Chapter LXI: {victoria. 1849} (3)

“1. The government of the Germanic confederation, in concert with the vicar, agree on a provisional form or interim, during which time Austria and Prussia assume the administration of the central power for the German confederation, in the name of all the governments of the confederation, until the 1st of May, 1850, unless this power cannot be transferred to a definite power before that period.

“2. The object of the interim is to maintain the German confederation as a union founded on the right of the states appertaining to the German princes and of the free cities, to having preserved the independence and the integrity of their states comprised in the confederation, and to having maintained the internal and external security of Germany.

“3. So long as the interim lasts, the affair of the German constitution is left to the free concertation of the individual states.

“It is the same with those affairs which by art. 6 of the federative act, belong to the full assembly of the diet.

“4. If, at the expiration of the interim, the German constitutional question should be not yet settled, the German government will come to an understanding with respect to the prolongation of the present treaty.

“5. The affairs hitherto carried on by the provisional central power, in so far as, according to the legislation of the confederation, they came within the competency of the late assembly, are transmitted for the entire duration of the interim to a dietary committee, to which Prussia and Austria appoint each two members, to sit at Frankfort. The other governments can be represented by plenipotentiaries accredited to the said committee, either by each individual state or by several states conjointly.

“6. The committee of the confederation carries on affairs in an independent manner, but are responsible to the powers that respectively nominate them. It forms its resolutions after deliberation in common. If the members cannot agree, the decision takes place by means of negotiation between the governments of Prussia and Austria, and which latter, in case of need, will refer to a judgment of arbitration. This judgment is pronounced by three governments of the confederation. In such case, Austria will nominate each time one of the arbiters, and Prussia the other. The two governments thus designed have to decide upon a third arbiter for completing the tribunal of arbitration. The members of the committee of the confederation divide the affairs assigned to them in this mode, that according to the legislation of the existing confederation, and especially according to the military constitution of the confederation, they either personally carry them on, or else direct and superintend the carrying of them on.

“7. As soon as the ratification by the governments aforesaid of the great proposition shall have taken place, the archduke vicar will renounce his dignity and depose the rights and duties of the confederation that have been confided to him into the hands of the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia.”

DEMANDS OF THE RUSSIAN AND AUSTRIAN EMPERORS UPON THE SULTAN OF TURKEY. —INTERPOSITION OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE.

Varied and important as the changes and conflicts were in Western and Central Europe during this year, none of these events menaced the general peace of Europe so much as a demand made by the czar and the kasir upon the sultan for the extradition of certain Hungarian refugees.

During the general convulsion of Europe, Hungary flew to arms, and the Austrian empire was in danger of dismemberment from the success of the Hungarian revolt. Russia, however, joined her armies to those of the great German power, and the result was the suppression of the Hungarian revolution. The chiefs of that movement took refuge within the Turkish territory. This circumstance led to a demand by the ambassadors of Russia and Austria at the Porte, for the surrender of all Polish and Hungarian refugees into the hands of the governments to which they owed allegiance. The sultan refused, and the ambassadors demanded their passports. The alarmed sultan consulted the learned doctors of the Koran, and received for reply that the abandonment of the refugees would be contrary to the law of Mohammed. The English and French ministers counselled resistance, and the sultan increased his armies, and ordered remnants of troops towards the Austrian frontier. The terms and tone in which the communications of the ministers of the czar and the kasir were made, were insulting to the sultan, and aroused the indignation of the French and British governments, whose interposition was of such a character as to lead Austria and Russia to believe that a war with the western powers would ensue if the haughty requisition was persisted in. The communications between the English ambassador at St. Petersburg and the czar’s minister for foreign affairs, although maintaining the forms of courtesy, were pervaded by an indifferently concealed acrimony, which showed that a bad feeling between the two governments underlayed the ceremonies of diplomatic civility. A special minister from the Porte was sent to St. Petersburg with a conciliatory note from the sultan to the emperor, and this, with the firm tone of the French ambassador, and the energetic exertions of the English minister, caused the emperors to relax their demands, and to insist only upon the removal of certain of the refugees from the territory contiguous to that which had been the theatre of their revolt. The ill feeling which sprung up on this occasion between the governments of Vienna and St. Petersburg, on the one hand, and those of England and France, on the other, continued until events arose still more grave for Turkey, and for all these powers.

Through another year of grave occurrences, and political difficulties and involvements such as Europe had seldom Been, Great Britain pursued the even tenor of her way, by her moral influence everywhere aiding liberty and checking excess, maintaining her own prestige and international rights, yet pursuing a policy of non-interference. Her foreign relations at the close of 1849 were in all respects satisfactory, but it required all the skill and vigilance of the remarkable man then at the head of the foreign office to maintain at once peace and the honour of the country.

CONTINUED DISTRESS IN IRELAND—CRIME AND OUTRAGE—POLITICAL AGITATIONS EFFORTS OF GOVERNMENT TO MEET THE EXIGENCIES OF THE COUNTRY.

The state of Ireland during this year was a continuation of the want, misery, criminality, and sedition which made up its history for so many previous years. The causes already noticed so fully in previous chapters operated in producing famine and its attendants, disease and social discontent. Notwithstanding all the efforts of government by parliamentary aid, and of the people of Great Britain by their generous subscriptions, the poor in Ireland continued to die of starvation, and where death did not immediately happen from that cause, it arose from it mediately, through the instrumentality of famine, fever, cholera, dysentery, or gradual decay. The efforts of the government were still, to a great extent, rendered abortive by the frauds committed upon the funds devoted to Irish relief, not only in Ireland, but in England; much that was supposed to be applied for the relief of the Irish famishing poor never reached Ireland, and much more that did arrive in that country never found its way to the objects for whom it was intended. The failure of the potatoe crop had so impoverished the people, that, during the spring of 1849, the destitution in some parts of the country equalled that which had been known even during the three previous years. The queen, in her speech at the opening of the session, referred to the failure of the potatoe crop, and recommended her parliament to make further provision to relieve the destitution which prevailed. In pursuance of this recommendation, parliament voted £50,000 for the relief of distressed unions, a sum utterly disproportioned to the necessities of the case. A bill was brought in for levying “a rate in aid,” as it was termed, the object of which waa to levy a rate upon solvent parishes to aid insolvent parishes. This was both inequitable in its conception and application, and was one of those make-shifts of the government which, while it raised opposition, failed in accomplishing the object contemplated. A vote of £100,000, in anticipation of “the rate in aid,” was proposed and carried, but this also waa inadequate to the purpose for which it was designed. Some idea of the magnitude of the miseries of Ireland at this juncture may be formed from the fact that the poor-law guardians of Kilrush expended £1000 per week in support of the paupers of that union. Kilrush is a remote and not particularly populous district, and was a specimen of the general expenditure to which the distressed unions were exposed.

The terrible distress prevailing brought on a state of social calamity and discord such as has seldom been witnessed in the history of the world. As the year went on, the prospects of an abundant harvest inspired hopes that peace and plenty would at last smile upon unhappy Ireland, but these hopes were doomed to disappointment. The growing crops became objects of contention between the miserable tenant, and, in many cases, almost equally miserable landlord. The tenants sought to cut and remove the crops clandestinely. Suddenly the corn would be cut over a vast area of land, and carried away, as if by magic, beyond the bounds to which any existing legal process on the part of the landlord might be applicable. Rents were refused. Many of the farmers were unable to pay, many were unwilling from dishonesty, and many considered that the tenants had as good a right to the land as those from whom they rented it. They talked of themselves as descended from the old families, the natural lords of the soil, and of those who then claimed the rents as the seed of the invader and the spoiler, whom it was just to deprive of what he had no right to, unless conquest and force could confer the right,—a doctrine that did not suit the popular interests. The landlords, on the other hand, sternly evicted the tenantry; whole town-lands were depopulated, the expelled tenants died of starvation on the public roads, or crowded the workhouses, where they were supported by rates levied on the industrious occupier. The poor-law was continued upon a plan which protected the property of the rich English absentee, and threw the burden upon the resident landlords who cultivated their own land, and upon the farmer who rented land. The agents of these absentees exacted the rents with bitter severity, and often the dwelling of the wretched occupier was pulled down about his sick and starving children, who frequently perished within the roofless walls. It was civil war, without any of the redeeming manhood which strips even that of its aspects of misery and horror. Frequently the police, armed as regular cavalry and infantry, were called out to seize the corn in process of clandestine removal, or to execute an eviction. On these occasions, sometimes, the unarmed peasantry, maddened by despair, would resist, and a conflict ensue in which victory did not always determine on the side of arms and discipline. The military were often in requisition to seize carts of corn under process of removal, or to enforce the expulsion of some tattered, hungry, sick, woe-stricken family from their miserable holding into the “wide wide world,” houseless and hopeless. Frequently the parish allowed an outcast of this description at the rate of seven-eighths of a penny per day to sustain existence. An English periodical writer truly and compassionately remarked, “nothing like Irish misery exists under the sun.” Whatever the disturbances generally prevailing, a very great number of the people offered no resistance to the law; they obeyed and died. Mr. P. Scrope* truly observed that the people bore these hardships “with a patience and resignation which it is heart-breaking to witness, and which one scarcely knows whether to praise or to blame.”

* “Notes of a tour in England, Scotland, and Ireland, with a
view to inquire whether our labouring population be really
redundant.”

Yet Mr. Crope, while he denounced the state of the law in Ireland as affecting landlord and tenant, in terms which attracted the attention of the country, and of foreign lands, described the difficulties of landlords in a way just to the class and to his subject. “A moment’s consideration,” he says, “will show the futility of expecting any mercy to be shown to these poor people by those whom the law at present arms with the power of destroying them. It sounds very well to English ears to preach forbearance and generosity to the landowners. But it should be remembered that few of them have it in their power to be merciful or generous to their poor tenantry. They act under compulsion, usually of the severest kind. They are themselves engaged in a life and death struggle with their creditors. Moreover the greater number of the depopulators are mere agents for absent landlords or for the law-receivers under the courts acting for creditors, and bound by the established rules and avowed practice of the Court of Chancery itself (the fountain and head of justice) to make the utmost of the property entrusted to them, without regard to any other consideration than the pecuniary interest of the parties, which is committed to their care. Those landlords who have yet some voice in the management of their estates, seeing the highest court of judicature in the realm sanction this principle of action, think themselves justified—most of them, indeed, are compelled by the overwhelming pressure of their own difficulties—to follow the example. It is vain to expect mercy to be shown under such circumstances. All is done in the sacred name of the law. The sheriff, the representative of the majesty of the law, is the actual exterminator. The officers of the law execute the process. The constabulary, acting under the orders of the magistracy, stand by to prevent resistance; and if any is expected, the queen’s troops are brought to the spot, to quell with all the power of the throne what would amount to an act of rebellion. It is absurd, then, to cast the blame of these foul deeds, and their horrible results, upon a few reckless, bankrupt, wretched landlords. It is to the law, or rather to the government and legislature which uphold it, and refuse to mitigate its ferocity, that the crime rightly attaches; and they will be held responsible for it by history, by posterity—ay, and perhaps before long, by the retributive justice of God, and the vengeance of a people infuriated by barbarous oppression, and brought at last to bay by their destroyers.” It is difficult to read such statements and wonder that agrarian outrage prevailed extensively in Ireland, and that all over the land murder stained the soil with blood.

It is impossible to write the history of Ireland in any given year without having to record assassinations springing from religious discord, and 1849 was no exception.

Political disturbance was only kept down by the arm of the law. Early in the session, Earl Grey moved in the house of lords for a renewal of the “suspension of the _Habeas Corpus_ act,” and in doing so he stated that although there was no reason to fear an insurrection, yet disaffection existed extensively, and especially in the districts which had been the scenes of insurgency in the previous year. His lordship never knew much of Ireland in any respect—her people, the philosophy of her turbulence, or the policy which ought to be pursued towards her; had he formed acquaintance with such subjects he would hardly have spoken of disaffection existing in certain districts, for it is chronic in Ireland. The masses of the people have been disaffected since the English first obtained the ascendancy in Ireland; but independent of any hostility of race or nationality, a deep-rooted religious animosity towards the creed of England rankles in the hearts of all in Ireland who differ from that creed.

The Young Ireland party was not extirpated by the events of 1848, although as a public organized body, suppressed. Its writers continued to write, although there was little public speaking. Charles Gavan Duffy, more fortunate than his fellows, was enabled to escape the legal penalties attached to his undoubted treason; juries would not convict, notwithstanding the plainest evidence. The Roman Catholics in the juries were obstinate in refusing a conviction. This circumstance deepened the general distrust existing among Protestants in the fidelity of Roman Catholic jurors on any question in which they took a political or ecclesiastical interest. There is no reason, however, to suppose that this spirit of inequitable partizanship was confined to Roman Catholics. Such incidents never justified the government in refusing them alterations in the jury laws, popularly demanded, and in exercising so sternly the right of challenge which belonged to the crown in such prosecutions. Mr. Duffy resumed his place at the office of the _Nation_ newspaper, affecting to believe that there was no hope of achieving what he called Irish independence by political agitation; that the country needed material improvement in the first instance, and that in proportion as it increased in wealth would it be likely to obtain a national existence. Mitchell, in his exile, denounced this doctrine; and when he afterwards escaped to the United States, he impugned these opinions of Mr. Duffy as dangerous to freedom, and as a cover to his retreat from the patriotic advocacy of Irish nationality. The recriminations of these two champions of Young Irelandism showed what little prospect there ever had been of any harmony existing in an Irish provisional government, if success had attended the efforts of these men. Mr. Duffy, while for a time persisting in his new course, and making his paper more an organ of the ultramontane priesthood, took every opportunity of inciting the people to treason, at first covertly, but gradually in a more open manner. This the government permitted, to the disparagement of the loyal, and the injury of peace and improvement in Ireland. The Old Ireland party continued to agitate, but their agitation assumed still more of a sectarian character. Yet the name of O’Connell had lost much of its spell, and at an auction of his library in Dublin, his books, even with his autograph, barely fetched the prices which the same volumes would have brought at any other public auction if the property of an unknown person.

The winter of 1849 smote Ireland with fresh accumulations of suffering. Gaunt famine stalked abroad; pestilence lurked in the hovels of the country, and the cellars and garrets of the great towns; cholera ravaged as fiercely in some places as if no other destroyer visited the unhappy realm; crime lurked by the wayside, and sedition and bigotry muttered their curses everywhere. It seemed as if a wide-wasting ruin covered all.

The queen’s visit to Ireland made this year memorable in her history. An account of this will appear in the narrative of the court in another page.

POLITICAL STATE OF ENGLAND.

Notwithstanding the humiliation of the Chartists in 1848, they still continued blatant. Some rioting occurred, and but for the conviction that the people at large would support the government in strong measures, the tendency to disturbance would have been still more decidedly manifested. The anti-free-traders were still a large and powerful party, and, led by Mr. Disraeli, formed an imposing array both in and out of parliament. The free-traders were also active and resolute, giving to the government a very general support. The agitations in the country assumed no new phases, and almost all political questions assumed a politico-economical aspect from the temper in which men discussed them, and the prevailing tone of the time. The alteration —virtually the repeal—of the navigation laws caused much excitement in the sea ports, as the agitation of the subject did the previous year; but the government and the free-trade party mustered all their strength, and succeeded with the measure. The government was not popular, but was accepted as a political necessity. Lord John Russell had great weight in parliament, “in the city,” and with the old whig party everywhere; but the more advanced liberals had lost confidence in him, and some of his colleagues were unpopular. Foreign politics engaged much of the attention of the nation, and the tide of reaction which began to roll back over the continent, sweeping away so many newly acquired liberties, was a cause of abundant regret, and even alarm to the English people.

COMMERCIAL AFFAIRS.

The year did not begin or end very prosperously in business and monetary matters. The successive blights of the potatoe crop, the advances to Ireland, the ruinous bankruptcies of 1848, the enormous railway calls, the many failures upon the continent of both banking-houses and commercial establishments, by which English firms sustained great losses, and the continued disturbance of commercial relations in consequence of the civil conflicts on the continent, were causes sufficiently numerous and potent to create and sustain apprehension, and embarrass the usual proceedings of trade. Still money flowed into England from continental Europe, as the place of security which, whatever might betide the world, was supposed to be beyond the range of political convulsion. Thus capital was plentiful, and money was easily obtained by all creditable establishments. The peace, good order, and constitutional liberty by which these blessings were established, afforded England a source of prosperity amidst so much that was calculated to impoverish. The wrecks of many nations floated around her shores, but within her borders all was safe; the shadow of the thundercloud passed over her, and she heard its peals, as it burst in lightning and torrent on less favoured lands.

THE CHOLERA.

There was one calamity, which befel so many nations, from which England was not spared. The mysterious cholera, which appeared in 1848 in some places, broke out in the autumn of this year with surprising fury. Its ravages were far more extensively fatal than in 1832. In 1832 the number attacked in London was 14,154, and the number of those who fell victims was 6729. In 1848–49, the number attacked exceeded 30,000, and nearly half the number perished. In 1832, one out of every 250 of the population died; in 1848–49, one out of every 150. More than 80,000 persons died of cholera and diarrhoea in Great Britain during the latter period. The disease spared neither sex nor age. It was found in London to prevail most near the banks of the Thames, and on the south side of the river, where the ground was lower and worse drained than on the north. In the higher grounds, north and south, the disease inflicted but little injury. Where the water supply was from the less pure portions of the Thames, the havoc was greater than where it was drawn from a portion of the river further up, or from other sources. The disease prevailed most during hot weather both in Great Britain and Ireland. The faculty was as little able to treat it as when it first appeared; and there was a disposition to rely too much on general sanitary measures, without regard to the specific virus of the disease.

PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY OF 1849—OPENING OF THE SESSION.

On the second of February the queen in person opened a new session. Her majesty’s speech referred to most great matters which had occurred in the latter part of 1848, and to such subjects as formed the leading features of the policy of the ministry for 1849. Her majesty especially recommended an alteration in the navigation laws, and she asked for further administrative power to preserve order in Ireland. The general tone and tenor of the speech were congratulatory. Lord Stanley, in the lords, moved an amendment to the usual address, which represented that the state of the country was not such as to call for or justify an address pervaded by a spirit of gratulation. The amendment was rejected, but only by a majority of two. In the commons Mr. Disraeli moved an amendment upon the address, similar to that which Lord Stanley had proposed in the lords, and with no better success. Mr. Disraeli especially contended for keeping up a much larger fleet and army than the government proposed. His arguments were singularly opposed to those which, without any professed change of principle, he used eight years afterwards, against the government of Lord Palmerston, for refusing to reduce the army and navy when serious perils demanded their increase in the judgment of that astute and experienced minister. Mr. Grattan, son of the distinguished Irishman who assisted Irish independence in 1782, proposed an amendment adverse to the ministerial policy for Ireland, but it was rejected in a very decisive manner. The temper of the house, as displayed towards Mr. Grattan, was harsh, invidiously national on all sides, and especially offensive to the popular party in Ireland.

REPEAL OF THE NAVIGATION LAWS.

On the 14th of February Mr. Labouchere renewed the motion for the repeal of the navigation laws, which had been defeated the previous year by the agitation of the shipowners and sailors, particularly those of the Tyne, under the leadership of James Mather, Esq., of South Shields. On the 9th of March the second reading came on, and was met by an amendment proposed by Mr. Hemes, such as is usually offered in order to defeat a bill. This amendment was negatived, in a house of four hundred and seventy-six members, by a majority of fifty-six. The government was much mortified that the minority was so very considerable. In committee Mr. Labouchere modified the bill in a manner which proved the want of proper forethought and decided policy in its preparation. This was the case with most whig measures. On the 23rd of April Mr. Hemes again endeavoured to defeat the bill, securing a very large minority, which further annoyed the ministry, but failed to obstruct the progress of the measure. In the lords the bill was opposed vehemently by Lord Brougham, who denied that it was based upon the principles of free trade. By a majority of ten only the government succeeded in carrying it, and it was generally believed that it would have been lost, only that the government raised a report of intended resignation if the bill had been lost. This decided the opposition of Lord Brougham, who desired to produce such a result, and influence the doubtful among the Conservatives, as they were not prepared at that moment to resume the reins of power. The Bishop of Oxford proposed an amendment intended, by securing the anti-slavery lords, to defeat the measure by a “side wind;” but his object was transparent, and his end was not attained. The bill was carried, and ordered to take effect from the beginning of 1850.

AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS—MOTION FOR GOVERNMENTAL RELIEF.

The agricultural interest was as discontented as it had been since the repeal of the corn-laws. It was still hoped that the greater part of the public burdens would be shifted to the shoulders of the commercial middle classes; and the party calling itself “the agricultural interest,” but in reality adverse to the prosperity of the farmers and farm-labourers, clamoured for public relief. Mr. Disraeli had now fairly succeeded Lord George Bentinck as the leader, and he on the 5th of March proposed a resolution for a committee of the whole house, to consider such measures as might relieve the owners and occupiers of real property, and establish a more equitable apportionment of the public burdens. Sir Charles Wood, in an awkward and clumsy speech, confuted Mr. Disraeli, no difficult matter even in such a speech, for the honourable leader of “the country party” had collected his statistics carelessly, and used them illogically. His speech was also deficient in the eloquence so striking generally in his elaborate orations. It failed to produce any effect upon any party, even upon his own, and he could only muster the support of seventy members against three hundred and ninety-four. This motion greatly damaged the prestige of Mr. Disraeli: it was thought that he was not competent to lead a great party, and but for the paucity of talent in the conservative ranks, his leadership would have immediately terminated. In the country generally, but especially in the large cities and manufacturing districts, the speech excited a stronger political hostility to Mr. Disraeli than had before prevailed.

IRELAND.

A very considerable portion of the session was occupied by the affairs of Ireland. Under the section devoted to the concerns of that country such notice was taken of the proceedings in parliament bearing reference to her, as makes it unnecessary to enter at length into their record in this place. Early in the session the government requested the house to renew the act for the suspension of Habeas Corpus: it was granted. Measures bearing upon the poor-laws, and the commercial state of the country, were subsequently discussed, the government always succeeding in obtaining the support of the house. A bill for facilitating the transfer of encumbered estates was introduced on the 26th of April; its object was, chiefly, to amend a similar act of 1848, which had been found to a great extent impracticable, the usual fate of most whig measures. The new bill was carried; but while it did much good, it was sometimes an instrument of injustice, very imperfectly answered its own objects, and was not conceived or framed in a comprehensive or statesman-like spirit. The great changes which its abettors predicted it would create in the social condition of Ireland were not realized. The estates brought into the court were often purchased by their former owners, or occupiers, or by other Irish landowners, who borrowed money for the purchase at a heavy interest, on the credit of the estates themselves, which soon became as much encumbered as they had been before. English companies and assurance offices were also purchasers: their management was generally bad, expending large sums without obtaining an adequate return. Ignorance of the habits of the people caused much loss to such occupiers, and a species of quackery in cultivation sprung up which was injurious to the interests of the owners and of the country.

VOTE OF THANKS TO THE ARMY IN INDIA.

Votes of thanks to the troops engaged in the war of the Punjaub were proposed and carried on the 24th of April. These were advocated with eloquence, and conceded with enthusiasm. Sir Robert Peel passed an eloquent eulogy on Lord Gough, which was as just to the brave old veteran, after having served his country with honour for fifty-six years, as it was creditable to the impartiality, temper, and talent of Sir Robert.

MR. COBDEN’S MOTION FOR REDUCING THE ARMY AND NAVY.

The Whigs were not good financiers. Sir Robert Peel excelled his contemporaries, and more especially his opponents, in the practicability of his financial arrangements. The government had been placed in circumstances of great difficulty by events purely of a providential nature; but there existed a general impression that they did not meet the emergency with skill. A society called the Financial Reform Association grew into existence in consequence of this feeling. Its head-quarters was at Liverpool. Many important facts were brought to light by it, and much information extended, but there was a want of tact in the management which defeated these laudable and enlightened exertions. The society had a singular fatality for urging particular measures precisely at the juncture when there was least likelihood of gaining the ear of either the public or the legislature. Mr. Cobden made himself conspicuous in this agitation, and began that career of impracticability which gradually limited his public usefulness, and at last expelled him from parliament. When the whig budget came on for discussion, Mr. Cobden was agitating a scheme for returning to the expenditure of 1835, by which he alleged ten millions annually would have been saved. The state of Ireland and the continent rendered it unlikely that the country would consent to any very great reduction in its military and naval defences, yet it was in these departments Mr. Cobden contemplated his economical experiments. On the 26th of February he submitted a motion to the house embodying the principles for which he had contended at public meetings. The chancellor of the exchequer showed that no reductions which even Mr. Cobden himself dare submit to the house would reduce the national expenditure to the proposed extent, and proved that the defence of the commerce and independence of the country forbade any such reduction. Mr. Cobden only obtained seventy-seven to support him, in a house of three hundred and fifty-three members. This did not arise from any indisposition to reduce the public burdens, but from a conviction that Mr. Cobden rested his motion upon false data, and that his scheme was utterly inapplicable to the circumstances of the times.

THE BUDGET.

On the 29th of June the chancellor of the exchequer brought forward his budget. He estimated the ordinary income at £51,550,000, and the extraordinary income at £580,000. The expenditure he estimated at £53,287,000. He contemplated a surplus income for the ensuing year of about three quarters of a million sterling. The statement was received favourably, but a general impression existed that the chancellor might have carried retrenchment much farther. The supplies, however, were granted upon the basis of the statement offered.

MOTION ON THE STATE OF THE NATION

On the 2nd of July Mr. Disraeli moved for a select committee on the state of the nation. He did not expect that the government would concede, or the house support it; but he made it the occasion for a general attack upon the whig policy, and especially the free-trade policy which that party had originated in parliament, although Sir Robert Peel, their successful rival in this department, carried away the credit of having done so. The speech of Mr. Disraeli was rhetorically, and only rhetorically, successful. He reenumerated the misfortunes which befel Ireland and the colonies during the three previous years, and all the monetary difficulties which befel England, and attributed them, with dextrous dishonesty, to whig impolicy and free trade. These calamities, which were chiefly caused by delaying free trade too long, he ascribed to that measure. The perverted ingenuity thus displayed did not serve his party or convince his opponents. He was opposed in a blunt and candid speech by Mr. Hume, and in one of the happiest orations ever delivered by Sir Robert Peel. Lord John Russell also made an effective reply. Mr. Disraeli received small support from his followers. If the chief was not equal to the exigencies of the party, neither was the party worthy of the chief. Only one hundred and fifty-six votes sustained him, although Mr. Disraeli did his utmost to induce a decided display of strength. The motion was lost by an overwhelming majority.

THE PROROGATION.

Few events of public interest occurred in the parliamentary history of the session except those which are here recorded. The prorogation occurred on the 1st of August. The president of the council read the queen’s speech, which referred in the usual vague and general manner to the topics which had been discussed, but paid a generous tribute of acknowledgment to the heroism of the troops in the Punjaub. The blessing of domestic peace, and of the prospects of a good harvest were dwelt upon in terms of thankfulness to the Divine goodness.

The session of 1849 was not in any way remarkable. Few good laws were passed, few good speeches made, and no incidents of striking importance entered into its history. The state of parties remained what it had been when the session commenced; perhaps, if any change took place, the Whigs were on the whole strengthened. Sir Robert Peel gave them a qualified support, taking care frequently to express his want of confidence in their Irish policy, although nothing in his own past policy warranted the expectation that he would have governed Ireland substantially better than his rivals.

THE COURT.

Outrage on her Majesty.—There were various occurrences in the course of the year of interest or importance to the court, and to the public as having reference to the court.

On the 19th of May her majesty held a drawing-room, and shortly after her return, drove out with three of her children in the park. She was returning a little before six o’clock, when a shot was fired as the carriage passed down Constitution Hill by a man who stood within the railing of the Green Park. He was seized, and narrowly incurred being torn to pieces by the people, who were in a state of furious excitement at the occurrence. He was eventually rescued from the populace by the park-keepers and police and conducted to the guardhouse of the palace. Her majesty displayed the coolest self-possession and courage. Prince Albert, who rode on before, heard the occurrence from her majesty’s lips as she alighted. The name of the criminal was Hamilton; he was a native of Adair, county Limerick, Ireland. General Wemyss, who rode exactly in the line between her majesty and the criminal, thought that the pistol was fired at him, and was of opinion that, had it been loaded with ball, he must have been struck; he also considered the report to be from a blank cartridge. This opinion proved to be correct, he had no intention of hurting any person, and seemed either to have been actuated by a desire for display, or to place himself in the hands of the authorities as a criminal, for sake of maintenance, as he was in great destitution. He was sentenced to seven years’ transportation.

THE QUEEN’S VISIT TO IRELAND.

The ministry had, with much wisdom, advised her majesty to visit Ireland in the autumn of 1849. It was supposed by them that such an event would soothe the spirit of party, and restore the loyalty which was supposed to exist before 1848. Such was its tendency; but it ought to have been understood that the people were no more disloyal in that year than in the year which preceded it, or any other previous one; and the visit of her majesty, although beneficial for a time, on the whole, was not likely to give any permanent effect to the loyalty of those who might, during her visit, display the like. The Young Ireland press denounced the policy of the visit as a trick to ensnare the generosity of the Irish character, and to divert the people from the only true political pursuit for Irishmen—the separation of their country from Great Britain; and those papers predicted that the reception of her majesty, notwithstanding that national generosity which they truly asserted, would be painful to the royal lady, and demonstrate the unwillingness of the Irish people to be her subjects. The Old Ireland press, like the Old Ireland leader in parliament (Mr. John O’Connell), gave a very “uncertain sound”—it “blew hot and cold with the same mouth,” protesting that the Irish people were most loyal, but at the same time in a very treasonable state; spurned, doubted, and encouraged the ministerial policy by turns. The newspapers made a point of averring, that if her majesty would only grant repeal and justice to Ireland, and, in fact, whatever the party demanded, she would find the Irish people, always excepting Orangemen and “swadlers,” most peacefully disposed. The words of the national poet were echoed by these persons:—

“There never were hearts, if our rulers would let them,
More formed to be tranquil and blest than ours.”

The Irish people not connected with these two parties made every exertion to prove their real and unaffected loyalty and devotion to her majesty; and they boldly declared that the prophecies of the Young Irelanders, and the doubts of the Old Irelanders, as to the probability of the queen receiving insult, were unworthy of notice. The Irish are too gallant a nation to insult a lady and a queen under any circumstances, and there was not a man among either Old Ireland or Young Ireland who would do the like, however wavering in loyalty; nor was there one among them who would not risk his life to chastise such conduct, had it happened in his presence.

After the prorogation, the court proceeded to Cowes, where a squadron was in readiness, and her majesty, with her husband and children, embarked and proceeded on their voyage on the night of the 1st of August. The next night, at one o’clock, the squadron arrived at Cove, “amidst a blaze of illumination by sea and land.” In the morning, the little town of Cove received the designation of Queenstown from her majesty, at the request of the inhabitants, as commemorative of her arrival there. It was noticed that the moment her majesty set her foot on shore, the sun, which had been clouded, burst forth with brilliancy. In the afternoon, the royal party visited the city of Cork, to receive various deputations, and afford the queen an opportunity of seeing the city. She proceeded up the river, and never did the scenery on the banks of the beautiful Lee look finer than on that bright autumnal day. Her majesty’s reception in Cork was most enthusiastic. There is no country in the world where public enthusiasm appears to greater advantage than in Ireland, when displayed in a good cause; and in no part of Ireland are the people more hearty in any feeling than m the sunny south. The reception of her majesty and suite was everything she could wish it to be. She received an address from the city, while seated on the quarter-deck of the royal tender. As the first address presented to her in Ireland, it has historic interest:—

_May it please your Majesty_,—

We, your majesty’s dutiful and loyal subjects, the mayor, aldermen, and councillors of the ancient city of Cork, humbly approach your majesty to tender to you, on behalf of ourselves and our fellow-citizens at large, the homage of our profoundest loyalty, and of our deepest affection and attachment to your majesty’s sacred person and crown.

We gratefully beg to express our deep sense of the high honour and distinction conferred on us by your majesty graciously condescending to select our city as the place where you, and your royal and much-loved consort, pay your first visit to this portion of the kingdom; and we hail with the sincerest feelings of joy and exultation your august presence here, and ardently hope that your majesty will be graciously pleased to cheer and gladden us by frequent visits, and thus diffuse pleasure and happiness amongst us. We sincerely hope that your majesty’s gracious visit will be like those of the angel of mercy, with healing on its wings, and that it is the harbinger of bright and better days for our country, which your majesty must be aware is passing through a fearful ordeal.

We know that your majesty deeply sympathises in the sufferings and privations which your people have undergone, and are still going through; and we are convinced that nothing would afford a higher gratification to your royal breast than to mitigate and relieve those sufferings, and to raise the moral and social condition of your majesty’s much and long enduring, but patient and faithful Irish subjects.

We trust that your royal advent here will lay the foundation of a better order of things than lias hitherto existed; be the means of fully developing the great and varied natural resources of our beautiful and fertile country; and that its prosperity, and the consequent comfort, happiness, and contentment of its people, will be the glorious and blessed results of your auspicious visit.

That your majesty may enjoy a long and prosperous reign over a united, happy, and contented people, and that you, your royal consort and family, may possess every happiness that this world can afford, is the ardent and sincere prayer of your loyal and attached subjects, the council and citizens of Cork.

Her majesty’s sail down the Lee was even more picturesque than her voyage up; and her departure from Cove was such a scene as, no doubt, the royal lady, as well as her subjects of the south, will long and vividly remember. Her majesty’s yacht tarried the next night at Waterford harbour, but she did not visit the city.

On Sunday, the 5th, her majesty was expected to arrive at Kingstown, and the people of the metropolis, and the surrounding country for many a mile, poured multitudinously along the beautiful shores of Kingstown and Killany. When in the evening the squadron approached, the enthusiasm of the people was boundless. At twenty minutes past seven, the squadron dropped anchor in the deep clear waters of Kingstown harbour, and every token of cordial greeting that a people could express, or a queen receive, indicated the popular spirit. The sea was crowded with barques, the shore with people. The former were gaily decked, the latter in elegant attire; and over sea and shore rang the loud cheers of a vast and excited multitude. Few sights were ever presented to her majesty equal in scenic effect. She appeared on deck, and bowed in acknowledgment of the cheers of her people. Prince Albert next presented himself, and was received with an ardour as great as that which marked the welcome of the queen. Her majesty and the prince having retired, the people renewed their cheers, when the royal pair again came forward, with their four children, and, amidst renewed demonstrations of welcome, bowed to the people in the boats, and on the shore. The attempt at illumination in Kingstown was a failure. It had been intended to light bonfires on the Wicklow and Dublin mountains; this would have been a picturesque and national welcome, but the scheme was not executed.

On Monday, the 6th, according to previous announcement, her majesty was to land, and proceed by rail to Dublin, about six miles. The morning broke over the beautiful bay and the bold hills of Wicklow in peculiar loveliness. From Howth to Bray Head the mellow light of an autumn morning shed its richness; the clear waters of the noble bay, the green hills of Dublin, the majestic city, west and south the granite peak of “the Sugar-loaf,” and the broad forehead of Bray Head, glistened in the glorious day. The very earth and heavens welcomed the Island Queen. Amidst all the loveliness on which she looked, the fairest spot was that which was washed by the waters of Killany Bay, where the soft sweet vale of Shanganah, with its silver strand, its green bosom, and noble background, stretched away between Bray Head and Kingstown. They were scenes amidst which one of queenly taste might love to linger, and were well calculated to impress her majesty and family with the beauty of the fair but sorrowful land upon which she was about once more to tread.

At ten minutes to ten on Monday morning, her majesty, consort, and children, came upon deck, and were received with acclamations. The moment she set foot on Irish ground, the harbour master hoisted the royal standard, and the cannon sent their thunders echoing over the bay, and among the hills.

The royal suite proceeded by rail to Dublin, the line profusely decorated, and the banks thronged with people, waving hats and handkerchiefs, and filling the air with their hurrahs. At the Sandy-Mount station the royal carriages were in waiting, and a grand procession of the authorities and gentry of the county. Seated in open carriages, the royal personages then drove, attended by a splendid military escort, to the vice-regal Lodge, Phoenix Park. The route was indeed triumphal, everywhere along the magnificent course which the cortege pursued, the national expression, “_caed mile failthe_” (a hundred thousand welcomes), was heard. There were several halts in the line of progress: the first to afford opportunity to the lord mayor to present the keys of the city to her majesty; the second was of her majesty’s spontaneous desire, in order to admire the beautiful church of St. George; the third was at the triumphal arch at the foot of Eccles Street, where a scene of much interest was presented. As the royal carriage was about entering the triumphal arch, a beautiful fawn-coloured dove, ornamented with a white ribbon, was lowered to her majesty by Mr. Robert Williams. Her Majesty received this suitable emblem of the effect which her royal visit was expected to produce with smiles, and most graciously acknowledged the simple but significant gift. The bird was held out by her majesty to the royal children, to whom it at once became an object of attraction. The Prince of Wales soon obtained possession of the bird, which seemed to absorb his attention. In the evening Dublin was illuminated, and maintained its well-established fame for pyrotechnic displays.

Her majesty during her stay held a brilliant court, which was attended by the nobility and gentry of Ireland, numbering many among them of those most famed for arts and arms, literature and politics. The royal party visited most of the public institutions, in which they appeared to take an interest, and many expressions were said to have dropped incidentally from the queen indicative of her concern for the peace and welfare of Ireland, as well as of her admiration of the country. On the Tuesday evening the illuminations were spontaneously renewed, and with more brilliancy than before, and on the Wednesday evening all the public buildings were a third time illuminated. On the morning of that day a levee was held at the Castle, the most brilliant ever known in Ireland. The costume of the queen attracted the highest admiration. She wore a robe of exquisitely shaded Irish poplin, of emerald green, richly wrought with shamrocks in gold embroidery. Her hair was simply parted on her forehead, with no ornament save a light tiara of gold studded with diamonds and pearls. On the Friday the royal party visited the Duke of Leinster, the premier peer of Ireland, and the same evening embarked at Kingstown for Belfast. Her departure, like her arrival, was attended by vast multitudes. Her majesty ascended the paddle-box of the steamer, and waved her hand again and again in response to the adieus of the great multitude. On Saturday morning the royal squadron arrived at Belfast, where her majesty and suite landed, and received as hearty a welcome as elsewhere. The same night she embarked, and steamed through a violent gale for the Scottish coast, but was obliged to defer the attempt until Sunday, in the evening of which the squadron arrived at Loch Ryan, in Argyleshire.

THE ROYAL VISIT TO SCOTLAND.

After her majesty’s triumphal visit to Ireland, the loyal Scottish people were most anxious to show her their warm affection and deep respect. Arrangements were accordingly made for public entry into Glasgow and Perth, by which route her majesty determined to proceed to her autumn residence at Balmoral. Ardent as was the hospitality of the Irish, it was rivalled by the patriotic fervour of the Scots, and the cities of Glasgow and Perth made demonstrations of attachment of which the royal lady might well be proud. On the 15th of August the court reached Balmoral, and entered upon those happy and private recreations which the royal family were wont to enjoy at their delightful Highland home. On the 29th of September the court was once more at Osborne.

DEATH OF THE QUEEN DOWAGER.

On Sunday morning, the 2nd of December, the queen dowager died at Stanmore Priory. The royal lady was the relict of King William IV., the uncle of Queen Victoria. She was supposed to have been much attached, through her husband’s reign, to the Conservative party, and to have favoured those intrigues in that interest which kept alive so long and so fiercely the spirit of faction during the discussions about the reform bill, and for some time after that measure was carried. Her majesty was buried on the 13th, at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, where her coffin was placed beside that of her husband.

DEATHS OF EMINENT PERSONS.

It is always a subject of deep interest to a nation when its most eminent citizens are called away from the duties and honours of their citizenship. How frequently has the decease of a great person turned the scale of party, baffled armies or states, restored a country from peril, or placed it in the imminency of danger? Such was not the case with England in 1849, yet many very remarkable persons were that year numbered with the dead; the most notable person whose removal took place in this way, was the queen dowager.