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vades our labouring classes generally, than which a more erroneous statement cannot be promulgated.” The opinion expressed in the foregoing quotation was in perfect agreement with the political views of him who, for the purpose of writing history, has, these many years past, dubbed himself “St. Leonardensis.”

Irish Rebellion - Chartists Demonstration - French Revolution

In support of this averment it may be permitted to extract from one’s diary of June 6th the following lines on

LIBERTY!
Oh, what a Patent word is this!
Yet, take it not, my friends, amiss
That I should now attempt to show
How little we its import know,

One thinks it means ”Do as you please!”
Another says, ”Live at your ease!"
A third affirms with all his might,
”Tis that which we believe is right!”

A fourth makes Liberty his theme,
And says ”Let Nature reign supreme !”
Another joins the warm debate,
And shouts, “Let's down with Church and State!”

All over Europe have been heard
Loud cries of this important word;
Yet hath this universal text
The real enquiring mind Perplexed.

We hear the oft repeated strain
“We'll fight, our liberty to gain;
Yet, strange to Say, we sing with glee,
“Ours is the Land of Liberty!”

Go, coul your heads, ye trembling knaves!
For, “Britons never will be slaves !
This is our song and charter, too,
Yet, still for Liberty we sue.

Such various meanings are opined,
Yet still we seek the true to find;
And I will solve the problem right
Ere use I pikes and guns to fight

Having quoted a portion of Alderman Scrivens's speech at the Whitsuntide festival in which allusion was made to the European lawlessness at that time rampant, and coupling therewith some corroborating remarks of the Hastings News, together with the lines on “ Liberty” from my own diary of that year, the present appears to be a fitting time and place to introduce a more extended reference to 1848 as one of the most important years in the landmarks of history. Thomas Carlisle, in one of his “Latter-Day Pamphlets,” wrote of 1848 as ”one of the most singular, disastrous. amazing, and, on the whole, humiliating years the European world ever saw.”

On the very threshold of the year the Irish Rebellion appears to have had its outburst; for, on the eleventh of January, there appeared in the London Times the following remarks—

”It is with feelings of the deepest regret we learn that the spirit of lawless outrage is penetrating the province of Ulster, Many gentlemen and respectable magistrates have been served with notices to prepare for death. The wild spirit of revenge has reached even the peaceful counties of Down and Antrim, and the whole country appears to be on the verge of convulsion.”

At a later period of the year, one of the gentlemen thus threatened, feeling that his life was unsafe, came to England and left his estates to be managed by an agent. That same gentleman found his way. to St. Leonards, and at his apartments in East Ascent it was my invited opportunity to listen to his tale of woe. I there spent a few evenings with him, and was convinced from his voice, his manner and his countenance, that he possessed a naturally affable and amiable disposition that was incapable of coping with the threatened tyranny — the painful necessity, as he described it, of carrying his life in one hand and a revolver in the other. He had until then, he told me, always been on the best of terms with his tenants, and they would be the first to protect him, but they were equally under the surveillance of a gang of hired ruffians. From this time Irish matters went on from bad to worse, and to add to the anxieties and troubles of the Queen and Government, the Chartist Demonstration took place on the tenth of April, causing stupendous precautions to be taken, which included the mounting the Bank of England with guns and the hastening of her Majesty to Osborne, three weeks after her confinement. I will not go into the details of that memorable event, such details being already accessible in other ways. Suffice it to say that the lines on “Liberty“ had reference both to the Chartist demonstration and the Irish revolt. A few days after the said Demonstration, a special meeting was proposed by Liberal Members of parliament for the avowed purpose of more effectually carrying out the principles of progressive reform. This proposed meeting suggested some more metrical reflections which in their impromptu construction were diaried on the 19th of April, and are here produced. —

Shout out! if time it be to shout!
Let every true born son
Shout out! but not with rabble rout
For use of pike and gun.

Speak out! speak oft ! ’tis good to speak
With order, sense and reason;
But not as those who madly seek
To lead you on to treason.

Think much! think well ! yea, wisely think !
Ye honest sons of toil;
And not as idle men who shrink
From tilling of the soil.

Rise up! for it is well to rise,
Injustice to repel;
But heed ye not false men whose cries
Excite you to rebel.

League also, for ’tis meet to league
In one strong, mighty band;
But not with those whose vile intrigue
Would desolate the land.

Your rights — your free born rights proclaim!
Declare them wide and far!
But not as demagogues, whose aim
Is anarchy and war.

Your birth-right liberties demand
With firm, but peaceful creed;
Then must the rulers of the land
Those liberties concede.”

Simple and crude_as may be the composition of the foregoing lines, they as faithfully represent the writer's views after 43 years as they did at the time they were written, which, as before stated, was on the 19th of April, 1848. It may be permitted to add that similar views were put forth in an abler manner and at greater length by the proprietor-editor of the Hastings and St. Leonards News — the oldest local paper — whose first number was published a fortnight later, and whose initial leader ran as follows :—

“Our determination will be to avoid at once the absurdity and dishonesty of standing forth as the unconditional adherent of any faction whatever, Moreover, the terms Tory, Whig and Radical are becoming obsolete as intelligible designations of political Parties; and we frankly confess that in examining the nomenclature of the world of politics, we find no name that would correctly represent our views, If we advocate Conservatism, it is not the’ Conservatism of wrong, nor the maintenance of antiquated error. If we are Liberal, it is not for the licensciousness(sic) of a mobocracy that we contend, nor for the mischievous laxity of a latitudinarian indifference, We stand on higher ground than that of the mere partizan(sic) in whose jaundiced eyes that faction is always wrong, and before whose partial vision this party ever shines in the lovely hues of perfect rectitude. The excellence of measures, not the pretensions of men, will be the gage of our opinions; and the boldness of honesty, not the price of the hireling, the rule of our expression, There are some points on which the public mind is becoming unceasingly agitated, about which it will be expected we should have an opinion; we mean the questions involved in the ’People’s Charter,’ The grand aim of the democratic movement is to gain an extension of electoral privileges to the thousands of working men who, it is alleged, are now unrepresented. Whether some extension might not soon advantageously be made a fair question for national debate, but to the application of the nostrum of Universal Suffrage as a panacea for the evils under which the working-classes labour, we have at present a decided objection. Educate the people; raise them above the probability of their being carried away by the artfulness of unprincipled demagogues; teach them to think for themselves, and then, when fitted for the exercise of increased power, entrust them with it. We believe the thoughtful and competent among those excluded from political suffrage by the present system to constitute the exception — the reckless and ignorant the rule. While the O'Connors and Cuffays of Chartism are clamouring about the rights of the people, it is marvellous how little is heard about their duties. Many are showing them what they fancy to be the one,—and surely they should also be made to understand the other, Towards effecting thie educational work, a faithful mediam of intelligence, an unbiassed(sic) journal of information must be infinitely preferable to a vituperative vehicle of factious misrepresentation and personal accrimony(sic), which only increases the wrongheadedneas of its readers, and rivets more securely the chains of mental thraldom. The other points may be more summarily disposed of, Annual Parliaments we view as synonimous(sic) with annual confusion. The Ballot would oftener shield hypocrisy than protect the honest voter. Paid Membership would be a premium to the cupidity and indolence of mouthing ranters, rather than an encouragement to talent and worth. Property qualification is not without its evils; but its abolition might bring with it more serious grievances. If the possession of property does not infer intellectual capability, it certainly does impart a measure of caution, — no mean guarantee for a safe use of electoral power. The demand for Equal Electoral Districts has reason in it, but is by no means peculiar to Chartism. So much for our political creed... . Ours is a mission of peace; and our course, we trust, will prove one of public and honourable utility. Ours is no mercenary design of living upon the political sores of a community - of inflaming the wounds of party rancour for private emolument, Perish the hireling pen so basely employed.”

Such were the principles enunciated by the News in its first issue, and such, if I understand it aright, are its principles at the present time. notwithstanding the several changes that have taken place in its proprietors and editors. To myself, individually, this is a source of some amount of gratification, showing, as I have done — and hoping yet further to do that they were only slightly less progressive than those which I espoused before the News made its appearance, and which I have consistently adhered to, albeit the writer of the article—and long may he live ! — is judged to have made a great leap from his original stand-point.

A friendly critic is of opinion that the preceding metrical lines as they first appeared in the weekly contributions to the Gazette are ”very contradictory”, and that if the last two of the lines on ‘Liberty’? in the previous week's news are intended to apply to the Chartist Demonstration ”they are a little wide of the mark.” My critical friend will pardon me, I hope, if in reply I feel constrained to say that in reference to the last set of verses he has failed to interpret their meaning and that as regards the lust couplet in the first set the application is not ”so wide of the mark ” as he imagines. In each case the lines were intended to apply in a general way to the European commotions and revolutions as a whole, and in a special manner to the revolt in Ireland and the menacing attitude of the Chartists in London Equally applicable was the quotation from the Hastings News, the intention of such quotation being to show how thoroughly in agreement — although unpreconcerted — were the two writers, the one in prose and the other in verse. The couplet specially selected for criticism was this :-

“And I will solve the problem right
Ere use I pikes and guns to fight.”

If my correspondent means to say that the “Physical-force” Chartists were not possessed of pikes and guns, then, to convince him of his error it is only necessary to transfer to these columns a passage from Cassell’s Life and Times of Queen Victoria, which opportunely and singularly comes before me in the current part of that work. It states that on the 10th of April

“All the public ​building​s were garrisoned with troops, the clerks in public offices formed special corps of defence and many gentlemen of rank brought up their gamekeepers from the country and prepared their mansions for a regular siege. Trafalgar square was occupied by 200 police. The parks were closed; a corporal’s guard of the Household Troops held each entrance to them, and patrols of the Guards marched up and down the Mall. Apsley House was barricaded, and inside stood a score of mounted Guardsmen privately drawn up under the arch. Buckingham Palace was protected by a strong force under arms at Wellington barracks, ready to march on it the moment it was threatened, The Bank was fortified by a company of Miners, who built on the roof platforms for cannon, and guarded them with loopholed breastwork of sand bags, so that a mob could be swept away with grapeshot at a moment’s notice, and special constables organised by Aldermen of the Wards guarded the City.”

The magnitude of these preparations under the direction of the Duke of Wellington, together with a proclamation that was issued, deterred the Chartists from carrying out their programme, and so, unarmed, they met on Kennington Common to the number of about 20,000 only, instead of the promised 150,000. It is this affair, probably, that my critic is thinking of when he demurs — as I suppose he does — to the Chartists being armed with pikes and guns. But now comes the proof of the accuracy of my contention. The work from which the foregoing extract has been made continues thus :—

”When the fiasco of the 10th of April put the Chartist organisation under the control of the ‘physical force’ party, the first step was initiated by Mr. Ernest Jones in the National Convention. It was to re-construct the whole Chartist body as a secret society on the pattern of the United Irishmen. Moderate men were removed from the Executive Council, and agitators, like Dr. Macdowall, who had taken a prominent part in the troubles of '89 and ’42, were elected in their places. The change in their methods was first illustrated by the sudden assemblage, without warning, of 80,000 men on Clerkenwell Green and Stepney Green on the evening of the 29th of May, when processions from all parts of London also moved by converging routes to Smithfield, and then marched along Holborn, Oxford street, Pall Mall, the Strand, Fleet street, Ludgate Hill, to Finsbury square, where they dispersed. This was a demonstration to test the working of the new secret organisation. Pikes and rifles began to appear in the lodgings of the Chartists, An alliance was formed with some of the turbulent leaders of the Young Ireland Party, Spies were swarming in every city, and a Secret Committee consisting of seven men, named Cuffey, Ritchie, Lacey, Fay, Rose. Mullins, and Powell, alias Johnson, who began to plot a regular insurrection. Whit-Monday, the 12th of June, was the day fixed on for the revolution.”

Apropos of the Chartist demonstration and the metrical lines applying thereto, which a mild critic failed to see were in advocacy of ”Liberty” as against libertinism, it may not be amiss to describe a few freaks of our liberty-loving subjects in Hastings, by way of illustration or elucidation. In the month of August, a Chartist tailor of the name of Ward, having been charged at the Hastings Petty Sessions with wilfully and malicious!y breaking a shop window, said he committed the offence because the country had an incapable Government, and he as an individual did not get his rights. He had come from Birmingham, and had been six months out of work, a condition of things which never ought to be allowed. He considered he was quite at liberty to do what he had done. The magistrates’ views of liberty were, however, at variance with those of the Chartist. Two other liberty-loving subjects were the worthies Macfarlane and Palmer, both of them rejoicing in the baptismal of William. These two “sweet Williams” had been taken care of, as it was thought for the public good, in a certain ​building​ in Bourne street which then did duty for one of a similar character since erected in Queen’s ​road​. Awaiting there for the next visit of the Recorder to receive o digest of the laws of the realm, and getting impatient at their restraint from liberty, they took advantage of the temporary absence of the keeper, and being successful in their attempt to disarrange the lock of the outer door, they soon found themselves at liberty, as they believed, to pursue a course more in consonance with their own desires. Macfarlane, however, had not proceeded far up the High street when he found himself arrested by a pair of rude hands, by which he was reconducted to the abode he had so clandestinely forsaken, Palmer, being more agile, made off for the rural districts, with the keeper at his heels. He thus managed to elude his pursuer or pursuers until the next morning, by which time he had reached the Kentish village of Sandhurst. But although he had stepped over the border, he was again deprived of liberty and brought back to the domicile which he had so unceremoniously quitted. He was then and there strongly advised not to seek liberty in such a fashion and not again to set forth without a guide. But Macfarlane and Palmer were not the only liberty-loving subjects who received a practical lesson in 1848. A certain workman, who shall be nameless, was employed by a Hastings merchant, who by industry and perseverance had raised himself from a humble position to that of a Town Councillor and afterwards to that of Mayor. The said workman was strong!y embued with Chartism and had obtained leave to attend the London demonstration. He was, moreover, in sympathy with the Frenchmen’s cry of “Liberty, fraternity and equality.“

On his return from London his employer suggested the liberty, fraternity and equality of deducting a couple of shillings from his wages of 22/- and adding them to his younger brother's wages of 18/-. This was strongly objected to, but the suggestion was nevertheless effective in subduing the workman’s ardour for the levelling up and levelling down process.

The French King and Coercion - The Newcastle Congress

Lest it be thought that the writer (who has always counselled moderation) is an antiquated Tory or in some other way a non-progressionist, he will now quote from his diary some reflections on the most significant political outburst of the present century. The quotation is this :—

“Monday, Feb, 28, After a repose of 4½ hours, I have risen to make myself acquainted with the particulars of an event that seems to have created a universal consternation. I learn from the public journals that a revolt has taken place in Paris; that the Tuileries, together with the Palais Royale, has been besieged by the French people and, after a sanguinary conflict with the troops, has been taken possession of. Louis Phillipe has abdicated his throne in favour of his grandson, the Count de Paris. The French people, however, refuse to ace knowledge the young Count, and the Duc de Nemours has been rejected as Regent. The streets are barricaded, from four to five hundred persons have been slain or wounded, bands of citizens are parading the streets, a provisional government has been formed, and Republican principles have been proclaimed, The National Guards are fraternising with the people, the people will not oppose the National Guards, and the King, with his family, is fleeing from his country with all possible expedition,185H-