made happy even by the restitution of peace. Partly by necessity,
partly by the bad management of the Government and its officials, the
war-burdens were continued, and to the starving multitudes they were
more burdensome than ever. Angry complaints were uttered openly, and
repeated again and again with steadily-increasing vehemence, in all
parts of the country. That the ministers and agents of the Crown were
grievously at fault was patent to all; and it is not strange that, in
the excitement and the misery that prevailed, they should be blamed
even more than was their due. But the men in power did not choose to
be blamed at all; they denied that any fault attached to them, and
fiercely reprobated every complaint as sedition, every opponent as a
lawless and unpatriotic demagogue. Hence the Government and the people
came to be at deadly feud. Most right was with the people, and their
bold assertion of that right, albeit sometimes in wrong ways, has
secured memorable benefits in later times; but power was still with
the Government, and it was used even more roughly than in former
years.

That Lord Cochrane, having suffered so much from the vindictive
persecution of the Tories, should have thrown in his lot with its
most extreme opponents, is not to be wondered at. During 1817 he was
intimately associated with the popular party in all its efforts for
the redress of grievances and in all the assertions of its real and
fancied rights. In and out of Parliament he was alike active and
outspoken. The history of his public conduct at this time forms
no small section of the history of the Radical movement during the
period. It resulted naturally from the circumstances in which he had
lately been placed. Energetic in thought and action, a ready writer
and an able speaker, his recent sufferings helped to place him in the
foremost rank of patriots, as they were called by friends--demagogues,
as they were called by enemies. With the exception of Sir Francis
Burdett, than whom he even went further, the people had, outside their
own ranks, no sturdier champion.

If there had been any doubt before as to his line of action, there
could be no doubt after the re-assembling of Parliament in January,
1817. During the recess, monster meetings had been held in all parts
of the country to consider the popular troubles and to insist upon
popular reforms. Lord Cochrane agreed to present to the House of
Commons many of the petitions that resulte