CHAPTER VI. The New Cabinet-Ravages of the Rinderpest-Outbreak of Cholera-Financial Disasters-Failure of Overend & Gurney and other Companies-Fenian Insurrection in Ireland-Capture of its Leaders-Escape of Stephens-Suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act-Fenian Invasion of Canada-Plot to seize Chester Castle-Fenian Risings-Rescue of Kelly and Deasy at Manchester, and Murder of a Policeman-Trial and Execution of the Murderers-Attempt to blow up Clerkenwell Prison-War with the Maories in New Zealand-Insurrection in Jamaica-Outrages of the Blacks-Conduct of Governor Eyre-Seizure and Execution of Mr. Gordon-Shocking Barbarities perpetrated by the Troops-Suspension of Governor Eyre-Report of Commission of Inquiry-Proceedings against Eyre-Charge of Chief-Justice Cockburn-Reform Bill of the Government-Grounds of Opposition to it-The Cave of AdullamDefeat of the Bill-Resignation of the Government. ON the death of Lord Palmerston, Earl | in Scotland, and was still advancing. The Russell, almost as a matter of course, suc- cattle attacked by it in the last week of ceeded him in the office of First Lord of October, so far as they had come under the the Treasury. His age, his great services, notice of the inspectors, amounted to 1873, and long experience gave him paramount and during the time that had elapsed since claims to the vacant post. Mr. Gladstone, the first outbreak of the pest the whole equally of course, replaced him as leader number attacked by it was 17,673, of which of the House of Commons, and the Earl 6866 had been killed, 7912 had died, 848 of Clarendon succeeded him as Foreign had recovered, and 2047 were still under Secretary. The Cabinet in other respects treatment. But the failure of medical remained unaltered, but Mr. W. E. Forster remedies was so signal that the public soon became Under-Secretary for the Colonies, lost all confidence in veterinary skill, The and Mr. Goschen was appointed Vice- Government took the matter into consideraPresident of the Board of Trade, both of tion, and appointed Commissioners to inwhom came to hold high official positions. quire into the origin, nature, and cause of The new Ministry had to contend with the disease. They recommended that for a considerable difficulties at the very outset limited period no lean or store stock should of their official career. Serious disputes be- be permitted to be sold at any fair or tween the masters and the men in the iron market, that the transit of cattle from one districts led to a strike on the part of the place to another should be prohibited, exStaffordshire workers, which entailed a cept when moved for immediate slaughter, heavy loss on both contending parties. that infected districts should be proclaimed The agricultural interest suffered severely and the egress of cattle from them profrom a disease of the ox tribe, known by hibited, and that imported cattle should be the name of the rinderpest, which broke slaughtered at the ports where they were out in England towards the close of the landed. Orders in Council were issued, month of June. The disease appears to authorizing Justices of the Peace in the have been brought to London by some Quarter Sessions to carry into effect these cattle imported from Holland, which were regulations; but the disease still continued exposed for sale during three successive to spread, and before the end of the year market days in the Metropolitan Cattle 73,559 had been attacked, out of which Market. It spread with extreme rapidity 55,422 had died or been killed. As time through the London dairies, causing very went on, however, through the vigorous use great mortality. By the 14th of October the of stringent measures of precaution against disease had extended to twenty-nine coun- infection, the strict isolation of infected ties in England, two in Wales, and sixteen districts, and the 'stamping out' of the plague in places where it raged with unusual virulence, together with greater attention to food, temperature, and cleanliness, the number of cases steadily diminished. Wales was almost wholly exempt from the disease, and in the south-eastern and south-western districts few cattle were lost during the year, but it raged with great severity in the north, midland, and western counties of England, and in the dairy farms of Cheshire many old pastures were, in despair, ploughed up and converted to arable purposes. The total loss during the year from this visitation was computed at not less than £3,500,000. At this time the cholera also revisited our shores, but it was promptly met by all the resources which medical skill and sanitary precaution could supply. The plague culminated in the fortnight between the 21st of July and the 4th of August. Then all at once it began to subside, and in no long time disappeared. The total mortality which it caused was computed at 8000. It was incomparably more deadly in its ravages on the Continent. In Austria it was calculated that at least 100,000 persons were swept away by it. Far greater suffering was produced by the great financial collapse which occurred in the spring of 1866, and the commercial embarrassments and disasters which were diffused throughout the country. During the early part of that year a high rate of interest indicated unusual pressure, but excited no alarm. In April, however, the greater part of the ordinary stock of a notoriously speculative Railway Company was advertised for sale at an apparently ruinous discount, and it transpired that several great railway contractors were unable to obtain a continuance of the advances on which their solvency depended. The first week of May was marked by increased disquiet and anxiety, and on the 10th of that month the stoppage of the great discount establishment of Overend & Gurney produced universal consternation. This business had been transferred only a year before to a limited joint-stock company, and shareholders and customers had relied with equal confidence on the solvency and prosperity of the undertaking. At the time of the suspension the engagements of the Company amounted to £19,000,000, and traders and speculators depended on its resources for a proportionate supply of accommodation. No single bankruptcy has ever caused so great a shock to credit. The following day produced the greatest agitation that has ever been known in the city. The rate of discount, which was already 8 per cent., rose at once to 9, and the Government was compelled, as in 1847 and 1857, to suspend the Bank Charter Act, and to authorize the Bank of England to issue notes beyond the legal limit. It was rumoured that the strongest Joint-Stock Banks were almost drained of their money. Bankruptcy after bankruptcy ensued. The English Joint-Stock Bank failed; so did the Agra and Masterman's, the Imperial Mercantile Credit Association, the Consolidated Discount Company, and other new Credit Companies framed on the French model, as well as several great railway contractor firms previously believed to be possessed of great resources. These financial catastrophes were mainly caused by the large and rapid expansion of trade, unsecured by the provision of an adequate pecuniary reserve. The new system of limited liability had tempted large numbers of small and inexperienced capitalists to invest their money in speculative companies liable to large and repeated calls on a great proportion of their shares. They were thus taught by painful experience that the limitation of their liability was little more than nominal. The social and moral evils which resulted from these disasters were even more injurious than their mere pecuniary losses. The sufferers often belonged to families which could ill afford to lose money. Thousands of families were reduced at a stroke from affluence to poverty; widows and elderly single ladies with no one to assist them were stripped of all they possessed and turned adrift to starve. its nightly drills and training of men, its There was in consequence a large diminu- correspondents and agents in various quartion of expenditure in regard to all public ters, its official journals, and even its popuamusements and travelling, and of receipts lar songs and ballads. The members set of railways, especially those which de- themselves industriously to gain adherents pended on pleasure traffic.' Although in every quarter, even among the soldiers the rate of discount speedily declined in the British army and the warders in the from 10 to 3 per cent., the shock given gaols. They boasted, probably not without to confidence had been too severe to be reason, that many thousands of the Irish speedily recovered. But though the ruin who had fought on the Northern side in the of private fortunes had been so great, and American Civil War were now eager to join the sufferings of individuals so painful, the the Fenians in Ireland in their efforts to sources of public wealth were fortunately overthrow the British Government; and it uninjured, and the public revenue showed is certain that the ringleaders had been the same buoyancy which for a good many liberally provided with money by their years had characterized our financial sys- fellow-conspirators in the United States. tem. In spite of monetary difficulties the Unlike most of those who had taken part amount of imports and exports had not in previous treasonable plots, the Fenians diminished; manufacturing industry had expressed bitter hostility to the Romish not been extraordinarily depressed, and hierarchy and priesthood, as well as to the there had been no diminution in the stock Protestant clergy. The members of this of useful commodities or in the aggregate secret society were in consequence depossessions of the community. nounced from the altar in the strongest language, by the Roman Catholic priests both in Ireland and America, as the worst enemies both of religion and society. The conspiracy was avowedly, and indeed ostentatiously, intended to bring about not only the overthrow of the Queen's authority, but also the forcible transfer of all landed pro subversion of all religion. In the words of Mr. Justice Keogh, 'The object of its leaders was to extend it through all classes of the people, but especially the artisans in towns and the cultivators of the soil; its ramifications existed not only in this country but in the States of America; supplies of money and of arms for the purposes of a general Ireland, as usual, was in a state of disaffection and disturbance. It had been exempted from the scourge of the rinderpest, but a moral epidemic as contagious, and far more baneful, at this time overspread a great part of that unhappy country, and arrested the material progress and prosperity which had of late begun to dawn|perty from its present possessors, and the upon it. The Fenian* conspiracy, as it was called, which was now brought to light was more daring in its objects, and in some respects more formidable in its nature, than the movements which for some years had preceded it. It was organized by some of the Irish settlers in the United States, and was intended to throw off by force the supremacy of the British Crown, and to estab-insurrection were being collected not only lish a separate sovereignty in Ireland. The Fenian Society had its generals, its officers both civil and military, its common funds and financial agencies, its secret oaths, passwords, and emblems, its laws and penalties, its stores of concealed arms and weapons, * The name is supposed to be derived from Fionn or Finn, a celebrated Irish chieftain, who is said to have lived before the introduction of Christianity into Ireland. The Fenians were the people of Finn. here but on the other side of the Atlantic; and finally, the object of this confederation was the overthrow of the Queen's authority, the separation of this country from Great Britain, the destruction of our present constitution, the establishment of some democratic or military despotism, and the general division of every description of property, as the result of a successful civil war.' The Government were quite alive to the | The documents submitted to the court, innecessity of prompt and energetic measures cluding the 'Constitution and By-laws of for the suppression of these treasonable the Brotherhood,' left no doubt as to the plots and the punishment of the conspira- real nature and objects of the organization. tors. Lord Wodehouse, the Irish Viceroy, There was no lack of evidence to prove and the other officials devised and carried the guilt of the prisoners at the bar, for, out their measures with such energy and as usual in Ireland, there was a plentidespatch that, before any alarm could be ful supply of informers, who hastened to taken, they had secured the persons of betray their confederates and to give O'Donovan Rossa (the registered proprietor information respecting the secret councils of the Irish People) and the other members and machinations of the Brotherhood.' of the staff of that paper. Shortly after It was proved that considerable sums of the police succeeded in discovering the money, transmitted from America, had hiding-place of a person named Stephens, been spent in the manufacture of pikes, the Head Centre' of the Fenians in Ire- which had been sent in great quantities land, and in apprehending him, along with from Dublin to various places in the counthree of his accomplices, who were all well try. The conspirators did not belong either supplied with money and arms. Simul- to the class of farmers or of the rural peastaneously with the arrests in Dublin a antry, but were for the most part artisans swoop was made on the Fenians in Cork, and mechanics, a degree above the lowest and about fifteen or twenty were seized class, belonging to large towns. Those who there. Other arrests were made about the were found guilty were sentenced, in the same time at Clonmel, Killarney, and other more aggravated cases, to terms of penal towns, and very soon the greater part, if not servitude ranging from five to twenty years. the whole, of the Fenian leaders were in The counties of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, custody. But a provoking incident occurred and several others, were from time to time shortly after very characteristic of the man- proclaimed by the Government under the ner in which affairs are managed in Ireland. powers of the 'Peace Preservation Act,' the On the morning of the 25th of November, military forces stationed in Ireland were 1865, Stephens' cell in Richmond Prison, strengthened, and all necessary precautions Dublin, was found empty, and though a were taken to preserve the public peace. large reward was offered for his appre- But the insecurity to life and property hension, the place of his retreat was not which was produced by the conduct of these discovered. There was no doubt that his wretched plotters, as Earl Grey remarked, escape was effected through the aid or con- was rather the cause than the effect of disnivance of some of the persons employed in tress, and exercised a most injurious influthe prison, and it turned out that Byrne, ence on the prosperity and progress of that the watchman, who was taken into custody, unhappy country. was a Fenian. An investigation into the management of the prison showed that very great negligence habitually prevailed, and that there were such ample facilities afforded for the escape of prisoners that scarcely anyone needed to remain in the gaol who chose to avail himself of the opportunities of getting free. A Special Commission was issued for the trial of the accused persons, and was opened at Dublin on the 27th of November, 1865. VOL. IV. Early in the session of 1866 a Bill was introduced and carried through Parliament for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland, and giving authority to the Lord Lieutenant to arrest the foreign emissaries who were industriously engaged in trying to mislead the Irish people, and to seduce the Irish soldiers from their allegiance. It was unfortunately not accompanied with any remedial measure, the great majority of the legislators being still 15 blind to the fact that so long as the body- | be overthrown, and a Republic established politic in Ireland continued in an unhealthy by force of arms upon Irish soil. condition superficial remedies were certain to fail. The vigorous exercise of the powers of this new Act made the active agents of the Fenian Brotherhood take their flight in great numbers to America, and suppressed for a time the operations of the conspirators who remained in Ireland. Lord Derby's Government, however, on taking office found it necessary to apply for a renewal of the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act, which was readily granted by Parliament, and before the close of the year the malady of Fenianism reappeared in all its former virulence, compelling the Irish Executive to adopt extraordinary and vigilant precautions for the maintenance of law and order. Fresh regiments were sent to Ireland, all the suspected points were strongly guarded, and armed vessels were employed to watch those parts of the coast where it was apprehended that bands of Fenian emissaries from America might attempt a landing. The diligent searches of the police for arms discovered great quantities of rifles, ammunition, revolvers, pikes, bayonets, and such like warlike implements concealed in Dublin and other large towns. Numerous arrests were made of persons implicated in the Fenian plot who had in their possession arms, treasonable documents, and large sums of money. Doubts have been expressed whether the leaders ever really intended to commence the insurrection which they had so long and so loudly threatened, or were only prevented by the vigilant precautions and vigorous measures of the Government. It is by no means improbable that their main object was merely to annoy and embarrass the Government, for the purpose of extracting large sums of money from their dupes and enjoying the self-importance and éclat conferred by their position as patriotic vindicators of the people's rights. Be this ns it may, the year terminated without any attempt to realize their confident boast that the usurping power of Britain would The plots and machinations of the Fenian Brotherhood were not confined to their native country. In the month of June, 1866, several bands of these Irish conspirators had the insolence to invade Canada from the United States. They were speedily checked and driven back by the Canadian Volunteers, but readily found an asylum in the country from which they had come. Some of these marauders were taken prisoners by the Canadians, others were disarmed by the orders of the President, and an ostensible prosecution was commenced against some of their leaders. At a later period, however, the arms were restored, the legal proceedings were dropped, and the President did not hesitate, in order to serve his political ends, publicly to profess his sympathy for the Irish cause. His Secretary of State, in a discourteous note to Sir Frederick Bruce, claimed a right of interference with Fenian prisoners in Canada, and the President himself went out of his way to apologize for the filibustering raid, though he was obliged to admit that it was a violation both of municipal and of international law. It was the obvious intention of the President and his Secretary of State to outbid, if possible, their Republican competitors for the favour of the Irish populace. The Republicans, however, were quite as unscrupulous as the Democratic party in their efforts to gain the Irish vote. For the purpose of conciliating the Fenian conspirators, Mr. Banks, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, in the previous session introduced two Bills into the House of Representatives, providing respectively for the admission of the British North American provinces into the Union, and for the relaxation of the Law of Neutrality, which had already proved itself not to be sufficiently stringent. Mr. Colfax, the Speaker, formally received the Fenian President on the floor of the House, and in both cases the entire Republican party concurred in the outrage on international |