1865) States on the merits of constitutional government. The envoy started, however, two years too late, and similar advice addressed, later on, to the Queen of Spain was met by a request to the British Minister to quit the country. In 1848 the storm of revolution, which Palmerston had in a measure foreseen, swept over Europe. Thrones tottered, and the tion. Orleanist dynasty fell. In England the Chartists summoned The Year a monster meeting to Kennington Common, and timid folk of Revolutrembled for their lives and properties. But the military precautions of the old Duke of Wellington were admirable, and the special constables turned out. Feargus O'Connor's nerves failed him at the pinch, and when the signatures of the huge petition presented to Parliament were discovered to be largely in the nature of practical jokes, Chartism underwent total eclipse Chartism (p. 490). In Ireland disaffection ran to greater lengths, but the Young Palmerston and the Court. Fall of the [1846 Government was prepared. The prompt arrests of John Mitchel, the editor of the United Irishman, Meagher " of the sword," and Smith O'Brien, together with the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, forced the hand of Young Ireland. Smith O'Brien made a childish attempt to surprise the police at Ballingarry. Dismal failure was the result; he was captured, tried, and condemned to death, but the sentence was, of course, remitted. Palmerston was unpopular at Court for his anti-German policy and his impatience of all control. He appealed to the imagination of the nation at large by his civis Romanus sum speech, in which he justified the Government for blockading the Greek coast. In it genuine injuries inflicted on British subjects were adroitly mixed with the dubious grievances of a Gibraltar Jew calling himself Don Pacifico, and his splendid clap-trap carried away the House in spite of the common-sense of Sir Robert Peel. A few days afterwards Peel was dead, killed by a fall from his horse. Unfortunately, Palmerston presumed too far on his popularity with the nation. His constant neglect of the Premier's wishes brought down on him a memorandum from the queen, in which he was commanded to state his proposals in each case and make no alterations after her sanction had been granted. This undertaking he jauntily disregarded, until in December, 1851, he proceeded to give his unofficial approval of the coup d'état by which Louis Napoleon overthrew the French Republic, and to repeat that opinion in a despatch to Lord Normanby, our Ambassador at Paris. He was summarily dismissed, after he had declined the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland. "Palmerston is out," wrote Macaulay in his diary. "It was high time, but I cannot help feeling sorry." Ministry. important member. The Ministry did not long survive the loss of its most Its legislation had been chiefly Irish, and the Radicals were bitterly dissatisfied. For the moment the Government had gained credit with the unthinking by passing in 1851 the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, directed against the restoration of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England. But the panic soon spent itself, and the measure remained a dead letter. Lord John, who had vainly attempted to reconstruct the Ministry by admitting Lord Aberdeen and Sir James Graham, met Parliament in evil plight. He introduced a Militia Bill to meet the popular demand for more adequate defences against 1865] invasion. Lord Palmerston moved an amendment, which the Government declined to accept, and, as he told his brother, "I have had my tit-for-tat with John Russell, and I turned him out." Derby The queen sent for Lord Derby as the leader of the strongest The First party in the House. He formed a Conservative Ministry of Ministry. untried material, with Mr. Disraeli as his Chancellor of the Exchequer. Thanks to Palmerston's patronage, the Government did reasonably well. It carried a Militia Bill which gave general satisfaction, and Mr. Disraeli's adroit Budget was remarkable for a frank acceptance of the doctrines of Free Trade. The general election in the summer, however, left the Conservatives still in a minority. Taunted with Protectionist leanings, Disraeli produced his second Budget in December. It included extensions of the house and income taxes, and Mr. Gladstone attacked it in a memorable speech. The Government was defeated by 305 votes to 286 through the combination of Whigs, Radicals, and Peelites. "This I know," said Mr. Disraeli, that England does not love coalitions." War. Meanwhile Lord Dalhousie had extended the limits of British The Sikh India. Soon after he assumed the government (1848) the Sikhs rose again, but operations had to be delayed until the hot season was over. On the 13th of January, 1849, Lord Gough gained a hard-won victory at Chillianwallah, and on the 14th of February he dispersed the Sikh forces and their Afghan allies at Gujerat. The Punjaub was definitely annexed, and placed under a board on which sat the two Lawrence brothers. The Burmese had again to be chastised for the maltreatment of British subjects, and they were compelled to cede the province of Pegu (1852). Under the doctrine of lapse, which did away with the right of adoption, Lord Dalhousie suppressed the ruling houses of numerous native States. Among them were Sattara, the important principality of Nagpore, and the little State of Jhansi. Oudh was annexed, not from the failure of heirs, but because of the king's gross misgovernment. This policy was fiercely attacked after the outbreak of the Mutiny. Adoption, however, had been the exception rather than the rule under the Mogul Empire, and the significance of the annexation policy can easily be overstated. To Dalhousie, at any rate, India owes railways, the telegraph, and the development of canals and [1846 Coalition Gladstone's The Eastern irrigation. He promoted education and put down dacoity and infanticide. The Peelites and Whigs had been rapidly drawing together and, on the defeat of the Conservatives, a Coalition Government was formed under Lord Aberdeen. The former group secured the bulk of the Cabinet appointments, Gladstone becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Duke of Newcastle Secretary for War, and Sir James Graham First Lord of the Admiralty. Of the Whigs, Lord John Russell went to the Foreign Office, but soon gave place to Lord Clarendon, though he continued to lead the House of Commons. Lord Lansdowne entered the Cabinet without office, and Lord Palmerston, to the general surprise, became Home Secretary. Sir William Molesworth, who imagined himself a Radical, was First Commissioner of Works. The Aberdeen Government began extremely well. Gladstone's first Budget was his greatest. It made further advances towards Free Trade, and was accompanied by an ingenious though unexecuted scheme for the reduction of the National Debt. In the session of 1853, too, transportation was finally abolished, and the Civil Service of India thrown open to competition. The following year witnessed the passage of the Oxford University Reform Act, based on the report of a Royal Commission. A Parliamentary Reform Bill was introduced, but it was much disliked by a section of the Cabinet, of whom Lord Palmerston pushed his objections to the length of a brief resignation. Occurrences in the East, however, soon drove domestic legislation out of the thoughts of Parliament, and the measure was withdrawn. The Eastern question was revived by a trivial quarrel about the guardianship of the Holy Places in Palestine. Their custody was disputed by the Greek and Latin priests, of whom the latter were actively backed by the Emperor of the French. The Sultan decided in their favour, and the Czar Nicholas blazed out in semi-barbaric anger. He sent Prince Menschikoff to overawe the Porte, and, by way of counter-menace, Napoleon III. despatched the French fleet to Smyrna. The Russian envoy retired, baffled by our ambassador, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, but in the meantime the French and English squadrons had advanced to the Dardanelles. On July 2nd, 1853, the Russian armies crossed the Pruth, and occupied the Turkish provinces of Mol 1865] davia and Wallachia. The Porte was advised not to declare war, and the Vienna Conference assembled in the hope of arresting the clash of armies. The Sultan, however, insisted on modifying the terms known as the Vienna Note, and the Czar refused to accept his alterations. While Lord Stratford de Redcliffe was pressing a fresh note of his own on the Porte, it suddenly LORD STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE, BY G. F. WATTS, R.A. declared war. The Russians (December 12th) fell upon the War. Negotiations still continued, but to no purport, and on March The 28th, 1854, England and France declared war against Russia. Crimean Unfortunately the war party in the Cabinet, Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell, distrusted Austria, and no adequate attempt was made to secure her support. Checked by the defence of the Danubian fortresses, the Czar directed his forces. to recross the Pruth, and Austria remained neutral. The Russian Black Sea fleet withdrew under the guns of Sebastopol, and Sir |