200 Magazine April 1823 / 2023

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INSIDE APRIL’S EDITION

Wilberforce mobilises public opinion to press Westminster for abolition of slavery

Three hanged in Lincoln for homosexual activities after authorities uncover vice ring

Troops called in to protect cotton mill strike-breakers in Lancashire spinners’ dispute

Howzat! Cricket eases tedium for sailors frozen-in as they search for Northwest Passage

Schubert’s new ‘conspirators’ light opera hits wrong note for Metternich’s Austrian censors

FROM 200’S ARCHIVE

IN MARCH’S EDITION

King’s fury over cartoons, Call for new body to rescue sailors IN FEBRUARY’S EDITION

Vaccine pioneer Jenner is dead, Anti-Slavery Society set up IN JANUARY’S EDITION

Scores die in shipwrecks off UK coastline, Body-snatching fears IN DECEMBER’S EDITION

Beethoven to pen new ninth symphony, Henry Hunt freed IN OCTOBER’S EDITION

Rosetta Stone decoded, Troops on Tyneside as keelmen strike IN SEPTEMBER’S EDITION

George IV in historic Scottish visit, planet-finder Herschel dies IN AUGUST’S EDITION

Suicide of Foreign Secretary, Bishop on the run after scandal IN JULY’S EDITION

Poet Shelley drowns, US slave revolt crushed, Census figures IN JUNE’S EDITION

Irish famine, Another Peterloo death, Welsh pollution scare

It’s War!

* French Army in skirmishes with liberals

* Then they invade through Basque Country

* Objective seems to be the capital, Madrid

* King Ferdinand is being taken to Seville

Ending months of uncertainty, thousands of French troops have crossed the border into Spain in a bid to give King Ferdinand VII back his power as a hardline conservative ruler in Madrid.

The invasion ordered by the King of France, Louis XVIII began on 7 April - but only after a cross-border face-off between the French Army and hundreds of liberals from France and Italy. They waved the republican Tricolour, sang the Marseillaise, and urged soldiers to mutiny and refuse to cross the frontier.

French forces fired at the protestors and several were killed. The next day, King Louis’ army crossed the Bidasoa river to enter Spain though the Basque Country, with no sign of desertions.

Spanish forces supporting the country’s liberal and democratic government are said to have retreated to the fortress at San Sebastian 15 miles away.

King Ferdinand is reported to be in a heavily-guarded convoy approaching Seville, 300 miles south of Madrid, despite his attempts to delay the evacuation sought by his liberal ministers.

Or is it just a special military operation?

The Spanish king will have been waiting for this moment since the Congress of Verona late in 1822 when conservative leaders from Austria, Prussia, and Russia - but not Britain - approved intervention on the side of Ferdinand.

The French force has been dubbed ‘The Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis’, but some estimates say troop numbers are only 60,000.

Questions are being asked about the aims of this military operation and the French exit strategy. It seems likeliest that their aim is just to restore Ferdinand’s absolute power and remove the liberal ministers who have been a thorn in his side since 1820, then withdraw back to France.

FRENCH FORCES ARE LED BY THE DUKE OF ANGOULÊME (PICTURED). HE WAS BORN AT THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES IN 1775, 14 YEARS BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, AND IS A NEPHEW OF KING LOUIS VIII. HE FOUGHT AT WATERLOO ON THE BRITISH SIDE AGAINST NAPOLEON.

Where does UK stand?

King George and his ministers will be hugely disappointed. Their strategy - combining disapproval of the use of force with calls for compromise by Madrid - has come to nothing.

Sources in Whitehall say that the Foreign Secretary, George Canning, has told Paris that Britain will be neutral, providing its forces do not stay in Spain, seize any of her colonies, or attack Portugal.

From 2023, on our back page: as Charles III prepares to be crowned, a Brighton exhibition on George IV’s extravagant coronation in 1821.

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FRENCH TROOPS INVADED SPAIN THROUGH THE BASQUE COUNTRY

REACTION AT WESTMINSTER - PAGE 3

Slavery opponents start Westminster petition onslaught

Pubic opinion - in the form of petitions - is already being mobilised to pressurise MPs and peers to pass legislation banning slavery in the British Empire. This is going to be a key weapon of the Anti-Slavery Society, set up at the start of this year.

The first two major petitions have been presented to the House of Commons. One was signed by Quakers, from the Society of Friends, the other by residents of the Surrey town of Southwark, on the opposite bank of the River Thames from the City of London.

The leader of the successful drive to ban the slave trade, William Wilberforce MP (Bramber, Sussex, Ind) said Quakers only became involved in public debate when “the best and highest interests of society” were affected. He noted that the same group was first to petition for the abolition of the slave trade in 1807.

Both petitions did not seek immediate emancipation of slaves, instead seeking that as soon as possible, compatible with public safety.

‘100 dead’ in Welsh ship sinking, troops called in after mill strike in Lancashire ends in violence

Upwards of 100 men, women and children died when a ‘packet’ ship operating between Dublin and Liverpool sank off Anglesey in NorthWest Wales.

“It was impossible for any man of common humanity not to feel distressed and disgusted, when he found that in our West Indian colonies there were about one million of human beings, who every morning as the sun rose, were awakened by the echoing lash of the whip, and knew but too well that they were to be treated, for the remainder of the day, like cattle.”

Southwark’s Radical MP, Sir Robert Wilson said he hoped Mr Wilberforce would live to see the day when slaves were freed. He said it was impossible for anyone with common humanity “not to feel distressed and disgusted” at their treatment.

In a passage that angered pro-slavery MPs, Sir Robert told the Commons that a missionary he knew ”had never seen a black who did not bear on his flesh, the marks of the severe infliction of the whip”.

Bristol’s Whig MP Henry Bright said this claim was “a gross exaggeration”.

The missionary, Mr Bright said, had “too much spiritual pride” to do anything but preach and neglected other ways he could help, by visiting slaves and seeing to their needs. He said the progress of civilisation would do more to better the condition of slaves than any new law.

Henry Bright is from a family with strong links to the Caribbean and is a member of the ‘West India Interest’ group lobbying on behalf of plantation and slave owners. His grandfather, Mayor of Bristol in the 1770s, was active in the Jamaican slave trade.

The vast majority of those who perished were passengers on the Alert, a vessel which has operated these scheduled services crossing the Irish Sea. Just nineteen survived - 13 passengers and all but two of the crew, including the captain. The vessel sank fast after hitting rocks near the Skerries islets three miles off Anglesey. Reports from Liverpool say the captain had stuck close to the shoreline to shorten his passage as much as possible. --------------

Soldiers have protected new employees hired by a cotton mill at Tyldesley, near Wigan, after the employers locked out striking spinners.

Thirty-nine operatives stopped work in late January after demanding pay parity with workers in Bolton, and the mill stayed shut until March.

Messrs. Jones took on new hands - dubbed ‘knobsticks’and provided beds on site after assaults by strikers. Troops were drafted in to keep the new staff safe but they are expected to leave soon after most strikers sought work elsewhere and left Tyldesley.

Trio hanged in Lincoln for homosexual acts

Three men in their thirties have been publicly executed in Lincoln for sodomy after a homosexual vice ring of up to 36 men was uncovered by the authorities.

William Arden, John Doughty and Benjamin Candler died on the gallows outside Lincoln Castle after being convicted on the evidence of a 19 year-old apprentice draper, Henry Hackett.

A mistake by Hackett led to the arrest of his three accomplices, but he escaped death after turning King’s evidence. Hackett had sent a letter to Candler, a valet for the Duke of Newcastle, using the freepost scheme for mail to peers and MPs - but he forgot to write Candler’s name on the envelope, with the result that his letter was read by the shocked duke.

Imposing death sentences, the judge said the crimes were horrible and too dreadful to reflect upon. They were of so damning a nature that the Almighty had destroyed whole cities for the guilt of it.

Both Candler and Doughty were married, with five children in all.

SIR ROBERT WILSON (ABOVE) ANGERED AN MP FROM THE ‘WEST INDIA INTEREST’ WITH HIS ATTACK ON SLAVERY, AS HE PRESENTED THE PETITION FROM SOUTHWARK

Strong backing in UK for Spain, but no intervention

Two months after King George IV’s speech opening the new session of Parliament described the prospect of war between France and Spain as a calamity, his Tory ministers have little to show for their strategy and their diplomatic efforts to avert war.

However much the Earl of Liverpool’s government may be reviled at home by Radicals and progressive Whigs for its right-wing policies in the wake of the Peterloo massacre, it is now out on a limb, alienated from the even more conservative powers in Europe.

Britain was dubbed ‘an abettor of anarchy’ after refusing to join Austria, France, Prussia and Russia in backing action against Spain’s liberal regime at the Congress of Verona late in 1822.

George IV’s speech in February signally did not promise neutrality, but his ministers were realistic about their options, even as hopes remained in Madrid that Britain would take up arms with Spain.

Britain is not ready for a costly land war, less than eight years after Waterloo, and ministers feared it might endanger King George’s other domain, Hanover, and ally Portugal. But they will still hope French forces get bogged down and Spain prevails.

Support for Spain crosses political divides. Opposition politicians attended a dinner with the Spanish ambassador in March, and Sir Robert Wilson (Southwark, Rad), a general in the Napoleonic wars, told MPs that conflict initiated by France would be seem as “a war of tyrants, fanatics, and bigots, against the rights of free nations”.

Mexican emperor overthrown Schubert hits wrong note

Less than 18 months after leading his army into Mexico City in triumph after securing independence from Spain, Emperor Agustin de Iturbide has abdicated.

Agustin, 39, fell foul of the strong republican group in the country’s Congress after being crowned as Emperor Agustin I last July, and dismissed the parliament in October. Cricket in the Arctic? Has England’s increasingly popular summer sport ever been played in a colder and more hostile environment?

Mexico has struggled as an independent country, faced with the hostility of Spain’s king, and a lack of diplomatic recognition and economic ties with other states. Agustin’s record was marred by allegations of extravagance and a 40% property tax. His fate was sealed when army officer Antonio López de Santa Anna led a revolt against his former ally in December 1822.

Snow didn’t stop play for Arctic cricketers

One of the rising stars of European music, composer Franz Schubert, 26 (pictured) has been forced to rename his new one-act opera.

Censors in Vienna working for the conservative Austrian Chancellor Prince Klemens von Metternich vetoed the title of Die Verschworenen (The Conspirators) for political reasons. It was then changed to Der hausliche Krieg (Domestic Warfare).

This picture shows members of the crews of HMS Fury and HMS Hecla playing cricket on the ice near the Inuit settlement of Igloolik, where they have spent the winter.

The ships will stay ice-bound until conditions improve to let them carry on their search for the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to Pacific Oceans. The cricket must have been a welcome break from the tedium of winter.

ABOVE: FRENCH COMMANDERS PANIC, IN A WILLIAMS CARTOON, AFTER SPANISH TROOPS (TOP LEFT) TRUMPET BRITISH SUPPORT; GEORGE CANNING, FOREIGN SECRETARY (BELOW LEFT); AND THE PATRIOTIC DINNER IN SUPPORT OF SPAIN

A SCENE FROM THE BRITISH WINTER CAMP, DRAWN BY CAPT. GEORGE LYON OF HMS HECLA

FORMER MEXICAN EMPEROR AGUSTIN I

New exhibition shows how they did coronations in the 1820s

Two hundred years and seven monarchs separate King Charles III from George IV, not to mention a rather different approach to spending public money on ceremonial occasions.

George’s coronation in Westminster Abbey in 1821 reflected his status as arguably the most powerful monarch in Europe, and his vanity. He wanted his ceremony to outshine those of Napoleon and the French Bourbon kings.

A new exhibition at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton brings to life what organisers say was “the most outrageous and scandalous crowning ceremony in British history”.

The event cost almost £240,000 (more than £20 million today). George’s robes (pictured right) alone cost over £24,000. No other monarch before or after has dared to display such extravagance and the ceremonial banquet in Westminster Hall was never repeated.

On the ground floor of the Royal Pavilion, the exhibition contains pictures, costumes, documents and objects from this spectacular coronation.

Heroes or cut-throats, asks maritime museum?

A new exhibition at the National Maritime Museum at Falmouth, Cornwall investigates how the image of pirates as symbols of freedom and adventure was created. PIRATES invites audiences to discover how robbers became unlikely folk heroes. From the 17th century through the 1820s to today, it highlights the likes of Captain Hook and the Pirates of Penzance, and the dark world of the real pirates of the Caribbean. PIRATES (UNTIL DECEMBER) includes costumes, weapons, film posters, books, real ‘pieces of eight’ and an immersive experience.

NOTES FROM NOW

Observations about the news from 1823

Birkbeck, the London college celebrating its bicentenary this year, was one of the pioneers in women’s education, admitting female students in 1830, nearly 40 years before the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

Seven years before Birkbeck took women, the Royal Academy of Music welcomed its first students (aged 10-14) in March 1823.

The first 20 were joined by 16 more two weeks later. Unusually, by the standards of the day, there were equal numbers of girls and boys. The intake included someone from a very famous family of the future. Fanny Dickens was the older sister of Charles Dickens, who would publish his first novel, The Pickwick Papers, in just 13 years time.

Visitors can find out about the people involved, including George and his estranged wife, Caroline, who was refused admission to the Abbey.

There are unusual figures too, like the herb-strewer women who played a key role in the procession.

UNTIL 10 SEPTEMBER

The Guardian ’s slavery links

The Scott Trust, which owns The Guardian, the liberal Manchester newspaper first published in 1821, has apologised for the links its founders had to transatlantic slavery and announced a decade-long programme of restorative justice. They have also published Legacies of Enslavement, an academic review of the founding of the paper by John Edward Taylor and his financial backers.

Their parents had fallen on hard times. Despite living in a tiny flat they somehow found the money and space for a piano so Fanny could practise, and then enter the Royal Academy in 1823. The next year, brother Charles went to the Academy to watch Fanny perform - and win a prize from the King’s sister.

The story of Fanny Dickens and the ‘Women of the Academy’ is told in a podcast, produced for the Royal Academy’s bicentenary celebrations in 2022 and 2023.

Foreshadowing a modern debate, Radical MP Joseph Hume complained in March 1823 that it was disgraceful that his family was charged eight shillings [о 40p] to enter Westminster Abbey as tourists. He wanted free entry, or at least the “few pence” charged at St Paul’s Cathedral.

CAPTAIN PUGWASH (ABOVE) WAS A FICTIONAL PIRATE IN COMICS AND BOOKS BEFORE BECOMING THE STAR OF A TV PROGRAMME IN THE 1950S, 1970S AND 1990S

ABOVE: A TICKET FOR A RAISED TIER OF BOXES TO VIEW THE CORONATION PROCESSION OF GEORGE IV IN 1821.

RIGHT: KING GEORGE IN HIS CORONATION ROBES

WILLIAM KIDD WAS A 17TH CENTURY PIRATE AND PRIVATEER PORTRAYED FIVE TIMES IN FILMS OR ON TV