#february 1859

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Mountain mail runner, February 1859

By Moss Springmeyer Like a magnet seizing an iron filing, the California Gold Rush of 1849 dragged Jack west willy nilly. A myriad other iron filings tumbled along too, jolted loose from their pasts, a brotherhood of zest for adventure and dazzling dreams of riches. He’d chased every whisper of a gold strike for five years. Some whispers were will o’ the wisps. Others were real, but luck was not…

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25th - 28th February 1859

Saturday 26: Tired out with the week's work; very bad about the legs; fancies I have a touch of rhumatism in the knees. read at intervals during the week, Howitt's Rural Life of England.

Sunday 27: Sunday Ps. CXII v.4 ' Man is like a thing of nought: his time passeth away like a shadow'.

Monday 28: Received a letter from Reuben, descriptive of the East Worcestershire Election, and the riots that took place at Bromsgrove on account of it. Mr. Disraeli brought in his reform bill which is not democratic enough for a great portion of people; surely knowledge and property ought to have the greatest share in the representation of a nation. Messrs. Walpole and Henley secedes from the Ministry, not agreeing to that part of the bill relating to Counties.

In great care about Edgar & baby, who are very ill indeed with the cough; can get but very little sleep of a night  on account of it; hopes that Mrs. A will not be ill with the worry & fatigue; am pleased that Rupert is getting better. Henry falls down and cuts his knee very badly:- 'when troubles come, they come not singly but in battalions'.

28: Reuben was CH's brother-in-law, Reuben Baker, who worked for a draper in Bromsgrove at this point.

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13th - 19th February 1859

Sunday 13: Sunday St. Luke XIV v.13,14  (text follows)

Monday 14: Lord Stanley in his speech on the question of a loan for India said that the Indian Mutiny had cost 21 millions of money.

Tuesday 15: Colonel Dickson obtained a verdict and damages of £200 for slander and £5 for libel against Lord Wilton. This trial arose from the dismissal of Colonel Dickson from the Tower Hamlets militia. (Article: top of column 3)

Greenwich election ; Salomon (a Jew) returned by a majority of 921 over Angerstein. Mrs. Timothy Townsend of Weald, Bampton died, aged 67.

Saturday 19: Henry has a new pair of boots, which cost 5s 6d.

15: David Salomons is an interesting man. He was a successful banker and one of the founders of what is now known as NatWest. When he was alive, Jewish people had very few rights when it came to holding public office. There was much campaigning happening to alter the system; Salomons's preferred method of challenging tradition was to stand for election and win wherever possible. In 1835 he was elected as Sheriff of the City of London, but refused to take the (Christian) oath and had to step down. Later that year an act was passed that allowed him to take the job. Next he was elected as an Alderman but again could not take the oath. On this occasion, it was 10 years before the rules were changed. He took this post in 1847 and then became Mayor of London in 1855. In 1851 he stood as an MP - he was elected but when he came to take the oath in Parliament, he omitted the Christian sections. This created a great fuss with people demanding that he leave the chamber. He took part in three votes before the Sergeant-at-arms removed him and was fined £500 for voting illegally. It was not until 1858 that the law was changed and practising Jews could become MPs. Lionel de Rothschild was actually the first Jewish MP, but Salomons was hot on his heels, being elected less than a year after the restriction was overturned.

15: I've tracked down Mrs Timothy Townsend on the 1851 census. Her name was Elizabeth, to identify her by something other than her husband. Timothy was a farmer of 50 acres at that time and was still living in 1861.  She was born in Signet, Oxfordshire, about 8 miles from Bampton. The Townsends must have been family friends of the Bakers as I cannot find any evidence that they are actually related. Weald is a hamlet very near to Bampton, so as fellow farmers they would almost undoubtedly have met.

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3rd - 4th February 1859

Thursday 3: Parliament assembled - Queen opened the session in person. Lord Palmerston found fault with the wording of the Speech, and Mr. Disraeli (Chanc. of Exchequer) said that composition was harder than criticism. The much talked of Reform Bill only found a place in the last paragraph of the speech.

Friday 4: Received 1 ton 3 cwt. 2  of Coal from Mr. Welsh. Sydney Mark has a fit and is quite ill.

3: The Earl of Derby, a Conservative, was prime minister at the opening of this parliament. This was the year which saw the creation of the Liberal party from the dregs of the Whigs, Peelites and Radicals and, in just a few months time, Derby will have power snatched from him by this new Liberal party headed by Lord Palmerston. Thus his administration on this occasion (as during his previous stint in power in 1852) consisted of attempting to avoid being brought down by the many factions acting against him both in and out of his party. His Chancellor of the Exchequer, Benjamin Disraeli, of course went on to be prime minister himself several times from 1868 onwards.

To Charles Henry, discussions of reform would have been much more important than these political manoeuvrings amongst the elite. The Reform Act of 1832, 27 years previously, had been the last major legislation on the subject - it destroyed some rotten boroughs and extended the vote in the boroughs to all householders who paid a yearly rental of more than £10 and some lodgers but many men and all women were still completely cut off from the democratic process. I am not sure whether the 1832 reforms included Charles Henry or not. He didn't own any property and (looking ahead) for the election on 31st May 1859 he makes no mention of going to cast his vote. But he lived in Oxford, a borough constituency, so his enfranchisement depended on whether or not the house he lived in was worth £10. I think it is possible as he writes in December of paying £3 rent for the quarter, leading to a total of £12 over the year. Anyway, if he was not eligible, he and others who were disenfranchised would have to wait until 1867 for the next reform act to extend the franchise a bit further, mainly due to Lord Palmerston's complete opposition to the idea of further reform (he died in 1865).

This free article from the New York Times archive is an interesting summary of events from that week and includes the full text of the Queen's speech: the reform bill certainly does get a short shrift as Charles Henry suggests.

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