1837-1842
Lord Melbourne's services and character--Prevailing discontent
of the Working Classes--Its Causes--The Chartists--Riots at
Newport and elsewhere--Fall of the Ministry--Sir Robert Peel
sent for--The "Bedchamber Question"--Melbourne recalled to
Office--The Penny Post--Its remarkable Success--Betrothal of the
Queen--Character of Prince Albert--Announcement to
Parliament--Debates--Marriage of the Queen and Prince
Albert--War declared with China--Capture of Chusan--Bombardment
of the Bogue Forts--Peace concluded under the Walls of Nankin.
The ardour and intelligence with which the Queen applied herself to
master the details of ceremony and business incident to her position at
the head of a great Empire, did not protect her from censorious and even
malicious criticism. It was natural, perhaps, that the exclusive
confidence reposed by Her Majesty in Lord Melbourne should excite the
jealousy of others, whose exalted rank gave them what they considered a
superior claim to access to the presence.
[Sidenote: Lord Melbourne's services and character.]
Lord Melbourne's constant attendance at Court had compelled him to
change his demeanour in a very remarkable degree. Hitherto, his
affectation had been to conceal all traces of seriousness in transacting
business; he would sprawl on a sofa, blow a feather about the room,
balance a chair, or dandle a cushion while receiving deputations--the
very incarnation of indolence--to the despair of those who anxiously
desired to engage his attention, and who could scarcely be persuaded by
those who knew him best that he had spent strenuous hours in getting up
the subject under discussion, was perfectly acquainted with all its
details, and was, besides, listening most attentively to all that was
said. His physician, Dr. Copeland, knew how really hard the Prime
Minister worked, and told Bishop Wilberforce that he (Melbourne) used to
transact business all day in his bedroom with his secretaries in order
that bores might be dismissed with the information that "my lord had not
yet left his bedroom."
[Illustration: THE THRONE ROOM AT WINDSOR CASTLE.]
But besides this tiresome frivolity of manner, there was another habit
in regard to which Melbourne had to put severe restraint on himself in
the Royal presence. It had been his custom to season his conversation
with a multitude of indecorous oaths. Mr. Denison (afterwards Speaker,
and subsequently Viscount Ossington) spoke to him one day about some
points in the Poor Law Bill, then under consideration. Melbourne was
just going out for a ride, and referred Denison to his brother George.
"I have been with him," replied Denison, "but he damned me, and damned
the Bill, and damned the paupers." "Well, damn it! what more could he
do?" quoth Melbourne, and rode off.
In spite of all his affectation and a degree of underlying weakness,
this Minister performed a singularly valuable public service to his
country in the support and advice he afforded the Queen at the most
critical time of her life; a service that was explicitly and handsomely
acknowledged in the House of Lords by his chief opponent there, the Duke
of Wellington, in 1841.
[Illustration: _Sir David Wilkie, R.A._} {_By permission of the
Corporation of Glasgow._
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN IN 1839.]
[Sidenote: Prevailing discontent of the Working Classes.]
[Sidenote: Its causes.]
There was a great deal of brooding discontent in the country at the
opening of Queen Victoria's reign, which soon passed into a phase
calling for active measures of repression. Some have recognised in the
Chartist movement the chagrin of the working classes, who having
imparted to the mills of State the impetus necessary to grind out
political rights for their employers--the merchants, farmers, and middle
class generally--found themselves no better equipped for political
action than they were before. But such a suggestion finds no reflection
in actual experience of popular movements. Agitators might declaim in
vain against the injustice of a restricted franchise if their hearers
had no other cause for discontent. The real root of bitterness lay in
the suffering and distress caused by the severe winter of 1837-8, the
high price of bread,[C] and, on the top of all, detestation of the new
Poor Law. It is genuine grievances such as these which, from time to
time, force on the attention of those who suffer from them the glaring
contrast between the privations of the many and the superfluities of the
few. So, in 1838, hungry crowds were easily persuaded to listen to
denunciations of the privileged classes; to believe that the Queen and a
dilettante Prime Minister were insensible to their sufferings so long as
their own tables were abundantly supplied; and that Government was no
more than a machine for enriching the classes at the expense of the
masses.
[Illustration: _J. Doyle_, "_H. B._"} {_Political Sketches_, 1837.
DANIEL O'CONNELL, M.P.,
1775-1847.
Known as "The Liberator." Was an Irish barrister. Elected to the House
of Commons in 1828, he was the principal advocate of Catholic
Emancipation, and founder of the "Loyal National Repeal Association."
The sketch represents him on the watch for an opportunity to attack the
Government with the weapon of "Repeal."]
It has to be remembered, also, that during the development of crowded
centres of population, consequent on the rapid increase in various
industries, the artizan and mining classes found themselves at a great
disadvantage in negotiating with their employers, owing to the stringent
laws regulating trades unions. A whole generation was to pass away
before, in 1875, Mr. (now Viscount) Cross should pass a measure
abolishing criminal proceedings in cases of breach of engagement,
placing employer and workman on equal terms before the law, and enacting
that nothing which it was legal for a single workman to do should be
illegal when done by a combination of workmen or a trades union.
[Sidenote: The Chartists.]
The Whig leaders having declined to re-open the question of electoral
reform, a document was drawn up at a conference between a few Radical
members of Parliament and the representatives of the Working Men's
Association, formulating the demands made on behalf of the proletariate.
Universal male suffrage, annual Parliaments, vote by ballot, abolition
of the property qualification required at that time from a member of
Parliament, payment of members, and equal electoral districts, were the
six points insisted on; of which three, it will be seen, have since been
practically carried into effect. "There is your Charter!" exclaimed
O'Connell, handing it to the secretary of the Working Men's Association;
"agitate for it, and never be content with anything less." The term took
the popular fancy; the programme became known as the Charter, and those
who supported it were hereafter known as Chartists.
Not a very formidable programme after all, nor one that might not be
advanced by constitutional means, but one that, like many other popular
agitations, fell into dangerous paths by the imprudent zeal of some of
its advocates, and still more, by the violence of the discontented,
unfortunate, or predatory waifs of civilisation, ever ready to promote
any social change for the sake of what plunder it may bring within their
reach.
[Sidenote: Riots at Newport and elsewhere.]
In November 1839 the miners of the Newport district of Monmouthshire
assembled to the number of 10,000 under a tradesman called Frost and
attempted to release from gaol one Vincent, who had been imprisoned for
using seditious language. The mayor and magistrates of Newport, with a
handful of soldiers, offered a gallant resistance; the rioters were
dispersed with a loss of ten killed and fifty wounded, the mayor, Mr.
Phillips, receiving two gunshot wounds. Frost and two others were
afterwards convicted of high treason and sentenced to death. But the
dawn of milder methods of government had begun: the death sentence was
commuted by the Royal mercy to one of transportation for life: even that
was subsequently relaxed, and Frost was allowed to return to England
some years later to find himself and the Chartists an unquiet memory of
the past.
[Illustration: STEAMER POINT, ADEN.
The Peninsula of Aden was added to Her Majesty's dominions by conquest
in 1839. Its situation at the mouth of the Red Sea, on the direct route
to India and the East, makes it invaluable as a coaling-station both for
naval and mercantile purposes. In this district rain falls only about
once in three years. The town is supplied with wells and storage tanks
cut in the solid rock, the construction of which cost over £1,000,000.]
But in spite of the punishment of the Newport rioters, and hundreds of
others in different places, Chartism continued to spread until it
became merged in the more intelligent and fruitful agitation for the
repeal of the Corn Laws.
This great question was brought under the consideration of Parliament,
in the session of 1839, by Lord Brougham in the Lords on February 18,
and the following day by Mr. Charles Villiers in the Commons; but the
motion for inquiry was negatived without a division in the former and by
a majority of 189 in the latter. Both Parliament and country, however,
were to hear plenty about the Corn Duties in the next few years.
The Whig Ministry were now approaching the end of their second year of
office, and steadily losing favour in the country. They had earned the
enmity of the Chartists by their apathy to further reform; and the novel
advantage of Royal confidence in and affection for a Whig Prime Minister
did not affect the general drift of middle-class opinion. Meanwhile,
Peel was indefatigable on the platform securing popular support for the
new Conservatism.
[Illustration: _Hume Nisbet._}
"WILLIAM FAWCETT," THE FIRST P. & O. STEAMSHIP, IN THE GUT OF GIBRALTAR,
1837.
This was the first steamer employed in carrying mails to the Peninsular
ports in 1837. Tonnage, 206; horse-power, 60.]
[Sidenote: Fall of the Ministry.]
Drifting thus helplessly in the doldrums of unpopularity the Government
suddenly foundered on April 9, the immediate cause being a Bill for the
suspension of the Constitution of Jamaica. The second reading was
carried, indeed, by a majority of five; but the resignation of the
Ministry was immediately placed in Her Majesty's hands and accepted. It
put an end to an intolerable situation. Three days before the division
Greville wrote in his diary: "The Government is at its last gasp: the
result of the debate next week may possibly prolong its existence, as a
cordial does that of a dying man, but it cannot go on. They are
disunited, dissatisfied, and disgusted in the Cabinet."
[Illustration: _W. W. Lloyd._}
A MODERN LINER COMING UP THE THAMES.
The Royal Mail Steamer "Caledonia," belonging to the P. & O. Company, is
given as a contrast to the "William Fawcett." Tonnage, 7,758,
horse-power, 11,000.]
[Sidenote: Sir Robert Peel sent for.]
[Sidenote: The "Bedchamber Question."]
The Queen sent first for the Duke of Wellington, but he, having probably
little relish for leading a Government without a majority in the House
of Commons, excused himself on the grounds of his age and deafness, and
advised Her Majesty to lay the task on Sir Robert Peel. That statesman
replied, that having been party to a vote of the House which brought
about the situation, nothing should make him recoil from the obvious
difficulty of it, and he formed a Cabinet without delay. Then arose a
peculiar and unforeseen difficulty, known as "The Bedchamber Question."
Peel found no difficulty in filling up the important posts in the
Government, until it was explained to him that the Court Offices were
vacated with the Administrative ones, and that they also must be
supplied. He took up a Red Book, as he afterwards explained in
Parliament, learnt from it for the first time what were the different
appointments, and submitted to the Queen a list of names to replace all
except those below the rank of Lady of the Bedchamber. But Her Majesty
had other views, and the reader will more readily understand her
reluctance to part with those personal attendants, of whom she had grown
fond, by remembering the singular isolation of her youth, and the very
few acquaintances she possessed at the beginning of her reign.
[Sidenote: Melbourne recalled to Office.]
A difficulty of such slender proportions seems one that might have been
got round, but it was not to be. The Queen was inflexible, and Peel, on
principle, resigned his office. Lord Melbourne and his colleagues were
recalled; explanations followed in both Houses, and the incident
disappeared in a cloud of angry gossip. Peel was relieved from a
position the reverse of enviable, and Melbourne had to stand the brunt
of a tirade from the relentless Brougham and resume the reins which he
had allowed to slip from a somewhat reluctant hand.
[Illustration: EARLY TRAVELLING POSTAL VAN, LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM
RAILWAY.]
As for the cause of dispute, it was not finally disposed of till after
the Queen's marriage, when, on the suggestion of Prince Albert, it was
settled that on a change of Ministry the Queen should arrange for the
voluntary resignation of any ladies whom, being relations or very
intimate friends of leaders in opposition, it might, in the opinion of
the Prime Minister, be inconvenient to retain in office.
[Illustration: TRAVELLING POSTAL VAN ON THE LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN
RAILWAY.
Interior, showing sorters at work, and exterior with net extended for
taking in mails, and bag hung ready for delivery while the train is in
motion.]
[Sidenote: The Penny Post.]
It sometimes happens that Ministries which are least conspicuous by the
brilliancy of their career or the talents of those who compose them,
nevertheless confer the most lasting benefits on the nation. The
crowning achievement of the Melbourne administration originated neither
with a Minister, nor with one of those permanent officials upon whom
Ministers rely to make up for their own inexperience of departmental
work, but with a humble school teacher. Nobody at this day connects
penny postage with the name of Mr. Spring Rice, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, who paved the way for it in the Budget of 1839, but it is
inseparably associated with the memory of its inventor, Sir Rowland
Hill. The son of a schoolmaster, Rowland had an extraordinary inborn
love for arithmetic, and became mathematical master in his father's
school. This natural talent, it is said, was directed to the study of
Post Office statistics by an anecdote told of Coleridge, who happened to
see a poor woman in the Lake district refuse to accept delivery of a
letter from a postman because she could not afford to pay the
postage--one shilling. Coleridge, hearing that the letter was from her
brother, good-naturedly insisted on paying the fee, notwithstanding the
woman's reluctance; but no sooner was the postman's back turned than she
showed him that the letter consisted of nothing but a blank sheet. It
had been agreed between her and her brother that he should send her such
a blank sheet once a quarter so long as things went well with him,
marking the cover so that she should not require to accept delivery, and
that in this way she should get his mute message without need to pay
postage. Hill detected the economic fallacy which opened the way to such
innocent roguery, and rested not till he had devised means to remedy it.
He published his design in pamphlet form in 1837, advancing the bold
proposition that the smaller the fee charged for carrying letters the
greater would be the multiplication of correspondence, and the larger
the profit to the Department. He proposed an uniform charge upon letters
of one penny a half ounce, irrespective of distance. It was the
application to the public service of a commercial principle by which
large fortunes have been repeatedly realised in private business, but
the plan was unhesitatingly condemned by the Post Office authorities.
The Postmaster-General, Lord Lichfield, spoke of it in the House of
Lords as the wildest and most extravagant scheme of all the wild and
extravagant ones he had ever listened to. Colonel Maberley, Secretary to
the Post Office, declared the experiment was certain to fail, though he
was of opinion that no obstruction should be placed in the way of it,
lest the Government should afterwards be blamed for not giving it a
trial. Lastly, Sydney Smith may be quoted as representing educated
public opinion: "A million of revenue is given up," he said, "to the
nonsensical Penny Post Scheme, to please my old, excellent, and
universally dissentient friend, Noah Warburton. I admire the Whig
Ministry, and think they have done more good things than all the
Ministries since the Revolution; but these concessions are sad and
unworthy marks of weakness, and fill reasonable men with alarm."
[Illustration: _J. A. Vinter._} {_National Portrait Gallery._
SIR ROWLAND HILL, 1795-1879.
Originator of the system of uniform Penny Postage with prepayment by
stamps.]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE GENERAL POST OFFICE AT THE TIME OF THE
INTRODUCTION OF PENNY POSTAGE.]
Mr. Warburton and Mr. Wallace were the two members of Parliament who
most warmly advocated the project of Rowland Hill. But credit is due to
the courage shown by Mr. Spring Rice, Chancellor of the Exchequer, who,
in the face of a deficit of three-quarters of a million, was bold enough
to adopt the scheme and make provision for it in his Budget. Sir Robert
Peel and Mr. Goulbourn criticised the proposal mainly on the ground that
it involved a risk of loss to the revenue which ought not to be incurred
in the existing state of the finances; but on a division the resolution
was carried by a majority of 102, and the Bill carrying it into effect
subsequently passed without a division. This reform, the offspring of
the genius of an obscure mathematical teacher, and so modestly brought
to light, has since been adopted by every civilised community in the
world. To realise the boon thereby conferred on commercial and general
intercourse it is only necessary to recall the postal regulations in
force in Great Britain previous to 1839. Letters could not be prepaid;
the charge for postage varied according to distance, and also according
to the weight, shape, and size of letters. Thus, a letter posted in
London for Brighton cost the recipient a fee of eightpence; the rate
from London to Aberdeen was 1_s._ 3-1/2_d._, and to Belfast 1_s._ 4_d._
No wonder, then, that, in a time of expanding trade, the Chancellor
of the Exchequer found himself supported in his proposal by countless
petitions from commercial centres in favour of cheaper postage. But
there was more than this: there was the flagrant injustice of the
system of official franks. Members of the Government and of Parliament
had the privilege of free postage, not only for their own letters but
for those of their friends by simply writing their names on the cover.
This privilege had grown to the dimensions of a gross abuse; people who
enjoyed the friendship of a Minister were not the least shy of pestering
him for franks; the revenue was defrauded, and those who were least able
to bear the cost had to pay a high fee in order to recoup the Department
for the loss on letters written by wealthy people.
[Illustration: GENERAL POST OFFICE, ST. MARTIN'S LE-GRAND, IN 1837.
This building, erected in the reign of George IV., is still used as the
central office for sorting and forwarding the mails.]
[Illustration: MAIL COACHES LEAVING THE GENERAL POST OFFICE, 1837.
_From a print of that date._]
Such being the case for reform from a popular point of view, it was
hardly less urgent from a departmental one. The Post Office had then, as
it has now, a monopoly of conveying correspondence; but the high rates
charged had driven people to various means of infringing that monopoly.
There had arisen all sorts of illegal and clandestine enterprises for
carrying letters at cheap rates. It had been proved before the Committee
which considered Mr. Hill's scheme that five-sixths of the
correspondence between London and Manchester had been smuggled for many
years; one great firm having despatched sixty-seven letters by unlawful
agency for every one that went through the Post Office. Between 1815 and
1835 the population had increased by thirty per cent., and the
stage-coach duty by 128 per cent., yet the revenue of the Post Office
had remained stationary.
The proposed reduction from an average rate of sixpence farthing to one
penny was certainly a startling one. The Committee above referred to had
recommended an uniform twopenny rate, but Spring Rice told the House of
Commons that he had become convinced that the loss to the revenue (for
no practical man, except, perhaps, Rowland Hill himself, doubted that
loss there must be) would be less from a penny rate. He estimated in his
Budget the sacrifice at about £700,000.
[Sidenote: Its remarkable Success.]
The wildest enthusiasts can never have contemplated what have been the
actual results as revealed by the Post Office returns of 1895-6. In 1837
there were 80,000 letters and 44,000 newspapers delivered through the
Post Office in the United Kingdom--a total of 124,000 deliveries. In the
twelve months of 1895-6 the returns show that the deliveries (exclusive
of telegrams) amounted to the stupendous figure of 3,031,553,196,
representing 2,248 times the volume of business transacted in 1837, and
producing a nett profit of £3,632,122. Certain races of primitive
savages, it is said, have never acquired the art of counting beyond two;
everything beyond a pair being reckoned as "plenty." Such figures as
those quoted above baffle even ordinary civilised powers of calculation;
very few persons are able to apprehend the idea of a million; much less
can they grasp the reality of growth represented in thousands of
millions. Perhaps, the magnitude of the Post Office business at the
present day can be best illustrated by its miscarriages. The value of
property found in letters opened in the Returned Letter Offices in 1896
amounted to £580,000.
[Illustration: GENERAL POST OFFICE--NEW NORTH BUILDING.
This building, completed in 1895, is occupied by the official,
financial, and clerical staffs of the Post Office.]
[Illustration: {_From an Engraving._
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN LEAVING WINDSOR CASTLE FOR THE REVIEW,
September 28, 1837.
The Queen, who is in semi-military habit and rides a white horse, is
attended by her uncle, the King of the Belgians, on her right, with Lord
Hill, Commander of the Forces, on her left, and the Duke of Wellington
behind.]
The Penny Post, then, endures as the single masterpiece of the Melbourne
Ministry, affording another example, if one were wanting, how men become
famous for the achievements on which they pride themselves least.
Macaulay, having returned from India at this time, had re-entered
Parliament as member for Edinburgh, and joined the Cabinet as Secretary
for War. Greville quotes him as having declared that he wished he could
destroy all that he had written up to that date, for he thought "his
time had been thrown away upon _opuscula_ unworthy of his talents." He
had resolved to apply himself to serious work--the History of England.
But much of his literary renown rests on these _opuscula_: most people
esteem Macaulay the essayist far more highly than Macaulay the historian
or Macaulay the Minister. Greville himself, in relating this anecdote,
unconsciously illustrates the inability of men to judge of their own
performances. Speculating what Macaulay might have been "if he had
wasted his time and frittered away his intellect as I have done mine,"
the diarist proceeds, "if I had been carefully trained and subjected to
moral discipline, I might have acted a creditable and useful part."
Possibly; but in that case the journal, by which alone Greville is
remembered, had never been written.
[Illustration: CENTRAL POSTAL TELEGRAPH OFFICE.
This large building, officially known as the "G.P.O. West," occupies the
corner of Newgate Street opposite to the General Post Office at St.
Martin's-le-Grand. It was erected in 1870-74, and is entirely devoted to
telegraphic business. The uppermost three floors are operating rooms, of
the interior of one of which we give a view on page 31.]
[Sidenote: Betrothal of the Queen.]
Before the close of the year announcement was made of an event of the
highest importance, which was to affect in a very large degree the
material progress of the nation as well as the character and happiness
of the monarch. On November 23 the Queen held a Privy Council at
Buckingham Palace, and made known her intention to marry her cousin, the
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
"About eighty Privy Councillors were present," writes Greville, "the
folding doors were thrown open and the Queen came in, attired in a plain
morning gown, but wearing a bracelet containing Prince Albert's picture.
She read the declaration in a clear, sonorous, sweet-toned voice, but
her hands trembled so excessively that I wonder she was able to read the
paper which she held."
[Illustration: _W. C. Ross, A.R.A._} {_By permission of Messrs. Graves._
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT AT THE TIME OF HIS MARRIAGE.]
[Sidenote: Character of Prince Albert.]
Prince Albert, the second son of Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld,
by Louisa, daughter of Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Attenburg, was very
nearly the same age as the Queen, having been born on August 26, 1819.
Royal alliances are so often the outcome of purely political or
prudential calculation that people are apt to assume that the deeper
personal feelings are not allowed to weigh with the persons most
concerned; but young men and women are not the less human because they
are born in the purple, and Queen Victoria's marriage was as much a love
match as that of any village maid. But she had set her affections on one
of a disposition and habits not commonly to be found in any station of
life. Not only was Prince Albert remarkably handsome and amiable, but he
had sedulously cultivated natural gifts of a very high order. He had
made himself a good musician, he had penetrated far in natural science,
made a special study of social politics, and was well read in general
literature. He was known to have steered a clear course among the
temptations which peculiarly beset a young man of princely rank and
fortune. All this he might have been, and yet, had there not been
something to balance it, he might have proved no fitting consort of the
young Queen of the English. But there was another side to his character.
Erudite, he was completely without the fastidious or shy manner which
sometimes imparts a blemish to learning, for his manner in society was
extremely fascinating; of artistic tastes, he was soon to prove himself
capable in business. Last, but not least, in view of an English public,
he was an accomplished horseman, and devoted to field sports.
[Illustration: _W. A. Knell._} {_From the Royal Collection._
THE LANDING OF PRINCE ALBERT AT DOVER, February 6, 1840.
His Royal Highness experienced very bad weather in crossing the
Channel.]
[Sidenote: Announcement to Parliament.]
The Queen opened Parliament in person on January 16, 1840, and her
speech included the formal announcement of her betrothal to Prince
Albert. Strangely enough the first criticism came from the Duke of
Wellington, of all her subjects the least likely to question Her
Majesty's decision. He complained that it ought to have been officially
declared that Prince Albert was a Protestant, and he moved to insert the
word "Protestant" in the Address in reply to the speech from the throne.
Lord Melbourne thought the amendment was superfluous, but it was agreed
to without a division.
[Sidenote: Debates.]
Less harmonious were the proceedings of the following week in the other
House, when Lord John Russell moved for a grant of £50,000 a year to the
Queen's consort, to be paid out of the Consolidated Fund. Colonel
Sibthorpe, a Tory member, well-known for his eccentricity, moved an
amendment to substitute £30,000, which was supported by Sir Robert Peel
and the Opposition. Lord John resisted it with great warmth, declaring
that "no Sovereign of this country had been insulted in such a manner as
her present Majesty had been"; but the Government were badly defeated by
a combination of Tories and Radicals, and Colonel Sibthorpe's amendment
was carried by a majority of 104.
[Illustration: _W. Drummond._} {_From an Engraving in the British
Museum._
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN IN HER BRIDAL DRESS.]
[Sidenote: A famous duel.]
The fact is that people who have grown up familiar only with the present
relations of the Royal family with the public can hardly realise how
prevalently censorious opinions were held regarding the Queen, and how
much prejudice Prince Albert had to live down. On the 17th of the very
month in which these debates took place, a duel was fought between Mr.
Horsman, Whig member for Cockermouth, and Mr. Bradshaw, who had used
discourteous and disloyal language about the Queen in a speech made at
Canterbury. Horsman had said that Bradshaw had the tongue of a traitor
and the heart of a coward. After an exchange of shots, the seconds
induced Bradshaw to retract and apologise. It may be mentioned here that
the abolition of duelling was one of the first objects to which Prince
Albert devoted his efforts after his naturalisation. He proposed the
substitution of Courts of Honour to arbitrate in quarrels between
gentlemen, and though he did not prevail on the Commander-in-Chief to
establish these, there can be no doubt that the Prince's personal
influence was greatly the cause of suppressing a system which was in
full force during the early years of the reign.
[Illustration: _Sir G. Hayter, R.A._} {_From the Royal Collection_ (_by
permission of Messrs. Graves, Publishers of the Engraving_).
A. Prince George of Cambridge.
B. Duchess of Cambridge.
C. Princess Mary.
D. Prince Ernest.
E. Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
F. Queen Adelaide.
G. Prince Albert.
H. The Queen.
J. Duke of Sussex.
K. Archbishop of Canterbury.
L. Duchess of Kent.
M. Princess Augusta of Cambridge.
N. Duke of Cambridge.
P. Princess Sophia Matilda.
THE MARRIAGE OF THE QUEEN AND PRINCE ALBERT AT THE CHAPEL ROYAL, ST.
JAMES'S, February 10, 1840.]
[Sidenote: The Queen fired at.]
The Queen's marriage to Prince Albert was celebrated on February 10,
1840. During the summer of that year the Queen was fired at by a lunatic
potboy as she drove up Constitution Hill with the Prince, but happily
escaped all injury. One sometimes hears doubts expressed about the
necessity for the elaborate precautions taken for the safety of Royal
personages, who, it is supposed by some people, might safely trust
themselves more freely to the goodwill of their subjects. But there is
nothing more certain than this--that, however popular or deserving a
monarch may be, there are always crazed or desperate individuals with
schemes of insult or violence, waiting an opportunity to carry them out.
[Sidenote: War declared with China.]
The relations of Great Britain and the East India Company with China had
for some years been drifting into very unfriendly conditions, arising
out of the opium trade. The Chinese Government had strictly prohibited
the importation of opium--a measure commanding the sincere sympathy of
those in this country who condemned all use of opium as an unmitigated
physical and moral evil. But India derived enormous profits from the
opium trade, and her traders used every device to evade the
restrictions. It was suspected, and the Foreign Secretary, Lord
Palmerston, endorsed the suspicion, that the policy of the Chinese
Government had nothing to do with the morality of the trade, but was
concerned only to protect the native opium industry. The wheels of
diplomacy ran heavily between the "Heavenly Dynasty" and the British
Foreign Office for many years, till at last they were brought to a stand
by the sudden outbreak of war. Lord Palmerston had appointed three
superintendents to look after the interests of British traders in
Chinese ports, and invested them with a semi-diplomatic character. Thus
it came to pass that when, after months of procrastination, Her
Majesty's Government at last announced that "they could not interfere
for the purpose of enabling British subjects to violate the laws of the
country with which they traded," thus practically forbidding the opium
trade, Captain Elliott, the chief superintendent, read between the lines
of the despatch, and, on the Chinese authorities seizing a large
quantity of opium in British vessels, requested the Governor of India to
send warships for the protection of Englishmen trading in China. The
request was promptly complied with by the despatch of two frigates, the
_Volage_ and the _Hyacinth_, which attacked a Chinese fleet of
twenty-nine junks below Hong Kong, blew up one of them, sunk three, and
knocked the rest about in fine style.
[Illustration: _W. H. Overend._} {_From Contemporary Sketches._
THE "VOLAGE" AND "HYACINTH" ENGAGING TWENTY-NINE CHINESE JUNKS.]
[Sidenote: Capture of Chusan.]
[Sidenote: Bombardment of the Bogue Forts.]
A strong armament of fourteen warships and several transports was
assembled at Singapore, the command of which was given to Admiral
Elliott. Before his arrival, however, in the _Melville_, 74, the second
in command, Commodore Sir J. Gordon Bremer, captured the island of
Chusan, on July 5, with its capital--a walled city six miles in
circumference. Negotiations for peace were then opened, but the Chinese
authorities prolonged them on so many various pretexts, while busily
erecting batteries at the Bogue, near Canton, that Commodore Bremer
broke off the proceedings and prepared for action. The Bogue Forts were
bombarded, and two of them were captured on January 7, 1841; after
further fruitless parleying the bombardment was re-opened on February
19, and the whole chain of defences were taken. After each successive
engagement, Captain Elliott, the civil superintendent, attempted to
obtain a pacific settlement with the enemy; but forbearance was
invariably interpreted by the Mandarin as a sign of weakness, and it was
not till the troops under Sir Hugh Gough, had fought their way to the
walls of Canton that Captain Elliott was able to announce that terms of
peace had been agreed to, just forty-five minutes before a general
attack on Canton was to have taken place.
[Illustration: _J. Doyle_ ("_H. B._").} {_Political Sketches, 1840._
CHINESE JUGGLERS.
Sir J. Graham, who attacked the Government with a Motion in regard to
the conduct of the Chinese War in 1840 and nearly defeated them, is here
represented as drawing forth reels of Chinese Papers and Blue Books from
Lord Palmerston. John Bull, in the background, is remarking, "What an
enormous quantity of paper for any man to swallow!"]
[Illustration: SIGNATURES OF THE QUEEN AND PRINCE CONSORT IN 1840.]
[Sidenote: Peace concluded under the Walls of Nankin.]
Once more peace negotiations broke down: hostilities were resumed;
Chusan was re-occupied; Amoy, believed by the Chinese to be impregnable,
was taken by assault on August 25, 1842; the capture of Chinghai and
Ningpo followed; and when Sir H. Gough appeared before Nankin the
Chinese Government finally agreed to accept the terms imposed as the
conditions of peace. Five millions and three-quarters sterling were
exacted as an indemnity; the island of Hong Kong was ceded to Great
Britain, and five principal Chinese ports were thrown open to British
trade.
[Illustration: _C. R. Leslie, R.A._} {_From the Royal Collection._
A. Duchess of Gloucester.
B. Duchess of Kent.
C. Duke of Sussex.
D. Queen Adelaide.
E. Archbishop of Canterbury christening
F. the Royal Infant.
G. Archbishop of York.
H. The Queen.
J. Prince Consort.
THE CHRISTENING OF THE PRINCESS ROYAL AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE, February 10,
1841.
Her Majesty's eldest child, the Princess Royal, was born November
21, 1840, and christened Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa.]