Read Amazing & Extraordinary Facts About Great Britain Online
Authors: Stephen Halliday
Amazing & Extraordinary Facts About Great Britain (17 page)
Prototype financial crisis caused by investments no-one understood
B
ritain in 1720 was a place of great optimism. The War of the Spanish Succession had ended with a series of resounding victories by the Duke of Marlborough’s armies over those of Louis XIV. The Treaty of Utrecht, which marked the end of the conflict in 1713, granted Britain the right to send one ship a year to trade with Mexico, Peru or Chile. On this very flimsy basis the South Sea Company was authorized to raise the huge sum of £2 million, with the promise of riches beyond the dreams of avarice from the El Dorado which many believed to lie in South America.
The value of the company’s stock soared, on one occasion trebling in value in a single day. One of the few who were sceptical amidst the general euphoria was the Prime Minister, Robert Walpole (1676–1745), whose views on the subject were so unpopular that the chamber of the House of Commons emptied when he rose to speak on the matter, as MPs who had invested in the venture fled from his warnings. Other similar ventures quickly followed. They included a company devoted to creating a perpetual motion machine, one for manufacturing square cannon balls to be used against infidels and another ‘for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage but nobody to know what it is’. In August the value of the company’s stock was changing hands for ten times the price at its launch in February but the company still hadn’t done any business and rumours began to circulate that the directors who had launched the company had sold out and cashed in their profits, as indeed they had. The value of the company collapsed, the treasurer, Mr Knight, fled to France and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who had supported the company in Parliament, was sent to the Tower of London and burned in effigy. Only Walpole had his reputation strengthened. This was the first major financial fiasco in London – but by no means the last.
LOUIS XIV BOOSTS BRITISH ECONOMY
Walpole’s government was inadvertently helped with its finances by the French king Louis XIV (reigned 1643–1715). In 1685 Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes which, since 1598, had granted freedom of worship to French Protestants, known as Huguenots. The origin of the word ‘Huguenot’ is a mystery but there was nothing mysterious about the fate of this enterprising and patriotic group of French citizens once the persecutions began after 1685. They were, in effect, unprotected by French law and in the months that followed the revocation more than 200,000 of France’s citizens emigrated to more tolerant countries, notably to the Netherlands and Britain – both of which would be ruled by the Protestant William of Orange. At the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, which ensured his triumph over the deposed and exiled Catholic king James II, William was served by over 1,000 French Huguenot soldiers, many of whom served later in the campaigns of the Duke of Marlborough. Marlborough’s armies destroyed those of France during the War of the Spanish Succession which clouded the last years of Louis’ reign. Huguenots also brought many industrial skills with them which benefited the British economy. The silk-weaving industry of Spitalfields in London and the lace-making of Nottingham can trace their origins to Huguenot refugees. Many famous British men and women are also descended from Huguenot ancestors, amongst them the actors David Garrick and Laurence Olivier, the writer Daphne du Maurier, the industrialist and art patron Samuel Courtauld, the comedian Eddie Izzard, the Rolling Stone Keith Richards, Francis Beaufort who devised the Beaufort Scale for measuring wind speed and Winston Churchill. What would Louis XIV have thought of the consequences of his intolerance?
Punishments of the Infamous, Pecuniary and Corporal varieties
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n 1582 William Lambard of Lincoln’s Inn applauded the fact that the English penal code no longer included ‘pulling out the tongue for false rumours, cutting off the nose for adultery, taking away the privy parts for counterfeiting money’ or certain other medieval penalties. Even so, the remaining punishments, which Lambard divided into three groups, included some formidable deterrents to misbehaviour:
Infamous punishments, for such crimes as treason: notably being hung, drawn and quartered.
Pecuniary punishments for swearing, failing to attend church or playing a musical instrument on the Sabbath, etc: mostly fines imposed by Justices of the Peace which, rather like parking fines, helped to pay for the local system of government and justice.
Corporal punishments, divided into two categories: ‘Capital (or deadly) punishment is done sundry ways as by hanging, burning, boiling or pressing’; ‘Not Capital is of diverse forms as of cutting off the hand or ear, burning, whipping, imprisoning, stocking, setting in the pillory or ducking stool.’
CAN’T TOUCH THIS
Malefactors could avoid all these penalties by seeking sanctuary in the church of St Martin’s le Grand in the City of London which dated from 1056 and possibly earlier. Although the foundation was dissolved by Henry VIII it retained rights of sanctuary until 1697. One who sought refuge there was Miles Forrest, one of those held responsible for the murder of the Princes in the Tower. In 1829 it became the site of the headquarters of the Post Office. It is close to the former site of Newgate, now the Old Bailey
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‘Pressing’ was a particularly unpleasant ordeal reserved for those who refused to enter a plea. If a person was found guilty of a crime his possessions were confiscated by the Crown, leaving his family destitute. If no plea was entered his estate remained with the family. Weights, usually heavy stones, would be placed upon his prostrate body until he relented or died or both. This was known as
Peine Forte et Dure
(strong and hard penalty) and was last used at Cambridge Assizes in 1741 though not abolished until 1772. For women, the alternative was to suffer cords being tied tightly around the thumbs, as inflicted upon Mary Andrews in 1721 until her thumbs snapped.
THE CATO STREET CONSPIRACY
The last people to be sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered were the Cato Street Conspirators who planned to murder the Cabinet while they were at dinner in 1820. Their plan was to parade the heads of their victims, impaled on poles, thereby inciting a revolution after which the land of Great Britain would be equally divided amongst the population. The leader was Arthur Thistlewood but the plot was thoroughly infiltrated and when the plotters arrived at their rendezvous in Cato Street, Marylebone (now marked by a plaque) they were arrested by twelve ‘Bow Street Runners’. Five were sentenced to transportation and five, including Thistlewood, to be hung, drawn and quartered. However the hangman ensured they were all dead before cutting them down and beheading them. He then lifted up each and, in accordance with tradition, cried ‘Behold the head of a traitor’. As the last head slipped from his grasp onto the execution platform the crowd cried ‘Butterfingers!’
Incarceration or the army
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mprisonment as a penalty was unusual until well into the 19th century. Prisons were expensive to run and were mostly used to detain people before their trials or, if condemned to death, to hold them for the few days before they were executed. Begging was looked upon particularly severely. ‘Idle and disorderly persons’ and ‘rogues and vagabonds’ were to be publicly whipped before being returned to the parishes of their birth. ‘Incorrigible rogues’ were to be offered to the Army, these penalties being imposed by Justices of the Peace (JP).
I FOUGHT THE LAW – AND THE LAW WON
The ancient office of Justice of the Peace is first mentioned in a statute of 1361 but it is clear from the context that the statute is referring to an institution that had already existed for some time, probably from the reign of Richard I when we read of Keepers of the Peace. The local Justices, also known as magistrates, were responsible for administering justice for most offences and for rounding up serious offenders to await the arrival of the king’s judges who could impose more severe penalties in Assize Courts. JPs were also responsible, outside the chartered boroughs, for the administration of local government in such matters as repairing roads and bridges. There are at present about 30,000 JPs in England and Wales who continue to dispose of about 96 per cent of criminal cases, the remaining 4 per cent being sent by them to the Crown Courts which replaced the Assize Courts in 1972. The work is voluntary and unpaid, as it has always been
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The unexpected risks to impersonating a pensioner
F
rom 1688 the number of crimes punishable by death gradually increased until by 1830 about 300 offences were in this category. They included stealing something worth more than five shillings (25p) which even in 1830 was only a day’s wages; impersonating a Chelsea Pensioner; the poaching of deer; and damaging Westminster Bridge. Many judges and juries, recognising the absurdity of the system, either refused to convict or declared that goods stolen were worth less than five shillings. Commentators such as the Anglican clergyman William Paley argued that the hanging of thieves was correct because ‘property, being more exposed, requires the terror of capital punishment to protect it’. He further argued that, although the prospect of hanging should be available for many crimes, it should rarely be inflicted, leaving the deterrent in place but without its excessive use!
