The Letters of Queen Victoria Volume I Part 105

The movement is not one caused by distress. The demand for employment has increased, and the price of provisions--and particularly of potatoes, bread, and bacon--has rapidly fallen within the last fortnight or three weeks.

People of property and the Magistrates (notwithstanding their political dissensions) are now acting in harmony, and with more energy.

Orders have been sent to apprehend the Delegates a.s.sembled in Manchester, _the very moment_ that the law will warrant their apprehension, and Sir Robert Peel should not be surprised to hear of their committal to Lancaster Castle in the course of to-day.

Every vigilance will be exerted with reference to _Cooper_[73] (whom your Majesty names) and all other itinerant agitators.

As might be naturally expected, the movements and disorderly spirit spreading from the centre (Manchester) are appearing in remote points; but when peace and confidence are thoroughly restored at Manchester, the example will quickly tell in the circ.u.mjacent districts.

Birmingham is tranquil and well-disposed. The accounts from Scotland are favourable.

[Footnote 73: A Leicester Chartist, who was afterwards tried for sedition.]

[Pageheading: PARLIAMENT PROROGUED]

_Viscount Melbourne to Queen Victoria._

SOUTH STREET, _17th August 1842._

Lord Melbourne presents his humble duty to your Majesty. He is going down to-day to Brocket Hall with Lord and Lady Beauvale. Lord and Lady Palmerston are coming down to-morrow, and Lord and Lady Cowper will probably come over from Panshanger.

Your Majesty read extremely well in the House of Lords on Friday last.[74] Lord Melbourne can judge better of this from the body of the House than he could when he stood close to your Majesty. Nothing can be more clear and distinct, and at the same time more natural and free from effort. Perhaps if your Majesty could read a tone louder it would be as well. Charles Buller, who was amongst the House of Commons, told Lord Melbourne that, where he stood, the voice, although well heard, sounded somewhat weak. But this should not be attempted unless it can be done with perfect ease. Nothing injures reading so much as the attempt to push the organ beyond its natural powers.

Lord Melbourne hopes that these tumults in the manufacturing districts are subsiding, but he cannot conceal from your Majesty that he views them with great alarm--much greater than he generally thinks it prudent to express. He fears that they may last in the form of strike, and turn out much longer than is looked for, as they did in 1832 and 1833.

There is a great ma.s.s of discontented feeling in the country arising from the actual state of society. It arises from the distress and dest.i.tution which will fall at times upon a great manufacturing population, and from the wild and extravagant opinions which are naturally generated in an advanced and speculative state of society.

This discontent has been aggravated and fermented by the language of every party in the state. Lord Melbourne can exempt no party from this blame, nor hardly any individual except himself. The Tories and Conservatives (not the Leaders, but the larger portion of the party) have done what they could to inflame the public mind upon that most inflammable topic of the Poor Laws. The _Times_ newspaper has been the most forward in this. The Whigs and Radicals have done what they could in the same direction upon the Corn Laws. Mr Attwood[75] and another set have worked the question of the Currency, and the whole career of Mr O'Connell in Ireland has been too manifest to be mistaken. It is no wonder if working in this manner altogether they have at last succeeded in driving the country into this which is certainly very near, if not actually a rebellion.

Lord Melbourne earnestly hopes that your Majesty and the Prince, the Prince, and Princess are all well.

[Footnote 74: Parliament was prorogued by the Queen in person on 12th August.]

[Footnote 75: Who represented the Radical views of the Birmingham school.]

[Pageheading: THE DISTURBED DISTRICTS]

_Sir James Graham to Queen Victoria._

WHITEHALL, _18th August 1842._

Sir James Graham, with humble duty, is happily enabled to state to your Majesty that the accounts from the disturbed districts received this morning are more satisfactory.

In Lancas.h.i.+re a disposition to resume work has been partially evinced; and at Preston, where the most vigorous measures were taken in the first instance, there has hardly been a cessation of employment.

Sir James Graham encloses a letter from the Chief Constable of the County of Lancas.h.i.+re detailing a successful resistance to a fresh attempt on the part of a mob to enter Preston; and he sends also a report from the Mayor of Manchester and from Mr Forster, the Stipendiary Magistrate. Decisive measures will be adopted for the immediate apprehension of the Delegates, not only at Manchester, but in every other quarter where legal evidence can be obtained which will justify their arrest. The law, which clearly sanctions resistance to the entry of these mobs into cities, is now understood by the local authorities. A bolder and firmer spirit is rising among all cla.s.ses possessing property in defence of their rights against these bands of plunderers, who are the enemies both of law and of property.

The prisoners taken in the commission of treasonable felonies are numerous; warrants are issued against others whose persons are known: the supremacy of the law will be promptly vindicated, and Sir James Graham entertains the confident hope that order will be soon restored.

In the Potteries a signal example was made by a handful of your Majesty's troops opposed to a riotous mult.i.tude which had burnt houses and spread devastation, and Sir James Graham encloses a letter from Captain Powys giving a description of the occurrence. The effect of this example has been that yesterday throughout this district no rioting took place.

[Pageheading: DISTURBANCES IN LONDON]

_Sir James Graham to Queen Victoria._

WHITEHALL, _19th August 1842._

Sir James Graham, with humble duty, begs to announce to your Majesty that the accounts from the North, on the whole, may be considered satisfactory....

Five of the princ.i.p.al Delegates at Manchester have been apprehended.

Warrants are out against four others. A very important seizure of papers has been made which discloses a conspiracy, extensive in its ramifications, going back as far as July 1841. It is hoped that these papers, which are still at Manchester, may lead to fresh discoveries.

Sir James Graham will send to Manchester to-night an experienced law officer, for the purpose of pursuing the investigation on the spot.

There was a meeting last night in the neighbourhood of London, of a violent character. Sir James Graham had given positive orders to the police not to allow any mob, as night approached, to enter London.

Notwithstanding these directions, a mob a.s.sembled in Lincoln's Inn Fields about eleven o'clock, and moved through the city to Bethnal Green. Sir James Graham had the troops on the alert, but the mult.i.tude dispersed without any serious disturbance.

_Sir James Graham to Queen Victoria._

_20th August 1842._

... An attempt to hold a meeting at dusk in the suburbs of London was resisted by the police yesterday evening in pursuance of orders issued by the Government in conjunction with the Lord Major, and the peace of the metropolis was preserved.

The above is humbly submitted by your Majesty's dutiful Subject and Servant,

J. R. G. GRAHAM.

[Pageheading: TROUBLE AT THE CAPE]

_Lord Stanley to Queen Victoria._