for happy life is left to the tiller of the soil. While the condition of the agricultural population is as thus stated, it cannot be pretended that sufficient compensation is found in the general prosperity of the artisan classes. Probably there are at this moment in England and Wales more than half-a-million able-bodied paupers that is, men able to work, who cannot get work in a country where millions of acres of land fit for cultivation lie untilled. In Plymouth, in 1870, one out of every fifteen persons was in receipt of pauper relief; and we fear that throughout England and Wales it would be found that, at the very least, one in every twenty is in the same position, while, in addition, many thousands struggle on in a sort of semi- starvation misery. During the last half-dozen years the figures have been improved by the restrictions on out-door relief, but the improvement is but a surface-polish. At Cardiff the most fearful revelations have been made before the Parliamentary Commissioners as to the state resulting from the folly or criminality of some of the large capitalists. In this part of Wales, by paying wages at long intervals, men who were sometimes justices of the peace and large landowners, in 1870 compelled their labourers to ask ad- vances as of favour when they were really entitled to pay- ment as of right. Then, by a dexterous evasion of the Truck Act, the men were forced to a " tommy shop," where the advance was made in goods instead of cash. Men swore before the Commissioners that it was with the greatest difficulty they could get a few shillings of ready money, and that, to obtain it, they were often compelled to re -sell the goods forced on them at a loss. The shop being sure of its customers, the women have been kept waiting for nine hours for their turn, and have had to assemble two, and sometimes four, hours before the opening of the shop, this THE COMING STRUGGLE. II even in the winter weather ; and, in two or three cases, have been known to wait outside all night, and this through rain and storm, to secure a good place when business should commence, so that they might get the food they were unable to obtain elsewhere, and without which the breakfast meal could not begot. We wonder what kind of homes they can possess which can be left for nine hours, and what is done with the young children ! The cruelty inflicted upon the women themselves by such a necessity is scarcely credible. One woman had not "seen money for twelve years," being constantly in debt to the shop. The same woman on oath said : " I went once when my son-in-law was ill, and I wanted only two or three shillings, and I begged and cried for it, but do you think I could get it ? No ! " Nay, it was proved that when a collection was made for a funeral, as the bulk of the workers were without money, the cashier entered the amount subscribed by each man in a book. Five per cent, was charged for cashing the list, then any amount due from the deceased's family to the shop was taken out, and even then part of the balance had to be taken in goods. Deductions were made week by week for the doctor, who was paid by bill at the end of the twelve months, and the men had no means of knowing the amount paid. Nor is the state of things just described confined to Wales. In Scotland a companion picture may be traced. In the lead mines belonging to His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch, near Elvanfoot, in Lanarkshire, the miners have been treated more like serfs than free labourers. Young men of from eighteen to twenty were stated in 1870 to be working for lod. a day; and while the nominal wages are 145. to i6s. per week, or ^36 8s. to ^41 125. per annum, for the ordinary working men, a horribly clever system of infrequent payments, occasional advances, a " tommy shop," and a complicated system of accounts, has so entangled the men that their pay for the year is said to range from ^25 to $5- The Duke of Buccleuch is more careful of his game and his salmon than he is of his lead miners. About twelve months before the first edition of this pamphlet was issued, not far from Hawick, a poor woman, with a child at the breast, was sent to gaol for being in possession of a salmon for which she could not account. The child died whilst its mother was in gaol ; but the Duke of Buccleuch's interest in the salmon fisheries was maintained. 12 THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, AND In the Liverpool Mercury it was alleged that the wickedly- fraudulent truck system here, too, cunningly disguised to- evade the Truck Act also prevailed in the Wednesbury district. And yet the noble lords and high-minded gentle- men who thus grind down the poor, and who, by cheating their labourers, demoralise honest labourers into cheats will preside at pious gatherings, and talk about saving the souls of those whose lives they are damning. Or these born legislators will denounce trades union outrages these high- minded men, who draw scores of thousands out of the muscle and heart of their wretched workpeople, and then endow a church, and listen to a laudatory sermon preached by the local bishop. We affirm the doctrine laid down by Mr. Mill and other political economists, " that property in land is only valid, in. so far as the proprietor of the land is its improver," and that " when private property in land is not expedient, it is unjust;" we contend that the possession of land involves and carries with it the duty of cultivating that land, and, in fact, individual proprietorship of soil is only defensible so- long as the possessor can show improvement and cultivation of the land he holds. And yet there are as Captain Maxse shows in his admirable essay published in the Fortnightly Review in Great Britain and Ireland, no less than about 29,000,000 acres of land in an uncultivated state, of which considerably over 11,000,000 acres could be profitably culti- vated. There are many thousands of labourers who might culti- vate this land, labourers who are in a semi-starving condition,, labourers who help to fill gaols and workhouses. To meet, this let the legislature declare that leaving cultivable land in an uncultivated state is a misdemeanour, conviction for which should give the Government the right to take posses- sion of such land, assessing it by its actual return for the last five years, and not by its real value, and handing to the proprietor the amount of, say, twenty years' purchase in Consolidated 3^ per cent. Stock, redeemable in a limited term of years. The land so taken should not be sold at all, but should be let out to persons willing to become culti- vators, on sufficiently long terms of tenancy to fairly recoup the cultivators for their labour and capital, and these culti- vators should yearly pay into the National Treasury, in lieu of all other imperial taxes, a certain proportion of the value of the annual produce. This tenancy to be immediately THE COMING STRUGGLE. ' 13 determinable in the event of the improvement being insuffi- cient, and extensible on evidence of bonCi fide improvement of more than average character. All land capable of producing food, and misused for preserving game, should be treated as uncultivated land. The diversion of land in an old country form the purpose it should fulfil that of providing life for the many to the mere providing pleasure for the few, is a crime. The extent to which the preservation of game has been carried in some parts of England and Scotland shows a reckless disregard of human happiness on the part of the landed aristocracy, which bids fair to provoke a fearful retribution. Paragraphs in the newspapers show how almost tame pheasants are driven to the very muzzles of the guns, to be shot down by royal butchers, who have not even the excuse of sport in their wholesale slaughterings. It is calculated that for the deer forests of Scotland alone nearly two million acres of land some of it the choicest pasture, much of it valuable land is entirely lost to the country. Two red deer mean the displacement of a family, and it is, therefore, scarcely wonderful that we should learn that much of the Duke of Sutherland's vast estate is a mere Avilderness. Country members who shun the House of Commons while estimates are voted, and go to dinner when emigra- tion and pauperism are topics for discussion, crowd the benches of St. Stephen's when there is some new Act to be introduced for the better conviction of poachers without evidence, or for the protection of fat rabbits, which eat and spoil crops, against lean farm labourers, who, having not enough to eat, pine alike in physique and intellect. The Game Laws are a disgrace to our civilisation, and could not stand twelve months were it not for the over- whelming influence of the landed aristocracy in the Legis- lature. The practice of game preserving is injurious in that, in addition to the land wasted for the preserve, it frequently prevents proper cultivation of surrounding lands, and de- moralises and makes criminals of the agricultural labourers, creating for them a kind and degree of crime which would be otherwise unknown. Poaching, so severely punished, is often actually fostered and encouraged by the agents of the very landholders who sit as Justices of the Peace to punish it. Pheasants' and partridges' eggs are bought to stock preserves ; the game- 14 THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, AND keepers who buy these eggs shut their eyes to the mode in which they have been procured, although in most instances it is thoroughly certain how they have been obtained. The lad who was encouraged to procure the eggs, easily finds that shooting or catching pheasants gains a much higher pecuniary reward than leading the plough-horse, trimming the hedge, or grubbing the plantation. Poaching is the natural consequence of rearing a large number of rabbits, hares, partridges, and pheasants, in the midst of an under- paid, under-fed, badly-housed, and deplorably ignorant mass of agricultural labourers. The brutal outrages on game- keepers, the barbarous murders of police, of which we read so much, are the regrettable, but very natural, measures of retaliation for a system which takes a baby child to work in the fields, sometimes soon after six years of age, commonly before he is eight years old, which trains all his worst pro- pensities, and deadens or degrades his better faculties, which keeps him in constant wretchedness, and tantalises him with the sight of hundreds of acres on which game runs and flies well-fed, under his very nose, while he limps ill-fed along the muddy lane which skirts the preserve game, which is at liberty to come out of its covert and eat and destroy the farmer's crop, but which is even then made sacred by the law, and fenced round by carefully-drawn covenants. An agricultural labourer (with a wife and family), whose weekly pittance gives him bare vitality in summer, and leaves him often cold and hungry in winter, in the midst of lands where game is preserved, needs little inducement to become a poacher. Detected, he resists violently, for his local judges are the game owners, and he well knows that before them he will get no mercy. The game watchers are armed with flails, bludgeons, and firearms ; the poacher uses the same brute argument. Indicted at the Assize he goes to the county gaol, and his wife and children go to the union workhouse. Imprisonment makes the man worse, not better, and he is confirmed into the criminal class for the rest of his life, while his family, made into paupers, help to add still more to the general burdens of the country. In the agricultural districts, offences in connection with the Game Laws are more numerous than those of any other class. Men suspected of inclination for poaching are easily sent to gaol, for cutting a twig or for nominal trespass, by- magistrates who, owning land on which game is reared, re- THE COMING STRUGGLE. 15 gard it as most wicked sacrilege that hungry labourers should even look too longingly across the hedge. In this land question the abolition of the Game Laws must be made a prominent feature. The enormous estates of the few landed proprietors must not only be prevented from growing larger, they must be broken up. At their own instance and gradually, if they will meet us with even a semblance of fairness, for the poor and hungry cannot well afford to fight ; but at our instance, and rapidly, if they obstinately refuse all legislation. If they will not commence inside the House of Parliament, then from the outside we must make them listen. If they claim that in this we are unfair, our answer is ready You have monoplised the land, and while you have got each year a wider and firmer grip, you have cast its burdens on others ; you have made labour pay the taxes which land could more easily have borne. You now claim that the rights of property in land should be respected, while you have too frequently by your settlements and entails kept your lands out of the possibility of fulfilling any of the obli- gations of property, and you have robbed your tradespeople and creditors, because your land was protected by cunningly contrived statutes and parchments against all duty, while it enjoyed all privilege. You have been intolerant in your power, driving your tenants to the poll like cattle, keeping your labourers ignorant and demoralised, and yet charging them with this very ignorance and degradation as an in- capacity for the enjoyment of political rights. For the last quarter of a century, by a short-sighted policy, and in order to diminish your poor-rates, you have demolished the cottages on your estates, compelling the wretched agricultural labourers, whose toil gave value to your land, to crowd into huts even more foul and dilapidated than those you destroyed. We no longer pray, we argue we no longer entreat, we insist that spade and plough, and sickle and scythe, shall have fair right to win life and happiness for our starving from the land which gave us birth. To the landowners in the House of Peers we say : It is on the land question, my lords, that the people challenge you, at present in sorrow and shame. Take up the matter while you may, and do justice while yet you can. The world is wide for you to seek your pleasure, the poor can only seek life where death finds them at home. Give up your battues, your red deer, ycur black game, your pheasants, 1 6 THE LAND, THEtPEOPLE, AND THE COMING STRUGGLE. your partridges ; and when you see each acre of land won by the fierce suasion of hardy toil to give life and hope to the tiller, in this you will find your recompense. You few, who lock up in your iron safes the title-deeds of more than half Scotland's acreage, I plead to you ; forget mere territorial pride and power, and be generous while you may, for the day is near when your pride may be humbled, and your power may be broken. For you, lords of Erin's fertile soil you who have wrought her shame and made her disaffection you who have driven her children across the broad ocean to seek for life even for you there is the moment to save yourselves, and do good to your kind. Thoughtful workmen will try to gradu- ally win your land by law, hungry paupers may suddenly wrest it from you in despair ; you may yield it now on fair terms, and grow even richer in the yielding. England is growing hungry, empty bellies make angry faster than heads reason, and the Land Question cannot stand still. The struggle if you compel it, landlords of Great Britain will be one in which the landless will claim political power, and nse it as a weapon, as did their French brethren eighty-five years ago. At present by gradual concession, you may even win a meed of praise for generosity of conduct, and you may avert for generations that appeal which hunger has always prompted, when pride and power have been deaf to the cry of a nation. At present you have prestige to aid you ; use it for good, while you can, for once let the storm-wind of popular indignation turn against your rank and position, and your peerage-prestige will be like a rotten reed on which to lean. To-day the arbitrament is in your hands, and we pray a just deliverance. To-morrow if to-day you do nothing it may be your turn to pray, while your judges may be too hungry to listen. To-day you make the law ; use it for human right ; for it may be that if you do nothing, to- morrow the law will unmake you, as penalty for having worked and permitted so much wrong against your poorer brethren. AMERICAN POLITICS. BY CHARLES BRADLAUGH. To deal with American Politics with any pretensions to fairness, it is necessary to consider several points, often overlooked by critics, and some of which are peculiar to the United States of America. The most important of these are as follows : 1. The enormous extent of its territory, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; from the great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico : supplemented by Alaska, or Russian America, and containing in all about 3,510,978 square miles. Its diversities of climate and physical character, and these so extreme that, even excluding Alaska, you find in the North the vegetation of an almost arctic region, while in the South you have " the luxuriant foliage of the tropics." Grand mountain ranges, like the Alleghany, the Rocky Mountains, the Coast range, and the Sierra Nevada ; huge fresh-water lakes, larger in their total extent than any others known in any country in the world, and a river valley drained by the Missouri Mississippi, for nearly 4,500 miles. The widest diversities of food, climate, and soil, each and all affecting most materially the social and political character and conduct of the various persons of foreign birth or foreign parentage, subjected to these influences. 2. The rapidly-increasing population, to-day numbering more than 40,000,000; in 1860 numbering only 31,183,000. The fact that this increase differs in character from that of any other country in the world. In most of the old and settled countries, all increase in population is from the excesses of births over deaths. In the United States of America the increase is in chief the result of immigration, and is only in very small part due to the preponderance of births. It is perfectly true that in many of the British 2 AMERICAN POLITICS. Colonies the augmentation of population is by the immigrant stream, but there is a wide distinction between the effect of that stream on political affairs in the British Colonies, and of the influx of immigrants in the United States. Nearly all the accessions of population to Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and British Columbia, are of emigrants from the British Isles. They speak the language of the people amongst whom they come to dwell ; they are already acquainted with the habits, literature, and traditions of the people with whom they are to associate. The new comer and the old colonist have almost the same national feelings and interests; the same general views on religious and social questions. In the United States, on the contrary, the in- crease is from diverse races, with distinct and often opposing traditions, with national associations generally hostile to those held by the people amongst whom they are to live, with strange tongues and contrary habits, and with creeds which can never amalgamate, but which must extinguish or be extinguished. English, Russian, German, Swede, Italian, Pole, Wallachian, French Canadian, French, Chinaman, Dane, Norwegian, all jostle together in the New World ; where they have to struggle for existence ; the Chinaman at one end of the country is now to have the Esquimaux at the other ; all are to be governed under the constitution of the United States Republic. And yet critics in English journals amuse themselves with leading articles illustrative of America and its shortcomings, written by men whose highest qualifi- cation is that they write in the sublimest ignorance of the subject on which they treat. Of these new comers to America, the large majority have little or no interest in the form of the government under which they are to dwell. They have, for the most part, left the country of their birth because food was scant, and mouths many. Some of the immigrants are too old even to acquire the language of the country of their adoption, and there are not a few who place obstacles in the way of the instruction of their children in the tongue in which is administered the law of their new homes. There are Penn- sylvanian Dutchmen who have gone through generations of residence in the Quaker State, and who to this day conserve a barbarous patois, the relic of their native tongue. There are French Canadians, and these a rapidly increasing clement, who will not, when adults, learn the English lan- guage, and whose priests (Roman Catholic), probably to AMERICAN POLITICS. 3 prevent heresy, do their best to hinder the education of the children. Through Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, you find this French Canadian stream. The signs, painted in French, in front of many shops, evidence the illustration here given. Thus you have a population increasing vastly every year, and at present not betraying the slightest interest in the political conduct of the country where itobtains the means of existence. There are Germans, arriving even in greater numbers than the English, who, when they come into newly-settled lands as in Wisconsin, Minnesota, or Iowa, sometimes con- tinue to speak little or nothing but their own language. These have journals of their own, printed in German, some, as the Staats Zeitung, of very wide circulation, and who by mere diversity of user of tongue are kept to a great extent apart from their fellow citizens. Even in great cities they often dwell in large bodies by themselves. " German- town," or " little Germany," is a well-known description for the suburb of many a good-sized city from Buffalo west- ward. The Germans have amongst them men who are able political leaders, notably Carl Schurz, who, but for the fact of his foreign birth, might well hope to attain the Chief Magistrates' seat. Yet it is no easy task to identify with the political life of the country a mass of men, thinking in a strange tongue, whose home life has had in it no training for political citizen duty. Here they are not rallied by a religion of Fatherland, they have no other interest at first in the country than the estimate of next year's crop. The life is new, the land is new. At home they have been governed, and it is hard for the one taught under a paternal "blood and iron" monarchy, all at once to realise that here, hi this United States, it is the duty of each man to govern himself, and of all to help to govern one another. The struggle for mere existence is so absorbing to the immigrant settler that the political national vitality is of slow growth, and there is, therefore (amongst many hundreds of thousands of new comers for the first few years), an utter indifference as to who "runs " the Federal or State Government There are no traditions dear to the newly-arrived man associated with his future home; the page of his adopted country's history has to be read when he can find leisure, in a lan- guage which he has often to learn, laboriously or reluctantly, at a period of life when the child's aptitude for being taught has long since departed. 4 AMERICAN POLITICS. 3. The United States of America differ, further, from all other countries in having within their confines an aboriginal race, who seem on the road to extermination a race pro- tected nominally by treaty with, and by authority of, the Federal Government, in territory which is not subject to ordinary United States law ; a race which does not seem to be amenable to the influences of civilisation, except so far as " civilisation " tends to utter annihilation. Here I speak of the Indians the "red" men, who once owned the whole vast expanse of North America, but whose descend- ants now number not more than some 25,000 persons. The political difficulty is here one of the soil i.e., whether A few can hold land which the vigorous and htmgry many press for. Not reckoning the various Indian reservations in other States and territories, there is the Indian territory lying between Arkansas on the east, New Mexico on the west, Kansas on the north, and Texas on the south. Here, you have 55,000,000 acres of land, with a rapidly-decreasing population, to-day numbering about 15,000 human beings* To these, " a mere handful," the whole territory is preserved by treaty as long as "river runs and grass grows." If treaties make enduring barriers, the Indian would be safe enough against the swelling tide from the Old World. But coal crops up to the surface for many miles, and the Indian does not work it The land is rich in metal, which the Indian does not mine. It is not in his nature to search the bowels of the earth with slow and painful strokes ; he loves to roam its surface. The soil is a fruitful one, but is left by the Indian comparatively untilled. The Old World empties the white race from out its bosom, and they look too greedily over the Indian borders for the period to be very long, ere the pressure of population shall burst the treaty limits, and drive the red man from his last retreat in the West. In the North-east no trace of the pure Indian sca.cely exists. In Maine the Indian is gradually disappearing by amalga- mation with the " superior " race. The money originally devoted in the East to the education of the Indian finds at Dartmouth College only one to teach, and he not of pure Indian blood. At Oldtown it is easy to see that, despite the law which declared void all marriage between the white and red races the mingling of bloods is ending in the entire destruction of the aborigine by the Teuton. Yet, while die solution is certainj the pro.ble.na is one not free AMERICAN POLITICS. 5 from grave questions, all to be considered when estimating American politics. The lawlessness which is prevalent in parts of Western Askansas, Southern and South-Eastern Kansas, Texas, and Eastern New Mexico, is a natural result of the existence of this Indian territory, wherein ordinary civil authority is powerless. No doubt the difficulty has been aggravated by the anti-slavery struggle fought out on these borders, in the worst spirit, by the worst men ; and on the cessation of which struggle even, had its too long-enduring mischief in the presence of those remnants of the guerilla fighters from both sides, who had become too much corrupted by war to again settle down into peaceful citizens. 4. The existence in the United States of America of 4,500,000 human beings, not indigenous to the soil, until recently treated as mere chattels, and who enjoy now nomi- nal political rights, with the disadvantage in very many cases of having been utterly unfitted for political duty by their whole life surroundings. Throughout North and South Carolina, in Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana, the negro has for nearly 100 years been treated as if he were a kind of superior cattle ; and although the fifteenth amendment did, five years ago, give a paper poli tical equality to the coloured man, no one can doubt that it would even under favourable and peaceful conditions require several generations of average school training, several generations of practice in self-reliant effort, several genera- tions of participation in self-government, to even give the coloured race the possible chance of making the best of the organisation they inherit. Much more difficult is this negro problem, embittered as it is by the conduct of those long- resident in the South, who, by the warmth of the climate, and the habits of their fathers, have been unfitted to cope with their Northern or Western brethren in the struggle for life. Still more difficult of solution is this negro problem, encumbered as it is by the rascality of some who, really caring nothing whatever for the negro, seek to use his vote as a means of winning power for their party or place for themselves. Terrible enough is this negro problem, even for those who have their hearts sternly set against slavery in all its forms. The fearful war-struggle in America broke down legal slavery ; but it did not win, it could not win, the Southern planter to co-operate with the Northern merchant, or manu- 6 AMERICAN POLITICS. facturer, or farmer, in the work of elevating the newly- enfranchised man. The result of a war may crush, but it does not convince, the defeated party. The pro-slavery men in the South, who organised the armed Kuklux con- spiracy immediately after the war, and who now organise the White League, represent an element which will never cease to oppose the recognition of the equality before the law of the negro race. I do not in this brief space do more than allude to the purely ethnic question, and yet without considering this, it is impossible to treat American politics except in the most superficial manner. The Civil Rights Bill, to which Charles Sumner attached so much importance, and which he intended should remove all obstructions to the gradual raising of the coloured man, has been robbed of its most important and most valuable provision viz., the School clause. Mr. G. S. Boutwell, in a recent speech in the Senate of the United States, said : "When the children of the white people and the black people are compelled to go into the same schools, sit upon the same forms, accept the same teachers, study the same books, become rivals in education and in the pursuits of life, you will have a community that will believe practically in human equality. Therefore it is that that provision which has been stricken out of the Civil Rights Bill in the other House is of more consequence than all the other provisions of that Bill." Draper says : "That while the Slave States existed as a political power, they were forced by the neces- sities of their position to impose a forced ignorance on the low elements of their society." It is only by insistance on the most complete facilities for negro education that per- manent improvement can be hoped. Hitherto in America there have been two great parties Republican and Democratic ; and one of these, the Demo- cratic party, has suffered severely, first, from its identification with the pro-slavery movement and the Southern rebellion ; and, second and more recently from the fact that the men convicted in New York City of misdealing with, and misappropriation of, the city moneys were elected by the Democratic vote, which in that city has an overwhelming majority, nearly the whole Irish vote being cast for the Democratic ticket. Candidly, I do not think that the Democratic party ought to be condemned entirely for the sin of slavery ; nor do I hold that the Republican party ought to be credited with AMERICAN POLITICS. 7 the original virtue of abolition principles. Unfortunately for the Democratic platform, the affirmation of State rights involved the perpetuation of national wrongs. The English Monarchy had planted slavery more or less throughout the thirteen colonies, but especially in Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. The slavery so planted had been enforced, preserved, and encouraged by direct acts of the Home Government. When the several colonies became independent States, they conserved un- fortunately for themselves the fatal privilege of retaining their negro brethren in bondage. The privilege of slave- holding became a State right ; and in the Southern States the climatic conditions helped to give colour to the notion that it was a social necessity. The affirmation of State right identified the Democratic party with the maintenance of the curse of slavery in those States respectively which refused to vote for abolition. In judging American politics an Englishman should at least remember two things : first, that slavery was a legacy left by the English Monarchy to the new Republic ; and next, that when the great American people had at last determined to free themselves from the shame and disgrace of the slave blot on the American escutcheon, it was the English aristocracy and land-owning interest which, while making profession through the world of a policy of universal emancipation, nevertheless gave its sympathy to the slave-holding South, and permitted without protest the building in, and issue from, its ports of war vessels to be used against its ally the North, though that North had then, time of the loan, and workers who have inherited noproperty at all from their borrowing ancestors, are obliged by this law of public credit to pay interest as to the amount of which they have had no discretion, and to deprive themselves of comforts, and even necessaries, for the cost of services in which they have no share, and probably have derived no benefit. Such a power as this transfers a burden from one set of workers and property to a materially different set of workers and property, and inflicts a great deal of hardship, and often of injustice, upon future generations more par- ticularly on the poor among them. Hence the power of borrowing ought only to be exercised on the clearest necessity, and with the utmost economy." And, further : " The unnecessary or extra portion of war expenditure, occasioned by the adoption of borrowing, is capital un- necessarily diverted from productive investments, and spent; on unproductive objects. Instead of being employed in trade or industrial undertakings, or improvements, adding a new annual produce to the net income of the nation, this capital becomes a pensioner on the old net income of the country. It is like taking an army of artificers and agri- cultural labourers from their workshops and fields, to main- tain them, and their children after them, without labour, upon the taxes. An unproductive debt, by its absorption of useful capital, prevents improvements, hinders the growth of industrial capital, and stunts the development of a nation; while, at the same time, to meet the necessity of paying interest, it imposes additional taxation, and lessens the margin of tax-bearing power of the nation." The whole of the debt owing to-day by Great Britain is the unpaid, balance of money borrowed for war expenditure. To- day we owe about ^776,000,000 ; we have spent for wars alone, during the last 180 years, ^1,555,421,160, and this without reckoning the cost of borrowing, and without calculating the interest paid on the money borrowed. The total military and naval expenditure during the war in Ireland and against France, 1688 to 1697, amounted to ^36,876,203. During the war from 1702 to 1713, called " the war of the Spanish succession," the total cost for army, navy, and ordnance was ^66,279,292. It was at this time that the increase of our standing army commenced, and the system of subsidising foreign Powers and hiring foreign troops, originated. 10 TAXATION. The naval and military expenditure during the war with 'Spain, from 1718 to 1721, came to ,11,399,324. Between 1739 and 1748, we had the "war with Spain (right of search) and Austrian succession," and in those years spent for fighting ^62,077,642. When the treaty of peace was made at Aix-la-Chapelle, the right of search was not even .referred to. The "seven years' war" was nominally 1756 to 1763, but really involved military expenditure over eleven years, at a -cost of ^104,611,374. The war which severed the connection between the North American colonies and the British monarchy the war which served to create the Republic of the United States of America necessitated a total outlay of ^139,521,035. The war with France nominally commencing in 1793, "but really commencing with the signature of the secret arrange- ment in 1791 (concurred in by George III. and the Tory 'Government), by which the various Continental Powers, parties to the secret treaty of Mantua, agreed to invade France, in order to overthrow the Constitution made up the enormous total of ^989,636,449, when the expenditure ended in 1817. So that if we had not joined in the conspiracy :to enable Louis XVI. to break his oath, we should now have had no debt, and France might possibly have escaped the Reign of Terror. The Crimean war cost ;i 16,053, 151, for the maintenance -of the Turk at Constantinople and the prevention of Russian war vessels in the Black Sea. The first result has enabled the Sublime Porte to borrow English money, and to mis- govern and maltreat Bulgarian, Bosnian, and Herzegovinian peasants. The Russian diplomatists have since persuaded the English Government to abandon the second result, -despite the blood and treasure lavished to secure it. Some contend that it is unjust to include, as I have done, the whole expenditure for army, navy, and ordnance during war years; but I submit that I should be justified in adding to the above items all increase of the annual charge of the .public debt, and all interest paid on money borrowed towards defraying the war expenditure. If this were done, the total cash wasted for and through war, during the last 180 years, would not be less than ^2, 000,000,000. TAXATION. 1 1 Our Military Expenditure. The second item is for our army and navy, ,28,186,117, ;and of this the army cost us altogether 16,820,716, being nearly double what it cost us in 1852, while the navy cost us 11,364,383, as against .5,849,916 in 1852. Omitting the items for army purchase and localization of forces, the cost of the army for last year was 15,421,356. For this we had a supposed effective force of 96,275 men, with a total -muster-roll of 132,884 men of all ranks. The German army, -on a peace footing with 420,000 men of all ranks, costs as nearly as possible the same sum as does the English army, although the latter has 287,000 less men. In the British army we pay the salaries of a large number of gentlemen as nominal colonels of regiments, which these titular commanders sometimes never see ; the salaried colonelcy is occasionally -the reward of merit to a tried warrior of foreign lineage who has done this country the honour of associating himself by marriage with our Royal Family. The increase in the peace cost of our army has been very terrible. In 1871 the cost was 13,430,400. In 1847 our army, militia, commissariat, -and ordnance cost 9,061,233, everything included; show- ing the outrageous addition in twenty years of .7,775,000 per annum to the one item of military expenditure. Com- pare this with the cost of the army in 1792, just prior to the great continental wars, and the total then for Great Britain and Ireland was 2,410,212, or about one seventh of the army expenditure for 1877. Estimates are so wonderfully framed that it is possible some inaccuracies may be found in these figures ; if so, the inaccuracies will only be of form and not of substance. Withoutregardingany increase for war, our peace establishment for the army for 1878 is to cost .15,595,800, and for this, unless we denuded Ireland of her garrisons, we could probably not collect and have ready in the field within two months more than 50,000 men. It is true that we have in the three Indian presidencies 60,000 men, but we dare not remove these at the risk of an immediate rebellion. Divine service in the army costs 49,300 ; and as each officiating clergy- man for his share of this sum has to devote about two hours per week to each regiment, it can hardly be said that religion is too cheaply provided for. As the Gospel does not make all soldiers good, the expenditure for military punishments comes to 28,600. The total charge for the 12 TAXATION. militia is .1,287,753 > an ^ the yeomanry cavalry, whose availability for war will be evident to the meanest capacity, cost ^74,400. The most famous achievement of the yeomanry cavalry was in 1819, at Peterloo, and the recol- lection of this should endear that branch of the service to- all real Radicals. It is sometimes pretended that the Duke of Cambridge foregoes some of the salaries attaching to the numerous colonelcies he holds, but in the foot note to the statement on the estimates of his salary of ^4432 as Com- mander-in-Chief, it is expressly stated that this is " in addi- tion to the full pay " " of the military ranks " " held in the army." When commissions in the army were sold, there was a regulation price, and every officer selling his commis- sion used to pledge his word of honour that he did not receive, and every officer purchasing gave a pledge on honour that he did not pay, more than the regulation price. It was. always well known that the whole system was a farce ; that more money was always demanded and paid ; and that the amount varied according to popularity or otherwise of the regiment. When the practice of promotion in the army by purchase was abolished, there was actually provision made for paying compensation to officers for these fraudulent "over-regulation prices;" the amount apportioned for 1878. under this head is ^29,200. Revenue Departments. The cost of collection of our customs and inland revenue might be much lessened if direct taxation were made the rule. Almost all earnest financial reformers seek to substi- tute direct for indirect taxation. Indirect taxation is a levy of revenue by taxes on the transit of merchandise, on articles. of food, on the raw materials used in manufacture, and on the process of manufacture. Direct taxation is here in- tended to mean the levy of revenue by a tax on income- There are, of course, various direct taxes of obnoxious character which would be utterly impolitic. Indirect taxa- tion is objectionable, because, in the end, the pressure of it always falls most severely on the mass of the consumers, and the richer tax-payers manage to transfer their burdens. with interest to the poorer and ultimate purchasers. Indirect taxation is always a hindrance to industrial enterprise. It encourages smuggling, fraud, and perjury, and compels the maintenance of a strong force for the detection and punish- TAXATION. IJ ment of the crime it creates. The governing classes, and those who are opposed to economy, will naturally object to direct taxation, for its very simplicity makes each tax- payer unpleasantly and immediately conscious of every increase in his fiscal burdens. Almost all local taxes are direct taxes, and when all imperial taxes are direct there will be less opportunity of annual increase in our expendi- ture without a vigorous protest. Men and women ought to pay taxes for the preservation of their property, their liberty, .and their persons, but the severest pressure of tax ought not to come upon those whose wage is insufficient for the decent maintenance of themselves and their families. In 1849 the Liverpool Financial Reform Association issued some most able tracts dealing with the questions of direct and in- direct taxation. Since that date very many indirect taxes have been entirely abolished, but there is still enough of in- direct taxation remaining to make the following passage worth reproducing from the Financial Reform Tract, No. 3= " On a careful examination of the sources whence the public income is derived, the Association are astonished to find how completely the taxation is laid on the trade and industry of the country. Contrasted with the accounts of the expenditure, it divides the community into two distinct classes : one, those who pay ; the other, those who spend the taxes. The former comprises the great mass of the population, all who labour and produce the wealth of the nation ; the other, the favoured few who from accident of birth or connections are exempt from the necessity of toil ; and who seem on that account (for no other reason can be discovered in the examination of official documents, but the fact that such is the exemption) to be relieved from the duty of contributing their fair and proportionate amount to the pecuniary requirements of the state." It is, of course, just to add that thanks to men like Joseph Hume, John Bright, Richard Cobden, and last but most certainly not least, William Ewart Gladstone much change for the better has been made since 1849 in the imposition of our national taxation. Public Works and Buildings. In the expenditure, under the head of " Public Works .and Buildings," there are some items to which special .attention should be drawn, ist. Palaces in the personal occupation of Her Majesty, which cost ,12,397 last year, and for which ,12,158 are asked for 1878. ^,5454 is charged in addition for palaces partly in the occupation of 14 TAXATION. Her Majesty. 2nd. ,3357 is the bill for repairs, inter alia* to the apartments of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge in St. James's Palace, but including also rent of stables for Her Royal Highness in Brick Street, Piccadilly. This is in addition to the pension to the duchess, which will be found given under the head of " Payments to the Royal Family." Why the nation should pay the Duchess- of Cambridge's stable rent is a mystery which poor and hungry taxpayers would do well to clear up. 3rd. The repairs for 1878 to Marlborough House, the residence of the Prince of Wales, for 1878, are estimated at ^6450 ; the actual charge for last year under this head was ^4100. 4th. There are items amounting to ,45,907, in 1877, for diplomatic and consular buildings, which shall be dealt with later, together with the other items for foreign office services. Expenses of Public Departments, The House of Lords nominally cost, in 1877, for salaries, and similar expenses, ,47,053, but this does not include ^6000 further charged on the Consolidated Fund for the Lord Chancellor, making a total of ,53,053. The House of Commons, including a sum of ,5000, also charged on the Consolidated Fund for the Speaker, costs ,61,649. Warming, ventilating, lighting, dusting, and general looking after both Houses of Parliament, comes to "21,130. This is a total for Parliament without reckoning payments to counsel who draw Parliamentary Bills ,115,832. This is a fairly large outlay for a Parliament in which there is no payment of members, except of the speaker and chairmen of committees. The Foreign Office costs ,83,400, one notable item in which total is the salary of .1250 to the Chief Clerk, who is at the same time in receipt of "794 23., being compensation granted to him for abandoning against his wish and will the illegal and extremely profitable practice of levying black mail on the salaries of Foreign Office employes, who were compelled to employ him as their agent to receive their salaries. The Lord Privy Seal's Office figures for "2807, a not unreasonable yearly stipend for acting merely as a " gilt figure-head." This was the office recently held by the Earl of Beaconsfield, from which he professed to gain no emolument, but from which he actually received the full salary, until public attention was drawn to- the matter. TAXATION". 15, Secret Service. There are two items, one of ^i 0,000, charged on the Consolidated Fund, and the other of ^24,000, in the Civil Service Estimates, for Secret Service Money. These are items which ought to be erased from our national expendi- ture. The usually accurate " Financial Reform Almanack " for 1878 gives the sum for Secret Service in the Civil Service Expenditure at only ; 14,000, but this is an error, the sum is ^24,000, making ^34,000 in all. The House of Commons ought to insist on the nation knowing whether this amount is disbursed at home or abroad. If the sum is only paid to supplement official salaries, it should be voted openly. If it is employed for bribery, or in pursuance of dishonest work, it should not be voted at all. About 250 years ago the House of Commons, committed a Secretary of State to the Tower for refusing to. give information as to the alleged disposal of Secret Service Moneys, and the House only released the, at first, obstinate- offender on his making full submission and furnishing complete accounts. To-day the House of Commons is too- subservient to Ministers to do anything half so bold. Foreign Office Expenditure. Without reckoning diplomatic pensions or allowances, but including diplomatic and consular buildings, our Foreign Office Service costs in all for the current year ^567,205, and this, not including special missions such as that of the Earl Rosslyn to Madrid to attend the marriage of the King of Spain, which cost ^3200, or the Duke of" Abercorn's journey to Rome to invest the new King of Italy with the insignia of the Order of the Garter, the charge for which is ^5500. First, in point of expenses and, possibly,, also in the prospect of future mischief, come our legations and consular expenses in China and Japan. The charges, of the embassies ^9460 for China, and ^5660 for Japan, compared with the extravagant totals, are apparently- comparatively moderate. The total charge for the United States embassy to China is ^6100, including in this all contingencies ; while to the ^9460 which our embassy cost have to be added the items for legation buildings,, legation guards, c., amounting to several thousand pounds, more. The United States embassy to Japan, including alls expenses comes to ^3000; our embassy costs ^5660,, 1 6 TAXATION. without reckoning the costly additional expenditure. What good our ambassador is to us in China at all is not very clear, as a good Consul-General would do all the real work ; but this is only the commencement of long series of items for the Celestial Empire. The consular services in China amount to ,50,664, and those for Japan to .27,772, while the legation and consular tmildings come to an additional "15,948, with "2674 for rents, or a round total for our representation in China and Japan of "112,178. It should be borne in mind by tax- payers that many statesmen and their advisers have in recent times suggested the possibility of the extension of English territory in China and Japan. Diplomatic and consular representation in Persia, where there are only two consulates, costs us "10,085, and the embassy buildings at Teheran are continually figuring in the estimates. Last year they cost .1938. This is one of the cases where a costly embassy is worse than useless. The :Shah was a rather uncomfortable visitor, and seems a most expensive acquaintance. If we desire any benefit from the embassy it would be interesting to have such benefit clearly recorded. Turkey costs us for its embassy no less than 11,345, for embassy and consular buildings, "4,628, and lor con- sulates, after deducting the fees acknowledged and returned, ,20,287. For this huge outlay we get the worst of all returns absolute misrepresentation by our officials to the Turks of the state of English feeling, and to England of the condition of Turkish misrule. If it had not been for the correspondents of the Times and Daily News during 1876, we should have been absolutely without reliable information as to what was happening in Bulgaria and Bosnia. Our present ambassador is A. H. Layard, who, when he was the English minister in Madrid, actually did all he could to pre- vent the abolition of slavery in Porto Rico, and plotted actively with Marshal Serrano to overthrow the Republic temporarily established under Castelar. Marshal Serrano travelled through Spain to Santander disguised as the ser- vant of and in company with the English Ambassador, and thus escaped arrest. Turkish embassies are not, however, expected to do special work, and there is a Danubian Navi- gation Commission which costs us "3,000 a-year, and a Turco-Persian Boundary Commission for which we pay ^2,000 a year. Last year there was a special sen-ice in TAXATION. 1 7 Montenegro, at an expense of ^650. The United States embassy to the Ottoman Porte costs for everything ^5, 600 ; our embassy, not including legation buildings, costs more than double. Many of the petty continental legations have been swept away during the last 25 years, and there are several more which ought also to be abolished. The Charg d' Affaires at Coburg, and his brethren in Wurtemburg, Darmstadt and Dresden, might well be spared, our consuls being most cer- tainly sufficient for all useful purprses. The eccentricities of disbursements in the Foreign Office department are very wonderful. Vice-Consuls in small places are found receiving more pay than vice-consuls in larger towns. Consuls in important ports receive often lesser salaries than consuls in ports of little or no conse- quence. Sometimes consuls receive less than vice-consuls. No sort of reasonable explanation can be given for such anomalies. We now come to the items for superannuations , retired allow- ances, and gratuities for charitable and other purposes, or in plain words to the Pension List. We who are Radicals do not object to pensions given for real service ; nor do we object to large pensions if the service rendered to the nation has been equivalent. The retiring pensions to our common-law and chancery judges are generally well, sometimes even hardly, earned, and none of them should be grudged. We do object to all pensions corruptly obtained, or granted without equivalent national service ; we object, especially, to hereditary pensions, and we contend that Parliament has the right to cancel an improperly received pension without having either the legal or moral obligation to make any compensation to the deprived pensioner. In the list of payments on behalf of the nation, for the year 1876, appears a pension of ^843 as paid to the Duke of Grafton. This pension is a compensatory annuity paid to the Duke of Grafton on the abolition of a legal sinecure conferred on the first Duke of Grafton, who was the son of Charles II. The modest ^843 per annum received as com- pensation for ceasing to perform certain supposed legal 1 8 TAXATION. services, actually never performed is but a very small proportion of the amount still really paid by the nation to, or on behalf of, the Duke of Grafton. King Charles II. of pious and virtuous memory, for whose restoration to the Crown of England a grateful and devout people until very lately repeated a thanksgiving service, which was officially printed in the Common Prayer Book in his desire to provide sufficiently for his offspring, gave to his son, the Duke of Grafton, the right of levying and taking prisage and butlerage duties on all wines brought into England, with the exception of such wines as should be imported within the jurisdiction of the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster. In 1797 it was estimated that the Duke of Grafton received from this source alone about ^7,500 a-year. In 1806 under 43 George III., c. 156, and 43 George III., c. 79, the prisage and butlerage privileges of the Duke of Grafton were per- chased for an annuity of ^6,870 payable to the Duke of Grafton and his heirs male. This annuity was nominally extinguished by the redemption, as to a part, in 1809, and as to the remaining part, in 1816. In 1809 the Duke of -Grafton received ^49,1 33 us. 8d., and in i8i6he received ^86,435 73., or together ^135,568 i8s. 8d., as the com- pensation for no longer taking prisage and butlerage on wines. It would of course have been utterly unreasonable in a rich country like Great Britain where in 1877 Paisley weavers are averaging IDS. per week all the year round, where a Herefordshire labourer gets eight shillings per week, .and where Lord Walsingham proudly boasts that agricultural labourers' wages average 135. to 145. per week to expect a man of the merit and services of the great Duke of Grafton to exist on a wretched pittance of .7,500 a-year, and, therefore, on the 22nd October, 1673, by Royal Letters Patent his loving father Charles II. created a further here- ditary pension of ^9,000 a-year, which somehow got reduced in 1856 to .7,191 i2s., which latter sum was all that the Duke of Grafton then received for that particular pension. This sum of 7,191 125. was also nominally extinguished in 1856 by the payment to the Duke of Grafton of the further sum of "193,7 7 7 135. 2d. There was still another pension received by the Duke of Grafton. This last pension appears to have been originally charged upon the Post Office Revenues as a pension of .4,700 a-year to Lady Castlemaine. Unfortunately, on. TAXATION. 19 this point authorities conflict, for in 1663 the whole revenue of the Post Office was apparently given to the Duke of York. Perhaps the accounts of the General Post Office were then as elastic as were the notions of the duties attaching to letter carriers, for we find " Fifteen couple of hounds " passing through the post, "going to the King of the Romans with a free pass," and we also find delivered without charge by the General Post Office, " Two servant maids going as .laundresses to my Lord Ambassador Methuen ; " and, last 'but not least, safely and gratuitously transmitted by the same patient Post Office " Dr. Crichton, carrying with him a cow and divers other necessaries." Post Office regulations at present hardly include the foregoing curiosities. In 1857 the sum received by the Duke of Grafton for this special pension amounted to .3,384 a-year, and for the extinguish- ment of this he was paid a still further sum of ^91,181 173. 7d. If these composition sums are totalled, they amount to ,420,528 95. 5d., and this vast total has helped to swell our national debt, and the nation, in fact, pays the interest on it until this very day. By removing the three several pensions of ,3,384, .7,191 125., and .6,870 from the surface of the pension list, the grievance has been dexterously hidden without having been redressed. A permanent charge has been created equal to the interest at -j>2> 5 s - P er cent, on about^45 0,000, or,in round figures, nearly .15,000 per year, which is the sum the Duke of Grafton still costs the country for pensions which do not appear on the face of the Finance Accounts. Besides the above- mentioned commuted pensions, the post of Remembrancer of the Court of First Fruits was, under Charles II., made .a patent place for ever, and was conferred upon the family of the Duke of Grafton, and it is from this source that the ^843 is derived. If "high wage" helps to drive away trade, as the landowners and capitalists say, it would be interesting to know their opinion on the value of the Duke of Grafton as a stimulant to commerce. William Henry Fitz-Roy, sixth and present Duke of Grafton, owns 7,316 acres in Buckinghamshire, 8,458 acres iin Northampton, 13,642 acres in Suffolk, and 2,784 acres an Banff. We shall be glad to hear from any of our readers -the wages paid to agricultural labourers on his several estates. His Grace is a Whig in politics. After speaking in strong terms of the origin of these Grafton pensions the author of the Financial Reform 20 TAXATION. Tracts, No. 2, published by the Liverpool Financial Reform- Association, says : " Many generations have since suc- ceeded each other, but no Duke of Grafton has yet arisen with sufficient honour or patriotism to refuse to profit by the wickedness of his ancestors, and to reject money taken, without requital, from the honest earnings of the industrious poor." Another pension which the country continues to pay practically, while theoretically relieved from the burden, is one of ,19,000 per year to the Duke of Richmond. On the 1 8th December, 1676, Charles II. granted to the Duke of Richmond and his heirs is. per chaldron on all coals exported from the River Tyne, and consumed in England. On the 5th July, 1799, this burden on poor colliery workers and coal consumers, known as the " Richmond Shilling," was changed into a permanent pension of ,19,000 per year, which pension was nominally extinguished in 1825 by a payment of ,490,833 us. 6d. paid in three instal- ments. Charles Henry Gordon Lennox, sixth and present Duke of Richmond, owns 17,117 acres of land in Sussex, 69,660 acres in Aberdeen, 150,950 acres in Banff, 12,271 acres in Elgin, and 27,400 acres in Inverness. In Sussex we know something of the wretched earnings of the farm labourers, but we shall be glad to have more precise details from any of our Sussex readers. All names will be con- sidered as strictly confidential. His Grace is a Tory, and is Lord President of the Privy Council ; his official salary is ,2,000 per annum. Before we quit this Richmond Pension there is one most scandalous feature requiring notice. The heirs of Sir Thomas Clarges at present receive .800 per year on the pension list. This pension is an extremely puzzling one. Originally, in 1676, Sir Thomas Clarges, his heirs and assigns, had a charge on the is. per chaldron coal duty- granted by Charles II. to the Duke of Richmond. In 1799, by some process of government manipulation, while the Tories were in power, the Clarges annuity was taken off the shoulders of the Duke of Richmond and placed on the backs of the British taxpayer. The effect of this was that the great Duke of Richmond twenty-six years later actually received a huge money compensation for this .500 a-year, to which he had no right, while the country, having thus paid the principal monies to the Duke, continues to pay the annuity to the Clarges family. The pension though TAXATION. 2 1 nominally paid to the heirs of Sir Thomas Clarges turns out to be really paid to Lord St. Vincent, who also receives a further sum of ,3,000 per year. The ,3,000 is made up of two pensions granted to the famous Admiral St. Vincent, of whom the present Viscount is heir, but I cannot make out why Carnegie Robert John Jervis, third Viscount St. Vincent, should also receive the Clarges pension. In 1662 a pension of ,1000 a year was granted in per- petuity by Charles II. to the Earl ot Kinnoul. George Drummond Hay, eleventh Earl of Kinnoul, and Viscount Dupplin, a Conservative peer, still receives on account of this pension .676 45. per annum. This Earl of Kinnoul owns 12,577 acres of land in Perthshire. Apparently the original pension was of a most iniquitous character. James Hay, Earl of Carlisle, had upon the accession of Charles I. a grant of the Island of Barbadoes, as a sort of compensation for property expended about the court and in general extrava- .gant and voluptuous living. On the death of James, Earl of Carlisle, in 1660, without issue, William, Earl of Kinnoul succeeded to the Barbadoes estate, which, in 1661 was ceded to Charles the II., who, in lieu thereof, granted the ,1000 per annum for ever to the Earls of Kinnoul. Amongst the continuing pensions specially worthy of notice there is one of ^4,000 a-year payable for ever to the Duke of Marlborough. This pension, originally of .5,000 per annum, was granted by Letters Patent by Queen Anne, in 1706, to the Duke of Marlborough and his heirs in consideration of the " meritorious services " of the Duke. By an Act of Parliament, 5 & 6 Anne, c. 4, the annuity of .5,000 was granted out of the Post Office Revenues for ever to the Duke of Marlborough, the Duchess, and his heirs, and to go with the title. This pension was paid out of the Revenues of the Post Office until 1857, when by the 19 Vic., c. 59, it was transferred to the Consolidated Fund as a pension of ,4,000 a-year, which is the sum now paid. The Duke of Marlborough owns 2,755 acres in Buckingham- shire, 1,534 acres in Wiltshire, and 21,944 acres in Oxford- shire. In the event of the failure of heirs male to the body of the Duke of Marlborough, the Honor and Manor of Woodstock, with Blenheim Palace, ought to revert to the nation. J. Winston Spencer Churchill, the present and sixth Duke of Marlborough, is a Tory and is Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, his official salary for which is .20,000 a-year. 22 TAXATION. His Grace is a patron of fourteen livings. His Grace also receives ,91 53. 30!. per year for his pay as officer in the army. In the payments of 1876 there appeared an item of -2, 160 payable to " the heirs of the Duke of Schomberg." In one Parliamentary return for 1869 this ^2,160 figures as " three- fourths of an annuity granted by King George I. to May- nard, Duke of Schomberg, and his heirs ;" and in a Treasury- minute for 1853, the actual recipients of this Schomberg pension, nominally as the heirs of the Duke of Schomberg,. were stated to be the following persons, in the several pro- portions given after their respective names, viz.; the Duke of Leeds, ^1,080, C. Eyre, ,720, P. Powys, ^360, R. Gos- ling, ^360, Colonel Macleod, ,288, Henry Macleod, ^72. The portion of the pension payable to C. Eyre was redeemed in 1855 by the payment to him of ,19,399 i8s., and last year the sum of ^"29,101 was paid to the Duke of Leeds to redeem the portion payable to him. The original grant of the pension to Frederic Amand, the first Duke of Schom- berg, was by Letters Patent of William and Mary, and was expressed to be out of the Post Office Revenues. In the- estimate dated loth August, 1699, although the Duke had' been killed at the battle of the Boyne on the nth July, 1690,. the pension figures under the head " Pensions and Per- petuities" as " Duke Schonberg, on the Post Office, ^4,000 per annum." George Godolphin Osborne, ninth and actual Duke of Leeds, owns 3,117 acres in Buckinghamshire, 5,911 acres in Cheshire, 5,911 acres in Cornwall, 3,234 acres in the North Riding, and 10,034 acres in the West Riding, of York. Another curious pension is one of ^4,000 per annum, also, payable for ever, which figures in the national accounts as payable to trustees for the use of William Penn and his. heirs and descendants for ever, in consideration of his meri- torious services and family losses from the American war. The original William Penn died in 1718; we do not know who was the William Penn who, in 1790, was judged so worthy. Under the 43 George III., c. 159, a pension of ,3,000. per year is payable for ever to the representatives of Jeffery, . Earl Amherst. The present recipient of this pension is; William Pitt Amherst, second earl, who owns 741 acres of land in Essex, 4,269 acres in Kent, and 1,789 acres in War- wick. William Carpenter affirms that General Sir Jeffrey TAXATION. 23 Amherst, the first grantee of the pension, " was a creature of George III.," and obtained the pension "without merit of any description." In the Black Book, published by Effingham Wilson forty-eight years ago, the editor says : "This is one of the most objectionable of the hereditary pensions. It was transmitted by the uncle of the peer, Sir Jeffrey Amherst, a favourite of George III., and placed by him at the head of the army ; when, as a commander-in-chief, he introduced and protected such bare- faced jobbing and traffic in commissions as both disgraced and ruined our military power. The loyalty of that day was not to entertain even a suspicion of the misconduct of the individual who had the ear of Royalty, however flagrant, and thus the Court favourite died in the full enjoyment of the rewards of his baseness." Horatio, third Earl Nelson, is the son of the nephew of a Norfolk Church of England clergyman, the Rev. William Nelson, who was created an earl with a pension of ,5,000 ; having been born the brother of Horatio, Baron Nelson of the Nile. Admiral Lord Nelson received pay, pensions, and presents to a large amount. After his death, ,20,000 was granted out of the people's money to Mrs. Bolton and Mrs. Matcham, two sisters of the well-rewarded admiral, and ,90,000 was, in addition, voted for the purchase of an estate and mansion for the Rev. William Nelson, Prebendary of Canterbury, and Norfolk vicar. At present Earl Nelson receives from the pension list .3,500 and the balance of ,1,500 is received by the Countess Frances Elizabeth Nelson. The estate bought for his lordship's father's uncle is, we believe, in Wiltshire, 5,735 acres. The Duke of Wellington receives ^4,000 per year, and in addition to this, the sum of ^700,000 was granted to his father, the late Duke, in addition to his ordinary pay and extraordinary allowances, and in addition to a like annuity of ,4,000 a-year for life. The present Duke owns 15,847 acres of land in Hants and 2,246 acres in Herts. The total annual income of the " Iron Duke " during the latter years of his life was about ,43,178 a very fair yearly pay. The non-existent Earl of Bath receives, or some persons as his heirs receive to-day, a pension of ^1,200 per annum. This pension was originally ;8,ooo and was granted to the Earl of Bath ,3,000 out of the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall, ,2,500 out of the Post Office, and ^2,500 out of the firstfruits and tenths. The Parliamentary return ot 24 TAXATION. 1869 states the ^3,000 pension to have been originally granted by King William III., and also states it to have been granted by Charles II. On the i2th August, 1715, the pension of ^3,000 was transferred by Royal Sign Manual Warrant of George I. from the charge of the Duchy of Cornwall to the Hereditary Excise, as from the previous 24th June, in effect increasing the income of the Prince of Wales by that amount. In 1826, Lord Melbourne, who had somehow become entitled to receive a moiety of this pension, obtained from the country the sum of ^30,000 in discharge of his portion of the pension. If in America Cabinet Ministers used their influence to obtain heavy money compensation for pensions originally granted without reason, the English Press would soon expose the corruption of republican administrations. Here corruption is unknown, for this is a monarchy. On the gth of June, 1694, William III. granted two pensions, each of ^2,000 per year, to Henry Lord d'Auver- querque, one pension to be paid out of the revenues of the principality of Wales, and the other pension to be paid out of the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall. On the 24th December, 1698, Lord d'Auverquerque was created Earl of Grantham. In 1732, Earl Cowper married into Earl Grantham's family, and for this latter service the Earls Cowper received, and down to 1853 continued to receive, four-fifths of each of the above pensions. In 1853 Earl Cowper received two several sums on the 5th April, ^40,000, and on the i3th May, ^43,000 as compensation for foregoing the annual allowance so gallantly deserved. The pension of ^2,000 being payable out of the Duchy of Cornwall the actual result was to benefit the present Prince of Wales to the extent of ^43,000. F. Thomas de Grey, seventh Earl Cowper, P.C., K.G., owns 2,787 acres in the county of Derby, 10,122 acres in Herts, 2,078 acres in Kent, 1,064 acres in Northampton, and 5,294 acres in Notts. Countess Cowper owns 3,227 acres in Essex, 2,536 in Wilts, and 5,720 acres in the West Riding of Yorkshire, The Dowager Countess Cowper owns 8,888 acres in Bed- fordshire. The motto of the Cowpers is " Tuum est " and includes the pension. Amongst the small curiosities of the pension list we find ^209 per year to Samuel Hallyer for not being Deputy Chaffwax. James Gordon Seton gets ^442 for the like absence of service (it is to be presumed that he is a superior TAXATION. 25 kind of non-deputy Chaffwax), while John Holdship, as -actual ex-Chaff \vax, gets annually ^1,145 us. The Hon. J. H. Knox gets as ex-Weighmaster of Butter ^1,076 155., and for not holding this sinecure office this honourable gentleman has personally received ,49,530 IDS. There is a gentleman of the same name who owns 6,909 acres of land in county Mayo. Can any of our readers tell us if the two Dromios are one ? and if yes what sort of a landlord he makes ? There is another pensioner, Caleb Tyndall, who is also not a Weighmaster of Butter, who only receives for his non-service the paltry annual stipend of ;i 1 8 6s. As Mr. Tyndall and Mr. Knox each do the same work, it seems unjust that they should not have the same pay. Each of them has been ex-Weighmaster of Butter for forty-six years, -and prior to that date neither of them weighed any butter. Mr. C. Panton has for fifty-five years received ,850 each year as ex-Clerk of the Pipe. A pension of .600 a year to Lady C. M. Gardiner, as one of the bedchamber women in the household of the late Princess Charlotte of Wales, is stated, in the estimates, to have commenced on the nth December, 1865. Now, as Princess Charlotte of Wales died on the 6th November, 1817, my curiosity was excited as to the nominal origin of this pension 48 years after the death of the Princess ; stated in the Government estimates as having commenced on the same day, is a pension of ,100 a year to Charles Andrews, footman to the same Princess, and the age at the time of retirement from office of this footman is declared to have been 65. Now, as Charles Andrew may be fairly presumed not to have continued as footman to Princess Charlotte of Wales after her death, it is difficult to understand what is meant by the retirement from office of Charles Andrews. The Princess Charlotte received first ^6,000, then ^13,000, and then ;6o,ooo a year, besides special grants amounting to -69,777 ) an d the Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg received ,50,000 a year for marrying the Princess. Prince Leopold is supposed to have ceased to receive this pension from the date of his acceptance of the throne of Belgium. We still continue to pay pensions to persons belonging to the household of the late king of the Belgians, Edward Robert, gamekeeper to the king, gets .75 ; Charles Moore, the late king's steward, ^85 IQS. ; and William Pitcher, the groom, ,75. Recipients of pensions are long lived. One view of the pension to Prince Leopold, which I had 26 TAXATION. not sufficiently regarded, has been forced upon me irt examining the statements as to the Russo-Dutch Loan. In 1876 there is an item of expenditure for interest and. sinking fund on Russian Dutch loan of ,63,384. This- money represents an annual payment of decreasing amount,, which commenced in 1817 at 122,480, and which willend with a payment of ^2 1,354 in 1915. The liability seems to have been undertaken at the close of the great war in. 1815, for the purpose of "establishing the King of the Netherlands in his new sovereignty." The 55 George III., cap. 115, provided that Great Britain should only continue to pay her proportion of this Russian-Dutch Loan so long as the Belgic provinces remained part of " the dominions of" his Majesty the King of the Netherlands." In 1830 Belgium formed itself into an independent State, and its secession- was decreed on the 25th August, 1830. Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg was made King of the Belgians, and in con- sequence of the severance of Belgium from Holland, Great Britain ought no longer to have continued to pay for interest and redemption of the Russo-Dutch loan. A new treaty was, however, entered into on the i6th November, 1831, between this country and Russia, and the engagement to- continue the payments was renewed. Mr. E. G. Johnstone was Clerk of Patents to the Attorney- General, and Solicitor-General for England. On the ist October, 1853, his office was abolished by the i5th and i6th Vic. cap. 83, and he, as compensation for the abolition of this office, receives ^850 per annum. Mr. Johnstone also receives ,528 a year addition "as long as he holds the office " (vide Civil Service Estimates, 1874, p. 456), notwith- standing that, as the office has been abolished for nearly a quarter of a century, his holding is hardly an ordinary one. Miscellaneous Expenditure. Amongst miscellaneous expenditure to March ist, 1878, ^439 3S. 4d. is charged for fees paid on the installation of Prince Frederick William of Prussia as Knight Companion of the Garter, and ^380 is paid for special packets for conveyance of certain " distinguished persons," whose names and destinations are not given. ^7 3 20 is charged as the cost of conferring the distinction of the Order of St. Michael and St. George upon several colonists, and of completing the insignia of the various classes of the Order. TAXATION. 27- The secret inquiry into the frauds on the London Stock Exchange cost ,600. If it'had been public it would not have- been dear at ^"6000 ; but with closed doors and with mil- lionaire culprits sitting on it, the whole procedure is a sham. There are several ancient fees, which have no merit except their antiquity, and which, although small, ought all to be struck out of our annual national expenditure the City of London, ^7 ; Duchy of Lancaster, ^100; Duke of Rut- land, 20 ; Duke of Norfolk, ^60 ; The Bursar of Trinity College, Cambridge, $ ; the Dean and Chapter of Nor- . If any evidence should be needed of the marvellous effect on health and life of the receipt of a government pension, it may be found in the item of ^261, paid in 1878, " for relief of certain distressed Spanish subjects resident in this. country, without the means of subsistence, who were employed with the British army, or under British authorities, in Spain, or who have othenvise rendered service to our military operations in that country during the war from 1808 to 1814." Suppose the persons who so assisted us in 1808 to have been only 25 years of age, they must now have attained the ripe age of 95. But these are only infants- compared with the unnamed American loyalist who has. figured for the last half-century on our national accounts, and who still continues to draw his ^18 a year. What age haoV he attained to at the time of the Declaration of Independ- ence ? and what service had he done to be immortalised on the face of our estimates ? Assume the loyalist to have been precocious, and to have exhibited his interest in Imperial politics at a very early age, as did Mr. Disraeli's famous school-girl say ten years old even then he would, to-day,, be 1 1 2. I should like to know that American loyalist, and,. in any case, I affirm that a pension is far more effective than Parr's life pills for the prolongation of human life. We now come to the Civil List and the annuities paid to- members of the Royal Family. In 1856 the Liverpool Financial Reform Association re- printed a precise statement of the cost of the Royal House- hold, and about seven years ago Sir Charles Dilke caused a considerable stir in this country by his famous speeches at Newcastle and elsewhere on the expenditure of the Royal Household. Since then, Mr. J. C. Cox, of Derby, has pub- 428 TAXATION. lished, in pamphlet form, an essay on the same subject. A parliamentary return, ordered to be printed by the House of Commons on the 26th July, 1869, contains the only accessible official information as to the origin of the Civil List. On the i gth of March, 1872, Sir Charles Dilke in the House of Commons treated the subject at great length in a vain endeavour to obtain parliamentary investigation or more complete official returns. This speech he afterwards republished. The Civil List, which is now understood to mean the annual sum granted by Parliament for the support and maintenance of the sovereign and royal household, formerly meant much more. The first Civil List Act passed by Parliament was the 9 and 10 William III., cap 23, by which ^700,000 per annum was voted. This included as the accounts for the year 1700 show all the expenses of the nation except interest, management, and repayment of National Debt, army, navy, and ordnance. The following are the approximate items of the cost of the Royal Family per annum : Her Majesty the Queen, .385,000. Income of the Duchy of Lancaster, ^42,000 ; including a compensation annuity from the Consolidated Fund, the total income of the Duchy is about ^"69,000. As Duchess of Lancaster Her Majesty receives ^101 every year from the nation as an ancient fee. Cost of royal palaces inhabited, or partly inhabited, by Her Majesty, or inhabited without parlia- mentary authority by pensioned members of the royal family, .35,680. Cost of royal yachts paid by the country, amount not at present ascertainable. The aides de camp to the Queen are charged separately in the army estimates. Her Majesty's enormous private property in foreign funds and landed estatt is not included here, although the whole of this property must have been obtained by her from moneys economised out of the allowance made by the nation to herself and to Prince Albert, as the Duke of Kent, her father, died hopelessly insolvent, and the Prince Albert had practically no estate when he married. There is a further sum of 1500 voted annually to Her Majesty to enable her to be charitable in Scotland, and a smaller sum of 300 to enable her to be charitable in Ireland, and there have also been yearly votes of about ^1500 for racing plates to be given in Her Majesty's TAXATION. 29, name. In Scotland the vote for Queen's plates comes to- There is no pretence for the allegation that the Duchy of Lancaster is the private property of the Queen. In the reign of Anne, the revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster were not only part of the Civil List, but the Crown was restrained from making grants except under the provisions of i Anne, c. 7. So far as I am aware, although a recital was intro- duced into an Act of George III. that the king is possessed of himself, his heirs, and successors, of the possessions of the Duchy, it was not until 1830 that any claim of purely private property was set up. On December i, 1830,. AVilliam IV., in a letter written to Earl Grey, claimed the Duchy " as his separate, personal, and private estate, vested in His Majesty by descent from Henry VII. in his body natural, and not in his body politic as king." This claim is. monstrously absurd, as William IV. in his body natural was most certainly not the heir male of Henry VII., even if the Duchy had passed by natural succession. The Princess Royal has an annuity of ^8000. Her Royal Highness is Crown Princess of Prussia and received a grant of ,40,000 on her marriage. Prince of Wales and Princess of Wales, ,50,000. Net income of Duchy of Cornwall about ^70,000. The total income of the Duchy in 1875 was , IOI >828. The Duchy of Cornwall is the result of a charter of Edward III. stated to be confirmed by a statute of n Edward III., which statute is not in the revised statutes. The Duchy of Cornwall is not and cannot be the private property of the present Prince of Wales, who can only have a life estate in it, yet parts of the Duchy have been sold, but no return has, so far as I am aware, been made of the capital moneys received, or of their disposition, though in some years the receipts from such sales have been many thousands of pounds. There were formerly three pensions one of ^3000 a year to the Earl of Bath, another of ,2000 a year to Lord D'Auverquerque, and a third of ^300 to Sir Peter Killigrew, all payable out of the revenues, of the Duchy of Cornwall. These pensions have all been transferred to the cost of the nation, thus increasing the net income of the Duchy of Cornwall. Interest on ,602, 720 Duchy of Cornwall accumulations in 1861, say ,18,000 per annum. Sir Charles Dilke, in Parliament, stated these accumulations without contradiction at ,743,000. Landed ,30 TAXATION. property rents, say, yearly, ^8000. Military income as colonel of several regiments and field-marshal, not included. There is no record here of the property inherited by the Prince of Wales from his father, nor can any information be ;given, as the will is illegally kept secret. Occasional sums are voted for the repairs of His Royal Highness's residence. In one year ^8000 was paid for this. In 1876, ^550 was charged. This year ^6450 is the figure of expenditure. Last year it was ^4100. There is an item each year in the national accounts of ^16,216 paid to the Receiver-General of the Duchy of Cornwall for loss of duties on the coinage of tin. This item :is, in fact, an annuity paid by the nation to the Prince of Wales. Although then enormously rich, His Royal High- ness the Prince of Wales was content to receive from the people on the occasion of his coming of age, a parliamentary .grant of ,23,455. The Duke of Edinburgh, ^2 5,000. The naval income is not included in this annuity, nor is any account taken of the value of the hereditary rights to the Dukedom of Saxe- Coburg, and which are variously estimated. The Duke of Edinburgh has now a large additional income from his wife. Prince Arthur, ^15,000. No estimate is here made of the yearly value of the premises belonging to the nation occupied, without any parliamentary authority, by the Prince, and for which he pays no rent. Prince Leopold, ,15,000. Princess Alice, ^6000. On marrying Prince Louis of Hesse, Her Royal Highness received a grant of .30,000. Princess Helena, ^6000, and a grant of .30,000 on her .marriage to Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonder- burg-Augustenburg. Princess Louise, .6000, and a grant on her marriage to the Marquis of Lome. Princess Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge, ;6ooo (the Financial Reform Almanack for 1878 gives this at .3000 only). In addition we spend a large sum of money to repair Her Royal Highness's apartments in St. James's Palace, and we pay the rent of her stables in Brick Street, Piccadilly. Princess Mary of Cambridge, .5000 (married to the Duke of Teck). The White Lodge, Richmond Park, is occupied by the Duke and Duchess of Teck, and no sort of TAXATION. 3 1 Tent or compensation is paid by them to the nation, nor is there any parliamentary authority for the occupation. Princess Augusta of Mecklenburgh-Strelitz, ^3000. Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, ^"12,000. This does not include His Royal Highness's salary as Field Marshal Commanding-in-Chief, and Colonel of several regiments, nor does it include any benefits derived by the Duke of Cambridge from any rangerships or other posts held by him. As far as can be ascertained, the military salaries of the Duke of Cambridge are, as Field Marshal Commanding-in-Chief, ^4432; as Colonel of the i;th Lancers, ^1350; as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, ^2200 ; as Colonel of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, .as Colonel of the 6oth Rifles, as Colonel of the Corps of Royal Engineers, for these three it is not clear whether or not he takes salary. It is extremely difficult from the .military estimates to say if these are given accurately. In the army list Honorary Officers are distinguished by the addition of the word Honorary, and none of the above .are so marked. Some persons pretend that the amounts paid to the royal family are justly due to them as part compensation for valu- able properties surrendered by them to the nation. The only property belonging to the Brunswicks when they came to England was their Hanoverian property ; this they not only kept, but actually added to out of English taxpayers' pockets. They surrendered nothing. When James II. was declared to have forfeited the Crown, and his heir male was disinherited, it is clear that the nation, or Parliament on its behalf, gave a distinct schedule of revenues for the royal maintenance, first to William of Orange, and then to Queen Anne and the children of the Electress Sophia, but there was no sort of private inheritance for the newcomers to sur- render in return. They, at that time, were not even the heirs to the private estate of James II., if he had left any private estate in this country. In the early stages of the Civil List the grants to members of the royal family were made by the Monarch for the life of the Monarch. In 1737 Frederick, Prince of Wales, applied to Parliament for a larger allowance than had been made to him by George II., and the King then objected that Parliament had nothing whatever to do with the main- tenance of the royal family. In order to find out the real cost of the royal family it is- 33 TAXATION. needful to examine the whole of the financial accounts with the most careful scrutiny. In the Naval expenditure for 1877, ^1262 45. was charged for conveyance of Her Majesty and the Royal Household. It was stated in the House of Commons that the amount voted for the journey of the Prince of Wales to India was more than sufficient, and that a small surplus had been left undisbursed. De- spite this there is, on page 210 of the " Naval Estimates," the following item : " Expenses incurred in connection with the visit of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales to India, ^4,360 145. 8d." Lumped in an item of ^3386 8s. 7d., so that it is impossible to fix the exact amount. I find : " Pay of equerry to the Duke of Edinburgh " and " allowance to messes of Her Majesty's ship Sultan" while H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh was in command ; and this year, ,11,000 is to be devoted for "Conveyance by sea of the Royal Household, entertainment of royal personages, and other small or unforeseen expenses." The True Principle of Taxation. The true principle of taxation should be, that every member of the State who earns more than is necessary for the mere subsistence of himself and his family should contribute towards the national taxation in due proportion to his ability to pay, and to his stake and interest in the nation. It is submitted that at present the main source of revenue from taxes in the United Kingdom is the earnings of the labourer, and that even the burden of the income tax, assessed taxes, and other taxes, which seem to fall ex- clusively, or principally, on the richer classes, are really ultimately borne almost entirely by the producing classes. All taxes direct and indirect, paid by the producers or importers of commodities, or paid by the dealers therein, and all taxes direct and indirect incurred on the produc- tions of land, must in the end be paid by the consumers of house commodities and productions. Taxes originally- paid to the tax collector by the producer or importer of any commodity, and by the traders and dealers therein, are all repaid by the ultimate consumer in the augmented price of the article he purchases. TORYISM FROM 1770 TO 1879. BY CHARLES BRADLAUGH. FROM 1688 when the Whig Revolution which dethroned James II., and took away the possible succession from James II. 's son, affirmed the principle that " the people of the land, fully and freely represented," nave the right to take back from the wearer of the crown the authority entrusted by the nation to the monarch down to the accession of George III., the Tories were rigidly excluded from office. During this period of nearly eighty years the Tories were consistent haters and revilers of the reigning members of the House of Hanover. Xo words we have ever uttered or written were half so bitter against the Brunswicks as those which came from Tory lips and Tory pens. As the Tories were not allowed to dip into the national purse they were eloquent in and out of Parliament in favour of national economy. Tories not being permitted, except in rare instances, to be commissioned officers, we have strong denunciations of the evils of standing armies from Tories, both in the House of Lords and in the Commons. With the coming to the throne of George III. there was a marked change in Tory utterances, if not in Tory principles. George III. was a natural Tory. Buckle says of him that he was despotic as well as super- stitious, and he adds : " Every liberal sentiment, everything approaching to reform nay, even the mention of inquiry was an abomination in the eyes of that narrow and ignorant prince." The "great Commoner" who in the very Cabinet Council talked " of being responsible to the people," was no fitting minister for a true Tory King ; so by the aid of Lord Bute we have in 1770 Lord North as a real Tory Prime Minister, his administration lasting until 1782. None can doubt the pure Toryism of Lord North. On the 2nd March, 1769, he declared that he could not remember that he had voted for a single popular measure. It is to George III. and his worthy minister Lord North that we owe the whole bitterness of the struggle with the North American 2 TORYISM. colonies. Lord North vowed that he would never yield until "he had seen America at his feet;" but like a true Tory, he placed England at the feet of America and yielded. Lord Hills- borough, his Tory colleague, a sort of Marquis of Salisbury of a century ago, said : " We can grant nothing to the Americans except what they may ask with a halter round their necks." Kiiif,' George III. threatened that if the colonists succeeded he would go to Hanover ; but he repented and stayed. What was the effect of this Tory struggle with the American colonists on our National Debt and national taxation ? In 1770 the National Debt was 129,197,633. The war with the American colonies cost 139,521,035, and at its conclusion the Debt had increased to 245,466,855. Just prior to the commencement of the revolution in America the annual expenditure of Great Britain and Ireland was 10,866,580. In 1785, when the war had ended in the defeat, disgrace, and impoverishment of England, the tax- bill had increased to 26,841,141. As every one knows now, this Tory war resulted in the Republic of the United States, and this result was achieved by Tory obstinacy and Tory folly, absolutely against the wish of the majority of the American colonists. George Washington was Monarchical, until the Tories made him a Republican malgrc lui. Two petitions from the colonists to the " King's Most Excellent Majesty " were treated with scorn and contempt by the King, and by Lords North, Dartmouth, and Sandwich, his Tory advisers. The struggle began with imperial brag and ended in national shame. Those who, in South Africa, employ Basutos, Fingoes, and Swazies under Lord Beaconsfield in 1879, may well read Lord Chatham's grand denunciation of the employment of Indian savages as our allies in North America in 1777. " Who is the man," asked the great orator, " that in addition to these disgraces and mischiefs of our army has dared to authorise and associate to our arms the toma- hawk and scalping -knife of the savage ? To call into civilised alliance the wild and inhuman savage of the woods, to delegate to the merciless Indian the defence of disputed rights, and to wage the horrors of his barbarous war against our brethren my Lords, these enormities call aloud for redress and punishment. Unless thoroughly done away with, it will be a stain on the national character." The Tory minister, the Earl of Suffolk, replied that "in a contest with rebels there were no means which God and nature might have placed at the disposal of the governing powers to which they would not be justified in having recourse." Lord Chatham's indignation knew no bounds, and in words of fire he denounced the employment of "these horrible hell-hounds of savage war." Now Tories sanction the employment of Basutos to help to steal Baphuti cattle, and assegai Baphuti wounded, while we, Christians and civilised, explode dynamite in the caverns TOUYISM. 3 where Baphuti women and children are hidden. As late as 1782, when the Whigs were moving resolutions in both Houses of Parliament in favor of peace with America, the Tories still encouraged the King to continue the mad and suicidal war. From 1783 to 1801 we had the Tory Ministry of William Pitt, and in the compass of this Tory rule are crowded so many iniquities injustice to India, cruelty and treachery to Ireland, the struggle against political progress in England and Scotland, and the war with France that if there were no other Tory sins in the whole record of the past 100 years, these would be sore enough, and disastrous enough in their consequences, to make all honest working men guard an undying enmity to Tory Governments. Warren Hastings, the Indian Governor-General, had been impeached for fraud, corruption, for hiring out English soldiers to invade the land of the Rohillas as wholesale butchers, ravagers, and destroyers, and for murder, under the cover of the law, of an inconvenient witness against him. It was the Tory Ministry that protected the Tory Governor- General of India in his wanton course of bloodshed and dishonor. In those days there were English members of the House of Commons with the courage to impeach, but the Tories covered the crime with a party vote, and left, without redress, to the oppressed in Hindu- stan only the memory of their wrongs, to grow ultimately into mutiny when despair of all justice had made the bitterness of life unendurable. Then it was the Rohilla, now it is the Afghan, and to-morrow it will be some other scientific frontier, if for our shame we endure these Beaconsfields and Salisburys much longer. The Irish story has been told so often that men speak as though the repetition of the record of our shameful doings had in some degree remedied or absolved the wrong we had done. But it was not only the Tory cruelty in Ireland under Pitt, it was not only the breach of faith to the Catholics at the time of the Act of Union, it was the consistent and persistent hindrance by the Tories of all approach to religious liberty through more than a qiiarter of a century of embittered struggling. In the teeth of his own distinct pledge the Tory Pitt in 1805 directly voted against Lord Grenville's resolution in favor of the removal of Catholic disabilities. True to Tory instincts, in 1807 Lord Liver- pool and the Duke of Portland secured the rejection of Lord Howick's proposal to enable persons of every religious persuasion to hold commissions in the army. The Tories might have made Ireland loyal by justice ; they made disaffection chronic by keep- ing the pressure of injustice always acute. Even when, after the masterly agitation conducted by Daniel O'Connell, the Tories at last gave way to the claim for Catholic emancipation, they were only moved by fear. Eloquence found them deaf, entreaty found them stern, but the threat of civil war found them coward. 4 TOltVISM. The Tory Duke of York, putting liis liand to his left breast, near the region where the heart should have been, pledged himself in the House of Lords that the measure for the relief of the Roman Catholics should not be carried, " so help me God." The virtuous and Tory Duke of Cumberland menaced the nation that he would leave it for ever if it dared to pass the Bill. But Tory resistance was vain. On the 4th of April, 1829, the Duke of Wellington declared that his unconvinced Cabinet had been compelled to submit to the popular will, being at last thoroughly convinced that they had no choice between concession and civil war. It was not that they would have cared for the horrors of civil war if they had dared to believe they would have won, but they feared defeat. It is only men with the sustaining courage of principles who can again and again, and with foreknowing persistence, fight losing "battles, and since the Tories have been faithless to the Stuarts they have had no principles. And, except that modern opinion limits their power for mischief, the Tories of to-day are to Ireland as were the Tories of Pitt, Portland, Liverpool, Castlereagh, and Wellington. It was on the 2nd of December, 1868, that Mr. Disraeli declared that he would continue to give an uncompromising resistance, to the disestablishment of the Irish Church. The Tories made '98 ; they sowed the seed for '4$ ; they planted the roots of Fenianism ; they it is whom we must indict for the continuing discontent in our sister isle. We come back again to the Ministry of Pitt, to the war with France, which arose out of the bargain made by Lord Elgin in 1791 to support the Royal Family of France that is, to encourage, with armed support, weak and vacillating Louis XVI. to betray the very Constitution he had solemnly sworn to main- tain. Without English subsidies, furnished by the Tory ministers, the European princes could have given small aid to the tottering Monarchy of France. The Tories feared that the contagion of liberty would be too fierce, and they made a war which endured from 1793 to 1815 ; and again, lovers of an Imperial policy, look at the effect of this war on our National Debt and national taxation. The war cost, in hard cash, 989,636,449. Before the war began the annual taxation of Great Britain and Ireland was 18,349,344 ; in 1815, when the war finished, the tax-bill had swollen to 77,887,335. Before the war commenced the National Debt was 247,874,434 ; when the war had finished England's future industry was mortgaged to repay 861,039,049, besides the capital value of the terminable annuities. The political liberty we use to-day, the right of meeting we enjoy to-day, the cheap Press we read to-day, have all been won in spite of bitterest Tory opposition. Under Pitt the most infamous repressive laws were passed against tongue and pen. TORYISM. 6 One statute of 1796 declared that if a man permitted lectures or debates on any subject whatever without licence of a magistrate he might be fined 100 a day, and that if a man without a similar licence lent books, newspapers, or pamphlets, he might be fined 20. Under Lords Liverpool, Sidmouth, and Castle- reagh, acts were passed in 1819 which actually prohibited the publication of a cheap pamphlet or a cheap newspaper until the publisher had given two sureties to the extent of 800 not to publish anything seditious. These statutes were only repealed under Mr. Gladstone in 1869, and after many a journalist had been ruined. In the period between the accession of Pitt to power and the termination of the long administration of Lord Liverpool, how many poor men went over and over again to gaol to win us free speech and free Press! In Scotland, Gerald, Skirving, Palmer, Muir, Margaret, and a host of others paid the penalty for their advocacy of reform ; some died in the planta- tions, others died at home from dungeon fever. In London, Erskine's grand defence of Hardy, Tooke, and Thelwall, and in Manchester his brilliant pleading for Walker and his fellow- prisoners, serve to show us a little how the struggle was con- ducted, and the later fights, as in 1820, when a whole regiment of poor men were on trial with Hunt and Balrnforth at Lancaster all these mark the fashion in which political liberty has been painfully battled for and slowly won, despite Tory rule. And the present Tory Ministry is true to its old Tory traditions ; while it dare not gag the Press in England, it has issued a Press gag law in India, and has stifled the Press in Cyprus. It dare not now use yeomanry to disperse a political meeting in Lancashire, as it did sixty years ago, but it ventures on a similar outrage in South Africa. In office or out of office the Tories tried to keep bread dear until they were beaten by Cobden and the men of the anti-corn- law movement. In office and out of office the Tories hindered reform, until in the struggle prior to 1832 they were affrighted by Bristol riotings, Nottingham burnings, and the threat of Attwood and his Birmingham men that they would march on London. As they were in 1830, so they were in 1866, when Lord Derby, on the 9th July, as Tory Prime" Minister, declared that he would not introduce a Reform Bill, but modified his opinion fourteen days later, when the Hyde Park railings were on the ground in Park Lane. The measure of reform of 1867 grew into its ultimate shape under pressure of large meetings held throughout the land. And as Tories have been, in office and out of office, since 1770 to 1874, so have they been under the present Ministry, from 1874 to 1879. When they came into office in 1874, our national expenditure amounted to 73,270,000, not including the sum paid for the "Alabama " claims. In 1878 6 TORYISM. our admitted national expenditure was 85,407,000, but this does not include many items for the Afghan war, which India cannot pay if she would, and ought not to pay if she could. These eighty-five and a half millions do not include the whole of the items of the disbursements in South Africa, although it is hope- less to expect that the South African colonies can contribute much to this cost. The Tories have taken from the nation each year a larger sum in respect of the National Debt, and yet the national indebtedness is to-day actually larger than when they came into office. In March, 1874, the debt was nominally 779,283,245, but as the estimates of the outgoing Government showed a receivable surplus of income as against expenditure on the current year, of more than five and a half millions, the real balance should only be taken at seven hundred and seventy- three and three-quarter millions. In March, 1879, the National Debt was admittedly 778,078,840, but this left out many millions to be added of Indian and South African war debt, and who dares say to how much the butcher's bill has already swollen or will swell the debt before this year has finished ? Lord Sandon pleads that our Imperial interests need this enormous expenditure. I answer that our national interests do not need it. In England we want no Empress and will not have one. Lord Sandon says that the expenditure is required for the protection of our colonies. I reply that this wanton waste for powder and steel is only required in those colonies where we practise injustice, annexation, and oppression. The bill of indictment against the present Tory Ministry is a most serious one. In November, 1875, they bought from the late Viceroy of Egypt at a time when they ought to have known him to be utterly insolvent a large quantity of practically worthless shares, for which 4,080,000 was paid. These shares not even giving a right to speak or vote in the Company, the Tory Ministry have since purchased other more valuable shares to qualify salaried directors to watch over the valuable property so acquired. As this purchase was actually most illegally completed, and the money treasonably paid before Parliament was consulted on the matter, an extravagant rate of interest was paid by the Government to the Messrs. Rothschild, by whom the scheme was temporarily financed. To cover this reckless waste of public money to Rothschilds the Prime Minister made two statements, both of which he either knew to be, or might have known to be, positively untrue 1. That Rothschilds had, at the request of the Government, bought the shares, and might have been compelled to keep them if Parliament had not endorsed the transaction. 2. That Rothschilds had found one million in gold on the 1st of December, 1875, and might have been called on to find the remaining three millions on the TORTISM. 7 following day the facts, on the contrary, being that Rothschilds refused to be, and were not, parties to the purchase, except as lenders of the purchase-money, and that they expressly stipulated against being called on to find the three millions except at dates convenient to themselves. Subsequently to this the whole conduct of the Ministry in Egypt has been characterised by deception so far as the Ministerial explanations to Parliament are concerned, and by gross fraud on the nation. The six millions' vote prior to Berlin was obtained by a fraud on the country ; the Government, afterwards pledging itself that the abstract of the secret agreement with Russia was wholly unauthentic, thus led infatuated Jingoes to believe that Lords Beaconsfield and Salisbury were really advocating a bold policy at Berlin. Lord Beaconsfield made a wantonly false boast of having secured at Berlin an enduring peace when in Europe Austria was invading Bosnia ; when the plans for the invasion of Zululand were already submitted to and approved by the Duke of Cambridge ; and when the schemes for forcing a quarrel on Shere Ali, in breach of our solemn treaty, and in defiance of our deliberately pledged word, were being eagerly hurried on. In South Africa, in absolute bad faith, the Tories have most illegally destroyed the Dutch South African Republic. They have quarrelled with the Gaikas, the Galekas, and the Pondos, burning their kraals, stealing their cattle, and shooting their women and children. The Tories have landed us in a quarrel with the Baphutis, who have three times beaten us back from Moirosi's mountain, despite that English Christians have thrown dynamite to explode in the caverns where Baphuti men, women, and children lay hidden. These Tories planned long beforehand the invasion of Zulu territory, and sent reinforcements to enable Lord Chelmsford to make the invasion, and yet Lord Salisbury calls our defeat at Isandalana " an unexpected attack made by savages on one of our colonies, which came on us like a thunder- clap." They have decorated as a hero the Lord Chelmsford who, in coward terror, left our dead unburied for four long months. With the warning of thirty-eight years since before their eyes, with a solemn treaty binding this country not to force European residents upon the Court of Cabul, the Tory Government have wantonly disregarded treaties, promises, and warnings, and they have, in breach of their own distinct statement to the English Parliament, tried to compel the late Shere Ali to receive a British resident at Cabul. These Tories have succeeded in deceiving the present English Parliament by false and fraudulent representations as to what was really happening in India and Afghanistan, and now, by excluding the representatives of the Press, except under most disgraceful conditions, they prevent the 8 real truth from reaching the English people. Lords Beaconsfield, Salisbury, and Lytton are responsible for the death of Sir Louis Cavagnari, as Lord Beaconsfield and Sir Bartle Frere are respon- sible for those who died at Isandalana. They were warned over and over again that there was danger to any European resident at Cabul, but Sir Bartle Frere mocked the warning in 1875, and Lord Lytton not only mocked the warnings prior to and after the entry of Sir Louis Cavagnari amongst the Cabulese, but he ac- tually permitted lying telegrams of safety and quiet to be published in England in lieu of the discomforting reports which continually reached the Government. What has this Tory Government now said to be about to dissolve Parliament to show to the people as compensation for this waste of treasure and loss of life V Seven thousand troops brought from India and marched back again, just enougli to teach the inhabitants of Hindustan whom we govern in their own country at the point of the bayonet that we were not strong enough to hold our own in Europe without the help of Hindu swords. Cyprus, " a place at arms," desolate and fever-stricken, leased from the Porte at a high rent, which we are to hold as vassals of the Sultan to practise there a little slavery, a little Press-gagging, and some priest-shaving. The Asia Minor Pro- tectorate, a dissolving view in a political magic lantern with the slides twisted and blurred. We are repudiated by Turkey ; Safvet Pasha himself told me that England had betrayed Turkey into war by promises of support which had never been kept. We have made Italy uneasy. Germany ridicules our pretence of boldness, and France regards us with mistrust. At home trade is bad, our people are hungry and unemployed. But their verdict is to be given at the polling-booth on the day of the general election. Printed and Published by CHARLES BEADLAUOH and ANNIE BKSANT, at 28, Stonecutter Street, London, E.C. THREE HUNDREDTH THOUSAND. December, 1879. 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