children. 3. The Law of Settlement should be modified in order that the poor might be free to go wherever work was plentiful. 4. Parishes should be grouped into unions, so that the prosperous might help the poorer. 5. A central poor-law board of three commissioners should be created for the supervision and control of the whole local system. In spite of the bitter opposition of the Radicals, a Bill, based on those recommendations, became law in August, 1834. The immediate result was no little suffering and intense discontent, leading even to riots; but the measure, in the long run, proved to be very highly beneficial, even though outdoor relief was never wholly discontinued.

The Split in the Liberal Ranks, and the First Peel Ministry (November, 1834-April, 1835). Meantime, Earl Grey had resigned. For some time his Government had been declining in popularity. It had offended various special interests by its reform measures, while it had not gone far enough to content the Radicals. Its growing weakness had been brought to a head by a hopeless split in the Cabinet over the Irish question, particularly over a revival of the "Appropriation Clause" and a suspension of the Coercion Act. Grey was succeeded by Lord Melbourne (1779-1848) whose Government carried the New Poor Law. He was an old-fashioned Liberal of the laissez-faire school who was opposed to the restless innovating spirit of the Radicals; indeed, his favorite remark was: "Why can't you let it alone?" From these political convictions, as well as from his languid, indolent bearing largely a pose - he got a reputation for aimlessness and lack of firmness that was hardly deserved. Contrary to the King's hopes, Melbourne and Peel would not form a coalition, so the Whig Ministry, somewhat reconstituted, was continued. Very soon, however, personal animosities developed in the Cabinet, whereupon the King accepted the resignation of Melbourne, and chose Peel as Prime Minister. Announcing his acceptance of the Reform Act as "a final and irrevocable settlement of a great constitutional question," Peel declared that, with due regard for old constitutional principles, he was prepared to proceed with the removal of abuses and the initiation of “judicious reforms. " He proceeded to introduce a number, of a type which drew upon him the charge of purloining the measures of his adversaries, and which, as a matter of fact, were carried by the next Liberal Ministry. He appointed an ecclesiastical commission to inquire into abuses and inequalities existing in the Established Church; he introduced a bill to relieve Dissenters from the disabilities of the marriage laws then in force, and another to commute the English tithes into money

payments. In April, 1835, after an uphill fight, he was overthrown, yet, during his brief tenure, he had established his reputation at home and abroad as a man of capacity, bound in time to return to power.

The Second Melbourne Ministry (1835-1841), and the Municipal Reform Act (1835). Since Grey refused to assume office the King was forced to turn again to Melbourne. The most notable achievement of the new Ministry was the reform of the municipal corporations. In 1833 a commission had been appointed to inquire into the state of the municipalities. Its report, presented early in 1835, revealed a situation crying for amendment. The Reform Bill had swept away many of the small rotten boroughs, and had improved the condition of parliamentary representation and qualifications for voting in those that remained. Its scope, however, did not extend to internal organization and administration, and town government was very generally in the hands of councils, self-elected, irresponsible and corrupt. The number of freemen, who in some cases formed the corporation, was usually limited; in Portsmouth, for instance, there were only 102 out of 46,000 inhabitants; in Cambridge 118 out of 20,000. Moreover, these freemen, usually descendants of the original ratepayers, together with others arbitrarily added for political purposes, were often poor creatures-paupers, indeed, who shared in old charitable endowments and enjoyed exemptions from tolls, as well as other burdens. The Municipal Corporations Bill, framed on the basis of the report of 1835, became law in September. It provided for drastic changes. All boroughs and cities, with the exception of London as well as sixty-seven others omitted because of their small size- were to adopt a uniform plan of government. This was to be vested in a town council, consisting of a mayor, aldermen and councilors. The councilors were to be elected by the ratepaying occupiers, together with the freemen who had survived the Reform Bill, and were to hold office for three years, while the mayor was to be chosen annually and the aldermen every six years by the councilors. Each borough, too, might, if it chose, have a recorder, nominated by the Crown, for the conduct of its judicial work. Exclusive trading privileges were broken up, and measures were devised to prevent jobbery and thieving. For example, much business, formerly in the hands of small committees, was transferred to the whole council, whose meetings were to be public and whose accounts were to be audited annually.

The Closing Years of William's Reign (1836-1837). In the following year a few other reforms were carried. Chief among them was

an Act converting English tithes in kind into an annual rent charge.1 Another was a measure authorizing Dissenters to celebrate marriages in their own chapels, with a system of registration in place of banns. Civil marriages were also allowed; but the Church of England retained the practice of marrying members with banns or license. The Ecclesiastical Commission did away with many abuses, such as nonresidence and pluralities, and performed a notable work in reducing the gross inequalities of episcopal and clerical incomes. Another step in advance was to allow to prisoners on trial for felony the full benefit of counsel. What with the difficulties in Ireland, the active obstructionist tactics of the Conservatives and the claims of the Radicals for more progressive measures for the ballot and household suffrage, the repeal of the Septennial Act, the abolition of the property qualification for the House of Commons, and the reform of the House of Lords the Ministry had stormy sailing. Such was the situation when William IV died, 20 June, 1837. He had come to the throne late in life, defective in education and with abilities far from great. Yet while he was erratic and opinionated and grew more and more timid of innovation, he was honest, well-meaning and loyal in the support of his Ministers. However much or little he contributed to the result, his reign was marked by a series of reforms unsurpassed for number and importance during any period of equal length in English history.

FOR ADDITIONAL READING

Narrative. Bright, III; Brodrick and Fotheringham; Martineau; Marriott; Maxwell; Walpole; Cambridge Modern History, X, as above.

For Parliamentary Reform see above, ch. XLVIII. Also G. L. Dickinson, The Development of Parliament in the Nineteenth Century (1895). J. R. M. Butler, The Passing of the Great Reform Bill (1914). Charles Seymour, Electoral Reform in England and Wales, 1832–1885 (1915), valuable. Veitch, Genesis of Parliamentary Reform (1913).

Biographies and Special Works. E. Ashley, Life of Lord Palmerston (1879), I. S. J. Reid, Life and Letters of the First Earl of Durham (2 vols., 1906), rather over favorable. C. Buxton, Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton (1898). Torrens, Memoirs of Lord Melbourne (2 vols., 1878). Sir G. O. Trevelyan, Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay (2 vols., 1876), a delightful book. E. Hodder, Life of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury (1887). B. L. Hutchins, History of Factory Legislation (1903). Sir G. Nicholls and T. Mackay, History of the English Poor Law (3 vols., 1904). W. Bagehot, Biographical Studies (1880).

Selections from the sources.

Adams and Stephens, nos. 263-5. Robertson, pt. I, nos. XLVII-XLVIII; pt. II, XXVI, appendix, 430-438.

1 Compulsory church rates were abolished in 1868, though voluntary payments still continue.

CHAPTER LI

THE EARLY YEARS OF VICTORIA'S REIGN AND THE TRIUMPH OF FREE TRADE (1837-1846)

The Victorian Age. When Victoria began her reign of sixty-four years, nineteenth-century England had already witnessed a goodly number of reforms. The political and legal disabilities of the Protestant Dissenters and the Roman Catholics had been almost entirely removed; the most glaring defects and inequalities of the representative system had been swept away; the exclusive power of the aristocracy had been broken and the middle classes had been admitted to power; and a new humanitarian spirit had manifested itself in measures for the betterment of the lot not only of men, but of dumb animals. The prosperity of the Colonies had been fostered and the British Empire had begun to extend in a new direction. Rusty shackles which hampered the growth of trade and industry had been struck off, and new inventions and processes were in operation which were to prove revolutionary in their results. There was still much misery and suffering among the lower classes; but, before the new reign was half over, they began to share in an amazing advance in material prosperity. This was due largely to the adjustment of the masses to the new conditions of industry; to the removal of the restrictive duties which had still clung to raw materials and foodstuffs; to enlightened sanitary and labor regulations; and to the wonders achieved by steam and electricity. While the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century marked an era in production, the Victorian age marked another, even more notable, in methods of transportation and distribution.

As the Government, by the extension of the franchise to the wage earner, came to voice more nearly the popular will, it became decidedly paternal in character - utilitarian still, but socialistic instead of individualistic. While distinctions of rank and wealth continue to exist, the State has come to intervene for the interest of the masses in all sorts of activities from which it formerly held aloof; in popular

education; postal savings banks; recognition of the trade unions; purchase of lands for the tillers of the soil; regulation of various relations between the employer and the employed; old age pensions and workingmen's insurance.

Victoria. Her Early Life and Accession. Alexandrina Victoria for such was her full name was born 24 May, 1819, a year before the death of her father, the Duke of Kent, fourth son of George III. While her mother a princess of Saxe-Coburg-wisely resolved to educate the little Victoria in England, she surrounded her with German influences, seeking constant counsel from her brother Leopold, who became King of the Belgians in 1832. In the gray dawn of a June morning in 1837, Victoria was awakened from her slumbers to learn that she was Queen of England; at eleven o'clock the same morning she appeared before the Privy Council and read in a sweet, strong voice the speech which Melbourne had prepared for her.. Though not five feet tall and in no sense a beauty, her dignity and graciousness made a profound impression on all those present. Hanover, where the Salic law of succession prevailed, went to her uncle the Duke of Cumberland, a separation which contributed to some degree in detaching Great Britain from Continental complications.

The Opening of the New Reign. The Whigs, who were in power, looked to the young Queen to extend them the support which William in his later years had withdrawn. This naturally dampened whatever enthusiasm Victoria's youthful charm had evoked from the Tories. Melbourne appointed himself Victoria's political instructor. To a man of the world, verging on sixty, immersed in public business, and fond of devoting his scant leisure to scholarly pursuits, the task must have been far from congenial. On the whole, he performed his duties cheerfully, and was rewarded with the devotion of the young Queen, though, on occasion, she showed startling evidences of imperiousness and self-will. Indeed, while she later acquired more self-control, she never, to the end of her life, hesitated to express her views fully and frankly, however, usually, as became a constitutional Sovereign, · leaving her Ministers to follow their own choice. In spite of strenuous opposition on the part of the Radicals, Melbourne managed to secure for the Queen a Civil List of £385,000 annually, which was £10,000 more than her predecessor had received, though the old

1 This was over and above the hereditary revenues from Lancaster and the Duchy of Cornwall, the latter of which went to the Duke of Cornwall when there was one. In addition, the Duchess of Kent received £30,000 a year, and, subsequently, more than £200,000 annually was granted to the Prince Consort and the royal children.