Part 20 (1/2)
The marvel is that Parliament with so much talent in its foremost men should have been powerless to deal with the weakness outside, or that the brilliant leaders should have been content to reach such an eminence by so rough and th.o.r.n.y a path; but the great forces which have been liberated within this century had not then set men's energies free, and they were pretty much confined to, and did not see much beyond, the narrow way along which they were toiling.
Parliamentary Reform, for which more enlightened men here and there had for fifty years been asking, was the first setting of the tide which was to penetrate and revolutionize all our local life. Early in the present century when the then Lord Dacre contested Cambridges.h.i.+re, and had the audacity to advocate Parliamentary Reform and Civil and Religious Liberty, he was called the Fire-Brand, and he had few supporters when, in 1810, he moved for an inquiry into the state of Parliamentary representation.
The amount of political literature and printers' ink used in the agitation for ”the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill,” was perhaps unparalleled in the history of English electioneering. Some of it, to say the least, was not very refined, but it expressed very well the prevailing state of things which the ”Bill” was destined to upset.
The electors of Herts. and Cambs. were not unlike those of Stafford who said ”Now, Gronow, old boy, we like what we have heard about you, your principles and all that sort of thing. We will therefore all vote for you if [slapping their breeches pockets]--you know what we mean, old fellow, and if not, you won't do for Stafford!” Though the candidate did not trouble himself much about his ”principles and that sort of thing, you know,” his opponents generally managed, in the form of squibbs of a more or less elegant turn, to supply the deficiency. Here is a specimen of a Hertfords.h.i.+re squib [after other promises put into the mouth of a candidate]--
”Lastly, I engage to hire all the bullies, blackguards, bankrupts, blacklegs, b.u.m-bailiffs, and even the gipsies in the neighbourhood,”
&c. {157} This and much more of a scurrilous character appeared in large type with the printer's name in bold letters!
It is curious to note how the desire for Parliamentary Reform took hold of all cla.s.ses of the people, and during that stormy period, when the Commons were engaged in pa.s.sing and the Lords in repeatedly rejecting ”the Bill,” Parliament was watched by its const.i.tuents, through such imperfect channels as were open to them, in a manner which had never been known before. Here is a local incident which is vouched for by an eye witness. On a certain division in the House, Mr. Adeane, the then member for Cambridges.h.i.+re, walked out of the House without voting, and shortly after when he was canva.s.sing in Shepreth village, one, old Jerry Brock, met him with this brusque little speech:--”Muster Adeane, I've heerd say that when a sartin motion agin the Bill was made, you walked out o' the House o' Commons without votin. Now I'll just thank you to walk out o' my house!”
In December, 1832, following the pa.s.sing of the Reform Bill, three Liberal Members each were returned for Hertfords.h.i.+re and Cambridges.h.i.+re, to the first reformed Parliament--for Hertfords.h.i.+re, Sebright, Calvert and Alston, and for Cambridges.h.i.+re, Townley, Childers and Adeane, but with the great issue of the Corn Laws looming in the distance, these agricultural counties gradually went round, and in 1841 all the representatives of the two counties were Conservatives. In Cambs., Yorke, Allix and Eaton, were returned without a contest, and in Herts., Grimston, Ryder and Smith, were returned, Alston one of the old members being defeated. In 1847 Mr. Trevor (the late Lord Dacre) turned the tide in Herts. by recovering one of the seats, but it was not till 1859 that a seat was gained for the Liberals in Cambs.--a seat afterwards held by Mr. Brand (the Speaker), the late Viscount Hampden, whose death everyone laments. It was in the election of the first reformed Parliament that Royston first had a polling place.
We can hardly realize what the pa.s.sing of the Reform Bill meant in the estimation of almost all cla.s.ses of the people in country districts, but a pamphlet published by J. Warren, Royston, in 1832, in order that ”everyone may have in his possession a faithful report of so glorious a triumph,” affords us some interesting glimpses of the effect of the pa.s.sing of that great measure upon our local life. Here is a summary of the record for Royston:--
”The struggle for so grand and important a measure having at length terminated in favour of the wishes of the people, the inhabitants of Royston were determined to commemorate it in that respectful way, so glorious a triumph in pa.s.sing the Reform Bill into law, really deserved; consequently a committee was formed, and a subscription collected of L130 without difficulty, with a promise of more if wanted.
{158} A band was sent for from London, then on Thursday morning the bells were set ringing and the musicians struck up with the beautiful air, 'Away, away to the mountain brow,' in the street, which so struck the ears of the people that they really forgot all business.”
”Twenty tables were admirably arranged, covered and fenced in on the green where the horse-fair is kept. Some 1,400 of the towns-people headed by the band filling the street from one end to the other and forming a most imposing spectacle besides innumerable spectators, the windows on both sides of the street crowded, so that it is supposed there was not less than 3,000 pleasant faces to be seen at one time.”
The scene at the great booth which accommodated the a.s.semblage was an imposing one too with its outward banners flying:--”Reform Festival, 1832,” and ”Triumph of Liberty ”; while at the head of the tables were mottoes galore:--”The people's Triumph,” ”Grey, Brougham,” ”Althorpe, Russell,” ”The King and people united must prevail,” ”No slavery,” ”The House of Dacre,” ”Townley and Reform,” ”Speed the plough,” ”England's wealth, the working cla.s.ses,” ”Our aim is peace, our end is victory,”
”Sebright, Calvert,” ”Duncombe, Currie,” ”We unite to conquer,” ”G.o.d save the King,” &c., &c. With three carvers, three waiters and a tapster to each of the twenty tables, the eager 1,400 could hardly wait for grace from the Rev. Samuel Cautherley (vicar of the parish), before the set-to upon the beef and plum pudding ”with good brown stout.” The cloths being removed, ”the pipe fillers amply produced their fruits, and the tapster regulated his tap which continued to run freely,” while the carvers and waiters were having a set-to in the Market House. Tea followed, and what with tobacco, snuff, peals of bells and the music of the band, the poor continued to enjoy themselves until nine o'clock, when the illumination of the town began, and by ten o'clock at night the streets ”with their coloured lamps and candles and transparencies had a most beautiful appearance.”
The second day, Friday, 116 of the princ.i.p.al inhabitants sat down to dinner at the Red Lion, Mr. John George Fordham, then of Odsey (father of Mr. Henry Fordham), presiding, and supported on his right by Mr. J.
P. Wedd, and on his left by Mr. E. K. Fordham, the venerable banker.
Toasts came thick and fast, and all shared the enthusiasm of ”this proud moment of conscious victory when the march of ages is over-stepped by the exertions of a day.”
We kindle not war's battle fires; By union, justice, reason, law, We claim the birth-right of our sires: We raise the watchword liberty, We will, we will, we will be free!
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In this strain the oratory flowed, from the reformers--the Chairman, Mr. Wedd, Mr. E. K. Fordham, who re-called the first reform meeting he attended in that very room forty years before, and the Rev. J. Horseman (rector of Heydon).
The third day, and still the reforming zeal had not spent itself, and the musicians were still in tune, and on Sat.u.r.day joined in witnessing a cricket match on the Heath, with a cold dinner. Unfortunately for the older cricketing reputation of the town it is recorded that ”owing to their having had two amusing days previous there was too much work in the game of cricket for their performance to be worth recording, and so threw away their bats and b.a.l.l.s and retired to the Indies who were preparing a social cup of tea, making altogether a party of about 100.”
”They then returned to the town headed by the Band, and concluded in the High Street by playing and singing in full chorus the grand national anthem of ”G.o.d save the King,” while the bells rang the old Const.i.tution out and the new one in! Thus ended three days such as the inhabitants of Royston never before witnessed, and probably never will again.” Other towns in the district--Hitchin, Biggleswade, Ware, Baldock, &c.,--also had their celebrations, and among the villages there was a ”spirited little set out” at Meldreth, where 750 were provided with dinner, and the musical amateurs of the village and neighbourhood with their ”violins, clarinets, horns, &c., which they were using to the best of their knowledge, gave youthful spirits to the aged, and so well was the commemoration of the Reform Bill conducted that it was much admired by all who witnessed it. In the evening they all, ladies and gentlemen and poor, about 400 in number, had a reel together, and concluded the evening in a very amiable manner, wis.h.i.+ng success to reform.”
At the present time when comprehensive schemes of Old Age Pensions are talked of which may, if carried out, transform much of the present character of relief of the poor, it will perhaps be of interest to glance at the state of things just before the introduction of the present Poor-law had worked a complete parochial revolution.
There is, I imagine, a general impression amongst us, when we ever turn our thoughts back to the subject, that the remarkable shaking of the dry bones during the Reform Bill period, which culminated in the great measure of 1832, was merely a matter of politics--that John Bull was only buying a new broom to sweep away here and there an Old Sarum, and dust the benches of St. Stephen's for new company and--_voila tout_!
the nation was reformed at a stroke! Yet that was not all by any means. In most of the rural districts of England there were parishes, not here and there, but parishes by shoals, presenting a state of things more rotten and more demoralizing than anything that the annals of Borough-mongering could furnish.
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Then the great bulk of the poor people in our villages held to the sentiment expressed in the lines--
Come let us drink, sing, and be merry, For the parish is bound to maintain us!