THE WAR AND FLUCTUATIONS IN MARITIME INTERCOURSE 687
the patience of the United States had been exhausted. The A) me
American supporters of Great Britain were foiled; war was ’
declared in 1812. and the quarrel, with all its disastrous consequences
 to trade and industry, was only healed at the Congress
of Vienna.
With the establishment of peace, in 1815, maritime com- With the
munication was of course resumed, but material prosperity }
did not at once revive. Indeed the depression affected all 7%
sides of national life simultaneously, and gave rise to expressions
 of complaint in many quarters. “During the earlier
part of the year, the distress had appeared particularly
confined to the agricultural labourers, at least the evils
pressing upon them were those which had almost exclusively
engaged the attention of the parliamentary speakers. But as
the season advanced, and an unusual inclemency of weather
brought with it the prospect of a general failure in the
harvests of Europe, and a rapid rise in the corn market,
much more serious distress burst forth among the manufacturing
 poor, who began to murmur that their reduced
wages would no longer satisfy them with bread.
“By the sudden failure of the war-demand for a vast peiagar
4 , , epression
variety of articles, which was not compensated as yet by the ensued:
recovery of any peace-market, foreign or domestic, thousands
of artisans were thrown out of employment, and reduced to a
state of extreme want and penury. A detestable spirit of
conspiracy, which manifested itself in the early part of the
year in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Huntingdon, and
Cambridge, directed against houses, barns, and rick-yards,
which were devoted to the flames, was probably the result of a
want of agricultural employment, joined to the love of plunder.
 But the distressing scenes which afterwards took place
amongst the colliers of Staffordshire, and the attempts made
by the assembled workmen of the iron manufacturing districts
of South Wales, to stop by force the working of the forges,
arose from the causes above referred to. In general, however,
the workmen conducted themselves without violence, and received
 with gratitude the contributions made for their relief.
“The general sense of suffering found vent throughout the
country in meetings called for the purpose of discussing the