The time soon arrived for testing the House of Commons as to the amount of toleration it was likely to show to the new ministry. On the 27th of February, Lord Derby offered the lords an exposition of his views, which, even while he was yet speaking, found its way substantially to the commons, and was buzzed about among the members. In his speech, his lordship disavowed any intention to interfere violently with free-trade principles, but avowed himself still a Protectionist, declaring, that in his opinion, the importation of all articles which competed with the industry of the country ought to be taxed, and that corn ought not to be exempt. A report of his lordship's speech had scarcely reached the commons, when it was evident that so far as the parliament then sitting was concerned, the doom of his ministry was sealed. When, the next day, the wings of the press bore to the country his lordship's oration, indignation was everywhere excited, and the free-traders were united and strengthened, in a manner they had not been from the time of the repeal of the corn-laws.

Lord Derby made a statement connected with reform, which proved to be nearly as distasteful to a majority of the people out of doors as that on free-trade. He expressed his intention not to proceed with Lord John Russell's reform bill, which he described as unsettling everything and settling nothing, which began by exciting the country, and finished by dissatisfying it.

His lordship, as if not satisfied with the opposition such statements were likely to raise against him, provided himself with a third element of hostility, by invoking the assistance of his hearers for the extension of the established church, and of an education entirely under the control of the parochial clergy. The dissenters and Roman Catholics were much alarmed ly this portion of his lordship's speech, and quietly, but extensively and effectually, prepared to give a strenuous opposition to his government. Thus, in his debut as premier, Lord Derby contrived to set against him the free-traders, reformers, dissenters, and Roman Catholics, at a moment when there was a majority against him in the commons. The premier's oratorical onslaught was so indiscreet, that only the most headstrong and ignorant of his own party had any hope that he would display the tact, sagacity, self-control, and party-moderation which alone could enable him to hold his ground against the opposition in the commons, and the general want of confidence in his ministry.

Such was the imprudence of the first minister, that although Earl Grey gave him an easy opportunity of withdrawing his anti-free-trade doctrines, the most in the form of concession which he (Lord Grey) could extort was, that the government had no present intention of proposing a tax on the importation of corn, but regarded it as a question still open, and remaining with the intelligence of the country for solution. Some of the high whig peers expressed their approbation of his lordship's views in terms of warm support. On the other hand, the Earl of Aberdeen strenuously opposed the purpose which the government evidently contemplated, of imposing a new corn-tax.

In the commons, an adjournment to the 12th of March was proposed and carried.

When the houses resumed their sittings, it became evident to the government that the imprudent speech of Lord Derby had roused the opposition to a high pitch of excitement. Demands were made as to whether the government intended to re-impose the corn-laws. No honest answer could be extracted in either house—experience had made the leaders wary: the answers given were, in effect, that the government would abide by the decision of the country. This reply made it evident that parliament was to be dissolved on the question of free-trade and a corn-law. After the country had reasonably concluded that the question was settled, fierce disputes from end to end of the kingdom were about to be raised. The old members of the Corn-law League accordingly convoked meetings in London and Manchester, and it was determined to resuscitate that powerful body, and with new and more effectual instrumentalities of agitation, upon the first proposition for imposing a tax upon the importation of corn. The uneasiness throughout the country became very great, and a personal ill-will to the two tory leaders began to show itself in the north of England, and throughout Scotland.

On the 15th of March, Lord Beaumont presented a petition from certain inhabitants of the West Biding of Yorkshire, praying the house to set at rest the question of free-trade, as commercial enterprise was seriously injured. Lord Derby answered that he did not consider the question settled, and that the next general election must decide it. On the same evening, Mr. Villiers, the leader of the anti-cornlaw party in the commons, demanded final and explicit explanations from the government, alleging that distrust and alarm filled the country. Mr. Disraeli denied the statements, and resorted to the usual tricks of words to evade the interrogatory; the inference from his reply was that a desperate effort would be made to gain a corn-law majority in a new House of Commons, and, in case of success, re-impose the corn-laws. Lord John Bussell, Sir James Graham, Mr. Gladstone, Lord Palmerston, Sir A. Cockburn, and other prominent men on the liberal side of the house, expressed their determination to offer every resistance they could employ to the re-imposition of any duty, in any form, upon the importation of corn.

Rumours began to circulate, that the government would endeavour to go on with the public business in the face of an adverse majority, and on the 19th of March, the Duke of Newcastle demanded explanations in the lords from the premier. The duke presented a petition from the Commercial Association of Manchester, praying for relief from the confusion and uncertainty thrown into commercial operations by the speeches of the leading members of government, in fact, demanding that the question of a corn-law should once more be submitted to the country. Lord Derby denied the assertions of the Manchester Association, refused to dissolve parliament, or to give any explicit information as to his intentions in reference to free-trade.

In the House of Commons, the same night, Lord John Bussell demanded that the public should be at once relieved from all uncertainty by an appeal to the country. So decided and angry was the aspect of the house, and so loud the demonstrations of its determination not to be trifled with on the great subject of a corn-law, that Mr. Disraeli was compelled to give that assurance which Lord Derby refused, and pledged the government to dissolve parliament, and meet the new house within the year, and as soon after the public business necessary to the country was disposed of.

It was, however, found difficult to transact business—the house was so excited; so that the question of dissolution was again and again renewed in angry and almost boisterous terms. Mr. Cobden called the attention of the house to the fact that the country had once more a protectionist government; that the fact was indisputable, and ought to be met with that intelligence and decision which became the greatest question of the day. He urged the house to limit the rates of supply, until the country decided whether it wished a tax upon bread, to enrich the landlords. Mr. Cardwell, in language as decided as that of Mr. Cobden, urged the house to fulfil its constitutional obligations, and compel the government of the minority to give suitable assurances of an early dissolution. Lord John Bussell declared that the government had taken a course for which there was no precedent in the constitutional history of England. He followed Mr. Cobden and Mr. Cardwell in insisting upon the government adopting such a course as to a dissolution, as would remove from the house the necessity of taking measures to assert its own high prerogatives. Mr. Disraeli declined pledging the government more definitely than he had done, which drew from Mr. Bright an invective full of fire, yet marked by a dignity unusual with that honourable member; he demanded that the supplies should be stopped, or the house be assured that no effort would be made by the government to retain power by unconstitutional methods. The result of these vigorous proceedings were statements made in both houses on the part of the ministry, that it was the intention to dissolve parliament and have an autumn session to settle the question of protection. It does not appear that these promises were made in good faith;—at all events no autumn session was called, although a new parliament met in November, and the question in debate set at rest.

The government introduced a militia-bill, which Lord John Bussell and the Whigs generally opposed. Lord Palmerston supported the government, as did the Peel party, his lordship criticising the tactics of Lord John with severity. The opposition between these two statesmen kept the liberal party divided, and alone enabled the government to maintain its course.

Lord Brougham introduced a bill to enable parliament to meet thirty-five days after a dissolution. The bill was carried through both houses without opposition.

The government took up a bill of Lord John Russell's for the disfranchisement of the borough of St. Albans, on account of gross bribery and corruption. The bill was carried, no opposition being offered except by a small number of Lord Derby's own party in the House of Lords.

Sudbury and St. Albans being disfranchised, a question arose as to the appropriation of the four seats. On the 10th of May, Mr. Disraeli brought in a bill for the purpose, proposing that the four vacant seats be given to great county constituencies in the north of England. Mr. Gladstone opposed the measure, on the ground that the government was trifling with the prerogatives of the house. It was a government in a minority, and its duty was to pass no measures but such routine business as the country absolutely required. Mr. Disraeli had given this promise, and, notwithstanding, sought to appropriate to county constituencies the four borough votes of which other constituencies had been penally deprived. The speech of Mr. Gladstone was received with enthusiasm by the house, and his amendment, "That the house do pass to the order of the day," was carried by a very large majority. That this was purely a party movement of Mr. Gladstone was soon made evident enough, for he assisted the government soon after in carrying a bill for giving New Zealand a constitution; and he himself brought in a measure termed "the Colonial Bishops' Bill."

Various motions were brought under the consideration of the house, but were received with impatience, and all further attempts of government to prolong the session by inducing the house to entertain bills, were fruitless; all were bent upon one object,—that of bringing to an issue before the country the question of the re-imposition of a tax upon corn.



FOREIGN POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT.—OUTRAGE ON MR. MATHER AT FLORENCE.

The impatience of the house for a dissolution did not prevent it from discussing the foreign policy of the government. It was considered that Lord Malmesbury had shown a sympathy for despotic states, and had by his diplomacy played into-the hands of Austria, and the petty tyrannical Italian governments. Lord John Russell brought his lordship's conduct, as well as the policy of the government, before the house on the 14th of June.

In the last chapter, our readers were informed that a young English gentleman of moral excellence and high culture, the son of a patriotic and influential gentleman of the county of Durham, named Mather, was wantonly cut down in the streets of Florence by an Austrian officer. Lord John Bussell exposed the conduct of Lord Malmesbury in this affair, and was ably supported by Lord Palmerston. The government suffered much in reputation, both in the house and throughout the country, from this debate. Their defence was extremely feeble, while the attacks of the opposition glowed with indignant eloquence. Probably at no period of party strife did the two great parties in the house appear more strongly contrasted than during that debate. Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston spoke with exceeding force, and uttered sentiments worthy of British patriotism and British statesmanship. Mr. Disraeli, on the other hand, spoke with an apathy, where insults to England and to a defenceless Englishman were concerned, which was discreditable to a statesman of any free country, or indeed to any speaker that had a sympathy with manhood and national dignity. In the elections which ensued, the tone adopted on that occasion by the chancellor of the exchequer, and the conduct of Lord Malmesbury, told effectively against the government in various constituencies in the north of England. A feeling was created that the rights of Englishmen in foreign countries were neglected by their own government, and that so far as English ambassadors and ministers were concerned, Englishmen abroad were at the merey of any foreign tyrant who thought proper to wrong them. This feeling had extended for some years upon the continent, and the debate in the commons promoted by Lords John Russell and Palmerston, brought out such glaring criminality on the part of the English foreign office in connection with Mr. Mather, that the sentiment became strengthened on the continent that unless an English traveller had powerful connections in his own country, he might be made the object of foreign outrage with impunity. Mr. Bernai Osborne only expressed the truth in the strong language with which he concluded his speech, "Lord Malmesbury had trifled with the honour of the country, and disgraced it in the eyes of the whole continent of Europe." In the House of Lords, warm debates arose upon the same question, in which Lord Malmesbury made a defence still more disingenuous and unpatriotic than it was feeble.



LAW REFORM.

Notwithstanding the difficulties of the government, various useful bills which had been prepared by the Whigs, but which the Russell government was unable to carry, were passed into law. By the end of June, all these measures were enacted as laws.



PROROGATION AND DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT.—GENERAL ELECTION.

On the 1st of July, her majesty in person prorogued her parliament, and announced her intention of speedily dissolving it. This event took place shortly after, and was followed by a general election, when the voice of the country was so decidedly given against protection as to cause the abandonment of all idea by the protectionist party of re-imposing a corn-law. The orators of the government, however, announced throughout the country their intention to promote a parliamentary struggle for the re-adjustment of the public burdens, so as to relieve the landlord interest of a large share of the proportion of the taxes borne by them.



MEETING OF THE NEW PARLIAMENT.

The houses of parliament assembled on the 4th of November. On the 11th her majesty in person delivered the speech from the throne. The speech referred to commercial policy in terms which the Hon. Mr. Villiers denounced as "vague and equivocal."



BOTH HOUSES CARRY RESOLUTIONS PLEDGING THEM TO THE FREE-TRADE POLICY.

On the 23rd of November, the Hon. Mr. Villiers proposed a series of resolutions affirming the prosperity of the country, and the comfort of the poorer classes, as resulting from the policy of free-trade, and more especially in corn, pledging the house to support the measure of 1846, by which all duties on corn were repealed. The chancellor of the exchequer moved an amendment with the intention of defeating these resolutions. The government, however, assumed the tone of converts to free-trade on the ground that the country had pronounced for it. Mr. Frederick Peel, with bitter and eloquent irony, in the best speech he probably ever delivered in parliament, reminded Mr. Disraeli of his taunts and abuse of Sir Robert Peel for changing his opinions on the subject of a corn-law, and invited the right honourable satirist to account for his own change, if it were effected by any other motive than to retain office. He went to the country advocating the re-imposition of a corn-tax, and on his return presented himself to the house a convert to the opinion that it would be wrong to disturb the settlement of 1846. After a protracted debate, Lord Palmerston proposed an amendment which more generally embodied the public opinion, and was more adapted to party exigencies. All opposition to it on the part of the government was so hopeless, that most of their supporters left the house. Eighty remained, and voted against his lordship; four hundred and eight members supported it. The House of Commons was pledged to the free-trade policy.

A similar debate took place in the lords with nearly identical results. Various measures were discussed without leading to any parliamentary decision or useful law. It was evident that on all subjects of free-trade and financial philosophy the government and the majority of the house were at issue—the one desiring to restore protection under various sly and indirect pretences, the other anxious to develop free-trade principles, and a system of national finance in harmony with the principles of political economy.



THE GOVERNMENT SCHEME OF FINANCE.—DEFEAT AND RESIGNATION OF THE MINISTRY.

On the 3rd of December, the chancellor of the exchequer stated to the house the views which the government entertained of the principles of finance which were applicable to the condition of the country. He declared that he accepted as irreversible the decision of the country in favour of a free commercial policy, and that his object was to harmonize with that the system of national taxation. He proposed to relieve certain interests which he considered had suffered by the free-trade policy. The first of these named by him was the shipping interest. His views connected with that subject met with general approbation, as they comprehended only the removal of special and unjust taxation. He proposed to satisfy the West India interest by allowing sugar to be refined in bond. The opinions stated by the right honourable gentleman were so at variance with his former violent orations in favour of the shipping interest, and that of the sugar-growing countries, as to excite astonishment and amusement in the house. Observing this feeling, he exclaimed, "I may be called a renegade, I may be called a traitor—" but the sentence remained unfinished amidst shouts of laughter from all sides of the house, and reiterated bursts of derisive cheers from the opposition. In fact, the leader of the commons gave up the shipping and colonial interests, with some slight show of concession, which nearly the whole house was prepared to make. The third interest for which he demanded relief was that of the owners of land. He adverted to the local burdens which he had so often pointed out as intolerable to the landowners, and admitted, amidst long-continued peals of laughter, that the agricultural interest had no longer ground of complaint on such matters, and denounced contrary opinions as obsolete. For the relief of the agricultural interest he announced his intention to reduce the malt-tax one half, and to abolish the drawback from spirits made in Scotland. He would reduce one half the duty on hops; he would continue the income-tax, about to expire, but reduce that of farmers by one-half. This announcement was received with demonstrations of astonishment and anger by the opposition. He would impose the income-tax in Ireland, but would exempt the landed interest of that country from its application. This announcement threw the house into extraordinary agitation. Perceiving this, the right hon. gentleman expressed sympathy with the sufferings through which Ireland had passed, and drew from the fact of these sufferings the inference that while imposing new taxes upon other portions of the community in that country, the landed interest ought to be exempt. He would also increase the house-tax, in order that the inhabitants of the metropolis might bear a proportion of the burden from which land would be relieved, and would extend the tax to all houses rated at L10. The right hon. gentleman intimated that his financial scheme should be considered as a first step in a new direction.

The financial statement of the chancellor excited an intense ferment through the country. The landed, the West Indian, and the shipping interests, which were all supposed to derive advantage from protection, supported him, all the rest of the community exhibited an angry opposition. The monied and commercial classes in Ireland, the English manufacturers, and the London householders, were Mr. Disraeli's fiercest opponents. Besides the popular hostility, Mr. Disraeli had to encounter that of the political economists, and all the leading financiers in the country. The monied interest ridiculed the estimates, and it became evident in a few days after the announcement of his plan to the house, that it had seriously impaired the reputation of its propounder. His unfitness for the post of chancellor of the exchequer was proclaimed everywhere, and every where accepted as true.

On the 6th of December, on the report of the Committee of Supply being brought up, the House of Commons, led on by Mr. Gladstone, showed an uncompromising opposition to the whole scheme of Mr. Disraeli.

After a series of adjournments, Mr. Disraeli replied to the criticism of his opponents in language personally offensive, and full of party violence. This led to a scene of singular excitement: Mr. Gladstone retorted in the most eloquent speech he ever delivered in parliament. Attempts were made by the government party to stifle his voice in uproar, but the house sustained him by repeated and long-continued rounds of applause. Mr. Gladstone's denunciation of the budget as a delusive and dishonest scheme was followed by a vote which rejected it. The protectionist members voted to a man with the government, but a majority was against them, and the government resigned.



FORMATION OF A NEW MINISTRY.

The queen sent for Lord Lansdowne, by whom she was advised to send for Lord Aberdeen, as the most prominent member of the Peel party, upon whom it would properly devolve to form a government, as that of Lord Derby was defeated on a question of political economy and finance.

On the 27th of December the new government appeared before parliament. Its constitution was as follows:—

In the Cabinet

First Lord of the Treasury...... Earl of Aberdeen.

Lord-Chancellor ............... Lord Cranworth.

Chancellor of the Exchequer...... Mr. Gladstone.

President of the Council........ Earl Granville.

Privy Seal....................... Duke of Argyle.

Home Secretary ................ Viscount Palmerston.

Foreign Secretary................ Lord John Russell.

Colonial Secretary ............ Duke of Newcastle.

First Lord of the Admiralty .... Sir James Graham.

President of the Board of Control Sir Charles Wood

Secretary at War................. Mr. Sidney Herbert.

Commissioner of Works/Buildings Sir W. Molesworth.

Honorary.........,.............. Marquis of Lansdowne.

On meeting parliament, an adjournment until February was approved by all parties.

The government was not popular: few of the positions were occupied by those whom the country regarded as the men for the place. The premier had, as foreign minister, neglected the honour of England more than Lord Malmesbury had done. He had been outwitted by Louis Philippe, and had been the sycophant of Russia and Austria. He was, to use his own phraseology, "regarded as a sort of Austro-Russian." His sympathy with Puseyism made him unpopular with large and influential sections of the religious public. Indeed the Aberdeen cabinet was regarded as, on the whole, more Puseyite than any which England had seen since the rise of the party in the established church. The Duke of Newcastle, to whom the administration of colonial affairs was entrusted, was of the Puseyite school, and his appointment, when known in the colonies, gave great dissatisfaction. The chancellor of the exchequer was more a champion of ecclesiastical exclusiveness than any member of the Derby cabinet, and Mr. Sidney Herbert rivalled Mr. Gladstone in this respect. The Lord Chancellor was also of this politico-ecclesiastical party, and was regarded as a crotchetty man, of little intellectual strength. As an equity lawyer, he had won reputation; as a judge there had been more appeals from his decisions than from all the other judges of the bench.

The appointment of Lord John Russell to the foreignoffice, while Lord Palmerston was placed in the home-office, was regarded as an absurd inversion of their appropriate positions, and the arrangement was considered as an unwarrantable concession by Lord Aberdeen to the vanity of the ex-premier. Events justified the suspicions and dislikes of the public, except in the instance of Lord Palmerston, who proved himself to be the most efficient home-minister the country ever possessed.

The Irish appointments were very unpopular amongst the Protestants in Ireland, and among those in England who gave themselves any concern about Irish appointments. The Irish ministry of Lord Derby was greatly superior to that of Lord Aberdeen, in talent, moral standing, and influence in the country where their functions were to be sustained.

With the adjournment of the house closed the parliamentary history of 1852.



IRELAND.

The distracted state of Ireland was, as usual, a source of uneasiness to the empire. There was, indeed, no insurrectionary movement, but the spirit of agrarian outrage continued, and numerous murders were perpetrated of a most savage nature—the country people conniving at the crimes, and secreting the criminals. These evils were, to a great extent, provoked by the unjust state of the law between landlord and tenant. Efforts were made in parliament to mitigate the injustice and oppression to which the tenantry in Ireland were subjected; but the landed interest in England upheld that in Ireland in resisting all melioration.

Religious intolerance continued to agitate every other malady of Ireland. Indeed this was the fons et origo mali, for it deprived honest men and patriots of opportunity to combine for their country's freedom and prosperity. During the elections caused by Lord Derby's dissolution of parliament, the priests incited the populace, in some places, to acts of disturbance and violence. At Six Miles Bridge the soldiery were attacked while protecting voters in the free exercise of their franchise. Proceedings were taken against a Roman Catholic priest for the part which it was alleged he took in those disturbances. Public opinion considered him to have been the cause of the outbreak, but the tory government, anxious for party purposes to conciliate the Roman Catholics, did not dare to prosecute him.

The Young Ireland agitation was not extinguished, and it received some new inspiration of hope from the escape of Thomas Meagher, from Australia. That adventurous young man made his way from his penal abode at the antipodes to America, where he became a citizen. He was a true patriot, and an ardent friend of liberty; he had no sympathy with the pro-slavery and red republican opinions of his former coadjutor, Mitchell, nor with the raving and malignant bigotry of Charles Gavan Duffy. In the United States he was an object of universal respect, his amiability and eloquence winning, in private and public, "golden opinions from all sorts of men."

Ireland showed various symptoms of returning prosperity. The only agitation in which the higher classes took part was in opposition to the unjust scheme of Disraeli, to tax the Irish fundholder for the advantage of the English and Irish landholder. This measure was denounced by the capitalists of Ireland as a violation of faith to the public creditor, and sapping tire foundations upon which the security and sacredness of property rested.

The ribbon conspiracy was active during the year, and no suitable effort was made by Lord Derby's government to uproot it.



COLONIES.

The colonies were generally prosperous throughout the year, and quietude and contentment prevailed. The Cape of Good Hope, and even India, were less disturbed than usual; but in each of these places a few events occurred to which we shall especially refer.



CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

In the early part of the year, the troubles which harassed the colony in the previous year exercised some influence. The efforts of the governor to establish tranquillity and good government met with co-operation from the colonists. The Boers, however, showed a disposition hostile to the British, chiefly because they hated the liberty which the English enjoyed and extended to the coloured population. The eagerness of the Boers to subdue to slavery the natives who came within their control, was not abated by the bitter lessons which their past experience had received. Before the year had far advanced, the whole colony was in repose, law and order for a time having been everywhere established.



INDIA.

India generally was quiet throughout this year, except upon the frontiers of Birmese territory. The vast regions comprehended under the name of British India, are never free from some tumults, local insurrections, and sudden and almost unaccountable revolts of petty chiefs. The year 1852 was not without events of this sort, but there was no startling incident except a war with Birmah, which of course was waged from India, and by the governor-general. A brief account of it will appear most appropriately in the relation of the foreign affairs of the empire.

The author of "The Three Presidencies" relates the political events of interest to the English in India, with the following brief but correct summary:—"Throughout India, with the exception of the north-western frontier, the most profound peace has reigned. The only disturbance which broke this complete tranquillity was the periodical incursion of some of the hill-tribes, especially of the Momunds. Their forays were mainly directed against the inhabitants of the villages in their vicinity, where they frequently committed great destruction of life and property. These marauders occupied the forces under Sir Colin Campbell from early in January, at various periods, until quite the end of the year, often falling upon our troops when not expected, and inflicting considerable loss. These freebooters mustered very strong in light horse, by the rapidity of their movements and their intimate knowledge of every mile of the country, bade defiance to such of our troops as were brought against them. In Scinde, the occurrence of the year was the deposition of Ali Morad from his princedom. The plots and falsehoods of this designing intriguer having been completely brought home to him, and it being made clear how nefariously he had deprived both his brothers and the British government of large tracts of territory, no time was lost in stripping him of his ill-gotten honours and estates, and reducing him to the rank of a simple chief. An attempt was made, during 1852, to establish an annual fair at Kurrachee, for the supply of the great commercial marts above the Indus with European goods, and the disposal of their produce in return."



FOREIGN AFFAIRS.—BIRMESE WAR.

The general relations of Great Britain with other nations were tranquil during the year, although some alarms were entertained as to the intentions of her nearest neighbour on the European continent. The war with Birmah was, however costly and sanguinary and was the most prominent matter of public interest in the foreign relations of the British empire. It was in 1851 that the occasion for hostilities was given by the Birmese, and that the governorgeneral took measures for reprisal. Various acts of oppression and cruelty to British subjects were perpetrated by the authorities of Ava.*

* For a minute and extended account of the causes of both the wars with Birmah, see Nolan's "History of the British Umpire in India and the East." Virtue: City-road.

It was not, however, until 1852 that the conflict assumed a serious character, and that tidings reached the English public of this new Indian war. Early in January, 1852, the King of Ava pretended a willingness to settle the differences between him and the British by negotiations. By this means he succeeded in capturing a number of English residents at Rangoon, whom he subjected to indignity and suffering. Commodore Lambert, who commanded the naval expedition, blockaded the Birmese ports. The governor-general despatched from Calcutta, and the Governor of Madras, from the capital of that presidency, strong bodies of troops. Preparations of an extensive nature were made to bring the war to a speedy issue. Several officers of eminent ability, among them the great and good Havelock, afterwards Sir Henry, and the saviour of India, joined the force. By the 24th of February, six steamers left Bombay for Madras, where they embarked the troops destined for the Birmese campaign, under the command of General Godwin, viz., two European and four native regiments, with four corps of artillerymen, chiefly Europeans. These left Madras on the 29th of March, whilst at Calcutta the armament had been equally hastened. The last of the force despatched there left the Hoogly on the 25th of March, the total having been similar to the Madras force—two European and four native regiments, with their accompaniments of artillery, in four steamers and four transports. These amounted in the aggregate to about eight thousand men.

The 1st of April was the clay appointed for the ultimatum. A steamer was sent to Rangoon, to obtain the king's reply. The English envoy found the river lined with stockades, and from thence a heavy fire was opened upon him; this was the only answer to the British ultimatum his Birmese majesty deigned to give.

Admiral Austin, with the Bengal force, arrived at this juncture, and at once attacked and conquered Martaban, so that, by the evening of the 5th of April, the British were masters of the place. The Madras troops arrived on the 7th, and the forces of the two presidencies proceeded up the river and attacked the stockades, which were defended by twenty-five thousand men.

Early in May, the British resolved upon attacking Bassein, sixty miles up one of the branches of the Irriwaddy. From that point, the Birmese commander contemplated an invasion of the British province of Arracan. After a desperate struggle, a very small number of British succeeded in storming the stockades and capturing the place.

While the English were engaged capturing Bassein, the Birmese attempted the reconquest of Martaban, but were repulsed with great slaughter, by a very small force, with little loss.

On the 5th of July, Prome was attacked: the conquest was easy, but the conqueror did not deem it necessary to garrison the place; consequently, as he retired to Rangoon, the enemy re-entered Prome.

The incompetency and inactivity of the British general caused July and August to pass uselessly. The whole army murmured. All the abuses of British military official routine prevailed, and the accounts which arrived in England excited, as tidings from India had so often done, much popular discontent. A popular writer thus criticised General Godwin's conduct, and gave the following relation of his proceedings:—"The expected reinforcements having reached head-quarters, the force available amounted in the month of September to nearly twenty thousand men, in the highest state of efficiency, and quite large enough to have at once swept all before them to the very gates of the emperor's palace. But this did not appear to be the view taken of the matter by General Godwin, who now made preparation for once more attacking Prome. In tire middle of this month, two regiments, a field-battery, with a detachment of sappers and miners, left Rangoon, followed within a few days by the general, and a party of artillerymen. They ascended the river without opposition until the 9th of October, when, as they approached the stockaded defences of the city, they were fired upon from many sides. The enemy's gunnery was not of first-rate quality, and in less than two hours was entirely silenced, the ground being completely cleared of the opposing force by the shells thrown from the steamers. The troops were landed towards the evening, and, advancing at once upon a pagoda and the few remaining defences, carried everything before them at the point of the bayonet. Night fell before the town could be reached, and it was therefore not until the next morning that Prome was occupied for the second time by our troops. A large body of Birmese troops, amounting to upwards of six thousand men, were known to be posted within a few miles of the town, strongly entrenched behind stockades, and out of reach of our steamers, the artillery practice from which appears to have impressed them with a proper sense of our superiority in that arm of war. To have dislodged them with the force at his command would have been a matter of comparative ease; but so thought not General Godwin, who, fearful probably of terminating the war too quickly, determined to await the arrival of further troops before attempting any forward movement. He did not wait long, however; but within a day or two left for Rangoon, in search of the troops considered to be requisite for further operations. This reinforcement was dispatched towards the latter part of the month. By this time the Irriwaddy, which had been previously deep enough throughout for our largest steamers, sank so suddenly, and as it appears so unexpectedly, that several of the flotilla were left aground in the middle of the stream, with every prospect of having to remain there until the next rains should float them."

The English general seemed to be unable to manage the large reinforcements which he had received, or to avail himself of the combinations which the activity of the governorgeneral made to facilitate the objects of the expedition.

The general resolved to attack Pegu again, which had been abandoned after a previous successful attack. The conquest was easy, and a garrison was established. This detachment was attacked in December by large numbers of the enemy. The garrison was hemmed in, and in the greatest danger; General Godwin, after failing to relieve the place, by ill-judged and inadequate measures, at last sent a strong force, which successfully encountered every obstacle, and dispersed the enemy.

On the 28th of December, 1852, Pegu and Martaban were "annexed" to British India by proclamation of the governor-general. When these tidings reached Ava, a revolution occurred, promoted by the emperor's brother, with the design of propitiating the English, and making peace. The emperor was made a captive, and his brother ascended the musnid.

Meanwhile, the British forced the great pass between Arracan and Pegu, leading through it two hundred and fifty elephants sent from Calcutta to convey stores to the army under Godwin. Baffled and beaten, the Birmese troops fell back upon the capital early in the year 1853.

The British opened negotiations with the new sovereign, which were tediously protracted until May. An embassy was sent to the Birmese court, and the emperor had the folly and arrogance, after all the disaster and defeat experienced by the arms of Ava, to demand homage from the English envoys. The firmness of these gentlemen, and the fear of renewed hostilities, caused the sovereign to waive his claims to forms and ceremonies of abject submission, and the issue was peaceful. Cordial relations with the Birmese dominions were not however established, either at that juncture or subsequently: but the salutary fear of British power, caused by the war of 1851-2-3, prevented any violent interruption of good neighbourhood on the part of the Birmese.



FRANCE.

The most important of all the foreign relations of Great Britain are those connected with France—the most powerful of all the allies or enemies of England. During 1852, peace and professions of friendship prevailed between the two nations, but there existed considerable apprehension in Great Britain that the designs of the French president were hostile to England, and that the country was inadequately defended. The Duke of Wellington, without giving any opinion as to the intentions of the president, made more powerful than ever by the coup d'etat, declared that there was danger from the defenceless state of the country, and recommended the government to fortify and aim. His grace inspected the coasts, and by the opinions he pronounced increased the public apprehension of peril, while he also stimulated the confidence of the country in its great capacity for defence. Sir Howard Douglas, the distinguished engineer officer, accompanied the duke in his coast inspections, and in a work* published by him on the subject, he thus describes the duke's impressions;—

* "Observations on Modern Systems of Fortification." By General Sir Howard Douglas, Bart.

"When the late Duke of Wellington visited the coast defences—on the alarm of an invasion, soon after the accession of Louis Napoleon, the present Emperor of France, to the presidency—his grace, being at Seabrook, between Sandgate and Hythe, conversing with his staff and the other officers, the principles of permanent camps and other fixed defences became the subject of discussion, when the duke used the following expressions, 'Look at those splendid heights all along this coast; give me communications which admit of rapid flank movement along those heights, and I might set anything at defiance.'"

The fears felt in England that a struggle with France would be speedily necessitated were intensified, when, at the close of the year, the president of the republic appealed to the universal suffrage of France, as to whether he should assume the name and power of emperor. This appeal was answered by 7,824,189 "ayes," and 253,143 "noes."

On the 1st of December, the senate and legislative corps met, and proceeded to St. Cloud, to announce to the president of the republic that he had been elected sovereign of France. He accepted the splendid boon, and declared himself Napoleon III. The British government recognised the title, declaring that whatever form of government the French people chose to adopt would be acknowledged and respected by England.



GENERAL EUROPEAN RELATIONS.

England interested herself in certain diplomatic discussions concerning the succession to the crown of Denmark, and in the disputes which occurred between the government of Copenhagen and the German Confederation, connected with Schleswig Holstein.

A treaty of commerce and navigation, between her Britannic majesty and the King of the Belgians, also signalized the year.

No other events of serious importance engaged the attention of England in connection with Europe.



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Another of the many disputes concerning territory, or rights, perpetually occurring between Great Britain and the United States, took place in 1852. The contest regarded the fisheries off the American coasts; the citizens of the United States claiming the right, in virtue of a certain convention dated 1818, to fish off the coasts, and dry fish on the coasts, of an extensive area of British territory. The British colonial minister, Sir J. Pakington, conceded nearly all that the Americans demanded, to the mortification of the colonial subjects of Great Britain. Discussions concerning Central America, and the formation of a ship-canal between the Atlantic and the Pacific, also engaged the diplomatic abilities of British and American ministers. Ostensible agreements were entered into, but neither nation heartily acquiesced, and no expectation was entertained in England that the people of the United States regarded the settlement as final.



EFFORTS AGAINST THE SLAVE TRADE, AND TO SUPPRESS PIRACY.

The energy put forth by the British government to destroy the traffic in slaves by an armed naval force off the coasts of Africa were this year unremitting and successful. Several vessels trading in slaves were taken, and though the British squadron was not sufficient to suppress, it was a powerful check upon the slave trade.

Naval operations off the Chinese coasts, within the Straits of Malacca and on the coasts of Labuan, were also crowned with success. Through the instrumentality of Rajah Brooke, the Malay pirates were defeated and ultimately extirpated from the bays and creeks of Labuan. The position of the rajah at Sarawak afforded him facilities for directing these enterprises, which his indomitable courage and energy enabled him to make available. His country did not appreciate his deeds as highly as they deserved, and certain cliques in England decried his labours and aspersed his motives. He rendered commerce and his country great and disinterested services.



DEATHS OF EMINENT PERSONS.

During the year 1852, death was as usual busy in the circles of eminent persons: the fame and talents of some of the deceased render it desirable and necessary to record their names upon the page of history.

On the 22nd of January, George Herbert Rodwell, the celebrated composer and writer, was removed from among the living. His musical compositions and stage productions were numerous and popular.

In the month of February, Samuel Prout, F.S.A., celebrated for his drawings in water-colours, and a peculiar style of depicting public buildings, died. Also, Dr. Murray, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, a man of extraordinary influence, acquired by prudence, moderation, patriotism, and consistency of character.

The most remarkable man who departed this life in the British Isles during 1852 was Thomas Moore, the poet. He died in his seventy-third year, at Sloperton Cottage, Wiltshire, where, through the generous patronage of Lord Lansdowne, the poet spent his most tranquil years. This extraordinary man was born in Aungier Street, Dublin, in the year 1779. The poet's father was a grocer, but subsequently received an appointment as quarter-master to a regiment. The poetical genius of Thomas Moore was shown at a very early period of life—in his thirteenth year he contributed to the Dublin periodicals. He was at that time under the care of a very celebrated schoolmaster, Mr. Samuel Whyte, who took a deep interest in the precocious genius of his pupil, and had no small share of honour in bringing him into notice. As early as fourteen years of age he entered the Dublin University. He was scarcely more than a year a pupil in the university when he published a paraphrase on the fifth ode of Anacreon. This was so well received that he proceeded to translate the remaining odes, which performance ultimately met with a most encouraging reception. In his nineteenth year, he proceeded to London in the hope of obtaining by subscription a sufficient amount to secure the success of his "Anacreon," and also to enter as a student the Middle Temple. The work did not appear until 1800, when, under the patronage of the Earl of Moira, he was enabled to dedicate it to the Prince of Wales. In 1802, he published a volume under the designation of, "The Poetical Works of the Late Thomas Little." The moral tone of these productions offended the public taste, and inflicted injury upon the poet's reputation which his subsequent life did not remove, even when the glory of his genius shed lustre upon his name and his country. His more popular works are well known. In politics he was a whig partizan, but was not at heart attached to any school of politics. He was ostensibly a Roman Catholic, and was intolerant as a writer in defence of Romanism, while in private he was most liberal on religious subjects, and showed no earnest belief in any system of theology. He was one of the most accomplished scholars of his day, but was not a profound thinker, and was regarded as rather a lazy writer. His imagination was not of the highest order, but it was rich and diversified. His artistic taste and harmony as a poetical writer were exquisite. His love of music and song was a deep passion. In society, he held every circle as in a spell, so charming were his conversation and manner, and so brilliant and vivacious was his wit. Lord Byron, who had so happy a power of describing a notable character in a single sentence or paragraph, said of him, "He is gentlemanly, gentle, and altogether more pleasing than any individual with whom I am acquainted."

When Lord Melbourne was in office, in 1835, he counselled her majesty to bestow a pension on the poet of L300 a-year. Moore had found it difficult to realize this sum by his writings, as his prose works did not meet the expectations raised by his poetry. When he became a pensioner he seldom wrote, verifying the predictions of his friends. He exchanged too early in life the department of literature in which he had made so great a reputation for prose, in which he sought by memoirs, historical writing, and even controversy, to increase his income, and establish a new reputation. A passionate love for Ireland pervaded most of his writings, especially his Irish melodies. He constantly breathed a fervid wish from his earliest years for her national independence, and severance from England. Yet when a large portion of his countrymen flew to arms for that purpose, in 1798, he, although nineteen years of age, took no part in the struggle: neither did he show any desire to live in Ireland, but courted English aristocratic society, and served English party interests. During three years before his death, the brain gradually softened, and he sunk into childishness. None of his children survived him. His widow, a charming person, retained a pension of L100 a-year, conferred upon her by the government.

The poetical works of Thomas Moore retain their popularity in many lands. Not only in England, where he spent by far the greater part of his life, and in Ireland, where he was born and educated, and whose popular joys, sorrows, hopes, aspirations, traditions, and prejudices he sung so sweetly, but wherever the English language is spoken, his fame is cherished and his verse repeated. Nor is the delight inspired by his works limited to the language in which they were written. All over the continent of Europe, among the nations whose language is of Latin and Celtic origin, his muse inspires deep interest and pleasure. His extraordinary oriental poem, "Lalla Rookh," has been translated into Persian, and delights the literary sons of Iran as it erst thrilled the imagination and heart of all persons of poetic temperament in the British Isles. In the city of Dublin, a statue has been erected to his memory, close by the old senate, now used as the Bank of Ireland, and near the poet's Alma Mater, Trinity College. The statue is a failure, private partiality and clique interest having stifled public competition and robbed the great sculptors, and the poet, of the reward of genius, the city of Dublin of an ornament of which it might have been proud, and his country of the opportunity of paying a suitable tribute of respect to one of the most gifted of her sons. Had M'Dowell or Hogan been allowed to execute a statue for Moore, it would have been accomplished con amore, and in a way worthy of the poet and of the sculptor.

The month of February witnessed the death, at the advanced age of ninety, of John Landseer, the celebrated engraver. He left behind him three sons, all eminent—George, Charles, and Sir Edwin.

Among the deaths of remarkable persons in April was that of General Arthur O'Connor, aged eighty-nine, at the Chateau de Rignon, near Nemours. This notable person was one of the leaders in the terrible Irish rebellion of 1798. He was the third son of Roger Connor, of Connorville, by Anne Longfield, sister of Lord Longueville. He was called to the Irish bar in 1788. Lord Longueville returned him to the Irish parliament as representative of Philipstown, in the King's County, in the year 1790. Lord Longueville afterwards deprived him of his seat in parliament, and disinherited him, by which a loss occurred to Mr. O'Connor of L10,000 a-year, in consequence of his violent advocacy, in the Irish parliament, of "Catholic emancipation." He afterwards became a leader of the "United Irishmen," and one of "the Directory of Five," of that body. After various unsuccessful efforts to separate Ireland from Great Britain, he was arrested, and made an ingenious and desperate effort to escape, assisted by the Earl of Thanet. In 1804, he was deported from Ireland, his life being spared on condition, it was alleged, of some disclosures as to the plans for insurrection even then entertained by him and his colleagues. Buonaparte made him a general of division, and he subsequently received further promotion in the French army. In 1809 he married a niece of Marshal Grouchy, daughter of the Marquis Condorcet, the French mathematician. In 1834, he was permitted by Earl Grey, then in power in England, to revisit Ireland for the purpose of disposing of some property inherited by him, and which the British government had not confiscated. With the proceeds he purchased the chateau where Mirabeau was born, and there General O'Connor died. The celebrated agitator Fergus O'Connor, once member of parliament for Cork, and afterwards for Nottingham, was nephew to the general.

In May, Mrs. Coleridge, only daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. She was a lady of extraordinary attainments and vigour. Her acquaintance with the classics was most extensive and accurate, and by her translations from the Latin her reputation was to a great extent made. Wordsworth and Southey were her intimate friends, and intense admirers of her genius. In a review written by an eminent critic, it was remarked of her that "she was the inheritrix of her father's genius, and almost rival of his attainments."

In August, in his eightieth year, Thomas Thompson, M.D., F.R.S., London and Edinburgh, Regius Professor of Chemistry in the University of Glasgow, and President of the Glasgow Philosophical Society. Dr. Thompson, as a chemist and inventor, had obtained a great celebrity.

In August, the death of Joseph W. Allen, the celebrated landscape-painter, took place at Hammersmith. He was the son of a schoolmaster in that place.

In September, George Richardson Porter, senior, Secretary of the Board of Trade, Treasurer of the Statistical Society. The statistical writings of this remarkable man brought about many changes in the law, and conduced signally to the repeal of "the corn-laws."

Dr. Macgillivray, Professor of Natural History, and Lecturer on Botany in the University of Aberdeen. As a writer, a professor, and a philosopher, the doctor obtained an enduring fame, not only in Scotland, but throughout the learned world.

Augustus Nathmure Welby Pugin, the celebrated architect, was among those called away by death in this month.

In November, Gideon Alderson Mantell, LL.D., F.R.S., F.S.A., F.L.S. He was distinguished in early life by a thirst for knowledge, and a capacity to attain it under the greatest difficulties, being lowly born—the son of a shoemaker at Lewes. As a chemist, a physician, a naturalist, and a geologist, he obtained a wide-spread reputation.

The Countess of Lovelace died this month. This lady had achieved nothing remarkable by any effort or genius of her own, but the country felt great interest in her as the only daughter of the popular poet. Lord Byron: of her he had sung,—

"Ada, sole daughter of my house and heart."

She was a lady of very elegant mind, and capable of accurate and profound thought; her intellectual attainments were very considerable, and of a nature unusual for ladies. Her remains were laid beside those of her father.

In December, the death of the Rev. Samuel Lee, D.D., was recorded. He was Canon of Bristol, and Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of Cambridge. His knowledge of languages was vast and critical, and he attained especially a great reputation in the dead languages of the East. He was born in great obscurity, and received his first rudiments of learning in a charity school. He was one of the most remarkable men of the age.

At Kensington, Mr. Stephens, the celebrated entomologist, added another to the list of remarkable persons removed during this year.

It is not possible within the space allotted to this work to notice the removal from life of all the eminent persons recorded in the obituary of this year—persons whose life was a portion of English history in its most interesting aspects, and whose death excited the deep attention and regret of the nation, A record of great political events, merely, will not depict the history or progress of a nation, but as her mighty children one by one disappear from the social state, upon which they have impressed their own intellect and character, their names and deeds should be presented as forming a glorious part of the facts and history of the country and the time.



CHAPTER LXV.

{VICTORIA. 1853}

Condition of Great Britain..... The Court..... State of Ireland..... Colonial Affairs..... Foreign Affairs..... The War with Russia..... Parliamentary and Party Events..... Deaths of Eminent Persons.



GENERAL STATE OF GREAT BRITAIN.

{A.D. 1853}

Great Britain was peaceful and prosperous—no internal strife, no civil feud, no general discontent disturbed her fair aspect, or impeded her glorious progress. The working classes were better off than in previous years. Pauperism declined, crime was greatly lessened. In 1852, the commitments in England and Wales were 3899 fewer than the average. In 1853, the favourable difference was seen not so much in decreased numbers as in the lesser gravamen of the offences. Much sickness was caused by the excessive severity of the weather during the spring quarter. From the 20th of-April to the 15th of May, the temperature on one day fell to 14 deg. below the average, on another to 13 deg., and on others to 10 deg., 9 deg., and 8 deg.. There was a heavy fall of snow in April, and still more heavily during the first fortnight in May. The snow in the north was so accumulated upon the ground that the lines of railway were occasionally closed, and trains embedded in the snow. The effect of such severe weather late in the spring and in the opening of summer was disastrous upon the crops, and entailed upon the harvest consequences which formed a check to this otherwise prosperous year. With a deficient harvest came the certainty of a war with Russia, still further embarrassing a year which opened with so many felicitations. The appearance of Asiatic cholera in the autumn tended also to depress the close of the year. That fell disease burst out with extraordinary violence at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the month of August, where more than 2000 lives were sacrificed to its fury. The disease reached London the same month, and there also effected serious ravages, both in 1853 and in 1854.

The revenue of the year 1853, up to the 8th of January, 1854, was—receipts, L69,410,976 15s.; disbursements, L55,769,252 4s. The surplus revenue, after adding balances to the actual income, exceeded three millions and a quarter sterling—a financial condition of the country proving great prosperity: and one for congratulation at a time when war so imminently impended.



THE COURT.

On the 7th of April, her majesty was delivered of a son. Her recovery was, as on similar occasions, speedy, and the country hailed the event with joy. On the 28th of June, the infant prince was baptized in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace. The splendour usual on such occasions was perhaps somewhat surpassed. Many foreign princes and ministers were present. The sponsors were the King of Hanover, the Princess of Prussia, the Princess Mary of Cambridge, and the Prince of Hohenloe-Lengenburgh. The child was named Leopold George Duncan Albert. The ceremonial was followed by a brilliant state banquet.

The court was not exempt from illness prevalent during a portion of the year. In July, measles attacked her majesty, Prince Albert, the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, and others of the royal children. This event postponed the visit of the court to the Dublin Exhibition, and caused uneasiness for a short time both in Ireland and Great Britain.

On the 11th of August, her majesty reviewed a portion of her fleet at Spithead. It was a magnificent spectacle, affording one of the most gorgeous and glorious displays of naval power ever presented to the eyes of even a British sovereign. Her majesty wherever she appeared was received with the greatest enthusiasm; and, in this grand review, she was attended by the members of both branches of the legislature.

On the 29th of August, her majesty visited the Dublin Exhibition of Industry, an event which is more particularly noticed in the following section.

After her majesty's visit to Ireland, she sailed to Holyhead, whence, on the 5th of September, she proceeded to Balmoral, to enjoy her Scottish Highland retreat. While at Balmoral an incident occurred illustrative of the character of the royal family. A fire broke out near the palace. Her majesty rendered prompt assistance, directing the efforts used to extinguish the fire, while Prince Albert and the Prince of Wales personally worked with ardour and assiduity to accomplish that object.

On the 14th of October the royal family arrived at Windsor Castle for a prolonged residence.

Thus the United Kingdom, in its capitals, great harbours, and even remote hills and glens, continued to witness the domestic happiness, private virtues, queenly goodness and dignity, and public usefulness and activity of their noble queen and her family. It might in truth be said that every heart in the British Isles felt the aspiration "God save the queen."



STATE OF IRELAND.

The condition of the sister kingdom was still one of faction, feud, and fiery religious and political agitation. Emigration to the British colonies, and the United States of America continued, and by this means the land was relieved of such a portion of its pauper population as lowered the poor-rates and gave relief to the occupiers. Increased attention began to be paid by the landlords to the cultivation of the soil, and commerce appeared somewhat to revive. The expectations of improvement in Ireland, which were entertained in England, were too sanguine. When these hopes of seeing Ireland more peaceable and prosperous were much cherished, tidings continually arrived of deeds of violence and blood, connected with the law of landlord and tenant. To this fruitful source of crime in Ireland, much of the evil state of things there was attributable. The landlords were exacting, and cherished no kindly feeling for the peasantry, especially where political and religious differences existed between the landlords and the priests. The people, on the other hand, shared with their spiritual advisers in a rancorous religious and political hostility to the landlords, whom they regarded as the descendants of invaders and plunderers. It was a common impression among the peasantry, that the rightful owners of the forfeited Irish estates were the descendants of those who had been dispossessed. Prophesies, attributed to various Irish saints, were in circulation among the people, promising the reconquest of Ireland by the children of her own land and of the true faith, the expulsion of the stranger, and the restoration of the soil to the families from whom it had been taken by the sword. With these feelings to the landowners on the part of the farming and labouring population in the Roman Catholic provinces of the country, it cannot be matter of surprise that any trick, or act of violence by which a landlord was deprived of his just rights, was regarded either as a "venial offence," or no offence, or even a patriotic and virtuous act, according as the conscience of the rude casuist was more or less under such influences. Had the landlords as a body administered their estates in a spirit of justice; used their power to bring land questions under the influence of just and simple legislation; and, as magistrates and legislators, set an example of moderation, good sense, and true patriotism, the prejudices of the peasantry would have been worn down, in spite of sacerdotal or other influences to sustain and foster them. Such a happy state of affairs had not arrived in 1853, and the old tales of brutal and barbarous murders filled Europe-with a sense of astonishment and mystery as to the social and political condition of Ireland.

It was peculiarly remarkable that during the prevalence of a general state of affairs so lamentable, there should arise in Dublin a Palace of Industry, the sequel of that erected in Hyde Park. The site chosen was admirable—the lawn of Leinster House, at a former time the property of "Ireland's only Duke," but then in possession of the Dublin Royal Society. Mr. William Dargan, a celebrated contractor for railway works, with patriotic feeling, conceived the idea of erecting a building, at his own risk, for the display of the industrial products of Ireland. One thousand men were employed daily for many months in completing the structure, which was admirably adapted to its purpose.

On the 12th of May, the building was opened with much eclat. It was found more imposing and elegant than the public expected, and the pleasure felt by the people of Ireland and their British friends was thus much enhanced. It was divided into three "halls." The centre hall was 425 feet long, and 100 feet wide; two lesser ones were each 355 feet long and 50 feet wide. The elevation of the three halls was equal, 65 feet. The whole area occupied by this Palace of Industry was 210,000 square feet. Light was admitted only from above, an arrangement which was deemed better for the peculiar kind of exhibition made than that of the London Crystal Palace, which was an edifice of glass, All the designs and plans, and the superintendence of the entire construction devolved on Mr. Dargan. He advanced L80,000 to the object, expecting a heavy loss, and repudiating any intention to derive any gain.

The exhibition was opened by the Lord-lieutenant, the Earl of St. Germans, attended by the Irish court. The Knights of St. Patrick joined the procession in all the insignia of their order. All were welcomed by the populace without, and the assembled rank and fashion within the building, with that enthusiasm characteristic of the Irish people. None received such applause as the generous and skilful man who originated and carried out the undertaking; and none of the many gifted and useful men who rendered the event memorable by their presence, deserved equal honours on the occasion. Mr. Dargan declined the honour of a baronetcy; that of knighthood was conferred on Mr. Benson, the architect.

The productions exhibited surpassed public expectation still more than did the building itself. Various descriptions of manufacture attracted the attention of visitors from Great Britain, the continent of Europe, and from America. The linen and damask of Ulster, the products of the Dublin silk-loom, especially the tabinets and poplins, fine woollen cloths, "Irish frize," Limerick gloves and lace, received high encomiums from the manufacturing and commercial visitors from Great Britain and distant countries, as well as from the general public. It was, however, chiefly in works of art that the exhibition excelled. The splendid sculpture of M'Dowel, Hogan, and other sculptors, was most of all conspicuous. The paintings of Shee, M'Lise, O'Neil, and many more, almost rivalled the display of sculpture. There were also beautiful carvings in Irish oak, "bog oak,"* and arbutus, from the beautiful specimens which in natural woods crown the hill-sides in Kerry, especially near the Killarney Lakes.

* Found in the "peat" or "turf." The word "bog," so well known in India, and other portions of the East, as meaning a garden, has the same signification in Irish, and marks the places where gardens or woods once flourished, now reduced to masses of peat.

Old Irish illuminated MSS., the rarest in the world—no nation having attained the same perfection as the Irish in that department of taste—and specimens of ancient sculpture from before the Christian era, excited the attention of the lovers of antiquity, and admiration for the genius of ancient Ireland.

The English and French newspaper press and reviews complimented the Irish people upon those qualities of artistic taste which their exhibition proved them to possess, and the London Times asserted in several leaders, that whatever might be the superior qualities or advantages of the English people, industrial or otherwise, as compared with the Irish, the latter possessed in a far higher degree, artistic genius, and taste in its superior developments.

The queen and court of London felt great interest in the Dublin exhibition. Her majesty visited it, and expressed her gratification in a manner most flattering to the Irish people, and especially complimentary to the patriotism of Mr. Dargan. Her majesty's visit to the exhibition was one of those happy circumstances in her reign, in which her noble qualities of head and heart were made conspicuous, and in which she appeared so auspiciously, as the healer of contention, the soother of social asperities, the patroness of art, and the encourager and rewarder of industry and merit. It was on the 29th of August the court visited the Irish metropolis. They arrived early on the morning of that day at Kingstown Jetty, and her majesty, accompanied by the Prince of Wales, and Prince Albert, drove through the streets of Dublin, which were thronged with multitudes of persons, offering the most enthusiastic and unanimous demonstrations of respect and welcome. In the evening, the city was brilliantly illuminated. Her majesty's visit to the exhibition was one of the most gratifying incidents in modern Irish history. The royal party, while remaining in Dublin, drove much in the environs, and paid a visit to the house of Mr. Dargan, as a compliment to the enterprise and patriotism of that gentleman. Queen and people were delighted with the royal visit to Ireland, which also, as a matter of public policy, was wise and beneficent.



GENERAL CONDITION OF THE COLONIES.

The year was not very eventful to our colonial empire. There was general prosperity. India was, as usual, the theatre of Oriental cabal, and Oude was the scene of its chief features, and the seat of most of the intrigues and plots against English dominion in Hindustan.



CANADA.

This province was especially prosperous, but it experienced the consequences of the policy so embarrassing at home—of allowing Irish religious disturbances, and those who create them, to pass without sufficient reprobation by the government. In Canada the Irish were numerous. The Protestant Irish there were energetic and zealous for their creed. The Roman Catholic Irish were full of a fierce fanaticism. Orangeism and Ribandism flourished in Canada, even as at Belfast, and used such opportunities as arose to fight as fiercely.

One Gavazzi, an Italian priest, left the church of Rome, and lectured against his former faith in Great Britain and Ireland. The liberty enjoyed in Great Britain by all men to discuss publicly their opinions, was not possessed in Ireland. There, indeed, the government conceded such a right, but the local magistracy often acted in a spirit adverse to the British constitution; and the priests and people of the Roman Catholic religion, although always waging an active controversial warfare against Protestants, never tolerated a reply; and whenever any aggressive controversy was set on foot by any sect of Protestants, they were generally assailed with brutal violence, their places of worship attacked, and the persons of the preachers or polemists fiercely assaulted. The Irish Roman Catholic immigrants in Canada carried with them to their adopted country the same spirit of religious intolerance and mob violence, so indulgently treated by whig and tory governments in their own country. Gavazzi was the occasion, in June, 1853, of evoking this fact in a startling manner in Canada. He visited Quebec, and lectured against the Romish church in "the Free Church" in that city. He alluded in his argument to the condition of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, as influenced by their religion. The statements of the reverend gentleman were such as the members of any other communion than the churches of Rome or Greece would have considered matter for reply and fair argument. The Roman Catholics of Quebec, especially the Irish of that communion, resorted to their usual mode of opposing a controversialist: they attacked the preacher with brutal violence, uttering the fiercest yells and denunciations, and in language horrible, as proceeding from men on religious grounds. Gavazzi had to fight for his life, which was with difficulty saved. In Montreal the lectures of the Italian polemist were attended by disturbances more serious and more general. The police protected him, as they would have protected a Roman Catholic clergyman had he been assailed by intolerant Protestants. The police were nearly overwhelmed by the onslaught of a multitude of Irish Canadian Romanists, anxious to imbrue their hands in the blood of a man who had, as a clergyman, left their church and made a public protest against it. Fire-arms were used on both sides, to the disadvantage of the rioters, some of whom were killed. The military arrived in time to protect the place of worship, in which the Italian doctor lectured, from being demolished. The Romanists collected in greater strength, and fired upon the soldiery, who returned the fire, killing seven, mortally wounding six, otherwise wounding many more, and finally driving the aggressive bigots from the streets. The authorities did not follow up with justice or spirit this disgraceful affair; a fear of the Roman Catholic influence in the English parliament deterring them. When tidings of these events arrived in the United Kingdom, the Roman Catholics in parliament, at public meetings, and by the press, expressed sympathy with the violators of law, and the riotous mobs which had attempted to tread down civil and religious freedom; while denunciations, false, vehement, and intolerant, were directed upon the Reverend Doctor Gavazzi. The principles upon which this course was based, were those so commonly assumed by the party in Ireland, when it was needful to justify violence and bigotry there; namely, that the Roman Catholic Church, being the true church, should have immunity from polemic charges against its doctrines and worship; and that, as all attacks upon it are sure, amidst a Roman Catholic population, to lead to a breach of the peace, Gavazzi ought to have been punished by the authorities, and the authorities who neglected to do that should be regarded as accessories to the riot, and guilty of the murder of the rioters who fell. The leaders of the opposite sections of Whigs and Tories in the English parliament treated such arguments very blandly, and instead of denouncing any party or sect which impeded religious liberty, no matter what its theological opinions, the tone adopted was more in sympathy with the Roman Catholic party in parliament, to gain whose votes each party was after its own mode bidding, each alike willing to sacrifice the liberty of public controversy for the political aid thus sought to be procured.



FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

The year 1853 witnessed little in the foreign relations of the United Kingdom to excite the public interest, except in connection with the dangers to which the integrity of the Turkish empire became exposed. The establishment of the empire in France consolidated the amity between that country and the British government and people. With Europe generally the best understanding existed. Various treaties were formed with countries of minor power, all having a tendency to preserve peace and promote commerce. The public were made acquainted with others which had been made or ratified the previous year; and the expectation was general that the repose of Europe would remain undisturbed. A treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation, was ratified the previous October with the republic of Peru, and published the beginning of January. A similar treaty was ratified at Guayaquil on the 23rd of January with the republic of the equator. On the 1st of February, a treaty relative to the succession of the crown of Greece was ratified in London, between her Britannic Majesty, the French Emperor, and the Emperor of Russia. "Declarations" were signed at Florence and Rome, on the 17th of November, and exchanged between the governments of Great Britain and the Roman States, "for securing national treatment to the vessels and commerce of the one country in the other."



THE WAR WITH RUSSIA.

Early in the year, events transpired which ultimately led to a war on the part of the United Kingdom, France, and Turkey against Russia. Designs against the integrity of the Turkish empire had long been entertained by Russia, and there was reason to believe that Austria was an abettor of those schemes, in the hope of being a partaker of the spoil. Sir Hamilton Seymour, the British Ambassador at St. Petersburg, came to the conclusion that those two great powers were in secret league against the Turkish empire. They dared not, however, proceed in their plans in opposition to the will of England and France, and the ambassadors of both countries were sounded by the czar, to ascertain with what part of the territorial plunder contemplated they would be satisfied. Both powers indignantly refused to participate in any aggression against the sultan, and made known their reasons in terms calculated to deter his imperial majesty from the like. Austria had fomented disputes on the Turkish frontier, and threatened armed interference when the sultan made military preparation to restore the peace of his provinces. Russia ostensibly opposed Austria in these proceedings, but, as was afterwards proved, secretly abetted her. The attitude of the czar towards Turkey was one of vigilance and preparation, as an armed robber watches the wayfaring man. The czar was encouraged to hope that events would arise from the policy of France favourable to his own designs. This expectation arose from the ostentatious interference of France in the disputes between the Latin and Greek Christians. French agents were spread over Syria; and a tone at once insolent to the authorities, defiant to the Greeks, and unworthy the dignity of the representatives of a great power, was adopted by these men. The French ministers and consuls in the Turkish empire were rather religious partizans, than political agents acting in harmony with the authorities of the country to which they had been accredited. Frequent disputes arose in Jerusalem, in connection with Greek and Latin rites in celebration of certain anniversaries at the Holy Places. Disturbances of a fierce nature at last rendered the interference of the Turkish authorities necessary, who acted with impartiality. The French ambassador resorted to menace and intrigue on behalf of the proteges of France—the professors of the Latin rite; and the sultan, intimidated, yielded everything which French violence demanded. The English ambassador in vain advised moderation on the one hand, and firmness on the other; the French minister seemed to disdain all temperate counsels, and the Porte was too much awed by his threats to adopt an attitude of resolution, or even dignity. The concessions wrung from the sultan by the French furnished the Russian government with the occasion it had long sought. An especial envoy was sent to demand the restitution of all the privileges of which the Greeks had been deprived. The vacillating sultan yielded to his new tormentor. Negotiations were set on foot by the ministers who represented the great powers; and France was induced by the influence of England to adopt a concessive tone, and to withdraw from the insolent and hostile position she had assumed. The Russian minister, Prince Menschikoff, and his master, were elated by their success, and increased their demands. An ultimatum was put forth on the 21st of May, that contained stipulations which virtually made the czar protector of the Greek Christians throughout the Turkish empire. It was at the same time notified by the envoy, that if the ultimatum were not complied with, he would leave Constantinople in eight days. The events connected with these transactions, and the results, are described by the author of this History, in his History of the War against Russia, in the following terms, which are here transcribed. The account is the result of careful and painstaking researches, and of confidential intercourse with official persons well acquainted with the diplomacy and events of the period.

This ultimatum was declined by the Porte, and Prince Menschikoff withdrew from Constantinople. During these negotiations the Russian armies were concentrated upon the Bessarabian frontiers, and at the same time the Emperor Nicholas was sounding Sir H. Seymour at St. Petersburg. These conversations were accompanied by despatches and protestations that the emperor would not, in the quarrel then pending, attempt any territorial occupation. But Odessa and Sebastopol were filled with naval and military preparation, and the Russian army was massing upon the Pruth, ready at a moment's notice to invade the principalities. The moment at last came. Prince Metternich, and Count Nesselrode (the Russian minister for foreign affairs), baffled in their intrigues by the resolution of the sultan, gave place to other and more decisive performers. Prince Gortschakoff crossed the Pruth on the 25th June, at the head of a numerous army, organized to the highest efficiency on the Russian principle, and attended by a most powerful artillery and materiel of war. Contemporaneous with the advance of his armies, the autocrat published a manifesto, which left his motives and objects no longer in disguise, and which no persons could misapprehend, except those whom the disclosures of Sir H. Seymour had failed to enlighten. Means were taken to reassure the Western governments that no conquest was intended. Count Nesselrode wrote diplomatic circulars to the Russian ambassadors and consuls at the various courts and capitals; M. Druhyn de L'Huys, the French minister of foreign affairs, and our own foreign minister, wrote countercirculars; and time was bootlessly expended by the Western governments that ought to have been given to the preparation of armaments. The Russians lost no time. Having advanced upon Wallachia by way of Leova, and upon Moldavia by way of Skouliany, they rapidly penetrated to the capitals of the provinces, where the clergy of the Greek Church, and the leading officials also of that communion, gave them public welcome. Te Deum was sung in the churches, and the Russian armies acted as if on conquered territory. It was on the 3rd of July that the Pruth was crossed; on the 8th Prince Gortschakoff assisted in the ceremonies of the Church of St. Spiridion, at Jassy; on the 29th he received the compliments of the assembled bishops of the Greek Church of the provinces at Bucharest, 150 miles nearer to the Danube. By this date the Russian army had greatly increased; Gortschakoff, Dannenberg, and Luders had at their disposal nearly 20,000 cavalry, 144 pieces of cannon, of a larger calibre than had ever before been brought into the field by any army, and a force of infantry not so large in proportion to these arms of the service, but the precise number of which it is impossible, amidst so many conflicting statements, to verify. General Osten-Sacken remained within the Russian frontier with powerful reserves, and reinforcements were pouring along in unbroken streams from the great centres of Russian military power. The fierce Cossack from the Don and the Dneister, the Tartar from the Ukraine, the beetle-browed and predatory Baschkir, with all their variety of wild uniform, and "helm and blade" glancing in the summer's sun, crowded on the great military thoroughfares, while fresh supplies of well-appointed and formidable artillery were carefully transmitted. The foundries of Russia were blazing in the manufacture of warlike weapons; and the workshops of Belgium were ransacked for the musket and rifle. The shores of the Sea of Azoff and of the Black Sea were alive with craft of every size, bearing military resources to the points destined to receive them. By shore and river in the occupied cities of the provinces, and far off in the cities of imperial Russia, the din of ceaseless preparation was heard; and it was evident to all men—still only excepting our government and the diplomatists—that Russia was preparing for a struggle against whatever forces might be brought against her, and was resolved to peril her empire upon one desperate effort to humble Europe, and grasp from Turkey some of her richest provinces, or compel the formal admission of her vassalage.