The Rape of Venice Read Free Page A

Treason Act making malcontents who speak against the Constitution liable to transportation for seven years,
    â€˜You spoke, too, of the Christian Faith,’ Mr. Pitt went on. with a shrug of his narrow shoulders. ‘It has recently suffered as serious a decline as loyalty to the Crown. John Wesley’s teachings detached a great part of the masses from the Established Church. Methodism is a revolt from religious discipline and on doctrinal matters near synonymous with Freethinking. What more fertile breeding ground could you have for complete disbelief? Those who preach anarchy also preach atheism and, alas, thousands, many thousands, of the proletariat have now accepted both.
    â€˜With regard to money: in the present war I have had to find vast sums to subsidise our allies. Without British gold they could never have kept their armies in the field so long, and the drain has near ruined us.
    â€˜As for myself, ’tis true that I have the backing of a large majority in the House; but I no longer possess the confidence of the people. If ever I now drive abroad I am greeted withshouts of “Peace! Peace! Stop the War! Stop killing our friends! Murderer! Stop sending our money to the foreign tyrants! Give us bread! Give us peace!”’
    â€˜Tell me, Sir,’ Roger asked, ‘what is the cause of this extraordinary change in the people’s attitude?’
    â€˜The Whig aristocracy is fundamentally to blame. Unlike us Tories, they have never lifted a finger to protect the common people. Democracy means for them equality among themselves and striving to bring the Monarch down to their own level. They prate of Liberalism and the Rights of Man, yet did not scruple to take advantage of the Enclosures Act and increase their own properties by grabbing the land that for centuries had been held in common by the peasantry of each village. Robbed of free tillage, pasture and firewood, the peasants migrated to the towns. There they were sweated, brutalised from being forced to live in slums, and at bad times turned off to starve. Then came the French Revolution, and from it there emerged this wave of agitators who promise that the dethronement of Kings and the murder of the rich will bring about a Utopia. Yet can it be wondered at that any prospect of bettering their appalling lot should light a flame among the slum dwellers? I do not blame them. On the contrary, it fills me with despair that we should have to spend on war the millions that I might otherwise use in wise measures to ameliorate their lot.’
    After a moment the Prime Minister went on: ‘That is the root cause; but the positive factor that has turned widespread discontent into smouldering revolution is the failure of last year’s harvest. Early this year the best wheat was fetching six guineas a quarter—a positively phenomenal price; and bread now costs far more than the ordinary worker can afford to pay.’
    Roger nodded. ‘I was aware of that, Sir; and that you had taken measures to counteract it. Prohibiting the manufacture of whisky, putting a tax on flour used for powdering the hair, urging the bakers to use one-third barley when making loaves, and having the members of the House set an example by voluntarily denying themselves pastry until the crisis is over, should have gone a great way to restoring the situation.’
    â€˜Nevertheless, considerable numbers of His Majesty’s poorest subjects have actually died from starvation. Should the harvest fail again this year, I’ll not answer for it that events here will not follow the pattern they took in France, and aguillotine be set up in Whitehall as a means of terminating the activities of people such as you and I.’
    â€˜Plague on it!’ Roger protested. ‘’Twould be prodigious hard if having lived through the Terror in Paris I were called upon to spit in the basket no more than a quarter of a mile from my own Club.’ Then he added in