apers, _English Historical
Review_, v., 519.

[98] Hertslet, _Map of Europe by Treaty_, p. 142.

[99] Wellington, _Despatches, etc._, vi., 184.

[100] See the letters in the _Annual Register_, lxxii. (1830), 389-401.

CHAPTER XIII.

PRELUDE OF REFORM.

The year that elapsed between the prorogation of parliament on June 24,
1829, and the death of George IV., on June 26, 1830, was barren in
events of domestic importance. While Ireland was torn by faction, and
the Orangemen of Ulster rivalled in lawlessness the catholics of the
other provinces, England was undergoing another period of agricultural
and commercial depression. The harvest of 1829 was late and bad; the
winter that followed was the severest known for sixteen years; and a
fresh series of outrages was committed by the distressed operatives,
especially by the silk weavers in the east of London and the mill hands
in the midland counties. In the district of Huddersfield, where the
people bore their sufferings with admirable patience, a committee of
masters stated as a fact that "there were 13,000 individuals who had not
more than twopence half-penny a day to live on". When parliament met on
February 4, 1830, the prevailing distress was recognised in the king's
speech, but in guarded terms, and the ministers attributed it in the
main, probably with justice, to unavoidable causes. This gave the
enemies of free trade and currency reform an opportunity of renewing
their protests against Peel's and Huskisson's financial policy. They
failed to effect their object, but Goulburn, the chancellor of the
exchequer, initiated a considerable reduction of expenditure and
remission of taxes. The excise duties on beer, cider, and leather were
now totally remitted, those on spirits being somewhat increased. The
government even deliberated on the proposal of a property tax, and,
stimulated by a motion of Sir James Graham, actually carried out large
savings in official salaries. On the whole, this session was the most
fruitful in economy since the conclusion of the peace. The system of
judicature, too, was subjected to a salutary revision throughout Great
Britain by the amalgamation of the English and Welsh benches, and the
concentration of courts in Scotland. As the charter of the East Indian
Company was about to expire, a strong committee was appointed to
consider the whole subject of its territorial powers and c