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CASSELL'S ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF ENGLAND
CASSELL'S
HISTORY OF ENGLAND
FROM THE DEATH OF SIR ROBERT PEEL TO
THE ILLNESS OF THE PRINCE OF WALES
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS,
INCLUDING COLOURED
AND REMBRANDT PLATES
VOL. VI
_THE KING'S EDITION_
CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED
LONDON, NEW YORK, TORONTO AND MELBOURNE
MCMIX
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_). PAGE
The Papal Aggressions--The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill--Mr.
Locke King's Motion on County Franchise--Resignation of
the Government--The Great Exhibition--The President of the
French Republic and the Assembly--Preparations for the _Coup
d'État_--The Barricades--The _Plébiscite_--Weakness of the
Russell Administration--Independence of Lord Palmerston--The Queen's
Memorandum--Dismissal of Palmerston--The Militia Bill--Russell is
turned out--The Derby Ministry--The General Election--Defeat of the
Conservatives--Death and Funeral of the Duke of Wellington--The
Aberdeen Administration--Mr. Gladstone's Budget--The Eastern
Question again--The Diplomatic Wrangle--The Sultan's Firman--Afif
Bey's Mission--Difficulties in Montenegro--England and France--The
Menschikoff Mission--Lord Stratford de Redcliffe's Instructions--The
Czar and Sir Hamilton Seymour--Menschikoff at Constantinople--The
English and French Fleets--Arrival of Lord Stratford de
Redcliffe--Menschikoff's ulterior Demands--Action of the Powers 1
CHAPTER II.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
Widening of the Question--The Fleets in Besika Bay--Lord Clarendon's
Despatch--The Czar and Lord Stratford de Redcliffe--Nesselrode's
"Last Effort"--Military Preparations--Blindness of the British
Cabinet--Nesselrode's Ultimatum rejected--Occupation of the
Principalities--Projects of Settlement--The Vienna Note--Its
Rejection by the Porte---Division of the Powers--Text of
the Note--Divisions in the British Cabinet--The Fleets in
the Bosphorus--The Conference at Olmütz--The Sultan's Grand
Council--Lord Stratford de Redcliffe's last Effort--Patriotism of
the Turks--Omar Pasha's Victories--The Turkish Fleet destroyed
at Sinope--Indignation in England--The French Suggestion--It is
accepted by Lord Clarendon--Russia demands Explanations--Diplomatic
Relations suspended--The Letter of Napoleon III.--The Western
Powers arm--An Ultimatum to Russia--It is unanswered--The Baltic
Fleet--Publication of the Correspondence--Declarations of War 19
CHAPTER III.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
Attitude of the German Powers--The Lines at Boulair--The Campaign
on the Danube--The Siege of Silistria--It is raised--Evacuation of
the Principalities--The British Fleet in the Black Sea--Arrival
of the Allied Armies--A Council of War--The Movement on
Varna--Unhealthiness of the Camp--An Attack on the Crimea
resolved on--Doubts of the Military Authorities--Despatch to Lord
Raglan--Lord Lyndhurst's Speech--Raglan's reluctant Assent--The
Expedition sails--Debarkation in the Crimea--Forays of the French
Troops--Composition of the Allied Armies--The Start--The first
Skirmish--St. Arnaud's Plan--Slowness of the British--Battle of the
Alma 35
CHAPTER IV.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
Two Days on the Alma--Retreat of the Russians--Raglan proposes a
Flank Movement--Korniloff and Todleben--Death of St. Arnaud--The
Allies in Position--Menschikoff reinforces Sebastopol--Todleben's
Preparations--The Opposing Batteries--The Sea--Defences of
Sebastopol--Doubts of the Admirals--Opening of the Bombardment--The
French Fire silenced--Success of the British--Failure of
the Fleets--The Bombardment renewed--Menschikoff determines
to Raise the Siege--The Attack on Balaclava--Lord Lucan's
Warning--Liprandi's Advance--Capture of the Redoubts--The 93rd--Lord
Lucan's Advance--Charge of the Heavy Brigade--Raglan, Lucan, and
Nolan--Charge of the Light Brigade--The Valley of Death--The
Goal--End of the Battle 50
CHAPTER V.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
Effects of Balaclava--Attack on Mount Inkermann--Evans defeats
the Russians--Menschikoff is reinforced--The Guards to the
Rescue--Arrival of Lord Raglan--Bosquet's Help refused--The
Fight at the Sandbag Battery--The Coldstreams--The Guards'
Charge--Defeat of Cathcart--Charges of the Zouaves--The Russians
slowly retreat--Canrobert hesitates to pursue--Loss of the
Allies--Their Plight--The Baltic Fleet--Changed Position of
the Allies--Determination of the British Nation--Storm of
November 14th--Destruction of the Transports--Sufferings of the
Troops--Conduct of the War---Timidity of the Government--Enlistment
of Boys--Autumn Session--The Paper Warfare--Hostile Motions in
Parliament--Lord John Russell's Resignation--Palmerston forms a
Ministry--Resignation of the Peelites 64
CHAPTER VI.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
State of the Army--Food, Clothing, and Shelter--Absence of a
Road--Want of Transport--Numbers of the Sick--State of the
Hospitals--Miss Nightingale--Mr. Roebuck's Committee--Military
Operations--The French Mistake--Improvement of the
Situation--Arrival of General Niel--Attack upon the Malakoff
Hill approved--The Russian Redoubt constructed--Death of
Nicholas--Todleben's Counter-Approaches--Raglan and Canrobert
disagree--The second Bombardment--Egerton's Pit--Night Attack
of General de Salles--The Emperor's Interference--Canrobert's
Indecision--The Kertch Project--Arrival of the Sardinian
Contingent--The Emperor's Visit to Windsor--The Emperor's Plan
of Campaign--It is rejected by Raglan and Omar--Resignation of
Canrobert 80
CHAPTER VII.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
The Course of Diplomacy--Austria's Position--The Four Points--The
Czar agrees to negotiate--Russell's Mission to Vienna--Prince
Gortschakoff's Declaration--The Third Point broached--Its
Rejection by Russia--Count Buol's final Proposition--The War
debated in Parliament--Lord John Russell resigns--Strength of the
Government--The Sardinian and Turkish Loans--Vote of Censure on
the Aberdeen Cabinet--Finance of the War--General Pélissier--The
Fight for the Cemetery--Success of the French--Occupation
of the Tchernaya--Expedition to Kertch--Description of the
Peninsula--Sir George Brown's Force--The Russians blow up their
Magazines--Occupation of Kertch and Yenikale--Lyons in the Sea
of Azoff--Result of the Expedition--Attack upon Sebastopol
decided--Ordnance of the Allies--The Attack--The French
occupy the Mamelon--The British in the Quarries--Lord Raglan
overruled--New Batteries--Pélissier's Change of Plan--The Fourth
Bombardment--Preparations for the Assault--Mayran's Mistake--Brunet
and D'Autemarre--The Attack on the Redan fails--Abandonment of the
Assault--General Eyre--Losses on both Sides--Death of Lord Raglan 91
CHAPTER VIII.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
Changes in the Allied Camp--Advance upon the Malakoff and
Redan--Prince Gortschakoff determines to Attack--The Allied Camp
on the Tchernaya--Gortschakoff's Reinforcements--The Russian
Plan--Read's Precipitation--Check of the Russian Attack--The
French Counter-stroke--Gortschakoff changes his Front--The Battle
is won--Allied Losses--The French sap towards the Malakoff----The
British Bombardment--Combats before the Malakoff--Gortschakoff
secures his Retreat--Council of September 3rd--Plan of Attack--The
Last Bombardment--The Hour of Attack--The Signal--Assault of
the Malakoff--MacMahon and Vinoy--Failures upon the Curtain
and Little Redan--MacMahon is Impregnable--Failure to take the
Redan--Evening--Gortschakoff's Retreat--End of the Siege 113
CHAPTER IX.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
Gortschakoff clings to Sebastopol--Destruction of Taman and
Fanagoria--Expedition to Kinburn--Resignation of Sir James
Simpson--Explosion of French Powder Magazine--The Fleets in the
Baltic--The Hango Massacre--Attack on Sveaborg--What the Baltic
Fleet did--Russia on the Pacific Coast--Petropaulovski blown up--The
Russian Position in Asia--The Turks left to their Fate--Foreigners
in Kars--Defeat of Selim Pasha--Battle of Kuruk-Dereh--Colonel
Williams sent to Kars--Mouravieff arrives--His Expeditions
towards Erzeroum--The Blockade begins--The Assault of September
29th--Kmety's success--The Tachmasb Redoubt--Attack on the English
Lines--Victory of the Turks--Omar's Relief fails--Sufferings of the
Garrison--Williams capitulates--Terms of the Surrender 128
CHAPTER X.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
Winter of '55--Visit of the Czar to the Crimea--State of
the British Army--Sufferings of the French--Destruction of
Sebastopol--The Armistice--Views of Austria and Russia--And of
the Emperor Napoleon--Britain acquiesces in Peace--Walewski's
Circular--Austria proposes Peace--Buol's Despatch--Nesselrode's
Circular--The Austrian Ultimatum--Russia gives way--The Congress
fixed at Paris--The Queen's Speech--Speeches of Clarendon and
Palmerston--Meeting of the Congress--The Armistice--An Imperial
Speech--The Sultan's Firman--Prussia admitted to the Congress--Birth
of the Prince Imperial--The Treaty signed--Its Terms--Bessarabia
and the Principalities--The Three Conventions--The Treaty of
Guarantee--Count Walewski's Four Subjects--The Declaration of
Paris--International Arbitration mooted--The Kars Debate--Debates on
the Peace--General Rejoicings--Cost of the War--First Presentation
of the Victoria Cross 144
CHAPTER XI.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
Prorogation of 1853--End of the Kaffir and Burmese Wars--The
Wages Movement--The Preston Strike--The Crystal Palace--Marriage
of the Emperor of the French--His Visit to England--The Queen's
Return Visit--Festivities in Paris--Lord Lyndhurst on Italy--Lord
Clarendon's Reply--Similar Debate in the Commons--Withdrawal of the
Western Missions from Naples--The Anglo-French Alliance--The Suez
Canal--The _Arrow_ Affair--Mr. Cobden's Resolution--Mr. Labouchere's
Reply--Lord Palmerston's Speech--The Division--Announcement of a
Dissolution--Retirement of Mr. Shaw-Lefevre--Lord Palmerston's
Victory at the Polls--Mr. Denison elected Speaker--Betrothal of the
Princess Royal--Abolition of "Ministers' Money"--The new Probate
Court--The Divorce Bill in the Lords--The Bishop of Oxford's
Amendments--Motions of Mr. Henley and Sir W. Heathcote--Major
Warburton's Amendment--The Bill becomes Law--The Orsini
Plot--Walewski's Despatch--The Conspiracy to Murder Bill--Debate on
the Second Reading--Defeat of the Government--The Derby Ministry 160
CHAPTER XII.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
Condition of India--The Bengal Army--The Greased Cartridges--The
Prudence of Hearsey--The Chupatties--Disarming of the
19th--Inactivity of Anson--The Sepoys at Lucknow--A Scene at
Barrackpore--At Meerut--The Rebellion begins--The Rush on Delhi--The
City is sacked--The Powder Magazine--It is exploded--The Fall of
Delhi--Sir Henry Lawrence--Energetic Measures at Lahore--Mutiny at
Ferozepore--Peshawur is saved--Action of the Civil Authorities--The
Siege Train--Death of Anson--John Lawrence in the Punjab--Cotton
disarms the Sepoys--The Trans-Indus Region is secure--Mutiny
supreme elsewhere--Progress of the Rising--Lucknow--Oude ripe for
Revolt--The first Outbreak suppressed--The Ranee of Jhansi--The Five
Divisions of Oude 182
CHAPTER XIII.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
March of the British on Delhi--Battles on the Hindon--Wilson
joins Barnard--Hodson reconnoitres Delhi--The Guides arrive--The
Delhi Force in Position--An unfulfilled Prophecy--Lord Canning's
Inaction--Lord Elphinstone's Discretion--Troops from Madras and
Persia--Benares is saved--So is Allahabad--Cawnpore--Nana Sahib and
Azimoolah--The Europeans in the Entrenchment--The Mutiny--Sufferings
of the Garrison--Valour of the Defence--The Well--The Hospital
catches Fire--Incidents of the Siege--Moore's Sortie--Nana Sahib's
Letter--The Massacre at the Ghaut--Central India--Lawrence fortifies
the Residency at Lucknow--The Death of Lawrence. 203
CHAPTER XIV.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
Havelock to the Front--Nana Sahib's Position--Cawnpore
reoccupied--Nana Sahib's Vengeance--Havelock pushes on for
Lucknow--End of Havelock's first Campaign--Lord Canning and Jung
Bahadoor--Mutiny at Dinapore--Its Effects--Before Delhi--Attempt
to surprise a Convoy--Death of Barnard--Wilson's Discipline--John
Lawrence's Perplexities--Disarmament at Rawul Pindee and
Jhelum--Mutiny at Sealkote--It is avenged by Nicholson--The Drama at
Peshawur--Reinforcements for Delhi--Nicholson arrives--The Crisis in
the Siege. 219
CHAPTER XV.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
Defect of the Delhi Fortifications--The British Advance--Nicholson's
Column--The Cashmere Gate exploded--Nicholson mortally
wounded--Failure at the Lahore Gate--The British possess the
City--Capture of the King--The Princes shot--Effect of the Fall
of Delhi--Greathed's Column--The Relief of Agra--Affairs at
Lucknow--The Garrison--Character of the Attack--Explosion of
Mines--Inglis's Report--Sir Colin Campbell at Calcutta--Havelock
superseded by Outram--Position of Havelock's Army--Eyre's
Exploits--Havelock crosses the Ganges--Combat of Mungulwar--Battle
at the Alumbagh--The Plan of Attack--The Goal is reached--The Scene
that Evening--Havelock's Losses--Outram determines to remain--Energy
of the Indian Government--The Force at Cawnpore--Sir Colin to the
Front--Kavanagh's daring Deed--Campbell retires on Cawnpore--Death
of Havelock. 233
CHAPTER XVI.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
Windham at Cawnpore--Sir Colin Campbell to the Rescue--Battle
of Cawnpore--Seaton advances from Delhi--His Campaign in the
Doab--Hodson's Ride--Campbell at Futtehghur--Condition of
Central India--Rose at Indore--Oude or Rohilcund?--Plans for
the Reduction of Lucknow--Waiting for the Nepaulese--Campbell's
final Advance--Outram crosses the Goomtee--Death of Hodson--The
Fall of Lucknow--Lord Canning's Proclamation--The Conquest of
Rohilcund--Nirput Singh's Resistance--Sir Colin marches on
Bareilly--Battle of Bareilly--The Moulvie attacks Shahjehanpore--It
is relieved by Brigadier John Jones--Sir Colin returns to
Futtehghur--End of the Campaign. 255
CHAPTER XVII.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
The State of Central India--Objects of Rose's Campaign--The
two Columns--Capture of Ratghur--Relief of Saugor--Capture of
Gurrakota--Annexation of the Rajah of Shahghur's Territory--Capture
of Chandaree--Rose arrives at Jhansi--The Ranee and Tantia
Topee--Jhansi is stormed--Battles of Koonch and Calpee--Tantia
Topee captures Gwalior--Smith and Rose rescue the Place--Lord
Elphinstone's Proceedings--Flight of Tantia Topee--Lawrence in
the Punjab--Banishment of the King of Delhi--The Subjugation of
Oude--Hope Grant's Flying Column--Transference of the Government
to the Crown--The Queen's Proclamation--Clyde enforces the
Law--Disappearance of the Begum and Nana Sahib--The Country
at Peace--The Last Adventures of Tantia Topee--Settlement of
India--The Financial Question--The Indian Army--Increase of European
Troops--The Native Levies--Abandonment of Dalhousie's Policy. 270
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
Termination of the Hudson's Bay Monopoly--British Columbia
and Vancouver--Mr. Locke King's Bill for the Abolition of the
Property Qualification--Attempt to abolish Freedom of Arrest for
Debt--Mr. Bright agitates for Reform--The Conservatives propose
a Reform Bill--Mr. Disraeli's Speeches--Secession of Mr. Walpole
and Mr. Henley--Lord John Russell's Resolution--Seven Nights'
Debate--Replies of Lord Stanley and Sir Hugh Cairns--Mr. Bright's
Speech--Speeches of Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli--Defeat
of the Government--Lord Derby announces a Dissolution--The
General Election--Parliament reassembles--Lord Hartington's
Amendment--Defeat of the Government--Lord Malmesbury's Statement
in his "Memoirs"--Union of the Liberal Party--Lord Granville's
attempt to form a Ministry--Lord Palmerston becomes Premier--His
Ministry--The Italian Question in Parliament--State of the
Peninsula--Speeches of Napoleon and Victor Emmanuel--Ambiguous
Attitude of Napoleon--Lord Malmesbury's Diplomacy--Lord Cowley's
Mission--The Austrian Ultimatum--Malmesbury's Protest--"From the
Alps to the Adriatic"--The Armies in Position--First Victories
of the Allies--Magenta and Milan--Battle of Solferino--The
Armistice--Treaty of Villafranca--Lord John Russell's Commentary. 287
CHAPTER XIX.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
The Peace of Zurich--Its Repudiation by Italy--The Idea of a
Congress--Garibaldi in Central Italy--The Cession of Nice and
Savoy--The Sicilian Expedition--Garibaldi lands at Marsala--Capture
of Palermo--The Convention for Evacuation signed--Battle of Milazzo
and Evacuation of Messina--Garibaldi master of Sicily--Attempts to
prevent the Conquest of Naples--A Landing effected--The victorious
March--Flight of the King--Garibaldi occupies Naples--He is warned
off Venetia--The Sardinian Troops occupy the Papal States--Battle
of the Volturno--Victor Emmanuel's Advance--His Meeting with
Garibaldi--Accomplishment of Garibaldi's Programme--Refusal of his
Demands--He retires to Caprera--Lord John Russell's Despatch. 303
CHAPTER XX.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
The Session of 1860--Debates on Nice and Savoy--Mr. Gladstone's
Budget--The French Commercial Treaty--The Paper Duties Bill--Lord
Palmerston's Motion of Inquiry--Mr. Gladstone's Resolution--Lord
John Russell's Reform Bill--Mr. James Wilson and Sir Charles
Trevelyan--The Defences of India and Great Britain--The Massacre
by the Druses--The French Expedition--China once more--Repulse on
the Peiho--Lord Elgin and Baron Gros--The Advance on Pekin--Capture
of the Taku Forts--The Summer Palace looted--Release of Mr.
Parkes--Lord Elgin decrees the Destruction of the Palace--The Treaty
of Peace--The Prince of Wales in Canada--Death of the Duchess of
Kent--The American Civil War--Election of Lincoln--Secession of
South Carolina--The Confederate States--The British Cabinet declares
Neutrality--Affair of the _Trent_--The Paper Duties Bill and the
Church Rates Bill--Sidney Herbert and the Volunteers 310
CHAPTER XXI.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
The Queen's Visit to Ireland--The Royal Family at Balmoral--Illness
and Death of the Prince Consort--The Address in Parliament--The
Education Code--The American War in Parliament--The _Nashville_--The
Blockade and the Cotton Famine--The Game Act--Palmerston and
Cobden--Prorogation of Parliament--The Garotters--The _Alabama_--Mr.
Adams and Earl Russell--The _Alabama sails_--Progress of the
War in America--Greece and the Ionian Islands--The Society of
Arts--The Exhibition of 1862--Jealousy of Prussia and France--The
Colonial Exhibition--The Cotton Famine in 1863--Engagement and
Marriage of the Prince of Wales--Mr. Gladstone's Budget--"Essays
and Reviews"--Obituary of the Year--Russell and Gortschakoff--The
Polish Revolution--Russell and Brazil--The Coercion of Japan--The
American War in 1863--The Crown of Mexico offered to the Archduke
Maximilian--Captain Speke in Central Africa 326
CHAPTER XXII.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
Peace and Prosperity in 1864--Birth of an Heir to the Prince of
Wales--Mr. Gladstone's Budget--Mr. Stansfeld and Mazzini--The
Government and the London Conference on the Danish Question--Mr.
Gladstone on Parliamentary Reform--Resignation of Mr. Lowe--Lord
Westbury on Convocation--Garibaldi's Visit to England--The
Shakespeare Tercentenary--"Essays and Reviews" again--The
Colenso Controversy--Mr. Disraeli and the Angels--The Fenians
in Dublin--Origin of the Belfast Riots--The Ashantee War--The
Maori War--Waitara Block and its consequences--Suppression of
the Rebellion--Final Defeat of the Taepings--Bombardment of
Simonasaki--The Cyclone at Calcutta--Its Ravages. 343
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
The Schleswig-Holstein Question--The Nationalities of Denmark--The
Connection between Schleswig and Denmark--The Declaration of
1846--Incorporation of Schleswig with Denmark--The Rebellion
and its Suppression--The Protocol of London--Defects of the
Arrangement--Danification of the Duchies--A Common Constitution
decreed and revoked--The King's Proclamation--Schleswig
incorporated in Denmark--Federal Execution voted--Russell's
high-handed Diplomacy--Death of Frederick VII.--The Augustenburg
Candidate--Austria and Prussia override the Diet--Russell's abortive
Conference--The Austrian and Prussian Troops advance--Collapse
of the Danes--Russell proposes an Armistice--Russell and M.
Bille--France declines to interfere--Possibilities of Swedish
and Russian Intervention--The Cabinet divided--An Armistice--A
futile Conference--The War resumed--Fate of Denmark is sealed--To
whom do the Spoils belong?--Summary of Events in Mexico and North
America--Southern Filibusters in Canada--Their Acquittal at
Montreal--Excitement in America--The Sentence reversed 353
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
The National Prosperity in 1865--Debate on the Malt Tax--Remission
of Fire Insurance Duty--Mr. Gladstone's Budget--The Army and
Navy Estimates--Academic Discussions of large Questions--Mr.
Lowe on Reform--The Union Changeability Bill--The New Law
Courts Bill--Debate on University Tests--The Catholic Oaths
Bill--Other Ecclesiastical Discussions--The Edmunds Scandal--Mr.
Ward Hunt's Motion--Lord Westbury resigns--The General
Election--The Rinderpest--The Fenian Conspiracy--Stephens the
Head-Centre--His Arrest and Escape from Richmond Gaol--The Special
Commission--Obituary of the Year--Lord Palmerston and Mr. Cobden 363
CHAPTER XXV.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
The Quietness of Europe--Debate on Poland--The English Prisoners
in Abyssinia--Mr. Newdegate and the Encyclical--Visit of the
French Fleet--Conclusion of the American War--The Death of
Lincoln--Inflated Prosperity of India--The Canadian Defences--The
Maori War continues--Mr. Cardwell's Policy--The Jamaica
Rebellion--Gordon is hanged--The total of Deaths--Excitement in
England--The Jamaica Committee--Eyre committed for Trial--The Chief
Justice's Charge--The Bill thrown out--Recovery of Jamaica--Reform
again--The Bill of '66--Mr. Gladstone's Speech--Mr. Lowe and Mr.
Horsman--"The Cave"--Lord Grosvenor's Amendment--The Government
perseveres--The Redistribution Bill--Its Details--Mr. Bouverie's
Amendment--It is accepted--Captain Hayter's Amendment--Mr.
Disraeli's Strategy--Lord Stanley's Attack--Mr. Walpole's
Amendment--Amendments of Mr. Hunt and Lord Dunkellin--Gross
Yearly Rental and Rateable Value--The Debate on the Dunkellin
Proposal--Defeat of the Government--Their Resignation--Mr.
Gladstone's Statement--Earl Russell and the Queen--Lord Derby's
Conservative Ministry--The Refusals--Mr. Disraeli's Election
Speech--Peace in Parliament--Indian Finance--The Hyde Park
Meeting--The Queen's Speech and the Rinderpest 378
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
The Cholera--Laying of the Atlantic Cable--Reform
Demonstrations--Mr. Bright and the Queen--The Government prepares
a Bill--"Black Friday"--The Overend and Gurney Failure--Limited
Liability--Royal Marriages--Prize-Money--The Loss of the _London_--A
bad Harvest--The Fenian Trials--Lord Wodehouse's Letter--Suspension
of the Habeas Corpus Act--Rapid Legislation--Wholesale
Arrests--Renewal of the Act--Lord Kimberley's Speech--Sweeny and
Stephens--The Niagara Raid--Whewell and Keble 406
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
The Schleswig-Holstein Difficulty--Austria favours a
Settlement--Bismarck's Terms rejected--His high-handed
Proceedings--Convention of Gastein--Bismarck at Biarritz--The
Italian Treaty--Question of Disarmament--Fresh Austrian
Proposals--Bismarck advocates Federal Reform--La Marmora's
Perplexity--He abides by Prussia--Efforts of the Neutral
Powers--Failure of the projected Congress--Rupture of the Gastein
Convention--The War begins--The rival Strengths--Distribution
of the Prussian Armies--Collapse of the Resistance in North
Germany--Occupation of Dresden--The Advance of the Prussian
Armies--Battle of Königgratz--Cession of Venetia--Italian
Reverses--The South German Campaign--Occupation of Frankfort--The
Defence of Vienna--French Mediation--The Preliminaries of
Nikolsburg--Treaty of Prague--Conditions awarded to Bavaria and the
Southern States--The Secret Treaties--Their Disclosure--Humiliation
of the French Emperor--His pretended Indifference 418
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
Parliamentary Reform--Mr. Disraeli's Resolutions--Mr.
Lowe's Sarcasms--The "Ten Minutes" Bill--Lord John Manners'
Letter--Ministerial Resignations--Mr. Disraeli's Statement--The
Compound Householder--The Fancy Franchises--Mr. Gladstone's
Exposure--Mr. Lowe and Lord Cranborne--The Spirit of Concession--Mr.
Gladstone on the Second Reading--Mr. Gathorne Hardy's Speech--Mr.
Bright and Mr. Disraeli--The Dual Vote abandoned--Mr. Coleridge's
Instruction--The Tea-Room Cabal--Mr. Gladstone's Amendment--His
other Amendments withdrawn--Mr. Hodgkinson's Amendment--Mr.
Disraeli's _coup de théâtre_--Mr. Lowe's Philippic--The County
Franchise--The Redistribution Bill--Objections to It--The
Boundaries--Lord Cranborne and Mr. Lowe--Mr. Disraeli's
Audacity--The Bill in the Lords--Four Amendments--Lord Cairns's
Minorities Amendment--The Bill becomes Law--The "Leap in
the Dark"--_Punch_ on the Situation--The Scottish Reform
Bill--Prolongation of the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act--Irish
Debates--Oaths and Offices Bill--Mr. Bruce's Education Bill--The
"Gang System"--Meetings in Hyde Park--Mr. Walpole's Proclamation
and Resignation--Attempted Attack on Chester Castle--Attack on the
Police Van at Manchester--Explosion at Clerkenwell Prison--Trades
Union Outrages at Sheffield--The Buckinghamshire Labourers--The
French Evacuation of Mexico--The Luxemburg Question--The Austrian
Compromise--Creation of the Dual Monarchy--The Abyssinian
Expedition--A Mislaid Letter 433
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
More Coercion for Ireland--The Scottish Reform Bill--The Church
Rates Bill--Mr. Disraeli succeeds Lord Derby--Reunion of the
Liberals--The Irish Reform Bill--Mr. Gladstone's Irish Church
Resolutions--Maynooth Grant and the _Regium Donum_--The Suspensory
Bill--Lord Stanley's Foreign Policy--General Election--Mr.
Gladstone's Ministry--Martin _v._ Mackonochie--Obituary of
the Year--Lord Brougham, Archbishop Longley, and Others--The
Abyssinian War--Rise of Theodore--The unanswered Letter--Theodore's
Retaliation--Mr. Rassam's Mission--His Interview with Theodore--The
King's Charges against Cameron--Dr. Beke's Letter--Rassam's
Arrest--Mr. Flad's Journey--The Captives' Treatment--Merewether's
Advice--Lord Stanley's Ultimatum--Constitution of Sir R. Napier's
Expedition--Friendliness of the Natives--Attitude of the
Chiefs--Proceedings of Theodore--Massacre of Prisoners--Advance
on Magdala--Destruction of Theodore's Army--Negotiations with
Theodore--Release of the Prisoners--A Present of Cows--Bombardment
of Magdala--Suicide of Theodore--The Return March--The "Mountains of
Rasselas"--Sketch of Continental Affairs 464
CHAPTER XXX.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
England in 1869--The Irish Church Difficulty--Mr. Gladstone unfolds
his Scheme--Debate on the Second Reading--A Bumper Majority--The
Bill passes through the House of Commons--Lord Redesdale and
the Coronation Oath--The Opposition in the Lords--Dr. Magee's
Speech--Amendments in Committee--Concurrent Endowment--Danger
of a Collision between the Houses--The Queen and Archbishop
Tait--Conference between Lord Cairns and Lord Granville--Their
Compromise--Its Terms accepted by Mr. Gladstone--The Bill becomes
Law 493
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
Mr Lowe's Budget--The Surplus disappears--Mr. Lowe creates a
Surplus and proposes Remissions of Taxes--Cost of the Abyssinian
Expedition--Sir Stafford Northcote's Explanation--The Endowed
Schools' Bill--Speech of Mr. Forster--The Commissioners--Religious
Tests at the Universities--Sir John Coleridge's Bill--Sir Roundell
Palmer's Speech--The Bill passes through the Commons--It is
rejected by the Lords--The Mayor of Cork--The O'Sullivan Disability
Bill--Mr O'Sullivan resigns--The Bill dropped--Life Peerages--Lord
Malmesbury's Speech--Fenianism in Ireland--Deaths of Lord Derby and
Lord Gough--European Affairs: the Emperor prophesies Peace--The
General Election--The _Senatus Consultum_--Official Candidates--The
Revolution in Spain--Wanted a King--General Grant the President of
the United States--The _Alabama_ Convention rejected 507
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
Law-making in 1870--The Queen's Speech--The Irish Land
Problem--Diversities of Opinions--The Agrarian Agitation--Mr.
Gladstone's Land Bill introduced--Its Five Parts--Grievances of
the Irish Tenant--Free Contract--The Ulster Custom--Compensation
for Eviction--The Landlord's Safeguards--The Irish Labourer--Mr
Gladstone's Peroration--Direct and Indirect Opposition--The
Second Reading carried--Agrarian Outrages--Mr. Fortescue's
Coercion Bill--Mr. Disraeli's Amendment to the Land Bill--A Clever
Speech--Mr. Lowe's Reply--Progress of the Debate--The Bill becomes
Law 518
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
The Elementary Education Bill--Mr. Forster's Speech--Mr. Dixon's
Amendment--Mr. Forster's Reply--Mr. Winterbotham's Speech and
the Churchmen--Partial Concessions--Changes in the Bill--It
becomes Law--Outrage in Greece--Seizure of Tourists by Greek
Brigands--Murder of the Prisoners--Army and Navy Estimates--The
Budget--Disaster in the Eastern Seas--Obituary of the Year 529
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
France in 1870--The Ollivier Ministry--Lull in European
Affairs--The Hohenzollern Incident--Benedetti at Ems--His Second
Interview with King William--War declared at Paris--Efforts of the
British Government--Bismarck divulges a supposed Franco-German
Treaty--Benedetti's Explanation--Earl Russell's Speech--Belgian
Neutrality guaranteed--Unpreparedness of the French Army--The
Emperor's Plans--Saarbrück--Weissenburg--The Emperor partially
resigns Command--Wörth--MacMahon at Châlons--Spicheren--The
Palikao Ministry--Bazaine Generalissimo--Battle of
Borny--Mars-la-Tour--Gravelotte--English Associations for the Sick
and Wounded--Palikao's Plan--MacMahon's Hesitation--De Failly's
Defeat--MacMahon resolves to Fight--Sedan--The Surrender--Napoleon
and his Captors--Receipt of the News in Paris--Impetuosity of
Jules Favre--A Midnight Sitting--Jules Favre's Plan--Palikao's
Alternative--Fall of the Empire--The Government of National
Defence--Suppression of the Corps Législatif--The Neutral Powers:
Great Britain, Austria, and Italy 548
CHAPTER XXXV.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
The Vatican Council--The Doctrine of Papal Infallibility--Victor
Emmanuel determines on the Occupation of Rome--The Popular
Vote--The Papal Guarantees--The Spanish Throne--The Savoy
Candidature--Death of Prim--Paris after the Revolution of
September--Jules Favre's Circular--Bismarck's Reply--The
Negotiations at Ferrières--The Fortifications of Paris--The
Investment completed--Thiers and Gambetta--Fall of
Strasburg--Bazaine in Metz--Regnier's Intrigue--The Army of
Metz capitulates--Thiers negotiates in vain--The Army of the
Loire--D'Aurelle de Paladines reoccupies Orleans--Chanzy's Defeat
and Recapture of Orleans--The Second Army of the Loire--Garibaldi
in the East--The New Year in Paris--Dispositions of the German
Armies--Battle of Amiens--Faídherbe's Campaign--Bapaume--St.
Quentin--An Unpleasant Incident--Le Mans--The Bombardment of
Paris--The Armistice--Termination of the Siege--Bourbaki's
Attempt--Action at Villersexel--The Eastern Army crosses the
Swiss Frontier--The National Assembly at Bordeaux--Prolongation
of the Armistice--Resignation of Gambetta--Preliminaries of
Peace--Occupation of Paris--Acceptance of the Preliminaries--The
Definitive Treaty--German Unity 571
CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
Army Reform--Mr. Trevelyan's Agitation--The Abolition of
Purchase--Mr. Cardwell's Bill--History of Purchase--Military
Opposition in the Commons--Rejection of the Bill by the House
of Lords--Abolition of Purchase by Royal Warrant--Indignation
in Parliament--The cost of Compensation--Mr. Lowe's Budget--The
Match-Tax--Its withdrawal--Mr. Goschen succeeds Mr. Childers--The
Ballot Bill--The Epping Forest Bill--Rejected Measures--The
Religious Tests Bill--Marriage of the Princess Louise--Sir Charles
Dilke's Lecture--The real State of the Civil List--Illness
of the Prince of Wales--Crises of the Disease--The Prayers
of the Nation--The Thanksgiving Service--Unpopularity of the
Government--The 25th Clause--Landing of the ex-Emperor of the
French--Resignation of Speaker Denison--Riot in Dublin--The
Home Rule Movement--Mr. Gladstone at Aberdeen--Assassination of
Mr. Justice Norman--Australian Federation--Russia repudiates
the Black Sea Clauses--Lord Granville's Despatch--Prince
Gortschakoff's Reply--A Conference suggested--Meeting of the
Plenipotentiaries--Their Deliberations--Settlement of the
Difficulty--Obituary of the Year--Sir John Burgoyne, Lord
Ellenborough, Grote, Sir William Denison, and others 595
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, 1851 1
Prince Albert 5
The _Coup d' État:_ Eviction of the Judges 9
The Burial of Wellington 13
Chapel of St. Helena, Jerusalem 17
Constantinople 21
Omar Pasha 25
The Russian Attack on Sinope 29
Gatchina Palace, St. Petersburg 32
Peers and Commoners presenting the Patriotic Address to the
Queen on the Eve of the Crimean War 33
Zouaves looting a Village in the Crimea 37
Skirmish on the Bulganâk: Maude's Battery coming into action 41
The Highlanders at the Alma 45
Lord Raglan 48
On the Battle-Field of the Alma: the Mission of Mercy 49
Plan of Sebastopol, showing the Defence 53
Charge of the Heavy Brigade 57
General Todleben 61
Balaclava 65
The Guards recovering the Sandbag Battery 69
The Hospital and Cemetery at Scutari, with Constantinople in the
distance 73
The Late Sir W. H. Russell, Correspondent of the _Times_ in the
Crimea 77
The Lady with the Lamp: Miss Nightingale in the Hospital at
Scutari 81
The "Block" at Balaclava 85
The Zouaves assaulting the Rifle-pits 89
Sebastopol from the Right Attack 93
The Emperor Nicholas 96
Sappers destroying the Russian Trenches 97
Volunteers of the Flying Squadron firing the Shipping at Taganrog 101
Marshal Pélissier 105
The Assault on the Redan 109
Reconnaissance of French Cavalry in the Baidar Valley 113
General Simpson 117
The French in the Malakoff 121
The Struggle in the Redan 125
Evacuation of Sebastopol 129
Sir Colin Campbell 133
Kars 137
The repulse of the Russians at Kars 141
Uniforms of the British Army in 1855 144
Napoleon III 145
The Czar renewing his Army at Sebastopol 149
Scene during the Preston Strike 157
The Duke of Newcastle 161
The Queen opening the Crystal Palace 165
Chinese Officers hauling down the British Flag on the "Arrow" 169
Victoria, Hong-Kong, from the Chinese Mainland 173
Mr. Speaker Denison 177
Outbreak of the Indian Mutiny: High Caste v. Low Caste 185
General Hearsey and the Mutineers 188
The Rebel Sepoys at Delhi 189
Disarmament of the 26th at Barrackpore 193
Sir John Lawrence (afterwards Lord Lawrence) 197
De Kantzow defending the Treasury at Mynpooree 201
Hodson reconnoitring before Delhi 205
The Palace, Delhi 209
Sir Henry Havelock 213
Memorial at the Well, Cawnpore 217
The Highlanders capturing the Guns at Cawnpore 221
How Major Tombs won the Victoria Cross 225
Blowing up of the Cashmere Gate at Delhi 229
Hooseinabad Gardens and Tomb of Zana Ali, Lucknow 233
Sir Hope Grant 237
Ruins of the Residency, Lucknow 240
The Mausoleum at Akbar, Agra 241
Incident in the Defence of Lucknow 245
Lieutenant Havelock and the Madras Fusiliers carrying the
Charbagh Bridge at Lucknow 249
Sir James Outram 253
The Slaughter Ghat, Cawnpore 257
The Relief of Lucknow 261
Death of Hodson 265
The Martinière, Lucknow 269
Sir Hugh Rose (afterwards Lord Strathnairn) 273
Proclamation of the Queen as Sovereign of India 277
Gwalior, from the south-east 281
Capture of Tantia Topee 285
Lord Canning 288
Street in Peshawur 289
Earl Russell 293
Office of the First Lord of the Treasury, 10, Downing Street,
London 297
Entry of Napoleon and Victor Emmanuel into Milan 301
Meeting of Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel 305
William Ewart Gladstone (1860) 312
Demonstration against the Christians in Damascus 313
The Imperial Palace, Pekin, looking north 317
Capture of John Brown at Harper's Ferry 321
General Robert Lee 325
Funeral of the Prince Consort 329
Hindoos bringing Cotton through the Western Ghauts 333
Abraham Lincoln 336
Marriage of the Prince of Wales 337
Mr. Phelps planting the Shakespeare Oak on Primrose Hill, London 345
Scene in the Belfast Riots 349
Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen 353
Lord Palmerston 357
The Fight between the _Alabama_ and the _Kearsarge_ 361
Confederate Raid into Vermont 365
The Foreign Office, London, from St. James's Park 369
Arrest of Head-Centre Stephens 373
Reception of the French Fleet at Portsmouth 377
General Grant 381
Meeting of Lee and Grant at Appomattox Court-House 384
The Attack on the Court-House, St. Thomas-in-the-East 385
Street Scene, Kingston, Jamaica 389
John Stuart Mill 393
Scene in the House of Commons: a Narrow Majority 397
The Lobby, House of Commons 401
Reform Leaguers at the Marble Arch 405
Arrival of the "Great Eastern" at Trinity Bay 409
Robert Lowe (afterwards Lord Sherbrooke) 413
Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin 417
The Battle of Koniggrätz 421
The Battle of Langensalza 425
Count Von Moltke 429
The Palace, Dresden 432
The Old War Office, Pall Mall 433
Lord Malmesbury 437
Tea-Room, House of Commons 441
Meeting at the Reformers' Tree, Hyde Park, London 445
John Bright 449
"Gang System" of Farming 453
Fenian Attack on the Police Van in Manchester 457
Skating Disaster in Regent's Park, London 461
Lord Cairns 465
Scene in the Birmingham "No Popery" Riots 469
Coronation of the Emperor of Austria as King of Hungary 473
King Theodore's House, Magdala 477
Mr. Rassam's Interview with King Theodore 480
The Emperor Theodore granting an Audience 481
Sir Robert Napier (afterwards Lord Napier of Magdala) 485
Death of the Emperor Theodore 489
St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin 493
Archbishop Trench 497
Dr. Magee, Bishop of Peterborough, addressing the House of Lords 501
New Palace Yard, Westminster 505
The Quadrangle, Somerset House 509
Sir Stafford Northcote (afterwards Earl of Iddesleigh) 513
Street-Fighting in Malaga 517
Mr. Chichester Fortescue (afterwards Lord Carlingford) 521
A Visit from Captain Moonlight 524
An Eviction in Ireland 525
The Duke of Richmond and Gordon 528
Office of the London School Board, Thames Embankment 529
Mr. W. E. Forster 533
Office of the Education Department, Whitehall 537
Capture of English Tourists by Greek Brigands 541
The Royal Palace, Athens 545
The Boulevard Montmartre, Paris 548
Émile Ollivier 549
"À Berlin!" Parisian Crowds declaring for War 553
Prince Bismarck 557
Franco-German War, Sketch-Map of the Campaign in the Rhine
Country 561
Sedan 564
Marshal MacMahon 565
Camden Place, Chislehurst (Napoleon's Home in England) 569
The Vatican, Rome 573
Dr. Döllinger 576
Palace of the Quirinal, Rome 577
Siege of Paris: Map of the Fortifications 580
L. A. Thiers 581
Evacuation of Metz 585
Léon Gambetta 589
German Troops passing under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris 593
Mr. (afterwards Viscount) Cardwell 597
Procession of Match-Makers to Westminster 601
The Prince of Wales (afterwards Edward VII.) in his Robes as a
Bencher of the Middle Temple 604
The Thanksgiving Service in St. Paul's Cathedral 605
LIST OF PLATES
WINDSOR CASTLE. (_By Alfred W. Hunt, R.W.S._) _Frontispiece_
THE OPENING BY QUEEN VICTORIA OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION IN
HYDE PARK. (_By H. C. Selous._) _To face p._ 9
THE WRECK OF H.M.S. _Birkenhead_. (_By Thomas M. Henry_) " 14
SAVING THE COLOURS: THE GUARDS AT INKERMAN.
(_By Robert Gibb, R.S.A._) " 41
THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE AT BALACLAVA.
(_By R. Caton Woodville_) " 62
"ALL THAT WAS LEFT OF THEM, LEFT OF SIX HUNDRED."
(_By R. Caton Woodville_) " 86
QUEEN VICTORIA REVIEWING THE CRIMEAN VETERANS (1854).
(_By Sir John Gilbert, R.A., P.R.W.S._) " 90
LORD RAGLAN VIEWING THE STORMING OF THE REDAN AT THE SIEGE
OF SEBASTOPOL. (_By R. Caton Woodville_) " 126
MAP OF INDIA, 1856. " 182
THE FLIGHT FROM LUCKNOW. (_By A. Solomon_) " 217
THE SECOND RELIEF OF LUCKNOW, 1857. (_By Thomas J. Barker_) " 262
THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. (_By Sir J. E. Millais, Bart.,
P.R.A., D. C.L., etc._) " 287
QUEEN VICTORIA AT OSBORNE. (_By Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A._) " 326
THE MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCE OF WALES, 1863. (_By G. H. Thomas_) " 338
A COTTAGE BEDSIDE AT OSBORNE. (_Gourlay Steell, R.S.A._) " 408
MARRIAGE OF PRINCESS HELENA. (_By C. Magnussen_) " 412
THE WHITE TOWER, TOWER OF LONDON. (_By H. E. Tidmarsh_) " 481
W. E. GLADSTONE. (_By Sir J. E. Millais, Bart., P.R.A._) " 500
REARING THE LION'S WHELPS. (_By W. L. Wyllie, A.R.A._) " 544
THE THANKSGIVING SERVICE, 27TH OF FEBRUARY, 1872: THE
PROCESSION AT LUDGATE HILL. (_By N. Chevalier_) " 602
[Illustration:
_Reproduced by André & Sleigh, Ltd., Bushey, Herts._
WINDSOR CASTLE.
FROM A WATER-COLOUR PAINTING BY ALFRED W. HUNT R.W.S. IN THE NATIONAL
GALLERY OF BRITISH ART.]
[Illustration: THE CRYSTAL PALACE IN HYDE PARK, LONDON, 1851]
CASSELL'S
ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER I.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (_continued_).
The Papal Aggressions--The Durham Letter--Meeting of
Parliament--The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill--Debate on the Second
Reading--Amendments in Committee--The Bill in the Lords--Mr.
Locke King's Motion on County Franchise--Resignation of the
Government--The Great Exhibition--Banquet at York--Opening of
the Exhibition--Success of the Project--The President of the
French Republic and the Assembly--Preparations for the _Coup
d'État_--The Army gained--Dissolution of the Assembly--Expulsion of
the Assembly--Their Imprisonment--The High Court of Justice--The
Barricades--St. Arnaud and Maupas--The _Plébiscite_--Weakness of the
Russell Administration--Independence of Lord Palmerston--The Queen's
Memorandum--Dismissal of Palmerston--The Militia Bill--Russell
is turned out--The Derby Ministry--Its Measures--The General
Election--An Autumn Session--Defeat of the Conservatives--Death and
Funeral of the Duke of Wellington--The Aberdeen Administration--Mr.
Gladstone's Budget--The Eastern Question again--The Diplomatic
Wrangle--The Sultan's Firman--Afif Bey's Mission--Difficulties
in Montenegro--England and France--Attempts to effect direct
Negotiations--The Menschikoff Mission--Lord Stratford de Redcliffe's
Instructions--The Czar and Sir Hamilton Seymour--Menschikoff at
Constantinople--The English and French Fleets--Arrival of Lord
Stratford de Redcliffe--The Difficulty settled--Menschikoff's
ulterior Demands--Action of the Powers.
From the Revolution of 1688, when the Roman Catholic hierarchy was
abolished with the arbitrary power of James II., the government of the
Roman Catholic clergy was maintained in England by "vicars apostolic."
England was divided into four vicariates, and this state of things
continued until 1840, when Gregory XVI. ordained a new ecclesiastical
division of England, doubling the number of vicariates, which were
thenceforward named the London, the Western, the Eastern, the Central,
the Welsh, the Lancastrian, the York, and the Northern districts. In
consequence of the increase of Roman Catholics in Great Britain, and the
removal of their civil disabilities by the Emancipation Act, a desire grew
up for the re-organisation of the regular episcopal system of the Church
of Rome, and Pius IX. resolved to establish it in 1850. England and Wales
were divided by a Papal brief into twelve sees; one of them, Westminster,
was erected into an Archbishopric, and Dr. Wiseman, soon afterwards
created a Cardinal, was appointed to it.
Perhaps there never was a document published in England that caused
so much excitement as this pastoral letter; nor was society ever more
violently agitated by any religious question since the Reformation. The
pastoral provoked from Lord John Russell a counterblast in the shape of
a letter to the Bishop of Durham, in which he gave deep offence to the
Roman Catholics by stating that "the Roman Catholic religion confines
the intellect and enslaves the soul." The Protestant feeling in the
country was excited in the highest degree. The press was full of the
"Papal aggressions." Meetings were held upon it in almost every town in
the United Kingdom. It was alluded to in the Speech from the Throne, and
during the Sessions of 1851 and 1852 it occupied a great portion of the
time and attention of Parliament.
In both Houses of Parliament this topic occupied a prominent place in
the debates on the Address, and on the 7th of February, 1851, the Prime
Minister introduced his Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, which prevented the
assumption of such titles in respect of places in the United Kingdom.
He referred, in connection with the subject, to recent occurrences in
Ireland. Dr. Cullen, who had spent most of his life at Rome, had been
appointed Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, though his
name had not been returned by the parish priests of the diocese, who were
accustomed to elect three of their number to be submitted to the Pope
as _dignus_, _dignior_, _dignissimus_. He was afterwards transferred to
Dublin as the more influential post, with the powers of legate, which
placed him at the head of the hierarchy. Then there was the Synod of
Thurles, which condemned the Queen's Colleges, and interfered with the
land question, and other temporal matters. He argued from the terms of the
Pope's Bull that there was an assumption of territorial power of which
our Roman Catholic ancestors were always jealous.
The Bill was vehemently opposed by the Irish Roman Catholic members. Mr.
Bright and Mr. Disraeli also opposed the measure, which was supported
by the Attorney-General, Lord Ashley, Mr. Page Wood, and Sir George
Grey. Several other members having spoken for and against the Bill, its
introduction was carried by the overwhelming majority of 395 to 63.
Various alterations were subsequently made in the Bill, to prevent its
interfering unnecessarily with the Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland. The
second reading was moved on the 14th of March. Mr. Cardwell refused his
assent to the second reading, believing that, by supporting the measure,
he would affront Protestant England, and do much to render Ireland
ungovernable. Lord Palmerston supported the Bill, because churches were
like corporate bodies, encroaching; because it would supply an omission in
the Act of 1829; and as the Church of Rome obeyed that Act, she would also
obey this. Sir James Graham, on the contrary, expressed his conviction
that the passing of this Bill would be a repeal of the Emancipation
Act, and then the Dissenters must look about them. Mr. Gladstone ably
criticised the Bill, and concluded as follows:--"For three hundred years
the Roman Catholic laity and secular clergy--the moderate party--had
been struggling, with the sanction of the British Government, for this
very measure, the appointment of diocesan bishops, which the extreme
party--the regulars and cardinals at the Court of Rome--had been all
along struggling to resist. The present legislation would drive the Roman
Catholics back upon the Pope, and, teasing them with a miniature penal
law, would alienate and estrange them. Religious freedom was a principle
which had not been adopted in haste, and had not triumphed till after half
a century of agonising struggles; and he trusted we were not now going to
repeat Penelope's process without her purpose, and undo a great work which
had been accomplished with so much difficulty." Mr. Disraeli expressed
his sentiments, and those of his party, upon the general question and the
particular measure. He denied that the Pope was without power. He was a
prince of very great, if not the greatest power, his army being a million
of priests; and was such a power to be treated as a Wesleyan Conference,
or like an association of Scottish Dissenters? Sir George Grey having
replied to the objections of Mr. Gladstone and others, the House divided,
when the second reading was carried by a still greater majority than the
first, the numbers being--for the bill, 438; against it, 95; majority 343.
Considering that Sir James Graham, Mr. Gladstone, and all the leading
Peelites, as well as Mr. Roebuck, Mr. Bright, and the advanced Liberals,
joined the Roman Catholics on this occasion, the minority was surprisingly
small, showing how deep and wide-spread was the national feeling evoked
by the Papal aggressions. Several amendments were moved in committee; but
they were nearly all rejected by large majorities. On the 27th of June
Sir F. Thesiger proposed certain amendments with a view of rendering the
measure more stringent, when about 70 Roman Catholic members retired from
the House in a body. Lord John Russell, alluding to this "significant
and ostentatious retirement," said it would not save them from the
responsibility, as it would cause the passing of the amendments. They were
accordingly carried against the Government. On the 4th of July, the day
fixed for the third reading, Lord John Russell moved that those amendments
should be struck out. One of them was that it should be penal to publish
the Pope's Bulls, as well as to assume territorial titles; and another to
enable common informers to sue for penalties. There was a division on each
of these clauses. The question was then put by the Speaker, "that this
Bill do now pass." Another long debate was expected; but no one rising,
the division was abruptly taken, with the following result:--For the third
reading, 263; against it, 46: majority, 217.
On the 21st of July the Bill was introduced by the Marquis of Lansdowne,
into the Upper House. The debate there was chiefly remarkable for the
speech of Lord Beaumont, a Roman Catholic peer, who gave his earnest
support to the Bill as a great national protest, which the necessity of
the case had rendered unavoidable. The Duke of Wellington remarked that
"the Pope had appointed an Archbishop of Westminster; had attempted to
exercise authority over the very spot on which the English Parliament was
assembled. And under the sanction of this proceeding, Cardinal Wiseman
made an attack upon the rights of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster.
That this was contrary to the true spirit of the laws of England, no man
acquainted with them could doubt, for throughout the whole of our statutes
affecting religion we had carefully abstained from disturbing the great
principles of the Reformation." Lord Lyndhurst supported the Bill in an
elaborate and able speech. The second reading was carried in this House
also by an overwhelming majority, the numbers being--for the bill, 265;
against it, 38. On the 29th of July it was read a third time and passed,
and shortly afterwards received the Royal Assent, after occupying nearly
the whole of the Session. So far as the assumption of titles and the
actual establishment and working of the Roman Catholic hierarchy were
concerned, the Act undoubtedly proved a dead letter; but it is not to be
inferred from this fact that it did not substantially answer its purpose
in materially restraining aggression and keeping our jurisprudence clear
of the Roman canon law. Cardinal Wiseman and his suffragans in England,
on the whole, pursued a moderate and conciliatory course. But a very
different course might have been pursued had not the national feeling been
so strongly expressed, and been legally embodied in the Ecclesiastical
Titles Act.
Lord John Russell's Administration had been for some time in a tottering
state. Early in the Session of 1851 the Government was defeated on a
motion by Mr. Locke King, for leave to bring in a Bill to make the
franchise in counties in England and Wales the same as in boroughs; that
is, the occupation of a tenement of the annual value of £10. The motion
was carried against the Government by a majority of forty-eight. The
Budget came on shortly afterwards, and gave so much dissatisfaction, that
there was a general conviction that the Cabinet could not hold together
much longer. It was felt that the times required a strong Government; but
this had become gradually one of the weakest. The announcement of its
resignation, therefore, excited no surprise; but the anxiety to learn
what would be the new Ministerial arrangements was evinced by the crowded
state of the House of Commons on Friday, the 21st of February. On the
order for going into Committee of Ways and Means being read, the Prime
Minister rose and requested that it might be postponed till the 24th.
On the 24th both Houses were full. In the Upper House, Lord Lansdowne
stated that in consequence of divisions which had recently taken place in
the House of Commons, the Ministers had unanimously resigned; that Lord
Stanley had been sent for by the Queen, and a proposal was made to him to
construct a Government, for which he was not then prepared. Lord Stanley
gave an account of his gracious reception by her Majesty, but reserved his
reasons for declining to undertake the task. In the Lower House, on the
same evening, Lord John Russell stated that her Majesty had sent for Lord
Stanley, who had declined to form an Administration, and that her Majesty
had then asked him to undertake the task of reconstructing one, which he
said he had agreed to do. He asked the House to adjourn to the 28th, and
when that day arrived, matters were still in a state of confusion. Lord
John Russell had failed to reconstruct his Cabinet; Lord Aberdeen and Sir
James Graham had refused to concur in forming an Administration. Lord
Stanley had also failed in a similar attempt, owing, according to Lord
Malmesbury's "Recollections of an Ex-Minister," to the feeble counsels
of Mr. Henley and Mr. Herries. From explanations given by Lord Aberdeen,
Lord Stanley, Sir James Graham, and Lord John Russell himself, it appeared
that the attempts to reconstruct the Cabinet, or to form a new one, arose
from two difficulties in the way of any coalition between the leaders of
existing parties--Free Trade, and the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill. There
could be no union between the Whigs and the Peelites on account of the
latter, nor between the Peelites and the Protectionists on account of the
former. Lord Stanley remarked that the Peelites, with all their ability
and official aptitude, seemed to exercise their talents solely to render
any Ministry impossible. A purely Protectionist Administration was out
of the question, as it would have to contend against a large majority
in the House of Commons. In this dilemma the Queen sent for the Duke of
Wellington, and he advised her Majesty that the best course she could
adopt in the circumstances was to recall her late advisers; and Lord John
Russell's Cabinet resumed their offices accordingly in exactly the same
position that they had been before the resignation.
The year 1851 will be for ever memorable by reason of the Great Exhibition
in Hyde Park. The idea is generally said to have originated with Prince
Albert, who took a lively interest in everything that tended to promote
industrial progress and to improve the public taste. As President of the
Society of Arts, his attention had been attracted to the _Exposition_ at
Paris, under the guidance of the Minister of the Department of Commerce
and Industry; and his Royal Highness thought that a similar exhibition in
London, open to competitors from all nations, would be useful in a variety
of ways, especially in uniting together the people of various countries
by the bonds of mutual interest and sympathy. The proposal, from whatever
source it originated, was embraced with alacrity by the British public. On
the 21st of March, 1850, the Lord Mayor of London gave a splendid banquet
at the Mansion House to the chief magistrates of the cities, towns, and
boroughs of the United Kingdom, to stimulate their combined interest in
the proposed Exhibition. The banquet over, his Royal Highness addressed
the guests in an admirable speech, in which the tendencies of the age, the
modern developments of art and science, the rapid intercommunication of
thought, all realising the unity of mankind, were strikingly presented.
The Ministers, past and present, the foreign ambassadors, prelates, and
peers, vied with each other in expressing the high value they attributed
to the design for the Exhibition.
A similar banquet was given by the Lord Mayor of York, when the Prince
Consort and the Lord Mayor of London, the Prime Minister, the Earl of
Carlisle, and many of the nobility were present. The Archbishop of York
and the High Sheriff of Yorkshire headed the provincial guests, while the
Lord Provost of Edinburgh and the Lord Provost of Glasgow appeared as the
chiefs of the municipal magistrates. The ancient capital of the north of
England brought forth upon that occasion a gorgeous display of historical
memorials. There was a collection of maces, State swords, and various
civic insignia belonging to corporate bodies, wreathed with flowers and
evergreens through which gleamed the bosses and incrustations of gold
on the maces that had been wielded by generations of mayors, with the
velvet shields and gaudy mountings of gigantic swords of State. Among the
ornaments appeared the jewel-bestudded mace of Norwich, presented by Queen
Elizabeth. York, on this occasion, surpassed the City of London in the
splendour of the banquet. The Prince, in returning thanks for his health,
paid a well-turned tribute to the memory of Sir Robert Peel.
A Royal Commission was appointed to manage the Exhibition. Hyde Park in
London was fixed upon as the most appropriate site for the building,
and Mr. Paxton, head-gardener to the Duke of Devonshire, though not an
architect, furnished the plan of the Crystal Palace, as the Exhibition
building was called. It was chiefly composed of iron and glass, being
1,848 feet long, 408 feet broad, and 66 feet high, crossed by a transept
108 feet high and also 408 feet in length, for the purpose of enclosing
and encasing a grove of noble elms. Within, the nave presented a clear,
unobstructed avenue, from one end of the building to the other, 72 feet
in span, and 64 feet in height. On each side were aisles 64 feet wide,
horizontally divided into galleries, which ran round the whole of the
nave and transept. The wings exterior to the centre or nave on each side
had also galleries of the same height, the wings themselves being broken
up into a series of courts, each 48 feet wide. The Palace was within 10
feet of being twice the width of St. Paul's and four times the length.
The number of columns used in the entire edifice was 3,230. There were
34 miles of gutters for carrying off the rain-water to the columns,
which were hollow, and served as water-pipes, 202 miles of sash bars,
and 900,000 superficial feet of glass, weighing upwards of 400 tons. The
building covered about 18 acres of ground, and with the galleries gave
an exhibiting surface of 21 acres, with 8 miles of tables for laying out
goods.
[Illustration: PRINCE ALBERT.
(_From a photograph by Mayall and Co., Limited._)]
The plan was accepted on the 26th of July, 1850; and Messrs. Fox,
Henderson, and Co. became the contractors, for the sum of £79,800, if
the materials should remain their property, they being at the expense
of removal; or £150,000 if the materials became the property of the
Commissioners. It actually cost £176,030. The first column was fixed on
the 26th of September, 1850; the contract to deliver over the building
complete to the Commissioners on the 31st of December was virtually
performed; and on the 1st of January, 1851, the Commissioners occupied
the vast space with their carpenters, painters, and various artisans.
The Crystal Palace excited universal admiration, from the wonderful
combination of vastness and beauty, from its immense magnitude united with
lightness, symmetry, and grace, as well as admirable adaptation to its
purpose. And when it was fully furnished and open to the public, on the
1st of May, 1851, the visitor felt as if he had entered a fairy-like scene
of enchantment, a palace of beauty and delight, such as one might suppose
mortal hands could not create. The effect on the beholder far surpassed
all that its most sanguine projectors could have anticipated.
The scene was impressive on the opening on that beautiful May morning by
the Queen and Prince Albert, followed in procession through the building
by a long train of courtiers, Ministers of State, foreign ambassadors,
and civic dignitaries; while the sun shone brightly through the glass
roof upon trees, flowers, banners, and the picturesque costumes of all
nations, the great organ at the same time pealing gloriously through
the vast expanse, which was filled by a dense mass of human beings,
representing the grandeur, wealth, beauty, intelligence, and enterprise
of the civilised world. The number of exhibitors exceeded 17,000, of whom
upwards of 3,000 received medals. It continued open from the 1st of May
till the 15th of October, altogether 144 days, during which it was visited
by 6,170,000 persons, giving an average daily attendance of 42,847. The
greatest number in one day (October 8th) was 109,760. The greatest number
in the Palace at any one time was 93,000, which surpassed in magnitude
any number ever assembled together under one roof in the history of the
world. The charges for admission were half-a-crown on particular days, and
one shilling on ordinary days. The receipts, including season tickets,
amounted to £505,107, leaving a surplus of about £150,000, after paying
all expenses; so that the Exhibition was in every sense pre-eminently
successful. However, it did not, as was anticipated, inaugurate an era of
peace.
We have already seen that Louis Napoleon, when President of the French
Republic, solemnly and vehemently vowed to maintain the Constitution.
These vows were repeated from time to time in his speeches and
declarations, which he was always ready to volunteer. The National
Assembly, however, had suspected him for some time to be entertaining
treasonable designs, and plotting the ruin of the republic. One of the
symptoms of this state of mind was found in the rumours propagated in
France about the failure of Parliamentary government, and the designs of
the Red Republicans. In this way vague fears were generated that another
bloody revolution was impending, and that, in order to save the State,
it was necessary to have a strong Government. In fact, the conviction
somehow gained ground that a monarchical _régime_ was the best fitted for
France. The army was probably inclined the same way. The first thing the
President did, of course, was to sound its disposition, and ascertain how
far he might be able to wield its irresistible power against the liberties
of his country. But however the soldiers might be disposed to aid his
designs, it was well known that its generals would not allow a shot to
be fired without orders from the Minister of War; and the man who held
that post was not a character likely to lend himself as the instrument
of a treasonable plot. Louis Napoleon therefore found it necessary to
enlist others in his service. The principal of these were daring and needy
adventurers, namely--his half-brother M. de Morny, a great speculator in
shares; Major Fleury, a young officer who had squandered his fortune in
dissipation, entered the army as a common soldier, and risen from the
ranks; St. Arnaud, an Algerian officer; M. Maupas, who had been a prefect,
and had been guilty of conspiracy to destroy innocent persons by a false
accusation of treason; and Persigny, _alias_ Fialin, who had entered the
army as a non-commissioned officer. St. Arnaud was made Minister of War,
and Maupas Prefect of Police. General Magnan, the Commander-in-Chief of
the army at Paris, readily entered into the plot which was originally
fixed for September but postponed on the advice of Fleury. On the 27th
of November 1851 he invited twenty generals who were under his command
to meet at his house. There they matured their plans, and after vows of
mutual fidelity, they solemnly embraced one another. In the meantime the
common soldiers were pampered with food and wine, stimulated by flattery
and exasperated by falsehood against the "Bedouins" of Paris. On Monday
night, the 1st of December, the President had an assembly at the Elysée,
which included Ministers and others who were totally ignorant of the
plot. The company departed at the usual hour, and at eleven o'clock only
three of the guests remained--Morny, who had shown himself at one of the
theatres, Maupas, and St. Arnaud.
Meanwhile the State printing-office was surrounded by gendarmerie, and
the compositors were all made prisoners, and compelled to print a number
of documents which had been sent from the President. These were several
decrees, which appeared on the walls of Paris at daybreak next morning,
to the utter astonishment of the population. They read in them that the
National Assembly was dissolved, that the Council of State was dissolved
and that universal suffrage was re-established. They read an attack
upon the Assembly, in which it was charged with forging arms for civil
war, with provocations, calumnies, and outrages against the President.
These things were said to be done by the men who had already destroyed
two monarchies, and who wanted to overthrow the republic; but he, Louis
Napoleon Bonaparte, would baffle their perfidious projects. He submitted
to them, therefore, a plan of a new Constitution: a responsible chief,
named for ten years, Ministers dependent on the executive alone, a Council
of State, a Legislative Corps, a Second Chamber. There was also an appeal
to the army, which told the soldiers to be proud of their mission,
for they were to save their country, and to obey him, the legitimate
representative of the national sovereignty.
At half-past six o'clock in the morning M. de Morny took possession of the
Ministry of the Interior. The army and the police were distributed through
the town and had all received their respective orders. Among these were
the arrest of seventy-eight persons, of whom eighteen were representatives
and sixty alleged chiefs of secret societies and barricades. All
these arrests were effected accordingly. At the appointed minute, and
while it was still dark, the designated houses were entered. The most
famous generals of France were seized and dragged forth from their
beds--Changarnier, Bedeau, Lamoricière, Cavaignac, Leflo--all were placed
in carriages, ready at their doors to receive them, and conveyed to prison
through the sleeping city. Precisely at the same moment the chief members
and officers of the Assembly shared the same fate.
All the trusted chiefs and guides of the people being thus disposed of,
De Morny from the Home Office touched the chords of centralisation, and
conveyed to every village in France the unbounded enthusiasm with which
the still sleeping city had hailed the joyful news of the revolution which
had been effected. When the free members of the Assembly heard of the
arrest of their brethren, they ran to the Hôtel de Ville, the entrance of
which was guarded. Those who had got in by a private passage were rudely
expelled, some of them being violently struck by the soldiers. They then
reassembled at the Mairie of the 10th Arrondissement, at which they passed
a resolution depriving Louis Napoleon of authority, but the Chamber was
not long permitted to deliberate in peace. Two commissaries of police soon
entered, and summoned the representatives to disperse. "Retire," said the
President. After some hesitation the commissaries seized the President
by the collar, and dragged him forth. The whole body then rose, 220 in
number, and declaring that they yielded to force, walked out, two and two,
between files of soldiery. In this way they were marched through the
street, into the Quai d'Orsay, where they were shut up in the barracks,
without any accommodation for their comfort. During the day eleven more
deputies were brought to the barracks, three of whom came for the express
purpose of being incarcerated with their brethren. After being left for
hours on a winter's evening in the open air, the Assembly were driven into
the barrack rooms upstairs, where they were left without fire, almost
without food, and were obliged to lie upon the bare boards. At ten o'clock
most of the 220 members of Parliament were thrust into large prison vans,
like felons, and were carried off, some to the fort of Mont Valérien, some
to the fortress of Vincennes, and some to the prison of Mazas. Before
dawn on the 3rd of December, all the leading statesmen and great generals
of France, all the men who made her name respected abroad, were lying in
prison.
The High Court of Justice met on the 2nd of December, and having referred
to the placards that had been issued that morning, made provision for the
impeachment of Louis Napoleon and his fellow-conspirators. But while the
court was sitting, an armed force entered the hall, and drove the judges
from the bench. Before they were thrust out, they adjourned the court to
"a day to be named hereafter," and they ordered a notice of impeachment to
be served upon the President at the Elysée.
These astounding acts did not produce the alarm that might have been
expected. Hitherto Louis Napoleon was not regarded with terror, as the
inscrutable and the unpitying, but rather with a feeling of contempt and
derision by the citizens of Paris. But the citizens had been disarmed;
the leaders of the Faubourgs had been carried off by the police. In the
absence of such leaders, the members of the Assembly who happened to be
at large called upon the people to resist the usurpers. During the night
of the 3rd, therefore, barricades were rapidly erected along the streets
which lay between the Hôtel de Ville and the Boulevards Montmartre and des
Italiens. But the troops were ready for action, 48,000 strong, including
cavalry, infantry, artillery, engineers, and gendarmes. They had been
supplied with rations, wine, and spirits in abundance. They had been
ordered to give no quarter, either to combatants or to bystanders; but to
clear the streets at any cost. Magnan's conscience, however, caused him to
hesitate long, and was on the point of making a coward of him. There was a
small barricade which crossed the boulevard close to the Gymnase Theatre,
which was occupied by a small advanced guard of the insurgents; and facing
this, fifty yards off, was an immense column of troops, which occupied all
the boulevard, and also the whole way to the Madeleine. The windows and
balconies along the line were filled with ladies and gentlemen gazing at
the grand military spectacle, which seemed only to be a demonstration to
overawe the disaffected, there being no visible enemy to contend with.
Suddenly a few musket shots were fired at the head of the column.
The troops returned the fire so regularly that it seemed at first a
_feu-de-joie_. The column advanced, still firing, and to the utter
consternation of the spectators, the shots were directed at the windows
and balconies, shivering the panes of glass, smashing the mirrors, rending
the curtains, and rattling against the walls. This continued for a quarter
of an hour, the inhabitants endeavouring to save themselves by lying
prostrate on the floor and flying to the back apartments. There is no
doubt that this fusilade was the result of a panic among the troops, who
apprehended an attack from the windows. Many persons were shot down in the
streets, some endeavouring to escape into the houses. Next day pools of
blood were to be seen round the trees along the boulevard. Fortunately the
massacre did not last long. When the barricade of St. Denis had been
carried, the insurrection was at an end; but while it did last, it was
fearful. Many women and children were victims.
In order to save the conspirators from the effects of the universal horror
which these atrocities were calculated to excite, it was necessary to
set forth in a public manner the reasons for the usurpation of power by
Napoleon. St. Arnaud did not hesitate to say all that was thought needful.
There was only one ground on which a shadow of excuse could be offered
for the deeds that had been done--that was, that it was necessary to save
society from Red Republicanism, and this was the topic of his order of the
day. But to give the full appearance of truth to this lying proclamation
to the army, it was necessary that the police should play their part.
Therefore De Maupas sent forth a circular to the commissaries of police,
stating that arms, ammunition, and incendiary writings were concealed to a
large extent in lodging-house, cafés, and private dwellings. The National
Guard was disbanded on the 7th, as another precautionary measure. There
was one order of men, however, which could neither be disbanded nor sent
off in prison vans, but which, if conciliated, could be made powerful
auxiliaries of despotism; while, if alienated and exasperated, they would
be its most dangerous enemies--the Roman Catholic clergy. Therefore Louis
Napoleon hastened to announce the restoration of the Panthéon to its
original use as the Church of St. Geneviève.
The next step was a proclamation to the French people, stating that he
had saved society, that it was madness to oppose the united and patriotic
army, and that the intelligent people of Paris were all on his side. Then
followed the vote by universal suffrage, which was put in this way:--"For
Louis Napoleon and the new Constitution, Yes or No." This was putting
before the nation this alternative--a strong Government or anarchy. The
result of the voting was, for Louis Napoleon, 7,481,231; against him,
640,737. Thus armed, the President met his consultative commission on the
last day of the year, and told them that he understood all the grandeur
of his new mission, that he had an upright heart, that he looked for the
co-operation of all right-minded men.
On the public mind in England, as the facts were made known through
correspondence, the effect produced was a general feeling of alarm. But it
had political consequences of a serious nature, for it caused the fall of
the Russell Administration. That weak-kneed body had not benefited much by
its temporary popularity in the year of the Great Exhibition. The Budget
of 1851 contained a most unpopular proposal for the substitution for the
window tax of a duty of 1s. in the pound on houses, and 9d. on shops,
which had to be considerably reduced, and Mr. Hume, with the assistance of
the Conservatives, carried against the Government the limitation of the
income-tax to a year. Further, Lord Naas, afterwards Earl of Mayo, placed
them in a minority on a resolution connected with the spirit duties. The
Cabinet naturally became divided and dispirited, and not the least source
of its disunion was the boldness and insubordination of Lord Palmerston.
We have already mentioned his rash despatch to Sir Henry Bulwer, which
led to that Minister's dismissal from Madrid. This communication was
written both without the knowledge and against the express orders of the
Prime Minister. The Queen naturally resented this independent action,
and Lord Palmerston speedily found himself at variance with the Prince
Consort, who was in favour of a German Customs Union, whereas the Foreign
Minister resented its formation as injurious to Free Trade. During the
revolution of 1848 Palmerston acted with more than his usual contempt
for control, and remonstrances from the Queen were frequent and strongly
worded. They culminated in a memorandum, which ran as follows follows:--
[Illustration: THE OPENING BY QUEEN VICTORIA OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION IN
HYDE PARK, LONDON, 1ST MAY, 1851.
FROM THE PAINTING BY H. C. SELOUS IN THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM,
SOUTH KENSINGTON.]
"The Queen requires, first, that Lord Palmerston will distinctly state
what he proposes in a given case, in order that the Queen may know as
distinctly to what she has given her royal sanction; secondly, having
once given her sanction to a measure, that it be not arbitrarily altered
or modified by the Minister. Such an act she must consider as failing in
sincerity towards the Crown, and justly to be visited by the exercise of
her constitutional right of dismissing that Minister. She expects to be
kept informed of what passes between him and the foreign Ministers before
important decisions are taken based upon that intercourse; to receive the
foreign despatches in good time; and to have the drafts for her approval
sent to her in sufficient time to make herself acquainted with their
contents before they must be sent off. The Queen thinks it best that Lord
John Russell should show this letter to Lord Palmerston."
[Illustration: THE COUP D'ÉTAT: EVICTION OF THE JUDGES. (_See p._ 7.)]
This was sent to Lord Palmerston by Lord John Russell, and it was
acknowledged by Lord Palmerston as follows:--"I have taken a copy of this
memorandum of the Queen's, and will not fail to attend to the directions
which it contains." This occurred in August, 1850, more than twelve months
before the occurrence of the _coup d'état_ in Paris, and in the interval
Palmerston, with difficulty dissuaded from receiving Kossuth who was on
a visit to England, accepted an address from the Radicals of Islington
in which the Emperors of Russia and Austria were stigmatised as despots,
tyrants, and assassins. A few days later he committed a fresh indiscretion
in conversation with Count Walewski, the French Ambassador, to whom he
expressed a strong approval of the _coup d'état_. When Palmerston was
asked to explain his conduct, he evaded the point by a long defence of
the action of Louis Napoleon, and Lord John Russell at last summoned up
courage to dismiss him from his office.
Soon after the opening of Parliament in 1852, Lord John Russell related
to the House what had happened in connection with this matter. Our
Ambassador in France had been instructed to abstain from all interference
with the internal affairs of that country. Lord Palmerston was alleged
to have held a conversation with the French Ambassador inconsistent with
those instructions. The Premier wrote to him on the subject, but his
inquiries had for some days been met with a disdainful silence; Lord
Palmerston having meanwhile, without the knowledge of his colleagues,
written a despatch, containing instructions to Lord Normanby, who had
previously been advised to observe a strict neutrality, which Lord John
Russell considered was putting himself in the place of the Crown and
passing by the Crown; while he gave the moral approbation of England to
the acts of the President of the Republic, in direct opposition to the
policy which the Government had hitherto pursued. In these circumstances
Lord John said he had no other alternative but to declare, that while he
was Prime Minister Lord Palmerston could not hold the seals of office. The
noble Foreign Secretary had been accordingly dismissed.
Lord Palmerston then rose to explain his conduct. He stated that
the French Ambassador had given a highly coloured version of a long
conversation, to the effect that he had entirely approved of what had
been done, and thought the President of the French fully justified. Lord
Normanby wrote for authority to contradict that statement, and, though
Palmerston did not say so, complained of the false position in which
he was placed. Lord Palmerston repeated, however, his opinion that it
was better the President should prevail than the Assembly, because the
Assembly had nothing to offer in substitution for the President, unless
an alternative obviously ending in civil war or anarchy; whereas the
President, on the other hand, had to offer unity of purpose and unity
of authority, and if he were inclined to do so he might give to France
internal tranquillity, with good and permanent Government. Lord Palmerston
retaliated on Lord John Russell by stating that both he and other members
of the Cabinet had also expressed opinions, in conversation with the
French Ambassador, not very different from his own. The defence was
generally regarded as wholly unsatisfactory.
Lord Palmerston had been succeeded as Foreign Secretary by Earl Granville;
but the noble lord soon had his revenge on the Prime Minister. Feelings of
anxiety prevailed at this time with regard to the national defences, and
it was thought necessary to organise a large militia force, which would
constitute a powerful reserve in case of war with any foreign country.
Lord John Russell therefore brought in a Bill on the subject on the 16th
of February. Lord Palmerston suggested that the word "local" should be
left out of the Bill, and the regular militia, which had practically been
suspended since Waterloo, reconstituted. He accordingly moved amendments
in committee. Upon this Lord John Russell stated that if the House decided
to leave out the word "local," the chairman of the committee and Lord
Palmerston must bring in the Bill. Upon a division, however, the word
was left out by a majority of eleven. Lord John Russell then said that
he must now decline the responsibility of the measure. Lord Palmerston
expressed his extreme surprise at this abandonment by the Government of
their functions in that House. Lord John replied that he was stopped at
the threshold, and told by the division that the House had no confidence
in the Government. The cheers with which this statement was received
confirmed its truth. The Ministry therefore resigned. "I have had my
tit-for-tat with John Russell," wrote Palmerston in exultation to his
brother, "and turned him out."
The Queen sent for Lord Derby, formerly known as Lord Stanley, who
succeeded in forming the following Cabinet:--Prime Minister, Lord Derby;
Chancellor, Lord St. Leonards; Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Disraeli;
President of the Council, Lord Lonsdale; Privy Seal, Marquis of Salisbury;
Home Secretary, Mr. Walpole; Foreign Secretary, Lord Malmesbury; Colonial
Secretary, Sir John Pakington; Admiralty, Duke of Northumberland; Board
of Control, Mr. Herries; Postmaster-General, Lord Hardwicke; Board of
Trade, Mr. Henley; Public Works, Lord John Manners. Only two members, Lord
Derby and Mr. Herries, had ever held Cabinet rank before. The new Ministry
carried through a Militia Bill, which passed the House of Commons by large
majorities, in spite of the factious opposition of Lord John Russell. In
the Lords, the second reading was moved on the 15th of June. It passed
through all its stages without difficulty, and received the Royal Assent
in due course. By this excellent measure a militia was constituted,
available for service in any part of the United Kingdom, and recruited by
voluntary enlistment, though a compulsory ballot was reserved for seasons
of emergency. Many other useful measures were also passed during the
Session of 1852, among which may be mentioned the New Zealand Constitution
Act, several measures of Law Reform, including the procedure in the Court
of Chancery, and an extension of the jurisdiction of the County Courts.
Lord Lyndhurst, reviewing the Session, said that, "during the four months
that had elapsed since Lord Derby came into office, Bills of greater
importance had passed than in any Session since the commencement of the
present Parliament." On the 1st of July the Queen prorogued Parliament in
person, and delivered a Speech, in which she expressed her satisfaction at
the "final" settlement of the affairs of Holstein and Schleswig. The order
for the dissolution of Parliament appeared next day in the _Gazette_.
The General Election, which took place in due course, left the state of
parties very much as it had found it, though many of the Peelites lost
their seats.
The new Parliament assembled on the 4th of November. Mr. Charles
Shaw-Lefevre was re-elected to the Speaker's chair without opposition.
The Royal Speech was delivered by the Queen in person on the 11th, when
her Majesty announced the existence of the most amicable relations with
all Foreign Powers. The Session was occupied principally with commercial
matters and financial questions, with regard to which the majority of the
House were at issue with the Government. They were suspected of a leaning
towards Protection, though Mr. Disraeli, in producing his preliminary
Budget, jauntily threw over the principle, and dilated in favour of Free
Trade. In vain Mr. Villiers attempted to force his hand by a resolution
expressing unbounded confidence in the Act of 1846; he was saved by Lord
Palmerston's alternative proposal expressing a platonic attachment to the
system, which was carried by a large majority. The Budget, however, when
finally produced, was discovered to be framed on the lines of ingenious
rather than of sound finance, and was held by experts, notably by Mr.
Gladstone, to be unfairly burdensome to the £10 householders. This fact
was brought to the test by a division, after a long debate, on the 10th of
December, when the Government was defeated by 305 to 286. This led to the
resignation of the Derby Cabinet. A coalition between the Whigs and the
Peelites was next tried, with Lord Aberdeen as Prime Minister; after which
the House adjourned to the 10th of February.
The Duke of Wellington, whose name has been so often mentioned in this
history, terminated his long and glorious career at Walmer Castle, on the
14th of September, 1852, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. Foreign
princes united with the Sovereign, and Parliament, and citizens of his
own country, to honour the hero, whom Talleyrand once called "the most
capable man in England," and whom Mr. Disraeli, as leader of the House of
Commons, designated "the greatest man of a great nation--a general who had
fought fifteen pitched battles, captured 3,000 cannon from the enemy, and
never lost a single gun." And he truly added, he was not only the greatest
and most successful warrior of his time, but his protracted civil career
was scarcely less splendid and successful; and when he died, "he died at
the head of that army to which he had left the tradition of his fame."
The Queen was at Balmoral at the time of his death, and she immediately
conveyed her wishes to the Government that his remains should be honoured
by a public funeral. Lord Derby proposed a resolution in reply to her
Majesty's message, which was unanimously adopted; and a Select Committee
was appointed to consider the mode in which the House might best assist
at the ceremony. A similar course was adopted in the Commons. The public
obsequies commenced when the remains were committed to the officers of the
Lord Chamberlain, to be conveyed to the hall of Chelsea Hospital, there to
lie in state. The arrangements for the admission of the public were not
satisfactory, and the consequence was dreadful confusion and crushing,
attended in some cases with fatal consequences. Order was ultimately
restored, and it was calculated that from 50,000 to 65,000 people passed
daily through the hall. Three persons, two women and one man, lost their
lives by the crushing on the 13th.
Late on the night of the 17th of November the corpse was conveyed to the
Horse Guards, escorted by a squadron of cavalry. The procession took
place next day. First appeared the infantry, six battalions, then the
artillery, next the cavalry, five squadrons, and then martial men on foot,
pensioners, trumpets and kettle-drums, deputations from public bodies in
carriages, persons connected with the late Duke's household, military
dignitaries, judges, Ministers and officers of State, archbishops, the
Prince Consort and her Majesty's household, in three carriages drawn by
six horses each, officers connected with foreign armies, pall-bearers,
the funeral car, which weighed twelve tons, drawn by twelve horses, and
decorated by trophies and heraldic achievements, the hat and sword of
the deceased being placed on the coffin. The coffin was borne into St.
Paul's, where nearly 20,000 persons were assembled. At the conclusion of
the dirge the mortal remains were lowered into the crypt, and the great
Duke was buried "with an Empire's lamentation."
The new Ministry was constituted as follows--Lord Aberdeen took the
Treasury, and of the other Peelites Mr. Gladstone, the Duke of Newcastle,
Sir James Graham, and Mr. Sidney Herbert, became respectively Chancellor
of the Exchequer, Colonial Minister, First Lord of the Admiralty, and
Secretary at War. The new Chancellor was Lord Cranworth, who had been a
member of Lord Melbourne's Administration. Of the leading Whigs, Lord John
Russell was induced, after much persuasion, to accept the Colonial Office,
and after a brief tenure of the Foreign Office, Lord Palmerston, to the
universal surprise, became Home Secretary. Lord Granville was President
of the Council, the Duke of Argyll Privy Seal, Lord Lansdowne entered the
Cabinet without office. Sir Charles Wood went to the Board of Control,
and Sir William Molesworth, who had usually voted with the Radicals,
became First Commissioner of Works. The Cabinet has been stigmatised as a
coalition; as a matter of fact it was composed of moderate free-traders
to the exclusion of Radicals like Cobden and Bright, and on the whole was
fairly homogeneous.
The great event of the Session of 1853 was Mr. Gladstone's Budget, a bold
and sweeping measure which contained an important novelty in the shape
of a succession duty, estimated to produce some £2,000,000 a year, and
a reduction of the income-tax, of which two-sevenths were ultimately to
be abolished. It also contained the reduction of duties on 133 articles,
their total abolition on 123, and, taken altogether, was one of the most
comprehensive financial statements ever produced by a Chancellor of the
Exchequer. Not content with these innovations Mr. Gladstone proposed
a conversion of the National Debt, by which the old 3 per cent. bonds
which stood at par were to be exchanged for Exchequer bonds or for 3-1/2
or 2-1/2 stocks which stood at 163. It was a magnificent Budget, based
however on a false assumption, that the era of peace was to be long
protracted, a sanguine estimate which was very far indeed from being
realised. Moreover the new succession duty did not produce one-fourth of
the sum which its author had anticipated, and owing to the advent of war
the reduction of the income-tax was found to be wholly impracticable. "The
best-laid schemes of mice and men aft gang agley."
Europe was allowed scant breathing-time after the wars which sprang
from the political movements of 1848 had come to an end. An old danger,
one which at intervals, sometimes as a grim shadow, sometimes as a near
reality, had threatened the general peace, appeared once more. In 1852 it
became known that the Emperors of France and Russia, were, in the names of
their respective Churches, wrangling over the Holy Places of Palestine,
where members of both the Latin and Greek Churches had set up rights
of worship. The Prince-President of the French Republic had raised the
demon of the Eastern Question, and the policy which Prince Louis Napoleon
initiated as President, he pursued with fresh vigour when he became
Emperor. That policy was one of the causes which led directly to those
great events which we know under the collective name of the Crimean War.
The first movement of France in this Eastern Question was made in 1850.
The Latin priests in Jerusalem were always clamouring against their
rivals, and a fresh complaint reaching Paris, the Prince-President
directed his ambassador at the Porte, General Aupick, to claim the
fulfilment of a treaty in favour of the Latin Church, obtained in
1740. The gist of the grievance was that, by Russian influence, and by
degrees, the Greeks had gained possession of certain churches and other
holy places, in contravention of this treaty, and by the connivance of
the Porte. And it was natural that as, since 1740, Russia had exercised
a greater pressure on the Porte than France, so she had brought it to
bear to exact concessions in favour of the priests of her faith, and
give them a predominance at the holy shrines. For a century France had
acquiesced; but in 1850 the country had fallen under a ruler more active
in the employment of French power than any ruler since Louis XIV., except
Napoleon I., and for purposes almost personal he determined that France
should acquiesce no longer. The clerical party in France were gratified
by the mere knowledge that General Aupick had raised the question of
the Holy Shrines at the instance of the President. Throughout the year
1850 nothing was done of a serious character. The French Minister made
demands, and the Porte evaded them as best it might. But in the very
beginning of 1851 General Aupick imparted new life to the negotiations.
M. de Titoff, the Russian Minister, struck into the fray, and warned the
Porte that he should insist on the _status quo_. Then General Aupick
grew still warmer in his language, and the Austrian Minister supported
him. In the spring, the Marquis de Lavalette, a more energetic, indeed,
a "zealous" man, replaced General Aupick as the representative of France
at the Porte, and in his hands the business soon began to make progress.
During this period the British Minister, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe,
acting on instructions from home, held quite aloof from the disputes, and
contented himself with watching closely the contest between the Porte and
the French Minister. He thought that the Porte would not give way unless
forced, and the Emperor of Russia was so fully persuaded of the strength
of his influence at Constantinople that he felt convinced that no change
in the matter of the Holy Shrines would occur. But in this respect, as
in so many others, he was mistaken. In the autumn of 1851 the British
Minister began to see the gravity of the contest going on under his eyes;
for the Marquis de Lavalette, growing impatient at the delay of the Porte
in according his demands, talked in a menacing tone of the use that France
could make of the strong fleet then assembled at Toulon. It was at this
moment, November, 1851, that the quarrel visibly assumed the character of
a struggle between France and Russia for influence at Constantinople and
throughout the East.
[Illustration: THE BURIAL OF WELLINGTON. (_See p._ 11.)]
The Turks, having no interest in the religious question, proposed various
arrangements, which proved agreeable to neither party. When something
like the basis of an agreement had been arranged, a strong letter from
the Emperor Nicholas to the Sultan forced the Porte to retract it.
Learning this, M. de Lavalette said that his Government, having embarked
in the question, could not stop short under the dictation of Russia.
The Russian Emperor would not desist from opposition at the dictation
of France. Each presented himself to the Sultan, one with the treaty of
1740, the Charter of the Latins; the other with documents, antecedent and
subsequent to that date, embodying concessions made to the Greeks. The
Porte, desirous of satisfying both the powerful complainants, exhausted
its ingenuity in devices, yielding now to Russian, now to French menaces,
and looking keenly for assurances of support in the event of danger. The
Turks consulted Lord Stratford de Redcliffe; but he was powerless to aid
them, for his Government had determined to take no part. Nevertheless, he
did his utmost to prevent precipitate action on all sides, on a question
"involving little more than a religious sentiment, and the application
of a treaty permitted to be more or less in abeyance for a century." He
was only partially successful, for M. de Lavalette continued to talk of
breaking off negotiations unless his demands were complied with, and M. de
Titoff stood out against any alteration of the _status quo_. At length, at
the beginning of 1852, by the exertions of M. de Lavalette, the questions
at issue seemed to be settled, and the Porte embodied the whole of the
arrangements respecting the Holy Places in an "imperial firman invested
with a hatti-scherif." The Turkish Ministers hoped that both parties would
be satisfied by concessions. This was a delusion, for the Porte in its
trepidation gave conflicting pledges to the fighting embassies. In giving
the assurance by letter which calmed for a time the abounding zeal of M.
de Lavalette, the Porte promised that the firman should not be publicly
read, but simply registered. The Russian _chargé d'affaires_ got wind of
this, and insisted, with effect, that the firman should be read. M. de
Lavalette, hearing probably that the Porte had promised M. de Titoff,
months before, that the key of the "great door" of the church at Bethlehem
should not be given to the Latins, grew very keen in his instructions to
the French Consul to see that it was given up. M. de Lavalette became
extremely violent. "He more than once," wrote Colonel Rose, the _chargé
d'affaires_, in November, "talked of the appearance of a French fleet off
Jaffa (in case the stipulations were not fulfilled), and once he alluded
to a French occupation of Jerusalem, 'when,' he said, 'we shall have all
the sanctuaries.'"
Nevertheless, the Turkish Government tried to appease France without
offending Russia. In the autumn of 1852 there was a striking spectacle
at Jerusalem. Afif Bey had been sent on a special mission to inform the
contending Churches of the decisions arrived at in Constantinople. But
Afif Bey did nothing except declare how desirous the Sultan was to gratify
all classes of his subjects. The Russian Consul-General demanded the
public reading of the firman, which was understood to declare the Latin
claims to the shrines null and void. Afif Bey pretended not to know what
firman was meant, then said he had no copy of it, then no directions to
read it. Thus both parties were angered: the Latins because the key was
withheld, and they were only allowed to celebrate mass once a year before
"a schismatic altar"; the Greeks because the firman was not read. It was
these proceedings, arising out of the irreconcilable hostility of Russia
and France, which led to fresh threats from their respective envoys at the
Porte. The Grand Vizier, driven hither and thither by the violence of
the disputants, resolved, come what might, to make an end of the business.
He gave up the keys to the Latins, and caused the firman to be read. Had
there been sincerity on the part of the French or Russian Governments,
here the matter should have ended; but neither had triumphed sufficiently
over the other, and the quarrel did not come to a close.
[Illustration: THE WRECK OF H.M.S. "BIRKENHEAD."
FROM THE PAINTING BY THOMAS M. HEMY.
BY PERMISSION OF MESSRS. HENRY GRAVES & CO. LTD., PALL MALL, S.W.]
And here, at the beginning of December, 1852, we find the origin of that
now famous demand for a protectorate over all the Greek Christians in
Turkey, which, when advanced by Prince Menschikoff, led at once to war.
The claim purported to be based on the Treaty of Kainardji, but that
treaty expressly limited the Russian Protectorate to two chapels--one
in the Russian Legation, the other a chapel to be built in Galata. This
baseless demand irritated the French, frightened the Turks, and filled
the English with apprehension. But it was not then pressed. Another
incident occurred, showing the critical temper of the time. The Porte was
at war with the tribes who inhabit Montenegro. Austria, affecting to see
danger to herself in the continuance of a contest so near her frontier,
sent Count Leiningen to Constantinople, with a peremptory demand for
the cessation of the war. It is not improbable that this was a Russian
project; for the Czar felt, or affected to feel, that Austria would do all
he desired in the Eastern Question; and no sooner was the Austrian demand
made, than he supported it. But the Porte, beset by enemies, determined
wisely to satisfy Austria, and thus to deprive Russia of any pretext for
hostilities on that score. Russia was baffled, but not diverted from her
purpose; for the Emperor now began to be impassioned, to feel the sting
of French rivalry, and to commit himself almost too deeply to recede. In
vague, but menacing terms, he declared that the Porte should be required
to fulfil its engagements with him, and to that end he set troops in
motion. "It was necessary that the diplomacy of Russia should be supported
by a demonstration of force," and he prepared for a violent struggle. Two
_corps d'armée_, above 100,000 men, were ordered to march towards the
frontier of the Turkish empire.
It was an anxious moment for statesmen; but the attention of the great
European public was not turned towards the East. In England the strife of
parties had led to the downfall of the Tories, and to the undisguised joy
of the Czar Nicholas Lord Aberdeen became the head of a new Cabinet. The
Emperor conceived vast hopes of support from the new British Government,
with several members of whom, on his visit to England, he had discussed
the Eastern Question; the British public looked for social reforms from
a composite Cabinet which unquestionably included in itself the ablest
servants of the State. If the people thought of danger, it was danger from
France, for the Prince-President, to the intense indignation of the Czar,
had made himself Emperor; and a desire to see a completion of economical
reforms was mingled with a determination to look to the defences of
the nation. Ministers were not, and could not be, blind to the perils
which threatened peace; but, as will be seen, they placed an unfounded
reliance on the personal honour of the Emperor Nicholas, and they did
not appreciate the provocative policy of France. Yet whatever qualms of
apprehension they may have felt, they carefully kept to themselves, and
even so late as April, 1853, Lord Clarendon assured Parliament that as
regarded Turkey there was no danger of the peace of Europe being disturbed.
Yet between the 1st of January and the 30th of April the British
Government had become possessed of facts which should have clouded
their sanguine anticipations. For the conflict, hitherto confined to
Constantinople, was transferred for a time to Paris, London, and St.
Petersburg, and did not improve by its extension. Lord Cowley suggested
direct negotiations between France and Russia. The suggestion was adopted,
but it only served to embitter the relations between the two Courts, and
it was open to the objection that it took out of the hands of the Porte
a question which nearly concerned its sovereignty. This was met by the
device of requesting the Porte to sanction such an arrangement as the two
Courts might recommend in common. It had no other result than the exchange
of sharp observations between Count Nesselrode and General de Castelbajac.
For Russia had determined on a totally different course. The Emperor
resolved to treat directly with Turkey, and obtain from the Porte his
demands.
The real policy of the Czar was steadily developing itself. It was on
the 4th of February, 1853, that Count Nesselrode informed Sir Hamilton
Seymour of the intention of the Czar to send Prince Menschikoff to
Constantinople, and at the same time gave assurances that the Prince
would be provided with instructions of a conciliatory nature; and that
"although bred to arms," the negotiator was "animated by intentions the
most pacific." A few days later Count Nesselrode again declared that the
Prince's instructions, though "necessarily vague," were moderate; and
he volunteered the further information that there would be no question
of attempting to regain from the Latins any privileges which they might
have acquired since the year before. Subsequent events showed what this
studied moderation and vagueness were intended to cover, and how the
Czar was aiming at larger game than the privileges conferred by the
acquisition of keys and the affixing of stars at the Holy Places. At the
same time, the Russian Government, preparing for a grand _coup_, resolved
not to prosecute further the direct negotiation with France opened at St.
Petersburg, but to transact the business in hand at Constantinople. For
the great conflict, the scope of which none but the Russians foresaw, all
the Governments prepared.
England, at the end of February, directed Lord Stratford de Redcliffe
to proceed to Constantinople by way of Paris and Vienna. The Earl of
Clarendon had succeeded Lord John Russell at the Foreign Office, although
the latter still remained in the Ministry. It was Lord Clarendon's duty to
draw up the instructions to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe; they were broad
and wise; they left the diplomatist a large discretion; they entrusted to
him the power of ordering Admiral Dundas to hold his fleet in readiness;
but at this stage of the dispute, the Ambassador was not to direct the
admiral to approach the Dardanelles without positive instructions from
her Majesty's Government. Although Austria had interfered between the
Porte and Montenegro, she had told the British Government that she would
not depart from her conservative policy in the East; and although France
had thrust the Porte into so deep a peril, she had in the opening of
1853 officially stated that she regarded her interests in the East as
identical with those of England, and it was everywhere given out that the
two Western Powers were acting in concert. To carry out her objects in
the East, France sent, as successor to M. de Lavalette, M. de la Cour, a
mild diplomatist, who had none of the fiery qualities of his predecessor,
and who was not likely to quarrel with Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. The
British Government believed it could neutralise, by moral influence,
the evils springing from the action of France and Russia, and thus, by
imposing moderation on both, stave off a catastrophe involving all. But at
this juncture, as Russia grew more menacing, France grew more moderate:
indeed, for some time to come she hardly appears in the quarrel at all:
the original question of the Holy Places fades rapidly out of sight, and
a new one arises, in which the opponents are Russia and Turkey, with Lord
Stratford de Redcliffe as the supporter of the Sultan. In fact, France,
supposing her ruler desired war, had no need to stir a finger, for the
rage of the Czar had got the better of his judgment, and he was bent on
working out his will.
The Emperor Nicholas, knowing that he was about to enter upon a very
hazardous policy in the East, sought, on the 9th of January, 1853, an
apparently accidental meeting with Sir Hamilton Seymour, at the palace
of the Grand-Duchess Helen. His object was to convey to Sir Hamilton his
opinion how very essential it was, especially at that moment, that Russia
and England should be on the best terms. "When we are agreed," he said,
"I am quite without anxiety as to the West of Europe; it is immaterial
what others may think or do. As to Turkey, that is another question:
that country is in a critical state, and may give us all a great deal of
trouble." Five days later the Czar told Sir Hamilton that, in the event of
a dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, he thought it might be less difficult
to arrive at a satisfactory territorial arrangement than was commonly
believed. "The Principalities are," he said, "in fact, an independent
State under my protection: this might continue. Servia might receive
the same form of government. So again with Bulgaria: there seems to be
no reason why this province should not form an independent State. As to
Egypt, I quite understand the importance to England of that territory.
I can, then, only say, that if, in the event of the distribution of the
Ottoman succession upon the fall of the empire, you should take possession
of Egypt, I shall have no objection to offer. I would say the same thing
of Candia: that island might suit you, and I do not know why it should not
become an English possession." Here, then, was a disclosure implying the
kind of understanding which the Czar desired to arrive at; and it need not
be said that the British Government adhered to its old views, and declined
to be a party to any such understanding. But these conversations had one
effect--they created in the minds of the British Ministers a baseless
confidence in the honour of the Czar.
It was just as the Porte, yielding to the advice of England, had satisfied
the Austrian demands touching Montenegro, and just as the question of
the Holy Places seemed to be dying away, that Prince Menschikoff, at the
end of February, landed at Constantinople. Attended by his showy suite,
but himself plainly attired, the Prince went to the Porte and presented
himself to the Grand Vizier. One of the Sultan's household then invited
him to visit Fuad Effendi, the Foreign Minister, whose offices were next
to those of the Turkish Premier. But the Prince said he should not, as
Fuad Effendi had broken faith with the Emperor; and, having put this
slight on Fuad, he passed by the line of troops and the very door of the
Minister, which had been opened to receive him.
[Illustration: CHAPEL OF SAINT HELENA, JERUSALEM.]
For a moment there was a panic in high places at Constantinople. The Grand
Vizier was indignant and terrified, and, fearing the worst, trembling lest
a mortal blow should be struck before help could arrive, if help were
deferred, he asked Colonel Rose to request Admiral Dundas to bring up the
British squadron to Vourla Bay. Colonel Rose did not hesitate. He knew
how forward were the warlike preparations of the Czar, and he immediately
complied with the wish of the Grand Vizier. But this bold step was
premature. The Czar had not made up his mind to strike a sudden blow, and
Count Nesselrode told Sir Hamilton Seymour that the tendency was rather to
slacken than to push on military preparations--a statement destitute of
truth. Fuad Effendi, of course, refused to hold office any longer, and the
Sultan, for the first time, accepted the resignation of a public servant,
replacing him by Rifaat Pasha. When Admiral Dundas received the request of
Colonel Rose, he declined to act upon it, and his Government approved of
the conduct of the admiral, and disapproved of the bold haste of Rose. But
the French Government, hearing of what had occurred, without consulting
the British Ministers, ordered their fleet at once to set out on a "cruise
in Greek waters." The fleet sailed, and Lord Clarendon instantly expressed
the regret of his Government that France had taken so strong a measure.
Her Majesty's Government, he said, had received from the Czar his most
solemn assurance that he would uphold the Turkish Empire, and not change
his policy without notice of his intention; and, as no such notice had
been received, the British Government were "bound to believe, until they
had proofs to the contrary, that the mission of Prince Menschikoff was not
of a character menacing to the independence and integrity of Turkey."
In the meantime, Prince Menschikoff conducted himself so mysteriously
and so quietly at Constantinople, and Sir Hamilton Seymour received such
positive assurances at St. Petersburg, that no one except the French
_chargé d'affaires_, and perhaps the French Government, suspected the
bad faith of Russia. It seems to have been the common talk in Pera and
Galata that the Russian Minister was intent on obtaining from the Turks
a secret treaty. But Prince Menschikoff went about the business in so
strange a manner, that Rifaat Pasha, with whom he talked, did not appear
to comprehend at what the Prince was driving. It was at this juncture that
Lord Stratford de Redcliffe arrived.
The first step of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe was to discover the actual
position of affairs and to learn how far the demands of Prince Menschikoff
were moderate or threatening. On the day after he landed, Lord Stratford
de Redcliffe saw the Grand Vizier and Rifaat Effendi; but while he learnt
that there was some prospect of settling the tiresome question of the Holy
Places, he could gain no distinct statement respecting the ulterior views
of the Czar. Nevertheless they admitted the existence of ulterior demands,
and they were pressing in their requests for advice. Lord Stratford de
Redcliffe gave it willingly. He recommended them to keep the question of
the Holy Places separate from the ulterior proposals, and he set before
them a variety of considerations carrying comfort with them in case the
ulterior demands took an inadmissible form. Next he saw the Sultan and
offered his good offices, and, alluding to the secret Russian demands,
said he was convinced the Sultan, in making reasonable concessions, "would
be careful to admit no innovation dangerous to his independence." This
from Lord Stratford de Redcliffe's lips meant more than the mere words
convey. As a last resource he brought the Russian and Turkish Ministers
face to face, and in a short time sent them away, and with them the
settlement of the dispute, so that nothing remained but to embody the
compromise in a firman. In little more than a fortnight after his arrival
the points raised by Aupick in 1850 were put to rest, but out of them had
grown a huger quarrel, which could only be appeased by an appeal to arms.
It was during the closing days of the combat about the Holy Places that
Lord Stratford de Redcliffe became aware of the arrival of despatches
expressing the dissatisfaction of the Czar at the slow progress made by
his envoy. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, on the 22nd of April, learnt that,
four or five days before, "fresh and pressing instructions" had reached
Menschikoff from St. Petersburg. In fact, Rifaat Pasha placed in the hands
of the English Minister a document called a _note verbale_, which Prince
Menschikoff had put in. In this note the Prince demanded a categorical
answer on certain points, some of which were settled by the agreement
come to in regard to the Holy Places, together with an entirely fresh
demand, that the Porte should accept a treaty from Russia guaranteeing
the Greco-Russian religion from all molestation. The British Government,
it should be remarked, persisted in believing that Prince Menschikoff had
no authority to make these ulterior demands which so disturbed Europe.
The French Government were not deceived. But they affected to regard
the demand of Russia for a protectorate as one concerning all the other
Powers, and they declared themselves ready to consult and act with them,
but not to act alone. The conduct of the British Government is the more
remarkable, for Lord Stratford de Redcliffe pointed out, in a despatch
which reached Lord Clarendon on the 6th of May, that the omission of
Count Nesselrode, in his remarks to Sir Hamilton Seymour, to make any
mention of the ulterior demands corresponded with the endeavours of Prince
Menschikoff to isolate the Porte. The Austrian Minister at the Porte
had no doubts respecting the intentions of Russia, and told the British
Minister that he could only advise the Porte to give its unqualified
assent to the Czar's demands. This drew from Lord Stratford de Redcliffe
the severe remark that he was "not prepared to take part in placing the
last remains of Turkish independence at the feet of any Foreign Power."
In the meantime events had been marching rapidly at Constantinople. Urged
on by the impatient orders of his master, Prince Menschikoff, on the 5th
of May, sent by a common messenger a note to the Porte, having all the
character, though it did not bear the name, of an ultimatum. It embodied
the obnoxious demand for a protectorate in a most offensive form, and
it gave the Porte only five days of grace. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe
advised the Porte to reject the ultimatum, and his advice was obeyed.
On the 22nd of May the Prince and his whole suite embarked on board a
man-of-war and steered for Odessa.