BOOK I THE AFTERMATH OF WAR, 1815-1832 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY of the great war NGLAND emerged from the great war the most powerful The end nation in the world. Compelled by the action of the French Republic to take up arms in 1793, she had sustained the struggle, almost without pause, for a quarter of a century-not seldom single-handed. Again and again she had been deserted by her allies. Again and again they had been encouraged, partly by her liberal subsidies, partly by her dogged resolution, partly by her unbroken supremacy at sea, to recombine to resist the domination of the new Charlemagne. Her steadfastness, courage, and endurance at last reaped the appropriate reward. Impotent to assail English power at sea, foiled in his attempt to ruin her commerce, baffled by the national spirit which he had himself aroused in Germany and Spain, overwhelmed under Russian snows, and finally conquered by the genius of Wellington, Napoleon was at last driven into exile, and Europe was at peace. Her own ment of The task of the soldiers ended, that of the diplomatists began. The settleOver the settlement which they effected at Paris and Vienna, 1815 England naturally exercised a powerful influence. material acquisitions seem, however, at first sight to be incommensurate with the sacrifices she had made in the common cause. Russia reaped a rich harvest in Poland and on the Baltic littoral; Austria exchanged her embarrassing heritage in the Netherlands for much-coveted provinces in Northern Italy; Prussia underwent a territorial readjustment which definitely determined her political destiny; Sweden was partially consoled for her losses on the Baltic by the acquisition of Norway; the Dutch Stadtholder absorbed Belgium, and the King of Sardinia annexed Genoa. Compared with the substantial gains of her principal allies the English gains ; compensations obtained by Great Britain might appear inadequate ; in reality, as will presently appear, they were scarcely less pregnant with future possibilities than those of Russia, Prussia, or Austria. Her attitude in the negotiations which preceded the peace was consistent with her unselfish activities throughout the war. Her first anxiety was to secure a settlement which should be at once equitable and permanent. Captious critics are apt to assume that neither result was actually attained. It is commonly asserted that the diplomatists were inspired solely by the spirit of reaction that they ignored the new and vital forces generated during the last twenty years; that they paid excessive deference to the convenience of rulers and too little to the rights of subjects; that they were solicitous for the principle of equilibrium but careless as to that of nationality; in fine, that they erected a flimsy structure upon unstable foundations. Criticism in the light of after events is easy. The task of the diplomatists was exceptionally difficult. Their first and most obvious duty was to erect the strongest possible barrier against a recurrence of the devastating flood from which Europe had so lately emerged. It is not pretended that they were entirely successful: the ill-assorted union of Belgium and Holland lasted only fifteen years; the territorial partition of Italy, and the constitutional settlement of Germany were not destined to much greater permanence; but at least it may be claimed that the peace of Europe was not again seriously disturbed for more than a generation. Great Britain had not much personal interest in the territorial reconstruction in Europe. She retained the island of Malta as an additional guarantee for her naval supremacy in the Mediterranean; she accepted the protectorate of the Ionian Isles, which Bonaparte had intended to use as stepping-stones to the East; in the Northern Seas she acquired Heligoland, and she employed her dominant influence to induce France to bind herself, without loss of time, to concert with the British Government "the most effectual measures for the entire and definitive abolition of a commerce so odious and so strongly condemned by the laws of religion and nature" as the slave trade. For the rest England sought her compensations further afield. British India, doubled in extent under the rule of Lord Wellesley (1798-1805), was beginning to exert a powerful influence upon 1901] ECONOMIC DISTRESS AND SOCIAL UNREST 8 the policy of the homeland. The retention in 1815 of the Mauritius, of Ceylon, and above all, of Cape Colony, was significant of this new influence. These acquisitions, although valuable in themselves, were primarily important as stages on the highway to India. The West Indies were, in 1815, regarded as hardly less important than the East. And not without reason. Out of total exports of £58,624,5501 no less than £7,218,057, or little less than one-eighth, went to the West Indies. The retention, therefore, of Trinidad, St. Lucia, Demerara, and Essequibo meant more than the present generation is wont to realize. Substantial in amount and significant in direction as these acquisitions undoubtedly were, no one can pretend that they afforded excessive compensation for the sacrifices which Great Britain had made during the prolonged contest with France. To many they seemed ridiculously inadequate. But be this as it may, it is at least incontestable that the war left England with prestige enormously enhanced, with power unbroken, and Empire extended. distress and social These things were not bought without price. If England Economic reached in 1815 the zenith of political and military prestige, she touched the nadir of industrial dislocation and social discontent. unrest That a great war is invariably followed by a period of economic recoil has become a commonplace of historical generalization. But the recoil of 1815 was unprecedentedly severe and unusually prolonged. For this there were many reasons, which will demand detailed investigation later on. For the moment it must suffice summarily to point out that the period of the great war was coincident with that of the Industrial Revolution. Thanks to a series The Industrial of remarkable mechanical inventions, England, which had for cenand Agraturies been a granary and a sheepfold, was suddenly transformed rian Reinto the workshop of the world. Parallel to the manufacturing revolution, and practically coincident with it, there had taken place in agricultural methods changes which revolutionized the rural economy of England. Down to the outbreak of the war more than half the parishes in the country were cultivated on the "open field" system; and the results as regards aggregate yield, were, by general consent, disastrous. During the reign of George III. no less than 3,200 Enclosure Acts were passed, and more than six million acres were enclosed. Improved methods of cultivation and 1 Porter, Progress of the Nation, p. 477 (ed. 1912). volutions Main lines of stock breeding were introduced; farms were consolidated; capital was embarked in agriculture, and science was called in to reinforce the old rule of thumb. Thanks to this agricultural revolution, England was able not merely to feed a rapidly increasing population at home, but to export her produce to the continental countries rendered sterile and desolate by the ravages of war. Hardly less important than the revolution in manufacturing and agricultural methods was the immense development during the same period in means of communication. While "Turnip " Townshend and Coke of Holkham, Ellmann of Glynde, Bakewell and Arthur Young multiplied a hundred-fold the productiveness of the soil; while Kay and Hargreaves, Arkwright and Crompton, Cartwright and Watt, revolutionized the textile industry; Brindley and the Duke of Bridgewater, Telford and Macadam, gave to labour a new mobility and facilitated enormously the exchange of commodities. Down to the accession of George III. England, in regard to means of transport, was the most backward country in Western Europe. The first Canal Act was not passed until 1755 and the roads were scandalously bad.1 At the date of the accession of Queen Victoria England possessed 4,000 miles of navigable waterway; the trunk roads were improved out of recognition; steam navigation had begun, and two lines of rail had been laid down. With the economic, social, and political results of these changes this volume must be largely concerned: the stupendous increase of aggregate wealth; the rapid growth of population and the significant changes in its distribution; the rise of new industries and the growth of cities; the development of means of communication; the expansion of over-sea trade-these things suggest some at least of the clues which may enable the student to track the maze presented by the history of the nineteenth century. For the historian of this period is confronted by a task different in kind from that which impedes the student of the Middle Ages. not by paucity, but by redundance of material. consequently, is selective rather than accumulative. He is baffled His function, It may be well, therefore, to indicate at the outset the more of develop-important lines of development upon which in this complicated period attention should be concentrated. ment nine teenth century The nineteenth century may be summarily described as the 1 1 Cf. Arthur Young, Tours in Great Britain, passim. |