[Illustration: H. R. H. THE PRINCESS OF WALES.
_From a Photograph by Messrs. W. & D. Downey, London._]
THE
LIFE AND TIMES
OF
QUEEN VICTORIA.
BY
ROBERT WILSON.
Illustrated.
VOL. III.
[Illustration]
CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED:
_LONDON, PARIS & MELBOURNE._
[ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.]
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
LORD DERBY’S SECOND ADMINISTRATION. PAGE
A Commercial Crisis--Suspension of the Bank Act--The Fall of
Lucknow--Sir Hugh Rose in Central India--Last Days of the
Rebellion--The Operations in China--The Queen’s Personal Direction of
Affairs--Palmerston’s waning Popularity--Attacks on Lord Canning--The
Orsini Plot--French Menaces to England--The Conspiracy Bill--Defeat
of the Ministry--The Second Derby-Disraeli Government--Abandonment of
the Conspiracy Bill--The Queen’s Opposition to the India Bill--The
Oudh Proclamation and Ellenborough’s “Secret Despatch”--A Tropical
Summer and an Exhausted Legislature--Confirmation of the Prince
of Wales--The Queen at Birmingham and Leeds--The Dispute between
France and England about the Principalities--The Queen’s Visit to
Cherbourg--The Royal Visit to Prussia--The Meeting with the Princess
Frederick William--A Royal “Middie”--The Indian Proclamation--The
Queen at Balmoral--Donati’s Comet--The Controversy over the Indian
Army--Abdication of the King of Prussia--The Queen’s Letter to the
Prince of Wales--France and Portugal--Failing Health of the Prince
Consort 1
CHAPTER II.
THE ITALIAN REVOLUTION.
Napoleon’s New Year’s Reception--The Secret _Pacte de Famille_--Victor
Emmanuel and the _Grido di Dolore_--The Queen’s Views on the Italian
Movement--The Queen’s Letter to Napoleon--Meeting of Parliament--Cavour
Threatens Napoleon--Appeal of Prussia to the Queen for Advice--Mr.
Disraeli’s Reform Bill--Lord John Russell’s Amendment--Defeat of the
Government--An Appeal to the Country--The Queen Criticises Austria’s
Blunders--War at Last--The General Election--Reconciliation of
Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell--Fall of the Derby-Disraeli
Administration--The Palmerston-Russell Ministry--Austrian Defeats and
French Victories--The Peace of Villafranca--Palmerston Duped--Illness
of the Duchess of Kent--The Budget--The Queen and Palmerston--Triumph
of the Queen’s Policy--The Holiday at Balmoral--Dancing in the New
Year 28
CHAPTER III.
THE COURT AND THE CABINET.
The Queen’s Distrust of French Policy--Her Conferences with
Lord Clarendon--The French Pamphlet on “The Pope and the
Congress”--Palmerston’s Proposal of an Alliance Offensive and Defensive
with France--Intriguing between Palmerston and Persigny--Recall
of Cavour--Affairs in China--Mr. Cobden’s Commercial Treaty with
France--Cession of Nice and Savoy to France--The Anglo-French Alliance
at an End--Lord John Russell’s Reform Bill--Threatened Rupture with
France--Russia Attempts to Re-open the Eastern Question--Garibaldi’s
Invasion of the Two Sicilies--Collapse of the Neapolitan Monarchy--The
Piedmontese Invade the Papal States--Annexation of the Sicilies to
Sardinia--Meeting between Napoleon III. and the German Sovereigns at
Baden--A New Holy Alliance--The Mahometan Atrocities in Syria--The
Macdonald Scandal--Palmerston’s Fortification Scheme--The Lords Reject
the Bill Abolishing the Paper Duty--The Volunteer Movement--Reviews
in Hyde Park and Edinburgh--The Queen at Wimbledon--The Prince of
Wales’s Tour in Canada and the United States--Betrothal of the Princess
Alice--The Queen and her Grandchild--Serious Accident to the Prince
Consort--Illness of the Queen 43
CHAPTER IV.
THE DEATH OF THE PRINCE CONSORT.
England in 1861--The Jumble of Parties--Secret Alliance Between
Palmerston and the Tories--Opening of Parliament--The Prince Consort
and the “Two Old Italian Masters”--Lady William Russell’s _Salon_--The
Proposed Sale of Venice--The Fall of Gaeta--Prussia and Italy--Death of
Cavour--A _Casus Belli_ against France--Napoleon in the East--Denmark
and the Duchies--The Queen’s Private Sorrows--Last Illness and Death
of the Duchess of Kent--Renewed Attacks in the Press on Prince
Albert--Palmerston Accused of Tampering with Despatches--Anecdote
of Lord Derby and Lord Granville--The Budget--Repeal of the Paper
Duty--Palmerston’s “Grudge” Against Prince Albert--The Marriage of
the Princess Alice announced--The Queen and Her Social Duties--Two
Drawing-Rooms and Two Investitures--A Season of Mourning--Death of Lord
Herbert of Lea--Lord John Russell’s Peerage--Reform and the Working
Classes--Ministerial Changes--The Queen’s Tour in Ireland--The Queen
and German Unity--Coronation of the King of Prussia--Death of the
King of Portugal--Fatigue of the Prince Consort--Signs of His Last
Illness--The Queen at Her Husband’s Sick-Bed--A Mournful Vigil--The
Prince Consort’s Last Words--Scene at the Death-Bed--The Sorrow of the
Country--The Queen’s Despair--Her Removal from Windsor--Prince Albert’s
Character and Career--His Funeral--The Scene at the Grave--The Queen
and the Princess Alice 73
CHAPTER V.
WAR AND FAMINE.
Outbreak of Civil War in the United States--Origin of the
Dispute--The Missouri Compromise--Effect of the “Gold Rush” on the
Extension of Slavery--Colonising Nebraska--The Struggle in “Bleeding
Kansas”--Assault on Senator Sumner--The Wyandotte Constitution--The
Dred Scott Case--Election of Mr. Lincoln as President--Secession
of South Carolina--Organisation of the Southern Confederacy--The
Firing of the First Shot--Capture of Fort Sumter--Lincoln’s Call to
Arms--Opinion in England--The _Trent_ Affair--The Queen and the Prince
Consort avert War--Opening of Parliament--Bitter Controversy over the
Education Code--Parliament and the Civil War--The Cotton Famine--A
Relief Bill--War Expenditure--Mr. Disraeli denounces Lord Palmerston’s
“Bloated Armaments”--A Budget without a Surplus--The Fortifications at
Spithead--Floating versus Fixed Forts--A Mexican Adventure--Revolution
in Greece--Bismarck’s Visit to London--Anecdote of Bismarck and Mr.
Disraeli--Progress of the American War--Mr. Peabody’s Benefactions--The
Exhibition of 1862--The Prince of Wales’s Tour in the East--The Hartley
Colliery Accident--Marriage of the Princess Alice--The Queen’s Visit
to Belgium--Her Meeting with the Princess Alexandra of Denmark--The
Queen’s Visit to Gotha--Removal of the Prince Consort’s Remains to the
Mausoleum at Frogmore 111
CHAPTER VI.
THE MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCE OF WALES.
England in 1863--The Prince of Wales Summoned as a Peer of
Parliament--His Introduction to the House of Lords--Cession of the
Ionian Islands to Greece--Mr. Disraeli’s Policy--The Prince of Wales’s
Income--The Dowry of the Princess--Approaching Marriage of the Prince
of Wales--The Voyage of the “Sea-King’s Daughter”--Reception of the
Princess Alexandra at Gravesend--Her Entry into London--The Scene in
the City--The West End _en Fête_--Loyalty of Clubland--Accident to the
Royal Party at Slough--The High Churchmen and the Queen--Objections
to a Royal Marriage in Lent--The Dispensing Power of the Primate--A
Visit to Frogmore--The Queen at the Prince of Wales’s Marriage--The
Scene in St. George’s Chapel--The Wedding Presents--The Ceremony--The
Wedding Guests hustled by Roughs--Riots in Ireland--Illuminated
London--Foreign Policy--The Polish Question--The Russian Rebuff to
Lord Palmerston--Napoleon III. Proposes a Congress of Sovereigns--Lord
Russell Condemns the Proposal--The Death-Knell of the Anglo-French
Alliance--France and Mexico and the Archduke Maximilian 146
CHAPTER VII.
LORD PALMERSTON’S LAST CONTEST WITH THE QUEEN.
The Sleswig-Holstein Question--The Danish Succession--Palmerston’s
Partisanship--The “Danification” of the Duchies--The Letters-Patent of
Christian VIII.--The Revolution of ’48--The Sleswig-Holstein Treaty
of Berlin--Salic Law in the Duchies--Palmerston’s Intrigue with the
Russian Ambassador--The Protocol of 1850--The Queen’s Objections
to it--Prince Albert’s Advice to the Prince of Noër--The Treaty of
London--Lord Malmesbury’s Fatal Blunder--His Mistake as to the Mandate
of the Diet--Letters-Patent of Frederick VII.--His Death--Accession
of Christian IX.--Revolt of the Duchies--Proclamation of the Duke
of Augustenburg as Sovereign--Mr. Gladstone’s Popular Budget--Death
of Sir George Cornewall Lewis--The Queen’s Letter to Lady Theresa
Lewis--The Dispute with Brazil--The Prison Ministers Bill--A South
Kensington Job--Hoodwinking the Commons--A “Scene” in the House
of Commons--A Ministerial Defeat--Sir George Grey and the City
Police--The Civil War in America--Escape of the _Alabama_--Illegal
Seizure of the _Alexandra_--Blockade Running--Proclamation Abolishing
Slavery--Progress of the War--Net Results of the Campaigns 164
CHAPTER VIII.
THE DANISH WAR.
Stagnant Politics--Excitement over the Danish War--Attitude of the
Queen--Withdrawal of the Danes from Holstein--Lord Wodehouse’s
Mission--The _Quarterly Review_ advocates War--Mr. Disraeli
Repudiates a War Policy--Lord Palmerston’s Secret Plans--The Case
against Germany--The Queen’s Warnings--Mr. Cobden’s Arguments--Lord
Russell’s “Demands”--Palmerston drafts a Warlike Queen’s Speech--The
Queen Refuses to Sanction it--Lord Derby Summoned to Osborne--He is
Pledged to a Peace Policy--Austria and Prussia in Conflict with the
Diet--The Occupation of Sleswig--War at Last--Retreat of the Danes
to Düppel--Palmerston’s Protests Answered by German Victories--The
Invasion of Jutland--Storming of the Düppel Redoubts--Excitement in
London--Garibaldi’s Visit to London--Garibaldi and the Dowager Duchess
of Sutherland--Anecdotes of Garibaldi’s Visit--Clarendon’s Visit to
Napoleon III.--Expulsion of Garibaldi by Palmerston--Napoleon III.
Agrees to Accept the Proposal for a Conference--Triumph of the Queen’s
Peace Policy--Palmerston’s Last Struggle--His Ministry Saved by
Surrender to Mr. Cobden--The Treaty of Vienna--End of the War 186
CHAPTER IX.
THE HEIR-PRESUMPTIVE.
Disputes with American Belligerents--The Southern
Privateers--Uneasiness of the Queen--Federal Recruiting in
Ireland--Mr. Gladstone’s Budget--Revival of the Reform Agitation--Mr.
Gladstone Joins the Reformers--“Essays and Reviews”--A Heresy-Hunt
in Convocation--A Ribald Chancellor--The Parliamentary Duel between
Wilberforce and Westbury--The Vote of Censure on Mr. Lowe--The
Five Under-Secretaries and the House of Commons--Prorogation of
Parliament--The Strife in the United States--Gambling in Cotton--A
Commercial Panic in England--The Battle of Chancellorsville--Sherman’s
March through Georgia--The Canadian Raiders--The Presidential
Election--Birth of the Heir-Presumptive--Baptism of the
Heir-Presumptive--The Queen’s Gift to her Little Grandson--The Queen
and the Floods at Sheffield--The Murder of Mr. Briggs--The Queen
Refuses a Reprieve to the Murderer--The Queen’s Letter to the Princess
Louis--John Brown and the Queen’s Pony--Dr. Norman McLeod’s Message
from the Queen--An Anniversary of Sorrow and Sympathy 211
CHAPTER X.
THE DEATH OF PALMERSTON.
Opening of Parliament--Lord Russell and the American
Government--Catholicism and Conservatism--Mr. Disraeli angles
for the Irish Vote--Palmerston on Tenant Right--Another Panic
in Piccadilly--Death of Cobden--Failure of the “Manchester
School”--A Prosperity Budget and a Round Surplus--End of the
American War--Moderation of the Victors--Assassination of President
Lincoln--Reorganising the South--Conflict between President Johnson and
the Republican Party--The Mexican Empire and the United States--The
Danish Question--The Convention of Gastein--Bismarck’s Interview
with the Duke of Augustenburg--The Mystery of Biarritz--Lord
Chancellor Westbury’s Fall--Death and Character of Palmerston--The New
Ministry--Mr. Gladstone Leader of the Commons--The Rinderpest--The
Fenian Conspiracy--The Queen’s Letter on Railway Accidents--Laxity of
Administration in the Queen’s Household--Birth of Prince George of
Wales--Majority of Prince Alfred--The Queen at Gotha--The Betrothal
of the Princess Helena--The Last Illness and Death of King Leopold
of Belgium--His Character and Career--Suppressing a Rebellion with a
Carpet-Bag 231
CHAPTER XI.
A STOP-GAP ADMINISTRATION.
End of the Era of Compromise--Dawn of the new Epoch of Reform--Opening
of Parliament by the Queen--The Queen’s Nervous Prostration at
Osborne--Introduction of the Reform Bill--Hostility of the House of
Commons--Dissentient Liberals in “the Cave of Adullam”--Defeat of
the Reform Bill--Resignation of the Ministry--Lord Derby forms a
Cabinet--His attempted Coalition with the Whig Dukes--Domestic Policy
during the Session--The House of Commons and the Rinderpest--Another
Prosperity Budget--Large Remissions of Taxation--Coercing Ireland--The
White Terror in Jamaica--Marriage of the Princess Helena--The Financial
Embarrassment of the Princess Louis of Hesse--The Queen Intercedes
with Prussia on behalf of Hesse-Darmstadt--The Queen’s Gift to Mr.
Peabody--The Queen’s Visit to Aldershot--The Foundation of the Albert
Medal--Marriage of the Princess Mary of Cambridge--The Queen’s first
Telegram to the President of the United States--The Queen’s Visit to
Aberdeen and Wolverhampton 252
CHAPTER XII.
THE TIDE OF DEMOCRACY.
Stemming the Tide of Democracy--Lord Derby and Reform--The
Reform League--The Riots in Hyde Park--Cowing the Ministry--The
Adullamites--Mr. Disraeli’s Resolutions--Crises in the Cabinet--The Ten
Minutes Bill--The Government Measure--Mr. Gladstone’s Alterations--A
Leap in the Dark--The Movement in Favour of German Unity--The
Austro-Prussian War--The Luxembourg Question--Execution of the Emperor
Maximilian--Mr. Disraeli’s Budget--Academic Discussions of Irish
Grievances--Fenian Outrages at Manchester and Clerkenwell--Rattening at
Sheffield--Prince Arthur Passes his Military Examination--Illness of
the Princess of Wales--Founding of the Royal Albert Hall--The Sultan
in England--Abdul Aziz, K.G.--Visit of the Queen to the Duchess of
Roxburghe--Dr. Macleod at Balmoral--Prince Arthur ill of Smallpox--The
Queen Keeping Hallowe’en--Her Majesty Visits Lady Palmerston 269
CHAPTER XIII.
THE NEW ERA OF REFORM.
A “Little War” in Abyssinia--King Theodore’s Arrest of Vice-Consul
Cameron--The Unanswered Letter to the Queen--A Skilful but
Expensive General--Sir Robert Napier’s Expedition--An Autumnal
Session--Addition to the Income Tax--Parliament in 1868--A Spiritless
Legislature--Fishing for a Policy--Apologetic Ministers--Mr. Bright
on Repeal--The Irish Church Question--Fenian Alarms--Illness
and Resignation of Lord Derby--Mr. Disraeli Prime Minister--His
Quarrel with Lord Chelmsford--Lord Derby Arbitrates--The
“Giant Chancellor”--Mr. Disraeli’s New Policy--Discontented
Adullamites--Public Executions--Lord Mayo and Concurrent
Endowment--“The Pill to Cure the Earthquake”--Mr. Gladstone Attacks
the Government--The Irish Church Resolutions--Resignation or
Dissolution--Mr. Disraeli’s “No Popery” Cry--Lord Chelmsford’s Bad
Pun--Defeat of the Ministry--Mr. Disraeli and the Queen--“Scenes”
in the House of Commons--Charges of Treason--Mr. Disraeli’s
Relations with the Queen--A Parliamentary Duel between Mr. Disraeli
and Mr. Bright--The Dissolution of Parliament--Mr. Ward Hunt’s
Budget--Conclusion of the Abyssinian War--The General Election--Triumph
of Mr. Gladstone--Resignation of the Ministry--Mr. Gladstone’s New
Cabinet--The Queen’s Politeness to Mr. Bright--Illness of Prince
Leopold--Attempted Assassination of the Duke of Edinburgh--The
Queen’s Book--The Queen Accused of Heresy--The West-End Tradesmen
and the Queen--Mr. Reardon, M.P., suggests Abdication--A Bungled
Volunteer Review at Windsor--A Hot London Season--Serious Illness
of the Queen--Her Tour in Switzerland--Death of the Archbishop of
Canterbury--Conflict between the Queen and Mr. Disraeli as to Church
Patronage--The Revolution in Spain--Rupture between Turkey and
Greece--Another War-Cloud in the East 300
CHAPTER XIV.
A HOPEFUL YEAR.
Hopefulness all round--Ministers at the Fishmongers’--The Queen’s
Speech--The Legislative Bill of Fare--The Queen and Mr. Gladstone’s
Irish Church Policy--Release of Fenians--Mr. Gladstone’s Scheme for
Disestablishing the Irish Church--The Debate in the Commons--The
Second Reading Carried--The Bill in Committee--Read a Third Time--The
Lords and the Bill--Amendments of the Peers--The Lords Bought
Off--The Bill becomes Law--Mr. Lowe’s First Budget--The Endowed
Schools Bill--The Habitual Criminals Act--The Lords and the Commons’
Legislation--Official Hostility to Reforming Ministers--Weak Members
of the Cabinet--Mr. Reverdy Johnson and the _Alabama_ Claims--The
Policy of “Masterly Inactivity”--Liberalism in France--Prince Leopold’s
Illness--The Queen’s Interview with Mr. Carlyle--Visit of Ismail Pasha
to the Queen--The Peabody Statue--Prince Alfred in Australia--The
Prince of Wales and Court Dress--Death of Lord Derby--Death
of Lady Palmerston--Opening of Blackfriars Bridge and Holborn
Viaduct--O’Donovan Rossa, M.P.--Orangemen and Fenians 325
CHAPTER XV.
FALL OF THE SECOND EMPIRE.
Social condition of the Country in 1870--Mr. Bright’s “Six Omnibuses
in Temple Bar”--Opening of Parliament--Mr. Gladstone’s Irish Land
Bill--Amendments to the Bill--Dual-Ownership Established--The Bill
and the House of Lords--The Revolt of Lord Salisbury--The Education
Bill--Mutiny of the Liberal Dissenters--Mr. Lowe’s Second Budget--The
Civil Service opened to Competition--Mr. Cardwell’s Failure at the War
Office--The Queen and the Army--Mr. Childers and Admiralty Reform--Mr.
Baxter and Navy Contracts--The Wreck of the _Captain_--Lord Granville
and the Colonies--Death of Lord Clarendon--The Franco-Prussian
War--Collapse of the French Armies--Sedan--Fall of the Bonapartist
Dynasty--Proclamation of the Third Republic--Investment of Paris--The
Government of National Defence at Tours--M. Gambetta Rouses Prostrate
France--Gallant Stand of the Mobiles--A Passing Glimpse of Victory--The
Queen and the War--Prussia and England--Russia Repudiates the Black Sea
Clauses of the Treaty of Paris--Papal Infallibility and the Italian
Occupation of Rome--King William Proclaimed German Emperor--Opening of
London University--Betrothal of the Princess Louise--Death of General
Grey--Death of Dickens--The Novelist and the Queen--Garden Party at
Windsor Castle--The Red River Expedition 354
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
H. R. H. THE PRINCESS OF WALES. (_From a Photograph by Messrs.
W. & D. Downey, London._) _Frontispiece_
The Prince Consort (_After the Photograph by
Mayall_) xi
Balmoral Castle, from the North, looking towards
Lochnagar (_After a Photograph by G. W.
Wilson and Co., Aberdeen_) 1
The Fortress of Gwalior 5
Lord Canning 8
Attempted Assassination of the Emperor of the
French 9
View in Windsor Castle: the Inner Cloisters,
looking West 13
The Queen’s Visit to Birmingham: The Procession
passing along New Street 17
Visit of the Queen to the Emperor and Empress of
the French at Cherbourg 20
Osborne House (_From a Photograph by J. Valentine
and Sons, Dundee_) 21
Potsdam 24
The Queen leaving the Town Hall, Leeds 25
Victor Emmanuel 29
The Guard-Room, St. James’s Palace (_From a
Photograph by H. N. King_) 33
Turin 36
Lord Granville 37
St. George’s Hall, Windsor Castle 41
The Queen Opening Glasgow Waterworks at Loch
Katrine 44
View on Loch Katrine: The Walk by the Shore 45
The Royal Exchange, Manchester 49
General Garibaldi 52
The Curfew Tower, Windsor Castle 53
Pope Pius IX. 57
Volunteer Review in the Queen’s Park, Edinburgh
(_From the Print published by Messrs. McFarlane
and Erskine, Edinburgh_) 61
The Volunteer Camp, Wimbledon 64
The Queen at Wimbledon 65
President Buchanan 68
Frogmore House (_From a Photograph by J.
Valentine and Sons, Dundee_) 69
The Queen and her Little Grandson, Prince
Wilhelm of Prussia _To face_ 70
The Queen’s Private Sitting-Room, Osborne (_From
a Photograph by Hughes and Mullins, Ryde_) 73
St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, from the River 76
Mr. (afterwards Viscount) Cardwell (_From a
Photograph by the London Stereoscopic
Company_) 81
Balmoral Castle, from the South-West (_From a
Photograph by G. W. Wilson and Co.,
Aberdeen_) 84
The Royal Tour in Ireland: the Visit to Ross
Castle, Killarney 85
The Eagle’s Nest, Killarney (_After a Photograph
by W. Lawrence, Dublin_) 88
King William of Prussia (afterwards German
Emperor) 89
Industrial Museum, Edinburgh 92
The Queen holding the First Investiture of the
Order of the Star of India 93
The Princess Alice Reading to her Father 97
Cambridge Cottage, Kew 101
The Princess Alice (_From the Photograph by
Mayall_) 105
St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, showing the Royal
Gallery and Altar 108
Funeral of the Prince Consort: Procession in the
Nave of St. George’s Chapel 109
Mr. Lincoln 113
The _San Jacinto_ stopping the _Trent_ 117
The Clock Tower, Westminster Palace, 1870 121
Mr. Seward 124
Queen Anne’s Room, St. James’s Palace (_From a
Photograph by H. N. King_) 125
View in Berlin: the Palace Bridge and Pleasure
Garden 129
Mr. Peabody 133
The Exhibition Building of 1862 136
The Prince of Wales at the Pyramids 137
Marriage of the Princess Alice 140
Prince Louis of Hesse-Darmstadt 141
Reinhardsbrunn, near Gotha 145
The Vandyke Room, Windsor Castle 149
Entry of the Princess Alexandra into London: the
Procession passing Temple Bar 153
The Princess of Wales (_From a Photograph taken
about the time of her Marriage_) 156
Marlborough House, from the Garden 157
Marriage of the Prince of Wales _To face_ 158
Corridor, Osborne House (_After a Photograph by
J. Valentine and Sons, Dundee_) 161
Frederick Charles, Duke of Augustenburg 165
The Exchange, Copenhagen 168
The Harbour, Copenhagen 169
General Grant 172
Christiansborg Castle, Copenhagen 173
Memorial of the Great Exhibition in the Royal
Horticultural Society’s Gardens, South Kensington 177
Visit of the Queen to Netley Hospital _To face_ 179
The Queen Unveiling the Statue of Prince Albert
at Aberdeen 181
Sir Charles Phipps 184
The Albert Bridge, Windsor 185
Kronborg Castle, Elsinore 188
Christian IX., King of Denmark 189
The Prussians Storming the Redoubts of Düppel 193
Garibaldi’s Reception in Trafalgar Square, London 196
Kiel 197
Count Beust 201
Windsor Castle, from the Berkshire Shore 205
Fredericksborg Castle, Elsinore 209
The Guard Room, Windsor Castle 213
Oliver King’s Chantry, St. George’s Chapel,
Windsor 216
Mr. Lowe (afterwards Lord Sherbrooke) 217
The James River and Country near Richmond 220
General Sherman 221
The Royal Nursery, Osborne (_From a Photograph
by Hughes and Mullins, Ryde_) 225
The Queen at Osborne (_After W. Holl’s Engraving
of the Original Portrait by Graefle. By Permission
of Mr. Mitchell, Old Bond Street, W._) 229
Midhurst, Sussex: Birthplace of Cobden 233
General Robert Lee 237
Biarritz 241
The International Exhibition, Dublin (1865) 245
The Queen Unveiling the Statue of the Prince
Consort at Coburg 248
Opening of Parliament in 1866: the Queen at the
Peers’ Entrance, Westminster Palace 252
Mr. John Stuart Mill 253
Prince Christian (_From a Photograph by W. and
D. Downey_) 257
Marriage of the Princess Helena 260
Princess Christian (_From a Photograph by W. and
D. Downey_) 261
The Duchess of Teck (_From a Photograph by W.
and D. Downey_) 265
Great Demonstration at the Reformers’ Tree in
Hyde Park 272
Lord Carnarvon (_From a Photograph by the
London Stereoscopic Company_) 273
Mr. Disraeli introducing his Reform Bill in the
House of Commons 276
Council Chamber, Osborne (_After a Photograph
by F. G. C. Stuart, Southampton_) 277
Prague 281
Last Moments of the Emperor Maximilian (_After
the Picture by Jean-Paul Laurens_) 284
Lord Naas (afterwards Earl of Mayo) 285
The Queen laying the Foundation Stone of the
Royal Albert Hall 289
Arrival of the Queen at Kelso 292
Visit of the Queen to Melrose Abbey 293
The Queen investing Abdul Aziz with the Order
of the Garter _To face_ 294
The Ball-room, Balmoral (_From a Photograph by
G. W. Wilson and Co._) 296
The Queen unveiling the Statue of the Prince
Consort at Balmoral 297
The Queen Keeping Hallowe’en _To face_ 299
The Prince Consort Memorial at Balmoral 299
Sir Robert Napier (afterwards Lord Napier of
Magdala) 301
St. James’s Palace 305
Mr. Gathorne-Hardy (afterwards Lord Cranbrook) 309
The Queen Reviewing the Volunteers in the Great
Park, Windsor 313
The Queen Inspecting the _Galatea_ in Osborne Bay 317
The Cathedral, Lincoln 321
Windsor Castle, from Thames Street, and “Bit”
of the Outer Walls 324
Mr. Chichester Fortescue (afterwards Lord Carlingford) 329
Choir of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin 332
Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin 333
Dr. Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester (_From a
Photograph by S. A. Walker_) 337
The Victoria Embankment, London 341
The Queen’s Drawing-Room, Osborne (_From a
Photograph by Hughes and Mullins, Ryde,
Isle of Wight_) 344
Ismail Pasha 345
The Tapestry Room, St. James’s Palace (_From a
Photograph by H. N. King_) 348
The Queen Opening Holborn Viaduct 349
The Queen Opening Blackfriars Bridge 353
Blackfriars Bridge, London 357
Mr. Disraeli (afterwards Lord Beaconsfield) (_From
the Bust by J. E. Boehm, R.A., in the possession
of the Queen_) 361
Cowes, Isle of Wight 364
Sedan 368
The French Troops Leaving Metz 369
Versailles, 1871: Proclaiming King William German
Emperor 373
Charles Dickens 380
Garden Party at Windsor Castle 381
[Illustration: THE PRINCE CONSORT.
(_After the Photograph by Mayall._)]
[Illustration: BALMORAL CASTLE, FROM THE NORTH, LOOKING TOWARDS
LOCHNAGAR.
(_After a Photograph by G. W. Wilson and Co., Aberdeen._)]
THE
LIFE AND TIMES OF QUEEN VICTORIA
CHAPTER I.
LORD DERBY’S SECOND ADMINISTRATION.
A Commercial Crisis--Suspension of the Bank Act--The Fall of
Lucknow--Sir Hugh Rose in Central India--Last Days of the
Rebellion--The Operations in China--The Queen’s Personal Direction
of Affairs--Palmerston’s waning Popularity--Attacks on Lord
Canning--The Orsini Plot--French Menaces to England--The Conspiracy
Bill--Defeat of the Ministry--The Second Derby-Disraeli
Government--Abandonment of the Conspiracy Bill--The Queen’s
Opposition to the India Bill--The Oudh Proclamation and
Ellenborough’s “Secret Despatch”--A Tropical Summer and an
Exhausted Legislature--Confirmation of the Prince of Wales--The
Queen at Birmingham and Leeds--The Dispute between France and
England about the Principalities--The Queen’s Visit to
Cherbourg--The Royal Visit to Prussia--The Meeting with the
Princess Frederick William--A Royal “Middie”--The Indian
Proclamation--The Queen at Balmoral--Donati’s Comet--The
Controversy over the Indian Army--Abdication of the King of
Prussia--The Queen’s Letter to the Prince of Wales--France and
Portugal--Failing Health of the Prince Consort.
Towards the end of 1857 the commercial credit of the country was
severely shaken. The great railway companies in America sank under the
burden of debenture debts: when they failed to pay their creditors, the
banks were unable to give gold in exchange for their convertible issue
of notes, and then private firms of the highest standing rapidly tumbled
into insolvency. The effect of these disasters on English commercial
credit was most serious. Houses engaged in American commerce that had
been rashly over-trading on the capital of their creditors, fell in
rapid succession, dragging down others in their fall. The Western Bank
of Scotland stopped payment, and spread ruin far and wide through the
districts of which Glasgow is the business centre. The failure of this
establishment revealed the fact that gigantic frauds had been
perpetrated by the auditors, who had certified the existence of a
fictitious surplus of £2,000,000. A panic in Ireland, together with
these disasters in Scotland, brought the crisis to a head in England.
The sudden demand for gold at the Bank of England alarmed the
Government, which, on the 12th of November, suspended the Bank Act,
limiting the issue of notes.
It has been already mentioned that in 1847, when a similar course was
adopted, the mere notification of it restored confidence, and the Bank
did not take advantage of the licence granted to it. The crisis of 1857,
however, was more serious, for fresh notes in excess of the legal issue
were promptly put in circulation.[1] But the suspension of the Bank
Charter Act by the Executive necessitated an application to Parliament
for a Bill of Indemnity. Hence Parliament was summoned to meet on the
3rd of December. The Queen was under the impression that fresh light
would be thrown on the crisis by the debates in both Houses; but there
was really nothing new that could be said on the subject. As the Prince
Consort observed in one of his letters, “Long prosperity had made all
bankers, speculators, and capitalists careless, and now they are being
unpleasantly reminded of natural laws which have been violated, and are
asserting themselves.” Other matters besides the Indemnity Bill were
mentioned in the Royal Speech; but, after passing that measure,
Parliament separated on the 12th of January, 1858, to meet again on the
4th of February.
The business of suppressing the Mutiny was carried on vigorously in
1858. After Campbell’s victory over the Gwalior army at the end of 1857,
he remained for two months at Cawnpore, whilst his reinforcements were
coming to him, and the surrounding districts were being swept by flying
columns. Then with an overwhelming force of artillery he moved forward
swiftly to effect the final capture of Lucknow.[2] On the 4th of March
the last of the siege train reached that city, and operations began in
real earnest, ending with the capture of the third line of defence on
the 14th of March. The place was virtually taken on the 15th; but most
of the rebels had escaped. The Queen of Oudh, with 7,000 men, still
clung to the Palace of the Moosee Bágh, and the fanatical Moulvee of
Fyzabad yet held the heart of the city. Outram captured the Queen’s
position, but not the Queen herself, whilst Sir Edward Lugard drove the
Moulvee from his stronghold. Campbell’s loss was 177 killed and 505
wounded, and of the enemy 3,000 were buried, though no exact account of
their wounded could be ascertained. On the 23rd of March General Grant
overtook and routed a large body of fugitives on the road to Seetápoor,
which brought operations to an end in this region.
The mutineers had now contrived to concentrate at Bareilly, with Khan
Bahádoor Khan, Prince Féroze, of Delhi, the Queen of Oudh, the fanatical
Moulvee, and the Nana Sahib of Bithoor, as leaders. Bareilly, however,
suffered the fate of Lucknow, the leaders again escaping. The rebel Köer
Singh was hunted out of Báhar and the jungle round Oudh, by Brigadier
Douglas, after much harassing irregular fighting. During May and June
the rebels contrived, greatly to the surprise of the Government, to
concentrate in force at different places in the most unexpected manner.
Driven out of the Upper Provinces, they tried to find refuge in the
eastern Gangetic districts, but at every turn they were met and
dispersed by flying columns told off to watch them.
It was, however, in Central India that the sword of vengeance was plied
most ruthlessly. Sir Hugh Rose, with the army of Bombay and the
Hyderabad Contingent, had, early in 1858, begun his march from Indore,
hoping to reach Lucknow in time to take part in its capture. He had,
however, to devote his attention to the insurgents of Central India, and
conduct a campaign over the most rugged and difficult ground. He
relieved Saugor on the 3rd of February. He invested the formidable
fortress of Jhansi, the Ranee, or Queen, of which was, as Sir Hugh
himself said, “the best man of the war.” On the 1st of April he
defeated, in spite of great odds against him, a rebel army that
attempted to raise the siege. On the 3rd he stormed a small breach in
the walls, the Ranee effecting her escape into the jungle. On the 4th he
carried the citadel, and took possession of the town. The investment was
so complete that escape was impossible, and, as at the Secunderbund, the
mutineers, to the number of 5,000, were all massacred.[3]
The Ranee of Jhansi and Tantia Topee had now concentrated an army of
20,000 men at Kalpi, and held an entrenched position at Kunch. Here, on
the 7th of May, Rose defeated them, and his pursuit was so fierce and
unresting that hardly a single fugitive escaped. Another rally was made
at Kalpi, which was seized on the 23rd of May, the flying Sepoys being
cut and shot down by hundreds, no quarter being given or taken.
“Soldiers,” said Sir Hugh Rose, in his proclamation to the Central India
Field Force, “you have marched more than a thousand miles, and taken
more than a hundred guns; you have forced your way through mountain
passes and intricate jungles, and over rivers; you have captured the
strongest forts, and beat the enemy, no matter what the odds, wherever
you met him; you have restored extensive districts to the Government,
and peace and order now reign where before for twelve months were
tyranny and rebellion; you have done all this, and you have never had a
check.” Led by a dandy, who might almost be termed the Alcibiades of the
Indian army, the Central India Field Force had carried fire and sword
from the shores of Western India to the waters of the Jumna, and
literally quenched the spirit of the insurrection in blood. But fresh
work awaited Rose and his followers. Tantia Topee had organised a
conspiracy against Scindia at Gwalior, whose contingent had, early in
the Mutiny, revolted from his standard. Instead of waiting for British
help, Scindia insisted on striking at the conspirators with such troops
as he had still attached to his household. When he attacked the enemy at
Barragaom, his followers deserted him, and he had to fly, with a small
escort, to Dhólpoor, leaving the great fortress of Gwalior, with its
vast stores of arms and munitions of war, to be occupied by the rebels.
This gave fresh life to the Mutiny: the Nana Sahib promptly proclaimed
himself Peishwa, and took the field with a new army of 18,000 men,
strengthened by the superb artillery of Gwalior. But the news of this
terrible misfortune did not daunt Sir Hugh Rose. He immediately resumed
the command of the Central Field Force, which he had laid down, and made
a dash for Gwalior. On the 16th of June he surprised the rebels at
Morar, where he waited for one of his brigades, which came up on the
17th. He drove the enemy before him, like chaff before the wind, tearing
them to pieces by fierce onsets of cavalry, in one of which a trooper of
the 8th Hussars slew the dreaded Ranee of Jhansi, who fell fighting in
male disguise. On the 18th the rebel army was in full retreat, and on
the 20th Scindia took possession of his capital, the sack of which by
the rebels cost him the loss of £500,000 of treasure, jewels, and other
property. Nana Sahib’s broken army alone kept up a faint semblance of
rebellion in Oudh towards the end of 1858.
Nor were British arms less fortunate elsewhere than in India. The
operations at Canton, which had been suspended by the Mutiny, were
successfully ended at the beginning of the year, a small French
contingent acting as our allies against the Chinese. Commissioner Yeh
was captured along with the city of Canton, in which Admiral Sir Michael
Seymour established a provisional government. But the Imperial
authorities affecting to consider the dispute a purely local one between
the British Consul and the Imperial Commissioner, refused to come to
terms. Lord Elgin accordingly crossed the bar of the Peiho river with a
strong naval force, proclaiming his intention of attacking Pekin itself.
The Imperial Government, therefore, made haste to conclude the Treaty of
Tien-tsin on the 26th of June, which formed a new basis for British
commercial intercourse with Eastern Asia.[4] The interest of the Queen
in this achievement was heightened by the fact that the treaty was
brought to her at Balmoral (20th of August), by Mr. Frederick Bruce,
Lord Elgin’s younger brother and secretary, also brother to Colonel
Bruce, governor to the Prince of Wales, and a confidential friend of the
Royal Family. A Commercial Treaty with Japan followed, which completed
the triumph of Lord Elgin’s energetic and adroit diplomacy.
[Illustration: THE FORTRESS OF GWALIOR.]
Home and Foreign Affairs, however, brought more trouble and annoyance to
the Queen than the operations of war in the East. In fact, at this
period of her career, her Majesty found it more necessary than ever it
had been to devote her best energies to the public service. In a
conversation with Mr. Greville during the autumnal recess of 1857, Lord
Clarendon said that “the manner in which the Queen in her own name, but
with the assistance of the Prince, exercised her functions, was
exceedingly good, and well became her position, and was eminently
useful. She held each minister to the discharge of his duty and his
responsibility to her, and constantly desired to be furnished with
accurate and detailed information about all important matters, keeping a
record of all the reports that were made to her, and constantly
recurring to them; _e.g._, she would desire to know what the state of
the navy was, and what ships were in readiness for active service, and
generally the state of each, ordering returns to be submitted to her
from all the arsenals and dockyards, and again weeks and months
afterwards referring to these returns, and desiring to have everything
relating to them explained and accounted for, and so throughout every
department. In this practice Clarendon told me he had encouraged her
strenuously. This is what none of her predecessors ever did, and it is
in fact the act of Prince Albert, who is to all intents and purposes
King, only acting entirely in her name. All his views and notions are
those of a Constitutional Sovereign, and he fulfils the duties of one,
and at the same time makes the Crown an entity, and discharges the
functions which properly belong to the Sovereign. I told Clarendon that
I had been told the Prince had upon many occasions rendered the most
important services to the Government, and had repeatedly prevented them
getting into scrapes of various sorts. He said it was perfectly true,
and that he had written some of the ablest papers he had ever read.”[5]
The Queen, however, like the Prince Consort, was uneasy as to the
stability of the Government. But she had erroneously formed an opinion,
which was indeed shared by many others, that the danger to be
apprehended was from the decay of Lord Palmerston’s health. “Clarendon,”
writes Mr. Greville in November, 1857, “told me of a conversation he had
recently with the Queen _à propos_ of Palmerston’s health, concerning
which her Majesty was very uneasy, and what could be done in the not
impossible contingency of his breaking down. It is a curious change from
what we saw a few years ago, that she has become almost affectionately
anxious about the health of Palmerston, whose death might then have been
an event to have been hailed with satisfaction. Clarendon said she might
well be solicitous about it, for if anything happened to Palmerston, she
would be placed in the greatest difficulty. She said that in such a case
she should look to _him_, and expect him to replace Palmerston, on which
Clarendon said he was glad she had broached the subject, as it gave him
an opportunity of saying what he was very anxious to impress upon her
mind, and that was, the absolute impossibility of his undertaking such
an office, against which he enumerated various objections. He told her
that Derby could not form a Government, and if she had the misfortune to
lose Palmerston, nothing remained for her to do but to send for John
Russell, and put him at the head of the Government. She expressed her
great repugnance to this, and especially to make him Prime Minister.
Clarendon then entreated her to conquer her repugnance, and to be
persuaded that it would never do to offer him anything else, which he
neither would nor could accept; that she necessarily was to have a man
who could lead the House of Commons, and that there was no other but
him; that Lord John had consented to take a subordinate office under
Lord Aberdeen, who was his senior in age, and occupied a high position,
but he would never consent to take office under him (Clarendon), and the
proposal he would consider as an insult. For every reason, therefore, he
urged her, if driven to apply to him at all, to do it handsomely, to
place the whole thing in his hands, and to give him her full confidence
and support. He appears to have convinced her that this is the proper
course, and he gave me to understand that if Lord John acts with
prudence and moderation all the present Government would accept him for
their head.”[6]
The real danger, as will soon be seen, which menaced the Ministry was
not Palmerston’s decaying health, but his waning popularity. The Party
of Reform early in 1858 had become convinced that nothing was to be
hoped for from him beyond empty and evasive promises. They were
therefore, when Parliament reassembled on the 4th of February, simply
waiting for a pretext to turn him out of office.[7] While the Radicals
were mutinous, Mr. Disraeli, through the medium of Mr. C. Greville, was
intriguing with the younger Whigs[8] to form a Coalition.[9] Palmerston
had also incurred much unpopularity by appointing Lord Clanricarde to
the office of Lord Privy Seal; in fact, it was known that this
appointment would have been laid hold of as a pretext for moving a
resolution which might destroy the Ministry. Of course, when Parliament
met no division of opinion existed as to the propriety of passing
addresses congratulating the Queen on her daughter’s marriage. But when,
on the 8th of February, resolutions were moved thanking the civil and
military officers in India for the ability with which they had dealt
with the Mutiny, some of the Tories,[10] let us hope reluctantly, led by
Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli, made themselves the mouth-pieces of the
“White Terror” at Calcutta, and opposed a vote of thanks to Lord
Canning. His policy had been objected to because it was not sufficiently
bloodthirsty; therefore, argued his critics, it was rash to pass a vote
of thanks to him. The vote was carried, but it was clear that the Indian
policy of the Government would bring trouble on their heads. The Indian
government must be transferred to the Crown, and as Mr. Vernon Smith, a
man of limited capacity, was the Minister responsible for India, the
prospect was not thought by experienced Anglo-Indians to be an alluring
one. We ought to wait till we had stamped out the last traces of the
Mutiny, it was contended by Lord Ellenborough, before we brought India
directly under the Government of the Queen. Still, Ministers defeated a
resolution to postpone their India Bill, and nothing seemed fairer than
their prospects, though they were even then (18th of February), on the
brink of destruction. The blow came when Palmerston, desirous of
conciliating the French Emperor, introduced a Bill to alter the Law of
Conspiracy.
[Illustration: LORD CANNING.]
The history of this fateful measure is as follows:--Ten days before the
marriage of the Princess Royal, a small group of conspirators in England
carried out a plan for assassinating the Emperor of the French in the
Rue
[Illustration: ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH.]
Lepelletier, Paris, by exploding hand-grenades under his carriage. The
Emperor and Empress escaped, but ten persons were killed, and 156 were
wounded. The plot had been concocted by Felix Orsini in England.
Therefore, the followers of the Emperor, whose fortunes depended on his
life, denounced the English nation as Orsini’s accomplices. The Emperor
himself was so unmanned by the incident, that after he drove home to the
Tuileries, he and the Empress, on retiring to their room, wept bitterly
over the wretched prospect before them. His terror probably prevented
him from appreciating the fact, that if his own police could not protect
him from Orsini, it was not likely that the police of a foreign country
would be much more efficient. It may be, too, that the ease with which
he had forced Palmerston to accept a humiliating settlement of the
Question of the Principalities deluded him into the idea that it would
be equally easy to compel him to restrict the freedom of Englishmen, in
the interests of the Bonapartist dynasty.[11] He may also have imagined
that England’s difficulties in the East would render Palmerston’s
Government more complaisant than the Tory Ministry showed itself on this
matter in 1853. His calculations, however arrived at, proved to be
correct. The French Government addressed menaces on the subject of
harbouring refugees to Sardinia, Switzerland, and Belgium. On the 20th
of January Walewski wrote a despatch to Persigny, which he had to
communicate to Lord Clarendon, and which not only accused England of
deliberately sheltering the assassins of the French Emperor, but also
asserted that the English Government ought to assist that of France, in
averting “a repetition of such guilty enterprises.” Instead of answering
this despatch in the high-spirited tone which Lord Malmesbury had taken
in his conversation with the Emperor in 1853, a reply of a timid and
indefinite character was privately sent through what was called the
“usual official channels of personal communication.” The substance of it
was that the Government needed no inducement to amend the English law of
conspiracy, and that the Attorney-General had the matter in hand
already. The assumption that the English Government was deliberately
aiding and abetting a gang of assassins was an insult which Lord
Palmerston, as the exponent of a spirited foreign policy, was expected
to resent. His failure to resent it gave his enemies an opportunity of
recalling his _Civis Romanes Sum_ doctrine, and holding him up to
contempt. But at first it was not known that he had shown the white
feather in his dealings with the French Emperor. Addresses from the
Army, burning with rancorous insults to England, had been presented to
the Emperor, and published in the _Moniteur_. The Emperor finding that
these insults, which were only intended for home consumption, had been
republished in England, where he feared they might inflame popular
feeling, instructed an expression of regret to be sent to the British
Government. In introducing the Conspiracy to Murder Bill, Lord
Palmerston (18th of February), carried the first reading by leading the
House of Commons to believe that this Imperial apology was adequate. He
did not think it worth while to explain that it had not been inserted in
the _Moniteur_, where the insults and menaces of the French Colonels had
appeared, and that the French people were thus fully under the delusion
that their vaporous threats had coerced England into restricting the
liberty of her subjects at their bidding. Later on, this deception was
discovered. Walewski’s despatch, by an inconceivable blunder, was laid
before the House, which also found out that it had never been answered
with spirit and dignity. The anger of the Representatives of the people
then rose to white heat; and when Mr. Milner Gibson moved a resolution
of censure, which had been drafted by Sir J. Graham and Lord John
Russell on the 19th of February, it was carried by a majority of 19, in
a House of 459. Lord Palmerston and the Cabinet immediately resigned.
At first the Queen, knowing the difficulty of forming a new Government,
was reluctant to accept their resignation. She contended--very
properly--that it was a bad precedent for a Government to go out on the
strength of a vote which was hardly constitutional. The treatment of a
despatch was, in her Majesty’s opinion, purely a question for the
Executive to decide. The House of Commons had but a very dubious right
to touch it at all; at any rate, no Ministry was bound by the
Constitution to resign because of a Vote of Censure from either House of
Parliament on such a question.
There can be no doubt that the Queen’s view was the correct one, and it
is now known that Lord Eversley, the ablest Speaker who has in her
Majesty’s reign presided over the House of Commons, actually advised Mr.
Speaker Denison to rule Mr. Gibson’s motion out of order, on the very
grounds which seemed to the Queen to justify Lord Palmerston in ignoring
the censure.[12] On the other hand, her Majesty had to admit the fact
that Lord Palmerston and Lord Clarendon had been maladroit in their
handling of the whole affair. They should have answered Walewski’s
despatch more formally than in a private letter from Clarendon to
Cowley. They ought at the outset to have pleaded the constitutional
privilege of the Executive, and refusing to produce the despatch in
Parliament, have challenged the Opposition to a vote of censure.
Moreover, the Queen knew only too well by this time that if Palmerston
refused to resign on Mr. Gibson’s motion, he would be turned out on one
to abolish the office of Lord Privy Seal, Lord Clanricarde’s appointment
to which had given great offence.[13] Thus, though it was in some
respects objectionable to sanction a Ministerial resignation because the
House of Commons censured, not the policy of the Government, but an
administrative act of the Executive,[14] the Queen bent to
circumstances, and sent for Lord Derby to form a Cabinet. Lord Derby,
though he took office, did not desire it, because he could only reign on
sufferance. His party, strictly speaking, was in a minority of about two
to one in the House of Commons, and his Government would be at the mercy
of casual combinations among the factions of the Opposition. He had to
fall back on his old Administration (minus Sir E. B. Lytton).[15]
A painful quarrel between Sir E. B. Lytton and his wife had enlisted
considerable public sympathy on the side of the lady, so that his
re-election for Hertford was a little doubtful. When offered the
Colonial Secretaryship, Sir E. B. Lytton gave Lord Derby a hint on the
subject, and Lord Derby, under the impression that Sir E. B. Lytton
considered his re-election impossible, induced Lord Stanley to accept
the Colonial Office.[16] Lord Grey would have joined Lord Derby had it
not been for his distrust of Mr. Disraeli; and he told Lady Tankerville
that Mr. Gladstone would have also joined the new Ministry, “had he been
offered the leadership of the Commons.”[17] If Lord Palmerston reckoned
on the reluctance of the Queen to trust a Derby-Disraeli Ministry with
the conduct of affairs, he fell into a grave error. Mr. Greville, who,
like many politicians, held the Derby-Disraeli combination in contempt,
admits that during this crisis the Queen’s conduct “was certainly
curious, and justifies them in saying that it was by her express desire
that Derby undertook the formation of the Government. If Palmerston and
his Cabinet were actuated by the motives and expectations which I
ascribe to them, her Majesty certainly did not play into their hands in
that game. When Derby set before her all the difficulties of his
situation, and entreated her again to reflect upon it, a word from her
would have induced him (without having anything to complain of) to throw
it back into Palmerston’s hands. But the word she did speak was decisive
as to his going on, and there is no reason to believe that she was
playing a deep game, and calculating on his favour. Nor do I believe
that she would herself have liked to see Palmerston all-powerful. She
can hardly have forgotten how inclined he has always been to abuse his
power, and how much she has suffered from his exercise of it. Even when
he was to a certain degree under control, and although she seemed to be
quite reconciled to him, and to be anxious for the stability of his
Government, it is difficult to know what her real feelings (or rather
those of the Prince) were, and it is more than probable that her anxiety
for the success of Palmerston’s Government was more on account of the
members of it, whom she personally liked, and whom she was very
reluctant to lose, than out of any partiality for the Premier himself.
To Clarendon she is really attached, and Granville she likes very much;
most of the rest she regards with indifference.”[18]
When the new Ministry took office they soon announced that they would
drop the Conspiracy to Murder Bill, and answer the Walewski despatch.
The
[Illustration: VIEW IN WINDSOR CASTLE: THE INNER CLOISTERS, LOOKING
WEST.]
temper of the English people was such as to render it impossible, after
what had been said on both sides, to proceed with Lord Palmerston’s
Bill. Moreover, Lord John Russell and Mr. Gladstone had put themselves
at the head of 140 Members pledged to use all the forms of the House of
Commons for the purpose of obstructing any measure of the sort, and the
case was one where obstruction by keeping open a sore between two
nations would soon render it an unhealable wound.[19] As for Walewski’s
despatch, Mr. Milner Gibson’s motion had censured Lord Palmerston’s
Government for not answering it, so Lord Palmerston’s successors, who
had supported that motion, were bound to reply to it. Their difficulties
were complicated by the foolish behaviour of De Persigny, the French
Ambassador. He was a strong partisan of Palmerston’s, and he went about
London drawing-rooms denouncing the Tory Government in the most violent
terms. Nay, he made a practice of communicating to Lord Palmerston
everything which passed between himself and Lord Malmesbury in their
official conversations, and Lord Palmerston did not scruple to use
information obtained by this dishonourable violation of diplomatic
rules; nor did he shrink from making himself De Persigny’s accomplice in
these questionable transactions. Lord Malmesbury felt himself so
completely embarrassed by such proceedings that he caused Lord Cowley to
privately inform the French Emperor that he must in future decline to
transact business through De Persigny. Lord Malmesbury said plainly,
that he must communicate directly through Lord Cowley or Count Walewski
in Paris, for De Persigny at this time not only carried his confidential
conversation to Palmerston, but Palmerston actually instructed him how
to embarrass the English Government in attempting to resist dictatorial
pressure from France. Lord Malmesbury’s spirited protest was well-timed
and highly effective.[20] Acting through Lord Cowley, Lord Malmesbury
arranged with Count Walewski a form of reply to the despatch which would
adequately meet the demands of the English people, and yet give the
French Government an opportunity of honourably repudiating any intention
of wounding British susceptibilities. On hearing of this, Persigny, who
had pledged himself to restore Palmerston to power by forcing the Tory
Government to pass the Conspiracy Bill in a week, resigned. To his
surprise and disgust his resignation was accepted, and Marshal
Pélissier, Duke of Malakoff, was sent to England in his place. This was
another triumph for the Tory Ministry, because Palmerston had reckoned
on Walewski appointing Moustier, French Ambassador at Berlin, to the
Court of St. James’s when Persigny resigned, and as Moustier was, like
Walewski, virtually a Russian agent, fresh troubles would soon have been
manufactured for Lord Malmesbury. Napoleon III., however, insisted on
sending a personal representative, who from his Crimean services would
not be unacceptable to the Queen and the English people. He, therefore,
selected Pélissier,[21] who, though ignorant of diplomacy, was not
likely to fall into Persigny’s indiscretions, and whose appointment was
received by the Queen as a token of renewed goodwill on the part of
France. This attempt of Palmerston’s to drive a Ministry from office by
getting a Foreign Government to menace it with hostility,[22] having
ended in ignominious defeat, he and his party soon showed how bitterly
they resented the failure of their conspiracy with the French Emperor
and his Ambassador against English liberty. When Mr. Disraeli announced
the settlement of the quarrel with France in the House of Commons, on
the 13th of March, the Opposition received it sullenly, and immediately
raised a bitter attack on Lord Malmesbury for not procuring the release
of the English engineers who were imprisoned in the _Cagliari_.[23]
Their arrest was illegal, and Lord Malmesbury, as soon as he obtained
the opinion of the law officers of the Crown, not only procured their
release, but liberal compensation for the annoyance to which they had
been put.
Where the Government broke down was in attempting to deal with the
future administration of India; and it is a fact that had they but
listened to the Queen’s advice, who strongly opposed their policy, they
would have avoided a defeat which served to convince the people that the
evil reputation of the Derby-Disraeli group for legislative incapacity
was only too well founded. The Tories had opposed Palmerston’s India
Bill, transferring the government of India to the Crown, so they were
forced to bring in one of their own. Palmerston’s Indian Council
consisted of nominated officials of high rank and ripe experience. The
Tory Bill, which was devised by Lord Ellenborough, introduced into the
Council a fantastic elective element. Four out of the Council of
eighteen were to be chosen by holders of Indian Stock, and by Indian
military and civil servants of ten years’ standing, and five were to be
elected by the commercial constituencies of London, Glasgow, Liverpool,
Manchester, and Belfast. The Queen warned the Cabinet that these
provisions were fatal to their Bill. The selection of the constituencies
was arbitrary, and other cities would in time agitate for representation
on the Council. The turmoil of democratic elections was not likely to
influence for good Imperial policy in a country about which the electors
could at best know little. But the Cabinet held that the electoral
clauses would secure the Radical support necessary to carry the Bill,
and the Queen, reluctant to bring about another Ministerial crisis, left
the matter in the hands of her Ministers. But when Mr. Disraeli, on the
26th of March, introduced the Bill, to his surprise, the Radicals
objected as strongly as the Queen to the electoral clauses. Mr. Roebuck
complained that they gave a sham colour of democracy to what was really
a despotic Government. Mr. Bright said they “savoured of what was
generally called claptrap.” Anxious, however, to keep the Tories in
power, lest Lord Palmerston and his followers might return to office,
the Radicals refused to embarrass Mr. Disraeli[24] on this point, and
urged the Government to reconsider it during the Easter recess. Most
assiduously did Lady Palmerston endeavour to induce Lord John Russell to
coalesce with Lord Palmerston during the recess for the purpose of
defeating the Ministry on the India Bill; but her intrigues were in
vain. On the contrary, Lord John determined to bring in a series of
Resolutions on which the Ministry might base a Bill, and when Parliament
re-assembled on the 12th of April he confidentially communicated them
through Mr. Edward Horsman to Mr. Disraeli, who had himself resolved to
adopt the same course. Mr. Disraeli was only too willing to be thus
extricated from a difficulty by one of the leaders of the Opposition.
But the House of Commons considered that as the India Bill was now
removed from the arena of party strife, it would be wisest to let the
Government prepare the Resolutions. This was done, and the debate on
them began on the 30th of April, and went on favourably.
The Budget, though it showed a deficit of £4,000,000, which was met by a
tax on bankers’ cheques, and by equalising the Irish spirit duty, gave
the Ministry no trouble. The acquittal of Dr. Bernard in April, who had
been arrested by Lord Palmerston’s Government on a charge of conspiring
with Orsini to murder the French Emperor, embarrassed Lord Malmesbury,
for the jury who tried Bernard refused to convict in the teeth of clear
evidence of guilt. But Napoleon III., recognising that the action of the
jury was simply the “retort courteous” to Walewski’s maladroit demand
that an English Government should alter English laws at the bidding of a
foreign autocrat, wisely ignored the incident, and accepted Pélissier’s
view of it, which was that “one must be callous to this sort of thing,
and let the water run under the bridge.”[25] Then the tide of
Ministerial success suddenly turned, and the Cabinet was nearly wrecked
by the indiscretion of its most brilliant but erratic member, Lord
Ellenborough, who had succeeded Mr. Vernon Smith at the Indian Board of
Control.
In 1857 Lord Canning had incurred the odium of panic-stricken Englishmen
at Calcutta, because in his repressive measures he mingled justice with
severity. In June, 1857, when he gagged the Native press, he gagged the
English press as well. In August, when disarming Calcutta, he compelled
[Illustration: THE QUEEN’S VISIT TO BIRMINGHAM: THE PROCESSION PASSING
ALONG NEW STREET.]
Europeans, as well as Natives, to take out licences to carry arms, and
in July he issued orders to stop the indiscriminate slaughter of
mutineers, distinguishing between the cases of those whose guilt was of
varying degrees of intensity. A storm of abuse accordingly broke over
his head, and the English in Calcutta petitioned for the recall of
“Clemency Canning.” The British army in India, with its reinforcements,
was but a handful of men among millions. Indiscriminate proscription of
the Natives, such as was clamoured for, would have driven the whole of
India into mutiny; in other words, it would have cost England her Indian
Empire. The Queen and the Cabinet, however, supported Canning, and
matters went well with him for a time. But in the spring of 1858, when
Lucknow fell, another attack was made on him from a different point of
view. He had drawn up a proclamation confiscating the lands of all
landowners in Oudh save those who had been loyal to England, and those
who would immediately return to their allegiance, and help to put down
the rebellion. Lord Ellenborough, ignoring the saving clauses in the
proclamation, sent Canning a “Secret Despatch,” bitterly condemning the
apostle of “clemency” as a heartless tyrant, and even casting doubts
upon the title by which Oudh was held by England. He permitted the
Secret Despatch to be made public; and, what was still worse, Mr.
Disraeli, with singular lack of patriotism, proclaimed in the House of
Commons that the Government disapproved of Canning’s policy. Such a
declaration, made at such a moment, was almost as mischievous as if the
Government had telegraphed out to India, that they desired the Natives
to organise another revolt.
The Queen’s indignation at the conduct of both Ministers was not
diminished by the fact that neither of them had waited to receive
Canning’s despatch, explaining at length the reasons for his policy.
Notices of resolution, censuring the Ministry, were given in both
Houses, and one member of the Cabinet (Lord Malmesbury) wrote personally
to Lord Canning, begging him, on behalf of his colleagues, not to quit
his post. The defeat of the Government, in fact, was only averted by the
sacrifice of Ellenborough, who, to “save his colleagues, volunteered to
play the part of Jonah.”[26] Mr. Gladstone was offered his place by Lord
Derby, but on his refusing to join the Government, Lord Stanley became
Ellenborough’s successor, Sir E. B. Lytton going to the Colonial Office.
Yet in view of Mr. Disraeli’s denunciation of Canning’s policy, even
Ellenborough’s resignation would not have saved the Ministry, had it not
been that the Radicals and Peelites, along with Lord John Russell,
refused to carry the matter farther, because, as they frankly said, they
did not desire to let Palmerston and his faction return to power.[27]
On the 17th of June the India Bill, based on the resolutions of the
Government, and vesting the sole dominion of India in the Crown, was
introduced by Lord Stanley, and it passed into law on the 2nd of August.
Another measure was passed in July, though opposed rather venomously by
the Tories in the House of Lords--namely, the Bill providing that either
House might resolve that henceforth Jewish members of Parliament might
omit from the Parliamentary Oath the words, “and I make this declaration
on the true faith of a Christian.” This ended a long and bitter
controversy. On the 26th of July Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild came
to the table of the House of Commons, and was sworn on the Old
Testament, the House having agreed to resolutions in terms of the new
Act.[28]
The exceptional heat of the summer soon exhausted the energies of
legislators. Mephitic odours from the Thames even caused some to demand
that the Houses of Parliament should be shifted to another site. “We
have,” writes Lord Malmesbury, on the 27th of June, “ordered large
quantities of lime to be thrown into the Thames; for no works can be
begun till the hot weather is over. The stench is perfectly intolerable,
although Madame Ristori, coming back one night from a dinner at
Greenwich, given by Lord Hardwicke, sniffed the air with delight, saying
it reminded her of her ‘dear Venice.’” Perhaps this nuisance induced the
House of Commons to pass with unlooked for rapidity a Main Drainage
Bill, which was to prevent sewage from being turned into the Thames as
it passed through London. All intrigues set on foot to reconcile Lord
Palmerston to Lord John Russell,[29] and the Radicals to both, failed,
so the Tory Ministry successfully weathered the storms of faction, and
closed the Session, on the whole, with credit, on the 30th of July.
The family life of the Court had been brightened early in the year by
the cordial welcome which the Queen’s eldest daughter had received in
her new home in Prussia. Projects for a visit to her and her husband
were formed by the Queen and the Prince Consort, which public duty
compelled them to abandon month after month. On Maundy Thursday the
Prince of Wales was confirmed at Windsor, having acquitted himself well
during his examination by the Archbishop. After a fortnight’s tour in
Ireland, it was arranged that he should live in the White Lodge,
Richmond Park, and prepare for his military examination, his companions
being Lord Valletort, eldest son of Lord Mount-Edgecumbe, Major
Teesdale, R.E., one of the heroes of Kars, Major R. Loyd-Lindsay
(afterwards Lord Wantage), V.C., and Mr. Gibbs, the Prince’s tutor. In
May a visit from the beautiful Queen of Portugal charmed all hearts, and
during the Whitsuntide holiday, when the Prince Consort went to pay a
flying visit to Coburg, the Queen solaced her loneliness by visiting
Prince Alfred at Alverbank, a cottage opposite the Isle of Wight, where
he was pursuing his naval studies. Delightful letters came to the Queen
from Babelsberg, describing the married happiness of her daughter, who
received the Prince Consort there, and from whence he returned to London
on the 8th of June.
On the 14th, her Majesty paid her promised visit to Birmingham, and to
Lord Leigh at Stoneleigh Abbey. It was smiling summer weather when she
drove from Coventry through Shakespeare’s country to her host’s house,
where
[Illustration: VISIT OF THE QUEEN TO THE EMPEROR AND EMPRESS OF THE
FRENCH AT CHERBOURG.]
she was delighted with her reception. Next day she went by train to
Birmingham, when, wonderful to relate, the sun shone through a smokeless
though sultry atmosphere. As for the arrangements for her reception, she
writes, “all was admirably done--handsomer even than Manchester. The
cheering was tremendous.” Loyal addresses were presented at the Town
Hall, where, seated on an extemporised throne, her Majesty knighted the
Mayor. The Royal Party next proceeded to Aston Hall and Park, “now to be
converted,” writes the Queen, “into a People’s Museum and Park, and to
obtain which the working people had worked very hard, and subscribed
very largely.” Here six of the working men associated with the managers
of the proceedings were presented to the Queen, who conversed with them
affably, and then proclaimed the Park open. “Quite a pattern lady!”
“What a darling!”--such were among the exclamations, writes the Queen,
with which she was greeted by the crowd. After visiting many places of
interest in the district, the Queen returned to Buckingham Palace on the
16th, greatly impressed with the welcome she had received from the most
democratic and republican community in England. This visit had a marked
political influence. It gave a great though unseen impetus to the
movement for Reform, and many thoughtful Conservatives now began to
suspect that there was less danger in giving votes to the loyal artizans
of Birmingham, than to the lower middle class whom the Whigs desired to
enfranchise.
[Illustration: OSBORNE HOUSE.
(_From a Photograph by J. Valentine and Sons, Dundee._)]
In May the Emperor of the French had sent the Queen an invitation to
come and inspect the fortifications at Cherbourg. At this time the
friction between France and England had been somewhat increased by a
divergence of view between the two countries as to the settlement of the
Danubian Principalities. England, by opposing their union, had irritated
France. France, by refusing to admit that the engagements entered into
by Napoleon III. at Osborne in 1857 bound her to support the English
view, had annoyed England.[30] It was, however, thought that the Queen’s
personal popularity in France, and her influence with the Emperor, might
bring about friendlier relations between the Governments, and the
Ministry pressed her to accept the Imperial invitation. Writing on the
5th of August, the day after the Queen’s arrival at Cherbourg, Lord
Malmesbury, who was one of her party, says, “It blew hard in the night,
but subsided towards morning. The Queen not ill. The approach to
Cherbourg very fine. Arrived there at 7 p.m. At 8 the Emperor and
Empress came on board the Royal yacht without any suite. Nobody was
admitted. Marshal Pélissier, who went in without any invitation, was
immediately turned out by the Emperor.” What passed at this interview,
however, was an embarrassing inquiry about the feeling against France in
England. “We smiled,” writes the Queen of herself and her husband, “and
said the feeling was much better, but that this very place caused alarm,
and that those unhappy addresses of the Colonels had done incalculable
mischief.” The grand effect of the saluting cannon seems to have
impressed the Queen, and, says Lord Malmesbury, “when the Emperor left
the Queen’s yacht, the electric light was thrown on the Emperor’s barge,
following it the whole way into the harbour; the light shining only on
the barge, whilst all around remained in darkness.” The Emperor, adds
Lord Malmesbury, “was very friendly in his manner; but both he and the
Empress could not digest some of the articles in the _Times_ which had
been offensive, especially against her, and I tried to make them
understand what freedom the Press had in England, and how independent it
was of all private and most public men.” As for the Queen, she says in
her Diary that, after this grave visit she “went below,” and “read and
nearly finished that most interesting book ‘Jane Eyre.’” On the morrow
thunderous salutes smote her ears as she was dressing, and when she went
on deck the harbour was literally swarming with craft brave with gala
array. “Next morning,” writes Lord Malmesbury of this day’s proceedings,
“the Queen, Prince Albert, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge,
Sir John Pakington, and myself breakfasted at the Préfecture. After
which the Royal Personages drove over the town.... Returned to the Royal
yacht, and accompanied the Queen to dinner on board the _Bretagne_.
Among the officers at dinner was General Macmahon.” Here the Queen was
rendered very nervous because Prince Albert had to make a complimentary
speech in reply to the toast of her health, for at that moment every eye
in Europe was on Cherbourg, and every ear straining for echoes of Royal
and Imperial conversations on which might hang the dread issues of war.
“I shook so,” writes the Queen, “that I could not drink my cup of
coffee.”[31] All went off well, however, and the kindliest words on both
sides were spoken. The display of 25,000 francs’ worth of fireworks
ended a brilliant but fatiguing day. August 6th was devoted to
leave-taking, amidst a complimentary cannonade, and the Queen got home
in time to greet Prince Alfred on his birthday at Osborne. “The
evening,” she writes, “was very warm and calm. Dear Affie was on the
pier, and we found all the other children, including Baby (Princess
Beatrice), standing at the door.” A visit of inspection to Prince
Alfred’s birthday presents, a little birthday fête and dance on the
terrace, adds the Queen, formed “a delightful finale to our
expedition.”[32] But the visit was a mistake, though, as the Ministry
insisted on it, the blame was theirs alone. It produced an abundant crop
of alarms and attacks in the press on the menacing preparations for war
which had been seen at Cherbourg. It caused the Queen to have a
controversy with Lord Derby, who would pay no heed to her appeal to
provide a counterpoise to the threatening stronghold which she had
inspected.
A visit--long promised and long looked for--to the Prince and Princess
Frederick William of Prussia followed. Her Majesty’s suite arrived at
Potsdam on the 14th of August, and on the same evening the Queen and
Prince Albert arrived at Babelsberg, where they were received with a
warmth of welcome by their Prussian relatives that made the Queen, as
she herself says, feel as if she were at home. The meeting between her
and her daughter brought a moment of supreme delight to both. Each day
spent in the happy circle of the Prince and Princess of Prussia seems to
have knit the heart of the Queen closer to the family of which her
eldest daughter was so obviously a cherished member. Every day some
fresh mark of attention was paid to the Queen and her husband by their
hosts, who seemed to exhaust their ingenuity in devising expedients for
making her visit pleasant to her. Though this visit was purely a private
one, the people gave her as cordial a reception as the Court, until at
last her Majesty began to feel sad at the approaching termination of
such a charming holiday. But on the 28th of August the last day came,
and, writes the Prince Consort, “the parting was very painful.” The
Queen and the Princess Royal wept in each other’s arms, though her
Majesty says, with a pathetic reference to the conflicting duties of
sovereignty and womanhood, “all would be comparatively easy were it not
for the one thought that I cannot be with her at that very critical
moment when every mother goes to her child.”[33] Dover was reached on
the 31st, from whence the Queen went on to Portsmouth, and thence to
Osborne, where they found Prince Alfred, who had passed his
examination--especially the mathematical part of it--with great
distinction, eager to tell them he had been appointed to the _Euryalus_.
He was waiting for his mother, writes the Queen, “in his middie’s
jacket, cap, and dirk, half-blushing, and looking very happy. He is a
little pulled down from these three days’ hard examination, which only
terminated to-day.... We felt very proud, for it is a particularly hard
examination.”[34]
[Illustration: POTSDAM.]
Only one anxiety had intruded itself during the Prussian tour--the issue
of the Queen’s Proclamation to the Indian people on assuming the
government of India. She objected strongly to the draft of it which was
submitted to her, and begged Lord Derby to write one out for her in “his
own excellent language,” keeping in view “that it is a female Sovereign
who speaks to more than a hundred millions of Eastern people on assuming
the direct government over them after a bloody civil war, giving them
pledges which her future reign is to redeem.” Such a Proclamation
should, says her Majesty, emphasise the ideas of generosity,
benevolence, religious toleration, liberty, and equality before the law.
What offended her deeply in the draft was a menace reminding the Indian
people that she had “the power of undermining” native religions and
customs. Her Majesty, writes Lord Malmesbury by her directions, “would
prefer that the subject should be introduced by a declaration in the
sense that the deep attachment which her Majesty feels to her own
religion, and the comfort and happiness which she derives from its
consolations, will preclude her from any attempt to interfere with
native religions.” The name of the official personage who drew up this
blundering and exasperating Proclamation, which the Queen had the good
sense and good taste to cancel, need not be mentioned. It is but just to
Lord Derby to say that when the Queen’s objections were telegraphed to
him he examined the document, and so completely agreed with her Majesty
that he re-wrote the Proclamation in a manner that anticipated her
detailed instructions. A few additions were made to it by the Queen, and
when it was issued it was hailed with delight by the Natives as the
Magna Charta of India.
[Illustration: THE QUEEN LEAVING THE TOWN HALL, LEEDS.]
On the 6th of September the Queen and Prince Albert proceeded to Leeds
to open the splendid Town Hall which the people of that borough had
built, and where they were welcomed by the most picturesque Mayor in
England, who in his robes and bearing, wrote the Queen, was “the
personification of a Venetian Doge.” Needless to say then that, after
the Hall was opened, Mr. Mayor Fairbairn was knighted. The Royal Family
next sped northwards to Balmoral, where Prince Albert brought down his
first stag on the 14th, and where the whole household gazed nightly at
Donati’s comet, which blazed with peculiar brilliancy in the clear and
“nimble air” of the Highlands. Among the superstitious mountaineers it
was held to be a portent of war and pestilence. At Balmoral the Queen
became involved in a discussion with her Ministers as to the future of
the Indian Army. Who was to command it--the Queen through the British
Commander-in-Chief, or the Queen through the Secretary of State in
Council, as successors to the old East India Company and Board of
Control? Her Majesty stoutly contended that the union between the
British and Indian Armies should be completed by their being placed
under the same supreme authority--namely, the Commander-in-Chief in
India. The Indian Council grasping at patronage, however, held that
though the Commanders-in-Chief in the Presidencies should not be
subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief in India, except in respect of the
Queen’s troops under their order, over the Native troops in their
presidencies their authority must be supreme. Lord Clyde took the
Queen’s view of the matter, and so did General Peel, War Secretary, and
also the Prince Consort, and in 1860, when the controversy ended, it was
her view that prevailed. Towards the end of the Balmoral holiday the
Queen and her husband were greatly delighted to find that their
much-loved friend, the Prince of Prussia, had finally been chosen Prince
Regent in succession to his brother, the king, who had become too infirm
in mind and body to hold the reins of Government. The Prince Regent
(afterwards German Emperor) and Prince Albert were not only warm
friends, but were in close confidential correspondence on public
affairs, and the Queen and her husband alike looked to him as the only
possible deliverer of Prussia from Absolutist Administrations dominated
by Russian ascendency. Their counsels had a powerful influence on the
Prussian Regent’s policy at the outset of his career, when he dismissed
the Manteuffel Ministry, and initiated an era of moderate constitutional
progress in his country. Indirectly, they conferred a marked benefit on
this country at the same time. The foreign policy of Prussia, which had
up till now seemed to be antipathetic to England, changed. Without
abating any of their zeal for their respective interests, the Foreign
Offices of the two countries found it much easier than it had been to
work together in matters of general interest. This cordiality between
the Courts of Berlin and St. James’s was promoted by the kindness which
the Prince Regent bestowed on the Prince of Wales when, in November, he
proceeded to Berlin to visit his sister. He returned, not only bearing
with him a confidential letter from the Prince Regent to his father, but
with it the Order of the Black Eagle, which had been, greatly to his
delight, bestowed upon him. He had just completed his eighteenth year,
and had been promoted to a colonelcy in the army. Colonel Bruce was now
his governor--his tutor, Mr. Gibbs, having retired. The Prince had, in
fact, become emancipated from pupilage, and Mr. Greville referring to
this event says in his “Memoirs,” “I hear the Queen has written a letter
to the Prince of Wales announcing to him his emancipation from parental
authority and control, and that it is one of the most admirable letters
ever penned. She tells him that he may have thought the rule they
adopted for his education a severe one, but that his welfare was their
only object; and well knowing to what seductions of flattery he would
eventually be exposed, they wished to prepare and strengthen his mind
against them, that he was now to consider himself his own master, and
that they should never intrude any advice upon him, although always
ready to give it him whenever he thought fit to seek it. It was a very
long letter all in that line, and it seems to have made a profound
impression on the Prince, and to have touched his feelings to the quick.
He brought it to Gerald Wellesley in floods of tears, and the effect it
produced is a proof of the wisdom which dictated its composition.”[35]
A fresh cause of disagreement had, however, now arisen with France. The
seizure of a French slaver, called the _Charles-et-Georges_, by the
Portuguese authorities at Mozambique, tempted the French Government to
demand its surrender, and an indemnity whilst her status was _sub
judice_. Coercion was threatened by the appearance of a French squadron
in the Tagus, and an offer on the part of Portugal to submit to
arbitration was refused. Englishmen in these circumstances gave vent to
much indignation against a revival of the old brutal methods of
Bonapartism in dealing with a small Power, and this indignation was
shared by the Queen, though it was prudently veiled, her personal
relations with the Portuguese Court being of an unusually cordial
character. Lord Malmesbury was also well known not only to be a partisan
of the French alliance, but a personal friend of the French Emperor.
This led many to suspect that the British Government had played into the
hands of France; and Lord Malmesbury’s policy was, in truth, so
spiritless in defence of Portugal, that the Portuguese, fearing to waste
time in appealing for the good offices of England, yielded to the
overbearing menaces of France. At the same time, it is quite clear, from
a sentence in one of the Prince Consort’s letters to Baron Stockmar,
that the Court, on the whole, approved of the Foreign Secretary’s
policy, which, at all events, kept the country clear of war. The loyal
reception of the Queen’s Proclamation in India on the 17th of October,
and the end of the rebellion in Oudh, gladdened the closing months of
1858. Over these, however, the first symptoms of the Prince Consort’s
failing health projected the slowly-advancing shadow, that was so soon
to shroud the remainder of the Queen’s career in widowed sorrow.