The Dawn of the XIXth Century in England

The truth is, that, at the end of the eighteenth century, Galvani and Volta, Sir Joseph Banks, in connection with the Royal Society, and all the scientific men of the day, were deeply interested in solving the mysteries of electricity; and, as nobody, as yet, knew much about it, the public were liable to be gulled by any empiric, and Benjamin Douglas Perkins was the very man to do it. He, and others, wrote several pamphlets on “The Influence of Metallic Tractors on the Human Body, in removing various Inflammatory Diseases,” and such like, and opened a Perkinean Institution in London. He must have been fairly successful, for his advertisements lasted some years. His published cures were miraculous: “A Lady was afflicted with an Erysipelas in her face… In a few minutes she cheerfully acknowledged that she was quite well.” “A man aged 37 had, for several years, been subject to the Gout. I found him in bed, and very much distressed with the disease in one of his feet. After I had operated upon it with the Tractors he said the pain was entirely gone.” “A Lady burned her hand. I, happily, called at the house immediately after the accident, and applied the Tractors. In about ten minutes, the inflammation disappeared, the vesication was prevented, and she said the pain was gone.” The price of these “blessings to men” was five guineas a set; and he explains them in the specification of the patent granted him on the 10th March, 1798, where, speaking of Galvanism, he says, “Among the metals that may be thus characterised, I have found none more eminently efficacious in removing diseases than the combinations of copper, zinc, and a small proportion of gold: a precise quantity of each is not necessary: also iron united to a very small proportion of silver and platina; an exact proportion of these also not necessary. These are constructed with points, and of such dimensions as convenience shall dictate. They may be formed with one point, or pointed at each end, or with two or more points. The point of the instrument thus formed I apply to those parts of the body which are affected with diseases, and draw them off on the skin, to a distance from the complaint, and usually towards the extremities.”

Electricity was then a new toy, of which no one, as yet, knew the use, and they amused themselves with it in various ways, one of which must serve as an example. Times, January 22, 1803: “The body of Forster, who was executed on Monday last for murder, was conveyed to a house not far distant, where it was subjected to the Galvanic process by Professor Aldini, under the inspection of Mr. Keate, Mr. Carpue, and several other professional gentlemen. M. Aldini, who is the nephew of the discoverer of this most interesting science, showed the eminent and superior powers of Galvanism to be far beyond any other stimulant in nature. On the first application of the process to the face, the jaw of the deceased criminal began to quiver, and the adjoining muscles were horribly contorted, and one eye was actually opened. In the subsequent part of the process, the right hand was raised and clenched, and the legs and thighs set in motion. It appeared to the uninformed part of the bystanders as if the wretched man was on the eve of being restored to life. This, however, was impossible, as several of his friends who were under the scaffold had violently pulled his legs, in order to put a more speedy termination to his sufferings. The experiment, in fact, was of a better use, and tendency. Its object was to show the excitability of the human frame, when this animal electricity is duly applied. In cases of drowning or suffocation, it promises to be of the utmost use, by reviving the action of the lungs, and, thereby, rekindling the expiring spark of vitality. In cases of apoplexy, or disorders of the head, it offers, also, most encouraging prospects for the benefit of mankind. The professor, we understand, has made use of Galvanism, also, in several cases of insanity, and with complete success.”

This latter part – the cure of the insane by means of electricity – has not been verified by practice. Their treatment was very inefficient, although, even then, whips and chains were disappearing – especially in the public madhouses, which were at that time Bethlehem, and St. Luke’s Hospitals. Bethlehem Hospital was then situated in Moorfields, and the major part of it had been built in 1675. Over the entrance gates were two sculptured representations of Raving and Melancholy madness, by Cibber; these are now in the hall of the present hospital. Patients remained until they were cured, or for twelve months if not cured. In the latter case if it was thought that a further sojourn might be of use, they were re-admitted, and they also were permanently kept, were they hopelessly incurable, and dangerous to society. There were then about 260 patients who might be visited by their friends every Monday and Wednesday, from 10 to 12 a.m. Visitors were only admitted by an order from a governor – a vast improvement on the old plan, when a visitor could always obtain admission by payment of a small fee. In fact, in Queen Anne’s reign, and later, it formed, with the lions at the Tower, and the wax figures at Westminster Abbey, one of the chief sights in London, thus causing a scandal to the institution, and, without doubt, injuring the patients.

St. Luke’s Hospital for the insane was in Old Street, City Road, and was built because Bethlehem was inadequate to the relief of all indigent lunatics; and their treatment was fairly rational, even those who were obliged to wear straight jackets having their meals together, so as to afford some little break in the monotony of their miserable lives. Each patient had a separate sleeping apartment, and there were two large gardens, one for men, the other for women, where pleasant recreation could be taken in fine weather.

The other medical hospitals were – Bartholomew’s, St. Thomas’s, Guy’s, St. George’s, the London, Middlesex, the Westminster Infirmary, and the Lock Hospital, in Grosvenor Place. The majority of these had regular medical schools, as now, but there were, also, many private lecturers and demonstrators of anatomy, as also professors of natural and experimental philosophy, and chemistry.

CHAPTER XLVI

The Royal Society and the Royal Institution – Scientific men of the time – Society of Arts – Other learned Societies – Ballooning – Steam – Steamboats – Locomotives – Fourdrinier and the paper-making machine – Coals – Their price – Committee of the House of Commons on coal – Price of coals.

THE ROYAL Institution had just been founded (incorporated 13th January, 1800), and the Gresham lectures were held. The Royal Institution was patronized by its big elder brother, the Royal Society, for in the minutes of the proceedings of the latter, on the 15th of April, 1802, is the following:

“Resolved, that … the Royal Society be requested to direct their Secretaries to communicate from time to time to the Editor of the Journals of the Royal Institution, such information respecting the Papers read at the Meetings of the Society, as it may be thought proper to allow to be published in these Journals.”

In the first ten years of this century, no great scientific discoveries were made; the most prominent being the researches of that marvellous scientist and Egyptologist, Dr. Thomas Young,66 in connection with physical optics, which led to his theory of undulatory light.67 Yet there were good men coming forward, the pioneers of this present age, to whose labours we are much indebted; and any decade might be proud of such names as Faraday, Banks, Rennie, Dr. Wollaston, Count Rumford, Humphrey Davy, and Henry Cavendish, whose discovery of the gaseous composition of water laid the foundation of the modern school of chemistry.

The Society of Arts, too, was doing good work, and the Society of Antiquaries, and the Linnæan Society, were also in existence; but the Horticultural, and Geological Societies, alone, were born during this ten years.

Ballooning was in the same position as now, i. e., bags of gas could, as is only natural, rise in the air, and be carried whither the wind listed; and, especially in the year 1802, ærostatics formed one of the chief topics of conversation, as Garnerin and Barrett were causing excitement by their ærial flights.

Man had enslaved steam, but had hardly begun to utilize it, and knew but very little of the capabilities of its energetic servant. Then it was but a poor hard-working drudge, who could but turn a wheel, or pump water. Certainly a steamboat had been tried on the Thames, and Fulton’s steamboat Clermont was tried on the Seine in 1803, at New York in 1806, and ran on the Hudson in 1807; but the locomotive was being hatched. The use of iron rails to ease the draft was well known, and several patents were granted for different patterns of rail, but they were mainly used in mines, to save horse power. Under the date of 24th March, 1802, is a “Specification of the Patents granted to Richard Trevithick and Andrew Vivian, of the Parish of Camborne, in the County of Cornwall. Engineers and Miners, for Methods for improving the construction of Steam Engines, and the Application thereof for driving Carriages, and for other purposes.” Here, then, we have the germ of the locomotive, which has been one of the most powerful agents of civilization the world ever saw. But it was not till 1811 that the locomotive was used, and then only on a railway connected with a colliery.

It was not a mechanical age, or rather, applied mechanics was as a young child, and babbled sillily. The only thing I regret, in writing this book, is the time I have wasted in looking over Patent Specifications, to find something worthy to illustrate the mechanical genius of the time. The most useful invention I have found, is the paper-making machine. This was originally the conception of a Frenchman, Louis Robert, who sold his invention to Didot, the great printer, who, bringing it to England, got Fourdrinier to join with him in perfecting it. It did not, Minerva-like, spring ready armed from its parent’s brain; but was the subject of several patents; but the one which approaches nearest to, and is identical in all essential points with, the present paper-making machine, is his “Specification, enrolled pursuant to Act of Parliament of the 47th of George the Third, of the Invention of Henry Fourdrinier and Sealy Fourdrinier, of Sherborne Lane, London, and John Gamble, of Saint Neots, in the County of Huntingdon, Paper Manufacturers; for making Paper by means of Machines, for which several Letters Patent have been obtained at different periods. Term extended to 15 years from 14th August, 1807.” This extension had been obtained by means of an Act of Parliament passed the previous session, and the machine was capable of making the endless web of paper now in vogue.

The primitive state of our manufactures at this date may be, perhaps, best understood by a typical illustration or two, taken by Pyne, a most conscientious draughtsman, who drew all his studies from nature. The first, on the next page, is an Iron Foundry, casting shot.

Coals were very dear, and that was owing to two things. First, that only the Sunderland district coals were used in London, because they only could, in any quantity, be shipped to London; the vast Staffordshire, and other inland basins, being out of the question, owing to lack of carriage, except where a canal was handy; and the other reason for their high price was that there being no steam vessels, a contrary wind would keep the coal-ships out of port, and, consequently, denude the market.

The inland coals were cheap enough in their own localities —vide the Morning Post, August 6, 1800: “At Oldham, in Lancashire, the best coals are only 6s. 9d. equal to a London chaldron.68 At Barnsley, in Yorkshire, the best coals are sold at the pit’s mouth for only 1½d. per cwt. Surely, permission ought to be granted for coals to be brought to London, if they can be conveyed by water. This might be done, as the canals from Lancashire are now cut so as a barge with twenty-five tons of coals would arrive in London in fourteen days. They cost at the pit only 8s. 4d. per ton.”

But not only were they unattainable, but many of the coal-fields from which we now draw our supplies were absolutely unknown. Here is an instance —Morning Post, July 25, 1805: “A very fine stratum of coal, 15 feet deep, has been lately discovered on the Earl of Moira’s estate at Donnington, and by which the Leicestershire Canal Shares have been doubled in their value.”

In looking at the following list of prices of coals, it must be borne in mind that these are the market prices for coals ex ship; and it was reckoned that 12s. per ton was a fair price to allow for metage, carriage, and profit. Add this, and remember that a sovereign at the commencement of the century had the purchasing power of, and, consequently, worth, about 30s.; it will then be seen that coals were excessively dear – such as would now practically extinguish every manufacture.

Even in 1800, when coals were only about 48s. or 48s. 6d., the price was considered so excessive, that a Committee of the House of Commons sat upon the subject, and issued a report, imputing it to the following causes:

“1. The agreement among the Coal Owners in the North, called ‘The Limitation of Vends,’ by which each colliery on the Tyne is limited, so as not to exceed a certain quantity in each year. Those Coal Owners who are found to have shipped more than their stipulated quantities, being bound to make a certain allowance at the end of each year, to those who have shipped less, and to conform to certain other regulations adopted by the Coal Owners on the river Wear.

“2. The detention of the ships at Newcastle, waiting for the best coals, sometimes a month or six weeks.

“3. The want of a market in London which would admit of a competition, perfectly free, in the purchase of coals.

“4. The circumstance of the coal-buyer being, in many instances, owners both of ship and cargo; which (as appears by the evidence) leads to considerable abuse.

“5. The want of a sufficient number of Meters, and of craft, for unloading the ships on their arrival in the river, and the occasional delays in procuring ballast on their return voyage.

“6. The practice of mixing the best coals with those of an inferior quality, and selling the whole so mixed as of the best kind; and

“7. To frauds in the measurement, carriage, and delivery of coals.”

That there were great profits made by coals, there can be no doubt. Mr. Walter, the proprietor of the Times, had been a coal-factor, and had failed in business, before he started his newspaper – in which, in its early days, he keenly scanned the state of the Coal Market for the benefit of the public.

Here is a paragraph advertisement from the Morning Herald, June 2, 1802, which shows that our grandfathers could advertise in as catching a style as the present generation: “On Saturday, the following conversation occurred between two sailors opposite Somerset House: ‘Ah! Sam, how are you?’ ‘Why, Jack, when I saw you, a few days ago, I was near a Gentleman; but now, through my folly, am a complete beggar!’ ‘Cheer up, Sam, for you are near a Gentleman now. I have just received all my prize money and wages; we have been partners in many a hard battle; we will be partners now. I am going to the London Sea Coal Company, in Southampton Street, Holborn, to buy a score of coals; and, by retailing of which, I’ll prove to you, there’s a devilish deal more satisfaction and pleasure than in throwing the gold dust away on bad women or public-houses.’” This company were in September, 1804, selling their coals at 58s. per chaldron.

October 8, 1804: “Pool69 price of coals: Wallsend, 54s. 6d.; Hebburn and Percy, 52s. 6d.; Wellington, 52s. 3d.; Temples, 51s. 8d.; Eighton, 48s. 3d. Eight ships at market, and all sold. The addition of 12s. to the above will give the price at which the coals should be delivered in town.”

That was in face of approaching winter. In summer time the price was naturally lower – July 1, 1805: “Coals. Monday, 24 June, 20 cargoes sold from 39s. 3d. to 49s. 6d. per chaldron. Wednesday, 26 do.; 10 ditto 42s. 9d. to 49s. Friday, 28: 15 ditto 43s. 9d. to 49s. 6d. in the Pool.”

In February, 1808, the retail price of coals was 64s.; and this did not include metage and shooting. In October, 1809, they rose to 74s., and in November of the same year they reached 84s.

CHAPTER XLVII

The Navy – Sailor’s carelessness – “The Sailor’s Journal” – The sailor and “a dilly” – Dress of the sailors – Rough life both for officers and men – Number of ships in Commission – Pressing – A man killed by a press-gang – Mutinies – That of the Danäe– Mutiny on board the Hermione, and cold-blooded slaughter of the officers – Mutiny in Bantry Bay – Pay of the officers – French prisoners of war.

IT WAS the fashion then, as it is now, to portray a sailor, as a harum-scarum, jovial, rollicking, care-for-nought; and doubtless, in the main, he was, at that time, as unlike as possible to the blue-riband, savings-bank Jack that he very frequently is now. Prize money was pretty plentiful; such things as a temperance captain and ship, were unknown; and the constant active service in which they were engaged, with its concomitant insecurity to life and limb, must have made them somewhat reckless, and inclined to enjoy life, after their fashion, whilst they still possessed that life. Rowlandson – May 30, 1802 – drew two of them in a caricature, called “The Sailor’s Journal.” They are dividing a bowl of punch, one is smoking, the other gives his mate some extracts from his Journal: “Entered the port of London. Steered to Nan’s lodgings, and unshipped my Cargo; Nan admired the shiners – so did the landlord – gave ‘em a handful apiece; emptied a bottle of the right sort with the landlord to the health of his honour Lord Nelson. All three set sail for the play; got a berth in a cabin on the larboard side – wanted to smoke a pipe, but the boatswain wouldn’t let me; remember to rig out Nan like the fine folks in the cabin right ahead. Saw Tom Junk aloft in the corner of the upper deck – hailed him; the signal returned. Some of the land-lubbers in the cockpit began to laugh – tipped them a little foremast lingo till they sheered off. Emptied the grog bottle; fell fast asleep – dreamt of the battle of Camperdown. My landlord told me the play was over – glad of it. Crowded sail for a hackney coach. Squally weather – rather inclined to be sea-sick. Gave the pilot a two pound-note, and told him not to mind the change. In the morning, looked over my Rhino – a great deal of it, to be sure; but I hope, with the help of a few friends, to spend every shilling in a little time, to the honour and glory of old England.”

This was the ideal, and typical, sailor; the reality was sometimes as foolish. Morning Herald, June 12, 1805: “One day last week a sailor belonging to a man-of-war at Plymouth had leave to go on shore; but, having staid much longer than the allowed time, he received a sharp reprimand on his return. Jack’s reply was that he was very sorry, but that he had taken a dilly (a kind of chaise used about Plymouth) for the purpose of making the utmost haste, but the coachman could not give him change for half a guinea, and he, therefore, was obliged to keep him driving fore and aft between Plymouth and the Dock, till he had drove the half-guinea out! Unfortunately for poor Jack, it so happened, that when the half-guinea was drove out, he was set down at the spot whence he started, and had just as far to walk, as though he had not been drove at all.”

When in full uniform, a sailor in the Royal Navy was a sight to see – with his pig-tail properly clubbed and tied with black silk. We have already seen them in the picture of Nelson’s funeral car, and the accompanying illustration is of the same epoch, and shows a British sailor weeping over Lord Nelson’s death.

It was a rough school, both for officers and men. We may judge somewhat of what the life of the former was like by Captain Marryat’s novels; but, lest they should be highly coloured, let us take a few lines from the first page of the “Memoir of Admiral Sir Edward Codrington”:70

“He spent nine years at sea as a midshipman; and I have repeatedly heard him say, that during those nine years (so important for the formation of character) he never was invited to open a book, nor received a word of advice or instruction, except professional, from any one. More than that, he was thrown among a set in the gun-room mess, older than himself, whose amusement it was – a too customary amusement in those days – to teach the lad to drink, and to lead him into their own habitual practice in that respect.”

If this was the case with the officers, how did the men fare? Volunteer recruits did not come from the pick of the labouring class, and the pressed men soon fell into the ways of those surrounding them. No doubt they were better off in the Royal Navy than in the Mercantile Marine; but the ship’s stores of that day consisted but of salt pork, and beef, the latter being indifferently called junk or old horse. The biscuits, too, were nothing like those now supplied on board Her Majesty’s ships. Wheat was very dear, and these sailors did not get the best of that. Inferior corn, bad package, and old age soon generated weevils, and the biscuit, when these were knocked out, was often but an empty shell. Bullied by their officers, and brutally flogged and punished for trifling faults, Jack’s life could not have been a pleasant one; and we can hardly wonder that he often deserted, and sometimes mutinied. Yet, whenever a fight was imminent, or did actually occur, all bad treatment was banished from his mind, and he fought like a Briton.

And there were many ships to man. Not only were all our dockyards hard at work building and repairing, but prizes were continually coming in; and the French men-of-war were better designed than ours – in fact, it may be said that we learned, at that time, our Naval Architecture from the prizes we took. In October, 1804, there were in commission 103 ships of the line, 24 fifty-gun vessels, 135 frigates, and 398 sloops – total 660. In March, 1806, there were 721 ships in commission, of which 128 were of the line. On January 1, 1808, there were 795 in commission, 144 being ships of the line. Many of these were taken from the French, as the following exultant paragraph from the Annual Register, August 19, 1808, will show:

“It must be proudly gratifying to the minds of Britons, as it must be degradingly mortifying to the spirit of Bonaparte, to know that we have, at this moment, in the British Navy, 68 sail of the line, prizes taken from the enemies of this country at different periods, besides 21 ships carrying from 40 to 50 guns each, 62 ships from 30 to 40 guns each, 15 carrying from 20 to 30 guns each, and 66 from 10 to 20 guns each; making a total of 232 ships.”

To man these ships, &c., some 100,000 men were needful, and as they would not come of their own will, they must be taken vi et armis. Impressing men for the King’s Naval Service had always been in use since the fourteenth century, so that it was no novelty; but it must have been hard indeed for a sailor coming from a long voyage (and they had long voyages in those days – no rushing three times round the world in a twelvemonth, and time to spare), full of hope to find his wife and children well, to be bodily seized, without even so much as landing, and sent on board a King’s ship, to serve for an indefinite period. A few extracts from the newspapers will show what a press was like.

Morning Post, January 21, 1801: “The press for seamen on the river and on shore is warmer than was ever known in any former war.”

Times, March 11, 1803: “The impress service, particularly in the Metropolis, has proved uncommonly productive in the number of excellent seamen. The returns at the Admiralty of the seamen impressed on Tuesday night amounted to 1,080, of whom no less than two-thirds are considered prime hands. At Portsmouth, Portsea, Gosport, and Cowes, a general press took place the same night. Every merchant ship in the harbours and at Spithead, was stripped of its hands, and all the watermen deemed fit for His Majesty’s service were carried off. Upwards of six hundred seamen were collected in consequence of the promptitude of the measures adopted… Government, we understand, relies upon increasing our naval force with ten thousand seamen, either volunteers, or impressed men, in less than a fortnight, in consequence of the exertions which are making in all the principal ports. Those collected on the river, and in London, will be instantly conveyed to Chatham, Sheerness, and Portsmouth. Several frigates and gun brigs have sailed for the islands of Jersey and Guernsey with impress warrants.”