Sixty Years a Queen Part 4

[Sidenote: The Chartists.]

The Whig leaders having declined to re-open the question of electoral reform, a doc.u.ment was drawn up at a conference between a few Radical members of Parliament and the representatives of the Working Men's a.s.sociation, formulating the demands made on behalf of the proletariate.

Universal male suffrage, annual Parliaments, vote by ballot, abolition of the property qualification required at that time from a member of Parliament, payment of members, and equal electoral districts, were the six points insisted on; of which three, it will be seen, have since been practically carried into effect. "There is your Charter!" exclaimed O'Connell, handing it to the secretary of the Working Men's a.s.sociation; "agitate for it, and never be content with anything less." The term took the popular fancy; the programme became known as the Charter, and those who supported it were hereafter known as Chartists.

Not a very formidable programme after all, nor one that might not be advanced by const.i.tutional means, but one that, like many other popular agitations, fell into dangerous paths by the imprudent zeal of some of its advocates, and still more, by the violence of the discontented, unfortunate, or predatory waifs of civilisation, ever ready to promote any social change for the sake of what plunder it may bring within their reach.

[Sidenote: Riots at Newport and elsewhere.]

In November 1839 the miners of the Newport district of Monmouthshire a.s.sembled to the number of 10,000 under a tradesman called Frost and attempted to release from gaol one Vincent, who had been imprisoned for using seditious language. The mayor and magistrates of Newport, with a handful of soldiers, offered a gallant resistance; the rioters were dispersed with a loss of ten killed and fifty wounded, the mayor, Mr.

Phillips, receiving two gunshot wounds. Frost and two others were afterwards convicted of high treason and sentenced to death. But the dawn of milder methods of government had begun: the death sentence was commuted by the Royal mercy to one of transportation for life: even that was subsequently relaxed, and Frost was allowed to return to England some years later to find himself and the Chartists an unquiet memory of the past.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STEAMER POINT, ADEN.

The Peninsula of Aden was added to Her Majesty's dominions by conquest in 1839. Its situation at the mouth of the Red Sea, on the direct route to India and the East, makes it invaluable as a coaling-station both for naval and mercantile purposes. In this district rain falls only about once in three years. The town is supplied with wells and storage tanks cut in the solid rock, the construction of which cost over 1,000,000.]

But in spite of the punishment of the Newport rioters, and hundreds of others in different places, Chartism continued to spread until it became merged in the more intelligent and fruitful agitation for the repeal of the Corn Laws.

This great question was brought under the consideration of Parliament, in the session of 1839, by Lord Brougham in the Lords on February 18, and the following day by Mr. Charles Villiers in the Commons; but the motion for inquiry was negatived without a division in the former and by a majority of 189 in the latter. Both Parliament and country, however, were to hear plenty about the Corn Duties in the next few years.

The Whig Ministry were now approaching the end of their second year of office, and steadily losing favour in the country. They had earned the enmity of the Chartists by their apathy to further reform; and the novel advantage of Royal confidence in and affection for a Whig Prime Minister did not affect the general drift of middle-cla.s.s opinion. Meanwhile, Peel was indefatigable on the platform securing popular support for the new Conservatism.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Hume Nisbet._}

"WILLIAM FAWCETT," THE FIRST P. & O. STEAMSHIP, IN THE GUT OF GIBRALTAR, 1837.

This was the first steamer employed in carrying mails to the Peninsular ports in 1837. Tonnage, 206; horse-power, 60.]

[Sidenote: Fall of the Ministry.]

Drifting thus helplessly in the doldrums of unpopularity the Government suddenly foundered on April 9, the immediate cause being a Bill for the suspension of the Const.i.tution of Jamaica. The second reading was carried, indeed, by a majority of five; but the resignation of the Ministry was immediately placed in Her Majesty's hands and accepted. It put an end to an intolerable situation. Three days before the division Greville wrote in his diary: "The Government is at its last gasp: the result of the debate next week may possibly prolong its existence, as a cordial does that of a dying man, but it cannot go on. They are disunited, dissatisfied, and disgusted in the Cabinet."

[Ill.u.s.tration: _W. W. Lloyd._}

A MODERN LINER COMING UP THE THAMES.

The Royal Mail Steamer "Caledonia," belonging to the P. & O. Company, is given as a contrast to the "William Fawcett." Tonnage, 7,758, horse-power, 11,000.]

[Sidenote: Sir Robert Peel sent for.]

[Sidenote: The "Bedchamber Question."]

The Queen sent first for the Duke of Wellington, but he, having probably little relish for leading a Government without a majority in the House of Commons, excused himself on the grounds of his age and deafness, and advised Her Majesty to lay the task on Sir Robert Peel. That statesman replied, that having been party to a vote of the House which brought about the situation, nothing should make him recoil from the obvious difficulty of it, and he formed a Cabinet without delay. Then arose a peculiar and unforeseen difficulty, known as "The Bedchamber Question."

Peel found no difficulty in filling up the important posts in the Government, until it was explained to him that the Court Offices were vacated with the Administrative ones, and that they also must be supplied. He took up a Red Book, as he afterwards explained in Parliament, learnt from it for the first time what were the different appointments, and submitted to the Queen a list of names to replace all except those below the rank of Lady of the Bedchamber. But Her Majesty had other views, and the reader will more readily understand her reluctance to part with those personal attendants, of whom she had grown fond, by remembering the singular isolation of her youth, and the very few acquaintances she possessed at the beginning of her reign.

[Sidenote: Melbourne recalled to Office.]

A difficulty of such slender proportions seems one that might have been got round, but it was not to be. The Queen was inflexible, and Peel, on principle, resigned his office. Lord Melbourne and his colleagues were recalled; explanations followed in both Houses, and the incident disappeared in a cloud of angry gossip. Peel was relieved from a position the reverse of enviable, and Melbourne had to stand the brunt of a tirade from the relentless Brougham and resume the reins which he had allowed to slip from a somewhat reluctant hand.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EARLY TRAVELLING POSTAL VAN, LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY.]

As for the cause of dispute, it was not finally disposed of till after the Queen's marriage, when, on the suggestion of Prince Albert, it was settled that on a change of Ministry the Queen should arrange for the voluntary resignation of any ladies whom, being relations or very intimate friends of leaders in opposition, it might, in the opinion of the Prime Minister, be inconvenient to retain in office.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TRAVELLING POSTAL VAN ON THE LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY.

Interior, showing sorters at work, and exterior with net extended for taking in mails, and bag hung ready for delivery while the train is in motion.]

[Sidenote: The Penny Post.]

It sometimes happens that Ministries which are least conspicuous by the brilliancy of their career or the talents of those who compose them, nevertheless confer the most lasting benefits on the nation. The crowning achievement of the Melbourne administration originated neither with a Minister, nor with one of those permanent officials upon whom Ministers rely to make up for their own inexperience of departmental work, but with a humble school teacher. n.o.body at this day connects penny postage with the name of Mr. Spring Rice, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who paved the way for it in the Budget of 1839, but it is inseparably a.s.sociated with the memory of its inventor, Sir Rowland Hill. The son of a schoolmaster, Rowland had an extraordinary inborn love for arithmetic, and became mathematical master in his father's school. This natural talent, it is said, was directed to the study of Post Office statistics by an anecdote told of Coleridge, who happened to see a poor woman in the Lake district refuse to accept delivery of a letter from a postman because she could not afford to pay the postage--one shilling. Coleridge, hearing that the letter was from her brother, good-naturedly insisted on paying the fee, notwithstanding the woman's reluctance; but no sooner was the postman's back turned than she showed him that the letter consisted of nothing but a blank sheet. It had been agreed between her and her brother that he should send her such a blank sheet once a quarter so long as things went well with him, marking the cover so that she should not require to accept delivery, and that in this way she should get his mute message without need to pay postage. Hill detected the economic fallacy which opened the way to such innocent roguery, and rested not till he had devised means to remedy it.

He published his design in pamphlet form in 1837, advancing the bold proposition that the smaller the fee charged for carrying letters the greater would be the multiplication of correspondence, and the larger the profit to the Department. He proposed an uniform charge upon letters of one penny a half ounce, irrespective of distance. It was the application to the public service of a commercial principle by which large fortunes have been repeatedly realised in private business, but the plan was unhesitatingly condemned by the Post Office authorities.

The Postmaster-General, Lord Lichfield, spoke of it in the House of Lords as the wildest and most extravagant scheme of all the wild and extravagant ones he had ever listened to. Colonel Maberley, Secretary to the Post Office, declared the experiment was certain to fail, though he was of opinion that no obstruction should be placed in the way of it, lest the Government should afterwards be blamed for not giving it a trial. Lastly, Sydney Smith may be quoted as representing educated public opinion: "A million of revenue is given up," he said, "to the nonsensical Penny Post Scheme, to please my old, excellent, and universally dissentient friend, Noah Warburton. I admire the Whig Ministry, and think they have done more good things than all the Ministries since the Revolution; but these concessions are sad and unworthy marks of weakness, and fill reasonable men with alarm."

[Ill.u.s.tration: _J. A. Vinter._} {_National Portrait Gallery._

SIR ROWLAND HILL, 1795-1879.

Originator of the system of uniform Penny Postage with prepayment by stamps.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: INTERIOR OF THE GENERAL POST OFFICE AT THE TIME OF THE INTRODUCTION OF PENNY POSTAGE.]

Mr. Warburton and Mr. Wallace were the two members of Parliament who most warmly advocated the project of Rowland Hill. But credit is due to the courage shown by Mr. Spring Rice, Chancellor of the Exchequer, who, in the face of a deficit of three-quarters of a million, was bold enough to adopt the scheme and make provision for it in his Budget. Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Goulbourn criticised the proposal mainly on the ground that it involved a risk of loss to the revenue which ought not to be incurred in the existing state of the finances; but on a division the resolution was carried by a majority of 102, and the Bill carrying it into effect subsequently pa.s.sed without a division. This reform, the offspring of the genius of an obscure mathematical teacher, and so modestly brought to light, has since been adopted by every civilised community in the world. To realise the boon thereby conferred on commercial and general intercourse it is only necessary to recall the postal regulations in force in Great Britain previous to 1839. Letters could not be prepaid; the charge for postage varied according to distance, and also according to the weight, shape, and size of letters. Thus, a letter posted in London for Brighton cost the recipient a fee of eightpence; the rate from London to Aberdeen was 1_s._ 3-1/2_d._, and to Belfast 1_s._ 4_d._ No wonder, then, that, in a time of expanding trade, the Chancellor of the Exchequer found himself supported in his proposal by countless pet.i.tions from commercial centres in favour of cheaper postage. But there was more than this: there was the flagrant injustice of the system of official franks. Members of the Government and of Parliament had the privilege of free postage, not only for their own letters but for those of their friends by simply writing their names on the cover.

This privilege had grown to the dimensions of a gross abuse; people who enjoyed the friendship of a Minister were not the least shy of pestering him for franks; the revenue was defrauded, and those who were least able to bear the cost had to pay a high fee in order to recoup the Department for the loss on letters written by wealthy people.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GENERAL POST OFFICE, ST. MARTIN'S LE-GRAND, IN 1837.

This building, erected in the reign of George IV., is still used as the central office for sorting and forwarding the mails.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAIL COACHES LEAVING THE GENERAL POST OFFICE, 1837.

_From a print of that date._]

Such being the case for reform from a popular point of view, it was hardly less urgent from a departmental one. The Post Office had then, as it has now, a monopoly of conveying correspondence; but the high rates charged had driven people to various means of infringing that monopoly.

There had arisen all sorts of illegal and clandestine enterprises for carrying letters at cheap rates. It had been proved before the Committee which considered Mr. Hill's scheme that five-sixths of the correspondence between London and Manchester had been smuggled for many years; one great firm having despatched sixty-seven letters by unlawful agency for every one that went through the Post Office. Between 1815 and 1835 the population had increased by thirty per cent., and the stage-coach duty by 128 per cent., yet the revenue of the Post Office had remained stationary.

The proposed reduction from an average rate of sixpence farthing to one penny was certainly a startling one. The Committee above referred to had recommended an uniform twopenny rate, but Spring Rice told the House of Commons that he had become convinced that the loss to the revenue (for no practical man, except, perhaps, Rowland Hill himself, doubted that loss there must be) would be less from a penny rate. He estimated in his Budget the sacrifice at about 700,000.

[Sidenote: Its remarkable Success.]

The wildest enthusiasts can never have contemplated what have been the actual results as revealed by the Post Office returns of 1895-6. In 1837 there were 80,000 letters and 44,000 newspapers delivered through the Post Office in the United Kingdom--a total of 124,000 deliveries. In the twelve months of 1895-6 the returns show that the deliveries (exclusive of telegrams) amounted to the stupendous figure of 3,031,553,196, representing 2,248 times the volume of business transacted in 1837, and producing a nett profit of 3,632,122. Certain races of primitive savages, it is said, have never acquired the art of counting beyond two; everything beyond a pair being reckoned as "plenty." Such figures as those quoted above baffle even ordinary civilised powers of calculation; very few persons are able to apprehend the idea of a million; much less can they grasp the reality of growth represented in thousands of millions. Perhaps, the magnitude of the Post Office business at the present day can be best ill.u.s.trated by its miscarriages. The value of property found in letters opened in the Returned Letter Offices in 1896 amounted to 580,000.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GENERAL POST OFFICE--NEW NORTH BUILDING.

This building, completed in 1895, is occupied by the official, financial, and clerical staffs of the Post Office.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: {_From an Engraving._

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN LEAVING WINDSOR CASTLE FOR THE REVIEW,