Ministerial changes were frequent in Spain throughout the year. The Narvaez ministry was broken up, and that of Senor Isturitz followed; that too was destroyed. Narvaez was successful in his intrigues, supported by the queen-mother and the King of the French. England looked on with jealousy; and it was supposed in Spain that, but for the disasters and conflicts which occurred within the bounds of her own empire, she would have interfered in a more tangible manner. French gold was freely spent in Spain to facilitate French policy; and so corrupt were the public men of that country, that, as Louis Philippe well knew, money, applied skilfully, could change ministers and effect revolutions with a facility unknown to any other country in the world.

Portugal.—The Portuguese government gave satisfactory assurances, in answer to the demands of England, that the anti-slavery stipulations between the two countries should be carried into effect more efficaciously than heretofore; the intercourse between the two nations was therefore peaceful and satisfactory. The intrigues of the French court were, however, extended to that part of the Iberian peninsula also. The court of Portugal was invited to reactionary measures by the French minister, and French political agents were busy in Lisbon, Oporto, Coimbra, and elsewhere. The Cabrai government became unpopular; Castro Cabrai was supposed to exercise an undue influence; and Jose Cabrai, his brother, the minister of justice, was unpopular everywhere, but especially at Oporto, from which city he had to flee for his life. The Cabrai government was ultimately driven from office and from the capital: these events occurred in May. The queen now committed affairs to the Marquis de Palmella, and issued proclamations restoring liberty of the press, and remitting the exorbitant burial fees demanded by the priests, which had been enforced by the government: these measures restored peace. The French court incessantly intrigued against this government also, and in four months after its formation it was abruptly dismissed; the result was civil war. Two distinct insurrections went on together—a republican or radical one in the south, and a Miguellite revolt in the north. It was generally supposed by the Portuguese that the faction of the court was in favour with the court of England, as Colonel Wylde, equerry to Prince Albert, attended the camp of the royal commander-inchief. The colonel, however, acted as commissioner of the British government, which felt a deep interest in the distresses of Portugal—peculiar treaties binding the two countries. The year 1846 closed over the Iberian peninsula in discord, turbulence, and woe.

The Papal States.—According to the constitution, England held no diplomatic connection with the court of Rome. The proceedings of that court, however, had an important influence upon the British empire, as four-fifths of the Irish population were Roman Catholics, and in Eastern Canada, Newfoundland, and other British colonies or dependencies, many of the people were of the same religion. The events of the year at Rome were the death of Pope Gregory XVI., and the election of Cardinal Mastei to the pontifical chair, who assumed the title of Pius IX. One of his first acts was to publish an amnesty for political offenders, which gave great satisfaction to the inhabitants of the Roman States. This was speedily followed by a tariff reform, based upon sound views of the interests of the Roman people. Throughout the year, his civil and sacerdotal administration were alike popular within the states, throughout Italy, and all over Europe. The French, Austrian, Neapolitan, Spanish, and Portuguese governments were all, however, incensed at the liberal tendencies of the new pope. The Roman Catholic subjects of the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland received the announcements of the pontifical liberality with favour; it was thought that by these means the objections of Protestants would be softened, and a way opened for the reconciliation of many, especially liberal churchmen, to Rome.

Poland.—The sympathies of England were aroused by events in Poland, which extinguished the last spark of Polish liberty. Throughout all the provinces, a desire existed to make one effort more for freedom. The hope of disenthralling their native land animated every heart. An ill-concerted insurrection, was the inevitable consequence of this strong feeling; and as Cracow was a free city, under the guarantee of the treaty of Vienna, the insurgents believed that they could use it as a point d'appui. In the month of February, the circle of Tarnow rose in arms. The peasantry of Silesia, armed with scythes, attacked the Austrian troops under General Collin, and drove them out of Cracow. A provisional government was instituted there; Poland was called upon to rise at once; and all nations, especially France and England, were appealed to in passionate terms for aid. After various successes by the revolters, they were at last encountered by superior forces, and repeatedly defeated: Cracow was taken by the Austrians, and its independence extinguished. The English and French ministers protested against this as a violation of the treaty of Vienna. Russia and Prussia supported the policy of Austria, who replied to the Western diplomatists that the proceedings of the Poles was a violation of the treaty of Vienna, and that it was necessary to the integrity and peace of the Austrian empire that Cracow should be no longer a focus of rebellion. The Western governments satisfied themselves with protests, and the last green spot of Polish independence had its life stamped out by the foot of Austrian despotism.

Such were the general relations of England during the year 1846. Colonial revolt was suppressed; a powerful invader was driven back from her oriental territory; and she maintained with honour her European policy, and peace with neighbouring nations, under circumstances of great provocation; her star shone with more lustre in the eyes of foreign nations when the year terminated than when it opened.



HOME.

The parliamentary events of the year have already been narrated. There were many home incidents which were not comprised in the records of parliament. In the month of January, Wales was visited with disastrous inundations, which destroyed a vast amount of property, and caused much distress. More liberal arrangements were made about this time for the reward and promotion of deserving privates and non-commissioned officers of the army. In the month of February, Captain Rous, the member for Westminster, having accepted office under Sir Robert Peel's administration, a new election became necessary. The captain was opposed by Lieutenant-general Sir de Lacy Evans, one of the most chivalrous and accomplished soldiers in the British army. The result was in favour of the gallant general by nearly one thousand. Sir de Lacy, being returned as a thoroughly liberal politician, this event was "a heavy blow, and great discouragement" to the administration of Sir Robert Peel. In South Nottinghamshire an election also occurred, in which Lord Lincoln, a political protege of Sir Robert's, was defeated by Mr. Hildyard, a protectionist, by a very large majority. These events were supposed to foreshadow the speedy demise of the Peel administration. In the following month, Lord Lincoln was defeated at North Nottingham, polling only two hundred and seventeen votes against one thousand seven hundred and forty-two, polled by Lord H. Bentinck. During the early part of the year, a serious revulsion took place in railway speculation; the rate of money became high; a panic seized the speculators and adventurers in such undertakings: in this way many incurred serious loss. The public were startled in various parts of Great Britain by shocking railway accidents, generally the result of carelessness on the part of the officials, or deficient inspection and control on the part of directors.

On the 25th of May, her: majesty was safely delivered of a daughter.

Much interest was excited in June by a visit from Ibrahim Pasha, the celebrated Egyptian prince and soldier. His highness inspected the dockyards and public places, paid his respects to the court, and was feted and entertained by public men, especially of the navy and army.

A public dinner was given to the postage reformer, Mr. Rowland Hill, on the 17th of June, and a testimonial presented to him on the part of the merchants of London, which (including a first instalment handed to him in 1845) amounted to L13,360 19s. 5d.

On the 25th, the infant princess was baptised: the name given to her was Helena Augusta Victoria. The sponsors were her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, proxy for the Duchess of Orleans; his Royal Highness the Hereditary Grand-duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz; her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge.

Prince Albert visited the town and port of Liverpool, on the 30th, for the purpose of opening the Albert Dock, and of laying the first stone of the Sailors' Home. The reception of his royal highness was worthy of the great commercial community by which he was invited.

August was ushered in by one of the most terrible hailstorms ever witnessed in London. It lasted for more than three hours, and created great devastation. Inundations spread, and the windows of the public buildings were extensively shattered. The glass in the roof of the picture-gallery at Buckingham Palace was totally destroyed; the damage was estimated at L2000. In the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Hall, seven thousand panes of glass were broken; in the head office of police, Scotland Yard, three hundred; in Burford's panorama, ten thousand. A Citizen steamer on the river was struck by lightning off Battersea. The suburbs of London suffered from floods, hail, and lightning, and the royal parks were much damaged, especially that at Windsor.

Much interest was excited by the marine excursions taken by her majesty during that summer to the Channel Islands, and various places on the southern coast of England.

On the 29th of September, an event occurred in London which attracted much attention. The equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington, by Wyatt, was removed from the artist's studio, in the Harrow Road, to the Triumphal Arch, at Hyde Park Corner, where it was set upon the pedestal prepared for it. The illustrious spectators in Apsley House were almost as much objects of interest to the multitude below, as the colossal statue erected to the honour of the hero of Waterloo.

The failure of the harvest throughout the British Isles caused in England a profound sensation. Prayers set apart to be used in a time of scarcity were offered up, and subscriptions for the poor were most generously bestowed by those whose means were ample, and by many from limited resources: British benevolence had been seldom seen to such advantage. During the month of November tempestuous weather prevailed along the coasts, causing many wrecks and much loss of life. Early in December, the severity of winter fell upon the British Isles. On the 10th, the mercury was fourteen degrees below the freezing-point in London. This severe weather added to the sufferings of the people, already pressed by scarcity of food. In the Highlands of Scotland, and in Ireland, stern destitution was experienced by the whole peasantry.

During the year many eminent persons died whose names shed a lustre on British history. In January, the Eight Honourable John Hookham Frere, M.A., expired, who had been ambassador to Spain at the beginning of the century. His representations had much influence in inducing the English government to set on foot the expedition to the peninsula, which shed so much glory on the arms of Britain. Earl Granville, whose name is so closely associated with English political and diplomatic history, also died within the month. During the following month, the antiquary, Gaily Knight, and General Sir Henry Clinton, G.C.B., were among the celebrities who passed away. In the month of March, the decease of Mr. Liston, the comedian, attracted public notice. In June, Haydon, the celebrated painter, died by his own hand, impelled by want. He had frequently been indebted to the generous-hearted liberality of Sir Robert and Lady Peel for aid, and the last assistance he ever received was from these compassionate benefactors, the friends of so many artists and literary men, as well as of poor Haydon. The genius of this artist, as well as the record of his misfortunes, will go down to posterity. Soon after Haydon's melancholy death, in the month of July, "Charlotte Elizabeth," the writer of so many beautiful religious books, was called to her happy home. The same month, the Eight Honourable Sir George Murray, the friend and companion of Wellington, in both his military and political career, died in London. August witnessed the decease of the veteran anti-reformer, Sir Charles Wetherell. In September Lord Metcalfe died, regretted much by the political world; and Thomas Clarkson, the philanthropist, to whose exertions in the first instance humanity was indebted for the abolition of the slave-trade, also passed into rest. In the last month of the year the Eight Honourable Thomas Grenville died in his ninety-first year, after a political and diplomatic life very eventful.

The year 1846 was replete with transactions of great historical importance; at its close England stood with a crown of many victories upon her brow, but with many cares and anxieties; the chief of these was the distress in England, and wide-spread starvation in the Highlands of Scotland and in Ireland. Another chapter will reveal how evils of such magnitude were encountered.



CHAPTER LIX.

{VICTORIA. 1847}

Colonial Affairs..... Foreign Relations..... State of Ireland: Progress of Famine and Disease; Political Agitation; Prevalence of Crime..... Death of O'Connell..... Old Ireland and Young Ireland Parties..... General State of Affairs in Great Britain..... Naval and Military Events..... Home Incidents..... Decease of Remarkable Persons..... Parliamentary Proceedings.



COLONIAL AFFAIRS.

{A.D. 1847}

It is convenient to notice first in order the colonial and foreign relations of the country, as home events derived their character from these; parliamentary and party proceedings, more especially, turned often, in a great measure, upon the prospects and condition of our colonies, and the relations which we bore to foreign powers. This was less the case in 1846 and 1847 than in most other periods, because the failure of the harvests, the consequent overwhelming distress through out the British Isles, and the disaffection in Ireland, demanded the most earnest attention of parliament and the ministry.

India.—The state of India, throughout this year, was one of prosperity and peace. The Punjaub, however, created some disquietude, and there were border disturbances within the acquired territory of Scinde.

It will be recollected that in the last chapter the appointment of a council of regency at Lahore was recorded. This body excited the ranee's jealousy, whose disposition for intrigue was once more evoked; she endeavoured to neutralise the action of the council. Representations concerning this state of things were made to the governorgeneral, who signified his approbation of the policy proposed by the council for her exile from the capital. She was accordingly seized, and sent under escort to a distance, where she' was detained, and Lahore and the Punjaub were exempt from troubles throughout the year.

In Scinde the border tribes were restless, and made frequent predatory incursions upon the British territory. On one occasion, a body of seven hunded infantry and a troop of horse, headed by several chiefs, made a foray. Lieutenant Merewether, of "the Scinde Irregular Horse," was sent, at the head of about one hundred and thirty men, to observe, and, if possible, disperse them. This gallant young officer came up with the marauders in a locality unfavourable for immediate action; they were moving in a direction which would have afforded them the protection of some sand hills and jungle. Mr. Merewether rode along their front without charging them, in order to gain their flank, and compel them to keep the open plain, in a situation 'more favourable for the action of cavalry. They did not understand this manouvre, and supposed it to signify that the lieutenant did not deem it prudent to assail them. Encouraged by this idea they attacked him, coming on with great exultation. This gave the skilful and intrepid young officer the advantage he desired; he wheeled to the left, formed his men in an instant, charged, and cut up the enemy fearfully. The infantry endeavoured to retreat; such of the horsemen as were left galloped away. 'Mr. Merewether allowed their infantry no opportunity to retire to a position where they might receive cavalry advantageously; but still acting upon their flank, and keeping them in the open plain, he again and again charged, each time cutting them down as the mower cuts the ripe hay. They were offered quarter, but with great bravery stood to their arms, until not one-fourth of their original number remained; they then laid down their weapons. Of the whole body, except the few horsemen who became fugitives after the first charge, not one escaped destruction or captivity. Lieutenant Merewether lost very few men; he himself had miraculous escapes, for he was foremost in every charge, exposing himself with the utmost audacity. This gallant little action drew upon the young soldier 'the attention and commendation not only of his superiors in authority, but of the army of India. The exploit was recorded in the papers at home, and was the theme of every news-room and club. The English people are always more quick to appreciate and reward valour than their government.

Sir Charles Napier, after conquering Scinde by the highest military daring and skill, ruled it with a rare political sagacity. His attempts at military reform brought upon him the ill-will of the Indian military authorities, and the directors at home. The reforms introduced by the gallant general bore the impress of his genius and his indomitable will. His prophetic predictions concerning the evils that would certainly result from the state of discipline in which he found the Sepoy armies, were, unfortunately, all fulfilled. In the memoir of this gallant general, written by his brother, Lieutenant-general Sir William Napier, the merits of the case are amply, although it must be admitted, not dispassionately discussed. The material is, however, afforded for a just judgment upon the controversy. It can hardly be doubted the gallant general was insubordinate; that he assumed authority to which he was not entitled, and ruled with a glorious and intellectual tyranny, which was not the less a tyranny because of the genius by which it was directed. The general's faults were, however, overlooked by his country, which was served by him through an eventful life, with much honour to himself; it is sad to say that his services as well as his errors were overlooked by the government.

The public appreciation of him was just; they regarded him as a hero, and a bold and skilful governor. His brother justly described the public opinion of England when he wrote—"His fame has been accepted by the British people as belonging to the glory of the nation."

Lord Hardinge did not long continue to govern India after Sir Charles resigned the government of Scinde. Upon his resignation Lord Dalhousie was appointed, through the especial influence of the Duke of Wellington. This appointment has been described as the only job which the illustrious duke ever perpetrated, and reasons were assigned for this unsuited to the pages of this history. Lord Dalhousie possessed many qualifications for his high office, but he was pedantic, had too jealous a sense of the dignity of his office, and often refused to listen to the advice of officers, well qualified to offer it, on military matters, which, whatever might be the noble lord's opinions of his own parts, were rather beyond his knowledge. He entered upon his government under auspicious circumstances. The celebrated Akhbar Khan, the malignant enemy of the English during the unfortunate affair at Cabul, died this year, and made one less to the many opponents of British rule among the chiefs of India and the contiguous countries.

The Cape of Good Hope.—The disturbances of the previous year were not wholly quelled at the Cape. The Caffres continued to make forays within the colony, and to plunder cattle. They were pursued and punished, and considerable herds were recaptured. The feelings of all the Caffre tribes were utterly hostile, and peace was only attainable by the exercise of indisputable force.

Our American Colonies.—Peace and prosperity characterised the history of our American colonial possessions during this year. The failure of the potato crop caused some inconvenience and distress, but the general agricultural and commercial success compensated for this disadvantage. Security was also felt, as apprehension of a war with the United States had entirely passed away. In the legislatures of Canada and Nova Scotia there was, however, discontent with the measures of the governors of these colonies, and the imperial administration and legislature. This discontent found vent in orations, and through the columns of the press, but did not disturb colonial tranquillity nor interrupt the progress of government: those free countries were gradually laying the foundation for a future and a glorious period of wealth and greatness.

Borneo.—It was again necessary to chastise the Borneo pirates. On the 30th the British steam frigate Nemesis engaged a fleet of Soluprahus, off Labuam The ship was crossing over to Labuan from Brune, with the rajah of Sarawak on board. When off the island of Moora the Nemesis came suddenly upon a fleet of eleven pirate boats, pursuing a trading prahu. The Nemesis chased the pirates to the shore, who drew up in line along the beach. The pirates first opened the combat. For about two hours the cannonade lasted; when the fire of the prahus was subdued, the marines and sailors proceeded in boats to finish the destruction of the pirate craft. Five of these war prahus were destroyed, and about eighty pirates killed, and perhaps as many wounded. The rest and their crews escaped, but the boats were much disabled. From the guns and other material captured, it was plain that a Dutch merchant ship of considerable value had fallen into the pirates' hands. Some operations on shore speedily followed, from which the robbers suffered severely. One British seaman was killed, and seven wounded.



FOREIGN RELATIONS.

The conduct of the Chinese, ever since the peace executed by Sir Henry Pottinger, had been such as to show that the treaty was not intended to be kept by the authorities any longer than force constrained, and that with the people all intercourse with foreigners on equal terms was unpopular. During 1846 unoffending Europeans at Canton were frequently attacked, and on one occasion the factories were stormed, and only after a protracted conflict did the Europeans and Americans succeed in expelling the assailants. The government of Canton always affected to deprecate this violence on the part of the Cantonese, and as far as proclamations went there was a magnificent display of justice. Several Englishmen and other foreigners were murdered, and certain innocent Chinese were seized and executed by the mandarins, while the murderers were notoriously at large. In 1847 the merchants, who had often in vain called for protection and redress from the British government, drew up a memorial of their wrongs, which induced Sir John Davis, the governor of Hong-Kong, to interfere on their behalf. Sir Robert Peel and Lord Aberdeen seemed to adopt the policy of submitting to any indignities the Chinese government or people might offer, rather than interrupt commercial relations, or create any embarrassment at home. Possibly the state of parties and the general distress at home may have influenced the premier and the foreign minister to adopt this course, but its result was injurious to British interests and to humanity; it entailed a still greater interruption of commerce, and involved a larger sacrifice of human life.

The demands of the merchants were:—1. A distinct recognition of their rights to go such distance into the surrounding country as could be traversed, either by land or water, in one day out and home; and full protection during such period from attack or insult.—2. A space of ground of about fifty acres at Honan, or in some other convenient part of the suburbs, for the erection of warehouses and dwelling-houses.—3. A site for a church and church-yard * for British residents.

* By a "church yard" was meant a burial-ground attached to the church, for Europeans only.

—4. A burial-ground for the Parsee community, either on Dares or French Island, of forty thousand square feet.—5. A bridge to be thrown over the passage of Hog Lane, to connect the two factory gardens.—6. A cook-house for Lascars in Hog Lane.—7. The railing in of Lower China Street and the lower part of Hog Lane, and the garden walls to be kept free from Chinese buildings, excepting the military and police stations already erected.—8. Removal of the stationary boats which at present encumber the avenue to the factory gardens at the river-side.

Sir John Davis determined upon seeking redress for the various insults and outrages which had been inflicted, whatever might be the propriety of requesting the concession of such advantages as the merchants sought. In the opinion of Sir John, who knew the Chinese well, no demand would meet with attention which was not backed with military force. Orientals comprehend only that argument which Europeans regard as the dernier resort. The Chinese authorities were taken by surprise, or they would have prepared for resistance, and met the military demonstration of the English governor with defiance or stratagem. Major-general D'Aguilar commanded the British troops. As soon as he received the directions of the plenipotentiary, he consulted with Captain M'Dougall in command of her majesty's ship Vulture. These officers agreed that the force at their disposal was inadequate to the enterprise, but that, as audacity and promptitude were the best weapons with oriental nations, it would be well to act at once with such forces as they could employ. General D'Aguilar considered it also important to impress practically upon the mind of the Chinese authorities the possibility of the garrison and the naval force at Hong-Kong being sufficient, without aid from India or England, to chastise any affronts or injuries offered to British persons, honour, or interests. It had been well if, in subsequent events, similar views had been entertained by British officers and British governments. The promptitude of the general's action harmonised with the wisdom and boldness of his opinion. By midnight of the day on which he received his orders, the troops were embarked; and at nine o'clock the following morning the squadron arrived at the Bocca Tigris. The Vulture then lowered her boats, into which the general ordered two detachments, the one under Lieutenant-colonel Brereton, the other under his own immediate orders. On landing, all the batteries were seized, the guns spiked, the ammunition destroyed, and the garrisons sent, unmolested, away. This bold measure was necessary to the safety of the general's small force, for had he left these batteries in his rear, his return would have been endangered. At six o'clock, the squadron arrived at Whampoa. As the Vulture was of too large a draught to proceed higher, the troops were placed on board the steamers Pluto and Corsair. Sir John Davis accompanied the general in the Pluto. At eleven o'clock the squadron arrived before several forts, which were attacked. Lieutenant-colonel Brereton, landing, took two of them by a coup de main, blowing in the gates with gunpowder, and instantly seizing and spiking the guns. General D'Aguilar and his party were received by the other two forts with round and case shot, but the boats pushed in, blew open the gates, and spiked the guns, the garrison retreating by the rear. The expedition then proceeded to the French Folly Fort, a stronger place than any of those already captured, and situated on one of the narrowest bends of the river. The British swooped down upon this place as an eagle upon its prey, and their rapidity was rewarded by its immediate capture, for a few minutes delay and the guns of the work would have given our troops a reception more warm than welcome. Four other batteries were taken and spiked on their way up river by the general and commodore, and by six o'clock in the evening the troops were landed in the factories. Eight hundred and seventy-nine pieces of Chinese cannon had been spiked, to the amazement of the enemy, who had no time to recover from the panic into which so sudden an incursion threw them. The general, upon landing, placed the factories in a state of efficient defence by barricades, and such other means as were at his immediate command. The Chinese commissioner, Keying, now waited upon Sir John Davis, but refused to comply with his demands; the next day, however, the high commissioner requested another day's delay. This was granted, and the terms demanded were ultimately agreed to by the commissioner. General D'Aguilar withdrew the troops, except a company of sappers, and the light company of the 18th royal regiment of the line. These were ordered to remain until what was promised should be fully executed. This feat of the English general's was one of the most dashing ever executed with so small a body of men. The whole military force did not amount to one thousand men, and the naval force could only afford a few hundred sailors and marines for land operations. Audacity and rapidity carried the day—the grand secret of success in Asiatic warfare.

The Chinese, however, had no intention of observing the treaty; and when all appeared to be adjusted, six British subjects, who made a short excursion, in agreement with one of its clauses, were barbarously murdered. They were attacked by the whole population of the place which they visited. The Englishmen, when at last compelled to defend themselves, slew one and wounded several of their assailants. It required much negotiation to secure the punishment of some of the murderers, four of whom were decapitated, and a few others received minor punishments.

Whenever the French found that the British displayed vigour towards the Chinese, they made out a grievance, and sent an armed force to demand redress somewhere. Their object seemed to be to show that France also was a great nation, and could enforce respect. Two French ships of war appeared in the Bay of Touron during this year, to demand redress from the government of Cochin China, for injuries alleged to have been inflicted upon French Roman Catholic priests. Their demand not having been at once complied with, and some treachery on the part of the natives having been detected, the French ships opened fire upon the war-junks, sinking and destroying many, and slaying more than a thousand men.

The conduct of the Chinese to Europeans generally, during the year 1847, kept them, the British more especially, in a constant sense of danger. Applications were made for reinforcements, but, notwithstanding the prodigious armaments of England in India, and her resources elsewhere, it was with extreme difficulty that any additional force could be obtained. The following parliamentary papers show the perilous routine necessary on every occasion when our officers require even the most paltry reinforcement. General D'Aguilar applied to Major-general Smelt, the officer commanding at Ceylon, for two guns and a few artillerymen. In a month after, General Smelt wrote to Lord Fitzroy Somerset, the military secretary at the Horse-Guards, informing him that if he (General Smelt) heard again from General D'Aguilar that the reinforcement was necessary, he would send it! but that, in doing so, he should leave Ceylon all but utterly unprotected, so far as artillery was concerned. Lord Torrington, the governor of Ceylon, at the same time communicated this "great fact"—that two guns and a few men were wanting at Hong-Kong—to Earl Grey, the colonial minister, who, at the latter end of November, sent a despatch to General D'Aguilar, telling him not to do anything against the Chinese without authority from home! The discretionary power in the hands of Sir John Davis, and the promptitude, energy, and enterprise of the general, obtained, with less bloodshed than frequently occurred in a street riot in Canton, redress of grievances, a recognition of rights, and a series of important concessions. If it had been necessary to refer these disputes to the Colonial Office at home, everything would have been frustrated. Possibly a grand expedition, at an enormous expense, would have gone out in a year or so afterwards, and an expenditure of British as well as Chinese life on a large scale have resulted. In spheres so distant, men thoroughly competent to act ought, in both civil and military matters, to be appointed, and the honour of the country should be committed to their hands. With a small force, complete in itself, at the disposal of such men, more could be effected at the moment for the honour and interests of the country than by long and roundabout despatches, passing through so many hands that one fool in authority nullifies all, as a bad link in an otherwise good chain renders the whole useless. Omitting the other portions of the correspondence, the following letter from Major-general D'Aguilar, dated Hong-Kong, August 21, 1847, to Major-general Smelt, reveals sufficiently the incompetent arrangements for British interests in China, in 1847:—

"Although I have not the pleasure of your personal acquaintance, your character and services are so well known to me, that I venture to address you without form or ceremony. I have every reason to hope that things will settle down here peaceably, but I have no positive assurance of it; and if circumstances should occur to oblige me to go to Canton again, I am but badly off for artillery. I can never hope to surprise the Chinese defences a second time; and whatever I do must be done in form, and with reference to the altered position of things.

"Under these circumstances, I write to ask if you can spare me half a company of artillery, with their proportionate number of field-guns and ammunition complete. I should only want them for six weeks, and I promise you to send them faithfully back the moment the service is over.

"Should the contingency—the possibility of which is on the cards—occur, I shall endeavour to avoid taking the field before the end of November, when the cool weather will add strength to our exertions; and I will take care to give you the earliest notice of my intention. In the meantime, perhaps, you would kindly prepare Lord Torrington for this request on my part, and afford me your interest in giving effect to it, should circumstances render it necessary.

"A couple of 9-pounders, with the half-company of artillery, would be the best; but if they are not to be had, then anything your people are supplied with."

On receipt of the above, Major-general Smelt wrote as follows to Lieutenant-general Lord Fitzroy Somerset.

The letter was dated Colombo, Ceylon, September 22nd, 1847:—

"I have the honour to inform your lordship that I received, two days ago, a letter from Major-general D'Aguilar, commanding in China, informing me that it is likely that he would require a reinforcement of artillery in the event of operations being carried on at Canton towards the end? of this year, and requesting me, if I could spare it, and circumstances rendered it necessary, to afford him a half company of artillery, with two 9-pounder guns complete, with ammunition, &c.

"I shall therefore be prepared, should I hear again from General D'Aguilar that their services would actually be required, to send such force as, in the present strength of artillery in this command, would be in my power. But your lordship is aware that the whole amount of artillery throughout this island only consists of two weak companies, reduced in their number of Europeans in consequence of a proportion of gun-lascars; and the only ordnance that I could spare, at present equipped for service, are 4 2/5 inch howitzer guns, having neither 9-pounder nor 6-pounder guns, excepting two of the latter, which have no carriages.

"Under these circumstances, and with the recommendation of his excellency the governor, I should be able to afford a detachment of one officer and twenty-five gunners, with a proportion of non-commissioned officers and the two howitzers above mentioned. I am informed by General D'Aguilar, who will give me the earliest notice of his plans, that he would only require this force for six weeks, and that it should be sent back to me immediately the service is over; in the meantime, as this draft would reduce my strength of European artillerymen in this island by about one-third, I shall, in order to repair the deficiency, cause a portion of the soldiers from the line regiment, equal to about five men per company, to be trained and exercised at the gun drill.

"I have to add that a draft of one hundred and twenty men of the Ceylon Rifle Regiment are under orders, and will probably sail the end of this month for Hong-Kong, to complete the six companies at present serving there to their full complement of one hundred rank and file; these companies having been sent to China so much under their establishment with a view to their being completed by recruits sent from Singapore, but the uncertain state of things there rendering it quite necessary now that trained soldiers should be sent from this place, which I trust will meet with the approbation of his grace the commander-inchief."

The foregoing offer of assistance was finally countermanded by Earl Grey, in a despatch to Major-general D'Aguilar, dated Colonial Office, November the 24th, 1847:—

"The governor of Ceylon has communicated to me an application which you have made to the major-general commanding her majesty's troops in that island, for a reinforcement of half a company of artillery, with two guns, and a proportionate supply of ammunition, to be held in readiness to be forwarded to Hong-Kong, should circumstances render it necessary to undertake any further military operations at Canton.

"I have desired the governor of Ceylon not to send to Hong-Kong the detachment for which you have made application; and I have further to signify to you that her majesty's government peremptorily forbid you to undertake any further offensive operations against the Chinese without their previous sanction. Her majesty's government are satisfied that, although the late operations in the Canton River were attended with immediate success, the risk of a second attempt of the same kind would far overbalance any advantage to be derived from such a step. If the conduct of the Chinese authorities should, unfortunately, render another appeal to arms inevitable, it will be necessary that it should be made after due preparation, and with the employment of such an amount of force as may afford just grounds for expecting that the objects which may be proposed by such a measure will be effectually accomplished without unnecessary loss."

Lord Grey was right, that a similar expedition, if made with the same force, would probably fail. General D'Aguilar knew that rather better than Lord Grey, and did not need a pompous despatch from the Colonial Office to inform him of it. But the general did not mean to attempt the same thing with the same force, and therefore sent for aid where he might naturally have expected to derive the little he sought. There can be no doubt that if matters had been left to the general's own discretion, and his forces been adequately strengthened, he would have performed what was proper to the occasion, and, perhaps, all that English safety and interests required, and thereby have averted future conflict, as well as the humiliations which Englishmen had to endure, and to punish at a great cost of treasure and immense sacrifice of blood.

France.—The Spanish marriages caused stormy debates in the French chambers, which reflected much moral discredit upon the King of the French, his minister Guizot, his ambassador M. Bresson, the queen and queen-mother of Spain, and Narvaez, the chief abettor and tool of the faction of Christina. The eloquent denunciations of M. Thiers against Guizot and his policy told upon the French mind, and led to modifications in the cabinet; but this clever invective was purely in the spirit of party: the honour of France and the love of truth were as little considered by the one leader as the other. The British government maintained an attitude of coldness to that of France, but it was not possible to act independently of it: in many of the affairs of other countries to which England stood related, and in every instance, the influence of the French king was prejudicial to the interests and moral influence of England. On the completion of the Spanish marriages M. Bresson returned to Paris, and had the impudence to demand, as his reward for his share in that transaction, the embassy to London. This was refused, on the ground that the relations of France to Great Britain were too delicate to be committed to the minister who had the chief part in producing the coldness which existed. He then demanded the embassy to St. Petersburg, but this post required higher qualifications than were conceded to M. Bresson by his government. He was nominated to the French ministry at Naples, and proceeded to his destination reluctantly, considering the appointment a slight after sustaining French affairs with the government of a superior country. Soon after he arrived at Naples, perceiving the evil consequences of the Spanish marriages, his chagrin was so increased that he put an end to his own existence.

Spain and Portugal.—Spain passed a year of disorder and bad government, but, excepting as regarded the affairs of Portugal, England had no especial connection with the proceedings of the Spanish government. The state of Portugal was desperate. The Miguellites and liberals continued to maintain the civil war against the queen. The former were repeatedly defeated. Their leader, M'Donnell, perceiving that all hope of inducing the party to adopt measures sufficiently bold were at an end, collected around him a chosen band, and precipitating himself upon the queen's cavalry, fell fighting sword in hand. The radical or constitutional party made their head-quarters at Oporto, where they set at defiance the queen's government. Meanwhile the French and Spanish governments were desirous to interfere on behalf of the queen, whose opinions and sympathies were despotic, and in harmony with those of the French king and the Spanish queen. To prevent such an interference the English government reluctantly consented to a joint interference of England and Spain only. Accordingly, the British navy co-operated with a Spanish army for the purpose of putting down all armed opposition to the queen's government, at the same time obtaining indemnification for all in arms against her majesty, and a guarantee on the part of her majesty, by her solemn promise and the dismission of her reactionary ministry, that she would respect the constitutional rights of her people. This was effected, and Louis Philippe was balked of his desire to interfere in Portugal to promote a reactionary policy. The queen, however, did not keep faith with her allies; she did not dismiss her government until the English minister made such demands as compelled compliance. Peace was by these measures restored to Portugal; but no party within or beyond the bounds of her kingdom had any confidence in the good faith, good sense, or good feeling of the queen.

Lord Palmerston was much censured as the originator of the British policy in Portugal, but an impartial examination of the course he took will show that it was politic, and that by it he enforced upon Portugal the only plan possible to secure her independence of foreign despotic interference, and her release from internecine war. Portugal was saved for the time, and the designs of Louis Philippe were permanently baffled.



STATE OF IRELAND.—PROGRESS OF FAMINE AND DISEASE.

The year 1847 opened upon Ireland in many respects as gloomily as that which preceded. During the early months of the year the weather was very severe, and this added materially to the miseries of an already famine and disease-stricken people. The most heart-rending events connected with these disasters occurred everywhere throughout the country. The government continued its efforts for the mitigation of the prevailing evils; but the plans put forth for this object were not always wise, and the conduct of the people, high and low, baffled the projects of relief. All the mischievous proceedings of a social nature narrated in the previous chapter continued, and many of them were aggravated. The result was that great numbers perished in all parts of the country, especially in the south and west; and philanthropic men in Europe, in America, and throughout the whole world where civilised man dwelt, perused the records of Ireland's sufferings and infatuation with horror and awe. This state of matters continued even to the harvest, and although there was then the prospect of abundant crops, that circumstance neither revived the hopes, nor assuaged the political rancour, of the people. Late in the month of June a clergyman addressed a letter to a Dublin newspaper, describing the condition of the peasantry in his locality, and it but too faithfully depicts the sufferings prevalent in most other places. It was as follows:—"The population of the district for which I would plead amounted at the last census to eight thousand seven hundred souls, but, owing to the dreadful ravages of famine and disease, it is generally considered that two thousand have perished during the past brief season of unexampled horror. Notwithstanding the relief administered through the medium of public works, and the subsequent distribution of rations, many instances have recently occurred of horses being stolen and destroyed for human food, and great distress still extensively prevails. During previous years, every available spot of land was alternately cultivated with potatoes and wheat or oats; but this year, owing to the utter destitution of the farmers, generally speaking, it is computed that one-third of the land last year under the potato crop still lies waste, while almost all the stubble ground remains untouched. If then, after the harvest of last year, when all the existing tillage was cultivated, and some proportion of the potato crop, such as it was, was available for food, such wholesale destruction of human life has taken place in this district, under circumstances of such a character that their mere recital fills the mind with horror and dismay—if, after two thousand have been swept away by the devastating power of famine and disease, four thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine of the survivors are at this moment kept from impending death by the daily distribution of rations,—what are we reasonably to anticipate for the time to come, unless prompt and energetic measures are adopted to provide means for sustaining those who may be spared?"



CONTINUED POLITICAL AGITATION.—DREADFUL PREVALENCE OF CRIME.

Unfortunately, the progress of crime and outrage kept pace with that of famine and pestilence, until the moral condition of the people seemed to be worse than their physical. Men were murdered in the open day, in the presence of numbers who made no effort to stop the deed of blood, and who would make no revelations to the officers of justice calculated to bring punishment upon the coldblooded assassins. The motives for these sanguinary outrages were various: sometimes it was purely agrarian; sometimes for the purpose of plundering food or money. Some were murdered from purely political hostility, and others on account of their prominence in religious movements distasteful to the people. Intolerance, contempt for law, a sense of wrong under the influence of the laws of landlord and tenant then in existence, and despair caused by their sufferings, constituted the incentives to atrocities which threw a hue of blood and gloom over the pages of Irish history.

The political differences which had long rent the country were exasperated, although men of all sects and parties united with equal zeal for the relief of the poor. No charities seemed to soften the heart of the Irish peasant towards those who entered strongly into political or religious combinations to which he was averse.

The new political disputes gathered strength; the different sections of repealers waged not only a wordy war with one another, as in the previous year, but the "Old Irelanders" frequently committed outrages upon the "Young Irelanders," characterised by insolent intolerance and ferocity.

Foreign nations saw, with admiration, the magnitude of the scale upon which government extended relief. By an act of parliament a loan of eight millions sterling was contracted by government for the purpose of mitigating the wants of Ireland. On the first of March it was adjudicated; Messrs. Barings and Rothschilds having coalesced, they were declared the contractors. The loan was in 8 per cent. Consols; the bidding was 89 1/2. The total amount of stock created by the transaction was L8,938,548. The annual charge for the dividend was L268,156 8s. 10d. The scrip, which opened at 2 premium, rapidly fell to discount, and gradually declined, showing the feeling of the monied interest regarding the monetary prospects of the period as affected by Ireland. The commercial distress in Ireland, partly consequent upon the famine and partly upon the general causes then operating in England, was extensive and profound. Heavy failures, in connection with houses of much reputation, shook the general credit, and aggravated the other existing influences by which suffering was originated or increased.

A new form of lawlessness appeared along the Irish coasts. Piracy had not been known there for a great length of time: the coast-guards and revenue cutters prevented that crime, as well as smuggling; but, early in the spring, formidable piratical attempts were made along an extended line of coast. Generally such attempts were frustrated when any weapons of offence were possessed by the attacked; for these enterprises, although furtive and made by considerable numbers, were seldom conducted or maintained with spirit. Thus, in April, the Christian, while on her passage from Liverpool to Westport, with a cargo of Indian corn, was suddenly boarded, seven or eight miles off Broadhaven, by three boats' crews, who broke up the hatches, and carried away thirty-three bags of corn. On the following day they again approached, but the circumstance of the master presenting a gun was sufficient to deter them from any attempt to board. The men effecting these robberies seem to have been actuated by distress; they seldom committed violence, and bore all the aspect of famine and despair.



DEATH OF O'CONNELL.

The political events of the year were much influenced in every way by the absence of Mr. O'Connell from public life, and by his death. Early in the year his powers of mind and body became so much enfeebled, that his physicians insisted upon his leaving London, and upon his excluding all intelligence concerning Ireland. In obedience to these directions, he took up his abode at Hastings; but, although some intervals of apparent recovery occurred, he sank gradually until the imminency of his danger became evident to his friends and to himself. He had a wish to live, probably that he might continue the struggle for the great object of his life—the ascendancy of his religion, and the greater political power of his country. As the spring advanced, his friends were of opinion that a journey to Italy might benefit him; he, believing that his illness was fatal, wished to go to Rome, that he might die there with the blessing of the pope to sanctify the closing scene. His illness increased so rapidly that he was not able to reach Rome, and died at Genoa. A post mortem examination revealed that his brain was extensively diseased, accounting for the melancholy which pervaded his illness. Old age, the failure of his hopes, prophecies, and schemes after the Emancipation Act, and deep mental anxieties about the distress of his country, the divisions in the repeal party, and the hopelessness of his agitation, caused his death. He had attained a good old age (seventy-four), and departed this life on the 15th of May. His latest anxieties were lest he should be buried alive, and he gave to his confessor, physician, and servant, constant and peculiar directions to guard against such a casualty. His heart he bequeathed to Rome! The tidings of his death reached Dublin on the 25th. Immediately placards were issued from Conciliation Hall, and were posted in town and country, announcing the event. The people gathered in crowds wherever a placard was seen, and perused it with deep sorrow, the men moving silently away, or gathering in groups to talk earnestly concerning the deceased and the prospects of their country—the women in many cases uttering loud lamentations. The bells of the Roman Catholic chapels tolled mournfully, and arrangements were made to offer public prayers for the soul of the deceased. Probably there was not a Roman Catholic in Ireland that did not privately offer such petitions upon the reception of the intelligence. The Repeal Association summoned an especial meeting to prepare an address to the people of Ireland suitable to the occasion. The corporation met and adjourned for three weeks as a mark of respect. The Roman Catholics of Ireland, and such Protestants as were considered liberal, made every manifestation of respect for the memory of the great leader. Ireland, in the midst of her starvation and sickness, felt a still deeper sorrow—the whole land appeared in mourning.

The mortal remains of the great popular chief were conveyed to Dublin, and on the 5th of August they were interred in the Glassnevin Cemetery. The day preceding the Reverend Dr. Miley preached his funeral sermon at the Metropolitan Chapel, Marlborough Street. It was an eloquent eulogy upon the character of the departed; his errors, personal and political, were passed over, and the idea pervaded the discourse that the departed was a martyr and saint.

The funeral procession was one of the most remarkable which had ever been witnessed in Ireland,—when the character of the deceased, his influence upon public affairs, the national feeling, the intense curiosity excited, and the conduct of the ceremonial, were considered. At twelve o'clock the corpse was removed from the Metropolitan Chapel. The procession was a mile and a half (Irish) in length, composed of the Trades' Unions on foot, followed by the triumphal car which had been used to convey him from Richmond Penitentiary to his house in Merrion Square, when his acquittal of the charge upon which he had been incarcerated was pronounced by the House of Lords. The coffin was placed on a large open hearse, constructed with very little regard to taste. The hearse was covered with rich Genoa velvet. It was immediately followed by the family of the deceased, his personal and political friends, and a large assembly of the Roman Catholic bishops and clergy. All along the route to Glassnevin, multitudes were assembled in the streets and windows, and even upon the house-tops. Persons came from very great distances in the country to be present at the interment, or take some part in the ceremonial. At the cemetery the services appropriate to the Roman Catholic religion were conducted, and the coffin was consigned to a vault prepared for its reception. The site selected for the place of sepulture was the best which the cemetery afforded, and the whole scene was solemn and impressive. It was a public funeral, worthy of a great man, by a people whom he had zealously, faithfully, and disinterestedly served. It was computed that one hundred thousand persons were present. There was a deep gloom upon the people when the ceremony was over. The religious ceremonies prescribed by the Roman Catholic Church for eminent persons deceased, were continued for a considerable time.

Thus passed away a man whose name will long remain upon the pages of his country's history, and whose influence upon the whole empire of Great Britain was greater than was publicly recognised at the time, and than historians have since recorded.

The fate of the reform bill very much depended upon the support accorded to it by Daniel O'Connell. It is probable that the bill would have been lost without the support of the Irish liberals, led by the agitator. To the repeal of the corn laws he also rendered effective aid, although his oratory in favour of that measure appeared to be less hearty than that on behalf of the reform bill. The impression prevailed very extensively among the great body of the free-traders that, while O'Connell agreed with their theory, and deemed it politic to co-operate with them, he did not regard it as immediately beneficial to Ireland, and did not feel personally cordial to the movement. On many local church questions, also, and to a very great extent, on colonial matters, the influence of the Irish leader was felt in parliament by the parties most interested, and by the governments. For a time the scale of office was held in his hand; he made and unmade ministers. He was not corrupt, or place, power, and pension might have been obtained by him and his. After his death some members of his family did receive government situations, and even before his death connexions of his obtained such advantages; but they were in all cases fit for the posts to which they were appointed, and filled them with honour—nor was the emolument much, in any case. On the whole, the Whigs did not treat the family of O'Connell with gratitude. He had more than once put them into power, and frequently, when the certainty of their losing office without his aid occurred, he gave them the requisite assistance. He was often—indeed, always—in some measure their opponent; but this rather strengthened them in Great Britain, while on great party divisions "the tail" was always to be relied upon by the Whig cabinet. Never had a public man such opportunity of raising himself to the most elevated offices, and securing emolument for himself and his family—never were these temptations more faithfully resisted. Yet O'Connell did not disdain office, and he especially valued promotion and honours in his own profession: but these things were nothing to him in comparison with what he regarded to be his mission. He was fully convinced that God had raised him up for the especial purpose of serving the Roman Catholic religion, and, in connection with that of serving his country, he pursued this object with unswerving fidelity. If he could have obtained high office, and thereby have inflicted no injury upon the cause which he espoused, he would have eagerly sought a position in the cabinet or on the bench; he would have been as much opposed to the repeal of the union as Mr. Lucas, the editor of the Tablet, and other English Roman Catholics, if he had believed that it would injure the Roman Catholic religion. Many supposed that he was never sincere in prosecuting repeal; while others, whose opportunities of judging were ample, believed that he was most honest in that agitation: in fact, both were right. As an Irishman, he had a desire that his country should cease to be a province, and he probably believed that her resources, moral, intellectual, and material, were sufficient to maintain the dignity and power of a nation; it was also his conviction that the repeal of the union would be a means of improving the government and social condition of Ireland, but he chiefly regarded it as an instrument for the aggrandisement of his religion. It would enable the Roman Catholic party to suppress the distribution of Protestant tracts and bibles, to silence Protestant controversialists, and to treat bible-readers and circuit-preachers as vagabonds and disturbers of the peace. O'Connell's speeches abound with expressions of opinion, that it was the duty of the British government to do all these things in deference to the wishes of the Roman Catholics, they being a majority. He invariably held up all attempts to "proselyte the people" as a crime which ought to be punishable by law; and where the government failed "to protect the people from the bible men, saints, soupers, and fanatics" (the names which he generally applied to earnest Protestants in his abusive and bigoted polemical speeches), then the people should use all means within the law—a sort of qualification never intended to be accepted by those to whom it was addressed—"to put down" all persons obnoxious to the religious hostility of the priests. In the earlier part of his career he was accustomed, with the assistance of Brick, O'Dwyer, and others of his followers, to disturb the religious public meetings called by Protestants, especially associations for the distribution of the bible. O'Connell and his colleagues would intrude upon such meetings, often attended by a violent rabble, whose language and behaviour on these occasions were coarse and brutal. The intruders would propose amendments to the resolutions submitted to the members of these societies, and make violent speeches at the meetings, full of ridicule and abuse, which were loudly applauded by the mob, who forced their way in to support these proceedings. When the advocates of the resolutions attempted to reply, they were met by hootings, and sometimes by violence. There was always a perfect understanding between the mob who intruded below, and the gentlemen who made their way or were invited to the platform. The latter affected to protest against the tumult while it went on, but afterwards extenuated or denied it in the newspapers, or in speeches elsewhere, averring that the clergymen and laymen, who convened the meeting, were unable to answer the arguments of the Catholic champions. In many of these meetings free discussion was secured, and faithful reports of the arguments on both sides were published in newspapers and pamphlets, with the result of shaking the faith of many Roman Catholics in various parts of the country: the agitators, under O'Connell's advice, then gave up this mode of procedure, and shunned all such meetings. O'Connell also perceived that he had created a prejudice against himself, his country, and his creed in England, by the violence he connived at, and the bigotry which he uttered.

Repeal of the union, besides enabling him to accomplish the class of religious objects thus described, would also have given him power to transfer the funds of the Irish Established Church to the Roman Catholic. He and most of his followers having loudly professed "the voluntary principle," it may seem to readers, cognisant of that fact, and unacquainted with the modes of procedure adopted by the Irish popular party, as unlikely that those who composed it, or, at all events, he who led it, would ever desire the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. The truth is, that most of the men who declaimed in favour of the voluntary principle were chiefly actuated, like O'Connell himself, in their political agitation, by the desire and hope of Roman Catholic ascendancy. The great repeal leader proved at last that he was utterly insincere in these protestations of voluntarism, for afterwards, during the English agitation concerning the Maynooth grant, he turned "the voluntaries" and their principle into open ridicule. He had served his turn of them, and then held them and the principles he pretended in common with them to support, in derision. Yet O'Connell was not a dishonest politician, apart from his religious mission. He was a man to be trusted in political engagements; few public men of the day would act with such truth and honour to party, and in any purely political contest or interest. When the promotion of his Church was concerned, his conduct proved that he believed a doctrine which he often repudiated—that the end sanctified the means. He was educated a Jesuit, was one in spirit, was allied with them in the purposes and objects of his private life, and his public policy. If any considerable amount of Romish influence could have been introduced to the British cabinet, with the hope that it would become a permanent element in the government of England, O'Connell would have been the deadliest enemy of repeal: the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland would have put down repeal as injurious to it. The Young Irelanders would have still agitated for Irish independence; but they would have been mobbed, or assassinated, or otherwise soon crushed as a party. The Protestants would then have been the repealers. The argument of Mr. Lucas, that repeal would weaken the Irish Roman Catholic body, through the influence of the English government upon the colonies and foreign states, was that which prevailed with so many Romanists of respectability in Ireland, and with the English Roman Catholic party, in keeping them aloof from the repeal agitation, and inducing them even to oppose it; nor was O'Connell himself free from the effect of such a consideration. His professions of the supreme value of repeal were based upon the conviction that it was hopeless to overcome the religious hostility of the British people to any increased influence of Romanism in the government; yet he lingered on, hoping against this conviction, and feeling the difficulty, if not desperation, of the task he imposed upon himself, declaring still that he would only turn to repeal as the dernier ressort, and that his first cry was "Justice to Ireland." Had everything been conceded which was claimed, "Justice to Ireland" would still have been, the cry, on the ground that, being an integral part of the United Kingdom, she was entitled to see her religion established in a fair proportion of the colonies, or placed on a par with the English Church in them all. With O'Connell and with Ireland the grievances were religious; the social evils of Ireland were abetted by many who were repealers: yet there was a sense of political injustice, and a patriotic desire on the part of O'Connell and the people for the glory of Ireland, so far as it was not necessary to merge that in the glory of Rome. Civil and religious liberty for Ireland and for the world were not desired by either the Irish Roman Catholic party or their political champion. The spirit of the speeches at Conciliation Hall, of the Irish press in that interest,—even of the Irish press in the Whig service, which was conducted by Romanists, and the tone of confidential conversation among Irish Roman Catholics at that period, all proved this allegation. Foreign despotisms, if Protestant, were abused and denounced; if Romish, they were treated with respect, and sympathy in case of any disturbance in their dominions; or if it were not for the moment politic to abet their proceedings, their misdeeds were passed over in silence. All the social wrongs and civil tyrannies practised at Rome were upheld as warmly in Ireland, and especially in Conciliation Hall, as they could have been in the conclave of cardinals. One of the favourite topics of the day among the Roman Catholics of Ireland, even amidst their sufferings, during 1847, (and subsequently still more so), was the prospect of the Roman Catholic religion becoming the established religion of the United States, through the instrumentality of the Irish and German Roman Catholics of the immigration. While they cried aloud for religious equality for themselves, they carried on in Ireland a fierce and brutal religious persecution, which was only restrained by the influence of the more enlightened and liberal laymen of their own communion, and by fear of the law; the impolicy of such a cause was not sufficient to check the raging zealotry which so extensively prevailed. All this O'Connell sanctioned and fostered, and, except when doing so would hamper his policy or political relations in England, he invited it.

Intellectually, O'Connell was a giant. His grasp of mind was comprehensive and tenacious; and he was capable of reasoning clearly whenever his religious bias allowed of his doing so dispassionately. His perception was quick, keen, and discriminating, especially where character was concerned. His knowledge of human nature was profound, although he had not been a successful student of metaphysics. His eloquence was more varied than that of any other man of his times; and he possessed the faculty of adapting himself to his audience, and to the changing feelings of an audience, to a degree which few men ever attain. In a moment he could melt a popular audience to tears or convulse it with laughter. He could be plain or ornate, coarse or courteous. The eloquence of invective and vituperation was carried by O'Connell to a very inglorious perfection. His eulogies were as dextrous and expressive as they were, nevertheless, morally repugnant to honest minds. The writer of these lines has heard him address a mob of peasants in the county of Waterford on repeal, and an assembly of Quakers, Methodists, and "other sectaries," as he would himself call them, in the city of Cork, on an anti-slavery occasion, with equal effect. His broad-brimmed and sedate audience were as much delighted with his elegant and pathetic eloquence in favour of humanity and natural rights, as his peasant mob were while he discoursed to them upon the certainty and glory of repeal, and declared that "they were the finest peasantry in the world." On the one occasion his action was graceful, and at times expressive even to sublimity; on the other, it was bold and broadly natural, nor less expressive of the passion he felt or simulated, and endeavoured to excite. He possessed the oratory necessary for an Irish tribune, and that which was adapted to the English senator: In his profession he held a high place. Having given up his life to politics and polemics, he could not have become a first authority in law, but he was unsurpassed as a counsel, especially in criminal cases. Most men thought that he had not the mental and moral qualities necessary for the bench, while he was pre-eminently the man of the bar. This, however, is hardly a fair estimate of him. He possessed in a remarkable degree all those qualities in an advocate which entitle him to cherish the ambition of becoming a judge. From the judgment-seat, when his bigotry did not blind him, O'Connell would have given charges as luminous and just as his speeches in court were powerful specimens of effective advocacy. His general attainments were very considerable. The writer of this history once took part in a conversation where O'Connell displayed a knowledge of Biblical criticism, and a capacity to apply what knowledge of that description which he possessed, which was very astonishing. On the same occasion he brought forth stores of ecclesiastical history, which proved that, although his studies had been confined to a particular school on that subject, his reading within the limits of that school were very extensive, and his memory altogether extraordinary. He had the faculty of attaching men strongly to him, not only as a party-leader, but as a man and a friend. Many thought him jealous of the fame of other orators of his time; but there is no just ground for this. No man approached him in reputation except Richard Lalor Shiel. O'Connell did not betray in public any jealousy of this great oratorical rival; but he often indicated, where he did not profess it, a distrust of his good faith— and the suspicions of the leader were not ill founded: Shiel was never in earnest in his arguments for the separation of the Irish from the English parliament, but preferred the policy of infusing Roman Catholic influence: he also preferred a high imperial position to that of a provincial demagogue. This, in the opinion of the Irish popular party, was treason to Ireland; and no doubt O'Connell sympathised with that feeling, and suspected that the man second only in power to himself was neither so ardent an Irishman or Roman Catholic as his countrymen desired him to be. This feeling on O'Connell's part will account for many acts towards Shiel which were set down to personal jealousy. Dr. Michelsen is very unjust to O'Connell in the following critique upon his character:—"His greatest fault was no doubt his egotism; he could not endure a rival at his side, and would not have hesitated to annihilate any one who did not follow him with implicit obedience." O'Connell would have hailed with delight any accession of eloquence or personal power to Conciliation Hall; but a particular policy had been arranged between O'Connell and the priests—they intrusted their cause to him, and when men started up and questioned, or attempted to modify this policy, O'Connell regarded it as rebellion, not merely against his leadership, but his party, and the church itself; hence, it was necessary for him to put down the disturber; and he was backed by clergy and people in doing so, which would not have been the case had not the understanding between him and the Roman Catholic hierarchy of Ireland been complete. Dr. Michelsen again says:—"It is a mistake to suppose that O'Connell entertained an irreconcilable hatred to England; he had never ceased to regard her as his second fatherland, as the land of his glory, of his intellectual activity. His partiality for England was only surpassed by his excessive love for his native home, and many apparent contradictions in his life can only be reconciled by this double sympathy in his character."*

* "England since the Accession of Queen Victoria," by Edward H. Michellen, Ph.D.

It is obvious that the writer of this paragraph has neither studied O'Connell, his country, or the party which he led. One of the grand causes of O'Connell's failure in many things was his rancorous hatred to England. Thomas Gaspey, Esq., in his "History of England," views this matter correctly in writing of O'Connell's death, and the feeling in England concerning him:—"In England his departure was regarded with indifference. The hostility and scorn he frequently expressed for the Saxons, and his disparaging remarks on English women, had precluded him from gaining any of the popularity he had enjoyed in Ireland."

The hatred of O'Connell to England was threefold—that of race, of nation, and of creed. He regarded England as the chief abettor of heresy in the world, and therefore would have rejoiced over her downfall; this was the common feeling of his party. So far as his animosity was connected with race and nationality, it was not unprovoked. The English people cherished deep prejudices against Ireland and the whole Celtic race; and the English newspapers frequently discussed the universal claims of the Anglo-Saxon to dominancy, and every social and national virtue, thereby creating a feeling of resentment in all countries where these articles were reprinted. The chief invidiousness, however, was to the Celt, and among Celts to the Irishman. This circumstance made repealers of numbers of Irishmen who were neither Celtic in race nor Roman in creed.



MR. JOHN O'CONNELL ASSUMES THE PRESIDENCY OF THE REPEAL ASSOCIATION—INFLUENCE OF THE REPEAL AGITATION UPON THE GENERAL ELECTIONS IN IRELAND.

The death of Mr. O'Connell, it was generally supposed in England, would allow agitation in Ireland to die of itself. Others supposed that it would now assume a worse form, in consequence of the absence of those restraints which the superior sagacity of the arch agitator laid upon the more fiery and imprudent ringleaders. The latter opinion was the correct one, and the people of England were astonished to find that Mr. O'Connell's son John not only became the chairman at Conciliation Hall, but the recognised leader of the agitation. The priests gave him their confidence, and, at first, the people very generally; but he was not possessed of those qualities which enabled him to hold the reins of power. As Richard Cromwell to the deceased Oliver, so John O'Connell exhibited a contrast to his father, which soon caused the people to fall off from his leadership: his name, and the influence of the priests, were the means of retaining it for him for a time. After the death of his father, the temporary inheritor of his position indicated much energy and activity, although, even in this respect, none of the agitators approached their late chief: O'Connell's powers of physical endurance and toil had been prodigious.

A general election, the policy of which will be noticed on another page, called out the leadership of John O'Connell, and the action of the committee at Conciliation Hall, in a manner to test whether the people were disposed to follow them. The general impression in England was, that the popular fervour had ebbed, and that the repeal members would not generally be returned: the English press made confident predictions to that effect. John O'Connell and the clique at Conciliation Hall accepted the ordeal, and were backed by priests and people in their policy. An extraordinary meeting was convened, and an address to the electors of Ireland resolved upon. It was a document which ought to be retained upon the page of history, for it discloses the spirit and temper of the repeal party, and of the Roman Catholic electors who responded practically to such an appeal. The repealers, as has been already shown, were not confined to Roman Catholics, nor were all that communion repealers; but, on the whole, the religious division of Protestant and Romanist defined the boundary between anti-repealers and repealers.

The following is copied from Saunders' News Letter of the 12th of June:—

Address of the Loyal National Repeal Association to the Electors of Ireland.

"'God prosper the cause!—oh! it cannot but thrive, While the pulse of one patriot heart is alive. How sainted by sorrow its martyrs have died! Far, far, from the footprint of coward or slave, The young spirit of freedom shall shelter their grave!"

"On you—fellow-countrymen—electors—at this moment devolves the good and holy task of protecting the graves of the sorrow-sainted martyrs of Ireland from the polluting tread of coward or of slave. None such will be found amongst you—none such will dare to show themselves if you be true.

"In this year of death, our country still survives! Weeping, fainting, bleeding, yet she lives; and lives to claim, aye, and to have—the services of her true children.

"Yes! although from him whose life's devotion to Ireland was repaid by her confidence and her love, and from those without whose potent aid his labours had been vain—the beloved clergy of the people—down throughout all ranks and orders of the national organisation, Death has been busy, still enough remain of devoted, determined, patriot hearts, to carry out the good work he began, and to make it, with the blessing of a merciful God, speedily triumphant!

"Rally, then—rally, electors of Ireland—your country calls! Your dead brethren, even from their graves, invoke you. Drive from your hustings the men who shall have dared to think you cowards—who shall dare to ask you to continue slaves! And there are those who will so dare;—mark you not the exulting tone of Whig and Tory, and every other class of panderers to English passions and prejudices:—'Repeal,' they say, 'is gone!' 'Ireland is at last subdued—she begs for bread, and is fearful to demand her rights lest we withhold our alms!' It is false; how foully false you know, and at the elections you will prove. Deep as is the baseness of those who build their party hopes upon a nation's misery, deeper still would be our baseness if ever, even amid all the heart-crushing calamities of the time, we shrunk in aught from our high purposes, and from our vows for Ireland's regeneration.

"Nay, if but the hope of relief from our present distress were to animate us, even so should we cry out for that home parliament which alone can bring back wealth and abundance to the land—alone can guard her from recurring season after season of want, of pestilence, of death!

"Be ready then in time, fellow-countrymen, the elections are at hand; give us repealers—true and trusty repealers—men pledged to the safe, peaceful, constitutional principles you have been taught by him whom you followed so devotedly, and whom you mourn so affectionately and sincerely!

"On you—on each one and all of you together, and on none but you, the task now lies of helping Ireland at this fearful crisis of her fortunes. Yours, and yours alone, will be the glories of success, or the shame of not having sought it. Your distress has left the Repeal Association without funds to aid your contest, and we can do no more than to exhort and to advise. Let not the wily enemies of your freedom delude you. The duty is upon you; the means are in your hands, not in ours; if the duty be not done, poor Ireland will suffer the disastrous and ruinous consequences; but the blame of them, and the shame, will be upon you. Fellow-countrymen, this must not be—nay, this will not be. We answer for you. Unaided, undirected, as you are, you will bestir yourselves—on yourselves will depend, and you will achieve the victory. Meet in your committees; encourage the timid, cheer up the desponding; turn away with contempt from the whig or tory dependent, who would counsel you to dishonour, and vote for none but a staunch repealer—for one who will maintain the peace principles of the association, and aid it to work out and re-establish the inalienable and imperishable right of Ireland to legislate for herself.

"Had our own parliament ruled us, the landlords would not have had their tyrannies sanctioned and increased in license till the suffering people were reduced down to the lumper potato for a wretched, and, alas! a fatally precarious subsistence. Our manufactures would yet exist, giving comfort to our skilful artizans, and offering refuge to the peasant, unable to obtain a maintenance upon the land. In every village neighbourhood, the money raised by the hard toil of the labourer would be finding its way back, and briskly circulating there, by reason of the thousand sources of employment that would arise around the restored residence of the large proprietor. Irish money would thus stay at home to create and increase Irish wealth, and to support Irish poverty; and the grudging doles of an alien parliament would never more be needed in the land.

"Fellow-countrymen, for such results the association has been struggling—for such objects you are now called upon to work. By all that this wretched land has yet endured from English misrule,—by the accumulated and aggravated suffering of the last disastrous forty-seven years, with their fell climax in this year of death,—by the myriads of fresh graves, the fearful husbandry of death, that are ridging your fields and even your humble homesteads,—by the holy and most adorable name of the Deity, who chasteneth whom He loveth,—we entreat, we implore, we exhort, we adjure you to stand true to Ireland at these elections; to spurn Whig and Tory, and to prove yourselves worthy of your rights by returning none but those who will unflinchingly assert them;—and foremost amongst those rights, before all and above all, the right to make your own laws in your own parliament at home."

The elections issued in a triumph for which the Repeal Committee itself was hardly prepared. There was a great increase in "repeal members." This arose from a variety of causes. The Conservatives had lost heart in connection with the expenses which the famine had imposed upon their estates. The people universally attributed their distress to the government, and to their connection with heretic England. The priests made great exertions throughout the country. Fearful scenes of violence took place, "the moral-force repealers," lay and clerical, inciting the people to these outrages by the most inflammatory appeals to their fanaticism, and by examples which were calculated to encourage them. The most awful denunciations were heaped upon the heads of "all bad Catholics who should vote against their religion and country." These denunciations came from sacerdotal lips, and from the altar as well as the pulpit. The popular press rivalled the priests in anathemas against all who were not willing "to vote for Ireland against the Saxon." Public placards might be seen in town and country, headed, like the address of the Repeal Committee to the electors, with inflammatory poetry: a favourite couplet on these occasions was—

"On our side is virtue and Erin, On theirs is the Saxon and guilt."

The context of these lines was judiciously omitted from the placards, but not from the speeches of the electioneering agents and orators—

"Then onward—our green banner rearing— Go, flesh every sword to the hilt."

If this injunction was not obeyed to the letter, it was nearly so, and at all events it was carried out in spirit.

Of green banners there was abundance, and if the sword gave place to the brickbat and the bludgeon, the consequences were pretty much the same—"Green Erin" gained a great victory over Erin of the Orange preferences, and over the Saxon in general. The spirit in which this result was received at Conciliation Hall, and its effect upon the hopes and aspirations of the people, may be gathered most readily from the address of the General Election Committee of the Repealers to the people of Ireland, when the elections had closed.

"Fellow-countrymen,—Even in this hour of triumph—even now, when you have so nobly vindicated at the elections the glorious cause of repeal—our congratulations must, in sad accordance with the unvarying fate of Ireland ever since Englishmen have controlled her fortunes, be mingled with considerations of mournfulness and peril! It is not merely—and, alas! that such a calamity should have to be treated as of secondary magnitude—it is not merely that the niggard state charity of England is now at once to cease and be entirely withdrawn, but we have to contemplate a still more fearful and far wider-spreading misery at the end of autumn and in the early winter.

"All-bounteous Heaven has blessed our fields with abundance; but Ireland's poverty—the unholy doing of man—must cause the produce of her harvest to be exported away from her starving people, and sold at the rich markets of England, to meet the enormous rents of cruel absentees. Five millions of your money go annually to those absentees; and so many have lately fled from the sight of the calamities their carelessness for their country had allowed England to inflict, that more than an additional million must be drained away this year!

"What is there to save our people? The potato has not been sown in one-third of the extent of former years. The substitute crops, though promising, will be fearfully short of the deficiency caused by the loss of the potato; and those crops would be taken from us by the high prices in England, even if we had not to send them there to get money for the absentees. Food gone, and money gone, what is to become of us? The stinted relief that England gave us is out. The means voted with grudging and insult are expended and gone. Her representatives are pledged to give us no more, and not only to refuse if the government should propose a further advance, but to call upon the minister to insist strictly and speedily on repayment of that which has been given. We therefore have no hope of money from England! Have we then any money at home? Alas! it is but as the dribblings of the mountain stream when the winter floods have passed, and the summer heats are exhausting and absorbing its waters; and had we tenfold what little remains, how are the rates to be paid, when, according to even the starvation scale of the government soup-kitchens, the cost of maintaining our poor will exceed by nearly double the whole rated value of the property in Ireland! No Whig nor Tory can tell us of the means of meeting the coming disaster. The members of the ministry have not touched upon it at any of their elections. The press of England is mute, save when it gives utterance to calumnies and insults. Ireland is not in the thoughts of any of our English fellow-subjects. Their own interests, their own monetary perils, their own necessities, absorb their whole attention.

"Should we not then take counsel from ourselves? Should not our newly-elected members agree to come together here in Dublin, and consult for the safety of the country, and decide upon the matters they will urge upon the reluctant ear of the English parliament? Should they not meet, if only to concert how best to recall the absentees to their long-neglected duties at home; how best to compel all the monies of the country to be spent at home; and thus to give a chance of saving our unhappy people from being swept off the face of the earth by widely-desolating famine, or the yet more desolating and dreadful agency of a bloody, a bootless, a criminal, and all-destroying civil war?

"Again we shall address you, when the time is near that parliament is to assemble, and ask of you to announce to your representatives your opinions. We shall carefully make use of the intervening time to collect and concentrate the expression of your sentiments respecting each particular point of policy that should be pressed upon your members' attention, as well as respecting the great leading principles of the national movement. Thus shall the 'Council of National Distress and National Safety' come to its labours with materials prepared and suitably digested, and thus be enabled all the readier and speedier to take, boldly and explicitly, its decisions and resolves, and maintain them firmly, undauntedly, and perseveringly in the British House of Commons. Thus shall the Irish members best show themselves to be worthy of the high trust with which they have been honoured, and of the far higher and prouder distinction of being again, and at no distant time, deputed to represent their beloved country in her restored native parliament."

The representation that the relief England had given to the people was stinted, was a vile calumny, showing the utter want of principle of the party from which it emanated. The intimation that it was not the intention of government to do more; that the "stinted relief" which England gave was "out;" and that nothing but ruin remained, although rich England was at hand to save, if she were only charitable and just,—was well calculated to keep up disaffection in the public mind.

The success of the repealers at the elections might be supposed as tending to quiet the country, as it afforded a constitutional medium of expressing their views. But it had not that effect: the desire to procure arms which showed itself in 1846 continued through 1847, and notwithstanding the great distress so generally felt, the expenditure of money upon aggressive weapons was in some parts of the country larger than in the previous year.



BITTER DISPUTES BETWEEN "OLD IRELAND" AND "YOUNG IRELAND."

The Young Irelanders were encouraged by the death of O'Connell to believe that they could take the lead in public affairs among the Roman Catholics, and they supposed that the Protestant population were more likely to listen to arguments in favour of an effort to achieve national independence, coming from them, than they were to hearken to the old repeal arguments from the Old Irelanders. In this they were disappointed; notwithstanding that several of the leaders were Protestants, no considerable number of that persuasion followed the new faction. The true tendency of that agitation was seen by the Protestants, who rather prepared to resist both the Old Ireland and Young Ireland parties, in the struggle which might be brought about by a coalition of these parties. Such a coalition was the policy of the Young Ireland party; but they made the doctrine of physical force a sine qua non in the creed of the coalesced parties; and the Old Irelanders, still clinging to the policy of their deceased chief, refused the terms. John O'Connell and his adherents were then made the objects of unsparing ridicule by the literati of the new party, and the lampoons and caricatures of which the chairman and committee of Conciliation Hall were the victims, told upon the people, and gradually insinuated a contempt for the weak and vacillating policy, as it was described, by which they were guided. The party of John O'Connell, as when under the guidance of his father, was not slow to resort to physical violence, whenever there was a chance of doing so with impunity, while they continued to proclaim the sanctity and permanent obligation of the O'Connell doctrine of moral force. The Young Irelanders endeavoured to reunite Irishmen to lift the arm of a manly and brave revolt against English connection. The Old Irelanders had no objection to kill scripture-readers, break church windows, waylay Protestants, and maltreat them at market or fair, and riotously disperse the assemblages of Young Irelanders, while they preached passive resistance as alone justifiable to the government. Of course the leaders of Old Ireland denounced all breakers of the laws; but when outrages were committed, especially on Young Irelanders or Protestants, they palliated them, or denied them in the face of evidence which was conclusive. John O'Connell found himself in a hurricane of political passion, which he could not quell, and through which he had neither power nor skill to direct his course. By the end of the year he found the reins of authority slipping through his hands; Smith O'Brien and his compeers were rampant; and Ireland, stained with blood, blackened with pestilence, exhausted by famine, raged with impotent fury against the imperial government and Great Britain: in all the folly of domestic faction, she was pitied and scorned by Great Britain when she supposed herself feared. There were no men amongst the leaders of the disaffected in Ireland to command the respect of England, in that sense which a dominant nation respects the power of a rival, or of an insurgent province. The wish became very extensive in Great Britain that all Irish grievances should be redressed, and that in every respect Ireland should be placed on a footing with the other portions of the United Kingdom, if in any a sense of injustice were experienced; but to the honest menaces of the Young Irelanders, and the hypocritical reliance on moral persuasion of Conciliation Hall, the people of Great Britain only gave their ear from curiosity, perfectly regardless of any power which any faction or union of factions might put forth. Great Britain awaited the outburst of passion which was in Ireland so rapidly coming to a crisis,' as unmoved as the crag abides the eddies of the current which bubble and burst against it.



GENERAL STATE OF AFFAIRS IN GREAT BRITAIN.

This year was one which, in many respects, tested the power and resources of Great Britain. In her colonies she had conflicts to wage of great magnitude. Ireland was smitten with famine and disease, and turbulent. In the Highlands of Scotland the hardy peasantry suffered from the scarcity of provisions caused by the failure of the potato and other crops during 1846.

The commercial embarrassments of the year were felt from the beginning, and continued, with more or less pressure, to the close. From the operations of various causes, money was dear both on the European and American continents. Early in January, so severely was this circumstance felt in Paris, that the Bank of France applied to that of England for aid, which was granted; but the consequence, of course, was a rapid rise in the rate of interest in Great Britain and Ireland. This continued until all speculative transactions were paralysed. The timely increase in the price of accommodation by the Bank of England did much to mitigate the evils of the crisis. These were produced by recent bad harvests, and the failure of the potato crop. The great extent to which railway transactions had been carried, and the consequent drainage of capital; the wild speculations which began to prevail in France, and were so marvellously developed in England, also conduced to the monetary disturbance. Besides the operation of all these causes, there was an uneasy feeling on the continent connected with political affairs, which communicated itself to England, and made capitalists timid.