members to form a town council, which was to be the governing body of the town. The town council was to have in its hands the ultimate appointment of all corporate officers; all trading privileges were abolished; and the town councillors ceased to be magistrates. Thus the bill stood as it passed the Commons. In the Lords a clause was added, and ultimately accepted by the Commons, by which aldermen were to be elected by the councillors for six years, during which they were to have the same rights and privileges as the elected councillors. The effect of this addition was to strengthen the hands of the majority of the council for the time being, and to make it more difficult for any change in popular opinion to have effect on the policy of the corporation. The Municipal Corporation Bill created quite a revolution in town life. It not only improved the government of the boroughs, but introduced a most important educative influence in the art of local self-government, and prepared the way for the application of the same principles in rural districts. It was designed to deal with the ancient corporation of the city of London in a separate act, but for some reason this was postponed, and the corporation of London still remains unaltered.

Tithes

Next year the ministers were successful in carrying a measure which removed a fruitful source of ill-feeling between churchmen and Nonconformists. Hitherto rectors and vicars had been in the Commuta habit of collecting their tithe in kind-for example, marktion Act. ing every tenth sheaf, and removing it to the tithe barn. This process was most exasperating to farmers, and particularly to Nonconformists; so an act was passed called the Tithes Commutation Act, which provided for the commutation of tithes in kind into a rent-charge upon the land, payable in money, and reckoned according to the average price of corn for the seven preceding years. A similar act was passed by the Commons for Ireland, but the Lords refused to pass a clause by which surplus revenue was to be applicable to general purposes, and the bill was, therefore, allowed to drop.

Two changes made in 1836 had much influence on the political education of the people. Since 1712, when Harley's government laid a duty on newspapers of one penny a sheet, and one shilling The Duty on Newspapers on each advertisement, the tax on news had been an lowered. important source of revenue. North increased it; and under Pitt it was regularly raised to meet the exigencies of the war, reaching eventually in 1816 the rate of fourpence a sheet, and three shillings and sixpence for each advertisement. This was slightly lowered in 1826; and in 1833 Lord Althorp lowered the duty on advertisements to eighteenpence. The tax on news, however, continued at 4d. a sheet

till 1836, when Spring Rice lowered the duty to one penny. This reduction forms an epoch in the development of the press. For a time the gross amount of the duty fell; but the circulation increased so rapidly that in 1854 the proceeds of the tax were as much as at the old rate. This was caused not only by an increase in circulation of the old newspapers, but by the springing up of a number of others, especially daily papers, with a corresponding diffusion of interest and information about political ideas.

It Lists pub

lished,

and

The other event was the publication by parliament of its own division lists. Hitherto these had been published on hearsay, and without parliamentary authority, and the right to keep them Division private had been jealously guarded by the members. was felt, however, that, as in practice it was always known how members had voted, it was better to publish an authentic list; authority was now given for the purpose. The result was not only that a member's constituents knew for certain how he had voted, but were also aware in what divisions he had taken part, so that a valuable check was established on the attendance of members; and the duties of members became better fulfilled than before.

William IV.

In 1837 no act of importance was passed through parliament; and in June the session was interrupted by the death of the old king, which created the necessity for a general election. As sovereign Death of of the United Kingdom William was succeeded by his niece, Victoria, the daughter of the late duke of Kent; but as the Salic law prevailed in Hanover, the duke of Kent's next brother, the duke of Cumberland, became king of that country; and the separation between the crowns was viewed by Englishmen without regret.

CHAPTER VII

VICTORIA: 1837-1865

Born 1819; married 1840, Albert of Saxe-Coburg.

Canada-The Chartists-The Corn Law Agitation-The Afghan, Scinde, and Sikh Wars-O'Connell-Repeal of the Corn Laws-The Year of Revolutions -The Russian War-Indian Mutiny-Parliamentary Reform-Foreign Affairs-Death of Palmerston.

THE new queen had only come of legal age on the twenty-fourth of May before the death of King William, and was little known to her subjects. The Queen's Her mother, the duchess of Kent, had with great judgment Education. kept her as much as possible from mixing in the society of her uncle's court, which was not desirable for a young girl. In her seclusion, however, at Kensington Palace nothing had been omitted by the duchess which could help to fit her daughter for the high place she was to occupy. Her intellect and her heart had been alike carefully trained. She had been brought up in habits of self-reliance, regularity and economy, and when she was called to the duties of her high office, she astonished all who had to deal with her by the way in which she performed her part. From the very beginning of her reign she showed herself determined to reign as a constitutional sovereign, and to make no distinction between parties. Such conduct marked a new departure in the conduct of the sovereign. George III. had claimed the right to name his ministers, and George IV. and William had barely concealed their preferences; but though the duke of Wellington foretold the

of Canada.

extinction of the Tories, on the ground that 'he had no small talk, and Peel had no manners,' he found that the new sovereign was swayed by no such petty considerations, and made the wishes of the House of Commons the sole factor in deciding which party should hold office during her reign. Some of the credit for this should certainly be given to Lord Melbourne, for it was he who instructed the young queen in the principles and practice of constitutional government. The queen was crowned on June 28, 1838; and, on February 10, 1840, she married her cousin, Albert of Saxe-Coburg. The marriage was one of affection. Prince Albert was a handsome man, of the highest character, distinguished by The Prince his devotion to art, music and literature. He made her Consort. an excellent husband, doing all he could to aid his wife in performing the duties of royalty, and in promoting the moral and intellectual well-being of the people among whom he came to live, till his early death in 1861. The separation of Hanover from the English crown had been received by all classes with relief; but a much more serious loss than that of Hanover threatened to couple with disaster the accession of The State the new queen. Canada was thoroughly disaffected. Since 1774, when Lord North's government had secured the French Catholics in the exercise of their laws and religion, the condition of the colony had been changed by the influx of large bodies of Englishmen and Scotsmen, and of Loyalists from the United States, who left that country after its declaration of independence. These men were very different in character and objects from the old French settlers; and to deal with the new state of affairs Pitt had, in 1791, passed the Canada Bill, by which Canada was divided into two parts-Upper and Lower. Lower Canada lay along the lower part of the river St. Lawrence, contained the towns of Montreal and Quebec, and was inhabited for the most part by a French population; Upper Canada lay along the great lakes, and was inhabited exclusively by a British population. This arrangement was politically bad, because it prevented any amalgamation between the French and English races, and was on that ground condemned by Fox; and commercially unsound, because all the produce of Upper Canada passed through the ports of Lower Canada on its way to the sea. Besides this, there were constant difficulties in each colony between the governor and his executive council, and the legislative assembly which was elected by the colonists. In these circumstances the people of Lower Canada, and some of Upper Canada, were ready to revolt, and when the queen came to the throne many congregations showed their disaffection by leaving the churches when her name was heard in the liturgy. Shortly after, armed rebellions broke out, headed in Lower Canada by Papineau, a

French Canadian, and in Upper Canada by M'Kenzie. Both outbreaks were put down without difficulty-in Lower Canada by Sir John Colborne, supported by the regular troops, and in Upper Canada by Major Head, with the assistance only of the local militia.

Lord

It was, however, clear to all parties that a radical change was necessary in the government of Canada. Accordingly, the Melbourne ministry sent out the earl of Durham to effect a reconstrucDurham's tion of the colony. Lord Durham was an enthusiastic Mission. believer in constitutional principles, who had exercised great influence over Earl Grey, but had recently withdrawn from Lord Melbourne's ministry on the ground that it wanted energy. At first he was entrusted almost with a dictatorship in Canada, and used his power to the fullest extent. In accordance with Fox's views, he reversed the act of 1791, united the two colonies into one, and proposed a scheme of ministerial responsibility with a system of local government throughout the colony. These parts of his scheme were accepted and acted upon, and form the foundation of the present constitution of Canada proper; and Lord Durham's scheme even prepared the way for such a federal union of the British North American colonies as has since been carried out. On the other hand, his method of dealing with the prisoners who had been arrested after the rebellions gave an opportunity of attacking him, of which the opposition in the Lower House, and his personal opponents in the Upper, were not slow to avail themselves. Had these prisoners been tried in Lower Canada, any ordinary jury would have been certain to have acquitted them. Some of them, however, had already confessed their guilt, and Lord Durham adopted the unconstitutional course of condemning them to exile in Bermuda, and denouncing death against them in case they returned to Canada. Such action was clearly illegal, for Lord Durham had no authority over Bermuda; and though it was approved in the colony, it was fiercely attacked in the British Parliament, especially by Lord Brougham, who took this opportunity of revenging himself on Lord Melbourne for not having made him chancellor on his return to office in 1836. So weak was Lord Melbourne, that he threw over his high commissioner, and cancelled the ordinance of exile. Of course, Lord Durham resigned. On his return home he was coldly received by the government, but had some consolation in the friendly reception accorded to him by the mass of the Liberal party. Disappointment, however, certainly injured his health, and though he lived long enough to know that his plans for the future of Canada would be carried into effect, he died in 1840, at the age of forty-eight.

The weakness shown by the government in the case of Lord Durham