HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



attempt was made by the workmen in the west of 

 Scotland to agitate for some alteration in the 

 state ; and two men were executed. 



On the accession of the king, the name of 

 his consort, Caroline, Princess of Brunswick- Wol- 

 fenbiittel, had been omitted from the liturgy. 

 This and other indignities induced her to return 

 from a voluntary exile in Italy, June 1820, to the 

 great embarrassment of the king and his ministers, 

 as she was received by the people with the warmest 

 expressions of sympathy. The king ultimately 

 caused a bill of pains and penalties against her 

 to be brought (July 6) into the House of Lords, 

 which thus became a court for her trial. Messrs 

 Brougham and Denman, who afterwards attained 

 high judicial stations, acted as counsel for Her 

 Majesty, and displayed great ability, enthusiasm, 



d eloquence in her defence. The examination 

 of witnesses occupied several weeks ; but no evi- 

 "ence of criminality could soften the indignation 

 with which almost all classes of the community 

 regarded this prosecution. Though the bill was 

 read a second time by a majority of 28 in a house 

 of 218, and a third time by 108 against 99, the 

 ;overnment considered it expedient to abandon it, 



ving the queen and her partisans triumphant. 



In July 1821, the coronation of George IV. took 

 place under circumstances of great splendour. 

 On this occasion, the queen made an attempt to 

 enter Westminster Abbey, for the purpose of 

 itnessing the ceremony, but was refused admit- 

 nce by the military officers who guarded the 

 oor ; an insult which gave such a shock to her 

 ealth, as to cause her death in a few days 

 (August 7). During the month of August, the 

 king paid a visit to Ireland, where he was received 

 with much cordiality by all classes of that excit- 

 able people, notwithstanding his known hostility 

 to the Catholic claims. In August of next year 

 he visited Scotland, and there also met with a 

 most kind reception. During his absence in 

 Scotland, his leading minister, the Marquis of 

 ',ondonderry (formerly Lord Castlereagh), com- 

 itted suicide, being weighed down by a sense of 

 he difficulty of his position in regard to con- 

 tinental affairs. His successor was Mr George 

 Canning. 



JOINT-STOCK MANIA COMMERCIAL EMBARRASS- 

 MENTS. 



The two following years were characterised by 

 an extraordinary activity in almost all depart- 

 ments of commerce, a number of measures tending 

 to remove restrictions both on trade and labour 

 being passed, mainly through the instrumentality 

 of Mr Huskisson, an able financier introduced 

 into the cabinet by Mr Canning. 



Many joint-stock companies were now formed, 

 as a means of giving capital a wider range than 

 that to which it was usually limited. Some of 

 these associations professed objects which were 

 by long-established usage the proper business of 

 individuals alone ; and others involved hazardous 

 and visionary projects, which were to be earned 

 into effect in remote countries. The result was a 

 serious commercial crisis. The first symptom of 

 something being wrong was the turning of the 

 exchange against England. A diminution of 

 issues at the Bank followed. Then took place a 

 run upon the banks, some of which, both in 



London and in the country, were obliged to stop 

 payment. Between October 1825 and February 

 1826, fifty-nine commissions of bankruptcy were 

 issued against English country banks, and four 

 times the number of private compositions were 

 calculated to take place during the same period. 

 Some liberal pecuniary measures on the part of 

 the Bank of England, helped in a short time, 

 rather by inspiring confidence than by actual 

 disbursement of money, to retrieve in some 

 measure the embarrassed circumstances of the 

 country. 



CANNING'S ADMINISTRATION CATHOLIC 

 EMANCIPATION. 



In the spring of 1827, the illness of Lord Liver- 

 pool (followed soon after by his death) opened the 

 way for Mr Canning's promotion to the first place 

 in the administration. Mr Canning, however, 

 sank under the new load imposed upon him, and 

 died in the ensuing August. His friend, Lord 

 Goderich, succeeded as Premier, but resigned in 

 January 1828, when the Duke of Wellington was 

 appointed in his place, with Mr (afterwards Sir) 

 Robert Peel as Secretary for the Home Depart- 

 ment. 



From the year 1805, the Catholic claims had 

 been a prominent subject of parliamentary dis- 

 cussion, and since 1821 they had been sanctioned 

 by a majority in the House of Commons. The 

 Irish Catholics had in 1824 united themselves in 

 an association, with the scarcely concealed pur- 

 pose of forcing their emancipation by means of an 

 exhibition of their physical strength. An act was 

 quickly passed for the suppression of this powerful 

 body, but it immediately reappeared in a new 

 shape, and it became evident that Catholic 

 emancipation must be granted sooner or later. 

 In the spring of 1828, a kind of preparation was 

 made for the concession, by the repeal of the test 

 and corporation oaths, imposed in the reign of 

 Charles II. ; while the return of Mr Daniel 

 O'Connell, the most distinguished orator of the 

 Catholic party, for the county of Clare, shewed 

 the strength of the Association, and alarmed the 

 ministry. At the opening of the session of 1829, 

 a bill was introduced for admitting Catholics to 

 parliament, to most civil and military offices and 

 places of trust, and to corporate offices, upon their 

 taking an oath to support the existing institutions 

 of the state, and not to injure the church ; the 

 Duke of Wellington admitting that he introduced 

 it to avert civil war ; and notwithstanding a great 

 popular opposition, as well as the most powerful 

 exertions of the older and more rigid class of 

 Tories, this measure was carried by a majority of 

 353 against 180 in the House of Commons, and 

 by 217 to 112 in the House of Lords. It received 

 the royal assent on the I3th April 1829. 



REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. 



The agitations respecting the Catholic Relief 

 Bill had in some measure subsided, when, June 26, 

 1830, George IV. died, and was succeeded by his 

 next brother, the Duke of Clarence, who had passed 

 his early life in the navy, under the title of WILLIAM 

 IV. About a month after, a great sensation was 

 produced in Britain by a revolution which took 

 place in France, the main line of the Bourbon 

 family being expelled, and the crown conferred 



