Queen Victoria began to reign June 20, 1837, having just completed her
eighteenth year; was crowned on the 28th of June in the following
year; and was married to her cousin, Prince Albert of Coburg and
Gotha, February 10, 1840. In the autumns of 1842, ‘44, ‘47, and ‘48,
her majesty visited Scotland, but on each occasion more in a private
than in a state capacity; residing at the mansions of the nobility
that lay in her route to the Highlands, where the Prince Consort
enjoyed the invigorating sports of grouse-shooting and deer-stalking.
In 1843 she paid a visit, entirely divested of state formalities, to
the late royal family of France; and shortly after made another to her
uncle, the king of the Belgians. In 1845, besides making the tour of
the English midland counties, the royal pair visited the family of
Prince Albert at Coburg and Gotha; receiving the attentions of the
various German powers that lay on their outward and homeward route.
Her majesty has received in turn the friendly visits of several
crowned heads, among whom have been the ex-king of the French, Leopold
of Belgium, the king of Saxony, and the emperor of Russia. Such
interchanges and attentions are not without their importance; at all
events they are characteristic of a new era in the international
history of Europe.
The Whig ministry and measures, which had for some time been on the
decline, were set aside by a vote of ‘no confidence’ in the summer of
1841; a dissolution of Parliament was the consequence; and after the
new elections, the Opposition was found to be so far in the
ascendancy, that Viscount Melbourne tendered his resignation, and
retired from public life, leaving Sir Robert Peel again to take the
helm of affairs. The Parliament of 1841, under the direction of the
Peel ministry, was in many respects one of the most important during
the reigning dynasty. Besides passing several measures of benefit to
the internal management of the country, it established, by the
abolition of the corn-laws and other restrictive duties, the
principles of free trade, and in that course Britain has since been
followed by other nations; it gave, by the imposition of a property
and income tax, a preference to the doctrine of direct taxation; it
countenanced in all its diplomatic negotiations the duties and
advantages of a peace policy; and engaged less with political theories
than with practical and business-like arrangements for the commerce,
health, and education of the country. In consequence of ministerial
differences, Sir Robert Peel tendered his resignation as premier in
June 1846, and was succeeded in office by Lord John Russell, to whom
was assigned the further task of carrying out the principles of free
trade, of legislating for Ireland in a time of dearth and famine
(caused by successive failures of the potato crop), and of adopting
some plan of national education――a subject which has been too long
neglected in this otherwise great and prosperous empire.
Since the accession of her majesty, Britain has been on the most
friendly terms with the other nations of Europe――coöperating with them
in the extension and liberation of commerce, the continuance of peace,
the suppression of slavery, and the advancement of other measures of
importance to civilization. The disputed boundaries between British
America and the United States have been determined by friendly
negotiation; thus giving permanency in the new world as well as in the
old to the spirit of peace and national brotherhood.