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of this strong-hearted minister contending with his foes; rising into an eloquence of expression and wideness of view unsuspected equally by friend and enemy, and perhaps even by himself; throwing off the narrowing bonds within which his early education had confined him, and already giving evidence that no political effort was beyond his power, and no array of hostility to what he believed the benefit of his country sufficient to daunt his courage. For five months he relied on the forbearance of Parliament to give him a fair trial, and in that time laid the foundation for the alteration in the Marriage Law, by which dissenters are relieved from the necessity of being married in a church; and for a Commutation of Tithes, by which the quarrels between clergymen and their parishioners are prevented. He showed qualities in the face of that compact majority which disarmed it of its hostility and secured its respect; but the necessities of party overcame the growing admiration of the individual man, and he resigned office on the 8th of April. The ostensible ground on which the Whigs gained their object was what is called the Appropriation Clause. In this they provided that any surplus revenue derived from reforms in the Irish Church should be declared applicable to secular objects. Sir Robert expressed his willingness to apply the surplus to any object connected with the Church. The majority in favour of Lord John Russell, who introduced the motion, was very large, and he has remained contented with the triumph ever since, the subject never being afterwards introduced in all the years during which the conquerors were in power.

§ 12. The Reformers were restored under the premiership of Lord Melbourne; but without the aid of Lord Brougham, who was not invited to return to the woolsack. The majority which had overthrown Sir Robert Peel was composed of the Irish members, the majority of English representatives having been his supporters. This circumstance gave increased power to O'Connell and increased un

A.D. 1837.]

DEATH OF WILLIAM IV.

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easiness to the king. But the state of affairs produced by the numerical majority of the ministry and the moral preponderance of the minority acted as a bar to legislation altogether, unless, as in the case of the Reform of Corporations, the evils were too glaring to be endured. The Reform of the Irish Church was carried in the Commons and rejected by the Lords; and a further indisposition to yield to the noisy claims of interested agitators was produced by the first rolling of a thunder-cloud in Canada, which ended in rebellion and bloodshed.

§ 13. Dangers were accumulating on every hand, and again the real lovers of our constitution were rendered uneasy by the feeble abilities and wavering purpose of the occupant of the throne. Unable to strive against, or perhaps to comprehend, the involved condition of parties and the threatening aspect of our foreign relations, the aged monarch was restless and unhappy. With every disposition to do well, he was incapacitated from any decided line of conduct by the complete absence of self-reliance. His death, therefore, was not considered a national disaster when it occurred on the 20th of June, 1837, although timorous men might have been alarmed at seeing the sceptre transferred to the light and delicate hand of a maiden of eighteen, whom the nation had watched with affectionate earnestness and pride as the Princess Victoria.

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CHAPTER VI.

VICTORIA.

A.D. 1837 TO A.D. 1858.

CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS.

FRANCE.-Louis-Philippe.

AUSTRIA. Ferdinand; Francis-Joseph.

PRUSSIA. Frederick-William III. Frederick-William IV.
SPAIN.-Maria-Isabella II.

RUSSIA. Nicholas; Alexander II.

POPES.-Gregory XVI.; Pius IX.

ADMINISTRATIONS OF THE PRESENT REIGN.

Viscount MELBOURNE and his colleagues continued till 1841.
Sir Robert PEEL, Duke of Wellington, Lord Wharncliffe, Lyndhurst,
Buckingham, Sir James Graham, Earl of Aberdeen, Lord Stanley,
Goulburn, Haddington, Ripon, Sir George Murray, Sir H. Hardinge,
Ellenborough, &c, till 1846.

Lord John RUSSELL (Prime Minister), Lansdowne, Minto, Cottenham,
Sir G. Grey, Lord Palmerston, Earl Grey, Sir C. Wood, Lord
Auckland, Hobhouse, Clarendon, Lord Campbell, Morpeth, Clanri-
carde, Macaulay (from 1846 till 1852).

Earl of DERBY (Prime Minister), St. Leonards, Lonsdale, Salisbury, Disraeli, Walpole, Malmesbury, Pakington, Northumberland, Herries, &c. (1852).

Coalition Ministry-Earl of ABERDEEN (Prime Minister), with Lord John Russell, Palmerston, Graham, Gladstone, Lansdowne, Cranworth, Newcastle, Argyle, Grenville, S. Herbert, Molesworth, &c. (from 1852 to 1855).

On the resignation of the Earl of Aberdeen, in 1855, Lord Palmerston becomes Prime Minister; and on his resignation, in 1858, Lord Derby was appointed to the head of the Government, in conjunction with Lord Chelmsford, Disraeli, Salisbury, Hardwicke, Walpole, Malmesbury, Right Hon. J. Peel, Sir E. B. Lytton, Sir J. Pakington, Lord Stanley, &c.

A.D. 1837.]

ACCESSION OF VICTORIA.

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In 1859 Lord Derby's administration was superseded by Lord Palmerston's, which, at the present time (1860) stands thus: Viscount PALMERSTON, First Lord of the Treasury; Mr. W. E. Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exchequer; Lord John Russell, Foreign Secretary; Sir G. C. Lewis, Home Secretary; Duke of Newcastle, Colonial Secretary, Mr. Sidney Herbert, Secretary for War; Sir C. Wood, Indian Secretary; Duke of Somerset, First Lord of the Admiralty; Lord Campbell, Lord Chancellor; Earl Granville, President of the Council; Duke of Argyll, Privy Seal; Earl of Elgin, K.T., Postmaster General; Right Hon. T. M. Gibson, Board of Trade; Mr. C. P. Villiers, Poor Law Board; Mr. Cardwell, Chief Secretary for Ireland; Sir George Grey, Duchy of Lancaster.

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§ 1. Accession of Queen Victoria. Unsettled state of affairs at home and abroad. § 2. Insurrection in Canada. Its causes- 3. The rebellion suppressed, and Lord Durham sent as Lord High Commissioner to adjust all existing disputes. Disturbances in Jamaica. Resignation of Lord Melbourne. § 4. Sir Robert Peel appointed Prime Minister. Chartism. The ladies of the Queen's bedchamber. -§ 5. Lord Melbourne re-appointed minister. The Queen's marriage with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. Her distinguished virtues.§ 6. National distress, and popular discontent. The Chartist leaders. Anti-Corn-law League.—§ 7. The Corn-law disputes. — § 8. Sir Robert Peel resumes office. Cobden, Villiers, and Bright strenuously support the Corn-law agitation.-§ 9. Famine in Ireland, and repeal of the Corn-laws.-§ 10. O'Brien's rebellion in Ireland.-§ 11. The Chartist demonstrations. Louis Napoleon a special constable. The French revolution. - § 12. Discovery of gold in California. § 13. Death of Sir Robert Peel.-§ 14. The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park-$15. Coup d'Etat of Louis Napoleon. Becomes "Emperor of the French."-§ 16. Death of the Duke of Wellington. character. § 17. Designs of Russia against Turkey. Disputes respecting the Holy Sepulchre. Preparations for war. The Crimea, and Sebastopol. Destruction of the Turkish fleet at Sinope. § 18. Declaration of war against Russia. The Crimean expedition. Siege of Sebastopol, the difficulties and sanguinary contests attending it. Death of Lord Raglan, the commander-in-chief.-§ 19. Lord Aberdeen superseded in the Ministry by Lord Palmerston Operations of the British squadron in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azoff. Capture of Sebastopol.-§ 20. Peace of Paris.-§ 21. Disputes with China, and capture of Canton.-§ 22. The Indian mutiny, and revolt of the Bengal army. Sanguinary contests with the mutineers.— § 23. Butcheries of Agra and Delhi. Arrival of British troops, and defeat of the rebels. Trial and punishment of the Great Mogul, the King of Delhi.-§ 24. Historical retrospect of our Indian possessions. Fatal expedition to Affghanistan. Retributive vengeance fully carried out against the Affghans.-§ 25. The government of India transferred from the East India Company to the Imperial Crown of England.

§ 1. THE accession of Victoria occurred at one of the most anxious and unsettled moments of our history. The reforms already carried had only excited the appetite for more, and the aspect of foreign affairs was dark and troubled. The despotic powers of Russia, Austria, and Prussia used every exertion to fetter the press and obliterate the last remains of liberty which had been secured to the smaller nations by the settlement of 1815. Russia made no concealment of the object of the unjustifiable war she declared on the free mountaineers of Circassia, which was to gain the unquestioned mastery of the Black Sea, and gain her first station towards the British possessions in India. Louis-Philippe, in a meaner and more contemptible manner, carried on the same war against freedom in France by cajolery and deceit, and succeeded in rendering the Charter nugatory, and his statesmen as corrupted and unprincipled as himself. War was raging in Spain and Portugal, and finally a rebellion was in full operation in our great colony of Canada.

§ 2. Parliament had been greatly to blame in shutting its ears to the complaints of the Canadians. It committed the mistake of perpetual interference with the proceedings of the legislatures of both the provinces into which the country was divided, and cheated the populations with an appearance of self-government, while they were rendered powerless by the supreme authority claimed by the Crown. Lower Canada was almost entirely French, having remained without much alteration in manners and customs since it was attached to England by the conquest of Quebec in 1759. Upper Canada was a place of emigration to the active portion of the English middle class, which could not find a field for its energies at home; and had been occupied by the loyalists of America who crossed the St. Lawrence and the lakes to avoid the government of the Republic, against which they had fought in the revolutionary war. Their descendants retained their principles of devoted affection to the English throne,

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