The French have their 9th Thermidor (July 27, 1794), when the Reign4 of Terror ended, and their 18th Brumaire (November 9, 1799), when the Napoleonic Terror began, and the English have their 10th of April, 1848, when a million special constables5 were out staff in hand, to prevent a National Petition of the people being presented to the House of Commons. Yet no conspiracy6 existed—nor even had the police fabricated a plot (as they often did in those days)—no disorder7 had been threatened, not a man was armed; the only imaginable enemy was the Chartist Convention of less than two hundred persons. The most distinguished8 of the Special Constables was Louis Napoleon, who four years later became known as the assassin of French liberty, and whose career is one of the infamies9 of Imperialism10.
The 10th of April, 1848, has for more than half a century held a place in public memory. The extraordinary hallucination concerning it has become historic, and passes as authentic11. Canon Charles Kingsley was the chief illusionist in this matter. He wrote: "On the 10th of April, the Government had to fill London with troops, and put the Duke of Wellington in command, who barricaded13 the bridges and Downing Street, and other public buildings."* Nobody "had" to do what Kings-ley relates. Nine years had elapsed since any one had taken the field against the Government, and that was in a Welsh town 147 miles away. John Frost and his tiny band of followers14 were the insurgents15. All were put down in twenty minutes by a few soldiers. Frost came to London in 1839 to consult James Watson, Henry Hetherington, Richard Moore, William Lovett, and other responsible Chartists, whom he most trusted. They besought16 Frost to abandon his idea of an attack upon Newport, as no one would support him. There were no arms in London on April, 1848, no persons were drilled, no war organisation17 existed, and no intention of rising anywhere. The Government knew it, for they had spies everywhere. They knew it as well or better in 1848 than in 1839. For nine years John Frost had then been in penal18 servitude, and no one had attempted to imitate him. Nor had he any followers in London in 1848. At his trial no noblemen, no aristocratic ladies, crowded the court to cheer him by their sympathy, or mitigate19 his sentence by their influence—as they did when Dr. Jameson and others were on trial for their wanton and murderous raid on the Government of South Africa. Such is the difference between the insurgency20 of poverty seeking redress21, and the insurgency of wealthy insolence22 seeking its further aggrandisement There was absolutely nothing in the field against the Duke of Wellington in London but a waggon23, on which a monster petition was piled.
* Introduction to "Alton Locke," by Thomas Hughes.
Politically speaking, London has seen no tamer day than the 10th of April, 1848. There was less ground for alarm than when a Lord Mayor s procession passes through the city. The procession of actual Chartists, able to leave their work to join it, could never have amounted to four thousand. There was not a single weapon among them, nor any intention of using it had they possessed24 it. There was only one weapon known to be in London, in the hands of the Chartists, and that was a Colonel Macerone's spear, fabricated in 1830, to assist in carrying the first Reform Bill. That was hidden up a chimney in 3, Queen's Head Passage, Paternoster Row. It came into my possession, and I have often shown it to members of the Government to convince them what risks Society ran in Wellington's days—and are exposed to still.
The Chartists had held a Convention in London the week before the 10th, and were unable to obtain any place of meeting except a small social institution in John Street, Tottenham Court Road, which could not seat 150 persons at the Convention table. The hall was lent to them by the most pacific body of politicians in London—the followers of Robert Owen. Yet Mr. Thomas Hughes adopted and authenticated25 Kingsley's incredible belief, that the country was in danger of these earnest but entirely26 impotent Chartist petitioners27; and Mr. Hughes actually quotes believingly in his introduction to "Alton Locke" a statement that: "The Duke of Wellington declared in the House of Lords that no great society had ever suffered as London had during the proceeding28, while the Home Secretary telegraphed to all the chief magistrates29 of the kingdom the joyful30 news that the peace had been kept in London."*
p. 13.
Never did the craziest despotic Government in Europe engage in such a political imposture32. It was pitiable that the Duke of Wellington should have had no more self-respect than to compromise his great career by fortifying33 London against an imaginary enemy. The Government had plentiful34 information and must have known the truth—the contrary of what they alleged35.
It may be said in extenuation36 of these affected37 Ministerial terrors, that the Parisian revolution of that year had communicated unrest to the people of England. It had inspired them with pleasure, but not with insurgency, for which they were as uninclined as they were unprepared, and none knew this better than the Duke of Wellington. The Parisian population had seen military service. They understood the use of arms, had them, and knew how to settle their differences at the barricade12. London had never seen a barricade. The people were all unused to arms, and were without the means or the knowledge to storm a police station. Yet, according to Canon Kingsley, Wellington told the Government "that no capital had gone through such days as England had on the 10th of April," when no man was struck—no man was killed—no riot took place anywhere. It would seem that ignorance, rashness, wildness, and irresponsible language are by no means peculiar38 to the working classes. We must cease to wonder at the Duke of Wellington when an accredited39 publicist like Judge Thomas Hughes, who was educated at Rugby, could tell the world himself that "It is only by an effort that one can realise the strain to which the nation was subjected."
On that awful day, nobody was reported as found looking into a shop window with a predatory glare in his eyes, and no account came up from the provinces that a single Chartist was observed to peep over a hedge in a menacing manner.
I was out on the 10th of April. On Sunday, the night before, I was the lecturer at John Street The audience was composed largely of delegates to the dreadful Convention that so perturbed40 the "Iron Duke."
My advice to them, published at the time, was to "Beware of the police," and not to strike again if they were struck. Many of them, I knew, were willing to die for their country, if that would save it. They would serve it much better by dying without resistance, than dying with it. If any were killed whilst walking in the procession their comrades should move quietly on. Nothing would tell more strongly on public opinion than such heroic observance of order. Hetherington, one of the bravest who walked in the ranks, told me he would do it. The Government, by their ostentatious provocation41, in garrisoning42 the Bank with soldiers, crowding Somerset House with them, parading troops on Clerkenwell Green, had brought, it is computed43, more than two millions of persons into the streets. The conclusion to which the Chartist leaders came, was that the Government wanted to create a conflict, shoot down a number of the people, and then proclaim to Europe that they had "saved Society," by murder, as one of their chief special constables did soon after in Paris.
As I had been personally associated with all the chief Chartists, in prison and out, from the beginning of the movement, I can speak with some knowledge of them on that day.
On the morning of the 10th of April, Mr. C. D. Collet, the well-informed Secretary of the People's Charter union, myself, Richard Moore, and others, organised a band of forty persons, who were to distribute themselves over London, note-book and pencil in hand, in the character of reporters. The police took kindly44 to us, and gave us good positions of advantage, where we could see everything that took place thereabouts, and even protected us from being incommoded. We were there to watch the police, not the people, as the disorder, if there were any, would come from them. My station was in Bridge Street, Blackfriars, where a row of constables was drawn45 up. I found a coarse, plethoric46 alderman, going from man to man, saying only three words: "Strike hard to-day."
The people behaved admirably. Not a blow was struck which gave a colourable ground for outrage47 on the part of the police. In justice to the police, it ought to be said, neither did they incite48 disorder.
At night the Home Secretary spent the money of the State, in telegraphing to all the mayors in the land "the day had passed off quietly," thus creating a false terror everywhere that London had been in danger—danger of the Government's creating.
The Bull Ring Riots in Birmingham in 1839, when I was resident there, were created entirely by the magistrates, who introduced a hundred London policemen into the town, which led to the loss of life and property.
I and others on the deputation to Mr. Walpole told him at the time, when the railings were broken down in Hyde Park, that if he made a show of soldiers and policemen, people were sure to be killed. At the peril of his own reputation, he kept them out of sight, and no disorder took place, though violent members of the Government tried to destroy Mr. Walpole for his wise and noble forbearance. Dean Stubbs, in his interesting book on Charles Kingsley, says (p. 97): "On the 10th of April, 1848, a revolution was threatened in England. One hundred thousand armed men were to meet on Kennington Common and thence to march on Westminster, and there to compel, by physical force, if necessary, the acceptance of the People's Charter by the Houses of Parliament." Could such a lunatical statement be written by any one, and his friends not procure49 a magistrate's order for his removal to the nearest asylum50? How were the "hundred thousand" to get the arms into London—if they had them. Whence were they to procure them? Where could they store them, seeing that at that time there was not a single place of Chartist meeting that was not known to be in debt, unless its rent was paid by the charity of some well-to-do sympathiser? What were muskets51 or pikes to do against the stone walls of the Houses of Parliament or the Bank? How were cannon52 to be drawn from the centre of London to Kennington Common with ample service of powder and shot? Marvellous is the history which Churchmen can write!
The utterly53 groundless and incredible representations of the "10th April," which Charles Kingsley and Thomas Hughes published, as we have seen, were to my amazement54 resuscitated55 as late as 1902 for the historic instruction of the students of the Working Mens College in Great Ormond Street, London, by Mr. R. P. Lichfield, vice-principal of the college, who for forty-seven years has rendered it important service, for which all friends of education for workmen are grateful. Yet in his address to the students (October 1, 1902), he tells them that in 1848 "the wave of democracy which swept over Europe gave fresh impetus56 to the Chartist agitation57. On the memorable58 10th of April it looked as if we were to have a revolutionary outbreak on the Parisian pattern. This we were saved from, partly by an army of volunteers, special constables, partly by the Duke of Wellington's discreet59 placing of his troops.... The attempt to overawe Parliament by a 'physical force' demonstration60 was a fiasco." The world knows a good deal of historians who draw upon their imagination for their facts, but here is a responsible teacher, drawing upon his terrors of fifty years ago, for statements which nobody believes now or believed then, who knew the facts. The Duke of Wellington's great name in war imposed upon amateur politicians. The Duke—contrary to his reputation for military veracity—readily lent himself to the Government of that day, that they might figure before the country as the deliverers of England, from the nation-shaking assault of a miscellaneous crowd of penniless and unarmed combatants, who had neither cannon nor commissariat. Everybody was aware that the knowledge of the Iron Duke, outside war, was very limited, and his political credulity was unbounded. At the end of the Peninsular War he wrote to the Government of that day, informing them "the bankers of Paris were furnishing large sums to Revolutionists in England." Only old residents in Bedlam61 would believe that. There were no leaders of Revolutionists in England, to whom the money could be assigned or consigned62, and bankers were the last persons in the world to subscribe63 money for a wild, speculative64, and uncertain enterprise. No spy of Pitt, or Sid-mouth, would have sent home so insane a report, from fear of instant dismissal from their sinister65 employment.
This is but a sample of the airy, false, and fictionary foundation on which the Legend of the Tenth of April was built. These incidents of historic perversion66, though bygones of half a century ago, are worth remembering.
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1
hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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constables
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| n.警察( constable的名词复数 ) | |
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conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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infamies
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| n.声名狼藉( infamy的名词复数 )；臭名；丑恶；恶行 | |
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imperialism
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| n.帝国主义，帝国主义政策 | |
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authentic
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| a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的 | |
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barricade
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| n.路障，栅栏，障碍；vt.设路障挡住 | |
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barricaded
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| 设路障于，以障碍物阻塞( barricade的过去式和过去分词 )； 设路障[防御工事]保卫或固守 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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insurgents
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| n.起义，暴动，造反( insurgent的名词复数 ) | |
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besought
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| v.恳求，乞求（某事物）( beseech的过去式和过去分词 )；(beseech的过去式与过去分词) | |
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organisation
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| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
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penal
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| adj.刑罚的；刑法上的 | |
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mitigate
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| vt.（使）减轻，（使）缓和 | |
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insurgency
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| n.起义；暴动；叛变 | |
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redress
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| n.赔偿，救济，矫正；v.纠正，匡正，革除 | |
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insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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waggon
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| n.运货马车，运货车；敞篷车箱 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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authenticated
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| v.证明是真实的、可靠的或有效的( authenticate的过去式和过去分词 )；鉴定，使生效 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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petitioners
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| n.请求人，请愿人( petitioner的名词复数 )；离婚案原告 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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magistrates
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| 地方法官，治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
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joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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memoir
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| n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录 | |
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imposture
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| n.冒名顶替，欺骗 | |
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fortifying
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| 筑防御工事于( fortify的现在分词 )； 筑堡于； 增强； 强化（食品） | |
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plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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extenuation
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| n.减轻罪孽的借口；酌情减轻；细 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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accredited
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| adj.可接受的；可信任的；公认的；质量合格的v.相信( accredit的过去式和过去分词 )；委托；委任；把…归结于 | |
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perturbed
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| adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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provocation
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| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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garrisoning
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| 卫戍部队守备( garrison的现在分词 )； 派部队驻防 | |
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computed
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| adj.[医]计算的，使用计算机的v.计算，估算( compute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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plethoric
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| adj.过多的，多血症的 | |
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outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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incite
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| v.引起，激动，煽动 | |
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procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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asylum
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| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
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51
muskets
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| n.火枪，（尤指）滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 ) | |
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cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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55
resuscitated
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| v.使（某人或某物）恢复知觉，苏醒( resuscitate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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56
impetus
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| n.推动，促进，刺激；推动力 | |
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agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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demonstration
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| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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bedlam
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| n.混乱，骚乱；疯人院 | |
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consigned
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| v.把…置于（令人不快的境地）( consign的过去式和过去分词 )；把…托付给；把…托人代售；丟弃 | |
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subscribe
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| vi.(to)订阅，订购；同意；vt.捐助，赞助 | |
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64
speculative
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| adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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perversion
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| n.曲解；堕落；反常 | |
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