The government carried its measure; L100,000 was devoted to educational purposes on the plan provided by the minutes of the Committee of Education of the Privy Council. The discussions so long existing on the question of education received, however, a new impetus, and became more acrimonious than before. A very large party was gradually created favourable to a national system of secular education, leaving the religious care of the scholars to denominational supervision. A very large class of earnest men became still more devoted than ever to the voluntary system of education, and prodigious efforts were made to promote it. It was found, however, that the expense was such as to defy voluntary efforts, except as sustained through a long period, while the deficiency to be met was urgent and extensive. To carry out any government system that would at all meet the necessity, and respect the scruples of all classes would also entail an enormous burden upon the nation. In the debate on the question to which this section refers, Mr. Duncombe depicted the heavy public burdens that would be thus imposed: Mr. Macaulay exclaimed, "A penny a-head." Mr. Duncombe's retort, that this statement was a romance was merited. Mr. Macaulay could never have examined the financial bearing of this great question thoroughly, or his acute mind must have discovered the fallacy of the opinion he so rashly hazarded.

The discussions in and out of parliament brought to light a vast mass of statistics as to the crime and ignorance with which the worthful elements of society had to contend. The alarm felt by good men in the result of these revelations strengthened the hands of government in passing the bill. Objections were raised by many in view of the magnitude of the evil to be encountered, and a sense of responsibility in connection with some immediate and extensive action. The reverend Doctor Guthrie, on a different and subsequent occasion, eloquently expressed what was at this juncture so generally felt:—"When men die, corruption commonly begins after death, but when nations die, it always begins before it. And as in that man's gangrened extremities, and swollen feet, and slow circulation, I see the heralds of death approaching,—in these godless masses, sunk in ignorance, lost to the profession of religion, and even to the decent habits of civilised society, I see the most alarming signs of a nation's danger, unless remedies are promptly applied, the unmistakeable forerunners of a nation's death. Unless early, active, adequate measures are employed to arrest the progress of our social maladies, there remains for this mighty empire no fate but the grave—that grave which has closed over all that have gone before it. Where are the Assyrian and Egyptian monarchies? Where is the Macedonian empire? Where the world-wide power of Rome? Egypt lies entombed amid the dust of her catacombs. Assyria is buried beneath the mounds of Nineveh. Rome lives only in the pages of history, survives but in the memory of her greatness, and the majestic ruins of the 'Eternal City.' Shall our fate resemble theirs? Shall it go to prove that Providence has extended the same law of mortality to nations that lies on men—that they also should struggle through the dangers of a precarious infancy; grow up into the beauty, and burn with the ardour, of youth; arrive at the vigour of perfect manhood; and then, slowly sinking, pass through the blindness and decay of old age, until they drop into the tomb? Under God, it depends upon ourselves whether that shall or shall not be our fate. Matters are not so far gone but it may yet be averted. A great French general, who reached the battle-field at sundown, found that the troops of his country had been worsted in the fight; unskilful arrangements had neutralised Gallic bravery, and offered the enemy advantages they were not slow to seize. He accosted the unfortunate commander; having rapidly learned how matters stood, he pulled out his watch, turned his eye on the sinking sun, and said, 'There's time yet to gain the victory.' He rallied the broken ranks; he placed himself at their head, and launching them with the arm of a giant in war, upon the columns of the foe, he plucked the prize from their hands—won the day. There is no time to lose. To her case, perhaps, may be applied the words, which we would leave as a solemn warning to every worldly, careless, Christless man, 'Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.'"



BILL FOR CREATING A NEW DIOCESS OF MANCHESTER.

The government brought in a bill for this purpose which excited much discussion in parliament, and much discontent in the locality more immediately interested. The second reading was proposed by Lord Lansdowne on the 7th of June. The bill also created a new archdeaconry of Liverpool, The bill proposed to exclude the new bishop from a seat in parliament. This evoked opposition from the high church party, but the success of the measure was secured by this proviso; for the opposition raised in Lancashire was so great that the government could hardly have proceeded with the bill had a seat in the House of Peers been associated with the new see. It was provided, however, that when a vacancy, by death or otherwise, occurred on the bench of bishops, the bishop of Manchester should succeed to a seat in that house. This introduced a new principle in the relations of the episcopal bench to the peerage; for a bishop would not in future have a seat in their lordships' house as a matter of course, but would occupy his see without such privilege until a vacancy occurred.



DEBATE ON THE ANNEXATION OF CRACOW.

The annexation of Cracow to the Austrian empire has been already related in this chapter. Several allusions were made to this in the debates on the address, but on the 4th of March Mr. Hume brought the subject forward in a formal manner. Mr. Hume, however, so mixed up the subject with the Russo-Dutch loan, that his resolutions as far as regarded Cracow were impracticable, and he withdrew them after uselessly occupying the time of the house by a long debate.

There were few matters of interest connected with the remainder of the session. Lord Palmerston delivered a speech in which he animadverted so severely on the bad faith of the Spanish government, in reference to Spanish bonds, as to produce great indignation in Spain. It was supposed that the good effects of the speech, however, would be felt by those interested in the punctual disbursements of the Spanish government. That government had too little probity to meet the calls of honour, and too little shame to be moved by the disapprobation of honest men.

It was resolved by the government of Lord John Russell to advise her majesty to dissolve parliament, so that the elections might terminate before harvest; various bills were therefore postponed or abandoned.

Lord Lyndhurst had been accustomed to take a retrospective view of each session, in a speech which recapitulated the doings and misdoings of government, according to his lordship's view of them. Lord Brougham, ambitious to do everything, even when he knew others could do it better, resolved to perform the task usually sustained by his brother ex-chancellor. The performance was inferior to that usually accomplished by the noble Baron Lyndhurst, although in declamatory force Lord Brougham's oration was perfect. All the bills passed in the session he described as bad ones. Many of those lost or abandoned, if introduced by government, he represented as useless, and their introduction as a waste of time. Every epithet of contempt furnished by the English language, and by any other which his lordship knew, however imperfectly, was heaped upon the defunct bills. They were consigned to the shades below, to that "lean world" where—

"Ibant obseuri sola sub nocte per nmbram Perque domos Ditis vacuas et mania regna."

What his lordship said of the defunct measures will be true of himself, when his great energies are still, and his eloquent tongue silent for ever—"A thousand faults and a thousand freaks died with them." His lordship appended a condemnatory motion to his speech, which, like most of his motions, came to nothing. The house was greatly amused, and even instructed, by the noble lord's oration, but not at all edified. The Marquis of Lansdowne replied with that calm and graceful dignity by which that venerable peer was so much distinguished; and his reply carried with it the weight of his consistent political character, for the house unanimously adopted his course.



PROROGATION AND DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT.

On the 23rd of July, parliament was prorogued by her majesty. As the parliament which had been called together in 1841 had been one of the longest during the century, the prorogation, which was made by her majesty in person, excited very great public interest, and the queen's speech was looked for with unusual public attention. The streets leading to the House of Lords presented the same animated appearance as is usual on similar occasions. Her majesty, accompanied by Prince Albert, and attended by the usual great officers of state, entered the royal carriage, and proceeded from Buckingham Palace to the House of Lords shortly before two o'clock. As the royal procession passed through St. James's Park, and along the line of road, her majesty and her illustrious consort were loudly cheered by the spectators who had assembled to witness this splendid pageant. On the arrival of the royal cortege at the House of Lords, it was announced by a discharge of cannon.

Her majesty having robed, she immediately proceeded to the house, and took her seat on the throne. Prince Albert occupied a state chair on the right of the sovereign. The entrance of her majesty to the house was announced by a nourish of trumpets. The peers and peeresses all rose as the queen entered. The new house was crowded, and presented a brilliant spectacle. All, or nearly all, the foreign ambassadors and ministers were present. The dresses of the ladies were very elegant.

Her majesty having taken her seat, the Lord Chancellor directed Sir Augustus Clifford, Usher of the Black Rod, to summon the House of Commons to hear the royal speech on the prorogation of parliament. In a short time the speaker, accompanied by a number of members, appeared at the bar, when the right honourable gentleman, as is usual, addressed her majesty in a short speech, recounting the business of the session, and concluded by praying the royal assent to several bills which had passed both houses. Her majesty then read the following most gracious speech:—

"My Lords and Gentlemen,—I have much satisfaction in being able to release you from the duties of a laborious and anxious session. I cannot take leave of you without expressing my grateful sense of the assiduity and zeal with which you have applied yourselves to the consideration of the public interests. Your attention has been principally directed to the measures of immediate relief which a great and unprecedented calamity rendered necessary.

"I have given my cheerful assent to those laws which, by allowing the free admission of grain, and by affording facilities for the use of sugar in breweries and distilleries, tend to increase the quantity of human food, and to promote commercial intercourse.

"I rejoice to rind that you have in no instance proposed new restrictions, or interfered with the liberty of foreign or internal trade; as a mode of relieving distress. I feel assured that such measures are generally ineffectual, and, in some cases, aggravate the evils for the alleviation of which they are adopted.

"I cordially approve of the acts of large and liberal bounty by which you have assuaged the sufferings of my Irish subjects. I have also readily given my sanction to a law to make better provision for the permanent relief of the destitute in Ireland. I have likewise given my assent to various bills calculated to promote the agriculture and develop the industry of that portion of the United Kingdom. My attention shall be directed to such further measures as may be conducive to those salutary purposes.

"My relations with foreign powers continue to inspire me with confidence in the maintenance of peace. It has afforded me great satisfaction to find that the measures which, in concert with the King of the French, the Queen of Spain, and the Queen of Portugal, I have taken for the pacification of Portugal, have been attended with success; and that the civil war which for many months had afflicted that country has, at last, been brought to a bloodless termination. I indulge the hope that future differences between political parties in that country may be settled without an appeal to arms.

"Gentlemen of the House of Commons,—I thank you for your willingness in granting me the necessary supplies; they shall be applied with due care and economy to the public service.

"I am happy to inform you that, notwithstanding the high price of food, the revenue has, up to the present time, been more productive than I had reason to anticipate. The increased use of articles of general consumption has chiefly contributed to this result. The revenue derived from sugar, especially, has been greatly augmented by the removal of the prohibitory duties on foreign sugar.

"The various grants which you have made for education in the United Kingdom will, I trust, be conducive to the religious and moral improvement of my people.

"My Lords and Gentlemen,—I think it proper to inform you that it is my intention immediately to dissolve the present parliament.

"I rely with confidence on the loyalty to the throne, and attachment to the free institutions of this country, which animate the great body of my people. I join with them in supplications to Almighty God that the dearth by which we have been afflicted may, by the Divine blessing, be converted into cheapness and plenty."

An event occurred at this juncture not unimportant to the government, and in which the Roman Catholics of Ireland felt concern. The O'Connor Don, one of the members for Roscommon, and a lord of the Treasury, died. He was a patriotic Irishman, of superior education and intelligence, and much respected, not only by the county he represented, but in Ireland generally. In the province of Connaught he was regarded with the reverence paid to a Celtic chief.

Parliament having been dissolved, writs were at once issued for the election of members for a new one. The especial feature of this election was the want of a definite policy on the part of the great body of the candidates. The Whigs seemed to have no clear notion of what they ought to propose to themselves or to the country. Lord John Russell, as has always been his custom, referred to his past life as the standard by which the electors should judge his future policy. A suspicion existed in the electoral body in Great Britain that it was the intention of government to endow the Roman Catholic clergy, and this injured the cause of such Whig candidates as were not very explicit on this matter. The previous parliament had added to the influence of the church by increasing the number of bishops, and by their education plan; this prejudiced many of the Dissenters against Whigism in general, and the government leaders of that school as its most prominent advocates. There was a general expectation that, whatever the complexion of the new parliament, Sir Robert Peel would of necessity be in power before its dissolution. The energy of the country party was, however, mainly directed against the Peelites, and their strength was sufficient to bar, for a time at all events, the approaches to power against Sir Robert.

The elections proceeded throughout Great Britain with fairness, except that the landlords in some places exercised an influence which was unconstitutional and unjust. Tenants were evicted because they voted according to their conscience; and the tradespeople in country towns were menaced with loss of custom by the neighbouring landowners. In Ireland the landed interest also exercised an undue influence, and many cases of extreme hardship occurred. The Boman Catholic clergy used the power of their office for electioneering purposes, in a way injurious to their own moral influence, subversive of the rights of the people, and dangerous to law and order.

The elections terminated by the return of a majority, ostensibly in favour of government, but there was little earnestness of principle or purpose to give consistency or continuity to their support.



ASSEMBLING OF A NEW PARLIAMENT.

In consequence of the public distress in Great Britain, the famine in Ireland, and the disturbed state of that country, it became necessary for parliament to assemble sooner than had been customary. Accordingly, on the 18th of November, the first session of the new parliament began; Mr. Shaw Lefevre was re-elected speaker. On the 23rd, the Marquis of Lansdowne was commissioned to read her majesty's speech. That document referred with hope to the state of commercial matters in Great Britain, and with gratitude to Providence for a bountiful harvest. Her majesty expressed her sympathy for Irish suffering, and her abhorrence of Irish crime. She expressed her pleasure at the alacrity showed by all classes to relieve the destitute in Ireland; and recommended her parliament to take measures for repressing outrage, and preserving the public peace in that country. She expressed her regret that civil war had broken out in Switzerland, and her readiness to use her influence to heal those distractions. The speech announced a treaty with the republic of the equator for the suppression of the slave-trade, and avowed confidence in maintaining the general peace of Europe. The navigation laws, the health of the metropolis, and the revenue, were also subjects to which she called the attention of her parliament.

In the debate upon the address, in the lords, Lord Stanley was unreasonable and virulent; Lord Brougham, always in opposition to somebody, refuted the conservative leader. He "praised the government for calling parliament together so soon; justified the interference with the bank charter, recorded on another page; declared that Ireland stood in a shameful and hateful pre-eminence of crime, and trusted that effectual measures would be taken to disarm the people, and protect life and property."

The debate on the address, in the commons, was chiefly remarkable for the boldness and extent of Mr. John O'Connell's demands upon the Treasury for the relief of Ireland. Sir Benjamin Hall made some very foolish replies to Mr. O'Connell, and added to the bitterness of the debate. Mr. Maurice O'Connell made the startling declaration that not more than one-fifth of the sum voted for Ireland had ever reached that country.

A Roman Catholic archdeacon, named Laffan, at a public meeting in Cashel, had made a very inflammatory speech, which had excited the indignation of the public, and was the subject of animadversion in parliament. Mr. Mahon, an Irish member, was chairman of that meeting, and the mode in which he palliated the atrocious speech of the archdeacon caused murmurs of disapprobation in the house. Ireland appeared to great disadvantage in this debate, and the tone of English members was not so generous as it ought to have been. The dreadful crimes perpetrated in Ireland had produced a state of feeling in England which was almost resentful, notwithstanding the compassion entertained for the sufferings of the Irish poor. There could be no doubt, as Mr. Stafford O'Brien reminded the house, that some of the best of landlords had been assassinated. There appeared to be a relentless thirst for blood among the Irish peasantry, prompted by fanaticism, famine, and despair, which was calculated to destroy the sympathy of the representatives of Great Britain.

The address in the commons was ultimately agreed to after a most acrimonious debate, protracted by the Irish members and their opponents far beyond the limits usual on such occasions.



DEBATE ON THE DISTRESS OF THE NATION.

On the 30th the chancellor of the exchequer rose, pursuant of notice, to move for "a select committee to inquire into the causes of the recent commercial distress, and how far it has been effected by the laws for regulating the issue of bank-notes payable on demand." After an intellectual debate, except so far as some incoherent rhapsodies of Mr. Urquhart made it otherwise, the motion was acceded to. Sir Robert Peel appeared to singular advantage in this discussion; he placed the causes of public distress luminously before the house, and supported the policy of government. In the lords there was a similar debate, remarkable for the extraordinary assertion of Lord Brougham, that the public distress was chiefly to be attributed to the obstinacy of government and parliament in not taking his advice and that of the Duke of Wellington, proffered for the last ten years. His lordship seemed ambitious of identifying himself with the illustrious duke on all possible occasions, although scarcely any two men could have entertained opinions more dissonant than these two noble persons.



MEASURES FOR THE REPRESSION OF HOMICIDE AND OUTRAGE IN IRELAND.

The party of Lord John Russell had thwarted the government of Sir Robert Peel when endeavouring to enact a law for the preservation of life and property from the lawlessness of the peasantry in Ireland: it was Lord John's fate, in this session, to invoke Sir Robert's aid in carrying measures very similar. It became necessary to pass some enactment calculated to hold Irish outrage in check. Lord John's influence ultimately suffered by so frequently opposing others in their more timely efforts to carry measures of which he was glad at last to avail himself.

In the six months ending October, 1847, there were ninety-six murders, while the appalling number of one hundred and fifty-six attempts at assassination had been made. During the same period, one hundred and sixteen dwelling-houses had been set on fire by incendiaries. But offences against life, property, and the civil and religious freedom of the respectable inhabitants, were innumerable. Portions of Ireland were under a reign of terror. The sympathies of whole districts were on the side of those by whom rapine and assassination were committed; and there was a general unwillingness, even among the better class of farmers, and persons in higher stations still, to bring the malefactors to justice.

Sir George Grey introduced the remedial measures of government. The proposed bill was to be applicable only to such portions of Ireland as the lord-lieutenant should proclaim to be disturbed. The reserved force of Irish constabulary was to be increased from four hundred to six hundred men—a feature of the scheme so absurdly inadequate as to expose its authors to ridicule. From this paltry reserve his excellency was to send forces into the proclaimed districts. This force would be paid out of the district it was sent to protect—a most salutary arrangement, as giving the small farmers and clergy an interest in checking insurgent proceedings. All persons, unless especially exempt from the prohibition, were to be forbidden the use of arms in proclaimed districts, but they might have such in their own houses. This provision, which appeared reasonable in itself, was practically mischievous, for the houses of many became depots of arms for their companions in disaffection more suspected than themselves. Robberies of arms were perpetrated by unarmed bands, who were nevertheless not resisted. Any violation of the disarming clause of the bill would subject the culprit to three years' imprisonment. The lord-lieutenant had power to authorise search for arms in the houses of the suspected, and all prohibited weapons were to be delivered up on proclamation to that effect, under penalties. This also was evaded, for as soon as a district was proclaimed, the arms disappeared into a neighbouring district, not so situated, from whence incursions were made into the proclaimed district, where the force was generally too feeble to protect the numerous points upon which the depredators fell. The police had power to call upon all males between sixteen and sixty, in any district where a murder was committed, to join in pursuit of the murderer; and any one who refused, was held guilty of misdemeanour. This clause alarmed the disaffected more than any other.

The bill was received with loud cheers. Mr. John O'Connell, who had declared that he would "die on the floor of the house" rather than allow a coercion bill to pass, admitted the necessity of some provision against the outrages which had prevailed, and that Sir George Grey's bill was moderate and just; but he strangely added that he would oppose it at every stage, unless government passed such a bill regulating the law of landlord and tenant as he and his party approved. Mr. Fergus O'Connor bantered Mr. John O'Connell for his subservience to ministers, which ill accorded with his loud demonstrations of ministerial hostility in Conciliation Hall. Mr. O'Connor opposed the bill, even in its first stage. That gentleman wished the Irish repealers to join the chartist movement, and to place himself at the head of both. Mr. Horsman sensibly observed that the most appalling thing to him was that the government had allowed these murders to go on ever since, by the union, the imperial parliament had undertaken to govern Ireland. Mr. Maurice O'Connell did not oppose the bill. He also had been a man of fiery words in Ireland, and paltry deeds in the presence of the government and the legislature in England. Mr. Disraeli satirised the great outcry about suppressing outrage, if the addition of two hundred constables were sufficient. When the second reading was moved on the 6th of December, Mr. John O'Connell opposed it, and moved "that the orders of the day be read." The honourable member had been so pressed by Conciliation Hall, and the Young Irelanders had raised such an outcry against the measure, that although he approved of the bill, and took care to let the house see that he did, yet he was obliged to oppose it, or forfeit his leadership of "Old Ireland." His opposition, however, influenced the people of England against the O'Connells and their class. Murder and outrage stalked abroad, and whatever were the wrongs of Ireland, incendiarism and assassination were not the means of redress upon which brave men could look unmoved. That a country should fall into such a state of crime was horrible; that the political leaders of any party in it could be found to oppose measures so mild, and so little ultra-constitutional, to put down these dreadful deeds, was still more horrible. The speech of Mr. John O'Connell exposed himself and his country to just ridicule. A party numbering millions of persons, choosing as their principal leader a man so little qualified for the task, or for any great political undertaking, could not but sink in its relative importance. In spite of the opposition of a few Irish members, the bill passed the commons almost unanimously. In the lords but little opposition was offered. On the motion for going into committee on the 16th December, Lord Farnham brought under the notice of the house that Major Mahon was murdered after he had been denounced from the altar of the Roman Catholic chapel by a priest named M'Dermot, to whom Major Mahon had offered no other offence than objecting to that gentleman and his clerks constituting the relief committee of the district. The debate was rendered still more remarkable by a frank and manly speech from Lord Beaumont, a Roman Catholic peer, deprecating these altar denunciations, which had so frequently been followed by the murder of the persons denounced. Lord Beaumont expressed his astonishment that the bishops, clergy, and laity of the Roman Catholic community did not bring their moral influence to bear upon those priests who offended against the laws of God and man in so flagrant a manner. This gave rise to severe animadversions upon the whole body of Irish Roman Catholics for not having acted as Lord Beaumont pointed out. Lord Stanley especially adopted this line of remark, with the dextrous facility his lordship possessed for turning every occurrence and every admission of an opponent into an element of party attack. The measure was speedily passed through the house of lords, and became law.

Notwithstanding these weary debates upon Irish affairs, the house of commons was obliged to participate in another as acrimonious as any of the former. Mr. Fergus O'Connor moved for a committee of inquiry into the circumstances which led to the legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland, the means by which that act was attained, and its effect upon the working-classes of both countries. Mr. Henry Grattan denounced the speech of Mr. O'Connor, and his general spirit and conduct. Mr. John O'Connell and Mr. Smith O'Brien gave their support to the motion. It was all but unanimously rejected.



MOTION FOR THE REPEAL OF JEWISH DISABILITIES.

Baron Rothschild, a distinguished member of the Jewish persuasion, having been elected member for the city of London, the question of the right of Jews to sit in parliament was raised and warmly discussed, in the public press and in the country. Lord John Russell was also elected for the city of London, and was bound, therefore, by his especial duty to the citizens, to look particularly to the settlement of this matter. He moved, on the 16th of December, "that the house should resolve itself into a committee, to consider the removal of the civil and religious disabilities affecting her majesty's Jewish subjects." The resolution was carried by a very large majority, its principal opponent being Sir Robert Inglis, one of the members for Oxford.



ADJOURNMENT OF THE HOUSE.—CLOSE OF THE PARLIAMENTARY LABOURS OF 1847.

On the 20th of December the house adjourned for the Christmas holidays, and did not meet again until February. Thus closed the first session of the new parliament, and the legislative business of the year.

Throughout the year the sanitary deficiencies of large cities, and their moral peculiarities, were the subjects of desultory conversation in parliament, and of extensive discussion in the newspapers and at public meetings. To such a degree did the sanitary question excite public interest, that her majesty was advised to recommend its consideration to the new parliament; and during the educational debates, the moral and intellectual condition of large towns, and especially of the metropolis, was a theme of desponding comment. The reverend Dr. Guthrie, of Edinburgh, has since then eloquently shown that the providential dispensation which consigns so large a portion of our people to the close confines of cities, like all the other arrangements of Providence, however mysterious, are full of goodness and mercy:—"Somehow or other, amid their crowding and confinement, the human mind finds its fullest, freest expansion. Unlike the dwarfed and dusty plants which stand around our suburban villas, languishing like exiles for the purer air and freer sunshine that kiss their fellows far away in flowery field and green woodland, on sunny banks and breezy hills, man reaches his highest condition amid the social influences of the crowded city. His intellect receives its brightest polish where gold and silver lose theirs—tarnished by the searching smoke and foul vapours of city air. The finest flowers of genius have grown in an atmosphere where those of nature are prone to droop and difficult to bring to maturity. The mental powers acquire their full robustness where the cheek loses its ruddy hue and the limbs their elastic step, and pale thought sits on manly brows, and the watchman, as he walks his rounds, sees the student's lamp burning far into the silent night."



CHAPTER LX.

{VICTORIA. 1848}

Warin India..... Colonial Affairs..... Foreign Relations..... Revolutions throughout Continental Europe..... Distress and Crime in Ireland..... Disaffection of the Irish Roman Catholics, and attempted Revolt..... Enforcement of Law and Order in Ireland..... Chartist Disturbances in England, and their suppression..... Home Incidents..... Transactions of Parliament.

{A.D. 1848}

The year 1848 was one of the most eventful which had ever occurred in the history of Europe, or in the history of the world, since the introduction of Christianity; and the relations of England to the great transactions which passed like a whirlwind over the continent were such as to enhance her dignity and her glory. It is difficult to write the History of England, during a period so interesting to continental Europe, without enlarging upon the events which took place upon other fields of action, and by which England was in many respects so much influenced. It will aid in confining the relations of this chapter within proper bounds, to narrate first those transactions in which England was exclusively interested, so far as other European powers were concerned.



THE WAR IN INDIA.

The Punjaub had, in 1847, as already related, been the theatre of most stirring incidents. The reader of this History can hardly fail to have observed, that although the defeat of the Sikhs was so complete, the subjugation of the spirit of that people was far from having been effected. The dispersed Khalsa army cherished a fierce hostility to the government of British India, and they were ready to enrol themselves under the banner of any chief who would lead them, in numbers sufficient to afford hope of success, against their recent conquerors. An opportunity occurred in the person of Moolraj, the chief of Mooltan. Mooltan is a large and fertile country, situated between the left bank of the Indus and the right bank of the Sutlej, and terminates at one end where these two rivers form a junction. It gives its name to the capital, which was protected by defences unusually strong for an eastern city.

When the British obtained the submission of the regent of the Sikh monarch, Dhuleep Singh, Mooltan was governed by Moolraj. Moolraj owed allegiance to the government at Lahore, to which the chieftainship of Mooltan had been subjected by conquest. The durbar of Lahore purposed the deposition of Moolraj, and negotiated with him for that purpose. He affected to acquiesce, and, in consequence, Mr. Agnew, a political agent of the Honourable East India Company, and Lieutenant Anderson, of the Bombay Fusileers, were deputed to attend the new governor appointed by the government of Lahore, to instal him in his office. This official was named Sirdar Khan Singh, and was an object of extreme jealousy to Moolraj. The party arrived at Mooltan, accompanied by their respective suites and a small escort of cavalry. On the 17th of April, the authority was surrendered in due form by Moolraj, and the object of the British officers seemed to be accomplished. On the 18th they were attacked and desperately wounded; it was at first supposed from a sudden impulse on the part of the soldiery of Moolraj, but it was afterwards known to be the result of treachery. The officers, accompanied by the new governor, were carried to a small fort outside the town. A fire was opened upon the place from Mooltan, but it was ineffectual. A few days afterwards, however, the fort was attacked by the soldiers of Moolraj; the Sikhs who garrisoned the place, and among whom were the escort, treacherously opened the gates, and the assailants entered, foaming with rage, and demanding vengeance upon the infidel officers. Lieutenant Anderson was in a dying state; but Mr. Agnew, although so badly wounded, defended himself with resolution to the last: both officers were murdered. Moolraj declared that he had no knowledge of the transaction, but no one believed his disclaimer. Intelligence of these barbarities reached Lahore with the speed so peculiar to the East; and a force of three thousand cavalry and some infantry was dispatched, under Sirdar Shere Singh, against the refractory city. There happened to be upon the Indus, at the head of a small force, a young and gallant officer who had served with distinction upon the staff of Lord Gough, and who was favourably known by his clever contributions to the India press on the state of the Company's territory, civil and military: this officer was Lieutenant Edwardes. He was engaged in settling a disturbed district of country, and in collecting the land tax due to Moolraj, as Sikh governor of Mooltan. At the same time, Colonel Van Courtlandt, a native of India, and a distinguished officer in the service of the Company, occupied Dherra Ismael Khan, also in the neighbourhood. Lieutenant Edwardes crossed the river into the Deerajat, whence he wrote to the Khan of Bhawulpore, requesting him to make such a movement of troops as would prevent Moolraj from falling upon either of their forces. The khan's territories were so situated as to enable him to effect a military disposition to accomplish this object. The khan made the required demonstration. When Edwardes crossed the Indus, he left a detachment of three hundred horse to protect the collection at Serat, where, on the 18th of May, they were attacked by a body of cavalry exceeding their own in number, sent against them from Mooltan, with ten light field-guns (zumbooruks). The British force so manoeuvred as to attain a good position, although under the fire of the zumbooruks, and then charged brilliantly, dispersing the Mooltanese, and capturing their guns.

Colonel Courtlandt was as prompt as Edwardes in the measures taken by him. He left the port of Dherra Ismael Khan, and proceeded by the base of the hills southward. On his route he was joined by a Beloochee chief, with one hundred of his wild followers. Courtlandt detached these, with a portion of his own troops, against the fortress of Sunghur, westward of the Indus. The commander of the fort refused the summons of surrender, and for six hours maintained a gallant resistance; he then brought off the garrison by a skilful manoeuvre, reaching Mooltan in safety.

Lieutenant Edwardes and Colonel Courtlandt effected a Junction of their small forces, and on the 20th of May were attacked by a division of the Mooltan army. The united forces of Courtlandt and Edwardes were so disposed that not more than one thousand five hundred men could be brought into action, while the enemy numbered three thousand. The artillery force of each was about equal. Edwardes was, however, joined by a body of irregular cavalry, and a party of Beloochees, which brought up the British force more nearly to an equality of numbers. The Sikhs in British pay happily showed no disposition to fraternise with the Mooltan army, although the calculations of Moolraj were based upon such an expectation.

The enemy suffered a signal defeat and great slaughter. The Beloochees behaved remarkably well. The skill of the British officers turned the balance in favour of the native army under their command.

After this engagement, Edwardes, acting upon the authority which he possessed as a civil officer of the company, demanded a reinforcement from the Khan of Bhawulpore, and in the meantime recruited his force by Sikhs, Beloochees, Affghans, and men from the hills of various tribes. The faculty of organisation, the ceaseless activity, and the courage of this young officer were surprising. Colonel Courtlandt was also equal to the part assigned him; but, although senior to his colleague in military rank, the civil functions of the latter gave him an especial, and, in some respects, superior authority. The Khan of Bhawulpore responded to the demands of assistance, and a plan was laid for a junction of the troops. In pursuance of this, Edwardes and Courtlandt crossed the Indus on the 10th and 11th of June. Moolraj was informed by his spies of every movement, and the intelligence was conveyed to him with astonishing rapidity. He accordingly marched a large force to intercept either army, and beat both in detail. On the 14th he crossed the Chenab, leaving a considerable force on the other bank. This detachment marched to Khan Ghur, but on the following day crossed the river, being surprised at that place by the advance of Edwardes's irregulars. The Mooltanese had barely time to cross the Chenab, when the scouts of Edwardes galloped into Khan Ghur. The Sikhs, instead of giving battle at that place, and practically attempting the scheme proposed by Moolraj, encamped on the opposite side of the river, in observation of the British officer and his little army. This delay and timidity was fatal; for Edwardes was soon joined by the infantry and a portion of the artillery of Courtlandt, whose cavalry were scouring the country. The situation of affairs became now interesting and important, for the Bhawulpore forces had arrived on the enemy's side of the Chenab, within twelve miles. Edwardes made a retrograde movement, so as to place himself opposite the Bhawulpore encampment. The enemy advanced to within four miles of that position. In the course of the night, the raw levies of Edwardes contrived to cross the river in a very irregular manner, and within dangerous proximity to the enemy's patrols, but were unmolested. On the 18th, early in the morning, the lieutenant crossed with the remainder of his little army, except the horses and artillery, which remained with Courtlandt on the opposite side, for a more slow and safe transport across the river. Scarcely had the lieutenant gained the opposite bank than he was attacked by the Sikh army, which had been moving up from Bugurrarah while he was gaining the passage. This was a terrible engagement. The sun had hardly risen upon river, and swamp, and undulating plains, when the Mooltanee forces fell upon the motley crowd of the British levies, and in such superior numbers that victory seemed certain. For nine hours the English lieutenant resisted the onslaught, and by his valour, activity, presence of mind, and moral influence, kept his undisciplined forces in firm front to the foe. At last Courtlandt's guns were brought over, and made the contest somewhat equal; later in the day, two regular regiments belonging to the colonel's division arrived, with six guns, and the enemy panic-struck fled, leaving a large, proportion of their troops upon the field, slain, wounded, and prisoners, with six guns, and their entire baggage and munitions of war. The conduct of Edwardes throughout the day was splendid, and laid a deeper foundation for his military reputation.

Moolraj retreated to Mooltan, followed by the British, and the Khan of Bhawulpore, who had rendered hitherto but little assistance, and whose movements led to the suspicion that he had more sympathy with Moolraj than he dared to avow.

On the 28th of June, a Sikh brigade under the command of Sheik-Emaum-ood-deen, which had been dispatched by the government of Lahore, arrived to reinforce the English. The whole army appeared before Mooltan, consisting of eighteen thousand men, comprising the levies of Edwardes, the division of Courtlandt, that of the Khan of Bhawulpore, and the newly arrived brigade of the sheik.

Moolraj collected his army between the city and the invaders, and intrenched himself in a strong position, near the village of Sadoosan. Edwardes attacked the camp with one portion of his force, storming the breastwork, and with another taking the intrenchments in flank. The discomfited enemy was driven in disorder within the city. The loss of the allies was about twenty killed and less than one hundred wounded: the enemy suffered severely. The difficulties of Edwardes increased with his victories, for it was impossible for him to take Mooltan by a coup de main, and he had no siege materiel. To remain inactive was dangerous, for little reliance could be placed on the sheik, still less on the khan, and even the regular regiments of Courtlandt were not very trustworthy: he had mainly to rely upon his brave but undisciplined Affghan and Beloochee levies. With such an army, so collected, and without siege train, or heavy artillery of any kind, the conquest of Mooltan was an impossibility, and yet affairs demanded speedy and decided action. He accordingly sent to Sir Frederick Currie, the British resident at Lahore, acquainting him with the delicacy of his situation, and urging the dispatch of siege guns, and such other material of war as was requisite. Communication was made to Lieutenant Edwardes by the British resident at Lahore, that troops, material, and a general officer of experience to take the command, would be sent as speedily as possible, and meanwhile Edwardes was to watch the movements of the enenry. This he effectually did; Moolraj could execute nothing beyond the walls of Mooltan, for the eyes of the vigilant English lieutenant were constantly upon his movements.

On the 18th of August General Whish arrived from Lahore with two regiments of native infantry, a regiment of irregular horse, a troop of horse artillery, and the 10th regiment of her majesty's foot. The next day a column arrived from Ferozepore, consisting of three regiments of native infantry, two regiments of native cavalry, one regular and one irregular, a battering train, a troop of horse artillery, and her majesty's 32nd regiment of the line. The forces before Mooltan then amounted to six thousand Europeans, and more than twenty-two thousand native troops, including the levies of Edwardes, and the khan's forces.

Scarcely had the army under General Whish assembled before Mooltan, when other events still more formidable than the defection of Moolraj occurred elsewhere.



MUTINY OF SIKH TROOPS IN THE PUNJAUB. AND REVOLT OF CHUTTUR SINGH.

Sirdar Chuttur Singh (father of Rajah Shere Singh) was governor of the Hazareh country, under allegiance to the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh, of Lahore. That chief took advantage of the revolt at Mooltan, and opened correspondence with other chiefs for the purpose of tampering with the Sikh soldiers in garrison in their different provinces. The government of Lahore was guilty of complicity in these movements, although affecting to be incensed against the refractory chiefs and provinces. A knowledge of this circumstance soon spread among the Khalsa* soldiery all over the Punjaub, and disposed them to follow any leader who had the boldness to hoist the standard of rebellion.

* "Khalsa," or church. This name was assumed to express the idea that the army was composed only of the faithful; the Sikh religion being a sort of eclectic religion, chosen from Mohammedanism, Brahminism, and other oriental systems.

Early in September the whole Hazareh country was in ostensible insurrection, and an attack was made upon Attock. Happily Major Lawrence was then, in the phraseology of the Indian political service, the assistant at Peshawur. He sent Lieutenant Nicholson, at the head of a detachment of cavalry and infantry, to take possession of: the fort. By a forced marched this was effected before the arrival of the rebellious sirdar's troops. Cabbot Abbot, the political agent in the Hazareh, joined Lieutenant Nicholson, and their position was very precarious. Major Lawrence, whose comprehensive mind was prepared for every emergency, had troops moved to their assistance from Peshawur and Jullundur. The revolt, however, spread in every direction. Peshawur was begirt, with disciplined and fanatical enemies, and at last, early in November, Major Lawrence and family had to fly for their lives from that place, the troops in the garrison having mutinied on the approach of Chuttur Singh and his army. Major and Mrs. Lawrence, with Lieutenant Bowie, found refuge at Kohat, under the protection of Mahomed Khan. Mahomed, either through fear or treachery, or both, gave them up as prisoners to Chuttur Singh. The sirdar treated them with kindness, and frequently conversed with them on the prospects of restoring the Sikh ascendancy in the Punjaub; nor were the dissuasions of Major Lawrence of any effect, for Chuttur believed in the Khalsa confederacy.

On the 18th of December, when Shere Singh was at the head of a numerous force, Major Lawrence was brought to his camp with the object of using him for negotiations with the governor-general. It is necessary, in order to preserve the collateral relation of events, to return to the army of Whish before the besieged city.



SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF MOOLTAN.

General Whish pressed his operations against Mooltan with skill and energy. He was ably aided by Edwardes, Courtlandt, Brigadier-general Markham, and other officers. During the first ten days of September skirmishes were frequent, and some of these were sharp and spirited. On the 12th Whish determined to attack certain posts, the capture of which was essential to the execution of his plans. The enenry had established an extensive and formidable outpost in a village and garden near the walls. To capture this a body of the besiegers, numbering two thousand five hundred, were told off. They began the attack at break of day, under the command of Brigadier-general Harvey. The contest was very severe, but ended in the accomplishment of General Whish's design. The slaughter of the Mooltanese was signal, and the heroism of the European regiments extraordinary. The loss on the part of the British was heavy. Major Montazambert, of the 10th foot, Colonel Pattoun, of the 32nd, Quartermaster Taylor, also of that regiment, were the officers of the royal regiments which fell. Lieutenant Cubit and Ensign Lloyd, of the Company's service, also fell. The latter officer was treacherously cut down while parleying with the enemy. The 10th regiment fought desperately, making havoc of the Mooltanese with the bayonet.

The next day the besieged made a sortie against the camp of Lieutenant Edwardes, but were beaten back, the pursuit issuing in the capture of another important outpost. The defence had arrived at its crisis, but Sikh treachery averted from the city the impending blow. On the morn-, ing of the 14th, Shere Singh, with the whole of the Lahore troops, five thousand in number, went over to the enemy. This event, at once lessening the army of the besiegers, and increasing that of the besieged, made their relative numbers so disproportionate, that the siege was raised, the army withdrawing to a position a few miles distant, where they intrenched. Soon after the British took up this position, Shere Singh left Mooltan and marched along the banks of the Chenab, forming a junction with Chuttur Singh, which placed the former at the head of thirty thousand men. It became necessary for another British army to encounter this enemy, while Whish and his troops could do nothing against Mooltan until strongly reinforced. On the 21st of December, a strong division of the Bombay army arrived at General Whish's camp, and thus strengthened, the general resolved upon active operations. His army now numbered about seventeen thousand Sikhs, Beloochees, Affghans, and other contingents, about fifteen thousand more Queen's and Company's troops, and one hundred and fifty pieces of cannon. On the 27th General Whish resolved upon a grand attack, and moved his army forward in four columns. The enemy falling back from their outposts, the British took a position in the suburbs within five hundred yards of the walls. That day and night batteries were constructed on all appropriate points, and early on the 28th a terrible bombardment began. By the 29th, the works were carried forward to within eighty yards of the place, breaches began to be effected, the granary was fired, and the batteries and buildings of the enemy suffered much under the heavy cannonade of the besiegers. On the 30th a shell blew up the principal magazine of the city. The shock was felt for two miles, and the camp of the besiegers literally rocked above the convulsive throes of the earth. The magazine contained sixteen thousand pounds of powder. The explosion was instant; with one fierce crash and a long-continued roar, the smoke and flame gushed upwards—one of the most grandly terrible sights upon which human eye could look. Eight hundred men perished, their charred limbs and whole carcasses were cast far beyond. The houses of the chief persons, the public buildings and temples, were shaken down by the vibrations; yet the walls of the fort endured, and the bulk of the city was intact. A fire was communicated, which raged through several streets, but was extinguished. It was supposed that this event would lead to the surrender of the place, but next day Moolraj sent word to General Whish that he had still powder enough for a twelvemonth's siege, and that he would hold out while one stone remained upon another. This was supposed to be mere bravado, and a summon was sent to surrender. Moolraj, with perfect sang froid, rammed the letter down one of the longest guns, and fired it at the British. During the following night a distinct breach was effected in the Delhi gate of the city, and the next day another at the Bohan gate. The fire of the besiegers was plied hotly for the two following days and nights, the city blazing like a hell, amidst the crash of falling buildings, and the outcry of wounded women and children. On the 81st the Sikhs made a sortie from the south-west gate against the camp of Edwardes. That officer, ever vigilant, and ably seconded by the engineer officer, Lieutenant Lake, repulsed the sortie, inflicting heavy loss. The cannonade continued for fifty-six hours longer, and on the 2nd of January the assault was made. The Bengal and Bombay divisions were formed into separate columns, and precipitated upon the two breaches. These columns moved forward with great daring and under a heavy fire. The Bengal column found the breach impracticable, with an open drop in front, and strong defences in the rear. While the Bengal Sepoys were obstructed by obstacles which they could not surmount, the Bombay column gained an entrance. The sergeant-major of the Bombay Fusileers boldly planted the British flag above the breach. The Bengal column turned and followed their more fortunate comrades of the other presidency. The enemy resisted at every step, receding only before superior force, and it was not until the sun went down over the blackened ruins and blood-stained streets of Mooltan that the city was completely in the hands of the conquerors. The troops of Moolraj retreated to the citadel, which was a place of surpassing strength, and could only be taken by regular approaches. Parallels were opened, and a fierce cannonade was directed against it on the 4th; but it was not until the 18th that any decided impression was made. By that date the intrenchments were carried up to the very walls, but such was their extraordinary strength that they were proof against artillery—at all events, any artillery of the calibre possessed by the besiegers. Whish resolved to effect their destruction by mines. On the 18th three mines were exploded, and the counterscarp was blown into the ditch. A shaft was then sunk under the trench, and a gallery cut towards the wall. At the same time a battery was placed on a level higher than the citadel itself; another carrying eighteen and twenty-four pounders was placed close up to the wall. From this battery the most extraordinary cannonade and bombardment was conducted. Eight-inch howitzers discharged live shells into the wall, which buried themselves in the mud and brickwork of which it was built, and, exploding, tore away large portions. On the 19th the sap reached the crest of the glacis, and on the 21st the engineer officer in charge announced that there were two practicable breaches. General Whish gave prompt orders for the storm on the following morning. Moolraj had been seriously alarmed during the progress of the works for the few days previous, and repeatedly offered to surrender if his life would be spared. The answer returned informed him that no terms but an unconditional surrender would be conceded. On the 22nd, the British columns were forming for the assault, when the garrison hauled down its flag, and Moolraj surrendered at discretion.

The scenes which followed were at once picturesque and painful. The discomfited troops marched forth as prisoners of war. First came a few hundreds of the most miserable, dispirited looking men, ill clothed, and wan with fatigue. These were fanatics who had under a vow devoted themselves to especial peril and labour in the defence, and as is so frequently the case with men under the influence of fanaticism, defeat brings reaction in the form of despair. A column of about three thousand five hundred soldiery, stern looking men, next came. With such troops it was no wonder that Moolraj made so glorious a defence. This splendid body of men laid down their arms with reluctance, and looked back upon the breaches as if they fain would return and die there, with their arms in their hands. The body-guard of Moolraj followed, a splendid body of soldiers, whose equipment in arms and uniform was superb. The chiefs, friends, and family of the governor next came. They were deeply dejected, and uttered words of expressive anguish and shame. Moolraj himself was the last man of the Khalsa host who left the citadel. He was gorgeously appareled in silks, and decorations expressive of Khalsa religious or military associations. He wore jewels, carried arms superbly ornamented and of superior make, and rode a beautiful Arab charger, covered with a scarlet saddle-cloth, with gilt or golden trappings. His personal appearance was impressive, his countenance manly and well formed, with quick, fiery, expressive eyes. Above the middle height, his form was strong, muscular, and yet elegant. His bearing was manly and gallant; there was no assumed or insolent defiance, no fanatical contempt expressed by it, nor did he allow dejection to betray itself. He and his followers became prisoners of war, and were placed at the disposal of the governor-general. It was alleged that the British army was guilty of plunder, and that officers of engineers were discovered appropriating to themselves prizes, which belonged either to the custody of the prize agents, or were sacred as private property. It would appear that these allegations were circulated by certain agents of persons in England having interests adverse to the Honourable East India Company, and were utterly unfounded. Lord Ellenborough, more than eight years afterwards, confuted the calumny.

Mooltan, and the territory of which it was the capital, was now completely subjugated, and our ally, the khan, returned to his own province a wiser if not a better man, his further services being confined to the maintenance of peace in his own territory, and to the exercise of a certain degree of vigilance in reference to surrounding provinces. The fall of Mooltan was received over all British India and the neighbouring independent states as one of the grandest events in Indian history, and filled the petty chieftains with awe, while it excited exultation in the presidencies. Far different were the feelings created in the minds of the Sikh soldiery and people; they were exasperated, and determined to hazard all upon a single throw. To avenge past disasters, and expel the British from the country of the five rivers became the passionate purpose and ambition of chieftain and soldier, and everywhere desultory bands made war, as they pressed onward to join the great chiefs, Shere Singh and Chuttur Singh who were now at the head of a powerful army.



CAMPAIGN IN THE PUNJAUB UNDER LORD GOUGH.

It has been already related that Shere Singh quitted Mooltan with a strong division of Khalsa troops, on the 9th of October, and formed a junction with Chuttur Singh.

The latter returned to the territory of Hazareh, leaving the bulk of his forces under the command of Shere Singh, who was gradually joined by other chiefs and sirdars, whose followers augmented his army,—that army consisted of men inured to combat, the flower of the Sikh nation. Lord Gough, the commander-in-chief of the army in India, was ordered to assemble an army at Ferozepore, and act against Shere Singh, and, in fact, reconquer the Punjaub. Bombay and other troops were ordered to join the army collecting at Ferozopore, and the victorious troops of Whish, Courtlandt, and Edwardes were ordered to follow and form a junction with the grand army. These troops did not join as soon as Lord Gough expected, and the Bombay division, under the Hon. Major-general Dundas, was so dilatory as to evoke from the good-natured general-in-chief a most stinging rebuke. The major-general was urged by despatches to advance with all possible celerity, but he expressed himself as not perceiving the necessity of such speed. "Tell him," said the gallant commander, "to stay with the native troops if he likes, but to send on the Europeans!"

Before, however, the army which had acted before Mooltan could render any assistance to Lord Gough, months before that city had fallen, events gathered within the Punjaub in gloomy and rapid association. It was on the 21st of November before General Gough assumed the active command of the army at Seharun, a central position. The river Chenab is the central one of the five rivers which give name to the district, and the theatre of conflict was midway between the Chenab and its confluence with the Indus. On the left bank of the former, about a mile and a half from the river, the town of Rumnugger was situated: there Shere Singh had taken up his quarters. Opposite that town the river bends, and there was an island in mid-channel; this island was about two acres in area. The main force of Shere Singh was posted on the right bank of the river, but a strong brigade of four thousand men occupied the island, and erected batteries. These batteries commanded the only available ford, or "nullah," as it is called in the vocabulary of the country. The opposite town of Rumnugger was favourably situated for defence; it was flanked by a grove, and by the bend in the river. This position Shere Singh had skilfully fortified. On the 22nd, at two o'clock in the morning, Lord Gough approached the enemy. While the right bank and the island were occupied by the chief forces of the sirdar, he had a strong body also posted on the left bank, and it became the first object of Lord Gough to dislodge them. Between the island and the right bank the passage was effected by boats, so that the enemy was able to preserve his communications with tolerable certainty and ease. The nullah or ford was not difficult, although the descent to it from the left bank of the river was steep. It was directly commanded by the guns on the island, and was exposed to a raking cross-fire on either side from batteries placed on the right bank. The 8th light cavalry (Company's service) advanced along the left bank, skirmishing, supported by her majesty's 3rd Light Dragoons. The horse artillery pushed into the deep sand on the margin of the river, and commanded the batteries at Rumnugger, but were obliged to retire before their superior metal, leaving behind one gun and two ammunition waggons embedded in the sand. The enemy took skilful and immediate advantage of this reverse, and pushed over a powerful cavalry division. Orders were given to charge them, and the 14th (Queen's) Light Dragoons, and the 3rd light horse of the Company's army, in spite of overwhelming numbers and of imperfect supports, cut through the enemy and dashed after them into the nullah. The passage was familiar to the latter, who made good their retreat to the island; the latter were of course ignorant of the ground, and were impeded in their pursuit by that circumstance, had none other obstructed them. As soon as the Sikh cavalry cleared the ford, the batteries of the island and the flanking batteries on the right bank opened with deadly effect. How any British officer could have been so imprudent as to give the order to charge into the nullah is almost inconceivable; that the error was not evident, while the brave men were being mowed down by an artillery fire, which they could do nothing to silence, is still more marvellous; such, however, was the case. Colonel Havelock dashed into the ford at the head of the 14th Light Dragoons, but was never seen again. A native trooper supposed he saw him in the nullah soon after he entered it, unhorsed, and several Sikh soldiers "hacking his person." After much useless slaughter was thus incurred by Havelock's gallant brigade, Major-general Cureton rode up with an order from Lord Gough for the troops to retire. He had scarcely given the order when he fell dead from two shots, by which he was instantaneously struck. The troops retired with a loss, in every corps engaged, of officers and men. Lord Gough considered the end attained in driving the enemy from the left bank was worth the sacrifice. The death of General Cureton was severely felt by the army, and was in some degree irreparable. He had risen from the ranks by his superior soldiership, and was deemed one of the best, perhaps the best, officer for outpost duty then in India.

On the 30th of November Lieutenant-general Thackwell was ordered to cross the Chenab above Rumnugger, where an indifferent ford had been discovered, and where Captain Nicholson had provided boats. Thackwell was to take the Sikhs in the flank and rear, while Lord Gough observed them from his old position, ready to take advantage of any favourable opportunity for attack which the manouvre of General Thackwell might create. That gallant and skilful officer performed well the part assigned to him. He gained the right bank of the river; but Shere Singh was also a skilful commander, and did not allow Thackwell even to menace his rear or flank, for he detached a strong force to attack the intruder, as soon as he saw that the river had been forded. It was the 3rd of December before Thackwell secured the passage, and on the fourth he began his march along the right bank towards the lines at Rumnugger. He soon discovered that a strong body of Sikhs were marching in a north-west direction. They threatened his flank with cavalry, and cannonaded him severely. Thackwell's orders did not allow of his taking any measure for attack, and the enemy drew off after a sharp and heavy cannonade. As soon as this officer's artillery was allowed to open upon them, they marched towards the Jhelum. Perhaps the enemy were decided in abandoning their strong positions, not only from fear of their left flank being turned by General Thackwell, but also by the energetic proceedings of Lord Gough, after the force detached to observe Thackwell had departed. Lord Gough opened a heavy cannonade upon the island, and upon the batteries on the right bank of the Chenab. On the morning of the 3rd a brigade of infantry, under Brigadier Godby, passed by a ford not far from Rumnugger, his passage being covered by the approach of General Thackwell, who had by that time been advancing from the passage at Wuzerabad. Shortly after, the 9th Lancers and 14th Light Dragoons, under General Gilbert, were ordered to cross the river, and harass as much as possible the retreating enemy. The British generals seem to have believed that the Khalsa army would abandon their chiefs and disperse to their homes, and this impression influenced their proceedings; for although Gilbert with his cavalry followed the enemy briskly, there was not that celerity in the movements of the British which actual circumstances demanded.

On the 28th of December Lord Gough, with his whole army, crossed the river and encamped. The right bank was now clear of the enemy, Shere Singh having followed the previous division of his army to the Jhelum, where he ultimately took post in the formidable position of Russool, with a force which was augmented to forty thousand men, and a powerful artillery, estimated variously from sixty-two to ninety guns.

While these events were passing, Chuttur Singh, who, as before noticed, had retired to his own province, pressed the fort of Attock, which had been long and gallantly maintained by Major Herbert. When it fell the major contrived to send tidings to Lord Gough, and to warn him that Chuttur Singh had repaired with his army to the upper Jhelum, to form a junction with the army of Shere Singh. Lord Gough determined at once to follow the Sikh forces, and bring them to a decisive action. On the morning of the 12th of January he marched from Loah Tibbah to Dingee. The sirdar was represented by the British commander-in-chief in his despatch as holding with his right the village of Lukhneewalla and Futteh Shah-ke-Chuck, having the great body of his force at the village of Lollianwalla, with his left at Eussool, on the Jhelum. This position lay on the southern extremity of a low range of hills, intersected by ravines, and difficult of access to assailants. The post was well chosen by the sirdar, who showed a subtle generalship throughout the war. The information furnished by Lord Gough's spies was not always faithful, and his lordship, therefore, was not accurately in possession of the forces of the sirdar, nor of the topographical peculiarities of his position. The British commander directed his march upon the village of Bussool, and there reconnoitred.

The advance to the ground chosen by the sirdar was impeded by a jungle, to avoid which, and to distract the enemy's attention, Lord Gough took a considerable detour to the right. He succeeded in avoiding the intricacies of the jungle, but not in distracting the attention of Shere Singh. That general moved from his encampment, and took ground in advance, a manouvre calculated to hide the strength of his position, and to disconcert any previous arrangements of the British commander.

About noon on the 13th, Lord Gough was before the village of Bussool, and finding a very strong picket of the enemy on a mound close to that place, his lordship, after some fighting, dislodged it. Ascending the mound, the general and his staff beheld the Khalsa army ranged along the furrowed hills in all the majestic array of war. The British officers gazed with admiration and professional ardour upon the long lines of compact infantry and the well-marshalled cavalry, mustered in their relative proportions and positions with scientific exactness. The sirdar's batteries were chiefly masked by jungle. The scene was striking in its aspect, from the magnitude of the events associated with it, and the excitement it stirred up within the hearts of the brave. Alas, how many noble hearts were necessarily to bleed before victory crowned the arms of England, and that fine Khalsa army succumbed to the destiny of England's Asiatic foes!

Lord Gough found that he could not turn the flanks of the sirdar's army, they were so protected by jungle, unless he detached a portion of his army to a considerable distance, which he deemed unsafe. The day was too far advanced to begin any operations. The engineer officers were ordered to examine the country in front, and the quartermaster-general was about to take up ground for the encampment, when the enemy advanced some horse artillery, and opened a fire upon the skirmishers in front of Bussool. Lord Gough ordered his heavy guns to open upon the enemy's artillery, and for this purpose they were advanced to an open space in front of the village. Shere Singh did not act with his usual good strategy, in exposing the positions of so many of his cannon, which the jungle had concealed, and which might have remained hidden until an attack upon his line would have afforded him opportunity to use them with sudden and terrible advantage, as he afterwards was enabled to use those on his right. As it was, he replied to the British cannonade with such a powerful field-artillery as constrained Lord Gough to draw up in order of battle, lest in the night the sirdar's guns should be moved still more forward, and open on his camp. His lordship, keeping the heavy guns on his centre, placed Sir Walter Gilbert's division on his right, flanked by Brigadier Pope's brigade of cavalry, strengthened by her majesty's 14th Light Dragoons, and three troops of horse artillery, under Colonel Grant. This arrangement was necessitated by the large force of cavalry observed upon the enemy's left. On the left of the British line, Brigadier-general Campbell's division was formed, flanked by Brigadier White's cavalry, and three troops of horse artillery under Colonel Brind.

The demonstrations of the enemy were such that, late as was the hour, and weary as the troops were with marching, Lord Gough determined to attack at once. His lordship's critics, influenced by the events which followed, have severely censured him for attacking under such circumstances, more especially as the ground was unknown to his lordship. It was true that sufficient time had not been obtained to reconnoitre the enemy's positions, but it was not correct to allege that Lord Gough was entirely unacquainted with the ground, as he had previously known it, especially the country to the left of the enemy. It was generally supposed by his lordship's censors that the attack was a wanton waste of life, and arose from the brave, rash, and unreflecting temperament of the general, and the irritation caused by the sudden and severe artillery fire opened upon him. On the other hand, the Duke of Wellington declared that he would, in Lord Gough's place, have acted as he had done; and so full of confidence were the Sikhs in their numbers and resolution, that had not the general given battle, he would have been obliged to defend himself from a desperate night attack under circumstances far less favourable. There can be no doubt, on the part of any who know the noble old soldier, that he acted from his sense of duty to his army and his country, and not from personal irritation.

The battle began, or, it may be said, was resumed, by a heavy cannonade which lasted for more than an hour when Lord Gough ordered his left to advance, making a flank movement. In executing this manouvre, the troops exposed their own flank to a galling fire from heavy guns, the positions of which had remained covered by jungle, and the Sikh batteries were so placed as to pour a most destructive cross-fire upon the British. When the 3rd and 4th brigades reached the enemy's guns, they were received by a cannonade so overwhelming that they were obliged to retire. As soon as it was known that these two brigades were engaged, the 5th, under Brigadier Mountain, was ordered to storm the centre. They were received with round-shot the moment they moved; with grape and canister as they advanced through the jungle; and, finally, with musketry within close and deadly range. Many of the Sikh soldiers, at the cost of their own life, advanced and shot down the British officers. Brigadier Mountain had distinguished himself in China, and had the entire confidence of Lord Gough, under whom he had served there. Under his able guidance, the British stormed the batteries and spiked the guns, under a flank fire from other guns which they also spiked, while the enemy, without giving way, poured upon them musket balls thick as hail. Detachments of musketeers took them on each flank, and some getting to their rear among the jungle, fired upon them with deadly aim. The British were thus compelled to cut their way back to their own lines through hosts of encircling foes. While this was going on upon the centre, Sir Walter Gilbert advanced against the enemy's left. That general occupied the extreme right of his division, and Brigadier Godby the extreme left. They marched through a dense jungle almost unmolested, and then were confronted by infantry. Had the British at once charged with the bayonet, the result might for them have been less sanguinary; they, however, opened fire, and the Sikhs, more numerous, returned the fire and outflanked them. Two companies of the 2nd (or Queen's) British regiment charged with the bayonet, but were surrounded. These gallant and skilful soldiers immediately faced about, and after some file-firing charged, rear-rank in front. At this critical moment, Deane's battery arrived, and drove back the enemy by the precision of their fire. Several guns were here captured by the British. The heroism and losses of the 2nd regiment were very great. While the infantry had thus been engaged in close and deadly battle, the cavalry also were occupied both on the left and right. On the former flank of the British, Brigadier White's brigade charged the enemy, covering the retreat of the infantry. On the extreme right Brigadier Pope's brigade, strengthened, as has been already shown, by the temporary attachment of the 14th Light Dragoons of the Queen's army, was ordered to charge a body of the enemy's cavalry, the numbers of which were much superior. Instead of obeying the orders given, they wheeled right about, and galloped off the field, breaking through the artillery, upsetting artillerymen, drivers, and waggons in their course, until they reached the field hospital. According to some narrations of this transaction, the men galloped away under a mistake of orders; other accounts represent this to have been impossible, because their own officers and officers of the artillery endeavoured to stop and rally them without success, except so far as a portion of the 9th Lancers was concerned. The enemy was not slow to take advantage of this extraordinary flight; they pursued—dashed in among the horse artillery—cut down seventy-five gunners, and took six guns. The arrival of artillery reserves, the rallying of a portion of the 9th Lancers, and the steadiness of the infantry, prevented the destruction of the whole right wing. The fresh artillery which came up opened upon the Sikh cavalry with grape and canister, with such precision and fury that they retreated. Two of the captured guns were recovered in the retreat. The Sikhs gradually withdrew, leaving the field of battle in possession of the British, who, on this account, claimed the victory. The enemy, in the night, carried away all the guns which the British had spiked during the action, the four pieces of horse artillery which they took on the British right, and five stand of colours, and on these grounds also claimed the victory; and a salute of twenty-one guns in honour of the triumph was, as the English thought, most impudently fired. This was also done at Attock, in the capital of Chuttur Singh, and wherever the Sikh troops held a position. The Sikhs also claimed the victory for the same reason as the English did—being left in possession of the field. It was, in truth, a drawn battle. The Sikhs having began the engagement, and the English having retained the ground on which they fought, while the former retired their line, the battle may more correctly be said to have been won by the British; but the advantages gained were altogether on the part of the Sikhs, who continued to occupy for a month positions from which the British did not attempt to dislodge them. During that time Lord Gough waited for reinforcements, and felt the tardy arrival of some of the troops whose presence had been detained before Mooltan, as has already been shown.

The loss sustained by the Sikhs it is impossible to calculate; according to themselves it was much less than that of the English; and this is credible when the strength of their position is considered, and the losses to which the unaccountable flight of Pope's brigade exposed the British light. The English loss, according to the official returns, was three thousand men in killed and wounded, nearly one-third of whom belonged to the former class; this, however, did not comprehend all the slain, for many were so horribly wounded by the close discharge of artillery that they died in a few days. The proportion of the wounded who were hit mortally was beyond that which usually occurs in battle. There were also many desertions of Sepoy soldiers to Shere Singh, but more especially of Sikh soldiery under Lord Gough's command.

The flight of the large body of cavalry under Brigadier Pope was the subject of much investigation and of shame. The brigadier was too old for the duties imposed upon him; he had no experience in war, and was placed in the command from seniority. This gave occasion, in England, to denounce the substitution of seniority for fitness, so common in the British army. Unhappily, the officer himself who was so much concerned in the responsibility of the event, and who had been much respected by his brother officers and his commander, was placed beyond all human accountability, for he fell in front of his fugitive soldiers. Colonel King, of the 14th Light Dragoons, who succeeded Colonel Havelock, who fell at Rumnugger, was also much censured. His defence was, that he did his utmost to rally his men in vain; that they were generally light small men, mounted upon light small horses; whereas the cavalry immediately opposed to them were not only much more numerous, but cuirassiers—powerful, heavy men, with long and superior swords, and admirably mounted. The colonel complained of the bad manufacture of the English weapons, which bent or broke against the swords and cuirasses of the Sikh cavalry, When Sir Charles Napier arrived to command the forces in India late in the spring, he inspected the 14th, and addressed them, referring to the allegations of their colonel, and telling them that they were fine, stalwart, broad-chested fellows, that would follow anywhere that they were led. Colonel King took this so much to heart, that he retired from the field of inspection and shot himself. Sir William Napier (brother to Sir Charles) afterwards denied in the London newspapers that his brother intended to cast any reflection upon Colonel King. It was, however, generally believed in the army, that Sir Charles levelled a censure at the unfortunate officer, whose sensitive honour could not endure such a reflection from so high an authority. His fate excited deep commisseration, and the address of Sir Charles was disapproved of indignantly by the whole army.

The generalship of Lord Gough became the subject of anonymous criticism in India, and open attack in England; but the brave and skilful general proved at the subsequent battle of Goojerat that he knew how to gain victory at as little cost of blood as it was possible for military knowledge to ensure. The late drawn battle—if such it may be called—was designated the battle of Chillianwallah, after a village in the immediate neighbourhood of which the British had encamped. The Sikhs know it as the battle of Russool, the more appropriate name to give it, as it was in its vicinity the chief strength of the Sikh position was found.

Leaving the movements of the two armies confronting one another to the narrative of another chapter, it is now necessary to turn to other scenes of interest.



CANADA.

This fine colony continued prosperous and powerful, yet the dissatisfaction of previous years with the imperial administration was not removed. On the 28th of February the first session of the new parliament was opened by the governor-general, who delivered a speech which was intended to be concilatory, but which did not accomplish its purpose. An amendment was proposed to the address, which was carried against the government by a majority of fifty-four to twenty. In this amendment the legislature plainly declared its want of confidence in the governor's advisers; the ministry therefore resigned.



THE WEST INDIES.

During this year the West India colonists were discontented, and complained of distress, while at home they were regarded with suspicion by the religious and antislavery public, as designing, if possible, to restore slavery.

The immigration of hill Coolies from India into several of the colonies, which was promoted by the West India legislative bodies at the public expense, increased this jealousy towards the planters. The taxes to meet the expenses incidental to the immigration were levied in such a manner as to fall especially upon the emancipated negro, to compete with whose labour the Coolie was imported. This irritated the classes in England whose dispositions were unfavourable to the planter. The press, the pulpit, and missionary meetings denounced the Coolie trade and traders, and, in terms of eloquent indignation, represented the negro inhabitants of the West Indies as still subjected to the plunder and persecution of a tyrant race. The Coolie immigration was depicted as rivaling the slave-trade in atrocity, and its failure was boldly predicted on every religious platform. These predictions certainly were fulfilled—the Coolie speculation was a failure. A writer of that date, well acquainted with the facts of the case, thus noticed them:—"One of the most recent efforts made to substitute free for slave labour in the West Indies, it will be recollected, was the bringing of a number of hill Coolies from India for this purpose. The experiment has miserably failed, as acknowledged by the chancellor of the exchequer in his speech on the introduction of the sugar duties bill, now in progress through parliament. The Coolies were conveyed to Demerara from Madras in ship-loads to supply the labour market in British Guiana, at the expense of that colony; and, as our correspondent learned, at a rate which even reached the Negro himself, against whom they came to compete. Many agents were employed in their importation, and large bounties were given; such temptations led parties to crowd the colony with numbers of miserable persons, quite unable to perform any laborious employment. It was the general opinion that, owing to physical inability, scarcely one in a hundred of these Coolies was fit for manual labour; and whilst our correspondent was at Demerara a law was issued by the governor granting permission for labourers to enter Guiana from certain countries only, omitting the East Indies. The wretchedness of these immigrant Coolies was truly distressing; numbers of them might be seen wandering about, and living in the open air on charity, in George Town, congregating about the market-house and elsewhere, many of them covered with sores, and all but naked. Hospitals were subsequently provided for them in different places, in which they were maintained at the public expense; and by this means they were removed from about the town and frontier of the colony. Mr. Stocqueler, in his very useful 'Oriental Interpreter,' refers to the Coolies in connection with the Bheels, a race of people who inhabit the northern part of the chain of Ghauts, running inland parallel with the coast of Malabar. On one side they are bordered by the Coolies, and on another by the Goands of Goandwana. They are considered to have been the aborigines of Central India, and, with the Coolies, Goands, and Ramooses, are bold, daring, and predatory marauders—occasionally mercenaries, but invariably plunderers. There are, however, many shades of difference in the extent of the depredations of these several people, in which the balance of enormity is said to be considerably on the side of the Bheels. They are, nevertheless, described as faithful when employed and trusted; and the travellers who pay them their choute, or tribute, may leave untold treasure in their hands, and may consider themselves as safe with them as in the streets of London. Their word is sacred, their promise unimpeachable.'"

There was another class of immigrants who were found more useful, the Portuguese, from Madeira. They were highly prized by the Demerara planters; but even among them the mortality was very considerable.



FOREIGN RELATIONS.

In the East the only hostile acts required from the British government, during the year 1848, was the suppression of Chinese piracy. During the year, also, the Rif pirates gave trouble on the shores of northern Africa. Employment was also given to British cruisers in various other parts of the world in the suppression of piracy and the protection of British commerce.



THE UNITED STATES.

The measures of Sir Robert Peel's late government in the disputes which arose between England and the United States, whatever their demerits, had the effect of preserving peace between the two countries, which, during the tumults of continental Europe, the disturbances in Ireland, and the agitations in England during 1848, was of the utmost consequence to Great Britain. The discovery of gold in California, although an American event, exercised much influence upon the commerce and monetary affairs of the British Isles, and tended still more to draw the bonds of amity close between the two great British nations.



SPAIN: DIPLOMATIC DISAGREEMENT WITH THAT COUNTRY; DISMISSION OF THE ENGLISH AMBASSADOR.

Spain, ever fruitful of internal discord, was not less so in 1848. The history of the court was one of scandal, and of the government one of weakness, fickleness, and incapacity. The year 1847 closed by a change of ministry, when the infamous Narvaez was in the ascendant, and his creatures were gathered around him in the guise of a cabinet. The queen-mother, it was declared, had been married in December, 1833, to her paramour, Munoz, within three months of the decease of the king her husband, and this was kept secret for fifteen years from the Spanish people, until, under the auspices of the new government of Narvaez, it was at last brought to light, for purposes at once venal and revolting. This disclosure incensed the Spanish people, and revived the hopes of both the republican and Carlist parties. The corrupt practices of Senor Salamanca also coming before the public, disgusted the nation with its public men. As will be seen on another page, France effected a new revolution in February. Louis Philipp was dethroned, and the republic was once more proclaimed. From the immediate contiguity of the two countries it was feared that the French republic would find some cause of quarrel with the imprudent and despotic government of Spain. England, alarmed lest she should be once more involved in a war with France for the protection of the Iberian peninsula, looked with concern upon the tyrannical and profligate conduct of the Spanish court and government; and Lord Palmerston, therefore, addressed a note to Sir H. Bulwer, the British representative at Madrid, requesting him to make such representations to the government, and offer such advice as would tend to consolidate the independence and preserve the peace of Spain. This Sir H. Bulwer performed; but the Spanish minister, the Duc de Soto Mayer, resented this interference as an insult to Spain, and the British minister was dismissed from Madrid. In England Lord Palmerston was denounced as a meddler, and a minister whose policy was provocative of foreign discord. The course of policy, however, adopted by the noble viscount was customary with all British ministers, did not exceed the right which one friendly nation has to advise another, and was based upon the actual and recognised relations of Spain and Great Britain. It afforded, however, an opportunity to ignorant declaimers, in and out of parliament, to oppose the astute yet direct and manly policy of the great English foreign minister. The interruption of diplomatic relations between the two countries continued throughout the year.



THE CONTINENTAL REVOLUTIONS.

Although not strictly forming a portion of the history of England, it would be impossible to relate the events in which the interests of England were involved, without some extended reference to the mighty moral earthquakes of continental Europe. France was the centre of these terrible upheavings of human passion and power. Her government, under the base king Louis Philippe, whom the revolution of 1830 had placed upon the throne, was the most corrupt which France had ever known. Tyranny infinitely more oppressive than that which he was permitted to wield had often cursed France, but never before were such efforts made as by him to corrupt the whole people. The unprincipled conduct of every department of the government directed by Guizot, the treacherous and subservient tool of his bad master, utterly disgusted all honourable men; and even those who were willing to sell themselves and their country, despised and hated the purchasers. Even the correct manners of Louis Philippe's court, and the strict domestic morality observed there, at last increased the public indignation and contempt, for it left the universal impression that he was a cold and heartless hypocrite. During 1847 a desire for electoral reform, which had existed for many years among the more thoughtful politicians of France, became more thoroughly developed among most classes of citizens, and agitations to accomplish this object were set on foot. The tyrant king opposed this feeling and these movements, at first by corrupt means, and, ultimately, by the hands of his unscrupulous minister, he resorted to coercion. Public meetings were suppressed, and the liberty of the press was invaded. The insulted citizens of Paris rose in arms, barricades were erected, and the king, as cowardly as he was corrupt, had not the manhood to stand by his own measures, but fled, with craven spirit, to take refuge in the country whose queen and people he had betrayed. Under the common English name of Smith this proud prince found means of escaping from the country he had deceived, pillaged, and oppressed, and which allowed him to pass away without pursuit, and without malediction, because of its own magnanimity and the contempt with which it regarded him. Louis Philippe found a home in England, at first at Claremont, and then in Abingdon House, Kensington, where he lived for some time in apparently tranquil enjoyment, the delightful and salubrious vicinity affording to his family means of retired and pleasurable recreation.

The expulsion of the nefarious old man, who had for eighteen years ruled France on a system of false pretences, was followed by the appointment of a provisional government, consisting of Dupont (de l'Eure), Lamartine, Arago, Marie, Armand Marrast, Garnier Pages, Albert, Ledru Rollin, Ferdinand Flocon, Louis Blanc, Cremieux. No sooner was the provisional government appointed, than it was discovered that harmony among its members was impossible. The republican party was divided into two great sections—the old republicans and the "reds." The former, like those of the United States of America, contended for self-government and equal political rights, for civil and religious liberty. The latter declared for what they called "a republic, democratic, and social," and their aim was to establish socialism by subverting all rights, civil and religious, fusing all interests in a communal equality, no longer being subject to individual claims. The unknown of Paris were ignorant, and many of them suffered much from low wages and irregular employment; these madly grasped at a theory which promised to them a maintenance at the public expense. The state ought, in their opinion, to provide them with wages sufficient for their support, they being themselves the judges of the requisite amount, and the state should find employment, if it could, for those who were so requited, the amount of labour to be rendered was also to be decided by the workers. The theory was substantially that which prevailed among the English Chartists. The whole subject of this division of feeling and opinion in the provisional government and in the nation, with the practical results, was thus clearly set forth by a writer of that day:—"In this conflict of opinion upon the question of labour, or of communism, is the resume of all the great events that have taken place in France since the declaration of the republic on the 24th of February last. This key unlocks them all, and the efforts of this principle to establish itself, and to overthrow its opponents, explain events otherwise inexplicable, and show us in the clearest possible manner what are and what are not the great opposing forces that have since been at feud. All other forces in France have been as nothing compared with these two. The friends of monarchy, whether of the Orleans or the old Bourbon dynasty, and the friends of Napoleon, have, it is true, endeavoured to make themselves heard; but their voices have been mere whispers in comparison with the shouts and hubbub of the communists and anti-communists—of the tricolor republicans and the republicans of the drapeau rouge. Without this clue to the character of the revolution, the remark of Milton that the wars of the Saxon heptarchy were as unintelligible as those of kites in a neighbouring wood, would apply to the proceedings of the Parisians. Almost each day, after the 24th of February, brought tidings of change in all the relations betwixt man and man. There was fighting one day, embracing the next; every rotation of the hand brought to view a wonderful and unexpected change of figures in the political kaleidoscope. Day after day, in endless succession, there were mouthings of tumid, florid, and often unintelligible speeches, and of still more unintelligible and mysterious theories for the regeneration of mankind. Every speech and newspaper article breathed only peace and goodwill towards all men, yet almost every ordinance of the government was directed towards the organisation of armed men. There were assemblings of the people, reviews, marchings, and counter-marchings, hasty summonings at all hours, the beating of the rappel, and the sounding of the tocsin, in the dead of night and the early dawn. The 'Marseillaise Hymn' and the 'Mourir pour la Patrie,' were sung in every street, court, and alley, and were heard on the pillow of every recumbent citizen. Journalism became a power of tremendous magnitude and extent. People read leading articles by torchlight, and shouted out to the moon apostrophes to liberty, ay, 'liberty, equality, fraternity.' These three talismanic words, too often devoid of meaning in the apprehension of those who shouted them with a fervour sufficient to split the ears of the groundlings. Liberty? every man doing what he deemed best, seemed to be the interpretation of the mob. Equality? every man trying to get above every other man, seemed its natural consequences. Fraternity? every man knocking down every other man who happened to be of a different way of thinking from himself, was the manner in which the men of the faubourgs seemed to construe it. Such seemed to be the epitome of the French revolution; but it was not so. There was order amid disorder; two principles were at work; and the revolution—so frivolous in its details, so momentous in its results; exhibiting so much talent and energy, so much vanity and folly, so much honesty and treachery, such kind feelings and such malignant passions, such planting of trees and cutting of throats, such recommendations of order, such instances of disorder, so much wisdom producing so much folly, so much goodness mingled with so much wickedness, so much gravity combined with so much levity, such long speeches and such brief epigrams—was quite explainable wherever the mind was able to grasp it as a whole, and see the operation of the two great and all pervading principles which we have mentioned."