These extracts of evidence demonstrate the guilty nature of the outrage, and the careful and truthful statement of the young Englishman, as well as his cool and courageous conduct in a case at the time apparently so desperate.

Mr. Mather, the father of these youths, immediately left England for Florence, and, as he passed through London, laid the case before the foreign minister, as far as the detail had reached him by the letters of the younger brother, which were handed to the minister. He arrived at Florence after his son had been three weeks in the hospital; part of that time in a dangerous state. The kind attention and the great skill of the medical officers of that magnificent Florentine institution were doubtless the chief causes of his recovery. The conduct of these young Englishmen under such trying circumstances has been praised by almost every political writer who took an interest in the subject, and there seemed only one opinion throughout the country, that their coolness, courage, and endurance, under great difficulties and personal dangers, could not have been surpassed by the bravest and most experienced men.

Lord Palmerston, after the publication of the Official Papers, on reviewing the whole facts of the case, in a debate upon it in parliament, declared "that he found much to criticise in almost all the parties concerned, except Mr. Mather and his sons."*

* House of Commons debate, June 14,1853.

In the route to the hospital, in the occurrences there, as well as in the account of the outrage, the graphic details by the generous-hearted Giovanni Pini bring the reader in presence of the cruel and bloody scene. While ill in hospital, pressed by professing friends, the British charge d'affaires among them, to authorise proceedings in the Tuscan law courts, Mr. E. Mather firmly refused his sanction. He at once elevated the question to its right position by an appeal to the representative of his country for the redress of an injury done to a British subject, and for the future protection of British subjects, to be redressed by the Tuscan government to the satisfaction of that of Britain, without reference to his own private wrong. His young brother, before the day had closed, sought out Mr. Scarlett, the British charge d'affaires, and also Prince Lichtenstein, the Austrian commander-in-chief, taking with him two witnesses to testify to the exactitude of his statement, and to them he poured out in clear and emphatic language the story of the outrage committed. The conduct of these two young Englishmen, without friends in a strange city, relying on their sense of right, and sustained by their own firmness and courage, was truly heroic. Their father, one of the most patriotic and useful public men in the north of England, warmly approved of their course of conduct, and pursued their views for redress. It is humiliating to our country to write what historical truth compels us to admit, that their efforts were met by the chicanery of diplomacy and treachery on the part of British officials, which have left behind an unpleasant impression of incapacity and want of principle, when the purest honour, and a high sense of national justice should have exclusively prevailed. They were well sustained, however, in their course by the generous sympathy of the people of Florence, and at home by the warmest feelings of their countrymen. As an eloquent public writer earnestly expressed himself in reference to their conduct, and that of the Earl of Malmesbury, the successor to Earl Granville:—"Both father and sons have nobly vindicated themselves as Englishmen; it was only when the national honour was confided to the minister, that the national honour was degraded by the spirit of the Jew pedlar." After several weeks' delay in Florence, the Mathers removed from that city to Genoa, where the father leaving his sons in safety, and for the purpose of the better recovery of the eldest, himself returned to England, to press the case personally upon the foreign minister of England. His first demand was punishment of the officer who had committed what Lord Granville called, "a cruel and cowardly outrage," and then, but not without the first was granted, compensation to the injured youth by the government under whoso jurisdiction the culprit acted. The Earl of Malmesbury, then foreign minister (the Whigs having left office), after several imperfect and ineffectual attempts for the better security of his countrymen abroad, by the signal punishment of the Austrian officer, wrote to Mr. Mather, senior, by his undersecretary, a letter, on the 24th of May, 1852, in very pitiable terms, to the effect that no national redress had been obtained; but that one thousand francesconi had been placed to the credit of his son, by the Tuscan government, for the injury which he had sustained. Mr. Mather's answer, with his indignant refusal of the acceptance of such redress, received high eulogies from the public writers of the day, and brought on debates in both houses of parliament. We extract a portion of the letter:—

"Now, my lord, you will do me the favour to remember, that a British subject, my son, was attacked in Florence by two armed Austrian officers, receiving the most 'unmerited and brutal treatment,' as your lordship has expressed it; that he was cut down by one of them, left in his own blood, his life in danger for a length of time, and his health perhaps for ever injured; and all this without any provocation, any offence, as it has been proved by evidence not to be controverted, of the most respectable witnesses,—people the subjects of the state whose officers had so acted,—yet for all this no real redress has been obtained; that officer is still at large, and remains unpunished....

"Whatever personal reparation you might deem proper to demand, which I conceded with regret, to your lordship's express commands (as I foresaw a probable misapplication of such concession), was, as you know, to give place to public honour.

"You now inform me that Prince Schwarzenberg, the late prime-minister of Austria, 'prior to his death had addressed a note to her majesty's government expressing his great regret at the occurrence, and at the act of the Austrian officers.' The extent of such regret may be estimated by this:—the Austrian officer, who stained the honour of the Austrian army by his bloodthirsty and cowardly act, has been allowed to go free and unpunished, and his conduct has been approved, at least defended, by Prince Schwarzenberg's lieutenant, the Austrian commander-in-chief in Tuscany, Prince Lichtenstein. This man I frequently saw, in all the pride of military array and overbearing insolence, in the streets of Florence, a public example to his brother officers, and the world, of the impunity with which British subjects may be treated, and the evidence of the low estimation of his superiors for British honour, and British power. This all the while that British statesmen and diplomatists were making urgent demands for redress, your lordship among the number.... Has it been obtained?...

"The patriotic manner in which I have repeatedly expressed myself in this unfortunate affair, as you are pleased to observe, has originated in feelings that induce me now to express the pain which I feel that this crime is sought to be compromised, and the indignation, as far as I am concerned, with which I reject the offer of the Tuscan government, and any participation in such proceedings.

"I will not pretend to be a judge of what is due to the honour of England, but I know what is due to my own."

The effect of this note was that Lord Malmesbury threw the responsibility on Mr. Scarlett, his representative in Tuscany, and annulled his proceedings. He then sent out Sir Henry Bulwer to endeavour to arrange the affair, or to withdraw the embassy from Florence. A sort of apology was given by the court of Florence for the outrage, and a responsibility was assumed by it for the future, in case of injury to British subjects—as if the law of nations had not already secured it. No redress or punishment for the outrage ever followed Sir Henry's mission. He might, for all its purposes, have as well remained in England. The Mathers refused to the last the money compensation, and to this hour, in this infamous matter, the guilty officer has never met his just punishment, nor public honour been satisfied. It is known that had the course been pursued which the father and sons adopted, and justice been satisfied, any personal compensation was to have gone chiefly to the public hospital of Florence, and for other public institutions of that refined capital, in which those Englishmen had received so much kindness and sympathy when it was personally dangerous to yield it, in the presence of their barbarous Croat invaders. Mr. Erskine Mather is now a scientific British officer, and bears amidst the ranks of England's defenders the visible scar of the wound so treacherously and wantonly inflicted upon him because he was an Englishman: a remembrance to every Englishman of how little he may rely upon the defence of his own honour, or the honour of his country in his person, while the diplomacy of England is in the hands of men who sympathise with foreign despotism, or find luxurious and lucrative appointments at foreign courts under the ostensible duty of watching over the interests of their country.

The remaining features of English affairs, in relation to foreign nations, were of too little interest to require notice in these pages.



DEATHS OF EMINENT PERSONS DURING THE YEAR 1851.

No one who knows England can wonder that her annual obituary presents such long lists of great names, when it is remembered how widespread is her empire, and how varied her enterprise. It is only possible to select a few of the remarkable persons for notice, whose departure from this life in 1851 excited the attention and regret of large classes, or of the whole nation.

On the 1st of February occurred the death of Mrs. Shelley, widow of Percy Bysshe Shelley, the celebrated poet. Mrs. Shelley was a lady of extraordinary gifts, and these were stimulated by the genius of her husband. As an authoress she will always rank high, although only one of her books has attained a just proportion of fame, "Frankenstein." That was received throughout Europe and America as one of the most remarkable works of imagination which the 19th century had seen, and it gained for her a reputation as lasting as extensive. "Lodore," "Volperga," "The Last Man," and others produced also a great impression, but not one of a very permanent character, at least, in the British Isles. "The Last Man" deserves a higher estimation than has been awarded to it. There is a very penetrating sadness in all Mrs. Shelley's works written after the loss of her gifted husband, and an impression of enervated physical strength, and effort to write in spite of depression, is conveyed to the reader.

On the 5 th, at Guildford, Surrey, the Rev. John Pye Smith, D.D., LL.D., F.R.S., for many years Principal of the Independent Congregational College, at Homerton. He was one of the greatest scholars of his age. The author of this work knew him well, and can in truth say his virtues were as conspicuous as his scholarship was profound. He was especially benevolent and modest. A celebrated divine once said of him that he "had a very troublesome conscience," referring to its extreme tenderness, and his nervous scrupulousness lest he should wear the remotest appearance of evil. His religious works are chiefly critical and controversial, and are written in a style of quiet and graceful simplicity, with great perspicacity of expression and perspicuity of thought. His "Scripture Testimony of the Messiah" is a wonderful monument of human learning and clear, candid, and cogent logic. It is the greatest standard work in the language, on "the Unitarian Controversy." When he retired from the direction of' the college at Homerton, where he trained many eminent men for the Christian ministry among congregationalists, three thousand guineas were presented to him as a tribute of respect. At his death the interest of the same was applied to divinity scholars in the college for candidates for the Christian ministry among the congregationalists, established at St. John's Wood, London, the Principal of which was Dr. John Harris, author of many curious and literary productions much prized in tire religious world.

February 23rd, at Hampstead, London, Joanna Baillie, the celebrated authoress. She was the friend of Sir Walter Scott, who admired both her poetic and dramatic genius exceedingly. Her plays, although open to criticism as to selection of subject, plot, and stage effectiveness, display the poetic power of her mind to great advantage.

April 28th, in London, aged eighty-one, Admiral Sir Edward Codrington. He saw great variety of service as a naval officer, and displayed professional skill and personal courage. In 1826, he received the command of the Mediterranean fleet. He commanded the following year the combined fleets of England, France, and Russia, in the destruction of the Egyptian fleet, at Navarino. A son of this eminent and amiable man subsequently commanded the British army in the Crimea, during a war of England and her allies against Russia.

May 23rd, at Florence, where he officiated as British minister to the court of Tuscany, the Right Honourable Richard Lalor Shiel. He was the son of an Irish merchant, and was born in Dublin. His early education was in the English Jesuit College, at Stonyhurst, a place which made many bad Catholics by the excess of its ultra-montanism. Mr. Shiel was afterwards a student of the Dublin University, where he distinguished himself. He was called to the Irish bar in 1814. He wrote several plays which had merit, and were for a time made popular by the acting of Miss O'Neil. Mr. Shiel was never very successful as a lawyer, his taste lying in the direction of dramatic literature and politics. He began his political career at an early age; his first passionate oration, to a Dublin Roman Catholic audience, was made at eighteen years of age. He became one of the leaders of the Roman Catholic emancipation movement, being second to O'Connell only as a leader of party and an orator; his eloquence, however, was more refined than that of his more potential colleague. His speeches were dramatic, rhetorical, and effective. Their moral tone was offensive, vituperative, and vindictive. He was very small of stature, ungainly and unprepossessing in appearance, and had a strange squeaking voice; but in spite of these and other defects he was, next to O'Connell, the most powerful agent in carrying Roman Catholic emancipation. He was, however, never heartily trusted by O'Connell, who saw his value as an instrument and flattered his vanity by fulsome panegyric: when, however, the great agitator suspected the drift of any movement of Shiel, he turned against him his keen although coarse satire, and, by his contemptuous sneers and ludicrous and striking caricatures, turned the tide of popular feeling against his subtle and unreliable colleague. After Roman Catholic emancipation was achieved Mr. Shiel became a member of the imperial parliament, where he distinguished himself by his eloquence more than he ever did as a tribune. His oratory was, however, characterised more by histrionic passion, rhetorical artifice, and boldness of declamation, than by logic or truth. Many times the beauty of his parliamentary orations dazzled his opponents, and drew forth their admiring eulogy, and often his sarcasms smote them with a severity more terrible than any launched from his side of the house. He became a mere whig partisan; his ambition was office, and he excited the strong resentment of the Irish party, with which he had acted, by his silence where "Irish or Catholic interests" were concerned, if the whig party were opposed to their demands. No orator had espoused with more seeming heartiness various liberal opinions, which he abandoned when he became a pet of the Whigs. Like O'Connell he had harangued with great fervour large democratic assemblages in favour of the voluntary principle in religion, and like O'Connell he mocked it and vituperated it, when it served his purpose to do so. He had been a great anti-slavery agitator, uttering fervent sentiments concerning the equal right of men of all creeds and colours, and the duty and policy of applying this great principle in the West India possessions of England, and all over the world; but when his parliamentary party adopted a course which displeased the anti-slavery party, and a deputation of eminent philanthropists waited upon him, believing that in Richard Lalor Shiel the black man had a friend as true as he had been an eloquent advocate, those gentlemen were received with a haughty insolence, and a contemptuousness which there was not even a decent effort to suppress. Upon the Protestant dissenters of England he poured loud and eloquent praise when he was agitating for Roman Catholic emancipation, as the English dissenters gave an ostentatious support to that movement. When the end was gained which he hoped to serve by such flattery, he manifested a profound animosity to those whose services he had commended. His real views on subjects of civil and religious liberty were selfish and narrow. His professed patriotism was to a certain extent real, but it was narrow and invidious where true, and it was for the most part simulated. He was an object of hatred to the ultramontane party in his own church; and a report prevailed in Europe, which does not appear to have been substantiated, that he was, by that party, ingeniously deprived of life through skilful agency appointed for that purpose.

August 5th, Mrs. Harriet Lee, in her ninety-eighth year. This lady was one of the authoresses of the "Canterbury Tales." Her works were various and popular.

August 6th, at Hong-Kong, the distinguished missionary, Gutzlaff. He was by birth a Pomeranian, but was associated with the English so intimately as interpreter, and as secretary to the Hong-Kong government, that he was always regarded as a British citizen.

August 12th, aged fifty, the Honourable Elliott Drinkwater Bethune, a man whose efforts for legal reform in England and India won for him the gratitude of the good, and caused him to incur the bitterest hostility of the selfish classes affected by proposals of reform.

November 18th, aged eighty-one, at Herenhausen, the King of Hanover, uncle to her majesty.

December 19th, at Chelsea, London. Joseph Mallord William Turner, the great English landscape painter, whose works are too well known, and whose fame is too widely spread, to require more particular notice.



CHAPTER LXIV.

{VICTORIA. 1852}

Home Affairs: General State of Great Britain; Religious Agitations; Death of the Duke of Wellington; The Court; Parliamentary Discussions; Changes of Ministry..... Ireland: Animosities on Account of Religion; Insecurity of Life; Terrible Assassinations..... Colonies: War at the Cape; Gold in California; General Condition of the British Colonies..... Foreign Affairs: Electric Telegraph Between London and Paris; Revival of the French Empire; English Policy in Reference to that Event; Indignant Feeling of the English nation towards Austria and the despotic Princes of Italy; Efforts of the British Navy to put down Piracy and Slavery.

{A.D. 1852}

The year 1852, like its predecessor, opened in the British Isles with fierce religious controversies. The agitation about the papal aggression had not died away, and events occurred, from day to day, inflaming the spirit of religious difference. Yet this was not an unmixed evil—"The greatest blessings have been achieved by discussions, errors suffer in the ordeal; truth never does; the dross is consumed in the fire; the gold comes out more brilliant, more precious, more pure."*

* Rev. Dr. Cumming's "Apocalyptic Sketches," p. 153

What was generally called the Achilli trial, early in the year, aggravated the existing religious dissensions, and extended the spirit of polemical conflict. Although the trial did not take place until June, the public anticipated it with intense excitement. Dr. Achilli had been a Roman Catholic priest; he left the Church of Rome, and devoted himself to preach against its tenets, and the spirit of persecution which it breathed. He produced a powerful impression both in Great Britain and Ireland. It became exceedingly important to silence him, and the Romish church resorted to its old instrument in such cases, defamation. The Rev. Mr. Newman, a Roman Catholic priest, a convert from the Church of England, who had, as a clergyman of that church, distinguished himself at Oxford by his Jesuitical casuistry in upholding Puseyism, and teaching that, by receiving the Church of England Articles in a "non-natural sense," clergymen might remain in her communion, and receive her emoluments, while they taught the doctrines peculiar to the Church of Rome, publicly attacked the character of Dr. Achilli, averring that he was unworthy of credit, because he had been expelled from the Church of Rome for dissolute habits. Achilli took an action for libel, which was tried in the Court of Queen's Bench, when a verdict was given in favour of Dr. Achilli. The case assumed a peculiar aspect from the fact that a number of women had been brought from Italy, by the Roman Catholic priests, who swore that they had participated with Dr. Achilli in criminal intercourse. The doctor solemnly swore that some of these women he had never seen, and that, in respect to others whom he had known, no accusation had ever until then been brought against him. The mode in which these women gave their testimony, and the contradictory character of it, left the jury no alternative but to believe the allegations of Dr. Achilli, that the case was got up against him, by a conspiracy of Roman Catholic priests, for the purpose of destroying his moral reputation, and thereby preventing his effective preaching from injuring their sectarian interests.

Another event still more aggravated the odiumtheologicum which prevailed. In the town of Stockport fierce religious riots broke out between the Irish Roman Catholics and the Protestants of that town. A religious procession of an offensive nature was got up by the Roman Catholic clergy. This was resented by the Protestant population as an insult: the Roman Catholic party persisted in the aggressive movement, and the result was riot and bloodshed for several days. This event produced terrible excitement elsewhere: and in Ireland some of the newspapers in the Roman Catholic interest incited the people to commit violence upon their Protestant neighbours. In addition to the animosity which raged between Protestants and Romanists, the controversy concerning the admission of Jews to parliament divided other sections of the community. The parliamentary debates on this subject in the previous year were remembered, and the remembrance embittered by various incidents. Among these was the trial of Miller versus Salomons. Mr. Salomons having been elected member for Greenwich, presented himself in the House of Commons, and voted. The action was to enforce a penalty of L500 for having voted without taking the oath of abjuration. The case was tried in the Court of Exchequer, before the barons, who were, with the exception of Baron Martin, unanimous in a decision against Mr. Salomons. This trial took place in April, and had the effect of exasperating the wealthy Jewish community of London and exciting the liberal politicians, who desired the emancipation of their Jewish fellow citizens from all civil disabilities on account of their religion.

The general condition of Great Britain was prosperous. The influx of gold from the newly-discovered gold regions, especially those of Australia, stimulated enterprise. The recent remissions of duties afforded relaxation to the pressure of taxation upon industry; trade was good; the industrial classes were contented; the farmers, sharing in the general prosperity, yielded less willingly to make themselves instruments of agitation in the hands of Lord Derby. Benjamin Disraeli, and other less prominent leaders of the opponents of free-trade, especially in corn. With the exception of the Cape of Good Hope, the tidings received from the colonies were favourable. No foreign war threatened, although many apprehended that the "coup d'etat" by leading to the revival of the empire, would also lead to a revival of the old imperial attitude of France to England,—that of menace and ambition. The policy pursued by the British government was, however, so conciliatory and fair, that no opportunity was left for France to make a quarrel. It was moreover the interest of the French president to court alliance with England, to prevent the possibility of a continental coalition against him, which he knew would never dare the power of France while England was her ally. The discussions connected with the outrage committed upon Erskine Mather, Esq., at Florence, by Austrian officers, alone agitated the country in connection with foreign politics. The progress of that event was laid fully before the reader in the last chapter. During the debates about it in parliament and the press, in 1852, a strong public sentiment was evoked against the Duke of Tuscany, and the Austrian government and army. Much sympathy was felt towards the young Englishman who had so well maintained his country's honour, and to his father, by whom he was sustained in the manly and patriotic course which he had adopted. The procedure of the diplomatic agents of the English government, of the English government itself, and of the foreign minister, Lord Malmesbury most especially, excited the indignation of the people, and tended much to weaken the cabinet of which Lord Malmesbury was so prominent a member: probably the apathy and want of manly spirit and patriotism displayed by the British government and its employes in the Florence affair, did more to shake the confidence of the people in the administration than all the party attacks to which in its short existence it was exposed.

Among the home events of the year which excited general interest were a series of earthquakes, which spread alarm over a large portion of Great Britain. Such rare phenomena in this island naturally attracted the attention of the philosophical, and affected the multitude with awe. On the 4th of November the inhabitants of the northwestern districts of England felt the shocks usually characteristic of earthquake. The chief force of the subterranean commotion seemed to be beneath Liverpool and the districts that surround it. In Manchester the shock was felt more severely than in most other districts. On the opposite coast of Ireland, especially in the counties of Dublin and Wicklow, the vibrations of the earth were nearly as remarkable as in Lancashire and Cheshire.



DEATH OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.

The decease of the most remarkable man in Europe, perhaps in the world, the great Duke of Wellington, filled the country with grief, commanded the sympathy of all nations friendly to Great Britain, and the attention of civilized men in every portion of the world. In England, it was the most important event of the year's history. No man exercised the same influence over her fortunes. His name was a tower of strength before her enemies, and his wisdom the chief and dernier ressort in her councils. He was the most confidential private counsellor of the queen, who regarded him with the veneration and affection due to the friend of her childhood, when she was neglected by the corrupt court of one uncle, and the apathetic court of another, the sovereigns of the empire over which she also was destined to reign. The removal of the great Duke was an irreparable loss to her majesty and to the country she so wisely ruled; and in no branch of the public service was this loss felt more than in the army, which he had raised to un unprecedented pitch of efficiency and glory. A brief notice of the life of this extraordinary man is desirable, that the reader may more clearly see the important influence his death necessarily had upon the position and policy of the United Kingdom. Concerning the origin and career of this glorious man, J. H. Stocqueler has made the following striking remarks:—

"Nobly born, carefully educated, and connected with people enjoying considerable political influence, he was subjected to no early wrestlings with fate. He was launched upon the stream of life under the most favourable auspices, tasting neither the bitterness of poverty nor the humiliation of obscurity. His public life, from first to last, was one uninterrupted chain of glory, each link more brilliant than its predecessor, and, unlike other great adventurers, whose course from insignificance to splendour was broken, through a series of mischances or their own unsteadiness of character, his progress knew no culminating point—his fame no tarnish, his fortunes no reverse.

"But the even tenor of his career is no disparagement of the vast merit of the Duke of Wellington. If his antecedents were less humble than the public beginnings of other men, let it be remembered that he reached a higher eminence than any personage of whom the annals of England possess a record—always excepting John, Duke of Marlborough, his prototype in all things but political virtue. Nor has his upward path been free from a thousand obstructions, which none but a gigantic mind and a firm heart could surmount. His difficulties began with his direct responsibility. His triumphs followed as the results of his indomitable perseverance, his unflinching courage, and his amazing constancy."

The most accurate and, at the same time, brief account of the birth, education, and early professional progress of the future hero, is one written by the author just quoted.*

* Stocqueler's "Life of Wellington," p. 23.

"It was in March, 1769, that Arthur Wellesley first saw the light. Biographers differ as to the date and the locality; but it appears by the evidence taken before a parliamentary committee in 1791, to inquire into a petition against his return for the borough of Trim, on the ground of his being a minor, that he was really born at Dangan Castle, in the county of Meath, Ireland, at the time alleged above. His father was the second Earl of Mornington, who enjoyed much celebrity for his nice musical taste; his mother, Anne, the eldest daughter of Viscount Dungannon. Early in life Arthur Wellesley was sent to Eton College for his education, in conjunction with his afterwards distinguished brother, Richard.

"Being desirous for the military profession he was sent to the college of Angiers, directed by Pegnard, a celebrated French engineer.

"At the age of eighteen, after he had gone through a course of French military instruction, Arthur Wellesley was gazetted to an ensigncy in the 73rd regiment. This was in March, 1787. Nine months later he was promoted to a lieutenancy in the 76th. Subsequent exchanges carried him into the 41st foot, and the 12th Light Dragoons.

"In 1791 (30th of June), being then twenty-two years of age, he procured a company in the 58th Foot, whence, four months later, he exchanged to a troop in the 18th Light Dragoons. Under the system in force in the British army, officers, avid of rapid promotion, must seek it in other regiments than their own, if their immediate seniors are prepared to purchase advancement. As Arthur Wellesley had had no opportunities of displaying zeal and gallantry in the field during these four years of service, his quick progress may be fairly set down to the combined action of ministerial favour, and a sufficiency of pecuniary means. Neither at school, nor college, nor in the performance of the easy regimental duty peculiar to a time of peace, and incidental to five exchanges, did he display any of those qualities which developed themselves in so remarkable a manner a few years later.

"Previous to obtaining his company, Lieutenant Wellesley was returned a member of the Irish parliament. He sat for three years, during a portion of which time he was an aide-de-camp to the Earl of Westmoreland, then Lordlieutenant of Ireland.

"The young member occasionally spoke, always in opposition to liberal measures; and his oratory was characterised more by a curt and decided form of expression than by the efflorescence then popular among the Grattans, Cuffs, Parnells, and other members of the legislature. His opinions were of the tory cast; and, even at that early period he opposed himself to any consideration of the Catholic claims, and to schemes of parliamentary reform. As an aide-de-camp, and a member of a Protestant family, his sentiments were, of course, coloured by the opinions of the noblemen and statesmen with whom he associated."

The early military services of Arthur Wellesley, both in Europe and in India, were brilliant. Some of his first exploits in action were marked by promptitude and genius rivalling in lustre the feats of his proudest days. In India, his conquests of the refractory chiefs, Dhoondiah and the Peishwah, and his successes in the Mysorean war, under Baird, were full of daring and of glory.*

* For an extended account of General Wellesley's Indian campaigns see "Nolan's History of the British Empire in India and the East." Virtue; City Road and Ivy Lane, London.

As a general officer, he showed every quality which commanded respect from his seniors, reverence from his juniors, confidence alike in those whom he commanded, and those who devolved responsibility upon him, and the astonishment and admiration of his enemies. The treatment he received in India was not just nor considerate, and to the latest period of his life he felt that neither by his brother the Marquis Wellesley, the East India Company, nor the government at home, was he requited as his merits deserved, nor did he deem that their conduct to him while on actual service was what it should have been. The self-mastery and loyalty with which he endured slights and injustice while rendering great services, have probably never been exhibited equally by any soldier of ancient or modern times. On the occasion of his being superseded at Bombay by General Baird, he wrote:—"My former letters will have shown you how much this will annoy me; but I have never had much value for the public spirit of any man who does not sacrifice his private views and convenience when it is necessary."**

** "The Duke of Wellington's Supplementary Despatches relating to India." Edited by his Son.

The time has arrived when foreign writers, even in France, are beginning to do justice to the hero's fame, and to the genius displayed in his Indian campaigns, which have been so much overlooked both at home and abroad, although so well appreciated in India. An able writer, a French officer—Captain Brialmont—has, in a recent work,*** especially drawn the attention of military men in France to the Indian campaigns of General Wellesley.

*** "History of the Life of Arthur, Duke of Wellington," from the French of M. Brialmont, Captain of the Staff of the Belgian Army. With emendations and additions by the Kev. G. K. Gleig, M.A., Chaplain-General to the Forces.

In describing the conduct of the general at Assaye, Brialmont remarks:—"It was an inspiration of the greatest hardihood which induced the English general to engage a force ten times as great as his own, and covered in its front by an important river. The battle of Assaye will always be regarded as one of the boldest enterprises of that general, whom certain authors represent as endowed only with the qualities which are necessary for defensive warfare."

Some time after his arrival in Europe, he was entrusted with a command in Portugal, against the French then occupying that country. He was much embarrassed by his own government, and the wilfulness of the people to rescue whom was his mission. The convention of Cintra arrested his successes. The stupidity of his superiors defeated his schemes of conquest. "Yet, even as things stood, the success achieved was of no ordinary character. The British soldiers had measured their swords against some of the best troops of the empire, and with signal success. The 'Sepoy General' had indisputably shown that his capacity wras not limited to oriental campaigns. He had effected the disembarkation of his troops—always a most hazardous feat—without loss, had gained two well-contested battles, and in less than a single month had actually cleared the kingdom of Portugal of its invaders. The army, with its intuitive judgment, had formed a correct appreciation of his services, and the field-officers engaged at Vimiera testified their opinions of their commander by a valuable gift: but it was clear that no place remained for General Wellesley under his new superiors, and he accordingly returned to England, bringing with him conceptions of Spanish affairs which the event but too speedily verified."*

* Traveller's Library: "Memoir of the Duke of Wellington."

Previous to the expedition to Portugal, and after his return, he sat in parliament, and held the office of Secretary for Ireland. In 1809 he received the thanks of parliament for his military services at Vimiera and Rolica. In the meanwhile, disaster frowned upon the arms of Spain. "Her armies were dispersed, her government bewildered, and her people dismayed; the cry of resistance had ceased, and, in its stead, the stern voice of Napoleon, answered by the tread of 300,000 veterans, was heard throughout the land."**

** "History of the Peninsular War," by Sir William Napier.

Portugal was menaced. Sir John Cradock, who commanded, was unequal to the occasion, and the British government was about to withdraw the English army of occupation, when it occurred to Lord Castlereagh that Sir Arthur Wellesley ought to be consulted. That officer counselled the augmentation of the British forces, and drew up a plan of defence. The government offered him the command of the Portuguese, which he declined. Finally, Cradock was recalled, and Sir Arthur accepted the command of the allied English and Portuguese. He again landed in Portugal, amidst the acclamations of troops and people, and, with his characteristic activity, commenced operations. Then followed the passage of the Douro, one of the most daring exploits recorded in the history of war. ***

*** Captain Brialmont says that French generals admit that the passage of the Douro was bold even to rashness.

The passage of the Douro foiled the French commander, and compelled him to retire. After various complicated movements, the rival armies confronted one another at Talavera, where a dreadful conflict issued in victory to the British. The British, unsustained by proper support, through the negligence of the English government, and the irrational conduct of the Portuguese, were compelled to fall back. Before doing so, Wellesley accomplished another grand feat—the execution of the lines of Torres Vedras. This defensive position was skilfully selected, and as skilfully fortified. Such was the secrecy and celerity observed in the construction of the works, that the French had learned nothing of their existence, numerous as were their spies, and the English army generally knew as little of it as the French. When the moment arrived for the execution of his project, the English general retired behind these lines, in the face of an overwhelmingly numerous enemy, who gazed with wonder upon the impregnable defences which were presented to their view.

Before, however, the British accomplished their retreat, one more victory testified their greatness in battle, and the superiority of their chief. The English took post on the heights of Busaco. The French attacked the position, and were repulsed. Having entered the lines of Torres Vedras, the British awaited the advance of the grand army which was to drive them into the sea. Massena advanced in his pride and his power, but recoiled from the task of storming such well-prepared positions. Having waited long enough, without being able to make any impression upon the English lines of defence, to bring disease, discouragement, and scarcity of provisions upon his own army, he retired, harassed in his retreat by the exulting English. While Wellesley was thus engaged in personally superintending the defence of Lisbon, by maintaining the fortified lines thrown up between the Douro and the sea, he was also occupied with general plans for ultimately driving the French out of the Peninsula, directing operations in places at a distance from his head-quarters, and carrying on a laborious correspondence with the Portuguese and British civil authorities, and even with the Spanish patriots. When Massena was driven into Spain, Wellesley's first care was the reconquest of the frontier fortresses. Almeida, Ciudad Rodrigo, and Badajoz, fell into the hands of the British general, then Lord Wellington. His successes were, however, obtained with great difficulty and loss of his soldiers, through the inadequate supply of material to his army by the home authorities. Every fortress which was not strategically abandoned by the French, was won by the skill of the general-in-chief, and the recklessness of life shown by his soldiers, in spite of the want of almost every appliance proper for an army. The sieges which Wellington prosecuted to a successful result "will always reflect immortal honour on the troops engaged, and will always attract the strongest interests of an English reader; but which must, nevertheless, be appealed to as illustrations of the straits to which an army may be led by want of military experience in the government at home. By this time the repeated victories of Wellington and his colleagues had raised the renown of British soldiers to at least an equality with that of Napoleon's veterans, and the incomparable efficiency, in particular, of the Light Division was acknowledged to be without a parallel in any European service. But in those departments of the army where excellence is less the result of intuitive ability, the forces under Wellington were still greatly surpassed by the trained legions of the emperor. While Napoleon had devoted his whole genius to the organization of the parks and trains which attend the march of an army in the field, the British troops had only the most imperfect resources on which to rely. The engineer corps, though admirable in quality, was so deficient in numbers, that commissions were placed at the free disposal of Cambridge mathematicians. The siege trains were weak and worthless against the solid ramparts of Peninsular strongholds. The intrenching tools were so ill made that they snapped in the hands of the workmen, and the art of sapping and mining was so little known that this branch of the siege duties was carried on by drafts from the regiments of the line, imperfectly and hastily instructed for the purpose. Unhappily, such results can only be obviated by long foresight, patient training, and costly provision; it was not in the power of a single mind, however capacious, to effect an instantaneous reform, and Wellington was compelled to supply the deficiencies by the best blood of his troops." *

* "Memoir of the Duke of Wellington."

The terms in which this illustrious man complained of the incompetency of the government at home are instructive to those who, in the present generation, contend for reform. "I do not receive one-sixth part of the money necessary to keep so great a machine in motion." "The French army is well supplied," he wrote on one occasion, "the Spanish army has everything in abundance, and we alone, on whom everything depends, are dying of hunger." "I am left entirely to my own resources," he wrote in 1810, "and find myself obliged to provide, with the little which I can procure, for the wants of the allies, as well as for those of the English army. If I yield, God help me, for nobody will support me." This sorrowful language was too true, for so utterly corrupt was the English administration, that in order to save themselves from public odium, they would have ruined him. A distinguished reviewer of one of the memoirs of his grace thus comments upon the treatment which he received:—"From the inadequate supplies of money sent to him from his government, he had to create a paper-money of his own, and to increase his supplies by opening a trade in corn with America. When he complained of the attention which the home government paid to the criticism of some of his officers, they replied that these officers were better generals than he; they compelled him to send back the transports on which, in the event of a defeat, the safety of his army depended; and on one occasion Lord Liverpool gave instructions to an officer of engineers at Lisbon of which Wellington knew nothing, and which began with these words, which were also news to him:—'As it is probable that the army will embark in September, &c.'" So much was the duke dependant on his own resources that, being unable to prevent the departure of some of his generals, he was often obliged to discharge himself, on the same clay, the duties of general of cavalry, leader of the advanced guard, and commander of two or three columns of infantry. His want of material was such that at the siege of Badajoz he had to employ guns cast in the reign of Philip II., and, for lack of mortars, he had to mount his howitzers upon wooden blocks; while at Burgos he was obliged to suspend the attack till a convoy of ammunition should come up, which had been expected for six weeks. He was even obliged to complain of his army. "We are an excellent army on parade," he said, "an excellent one to fight, but take my word for it, defeat or success would dissolve us." The discipline was by no means perfect. After the battle of Vittoria the soldiers obtained among them by way of booty about a million sterling; many regiments disbanded themselves, and some three weeks afterwards the commander-in-chief had to announce that there were still 12,500 marauders among the mountains absent from duty.

Notwithstanding every impediment which the lazy, conceited, and impracticable character of the Spaniards, the want of civil organization in Portugal, and the ignorance and incapacity of his own government could interpose, Lord Wellington, in a series of campaigns, and of great and sanguinary battles, drove the French from Spain, followed them into France, defeated them at Bayonne, Orthes, and Toulouse, and only paused in his career of victory upon the announcement of the allies entering Paris, and the abdication of Napoleon.

The policy and conduct of the Duke of Wellington during the occupation of France by the allies were stern, but just and wise. He was inflexible in carrying out the objects of the allies, but temperate and equitable in curbing the vindictive propensities of the allied chiefs and armies. He met the great continental sovereigns and generals in Paris on a footing highly honourable to himself and his nation; his influence preponderated in their counsels, and he received more marks of deference than any other man of the times and the occasion.

On his return to England, his name and person were surrounded by honours. He received in the House of Lords at once the recognition of all the steps of the peerage—they had been conferred upon him in his absence. He was the idol of the court and the aristocracy, and to a considerable extent of the people. The escape of Napoleon from Elba led to the British and Prussian campaign in Belgium, which involved the sanguinary battles of Quatrebras and Waterloo, in the former of which Ney sustained a terrible repulse from Wellington, and in the latter Napoleon was utterly defeated and put to flight, and the way to Paris opened for the conquerors. Once more the duke occupied France with his armies, and with still greater opportunity than at the close of his previous campaign for displaying the eminent qualities which he possessed in the council, as well as in the field. After the peace, and the banishment of Napoleon to St. Helena. Wellington obtained an extraordinary influence in the councils of successive British sovereigns, and became one of the most active and potential politicians in Europe. His career of war had closed—a new public race was run by him, in which his countrymen were less disposed to regard him with favour. How he fulfilled his new destinies is still matter of discussion. The tory school of politicians, to which he belonged, consider him as having in a great measure forsaken his party, and lowered the standard of his principles. Liberal politicians regard him as having struggled to maintain class interests contrary to the convictions of his great mind, and in subservience to the interests and prejudices of his "order." His country generally has, therefore, not given him credit for the highest order of statesmanship, but reveres his memory as that of a man who served the country and the crown with fidelity, and who studied the national honour in all things. Probably the following estimate of his political capacity, position, and services, is as accurate as any ever given to the public:—"By a destiny unexampled in history, the hero of these countless conquests survived to give more than one generation of his countrymen the benefit of his civil services. Such an ordeal has never before been endured by any public character. Military experience does not furnish the fittest schools of statesmanship, especially when the country to be governed is that of a free, intelligent, and progressive people. But, if the political principles of the great man who has now departed were not always reconcilable with the opinions and demands of modern advancement, they were at least consistent in themselves, were never extravagantly pressed, never tyrannically promoted, and never obstinately maintained to the hindrance of the government or the damage of the state. In estimating Wellington's politics it must never be forgotten that he was a politician of 1807, and that he descended to us the last representative of a school that had passed. If he was less liberally-minded than the statesmen of his later days, we may fairly inquire how many of his own generation would have been as liberal as he?"

In 1822, the duke appeared at the allied conference at Vienna, the object of which was to put down the rising demand on the continent for constitutional government. Spain was intensely agitated, and its imbecile monarch was afraid to resist any longer the call for free institutions, so loudly and unanimously made by his subjects. The continental sovereigns viewed the slightest approach to political freedom with alarm. The restored Bourbon government of France took the lead in the policy of repression, and demanded the countenance of the continental powers, and of England, for an invasion of Spain, to support the king in trampling out the last spark of liberty among his subjects. Mr. Canning was minister for foreign affairs in England. He instructed the Duke of Wellington to resist the proposal of France, and to insist upon non-intercession. Either his grace performed his part inadequately, as was generally believed in England, or the continental sovereigns, having used England for the destruction of Napoleon, were agreed to thwart her influence, and make no concessions to her opinion, for they unanimously supported the project of a French invasion of Spain. This event took place, inflicting upon the Spanish people more indignity, disdain, and injury than the invasions by Napoleon had done. The British government talked much and did nothing. "The Holy Alliance" took no notice of the indignant orations in the British parliament, the protests of the ministry, and the explanations of the duke. A French invasion overthrew liberty in Spain within little more than ten years of the date when a British army had driven out the French in the name of liberty, independence, and non-intervention. The Spaniards never believed that the duke was free from some participation in this aggression, and his popularity, such as it was at the close of the war, was never regained in that country. The event also deprived the Spaniards of all confidence in professions of non-intervention and respect for national independence in England. They did not believe that her powerless protests were sincere, but regarded her as having made the previous war in the Peninsula for a policy exclusively her own—the suppression of the popular and imperial elements in France. The Duke of Wellington, in his place in the house of peers, declared that he had faithfully carried out Mr. Canning's instructions, but that the allied courts were unmoved by arguments or protests.

In 1826 the duke was sent by his sovereign on an especial embassy to St. Petersburg. He was not favourably impressed with the Emperor Nicholas or his people. He regarded the whole policy of Russia as faithless and aggressive, and only friendly to England as far as she might be made, through the false representations of the Russian diplomatists, unconsciously subservient to the territorial aggrandisement of Russia, especially in the direction of Turkey. The Emperor Nicholas himself the duke learned to regard with distrust, mingled with personal contempt for his duplicity.

At home, the duke was the object of innumerable honours. A mansion was erected for him, called Apsley House, at Hyde Park Corner, L200,000 was voted to purchase for him and the inheritors of the title, the estate of Strathfieldsaye, in Hampshire, which is entailed, on condition of the noble owner, for the time being, annually presenting a tri-colour flag to her majesty, on the 18th of June, the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo. These flags have been since accumulating, and hang in the armoury of Windsor Castle, with similar trophies commemorative of the battle of Blenheim, rendered by the heirs of the great Duke of Marlborough.

In 1818 the duke was made master-general of the ordnance; in 1819, governor of Plymouth; and in 1820, colonel of the Rifle Brigade.

The great continental courts in 1818 gave him the rank of field-marshal in their respective armies, together with military and civil distinctions, such as were only customarily conferred on crowned heads, or the very noblest of their subjects.

Meanwhile the British Isles were intensely agitated; a cry for parliamentary reform resounded from the gates of Buckingham Palace to the Land's-end, to John O'Groat's house, and to the cliffs of Connemara. Roman Catholic emancipation was another demand, which was ceaselessly heard, and the Protestant dissenters of England were active and importunate in demanding redress for the grievances of which they complained. The duke was adverse to all these concessions, and determined to resist them as long as they could be resisted, with safety to the crown and peerage. The people hated the prince-regent, and when he reached the throne as the fourth George, he was one of the most unpopular monarchs in Europe. The measures adopted by this prince to preserve illiberal institutions were bloody and remorseless; executions for political offences were numerous all over the land, men of virtue and honour were incarcerated for liberal opinions uttered or printed, public meetings were put down by charges of cavalry, or by cannon loaded with grape and canister, drawn up against an unarmed and really loyal people, exasperated by unendurable oppressions. Against these wickednesses the duke exerted no influence, raised his voice in no protest, but was in the minds of the people regarded as one of the haughtiest of their oppressors. On the death of Lord Liverpool, and the appointment of Mr. Canning to the premiership, he received from the duke an uncompromising, bitter, and ungenerous opposition. Canning was professedly a Conservative, but his opinions were moderately liberal, and everything liberal was resisted by Wellington and his alter ego in politics, Mr. Peel, afterwards Sir Robert. There was a bigoted and angry party spirit in all the duke's proceedings. He would not command the army nor direct the ordnance, but resigned all his military offices, because the king made Canning the chief of a ministry in which the duke himself served. Canning and Huskisson introduced a corn-bill, which was the first relaxation proposed by members of a government to the corn-law. This measure had been prepared in the Liverpool cabinet, and received the assent of the duke himself; yet such was his animosity to the moderately liberal policy of Canning, that he proposed the rejection of the bill in the lords, and threw it out. There was a want of honour and good faith in this conduct, wholly at variance with the manly, frank, straightforward character of the duke, and there is no way of accounting for it but by supposing that he was instigated to the course he adopted by Peel, whose tortuous and uncertain principles and policy began to assume prominence. It was Peel's character throughout his career to betray all who trusted in him as a leader, and to cany by trick and treachery all the measures against which, in his public life, he most vehemently and acrimoniously inveighed. The duke was taunted in the house with intriguing for the premiership. He declared, in reply, that he was "unqualified for such a situation." Nevertheless, when offered, he accepted it. He declared that he "should be mad even to think of it;" but he did think of it, at all events afterwards, and took it, and also filled it better than his tory predecessors. Perhaps the truth of the case was, that Peel originated all the intrigues against Canning, in which the duke was unconsciously an abettor of the designs of that artful man. Peel saw that his best hope of attaining to the chief post in the councils of the country was by using skilfully and patiently the influence he had acquired over the duke. He foresaw, as it was easy to foresee, that events would soon make the duke tired of the post, and that he would in such case certainly devolve it upon him, as "his man of all work." One of the most harassing oppositions to which an English premier was ever exposed was directed and led by Wellington and Peel against Canning, chiefly on the ground of his willingness to concede Catholic emancipation, and some relaxation of the duties upon corn, and the restrictions upon trade. In this opposition the duke was sincere, but there is good ground for believing that Peel, filled with envy against Canning, was already laying his own schemes for carrying concession even farther than Canning or Huskisson ever dreamed of doing. Canning was shamelessly deserted and betrayed on all hands. He displayed wonderful ability, justifying the language of Byron: "Canning is a genius, almost a universal one, a scholar, a wit, a statesman, an orator, and a poet." He struggled against the factious opposition treacherously carried on in the name of principles by men who, like Peel, felt no homage for them, until his proud and sensitive heart broke. The Peel and Wellington faction killed him. In the fourth month of his premiership he died at his post, leaving to posterity a great name, and an eternal reproach against his unprincipled persecutors.

Lord Goderich ("prosperity Robinson") could not carry on the government. The duke was made premier, eight months after he had publicly declared his own incapacity for such an office. One of his first acts, notoriously under the influence of Peel, was to give office to Huskisson, the champion of free trade, and the energetic colleague of Canning! He added four more of Canning's colleagues. Thus, after he and Peel had declared Canning and his cabinet to be irreligious, revolutionary, and dangerous to the country, in all the cant phrases of the time, their very first act was to take possession, as it were, of the Canning cabinet itself, and next of the Canning policy, on account of which the illustrious dead had been solemnly denounced by the one, and vituperated, in a manner far exceeding parliamentary licence, by the other. The repeal of the corporation and test acts, demanded by the dissenters, the emancipation of the Roman Catholics, and the claims of the commercial community, and the political economist, for a relaxation of the protectionist policy were now to be satisfied; but the policy chosen was to keep all these parties at bay, to resist all melioration of things as they were as long as possible, and then to concede nothing on the ground of justice, or of human rights, but only what popular power could force. This policy Peel did not manage happily, and the duke was brought down with him as by a dead weight. The parliamentary tact of Peel, his debating power, his aptitude for public business, and the singular influence of the duke, worked wonders for a time; but eventually much more had to be conceded to the public power, than, if at first and generously, the government had shown a reforming spirit, would have been at once insisted upon.

Lord John Russell moved for a repeal of the corporation and test acts, oppressions which goaded the dissenters, and which in themselves were as profane as they were hypocritical. Of course the duke and Mr. Peel resisted this, but the House of Commons carried the measure.

Instead of the duke and "his man Friday," as the wags of the day termed Peel, resigning, as men of honour ought to have done, they resolved to take up the measure against which they had voted and argued, and uttered the most earnest warnings on the sacred ground of religion! The duke carried the measure through the House of Lords!

A month afterwards a corn-bill, the first inroad actually effected upon the protective system, was carried in the House of Commons. The duke declared the repeal or modification of the corn-laws to be especially wicked, as injuring the landed interest; nevertheless, he took up the measure and carried it through. Corn might come in, if only Whigs and Radicals could be kept out. Thus early, measures which Canning proposed with consistency and honour,—and for proposing which these men hunted him to death,—they inconsistently, and with a violation of principle which lowered the character of public men, carried through parliament to preserve the ministerial ascendancy of Peel and the party.

As the session advanced the spirit of reform both in and out of parliament advanced. Penryn and East Retford were rotten boroughs, with only a handful of constituents. The reformers demanded the transfer of the representation from two such insignificant and corrupt places to Manchester and Birmingham. The duke would not consent to the enfranchisement of the two great centres of manufactures; he held fast by the rotten boroughs. Huskiseon, Grant, Lamb, and Lords Dudley and Palmerston resigned. Thus the Canning cabinet was expunged, and a pure tory remainder formed the nucleus of a new ministry, which was composed of Lord Aberdeen, Sir H. Hardinge, and Sir George Murray,—men in every way immeasurably inferior to those who, no longer able to follow the bigoted yet inconsistent and time-serving policy of the duke and Peel, were obliged to resign office.

The state of Ireland now became alarming. The Roman Catholic population, led by O'Connell, menaced insurrection, and a system of agitation was maintained very effective, and very embarrassing to government. The Roman Catholics knew that nothing would be conceded by Wellington and Peel on principle, but that anything might be wrung from them, if, by the concession, they supposed that they thereby gave a longer lease of power to the privileged classes. The army began to discuss the question of religious disability, and a third of the force was alleged to be Roman Catholic. The duke came to the conclusion that to avert civil war, Roman Catholic emancipation must be effected. In his public statements he greatly exaggerated the dangers of withholding the measure; but as neither he nor Peel were supposed at heart to be very earnest, although very illiberal Protestants, the public considered it a new trick to take popular public measures out of the hands of the liberal party, to pass them in forms less in harmony with the principles involved in them, than would have been the case if carried by the Whigs. In February, 1829, the measure of Roman Catholic emancipation was announced in the speech from the throne, and was carried through parliament by all the power which the ministry could command. The high Protestants lost confidence in the duke, and the Earl of Winchelsea impeached his private honour in connection with the events which had transpired. On the 31st of March the duke and the earl met in Battersea Fields to fight a duel. The duke fired and missed; Lord Winchelsea fired in the air, and the affair terminated. Throughout the political transactions of his premiership his grace showed much passion, and a tyranny to his colleagues in office more suitable to the barrack-room than the cabinet. Peel was the abettor of all this, and by many deemed the inventor of it. After conceding such a large measure of religious liberty, his grace seemed to dislike more inveterately than ever all measures of free-trade and parliamentary reform. The French revolution of 1830 excited the whole country, and an agitation for reform of threatening magnitude arose and spread throughout the land. He had the hardihood to attempt prosecutions of the press, although by such means the French king had brought about his dethronement. He defied public feeling, and did so with an air of peremptory authority and insolence offensive to parliament and the people. He became one of the most unpopular men in England. Almost all parties united in deeming him unfit to lead the government of the country in such a crisis. He was hooted by mobs in the streets; the windows of his mansion were broken, and had to be defended by iron casings. A new parliament was elected; a reform was demanded. The duke met the demand by a sturdy defiance. He declared, "that the country already possessed a legislature which answered all the good purposes of legislation, that the system of representation possessed the full and entire confidence of the country, and that he was not only not prepared to bring forward any measure of reform, but would resist such, as long as he held any station in the government of the country." With those words the career and credit of the duke as a statesman may be said to have closed. A perfect hurricane of rage arose around him through all the land. He was hurled from power, and the Whigs came into office pledged to a Reform Bill, which, after vain and fierce opposition, became the law of the land. King William IV. became alarmed at the rapid progress of reform; he suddenly dismissed the Whigs, and "sent for the duke." The latter failed again in his discernment of the true slate of public feeling in England. He refused to become premier, advised the king to send for Sir Robert Peel (what the latter had been all along planning and expecting). Sir Robert arrived and formed a ministry, the duke becoming minister of foreign affairs and leader of the government party in the House of Lords. This ministry was speedily swept away by the popular indignation, and the Whigs again returned to power. From that time the duke seems to have made expediency his sole rule of political action; he became heart and soul a Peelite. In 1841 he had an opportunity of upholding Sir Robert Peel in power for some time, and of aiding him in the great work of commercial and economical reform, against which both had all their life protested and straggled. It can hardly be urged in excuse for the duke's long opposition to commercial reform, that questions of finance and political economy were out of the proper range of his subjects, for he was a first-rate financier, and a successful student of political economy. He is represented to have said of himself that his true genius was the Exchequer rather than the War Office. "At one of the most critical conjunctures of the Peninsular war, he drew up a most able paper on the true principles of Portuguese banking; and at Seringapatam, after very serious evils had been experienced from a long-standing debasement of the coinage, a memorandum was accidentally discovered in the treasury from the pen of Colonel Wellesley, every prediction and observation of which had been exactly verified by events." His desire to stand by his order, to uphold government by that order, and to maintain its revenues by the protection of territorial produce overpowered alike his sense of justice, and his patriotism.

In 1843, he resumed the office of "commander-in-chief of the land forces," which he held until his decease. In his management of the army, he displayed the same repugnance to reform as in civil life, and a determination to resist all changes that lessened aristocratic influence in its government, or the promotion of its officers. The liberal views and measures which spontaneously emanated from the Duke of Cambridge, in 1858-9, would have been impossible to the Duke of Wellington, except under such a pressure of popular power as made a concession of some things necessary to preserve others. The improvements which gradually grew up in the condition of the common soldier seldom, almost never, had his approbation, and were generally carried out by successive whig governments in opposition to the commander-in-chief.

On the 10th of April, 1848, when the great Chartist meeting took place near London, the dispositions made by the great duke to put down any attempt at insurrection, excited the admiration of all military men.

At no period in the Duke of Wellington's history did he so fully enjoy the confidence and respect of his countrymen as when death approached. The mode of his death was such as might be expected at his advanced age. It was easy—as the lamp expires when the oil which fed it becomes exhausted. One of the honours which he bore was that of warden of the Cinque Ports; he was therefore staying at Walmer Castle when his brief but fatal illness occurred. His remains were there placed in a coffin, which the inhabitants and the troops of the surrounding garrisons were permitted to see. On the 10th of November, the body was removed to London, and laid in state at Chelsea Hospital, where a vast concourse of persons were permitted to see it. Thence it was taken to the Horse Guards, whence the funeral procession went forth to St. Paul's Cathedral, in the dome of which, beside the body of Nelson, it was to be deposited. The funeral was the grandest which ever took place in England, or perhaps in Europe. Military representatives from all the important nations in Europe, except Austria, attended. Vast multitudes of people crowded the thoroughfares along which the procession moved, and of that multitude exceeding great numbers were dressed in deep black. In parliament and throughout the country, demonstrations of respect for the memory of the departed hero were made, and the court went into mourning. Thus closed the life and obsequies of one of the greatest men to whom the British Isles had ever given birth. His grace was a widower at his death. He had married, in 1806, an Irish lady of rank, the Honourable Catherine Pakenham, daughter of the second Baron Longford, and sister to the gallant Generals Pakenham, who distinguished themselves under the command of his grace in the Peninsular. The duchess died in 1831, leaving two sons, the Marquis of Douro, heir to the title, and Lord Charles Wellesley, both military men. Lord Charles Wellesley, from loss of sight, has since been obliged to give up the military profession; and the successor to the great duke, although a man of general talent, and allowed by military men to possess remarkable ability for the profession of arms, has not followed that career, but maintains a high position at court and in public affairs.



THE COURT.

There were few incidents connected with the court in 1852 interesting to the general reader. Her majesty and the royal family spent the usual season in London, especially in connection with ministerial changes and parliamentary proceedings. Windsor Castle and Osborne House also received their royal proprietor at the accustomed seasons. In the summer, however, her majesty made a cruise in her yacht, before retiring to her autumnal Scottish retreat. A royal yacht squadron escorted the queen and the royal household from Cowes along the southern coast of England to Plymouth, the party landing at various points celebrated for their picturesque situation. Having cruised about the south and south-west coast, the squadron returned to Osborne. At the close of August, her majesty, the prince, and the elder five children left Osborne for Balmoral. Her residence there was shortened by tidings of the death of the Duke of Wellington, which reached her September 16th. Early in October she left for Windsor, visiting en route the Menai Straits, and passing through the tubular bridge.

A curious circumstance occurred to her majesty on the 30th of August. The royal lady was then made aware that she was legatee to a large fortune, bequeathed by a barrister of Lincoln's Inn. He was a man of singularly penurious habits, allowing himself to be in want of necessary food, and neglecting cleanliness. An old housekeeper, who had served him twenty-six years, he left without any provision whatever. The sum bequeathed to his sovereign was L250,000.



PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS AND PARTY CONFLICTS DURING 1852.

The parliamentary history of 1852 was in various respects eventful. It was rendered so by the character of the debates both on home and foreign questions, by the rivalry of Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell, for the leadership of the whig party, the changes of ministry, and the last effort of the tory and protectionist party to gain ascendancy.

On the 3rd of February the queen opened parliament in person. "The speech" referred to the necessity of amending the Reform Bill. Lord John Russell hoped by this means to prolong his lease of power, which was seriously menaced in consequence of his dismissal of Lord Palmerston from the cabinet the previous year. Such was the confidence reposed in that noble lord by the commons and the country for the management of foreign negotiations, that from the moment it was understood that serious differences existed between the premier and the foreign secretary, the government lost its moral power. An impression also gained ground throughout the country that Prince Albert interfered with the legitimate transaction of business at the foreign office, that the premier was so much of a courtier as to connive at this, and that Lord Palmerston, having asserted the dignity and independence of an English minister, became an object of dislike to the prince, Lord John sacrificing his colleague to the caprices of the court. Whatever might have been the truth, these impressions prevailed among the people, and contributed to Lord John Russell's displacement from office. Even after both those noblemen gave explanations in the commons, the public retained the impressions, sympathised with Lord Palmerston, and withdrew much of their confidence from Lord John, nor has his lordship been able to regain the popularity he previously possessed, even up to the time these sheets are passing through the press, near the commencement of the year 1860.

Parliament had only just met when Sir Benjamin Hall, by questions directed to the premier, brought out a statement of the circumstances which led to his dismissal of the popular foreign minister. It appeared that without any instigation from Lord John, the queen complained to him of the management of the foreign office. Her majesty demanded that all despatches should be shown to her, that no decision on foreign questions should be made by the foreign minister until her opinion was taken, that no despatch which she had signed should be arbitrarily altered by the minister, and that she should receive early and prompt intimation of all negotiations between the foreign office and the ministers of foreign courts. Her majesty directed Lord John Russell to show the document conveying her demands to the foreign secretary. From the production of this stern, severe, and rebukeful missive from the royal hand, it became evident either that Lord Palmerston had failed in his duty, abused the confidence of her majesty, and behaved with intolerable insolence, assumption, and arrogance, or that a conspiracy existed to prejudice the mind of the queen against a faithful and most competent minister, and that the premier either aided that conspiracy, or took no decided stand to resist it. It appeared that the main occasion of the cabinet and court differences with Lord Palmerston was in connection with the coup d'etat in Paris. The court and the premier sympathised with the house of Orleans, and consequently with the opposition given by the French assembly to the president of the republic. Lord Palmerston believed that the assembly provoked the conduct of the president by invading his constitutional rights, and by violating the constitution formed by the constituent assembly, and in virtue of which the legislative assembly of France existed. Despatches sent to the English minister at Paris, the Marquis of Normanby, of a private nature, were by that nobleman shown to the French minister for foreign affairs, and out of that event arose the complication. Lord Palmerston pleaded unqualified innocence of the impeachment implied in her majesty's written commands to Lord John. Lord Normanby was well known to be of Lord John's section of the whigs, and a court favourite. From all these circumstances, the country drew the following conclusions with extraordinary unanimity:—that Lord Palmerston acted with more independence of the first minister than was customary on the part of a secretary of state, but that his great talents, great experience, great influence at home and abroad, justified him; that Lord John Russell was imprudent in overlooking the peculiar claims and qualifications of the foreign minister, displayed an unworthy jealousy of his great colleague, and probably by his private complaints of insubordination, caused the letter of her majesty, so humiliating to her long-tried and most able minister; that Lord Normanby either showed grave indiscretion, or played his part in a plot adverse to Lord Palmerston; and finally, that the court was unduly sympathetic with the Orleans dynasty. No efforts on the part of Lord John Russell's friends could root out these convictions from the general public, and although the House of Commons said little about it, there were sufficient indications given that such convictions were largely shared there. In the debate that ensued, all sides of the house expressed confidence in Lord Palmerston's sense of duty and responsibility, and respect and admiration for his talents. It became at once evident that the days of Lord John Russell's ministry were numbered, and that it must be long, in any fresh ministerial combinations, before he could occupy the same high post in the counsels of her majesty.



PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.

On the 9th of February, Lord John made a statement as to his views of parliamentary reform. His lordship proposed the disfranchisement of all small constituencies proved to be corrupt by a system of inquisition adapted to the purpose. He declared that a ten-pound franchise in boroughs was too high, and proposed a five-pound franchise. The county franchise of fifty pounds he would reduce to twenty pounds. The copyholds and long leaseholds of ten-pound qualification he would reduce to five pounds. All persons living within boroughs paying two pounds a-year assessed taxes he would enfranchise as county voters. Boroughs having less than five hundred electors were to have the number of the enfranchised augmented by adding neighbouring towns in the same representations. Property qualification of members to be repealed. Reform, mainly on the game plan, to be extended to Scotland and Ireland.

Mr. Hume expressed dissatisfaction with any measure that did not comprise the ballot and triennial parliaments, and a large number of liberal members sympathised with the radical leader. The majority of the liberal members received the announcement of the premier with great favour. His lordship proposed introducing a bill on the 23rd of February. Sir Robert Inglis and Mr. Newdegate opposed the measure with expressions of earnest apprehension, because it was proposed by Lord John to abolish the oath of abjuration. Mr. Disraeli, however, offered the chief opposition to the measure. He endeavoured to lead the house to postpone the consideration of the bill, but obviously for the object of gaining time to throw out the bill itself. Sir George Grey, in a speech of unusual felicity, exposed the dishonesty of Mr. Disraeli's pretences as to the necessity of delay in order to perfect measures which he was eager to defeat.

The house gave leave to bring in the bill. It never was brought in, new events depriving its author and the cabinet of the power to carry any measure. The foregoing statement of the character of the proposed reform bill of 1852 is, however, important, as the question of reform occupied attention for several years subsequently in a serious degree, and "the proposed bill of 1852" was constantly referred to by all parties in the discussions which took place.



THE MILITIA BILL.—DEFEAT AND RESIGNATION OF THE CABINET.

On the 16th of February, Lord John, in a committee of the whole house, explained his intentions in reference to the local militia acts. This question excited considerable interest, as the Duke of Wellington and Sir John Burgoyne had pointed out the possibility of an invasion, and the defenceless state of the coasts and of the country generally. The coup d'etat in France had also created considerable public uneasiness. The secrecy, sternness of purpose, swiftness of action, boldness, and indifference to bloodshed shown by the president of the French republic, caused most men to reflect upon the possibility of some terrible coup de main being attempted against England; the president, in his writings as Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Buonaparte, having so often asserted that he represented a defeat, the defeat of Waterloo, which France must avenge. Lord John proposed to allow the plan of "the old regular militia" to fall out of use, and to establish a new scheme for a local militia. Ireland was to be exempt from the measure. In twelve months, the number of men to be raised was 70,000, in two years 100,000, in three years 130,000, after which period Great Britain alone should furnish, if necessary, 180,000 men.

Lord Palmerston's expulsion from the cabinet was then about to tell on the ministry, and the future history of party. His lordship opposed the ministerial measure; and, released from ministerial privacy, declared that he had urged upon Lord John in vain since the year 1846 the organization of a militia. His lordship opposed the plan of a local militia, preferring the old force, and, as an Irish peer, expressed some warmth that Ireland was excluded from the arrangement.

When the bill came forth from the committee, Lord Palmerston proposed amendments in harmony with the principles upon which he had criticised the measure on going into committee. The two noble lords were now fairly pitted against one another as rivals for parliamentary influence, and the result was the defeat and resignation of Lord John Russell. The Irish members supported Lord Palmerston in great force, and threw out the ministry. His lordship also received considerable support from the Derby-Disraeli party. From that moment it was obvious that Lord John ceased—at all events for many years, should Lord Palmerston survive—to be the leader of the House of Commons.



THE EARL OF DERBY'S ADMINISTRATION.

The majority in favour of Lord Palmerston's measure caused the adjournment of the house. The queen sent for Lord Derby, and committed to him the reins of power.

One of the first acts of his lordship, after conferring with Mr. Disraeli and a few of his most attached adherents, was to offer a seat in his cabinet to Lord Palmerston. Mr. Disraeli had, however, in the debate upon the address, renewed his agitation of the previous year for re-adjusting taxation in favour of the landed interest, as compensation for the loss of high prices for corn, which had been secured by protection. As this was only another mode of reenacting protectionist laws, and one which was especially offensive to all the community not inheriting land, it was impossible for Lord Palmerston to accept office with Lord Derby, even if their political differences were less. Failing to strengthen his government by the accession of Lord Palmerston, Lord Derby, had recourse to Mr. Gladstone, but his repugnance to act with Disraeli personally, and his opposition to the protectionist schemes of both that minister and Lord Derby, rendered all negotiations unsuccessful. The ministry, therefore, became a pure tory and protectionist cabinet, except so far as Lord Stanley was concerned, whose opinions were supposed to be liberal, although connected with the ministry by the influence of his father.

The following ministry was ultimately formed:—

In the Cabinet.

First Lord of the Treasury ... Earl of Derby.

Lord Chancellor ............... Lord St. Leonards.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Mr. Disraeli.

President of the Council ...... Earl Lonsdale.

Privy Seal....................... Marquis of Salisbury.

Home Secretary ............... Mr. Horace Walpole.

Foreign Secretary............... Earl of Malmesbury.

First Lord of the Admiralty..... Duke of Northumberland.

President of the Board of Control Mr. Hume.

Post-Master General ............ Earl of Hardwicke.

President of the Board of Trade Mr. Henley.

First Commissioner of Woods/Forests Lord J. Manners

Not in the Cabinet.

Commander-in-Chief of Her of Majesty's Land Forces ...... Duke of Wellington.

Master-General of the Ordnance Viscount Hardinge.

Paymaster of the Forces, and Vice-President of the Board of Trade Lord Colchester.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.... Mr. Christopher.

Secretary at War .................... Major Beresford

Secretary of the Admiralty........... Mr. O'Brien Stafford.

Attorney-General...................... Sir Frederick Thesiger.

Solicitor-General .................. Sir Fitzroy Kelly.

Judge Advocate-General................ Mr. Banks.

Chief Poor-Law Commissioner........... Sir George Trollope.



SCOTLAND.

Lord-Advocate.................. Mr. Anderson.

Solicitor-General .............. Mr. Inglis.



IRELAND.

Lord-Lieutenant ............... Earl of Eglinton.

Lord-Chancellor ............... Rt. Hon. Mr. Blackburn.

Chief Secretary................. Lord Naas.

Attorney-General................ Mr. Napier.

Solicitor-General ............. Mr. Whiteside.



QUEEN'S HOUSEHOLD.

Lord-Steward..................... Duke of Montrose.

Lord-Chamberlain................. Marquis of Exeter.

Master of the Horse.............. Earl of Jersey.

Mistress of the Robes .......... Duchess of Athole.

This ministry was but slightly modified during the year, and altogether apart from political changes. The death of the Duke of Wellington led to the appointment of Lord Hardinge to the Horse Guards, Lord Raglan becoming master-general of the Ordnance.

This ministry was not popular. In the cabinet the lord-chancellor was not an accession of strength. Although a very high Tory, he was not liked by the aristocracy; and although a very good lawyer, he was believed by the country to be narrow-minded and prejudiced. Lord John Manners was extremely unpopular, in consequence of his well-known couplet, expressive of the desire that learning and commerce should perish rather than that the power of the aristocracy should be diminished. The Duke of Northumberland was considered utterly unfit for the important duties imposed on him, and it was supposed that he would patronise "jobbing," and promotion by unfair means.

Out of the cabinet, the English appointments were generally severely criticised, except those of the household and the law officers. These latter were considered able men, but bigoted partizans—clever enough for attorneygeneral and solicitor-general, but very unsuitable for judges, to which honours the offices notoriously led.

All the Irish appointments were popular in Ireland, although the gentlemen who filled them belonged to a party of so small a minority. Lord Eglinton was a gentleman personally liberal and generally esteemed, generous, and off-hand, fond of Ireland, and adapted to intercourse with the Irish. Mr. Blackburn, the lord-chancellor, was considered the greatest equity lawyer in Ireland, and an impartial judge. Lord Naas, the chief secretary, was an Irishman who knew the country well, and was connected with many popular families. Joseph Napier was held to be a first-rate lawyer and scholar, a polished gentleman, and a sincere Christian. Whiteside was regarded as having too much of the clever, eloquent, fiery Irish agitator in his own constitution, not to have some complaisant sympathy with such qualities in his countrymen. Accordingly, the government worked well in Ireland for its own ascendancy, but every step it took in England rendered the hope of ministerial longevity impossible. Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli were personally liked; both were believed to be more liberal than their relation to their party allowed, and their brilliant eloquence made the country proud of them in or out of office.