Earl of Manchester

“ Charles Montagu, 1st duke of Manchester (c. 1656–1722) , son of Robert, 3rd earl of Manchester, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and succeeded to his father’s earldom in 1683. Warmly sympathizing with the Whig revolution of 1688, he attended William and Mary at their coronation, fought under William at the Boyne, became a privy councillor in 1698, and held various important diplomatic posts between that date and 1714, when he received an appointment in the household of George I., by whom on the 28th of April 1719 he was created duke of Manchester. ”

“ The earl of Manchester, provoked at the impeachment which the king had lodged against him, had long forwarded the war with alacrity; but being a man of humanity and good principles, the view of public calamities, and the prospect of a total subversion of government, began to moderate his ardor, and inclined him to promote peace on any safe or honorable terms. He was even suspected in the field not to have pushed to the utmost against the king the advantages obtained by the arms of the parliament ”

“ Fresh from his energetic Visitation of Cambridge, the Earl of Manchester was away, as we have seen, in May 1644, with his Lieutenant-general, Cromwell, to add the force of the Associated Eastern Counties to the forces of the Scots and Fairfax, then about to besiege the Marquis of Newcastle in York. The joint forces, numbering some 25,000 men in all, were hopefully conducting the siege when the approach of Prince Rupert out of Lancashire, with a Royalist army of over 20,000, compelled them to raise it, in order to oppose him (June 30) . ”

“ Nor, in more recent times, has Manchester abated her zeal or her vital energy in every phase of English political life. The greatest, most temperate, and statesmanlike Liberal newspaper in England is night by night printed within your walls; so that, at least in one phase of our national life and amongst one group of our fellow-citizens—the Liberal party, that is to say—it is literally true that what Manchester thinks to-night London thinks to-morrow. ”

“ During this time, the royalists, bold, eager, and trusting that a generous heroism would nerve them for victory, waited only the opportunity for attack. Upon learning the arrival of the Earl of Manchester, they lost no time in drawing out all their military from the several garrisons of Lincoln, Newark, and Gainsborough, still stimulated by an undaunted resolution to find out the enemy and advance to the combat. ”

“ Yet, rightly understood, Manchester is as great a human exploit as Athens.
The inhabitants, indeed, are not so impressed with their idiosyncrasy as the countrymen of Pericles and Phidias. They do not fully comprehend the position which they occupy. It is the philosopher alone who can conceive the grandeur of Manchester, and the immensity of its future. There are yet great truths to tell, if we had either the courage to announce or the temper to receive them. ”

“ In 1707 he restored Kimbolton Castle for the Earl of Manchester, of whom, as of most noblemen with whom he came into contact, he made a steady friend (see Manchester, Court and Society from Elizabeth to Anne, ii. 224 seq.) . ”

“ Lincoln was the scene of important operations during the civil wars in the reign of King John; and here the party of the Dauphin was completely overthrown by the Earl of Pembroke during the minority of Henry III. During the great civil war the royalists obtained possession of the city, but it was stormed by the Parliamentary army under the Earl of Manchester, May 5, 1644.
Linden-tree. The wood used in artificial fireworks, etc. ”

“ Presented to the Right Honourable, Pious, and Valiant Edward Earle of Manchester,’ London, 1644, 8vo. With portraits of the Earl of Manchester, engraved by Cross, and of the author, engraved by Hollar. 4. ‘Calvers Royal Vision; with his most humble addresses to his majesties royall person,’ in verse, London, 1648, 4to. 5. ‘Englands Fortresse, exemplified in the most renowned and victorious, his Excellency the Lord Fairfax. Humbly presented unto his Excellency by E. C., a lover of peace,’ a eulogium in verse, London, 1648, 8vo. 6. ”

“ The Duke next advised the King that it would be unsafe to trust himself in the city. On the 15th, the Duke was defeated and resigned, and Earl Grey took his place pledged to peace, retrenchment, and reform.
In Manchester the year was remarkable for the opening of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway, and the formation of a Political Union very much on the plan of that of Birmingham. This association was at first mainly composed of shopkeepers and working men, but was afterwards joined by representatives of all classes. ”

“ In Vicars's 'Parliamentary Chronicle' there is a letter of his, describing the proceedings of the Earl of Manchester in reducing several garrisons after the battle of Marston Moor. At the close of the war he received the living of St. ”

“ Edward, Lord (1602-1671) , just about to become the well-known Earl of Manchester of the Rebellion. Like Northumberland and Denbigh, he repented, but only after he had been not too politely shelved for Fairfax and Cromwell.
76 Cleveland would have been delighted had he known the fate of Cornelius Burges (1589?-1665) , of whom he evidently had a pretty bad idea. Burges, a Wadham and Lincoln man, was one of the leaders of the Puritans among the London clergy, and a great favourite with the House of Commons in the Long Parliament. He wanted to suppress cathedrals ”

“ Now he was in the street of the armourers, now among the sellers of shawls; the prints of Manchester were here unfolded, there the silks of India; sometimes he sauntered by a range of shops gay with yellow papooshes and scarlet slippers, and then hurried by the stalls and shelves stored with the fatal frippery of the East, in which it is said the plague in some shape or other always lurks and lingers. This locality, however, indicated that Baroni was already approaching the purlieus of the chief places; the great population had already much diminished, the brilliancy of the scene much dimmed ”

“ No speeches in favour of the protective system have ever been made in the House of Commons compared with his in depth and range of knowledge; and had there been any member not connected with the government, who had been able to vindicate the merits of British agriculture as he did when the final struggle occurred, the impression which was made by the too-often unanswered speeches of the Manchester confederation would never have been effected. ”

“ There were almost daily meetings, at Liverpool, Manchester, and Leeds, to consider the great and increasing distress of the country, and to induce ministers to bring forward remedial measures; but as these were impossible, violence was soon substituted for passionate appeals to the fears or the humanity of the government. Vast bodies of the population assembled in Staleybridge, and Ashton, and Oldham, and marched into Manchester. ”

“ Like its neighbour. Liverpool. Manchester was exposed to the assaults of the Civil Wars in 1462, the country about it haring been laid waste by the Earl of Derby, who, however, after a spirited assault and several days' seige, was unable to take the town, and obliged to retire. Manchester has now two Members of Parliament, and Salford (which may be considered as part of Manchester) one ”

“ And pensive weep o'er noble Derby's [1] urn.
The Earl of Derby—Manchester—Its Manufactures.
In Charles's cause, our gallant youth he arm'd,
And his bright deeds each meaner bosom warm'd;
Till treason, mounting o’er his cold corpse flew,
Where Bolton's blushing spires fade in the distant view.
Lo! where Mancunium boldly soars on high,
Mocks the rude blast, and dares th' inclement sky:
Thrice happy spot, whose joys from commerce spring;
At her command thy genius spreads her wing ”

“ Blatchford in criticizing my Manchester speech, that the working men of Great Britain will never hear of compulsory service because they distrust the ruling classes, rests upon a misconception of the English Constitution almost too obvious to require exposure. ”

“ However injurious such a prejudice was to the Earl, his actions approved him a brave, active; and loyal man. He retired to the Isle of Man, which ha held for the king a considerable time; afterwards joining his son Charles the second, he was taken prisoner after the battle of Worcester; tried by a council of war, according to Rapin; and beheaded at Bolton, October 15th. ”

“ Then, proud of strength, the conscious mind shall rise,
Mount in the storm, and adverse fate despise.
FINIS.
R. & W. DEAN, Printers, Manchester.
↑ James, Earl of Derby, was beheaded at Bolton; he was an active supporter of the royal cause, against the unjust usurpations of parliament. He raised, by his personal influence, a body of thirty thousand men, in the counties of Lancashire and Cheshire, and brought them to, the support of his Sovereign. Some unfortunate prejudice, not yet cleared up by History, seems to have withheld from him the confidence of his royal master. ”

“ A Manchester Will of the Fifteenth Century. The will of George Manchester, A.D. 1483, was presented to the Peel Park Museum, Salford, by the late Mr. Stephen Heelis. It has several points of interest. The date is given in a peculiar form: “the first year of the reign of King Richard the Third after the Conquest, when he raised his realm against the Duke of Buckingham.” The Manchester localities mentioned are the Irk Bridge, the Furthys (? the Fords) , the Pavey, the Spring Bank, the Butts, the Tenter Bank, Drynghouses, Bradforth, and Mylnegate. ”

“ Early in the Cromwellian wars Manchester declared for the Parliament, and the Royalists besieged what was then the walled town twice, unsuccessfully. But these were only passing incidents. Everywhere in England at that time crop-headed men of sour visage and in subfusc garments warred with ringleted men of a cheerful countenance and ungodly conversation, wearing clothes of extravagant cut and colour. The one side fought for Parliament, the other for King, but the quarrel really was deeper than that. ”

“ The most eminent of these towns were indeed known in the seventeenth century as respectable seats of industry. Nay, their rapid progress and their vast opulence were then sometimes described in language which seems ludicrous to a man who has seen their present grandeur. One of the most populous and prosperous among them was Manchester. Manchester had been required by the Protector to send one representative to his Parliament, and was mentioned by writers of the time of Charles the Second as a busy and opulent place. ”

“ Although the engagement of the young duke was lately announced, his mother is still one of the youngest looking women in society, and she has scarcely changed since the day, twenty-two years ago, when she took London by storm as the bride of Viscount Mandeville, the then Duke of Manchester's eldest son and heir. ”

“ Eadward recovered the city, and received the submission of the Welsh, 'for the kings of the North Welsh and all the North Welsh race sought him for lord.' He now turned to a fresh enterprise; he desired to close the road from Northumbria into Middle England that gave Manchester its earliest importance, as well as to prepare for an attack on York, where a certain Ragnar had been received as king, Accordingly he fortified and colonised Thelwall, and sent an army to take Manchester in Northumbria, to renew its walls and to man them. ”

“ On the very day of Winceby some of Newcastle’s forts at Hull were captured by the garrison; and the following day he raised the siege and retreated to York. On the 20th Lincoln capitulated to Manchester, who soon after laid siege to Gainsborough. [128] Manchester did his best by persuasion to win back the county to Parliament; and a number of Royalist gentry changed sides from a rumour that the King was bringing over an army of native Irish. The scare of “Popery” was always the Parliament’s strongest card. ”

“ It is a proud feeling to an Englishman to know, that the productions of the thousand busy hands and whirling wheels around him, are destined to increase the comfort, refinement, or splendour of nations, spread far and wide over the globe: and it is a joyful thing to compare present greatness and secure freedom, with the long past years when a little bristling fortress and a tented field, scenes of barbaric bloodshed and grovelling slavery, occupied the spot of earth now devoted to usefulness, industry, and knowledge.
Manchester is situated on the banks of the river Irwell ”

“ It seemed to him that “a place more destitute of all interesting objects than Manchester it would not be easy to conceive. In size and population it is the second city in the kingdom, containing about fourscore thousand inhabitants. Imagine this multitude crowded together in narrow streets, the houses all built of brick and blackened with smoke; frequent buildings among them as large as convents, without their antiquity, without their beauty, without their holiness; where you hear from within the everlasting din of machinery ”

“ What wonder if that democracy took due advantage of their position? Without them the Russell Cabinet was nothing; and each successive month the tone of the Minister became less firm and determined. Radicalism, in our day, has assumed an entirely new form. It affects a community of interest with the prosperity of British manufactures, though rather abroad than at home. Its focus is Manchester; its apostles are the men of the League. Brimful of hate and envy towards the aristocracy of Great Britain, these men are determined to leave no stone unturned whereby they may scramble upwards into power ”

“ On Sunday, August 30, the non-Catholic pulpits of the thrifty city resounded with the praises of this humble priest, whose chief characteristics were stainless integrity, an entire absence of human respect, burning zeal for God's glory, and life-long efforts to promote it. He feared no man and sought the favor of none, and his noble independence of character won him the admiration of all who had the privilege of knowing him. His death was universally deplored as the greatest calamity that ever befell Manchester. ”