Part 22 (1/2)

[Sidenote: Wendell Phillips]

These events inspired Wendell Phillips, who was present at a meeting in Faneuil Hall, Boston, called to approve these outrages, to take an open stand in favor of the rights of the people, which were threatened, and gave to the cause for thirty years his active brain and eloquent tongue.

[Sidenote: Compromise tariff]

As a counterpart to the popular excesses in behalf of slavery, the Catholics of New England had to suffer persecution. At Charlestown, in Ma.s.sachusetts, a mob burned the Ursuline Convent. Another indignation meeting was held at Faneuil Hall in Boston to denounce this outrage. As a concession to the Southern agitators, the American Congress, on February 26, adopted a so-called ”Compromise tariff.” The new bill cut down all duties of over twenty per cent by one-tenth of the surplus of each year, so as to bring about a uniform rate of twenty per cent within a decade. On the other hand, Congress pa.s.sed a ”force bill,” which empowered the President to execute the revenue laws in South Carolina by force of arms. A State Convention in South Carolina for its part repealed the ordinance of nullification, but proceeded to declare the new Federal force bill null and void.

[Sidenote: Death of Randolph]

On May 24, John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia, a descendant of Pocahontas, died at the age of sixty. He commenced public life in 1799, and served thirty years in Congress. There he became distinguished for his eccentric conduct, his sharpness of wit, and his galling sarcasm, which made him feared by all parties. He had to resign from the Cabinet under odious charges. In 1830, Jackson appointed him Minister to Russia. Randolph's speeches are still widely read.

[Sidenote: Texas filibusters]

In the extreme South the American settlers of Texas, aided by Davy Crockett's filibusters from the United States, began a war for independence against Mexico.

[Sidenote: English abolition movement]

[Sidenote: Gladstone's first speech in Parliament]

[Sidenote: Misgovernment in Ireland]

[Sidenote: Irish resentment]

The abolition of slavery was likewise the most absorbing topic that came up during this year in the Parliament of England. Young Gladstone, the newly elected member from Newark, taunted with his father's slave-holding methods at Demerara, made his maiden speech in Parliament on this subject. One who heard the rising orator recorded: ”Burke himself could not be more sympathetic, more earnest, and more strong.” Another engrossing topic was that of Ireland. The state of Ireland at this period, as conceded by a Tory historian of modern England, was a disgrace to the history of the Nineteenth Century. So wretched was the government of this unhappy dependency that during the year 1832 alone nearly 1,500 people were murdered and robbed in Ireland. Instead of giving to Ireland a better administration, Parliament pa.s.sed another coercion bill. t.i.thes for the Protestant clergy were collected at the point of the bayonet. The cause of Ireland, as heretofore, was pleaded most eloquently by Daniel O'Connell. He denounced the Irish Church bill as ”the basest act which a national a.s.sembly could sanction.” The people became so enraged that when an Englishman was killed in a riot the coroner's jury returned a verdict of justifiable homicide. The Court of King's Bench quashed the verdict and tried the murderer before a jury. He was acquitted in the face of the clearest proofs against him and in direct contravention of the instructions of the judge. The spirit of the English aristocracy was indicated by the fact that a bill for relieving Jews from their civil disabilities was thrown out by the House of Lords.

[Sidenote: Death of Wilberforce]

On July 26, William Wilberforce died in his seventy-fourth year. He lived long enough to hear that the bill for the abolition of slavery in the British colonies, to which he had devoted the greater part of his life, had pa.s.sed its second reading, and that success was a.s.sured. Of all English advocates of human freedom he was the most persevering and faithful. After a distinguished Parliamentary career of forty-five years, he gave up all political ambitions to devote himself to the cause of humanity and religion. He had been the intimate friend and a.s.sociate of Pitt, Fox, G.

Milner, Brougham and Macaulay. His wish that he be buried simply and privately was not granted by England. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to the tombs of Pitt, Fox and Canning. Around his open grave stood the royal dukes of Suss.e.x and Gloucester, the Duke of Wellington, Lord Chancellor Brougham, the venerable Archbishop Howley, with other representatives from the House of Lords and Commons.

[Sidenote: Tractarian Movement]

[Sidenote: Newman]

[Sidenote: Dr. Arnold]

It was at this period of the ecclesiastical history of England that the Tractarian Movement began at Oxford. It is a significant fact that the ”Tracts for the Times” appeared at Oxford within less than a year after the pa.s.sage of the Reform Bill. The connection of the two movements has been revealed in Newman's ”Apologia Pro Vita Sua.” In January, Dr. Arnold, the celebrated headmaster at Rugby, published his ”Principles of Church Reform.” He aimed at a reunion of all Christians within the pale of a great national church. In the discussion that followed, the foremost spirits were Newman, Froude, Dr. Pusey, and Keble, the sweet singer of the Church of England, whose ”Christian Year” will live as long as that Church endures.

[Sidenote: Browning]

[Sidenote: Keane]

[Sidenote: Steel pens]

[Sidenote: Electro-magnetism]

Enlightened Englishmen were further stirred at this time by the publication of Robert Browning's ”Pauline,” a narrative in unusually virile verse, and by Edmund Keane's original creation of the character of ”Oth.e.l.lo.” The new invention of steel pens first came into general use during this same year, as did Hansom's ”safety cab,” and Lord Brougham's favorite style of carriage. Robert Brown, an English scientist, in the course of his microscopic studies of orchids happened to make the important discovery of the nucleus of cells. Joseph Saxton, an American, constructed the first electro-magnetic machine in England.

[Sidenote: Bismarck]