in every corner of the land, in occasional uprisings among agricultural laborers and factory operatives, in angry mobs destroying private property,—­all impelled by hunger and despair.  To these discontents and angry uprisings the government was haughty and cold, looking upon them as revolutionary and dangerous, and putting them down by sheriffs and soldiers, by coercion bills and the suspension of the Act of habeas corpus.  Some speeches were made in Parliament in favor of education, and some efforts in behalf of law reforms,—­especially the removal of the death penalty for small offences, more than two hundred of which were punishable with death.  Numerous were the instances where men and boys were condemned to the gallows for stealing a coat or shooting a hare; but the sentences of judges were often not enforced when unusually severe or unjust.  Moreover, large charities were voted for the poor, but without materially relieving the general distress.

On the whole, however, the country increased in wealth and prosperity in consequence of the long and uninterrupted peace; and the only great drawback was the mercantile crisis of 1825, resulting from the mania of speculation, and followed by the contraction of the currency,—­the effect of which was the failure of banks and the ruin of thousands who had calculated on being suddenly enriched.  Alison estimates the shrinkage of property in Great Britain alone as at least L100,000,000.  Men worth L100,000 could not at one time raise L100.  The banks were utterly drained of gold and silver.  Nothing prevented universal bankruptcy but the issue of small bills by the Bank of England.  There was a lull of political excitement after the trial of Queen Caroline, and Parliament confined itself chiefly to legal, economical, and commercial questions; although occasionally there were grand debates on the foreign policy, on Catholic emancipation, and on the disfranchisement of corrupt boroughs.  Ireland obtained considerable parliamentary attention, owing to the failure of the potato crop and its attendant agricultural distress, which produced a state bordering on rebellion, and to the formation of the Catholic Association.

But the great event in the political history of England during the reign of George IV. was unquestionably the removal of Catholic disabilities,—­ranking next in importance and interest with the Reform Bill and the repeal of the Corn Laws.  Catholic disability had existed ever since the reign of Elizabeth, and was the standing injustice under which Ireland labored.  Catholic peers were not admitted to the House of Lords, nor Catholics to a seat in the House of Commons,—­which was a condition of extremely unequal representation.  In reality, only the Protestants were represented in Parliament, and they composed only about one tenth of the whole population.